2018 Newbie Chat!

[Cbarr00]

Well guys...Frodo died today.
My husband found him in his crate this afternoon.
He wasn’t eating much the last couple of days and wouldn’t move around much.

This is hard because we both have become very fond of our little special needs guy.
DH was always bringing him things he thought Frodo would like to eat.
I don’t know what to do about his body. The ground is frozen and we can’t bury him right now.
I’d like to have a necropsy done so I know what happened to him but I haven’t been able to get a lot of information about it from our state Agriculture website.


As for my friend...yes she has a lot going on with an abusive husband and a 13 year old son. Plus she works two jobs because her husband doesn’t want her to be at home or do animal type things as an income.
But with all these things I think the animals are her way of feeling loved and needed but I don’t think she really can cope with it all.
It’s getting out of hand with her working now and unable to put in the kind of time she used to.
I can’t do anything even anonymously because it’s a small town and all her other friends have known her for years.
Plus I don’t need her unstable husband coming after us.
I’m never going to give her anymore animals though.
I just can’t do that.

On a lighter note...we got 6 eggs today and one was a beautiful green first egg from Taka my EE!
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I'm so sorry for yet another loss.

As for the friend, I understand that. I grew up in an abusive environment so I can only hope one day she finds the strength she needs to leave. It's a tough situation all around. It's sad that the animals have to suffer as well tho.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Well guys...Frodo died today.
My husband found him in his crate this afternoon.
He wasn’t eating much the last couple of days and wouldn’t move around much.

This is hard because we both have become very fond of our little special needs guy.
DH was always bringing him things he thought Frodo would like to eat.
I don’t know what to do about his body. The ground is frozen and we can’t bury him right now.
I’d like to have a necropsy done so I know what happened to him but I haven’t been able to get a lot of information about it from our state Agriculture website.


As for my friend...yes she has a lot going on with an abusive husband and a 13 year old son. Plus she works two jobs because her husband doesn’t want her to be at home or do animal type things as an income.
But with all these things I think the animals are her way of feeling loved and needed but I don’t think she really can cope with it all.
It’s getting out of hand with her working now and unable to put in the kind of time she used to.
I can’t do anything even anonymously because it’s a small town and all her other friends have known her for years.
Plus I don’t need her unstable husband coming after us.
I’m never going to give her anymore animals though.
I just can’t do that.

On a lighter note...we got 6 eggs today and one was a beautiful green first egg from Taka my EE!
View attachment 1631807
View attachment 1631809

So sad to hear of Frodo. It must be so hard losing Silkie and Frodo both, plus Hector. I still miss Amber every time I go out to the coop.

But your new egg is beautiful!! I'm anxiously awaiting my first one. Jade and Opal's combs are pretty red. I look in the nest box every day, lol.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

I am totally surprised by Jellybean who has summoned up the courage to fighr back and whom ive just witnessed chase off one of my female ducks! Ordinarily she would get pushed around by any one of them but evidently she won't be letting Aurora push her around anymore! It is always hard to watch, I don't like nor enjoy any of the pecking order stuff but for her to go from constantly being picked on to being the one who's doing the picking on is quite an achievement on her part. I feel sorry for Aroura though she's been getting it quite a bit from Pedro lately too and now she has Jellybean on her case also it really is a case of mixed emotions for me, happy for Jellybean to be sticking up for herself, mad that shes picking on Aurora and sad for Aurora who's getting chased all over the place.

 

[llombardo]

I'm sorry for your loss. I would be hesitant to get the state involved because what if it's something that is directly from your friends soil, feed, etc. Once the state is involved they are involved. I was reading another thread where this happened when they got the birds tested. State shut them down--no birds in it out.

I know I had Sunny cremated, if you want to bury, maybe freeze until you can dig outside?

Again sorry for your loss.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Someone was fluffing up the bedding in one of the nest boxes today!!! There also have been more and more downy feathers in the other nest box...hope I'm not going to start off with a broody for my first egg, lol. Do they put feathers in the nest normally?
Going to have to watch the camera more often, see if I can catch who it is. The feathers look like both Diamond's and maybe Jade's.
I put some more saved fall leaves in the run today. They sure like to scratch through them. We also moved the new perch that I mistakenly put up right over the ramp. It now is over the ground. I may end up replacing the ramp come spring. It's pretty bad, even with scraping it off every day.
I can't wait for warmer weather so I can sit outside comfortably with them in the yard. They're never bothered by the weather, it's me that is cold, lol.

