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

[armorfirelady]

Me too!!!

Gnarly Bunch Daily Update: All birds showing more and more gloss and finish as each day goes by. Pretty soon I'll post more comparison pics as the last vestiges of bare skin and poor feathering of different body parts are quickly being covered by fresh, fluffy feathers. Bertha is finally gettting feathers on her poor, lice chewed bottom...and is also popping up with a red comb!

As are a few others...and they are getting roo attention also, so I'm hoping this means we will soon see a return to more normal laying patterns.

Raggedy Ann figured out the nipple waterer today!!!

Smart girl and the only one that I've seen that kept returning to the water nipples after finding out they give a drink....I'm hoping she will teach the others.

They are doing better foraging since I cut their feeding back to once a day in the evening. They act like they are starving when they come into eat, nothing is left in the feeder when done...but I've noticed they are coming into supper with already bulging crops, so they must be getting quite a bit on their hunting forays.

Storm acomin' and I hope all youse folks on the east coast have lots of water drawn up, firewood in the shed, feed stored, and are otherwise prepared for the "perfect" storm, whatever that means. Get out yer winter/water/wind wear!

I know when I started the nipple waterers I took your advice Bee & grabbed one of the hens & put her up to the nipple so her beak touched the nipple a couple of times so she saw where the water came from. By the end of a day or 2 they were all using it. SO much easier with a giant pvc pipe i refill once a week in the cool weather. It stays clean & no icky water. I hope next summer it lasts as long tho I do have an extra bucket with nipples waterer in their run from them also.

Hopefully the rain holds of till late tomorrow night. I got 70 ft of free 6ft metal fencing from a friend & want to get it up for a new run area for the hens so the critters stop chewing thru the plastic one. So unless its torrential downpour tomorrow afternoon thats what I will be doing after work. I figure with the metal being sturdier I can add some heavy duty plastic on the windy sides to try & stop so much snow blowing in there & keep the wind down so the girls hopefully will venture out more.

And with the free ez up tent in there it will hopefully keep a snow free area for them to scratch all winter.

The girls dont mind the rain but I am thinking they will be hanging out in the covered run to stay dry while this storm makes it way thru over the weekend & next week. But the rain will bring the bugs & worms out and the hens are out every morning digging thru all the grass & leave clippings I put in the veggie garden to find tasty morsels so I am sure I will see them out there.

As for the storm Bee.....where I live the weather can go from 70 degrees this morning when I was up at 6 am till 40s now while I am work. Heck it could be snowing by tomorrow for all the weather people know. Buffalo is know for is rapid weather changes & of course for our snow

My hens are going to learn quick how to keep warm since its just body heat for the winter....and a well ventilated but draft free coop. But when it was last in the 30s a few weeks ago those hens were toasty warm.....so I have no doubt they will do just fine this winter thanks to the awesome info I got from all the OT's........

And yes Bee I have over 20 cords of wood, lots of water, a generator & enough food for humans & critters both for several weeks........I'm not scared by a *perfect* storm......I have survived many bad blizzards just fine.......everyone comes to my house when the power goes out since I always have heat & am usually not home cuz duty calls either at work or firehall when these storms come thru..........

 

[Beekissed]

That's good! It's good to be prepared for the seasons and what is coming down the pike. We are usually always ready for power outages here because here in the mountains, the power goes out a lot. If I sneeze too hard the power goes out. Sun too hot? Power goes out.

We have an outhouse and even a bucket toilet. Won't catch us with our pants down unless it's to go to the bathroom....


Wood shed's full but getting all the already down trees (from last storm we had!) cut up tomorrow and building some reserve stacks of wood.

Supposed to be a hard winter, and if the animals are any judge, I'm guessing it will. The oldsters always say when the food in the forest is in aplenty, God is getting the animals ready for a hard winter. We have acorns by the millions right now and the squirrels, deer and turkey are getting fat and glossy...look for deep snows or cold temps.

Made bread this evening and putting a turkey in the oven tomorrow...gonna sit with our feet to the fire next week and watch the storm blowing by the window.


About grabbing a hen? My flock are just a tad wild...if I grab one, they will all head for the hills and avoid me like the plague for the next several days, so they wouldn't get to witness the lesson at all. Even the one I grab will be so crazy from getting chased and nabbed that she won't "get" the lesson either....older free range flocks that don't get handled much are just a bit different than most of the chickens out there. And all that is IF I can grab one!

