Arizona Chickens

[Demosthine]

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Hey Aloha! I'll message you, too, but I'm interested in some eggs if you have that many extras. My wife and I were talking about starting up the Brinsea that we bought from Red, but we were going to start with Trader Joe eggs so that we don't get upset about ruining anything special, but if you have that many... My girls and wife loved the chick stage, plus the incubating and hatching would be another great lesson for my girls. We have a meeting right after work today, but maybe come next week we can get together. *** Venting *** We officially found out we are part of those 8,000+ CPS cases that were never investigated, but we knew our cases was neglected. The case worker had never once met with us, closed the case and gave us our unsubstantiated letter. Well, they re-opened it and the new case worker interviewed the kids yesterday. He said he's never had any that are this well taken care of, nor had he ever had a principal write a letter on the spot that was in the parents' favor. Needless to say, he is overly impressed and our meeting is just a formality so that he can immediately close the case again, unsubstantiated of course. But this is the kind of crap that our system goes through. The teacher last year thought that the girls were not being fed enough and were too skinny. She forced them through the lunch line to get extra food. Then she got mad because they didn't eat any of it because they were full, so we think it was a petty form of retaliation for embarrassing her. Our kids eat like cows, excercise and are very active, and make their own lunches every day. Sandwiches, fruits, vegetables and snacks to boot. Our "mandatory reporting" laws overwhelm the system and we get the sort of crap like they are going through now! And causing extra stress and work right before our holidays. Morons! *** End Venting ***

 

[alohachickens]

Wow, Demosthine, I can see why you were upset. I went over there and I have to say if you take one fraction of the effort in feeding your kids as you do for your chickens, they are surely doing great. LOL! (Seriously, those were pampered chickies, ha ha ha.)

Sometimes, though, the weight thing can be very deceptive. Some kids are overweight and actually malnourished, in terms of protein and minerals that they need. It's very common in inner-city "food deserts" where families can't access fresh produce. Other kids might look too thin or too heavy, and be extremely healthy. Amount of body fat, more or less, doesn't usually tell the whole story.

My sister has her son on a super-healthy diet with tons of fresh fruits and veggies, and he looks like a twig. She rarely lets him eat junk food, and sugar is restricted. She's always throwing fruit and veggies at him. He comes home and she cuts up an orange for a snack. Anyone who has ever been on a diet knows that eating things like raw apples and carrots fills you up, so you eat less of things like cupcakes. It's the best diet trick in the world.

So my nephew looks scrawny, but his diet is better than any kid I've seen. But, a pound of fruit has less calories than a pound of cupcakes. That's just science. LOL.

Of course you can have some eggs to try and hatch, I just PM'ed you with info.

 

[pipemum]

Wow, Demosthine, I'd be ****** too.

 

[alohachickens]

Do you feed your chickens crumble in the area you found the mold? When I first started raising chickens my entire run was dirt and every so often I would loosen the dirt, add diatomaceous earth and turn it and discovered the black mold you mentioned that was so strong it would burn my eyes. I thought it was the chicken poo, but quickly discovered what smelt so bad was the crumble, mixed with water and a little time to ferment. I put brick under my feeder that hangs and hose it off daily and I no longer have the mold accumulating underground.

Depending on the time of year, sometimes I will dig a hole in my empty garden and dispose of the remains of cleaning my coop or brooder (wood shavings) and cover it with dirt and keep it damp. Later when I turn the dirt it is really dark, there are tons of worms and the smell is so strong and atrocious it burns my eyes. Imagine what it does to the fragile respiratory systems of chickens inside of a coop when they scratch at it! Old, wet, chick starter is even worse than the crumble and neither take long to mold!

No, they were fed in dishes. Turns out the problem was the stupid wet straw that I put in there when the coop flooded. I should have just left it dirt, at least dirt doesn't really get mold, LOL. But they were all wading around in about an inch of standing water, so I covered the coop floor with a bale of straw, and then it got all moldy underneath.

I cleared all that nasty moldy straw out, and I haven't had it occur again. It was a lot of work, but I raked the ground CLEAN on the entire area, got every last bit of it out of there. OMG the smell! I thought I was going to vomit.

After reading on BYC about sand in the coop floor, I covered the coop with a couple of inches of sand after I dug out the moldy straw. The chickens have kind of mixed the sand in with the dirt, through the years, and now it's kind of improved drainage in that area or something? Because even when we had the heavy rains just recently, the coop didn't have the standing water that it did that first year! So it hasn't really flooded again since. I'm a big fan of sand for coop floors now!

However, I recently tried a couple of bags of Rice Hulls. The chickens seem to like it, but I think I saw what might be some light colored white mold under the water dishes. There was no nasty odor like the straw, but still, I'm a little concerned. Mold is mold. So the verdict is still out on the rice bedding!

