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

[Beekissed]

I think folks who are familiar with fermenting foods like kraut, pickled corn, sourdough biscuits and such are much more comfortable with it all...as are the folks who make wine and beer. It's just one of those country things that the new generation were not brought up knowing or eating. I don't know too many people anymore who eat pickled corn or buttermilk but those are the two best foods ever to ferment on this Earth! Two of my favorites...

Anyhoo, once you've moved a scum of green mold to one side and reached past it to pull out that golden ear of pickled corn and ate it right there without bothering to rinse it off, nothing much else concerns you when it comes to fermented things, molds, yeasts, etc.

 

[MyGardenHelper]

We do breakfast for super alot yum. I took a pic of Snows butt tonight before slathering on the Nu stock. So I can keep up with the progress. I can show you if ya want. Pretty disgusting to say the least. Maybe not before supper. Bee do you put the Nustock inside too, I don't think I can do it with a finger she is so tiny.

Miss Lydia, a drenching syringe is handy to have. At the farm I work at, they use it for administering herbs, etc. for sheep and goats. It could be used for a chicken vent. Most feed stores carry them. Here's a link so you can see what it looks like. 50cc is what the farm uses. 30cc would be a good size to have.

http://fiascofarm.com/goats/oral_drenching.htm

 

[seamsewnice]

I, for one, have enjoyed watching the progress of these birds over the past three weeks. Bee, what a fabulous testimony to good animal husbandry skills, and natural remedies and some know-how. I can't believe how fast the turn around has been. I will definitely be trying some of your suggestions with my birds, ordered Nu stock and it smells like something my Dad used to keep in the barn, along with the Bag balm, both very familiar scents. Bag balm was in the house when I cleaned it out several containers of it, so didn't have to order any of that. One day while shopping at Joann's Fabric ran across Bag balm, don't know if they still carry it or not but that might be a place to look for it.

Could you post some pics of your pen when you get it "winterized"?

 

[Beekissed]

Sure will! I always love a winterized coop...it makes the coop so intimate and cozy and I love to just go out there on a winter evening and watch them settle in for the evening. Used to love to go out in the rabbit barn and watch the chickens and rabbits going quietly about their eating, grooming and enjoying the cozy winterized buildings. So soothing to listen to all the chickens purring and the rabbits munching hay....miss having rabbits. Kinda...

 

[galefrances]

Bee: You've done such an amazing job with your flock in such a short time. It's....I can't even find a word to describe it. How wonderfully rewarding for you and your skills, but it's so much more than that for those beautiful birds. I know you said that you had not changed the way you thought about culling and such and I respect your opinion, but after seeing what you have done for those birds I am even more inclined to believe in giving second chances. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Beekissed]

Yeah..the Ol' Bat said the same thing....give her time, she said. I will but if I see her looking uncomfortable in the cold weather there is really no excuse to leave her in misery. It's either that or knitting her some little booties to keep her joints warm and feeding her rheumatiz' medicine...maybe the FF will serve her well after all.

Maybe I could borrow some knitted booties off of Al or Walt...I just know they have some on those show birds of theirs.

 

[Beekissed]

I mentioned this on the FF thread but I think it bears mentioning here as well. There is something I've noticed about the eggs since these hens have been on FF, instead of the feed I used to feed. All the yolks, no matter which egg from which hen, are E-normous!

I've eaten thousands of eggs and always look closely at the yolks as they are cracked into the pan. Since I haven't really been eating these eggs until I knew the chickens were back to normal in health, I hadn't gotten a chance to compare their yolks to one another. They are all, each and every egg, huge...no matter the actual egg size itself, the yolk is HUGE.

I'm wondering if this would mean the chicks born to these hens would have much better nutrition from the get go and naturally thrive better, grow faster and larger and just start out as a better bird all around due to this enormous amount of nutrition while incubating.

 

[aaggjg]

I mentioned this on the FF thread but I think it bears mentioning here as well. There is something I've noticed about the eggs since these hens have been on FF, instead of the feed I used to feed. All the yolks, no matter which egg from which hen, are E-normous!

I've eaten thousands of eggs and always look closely at the yolks as they are cracked into the pan. Since I haven't really been eating these eggs until I knew the chickens were back to normal in health, I hadn't gotten a chance to compare their yolks to one another. They are all, each and every egg, huge...no matter the actual egg size itself, the yolk is HUGE.

I'm wondering if this would mean the chicks born to these hens would have much better nutrition from the get go and naturally thrive better, grow faster and larger and just start out as a better bird all around due to this enormous amount of nutrition while incubating.

Oooh now I want to run home and check all of my eggs!!!

 

[Pullet Surprise]

That's a very interesting point! Mine have only been on it week now, but I think I'm starting to see some changes in the birds..very subtle, but still, changes. I will start watching the egg yolks too, quite curious about that. For mine it's hard to tell what is doing what because at the same time I started them for real free-ranging and yesterday one girl got herself three little bitty snakes. I know for sure she ate one, the other two she carried into the woods where I couldn't see and was in there with them a while (three separate catches about fifteen minutes apart each.) That was a dose of protien! She did not share.

 

[Beekissed]

That's fantastic!! My mother and I were just talking today about the amazing amount of bugs these birds forage and just thinking how different the garden would have been this year if the 50 CX hadn't wiped the garden clean as a parson's dinner plate before we planted.

The studies done on feeding FF to layers had mentioned an increase in total egg wt. and now I'm thinking maybe it was because of an increase in yolk size. They did not mention an increase in total egg size, so the wt. difference has to come from somewhere...I'm guessing it's the yolks.

I sure hope someone goes broody this spring and I get to see how the chicks do compared to those not springing from these gigantic, orangy yolks. They've just gotta be healthier!