The road less traveled...back to good health! They have lice, mites, scale mites, worms, anemia, gl

[Beekissed]

Is that how many???

I hardly ever look at post count....

Gnarly Bunch had a lovely day in the beautiful fall weather today. I can't remember when I've seen a more beautiful fall...it's been many years since. We got 2 good eggs with nice hard shells.

GOOD: Stumpy got soaked in epsom salts again tonight but I think that will be the last time. Her feet and ankles look so much better..it will remain to be seen if they stay well. All other flock members continue to gain wt. and feathering and look so content and bright eyed.

BAD: Ruby's butt still looks a little tender and swollen. I gave her another dose of OLE but cannot tell if it is helping. I may try the miconazole/lotrimin cream right inside the vent and see if it has any effect on that area. After that, I don't have much left in my arsenal. Eventually a person has to realize that either the bird is healthy enough to thrive without chemical intervention or not...if not, she doesn't belong in the flock.

 

[delisha]

The first one is a 6 month old pure new hamp. She is young, yet, she has great muscle, good weight, glossy feathers, her comb is not fully colored yet, and a good layer. The second, a 12 week bar OP cross. His comb is not colored or developed yet. Him and 12 of his brothers and sisters are lunch soon. The bottom picture is a 7 year old OP cross hen. She looks good, bright red comb, she still lays, however production is down, so, she is on the dinner menu this winter. Wisconsin winters are hard on young healthy chickens and at 7 she has had a good production and done her time. I would hate for her to suffer a harsh winter. These pictures are a small representative of egg/meat production here. It is cold out today during picture taking, perhaps 40. They are alert, bright eyed, walking with quick steps and not hunched over despite the weather. All have good feathering, good muscle, clean bottoms. We have some bare heads however from a very dutiful roo. Lucky guy! He is for the pot in spring, he is going on 8, his replacement should prove himself by then. I am actually keeping a blue OP. Imagine that. Someone told me I would be starting lavenders soon. I never thought I would do blues, so who knows. I have looked at my crew, actually picked up a few, smelled bottoms, lifted feathers and have seen a few things I just have not seen before. Sometimes we just get complacent and life gets busy and you hurry hurry to do chores sometimes. I have stopped picking up my older birds and I think I need to go back to picking them up once and a while and examine them. Reading this thread has made me adjust a few things, like cracked corn. I have 50 birds and a 50 lb bag last me 4-6 months. I simply never use it during good weather. I am going to adjust my thinking a bit. I always felt that they chose corn over other more nutritious foods because of the fat content. My birds are fat enough. My last cooked bird weighed in at 11 lbs dressed. I have a picture of that in my oven in a cake pan hanging over the edges. That bird was ridiculous and I butchered it out because it was scary big.

Question for the group:

I have marigolds in my fields that I planted for the chickens last year, should I pick off the dried heads and put them in the FF?

 

[lalaland]

About Barren Ground:

Bee, I'm interested to hear more from you regarding what you call barren ground. I have a 20'x40' pen with 4 mature pine trees. Coop is inside the pen. When I am not home, chickens are in the pen - they free range when I am home.

Last winter, because I was losing hens to a hawk , for a short time, I made a smaller pen inside the large one with a wire fence roofing the small pen. ( Hawk would sit on top of the wire roof waiting for dinner ).

The ground in the small pen, and under the coop (construction trailer turned coop), the ground is bare and hard. We are in a drought. Ground under coop used to be soft dirt, it is now pretty compacted.

I think this is what you would call barren ground. You have referred to reconditioning it. How do you go about doing that?

The majority of the pen is grass, weeds, blackberry brambles, and dust under the pine trees. So there is good access to good foraging material, but the smaller area, about 144' is primarily dirt.

 

[delisha]

Beekissed,

Have you considered burdock? I am not sure if it is native to your neck of the woods but thought I have might seen a glimps of it in a photo of your woods. You can dig up the roots and make a mash. The leaves are very soothing for burns and ulcers. The seeds are wonderful roasted on a salad or crushed and used in feeds for a good cleanser.Outside the kitchen, the dried root of a one-year-old plant is used in Western and traditional Chinese medicine. The root contains about 2.5 percent protein and 45 percent inulin, a complex sugar. Inulin has a demulcent effect on skin and mucous membranes in the body, helping form a protective film that soothes irritation or inflammation. Inulin also serves as a prebiotic, which means that it serves as food to probiotics, the healthy bacteria present in the digestive tract.So it should piggy back what you are doing.

 

[Leahs Mom]

About Barren Ground:

Bee, I'm interested to hear more from you regarding what you call barren ground. I have a 20'x40' pen with 4 mature pine trees. Coop is inside the pen. When I am not home, chickens are in the pen - they free range when I am home.

Last winter, because I was losing hens to a hawk , for a short time, I made a smaller pen inside the large one with a wire fence roofing the small pen. ( Hawk would sit on top of the wire roof waiting for dinner ).

The ground in the small pen, and under the coop (construction trailer turned coop), the ground is bare and hard. We are in a drought. Ground under coop used to be soft dirt, it is now pretty compacted.

I think this is what you would call barren ground. You have referred to reconditioning it. How do you go about doing that?

The majority of the pen is grass, weeds, blackberry brambles, and dust under the pine trees. So there is good access to good foraging material, but the smaller area, about 144' is primarily dirt.

I'm also going to put down a mulch for what I'll call the "winter yard".

I have a large pile of wood chips that have mostly pine (spruce) but also have some hardwood mixed in. There are lots of pine needles in there as well.

My question is this: Would it be advisable to use the spruce/pine needles or should I avoid those?

I don't want the pine resin to be too strong...I want to encourage the worms and grubs to keep toward the surface under the deep mulch so that they can scratch all winter and find bugs.

Not sure if the pine would accomplish that or deter that!

 

[delisha]

Pine needles are treasured for mulch. The ph is almost perfect. People who have prize roses have it trucked in! The trees are an issue, not the needles.

 

[delisha]

I had hawk issues a while back. A neighbor raised hawks for a hobby and they were getting out often. I purchased a plastic owl stuck it on a stick and shoved it in the garden. Well the hawks would sit in a tree next door and yell at that owl every day. It left my chickens alone and gave me some serious laughs at all the comical skulking and challenging to a plastic owl.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Pine needles are treasured for mulch. The ph is almost perfect. People who have prize roses have it trucked in! The trees are an issue, not the needles.

Not just needles, however, mostly spruce chips.

What I'm concerned about is the combination of the resins that deter bugs/worms and the acidity level. I'm not wanting to deter bugs but, rather, draw them in so I'm not sure if it would accomplish what I'm looking for?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks for the tips on the geese behavior, we'll start training today.

 

[delisha]

Pine needles have a wonderful ph level. 6.5. They will help keep your levels balanced and make a good environment. They take a long time to be consumed by worms if you intend to use them for worm bedding, yet they ARE used for food and bedding for worms.