Consolidated Kansas

[tweetysvoice]

awww.. I"m sorry to hear that Hawkeye! I hope they get better soon!

SO, after three days of normal, if not small, eggs - I came home to this one. It wasn't in the nesting box, but under their roost: I'm assuming it's normal to have a funky egg now and then. I'm not sure if someone broke it, or it was broken on the way out - but yolk was all in the shavings and flies had found it. ewww.. It's really soft and flexible.

 

[pikeman94]

awww.. I"m sorry to hear that Hawkeye! I hope they get better soon!

SO, after three days of normal, if not small, eggs - I came home to this one. It wasn't in the nesting box, but under their roost: I'm assuming it's normal to have a funky egg now and then. I'm not sure if someone broke it, or it was broken on the way out - but yolk was all in the shavings and flies had found it. ewww.. It's really soft and flexible.

That happens every once and a while with my mature layers. In my book that means they need some oyster shell as supplement. I mix it in with their layer feed.

 

[HEChicken]

Thanks Sharol My co-worker told me to call her son - that he'll sell me some guinees (spelling?) - said they'll at least make a ruckus to inform me something is going on outside.. I'm going to do that And just let the dog thing go. I really do not believe I am a dog person because of my fears.

LOL - that's what I've always heard. Now granted, my guineas were only 7-8 weeks old when we had our fox attack but not only did they not sound an alarm, they all went and hid on the top roost of the coop and went completely silent. I was scared when I went down there and all I could see were bodies and only 3 live chickens, but on conducting a search, I did find where the remainder of the chickens and ducks had gone to hide behind the horse shelter.

The guineas may not have sounded the alarm like I thought they would but I guess they are pretty predator savvy. I didn't lose a single guinea.

SO, after three days of normal, if not small, eggs - I came home to this one. It wasn't in the nesting box, but under their roost: I'm assuming it's normal to have a funky egg now and then. I'm not sure if someone broke it, or it was broken on the way out - but yolk was all in the shavings and flies had found it. ewww.. It's really soft and flexible.

Yeah, its pretty normal as they work out the kinks in the egg-laying system. It sounds like they laid a shell-less egg and the rubbery part is the inner membrane. Those usually do break but don't be alarmed if you see the hens eating the contents - it only means they are opportunistic - not that they will become seasoned egg-eaters.

Even when mine are on layer formula and have shell on the side as a supplement, I get the occasional shell-less egg so its nothing to be concerned about unless it becomes a regular thing.

 

[JosieChick]

Hawkeye-What a bummer about your sick chickies. That is the pits. Hope the meds work for them. I have never heard of Denegard (sp??) Let me know how you like it. I have used tylan and baytril but it can get tough to dose on a tiny bird and I would love something water soluble when you don't want to give injections to multiple birds. I think if I wind up showing a few birds they will have to be quarantined for a month before going back to the pens. I have a concrete slab beside the garage I have been eyeing as an isolation coop so that might be a good place to put returning birds.

YOU don't have any sneaky broodies?? I have two. They "pretend" they are not broody when I am around and then race back to their hidden clutch of eggs. I had left a little a frame coop out in the run that I used to transition some chicks into the adult pen from and they laid a clutch of eggs in there and they were big swimming embryos by the time I discovered them. I can't pull them when they are that far along, I don't have the heart to kill them.

So sorry to hear about your sick chicks Hawkeye. I don't have any experience with the Denegard but do let us know how it works out for you.

Oh Josie, I meant to say, I wish we were closer - I would have loved to buy those silkie/cochins from you. That sounds like a broody combo for sure and since my flock seems mostly reluctant to brood, I wouldn't mind adding some that were certain to brood for me.

Hechicken-Darn! I gave them away to a lady in Spring Hill. Oh well! These were kinda wild because they were hatched under hens. If you are interested I am getting ready to separate birds and was thinking about putting a couple of my silkies and a spare cochin roo into their own pen for now until I get breeding pens finished and they go into their appropriate slots. I could pull and set a handful of eggs if you want some babies? I can post pics of the girls I kept, you won't want the boys, they are butt heads but the girls are really cute and sweet. These two silkies are the QUEENS of broodiness. They would hatch a rock if you would let them.

