Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[Teila]

The other issue I've been having lately is...*sigh* Ophelia - my other Ancona hen. Due to, I imagine, the pecking order squabbles - I find her on the roof of the coop every single night without fail. Last night she even managed to get away with sleeping up there because my husband was naughty and didn't do a head count. I found her wandering the backyard this morning before anyone else had been let out. I either entice her down or chase her down and put her to bed each night but I'm -very- worried that one of these times when flying down she is going to break something. It's about 2.5m off the ground. She's ridiculously good at flying for a chicken with both wings clipped (we clipped first one and when that didn't work tried the other as well (which also didn't work). With both wings clipped she can actually fly about a foot off of the ground for about 15m without landing. She seems to think that she's part eagle.

Hey tandykins, I hope your headache goes away real soon.

Just a quick one about wing clipping. It is best to only clip one side as this throws out the balance and reduces the inability to fly. If you clip both sides, the balance is maintained and they can actually fly pretty well with both wings clipped.

 

[Kooka]

I was thinking the same thing about Kissybum's comb.  It doesn't seem to bother her and our rooster's comb is the same (but his changes on and off which I'm told is due to his current level of *cough* amorousness...)

Yes I should probably stop this 10 cup of coffee a day habit and switch to water.  That would likely help my headaches rather a lot.  If nothing else I'd probably be less tense if I weren't constantly about to launch into space on a caffeine high. >.>

If you are really doing 10 cups of coffee a day you could do yourself less harm, cheaper, and still keep your headaches ( I'm assuming self destruction is your goal) by selecting a strong brick wall and charging head first into it !!

Coffee addiction is as hard to break as any, and is as destructive as any drug or grog..

Withdrawal is slow and challenging and the coffee devil will sit on your shoulder and whisper to you for at least two weeks, it's a SHE, thus is cunning, makes a lot of sense (at the time) and will not budge till YOU make her piss off.

Start right now and the force be with you!!!

Andrew

Will get to discussing mite issues soon I hope, bed bound at the moment with a pinched nerve in my back. Can't walk, sleep or get relief.......it will pass ( fingers crossed)

 

[appps]

If you are really doing 10 cups of coffee a day you could do yourself less harm, cheaper, and still keep your headaches ( I'm assuming self destruction is your goal) by selecting a strong brick wall and charging head first into it !!

Coffee addiction is as hard to break as any, and is as destructive as any drug or grog..

Withdrawal is slow and challenging and the coffee devil will sit on your shoulder and whisper to you for at least two weeks, it's a SHE, thus is cunning, makes a lot of sense (at the time) and will not budge till YOU make her piss off.

Start right now and the force be with you!!!

Andrew

Will get to discussing mite issues soon I hope, bed bound at the moment with a pinched nerve in my back. Can't walk, sleep or get relief.......it will pass ( fingers crossed)

My hubby used to complain that he couldn't drink decaffinated coffee because it gave him headaches, took a while to convince him it wasn't the decaffinated was the problem, it was the withdrawals from the real thing lol

I've had to give it up lately cause I've gone dairy free (and can't tolerate soy) and the morning cuppa just ain't the same with coconut milk ick Got very excited the other day as have discovered my local Gloria jeans now sells almond milk. It's an acquired taste but the longer I go without the real thing the better it tastes

 

[appps]

Hey tandykins, I hope your headache goes away real soon.

Just a quick one about wing clipping.  It is best to only clip one side as this throws out the balance and reduces the inability to fly.  If you clip both sides, the balance is maintained and they can actually fly pretty well with both wings clipped.

Mind you if you clip enough on both sides they can't. We did our cockatiel and did too many, first time she tried to fly to another perch she hit the ground like a tonne of bricks. Yikes!

 

[AussieChics]

I need to either clip the girls wings or sell a few chickens so they can be locked up in the run all day again. My garden is being highly affected by their costant free ranging.

but on 40 degree days they need to be out to hide under the hibiscus where its nice and cool!

 

[tandykins]

Hey tandykins, I hope your headache goes away real soon.

Just a quick one about wing clipping. It is best to only clip one side as this throws out the balance and reduces the inability to fly. If you clip both sides, the balance is maintained and they can actually fly pretty well with both wings clipped.

We initially did only clip one wing. It had no effect so we tried both - which also had no effect.

If you are really doing 10 cups of coffee a day you could do yourself less harm, cheaper, and still keep your headaches ( I'm assuming self destruction is your goal) by selecting a strong brick wall and charging head first into it !!

Coffee addiction is as hard to break as any, and is as destructive as any drug or grog..

Withdrawal is slow and challenging and the coffee devil will sit on your shoulder and whisper to you for at least two weeks, it's a SHE, thus is cunning, makes a lot of sense (at the time) and will not budge till YOU make her piss off.

Start right now and the force be with you!!!

