The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[AKCharle]

Thanks everyone for making me feel welcome to the nest. Now that I have all the great information you sent me I can start my fermentation process. But hey, I saw a post about the cost difference of dry and FF, does anyone know where I saw that? I've been checking out the posts you sent me and I found it somewhere in that and now I can't find it.

Thanks again everyone and I will get back to you on that composting research.

 

[misbhaven]

I now think it was coyote's or a pack of wild dogs that took those Meaties, My neighbor seen a pack in her yard she thought 4-5 adults and 3-4 pups, not 30 feet from her house the other night eating /attacking what she thought was a dog. She said she yelled at them they didn't even move and shined a flashlight on them ..kind of scary considering I live in a sort of town, or a dead one that thrived in the 1800"s everybody had large country lots from 3/4 to 10 acres but still on our little side street we have a streetlight which lights up the front of my house and hers she also has a small 2 bedroom cottage that some of her family lives in behind her house , i have 3 motion lights and another i turn on and off until about 1 am letting my dogs out and ,she has 3 or 4 between the 2 houses..combined her family ,her and us,there is 7 dogs..no unfixed females..5 of them are male ....I have the biggest ones a 2 yr old Saint Bernard, Boxer, and an Aussie. IN the past when I have let the big boy out he would bark when the coyotes did off in the distance and they wouldn't come any closer...I guess they are making their rounds , a neighbor told me that pretty much everyone is loosing massive amount's of chickens....Except for the meatie's everyone else in in woodshed type coop's with dog kennel's. one is the welded wire, all coop's have wood floor's and another 3 foot garden fence around them all..except my new coop which just has some babies in it ,has no real run yet but I just let them roam a bit then lock them up...can't really shoot them as it is kind of a grey area with this being unincorporated town...not a good idea anyway as all houses face main street or each other on a side street no matter the lot size..Any idea's because this pack seems a little to comfortable with people, etc..

 

[lalaland]

misbehaven,
thats not good news. dog packs are pretty dangerous and ugly. it would be better if they were coyotes in my opinion. Dogs will dig under your fences and take out your flock- haven't heard of coyotes doing that.

Can you talk to your dept of nat resources in the area? if they are coyotes eating livestock (chickens), sometimes dnr will help out.

Not sure if poisoned bait is possible and it would be darned risky in your situation with pets around. Poison tends to get the wrong critter any way.

Sorry to hear you find yourself in this situation. Hoping others have some ideas!

 

[ki4got]

misbehaven,
thats not good news. dog packs are pretty dangerous and ugly. it would be better if they were coyotes in my opinion. Dogs will dig under your fences and take out your flock- haven't heard of coyotes doing that.

Can you talk to your dept of nat resources in the area? if they are coyotes eating livestock (chickens), sometimes dnr will help out.

Not sure if poisoned bait is possible and it would be darned risky in your situation with pets around. Poison tends to get the wrong critter any way.

Sorry to hear you find yourself in this situation. Hoping others have some ideas!

I find the best thing for large critters who shouldn't be here is the scoped .22 rifle. even tho my hands shake some, if I can rest it on something, I can hit a bullseye every time.

 

[Mrs Hutcherson]

Question

Working on my first hatch in a homemade incubator... I have the eggs in a cardboard egg carton that I manual turn. Should I take them out and lay them down on the screen I have in the bottom if the incubator over the pan of water or leave them in the carton and just keep it flat on day 18 through hatch?
Thanks for any advice!! Haven't been able to find any definitive information

 

[Kassaundra]

The question about the water proof broody bucket, I have been thinking about it, but can't post at work. This is what I would do, get 2 plastic totes the same size. One I would drill the holes in the bottom and thread the strips through them so that is now the top of the "broody tote", place the second unholed tote over the top, cut out a door (half circle or square chick sized) out of the side of both nested totes. The second tote would be the water proofing you need for the strips.

 

[ki4got]

The question about the water proof broody bucket, I have been thinking about it, but can't post at work. This is what I would do, get 2 plastic totes the same size. One I would drill the holes in the bottom and thread the strips through them so that is now the top of the "broody tote", place the second unholed tote over the top, cut out a door (half circle or square chick sized) out of the side of both nested totes. The second tote would be the water proofing you need for the strips.

yeah I thought about that too... the down side of the totes, either they sit on the ground with no bottom (wet if it rains) and with a lid, the handles have holes in them that would again let water run in.

but think my bucket lid idea might be more versatile, at least in my circumstances.

 

[ki4got]

(and then some...)

yesterday my blind horse decided she wanted the chick feed so turned the pen over to get it. in the process she turned my youngest batch of chicks with a broody loose. well, momma;s doing an awesome job so I figured I'd keep an eye on her and 'supervise'... that girl has some serious cojones! she brought the chicks up to the house to beg food, since she knows that I tend to give in. LOL well, the dog decided he wanted in too and she kept attacking him, even tho he was just trying to walk around her to open his gate and come in. (swinging piece of lattice that keeps the chickens out most of the time but the dog knows how to push out and nudge it open to come in and it closes behind him). even when I opened the gate and he went by her quickly, she followed him into the house and pushed her attack... fortunately nobody got hurt and she gave up once he was in the laundry room.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Okay @aoxa

This is for you. (Saw it first on the IN thread)

 

[armorfirelady]

OMG Leahs Mom that is hysterical