You could just have the chicks. DH could bring them down with him to Andover when they hatch. Let me know and if you want I will pull some eggs when I get them into a new pen. I just pulled them off rotten pea eggs so they aren't laying yet but they should start back up and this cochin boy would love to have some ladies, he has been a bachelor for a while now!

 

[HEChicken]

YOU don't have any sneaky broodies?? I have two. They "pretend" they are not broody when I am around and then race back to their hidden clutch of eggs. I had left a little a frame coop out in the run that I used to transition some chicks into the adult pen from and they laid a clutch of eggs in there and they were big swimming embryos by the time I discovered them. I can't pull them when they are that far along, I don't have the heart to kill them.
Hechicken-Darn! I gave them away to a lady in Spring Hill. Oh well! These were kinda wild because they were hatched under hens. If you are interested I am getting ready to separate birds and was thinking about putting a couple of my silkies and a spare cochin roo into their own pen for now until I get breeding pens finished and they go into their appropriate slots. I could pull and set a handful of eggs if you want some babies? I can post pics of the girls I kept, you won't want the boys, they are butt heads but the girls are really cute and sweet. These two silkies are the QUEENS of broodiness. They would hatch a rock if you would let them.

You could just have the chicks. DH could bring them down with him to Andover when they hatch. Let me know and if you want I will pull some eggs when I get them into a new pen. I just pulled them off rotten pea eggs so they aren't laying yet but they should start back up and this cochin boy would love to have some ladies, he has been a bachelor for a while now!

I have never even heard of sneaky broodiness before - who knew chickens could be so devious

Okay, I admit, I cannot say no to that offer. And Andover? Wow, that would be so convenient to me - I had no idea that was an option and just figured Rantoul was a long way to go to pick up a couple of chicks. Honestly though, there is no hurry whatsoever - just whenever you next have a devious sneaky broody....

 

[pikeman94]

Here is the current pic of my Cuckoo Marans:



I suspect the one on the right is the lone pullet. The rest are double the size and all have bumps for spurs. I will try and post a better pic later.

 

[HEChicken]

Its kind of hard to see in that pic. All chicks will have the spur bumps, both male and female so I wouldn't use that to determine gender. Size can be but...I've had some hefty girls so I wouldn't be too concerned about that either. A couple of them do look to have largish combs compared to the others, which could indicate those are cockerels. As they feather out more, it may get more obvious too. With Barred Rocks, cockerels will feather looking more white than black in the barring, whereas pullets are more black than white. I only have one Cuckoo Marans hen so I don't know a ton about the breed but I *think* that barring rule holds true for them as well.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Thanks Sharol My co-worker told me to call her son - that he'll sell me some guinees (spelling?) - said they'll at least make a ruckus to inform me something is going on outside.. I'm going to do that And just let the dog thing go. I really do not believe I am a dog person because of my fears.

For my silkie pen, I have dug down 2X4's (pressure treated) and layed them on the ground half way dug down. Then I used hardware cloth over that for the entire pen. It's covered, too with my deck-- so nothing is getting in. If you have a back deck, that would make a great small pen. My layers are out in a separate area and I have a 6ft chain link fence for them. But we're wanting to take that down and build a better enclosure for them with metal fencing over the top of it. But I did dig down the wire and have it laying out from the pen about a foot... it's dug down only about 2 inches under the ground. Just far enough to run my mower over it, and enough that anything digging down will hit it and give up.

awww.. I"m sorry to hear that Hawkeye! I hope they get better soon!

SO, after three days of normal, if not small, eggs - I came home to this one. It wasn't in the nesting box, but under their roost: I'm assuming it's normal to have a funky egg now and then. I'm not sure if someone broke it, or it was broken on the way out - but yolk was all in the shavings and flies had found it. ewww.. It's really soft and flexible.

