Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[K Spot]

I hope everyone in SEQld is ready for this rain event over the next couple of days.

 

[satay]

I hope everyone in SEQld is ready for this rain event over the next couple of days.  

The wind has picked up here today. Can only imagine what it is like near the coast.
Will be keeping my fingers crossed for all you girls closer to the coast @K Spot @Teila and @cwrite

 

[Fancychooklady]

Kooka, I think that everyone is having problems with this site .
It's not recommended that you use straw when you have a parasite infestation. The cylindrical cavity affords a great hiding place for the mites and allows them to avoid the pesticide. Depends what you are dusting or spraying with , but it doesn't take long for parasites to build up a resistance to pyrethrum based products and if you are spraying on a monthly basis, that is most likely the case.
If you are finding mites on the eggs then you are more than likely dealing with northern red fowl mite. They are very difficult to eliminate.


http://parasitipedia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2540&Itemid=2816

 

[Fancychooklady]

Our girl had a great comp over the weekend , bringing home the ribbons, the rug and a wad of cash.
To our despair when we got home , one of the youngsters had broken his leg in a freak paddock accident. The highs and lows of equestrian love. We are devastated.

 

[K Spot]

Oh no! So sorry Fancy. That's devastating.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Miltons will do fine, I just use domestos or bleach. I place the bottom half in the bath and pour bleach in then dilute with water, let it sit overnight. When it's time to take the egg turning tray out I place each egg in a muffin paper and line the tray with paper towel, this minimizes spills and goopy muck.
I then use glen 20 to spray the lid section. A wipe down with methylated spirits will also suffice.
There is one product that can replace all of these and is also good for sanitizing coops after disease.
Virkon , it is also effective against marecks and is readily available in Australia.

http://www.neogen.com/animalsafety/pdf/ProdInfo/Tech_Bulletins/VirkonS.pdf

That Virkon is good stuff. I use the little sachets of it, the tubs cost a bomb!

I scrub the brooder and incubators with just water and bleach though.

Sorry to hear about the young horse.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Thanks Ben. The hospitals are all using virkon now. I have the tablets , we also use them to spray out stables when we are competing interstate.

 

[cwrite]

A hen can hatch out of a blue egg and still not lay a blue egg itself. The blue egg gene is dominant. If the original blue egg layer has only one copy of the gene it will lay blue eggs, however her daughter may have received No copy of that gene and hence will lay a brown or white egg.

Thanks Ash. I knew an Easter Egger could lay brown eggs, but I thought that could only happened on second generation crosses and by then it should be obvious that the pullet is not pure. My ara's look pure to my untrained eye. The crested girls below are the only four pullets I got out of the 11 that hatched. I can't see any indications of another breed in them. Am I missing something?



Hopefully the speckled eggs were just weird ones from my older ladies. I got a 60g spotted egg yesterday that looked like what one of my Austrolorps usually lay, but with a few speckles. I'm going to hang on to hope for a blue egg for a bit longer.

The wind has picked up here today. Can only imagine what it is like near the coast.
Will be keeping my fingers crossed for all you girls closer to the coast @K Spot @Teila and @cwrite

Hmm... It's really windy. Perhaps I should check out what's coming so I'm not taken by surprise.

 

[cwrite]

My hubby mentioned that a bit of rain was on the way but I haven't been keeping up with the news seeing as I'm resting my hip tendon.

I think I might just keep the chooks in their run so that they don't blow away.

 

[K Spot]

I think that might be a good idea. Predicting rain falls of 400mm+