➡I accidentally bought Balut eggs: 2 live ducks! Now a Chat Thread!

[Cryss]

Just want to say thank you for the links you have shared. We have a friend who suffers from Lyme disease since finding an attached tick in 1990.
Her doctor advised to never discard an attached tick when it is removed. Instead save it by putting it in a zip bag or clean container for tests should the telltale signs of infection appear...like a red ring or bullseye around the bite area.

Tell her not to wait for bullseye signs. Trisha never had one. She thought she had the flu. Then she thought she sprained her arm. Then her knee hirt so bad she couldn't walk on it. And it kept going.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I've never bought straight runs cuz I don't want roosters. Which reminds me, I forgot!
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This is Roopecca, formerly known as Repecca till she crowed, Lavender Orpington. Once hormones hit him he became protective of the girls but from us. After drawing blood several times including a rather embarrassing frontal attack on hubby, we had to decide. Culling seemed the only way out. Then we decided to give him the very small original coop as his bachelor pad. It's plenty of room for 1 bird but was horrible for 9. His human aggressiveness is why I don't think I'm cut out for roosters. Maybe someday. Fortunately my breeder guarentees gender and will trade back a pullet. He also lets me chose what breeds I want according to what he has hatching. He also broods them for me until they can acclimated to outdoors. I'm not set up for brooding. Yet.
You have some very pretty ladies! Meyer's chose you some lovely breeds. Aren't Leghorns a hoot? Matilda was first to exit the introduction cage, first to explore the far reaches of the 300sqft run, first to jump on the perches and roosts. She squawks like a dinosaur constantly, no clucking. She tells me off and complains to me if she sees me. I can see the Colonel connection for sure!

He is gorgeous!! Sorry he turned out to be a roo! But glad the bachelor pad is working out!!

And that is awesome you have such a great breeder!!

My birds are all hatchery birds but I’d love a good breeder someday.

And thank you!! I appreciate that!! I think they are pretty too but then again I’m biased.

And these ones I actually picked out myself! I wanted to try some specific breeds so ordered them

But I have 12 hatching eggs coming next week and those will be the assortment.

Sorry for the confusion haha

I can’t wait to see what I get in the assortment.

And yes! They are amazing!! Even as a chick she charged right up into the middle of the bigs, went into their feed bowl, was not afraid of them at all! At like 2 weeks old too lol and they just let her!! Even the normally bossy ones.

And she stood her ground to them too. Stood up tall and stood her ground haha

Almost thought she was a rooster at first

But she’s been laying an egg a day since she started a little over a month ago so I guess she’s a girl

My Delaware is VERY loud. Poor girl was not blessed with a pretty voice.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I am exhausted and probably going to head to bed early tonight. Already in bed actually

Loaded and unloaded 3 full trailer loads of wood chips into the chicken run today as well as raked up a bunch of leaves to put in there and moved some railroad ties by myself since my dad didn’t want to help me as it was late and dark by this point.

Also walked back and forth across the (very large) yard several times because the wood chip pile is in the front yard and the chickens are in the back. I figured I could use the exercise so walked instead of riding in the trailer.

I don’t know if I ever mentioned it but dad and DB rented a chipper last weekend and chipped a bunch of stuff so we have several huge piles of, mostly pine, wood chips now.

I’ve always wanted to do deep litter in the run so this was a perfect opportunity to start. Would have put them in last weekend but everyone was exhausted after chipping everything.

My dad drives the tractor so I couldn’t do it by myself.

Well, could probably learn but haven’t.

Anyway, my dad did the driving while I did the loading and unloading. Although he did actually load the first load into the trailer without me cause I went inside for a few minutes and he did help load the last one cause I was getting tired but I loaded the other one and I did all the unloading.

The trailer also didn’t fit in the run so we couldn’t just back it in and dump it which would have been so much easier. Oh no. I had to scoop it all back out one pitchfork full at a time. Took a long time and a lot of work. The pitchfork was also a little too tall which made it hard to maneuver inside the run and took some extra turning/effort. Would have been easier if I had a shorter handle on it. Oh well.

Anyway, dad wanted to stop after the second one as he thought it was getting dark and also thought there was enough chips in there. I thought we had plenty of daylight left and that it wasn’t as deep as I wanted yet and therefore needed another trailer full. I won.

Well, not really since I had to do all the work, but I wanted to just get it done today rather than add more tomorrow cause I know I was going to decide to later. Might as well just finish the task now and be done with it.

Anyway, I then also stayed out well after dark because I got carried away raking leaves up. I didn’t have to. We were planning on loading the tractor up tomorrow but I wanted to at least put “just a few” in now and you know how that goes haha so I ended up being out there an additional hour or two after dark doing that. I got some flashlights and turned on the outside lights so I could see.

