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

[Mumsy]

Hey! I didn't get my Johnny Cake! And I'm mad!

YOUR KILLING ME! I will never be able to look at this and not keel over laughing! I want to make it into a wanted! Dead or Alive poster! *gasp...HAH!*

 

[Rachel'sFlock]

I don't think it could hurt him. Most cat foods are grain based, so it's probably not too far off his kitten foods. Could make him a much healthier little guy, who knows?

That is true!
I certainly hope it can't hurt him, because there is no keeping him out of it!
Thanks, Bee!

 

[rowerjen]

Could the ff not freeze because of the ACV? I have been filling a 1 gal. bucket with water and adding ACV to it in the evenings to put out in the morning and so far it hasn't froze. So maybe the ACV is keeping the ff from freezing. at minus 11 seems like it would have to be it.

How big a glug of ACV and what's your watering system? No electricity in my coop so I'm looking for ways to keep the water from freezing during the day. Figure if the water is warm when I put it out and I put it in the coop it won't freeze. So far, so good, but it's been relatively mild in these parts so far.

 

[71stbrew]

Well....they already SAW that kind of bird when I gave them to them in the first place!

We're talking about a couple who are in their mid to late 70s and are very nice...not a mean bone in their bodies. But, they seem to have a blind spot when it comes to animals, for some reason. It's a cultural thing in some of these mountain communities. Chickens are about the lowest thing on a farm out in the country and, in that area, no one really considers them to have much importance...it's nothing to drive by and see the chickens confined to a barren run and coop setup for years upon years while all the grass outside their coop is green and lush. It never occurs to some people to let those birds have a more normal life out on the grass like the cows, sheep and horses.

Also, these people used to have broiler houses back in the day and every other farm in that area still do. Chicken life and their comfort is just not considered in those parts...they are to be used for eggs, their meat, and for an income but are not really considered to have much worth beyond that as an animal with a need for a quality existence.

It's hard to explain that to urban and city folks because people from that background only have experience with pets and they then treat their chickens as pets. Country folk, for the most part, see them as food and as something to "use up" and get more when those are used up. These farm communities have produced the food that city and town dwellers only ever see in cellophane wrappers and so it's easy to judge them when you don't have to do the actual raising, producing and killing of the foods.

Some farmers grow calloused to the physical comforts and needs of the animals when they have been using them as a business and an income for generations. That's just the way it goes for some farm families...you get tough and indifferent or you lose money and have to get a job off the farm. That's the death notice for a lot of farmers.

I know that's hard to see or accept but it's like trying to explain the internet to a primitive tribal people...the worlds and cultures are so vastly different in some of these mountain communities that city folks will never understand it. That's pretty much why they make fun of WV and hillbillies...what folks do not understand, they usually put down or mock. We country folk do the same to the city slickers...we view usually them as having no common sense, as frivolous ne'er do wells with more money than brains, out of touch with the realities of life and very self-involved.

The misunderstandings and snobbery runs both ways, you see.

I know, if city folk knew how much the rest of us just shake are heads and grin. Most of the people around here with chickens have those same ways. Another thing I think is a problem is a lot of the generation from the 50's and 60's were told that they were doing it all wrong this study says this is better. "This is the future of farming, give up those old fashioned ways." That is why you are doing a favor not just to the city slickers but us rednecks too.

 

[arkansaschicks]

Hey Bee got another question on the watery poop. I got some advice about stuffing a clove of garlic, an almond and a cranberry gel cap down the chicken and it will help with the watery poop.
Any thoughts on this? I am not going to try anything without running by you first!

 

[delisha]

I would never spend all day with my chickens to check poop. A chicken poops 100 times a day. How do you know all her poop is watery?

 

[Ashdoes]

It says a lot about this group of people that "angry vent" is our number one most recent pic at least once a week. I love it. The funny thing now is I don't even get to the post with the pic when I notice it on the right. It's the"mouth" that gets me every time.

 

[KPenley]

Another newbie question...I've noticed my little cockeral's rear fluffy feathers catch some droppings while they are, well...dropping. Do you clean their rear ends? Or do they clean themselves? Thank you so much for all of your help!

 

[Beekissed]

Hey Bee got another question on the watery poop. I got some advice about stuffing a clove of garlic, an almond and a cranberry gel cap down the chicken and it will help with the watery poop.
Any thoughts on this? I am not going to try anything without running by you first!

Sounds suspect and very random....like stuffing an olive, a crayon and a piece of peppermint in her vent.

I'd just stop watching the poop and start watching the bird. is she bright eyed, glossy feathered, active and eating? If so, just let things be until you see something more than poop. That's another reason for deep litter...you won't have to see poop. It sort of gets lost in the shuffle. I never gauge my chicken's health by their poops..unless it's those stinky meat bird poops! Then I put them on FF and forget about it.

 

[Beekissed]

Another newbie question...I've noticed my little cockeral's rear fluffy feathers catch some droppings while they are, well...dropping. Do you clean their rear ends? Or do they clean themselves? Thank you so much for all of your help!

On a regular basis and usual circumstances I barely ever look at their bottoms. Staring at bottoms is like staring at poops...at any given time chickens have changing poops and sometimes that gets on the feathers. Now, if it's a constant thing and it looks like he's been sliding down a mud mountain, then you might want to pick him up and look a little closer. Normally, though, I never wash a chicken's butt. They pretty much clean their own rears if they are healthy and active.