Coffee's ready...

[chics in the sun]

Lunch time again - enjoyed my coffee earlier. Crazy day with some new girls needing entered into the program, and one that was experiencing some pretty intense abdominal pain and preassure that I was with all morning and finally sent her home. My favorite part of the morning was getting to see a kid have his belt-loops zip-tied together. That's what they do here to kids who come to school with their pants sagging down to their rear.

This year they have also made a little something for the girls - nice hand-made skirts in purple and pink that have "property of Gibbs High" printed down the sides. If you show up to school in tiny short shorts or skirts, you have to wear one all day.... I do love it here at my new school......

Rancher - Great news!! Best wishes to your daughter, may it be as quick and painless as possible.

Oesdog - Beautiful daughter and grandbaby!

No white eggs yet from my ex-broody leghorn. I told her she really needs to get back on the ball soon!! I only have three layers, so just one slacking off seriously affects our egg supply around here.

It is another cloudy, drizzly day here, which is unusual for Florida. Usually it is either pouring down rain and storming, or the sun is beating down. At least it stays cooler this way.

Have a good one!!

 

[oesdog]

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on my hen Bertha. She is still with her chicks and they are near as big as her! But last time I tried to seperate them around 6 -8 weeks she actually cried for three days! She had this awful terrible moaning and I never heard a hen do that before. Thing is she isn't eating the best as she still drops the food down for the babies. Two of them are Roos I am sure and they buldoze her out of the way. They still get on top of her and they are heavy for her now. She still sits on them at night which is really funny because well they don;t fit under her now really so she kind of ends up tetering on top of them! I don;t want to hurt her but she really does need to go back in with the others - last time they gave her a battering which didn;t help either.

At the moment she is in one pen with 4 chicks , the hand reared two are in the other pen and the last 4 hens I have from last year are in the big girl coop. Any ideas how to help her and sort them out guys?

Oesdog -

- Rancher - hope all is well and progressing. Am thinking of you guys much. It is getting late here am hoping youo have news tomorrow? though they had to induce Dotty two days running as first didn;t work. Hope it all goes smoothly for your girl.

 

[rancher hicks]

No baby yet. Not til midnight.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
I know you are in Tampa and I am 4 - 5 hours away - - - but your school almost makes me consider moving ! ! ! We gave up last year on ID's after the first 2 weeks of school. Our deans could not agree on whether it was important or not. We have 4 deans - - 2 who enforced the rule and 2 who did not. Can we say CHAOS ? ?? ?

Sounds GREAT chick in the sun. Wonderful management you have there. You just might of found a "Keeper" school.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
I will offer some advice since I am in the same shoes . . .. Return her SLOWLY to the others. I supervised mine for short periods of time. There was a little pecking, but I stopped anything that lasted longer than 5 seconds. I have a large fenced in area that I let them free range in. I let them out together in that area. It is kinda a neutral zone. Over a week or two incase the time they are together. She should be accepted back in the flock, but at a lower position

My chick - - only one hatched - - is still jumping on momma too. She has gotten so big that she has to get on something else to jump on momma because the chick weighs too much to get her own butt up in the air

So, my momma is ready to return to the flock, but the chick has nobody else to hang out with. So, I have to find some age appropriate buddies to bring home to hang out with the chick. Then mine will be separated.

My momma hen has not returned to her old weight and she is SICK of being mommy. Yours wants to be mommy. Is that because she hears the babies complaining when you remove her ?
Maybe you could put a divider up where she could see them but they couldn't get to her. Then she could eat and move without them sucking her life blood. IS she getting plenty to drink ? ?

 

[quercus21]

Morning People,
Coffee's hot, but personally I think I'll stick with the beans, no water.....I'll grind them in my mouth.....

Weather: Low 80's, no rain

I picked up some nice lumber, butternut, maple and some pine. I am like a little kid in a candy shop. Good thing vinny can only hold so much.

oesdog: This is the first time we have let a broody hen hatch some eggs so our experience level is null(). You might have to grin and bear it when you do separate them. We haven't decide yet what to do with ours. Rooster will be re-homed, everyone else might stay with miss bean. If we do separate them, I think we'll be grinning and bearing it.

rancher hicks: Enjoy the moment and best of luck.

sissy: I was trying to make them elope....... but the better half doesn't want to hear of it. Does a keg, judge and a large sub count as a wedding?????

