BYC Café

[Mtn Margie]

Morning! Nice score Shad!
DL, I am glad to hear that DH's family is getting a clue.
I skipped a few pages so I hope the chick hatching and egg setting goes well. Vets are expensive around here for any critter so they are pretty much on their own to stay out of trouble and not cost too much more than replacement cost...which sounds fairly heartless, I know. Afternoon rains all this week and highs in the upper 60's. Almost chilly... lol!
Enjoy the day you all!

 

[CapricornFarm]

Morning! Nice score Shad!
DL, I am glad to hear that DH's family is getting a clue.
I skipped a few pages so I hope the chick hatching and egg setting goes well. Vets are expensive around here for any critter so they are pretty much on their own to stay out of trouble and not cost too much more than replacement cost...which sounds fairly heartless, I know. Afternoon rains all this week and highs in the upper 60's. Almost chilly... lol!
Enjoy the day you all!

It's just not worth $200 to fix up a chicken, so yeah, most folks DIY.

 

[DobieLover]

Good morning Cafe.
Coffee is made.
It's somewhere in the mid thirties Centigrade here with 58% humidity; hot and sticky basically.
A farmer in the next valley has recently felled a Cork Oak tree and when I saw him this morning he said he had put aside a section of the main trunk for me. Very thoughtful of him. I'll pay him for it of course but it won't be anything like the price of buying seasoned wood from a hardwood specialist wood yard.

Nice score!

 

[DobieLover]

Good morning Cafe and thanks for the coffee, Shad.
I am doing a 180 on my opinion of Veronica's mothering skills. She started out great but for the last several days, I've observed her picking the chicks up by their wing feathers, shaking them and dropping them. They shriek then run under her and she sits on them. It's like she never wanted them to hatch. She just wants to sit on something.
All their little wing feathers are at wonky angles, sticking out from their bodies because of the damage she's done to them. I got so fuming mad at her yesterday I got out the brooder plate, put it in the ward, took her out and shoved her in the broody crate. She shrieked and kept trying to stuff herself between the 1.5" spaced bars (and she's so damn skinny she could nearly fit) and the kids just distressed peeped the entire time. So after about 10 minutes I put her back and she immediately started tossing them around again.
This morning I got her to take them out in the hopes that out of the ward she would have more things to fixate on other than sitting on the chicks. So she's now tossing them around out there AND running over them. Just steps right on them. So now I'm glad she's so skinny.
NEVER again will this bird be allowed to sit. In fact, she just made the top of the list of birds to sell this fall.
I hope the chicks survive her.

 

[Shadrach]

Good morning Cafe and thanks for the coffee, Shad.
I am doing a 180 on my opinion of Veronica's mothering skills. She started out great but for the last several days, I've observed her picking the chicks up by their wing feathers, shaking them and dropping them. They shriek then run under her and she sits on them. It's like she never wanted them to hatch. She just wants to sit on something.
All their little wing feathers are at wonky angles, sticking out from their bodies because of the damage she's done to them. I got so fuming mad at her yesterday I got out the brooder plate, put it in the ward, took her out and shoved her in the broody crate. She shrieked and kept trying to stuff herself between the 1.5" spaced bars (and she's so damn skinny she could nearly fit) and the kids just distressed peeped the entire time. So after about 10 minutes I put her back and she immediately started tossing them around again.
This morning I got her to take them out in the hopes that out of the ward she would have more things to fixate on other than sitting on the chicks. So she's now tossing them around out there AND running over them. Just steps right on them. So now I'm glad she's so skinny.
NEVER again will this bird be allowed to sit. In fact, she just made the top of the list of birds to sell this fall.
I hope the chicks survive her.

That's distressing. I hope she doesn't kill any of them.

 

[Perris]

Good morning Cafe and thanks for the coffee, Shad.
I am doing a 180 on my opinion of Veronica's mothering skills. She started out great but for the last several days, I've observed her picking the chicks up by their wing feathers, shaking them and dropping them. They shriek then run under her and she sits on them. It's like she never wanted them to hatch. She just wants to sit on something.
All their little wing feathers are at wonky angles, sticking out from their bodies because of the damage she's done to them. I got so fuming mad at her yesterday I got out the brooder plate, put it in the ward, took her out and shoved her in the broody crate. She shrieked and kept trying to stuff herself between the 1.5" spaced bars (and she's so damn skinny she could nearly fit) and the kids just distressed peeped the entire time. So after about 10 minutes I put her back and she immediately started tossing them around again.
This morning I got her to take them out in the hopes that out of the ward she would have more things to fixate on other than sitting on the chicks. So she's now tossing them around out there AND running over them. Just steps right on them. So now I'm glad she's so skinny.
NEVER again will this bird be allowed to sit. In fact, she just made the top of the list of birds to sell this fall.
I hope the chicks survive her.

I wonder what got into her? she seemed so good yesterday

 

[DobieLover]

That's distressing.

Tell me about it. I feel sorry for them. If I could successfully take them from her, I would.

 

[DobieLover]

Well, my ploy seems to have helped. I checked on them when I got back from running the dogs and she is scratching away in the area behind the ward brooder where the compost bin used to be. It's a favorite scratching spot and is the same place Kerrie spent a lot of time with her brood when they first left the ward. Everyone is alive and there was a minimum amount to chick flinging. Veronica does seem to be more fixated now on scratching than sitting. So... there's that.
I think this bird is OCD. Seriously! She is the one who went around plucking beards out. She got Fabio too, after Captain, and several of the EEs. I had my suspicions about her. I think the cheese has slipped a little off her cracker. I should have broken her instead of let her set.
Hopefully them being out of the ward works. We'll have to see how she does with getting them into the run where the food and water are. I left the floor fan off for fear that the chicks are so small they might have trouble with the blast from the fan. It rained enough to wet the ground under the chicken bush and some of the hens have dug holes at the back of the run to wallow in the cool damp ground so I think they'll be okay in the heat.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Morning Cafe seems lively to say the least in here wow great find of wood Shad.
Never knew a broody to be so violent with a peep.

 

[sourland]

Morning Cafe seems lively to say the least in here wow great find of wood Shad.
Never knew a broody to be so violent with a peep.

I've seen it happen early in the bonding period, but only very occasionally.