Ainawgsd's farm chickens

[AinaWGSD]

We took drastic measures today and took a scalpel to Rose's foot. I hope we helped, but it sure looked rough. We got a lot of slimy stringy gunk and one chunk that looked almost like a tendon (it came out too easy and didn't cause any foot spasms or flopping). I'm not convinced some of the gunk that came out wasn't footpad fat.

But she wasn't limping when we let her go.

And her giant boyfriend was very well mannered and didn't try to attack us. He did briefly side shuffle at us, and he kept an eye on us. But he behaved himself.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Four or five of the buckeye pullets were very in my pocket today. One of them gossiped at me for about 5 minutes. I thought she might have been complaining about Rose hogging the nest box, but we only got one green egg today so maybe she was just bringing me up to speed on all the coop gossip.

Both malines and one of the buckeyes tidbitted for the girls while I was hanging out with them this morning.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Rose's feet are finally starting to look better!

We went ahead and re-wrapped both feet today, but I think we're good to just do twice weekly bandage changes on the bad foot and one more week of keeping the good foot covered ought to be enough to completely heal that one.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Some nice shots of the buckeyes from the other day. I'm really happy with how well they've turned out and looking forward to seeing what hatches next year.

Everyone's looking so grown up now!

 

[AinaWGSD]

Husband wanted to show me some minor comb damage he noticed on one of the malines cockerels. This is the picture he sent me:

He said he tried to get a picture in the coop, but the cockerel wouldn't hold still because he was looking at him. So he tried to catch him up and he flew out the door and landed in the snow and just froze. He's the first chicken to venture out since it snowed on Friday. Husband wanted to verify that this wasn't frostbite, just a scab. Apparently the chooks are feeling cooped up with all the snow on the ground.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Who ordered snow?!

No one has set foot outside of the coop since we got snow last Saturday.

Rose is not impressed

I suspect the cold caused the water heater to stay on all night and the draw was enough to drain the batteries.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Talk about temperature swings! A few days ago it was single digits with two digit negative degree wind chills. Today its almost 50!

My poor malines cockerels are going to lose all their points.

I knew it was a possibility, but it's still making me consider ordering some Mechelen eggs or chicks from Greenfire. Or possibly just working towards the pea comb of the mechelen by crossing in buckeyes. We'll see where those thoughts go come spring/summer.

 

[WingItRanch]

Talk about temperature swings! A few days ago it was single digits with two digit negative degree wind chills. Today its almost 50!View attachment 4268341View attachment 4268342
My poor malines cockerels are going to lose all their points.

I knew it was a possibility, but it's still making me consider ordering some Mechelen eggs or chicks from Greenfire. Or possibly just working towards the pea comb of the mechelen by crossing in buckeyes. We'll see where those thoughts go come spring/summer.

That would be an interesting cross! I see a lot of people breeding in pea combs for this exact reason.

 

[AinaWGSD]

I'm definitely making that cross. The whole reason we got the malines in the first place was to make sexlinks. But I hadn't really considered using any of the hybrids to breed forward until this. I know they'll be fine in the long run, but it's gotta hurt right now!

 

[AinaWGSD]

Husband came home from checking on the farm chickens after dark and reported that her bad foot seemed more swollen. So we went out to check on it.

She had a tiny, rock hard plug on the top that quite literally popped right off when we removed the bandage! It still feels swollen like she might have another deep kernel further back. But it's not actually swollen (what husband was seeing was the plug pushing up on the bandage).

And the bottom of her foot is almost completely healed. I did pull the scab off tonight but the tissue underneath just needs to toughen up a bit before we leave the bandage off. We just put a light wrap on. My guess is she can probably be bandage free in 2 weeks.