California - Northern

[sewandgrow]

Interesting week so far. I have been sick since Sunday night after our Father's Day BBQ. Got the chills right after everyone went home. Fever and nausea the next day, things emanating from various body parts ever since along with feeling like I was being stabbed in the belly. I have RA and have been on many different meds over the last 6-7 years since my diagnosis. They had to take take me off the most recent one due to increasing liver enzymes, but instead of going back down, they have continued to go up even 6 weeks after the drug was discontinued. I get to go in for a hepatitis test and liver untrasound first thing in the morning. . I thought people who don't drink or indulge in other vices were not supposed to have liver problems,

Anyway...on the 3rd day of being sick I went out and fed the girls and turned them out into the bigger pen we recently constructed so we could have a backyard back. Everything was fine. About 30 minutes later I am hearing a lot of very loud peeping from a small chick. I go out to see what the ruckus is and one of the two BLRW chicks is fine but the other is not to be seen. I notice Mom is scratching and clucking near a low spot along the back fence and there is a hole under it big enough for chicks. I get a chair and stand up on it to look over the fence. There is the chick standing on the gravel road that runs behind the house peeping it's head of. I try to attract it's attention with some scratch, but it does not see it., Sooooo.... as sick as I am...I get dressed, get in the car, drive around to the end of the dirt road (which is the equivalent of about 5 standard lots) and park. I walked downs the road with my trusty jar of mealworms. I get near the chick and toss a few to it. It sees them and comes over to eat them. I get close and make my move....and miss. There is no way that chicks is trusting me up close again. So I start walking toward it trying to get it cornered. It goes into the Vinca. I spend about 15 minutes following the movement of the plants and peeping an almost have it about 3 times. Meanwhile we are moving close to my backyard. Suddenly...no movement in the Vinca and the peeping had stopped. I stood for about 3 minutes waiting and then gave up. I was feeling awful and at that point....it was on it's own. I just couldn't pursue it any further. I get back in the car and come home. Go out in the back yard and there is the little troublemaker pecking away at the ground with Mom and sibling like nothing even happened!!!! It had no appreciation of what I had just put myself Thur to try to rescue it!.

I decide now would be a good time to secure the wholes though so they can't get out again. I go into the pen with some concrete border stones and cover the holes. There are some other questionable spots too so, I head for the gate to go out and get some more stones. Guess what??? I locked myself in the stupid pen!! And guess what else...no one is home to let me out!!. So I tried various places to climb, but just don't have the strength to do that, The pen is only deer netting for now until we get more chicken wire, so I managed to tear a spot looking for a way out. We made the latch too far away from where you can reach thru the net. I finally had to break a small branch off one of the lilacs in the pen and stick it thru the netting and was able to release the latch. We had bought a special safety pull a couple of days before but I didn't get it installed because I got sick. Well....I was still sick but I went out and install it immediately after that!

Oh Vicki, I am so sorry for your plight.............I feel for you... I too have elevated liver counts that are monitored & I am not a drinker but have a genetic thing going one. I locked myself in a pen one time & yelled my head off to no avail..........I was boiling mad by the time I got out of there.................LOL I was sick like that Wednesday night from about 6 p.m. to 3 a.m....what's up with that?....I don't know but it went away as mysteriously as it came & left me completely depleted. I do hope you are feeling better. I have a niece with RA.

 

[caychris]

Second night with Buffs sleeping in the big coop and things look good this morning. I think the fosters even though they are separate have drawn the attention away from the Buffs. Even the older buffs were picking on them when they were in the run for a while. I added a second roost for the dels and we will start locking off the nest box soon. Both roosts are well above the level of the nest box.

I had to put the buffs on the roost last night as well as they were reluctant to go into the coop on their own and Im not sure they can exactly reach the high one on their own.

Now that there are staggered roosts and the little coop is locked off (and occupied) I hope things will go well. Not really sure how integrating the next batch is going to go. Wasn't planning on having to add so many. But should still be ok. Depends on if I have boys in the pitas and delaware.

Ive asked before about this product and Im not sure what to think.
https://www.facebook.com/RoosterCollars

Seems a number of people on the CPP FB page have used them and like them.

I also never got an answer on Forced Molting. Is this something that is done and is it more of a last resort thing?

 

[ronott1]

Was it in one of my eggs

Did you candle them again? Not nagging, just curious I have an enormous fluffy Chocolate Rock who I can now safely assume is broody. It has been close to 5 days that she has been on the nest. Pretty sure she can manage a good portion...but I think I will brood the PPs and a couple of Konzas indoors even if there are enough broodies to handle them all. I will be brooding some Marans from laura too so why not?


