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

[armorfirelady]

Quote:

What a neat idea!!! I'm gonna store that one away in the old brain case........

Would make great hawk hides and shade in the spring and summer, wouldn't it?

Yes thats why I orginally put it up so the hens had a place to hide when our neighborhood hawk was out watching. Tho I give them credit they heard him cry & they ran for the coop

 

[Miss Lydia]

She definitely looks on the mend but as long as she has had this tells me this fungus is really dug in and tough to kick....I'd keep treating her with the NS until she is completely clear of any symptoms. She is looking much, much better and really less tender looking!

Thanks BeeK, I will continue to treat with the Nu stock, I have been using it 2X a week do I need to apply it more often?

 

[Miss Lydia]

She looks better to me. Can you bath her bottom and get the yeast out of her feathers to help the NS get into her skin? Maybe with a colloidal oatmeal /salicylic acid shampoo? It's very soothing and the salicylic acid (aspirin) sloughs off all the debris and dead skin fairly quickly.

Where can I get this shampoo? I have oatmeal shampoo for my dogs but haven't seen it with salicylic acid in it.

 

[bobbi-j]

Well, I finally took the plunge and started my first batch of FF. I know, I know, I bought the ACV a week ago. Just took awhile to get warmed up to trying it. I was trying to figure out what would be the best type of container to use, since I didn't want to drill holes in a 5-gal. bucket (those are worth their weight in gold around here). I finally decided to use a plastic dishpan that was just sitting around here. So, I drilled a bunch of small holes in it, put in 1/2 an ice cream pail of feed, put the dishpan inside another of the same size and put in enough warm water to just cover the feed, then stirred in a couple of glugs of ACV. Is there such a thing as using too much of it? Anyway, it's now sitting in my laundry room - the warmest room of the house - while it cooks. My plan is to start them (25 6-month old pullets) out slowly, and then look into adding whole grains to the mix. I think the deciding factor was the post a few pages ago (I can hardly keep up!) on FF, stating that feed consumption had gone down 1/3 to 1/2. Can't argue with that with the price of feed...

Two questions, since I didn't remember reading it somewhere - does the FF have to be covered (loosely, I remember that) and in a dark place to start fermenting? Please forgive me if it's somewhere and I missed it - not much time to be online these days.

 

[galanie]

Two questions, since I didn't remember reading it somewhere - does the FF have to be covered (loosely, I remember that) and in a dark place to start fermenting? Please forgive me if it's somewhere and I missed it - not much time to be online these days.

Mine is in the light and uncovered. Nope, it doesn't have to be. It's a good idea to cover with cloth or something if bugs are getting in it. Mine is in my washroom so no bugs in it.

 

[galanie]

Lips pursed in deep thought.

 

[delisha]

Mine is covered and in plastic totes, so they are dark. The top pops off when it is fermenting nicely. I like that!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Lips pursed in deep thought.

 

[delisha]

Ms Lydia, she sure looks much better. You are doing a good job.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Tweaked the coop a little today...does that ever end? Took the FF bucket out of the coop and placed it down into two old tires stuffed with hay and stacked upon one another. Read about folks using this technique to keep stock water from freezing, so thought I'd try it with the FF this winter. Worth a shot to see how it goes, as I had the materials hanging around anyway.

This left me a little more floor room. Then I took another bale out of the coop and placed some plastic so that the coop has two clear walls to let in southern and southwestern sun exposure and placed the feed trough where it will get sun all day long. that opened up more floor space as well. So, as it is the eastern and southeastern walls have black covered hay bales along the bottom and one wall by the door has the black bales for half the wall as well...hopefully the bales there will absorb and store some warmth.

Got my nipples today for the poultry water bucket and hope to teach these old birds a new trick until the weather doesn't allow that method of water delivery any longer...then I will set this same bucket down into the heated dog bowl and use it like that. Hoping to keep debris out of the water and also clear up some more floor space there as well.

For winter, I like to have maximum floor space, lots of light, reasonable and natural warmth and wind blockage, and deep litter capabilities. Different places of being are also important, IMO. The bales, the different levels of roosting, the extra light, etc. will help when the snows get deep and they have to have forced confinement.

How 'bout a photo or 2?