Consolidated Kansas

[maidenwolfx80]

I hope your birds get better! I completely understand what you mean about the "when it rains, it pours" thing. I'm currently dealing with not one, but TWO tanks full of sick fish (a 55g and a 29g). I've got sicknesses in my tanks because I got busy and stretched my weekly cleanings out to 1 1/2 - 2 weeks instead of the 1 week they should have been. I'm spending big bucks on aquatic antibiotics trying to save my fish... I'm also cleaning the tanks out much more often than usual (daily or as the medicine directions allow). Even so, it is possible that I'll lose all of my fish ($200+ worth of fish, plus the $$ I've spent on meds). The research I've done suggests that I could have a pretty nasty sickness in my tank, and there is no known treatment for one of the illnesses that my tank(s) could have (except for euthanizing the inhabitants and bleaching the tank, which I REALLY don't want to do - I'm not ready to give up just yet).

I was planning on cleaning my duck house out last night. I plum forgot until after dark. Beings that not cleaning my fish tanks out oftenenough caused lots of sickness with the fish, I was really worried about my birds. I slept rather fitfully last night because I was worried about my birds. I've not been sleeping well because of worrying about my fish as well. When I put the birds away last night (after dark 'cuz I forgot to do that too), I THOUGHT I heard a bird sneeze. After getting up early to clean their duck house out this morning, I spent some time watching them and didn't see any signs of sickness. Thank goodness! However, I'm now beginning to feel like a terrible owner. I'll be bringing my horses out here in about a month, and I'm both really excited and super nervous, all at the same time. I've never been solely responsible for the care of horses before, and I seem to be failing at taking care of fish/ducks (or at least I feel like I am). The only consolation I have for myself is that the work to prepare the property for the horses should end before the horses are out here. Hopefully, things will slow down after that...

Anyway, I've been super stressed recently with all of my deadlines. I've got deadlines coming VERY quickly for work, and I've been working overtime trying to meet those deadlines. Then, I've been spending every spare minute I can trying to prepare the property for the horses (cleaning debris out of the pasture, filling holes, helping my DH build the barn and fence, etc). Then, on top of that, I'm still responsible for cooking, grocery shopping, cleaning, etc. Plus, I live in the middle of nowhere so I still try to make time to run to town to visit my friends. The added stress of sick animals hasn't helped at all... Anyway, I figured you as my BYC friends would understand and wouldn't mind if I vented for a minute or two. Thanks for listening/reading!

It seems when something disturbs our regular routine things begin falling apart. The best thing for this is to continue the routine. I used to get super stressed when this happened but I found if I get up earlier and work on the things that are falling apart and then continue my daily routine focusing on what is most important then I can at least keep other things from falling too. My kids and animals are the most important things in my life and their care is number one and when I feel myself slip and one gets sick or injured because I did not carry out their needs it devastates me. It does happen and every time I blame myself because I feel like I could have avoided it and now it is my job to bust my butt to make it better. I totally understand how you feel and I am right there with you.

 

[chicken danz]

Lots of catching up here to do.
Quote:

chicken Danz- thanks. Also with both the vit E and the poly vits do I just give as much as I can get in them or the whole pill/dropper? The tylenol I can get, and yes I have vet wrap. Should I let her do her normal routine or keep her confined awhile?

Just squirt a little in their mouth. I often set the capsule back and use the rest later on. You need to be careful not to give them so much they accidentally asphyxiate it. And just a small amount of tylenol.
Quote:

Sorry. I would live to have a brain enough left by this time of day to figure out how to reply to everyone. I live getting a few minutes to myself to read and catch up!
Vitamin E sure saved my little Marans chick who lost her balance. She is acting just fine now.
So glad she is back to normal! You're a great chicken mama!!


Ahh.... My brain is mush. Must hit the hay. Will share a pic of our newest egg though Its's the one on the bottom right. I think our wheaten ameracauna laid it

Hope everyone finishes the week strong!

Beautiful egg! Its such a pretty blue color.

