Arizona Chickens

[rufus]

Gallo, we ate mostly the leaves, not the stems. It always started with them being sauteed in bacon grease. That is the wrong thing to say now days. Then other things were added, depending upon what was available. Check out "Mexico Cooks" or "Chavo Cooks" on the internet.

People used to eat what they had available. Now they all run to Wal Mart to buy goodies with their food stamp money. My wife works part time checking out groceries at a store. She can't understand why people buy so much candy and pop and pay with their food stamp card. Some candy is OK, but five pounds of it!

People like Mahonri have a great future ahead of them fixing these peoples' teeth.

Rufus

 

[Mahonri]

Rufus... if they are buying with food stamps, they can't afford their teeth fixed.

I actually had a patient ask if I would accept "food stamps" as payment.
I wanted to say, no "shame" stamps aren't accepted here. I just said, no, that would be against the law.

Here's a pic of my chick that got killed today... only three weeks older.

 

[Beckyhsinglsc]

I took Ursula (the hen that died) to the vet for an autopsy.
I was concerned that I had something going through my flock and I'm supposed to give 2 of the pullets to my sister this week. I didn't want to make her chickens sick too.
So... the two hens being sick within 2 weeks of each other was only coincidence. The first hen recovered from whatever was ailing her but Ursula had eaten a screw that had punctured through something

and entered into her small intestines. It had been festering in there for awhile, I guess and it finally got her.
I'm sad that our sweetest hen had to die this way, but I'm relieved that it can be pinpointed to something that isn't contagious. I'm glad I took her in.

Now, if I knew how to process a chicken and what their insides looked like normally, maybe I could do it myself next time and save myself $80! (hint hint)

 

[pimachickens]

So sorry to hear about your chick.

 

[Beckyhsinglsc]

Cute chick Mahonri and a great picture to remember it by! I'm going to take pictures of all my chickens tomorrow. I don't have a very current picture of Ursula.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

rufus, I'm definitely going to check out "Mexico Cooks" and "Chavo Cooks". Bacon....

We don't eat nearly as much meat as we used to, but I still use bacon a lot (in moderation) for flavoring things. A couple of years ago we discovered nitrate free bacon (uncured) and we love it. Seems like a lot of recent research is suggesting that the nitrates in cured meats is pretty bad on diabetes. I know what you mean about poor people (here in the city) and candy. I think people are so disconnected from their food. Just look at how many threads appear on byc about people being a little freaked out at first about eating their own eggs or someone else being freaked out after they gave them home grown eggs. People want their food to come neatly packaged and the sweeter, the better.

Mahonri, Sounds like raptor to me too. What a cute chick too.

Beckyhsinglsc, Thanks for letting us know what happened. I'm glad it wasn't a contagious disease. I used to be quite worried about all the sharp things in my yard that could damage a chicken. Now I'm extremely worried; I find screws in my yard all the time!

TT!, what ever became of the feral chicken that was trying to join your flock?

 

[Beckyhsinglsc]

Quote:
It wasn't even a pointy screw. It was a machine screw with a flat end. We're careful too, but who knows what they'll dig up from the previous owners or the pool install, or whatever. I think I'll get my BIL over here with his metal detector!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
It wasn't even a pointy screw. It was a machine screw with a flat end. We're careful too, but who knows what they'll dig up from the previous owners or the pool install, or whatever. I think I'll get my BIL over here with his metal detector!

Wow! So, some part must have just been sharp enough to damage her? I'm always careful not to let anything potentially dangerous get onto the ground. But like you say, stuff accumulates from previous owners. Great idea with the metal detector.

pastrymama, I hope your hen gets better! Did you check for mites after dark? Look carefully on the roosts too. Some mites hide in cracks and crevices during the day and feed after dark. Your post fell off the first page of the Emergencies section so I bumped it back up.

 

[pastrymama]

she is so getting worse. i don't know what to do. haven't had a pullet do this before. only been eaten by the beagle before! she tries to stand and face plants and flaps around like a webble wobble and can't get up, her butt up in the air.

 

[AZKat]

I'm sorry to hear about everyone's chicken trouble. My chickens have been doing well, which is more than I can say for the rest of things. My employer's oh-so-delightful payroll system fouled up, and I got shorted on my paycheck this week. I'll get the money next check, supposedly, but I needed that money to pay bills. I really don't know what to do, other than pray that things work out. On top of that, some kind of stomach flu has been making its way through our house. The two big boys had it last week, and then I got it last night. Thankfully my husband was able to stay home today, because I was not in any fit state to do anything but lay in bed most of today. I just hope that the baby got enough antibodies that he won't get sick. Then, we got a call that my father-in-law had passed out at a meeting. The paramedics had been called, and they couldn't find anything obviously wrong except for low blood pressure. Thankfully he's going to go see his doctor, and was resting comfortably when my husband checked on him. I had hoped this year would be better than last year, but I'm starting to have my doubts.

As far as butchering the chickens, I can only do it during the week, as I work on the weekends. I don't claim to be an expert by any means, but I managed to process half a dozen Cornish X, and it went pretty well.