The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Re goats.... I have another possibility so I may get my 2 this summer after all. Only bad thing was that I wanted Boers so that there would be at least some meat on them at the end of the season. The 2 that I may bet are Nubian wethers. So not a lot of meat.... We are going to look and see what's at the local fair this year and maybe make more Boer contacts before deciding.

@armorfirelady
Was wondering if you have the herbs and whatnot planted around the chicken house this year and how they are doing for you. Also photos. Did you feel like it was worth doing? Did you just leave them growing or did you dry and use them some way?

 

[hellbender]

Re goats.... I have another possibility so I may get my 2 this summer after all. Only bad thing was that I wanted Boers so that there would be at least some meat on them at the end of the season. The 2 that I may bet are Nubian wethers. So not a lot of meat.... We are going to look and see what's at the local fair this year and maybe make more Boer contacts before deciding.

@armorfirelady
Was wondering if you have the herbs and whatnot planted around the chicken house this year and how they are doing for you. Also photos. Did you feel like it was worth doing? Did you just leave them growing or did you dry and use them some way?

With regard to meat quantity, the Nubian wethers could surprise you, especially if you grain them a bit as the season goes along...giving them a nice 'fininish'. Plus, from my experience, the Nubian meat is more mild than Boers so it might be a good trade-off!

 

[armorfirelady]

@armorfirelady
Was wondering if you have the herbs and whatnot planted around the chicken house this year and how they are doing for you. Also photos. Did you feel like it was worth doing? Did you just leave them growing or did you dry and use them some way?

I didn't use the planter this year. It partially fell apart last year and the 7 ft of snow did it in. The mint I planted around part of the coop last year came back & doubled inside. I do have some hers in the veggie garden & just ordered some seeds to do some in pots. I am still trying to come up with a good plan that allows the herbs to grow by the coop/

I did plant some morning glory's and sweet pees around the coop yesterday. We have had so much rain lately the ground was to wet to plant anything. I also need to transplant some mint I found in another garden to next to the coop. It grows well & the hens don't eat it. As for bug control for the coop.......Its been so wet and cool that except from mosquitoes there hasn't been many bugs.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote: @hellbender
Hmmmm thanks. That's good to know. But....I do have another question being totally new to goat meat.

You know I'm of the "feed em a species-appropriate" diet type and I was planning on going with the natural browse (the wonderful over-grown forest), any of the items on the pasture they want, hay, and maybe only a tiny handful of oats or something similar daily. I will put out free-choice mineral. So the point is that I wasn't going to give grain at all except perhaps just the tiny bit to "tame" them.

Have you ever had 100% browse/grass/hay meat? Is it pretty strong?

I do like venison and would choose it 100% of the time over beef.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I didn't use the planter this year. It partially fell apart last year and the 7 ft of snow did it in. The mint I planted around part of the coop last year came back & doubled inside. I do have some hers in the veggie garden & just ordered some seeds to do some in pots. I am still trying to come up with a good plan that allows the herbs to grow by the coop/

I did plant some morning glory's and sweet pees around the coop yesterday. We have had so much rain lately the ground was to wet to plant anything. I also need to transplant some mint I found in another garden to next to the coop. It grows well & the hens don't eat it. As for bug control for the coop.......Its been so wet and cool that except from mosquitoes there hasn't been many bugs.

My birds won't eat mint either. I have an abundance of regular spearmint and some "Mountain Mint" that I just acquired this year. I wanted the MM to put in some perennial food areas (blueberries, grapes, fruit trees, etc.) because it's supposed to keep some bugs deterred. I've been thinking of xplanting some of the mint along the fence by the chicken yard. I can always mow it (which smells like heaven) if it gets too out of hand. But I wondered if it would accomplish anything like rodent repellant, etc. I think it was catnip that is supposed to be rodent repellant and that the old farmers used to plant it around their outbuildings.

