The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[hennible]

lacyblue, I have them on 18% protein and I've been adding minced raw liver or brewers yeast or scrambled eggs etc every few days.  

I'm not really prepared yet for snow - we have maybe a foot or so forecast beginning tomorrow night.

I still want to block off under the coop a bit more on the north side, and add a little more wind protection on the west side.  Also want to add in a second heated water bowl .  Always a little adjustment as the season and the flock sizes change - to figure out how much water, etc.  I already miss the summer when all you had to do was have multiple water sources and multiple feed bowls and not worry.

Now, closer quarters+fewer choices = a little more squabbling = stress= less than optimal health.   

Yep... I keep adding feeders and waters, moving them around so no one gets bullied out of eating when they want... Summer is sorely missed.

 

[Lacy Blues]

lacyblue, I have them on 18% protein and I've been adding minced raw liver or brewers yeast or scrambled eggs etc every few days.

They should be good then.

I'm scrambling to get the roof on my barn completed before winter really strikes! Our days are still warm, if you're out of the shade, it can be downright HOT when you're working! But I'm running out of time and need to get it done ASAP even if I get sunburned and totally and thoroughly exhausted by it.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

I think that you think like I think. Lots of thoughts going in lots of different directions. Perhaps a little more caffeine to allow the body to catch up to the brain, or perhaps a little less caffeine to get the sleep that we all covet. Then again, why try to fix a wonderful thing? With so many thoughts, we'll never get bored! Oh, look, a squirrel!

Re: FF routine: I think mine is as simple as it can possibly get. I rotate 2 containers, with each one holding enough FF for a day. Every morning, I grab a bucket of FF and go out and dump it into their dish. (I'm using a 14" taco and salsa dish from the dollar store: it has a moat around the outside for the tacos, and a well in the middle for the salsa) This dish is big enough that they can all get around it to feed without too much bickering. Then, in the late afternoon, depending on how their crops look, I give them some dry pellets. You could just reverse the procedure: dry in the morning, and FF in the afternoon/evening.

It's a blessing and a curse.

I think that could be an answer for me - dry feed free choice and a dish of FF in the afternoon. I have more time to fiddle with the FF in the afternoon, and I would have fewer days to worry about freezing.

Then again, someone in another thread mentioned putting the ff in heated dog water bowls. That could work, too.

I need to get to goodwill and find some cheap glass dishes.

 

[Leahs Mom]

(I'm using a 14" taco and salsa dish from the dollar store: it has a moat around the outside for the tacos, and a well in the middle for the salsa)

Could you post a photo of your dish?

We are having temps below freezing at night and are auppose to get an arctic blast this week. I really need to get the food dishes out and in place.

lacyblue, I have them on 18% protein and I've been adding minced raw liver or brewers yeast or scrambled eggs etc every few days.

I'm not really prepared yet for snow - we have maybe a foot or so forecast beginning tomorrow night.

I still want to block off under the coop a bit more on the north side, and add a little more wind protection on the west side. Also want to add in a second heated water bowl . Always a little adjustment as the season and the flock sizes change - to figure out how much water, etc. I already miss the summer when all you had to do was have multiple water sources and multiple feed bowls and not worry.

Now, closer quarters+fewer choices = a little more squabbling = stress= less than optimal health.

I feel very unmotivated this year. Way behind and just not motivated.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@armorfirelady asked if I used heated dog bowls for the ff.

In prior years I purchased pyrex pie pans or cake pans and set those on top of the heat elements from a dog bowl. I don't like using the heated bowls directly for a few reasons.

1 is that it's a hassle to have to clean them if the food is directly in the bowl. If I use a liner I can just switch it out when I feel the need to clean.

2 is that they are plastic which is porous. If I'm fermenting there is a good deal of acid in the feed which leaches the various chemicals from the plastic into the feed. Same issue with soaking or wet in plastic.

3. Because it is porous, it provides a venue for bacteria and molds to proliferate.

4. When I had a rooster, I found that when they eat their wattles lay in the food. This is fine during the summer but in winter can cause severe frostbite on the wattles when feeding wet feed. This can happen with hens, too, that have larger wattles. It's also an issue with an open bucket of water.


So this post shows how I used the heaters from dog bowls: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...keeping-thread-ots-welcome/1040#post_10111024

To make the heat bases you see under the waterer behind the mamma. I liked this idea better than the light bulb in a cookie tin because it is safer fire-wise as I'm using it for the purpose it was made. They have the outdoor cords and a built-in thermostat that only run when it goes below 35.

I put an inverted pyrex dish into the wet feed pans to create restricted openings . My rooster got frostbite on his wattles in the ff before I restricted the opening. Wattles laying on the wet feed while eating is not a good scenario.

You can see the inverted dish in this pan but it's not on a heater base. Photo just to help get a picture of what I'm talking about. The feed sits all around the edge of the inverted dish and usually wattles stay on the outside of the bowl while they're eating. I set the pie pans right on those heater bases and it does a pretty good job of keeping things thawed.



My local store only carried those plastic heated bowls then later in the season they had stainless steel ones that are more shallow and wider - just wide enough for the pyrex to fit in them. Since my younger ones were not always getting as much feed as I liked, I got one of those and set their pan right in it as it fit. Still with the inverted dish in the center.

Looks like this one:

http://www.mcgreenhouses.com/goods/..._&_watering/k&h/dog_thermal_bowls/thermo1.htm




So that's what I did last year. Still deciding for this year but I think I'm only doing the wet feed when I get home from work and leaving out the dry in the earlier day. I just want to simplify this year.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Need to add that the waterer shown in the post that referenced above (the one with the bucket and the cup) did not work during the winter. The spring in the necks of those froze. Had to use a different waterer.

 

[armorfirelady]

Need to add that the waterer shown in the post that referenced above (the one with the bucket and the cup) did not work during the winter.  The spring in the necks of those froze.  Had to use a different waterer.

Nice find on the stainless steel heated bowls. I need to look into those for the future

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
I guess I should say, too, that my ss dog bowl didn't cost as much as the one in that link!!!! I just posted it so you could see what it was.

My local "Big R" store had them for $29 I think. I waited a long time before buying one as I can get the plastic ones for about $16. But when I realized that those pyrex dishes can sit right in them (I got one from their housewares department and took it over and tried it in the ss bowl to see if it would fit) then I thought the price would be worth it if they lasted for years. Those stainless heated bowls are a LOT SHALLOWER than the big plastic ones which is an advantage for keeping the wattles out.

Also...
I haven't ever purchased the pie pans or pyrex cake pans from the store new. I find them in resale and garage sales all the time and would pick them up when I saw them. Even so, they aren't that expensive new.

 

[lazy gardener]

LM, I'm not handy posting pics, but my taco dish looks like your FF operation with the inverted bowl in the middle, but that inverted bowl would have a well in the middle of it.

 

[Leahs Mom]

LM, I'm not handy posting pics, but my taco dish looks like your FF operation with the inverted bowl in the middle, but that inverted bowl would have a well in the middle of it.

Thanks I want to take a look at those.