The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

I have a rooster (my very best) who has always sneezed when he is eating. Never otherwise, just when he's eating. I dry feed usually. Do you think he has an allergy? Maybe it's just the dust? Has anyone ever had this happen? He is 8 months old, the dominant rooster, appears strong and healthy.

Yes all the time when they are eating. Sometimes they eat too fast and it gets up their nose or is dry in their throat. Completely normal. I do find my roosters do this more than my hens.

 

[TeaChick]

I have a rooster (my very best) who has always sneezed when he is eating. Never otherwise, just when he's eating. I dry feed usually. Do you think he has an allergy? Maybe it's just the dust? Has anyone ever had this happen? He is 8 months old, the dominant rooster, appears strong and healthy.

I just switched my flock from pellets to crumbles. My rooster is the same age, basically (hatched in April), and he has been having trouble with the crumbles. He looks like he's gulping for air, then he starts squeaking, once he gets his throat cleared he looks at me like I'm looking at him like he has puppies crawling out of his ears. Someone I know said his rooster died choking on crumbles. I've started wetting their feed. I try to avoid feeding dry off the ground now, but on occasion it's unavoidable. I put equal volume of crumbles and water in their food dishes and leave them in the hen house. They knock over all the dishes that go in there, but the wet feed doesn't come out of them, so I'm happy they're not wasting food or wetting their bedding anymore.
=)

 

[Shan30]

Yes all the time when they are eating. Sometimes they eat too fast and it gets up their nose or is dry in their throat. Completely normal. I do find my roosters do this more than my hens.

I guess that's probably it, just funny that its always only him. Maybe I will try feeding the bachelors wet for a bit to see if that changes it. If not I will pay attention to whether or not he reacts better to other foods. He definitely did not sneeze while chowing down on the turkey leftovers from making broth yesterday

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote: My Stella BR sneezes when she eats fast (which is almost always...she is all about the food) & she squeaks when she sneezes

I don't worry about it to much its usually just when she has dry scratch she does this.


I noticed today one of the PRs has a tiny bit of frost bite on the tip of her comb. I haven't noticed it before so know idea when she got it. I am thinking tho it must of been this week tho when we had -30 wind chills. They were outside between areas even with the cold so I am guessing that's when she got it. I have a coffee mug upside down in their heated dog bow with water in it. It was to prevent combs & wattles getting in there. Maybe she got it wet when she was eating snow? I am not going to do anything with it but watch it.

On a good note 4 eggs today..........

that's a first since last summer.
Spring is certainly on its way Of course maybe shoveling out the garden was encouraging as well. Girls were happily *back scratching* (as my Mom calls it) all morning . Hopefully the arctic temps are gone for the year

 

[ki4got]

No never. This is what I use.
http://m.tractorsupply.com/en/store/farm-innovators-multi-use-utility-deicer-250-watt

I have several of those I use for a variety of different locations...

Wow... Fancy... Now...
Take it a step further and use a couple of hundred gallon stock tanks and put tilapia in them and you've got an aquaponics system that you can grow veggies above too. ;-)

i'm considering something like that to do fodder/sprouts over the winter maybe. I already have the indoor pond, complete with guppies. I would just need to build a rack to hold the fodder trays and a timer to run a pump for watering them.

Do you think the fish would carry any pathogens that would bother the chickens? I've often wondered this as I have a rain barrel set up with fish. I've heard that trout work better in northern climates. I would LOVE to have a nice sized green house with an aquaponic system to augment poultry. Think how an active system like that would affect the grocery bill!

my chickens often sneeze when chowing dry feed.

comet goldfish work better for smaller tanks, as long as they don't freeze solid. as long as there's liquid the fish will live. trout grow much too large to keep in standard stock tanks, and they would need more food than local bugs would supply (you'd have to feed them) in the summer.

my indoor pond is roughly 150 gallons (when full), planted with true aquatics and hasn't had a filter on it in 10 years.

in a normal aquarium, there's a 2-step biological process using beneficial bacteria to convert waste to nitrates and then nitrites, which are removed by regular water changes. aquatic plants utilize all forms of nitrogen as the primary 'fertilizer' for green growth.

in my pond, I don't do water changes, but I do use it as my water 'bucket' for all the birds in the house (chicks, macaw, hospital) and the dog too, and simply fill it back up when it gets low.

with a truly hydroponic situation, you want a heavy fish density to provide the nitrogen for the plants. plants that would do best would be those that are primarily leafy greens. not sure how you'd supplement the phosphorus and potassium also required for flowering and fruiting. I haven't researched hydroponics much beyond the leafy greens...

saw a page on fb linked recently, i'll have to look for it again. someone detailed their plans of incorporating hydroponics with their ducks and fish for food. (tilapia).

