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

[Beekissed]

The chickens are looking very good. They certainly do not look anything like they used to look. Since this all started I have been at the computer more time than I should be. I have imagined all the lives you have changed as all of us read your words and look at your progress and create batches of FF. All the healthier chickens that you have helped by helping others and they in turn will impart that knowledge to more people in the weeks, months and years ahead. Pretty interesting stuff.

I often wonder about that....the ripple in the pond effect. This forum is a powerful influence on chicken owners all over the world even if they don't belong. When trends or fads happen here, they happen everywhere. Back a few years only a few of us were using ACV in our water, now you can see it on webpages and articles that weren't there before. You couldn't find mother vinegar except at health food stores..now you can find it in our normal grocery stores. That isn't an accident...more people have been in their stores and requesting this item.

Same with the materials for making your own soap...couldn't find the ingredients to save your soul a few years back and now the Walmart has them and has them grouped together on the shelf.

I just told my mother the other day that I bet the next time I go to TSC they will have Nustock for sale there....because people on here will be requesting and asking for it and, if TSCs are smart, they will start stocking it. The NS at my feed store went up in price by $2 the other day...coincidence? I think not. More in demand...supply and demand pricing kicks in.

It boggles my mind but I do recognize that this place has a following and people are changing, adapting and learning from this forum. I only hope that some stick with it and tough it out until they gain their own experience to stand on~and then you will see them starting threads like this one or the OT thread and a whole new generation of bird owners will be starting to carry it all forward.

 

[off-grid hen]

Nice photos of the chickens foraging in the woods! Glad to see they're all doing well, having a nice scratch in the leaves.

Just to reinforce the whole good soils/forest floor bit that Bee and others talk about, I have a run that's 10 x 30. There was an an area on the back border that was dipped down and very off level, so we have been filling it in with shavings/poop from the coop so it can break down and level the ground. The shavings/poop mixes with leaves that fall from the canopy above (I'm the the woods) and once in a while I toss a handful of scratch in that section so the birds can turn it a little.

It's been just about a year, and suddenly I have a molting hen tearing that ground up. I noticed a deep hole in that area this morning. I examined it, and it's not a dustbath hole. Bossy (PR hen) went over to the hole, scratched twice, and proceeded to grab 4 juicy bugs. She scratched a bit more, and found another claw-ful. I grabbed a stick and helped her out, turning over the compost. The whole flock came over and had a wonderful breakfast.

The decomposing poop/leaves/shavings makes a a great smorgasbord for the chickens once it's broken down. I am going to do this for my entire run.

ETA- I know the value of composting stuff for the garden and soil amendments, but this is the first time I'm applying it to animal husbandry, because it's the first opportunity I've had. Thanks again!

 

[Beekissed]

That is a good description of the possibilities with this sort of composting, OGH! I'm glad you explained that here and maybe you could take a pic of the soils under that spot and post it here? How long did it take to get it to this point?

I once read in Salatin's book about him accidentally leaving a pile of old hay on his place for awhile and removing it the following year to find the soil under it was dark, rich and loamy. After he removed the hay, the sunlight kicked in and he states that the spot is still full of lush, dark green grass growth even years later. Much darker and more rich in color and growth than the grasses around it. That tells us something. It was just hay...left in a pile. It didn't get aerated in any way and I'm sure it went through different stages of molding, deterioration and rot. But the earthworm is king in the composting world and they sure do love hay.

 

[memechick]

Bee ......... I have a question regarding the use of soap as a dewormer. What kind of soap do you use? Could I use dishwashing soap ..... polmolive ......... how much do you put in a one gallon waterer? and when you do this do you skip putting the ACV in the water? How long do you keep the waterer with the soap available to the chickens? One day? I'm really sorry but I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing.

 

[Beekissed]

Do you have worms in your flock or are you wanting to do this just in case? If your flock is otherwise healthy and don't appear to need deworming, I don't advise attempting to deworm. If they do need it, it doesn't really matter what kind of soap. I know that isn't all natural to use dish detergent but it works all the same way. I have used Shaklees soap on a poorly cow that I bought and also on some sheep that had just arrived at my place also. I put a drop in the chicken's water at that time to see what I could see, but my chooks were already healthy and didn't really need it.

If you take a glass of water and hold it up and place a drop of dish soap in it, you can see that drop spreading across the surface of the water and into the rest of the glass further down. Only a dab will do the trick, so I wouldn't place too much in the water. Now, my grandma dumped her whole pan of dish soap in the trough and let them have at it and they would be picking the food out of the dishwater and drinking the water also. It had lye soap in it! Quite a bit.

Any soap will work as a surfactant and dissolves oils and we use that dish detergent on our own dishes and eat off them, why not give a dab to the chooks? Just experiment around...if your chickens are not used to having such a thing, they may turn up their noses at the water if you place too much. Just a drop or two per gallon...then swish your fingers through to see if it sudses a little...if it does, you're golden. If it doesn't, add a few more drops.

