The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Shan30]

On the carrots - those of you that have used them...  Do you feed them raw or cooked?  How well do the birds eat them?

I guess both, if I'm peeling they get all the peels, tops, etc. Whenever I have too many eggs, I make a huge batch of scrambled eggs with tons of mashed carrots, herbs and garlic for the birds. The dogs get the scramblies but no garlic.

 

[jsmith2952]

As morbid as it is I am hoping it is feather picking I've lice, mites,or worse. I'll keep everyone posted. Thanks again for all the advice.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Check this out... for those that consider lighting during the winter months this may be of interest:



Quote: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...gn=20140918Z1&et_cid=DM55968&et_rid=662622887

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[sunflower4you]

Check this out... for those that consider lighting during the winter months this may be of interest:

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Thanks for sharing. This is my first year with chickens and I assumed that I would want to give them artificial light in the early mornings so they lay all winter. I started to have doubts that this was necessary when I read about other people's good layers giving them eggs all winter. Now that I think about hormone disruption and how their body could probably use a break, I'm thinking I'm going to skip the artificial light.

Silly question, but do chickens get depressed like people can with the limited natural daylight of winter time?

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote: I dont supplement light during the winter. But I do make sure they have plenty of natural light all winter. This year they will have a lot more with both ends of the hoop coop are covered with clear heavy duty plastic.

Chickens depressed? I dont think they do. But boredom? yes!! I try to have as many open areas for them all to hang out in during our long winter to try and prevent them from picking on each other. This year I am going to try for a long area A frame style where they will have access to the garden/dirt but still be able to stay warm. Last year they all ended up in the old run. Its against the garage & gets full morning sun so I am sure it was warmer in there. But with an extra bird this year I want to make sure everyone has space to chill without getting picked on

 

[lazy gardener]

I think the concern posted in these studies is related to extra lighting all night long. In a controlled coop setting with the light boosted to 12 - 14 hours/day, with darkness the rest of the night, that would mimic the day length in their natural jungle setting.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I think the concern posted in these studies is related to extra lighting all night long. In a controlled coop setting with the light boosted to 12 - 14 hours/day, with darkness the rest of the night, that would mimic the day length in their natural jungle setting.

That is a very good point.

Not sure what the day length would be where they originate, but I do think that modern breeding in which these birds are laying all year long is probably not natural either. It seems that most bird species lay a clutch in the warm months and raise them...then may raise a second later in the season. I'm thinking they probably aren't ever laying an egg daily except in preparation to raise young.

I wonder what the real natural egg laying time would be for a chicken in it's original state?

 

[Turk Raphael]

I'm not sure if chickens can get clinically depressed but I'm inclined to believe they can, based upon the what I've noticed when two or three 'buddies' are separated, for whatever reason.

Can depression be brought on naturally by the changes of the seasons....I don't think so. In fact, I'm with the folks who might think adding too much (or any) artificial light could adversely affect their moods. JMHO

As an aside...I'm a bit depressed. I've lost 6 of the 25 capons that I worked on over the past week. Many might think caponization is not NATURAL, but since it has been practiced for so many centuries, it might fall into the 'gray area'.

A friend tells me that the loss is small for it being my first time and that does give me a bit of hope. I feel pretty certain the rest are going to be ok and for those of you who have eaten capons, I hope you folks at least understand why I like them so well over their testosterone-filled counterparts. I've seen so many cockerels simply destroyed and thrown into the garden or garbage and while that might be natural.....it is surely shameful to waste such a prospect of excellent protein in this world of ever-rising prices and chronic shortages of food for so many.

I hope I didn't offend anyone!

Turk

 

[Lacy Blues]

Not offended Turk. I agree with everything you said. I don't caponize but I don't bury cockerels in the garden either... though this certainly is a source of of food for the plants... so not a total waste in itself.

I raise my extra cockerels up til there's enough meat on them to warrant culling to the freezer.

 

[BlueMouse]

Well that was far more excitement than I really wanted in a morning.

I heard a lot of squawking and looked outside to see a fox standing on top of my obviously very valiant rooster, Mr. Bennet. What I should have done is taken the extra five seconds to grab the gun. I would have had a clear shot. What I did was instinct, run out and chase him off my rooster. I was sure Mr. Bennet was dead, he was just lying there, but I think, thanks to his hackles he was just stunned. I looked him over and couldn't find a scratch. When I put him down he called his ladies over and started herding them towards the hen house. I went in and got the feed bucket and rounded everyone up. I'm pretty sure that while I got the feed bucket the fox slunk out of the woods and got one of my meat birds who were out, because I'm almost certain I saw all of them when I chased the fox off, but I'm definitely down one now. Everyone is shut up in coops and runs now. but that's only a temporary solution. This also explains the dissapearance of my very favorite pet hen Lizzy yesterday I hate predators. We've gotta get the rest of the perimiter fencing up. Hopefully that will keep reynard out.