Coffee's ready...

[rngrbill]

Oh! that's bad.. Not really worthy of an artist like you. Thanks for the groan and

alright

 

[karl E lutz]

Good morning chicken wranglers
Puns are the lowest form of humor , yet humorous it was and made even lowly me LOL as the youngsters and the hip say "or print ".
Put a life long friend in the ground sat. Sad event! The widow had me in tears I will miss Ron. His send of was a good one 21 gun salute honor guard ride. I was honored to have one of his son's give me one of the shell casings after the service. It is soothing to know he was well loved.
God Bless!.

 

[rngrbill]

To lose a long time friend is sad. We are all thankful for his service though. are prayers are with you and Ron's family

 

[karl E lutz]

Good morning chicken wranglers
life on the farm. If I only had 2,380,000 I could by a real farm and give up my town job all together./////////such is the way life goes!
If I was a real farmer I'd want a town job and easy life. I'll settle for the 20 acres and the town job and live IT out this way.
Do any of you guys have a last real life wish? Mine is a real farm and a pilots license.
God Bless!

 

[oesdog]

Mint around the foundation. keeps the ants out. our lawn is full of thyme. now that is a heavenly scent.

Oes you lerking out there? how are things across the pond?

I am lurking - but not often as I have been very tired of late and lots seem to be overwhelming me right now. As lots of you know I lost 5 birds to a desease from January - which wipped out half the flock and took my best birds. So now I got to a stage of not having deaths and thinking I would biuld up the flock. So DH and I got one baby chick we brought up ourselves ( Our hatch rate is awful!) That one died but the one we got for company for it has survived so we kind of have one of our own. She has turned out to be a beautiful Amber star. So I am well pleased with her. Then we got two little 10 week old Maran girls who have gone in to the pen with the Amber so they are happy together.
Though we didn;t have many layers left. Isobella being an older girl rarely lays now - Betty never grew to her full size and still looks like a banty and lays poop eggs. So she isn;t great but regular as clockwork! Caroline is getting old too and doesn;t lay as often. Her eggs are just a bit bigger than Betty's. These all lay white eggs. Then I have Florry and Agnes the RiRs. They lay almost everyday but these are the only two that give me regular good size eggs. The babies will be ages before they lay so we stopped by a friend that I got my original girls from and he was as ever lovely - has a great clean place and all the birds look good. He grabed me two PRs. looked them over and said they were fine. I didn;t get a chance to see the girl he held. But the one I had to hold was fine. Anyhow because we had Jessica's new Rabbit in the hospital pen and the Babies in the nursery pen - we dumped these two in with the older girls.
Now when Florry and Agnes joined the group there was no trouble but this time all hell broke lose. Ended up with the two new girls despite having been clipped going over the next door fence and having to be retrived before their dog got them.
Then the next day I heard it - the darn wheezing! - One of those new girls has the darn desease! I went ot get her out of the nest box and she just collapsed on her side. I was sooooo angry!

Cross with myself that I trusted the supplier! THat the birds were healthy and cross because I now have an infected bird. When I got rid of that only a few months back. I was so upset.
I knew if I took her back he would probably say she got it from my birds because he knew I had it in my flock. but she was not with them long enough to get it like that so fast. Anyhow it caused a great deal of issues. They were in the car next to the babies but the babies were in the cat Box and they were in a cardboard box so didn;t come into contact. Fingers crossed for them and they are fine at the moment. We got the dog crate out and now the infected ones are in the shed in the cage! lol. They are not happy. But if I take them back the fellow will just break their necks he isn;t going ot put them back in a pen with 200 odd birds and ducks and Geese. SO Esther and Ruth are now in the shed on Tylon and the other girls are back on tylon (though so far no sign of the desease in any of them. Everything has been disinfected and washed down! It took days but I don;t care. All the nest boxes are bleeched and the ground is all washed down with Js fluid. Esther was finding it hard to catch her breath and is still sleeping stood up bless her but she is starting to sound more like a hen and less like a darlec. I think she will make it but honestly she was half dead. My birds went down with it fast and died within 72 hours of it taking hold. So I am pretty sure she would have died if we didn;t have her on tylon. I was syringing concentrated tylon down her throat the first few days. Now she is taking it herself in the water. She is eating like a pig which is a good thing and both new girls have laid everyday. But of course the eggs are useless so I have cooked them and fed them back to the infected ones! Well big lesson learned - TRUST NO ONE AND ALWAYS QUARENTINE NEW STOCK!

oes - Oh yes the Heifer http://www.countrysidemag.com/94-5/trouble_with_twins/

 

[karl E lutz]

Good morning chicken wranglers,
Oes I am sorry to hear of your run of ill luck.I've only a few birds left and they are the huge meat birds.I cooked one of them on the grill and she was so tasty. All marinaded in stuff and basted oh all of the company was so delighted. We ate home raised chicken ,potato's , and green beans.Deb has put up 35 quarts of pickles 50 quarts of.green beans,15 quarts of salsa,and 20 or so of spaghetti and pizza sauce that she makes fro the garden.All this while raising kids and working a full time job.Hows Lucky she is to have me for a husband. I will eat all this and keep her so happy and "busy".
God Bless!

 

[oesdog]

Karl - have you ever thought Deb may have ulterior motives? You know what happens to men who eat too much ? Have you checked your insurance policy lately?????? Just incase it's increased and really are you sure what she puts in all those jars???????

I am sooo glad that the calves are doing well they sound really lovely. The Hens in the shed are doing a bit better but no way are they healthy and I certainly can;t put them in with my own girls. I so want to take them back and get my money back but I know the girls will get their necks stretched soon as I leave the car park. I am cross at myself because I so wanted Light Sussex chicks. Which we could have got but they were a long drive and DH was not up to it. So we got the two baby Maran pulletts instead and the infected PRs. Darn!

I was wanting the Light Sussex because they are a great Meat bird and I wanted them because they are so different in colour and every other way to my layers which are more pets that anything else. Though we have eaten one that broke her neck it isn;t something I am comfortable with. I wanted the Meaties to be "different! " DH asked me what I would call them and I said they are all getting one name OVEN READY! - I will have to wait for my meat birds but you sound like yours are going really good. It is such a good feeling when you look at a plate of food and KNOW you produced all of it!
Anyhow here is a pic of the babies
Marans

Amber Star


I am really pleased with these. I will get a better pic of the Marans soon but this is the only one I have uploaded.

Oes

 

[bantyhen]

I really like like the pictures of your Marans.

 

[rngrbill]

even with all your troubles I am so Jealous.

can't wait till house sells and we can get to KY and get some more BOs and BRs.

Oes, How is the son doing?

 

[oesdog]

He is ok - but hard work as ever. Sometimes I feel just so incredebly exhausted looking after him and DH. I am glad I don;t have the responsibility of the care for the other twin - right now I simply couldn;t cope at all. DD is moving up to the city in a few weeks so she wont be about anymore to help me at short notice or just give me time out. I am trying to get the Social care folk to take the strain and give me more restbite. Last time we had a review they said they would only give me 3 nights a month. But that clearly is not enough!

Anyhow thats about it really -
for the cow lovers

Oes -