You can still use your ACV and you can leave this soap water available until the next time you change out water...if that is daily, just reapply the soap. I'd give it to them at least a couple of days to make sure everyone has gotten a goodly amount in their systems.

Believe me, they've probably eaten worse things than dish soap!

 

[galanie]

Just wondering. My neighbor has roasted pumpkin seeds. Unsalted. Think those would do the trick? Or might roasting .. I donno, change it.

 

[Beekissed]

I don't know if the roasting will convert that chemical into another, less effective, state. Not sure...

Quote: How to Use

• The most effective parasitic removal from pumpkin seeds occurs when fresh seeds are ground into a powder and sprinkled on top of your dog's food or made into a paste and mixed with wet food or given orally to your dog. Doses can range from 60 grams, to up to 500 grams of seeds per dose, depending on the size of the dog, and are usually administered three times a day until the pet is rid of its parasites.

Read more: How Do Pumpkin Seeds Kill Dog Tapeworms? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5345073_do-seeds-kill-dog-tapeworms.html#ixzz29ZRL4G5r​

 

[memechick]

Do you have worms in your flock or are you wanting to do this just in case? If your flock is otherwise healthy and don't appear to need deworming, I don't advise attempting to deworm. If they do need it, it doesn't really matter what kind of soap. I know that isn't all natural to use dish detergent but it works all the same way. I have used Shaklees soap on a poorly cow that I bought and also on some sheep that had just arrived at my place also. I put a drop in the chicken's water at that time to see what I could see, but my chooks were already healthy and didn't really need it.

If you take a glass of water and hold it up and place a drop of dish soap in it, you can see that drop spreading across the surface of the water and into the rest of the glass further down. Only a dab will do the trick, so I wouldn't place too much in the water. Now, my grandma dumped her whole pan of dish soap in the trough and let them have at it and they would be picking the food out of the dishwater and drinking the water also. It had lye soap in it! Quite a bit.

Any soap will work as a surfactant and dissolves oils and we use that dish detergent on our own dishes and eat off them, why not give a dab to the chooks? Just experiment around...if your chickens are not used to having such a thing, they may turn up their noses at the water if you place too much. Just a drop or two per gallon...then swish your fingers through to see if it sudses a little...if it does, you're golden. If it doesn't, add a few more drops.

You can still use your ACV and you can leave this soap water available until the next time you change out water...if that is daily, just reapply the soap. I'd give it to them at least a couple of days to make sure everyone has gotten a goodly amount in their systems.

Believe me, they've probably eaten worse things than dish soap!

This is for "just in case". I've been reading in other threads that you should have a regular worming schedule .... twice a year ....... because if you wait till you see worms in their poop then its too late ... they already have an overload of them. That scared me. All the girls are pooping fine except once in a while I see a poop that looks more like a mud puddle. It's been two weeks now that they have been eating FF. No mites, no lice ....... healthy looking girls. How do you feel about giving them corn muffins? I kinda got myself into a routine of giving them (8 chickens) a corn muffin crumbled in a dish everyday. They wait for it every morning. Maybe I started a bad thing but now they expect it every day.

 

[off-grid hen]

That is a good description of the possibilities with this sort of composting, OGH! I'm glad you explained that here and maybe you could take a pic of the soils under that spot and post it here? How long did it take to get it to this point?

I once read in Salatin's book about him accidentally leaving a pile of old hay on his place for awhile and removing it the following year to find the soil under it was dark, rich and loamy. After he removed the hay, the sunlight kicked in and he states that the spot is still full of lush, dark green grass growth even years later. Much darker and more rich in color and growth than the grasses around it. That tells us something. It was just hay...left in a pile. It didn't get aerated in any way and I'm sure it went through different stages of molding, deterioration and rot. But the earthworm is king in the composting world and they sure do love hay.

That's why I was asking about composting time and oak leaves before. I still don't know if this will work for me IN the coop. I am frozen solid for so long...

The last time I *think* stuff was added was the spring coop clean-out. I have to think this out a little, ha! April maybe? Once the ground thaws, the chickens don't spend much time in the run, so I haven't been thinking to throw scratch on the pile. Plus, I don't give scratch much in the summer other than to train the young birds to come when called. so...It has been sitting without added stuff (other than falling stuff from the trees) or turning since April. It was a very dry summer, and we had very little snow pack this past winter, so I would suspect that if weather conditions had been different, it would have broken down faster.

This morning when I turned it a little for the birds, I noticed that there were fallen sticks mixed in. This helps create air, which is also important. There were also some white streaks in it. Where the wood chips were still breaking down. Not sure how to describe it... I've also seen it on firewood that the bark has been left on. You peel bark, a bug crawls away, and there's this white streaky stuff. Not sure if it's remnants from the bugs being there or from some sort of fungus. If you know firewood, Bee, I'm sure you must have seen this before... I'll take a photo later.

 

[Beekissed]

Yep, I've seen it and I assume it is a form of fungal growth in the wake of bug damage to the inner layer of the bark.