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

[Beekissed]

Your hoop coop looks like it has a face!

More than a face.. That's Pikachu!

I felt the same way!

It looks surprised to be here.

Raggedy Ann is my favorite transformation. It warms my heart and following along on this thread had changed my feelings and knowledge about poultry husbandry forever. Truly.
Congratulations Bee. I'm so satisfied to see the end result from horror to health.

I got to spend a few hours with my oldest Grandson tonight. He is eleven years old and bright as an evening star.
He and his momma have six layers that are around four, five, and two. They haven't laid eggs in some time. My daughter says that after their dog attacked and killed two, the rest stopped laying at that moment and she just feeds them. She is not interested in culling them. Too much trauma recently in the pet department.

Grandson and I went out to the coop and I gave him three packages of Johnny Cakes. I told him open the door and let them out on the grass and let's give them some cakes. Dewormer Delight and "Look at me!" Luster cake. We crumbled them and those old hens went crazy for them.
I had a long conversation with my Grandson about the difference between Heritage breeds and feed store hatchery chickens. I told him it costs the same to feed either. We discussed poultry health using the old natural ways and the difference between Production Reds (what Johnny is) and Heritage RIR. We have a plan to raise both. Him and me. Using the old ways and keeping records on egg production, health, and ease in husbandry. He will be my pupil and I will supply him with what ever he needs for his flock.
This will be forth generation raising back yard chickens in my family and it thrills me that I can teach my Grandson.

Today was a good day.


Letting loose the girls for Johnny Cakes! My Grandson's old hens.

You just don't know how that warms my heart! Passing it along is the best thing we can do for the next generation. The ability to raise our own foods is a heritage that is quickly being lost in America...now we have a generation that wants food from animals but they don't want to have to kill any animals. That's an oxymoron and can't lead to self-sustaining food resources...eventually those birds are going to have to die. They can either die in time to still be a healthy meal or die of sickness and old age and be wasted to human consumption. Teaching the next generation that it's not all about pets is very important..its about survival.

Thanks Bee! Your hoop coop looks pretty cool; so just a cattle panel for the hoop, wood for the base and end wall framing....are the ends more cattle panels or just some kind of fencing? Is any part of the roof solid material or is all just a tarp? Love the little shade porches on the sides ;-)

The ends have cattle paneling pieces as well. The roof is cattle panel, a layer of thick plastic and then the tarp. Those side flaps let in an amazing amount of air flow in the summer and also provide places to get in out of the rain...I love 'em! It increases the total amount of shade this coop can provide and came in real handy for the meaties this spring.

 

[Mumsy]

Aw Mumsy that is so cool. My granny had chickens but they were gone before I came along. I had chickens when my kids were little but none of them keep them now; tho if she gets her way my oldest grand daughter will have some, some day.

I hatched and raised two hundred purebred chicks a year when my children were young. I also raised purebred Springer Spaniels, and Arabian horses. My kids were around animals their entire childhood. All of them live on small lots in suburbia now and only the oldest daughter has back yard chickens. (hens) All of the children love animals but can't keep many of them. It's mostly just small dogs and cats for a couple of them.
This one Grandson is really savvy and likes the science and history of chicken husbandry. I think he will be the one that could take it to the next step. I plan on helping him get there. What ever it takes. Such is the continuity of life.

 

[maryhysong]

whoa Mumsy! That is a lot of chickens! I doubt I'll ever have the market here to be that big but am hoping for maybe a little spending money.... or at least enough to keep the chicken addiction afloat ;-)

 

[Beekissed]

It's good. I know my sons absorbed way more than I probably ever knew..it comes out in their conversations now and again. When they get places of their own it will all be remembered..they were an integral part of my animal husbandry and helped me in all things.

I was digging through some before and after pics for Bulldogma in reference to using Shaklee's soap for deworming and found some from when I bought a poor, pitiful Jersey milk cow that I did not have the room to keep but could not leave her where she was. She was 8 yrs old and due to have a calf any day and she was so sweet and docile. She had been pretty neglected and was being farmed out on a beef cattle farm by the owners, who no longer wanted to fool with her.

Here's a pic of the day I got her. She had constant runny poops and was so thin I was afraid that she may have Johnes Disease :




And about a week later on the day she had her calf and you can see she was already filling out and looking better here:



And approx. 2 wks after that...Shaklee's soap and ACV in the water, a good shampoo and ACV rinse, daily brushing and raw eggs in her sweet feed & BOSS each day:



When I took her back to the farm of origin to get her bred back, the farmer swore it wasn't the same cow...he could not believe it! I had the cow about 2 1/2 mo. and sold her for a $500 profit and all it cost me was a bag of sweet feed. I already had the Shaklee's.

Her calf while she was up being bred back to the bull, Jersey milk does a body good.. no vaccinations, no chemical wormers, no fancy high pro feeds for conditioning the mama.

 

[Mumsy]

whoa Mumsy! That is a lot of chickens! I doubt I'll ever have the market here to be that big but am hoping for maybe a little spending money.... or at least enough to keep the chicken addiction afloat ;-)

Back in the day I kept an incubator going monthly and there were usually one or two broodies going in the barn. I had a waiting list for most of my chicks and poults. The same with my Springer pups. Good breeding is good breeding what ever the animal. When you raise good animals you build a reputation as a source for good livestock and the market is there. I never had to advertise. Even now all these years later, I still run into people in the grocery store asking me if I still have purebred chickens. It's high time I started answering "Yes" again.
I would so love for my Grandson to be part of this. I want to pass off the knowledge with the newly learned lessons of wood ash, FF, Nu stock, and Deep litter ways incorporated into that library of knowledge.
I would like to help my daughter and Grandson with their very own "Gnarly flock". Those old girls still got some life in them.

