The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[TeaChick]

When my kids were little, I used (home made) cloth diapers, turned a pair of adult pants into shorts, and used the legs for kids pants, sewed all of their clothes, made everything from scratch... Some how, I think even doing all that I had more free time than I do now. I think all those extra birthdays tend to suck the energy out of a person.

Oh, I quit having b-days when I was 30, no extras here for five years now!!

 

[aoxa]

I had the best hatch EVER yesterday and today. 56 eggs into lockdown (because that is how I count my hatch rate..) 54 fluffy healthy chicks. 18 Easter Eggers, 14 Silkies, 10 Naked Necks, 5 Mutts, 4 Buckeyes, 2 Barred Rocks and 1 Mottled Houdan

 

[Leahs Mom]

Beautiful!

 

[armorfirelady]

 

[lalaland]

x2

 

[misbhaven]

Everybodies babies are so cute ..mine were reshipped today

 

[delisha]

Nice hatch Justine..


I hatched today also..

Small

6 eggs..6 chicks

I snapped a picture before they were done..I had a BLRW that is so red i had to snap a picture of it

 

[delisha]

as far as my silver laced and 100% fertility

I have 100% fertility in all of my breeds except my silver laced..he is young..not in the sun all day because his coop exit faces west. He is on the back side. He is also huge and unless the female lays for him and submits, he falls off. That will change when it warms up and the sun is out longer.

 

[fenwickchic]

I have been "out of the loop" for a while. My dad had a stroke and my mom has dementia so I have been living with mom while dad was hospitalized. I left my healthy chickens in my daughter's hands, no choice. Before I left, I had gone out to the coop fully prepared to do the 2 water bucket thing to treat for lice along with blow drying and keeping her inside for a day and was thrilled to see that Shirley's vent looked completely cleared up and no one had any lice casings on their feathers or lice that I could see. In addition, Charlie, my bantam roo, had had really red legs and some red on his feathered feet. I had treated them with Nustock and the red had finally disappeared. I had done this with the Nustock once before though and nothing had changed. So I have to wonder if the DE had anything to do with the improvement. I had used wood ash and dusted all my chickens to fight the lice they somehow got, then added another dusting bin and used both wood ash and finally, in desperation, opened the DE and added it to the new dusting bin. I didn't want to do that because some people have said that DE destroys the liter for composting by killing off the beneficial bacteria, but I only put it in the dusting bins. I'm hoping the liter can be used for my garden. So, again, through Divine intervention by God (I think) all my chickens looked great before I had to leave. Additionally, I have 5 hens and I'm getting an average of 3 eggs/day even in this very, very cold weather. I do not add light to keep them laying, but I do feed them well with fermented organic feed from Countryside Organics and always, always provide greens/sprouted BOSS. I even give them greek yogurt with blueberries. I am also adding fresh garlic to their feed.

Now I'm back home and Charlie's feet and legs are red again!! Does anyone know what's up with that? Has this happened to anyone else? He does not sleep on the roost in the coop. He sleeps in a nest box so I think his feet are covered by his body and it's not the cold, but I could be wrong. There are no lifting scales, so I don't think it's scaly mites. He walks o.k. and seems o.k. but I could tell they bothered him when I put the Nustock on him. He also seemed much livelier when they were back to their yellow color. He has also "attacked" both my husband and my daughter. My daughter is now scared of him and she absolutely loved him. However, she could have easily scared him somehow or made him mad because she pushes the hens away with her feet when she goes into the coop (so sort of kicking at them) which I'm very unhappy about. My husband admitted that he made weird noises and that's when Charlie spurred him. I always talk very sweetly to him and the girls when I go in and usually always have food/treats. I take great care not to startle him or the girls. So far he has not attacked me. Should I worry that he will?

Also, I wanted to ask those of you who are having problems with feather picking if your chickens are used to much more space? Mine are doing o.k. in their limited coop/run area which seems quite cramped now that they are full grown but I think it is only because they have spent their whole lives in this limited space for the most part so far. I left them in the tractor moving it through our backyard all summer and fall. They are used to being close to each other and are not feather picking or hurting each other. I've let them out in for a couple hours in the fall/earlier winter but began seeing vultures and hawks circling so I stopped that. I'm planning on building portable fencing system with netting once winter lets up. I don't think the hawks/vultures will ever let up and I'm not risking their lives. They seem content to dig through the deep liter in the run throughout the day.

