The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

Saw this in our newspaper today......kind of gave me a chuckle......I dont know who is donating the chickens
http://www.buffalonews.com/city-reg...e-x2013-against-a-chicken-in-hamburg-20140228

 

[CourtsCacklers]

Just wrote a post and it was lost to an internet glitch

Anyhow...what I said was that I do give some of the chunks in and they do have a nutritive value. I see the kiddos eat some now and then.

I have to sift, though, and then throw the good charcoal pieces back in. At least one time I got some nails in my batch. They will sometimes burn items that they have to take apart and occasionally miss a nail or 2...wood that has been donated to them but not treated lumber. They don't use it often, but I'd rather be safe than sorry so I like to try to sift through to see what might be hiding in there.



*******************************

And...while we're talking about ash, it might be worth re-posting this about the treated lumber:

Beware of ash from treated lumber....DON'T BURN TREATED LUMBER ON YOUR PROPERTY!

Quote: READ THE WHOLE STUDY HERE: http://www.noccawood.ca/docs/cca_wood_ash.html



Edited for a spelling.

Yes-- my husband is a journeyman carpenter-- but when he builds at home-- we do not burn the treated lumber.... he doesn't even like the kids handling that lumber....

 

[hellbender]

Yes-- my husband is a journeyman carpenter-- but when he builds at home-- we do not burn the treated lumber.... he doesn't even like the kids handling that lumber....

Smart man!

We're doing a bunch of construction and there's almost no way to avoid using treated lumber without preparing to do a bunch of painting...and re-paint every few years. We only use it when we have to and never put treated scraps in the burn pile.

The pile is about 200 yards from the chicken houses and they hit it almost every day.

 

[Scott H]

I have never seen a pallet made of treated wood.....and I've seen millions of pallets.

 

[TeaChick]

I have never seen a pallet made of treated wood.....and I've seen millions of pallets.

That's comforting. My coop is made of pallets. *whew!!!

 

[misbhaven]

we don't burn treated lumber in our woodburner in my husbands garage/time killing space he goes out there gets it to 90 turns up the radio nd might get one thing done in 4 hours usually he claims he is cleaning but it looks worsethan any of my childrens rooms...we burn almost no lumber maybe the scrap untreated pieces but mainly just plain old logs...on a side note i lost a little cochin chick tonight it had gotten impacted i cleared that out 2 times today gave all bantams cooked egg yolk,then slipped a tendon splinted that..it was still fighting not laying down etc found it dead with swollen vent full of poo again...it is always hard to loose one that was worked so hard on become attached a little..none of the others have any problems

 

[CoopChick719]

Why do you guys sift your ashes? I'm just putting mine straight from the wood-burning stove out in the wreath storage container (thanks, LM!!). Most of it is fine dust. There are a few big chunks, but I wouldn't think that would bother the birds.

RE: Sifting ashes. The only reason I can think of to do it is if you're concerned about things like staples, metal fragments, or possibly fiberglass strands from packing tape that might get burned with a cardboard box. If you're diligent about keeping all foreign matter out of your fire, it should be ok. Of course, if you want to save those bits of charcoal for a water purification system, or for your garden, that's an other matter! I'm guessing that the chickens would find those little bits of charcoal to be pretty tasty.

I sift mine because I have had a few nails sneak in from scrap wood & some staples from office paper used for starter. I do throw the charcoal chunks around the pen & coop for the girls to peck. I do know that charcoal is a good toxin remover.

on a side note i lost a little cochin chick tonight it had gotten impacted i cleared that out 2 times today gave all bantams cooked egg yolk,then slipped a tendon splinted that..it was still fighting not laying down etc found it dead with swollen vent full of poo again...it is always hard to loose one that was worked so hard on become attached a little..none of the others have any problems

Sorry to hear about your cochin, misbhaven. That's a bummer!

 

[hellbender]

we don't burn treated lumber in our woodburner in my husbands garage/time killing space he goes out there gets it to 90 turns up the radio nd might get one thing done in 4 hours usually he claims he is cleaning but it looks worsethan any of my childrens rooms...we burn almost no lumber maybe the scrap untreated pieces but mainly just plain old logs...on a side note i lost a little cochin chick tonight it had gotten impacted i cleared that out 2 times today gave all bantams cooked egg yolk,then slipped a tendon splinted that..it was still fighting not laying down etc found it dead with swollen vent full of poo again...it is always hard to loose one that was worked so hard on become attached a little..none of the others have any problems

That's a sad situation. Even with so many birds, I find myself getting attached to certain ones that seem to have personalities. I have one young NN hen that follows me around, chatting away, especially when I'm collecting eggs but really, just any time I out around the birds. If there are birds on the nest, she jumps up on the railing and seems to be giving them hell for not being finished laying!

She will die a natural death here, no matter that she is sometimes a real pain in the butt!!!

Just curious...is impaction a common problem with bantams?

 

[misbhaven]

It seems that everything has happened more and quicker to these chicks. I have 12 cornish x , 5 white cornish no pasty butt except 1 I brought home that way. The bantam EE no problems, it seems to be just the feather legged bantams cochins mainly that are having issues. I ground their chick starter finer in a coffee grinder, gave probotics, egg yolk . They seem small even smaller than my silkie chicks they are the only ones I have had issues with at all.

 

[LoveChickens123]

I have a question about ducks so here it is:

My next door neighbors have ducks, and when i let the chickens out they come over and eat all the mash for the chickens that i put in there!

so my mom keeps putting more in there because the chickens like to go in and out of the pen to eat there food.

you see the the neighbors just let there ducks go up and down the road and to my house

and at 6am in the morning they are quacking quacking and quacking!

So do you think it is right of me to to put those ducks in the goat pen so they don't eat the chickens food??