The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[TeaChick]

Wow! Yes the golf ball trick works well I here.

Not for me. =(
But I hear some ppl have success with some pullets/hen with it. =)
I figured out that you have to use real balls; they just use the plastic ones to practice their chip shot!!!

 

[aoxa]

They usually seek shelter when they go into labor if the weather is bad. But if they are healthy and have a good momma they will be dry with colostrum in their belly in less than 10 minutes. And the Maremma will help keep them warm too.
I've seen a lot more lambs lost to either "over care" or poor shepherding than I have to cold. A lot of people interfere abs just help too much or worse, they simply don't have the shepherding skills and knowledge to know who to cull. After years and years of raising sheep if you have done your job properly then the genetics/sheep you have in your flock should be the best of the best and require little to no special treatment or intervention. That said... I believe most people do not know how to properly cull and make breeding decisions; thereby they continue to not make progress towards working smarter and not harder with each passing year.
It's kinda like a conversation i was having with a RIR breeder the other day...
He said he always feels it necessary to correct people when they say their best bird just died. If it was your best one it wouldn't have died. Your best one is always alive. ;-)
Wise words.

There are freak accidents where your best could very well be dead.

If they don't seek shelter in incredibly cold weather, would this be a cull point in your opinion? I'm personally not breeding for anything other than milk right now. I will sell the kids unless one is extremely well behaved and I fall in love - but I plan to sell them all. Use the males for meat.

This is the calf story by 3acres:

Here's a few pics from a calf being born at the end of Feb last year. I watched her head off to have it. By the time I went and got the sled, which didn't take long, she had had the baby and it had flipped under brush where momma couldn't get to it and it couldn't get up....and was already cold enough it had started to stiffen up pretty bad. I took them to the barn and went to work warming it. I was very happy to watch it suck for the first time! That calf is eating hay out there now behind a windbreak.

 

[ki4got]

Quote: ROFLMBO

I went thru EXACTLY that this morning! tho the snow pants were from when I had my motorcycle, but even so...
got all dressed to go out, walked out the door and that cold air hit me, I had to turn around and go right back inside and undo what I'd just done. LOL

it was -3 when I got up, currently up to 17.

I had only 1 casualty last night, and that was a cockerel that decided he didn't want to go to bed with the rest of the chicks, and decided to sleep under the feeder. (missed him on the bed time check).

hate to say it but he won't be missed. he never was 'right', and the ONLY chick to survive from my bantam blrw roo and his original girl. the roo's cochin cross offspring are still doing well, so I blame the hen, who was sold to an egg pen. (I may have to put him over his daughter if I can't find some more blrw pullets before spring).

 

[RedRidge]

There will be freak accidents no matter what. No decision we make can prevent them.
That said. .. everyone chooses their cull priorities. When I was milking 150 ewes twice a day, I used to cull for low production. Funny how that priority changed over the years... udder conformation became a higher priority.
Here is am years later and my cull priority list is different again. I breed Fir forage conversion, health, and ease of lambing... First and foremost. From there I want fast growing (good milk),fall lambs who are twins or triplets... The list goes on and is ever evolving.
So yes... If an experienced ewe didn't have sense to come in our of the bitter cold, she would be history. If she wasa first timer she would a pass, but a check would be noted. .. NO second chances.

 

[TeaChick]

Sorry, this is off topic, but you should see what my DH did to my profile!

And he won't tell me how he did it, so I can change it!!!

 

[RedRidge]

Trust me... I have horror stories where I had to kill and remove the head of a half born lamb just to get it out and save the mother. And success stories where newborns that were almost dead were saved. The success stories usually involve intraperitoneal dextrose, so I never go through lambing without some on hand.

 

[ki4got]

I'm sure I missed some interesting posts, but I was 5 pages behind and getting further lost. LOL I skimmed some tho.

as for 'nest eggs' I use either blown out egg shells or the plastic easter eggs (with the seam taped). put a hole in 1 end of the plastic egg, or tape over one hole in the blown, and using a large basting needle/syringe fill the eggs with plaster of paris. once they're set you can take the shell off and paint it with waterproof paint, or leave the shell on and just mark it so you know which is the real thing. (plastic eggs are easier to see color-wise, the chickens don't seem to care what color they are).

aoxa, glad you got to the calf in time last winter... why do they ALWAYS choose the worst times to do that? my mare decided to foal while I was in the ER having my knee fixed from where the neighbor's gelding nailed me. she had Maggie on the manure/compost pile! LOL

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Quote:

We did that yesterday for some of the new pullets.

