The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[COChix]

Hello all,

Was directed to this thread to check out...

I am in Colorado, new to chicken keeping, less than 1 year but not new to keeping things natural. We herbs medicinally on us, the flock and our dogs. When we got our baby chicks and did the butt check for pasty butts every night on 28 chicks, we used a Calendula Salve I had made and this helped with the pasty butt issue a lot. It is a great skin herb and helped the girls heal quicker. Here are some of the things I have in process....

From left to right

Nettles - Olive Oil extraction
The base for all my salves, hemp oil and coconut oil, I had it stored in the cabinet until I could actually make some of these herb recipes.
Elecampane - alcohol extraction, that is not for the animals but for us. Great for asthma, bronchitis, etc. opens the bronchial air ways

The two jars that are stacked - the top one is Calendula oil extraction, and the bottom is nettles in Olive oil.

I was waiting on the Calendula oil to finish some more salve, now that it has sat for a couple weeks, it was strained and now it is ready to use.

Here are some of the preventative stuff we do, I ferment organic non-gmo& non-soy, corn free feed, we make our own farmers cheese and that is apart of the regime, use DE for prevention In the coop and run, helps reduce smells, make my own coop cleaner from citrus peels and white wine vinegar. I just was reminded about the use of squash and pumpkins as a preventative de wormer for chickens, I sprouts seeds and nuts. We have an organic veggie and medicinal herb garden, believe in permaculture, we compost and recycle as much as possible. Lol. I will be lurking and reading back through this thread, just wanted to say hello.

 

[armorfirelady]

I'm in Canada so I'm only on here intermittently.

For mites/lice I just dust bathed the girls in wood ash every night for 5 days then once again 10 days later. I also make sure they have it available all year. I've never had a reoccurrence.

Lacy your hoop coop is beautiful. Fancy!! As for snow on top mine has held a lot without a problem. I thought I had a picture of it from last year but I couldn't find it. I used 2 cattle panels that are connected with metal "U" bolts in spots. The bottoms of the panels are connected to the 2x4s with big metal staples. The one end has the reused door in it and my friend built a frame for it. The other end has half of the end framed in to give it more stability as well. 2 people can move it if necessary.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@armorfirelady
What ya doing in Canada?

 

[Shan30]

Let me start by saying eeeeewwwwww! I came home yesterday to find barred feathers all over the place, a lot of them and in piles so I know something attacked. Only four of my birds are barred, four Ameraucana x Chanteclers. I saw all four of them and they appeared to be fine so I waited until dark to give them a thorough examination.

I could find no wounds or bare patches on any of the four. However, the last bird that I examined was the hen with the downturned tail and she has what appears to be fly strike. She smells terrible and her vent area was crawling with maggots. (Absolutely disgusting, I'm still shivering over this). The poor girl is acting totally normal and otherwise appears completely healthy.

So I'm thinking a nice soak in warm water with salt and vinegar and isolation for a while and see how things go? My only hesitation is that with her tail the way it is it seems incredibly likely that this will occur over and over again as she will always have a messy tush. I'm honestly wondering if I should consider culling her.
Any thoughts?

 

[lalaland]

Dang!

You know I've been using Molly's herbal wormer, it has a worm part (Wormwood, Garlic, Fennel, Black Walnut, Stevia)
that you give 3 days in a row, and then follow with a weekly dose of an herbal powdered concoction (Garlic, Cucurbita Pepo, Mugwort, Fennel, Hyssop, Thyme, Stevia). Repeat with the wormer in 6-8 weeks. and then back to the weekly herbal dose.


Well, I've pretty much been doing that, although I've sometimes missed the weekly dose as my dad was ill and passed away a few weeks ago.

I saw a wormy poop a few weeks ago, and one on Sunday eve, and so I added soap to the waterers. Now for the last two days, the flock has definitely decreased their feed consumption. I haven't had the opportunity to observe them in daylight for a few weeks, but I am definitely worried. I can't explain the decrease with anything that has changed, and egg consumption is way down but so is natural light....and at least two are starting to molt...

I am about ready to give in and do a chemical wormer. Want to talk me out of it?

 

[lalaland]

Let me start by saying eeeeewwwwww! I came home yesterday to find barred feathers all over the place, a lot of them and in piles so I know something attacked. Only four of my birds are barred, four Ameraucana x Chanteclers. I saw all four of them and they appeared to be fine so I waited until dark to give them a thorough examination.

