The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

@armorfirelady
I "had" a compost pile. It was totally obliterated by the chickens last year. Down to fine dirt at ground level.

Not sure how that happens , but it did! You wouldn't know there had been compost there at all.

I'm back to revisiting the BSF catcher compost thingie. @RedRidge .... Could you post your BSF compost catcher thingies again for us to see? I'd sure love to have some of those in my freezer for next winter. I'm afraid if I don't get going on it another summer will pass and I won't have done anything (which is common for me, unfortunately.

 

[lazy gardener]

Ashdoes: Re: worm farming. I keep a bin in my basement. The worms do best around 70 degrees. Bin needs holes in the bottom for drainage, vented cover. I use shredded moistened newspaper for bedding. Others use peat moss. Supposedly, a good well developed bin can handle a pound of "feed/day". My first culture got wiped out by getting too cold in my garage. I let it set for the entire summer, and only a single little worm hatched out. However, last fall when I was working the garden, I turned over some sawdust and cardboard and found several hand fulls of red worms. Into the bin they went. They have done great. when I've tried setting up a bin with native red worms in the past, they've all migrated off. Made quite a mess of my garage floor!!

 

[CoopChick719]

Any suggestions?? I'm going to see if I can find some small battery powered or solar powered dim light.

I use solar lights from the Dollar Tree. I slide them through the wire on top of the pen each morning and put them in the coop at night when I lock up. Cheap, easy, gives just enough light at night to see you're way around but not enough to disturb the girls.

In the summer, I have often run a fan during the day to keep the air moving inside as I foolishly placed my chicken shed in a place that receives full sun during the hottest part of the day. (If it was in the shade I probably wouldn't need to run a fan at all.)

While they spend little or no time in the shed during the day, they still have to go in there to lay their eggs and sometimes it is VERY HOT in there...upwards of 10 degrees hotter than outside unfortunately. When it get like that I'll often run the fan just to help keep it more bearable when they have to lay.

I also keep the doors fully open all day long and at night too in the summer when it's very hot. I have internal predator-deterring walls made of 1/2" hardware cloth inside the main doors so they can remain open.

LM, My coop is under the shade of large pines and it still gets very hot in my coop. Last summer it got to 100 in there. I ran a small fan in the window to pull hot air out and cool air in. This summer DH will be making a predator proof hard wire door to be inserted into the door frame so the girls will be cooler. Oh he doesn't know this yet but he will soon!!

Greeeaat In the city of San Antonio we are allowed 3 chickens. I asked my husband if our HOA had anythig against it and he said he was pretty sure they didn't. I bought the coop, have it all out ready to put together PLUS a run extension. Now he's telling me that their IS a HOA rule against poultry. WTH?!?! I hate HOAs!! Now I'm stuck with a coop and have chickens on the brain and technically can't get them! Might just have to be a rebel! Sounds like it's time to have a little talk with the board. Maybe get a lawyer if thy don't see things my way. I *will* have chickens!

Our small town doesn't have any zoning whatsoever. My DH was selectman when I decided to get chickens..
He was teasing me about creating a new ordinance on chickens. I asked him how it would look if the selectman's wife picketed the town office with a big sign that said "Keep the farm in Farmingdale!!"

I would like to know where you have been reading to learn to do this. Worm farming is something I would like to be working on before we go in to next winter to help feed my chickens and guineas. Any info you could pass along would be appreciated? thank you,

There are some good videos on Youtube about worm farming or red wrigglers. Also the books suggested below are excellent too!

Read Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof. I have red wigglers for composting and castings for my garden. I have fed a few to the chickens, and they like them. The worms get leftovers that the hens won't or shouldn't eat...onion skins, avacado skins & seeds, etc.

My worms get the same anything the girls won't or shouldn't eat.

I keep a bin in my basement. My first culture got wiped out by getting too cold in my garage.

What a coincedence! My bin took a big hit when I left a basement window open, by mistake, during this past winter. We also had frozen pipes too.

 

[hellbender]

I didn't have Valbazen but they did get Safeguard. Even though I'm trying to do natural ways, I'm not opposed to using modern medicine if need be.