 

[jlynnet]

That calf is a beauty! When I was a kid, we brought an 11month old filly home. The owner said he was going to "knock her in the head"if we didn't take her. So my Dad and I loaded up this nasty boney filly and took her home. She was beyond emaciated! Slowly she put on weight and got used to being handled. She was so gangly and awkward. We never thought she'd amount to much after being starved for so long. Well during the winter of her 3 to 4yr old year, the ugly duckling became a swan. She grew 8 inches and just blossomed. Nobody could believe it was her. She was stunning! We broke her to ride and she was quite the powerful show horse. She has such a bright future! Then when she turned 6 she had to have a cataract removed. She developed a rare bacterial infection and died.
This just shows that will patience and excellent care, even the sickest animals can be brought back to great health.

 

[Beekissed]

What a wonderful story! There have been so many horses that I wanted to take home from bad places and the stock auctions...so many beautiful animals under the rough coats and bony frames.

As a nurse, I kind of like taking something that looks sickly and bad and making it look well and good again. I even like doing it with old houses, old vehicles and messy yards. There is a level of satisfaction in restoring something that someone threw away as having very little value and making it something that people admire once again. When something has quality in the first place and has just been neglected, it feels good to give it a chance to shine again.

That cow and calf went to a wonderful new home with great new owners. I didn't have enough pasture to support a cow and calf there but it was sad to see her go...she got real attached to me while she was there and would get pretty jealous of the dogs. She'd horn them out of the way so that she could put her head in my lap and get brushed. Yeah..she was spoiled rotten in that short of a time.

 

[thailand]

Hello from Thailand!

I've waited a while before jumping into this thread - too busy reading LOL.

Bee - thank you so very much for sharing your amazing wisdom and animal husbandry skills. I'm a newbie to chickens (in my 2nd year) and my goodness have I made mistakes!! I hate that I have made mistakes, but hopefully I can at least learn from them. I've chased my tail with medications trying to raise healthy chickens here in the tropics. Just in the last 6 months I've lost 4 chickens and 1 rabbit, all I believe to avian malaria.

Not a lot I can do about malaria.

However, that has not excused my management skills. It's been a steep learning curve for sure. I've now started my remaining 4 hens and 2 roosters on FF, ACV water, pumpkin and cottage cheese etc. I'm seeing lots of improvement already too.
I think my chickens might be suffering from lice, mites and favus. Unfortunately, I am still making mistakes......e.g. I did a dumb thing this week

after faithfully making my wood ashes and thoroughly rubbing them into their feathers, I had this great idea (not!) that I should also mix in a whole lot of poultry pest powder into their wood shavings in the coop. No idea what came over me!!

Now I need your advice please. The wood shavings, about 6 inches deep, were put in only a couple of days ago. Is there any way I can redeem this situation? I'm only up to page 70 of this thread and reading as fast as I can to learn as quickly as possible, so not sure if this kind of dumb mistake has already been covered. Is the only way to fix this to clear out the whole lot and start again? Oh I hope not. My coop is inside a 'barn' on a tiled floor. (I know this is not the best situation either, but it's the only means of housing them at the moment) My understanding is that I need to get the good nematode thing happening. How do I do that please considering the mess I've just created?

Again many thanks for this wonderful thread! You have no idea how much it is needed by us newbies who happen to be living on the other side of the world without any other chicken people to chat with about raising healthy chickens.

God bless you mightily

 

[Miss Lydia]

Holy cow! 3,001 posts on this thread!!

And here's tonight's blog entry - I couldn't wait until tomorrow to put it up because I was too excited about the before and after pictures!

Looking good!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

It's good. I know my sons absorbed way more than I probably ever knew..it comes out in their conversations now and again. When they get places of their own it will all be remembered..they were an integral part of my animal husbandry and helped me in all things.

I was digging through some before and after pics for Bulldogma in reference to using Shaklee's soap for deworming and found some from when I bought a poor, pitiful Jersey milk cow that I did not have the room to keep but could not leave her where she was. She was 8 yrs old and due to have a calf any day and she was so sweet and docile. She had been pretty neglected and was being farmed out on a beef cattle farm by the owners, who no longer wanted to fool with her.

Here's a pic of the day I got her. She had constant runny poops and was so thin I was afraid that she may have Johnes Disease :




And about a week later on the day she had her calf and you can see she was already filling out and looking better here:



And approx. 2 wks after that...Shaklee's soap and ACV in the water, a good shampoo and ACV rinse, daily brushing and raw eggs in her sweet feed & BOSS each day:



When I took her back to the farm of origin to get her bred back, the farmer swore it wasn't the same cow...he could not believe it! I had the cow about 2 1/2 mo. and sold her for a $500 profit and all it cost me was a bag of sweet feed. I already had the Shaklee's.

Her calf while she was up being bred back to the bull, Jersey milk does a body good.. no vaccinations, no chemical wormers, no fancy high pro feeds for conditioning the mama.

Amazing!