Danz, yeah I just think they're attracted to the darned guineas because of all the noise they make. You know how crazy those darned birds are & they get out & first thing they do is start yelling at the top of their lungs. As long as I was outside the dogs seemed to be ignoring them fine, but it was after I came & was cooking lunch that they got that one. HEChicken, yeah it's possible that Jasmine got the bird & then Lily took it away & ate it, but Lily is the one that got red-handed eating the bird, so she got walloped with it. I have heard people say before that they beat their dogs with the thing they killed & it is somewhat of a deterrent in a way if you're getting beaten up with a dead bird. She is going to get taught a lesson tomorrow though for eating the bird, even if she didn't catch it first she did in fact eat it, so that deserves punishment too. I'm going to have to I think start taking away all of these wild rabbits they catch because now they seem to think whatever they catch they can eat. I was feeling like the shock collar had really worked & now feel like I'm back to square one. I can't let the guineas out to range unless the dog has the shock collar on it seems. I have two of them, but one needs to have the screw drilled out because I could never get that one out to put the batteries in & the company wouldn't stand behind their product when it was defective, so I ended up buying another one. It would be nice if I could just get a second collar for this receiver.

medawinks, you have some pretty eggs! I can't wait to see what color of eggs I get from my Wheaten & Blue Wheaten Ameraucana hens & my Cream Legbars too. The lavender Ameraucana hens lay a pretty sky blue egg & a more teal colored one & my EE hen lays either a light greenish egg or sometimes it's almost blue.

Trish I would be very concerned about the dog eating one of the birds. They shouldn't in any way eat a bird with feathers on it. That is dangerous. If you don't mind I will write my daughter and ask if she has any suggestions for training against that.

Hi all,

Sorry I am so far behind that I don't know how I could possibly catch up with all of you! Very chatty bunch today! Lucie is doing well. She was sling walked several times today and was able to urinate on her own. She is also eating well and able to take oral antibiotics and pain medication so if all goes well overnight she will be able to come home tomorrow! I am so excited but also kind of nervous to have a bouncing Lucie home with two plated broken legs. Hopefully she won't get to stir crazy. It is amazing to me that she is already up on her feet and able to bear weight. I think I would still be in bed!

Stared my new job today and it about killed me. I was so tired I could have laid down on the floor and gone to sleep! It is amazing how quickly your body exhausts when it is busy putting a baby together. But I made it through and got home and took care of everyone. Hope all is well with everyone!

I'm so glad that Lucy is doing great.
I worried about you working. Working all day is exhausting enough without the added stress of a baby on board. Be very careful about standing in one spot too long. It is hard on your back and could cause your legs to swell. Be sure to get a walk and a rest in when you can.

