The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Treegod]

Will the garlic water help keep the flies down?

I haven't realy noticed if it affects them. Perhaps, since garlic is supposed to be a natural deterent.

only carrier oils I use are olive and coconut oil at this point as they are pretty stable, not sure what kind of cooking oil you are talking about

Vegetable oil, like sunflower or olive.
What do you mean by stable? Like chemically?

 

[slordaz]

I haven't realy noticed if it affects them. Perhaps, since garlic is supposed to be a natural deterent.
Vegetable oil, like sunflower or olive.
What do you mean by stable? Like chemically?

It doesn't go bad or break down as fast as some of the others, I haven't tried using other than the olive or coconut as that what was recommended by all the other people I talked to so have not tried it with the vegetable or sunflower oils

 

[COChix]

Hi, So yesterday was the babies first full day in the run and I wanted to see what they would do at dusk. Would they know how or would they go to their small coop? I put a small solar light in the coop, I had read that on another thread. To train them, put a light in the coop so the stragglers can find their way.

Worked like a charm, by 8:15 everyone was in the coop. It was also their first night without a heat pad in their brooder. I will never use another heat lamp with chicks again. They just turned 5 weeks and almost everyone is fully feathered. They did fine overnight and were anxious to get out into their run this am.

Here are a few shots from yesterday.

Already on the big girl roosts!

 

[slordaz]

Grats cochix, don't stress to bad they will be fine out there as long as it's predator proof. Mine go back to the run by about 5-6 pm on their own wanting their afternoon FF and stay out in the run until they are ready to go into the coop. training them when they are younger is a good thing so you have less work when they are older. Everyone does it their own way and there are may ways to get the same result, important is getting the desired result.

 

[YardBirdMom]

Thanks...I just so happen to have about 100 spreading mint plants in my field!

I had a mint plant in a potter last year. I was gone for treatment for several months & hubby didn't have time to tend it. When I returned home it was getting cold & the plant was dead. Imagine my surprise this spring when I noticed new growth in that potter Never knew mint would come back!

I used to get some of those little predatory flies years ago when I had horses in addition to chickens.

It didn't seem to make much difference at all.

Maybe because I had chickens that would catch and eat them?  

I didn't have chickens when I used them for horses and it doesn't seem to help either. Mine were on a shipping schedule every few weeks (? Been a few years back lol). I saved money by going to the sticky fly tape!

 

[curious chickee]

I had a mint plant in a potter last year. I was gone for treatment for several months & hubby didn't have time to tend it. When I returned home it was getting cold & the plant was dead. Imagine my surprise this spring when I noticed new growth in that potter Never knew mint would come back!
I didn't have chickens when I used them for horses and it doesn't seem to help either. Mine were on a shipping schedule every few weeks (? Been a few years back lol). I saved money by going to the sticky fly tape!

mint is almost impossible to kill. i got some in my raised garden and it took over. cant kill it. somehow some roots are left and it keeps growing.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

For the garlic water I put a clove in water in sprayer, leave it for little while and then spray inside, especially around the nests and perches. I must remember to take a clove with tomorrow.

I have a question: I've used cooking oil straight from the bottle to cure leg mite, but would anyone recommend used cooking oil? I have a few bottles and jars of it and was wondering about ways to dispose of it.

Have you thought of making soap? Soap uses up a lot of oil, just be careful to keep the hard oils like tallow capped to 50% of the soap can crack easily as it cures.

 

[potagergirl]

potagergirl

That should be plenty internally, externally is to help sooth and keep infection away, it also will have a mild numbing effect if there is pain, we use it for ear infections, toothaches etc too.

You can do the flower parts either fresh or dried for the healing salve, the lavander is calming also for people and animals. for use on humans depending on who I am making it for, my brother in law and sister have a dislike for lavender smell so I use tea tree oil, if you want some extra umff in yours you could use both

Thank you =).
The birds will probably love the Lavender. I've ordered some tea tree oil. After reading all the benefits I thought it would be a good thing to keep around. I'll let you know how the cream goes when we start using it. I'm thinking as good as the 18 pairs of legs look we might stop the Vaseline and start with the cream next week. I plan on putting a batch together this weekend and very excited about making my first real herbal cream lol.
The Bird with the most redness is the Buff Orpington Rooster. Someone had mentioned it might be natural to the bird so I looked it up and sure enough by golly they have red on their legs! I've never looked up anything about the BO breed. I have Ameracauna's and LF Cochin I raise. I know there had to be pain the first couple times we worked on their legs because the worst ones reacted like it hurt. The other night when we did the legs they seemed a lot calmer and only one bird pulled it's legs and screeched. It's the one with the mass on it's neck which is something else I will be looking in to when I think it is strong enough. I'm wondering if it could be some kind of vitamin deficiency or just because the bird is very old.
I'm very excited they have started laying eggs again including one of the EE's. I had another 3 lovely eggs from the group today so they are feeling better. I know they look tons healthier and most of them are getting a nice shine to their feathers.

 

[slordaz]

That is great to hear potagergirl,

I am also working on a drawing salve but haven't gotten it quite right yet when I do I will share with everyone.

will be gone most of tomorrow as have to run to town for supplies and feed then go out and do my other chores, we had 2 calves dropped on us last week 1 and 2 weeks old, that was hilarious we were missing a chick at evening feed time and was looking all over for her, she had gotten in with the calves in the stall and was quite content hiding there with them lol.

could it have a crop problem? is the mass solid hard or soft and squishy?

 

[SherrieC]

This looks like the thread for me! I don't use chemicals for my chicken, and try to use natural remedies where possible.

Some things I've been doing:
- spraying garlic water around the coop to keep the mites at bay (works a treat)
- throwing the ashes from the fire place in so they have an extra ingredient for dust baths
- dipping legs in vegetable/olive oil against leg mite
- putting a tiny bit of vinegar in their water to keep bacteria at bay

Anyone tried these? Got another perspective on them?

I don't cull and just let nature take its course. Most live to a good old age (most are over three years old, and one is nine!).

Welcome

I stopped putting vinegar in the water and started putting in their wet mash instead as I'm not sure if it was causing mold spots inside the waterer.