 

[123RedBeard]

Looks like quite a few of you haven't checked the calender lately ...

Happy Belated New Years!

 

[CannedMonster]

So sad to hear of Frodo. It must be so hard losing Silkie and Frodo both, plus Hector. I still miss Amber every time I go out to the coop.

But your new egg is beautiful!! I'm anxiously awaiting my first one. Jade and Opal's combs are pretty red. I look in the nest box every day, lol.

Yeah I’m afraid to get another bantam roo!
I will get one though.
Cackle Hatchery offers sexed Cochin bantams of limited varieties as well as a few other bantam breeds so I’m going to order some for this spring and get a little red cockerel too.
I just have to plan it so that it stays light out for a while after I get home from work so I can spend time with them.

I’ve noticed it takes a bit longer for the bantams to start laying.
They will be checking out the nest boxes a lot right before they do.
Do you have fake eggs or golf balls to put in there?

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Yeah I’m afraid to get another bantam roo!
I will get one though.
Cackle Hatchery offers sexed Cochin bantams of limited varieties as well as a few other bantam breeds so I’m going to order some for this spring and get a little red cockerel too.
I just have to plan it so that it stays light out for a while after I get home from work so I can spend time with them.

I’ve noticed it takes a bit longer for the bantams to start laying.
They will be checking out the nest boxes a lot right before they do.
Do you have fake eggs or golf balls to put in there?

I need to get my daughter's fake eggs but I keep forgetting to get them when I'm over there!

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Someone was fluffing up the bedding in one of the nest boxes today!!! There also have been more and more downy feathers in the other nest box...hope I'm not going to start off with a broody for my first egg, lol. Do they put feathers in the nest normally?
Going to have to watch the camera more often, see if I can catch who it is. The feathers look like both Diamond's and maybe Jade's.
I put some more saved fall leaves in the run today. They sure like to scratch through them. We also moved the new perch that I mistakenly put up right over the ramp. It now is over the ground. I may end up replacing the ramp come spring. It's pretty bad, even with scraping it off every day.
I can't wait for warmer weather so I can sit outside comfortably with them in the yard. They're never bothered by the weather, it's me that is cold, lol.

Pedro did this a lot weeks before laying, she still does sometimes when she's getting ready to lay but isn't quite there yet, sometimes she even goes into the duck house and fluffs up their bedding too lol. I've learned to wait until she lays her egg before I even out the bedding she digs in other wise she just goes and does it again lol

 

[Anna Ranieri]

I woke this morning to everything being iced Over, I'm really pleased with the amount the tarpaulin is protecting the run and coops. I don't have water heaters nor any heat in the run or coops but the tarpaulin is such that there is no frost on the ground, none of the waters have iced at all and aren't freezing cold to touch either and all is dry and warm in there. I knew tarpaulin to be a good source of shelter and warmth but never knew it would protect this much, really pleased with the result. Recently I've found a summer tarpaulin it has uva and uvb protection and is designed to deflect the sun so will be great to use on the run for shade and rain shelter. Amazed at something so cheap being able to do so much!
There was too much ice cover the duck pools for me to fish it all out so I opted at tipping the water out and refilling, it is virtually impossible to tip out iced water without making a noise so I had to painstakingly tip it out slowly bit by bit so's not to disturb the neighbours who at 6:30 am are still sleeping. I have the hose pipe running at just over a trickle in one of the pools, again so's not to make noise but I can hear neighbours stirring And can see lights going on so when I fill the next pool I'll use the hose at full blast for my impatient ducks who keep standing around the semi filled pool as if they were willing it to hurry up and fill lol.
I've put thick cardboard down in a several places throughout the garden to give the birds somewhere to sit and rest and not be straight on the frosty ground, the chickens are making use of it but the ducks are trying to eat it lol. I have a blanket I put on my lap as I sit out here and one of my drakes was shivering quite a bit and kept lifting up his feet, someone ( I don't know which) pulled the blanket off the chair I had put it on while I clean coops and I came out to find the once shivering drake snuggled up on the blanket with the other drake sitting close to him to help keep him warm such a heart warming sight even though I'm sitting here freezing lol.