I don't have a craft room but I do lots of crafts and I Cricut.
I don't do scrapbooking. The practical side of me knows I would never get it done. Let's just say there are too many other things to keep me busy. I have some needlepoint I have been working on for two winters. It's a snowy day project. I started needlepointing with my Mom after I had a double spinal surgery. Had my lower back and my neck done at the same time one after the other. I had to have someone care for me for a while so my Mom came to help me. She taught me how and I really loved it. I have a few finished projects and lots more to do. I also have some counted cross stitch pictures I need to do as well.
Danz, I agree about the upholstery, but for some reason I got totally DUH when it came time to do a couch. It looked so big and I couldn't easily tell how it was put together. Not to mention it was so dry rotted it would crumble and it was just a mess. The pieces I've done haven't been hard as in complicated, but they were hard as in my knuckles and fingers would get all beat up. I used an electric staple gun a lot. I also did the headliner in a van once, that was harder to me because it was hard positions.
After I did several simple pieces I started tackling stuff without a pattern. It is a lot more difficult. I do a lot of fitting with a larger piece of fabric and stretch and trim where I need to. The nice thing is it is also more rewarding when you know that you did it yourself. Dealing with pieces over 100 years old always presents a challenge. I always have multiple injuries and my arthriitis does a number after upholstering. But using this old furniture that is so much better crafted and so much heavier is my kind of thing. I have also refinished hundreds of antique wood pieces. I have many more I still need to complete.
I didn't know Tylenol would help with swelling, I thought it was ibuprofen. I am so not up on the chick meds, I see you say no ibuprofen. To be sure we don't OD our chicks though, I wanted to ask for clarification. Children's Tylenol doesn't come with a dropper, while Infant's Tylenol does. Infant's Tylenol is actually more concentrated than Children's Tylenol.
You are correct. It is Infants tylenol. tn he pelyo I know that sounds backwards, but it's not. I had an ER nurse apologizing to me when I pointed it out becuase I would have OD'd my child had I not asked. So, I'm assuming you mean InfantTylenol doesn't necessarily help with swelling but it seems to in fowl. I also use tylenol for myself because all the ibuprofen, aleve, and pain meds I have taken have ruined my stomach. Regardless it does seem to help my arthritis pain.
Right? I'm just have to agree with you again about the crafting taking second seat to the chickens, I've definitely had less time for crafts and I really have neglected my housework since becoming so consumed with the chickens. I totally love them. I can just stand there watching them, they are so entertaining but I'm certain I will never figure them out. Do you have pics of your brooder house? I'm sorry your plans didn't work out, so what now?
Housework??? What is that? I never seem to get around to it. I don't have a picture of my brooder house but could take one. It is 7' X 12' and divided into removable runs. And it is never big enough!!! I always have multiple bins of chicks in the house as well.

I'm glad I have non-flying ducks! The Mandarins fly of course but they stay in their pen.
Ned Kelly, my male turkey, suddenly matured overnight and is a displaying fool this morning. As I walked down to the yard I could see him displaying (albeit the middle tail feather is missing due to molt) and stopped to watch this rare sight, but didn't need to. All morning every time I turned around there he was displaying again. I opened the turkey pen so they could go in and get their morning gamebird feed. Madge rushed right in. I asked NK if he wanted to go in and he muttered "can't...right....now....too....busy....displaying". LOL. I get such a kick out of these guys.

I love watching the turkeys display. Since I sold my spare blue slate male, my other male displays and gobbles all the time. Since I moved the Midgets to the new pen and the two breeds aren't housed next door to each other they gobble across the yard to each other. My wild extra wild turkey goes this Saturday so I will finally have some peace and quiet in that pen as well. Those two just beat each other up!

Mommahen- I got the childrens tylenol this morning and I am going to give her a dose. She seems to not be as painful as yesterday so that is a plus. Noone at my house likes sweet potato and I get 7 bags at a time from a friend who gets them at a harvesters, she said "if anyone can find a use for any food it is you" I used to spread them out to other friends and I make homemade dog treats and sell them. I use lots of fresh goodies in those too. I have been peeling and boiling and mashing sweet potatos now to freeze for use in dog treats and I will take a big bowl out to the birds and they dive in like crows on a trash pile

I would kill to get a bunch of sweet potatoes. I love them and I also give them to my dogs to settle upset tummies. I planted some this year but I was waiting for frost to dig them. Of course since it frosted I haven't got it done. I don't know if they produced any or not.
Hawkeye-- I checked briefly under her foot and wiped off any mud/poo and saw nothing but it is worth another closer look this time. They like to get up on the roof of my home, a trailer so it is not too bad but still high, maybe I should not let them up there anymore. She is till favoring it this morning so I am going to give her some tylenol and vet wrap it she is not going to be happy about that at all. If she doesnt rest on it on her own I will seperate her and keep her inside for today and she will hate that too lol. It just seems to all happen at once and I have been hounding you guys franticly for the last few days. I have never had so many issues with my animals before. It just rains when something does happen. The two chicks are still trucking along, they are still hungry and thirsty and pooping so I am just going to monitor.
If she has no sores on her foot my guess would be she sprained or injured her ankle. She should be fine wherever she normally is as long as other birds aren't picking on her.