All 7 of the eggs under my silkie broody are doing great

Perhaps broody mayhem is winding down here. Since the end of March I have had at least one if not 2-4 simultaneous broodies. I love it but it does create some issues. So grateful that it is summer and I am home to be able to work them out.

I did candle last night. I have pulled one Ranger egg that was seeping. I do see some with movement but the are one of those types of eggs that do not show the veins too well. I have 3 Pita Pinta eggs developing nicely in there.

I will candle again on day 10 and will pull clears then.

 

[ronott1]

I hope to have a productive weekend!

 

[tommysgirl]

I did candle last night. I have pulled one Ranger egg that was seeping. I do see some with movement but the are one of those types of eggs that do not show the veins too well. I have 3 Pita Pinta eggs developing nicely in there.

I will candle again on day 10 and will pull clears then.

Yay!!! thanks for the update. On a scale of Plymouth Rock to BCM what color are the Ranger eggs?

 

[AlpineButterfly]

Anyway...on the 3rd day of being sick I went out and fed the girls and turned them out into the bigger pen we recently constructed so we could have a backyard back. Everything was fine. About 30 minutes later I am hearing a lot of very loud peeping from a small chick. I go out to see what the ruckus is and one of the two BLRW chicks is fine but the other is not to be seen. I notice Mom is scratching and clucking near a low spot along the back fence and there is a hole under it big enough for chicks. I get a chair and stand up on it to look over the fence. There is the chick standing on the gravel road that runs behind the house peeping it's head of. I try to attract it's attention with some scratch, but it does not see it., Sooooo.... as sick as I am...I get dressed, get in the car, drive around to the end of the dirt road (which is the equivalent of about 5 standard lots) and park. I walked downs the road with my trusty jar of mealworms. I get near the chick and toss a few to it. It sees them and comes over to eat them. I get close and make my move....and miss. There is no way that chicks is trusting me up close again. So I start walking toward it trying to get it cornered. It goes into the Vinca. I spend about 15 minutes following the movement of the plants and peeping an almost have it about 3 times. Meanwhile we are moving close to my backyard. Suddenly...no movement in the Vinca and the peeping had stopped. I stood for about 3 minutes waiting and then gave up. I was feeling awful and at that point....it was on it's own. I just couldn't pursue it any further. I get back in the car and come home. Go out in the back yard and there is the little troublemaker pecking away at the ground with Mom and sibling like nothing even happened!!!! It had no appreciation of what I had just put myself Thur to try to rescue it!.

They really don't appreciate what we go through for them, do they?
There is an apartment complex parking lot behind my back fence. I have had to run around the block and through the apartment complex to recapture one of my chickens who had flown over the fence. She was stealthy... the first time I ran around and searched and searched for her, she was nowhere to be found. So I figured she had flown back over because the other girls were making a ruckus. But after running back around, she was not in the yard either. After awkwardly climbing over things so I could see over the fence from my backyard, I finally spot her roosting up in the hedge of the parking lot. I ran back around, captured her, and felt sort of self-conscious carrying a chicken through the apartment complex. At least she had the decency to be caught without much hassle once I found her.

 

[ronott1]

They really don't appreciate what we go through for them, do they?
There is an apartment complex parking lot behind my back fence. I have had to run around the block and through the apartment complex to recapture one of my chickens who had flown over the fence. She was stealthy... the first time I ran around and searched and searched for her, she was nowhere to be found. So I figured she had flown back over because the other girls were making a ruckus. But after running back around, she was not in the yard either. After awkwardly climbing over things so I could see over the fence from my backyard, I finally spot her roosting up in the hedge of the parking lot. I ran back around, captured her, and felt sort of self-conscious carrying a chicken through the apartment complex. At least she had the decency to be caught without much hassle once I found her.

Look for the Guide on here and clip one wing. I have one that manages to get into the back yard from the side yard but luckily they do not go into the neighbors yard.

I will need to clip her wing again soon. She was out with the broody a couple of days ago. They all got along fine too.

 

[ronott1]

Yay!!! thanks for the update. On a scale of Plymouth Rock to BCM what color are the Ranger eggs?

They are a bit darker than the rock eggs but not up to BCM levels. They are more opaque, which is usually more to do with the Bloom coating. A lot of the eggs look like pullet eggs. Plenty big enough to hatch though.

 

[caychris]

Well Im going to have to do something about rodents. I saw a rat running along the ground away from the coop at the back wall. Looks like some glue traps and bait are a bit overdue. Ive know that Ive had rats around due to them eating my potato and other plants in my garden but this was the first I saw one in the early morning and had not seen any evidence of them around lately. The last set of glue boards only caught a number of lizards. Looks like a weekend pest project. One of our neighbors has cats maybe I can use some used cat litter in a few place to discourage them.

 

[EZFarms]

Please tell me this is jidt something normal And not cocci.