The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[TeaChick]

yes.  Photos, please. 

X2

 

[TeaChick]

Simple have more feeding stations...  How many birds do you have??  How many feeding stations??? I have 2 dishes in my coop (for 9 hens) and I also throw sprouted grains & fermented scratch out for them in their run and just out side their coop in the yard....  If you have a lot of feeding stations the old flock will not be able to guard them all.  After awhile they will learn that there is plenty of food to go around and the new hens are not a threat to their survival.  Do they all roost together???  Can you feed the new chickens in the coop when the others are out free ranging???  Plenty of snacks is the key to a successful integration!

I feed on the ground in front of the hen house and I leave some feed in the house for the mornings. I spread the feed out, but they take turns eating and chasing the new chickens away.
yes , they all roost kind of together. The new chickens roost on the front/lower/less stable roost and the old flock roost on the back/higher/" better" one; sometimes I find one or more of the new chickens in the nesting boxes opposite the roosts.
Yeah, I've been able to find some creative ways to make sure the new chickens get food.
I don't want to interfere with their process.

 

[aaggjg]

I feed on the ground in front of the hen house and I leave some feed in the house for the mornings. I spread the feed out, but they take turns eating and chasing the new chickens away.
yes , they all roost kind of together. The new chickens roost on the front/lower/less stable roost and the old flock roost on the back/higher/" better" one; sometimes I find one or more of the new chickens in the nesting boxes opposite the roosts.
Yeah, I've been able to find some creative ways to make sure the new chickens get food.
I don't want to interfere with their process.

I just re read your post you're only 10 days in with the new chickens.... It takes a little while but they will settle down and integrate. Just make sure to have plenty of feed stations. Maybe a new one away from coop that new girls know about???

 

[Jewelwing]

There should be no discernable fluid around her heart. There is only the tiniest amount of fluid in the pericardial sac normally, just enough for lubrication, you wouldn't even be able to see it as fluid at all. Was the fluid around the heart clear, colored, cloudy????

I don't know if you'll be able to see anything - the heart is in the second picture. I can't remember if the fluid around the heart was clear or cloudy. It wasn't colored. I think it was fairly clear. But there was a lot of it.

The first picture is the abdomen. She had four large eggs ready (two are hidden under the two you can see). I thought she had a good amount of fat, not too much, not too little. Are those two dark things coming down from the eggs the kidneys? Of course, they're not attached to the eggs! They're just in that position in the picture.



This second picture is looking up into her thoracic cavity and I don't think you can probably tell the pericardial sac is full of fluid. I thought her lungs looked fine, though, which was odd to me given her incredibly labored breathing. The liver looked good, although I nicked it as I was cutting away the skin. The gizzard was extremely firm, almost rock hard. Is it supposed to be?

 

[Jewelwing]

Here are some nicer pictures so that necropsy photos aren't the most recently posted ones on the thread!

The first few are from one of the recent snow storms we had. If we didn't have to dig ourselves out and drive to the rest of the world, snow would just be fun!







And here's a little guy who got trapped in our garage when our daughter accidentally left the garage door open for several hours before nightfall. We noticed him the next day (the bag of kitchen garbage had been dragged under the car and ripped into), so we set up a live trap and released him back outside. He ran straight for a pile of brush near the house - probably his home!

 

[Kassaundra]

I don't know if you'll be able to see anything - the heart is in the second picture. I can't remember if the fluid around the heart was clear or cloudy. It wasn't colored. I think it was fairly clear. But there was a lot of it.

The first picture is the abdomen. She had four large eggs ready (two are hidden under the two you can see). I thought she had a good amount of fat, not too much, not too little. Are those two dark things coming down from the eggs the kidneys? Of course, they're not attached to the eggs! They're just in that position in the picture.



This second picture is looking up into her thoracic cavity and I don't think you can probably tell the pericardial sac is full of fluid. I thought her lungs looked fine, though, which was odd to me given her incredibly labored breathing. The liver looked good, although I nicked it as I was cutting away the skin. The gizzard was extremely firm, almost rock hard. Is it supposed to be?

I don't see any sign of infection or inflammation. The lungs look a little on the pale side to me, but could just be my monitor. Both heart and kidney failure would cause labored breathing.

 

[delisha]

So, I am processing 6 cockerels for the first time tomorrow, and I have a few questions....

1. Is it better to leave them whole or go ahead and cut them into pieces when I process?

2. Do I need to brine them, or does freezing then thawing them give them enough time to rest?

3. Is there anything in particular that I need to know or watch for? I am doing it with a friend who has experience, but this is pretty much my first time (except once when I was 12 and helped my grandmother pluck some)

You can cut them up right away..
Resting in cold water is necessary before freezing. Freezing stops the muscles for decomp and releasing gasses.

Quote: beer or a sweet wine both work wonders for me.
AND they catch the fruit flies well too.

I agree..the best way to catch fruit flies is..open a bottle of wine..drink the whole bottle and leave the empty bottle on the counter..do it every night till the flies are gone..

I opened up Ethel to see if I could tell anything about why she died. It all looked really normal to me except for her heart. There was a lot of fluid in the sac around her heart.

But I have no idea really what's normal. I'd like to post a couple pictures, but I don't want to gross anyone out. Should I just put them in an album? Or is there an etiquette for posting necropsy pictures on the thread?

please post..ok I see you did.

Is it true that chickens will drink molasses and water together

Yes..and makes a good flush..

Ok, so I'm going to post two pictures of the "necropsy" I performed this afternoon on Ethel. If you don't want to see the inside of a chicken, scroll fast past this post!


Quote:
good pictures and tells a story..

This bird was fat..all that yellow should not be in a young bird. The excessive fat made the organs work too hard. Liver color is good..intestines are a little irritated..(see red veins). Nice looking egg formation...lungs are inflamed and have bits of blood ..off color and not bright enough..I would think this bird died from organ failure..it looks free from any type of sickness or disease. I would cook and eat this bird.

 

[wolfglen]

After having gone several years without losing a bird to predators other than one here and there to hawks, I've lost a dozen during the last week. Racoon that have been able to tear right through the chicken wire! I've trapped and disposed of six of the SOB's so far.

I have a hav a heart trap which seems to work fairly well and a tractor supply one which no matter what I do, it either shuts the trap at the slightest touch or doesn't close at all. I've tried dozens of little tweaking of the trip wire and tab, but no avail.

I probably should just build my own trap, I can design a better trip mechanism than what they have.

The coops are about 100 feet behind the house, I'm going to pitch a little tent with a sleeping bag and wait with the 12 gauge. For effect, I wonder about using my .375 Magnum (no, not a .357 mag pistol, my 375 Ruger carbine. 4,700 ft. lbs of energy.
Do I sound angry?

Jack

 

[RedRidge]

Have you considered an lgd?

 

[Scott H]

I've been battling coons for awhile now also. They just keep comin'. But they can't get in the coop. Just want to keep them thinned out so I don't have a daytime attack while free ranging.