The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[CuzChickens]

Oh that is cool! She is my chicken keeping idol. I even emailed her to tell her how much I like her books and she sent me duck eggs daily for free. I think my natural chicken keeping is as hardcore as I can make it.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Oh that is cool! She is my chicken keeping idol. I even emailed her to tell her how much I like her books and she sent me duck eggs daily for free. I think my natural chicken keeping is as hardcore as I can make it.

@CuzChickens
I know that you are replying to my former post because it was my former post

But...
It really helps folks on the thread if you quote the person's post like I did above so they know what you're responding to if it's been a few posts back. That's really nice of Lisa to send you her book.


ETA: Do you also raise ducks? You'll have to tell us about what chickens you have...and some photos would be great too!

 

[gevshiba]

I need a little help. I have 3 week old chicks in the brooder. Everyone has been fine, then I spotted this one tonight. He's walking on the tops of his feet. I have another starting to do the same thing. 2 things were done differently. I use sand in the brooder with puppy pads over it until they start shredding them, then just sand. I had to remove most of the sand last night due to mold (that's unusual, but has happened before). So the puppy pads have nothing under them. The other thing, I ran out of game bird starter (poults in the brooder with chicks so I always use game bird) so today I fed broiler grower. They are back on game bird now. Any ideas on what could be causing it? Can it be reversed or should I cull the 2 now? TIA.

 

[lazy gardener]

Another question, this one regarding culling chickens. I have 5 hens, in my suburban yard. 3 of them are now 4 years old (the other 2 are just coming into their first lay). We can't have any more hens because of by-law/room factors. Of the 4 year olds, one is an internal layer and hasn't laid in over a year, one is now laying paper thin eggs a few times a week (even with optional ground egg shells) and one is laying fine. Should we cull all 3 because of their age/laying status, or cull the two who aren't laying well and keep the third, even though she's old too? Also, if we go ahead with the culling, is there an ideal time of year to do it? Should we give them a last summer fling or cull them now to make room for new pullets?? It's such a hard decision to make an I can't find a definitive answer anywhere! :/

If I were you, I'd cull them as soon as possible. If you're planning to process them for meat, do it as early as possible in the day, while it's still cool outside to avoid issues with flies and yellow jackets. I'd cull the 2 problem birds, and let the 3rd continue to lay. Right now, she's productive. Why remove a productive bird from the flock? You can cull her before winter, when she'll most likely stop laying. Financially, you don't want to carry an old bird through the winter... unless she's genetically superior, and you want one last season to hatch out some of her chicks. The older a hen is, the less likely that her eggs will be good quality for hatching.

I need a little help. I have 3 week old chicks in the brooder. Everyone has been fine, then I spotted this one tonight. He's walking on the tops of his feet. I have another starting to do the same thing. 2 things were done differently. I use sand in the brooder with puppy pads over it until they start shredding them, then just sand. I had to remove most of the sand last night due to mold (that's unusual, but has happened before). So the puppy pads have nothing under them. The other thing, I ran out of game bird starter (poults in the brooder with chicks so I always use game bird) so today I fed broiler grower. They are back on game bird now. Any ideas on what could be causing it? Can it be reversed or should I cull the 2 now? TIA.

Your call. Can you straighten the toes, and get the foot flat without causing pain to the bird? How straight can you get the foot/toes? Be sure the bedding is deep enough in the brooder. If you want to try to fix the problem, you can do progressive splinting. Start by making a shoe for the feet, getting them as straight as you reasonably can. You might need to put a bit of padding at the pad to take up the space there since your first splinting most likely won't get the foot completely flat. In a few days, remove it, and re-splint with the goal of getting the foot flatter. When you achieve good alignment, I'd leave the splinting for a week, then assess for a day or two to see if you need to continue. It's a lot of work, best done right after hatch. Depends on your goal for raising chicks. Are they livestock or are they pets? How much space do they have? Size of brooder in square feet? How many chicks? Ideally, they should have 2 s.f./bird after 3 weeks. (Increase to 4 s.f./bird as they get bigger)

 

[Leahs Mom]

@gevshiba

Usually when there are foot/leg issues it is a B vitamin issue. Specifically B1 and B2. You can try the following:

Natural Route:
Raw liver from a grass-fed clean source. Chop up in very tiny pieces and feed.
Brewers yeast. You can free-feed. They love it. Be sure there is plenty of water available.


Quick "Synthetic" Route:
-Liquid vitamins Can be fed directly or in water. Can use regular NO ADDED IRON Poly-vi-Sol baby vitamins usually available at any store that has baby items/vitamins. Or Poultry Nutridrench - can usually be found at local farm store (TSC etc.)


