The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

 
@hoosiercheetah

That is wonderful news!!! 

Curious (and perhaps somewhat related...or not...).....  

What are you feeding your chickens now-a-days? 

Also, last I heard you were feeling like you couldn't let them range around your yard due to the  hawk population.  Wondering if any of that has changed for you?

And last, but not least, I'd love to see some photos of what you're doing for housing for them.

I'm feeding them... I can't remember the name of it.  It's Rural King's standard layer feed,  crumbles.  I went down a few weeks back and they had it on sale, 9.99/50lb, so I grabbed two bags and a bag of scratch grain.

They still don't get to roam unsupervised.  There are still haws, although I haven't seen as many, I do see them around.  But also my yard is not fenced.  In the spring, we're going to fence the back, and then we'll see. But I have a few strong flyers, so I don't know how that will go.  I may transition the flock to heavier birds.  Maybe not though, I adore my Golden Comets.  They're laying large and extra large eggs pretty much every day without fail.  My one black orp seems to have given up for the winter.  Everyone else is doing a good pace, 5 or 6 a week.  I have eight hens and I'm averaging 46 eggs a week from the flock.

I'll try to get some pics, but it's the same setup.  The Hennitentiary is a 12' by 12' converted shed, the Rec Yard is about 6' by 18', low hoop-type with a tarp over the half that meets up with the coop.  In the spring I hope to build a bigger run and go up to 12 birds.  I will be buying day-old chicks this time.  ;-)  Some kind of dual-purpose so I can eat the roosters.  I think I'd like to buy 12 chicks and hope for at least 4 girls.  But we'll see.

I trim the wing feathers of my known escapees. I did Stella in the spring and she hasn't tried to escape since. Tuesday night the little peepers are up next. I want to get the cover crop in & don't need their help digging the seeds back up

Perhaps if you put a few cover areas up they could roam more often? I have a couple set up in the chicken yard. I have hawks around as well and the hens always have an eye to the sky but they like the hidey areas as well

 

[Leahs Mom]

@armorfirelady @hoosiercheetah

AFL - I think you should post photos again of the hawk hides you made. Will give some good ideas to get the creative juices flowing.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

Perhaps if you put a few cover areas up they could roam more often? I have a couple set up in the chicken yard. I have hawks around as well and the hens always have an eye to the sky but they like the hidey areas as well

I'd love to see more ideas for hides, but I can't trust them to stay in the yard until it's fenced. Once I have a fence up, I won't worry as much about them roaming around when I'm home. I probably won't ever leave them totally free, but I'm home a lot, so then at least they'd get out for a while every day.

 

[armorfirelady]

I need to take some new pics and the rain stopped so I will go grab some quick

 

[armorfirelady]

Nasturtium vine. I'm saving seeds so I can plant it along the sides of the coop next spring

A frame I built a couple years ago. It goes into the veggie garden for the winter to give them snow free area

Lean to that holds their water

Lillie's and roses around outside of the compost area

Giant marigolds in the veggie garden. Little peepers favorite area to nap in and hide. Saving seeds so I can put them around the coop also

Stella being Stella and looking better with her new feathers

Edie enjoying some homemade suet

 

[hoosiercheetah]

Thank you for the pics! I'm totally going to vine over my run!

 

[armorfirelady]

Thank you for the pics!  I'm totally going to vine over my run! 

I'd love to vine over the coop but I think the weight would be to much. I have odd and end pieces of lattice so I might lean them against the coop and when the vines grow over them the girls would have a tunnel of sorts to go under to hide and keep cool. Hostas are good to. The hens tend to eat them in the spring but when they grow back and the hens out in the yard they like to hide under them as well.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

I'd love to vine over the coop but I think the weight would be to much. I have odd and end pieces of lattice so I might lean them against the coop and when the vines grow over them the girls would have a tunnel of sorts to go under to hide and keep cool. Hostas are good to. The hens tend to eat them in the spring but when they grow back and the hens out in the yard they like to hide under them as well.

Now that I think on it, i've already got some vines coming around one side of the coop. It wouldn't be hard to train them where I want them. I should probably ID them first though, to make sure they're not poisonous.

 

[lazy gardener]

Absolutely id those vines before you allow them to grow around your coop. One that comes to mind, and sprouts up all over the place, with pretty little blue/purple star shaped blossoms... with a yellow center... heart shaped leaves... why you couldn't ask for a prettier or more hardy vine. It's called Deadly Night Shade... Belladonna. Produces a poison that messes with the heart rhythm. There are lots of vines that are equally deadly, often with pretty blossoms or berries.

Flower pot heater. I do not endorse the use of home made electrical equipment. But, this is what we did. We used a big clay flower pot, built a base for it to sit on, and attached a ceramic light fixture so the flower pot could sit over it, like a giant lamp shade. The base was made of wood with a huge ceramic tile siliconed in place, and screws to hold the pot secure. In retrospect, we would have built the base, and gutted an old lamp, putting the socket through the open hole at the bottom of the pot, then flipped the whole thing over and secured it to the base. The base was placed on the floor of the coop, held in place with bricks and cinder blocks so shavings could not even touch the base. I closed the hole in the bottom of the pot (which is now the top of the flower pot heater) with a metal juice can lid and generous amounts of duct tape. I experimented with 75 - 100W bulbs, choosing one that would make the pot warm to the touch at the top. The unit was placed in my 4 x 8 coop loft between 2 perches, and fairly close to the nest boxes. I left it running 24/7, and unplugged it if the temp got up to 20*, which was a rare event last winter. I checked the pot often, and at no time did a layer of dust even settle on the pot.

 

[armorfirelady]

Absolutely id those vines before you allow them to grow around your coop. One that comes to mind, and sprouts up all over the place, with pretty little blue/purple star shaped blossoms... with a yellow center... heart shaped leaves... why you couldn't ask for a prettier or more hardy vine. It's called Deadly Night Shade... Belladonna. Produces a poison that messes with the heart rhythm. There are lots of vines that are equally deadly, often with pretty blossoms or berries.

I have a plant that's a weed that grows like a vine & I thought it might be Deadly Night Shade... Belladonna but I looked it up & its not it. Its never flowered before & I try like hard to pull it before it gets to large. Loves to grow up the veggie garden fence.

I should note that people have said that Lilly's can be dangerous to chickens. Once in awhile I see a hen take a bite of the leaf but they don't usually take more than a bite. Now hosta's they eat. Some have said they were bad for chickens as well but all my hens are still around. Same with tomato plants. The ones I toss into the compost (very few since I have blight again) I have to say I don't see the hens eat those either.

They haven't touched the nasturtium of course. But I am busily drying the leaves so I can add it to their grains this winter. I have so much to dry and it breaks down so much when it dries. But I figure the greens (even dried will be good for winter)

So I ran out of grains & had some chick food left over from the peepers. I thought for sure they would gobble it up. While they did eat some I was surprised to see the bowls still had leftovers this morning. Guess they prefer their grains.