My Chickens Have Diarrhea… and other greenhorn secrets
.jpg)
If you hang around here long enough you’ll notice that my posts tend to vacillate between the joy we have in living this simple off-grid life and the struggles that accompany it. I often worry that it comes across as complaining. I hope it doesn’t. I hope it comes across as we’re-just-trying-to-figure-this-stuff-out.
Take, for instance, our chickens. We started with three – two hens and a rooster – not long after we got here. We have since increased that to 20+ and two crazy loud guineas. We had to fence them in right next to the cabin until that fence gets finished. Did I mention that there are between six and ten roosters in that bunch, depending on which 4 foot and under expert you talk to?
That’s at least six roosters. Right. next. to. our. cabin. Yep, the crowing is out of control.
And then there’s the chicken diarrhea. We often sit in the space between the cabin and the chicken yard since it provides some much-needed shade in the evenings. We watch chicken TV, eat dinner, and laugh at their antics.
But after about a month of not being allowed to free-range our chickens have some serious diarrhea. It might be the lack of wild foods, the higher-grain diet, or the (ahem) soapy grey water that has always been piped into our kitchen garden come chicken yard. Whatever combination of disasters that is causing this, you would not believe how off-putting it is to hear the incessant sound that 20+ chickens with diarrhea make.
.jpg)
(Perhaps if you’ve searched for "homesteading how-tos" and landed on this page, this is the part where you hit back and move onto the next google search.)
Sometimes it’s like we’re the bumper bowlers of homesteading. We plant fruit trees before they’re fenced in and they get destroyed. We build outhouses out of tarps and 2x4s and then watch as it comes crashing down around a screaming three year old with his arms up and his pants down.
.jpg)
Oh I’m sure we’d make a comical reality show with birds chirping, a clothesline blowing in the breeze, and someone smashing their knee through the glass window top of our new solar granola maker as they attempt to catch yet another rooster.
Yep, we’re just learning as we go here. You can learn a lot from a book, but on-the-job training is where it gets interesting. So we’ll just keep laughing our way through our mistakes and thank the Lord that no one has electrocuted themselves on our DIY solar power setup… yet.
Oh, and that knee that went through the window… it’s still healing. Thanks.
Oh, this post made me chuckle. Homesteading is aaaaall about trial and error. Do you know how many times the horse has broken into my garden? Or how, even though I have a very nice fence around the same garden, the tortoises magically find their ways in and eat my entire bean crop? Or how the chickens just happen to find my baby avocado trees I’ve lovingly grown from seed and clip them in half for the heck of it? Or, or, or…
You’ve got the right idea; just laugh and keep on chuggin’ along.
I’ve been reading for a while and am just commenting now for the first time. Your adventures are always engaging!
Ah yes, the sound of way too many roosters. When we were raising Delawares for meat, we had 20+ roosters crowing underneath our back deck (ten feet from our heads) every morning. And every night. Aaaaaaand all afternoon. You need to eat some roosters!
I agree, doing it this way is not pretty. I always tell visitors, “This ain’t Mother Earth News.” š
oh no! isn’t it difficult to build everything properly when you first start, there is just so much to set up! We spend a lot of time chasing chickens too, there is one that just wants to be up on the deck, even on the dog beds!
This is exactly how things work around our homestead, we’ve been here less than a year, things are still so so messy, goats running everywhere and eating everything, no proper (and finished) fencing (thank God for our dogs because they’ve been doing a great job chasing wild animals off our garden), small children falling down, our trailer in a constant state of complete chaos, us being chronically tired and over worked…it’s not all roses but soon things will either get in some sort of order, or we’ll just get use to all this š
It never comes across as complaining. It’s reality, and there are very real struggles. You are so brave to be doing this and facing the chaos head on. Bravo! Most of us just stick out heads in the sand. š God will reward your hard work and faithfulness.
Hi Shannon, it doesn’t sound like complaining to me. It’s just what it is. A good natural remedy for chicken diarrhoea is to give them raspberry cordial, made with real raspberries. To make it: crush a pound of raspberries and make a simple sugar syrup (2 cups sugar/2 cups water and dissolve the sugar). Mix the raspberries with the sugar syrup and store it in the fridge. It will last at least six months. When you have to use it, add about 1/4 cup to half a bucket of water and leave that for the chickens drink. I hope it helps. http://www2b.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn/archives/archive133/newposts/2565/topic2565711.shtm – for more info.
Shannon, If you don’t have Raspberries on hand you can give the chickens some sour milk, buttermilk or cultured milk, this should help. They need the cultured just like we do. The problem is exactly as you suspected. This illness is passed along between the chickens through their food and water. My Grandmother crushed up the egg shells and fed them back to the chickens in their feed, this makes for a healthier chicken and a more productive layer. By the way, I love your sense of humor. Hugs
Here is another recipe for the Raspberry Cordial for the chickens. Not sure if you are familiar with Rhonda’s Down to Earth blog but it’s lovely and she and her hubby are living the simple life, one which I am quite envious of.
http://down—to—earth.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/reducing-cost-of-chicken-feed.html
Cheers – Joolz
Shannon, for those of us who aren’t on a homestead yet, but want to be, you give us something beyond complaining and reality. You give us hope. For that, I am eternally grateful.
Thanks Shannon for a very enjoyable post, sure made me laugh.
As their “down the road a piece” neighbor I can vouch for the truth of this post and the energy of this remarkable family. The delight they take in homesteading, making mistakes, learning, living, raising a family is warmly comforting to a man they gratefully call their friend.
William
Raising guinea can be an adventure. Watching them interact and do their bird stuff is quite a riot. Their eggs are pretty good but I really enjoy their pest removal the most. I had an entire flock of guineas a couple years ago and they were doing really well until a pair of great horned owls found their roosting spot. Wiped them all out in less than a week… ļ I couldnāt believe it. P.S. I found a really neat new website that helps local farmers and homesteaders sell their products to the community. Anyone heard of FIFY? (Farm It For You)