Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

Okay, I know you'll think I'm crazy, no wait a minute, not this group! Hee hee. I got 25 new chicks this a.m. REALLY, that IS crazy? Oh well, damage done. They are 20 Buff Cornish hens and 5 Buff Rocks. I'm going to make my own meatie cross, eventually. I ordered these through Strombergs before Danz posted that she would be able to get fewer birds for us. Bummer. However, they're here and all of them were doing great. I gave them some Gro-gel and they really went after it. They are VERY energetic chicks! They're fast like guineas and LOUD! We took each loud mouth and showed them wear the eats and drinks were and as they got something in their tums they quieted down.

Not so crazy - I've thought of doing this myself. At Atwoods this year they had some Cornish and I thought about getting some, and finding some Rocks (naturally, Atwoods didn't have those at the same time) and seeing if I could make my own meaties too. I will be very interested to see how this works out for you. I've oftened wondered if it is really as simple as putting a Cornish and a Rock together, or if the commercial places that sell the Cornish Rocks haven't added in some unknown factor to make their birds grow bigger & faster than just a straight cross.

HeChicken, I just talked to the representative at GQF, it was kind of disheartening because I called the first time & got a recorded message for tech support, oh not a good sign. So I did what the message said & called back & talked to an operator & she put me through to the right people. The guy of course first tried to make me sound like I didn't know what I was talking about, grrrr that makes me so mad when a man acts like I'm just a stupid woman. But eventually he understood what I was saying & said they were sending me the control module & the temp sensor. Hopefully they will get here fast so I don' t have this thing totally failing before we get the parts. That's going to really upset me because I still have eggs in there that I don' t have room for in the Brinsea. I can replace the Ameraucana eggs, but gosh some of them are due to hatch soon & you hate to just kill the poor things. Then I just put my lavender orpington shipped eggs in before all of the failures yesterday & I have nowhere to put them until the eggs in the hatcher are done. Keep your fingers crossed for me that this thing will continue to function enough to keep them going until the parts get here. I have only had this incubator a month, it shouldn't be failing already. The guy at GQF kind of seemed puzzled that it would be having problems already & said they would want the old parts sent back so they can figure out what happened.

I'm glad he eventually slowed down and listened to you. It really annoys me when people treat me like an idiot - I wish they'd just assume their customers had *some* level of competence until they prove otherwise.

 

[Ivywoods]

Got home with the puppy a little while ago. Interesting story. She had a pair of havanese, a pair of bichons and a hava-chon. DH and I were "ooooing and aaahhhing" over the dogs and pups. I told her I wished I could have 2 so this one wouldn't be lonesome. She told us she had just found out she would be moving to town and the city ordinance only allows 2 dogs. She could tell Mike was a dog lover. SHE GAVE US MY PUPPY's MOMMY! She is a beautiful registerd havanese. She said she wanted to be sure that she went to a good home and that was more important than money for her.

Her name is Portia and she was super good on the way home and on the leash. Lizzy is so cute. Loves to play, but I'm sure she will keep us awake a few nights. I will post pics here after a while. She moves faster than my slow camera can keep up with.

 

[JosieChick]

IVY!!! - Yeah!!! That is so exciting!!!! Portia and Lizzy, how fun!!! Do post pics soon!




Danz- That little serama was egg bound.

I soaked her in a warm bath and she started jumping around and the egg broke inside of her.

So I gently soaked her then flushed her with warmed sterile saline. I gave her pain meds, antibiotics, lubed her prolapsed vent and gently pushed it back in and put her in a carrier in the dark closet upstairs with vitamin water, food and classical music. Cross your fingers for her.

 

[Trish44]

KarenS, thank you so much for bringing your incubator out to my rescue today, that really was above & beyond but I appreciate it so much! Now I don't have to worry about mine going belly up with shipped eggs & my Ameraucana eggs in there, it really took a big load off my mind.

IVY, wow two new dogs, I'll bet they're both adorable.