And before I did that I also lugged a couple railroad ties/old fence posts/wood over to put along the fence to help prevent the chips from coming out. Not sure what good it will do. Need to be one higher probably but the other ones were too heavy for me to get.

Wanted to put hardware cloth along the fence and will eventually but that was just too big of a task for today. Maybe tomorrow.

But I decided to put the ties down for now and hopefully help a little bit cause it was faster and easier than HC.

They usually kick everything out since the run is a chain link dog kennel so big holes.

But hopefully the ties will help. Had to rake up/scrape/clean up a bit along the fence too before putting the ties down so they would sit flush or as flush as possible.

Also got an additional cinder block to prop the waterer up on since it was now too low with all that new material in there.

Also refilled it while I was at it and while I had the hose on, decided to hose down the run. Read that’s good for compost.

Speaking of which, the wood chip pile was so hot and there was steam coming off it when we were digging and it was very hot/warm to the touch. It was very impressive. It’s only been sitting there a week. Man science is cool LOL

Oh and also earlier today before all this I refilled the chickens food today too so that’s part of why I did the water. Figured I might as well refill both on the same day. Got the eggs today too.

And of course the girls got to free range while we were doing the wood chips.

We started maybe mid to late afternoon, maybe around 2 or 2:30, and I didn’t come inside until like 6:45 cause I was working away and so obsessed with finishing what I was doing. Should have started sooner then it wouldn’t have been dark but we all had other stuff going on before then but I still made the best of it and got a ton done.

Meanwhile, while I was out there still working away in the dark, my dad was cooking dinner.

When I did finally came in, I ate a bit like a ravenous dog that hasn’t seen food in months

With manners of course.

But I had worked up a major appetite haha

Then took a nice hot shower and watched a little bit of the football game but not really super interested in it and very tired anyway. Probably going to go to sleep now. Long, exhausting day.

Here are some pictures of the run.

 

[Conan]

I am exhausted and probably going to head to bed early tonight. Already in bed actually

Loaded and unloaded 3 full trailer loads of wood chips into the chicken run today as well as raked up a bunch of leaves to put in there and moved some railroad ties by myself since my dad didn’t want to help me as it was late and dark by this point.

Also walked back and forth across the (very large) yard several times because the wood chip pile is in the front yard and the chickens are in the back. I figured I could use the exercise so walked instead of riding in the trailer.

I don’t know if I ever mentioned it but dad and DB rented a chipper last weekend and chipped a bunch of stuff so we have several huge piles of, mostly pine, wood chips now.

I’ve always wanted to do deep litter in the run so this was a perfect opportunity to start. Would have put them in last weekend but everyone was exhausted after chipping everything.

My dad drives the tractor so I couldn’t do it by myself.

Well, could probably learn but haven’t.

Anyway, my dad did the driving while I did the loading and unloading. Although he did actually load the first load into the trailer without me cause I went inside for a few minutes and he did help load the last one cause I was getting tired but I loaded the other one and I did all the unloading.

The trailer also didn’t fit in the run so we couldn’t just back it in and dump it which would have been so much easier. Oh no. I had to scoop it all back out one pitchfork full at a time. Took a long time and a lot of work. The pitchfork was also a little too tall which made it hard to maneuver inside the run and took some extra turning/effort. Would have been easier if I had a shorter handle on it. Oh well.

Anyway, dad wanted to stop after the second one as he thought it was getting dark and also thought there was enough chips in there. I thought we had plenty of daylight left and that it wasn’t as deep as I wanted yet and therefore needed another trailer full. I won.

Well, not really since I had to do all the work, but I wanted to just get it done today rather than add more tomorrow cause I know I was going to decide to later. Might as well just finish the task now and be done with it.

Anyway, I then also stayed out well after dark because I got carried away raking leaves up. I didn’t have to. We were planning on loading the tractor up tomorrow but I wanted to at least put “just a few” in now and you know how that goes haha so I ended up being out there an additional hour or two after dark doing that. I got some flashlights and turned on the outside lights so I could see.

And before I did that I also lugged a couple railroad ties/old fence posts/wood over to put along the fence to help prevent the chips from coming out. Not sure what good it will do. Need to be one higher probably but the other ones were too heavy for me to get.

Wanted to put hardware cloth along the fence and will eventually but that was just too big of a task for today. Maybe tomorrow.

But I decided to put the ties down for now and hopefully help a little bit cause it was faster and easier than HC.

They usually kick everything out since the run is a chain link dog kennel so big holes.

