from Triple Maze Farms. I guess they are only on Facebook. And yes the Rooster is on a leash; they fly, and sometimes do not return. That's a problem with game birds. He is a beauty though.
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Limestone for your grass...for your hens
I first ran into this about supplying limestone for your hens, particularly small and light boned birds like Araucanas, Minorcas and Leghorns, in an old poultry volume from 1858 where an English book was discussing the differences between English and French methods.
Like most gardeners I know of limestone for vegetables and grass of course not tomatoes or roses. Good also for your compost pile where if it gets too acidic the worms will die. This was a new take, that the limestone was actually good for the general chickens health. THe French historically, I do not know what they do now, applied lime on the top bedding of the coop. and these authors , Mr Walter Dickson and Mrs. Jane Loudon (her of Loudon's Natural History Magazine), noted that the birds seemed fine with no problems whatsoever.
The two authors also noted that the French made a bin of sand for the birds to feather dust during inclement weather. I do not have that bin of sand, though I am thinking of adding it in this year. Instead I let them out daily but during the winter they are depressed about the lack of feather dusting opportunities. That was noticeable last year during the bitter cold.
Take this little comment up about 150 years and in the book Poultry Genetics, , Breeding, and Biotechnology {edited by W. M. Muir, S. E. Aggrey, published in 2003 by CABI Publishing, CAB International, Wallingford, Oxon UK / CABI Publishing Cambridge MA} these authors looked at adding limestone not to just the coop but the whole area that the chickens visit because of the untimely deaths of Leghorn birds because of osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis occurs with the sexual maturation of the hen, as the oestrogen switches from bone formation to egg. Osteoporotic hens show evidence of widespread loss of actual bone, not just in the legs but throughout the skeleton and actually peaks at moult. It seems that moulting not only causes a loss of feathers but also a great loss of bone, and successive moults (chickens like all fowl moult yearly) just increase the loss until eventual their bones and skeletal systems are paper thin.
The study did bone density tests and saw no difference in the cancellate (bone) area but a remarkable difference in the building of medullary tissues in the bones (i.e. bone marrow) in the birds which in turn helped their overall bone health. They also recommended adding the limestone to the oyster shell, to make it more appetizing. They were happy with their research as it was "consistent" that osteoporosis in hens was not a genetic issue but nutritional and could easily be rectified without the attendant loss in the flock.
We saw proof of that study ourselves last winter, during the fortnight Polar Vortex time, when we lost a (Rhode Island White) RIW hen from the frost. During the autopsy we saw that she was not only egg bound, but that the egg itself was internally frozen and that her bones cracked, or actually bent, with just normal force. It was horrifying actually and since my Rhodies are my main egg layers very upsetting. As I have about 10 of them, I have been very worried about a repeat this winter, if the Farmer's Almanack "wicked winter" is to be believed [so far for September its been hit and miss].
This particular RIW, like the study confirmed, had just finished her second moult. The Black Stars, RIRs, RIWs, & Sussex are our earliest purchases as I originally only intended only having Sussex & Brahmas for show {the Brahmas} have since been sold. So the effect on the moult did not take as long as what the study found with the Leghorns, and perhaps she was unique as no other RIW had the same problem.
Like most gardeners I know of limestone for vegetables and grass of course not tomatoes or roses. Good also for your compost pile where if it gets too acidic the worms will die. This was a new take, that the limestone was actually good for the general chickens health. THe French historically, I do not know what they do now, applied lime on the top bedding of the coop. and these authors , Mr Walter Dickson and Mrs. Jane Loudon (her of Loudon's Natural History Magazine), noted that the birds seemed fine with no problems whatsoever.
The two authors also noted that the French made a bin of sand for the birds to feather dust during inclement weather. I do not have that bin of sand, though I am thinking of adding it in this year. Instead I let them out daily but during the winter they are depressed about the lack of feather dusting opportunities. That was noticeable last year during the bitter cold.
Take this little comment up about 150 years and in the book Poultry Genetics, , Breeding, and Biotechnology {edited by W. M. Muir, S. E. Aggrey, published in 2003 by CABI Publishing, CAB International, Wallingford, Oxon UK / CABI Publishing Cambridge MA} these authors looked at adding limestone not to just the coop but the whole area that the chickens visit because of the untimely deaths of Leghorn birds because of osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis occurs with the sexual maturation of the hen, as the oestrogen switches from bone formation to egg. Osteoporotic hens show evidence of widespread loss of actual bone, not just in the legs but throughout the skeleton and actually peaks at moult. It seems that moulting not only causes a loss of feathers but also a great loss of bone, and successive moults (chickens like all fowl moult yearly) just increase the loss until eventual their bones and skeletal systems are paper thin.
The study did bone density tests and saw no difference in the cancellate (bone) area but a remarkable difference in the building of medullary tissues in the bones (i.e. bone marrow) in the birds which in turn helped their overall bone health. They also recommended adding the limestone to the oyster shell, to make it more appetizing. They were happy with their research as it was "consistent" that osteoporosis in hens was not a genetic issue but nutritional and could easily be rectified without the attendant loss in the flock.