 

[Jewelwing]

Now I know how to become queen!!!

Yep. Lock you in a small pen with young chickens.

You two crack me up!!

Queen Emma Belle

Oooh, she looks very regal! What a beautiful chicken, too! What kind is she?

 

[Jewelwing]

Oh guys, you won't believe it.. My wry neck girl - I didn't have the chance to put her down yet, and thankfully I didn't - she is coming around!! :O I was in shock to see her with a full crop tonight, and she went and walked over for more right after. I am so impressed with her Yay!

In case you missed the discussion we had on Friday, there is this silkie pullet I was going to cull because her head was literally tucked way under her belly and she could not walk this weekend. Time got away from me and we decided to cull her today instead. Well as fate would have it, she can tuck her head under her wing to sleep (like any normal sleeping chicken), eat on her own, and walk! Her neck is still a little crooked, but she is improving without any treatment at all.

I was getting attached. I kept hand feeding her hoping she would come around.

I have given up FF in any unheated dishes unless it's the weekend and I'm home to refill a few hours later, because it freezes really fast. The silkies get it all the time because they were blessed with a heated dog bowl

They are finally starting to accept the dry feed.. they hated it at first.

I've been mixing ff with dry feed about 50/50, and then when it freezes it"s crumbly, so I can easily stir it around. Then at least they're getting some food that's been fermented!

I've got another one molting too but our temps have been stable....dare I say balmy. No snow on the ground and mid thirties during the day. Even some sun!
Want to move to north Idaho!!

Hows about you send some of that my way?

Actually, I think we're warming up and supposed to get freezing rain (instead of snow) at the end of the week. Not so sure that's better...

I see. Oh, well.
I agree, but my hens have tried everywhere else (lawn mower, back porch on blankets, middle of the flower bed, inside the azalea bush, etc.)
Have you tried the golf ball trick?
What worked for me was using a crayon (I have a billion, literally, lying around, so I just grabbed a color that was going to show up on dark brown and white eggs)
mark the date, and then I rotated the eggs, today's eggs stay in the nesting box, yesterday's get collected.
If it's going to be below freezing, I collect at bedtime. But leaving them in the nesting boxes all day was how the other hens learned where I wanted the eggs laid. I picked them up from around the yard and put them in the nesting boxes.
One woman taught her hen that's where they go by having her watch her put one in there. It worked!!!

Hey, that was me! To be fair, it was a pullet that hadn't laid an egg before, but I could tell she was just about to because she kept trying to make a comfy nest is the same place (under the nest boxes) that the other laying hen had gone. So I took the other hen's freshly laid egg and showed it to the new hen - she pecked at it a few times, and then watched me put it in a nest box. Then she looked away, so I took it out and did it again. Then I picked her up and put her in the nest box with the egg, and she rolled it around a little, and then I guess she decided that was where to lay, because she's laid all her eggs in nest boxes. And now the first one does too!

Agreed! Freezes at night (sometimes) thaws and turns back into muddy soup during the day. I want SNOW!
Instead I get 30-40 mm of rain on Friday. I'll be digging ditches in the mud instead of shovelling snow.

Anyone have inventive ways to kill rats in the coop? I don't want to use poison. Currently using a 5 gallon bucket with rolling bait above it but they have out witted me and cleaned it off last night. Will be altering it when I get home. So nasty!

Good idea not to use poison. That stuff is incredibly nasty. If you have any mammal pets or kids, I would advise never using poison, just in case. It can be toxic to animals (like dogs & cats) that eat the animal initially killed by the poison. It's a slow, horrible way to die, too - it makes the animal bleed out internally.

Traps are much faster and more humane in general. We often use live traps, and then drive the animals (haven't had rats, but have mice and raccoons) a few miles away across a river and release them. I don't know what we'd do if we had rats, though. Probably live trap them too. But it takes more time and effort, and in this weather, might make the captured animal freeze to death! But I hear that's not really too bad a way to go.

I'm just rambling now. I guess I should get off the computer and help my daughter get her stuff ready for going back to school tomorrow. She can't find her scissors or her favorite eraser. Panic time...