But hopefully the ties will help. Had to rake up/scrape/clean up a bit along the fence too before putting the ties down so they would sit flush or as flush as possible.

Also got an additional cinder block to prop the waterer up on since it was now too low with all that new material in there.

Also refilled it while I was at it and while I had the hose on, decided to hose down the run. Read that’s good for compost.

Speaking of which, the wood chip pile was so hot and there was steam coming off it when we were digging and it was very hot/warm to the touch. It was very impressive. It’s only been sitting there a week. Man science is cool LOL

Oh and also earlier today before all this I refilled the chickens food today too so that’s part of why I did the water. Figured I might as well refill both on the same day. Got the eggs today too.

And of course the girls got to free range while we were doing the wood chips.

We started maybe mid to late afternoon, maybe around 2 or 2:30, and I didn’t come inside until like 6:45 cause I was working away and so obsessed with finishing what I was doing. Should have started sooner then it wouldn’t have been dark but we all had other stuff going on before then but I still made the best of it and got a ton done.

Meanwhile, while I was out there still working away in the dark, my dad was cooking dinner.

When I did finally came in, I ate a bit like a ravenous dog that hasn’t seen food in months

With manners of course.

But I had worked up a major appetite haha

Then took a nice hot shower and watched a little bit of the football game but not really super interested in it and very tired anyway. Probably going to go to sleep now. Long, exhausting day.

Here are some pictures of the run.

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Looking good, kdog! Your birds will be happy when they get to dig around in there.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Looking good, kdog! Your birds will be happy when they get to dig around in there.

Thanks!! I sure hope they appreciate all my hard work I’m sure they will. Probably tons of ticks and other yummy bugs in there.

I forgot to add I also dug up/flipped the dirt in the run a bit first to even out some low areas and one of the girls was LOVING all the worms I uncovered

So I bet they will love this too. They usually always choose the wooded areas to free range in. Must be all sorts of good stuff in there.

And hopefully it will make nice compost too!!

I want to get the HC up ASAP so that way the finished compost can just fall right through to the outside and make for easy collecting.

Also sorry that post was so damn long tried to at least put a synopsis/main point right at the beginning this time though lol

 

[NanaKat]

I am exhausted and probably going to head to bed early tonight. Already in bed actually

Loaded and unloaded 3 full trailer loads of wood chips into the chicken run today as well as raked up a bunch of leaves to put in there and moved some railroad ties by myself since my dad didn’t want to help me as it was late and dark by this point.

Also walked back and forth across the (very large) yard several times because the wood chip pile is in the front yard and the chickens are in the back. I figured I could use the exercise so walked instead of riding in the trailer.

I don’t know if I ever mentioned it but dad and DB rented a chipper last weekend and chipped a bunch of stuff so we have several huge piles of, mostly pine, wood chips now.

I’ve always wanted to do deep litter in the run so this was a perfect opportunity to start. Would have put them in last weekend but everyone was exhausted after chipping everything.

My dad drives the tractor so I couldn’t do it by myself.

Well, could probably learn but haven’t.

Anyway, my dad did the driving while I did the loading and unloading. Although he did actually load the first load into the trailer without me cause I went inside for a few minutes and he did help load the last one cause I was getting tired but I loaded the other one and I did all the unloading.

The trailer also didn’t fit in the run so we couldn’t just back it in and dump it which would have been so much easier. Oh no. I had to scoop it all back out one pitchfork full at a time. Took a long time and a lot of work. The pitchfork was also a little too tall which made it hard to maneuver inside the run and took some extra turning/effort. Would have been easier if I had a shorter handle on it. Oh well.

Anyway, dad wanted to stop after the second one as he thought it was getting dark and also thought there was enough chips in there. I thought we had plenty of daylight left and that it wasn’t as deep as I wanted yet and therefore needed another trailer full. I won.

Well, not really since I had to do all the work, but I wanted to just get it done today rather than add more tomorrow cause I know I was going to decide to later. Might as well just finish the task now and be done with it.

Anyway, I then also stayed out well after dark because I got carried away raking leaves up. I didn’t have to. We were planning on loading the tractor up tomorrow but I wanted to at least put “just a few” in now and you know how that goes haha so I ended up being out there an additional hour or two after dark doing that. I got some flashlights and turned on the outside lights so I could see.

And before I did that I also lugged a couple railroad ties/old fence posts/wood over to put along the fence to help prevent the chips from coming out. Not sure what good it will do. Need to be one higher probably but the other ones were too heavy for me to get.

Wanted to put hardware cloth along the fence and will eventually but that was just too big of a task for today. Maybe tomorrow.