On the feed-grade salt--Do you mean table salts, epsom salt or salt like what's used in a salt lick? Of course, I've heard not to use salt near the birds.

Thank you hellbender for the advice!

I have started just fermenting their scratch which I mix w/soaked feed at feeding time--mixed like a crumbly cookie dough.

I usually feed 20% Flock Raiser w/calcium but I have a girl laying soft-shelled eggs. I bought a bag of layer feed hoping this would help. So far the girls do not like it!

I'm going to try the food-grade salt in the run & the coop to see if it helps. So far so good w/the Molly's.

Will keep you posted on the pine pellet bedding experiment. Just waiting for a nice weekend to clean out the coop.

I'm using the Molly's Herbal wormer Formula 1 & 2 as directed.

Feed grade salt can be bought at most farm supply stores for about $5 or $6 per 50# bag. I spread a loose layer on the floors of the houses right after they have been cleaned and just before I put down the new bedding. As I said..it dehydrates worm eggs on contact.

EDIT:I suppose if they are there, they would certainly dehydrate any worms too. Just for the sake of example, imagine a small yard worm being dredged in salt...That should give you the idea of what happens to worm and their eggs.

This is a good way to stop the cycle but if your birds are so over loaded that there are actual worms being seen, some serious consideration needs to be given to worming the whole flock too. It's a very cheap process. I have found Wazen to be a waste of time and money.

 

[armorfirelady]

@hellbender
So you use the salt to control worms in the ground? Do your chickens eat it as well? I'm just curious if they did if it would raise their sodium levels to high? Just curios. I'm sure since yours free range that you rarely see them near the coops

 

[hellbender]

@hellbender
So you use the salt to control worms in the ground? Do your chickens eat it as well? I'm just curious if they did if it would raise their sodium levels to high? Just curios. I'm sure since yours free range that you rarely see them near the coops

Not in the ground...in their houses. It's as fine as table salt and is covered with fresh bedding. Just a very light coating on the cleaned floors and covered with shavings...they kick the shavings around and pick through them but I don't see then looking for salt...

My chicken houses are old converted dairy barns with concrete floors. This works well for me.

 

[armorfirelady]

[@=/u/236642/hellbender]@hellbender[/@]

So you use the salt to control worms in the ground? Do your chickens eat it as well? I'm just curious if they did if it would raise their sodium levels to high? Just curios. I'm sure since yours free range that you rarely see them near the coops

Not in the ground...in their houses. It's as fine as table salt and is covered with fresh bedding.  Just a very light coating on the cleaned floors and covered with shavings...they kick the shavings around and pick through them but I don't see then looking for salt...

My chicken houses are old converted dairy barns with concrete floors.  This works well for me.

So it works like DE then? Good to know. Even tho my guys have a dirt floor in their coop I have never had them overloaded with worms. They love to eat earthworms & any others they find in the ground and compost pile. I'm thinking maybe because I give them cayenne pepper monthly as a preventive May be why.

 

[4Hgirl]

Look what I just found. First time I've successfully had a hen hatch her own eggs Now what do I do? Do I let her be and she will care for it (them if more hatch) or do I intervene? The nest is actually an old sand bucket and is about 10" off the ground. The hen is a BT barred rock. There are three other chickens in the coop one is a rooster.

 

[4Hgirl]

if you have kids in 4-h, there is a loophole.

One of our 4H families dealt with this and they just kindly asked for an exception and they were granted it to have three hens only if they were quiet so they got barred rocks and it worked out for them.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Look what I just found. First time I've successfully had a hen hatch her own eggs Now what do I do? Do I let her be and she will care for it (them if more hatch) or do I intervene? The nest is actually an old sand bucket and is about 10" off the ground. The hen is a BT barred rock. There are three other chickens in the coop one is a rooster.

Usually the mamma will take care of them just fine. I'd just keep an eye to be sure she is going to be a good mamma and take care of them. You'll see that in the first few days. As long as she stands up against the others and protects them they should be okay in your regular flock. The mamma will usually show the others to stay away from their kids in no uncertain terms - which may mean a bit of head-on fighting initially But the others will get the message.

Do you have enough space for them all where they are?