 

[lalaland]

I have been "out of the loop" for a while. My dad had a stroke and my mom has dementia so I have been living with mom while dad was hospitalized. I left my healthy chickens in my daughter's hands, no choice. Before I left, I had gone out to the coop fully prepared to do the 2 water bucket thing to treat for lice along with blow drying and keeping her inside for a day and was thrilled to see that Shirley's vent looked completely cleared up and no one had any lice casings on their feathers or lice that I could see. In addition, Charlie, my bantam roo, had had really red legs and some red on his feathered feet. I had treated them with Nustock and the red had finally disappeared. I had done this with the Nustock once before though and nothing had changed. So I have to wonder if the DE had anything to do with the improvement. I had used wood ash and dusted all my chickens to fight the lice they somehow got, then added another dusting bin and used both wood ash and finally, in desperation, opened the DE and added it to the new dusting bin. I didn't want to do that because some people have said that DE destroys the liter for composting by killing off the beneficial bacteria, but I only put it in the dusting bins. I'm hoping the liter can be used for my garden. So, again, through Divine intervention by God (I think) all my chickens looked great before I had to leave. Additionally, I have 5 hens and I'm getting an average of 3 eggs/day even in this very, very cold weather. I do not add light to keep them laying, but I do feed them well with fermented organic feed from Countryside Organics and always, always provide greens/sprouted BOSS. I even give them greek yogurt with blueberries. I am also adding fresh garlic to their feed.

Now I'm back home and Charlie's feet and legs are red again!! Does anyone know what's up with that? Has this happened to anyone else? He does not sleep on the roost in the coop. He sleeps in a nest box so I think his feet are covered by his body and it's not the cold, but I could be wrong. There are no lifting scales, so I don't think it's scaly mites. He walks o.k. and seems o.k. but I could tell they bothered him when I put the Nustock on him. He also seemed much livelier when they were back to their yellow color. He has also "attacked" both my husband and my daughter. My daughter is now scared of him and she absolutely loved him. However, she could have easily scared him somehow or made him mad because she pushes the hens away with her feet when she goes into the coop (so sort of kicking at them) which I'm very unhappy about. My husband admitted that he made weird noises and that's when Charlie spurred him. I always talk very sweetly to him and the girls when I go in and usually always have food/treats. I take great care not to startle him or the girls. So far he has not attacked me. Should I worry that he will?

Also, I wanted to ask those of you who are having problems with feather picking if your chickens are used to much more space? Mine are doing o.k. in their limited coop/run area which seems quite cramped now that they are full grown but I think it is only because they have spent their whole lives in this limited space for the most part so far. I left them in the tractor moving it through our backyard all summer and fall. They are used to being close to each other and are not feather picking or hurting each other. I've let them out in for a couple hours in the fall/earlier winter but began seeing vultures and hawks circling so I stopped that. I'm planning on building portable fencing system with netting once winter lets up. I don't think the hawks/vultures will ever let up and I'm not risking their lives. They seem content to dig through the deep liter in the run throughout the day.

Ahhh, I'm so sorry about your mom and dad. I have a 92 year old dad with dementia who fell and is in rehab, followed by my feisty 87 yr old mom who mistook her brake for the accelerator and took out two cars and a gas line in the underground garage of the senior co-op where they live. she is going to rehab today. thankfully I have 4 brothers and sisters because we are all running trying to deal with everything and visit them to boot.

My roosters have red going up their legs, I think it is hormones. Can't remember if we saw pics of your rooster's legs or not.

My jr rooster does attack me. Started when he thought I was harassing a hen (was picking her up and she was screaming bloody murder). We pretty much have a truce, when he gets rambunctious I grab him and carry him around.

my featherpickers are confirmed pickers, came to me that way after they spent that first year of their life in a guy's suburban bedroom. THey haven't lost the habit.

good luck with your family!

edited to add about that greek yogurt: usually fruited yogurts have lots of added sugar and no live cultures. If that is true of the yogurt you are using, you might want to switch to plain yogurt with the live cultures. You can always add fresh fruit for a treat for them if you want....