Originally Posted by lizzyGSR

I hope your birds get better! I completely understand what you mean about the "when it rains, it pours" thing. I'm currently dealing with not one, but TWO tanks full of sick fish (a 55g and a 29g). I've got sicknesses in my tanks because I got busy and stretched my weekly cleanings out to 1 1/2 - 2 weeks instead of the 1 week they should have been. I'm spending big bucks on aquatic antibiotics trying to save my fish... I'm also cleaning the tanks out much more often than usual (daily or as the medicine directions allow). Even so, it is possible that I'll lose all of my fish ($200+ worth of fish, plus the $$ I've spent on meds). The research I've done suggests that I could have a pretty nasty sickness in my tank, and there is no known treatment for one of the illnesses that my tank(s) could have (except for euthanizing the inhabitants and bleaching the tank, which I REALLY don't want to do - I'm not ready to give up just yet).
I used to have salt tanks and of course I've had lots of fresh water tanks. I purchased some formalin and that is what I treated everything with. It is so much better and does a wonderful job of treating fish diseases. Unlike some of that other stuff that discolors your water and your tank and doesn't work it works wonders. Don't buy stuff that contains formalin but by the regular formalin. I will check later and see what I purchased. I used to use it as a bath on new fish before they ever went in my tank and also a treatment and a preventative.
Anyway, I've been super stressed recently with all of my deadlines. I've got deadlines coming VERY quickly for work, and I've been working overtime trying to meet those deadlines. Then, I've been spending every spare minute I can trying to prepare the property for the horses (cleaning debris out of the pasture, filling holes, helping my DH build the barn and fence, etc). Then, on top of that, I'm still responsible for cooking, grocery shopping, cleaning, etc. Plus, I live in the middle of nowhere so I still try to make time to run to town to visit my friends. The added stress of sick animals hasn't helped at all... Anyway, I figured you as my BYC friends would understand and wouldn't mind if I vented for a minute or two. Thanks for listening/reading!
Slow down! You can only do what you can do. If you don't care for yourself you won't be able to do anything. Hey! I'm really good at giving advice I don't follow very well. Always live for the moment. Not yesterday, not tomorrow. It will relieve your stress immeasurably. This I do try to follow!!

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Don't worry about it! We've all had our panics! And it helps to have everyone here that has done it before. Be careful with the vet wrap-- I do want to warn you on that. It is great stuff, but if you pull on it too much, it tightens down after it's on and can cut off blood circulation. So it would be a great stablizer, just put it on a bit loose and then squeeze down to make it hold tight. I put it on after my bumble foot surgeries and wrap it kind of loose-- not TOO loose, but not super tight. And then anything that looks a bit loose, I squeeze down and it makes a great bandage, etc. If your roosts are waist high, they are fine. They should be no higher than 3 feet to cut down on bumblefoot. I have pictures of bumbfoot surgery in my pictures. If you click on my profile and go to my albums, I have an album labeled "Bumblefoot".

Ok thank you. I do appreciate everyone on here and love that we are all close. I dont even post in the other forums when I have questions I just turn to you guys anymore

I feel better that the height is fine. I will report back on if I see anything on her foot.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Chicken danz- I gave probably half the capsule of vit E to the chick she will drink it as it comes out which is so much easier. I gave the turkey 1 tsp of tylenol and I am about to vet wrap it after I check out the under side.

 

[Kansas Prairie]

well that they can fly down and land softly on the ground, but the other birds are so heavy it really is kind of a crash landing any time they jump down from something high.

Ned Kelly, my male turkey, suddenly matured overnight and is a displaying fool this morning. As I walked down to the yard I could see him displaying (albeit the middle tail feather is missing due to molt) and stopped to watch this rare sight, but didn't need to. All morning every time I turned around there he was displaying again. I opened the turkey pen so they could go in and get their morning gamebird feed. Madge rushed right in. I asked NK if he wanted to go in and he muttered "can't...right....now....too....busy....displaying". LOL. I get such a kick out of these guys.