 

[Stynch]

Demosthine - I guess you can be thankful that the first caseworker let you fall through the cracks. Imagine the nightmare if the caseworker had been the overzealous type who took your kids away and then it would have been up to you to prove your innocence to get them back! I'm not trying to justify the shoddy way that CPS has been run lately, but in your case it worked out for the best. Does this report stay "on the record"? Way too "Big Brother" for my liking.

 

[Demosthine]

Aloha, that super-healthy diet that we are on at my house turned out to be a large part of my eldest daughter's behavioral problems. Every time she had any dairy products, it was putting her in to a major depression and she'd drop to the floor crying at the slightest thing. We've been fighting our insurance for nearly two years to get the food intolerance test covered, but they keep refusing. Around Halloween, they got in to a huge batch of candy and devoured several pounds worth. Ironically, their behavior was better that week than any time over the last year. It was weird. We had some labs done to check for deficiencies and abnormalities, but they all came back perfectly fine. Thinking maybe it was a too-healthy diet, we started the girls on a teaspoon of raw honey before bed every night and it's worked wonders. Not only is she back to a completely regular diet including dairy, but her behavior and schooling has improved dramatically. It's made me rethink certain parts of the diet, although I'm still trying to keep them away from processed sugars. I never would have thought low sugar intake would cause milk to be a problem. The body is truly a complex and amazing thing.
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I think that was part of the response from the first time. We immediately told her we would be securing a lawyer and would not just be rail roaded like a friend of ours is. They have several thousand pages worth of medical records showing she's been following the doctor's advice, but they are still trying to charge her criminally for neglect and abuse. That's a long, complicated story, but if you remember I had asked for prayers for the young boy in a coma, it's his family. This time, we didn't even have time to request a lawyer before he said he was closing the case as unsubstantiated. When it comes to my family, though, I don't play well with others.
The case records stay in the system for three years before they are relocated to "archived records," where they are supposedly held indefinitely. It is very much of a "Big Brother" situation and is amazingly scary how much power they try to take away from the parents. State law and case law allows physical discipline, like spankings, but CPS tries to pursue them as if they are illegal. Being in law enforcement myself, I know a great many Officers who not only verify it's completely legal, but often recommend it in many cases. A good ol' fashion whooping is just what many kids need these days. There's a huge difference between a spanking and a beating, though. There is case law where spanking, even with a wooden spoon, has been justified as legal and legitimate in court. It depends on the severity and situation, of course, but an outright ban was unconstitutional and interfered with parental rights. They haven't set any boundaries between discipline and abuse, though, so it's still very much of a gray area.
I'm not aware if it in Arizona, but I know of several cases nationally where CPS has stepped in for medical neglect charges when it comes down to parental rights. For instance, a few families are fighting when their kids were taken for not vaccinating them. For many of us, it is part of our religious beliefs while others reference a great many studies that are showing that the entire vaccination program is a farce. Then there is the case with the Amish family whose daughter requested to stop the cancer treatment, but the Courts and CPS is trying to force it upon them. Last I had heard, that family has gone on the run to avoid a painful and devastating end to their daughter's life. They are attempting to give her a happy, graceful last few years. Now, with the Affordable Care Act, things are getting much worse.

 

[pastrymama]

Ducklings!!!!!!!!!!! I love my ducks! I have 12 of them, most of them pure magpies. Not sure who is laying, but I will have fertile eggs soon. Terrific layers, very good in the summers. I can hatch for you but you MUST take all of them.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Demosthine: my youngest was always skin and bones. I was at a shopping center with her and heard lady's talking about that pure Starved girl, then they saw she was eating a hot dog as they passed. She is now 30 something and is in size 2. She eats just fine, that us her body type, she has no problem putting food away. She dose have problem keeping weight on. After her last baby, my grand daughter, she was hoping to keep some of the baby fat, but she lost it.

Her husband meet her when she was size 0, and told her she was fat when she made it to size 1.

It was the opinion of one... She has enough self confidence to have set him straight. This is her in size 1. She is 5'5"

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Found this today, passing it along

 

[WestSideChicken]

It is amazing to me to walk outside and see a little 1 pound bantam standing tall and proud crowing like he is a big boy. I have known since he started losing his fluff that this chick was a he, but this little old English game banty sure is turning out to be beautiful! Wouldn't even be a couple nuggets to eat so he gets to go live on a farm down the road that sits on county land... Both my boys have picked Roos when buying chicks, not letting them pick any more! I wish I could keep them, their colors are always so vibrant and distinctive.

 

[WestSideChicken]

Demosthine: I am so sorry you had to deal with such an incident. Sometimes teachers get a bit over eager to save the world without thinking or checking facts. As a teacher, I am a mandated reporter. However, I always check and think first. I get to know my families and wether it is just a slim healthy child, or the kid is being neglected. Wether that bruise is from falling, or a fist. I am surprised my own parents never had a report, I was skinny as a rail and anemic so a simple touch left a purple bruise!