I'll give you an example....when we went to get this flock they were confined to a small coop. They were weakened, skinny and suffering, with sores on their feet, sore legs, etc. It STILL took three people and a long time to catch them! I was ready to fall down with a heart attack by the time we got them all....

 

[armorfirelady]

About grabbing a hen? My flock are just a tad wild...if I grab one, they will all head for the hills and avoid me like the plague for the next several days, so they wouldn't get to witness the lesson at all. Even the one I grab will be so crazy from getting chased and nabbed that she won't "get" the lesson either....older free range flocks that don't get handled much are just a bit different than most of the chickens out there. And all that is IF I can grab one!

I'll give you an example....when we went to get this flock they were confined to a small coop. They were weakened, skinny and suffering, with sores on their feet, sore legs, etc. It STILL took three people and a long time to catch them! I was ready to fall down with a heart attack by the time we got them all....

Ahhh well I cornered her in the run its the only reason I caught her....I was def lucky. My hens while they know when I come into the run it means meal time or I am raking around the litter they like to come & watch but never close enough to grab. I am ok with it tho cuz them not being pets means they are more aware of predators. Heck when the blue jays or crows start squaking anywhere near the yard they run for cover. Same when they hear a neigbors dog barking. And when that hawk is circling over the only reason I know is cuz the hens saaw him way before me and were under cover. I have decided I was very lucky with my hens. But after watching that video you posted last night I know I am def going to put bird netting across the new run cuz I dont want my hens to have the same fate.

P,S. thanks for the link to the smileys....they are great (as soon as I figure out how to use them on here lol)

 

[bobbi-j]

I also posted this in the Old Timers' thread, but decided to put it here, too, since this is where I first mentioned wanting to try FF:


Well, I brought the FF down to the hens today. OMGoodness! They dove right in! I just left it in the dishpan at first, but they seemed to be enjoying it so much, I put some on the ground for them, and put the rest in their trough feeder in the coop. We'll see if they're still interested in the morning. (I got home too late to give it to them early enough for them to finish it before bedtime)It's supposed to get down to the low 20's tonight, but we'll see. I'm leaving early in the morning and gone through Sunday. We'll see what's left of it when I get home. Funny story: I told DH how much the hens loved the FF. He said, "Is THAT what that is? I saw that stuff in the laundry sink and wondered WHY you were wetting down the cat litter! I thought you'd lost your pea-pickin' mind!"

I'm not entirely sold on it yet, but the first feeding looked promising, anyway.

 

[71stbrew]

Off topic but what you said about God feeding the animals. I just realized that with the pecan trees loaded in the middle of one of our worst droughts we might be in for some hurting in OK too. Last time was 2 years ago and although not a bad winter in the beginning we had record snows and record cold in Feb. that year, we were colder than Alaska. I just hope maybe not quite as bad this time.

 

[Beekissed]

You're hubs is funny! I think you will like the results. Everyone on the FF are reporting more eggs, bigger yolks, faster recovery from molt, low feed costs, etc. What's not to love?

Quote:

I had trouble too....until I just clicked on the smiley itself, copied the image url, and used it as a pic download. Worked like a charm!

 

[aggiemae]

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

We use Tropiclean and Petco sells a store brand with similar ingredients. However 3-4 aspirin tablets crushed in 1/2 cup of oatmeal shampoo will work just as well.

 

[Beekissed]

Off topic but what you said about God feeding the animals. I just realized that with the pecan trees loaded in the middle of one of our worst droughts we might be in for some hurting in OK too. Last time was 2 years ago and although not a bad winter in the beginning we had record snows and record cold in Feb. that year, we were colder than Alaska. I just hope maybe not quite as bad this time.

Get your birds buckled down and stocked up on feed....feed prices will go up again over the harsh winter weather, you can almost bet on it. They use any excuse!

 

[bruceh]

it is going to be a very bad winter on this area of hanover pa. i am going to have move 55 birds to a double shed tomorrow. the major storm hurricane sandy is heading inland of the chesapeake bay area. when have you ever heard of a huge storm bringing record rains and 60-70 mile an hour winds in a land locked area i am 85 miles from the bay i don;t want to see my birds looking like a scene from the wizard of oz crossed with the flying nun.

 

[chickachee]

Auntie Em, Auntie Em.........