How old is your male turkey and what breed?
I'm a turkey newbie. My son talked me into hatching out some turkeys, for DH's birthday, he has a friend who has turkeys and he loves to watch them display. DH was surprised! He has turkey calls and he wants to listen to real turkeys and get down his turkey calls. 4 of the 6 eggs hatched the 3rd week of July. They are sure different than my chickens .First thing in the morning they fly over the fence and corrals and run around flapping their wings. Then they spend the rest of the day trying to get back in, they don't attempt to fly back in, they run around trying to find a place to get back in. I think they need a momma turkey to teach them a few things. I hatched them with chick so it thinks it's a turkey and guided them to food & water when they were small, and showed them how to roost. and how to use the nipple water bucket. They are fun to watch and compared to my calm chickens they are sure jumpy/ busy. They did decide they don't like the boss Rooster attempting to breed them, he can't catch them now, they keep an eye out for him, and the run-corrals are large enough to get away. I think my hens wish they could get away from him too,

 

[lizzyGSR]

OH no, so sorry about your fish! I hope they will pull through and be okay. I just cleaned out my coop last weekend... or the one before, I can't remember now. It needed it! The shavings were in there from last October. So it had been a year. I used such deep litter, it stayed clean and odor free for all that time, though! (well, almost, the last few weeks I could tell the shavings were done in) I like making a list and crossing everything off. Not that I stick with it well, but when I am really pressed for time and have to get a lot of kid things done-- I do it then especially. Like this morning, the kids had Picture day, and so I got their clothes out last night and had them ready for this morning. Then I had the money and the packet already put in their bags and even put them in the car, so no chance of forgetting. Then we have conferences tonight with two diff teachers... and I have that taped to my kitchen door so every time I go in, I won't forget it's today. (because I would!!!) And on, and on. Lowers the stress level when you know where you are at with things. But I'm sorry that you have so much going on, hopefully there will be a nice lull where you can feel more relaxed soon.

I have been having an issue with my coop smelling like ammonia EVERY morning. That in and of itself worries me. I've been trying to figure out how to add more ventilation without making the coop COLD for this winter. I plan on adding two windows on the back (north) side, but I am hesitant to do so right before winter. That, and we've got our hands full with getting things ready for the horses right now. Once that's done, I'll need to finish my duck house (add more ventilation) and duck run (add a roof, re-inforce the sides, and add wire to prevent predators from digging under. I may post pictures of my duck house to get opinions from all of you here on BYC. My coop is made of OSB and so I've been trying to be very careful to make sure that the inside doesn't get wet... Not sure how to add more ventilation without risking rain/snow getting inside.

It seems when something disturbs our regular routine things begin falling apart. The best thing for this is to continue the routine. I used to get super stressed when this happened but I found if I get up earlier and work on the things that are falling apart and then continue my daily routine focusing on what is most important then I can at least keep other things from falling too. My kids and animals are the most important things in my life and their care is number one and when I feel myself slip and one gets sick or injured because I did not carry out their needs it devastates me. It does happen and every time I blame myself because I feel like I could have avoided it and now it is my job to bust my butt to make it better. I totally understand how you feel and I am right there with you.

Thank you for understanding and for the re-assurance.

Slow down! You can only do what you can do. If you don't care for yourself you won't be able to do anything. Hey! I'm really good at giving advice I don't follow very well. Always live for the moment. Not yesterday, not tomorrow. It will relieve your stress immeasurably. This I do try to follow!!

"Hey! I'm really good at giving advice I don't follow very well." - Oh danz, you are so funny! I slowed down a little bit yesterday, only to realize that I completely forgot about the ONE thing on my to-do list that REALLY needed to be done. GRRRRR. It's nicer out today, so hopefully my DH and I will be able to get something done on the pasture.

Thanks, everyone, for the understanding and advice!

