The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[barksy]

Thank you very much, there is so much to learn.
We are on sandy soil so it drys up very fast.
There were chickens in this property about 5-10 years ago but not since.
I prefer to not use chemicals also.
Thanks for the advice.
Sorry I didn't realize I posted it twice.

 

[lazy gardener]

Hello,
I am getting chicks for the first time in a couple days.
I am trying to raise them naturally. I have read you can prevent coccidiosis by putting soil from the chicken run in to the brooder if you have perviously had chickens. What if I have never had chickens, is there preventative measures?
I have corid incase but I am feeding them unmedicated chick feed.

I think that coccidiosis will be in all soils, even if you've never had poultry on your property. You could contact your county Ag. extension office to check that out, but be prepared for them to give you the hard sell about "must use medicated feed." I've never used medicated feed, never had cocci issues with chicks. Always expose them to soil in the first week. Fermented feed will also help to establish healthy gut flora.

 

[varidgerunner]

Have been reading back on this thread a little. Interesting. Here at my place, if I raise chicks artificially, they will get coccidia. Dirt or no dirt, they will get it, and untreated, some will die. The odd thing is, as virulent as it is, if I natural raise them, I will have zero with coccidia.

I learned the value of using hens instead of incubators and brooders. I can make a mobile pen, and get a hen out past the reach of extension cords. Every place within reach of extension cords there have been chicks raised before, infected with and treated for coccidia. Getting them out on the clean ground and exposed to hens seems to help build up the beneficial bacteria and let them build a slow resistance to the bad bacteria. I think being in groups of twenty or less helps, too.

As an Asil fancier, I have the perfect broody hens for raising all of my egg and meat chickens. There is no comparison when it comes to raising chicks. My hens run around four and a half to five pounds, they can cover a decent amount of eggs. They are bare breasted, they make skin contact directly with the eggs, no insulating layer of feathers keeping their heat away from their eggs. They are long legged, graceful, with a long neck, no clumsy hens breaking eggs. They have tons of instinct, don't foul nests, very good with chicks. While no match for large predators, they are very protective, not an easy meal. (I had one that beat up a skunk last year that dug into the pen with her and her six week old chicks.) They are reliably broody, if you have one that hits six to eight months old, and it's between March and September, she is going to go broody. If it's early, she will go more than once. My best raise three broods a year.

The downside is, that they don't play well with others. Fortunately they are very happy kept in breeding pairs, or alone. They are extremely friendly toward humans, the males are big pets, very uncommon to see human aggression. Females are friendly, too, but when they have chicks they can be a little more hands off. Generally you can turn one loose to range and walk up and pick them up with just a little handling. You don't need many to keep you in chickens, and they have a very long productive life, (not uncommon for ten year olds to still be laying eggs and raising broods.)

I just though I would throw this out there, seems that some people have bad luck trying to get something to go broody, or maybe less than ideal performance out of the ones that do. I have tried most of those others, and usually was glad that I had an incubator for backup. Now my incubator collects dust. And, I have a constant supply of egg layers of staggered age, nice and healthy.

 

[Jewelwing]

Hello,
I am getting chicks for the first time in a couple days.
I am trying to raise them naturally. I have read you can prevent coccidiosis by putting soil from the chicken run in to the brooder if you have perviously had chickens. What if I have never had chickens, is there preventative measures?
I have corid incase but I am feeding them unmedicated chick feed.

I think it really helps to use fermented feed. It seems to build their immune systems, and they have firmer poops. I've raised two batches of chicks (and currently have a batch of 2 week old chicks that my broody turned up her beak at, so I guess I'm raising them in the house until it gets warmer outside), and not had a problem with coccidiosis. I've never used medicated feed, just a splash of apple cider vinegar (with the mother) in their water, along with the fermented organic feed.

Check out this site if you're not familiar with fermenting food, it's really easy and has lots of benefits (probably because chickens are foragers and in the wild I would imagine they ate food that had been sitting on the ground for a while and started to ferment, so that's what they digest best).

http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/fermented-feed.html

Good luck with your new babies - you're going to love them!!! Are you getting them from MyPetChicken?

 

[Jewelwing]

They are pretty little girls! They have feathered feet, right? I'm concerned about feathered feet in free-range situation. I have a good amount of wooded area they will be running through.

I've had feather-footed Brahmas for almost three years now (and a Faverolle that just got killed by neighbor dogs), and we live in a very wooded area, which they forage in. Sometimes their foot feaathers get a bit muddy, but that's not due to the woods. Otherwise, no problem with feathered feet.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I think it really helps to use fermented feed. It seems to build their immune systems, and they have firmer poops. I've raised two batches of chicks (and currently have a batch of 2 week old chicks that my broody turned up her beak at, so I guess I'm raising them in the house until it gets warmer outside), and not had a problem with coccidiosis.  I've never used medicated feed, just a splash of apple cider vinegar (with the mother) in their water, along with the fermented organic feed.

