Colorado

[suncatcher]

Quote: Yikes! That is why most NPIP will not let you pick up on their farm. Hope she recovers quickly! YAY on the ducks finding a home!

Yes, Teller County website says heavy smoke from the Fremont County fire. Fire jumpers are in, and they are using retardent first, last I heard 25 acres burned on BLM land near Texas Creek area. We had several choppers go over head, probably heading to that fire.

eta, also a fire burning near Lime Gulch in Jefferson County

 

[Pozees]

Preston, so sad to hear about the ILT incident your breeder friend has had. I know nothing about it, is it one of the infections that remains on the property or on/in the structures, or does it disappear once the hosts (birds) are gone? I should learn about it I guess, I certainly hope I never have to deal with it, but you never know. I have read it is more common in Canada and that Canadians can't show their birds unless they have been vaccinated for it, but here I never even see the vaccine offered by the hatcheries, so always guessed it wasn't common in the US. That we share a border means to me it must be more common in the Northern states, but if it's in CO somewhere, I wonder how long before it's here everywhere, and maybe I need to research the vaccine. At this point I hatch so few chicks at one time it never made sense to keep vaccine on hand, but have thought many times about starting to vaccinate chicks hatched here against Marek's, not because I've seen it here but because I know others not too awfully far away have had birds die from it. Whenever I order chicks from a hatchery I have them vaccinated. I guess this weekend I'm doing more research.

 

[Pozees]

My current chick count in the coop is 5 Silkies and the 2 Silver Laced Wyandottes that hatched last weekend. The 4 Silkie hens are caring for those 7 chicks and sitting on 13 Cream Legbar eggs, 9 of Wendell's eggs, and (if I counted right) 3 more Silkie eggs. Watching them is high entertainment. There is the troublemaker (light Partridge), the Boss Mama (Dark Partridge), and the 2 that just want to sit on eggs (the 2 Black hens). Bob checks on them during the day and calls if he thinks there is something I should know about, which is extremely helpful. Today's call was, "Did you know there are 7 chicks in there?" "Nope, guess another Silkie hatched!" LOL. Moved 13 RIR and the other 2 SLW eggs into the hatcher this morning. Checked on the eggs tonight, pretty sure I heard peeping from one of them. Fingers crossed If a good number hatch I'll just put them in a brooder in the coop, if it's only a few I will give them to the hens to raise. Much much much easier and better for the chicks. I just have to be careful not to overload them with too much to do at once. At the moment they seem to have the right amount to do, but I don't want to push it.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

The smoke is so think up here West of Colorado Springs near Woodland Park that I actually called the local fire department. Having been evacuated for 9 days last summer due to Waldo Canyon, I'm kinda jumpy.

 

[WendyGeisler]

smoke is horrible at my house tonight.
last week my girls stopped laying. I am sure the
high temps, smelly smoke, and stress had something
to do with it. I am guessing I won't get any eggs tomorrow.

 

[Pozees]

The smoke was very thick in the sky yesterday afternoon and evening here, the smell was intermittent as the wind kept changing. This morning the wind woke me up before 4. I don't have a good feeling about today, the firefighters are going to have battles everywhere there is a fire.

 

[P-Funk]

Preston, so sad to hear about the ILT incident your breeder friend has had. I know nothing about it, is it one of the infections that remains on the property or on/in the structures, or does it disappear once the hosts (birds) are gone? I should learn about it I guess, I certainly hope I never have to deal with it, but you never know. I have read it is more common in Canada and that Canadians can't show their birds unless they have been vaccinated for it, but here I never even see the vaccine offered by the hatcheries, so always guessed it wasn't common in the US. That we share a border means to me it must be more common in the Northern states, but if it's in CO somewhere, I wonder how long before it's here everywhere, and maybe I need to research the vaccine. At this point I hatch so few chicks at one time it never made sense to keep vaccine on hand, but have thought many times about starting to vaccinate chicks hatched here against Marek's, not because I've seen it here but because I know others not too awfully far away have had birds die from it. Whenever I order chicks from a hatchery I have them vaccinated. I guess this weekend I'm doing more research.

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$Department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex2216 Here is the most helpful link to ILT I've found. Deeann, the breeder, is cleaning, bleaching, cleaning, bleaching, repeating. When CU showed up they tested all her birds and decided to cull all those remaining. I offered up a few of my birds and a pressure washer, but she said it was best if I stayed away. At least the peeps at CU let her borrow 2 incubators, so she has 5 running now after dipping all the eggs in bleach water.
Sorry to hear about all the smoke but just think about how much worse it could be

 

[wsmith]

smoke is horrible at my house tonight.
last week my girls stopped laying. I am sure the
high temps, smelly smoke, and stress had something
to do with it. I am guessing I won't get any eggs tomorrow.

I agree with your assessment.

We had a 50% drop in eggs yesterday. Our records show that at least with Dominiques, we get a lower lay for the day after a major temperature swing, whether up or down. Last week we had an 85F day, then a 104F day. Lay rates dropoed for the next two days. Yesterday as fairly mild. the only difference was the massive amount of smoke in the air. Hoping that the air clears up a bit today.

 

[wsmith]

Yesterday afternoon on my way home from work I noticed a little bit of smoke coming from Ft Carson. This is typical, and after about 30 minutes they got the small fire out. aFter supper I had to go back into the Springs to take Hannah to a basketball game at Palmer downtown. When we left we couldn't even see 1/2 milem the smoke was so bad. We were concerned..... It was better when we got home at about 10:30 PM, but still there.

I hear that some areas of Huefano and Fremont countys are being evacuated. If any of them need a place for their chickens during the evacs, let us know.

That being said, at our place we will only accept healthy birds. See pfunk's posts above........

 

[samsr]

I agree with your assessment.

We had a 50% drop in eggs yesterday. Our records show that at least with Dominiques, we get a lower lay for the day after a major temperature swing, whether up or down. Last week we had an 85F day, then a 104F day. Lay rates dropoed for the next two days. Yesterday as fairly mild. the only difference was the massive amount of smoke in the air. Hoping that the air clears up a bit today.

I would have agree also. My egg rate dropped by 50% yesterday also. 3 eggs from six laying hens. It could have been the hail the day before though.
The one constant here in colorado is that things are always changing.