Chicken Moma chat thread. Share, Q&A, all things chicken! <3 October <3

[Nielsen6]

I have heard that pumpkin is a natural wormer....punkin pie chickies?! LOl!


ETA: http://www.grit.com/fresh-eggs-daily...-chickens.aspx <----awesome!

[Nielsen6]

I am frustrated going outside and freezing my butt off to check to see if my almost 23week old Silver Laced Wyandotte "Winnie" will every lay me a darn egg. She better hurry up, what are the chances she is laying somewhere and I don't know? Wouldn't she do the egg song?

[Geckmumto3]

We have never used a commercial wormer, yet. I am not saying we will not, but we haven't needed to, so I am not doing it. We do feed pumpkin and garlic, as well as ACV in their water (not every time, but frequently).

[Happy Mommax4]

Thanks everyone. Sarah thanks for the recs, I was able to find a few things you mentioned at TSC. We have no s/sx of infestation but at this point I'm not willing to have anymore of my girls go through that, just in case.

I also just thought Chicca was molting, she was her perky self and lost some plumage but if was coming back. I figured w the fall that this was her first molt. So I'm still just heart broken.

Is there anything special to clean the coup w Liz? I'm gonna do some pine bedding this time around.

Those silkie Chics are so cute! I'm not sure ill ever be brave enough for the hatching part! Also not all of my girls make a ton of noise when they lay, also some of them do lay in odd places now n then.

Ill be hopefully posting pics w names and demographics tomorrow. Also about our pups, you know it's just 6 n 1 and 1/2a dozen, we like to leave our girls forage in the evening. Any other time they're enclosed. So sometimes the pups would get outta hand while they were out. Other times a chicken would get outta the enclosure or not come in at night.

So for now ill keep my pups tied unless they are strictly supervised. Our new enclosures pretty big so I'm not sure about the foraging daily, plus some of our neighbors don't like chickens in their yard as much as we do LOL!! Even on three primarily wooded country acres I still need to deal w this!

Thanks again everyone

[Happy Mommax4]

Kat, tell me more about your regime. I was reading about those things but didnt see any real specifics.

TIA

[3lilbubs]

Oh my gosh I love the silky babies! I'd love to have a pumpkin but around here the greatest risk is of hawk attacks and I'd be forever worried that she wouldn't see it coming.

Fodie, she may never sing the egg song. I have one that slides in and out of the box really sneaky-like and nobody ever knows she laid. LOL A good indicator she may be close is if she does the squat when you reach to pet her.

Kat I'd love to hear more specifics too, I don't like the idea of using chemical treatments on my girls if there's a better option. My needs as of right now are more or less prevention.

You know, everyone has a different approach on cleaning, I prefer to just use water and vinegar. Then when it's all dry I sprinkle Sevin dust into their nest bedding and all over the floor and nooks and crannies it the coop.

[Happy Mommax4]

Thanks Liz, I was thinking of that. Also oh my, i was in BYC last night-my new addiction!!

[waterisntsomething]

Originally Posted by Nielsen6 I am frustrated going outside and freezing my butt off to check to see if my almost 23week old Silver Laced Wyandotte "Winnie" will every lay me a darn egg. She better hurry up, what are the chances she is laying somewhere and I don't know? Wouldn't she do the egg song?

I love wyandottes! We have two gold laced..the silver are so pretty though!

[sarahannecloud9]

Originally Posted by 3lilbubs Well, fall has come and it's time to worm my girlies for the first time. None are symptomatic so I have mixed feelings on the matter but I think the benefits outweigh the risk. Was thinking I'd use ivermectin. Supposedly this one you can still use the eggs? How do you all dose? Water would probably be the easiest if I could do that, no chasing everyone and stressing them out. I'm also concerned because I read Ivermectin is a crawling parasite treament as well and my girls have already been frontlined. Thoughts?