 

[hellbender]

@hellbender
Hmmmm thanks. That's good to know. But....I do have another question being totally new to goat meat.

You know I'm of the "feed em a species-appropriate" diet type and I was planning on going with the natural browse (the wonderful over-grown forest), any of the items on the pasture they want, hay, and maybe only a tiny handful of oats or something similar daily. I will put out free-choice mineral. So the point is that I wasn't going to give grain at all except perhaps just the tiny bit to "tame" them.

Have you ever had 100% browse/grass/hay meat? Is it pretty strong?

I do like venison and would choose it 100% of the time over beef.

Our beef is 100% grass fed so the answer is yes. We 'finish' other species to make them more tender but the meat of grass fed goat will not be any stronger than if you gave it lots of grain. A handful of oats daily would make the weathers friendlier but not enough to really affect taste...they should be delicious...the trick is 'low and slow'....you want the meat so tender it falls off the bones and it will be sooooooo great...

EDIT: Low and slow cooking was meant.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Thanks, HB. I should have specified that I meant 100% grass/browse/hay fed GOAT rather than all meat. Thanks...helpful since I've never eaten much goat.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Thought you might find this article interesting. Finally after all this baloney about glyphosate being so safe that you can drink it from the bottle... I put a few quotes below but there is a lot of "food for thought" in the article itself. And more good reason to keep away from conventionally farmed grains for animal feed or for ourselves.



Here are the "Hilights"

in the first place.

"I started using glyphosate myself commercially around the farm and my properties back in the late '70s or early '80s, when it first came on the market," he says.
"I believed the hype like all the other farmers and people around the world do, that glyphosate is as safe as salt and that it broke down into harmless chemicals that did no harm. I believed all that stuff until I started studying the chemical.
Being a research scientist, a chemist, I knew what to look for. Having worked in public health, I was familiar with how chemicals had effects on the human body and on animals. So I started approaching it from that aspect.
As far as my own health, it started to suffer. That's what put me on the road to take a look at this chemical because I was using it."​

And an interesting new testing program...

for the general public.6,7,8,9 As reported by the OCA:

"The project, with specific focus on women and children in the US, is offering the first-ever validated public LC/MS/MS glyphosate testing for urine, water and soon breast milk... The testing OCA, Feed the World and many other organizations will begin offering [on April 22] will allow everyone who wants to know whether or not, and to what extent, they personally have been exposed to glyphosate.​

• 6 Scientific American April 22, 2015
• 7 Reuters April 22, 2015
• 8 Feed the World Project
• 9 Organic Consumers Association April 22, 2015

 

[sunflower4you]

Hello all...I just wanted to jump in here with a quick question. I have a 1-year-old hen that seems to have lost her balance over the last few weeks. She is kind of tippy when she walks. When I let them all out to free range, she goes out, too, but she moves slowly and pecks around a bit. She has been going to roost earlier than everyone else (she can still get up to the top roost), but otherwise she kind of stands around with her tail drooped during the day. I'm not sure how much she is eating/drinking aside from the foraging I see her do when free ranging. She doesn't just lay down when she is out, but moves slowly. Her sisters and other flock mates are not exhibiting any of these same signs.

Any ideas?

 

[hellbender]

Hello all...I just wanted to jump in here with a quick question. I have a 1-year-old hen that seems to have lost her balance over the last few weeks. She is kind of tippy when she walks. When I let them all out to free range, she goes out, too, but she moves slowly and pecks around a bit. She has been going to roost earlier than everyone else (she can still get up to the top roost), but otherwise she kind of stands around with her tail drooped during the day. I'm not sure how much she is eating/drinking aside from the foraging I see her do when free ranging. She doesn't just lay down when she is out, but moves slowly. Her sisters and other flock mates are not exhibiting any of these same signs.

Any ideas?

Oh mercy...that could be symptomatic of almost every chicken illness...except sudden death. Has she had any laying problems in the past?