 

[mommahen10]

maidenwolf, we LOVE sweet potatoes. I canned and canned and fried a ton, but I kept bringing the raw scraps out to the older chickens and they ate it fine. I wonder if just put a bunch in the oven to soften them they younger ones could eat them better. That wouldn't take so much effort. It's been a couple of days since I canned them, my hands are still all gross looking. We still have more to harvest. We've been to Harvesters before, my dh's parents live your direction so sometimes we go and figure it sort of pays for the gas that way and we get to visit.

OMGosh Lizzy! That's terrible. Fresh or salt water? Is there any way that you can identify the germ to be sure you have the right med? I'm sorry you are going through this, I only have one tank left becuase I just got so tired of cleaning them. I don't clean them that often though, that's a lot. Do you know where the sickness came from? I'm sorry you are going through this, it does sound like you have a lot on your plate.

maidenwolf, I'm worried you're giving too much Tylenol. 1 tsp. of children's is 80 mg, right? That's the same as 1 chewable. I give a 1yr old 1 chewable at about 25 lbs. How much does the bird weigh? Danz, we need you. What's the people dose for the vit E? If you divided down by weight ven a few drops would be plenty. Danz, can we OD them? What signs would you look for? Danz, if you get around to taking pics that would be great but don't stress over it. What caught my attention was that you said 'bins'. I want to see how it works. We are making a brooder room in the barn. This room has very deep shelving that was built to hold my Rubbermaid storage containers. We don't need this room for storage anymore. When I walked in there, my first thought was that I could install the lamps on the underside of the shelving and use tubs underneath to keep the chicks. My DH wanted to make it nicer, he's going to build a front equipped with doors and divide them. What size would be ideal? I'm thinking not too big while they are tiny. What I don't like is that I will have to reach around a bit to clean them out. I'm not so sure that just using tubs wouldn't be more simple and easier to keep sanitized. The benefit of building a door is that there would be absolutely no way for anything to get in there becuase he plans to use wood/wire and it'll fit. If I go back to the tub idea, I will want to make a stronger effort to make sure the entire room is secure, which isn't that hard, but I would still feel better if they were locked in with that wire. He doesn't want to build the doors big enough to take the tubs in and out. Any suggestions or advice? I appeciate the opportunity to benefit from your experience. I need to get outside with my camera but it all looks so junky yet it's all functional. I gotta go check the muffins.

 

[lizzyGSR]

OMGosh Lizzy! That's terrible. Fresh or salt water? Is there any way that you can identify the germ to be sure you have the right med? I'm sorry you are going through this, I only have one tank left becuase I just got so tired of cleaning them. I don't clean them that often though, that's a lot. Do you know where the sickness came from? I'm sorry you are going through this, it does sound like you have a lot on your plate.

Fresh water. Part of my problem is that my tank is fully stocked. I'm pretty sure the germ came from me not cleaning the tank as often as I should. Another option is that at the beginning of September, I went on a business trip to Eastern KS and left my husband in charge of feeding my otos (they eat only algae and so won't eat regular "fish" food. I had an automatic feeder feeding regular fish food.). I came back to find two of the otos dead in my 55g. Both of my tanks have otos in them, but he'd only been feeding one tank. GRRR!

There is no way to know for sure which germ is causing my problems. I'm treating with a general antibiotic now and have ordered several antibiotics that I can use together that are supposed to make a pretty strong combination. One of the problems I have COULD have been caused by the dead fish in the tank while I was gone (my DH didn't even notice there were dead fish in the tank. By the time I got home and noticed them, there wasn't much left to dispose of). However, I'm betting that the problem is related to me stretching out my weekly cleanings to every week-and-a-half or two for an extended period of time. I believe I MIGHT have columnaris in my small tank (29g). In my large tank, it could be:

• columnaris (very hard to get rid of)
• neon tetra disease (untreatable) combined with ich and fin and tail rot

or a couple of other things that are equally as bad.