Check out this site if you're not familiar with fermenting food, it's really easy and has lots of benefits (probably because chickens are foragers and in the wild I would imagine they ate food that had been sitting on the ground for a while and started to ferment, so that's what they digest best).

http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/fermented-feed.html

Good luck with your new babies - you're going to love them!!! Are you getting them from MyPetChicken?

I don't do fermented feeds, my chickens have the run of the place and can hustle up all the microbes they need on their own, I think confined birds would find more benefits from it. My flock is pretty healthy without too much intervention.

We all have different opinions on what natural is, mine is to allow them to be chickens and to give them plenty of room to do so.

Isn't it funny how some broodies just want to sit, they don't actually want to raise any kids.

 

[smokie]

Varidgerruuner read your article with great interest about your Asils they sound very similar to my cambodia chickens can't believe how close to nature these are hear and the amount of chicks these raise in a year admit though we don't get a winter hear and mine breed all year round I have to keep ducks for eggs to eat as my hens only lay a clutch of about a dozen eggs then go broody hatch them out rare them then do it all over again continually they eat everything fit as can be and are truly beautifull

 

[Jewelwing]

I don't do fermented feeds, my chickens have the run of the place and can hustle up all the microbes they need on their own, I think confined birds would find more benefits from it. My flock is pretty healthy without too much intervention.

We all have different opinions on what natural is, mine is to allow them to be chickens and to give them plenty of room to do so.

Isn't it funny how some broodies just want to sit, they don't actually want to raise any kids.

I have to respectfully disagree that free range chickens don't receive much benefit from fermented feed. I'm sure your chickens do fine without it, and free range is certainly the most natural environment for chickens, so they're no doubt happier than confined birds, and a happy chicken tends to be a healthier chicken. But there are still many benefits to fermenting feed, including eating less of it (thus saving you money on chicken feed, which is significant to me since I buy organic feed) because the fermentation process makes the nutrients more available.

My chickens are quite free range also - several acres of both wooded and open areas, where they are allowed to be chickens. Fermenting their feed offers many health benefits, not just reduced incidence of coccidiosis, salmonella, E. coli, and campylobacter compared to chickens on dry feed (as shown by scientific studies). It also makes their poop less smelly and firmer, which indicates to me that this is what their gut has evolved to metabolize. Thus I don't see it as intervention, except in the sense that providing any food instead of allowing them to forage for everything they eat is intervention; rather, I see it as providing supplemental food in the form they most likely found it as jungle fowl before we domesticated them.

There are even more health benefits to fermented feeds than these, especially for very young chicks. The article I linked above does a much better job than I can at explaining them, and the author gives links to all her sources, so you can read the originals if you like.

 

[Serenashome]

The chicken moat idea is a workable plan. However, I'd extremely limit the use of spearmint. This plant is extremely invasive, spreading by both seed, and underground runners. Also, your chickens won't care to eat it. You could grow some mint in containers, or limit it to one small area of the moat. Instead, I'd plant various forage crops. You might look at a product called "Plot Strike" or something similar. It comes in various blends and is planted by hunters to provide forage for deer to attract them to their "hunting" areas. You might do a blend of the grains and brassicas. As far as dust baths, you don't need to make those, or provide anything particular for the chickens to bathe in. As they eat the vegetation, they'll make their own dust baths!

Hmm looking up new planting ideas and forage crops now. Really good 'food for thought' hehe couldn't resist. Perhaps instead of the dust baths I'll plant spearmint in the tubs and they can hop up there and roll around in it if they like.

Thanks for the input!! so helpful

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have to respectfully disagree that free range chickens don't receive much benefit from fermented feed. I'm sure your chickens do fine without it, and free range is certainly the most natural environment for chickens, so they're no doubt happier than confined birds, and a happy chicken tends to be a healthier chicken. But there are still many benefits to fermenting feed, including eating less of it (thus saving you money on chicken feed, which is significant to me since I buy organic feed) because the fermentation process makes the nutrients more available.

My chickens are quite free range also - several acres of both wooded and open areas, where they are allowed to be chickens. Fermenting their feed offers many health benefits, not just reduced incidence of coccidiosis, salmonella, E. coli, and campylobacter compared to chickens on dry feed (as shown by scientific studies). It also makes their poop less smelly and firmer, which indicates to me that this is what their gut has evolved to metabolize. Thus I don't see it as intervention, except in the sense that providing any food instead of allowing them to forage for everything they eat is intervention; rather, I see it as providing supplemental food in the form they most likely found it as jungle fowl before we domesticated them.

There are even more health benefits to fermented feeds than these, especially for very young chicks. The article I linked above does a much better job than I can at explaining them, and the author gives links to all her sources, so you can read the originals if you like.

I guess I should have said it's not something I wish to spend time doing. I don't see any problems with my flock health wise. My birds consume about half the feed in summer and any wet feed would freeze solid within an hour around here in winter. Sorry not arguing or even debating, just not for me, I have the land for mine to do what a chicken wants to do, tons of compost to dig through and animal manure. Just too much other stuff I'd rather do than make the stuff. Thank you for the article.