Josie, I hope your little hen is going to be OK.

HeChicken, yes it annoys me to no end to be treated like that & I was about to give it to him with both barrels if he hadn't stopped & finally listened. He tried to tell me I was hearing the alarm the incubator makes when the trays turn & I said no, it's not that alarm, it's the continuous alarm for a system failure & he asked me then if the readout said sytem failure & I said yes it did. Finally he got it. Like I can't tell which alarm goes off every two hours from a continuous alarm that goes off only when something is wrong, geez, they're totally different. Anyway, he finally got the message & told me the parts are coming thank goodness. Well nothing at all with the turkey eggs, so I'm thinking they're not going to hatch. I'll leave them in there for another day or so, but I'm just thinking I lost them for some reason. I wish I could find some Royal Palm turkey poults to buy, I'm sure not having much luck with hatching them. I sure don't want to have to order 15 of them though.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

JosieChick, sorry to hear about your Serama. Hope everything turns out okay for her.

Oh Ivy, Happy New Doggies to you!

Chopper Report, Danz! Chopper didn't lead them all, but he followed along and the whole crew went back to the pen tonight without any fuss. What a crew! Chopper watches over his duck buddies and when a chicken gets cranky with one of the ducks, he bobs at them like he's going to bop them on the head just enough to scare them off. He's a really good Daddy Duck. I'll get more pics tomorrow.

 

[Ivywoods]

Lizzy




Portia-She could use a good brushing.
You can see Lizzy's tail behind Portia.

 

[chicken danz]

IVY, Oh my that puppy is just too cute.
Karen, I didn't even know Chopper could fly. I've never seen him do it. He must have been showing off for the girls! I hope you are feeling better.
I just got home while ago and have been trying to catch up reading. The testing at Josie's went very well other than her ruining a shirt with chicken blood. (I brought my apron!) Anyway she had a little Serama hen with a terrible prolapse. I hope she will be ok. That is how I lost Dirty Girl when the egg broke in her. But she never had it prolapse like this little girl did. Lindsey had all the chickens either caught or where they could be caught very easily. I kind of lost track of who was who but she had it all down. It went exceptionally well because her birds are all very tame.
DH met me in Ottawa after I left and we wasted a lot of time in Walmart then went and ate dinner. It was a full day and I am tired. I have a bunch of birds cheeping in the hatcher but they are going to have to wait till morning. I think I pulled at least 25 more ducklings out this morning and have tons more eggs to hatch.
I can't believe the problems you are having with your incubator, Trish. Mine has been a basic plug and play and worked right on the money. Obviously the quality control isn't 100% on those control modules. I wish all of mine had the digital readout and controls.

 

[Trish44]

Danz, me either & now after losing my turkeys I'm wondering if I have had problems with it for awhile & it just didn't start setting off the alarm until this week. I hope I don't lose all of my Ameraucana eggs I had in there. I just moved what I had left in there to Karen's incubator this evening, so we'll see how it goes. I know the orpington eggs should be OK now because I just had put them in yesterday, but some of those Ameraucana eggs are close to hatch date. I have quite a few eggs in the hatcher today & I think because of my incubator issues I have lost quite a few of my Ameraucana eggs that have been in there, at least when I candled it didn't seem like many are showing signs of life, It's just pretty disgusting. I'm really glad I did get those expensive eggs out of there when I did. Last I checked them when I took them out 10 of 12 were moving, so that's pretty darned good for shipped eggs. Those are my Swedish Flower eggs & I think I will just leave them in the Brinsea now until time to go to the hatcher. I would just let them hatch in there, but I have other eggs in there that won't be ready at the same time. Yeah the digital readout control panel is really nice, when it works right I guess I should say. Actually they told me that we should change out the temp sensor first & then if we have to then we can change out the control module. I'm going to have to find that parts schematic that I had seen online so my DH can look at it to see how it all comes apart.

IVY those are some cute dogs, especially the puppy, I just want to hug it through the screen it's so darned cute! I'll bet she is really happy to have momma with her.