Andrew

Will get to discussing mite issues soon I hope, bed bound at the moment with a pinched nerve in my back. Can't walk, sleep or get relief.......it will pass ( fingers crossed)

XD It's a slow kind of suicide. This is my "right now" amount and it varies a bit between 4 cups up to 12 if I've had little to no sleep (thanks 4 year old) and when I'm drinking coffee at all. I'm working my way down from that at the moment. I'm well aware that it's not good for me.

 

[Nu2chooks15]

Hi Everyone,

Still hanging in here "listening" to all the things chook (and otherwise) related trying to learn enough to not do the wrong things with my girls. Surely it won't be long before that first egg arrives, surely they can't "hold onto" them forever, lol.

Hoping the rain has eased for the Qld'ers, we could do with a couple of drops down here with the 2nd 40+oC day in a row .. got an oscillating fan for the girls (it mists too for about 2 hours without refilling) but have to switch it off for a time otherwise the little motor will burn out (not made for 24/7 but had it on for 48 hours straight before turning it off for a few hours, then back on again shortly.

Re coffee/caffeine addictions, I used to have a cuppa coffee as soon as I got up each day, followed by a cup of coffee for breakfast and this continued almost continually all day & night, then I changed my eating habits a touch and now I have 2 x 8oz glasses of water first thing (rehydrating after sleeping), I have my first coffee around 9 or 10am now with one maybe two more at work (all instant) in between I drink copious amounts of water (about 2 glasses for each cup of coffee ... well mug really), I have one brewed coffee after dinner and maybe one later again water in between and often I don't even have that after dinner coffee at all. Having said that sometimes I only have one coffee a day when home - no ill effects headache wise now but at first it was excruciatingly painful.

Please don't think I'm trying to tell you to halt the coffee just make sure you drink at least one glass of water before a coffee and after a coffee just to make sure you keep fully hydrated

 

[Sidhe13]

Hey all. The plan was to do a big yard clean up this weekend but it is just too **** hot!

It is so hot today that even with the new larger chook enclosure with more trees, it is just too hot and the poor girls were all panting with their wings out and couldn't sit still. So I put the sprinkler on low under the big tree down there....they can scratch and walk through the puddles and the difference it makes to the air temp is astonishing! I refilled the water bowls with fresh water and they had already stopped panting and seemed less frantic. You know it is hot when you accidently squirt them with the sprinkler and they don't care! They will even walk under it instead of around it.

Everything else is ticking along...I am up to 34 Darkling beetles and have culled 3 due to EXTREME deformities. No idea how many pupae there are. I have 2 containers of them since it was getting a bit crowded. I am easily finding a 10-20 a day. I do one big sift through in the morning/noon, and one surface check for pupae at night. Pupae to beetle container gets done both times too. One of my cats hears me pulling the trays out and comes running. She has developed a taste for them and sits waiting patiently. She does some basic "jump up" "jump down" and "sit" tricks for treats. I give her a mealworm or 2 if she is around and she got to eat the 1 culled beetle today, but she prefers the worms because they have such wiggly legs that tickle her nose.

Yesterday I put 15 of our eggs, and 7 Silkie eggs from a friend in the incubator. I am worried because the recommended humidity is 50-55% and this is sitting around 55-60%. There is no water in there and I have the vents open...hopefully this won't cause problems with the final hatch...will continue to monitor. There are a few eggs I am sure won't hatch, but I don't know enough to cull them straight out. I will wait and see on day 10-14 .

QLD is looking better! Hope the clean up is going well! Imagine all the bugs your girls will be scratching up after all that rain! Beware of snakes though...they will be out seeking dry spots and nesting boxes are prime real estate!

As for the caff-fiends! I had to cut back on the red bull because I was drinking waaaay too much and either getting the shakes or dehydrated. Man I couldn't believe how addicted my body was to it! I ended up mixing part of a can with juice and adding a bit more juice every few days to wean off it. I felt so shite without some! Now I just have a small can on the odd occasion. It sucks when it tastes so **** good and is so nice and cold on a hot day!

I'm grateful I never took to coffee....adore the smell and I can tell good coffee from bad just from the smell. My parents were huge coffee snobs so I am a bit of a connoisseur ...but can't stand even a sip of a weak mocha. Hate the taste of coffee.. but loooove the smell!

 

[Sidhe13]

And apparently d a m n is a word that gets censored...my bad

 

[Sidhe13]

I need to either clip the girls wings or sell a few chickens so they can be locked up in the run all day again. My garden is being highly affected by their costant free ranging.

but on 40 degree days they need to be out to hide under the hibiscus where its nice and cool!

Hey I just had an idea...try shade sail cloth or even a tarp for shade. Our old house had zero shade so we wired some over the coop and them set a sprinkler on kind of misty in there...it was actually really effective!