Does everyone have their wood stacked and ready for winter?

Enjoy the day

Kaj

 

[TheChickenCameFirst]

Good morning world!

We have had four full days of rain, and to see the sun rising bright on the horizon today is wonderful!

I'm looking forward to taking baby outside and just enjoying the day! There is a breeze, and the temperatures are supposed to stay in the low 80s... how awesome is that?

Quote:
My husband and I have most of our wood split and laid up for the winter! 3 Cords all set and ready to burn! We were blessed to get some well seasoned wood at good prices this year. We still have some logs from my brother in laws sittin in the yard, so there is more work to be done.

Today will consist of house chores! (Yay...) But I do enjoy the quiet time spent keeping this house we have been blessed with in it's utmost condition!

Laundry, Dishes, Floor washing, vacuuming and weeding the garden!

Have a GREAT day everybody! Enjoy your coffee!

 

[math ace]

Quote:
I am in NORTH FLORIDA - - - Yes, I have my wood stacked and ready for winter ! All 6 bundles are stacked and READY !

 

[chics in the sun]

Good Morning, chicken peeps!

I made some good strong coffee this morning, as I was up quite late after going to a big concert in Tampa. Haven't gone to an arena concert in a long time. It was fun, but it's taking a while to wake up this morning. Maybe I'll try your method, Quercus, and just chew on the beans. Except I only have ground stuff here, so I will just try a spoonful of that. Yum.

Oesdog - I can relate to your poor hen. I made a moaning sound and cried for three days when I sold my son's crib and changing table. Poor thing...

MathAce - The administration really is great here. There is one AP that is a bit high-strung, but his heart's in the right place. And having a group of administrators that can't agree on the rules is no good - it's just like parenting, everyone's got to be on the same page or the kids KNOW IT, and they USE IT.....

Any baby yet, Rancher?

Finally got a white egg from the ex-broody yesterday!!

Have a good one - back to paperwork for me.

I need to have my fireplace checked for safety first before I get firewood - I still haven't managed to call a chimney sweep. They really do exsist in South Florida.

 

[oesdog]

Quote:
Thanks - when I tried to seperate her before she could see the chicks if she went to the top of the run and climbed up the wooden platform! She was the most depressing sight you ever did see and at night she wouldn;t go in and wouldn;t roost so I had to carry her in and litterally place her on the roosting bar. It was awful and all she did was moan like she was in terrible pain and wouldn;t eat or drink. I gave up after 3 days because I just couldn;t stand it anymore. I will try what you suggest about slowely returning her - after all she has been with the big girls for years before the chicks came.

Today has been a bit of a rush for us as Dh isn;t well again. We had to go to the hospital and get his hip looked at. They wanted to give him injections but he didn;t want them because they are not sure it will work. They are giving him an MRI again soon. His spine is very bad and he is on Morphine for that. They think it is the bone in his hip affected so we will see. His spine is collapsing down so it causes a lot of pain for him. Poor thing but they can;t give him injections into the spine as it will afect the heart as he had heart surgery as well!

I just put him to bed to rest when we got back to try to ease the pain. ( So am just grabing a coffee!) He has to use the stick a lot to walk these days and sometimes the leg gives way as does the left arm. It worries him when he is holding the baby. He sits with her a lot !!!!!!!!

Rancher - I do hope we get news soon???????? We are all waiting for this baby of yours!!!!!!!!!!

Anyhow I am away as our disabled son Danny is about to come home from adult centre. I was a wee bit bad as I locked the front door to stop the other boy Ben getting in today. He is brain injured and is hard work but lives independantly with support. - He refused to go to his work placement Monday because it was raining! Ahhhhhh - he wouldn;t eat his carrots either because they were - too orange!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Our other lad Mike was supposed to come down to help out here as he is off for three weeks were now well into the second and I have not seen the boy yet! typical! - I know he's not in France with his girlfriend either! Ahhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!

We don;t have wood stacked yet Dh is too ill. - We also have to fix the chimeny as we took it apart to try to save a bird that got stuck in it. - its kind of in bits so wont have a fire for a while but its still good weather for here. Though you all would think it cold I think!

Oesdog -