I could find no wounds or bare patches on any of the four. However, the last bird that I examined was the hen with the downturned tail and she has what appears to be fly strike. She smells terrible and her vent area was crawling with maggots. (Absolutely disgusting, I'm still shivering over this). The poor girl is acting totally normal and otherwise appears completely healthy.

So I'm thinking a nice soak in warm water with salt and vinegar and isolation for a while and see how things go? My only hesitation is that with her tail the way it is it seems incredibly likely that this will occur over and over again as she will always have a messy tush. I'm honestly wondering if I should consider culling her.
Any thoughts?

i would really hesitate on the vinegar and salt as that seems like it would be extremely painful. Let me see if I can find anything.

 

[lalaland]

try this:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/07/flystrike-in-backyard-chickens-causes.html

or basically clean by soaking and removing as much dead skin and all maggots. I wouldn't hesitate to use nustock, or if you don't have it, sulfur powder mixed with a balm base such as bag balm, vaseline, coconut oil, etc. Isolate and repeat as needed. If there is a docile hen you could add as a buddy, I would do that after a few days and only on a day when I could keep an eye to make sure there was no picking. Depending on the wound you could also spray with bluekote before adding a buddy. Add lots of pecking targets to the isolation cage/area so the buddy has lots of things to peck at beside the sick hen. (scratch in the bedding might work too).

I wouldn't cull as I would wonder if the tail was a result of the dead skin/infection/maggots....

also would do good inspection of vent areas on all your flock....
good luck

and pics?

 

[Leahs Mom]

@lalaland
My older birds are decreasing egg production right now too coming into the fall.

Are you sure it is a worm issue or do you think it could just be the shortening days and fall coming on? It was in the 40s here last night.

Also...If you think it might be worms I'd really encourage you to take a stool sample in. Call around to find a vet that does it cheap...should be under $10. That would confirm or set your mind at ease rather than worming as a possible cause if it might not be an issue.

 

[Sally8]

If there are mites, you can put some oil (some folks use neam but I don't like using it where the fumes are around the birds). Just plain olive oil can be used in a sprayer. Spray in the crevices/seams of the nest boxes and roost bars. Anywhere that mites would hide during the daytime. The oil is for the purpose of smothering eggs that are laid in these cracks/crevices/seems where they can stay protected. I wouldn't put it right on the roost where they stand...too slippery! Just the areas that mites could go and hide during the day and lay eggs.

When we are plagued with mites I do use the oil on the roosts and sprinkle wood ash over the oil and rub (my roosts are quite smooth). I sometimes just use cooking oil, anything that can smother. Unfortunately, we have mites again (now 3 yrs later) and I have over 60 birds instead of 15. It's a good thing I don't have a real life. lol

I'm going to try white washing my coops. We talked about this a while back and never read where anyone tried and had success. My family comes from farmers and I remember going into the cow barns after they had been first white washed. It used to be sprayed on but I'll use a paint brush and apply quite thick.

 

[armorfirelady]

@armorfirelady

What ya doing in Canada? 

Here for a couple days vacation. Went to African lion safari and today to see the Amish. Tomorrow a geocache event (which is really why we are here I just added a couple days of r&r)

@lalaland

My older birds are decreasing egg production right now too coming into the fall.

Are you sure it is a worm issue or do you think it could just be the shortening days and fall coming on?  It was in the 40s here last night.

Also...If you think it might be worms I'd really encourage you to take a stool sample in.  Call around to find a vet that does it cheap...should be under $10.  That would confirm or set your mind at ease rather than worming as a possible cause if it might not be an issue.

I can hin early say I've never used a chemical wormer. When I remember I add cayenne pepper to some yogurt but it's sporadic. I can't say I've ever seen worms but I don't watch poop either. My girls slowed down for a few weeks but are picking up again. My girls have never looked ratty while molting. You see the feathers around but unless you inspect them closer and see the pin feathers coming in no one could tell. Even Stella has new pretty feathers coming in. And she is back to laying her normal sized eggs. I'm hopeful whatever was up with her reproduction system fixed itself.
And of course the less daylight here is also causing laying to be down. They are all still laying just not as much a week. But that's normal for them. I'm hoping the babies pick up the slack