On a separate note, I've been having trouble with my coop smelling like ammonia when I open the door in the morning. I really think I need more ventilation, but I'm not sure where to put it. I'd like suggestions from you guys, please!!!

(click to make the pictures larger)

Looking north at the front of my coop. The left side of the front is a door and opens as well. On the right side, you can see the inside of the window. I've got hardware cloth on the inside of the windows. The windows themselves (as you can see on the left) open outward.


The back of my coop. If you look closely, you can see the outlines where we want to put a couple more windows. However, this is on the north side of the coop. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to put windows here because I'm worried I'd have to keep them "closed" all winter and that it'll allow drafts into the coop. These windows will have to wait 'till after we bring the horses out here, as we won't have time to do it before then. The rope across the top is to keep the coop from blowing over/away and is the only thing anchoring the coop to the ground.


The "right" (a.k.a. East) side of the coop. This is what the windows look like. I was thinking that I could put a "vent" towards the top of the peak on the east and west sides, but I'm not sure what I'd use to keep rain from coming in the vent. I was thinking something like a dryer vent cover, but that is always closed unless there's pressure. Something similar that keeps predators/rain out would be good. Whatever it is, it'd have to be something I can find at either the local wal-mart or hardware store. Either that or it would have to be cheap to ship. Any ideas?


The inside of the East window. Bedding was just changed so it is fluffier than usual.

 

[lizzyGSR]

With my coop, I forgot to mention that ALL of the birds sleep on the East half of the house.

 

[Trish44]

Danz, I think my mistake has been that I let my GPs eat the rabbits & such they have caught, wild ones that is. I think I need to start taking anything like that away from them because now I think in their mind if they catch it they can eat it no matter what it is. This is going to take some work I think to get them trained to leave these guineas alone. They can lay in the middle of the yard all day with chickens walking around them & never look up unless there is a ruckus somewhere. But you let the noisy guineas out & it get their attention right off & I think that is the issue, that they make so much noise. Oh I went out after feeding all the birds & was going to take those little guineas I got from you & the two left from Atwoods out to join all the others in the hoop coop & just barely opened the door to the brooder when three of them flew out of there all at once. So you guessed it, now I have baby guineas loose in the garage. I went back out earlier & was able to catch one with my fish net, but there are two still loose in there. I hope they don't get smart enough to hide from my net like that darned little rooster did this summer or I will be chasing them for days. They're so darned fast, the little buggers. The two that are out are two of the ones that came from you Danz.

maidenwolf, you need to cut that dosage way down on the tylenol for the chick, they only need a tiny bit.

When I went out to put the one little guinea in that I had caught the bigger guinea keet I got from Atwoods was making a lot of racket, it's scared of the other birds, so it was yelling & the little male peacock was displaying. It's the first time I've ever seen him do that. Of course he doesn't have much of a tail as of yet, he's only about 4 or 5 months old, but it was funny to see.

My DH is out there working on the coop, yay! I hope he can get the other 2 sides closed in today. I'm going to show him that pic you posted Hawkeye, so he can get the idea of how to do the supports under the skylights. I only got two of those since they were so expensive, but it should help anyway with letting more light in. I have a feeling I'm going to be running a bunch of extension cords out there this winter, very long ones.

lizzy, you could use some of the vents on your coop like I have on mine. They're really made for putting on houses at the level of the crawl space to let air in there, but they have louvers & close at 40 degrees. I have two of them on the back of my coop. I'll try to get a pic of them later if I can remember. I have had them on there for over a year & haven't had any problems with them letting rain in & some air coming through in the winter isn't a bad thing, you don't want it air tight or you will have moisture problems & your chickens will start having respiratory problems too if the ammonia gets too strong in there. I noticed that when I had to clean out my deep litter this spring. If it's getting strong smelling you need to do something now because your chickens will start getting sick. Also, I noticed it looks like you're using straw & that holds an awful lot of moisture & it doesn't dry out well. Pine shavings are a lot drier & you can keep piling them on all winter, just turning them over as they need to be & by spring you will have some nice compost.