 

[cherwill]

I'm too tired to do much more than skim; I can't concentrate much more than that. Just wanted to check in and see what I missed. Among other things, major cuteness with the dogs! How neat that you could have Portia as well.

Good night everyone and have a great weekend in case I don't get back soon!

 

[Hawkeye95]

HEChicken, oddly enough it was the new one that died! I would be crying in my suds if it had been the little Bourbon Red. But the bronze was a really sweet little thing too. Hawkeye is right about turkeys. Turkeys just seem to connect differently with people. The new one was so perky, yet when you picked it up it was calm and really seemed to love attention. Of course, the BR is my favorite because I've invested so much into keeping it alive, plus it's a real sweety too.

Oh no, it was the new turkey?? OH that is so sad! I got him to go to sleep in my hands and zone out while I rubbed his head.

He was on his way to being the perfect pet turkey.

Mandilynn,
I haven't tried tea tree oil to keep ticks away but have used it for all kinds of bites. My SIL was just telling me last night that she burned 2 of her fingers really bad with the curling iron -- she grabbed the wrong end! She was at her daughters house and couldn't find anything to put on the burns to stop the hurt when they decided to try the tea tree oil. She said it stopped the hurting within minutes and she never did develop blisters and you can hardly tell where she was burned. I have used it for years but hadn't used it for burns either but will from now on. I use it mostly for cuts and skin irritants etc. but did some searching online and found this page about it. http://www.theherbsplace.com/Tea_Tree_Oil_Uses_sp_153.html

Thanks for the link! I read it--- and WOW, that is a lot of things that it does. I have always kept tea tree oil on hand after I had babies. I'm into natural child rearing and I was using cloth diapers and natural remedies. I used cloth wipes instead of paper ones, and I used a mixture of TTO and a few other essential oils in my spray bottle to wipe them down with during diaper changes. Kept them clean and never had diaper rash.

Got home with the puppy a little while ago. Interesting story. She had a pair of havanese, a pair of bichons and a hava-chon. DH and I were "ooooing and aaahhhing" over the dogs and pups. I told her I wished I could have 2 so this one wouldn't be lonesome. She told us she had just found out she would be moving to town and the city ordinance only allows 2 dogs. She could tell Mike was a dog lover. SHE GAVE US MY PUPPY's MOMMY! She is a beautiful registerd havanese. She said she wanted to be sure that she went to a good home and that was more important than money for her.

Her name is Portia and she was super good on the way home and on the leash. Lizzy is so cute. Loves to play, but I'm sure she will keep us awake a few nights. I will post pics here after a while. She moves faster than my slow camera can keep up with.

That is incredible she let you have the mama dog!!

Danz- That little serama was egg bound.

I soaked her in a warm bath and she started jumping around and the egg broke inside of her.

So I gently soaked her then flushed her with warmed sterile saline. I gave her pain meds, antibiotics, lubed her prolapsed vent and gently pushed it back in and put her in a carrier in the dark closet upstairs with vitamin water, food and classical music. Cross your fingers for her.

Oh no! I hope your little hen will be okay! It sounds like you are right on top of everything with her. It's really too bad the egg broke in her. That's going to be tough to combat, but if anyone can do it, I bet you can!

Lizzy




Portia-She could use a good brushing.
You can see Lizzy's tail behind Portia.

I LOVE that mama dog!!! OMGosh, she is soooooooo pretty!!!! I wouldn't mind having that dog! LOL What a cutie!! Your new puppy is just adorable, too! I hope she ends up looking like her mama. That picture of your puppy on her back-- so adorable, she looks like she's going to be a mischievous little doggie! hehe! Beautiful dogs!


Trish, I sure hope those parts fix your problem. What a bummer that your band new machine is already broke! What on earth!? I hope your eggs are okay. Are you sure there's no chance with your turkey eggs? I would candle them maybe tonight if they are past their due date and see if they have died. So sad.