The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[hoosiercheetah]

Oh I know, before you know it I'll be in trouble again

Oh, I can relate. ;-)

 

[lazy gardener]

Re: vaccinations for people: I can understand both sides of the coin. I'm older, and remember the debilitating effects of some of those diseases that are routinely vaccinated against. As a teen ager, I volunteered at a residential care facility that was filled with children who were severely retarded and had lots of physical issues as well because of being exposed to measles in utero. Some of those children had no eyes, a lot of them were blind and deaf. One of my best friends in grade school wore heavy braces to her thighs, and needed crutches to get around because she had polio as an infant. Worked with an other young man who also required braces to get around, same issue. I've worked with a lot of clients over the years who are wheel chair bound due to post polio syndrome. So, yeah, it's a tough issue, and I respect parents for making decisions regarding the subject. The important thing is to do your homework, and make the decision which is right for you, and which you can be comfortable with. Same with vaccination for chicks. Do your homework, and then make the decision which is right for you. I personally choose not to vaccinate. Perhaps it will come back to bite me in the heiney some day, but am comfortable with my decision.

 

[RedRidge]

Thank you for those words of wisdom. ;-)

No vacs here... Ever... for anyone... Did I mention not ever!?!

Yeah, smallpox probably wasn't as bad as they make it sound.

And diphtheria, tetanus, yellow fever, whooping cough, polio, and measles.  No big deal at all.

I take an all or nothing stance for a variety of reasons... First of all the likelihood of any exposure is very small, the risk of the vac is very high (especially for us with a thimerosal allergy), and those things we are exposed to are not of serious consequence with healthy immune systems.
And while the vacs of years ago served their purpose we currently have vacs tainted with dangerous ingredients. The risk is simply too high.

 

[chicalot]

A lot of mine are definitely never vaccinated since they're raised in my flock. Been reading and it seems if you do vaccinate then you should quarantine the chics for 10 days. I don't have a nice quarantine place as I was going to put them in an adjoining separate coop..too close to say it would be quarantine. Since I free range, there really is no good place for a full quarantine. My chickens are simply everywhere! Apparently they can shed the disease for those 10 days and/or it takes that long for full effectiveness. I would feel bad if I didn't do it and had an outbreak but also I need to read more.

I do vaccinate my kids but only did flu for my youngest and not for me. "Knock on wood", never had poison ivy.

I wish I had the patience for FF. It just adds to my workload so I gave it up, especially in winter.

 

[hennible]

I wish I had the patience for FF. It just adds to my workload so I gave it up, especially in winter.

I'm not sure how winter will go but I made myself a feeder to cut down on the work... I am not a fan of giving myself more work... I let it ferment out in the coop in the feeder they eat it as it ripens... works for me but like I said we'll see how winter goes...
If you want to look at ithttps://www.backyardchickens.com/t/931194/fermented-feed-feeder

 

[chicalot]

I'm not sure how winter will go but I made myself a feeder to cut down on the work... I am not a fan of giving myself more work... I let it ferment out in the coop in the feeder they eat it as it ripens... works for me but like I said we'll see how winter goes...
If you want to look at ithttps://www.backyardchickens.com/t/931194/fermented-feed-feeder

thanks! I will have a look. We're under a freeze watch tonight. I am so not prepared for winter and crazy me let my silkie sit on eggs again. She better keep her little hiney tight on that nest. They'll be due November 16. I kept throwing her off the nest but she won out in the end.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I want a shot to make sure I never get poison ivy. Still I'll avoid the flu shot.

I'm not touching the can of worms or stating an opinion about who is bringing the sickness to anyone else. After all, traveling of all kinds has spread diseases throughout most of time.
I will say that buying vaccinated chicks can lead to small issues. One is if you have vaccinated hens and hatch out chicks, do you get them vaccinated? The meds are not really sold in small quantities. If you decide not give the meds to you hatched chicks then was it really worth having the hatchery chicks vaccinated?

 

[chicalot]

I want a shot to make sure I never get poison ivy.  Still I'll avoid the flu shot. 


I'm not touching the can of worms or stating an opinion about who is bringing the sickness to anyone else.  After all, traveling of all kinds has spread diseases throughout most of time. 

I will say that buying vaccinated chicks can lead to small issues.  One is if you have vaccinated hens and hatch out chicks, do you get them vaccinated?  The meds are not really sold in small quantities.   If you decide not give the meds to you hatched chicks then was it really worth having the hatchery chicks vaccinated?

good question. If you had the hatchery chics vaccinated but did get widespread mareks in the un-vaccinated then would you avoid a total loss? Also, I wouldn't get the coccidiosis vaccine because I think flock management goes a long way in that.

 

[hennible]

thanks! I will have a look. We're under a freeze watch tonight. I am so not prepared for winter and crazy me let my silkie sit on eggs again. She better keep her little hiney tight on that nest. They'll be due November 16. I kept throwing her off the nest but she won out in the end.

Been freezing a while here... At night mostly.
You could bring your little hen in the house to brood... I had to do it once, just too cold in the coop and I didn't want to discourage the bird... it was her first hatch.

 

[jsmith2952]

Hi,

I posted a few months ago about my hens--one was getting pecked on her neck and I couldn't figure out what to do. I finally used blu-kote out of desperation, only to find that the culprit was pecking right through the blu-kote (I had thought blu-kote didn't taste good, so I was surprised). So, I upped their protein, and finally separated the pecked bird. What I discovered though, was that she was actually pecking herself. It is only the neck area, on one side from under her beak to the top of her breast (about the size and length of my thumb). Some days it looks normal skin colour, some days it's red and irritated and has specks of blood around feather root sites. They free range, and now have a larger coop than before, (it's 8x6 for 3 hens, plus a 30 sq ft run that they only spend time in when I'm not home to let them roam). The pecking started before the move to the new coop, so I doubt the two are related. We did have a case of lice in the the summer, but it only affected one hen and all were DE dusted and the coop was cleaned. Obviously, the blu-kote won't work for her, and when I asked someone at TSC they suggested a stress water additive vs. pine tar or an anti-peck spray. I've read that maybe she's suffers from anxiety or that in the absence of a rooster she could be plucking herself to mimic a rooster's marking, but I don't know. If it's just an OCD thing that can be left alone, then I will. It just bothers me to see the occasional blood speck (not to mention the overall bald patch) and wonder if she's uncomfortable. Especially, with winter approaching... Otherwise she is fine--lays every other day or better (she's also moulting and obviously the days are getting shorter). She eats a ton, is friendly, hangs out with the other girls and her poop looks fine. She just got a full once over from me again today--no lice, mites, etc. She also has full time access to a dust bath with wood ash and DE. The lady in TSC said that sometimes chickens are just plain strange. Any truth to that? Should I just chalk it up to anxiety and leave it at that?