Thanks Tweety! I think your shell is pretty normal. I haven't had it happen yet, but I'm sure its a matter of time.

Hawkeye-What a bummer about your sick chickies. That is the pits. Hope the meds work for them. I have never heard of Denegard (sp??) Let me know how you like it. I have used tylan and baytril but it can get tough to dose on a tiny bird and I would love something water soluble when you don't want to give injections to multiple birds. I think if I wind up showing a few birds they will have to be quarantined for a month before going back to the pens. I have a concrete slab beside the garage I have been eyeing as an isolation coop so that might be a good place to put returning birds.

YOU don't have any sneaky broodies?? I have two. They "pretend" they are not broody when I am around and then race back to their hidden clutch of eggs. I had left a little a frame coop out in the run that I used to transition some chicks into the adult pen from and they laid a clutch of eggs in there and they were big swimming embryos by the time I discovered them. I can't pull them when they are that far along, I don't have the heart to kill them.
Hechicken-Darn! I gave them away to a lady in Spring Hill. Oh well! These were kinda wild because they were hatched under hens. If you are interested I am getting ready to separate birds and was thinking about putting a couple of my silkies and a spare cochin roo into their own pen for now until I get breeding pens finished and they go into their appropriate slots. I could pull and set a handful of eggs if you want some babies? I can post pics of the girls I kept, you won't want the boys, they are butt heads but the girls are really cute and sweet. These two silkies are the QUEENS of broodiness. They would hatch a rock if you would let them.

You could just have the chicks. DH could bring them down with him to Andover when they hatch. Let me know and if you want I will pull some eggs when I get them into a new pen. I just pulled them off rotten pea eggs so they aren't laying yet but they should start back up and this cochin boy would love to have some ladies, he has been a bachelor for a while now!

Denagard-- one of the breeders was saying that she puts all her birds that come home from the shows on this stuff whether they show signs or not and quarantines them. I need to figure out a better quarantine situation-- obviously my "within eyeballs of each other" isn't working out. But I don't even know for sure that they caught it from the adults or not. They were running with the adults before hand. Regardless, I have some sneezing-- NO sniffles or runny noses, so I feel lucky. Sigh. I also have them on VetRX too, that is GREAT stuff. This Denagard has no egg withdrawal time and it also a broad spectrum antibiotic and is in a liquid form and is water soluable. A good solution to treating a lot of birds at once. I spent a couple of hours reading up on it last night. I couldn't see anything bad about it. A lot of people compared it to Baytril, and I have used Baytril sucessfully in the past, but injecting several birds once a day for 5 days..... no thank you!

And no-- that is funny you have sneaky broodies, I don't have too many birds anyway, so it would be easy to spot one, and there arent too many places they could hide eggs. I do have a Silkie that is trying to go broody again. She lays an egg and then slides it under her every morning. Poor thing is disappointed daily. I doubt they are fertile anyway. I had to do AI on every one of my chicks! They are too fluffy-- it doesn't work naturally.

 

[tweetysvoice]

Yeah, its pretty normal as they work out the kinks in the egg-laying system. It sounds like they laid a shell-less egg and the rubbery part is the inner membrane. Those usually do break but don't be alarmed if you see the hens eating the contents - it only means they are opportunistic - not that they will become seasoned egg-eaters.

Even when mine are on layer formula and have shell on the side as a supplement, I get the occasional shell-less egg so its nothing to be concerned about unless it becomes a regular thing.

Thanks! That's what I assumed. They have access to the extra calcium and I started mixing in the layer feed just yesterday, so I'm not too worried since this was "egg" number four for the mysterious one that's laying. Also, thanks for the reassurance about egg eaters!