Liz- you got the alcohol based pouron right? To tell the truth, like i said there is no real evidence about it causing issues with eggs. Most people just opt to toss. We eat them. I though I posted about how I used it? Maybe not. I filla rx measure cup with baby oil, use a syringe with needle, fill to .5 with iver and up to on with oil, shake well and apply to the skin between their sholders. Same thing with older pullets and full growns, but I add 1 cc iver and 1 cc of baby oil, shake and apply. I think I repeated 2 weeks later. I did the wazine with is because it comvers some intestinal worms which iver doesn't. I had the worrysome event some had to cover all the bases. I do the same with anyones I bring in too. I think the frontline shouldn't be n issue? Wasn't that about 2 weeks back? Oh, the reasion I mix with baby oil is it evaporates so fast. It's also a little tough on skin and the oild seriously helps with that.

Originally Posted by dangerbunny Anyone else have Silkies? I just hatched out our last batch of chicks this year and am really tempted to keep the silkies that I got for my mom Here's the blog post if you wanna see pics, they are so cute! http://thelittlemamablog.blogspot.co...hickchick.html

Poor Ray wants one soooo bad! I havn't come actross any local enough yet though. LOVE them!

Originally Posted by Happy Mommax4 Thanks everyone. Sarah thanks for the recs, I was able to find a few things you mentioned at TSC. We have no s/sx of infestation but at this point I'm not willing to have anymore of my girls go through that, just in case. I also just thought Chicca was molting, she was her perky self and lost some plumage but if was coming back. I figured w the fall that this was her first molt. So I'm still just heart broken. Is there anything special to clean the coup w Liz? I'm gonna do some pine bedding this time around. Those silkie Chics are so cute! I'm not sure ill ever be brave enough for the hatching part! Also not all of my girls make a ton of noise when they lay, also some of them do lay in odd places now n then. Ill be hopefully posting pics w names and demographics tomorrow. Also about our pups, you know it's just 6 n 1 and 1/2a dozen, we like to leave our girls forage in the evening. Any other time they're enclosed. So sometimes the pups would get outta hand while they were out. Other times a chicken would get outta the enclosure or not come in at night. So for now ill keep my pups tied unless they are strictly supervised. Our new enclosures pretty big so I'm not sure about the foraging daily, plus some of our neighbors don't like chickens in their yard as much as we do LOL!! Even on three primarily wooded country acres I still need to deal w this! Thanks again everyone

This is a bit on the more extream sid eof cleaning, buy ya'll know I have my cleaning ways. I fill a pump sprayer with soapy bleach water. I remove all bedding and scrape out poo. Then I spray it all down really well. I then let it soak and spray it out with water. Easiest way for me. I trust the bleach mixes with dawn. Bleach almost instantly starts breaking down into it's original eliments after use. The coop is right on that hillside so it washes out pretty well. The dang hose is a smidge too short. Yugh.

[Geckmumto3]

I would love to tell you that I have some fabulous, organized regime with my hens and feeding pumpkin, garlic and ACV. I don't.

But, for what it's worth, here it is. This time of year, pumpkins are plentiful. We get bunches of pumpkins from our neighbour (free of charge, he plants them to feed deer on his farm and we can help ourselves to cattle corn, pumpkins, etc....). I crack a pumpkin open with an ax and let the hens pick away at it. They LOVE it, especially on a day where I cannot let them free range as much as I would like. I feed them a lot of pumpkin this time of year until December-ish when the pumpkins will run out. Then I might buy them a pie pumpkin or two if I can find them cheap.

With the ACV, when I think of it or when they need a boost, I sprinkle a little into their waterers. Or, I may do the same with a little minced garlic (not at the same time, not making salad dressing here ). I do know you should not put garlic in galvinized steel because the garlic can interact with the waterer and pull zinc (I believe).

Don't get me wrong, if I saw evidence of worms or issues, we would not be opposed to medicating them. But, we don't treat our own bodies with chemicals here, unless necessary, so I don't do it to our animals either.

Now, this is all coming from a woman who brings a big bowl of hot oatmeal to the barn every morning in the winter because I like to see how happy the girls are for a warm breakfast. And, a woman who would was tempted to make these last winter:



So, take it for what it's worth.