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

[Beekissed]

Ick.

 

[Melabella]

OH man!

I go out for a few errands, pick up the kids, go to the grocery,, and I have 20 new posts to catch up on....come on people,, can ya stop being soooooo active....lol

2 more days till lockdown begining from page 1 reading marathon!

Yippie!!

MB

 

[Beekissed]

Gnarly Bunch Update: Raggedy Ann is showing some increased redness to her comb and wattles..right on the edges. Couple that with her exploration of the nests and I'm hoping this means she is coming back into lay. Another surprising red comb and wattles showing up in the flock...little Turkey, the badly molting skinny thing has a bright red comb and wattles today. Wonder what that means for us...tiny little eggs?

Tomorrow, the flock only has the bucket waterer for a water source and we'll see if they can learn a new trick.

Two eggs today.

Went to once a day feeding today, each evening until colder weather and frozen ground arrives, then I'll feed in the mornings. The flock responded by increased foraging, which is what I wanted.

 

[zinia8]

m

Please do!  I'm wondering about the results of everyone else who is trying any of the things they read here....the FF~notice larger yolks in the eggs?  Less smell in the coop?  Less overall feed consumption? Good conditioning and feathering? 

How about the deep litter in the runs and coops?  Anyone incorporate that and notice any difference in the smell in the coop and run? 

NuStock~how are the scales recovering from the mites?  Gleet? 

Ashes~help with the mites/lice? 

 

ok I am standing in the kool aid line.
started my feed fermenting. I am only feeding 5 year and half mutt layers (did have 6 until yesterday) hoping all goes well. 2 are molting and the others are done molting.
been doing deep litter in the coop and that has been going alright. need to increase ventilation some more. started putting leaves in the run. Tried it last year but with last years rain instead of snow it was kind of a slimy smelly mess.
nu stock I want some probably will have to order it. Bee did you make your own?
Ashes-Been using ashes ever since they were small chickies. love to bath and eat the charcoal.
question about ff. is anyone planning doing more than one feeding when the snow is to deep forage?

 

[chickachee]

Went to once a day feeding today, each evening until colder weather and frozen ground arrives, then I'll feed in the mornings. The flock responded by increased foraging, which is what I wanted.

I've been feeding my gang 2x day with ff. They don't get out to forage until about noon. Would it be bad to let them go a "bit" hungry in the morning until they're let out to free range, and then just feed them once they get back in the coop for the evening? I know they probably won't overeat, but I want to make sure they get enough food. Thanks.

 

[Beekissed]

It doesn't hurt them to be a little hungry and it also makes them forage much better. In the winter, when the forage is nonexistent due to frozen ground or heavy snow, I feed once in the morning and it's enough to let them pick on it all day until it is gone right before bed. It takes some tweaking to get it right but you will get their winter volume down right.

 

[Ashdoes]

Wow, I go out shopping for the day, come back and there's a chicken butt meme. I laughed so hard I was crying. Angry is my fav.
My whole flock is finally going up the ramp, and roosting all on their own...except the silkies. Those things are about as smart as rocks. They go into the nest box. I tried putting them on the ramp, and they just scream at me. 5 months of this...till hubby gets back to build them a "special" coop. If I was a better liar, I'd sell them, and tell him they died. At least the other twelve birds have their act together.

 

[35chick4kid1dog]

So, Bee, could I pick your brain on my chickie problems as well? I will try to be brief...

We got our first chickens (24) in late February. Brooding etc. went fine and no troubles until just the last month or so. All were laying wonderfully, and then...

Mites. I was shocked because I thought I was doing everything right. Using DE in the nest boxes under pine chips and deep litter (straw) on the coop floor, feed off the floor, buckets w/ nipple waterers, free ranging almost all day everyday. I'm not sure where the mites could have come from but the environment. I had never heard of wood ashes (will use that from now on!), and the mites had really gotten a foothold on the nesting area in our 8x8 coop before I understood what they were or what was happening. So, per several suggestions, I removed all that bedding that was starting to compost so nicely and scrubbed every nook and cranny of the coop and boxes and perches with soapy bleach water. Everything dried in the fresh air and sunshine, then was painted with a DE slurry to seal possible mite hiding places. The mites were really bad, though the chickens themselves didn't seem to be crawling with them, really. A few had bite marks on combs, but I never found any crawling amongst feathers anywhere. So I've restarted the deep litter (with DE underneath - Grr! Wish i had read this first!) and kept the nest boxes very clean, since I saw the mites trying to re-infest.

Now I see little to no mite action anywhere, and the mite bite marks seem to be disappearing one some, but not others. The BIG problem: They stopped laying. They has started slowing down previous to the me realizing about the mite invasion. Now I have ONE Black Australorp that has been faithfully laying each day, but that is it out of 21 who were laying. I have 10 that out to be coming into lay about now (22 weeks). They all look healthy save for the teeny tiny black dots on their combs. The only other 'symptom' that i have noticed is a few of them have slightly faded combs and wattles. Not bad, mind you, but not as red as they used to be. I would say that they look as if they had dry skin.

Other things of note: We lost one of the young chickens right out under the run fence from what we assume was a coon. They were being locked in the coop while we were away for a funeral and a friend was caring for them for us. Also, a dog/coyote has been lurking around our property. It snatched two of our hens back a couple of months ago. (GRRR!) So they get put in the run and locked in mid-late evening, just an hour or two before they turn in. When we cleaned the coop, we eliminated a very high perch due to nightly squabbling and the fact that it was just above my head. Ew. Too many emergency hair washings from that. Ick. I didn't know if any of these factors could be affecting the lay issues or not, so I thought I would mention them.

BTW, this thread is EXACTLY what i have been looking for!! Your experience and info have been such a wonderful thing to receive! Thank you SO VERY MUCH!

Oh, and so you won't have to ask: Its an 8x8 coop with ample perch space for all birds, 4 nesting boxes inside. There is a 8x20' run on either side of the coop. But mostly they have free run of nearly 2 acres. Mostly grass, but they seem to really prefer the line of honeysuckle trees not far from the coop and just beside the house. Easy access to leftovers tossed out the kitchen door... They are on layer pellets, get a little scratch once or twice a day, and I will start tomorrow with the ACV in the water. Didn't know about that until now, either.

 

[delisha]

Maybe post a picture of the little black dots.

 

[delisha]

I am feeding at evenings till the snow flys and covers the ground except for a few hand fulls of oats and a sprinkle of peas. They act like they are starving at first, than they start to go feed. I think I was over feeding the FF. They look like round butterballs. Molting is lite except for my old chicken. She looks like she is molting all year. I was hoping for the FF to perhaps change that. She still lays huge beautiful eggs almost every day, or she would have been pot bound. One other thing I have changed since this thread started. I have layers in one building, chicks in another, and my Ops in another. I was waring the same cloths, same shoes, and entering buildings. I never gave it a thought. I now have put up a peg for different coat and overalls in each building and a bleach tray for my shoes. I have become more aware of cross contamination from me walking to my neighbors hen house in the same shoes and cloths. I am getting predator ready earlier instead of waiting till the coons, owls, and coyotes to come than set up a defense. We have also discussed getting a dog for the chickens. Anyone have suggestions for what I need to look for when I call the pound? The age to look for? Breed?