The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[lalaland]

slordaz, the funny thing is that I dose them fairly often with fresh garlic chopped up. I was wondering if I created a craving for it since they attack the garlic growing.


I don't have any familiarity with leghorns, so can't answer your question about which breed would fit better with your chicks. What's your plan for housing the chickens you pick up until quarantine is finished and also until the chicks are old enough to integrate with the new ones?

Your coop shed looks great, lucky to have it just waiting for you to use.

 

[Lacy Blues]

They have been out in the coop now for 2 nights and loving it, they were more interested in the ladder we made for getting up to the laying boxes than the gym we made for em by tying a strong live willow branch up with string in a bucket lol. We had to add the heat lamp back in for nights due to we have been so cold up here but there is no way they would want back in the brooder pen. This Friday we are going to go pick up an older rooster and a couple of hens any ideas as these chicks are all docile, if RiR or Leghorn would be better to mix with them?

Here is some pictures we aren't quite done though, as got a busy next few days with finishing up on the run and planting fruit trees berry bushes and the vegetable starts we did. Then I will be making some wooden flats for growing beds just to see how long each one will take so I can gauge for them to have plenty of foraging inside the coop in the winter time. think those cheap sun shades for cars will work at night in the winter time to add an extra layer of protection during the winter, this was an existing building on the property that was just being used for storage and we did some modifications to it, so they got the good deal as their coop is insulated too. We leveled the bottom that was dirt by putting down 2 pallets then covering it with that heavy plastic looking cardboard as that will make it a lot easier to clean

In regard to your chosen flooring, I think you're going to develop hiding places for mice that you won't be able to get to.

As far as getting adult birds to add to your little flock, I would either section off part of your little building so they cannot hurt your babies or build a chicken tractor to keep them in, which might be the best thing as lala said, you need to quarantine them for a few weeks, keeping them completely away from your little flock, to make sure they aren't bringing something to your babies that you don't want. Outside of those options, I wouldn't add new birds, just be patient and wait for these to grow up.

 

[LindaB220]

I have a quick question. You all talk about FF and how good it is for your chickens , what feed do you use for this exactly? I'm not very far in this forum and trying to catch up but it is going to take me awhile. I have only been on BYC for a month or or so. Thank You.

Just catching up on the thread and this is a little old but fermented feed is near and dear to my heart. The threads are wonderful but so long. So Tikktok took the best of the info and made a faq sheet on it. I use this very method.

https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

 

[Kassaundra]

@lewis7209 Feel free to jump right in!

@Lacy Blues
I'm a bit unclear as to weather we have them in this area. Most of the zone maps say we shouldn't have them here; one or 2 of the maps say we do have them. So it's a bit confusing.

I did once try to figure out how many would be needed and realized that it would be easier to just give them ground meat, liver, etc. rather than trying to grow an equal weight of insects. @Kassaundra was growing roaches for feed - not sure if she's doing that anymore or not.

On the other protein ideas mentioned, My first choice is animal-based protein, including insects, as it is more usable (bio-available...) and a more natural protein source for chickens than the plant based options. Then I'm looking at various items such as brewers yeast (which is "almost" animal protein

(again better bio-availability) then next, seeds that are a natural food-source for chickens like sunflower seeds, sesame seed, etc., then other animal products like soured milk (raw from the farm), etc.

With my first change in the feed, I've accomplished removing almost all legume seeds (not a natural source of food for chickens), but I'm not exactly where I want to be yet. Some of getting to where I'm going is based on availability of some of the ingredients that I want to use.

No, we had a power outage during winter killed them all, I never re established the colony. I decided to do the bsf larva instead, and hopefully some red wigglers, all outside w/o electricity. But haven't got organized enough to follow through yet, hopefully this year.

 

[slordaz]

the older birds are getting their own pen made and it will be easy enough to partition the coop or add another section to it just won't be insulated like this until quarantine is over I've seen recommendations of 2 weeks but we invested a lot of time and work to raise the chicks we are going to be sure it's safe, going with at least 30 days and may just keep em separated until chicks are old enough to free forage.

Mice aren't a problem at her house, they stay away as the neighbor has a a couple cats that chase them and it's close to the house , the cats did try to get at the coop last night but could not get in it, so think we did a good job there making sure things cant get in after them. they do have the guard boxer and the duckling watching the area too,

Not sure but they seem to be growing a lot faster especially the younger chicks, they have almost caught up to the older ones weight and size wise there is 2 weeks age difference between the same breed of birds. Going outside and switching to FF really seems to have helped them out

 

[COChix]

Hi gang, just wanted to pop in and say hi and share a few hatching pics.