 

[sapphireblu76]

Wow - thank you EVERYONE for all your responses and information about dogs So much information.. you guys are awesome

Tish and HeChicken - honestly, I'd be afraid of a fullgrown dog I'd not have grown up with. I've had dogs in the past as puppies (smaller/medium breeds), I do know a little about the whole puppy drama Come August 1st, I will be home fulltime (YAY for retirement!!) and will have the time to work with a puppy. I'm also going to enroll in classes in Wichita for some basic training and obedience. There is a lady I've been talking with in Hutch today who has a GP mix with Anatolian puppy (born in April). I don't know what she's asking yet; I've just been talking a lot to her on the phone about behaviors, training, etc. At this time, the puppy is with goats. I'm going to proceed with caution. I want to do this right for me, my flock/etc. and for the pup.

I'm so glad I came over here to this community - anyone from Winfield or Oxford?

Was the name of the lady you were talking to Linda, by chance?

Hawkey-yes, the venison was from one of the deer I shot. It was delicious.

This morning I made breakfast fajitas with some sausage I made. No, I didn't raise or shoot the pig, but I did grind and season the sausage and it was good! I got word that we had ordered in WAY too much boneless pork loin at work. Rather than let it get old or re-freeze it they marked it down to $1 per pound. I bought 55 lbs. I made a couple pork loin roasts and ground the rest into sausage. I love breakfast sausage. I could eat it every day.

Mmmmm...venison =)~ That was a great deal on the pork, too!

Yay

On that note....DH met Tory this weekend and he is okay with keeping her! The trial really did help a lot because knowing that we didn't have to keep her if she wasn't working out, went a long way to helping him feel more comfortable with the idea. He seems to like her and while he still isn't excited about another dependent, he did say this morning "We'd better get her on flea/tick meds". He really is a great guy and takes responsibilities seriously so although it isn't his preference to have another dog, if we are going to, he'll make sure she is well taken care of. I think it helped a lot when I told him I like having her around for the guardian aspect, regardless of the chickens. He worries about me being out here alone when he's gone and even he can see how vigilant she is about alerting to anything going on. She has been such a good girl the past two mornings since he's been back, going on a patrol around the chicken yard while he is there to watch. And while the neighbors can get in their cars and drive away without a second glance from Tory (who has apparently inventoried the allowable vehicles and knows they "belong"), when a road construction crew started driving slowly down our street this morning, she ran out barking at them. So although *I* wanted her to protect the chickens, he is happy to have her protecting me

Yay! So glad she's working out so well

SO my chicks are sick!!! WTH?!? I don't know if they got sick on their own or from my adults that I brought back from the fair. The adults are fine, and they have been in another cage... but they are still within eye ball distance. So it's entirely possible. I don't know if I want to dive right into Baytril or not-- more shots... so many birds!! ACK!! So I went online and nearly had a heart attack at the price, but i bought some Denagard. But I have been reading about it everywhere lately and it sounds like it's just as good as Baytril and even one of the breeders I know uses it and recommened it. Sooooo.... does anyone else use this stuff?? Like it?? I bought it, so I don't have much choice now.
http://www.qcsupply.com/denagard-liquid-concentrate-novartis.html I have them on Duramycin, but since it binds to calcium and isn't as potent, I don't know how well it's going to work in the interim. I guess if no one has used it, I'll be the guinea pig and let you know how it works.

Been a heck of a day already. Not in the best of ways, but not too terrible either.

Oh no, so sorry your chicks are sick

Also, I found out the Marans I have are of the Bev Davis line

awww.. I"m sorry to hear that Hawkeye! I hope they get better soon!

SO, after three days of normal, if not small, eggs - I came home to this one. It wasn't in the nesting box, but under their roost: I'm assuming it's normal to have a funky egg now and then. I'm not sure if someone broke it, or it was broken on the way out - but yolk was all in the shavings and flies had found it. ewww.. It's really soft and flexible.

Wow, I've never seen an egg like that. Kinda looks like a turtle egg! I wonder if that is the difference between bird and reptile eggs, lack of the hard shell making part of the laying process.