The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[hellbender]

I feed everyone FF from day 1. the youngest chicks either get added to a slightly older group, or I put a few older chicks in with them to teach them about food... it's usually feeding frenzy within 24 hours.

if the food is a bit wet, i'll put some crumbles on top of it to soak up the wet.

Lots of different ways to do things that are all right. When I first start chicks on the actual fermented grain, I chop the grain portion with the 'broth' so they have smaller particles to deal with...I do this for a couple weeks...This eases My Mind....don't want the little wankers choking or just leaving pieces that are too large for them....again, my system works for me.

RON

Uh...I use processor ...not a knife and chopping block..

 

[RedRidge]

It must all be an April fools joke.

Almost 70 degrees here and not even noon yet. I'm trimming the rose bushes and butterfly bush. Thinned the tomatoes and peppers for transplant in 5 or 6 weeks. I'm going to have to either put some sheep or cattle in the front yard, or fire up the lawn mower.

grass?  what's that?  my free ranging horses and chickens have taken care of all the grass that used to be. LOL

Against the rules here to EVER let any forage be grazed closer than 4". That's the #1 rule for all my livestock

 

[lalaland]

AFL, I usually can feel the grains in the crop. think the olive oil was the right idea. its almost as if she has something stuck, isn't it? I can't think of anything else you could do - greasing her up so if something is stuck it might pass.

I've seen something similiar and the hen was fine the next day. hope that will be true for sophie too!

 

[Shan30]

I've seen a drunk chick around here now and again...in fact I saw a couple of 'em over the week end....that's another story.

No I don't feed them totally fermented food at first but likely could.  I put their feed on 14"X 18" human food trays for awhile (with a thin piece of rubber matting to prevent their feet from slipping).  In short order, I move them up to the 3 gallon rubber feed pans and at about 2 months, I begin adding fermented grains to the mess.  By month four I'm mixing the medicated feed about 50%/50%, still adding the buttermilk if I have it. 

I gradually start changing the medicated diet at 5 months and use the Layena crumbles with fermented grains.  

Works well for me!

Thank you for the details!

 

[Shan30]

I do give mine ff from day 1 - the whole flock gets the same feed.  Then I add some extra meat protein for the littles and there is calcium on the side for all others. 

There should be no alcohol concerns with Lacto-fermented feed as it is fermented to produce lactic acid rather than alcohol.  (For a quick primer on the differences in the kinds of ferments, take a look at this article.  )

That article also has links to the [COLOR=FF0000]research articles that were done feeding chicks[/COLOR] Lacto-fermented feed from day 1 and the health benefits

Thanks LM! Is it a meat meal that you are adding for protein? Sorry can't remember!

 

[RedRidge]

It was finally decent sunny weather for a little picture taking, so I thought I'd share this shot of one of my two Rhodebar cocks.
For the first time ever I had some frostbite problems here in TN... but as you can tell he is healing from them nicely and lost only his tips.
He's been easy to deal with all throughout breeding season and has some adorable chicks on the ground.
I guess that means it's time to give him a name... so far he's just been #52... which is a shame since I culled a LOT of cockerels to get down to him.

 

[Jewelwing]

FWIW. My chickens got FF from day 1 also, but I was able to do things differently than you guys, because they were my first chickens, so I didn't have to worry about different age chickens having different nutritional requirements. Also, I don't make my own food, so I can't ferment the grains separately.

What I did was I fermented batches of my commercial (Scratch & Peck) organic chick starter, and fed them all that from day 1 until I switched to organic grower (by then I was using Countryside Organics, because it's cheaper).

No one had any problems figuring out that the FF was the food, but there really wasn't anything else to peck at for the first few days, because I had them on a rubber liner. I was so excited to have chicks that I removed the poop practically as it was coming out their butts! So there wasn't much in the way of poop to peck at either.

No one had any problems with large bits, either, because the commercial starter was pretty fine.

So that's how I did things! It'll be a bit more complicated next time I get chicks, since I have a flock already. I'm not planning to do that until next summer (2015), though, so I'll worry about that when I get there.

 

[Jewelwing]

It was finally decent sunny weather for a little picture taking, so I thought I'd share this shot of one of my two Rhodebar cocks.
For the first time ever I had some frostbite problems here in TN... but as you can tell he is healing from them nicely and lost only his tips.
He's been easy to deal with all throughout breeding season and has some adorable chicks on the ground.
I guess that means it's time to give him a name... so far he's just been #52... which is a shame since I culled a LOT of cockerels to get down to him.

Wow, he is quite handsome!!

 

[subhanalah]

Ok it's not an Aprils fool joke. The video is of Sophie's behavior. I just gave her a syringe full of olive oil & massaged her crop. It's not hard more squishy. I can feel little hard things in there. I'm hoping its grit since I would think the grains would be softer since they are fermented? She is eating & pooping just fine. I took a bowl of yogurt & garlic out with me so I could grab her. Massaged her crop for a few minutes while we talked. Her breathing seemed a little raspy but in no distress. It could of been because I just squirted the olive oil down her throat. She had no problem with me massaging her crop. I'll give her some more olive oil and massage it again later.,see if its gone down some more or not.

Thoughts?

And it's 50 here. I turned the furnace off and opened the windows in my room so the paint dries faster

You can massage the crop until it is almost gone, that's what I did when my babies got stopped up, and everyone is fine now.

someone told me that soy seemed to give her chickens problems with pendulous crop, do you think it could be a food sensitivity?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: It's a fish meal that's approved for organic. I get it from a somewhat local feed mill that still formulates feeds.

I believe that the main difference is that the fish meal that's not approved for organic is preserved with ethoxyquin.