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

[Beekissed]

Thank you for your support of the thread and I hope you continue to read and participate. I know it's hard sometimes to understand why and how they do things around here...believe me, I've been kicked off this site aplenty. I think the next time they boot me it's probably for a full year....

Don't let folks get you down. If they don't want what you have to offer, their loss. That's the way I do things here~when I'm gone, I'm gone and it won't hurt a bit.

Stick it out and stick around...we're learning and having fun sometimes and it helps to pass the time when you are lonely and don't have a good book to read.

 

[aggiemae]

I am on page 25 now and there was some discussion on soil balance and someone mentioned that maybe it would be good for people to eat dirt too and I remembered this interesting interview:

http://www.wbhm.org/radio_clinic/blog/q_eatdirt,

Jeff Leach founder of the "Human Food Project" says we should embrace more micro-organisms in daily life -- in our food, homes, and food supply chains -- because our immune systems evolved together with them and without exposure to them, we actually become more prone to sickness.

 

[Tivona]

I would also do neem oil. I love old-timer advice, but motor oil just doesn't make sense to me if you are going to eat the eggs or meat. In case some of you do not know that this exists for free:


Remedies for Health Problems of the Organic Laying Flock:

http://www.google.com/search?client...of+the+Organic+Laying+Flock&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

I do not agree with about 2% of this...but the rest has taught me sooooo much

Thanks for this link. It looks full of some really good stuff.

 

[aggiemae]

I am on page 25 now and there was some discussion on soil balance and someone mentioned that maybe it would be good for people to eat dirt too and I remembered this interesting interview:

http://www.wbhm.org/radio_clinic/blog/q_eatdirt,

Jeff Leach founder of the "Human Food Project" says we should embrace more micro-organisms in daily life -- in our food, homes, and food supply chains -- because our immune systems evolved together with them and without exposure to them, we actually become more prone to sickness.

Griffinkid, Once I was warned by the moderator because I took exception to another poster advocating killing "stray" pets, including neighborhood cats he believed were a "danger" to his chickens. I still don't think what I said was offensive or that my reaction to being called a 'vegan Peta member' was inappropriate but decided that life to to short to get upset by strangers on the Internet.

 

[Beekissed]

I would also do neem oil. I love old-timer advice, but motor oil just doesn't make sense to me if you are going to eat the eggs or meat. In case some of you do not know that this exists for free:


Remedies for Health Problems of the Organic Laying Flock:

http://www.google.com/search?client...of+the+Organic+Laying+Flock&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

I do not agree with about 2% of this...but the rest has taught me sooooo much

I do not agree with tons of it....I finally stopped reading.

Disinfecting, treating, isolation, vaccination, biosecurity...same old stuff with a "new" organic label...blah, blah, blah....what complicated things to have to remember for every little disease and such. It's so incredibly simple to keep a flock healthy that this manual is ridiculous. If you have all that disease in your flocks in the first place, you have already made every mistake there is. Real organic flock health management doesn't deal with all these issues because they never come up....start out right, continue right and no matter where you live in the country you shouldn't be running into all these various diseases or maladies.

That is what this thread is trying to tell you folks...it doesn't have to be a three ring circus to keep flocks healthy nor return them to health once they've lost it due to poor management. If you are currently mismanaging your flocks to the degree that you need this manual, you have bigger problems than trying to find out the organic way to treat a disease.

 

[aggiemae]

I have read not to feed chickens potatoe skins.

There is a seemingly endless yet still growing list of foods that chickens, dogs and even human children shouldn't eat, IMO most of it is total bunk. However, potatoes produce two toxic alkaloids, solanine and chaconine, found mostly in the skin, especially areas that are green . They really shouldn't be eaten raw by chickens or humans. And green potatoes shouldn't be eaten even when cooked.

 

[aggiemae]

I know that this must be posted somewhere but all the fermented feed threads are so long that I can't seem to find the information that I actually need. I already ferment my starter feed, but my hens prefer eating oats to the mixed feed and at $9.00 a 50 pound bag it's quite a savings too. So I want to start fermenting the whole oats that I currently give the hens as a treat to increase the protein content and (hopefully) make it their main feed. They free range, so get plenty of greens and insects so I think this could work.

I need to know:

1. Are whole grains fermented the same way as commercial feeds/ course ground grains?

2. How long does it take to ferment whole oats?

THANKS in advance!

 

[Beekissed]

Yes and it depends on how warm it is where you are fermenting, how strong your yeast cultures are, how fresh your grains are, etc. One can only try it and see how long it takes.

 

[galefrances]

Quote: I agree with ve. #4-6 appear to be Sicilian Buttercups. Mind you it's been awhile since mine were that young and the photos I have of mine at that age are fuzzy. But they do look like Sicilians. Don't worry about my saying they're a big mistake. You're in WV so you should be fine. I live in Western NY, near Buffalo. We get some nasty winters and the Sicilians don't fair well with the cold. That was my main


concern. Didn't think it through for the area I live in. We'll see how it goes this winter. Second: great foragers, but don't do well with confinement.(although I haven't witnessed this for myself) This problem will resolve once I start free ranging. Third: not friendly. No longer a concern since Bee taught me to think of them as chickens and not pets. Although after 4 months of working with them, they will eat out of my hand, but still aren't very trusting. Run like they've seen the devil with anyone else, including my DH. And boy can they fly! Overall, a smaller bird and absolutely beautiful. I get compliments all the time. Wait until they're older you'll see what I mean. They get along well with my other birds. But then all my birds get along well. ( I hope I don't jinx myself) I don't know yet about their laying. Mine aren't old enough yet. But they are supposed to be good layers of smaller, white eggs. I think you'll be happy with them.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I know that this must be posted somewhere but all the fermented feed threads are so long that I can't seem to find the information that I actually need. I already ferment my starter feed, but my hens prefer eating oats to the mixed feed and at $9.00 a 50 pound bag it's quite a savings too. So I want to start fermenting the whole oats that I currently give the hens as a treat to increase the protein content and (hopefully) make it their main feed. They free range, so get plenty of greens and insects so I think this could work.

I need to know:

1. Are whole grains fermented the same way as commercial feeds/ course ground grains?

2. How long does it take to ferment whole oats?

THANKS in advance!

I use whole oats along with wheat and FR pellets and 7way scratch in my ff it did take it longer to get going about a week but it's going good now.