[If you are feeding medicated feed stop. It is a thiamin blocker and can cause this issue.]

 

[gevshiba]

@gevshiba

Usually when there are foot/leg issues it is a B vitamin issue. Specifically B1 and B2. You can try the following:

Natural Route:
Raw liver from a grass-fed clean source. Chop up in very tiny pieces and feed.
Brewers yeast. You can free-feed. They love it. Be sure there is plenty of water available.


Quick "Synthetic" Route:
-Liquid vitamins Can be fed directly or in water. Can use regular NO ADDED IRON Poly-vi-Sol baby vitamins usually available at any store that has baby items/vitamins. Or Poultry Nutridrench - can usually be found at local farm store (TSC etc.)


[If you are feeding medicated feed stop. It is a thiamin blocker and can cause this issue.]

Normally, I have liver in the house because of the dogs, but we are having a problem with too high iron from our well water, so no liver for now. I don't feed medicated feed. As much as I didn't want to, I gave vitamins in the water. I'll need to cull one and maybe 2.

I talked to the guy at the feed store about this and my poults having a vit A deficency. He said he's been hearing about and seeing this with the non GMO and organic feeds. Mostly the soy free ones. I've been asking for 2-3 years for a different feed. There's no place around but them for organic Shipping is too high for me to order myself. I'm not sure what I want to do. Maybe I need to come up with my own supplement mix to accompany my feed. Hopefully, soon, several of my birds will move to where they can free range. The chicks and poults with the broody hens are already there and haven't had any problems.

 

[slordaz]

Normally, I have liver in the house because of the dogs, but we are having a problem with too high iron from our well water, so no liver for now. I don't feed medicated feed. As much as I didn't want to, I gave vitamins in the water. I'll need to cull one and maybe 2.

I talked to the guy at the feed store about this and my poults having a vit A deficency. He said he's been hearing about and seeing this with the non GMO and organic feeds. Mostly the soy free ones. I've been asking for 2-3 years for a different feed. There's no place around but them for organic Shipping is too high for me to order myself. I'm not sure what I want to do. Maybe I need to come up with my own supplement mix to accompany my feed. Hopefully, soon, several of my birds will move to where they can free range. The chicks and poults with the broody hens are already there and haven't had any problems.

Mine haven't had an issue been using 3*1 dry for fermenting and adding in a clove of garlic, plus they get table scrap of vegetables , when garden is up they sure love their squash, snap peas and watermelon lol and free ranging so they don't even hardly eat the laying feed except for spring, during the winter just give them start n grow non medicated or flock raiser as can't keep the FF thawed as more important they have water, and they still get table scaps

 

[Leahs Mom]

@gevshiba
Please update us on them and let us know the outcome.

Vitamin E can also be an issue with various leg and foot issues as well.

I'm wondering what they are doing with the organic feed that is causing problems? It could be as simple as seasonally different crops with varying nutrient profiles, crops coming from different farms, poor vitamin/mineral mix, going rancid from sitting in warehouses/stores too long, etc. I don't think it is good for any birds to be fed straight "chicken feed" with no other variety so perhaps some of the problems folks are having could be that they are restricting to only what comes out of the bag?


We've never fed soy since beginning with chickens but I am also using fresh grains and grinding myself at this point. (When I started the feed mill did a mix for me that I shared with someone as they required 300 lb minimum). (When I mix my feed, I always use Fertrell Poultry Nutribalancer for the vitamin/mineral mix in it. One of their formulas is made for organic and is not synthetic.) The babies get the exact same feed except ground smaller.

Last year I started an experiment. I decided to stop using legume seeds altogether in the feed. (I was originally using field peas but, seriously, they almost always left those and when given a choice would not eat them in any form - even sprouted.)

To compensate for that protein loss I have been using a higher percentage of sunflower seeds. So far they appear to be doing well on this. Of course there is an upper level of percentage of sunflower seed that you can use in the total feed so I am mindful of that. And I don't know that this will be my final feed formula. We shall see. I guess it may not be a great experiment, however, as my birds get other things than just what's in the feed. Adults free-range and everyone gets some brewers yeast from time to time (more often for the babies), various raw meats from time to time (more often for the babies), home-made kefir or yogurt from raw milk when we have extra, etc.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Be careful with too much sunflower seeds, I believe they cause a lot of internal fat to develop based on out turkeys who love them but are fatty and greasy when butchered even at a young age. We figured it was either the sunflower seeds or the corn, and the sunflower seeds seem to be more likely. We have cut down but haven't butchered in a while so my experiments take a while.

 

[slordaz]

that 4th one spent the day working on saving yesterday now she's with the others