Epcot in Florida (Disney offshoot) has a huge hydroponic system that provides all the veggies and tilapia served in the restaurants, and has for years. they've got a number of other very efficient systems to deal with things such as the huge amounts of raw sewage produced daily. that one was interesting too. raw sewage into a canal (don't remember how long, but thinking miles... ) at one end, clean water out the other and put back into the system where it began. and also harvesting TONS of water lettuce daily to use as a fuel source. again it utilizes naturally occurring bacteria to break down the waste and turn it into plant food. that may be a simplified description, but it's definitely food for thought.

 

[lazy gardener]

I saw a re-purposed in-ground pool that was set up for aquaponics. The deep end is used for tilapia, and the shallow end is dry, with the plant set up, it has a green house top over the whole thing. I was so intrigued with the idea of aquaponics that I bought a how-to book, but having difficulty wrapping my head around the plumbing, and as the system takes about 8 months to fully cycle, you'd need a place that stayed warm enough year round for it to work. You can cycle a fish tank using ammonia, which is kind of cool. allows you to stock the tank without ammonia spikes. Something to think about for the future. For now, I've got my little gold fish who keeps my rain water bug free. Perhaps will expand that system a bit this summer and see where it leads. Yeah, I saw a bit of the Epcot system. It got me drooling. I was intrigued with the zucchini growing up a trellis. Any one who says that zucchini can't be trellised is not thinking outside of the box... but, honestly... unless there's a need, why bother! I don't know how densely trout can be stocked... perch was an other suggestion for northern climates, but it would be great to have a system that would provide some fish for the table as well as some garden veggies.

 

[Scott H]

Quote:
Is that why you're called the lazy gardener?

 

[lazy gardener]

I call myself a lazy gardener b/c my gardening approach is to use deep mulch to keep the soil moist and friable and weed free. I've pretty much retired my rototiller in favor of a stainless steel garden fork. I only open up enough soil to get the seeds or transplants in the ground. From that point on, I just tour the garden, harvest, and putz around... no tilling, no weeding. And now, I have my little chicken helpers. Actually... I might have a need to trellis zucchini. I like to keep anything that can be trellised up off the ground. An other lazy aspect for me... Why bother to bend over to harvest crops when you can stand and harvest comfortably? I absolutely refuse to plant bush beans... the plants lodge, the beans drag on the ground and they usually have to be washed. I can pick my pole beans, and toss them whole into the pot (without even needing to wash them usually)... why even bother to snap off the little pointy tails? If you break them off the vine, leaving the stem on the vine, they require absolutely NO prep. I told you I was lazy!!!

 

[Leahs Mom]

I saw a re-purposed in-ground pool that was set up for aquaponics. The deep end is used for tilapia, and the shallow end is dry, with the plant set up, it has a green house top over the whole thing. I was so intrigued with the idea of aquaponics that I bought a how-to book, but having difficulty wrapping my head around the plumbing, and as the system takes about 8 months to fully cycle, you'd need a place that stayed warm enough year round for it to work. You can cycle a fish tank using ammonia, which is kind of cool. allows you to stock the tank without ammonia spikes. Something to think about for the future. For now, I've got my little gold fish who keeps my rain water bug free. Perhaps will expand that system a bit this summer and see where it leads. Yeah, I saw a bit of the Epcot system. It got me drooling. I was intrigued with the zucchini growing up a trellis. Any one who says that zucchini can't be trellised is not thinking outside of the box... but, honestly... unless there's a need, why bother! I don't know how densely trout can be stocked... perch was an other suggestion for northern climates, but it would be great to have a system that would provide some fish for the table as well as some garden veggies.

Now you have me thinking.... Do you know where you saw that?

My dad has an in-ground pool that recently collapsed due to not being maintained. My husband and I are living on that property now.

We've been contemplating what to do with it. There is a cement patio all around it and we've had all kinds of ideas...even just making a large root cellar. But this is an interesting idea!

 

[Leahs Mom]

I got them for $6.99 on amazon with free shipping - note only in Canada is it this cheap.. They cost $19.99 on Amazon.com. They are thick, so it does not freeze as quickly as other waterers I've used, and when it does freeze, the containers don't crack. I put these in there in the morning, and remove at night. I can still open them when they freeze unlike some waterers.. So I get the frozen stuff out, clean off and refill. repeat.

For the big pen where the duck and geese are they get a rubber dish. I need something they can clean their eyes out in. The chickens drink this water even if I have other drinking areas.. I don't bother anymore..

Note that my water takes a while to freeze if I have the big door closed. Even with -20 it's only slushy at the end of the day. I love insulation. lol

I'm amazed that the water stays thawed for that long!

What do you estimate the indoor temperature to be?