But I decided to put the ties down for now and hopefully help a little bit cause it was faster and easier than HC.

They usually kick everything out since the run is a chain link dog kennel so big holes.

But hopefully the ties will help. Had to rake up/scrape/clean up a bit along the fence too before putting the ties down so they would sit flush or as flush as possible.

Also got an additional cinder block to prop the waterer up on since it was now too low with all that new material in there.

Also refilled it while I was at it and while I had the hose on, decided to hose down the run. Read that’s good for compost.

Speaking of which, the wood chip pile was so hot and there was steam coming off it when we were digging and it was very hot/warm to the touch. It was very impressive. It’s only been sitting there a week. Man science is cool LOL

Oh and also earlier today before all this I refilled the chickens food today too so that’s part of why I did the water. Figured I might as well refill both on the same day. Got the eggs today too.

And of course the girls got to free range while we were doing the wood chips.

We started maybe mid to late afternoon, maybe around 2 or 2:30, and I didn’t come inside until like 6:45 cause I was working away and so obsessed with finishing what I was doing. Should have started sooner then it wouldn’t have been dark but we all had other stuff going on before then but I still made the best of it and got a ton done.

Meanwhile, while I was out there still working away in the dark, my dad was cooking dinner.

When I did finally came in, I ate a bit like a ravenous dog that hasn’t seen food in months

With manners of course.

But I had worked up a major appetite haha

Then took a nice hot shower and watched a little bit of the football game but not really super interested in it and very tired anyway. Probably going to go to sleep now. Long, exhausting day.

Here are some pictures of the run.

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Looks like you got a lot of wood chips moved!
Be sure to leave 1/2 inch gaps between the railroad ties on the low side of the run so rain water and snow melt can drain out.
How was the asthma? And your heart rate?

 

[ShrekDawg]

Looks like you got a lot of wood chips moved!
Be sure to leave 1/2 inch gaps between the railroad ties on the low side of the run so rain water and snow melt can drain out.
How was the asthma? And your heart rate?

I definitely did! Or at least I think so haha wanted it several inches deep and I think I got there or close. The pile is still huge too plus some other much smaller piles so if I ever need more, we have more than enough.

There’s plenty in there for now though.

Especially with all the leaves I put on top of it.

And thanks, I definitely will. The ties actually didn’t quite fit up against the fence which annoyed me and I spent a while trying to get them to but it seems that might actually be good?

They’re maybe like an inch away from the fence.

And the front of the run doesn’t have anything in front of it. The ties are just on the one side and water usually runs out from the front corner near the waterer. It’s low over there.

I did put a piece of stone in front of that side though but I’ll move it tomorrow.

I think I might actually try to get the HC up tomorrow and if I do that then I won’t need the ties at all. But it depends on how sore I am in the morning

And oddly that didn’t bug me at all!! Maybe because it was so cold?? But it’s weird cause usually I would have been so sick and out of breath or weak and wanting to quit and I wasn’t. I wanted to go go go lol

I didn’t even really feel weak or sick or anything.

But that could be because I started to feel a little weird right before we started working and I immediately went inside and had some toast with jelly (sugar) and a cup of green tea (caffeine) to try to curb it. By that point it had been like 4 hours since I’d eaten. After that I was fine. I did start feeling a little bit weirder like tired somewhere in the middle of it all but kept going.

It was weird.

I was fully expecting to be totally sick and I wasn’t. Maybe I just need a task to accomplish/focus on

I am very very sore though.

But I didn’t get my usual completely weak/sick/dehydrated totally weird feeling thing.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I’m starting to wonder if it isn’t something more related to sugar or something rather than out of shape/asthma. Cause even with all that physical work I wasn’t out of breath or anything today but what I did get was a little weak/weird feeling when I went too long without eating and/or drinking and when I did finally eat or drink, it seemed to fix it.

 

[Sara L]

I’m starting to wonder if it isn’t something more related to sugar or something rather than out of shape/asthma. Cause even with all that physical work I wasn’t out of breath or anything today but what I did get was a little weak/weird feeling when I went too long without eating and/or drinking and when I did finally eat or drink, it seemed to fix it.

Do you check your blood sugar? If you don't, you might want to do so and see if it's what's causing the issues. If you can manage it by diet and exercise that would be great.

 

[Kiki]

I’m starting to wonder if it isn’t something more related to sugar or something rather than out of shape/asthma. Cause even with all that physical work I wasn’t out of breath or anything today but what I did get was a little weak/weird feeling when I went too long without eating and/or drinking and when I did finally eat or drink, it seemed to fix it.

You better go to the doctor NOW before you fall off your parent's insurance.