The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

I was looking out our bedroom window this morning as I do every morning and noticed this awfully strange looking tree trunk.. It was swaying in the wind.. All the other trees were still. We don't get a lot of wind on our property that is hugged by a forest of trees.​

Wait.. so why is that tree swaying? Do Tree trunks sway...? ​

I sat there in bed for 2 minutes staring. Trying to figure out if maybe it was garbage.. Maybe it was a loose dog that got so deep into snow that it couldn't get out? I continued to watch this object of unknown origin slightly swaying from side to side.. All of a sudden that tree trunk lifted out from the snow!

It wasn't a tree trunk at all, it was a moose calf eating from our pine trees! Oh it was so cute! Probably the size of a mini horse. Definitely a moose, and I doubt that it was all that old.

It was wading through 3 feet of snow like a pro.​

 

[Scott H]

Cool!

 

[TeaChick]

You're welcome....what did I do?

Sorry. Delisha quoted you and I got confused. I was on my phone.
Guess I'll just wait until afternoon to get on BYC and not try to do it mobile anymore.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Wow! I just hope you don't meet up with mamma!

 

[Pozees]

Not to change the subject, but...
My rooster clicks at me or my husband every time we walk by him. We walk around the years for exercise, and the chickens just keep pecking around ( once they know we don't have treats ) then every circuit, Eddie says, and I quote, " bawk bawk bawk bawk" to us. Not aggressive, not anything in particular, just rather matter-of-fact.
What does it mean? Do your roosters do this?

Hard to know what (if anything) a chicken is thinking, but maybe he's just telling the girls the moving objects are nothing to worry about? Or counting laps?

 

[TeaChick]

I know everyone's egg laying is down so I thought I would share some good news.

This month from 8 hens I collected 31 eggs. Not a lot, I agree, but last month they only laid 26 so things are looking up!!! Must be those few extra minutes of daylight we are getting now.

See spring is close !!!

Thanks for the encouragement.
My egg production is slowly picking up too. (I thought I was getting better at keeping chickens. *shucks*)

Also (speaking of spring-sort of), my eggs are coming up fertile, like almost every single one, so my incubator is busy right now, but I'm going to start hatching in a couple of weeks or so. =D

 

[Leahs Mom]

Here are my Labor Day babies... 16 wk old now. Taken the last warm day (Saturday).

2 sfh/Ba cross blacks
1 SFH Gray

Aoxa - I still think they're all females. The black in this photo is smaller and has smaller wattles.



This kiddo is larger and has larger wattles but I still think female.








This has the makings of a bad hair day!

 

[Kassaundra]

Here are my Labor Day babies... 16 wk old now. Taken the last warm day (Saturday).

2 sfh/Ba cross blacks
1 SFH Gray

Aoxa - I still think they're all females. The black in this photo is smaller and has smaller wattles.



This kiddo is larger and has larger wattles but I still think female.








This has the makings of a bad hair day!

She has some awesome camo

 

[TeaChick]

Hard to know what (if anything) a chicken is thinking, but maybe he's just telling the girls the moving objects are nothing to worry about? Or counting laps?

Thanks. I was afraid of that.
We both kind of figured it was nothing, just I'm here or I know you're there and that you're not a threat or something like that, but we wanted to find out what true chicken experts thought. =)

 

[SallyinIndiana]

What prolapsed vent treatments are available?
Is a prolapsed vent something I should cull (not just avoid breeding but make soup cull) for?