We saw proof of that study ourselves last winter, during the fortnight Polar Vortex time, when we lost a (Rhode Island White) RIW hen from the frost. During the autopsy we saw that she was not only egg bound, but that the egg itself was internally frozen and that her bones cracked, or actually bent, with just normal force. It was horrifying actually and since my Rhodies are my main egg layers very upsetting. As I have about 10 of them, I have been very worried about a repeat this winter, if the Farmer's Almanack "wicked winter" is to be believed [so far for September its been hit and miss].
This particular RIW, like the study confirmed, had just finished her second moult. The Black Stars, RIRs, RIWs, & Sussex are our earliest purchases as I originally only intended only having Sussex & Brahmas for show {the Brahmas} have since been sold. So the effect on the moult did not take as long as what the study found with the Leghorns, and perhaps she was unique as no other RIW had the same problem.
Tick Removal
..from the Yahoo Broiler list
"I had a pediatrician tell me what she believes is the best way to remove a tick. This is great because it works in those places where it's sometimes difficult to get to with tweezers: between toes, in the middle of a head full of dark hair, etc."
So the idea here is that you apply a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball. Cover the tick
with the soap-soaked cotton ball and swab it for a few seconds (15-20); the tick will come out on its own and be stuck to the cotton ball when you lift it away.
This technique has worked every time I've used it (and that was frequently), and it's much less traumatic for the patient and easier for me. Also, if you just pull a tick off, their heads sometimes break off and are left under the skin so this is much safer.
Be aware though for the Deer Tick (see above for three). That particular tick has a white speck on its back and can cause Tick Fever particularly Lyme disease (named after where it was first found, in Old Lyme Connecticut).
Not everyone who gets biten by a Deer Tick will get the fever though; some like any virus are immune to it. I knew one lady, Sheila U* from Manhattan Hanover's Trust, that was not and suffered terribly. Here are some of the symptiom.
The initial infection can occur with minimal or no symptoms. But many people experience a flulike primary illness or a characteristic rash several days to a few weeks following a tick bite.The flulike illness usually occurs in the warm weather months when flu (influenza) does not occur and the red rash grows daily; this is called erythema migrans.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines this rash as a skin lesion that typically begins as a red spot and expands over a period of days to weeks to form a large round lesion, at least 5 cm (about 2 inches) across while a typical tick bite is also red circular spot that begins within hours but grows smaller with time.
"I had a pediatrician tell me what she believes is the best way to remove a tick. This is great because it works in those places where it's sometimes difficult to get to with tweezers: between toes, in the middle of a head full of dark hair, etc."
So the idea here is that you apply a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball. Cover the tick
with the soap-soaked cotton ball and swab it for a few seconds (15-20); the tick will come out on its own and be stuck to the cotton ball when you lift it away.
This technique has worked every time I've used it (and that was frequently), and it's much less traumatic for the patient and easier for me. Also, if you just pull a tick off, their heads sometimes break off and are left under the skin so this is much safer.
Be aware though for the Deer Tick (see above for three). That particular tick has a white speck on its back and can cause Tick Fever particularly Lyme disease (named after where it was first found, in Old Lyme Connecticut).
Not everyone who gets biten by a Deer Tick will get the fever though; some like any virus are immune to it. I knew one lady, Sheila U* from Manhattan Hanover's Trust, that was not and suffered terribly. Here are some of the symptiom.
The initial infection can occur with minimal or no symptoms. But many people experience a flulike primary illness or a characteristic rash several days to a few weeks following a tick bite.The flulike illness usually occurs in the warm weather months when flu (influenza) does not occur and the red rash grows daily; this is called erythema migrans.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines this rash as a skin lesion that typically begins as a red spot and expands over a period of days to weeks to form a large round lesion, at least 5 cm (about 2 inches) across while a typical tick bite is also red circular spot that begins within hours but grows smaller with time.
Raising Chicks in the Brooder
Interesting about giving them table oats, as opposed to raw, instead of feed. There may be some truth to that since so many chicks get "pasty butts". flock, so that that problem does not perpetuate. Well I got some birds from him, after the culling, and they had pasty butted chicks. If culling is the method, it seems to me that you would have to cull a lot regardless of type to get there and I'm not sure with the damage that has been done to heritage chicks from factory manipulation, you would in your lifetime, get to the objective.
I did try the "warm water" method to avoid it; that had better results than regular temperature water, so I think keeping everything "warm" or pre-warmed before moving into the hatch is a better and less decisive measure.
I admit it was a small hatch, 4 Araucanas, out of20 eggs, but all 4 were good. Of course the other problem with Araucanas happened and that was that the tufts were in the wrong place and 3 died of the lethal gene issue -- tufts coming out of the head instead of the neck. But despite that problem, which is not related to the water, I think the pre-warm water is the way to go.
Of course all of my water comes out of the Berkey so it is super clean which has it is drawbacks as well as it's assets, but after that, I warmed it in the mike for 20 secs and then let it cooler just a bit and put it in. I was amazed how "warm" the survivor, a black Araucana chick, liked her water, but then all that matters is she never had pasty butt and is still thriving.
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Good hatching tip
Do you know why? The eggs won't hatch and all that will happen is that the chick will DIS ...die in shell.
If we can, let's avoid that.
Remembering the Great War...WWI
from Pacific PoultryMan, 1918 January for the Troops overseas in WWI
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