The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[JulesChicks]

hey everyone just got this from the prairie homestead and thought some of you may be interested in attending this free summit on essential oils, it should give you a lot of good ideas and information you can use for your family and flock, feel free to attend if ya want if you don't that's fine too

http://healthyoilsummit.com/early-bird-registration/

Thanks for this! I registered and downloaded the freebies. Great articles, especially the one from Dr. Josh Axe - great history, summary and explanation of how to use essential oils.

On a side note, I added some wood chips to the run yesterday. The chicks are enjoying scratching through them, although they are larger chunks than I would like. I think we will be adding grass clippings as that will break down easier.

 

[slordaz]

in our run we add some grass clippings and in the shelter they have some of the pine shavings we use for the coop, but they end up out in the run more times than not when the chicks are chasing bugs lol, we let them have a piece of sod with grass and weeds in it (ducks favorite as she can get away from them for a bit and can easily push off the chicks if they try to get up with her, they thought that was great , they have enough room and to many different things and different choices to eat at any given time. Is there a point when we will want to take them off feed at will? right now they are moulting and starting to get in their body feathers and all, that looks extremely painful, but they seem to be quite happy and to busy with so much to explore and do.

 

[Leahs Mom]

On a side note, I added some wood chips to the run yesterday. The chicks are enjoying scratching through them, although they are larger chunks than I would like. I think we will be adding grass clippings as that will break down easier.

My wood chips are large - as in from a tree trimmer that is chipping branches - that I use in the outdoor run.

When I first got them, they put them in a pile and I left them to "cure" for awhile. When I saw that worms were starting to inhabit them, I knew they'd be ready for the pens. I think it was about 4 months but it may have been earlier as I wasn't checking them. When I was ready to use them is when I looked and they were full of worms.


But...
In the coop/shed indoors, I use the wood shavings like from TSC rather than the large chips. Then when things are getting to the place that the shavings need to be changes, I just dump those right out the door into the run. The birds LOVE to spread them around so I let them do the work. I may put them out the door into a wheel barrow then drive them to an area of the run (which is about 20x20...you wouldn't need to do this in a small run situation) then I just dump them in a pile in the general area I want to cover. The birds will do the rest.

It's really interesting that the indoor litter seems to produce a great deal of interest to them - even if they completely ignore it when it was inside the house. They always seem to find things in it when it's dumped outside. They all come running when I have the pile dumped!

 

[JulesChicks]

That is what I'm doing too, pine shavings in the coop. Ok, maybe I can keep using the chips then and add grass as well. They've been sitting since January and did have some worms in them but not as many as I had hoped. I tried to dig down and gets the worms for them. We have 2 piles of chips left, after some were used to fill in the burn pile hole (which is directly under the coop). Since I added the chips, I left a bit of grass and just raked the poo from the grass into the chips so they can enjoy the grass a bit longer.

At what age do you begin letting the chicks out to free range (if you do free range)? We don't have any older more experienced/trained birds to show them the ropes of being predator savvy and returning to the coop. In fact, every night we go to put them in, they are still in the run even when it's getting dark. We are not living at our property yet, we are down the road and come 2-3 times a day to let them out, feed/water and put them to bed. They have a fairly predator proof run - we needed that since we wanted them to have access to the outdoors while we are not there. Thanks!

 

[slordaz]

we have them out of the run to really free range under watchful eyes when we have time as we don't have other older birds either, otherwise we just let them run in the predator proof run and let the boxer keep an eye on things so we can get other stuff done. we are still skittish about leaving the property though so try to make sure someone is there.The Duck seems pretty good at warning but young chicks have very short attention span lol.

We put a piece heavy duty conveyer belt around the bottom edge of the the side of the run it covered about half of it then did poultry netting on top and they also have something they can get into and a guard duckling too and so far haven't had much problem but the house is also being lived in and the coop is close to the house.

our chicks range from a few days old(still separated from flock other than pullet that wants to play momma)to we think about 8-10 weeks old

the biggest thing is knowing what predators you have in your area and them knowing where to go for shelter. ours are hawks and wild cats, but if you have weasels etc in the area they will dig under to get at them. we have not done any wing clipping and they are getting to be pretty good at flying if they get spooked but that wouldn't help much against a arial predator like a hawk, falcon etc but at least gives them a better chance.

 

[slordaz]

This is what my friend had made when I got out there to help take care of the chicks today as the trough wasn't working so well with ducks in the mix, this seems to have worked pretty well, nobody is getting pushed outta the way now or stuck in the holes in the trough feeder cover,cause everyone wants the same spot. she used 2 bucket lids with a glass Jar between them as a spacer and some duct tape. should work well until they are old enough to free range on their own, we have an eagle and a few hawks flying over the area daily. so not sure we will be able to free range them completely.

 

[glarnerchicks]

Hello there!

We are brand new chicken people, having gotten 5 pullets (14.5 weeks old at this point) about a week ago.

We try to live as organically/naturally as possible. I've got DE in the nest boxes and will add them to the dust bath area (when they decide precisely where they want that) and I have lavender and mint started on the roof of the run.

Looking forward to advice and suggestions!

 

[slordaz]

welcome glarnerchicks,

I am fairly new too, that's an interesting idea with planting herbs on the roof I didn't know they liked those 2 lol

my plan for winter as I am up north is making several growing flats that I can grow inside and take out so they can have fresh forage, thinking of going with oats and alfalfa not sure yet if I should use other things in there too.

I am still trying to back read this forum and also this one that so far have only just started but it's from some awesome people that have raised chickens , Thanks to beekisses

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...l-up-a-rockin-chair-and-lay-some-wisdom-on-us

 

[bluebirdnanny]

Ok I did a change on the Old incubator and it looks like this batch is doing much better. So far 4 early ones and 2 more pipping I can see. Technically hatch should have started early in the morning so I will let it run full time to Monday night before I call any unpipped quitters.

The new incubator running beside it should tell me per hatch rate if it is the old incubator that was the problem. But then I made timing changes so we will see if I continue to use the older one.

Got some on hold to go in for a third batch by Wed. They are my last chance this year since the Cock had a heart attack (Vet called it a love death) when he saw me cull his favorite 'mount'. She was egg bound and had the infection. So this is HIS last group of descendants.

 

[Lacy Blues]

bluebirdnanny, if that cock was in with all the hens for quite a while, you might be surprised how long they will lay fertile eggs from him. I'd keep collecting and put them in the incubator. Candle at roughly a week and you'll know when they're no longer fertile.

slordaz, when you post a picture, could you please check the box that says to show it at medium sized? Doing it that way allows the person clicking on it to see it larger. Making them small, they don't enlarge and I can't tell a single thing about your friends' (?) invention.