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No worries. I enjoy the discussion but I'm also an old timer that has 'been there, done that' and I have had my share of sick birds in the past. Sometimes when a methodology of flock raising doesn't work, it can indeed come back and "bite you in the butt." This is how we learn. I am of an age...

Hah! I can see Vancouver Island from the beach just down the road from my house!

In 1840 at the onset of the great overland migration, there were not near the varieties of poultry in the USA there are now. When people got to where they homesteaded, flocks were often started from doing business with those that got there ahead of them it's true. That is neither here nor there...

I agree. Super bugs and the fast method of transmission from mega hatcheries, at poultry shows and close proximity to neighbors. Many adults and children on the Oregon Trail died of Cholera, Typhus, Scarlet Fever, and who knows what else. Most of my ancestors ate or traded their chickens...

This absolutely is how I raised my four infants in the beginning and I am all about safety in raising my poultry. Letting them all build immunities slowly. I won't vaccinate or use antibiotics. Back yard flocks are not raised in a sterile laboratory setting. A lot of new comers to raising...

The only predators I worry about come out of the sky and an occasional raccoon. I have electric wire to put up around the hoop house. It worked with the raccoon last winter. The Potager garden is fenced with 1 inch poultry fencing from the ground to six feet. My barnyard is fenced with seven...

Now it's my turn to be jealous! I love this picture. Can't wait for one of my Silkies to be a good mama like this.

The little orphan Silkie is seven weeks old now and just a round ball of puff. I think female but I've been wrong with Whites before. I don't have a green house in my fenced garden, but back in early Spring when I set up the hoop tent for tomatos, I was thinking it would be a good place to keep...

An interesting thing happened today. After feeding this morning, I removed all the dish pans. Out of sight even. Usually I just leave them. They are always picked clean but the flock does not forage far from those pans. I feed at set times but it seemed everybody was always waiting for food to...

I don't have enough property to let fifty birds out all at once and expect them to find enough to eat until 8pm when I shut them up for the night. Most of their foraging is green grass and the compost pile right now until I open the potager garden up to them in the Fall and the orchard starts...

It could be a blocked proventriculis. Gently massage the crop after the olive oil treatment and maybe it will help break up the contents in the crop to help move things along. This treatment may take some time. Crop issues are rarely quick fix problems. A necropsy in this area will be a useful...

Justine: I'm so sorry you lost the rabbit. The heat you are experiencing sounds just brutal. Losing animals because of it is horrible. I've had a few flys get into my ff bucket too but they are going down into the liquid in the bottom of the holding bucket and drowning there. Nothing has been...

@del: That link was great about the different myopathy syndromes. Exertional Myopathy in Poultry is most interesting. After reading through this, I'm now convinced it could not have been prevented nor do I think it is hereditary. I believe her obesity and over zealously jumping from the perch...

Thank you del. These layers of mine are big meaty birds. They forage every day all day and are always running through the yard. They are top of the flock pecking order and get to all the food first. I knew they were heavy. I know she was hurt from the moment she jumped off the roost that first...

I had a hard time with this one. Was really pulling for this girl. I had invested some effort and emotion into trying to help her survive what ever it is that happened. Not to mention loss of sleep. Researching on the internet trying to come up with a theory as to what was going on in her...

The barnyard pullet that could not stand or walk right was in decline. Today was very warm and she simply could not get anywhere on her own. I moved her two or three times today to get her out of the sun. Poor wretched thing. She never did show outward signs of what was wrong. I did a quicky...

Very nice flock. I wouldn't know by these pictures that anything had happened to them. Daisy is my fave. What a pretty bird.

She might learn to be a great broody hen is she were allowed to sit in a nest in a place undisturbed by anything. If she were mine, I would experiment with under valued eggs and let her try. She may just need a quieter, less busy place.

It is uncommon for homes to have AC here as well. New homes get it I hear. Temps above 80 on the Pacific North West coast are not the norm. If the temp reads 80 degrees in Seattle, I can count on it getting to 72 degrees here. My daughter lives in Seattle and 80 is nearly unbearable for her. She...

I would need a turner if I worked days too. I haven't had a job outside my home since 1983. I don't go by the hygrometer that is built into the lid of the Genesis. I use a dual purpose one I get at the pet store in the reptile department. I do 35% until internal pipping then slowly bump to...