Well yesterday was a marathon day, it began at 5 am. When I went to bed Tuesday night we had one pip and woke up to 12 pips and one unzipping. We had hatches in waves yesterday, the first 8 moved pretty quickly once they got going. Then we rounded out the day with 4 more. The first pip ended up not hatching until almost 4 pm (they pipped around 4:18pm Tuesday) and I had to partial assist. Her shell had gotten stuck as she zipped down towards the floor rather than around. Anyway long story short, after all day of her trying to unzip all the way she couldn't. So I moistened the membrane and then was able to get most of the shell off. There was still about 1/4 stuck to her, that eventually came off and she is doing ok. The first wave seemed pretty robust a healthy, the second wave definitely seemed more small and a little more fragile.

So right now we have 12 from yesterday, two that just hatched and two more currently unzipping and a hand full in the bator still. Here are a few pics of the gang from last night.

Here is the one I assisted, so I didn't pull the shell all the way off, I moistened the membrane (it was dry, brownish/yellow) and then turned the egg over and pulled the membrane back some and the shell partial off. She was able to free herself eventually.

It was the strangest thing, in the middle of dealing with hatching etc, I decided to go check on the flock. I went out and started slopping their fermented feed into their feed pans when I noticed one of our dark Cornish. She was laying lifeless on the ground. I walked over and picked her up and she seemed dead. She wasn't cold yet, she wasn't stuff. I picked her up and examined her some. No visible injuries, my BF then started to go over her body. He tried giving her some air, nothing. It did seem as if her vent was protruding some, not all the way outside of her body but it was fairly swollen and reddish. The best we can figure is she died while being mounted by our roo. She was the runt of the litter and was rather small. It was just a very odd day, bringing in babies and saying goodbye to a flock member. We have no come full circle with our flock from just over a year ago. It doesn't seem possible that it has been a year since we started this journey.

 

[lalaland]

A chance to comment on what you think of possible animal drug residues in your milk and dairy products: FDA is looking for public comment on risk assessment of drug residues. If you want stringent requirements to ensure there isn't ANY veterinary drug residue in your kids milk, then take the time to comment:

http://www.fda.gov/Food/NewsEvents/...ivery&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

 

[Leahs Mom]

Hi gang, just wanted to pop in and say hi and share a few hatching pics.

Well yesterday was a marathon day, it began at 5 am.
The best we can figure is she died while being mounted by our roo. She was the runt of the litter and was rather small. It was just a very odd day, bringing in babies and saying goodbye to a flock member. We have no come full circle with our flock from just over a year ago. It doesn't seem possible that it has been a year since we started this journey.

Exciting on the chicks!

On your dead bird.... Last summer I had something similar but found the girl outdoors on one of the hottest days of the year. In our case there was absolutely no external clues on examination. The next day I did observe some roo behavior that made me conclude that may have been the issue. This was one of the heavy BRs from the hatchery a bit over 2 yo. I think the combination of the heat and the chase likely caused heart attack.

That being said, since there's an avian flu scare around the nation, and since a bird can die with no symptoms, I'd just keep an eye on the rest of the flock for the next few days to be sure you don't see any others acting off.

 

[Lacy Blues]

It was the strangest thing, in the middle of dealing with hatching etc, I decided to go check on the flock. I went out and started slopping their fermented feed into their feed pans when I noticed one of our dark Cornish. She was laying lifeless on the ground. I walked over and picked her up and she seemed dead. She wasn't cold yet, she wasn't stuff. I picked her up and examined her some. No visible injuries, my BF then started to go over her body. He tried giving her some air, nothing. It did seem as if her vent was protruding some, not all the way outside of her body but it was fairly swollen and reddish. The best we can figure is she died while being mounted by our roo. She was the runt of the litter and was rather small. It was just a very odd day, bringing in babies and saying goodbye to a flock member. We have no come full circle with our flock from just over a year ago. It doesn't seem possible that it has been a year since we started this journey.

Congratulations on all those chicks hatching and most popping like popcorn. It's always nice when they come that way. I don't like it when they have to struggle so hard... start zipping and doing very well, only to rest for like 5 minutes and get stuck!

Regarding the one in your yard that you found, my guess is that she died from egg binding. Her vent protruding is a pretty tell tale sign.

I've got one that I need to determine which it is that either lays a soft shelled egg, no shell, or a nice hard shell that has the makings of another shell trying to form on top of it... another membrane and some white on the outside of the egg. She will be culled. She has a sister that looks almost identical to her and I don't want to get the wrong one so I'm waiting until I see it happen and can catch her right away. That won't be fun. But it is part of this project.

 

[Jessimash]

I've been following and reading that giving coconut oil to chickens with Gleet is good for them. My question is, would it be beneficial to give chickens coconut oil on a daily basis, or would this be too much fat for them to handle?