The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aaggjg]

Natural way to catch fruit flies is ACV in a glass with one drop dish soap.....

They are totally ignoring the vinegar & dish soap ....

 

[mlowen]

They are totally ignoring the vinegar & dish soap ....

I didn't have good luck with regular apple cider vinegar and the drop of dish soap; but when I used un-pasturized ACV with drop of soap...holy moly! I had every fruit fly in the house trying to commit suicide. Seriously, I switched back and forth and had consistently WAY better results with the UACV.

 

[aaggjg]

I just got some new chickens last Thurs (about ten days ago). The newbs were hatched at the end of Sept and my established flock was hatched in March and I bought the hens as chicks from the feed store, so this is the only home they have ever known. My roo is from the same breeder as the three new chickens and he is a month younger than my hens. The new chickens are a pullet and two cockerels (one of the cockerels is larger and has started to crow, yes, we're sure of his hatch date).
My situation is this:
My established flock will not let the new chickens eat at all. They take turns eating and chasing the new chickens off the food. The rooster gets into this and he chases, not only the cockerels, but the pullet and now he's chasing my banty off the food as well.
The new chickens are hanging around in more of the yard and the established flock mostly leaves them alone when they are all about the yard, but if the flock is getting water or eating together, they chase the new chickens away.
I have tried not to interfere, b/c I know that can mess up flock dynamics and the new chickens might never become part of the flock that way, but I've got to make sure that everybody eats, right? So, I've let the pullet eat out of my hand, or I'll spread the food around and kind of stand in the middle and let the new chickens kind of hide behind me so they can eat. I try to be hands-off, but I threw the feed can (a plastic peanut butter jar, and I have terrible aim) at my Sr roo when he started chasing my banty off the food.
What do I do?
How do I make sure that all the chickens are getting enough food?
(I'm sure that some of the established flock would eat more than their fill just to make sure the new chickens cannot eat, not b/c they're hungry)
How do I take good care of my chickens and not interfere with the integration process?

Simple have more feeding stations... How many birds do you have?? How many feeding stations??? I have 2 dishes in my coop (for 9 hens) and I also throw sprouted grains & fermented scratch out for them in their run and just out side their coop in the yard.... If you have a lot of feeding stations the old flock will not be able to guard them all. After awhile they will learn that there is plenty of food to go around and the new hens are not a threat to their survival. Do they all roost together??? Can you feed the new chickens in the coop when the others are out free ranging??? Plenty of snacks is the key to a successful integration!

 

[ki4got]

Quote: beer or a sweet wine both work wonders for me.
AND they catch the fruit flies well too.

 

[CourtsCacklers]

wow .... If you want to start a chicken riot in my yard just bring them meat, live . mealworms etc etc.  Is this the first time they have had it???  Did you cut it in small pieces??  It just takes one hen to get a taste and the others will quickly follow!! I have a few pigs in my group and they attack everything .... other hens quickly learn it is YUMMY

Yeah... I figured if one would take it...they all will.. that's the way they roll... haha! They checked it out but didn't want anything to do with it.... now that they have scratched all around it, it is covered in shavings and I think at that point I might have gotten one to check it out but they can't even see the rest of it now-- I have more in the fridge and am going try a little more tomorrow... maybe a little more encouraging and they will take at it!

 

[Jewelwing]

If I had to guess I would say she had an infection from an egg breaking inside her before this one formed. That would explain the yolk on this egg, her decline & death. But I am a newbie of 2 years so its just a guess. You would have to see what the OT's have to think

Quote:

Totally agree. I was getting caught up today and so just reading all this today, when you first posted that is what I was thinking, then seeing the egg confirmed it in my mind.

Well, I certainly hope that's what it was. It's the best possible scenario at this point, since that means she wouldn't have infected the others with whatever killed her.

I did have a weird broken egg with a broken yolk laid from the roost (it landed on the board about 8" beneath it) on Wed, the day before Ethel showed labored breathing. I assumed it was from a new layer, since I still had three that weren't laying, but maybe it was from Ethel. I had thought she just didn't lay that day.

Oh, Chaos, I'm so sorry!!!

I agree with Delisha about burning the body.
I can't say whether I would feed the egg, personally, cooking should kill anything, but I don't know what I would do.

I'm so sorry, Hon!!!!!

CR -

Thank you guys. I cried over her a little. Never thought I'd cry for a chicken!

REALLY?!?!?!?!?!? Can you tell I am excited??? As its warm here they are multiplying like ......

like.... like fruit flies?

 

[CourtsCacklers]

Oh.
I just put out the carcass of roast chicken or the bones from pork chops, etc. (I have to put them in the hen house so that the dogs don't get the cooked chicken bones).
So you didn't cook it, but you cut it to bug sized pieces, right?
Hmmmm  Maybe they want it cooked?  It is cold out after all.

no... I didn't cook it... they are spoiled all right but not that spoiled... I liked what delisha said-- in nature it isn't cooked for them! so if they are gonna have meat around here (unless it is leftovers from supper) they are gonna have to get used to it raw!!!! I will try again tomorrow-- they didn't even get their little handful of scratch today! They got their greens and Lisa Steele's Breakfast of Champions.... tomorrow they might be a little more ready to try something new-- maybe I will mix it in with Breakfast-- I know they like that!

 

[ki4got]

well, an update on Lucky. 8) he's standing and moving around a lot more and has graduated from the tote to the dog crate. he's walking a lot like someone who's had a mild stroke and is re-training their brain how to do things... which I think is probably a lot closer to the truth than anything else. he has a shuffling kind of unsteady walk but has improved tons over how he was Monday night.

he was preening a lot today (including finally cleaning his icky butt) as well as eating and standing a lot. he is stepping over the low roost, but hasn't got enough balance to stay on it long. but he's trying.

he's also VERY vocal, and talks to us constantly, telling us what's going on in his world I guess.

 

[armorfirelady]

he's also VERY vocal, and talks to us constantly, telling us what's going on in his world I guess.

Glad to hear he is improving.

Don't you wish you understood chicken? I would love to know what my girls are saying to me as they follow me around talking a mile a minute lol

 

[Jewelwing]

I opened up Ethel to see if I could tell anything about why she died. It all looked really normal to me except for her heart. There was a lot of fluid in the sac around her heart.

But I have no idea really what's normal. I'd like to post a couple pictures, but I don't want to gross anyone out. Should I just put them in an album? Or is there an etiquette for posting necropsy pictures on the thread?