Sounds like you might just need to hire someone to come in and paint it. I have a contractor that from what I can tell, is cheaper than most. But he's really a great guy, he builds houses but will do smaller stuff, too. He's the one we hired to come in and re-do our house. He brings in trade people for plumbing and painting, but he also does painting himself. Anyway, you might check CraigsList and see if you could find someone reasonable. I'm really worried about your granddaughter... why are they taking so long?? Does she have a Cardiologist or just a regular family Dr doing this? We always knew I had MVP when I was a kid-- it's easy to hear the valve. But until I was in highschool and practically dropped dead after a track meet, we had no idea I actually had another heart condition that was quite a bit more serious. I had always used my regular Dr up until that point and now I see a Cardiologist-- I know family Drs can deal with the smaller stuff and prescribe beta blockers, etc... but I would not go that route. Of course, I have no idea what kind of insurance they are working with, and often times that can dictate what they can and can not do. I had the diagnosis when I was a kid, but it wasn't until I had my heart attack in my 20's that I took it much more seriously. And what you are describing-- that sounds like a heart attack in the making. I would NOT recommend Galichia. That would be a BIG NO. I saw him early on and he is awful-- he's blunt, almost mean, no bedside manner and runs you over. I would not go see his group, either because after I was so upset with him, I switched to another Dr in his group and they treated me just as horribly. The Kansas Heart Hospital is really good if they do surgery.
I'm sorry about your sebbie. I sure hope the eggs will be okay. Maybe you caught it in time?? I hope so!
Yeah, my guess is she is upset because she wants to share the nest. Either you'll break her of being broody right now, or she'll decide to calm down and get to business. What did you end up doing with the neighbor's Production Red hen?? I would probably keep her. Sounds like she doesn't have any coop mates where she is.
Very interesting! I'm going to make little partitions. Whenever my darned silkies start to LAY!?!? I figured out that God is just delaying them so that the house can get finished! YAY!! (I really have no idea, but this is what I'm telling myself for now...ha!) I want to see those bags you make up when you get them done-- so take some pictures! Very interesting. If it works out well, I might have to do that too. I need to keep my lines separate or I'm just messing up everything I'm trying to do here. So I'm not going by color, but by rooster genetics-- I need to keep track of who is who.
But right after they hatch and are ready to be brooded together-- I want to zip tie them with the correct color so I know what line they are out of. I'm going to start banding right away. I hope you sell lots of birds! Or was that yesterday??? Or today? I'm lost now on when this was posted! I'm behind! As for the wry-- from everything I've heard breeders say over and over is that it just is nearly impossible to breed out. So definitely don't breed him. I have a couple of wry's right now that need to go to pet homes or be eaten. It's a shame, too. They didn't come out of my birds-- but came in shipped eggs and I've been very disappointed with them. There are video's on how to Capon a rooster on YouTube. It doesn't really look that hard. There is one lady that has it down to an art-- she can do it in like 3 minutes flat. She's fast! I've watched the videos, but I think I'd want another person helping, even though she does it all on her own!
Glad your chicks were okay! No fun waking up to a burned out light. That is my worst worry, which is one of the reason I just don't want to brood in winter. Perhaps when we get all settled and I can build a better brooding area for them I might be tempted. I think I want to get sweeter heaters or EcoGlows if I go that route, though. Sounds like you really messed up your hands.
Today is FREEZING cold out there!! That wind just cuts right through you. It might not be so bad if the wind weren't blowing like it is. Your problem is your excess of roosters. It might be why you are finding dead birds, too. They could be run raggeded and just not able to eat or drink because of the roosters. It's not an uncommon thing to happen. You only need ONE rooster to about 10 hens. Depending on what you are working on. I've got mine set up in trios and pairs-- all separate. No way would I run a bunch of roosters with hens. Right now, I have a "Bachelor pen" with JUST roosters only in it. NO hens. I have about 5 boys that I'm not using right this moment, but I will be, and so in the meantime they are not allowed to terriorize and kill my hens off. They are by themselves. If you aren't using them for a project, sell them, separate them out, or eat them. I'd chalk up your dead bird to Rooster trouble.As promised, here are my 2 Salmon Faverolle hens. The one in the nest box is being "tortured" by the roosters. She is absolutely afraid to even get out of the nest box. When I walked into the coop, she literally hid her head, burrowed down to the hays. You can see how her back feathers are almost gone. Poor hen. The other one is still out and about but she, too, is being chased around hard. With that said, we do have a few roosters which DH is ready to process and he promised me he would do so today. Hopefully it will help. I'm sure 4 out of the 7 I hatched in Noverber are roosters so that added to the toll. I have put 4 chicken saddles/aprons on the hens and she is one of them.
Well, not sure what happened but we lost a hen yesterday.Took the kids to Easter egg hunt, went to Easter dinner with grandma and grandpa and when we went back to feed the chickens, we found one dead in the fenced in run. I checked it over, no obvious predator marks. Just dead. I really wasn't expecting it because I didn't even notice anyone remotely sick. This is not the first time this happened either. We have lost 2 others just like this since August. No marks, nothing. My son was a bit distraught over losing another chicken and I had to explain to him that the chicken went to chicken heaven.
My 2 Salmon Faverolle hens.
Here is the oyster shell feeder. Notice the 2 concrete blocks on the back. It was originally on that and now on the plastic storage basket so the hens have some room to stand to eat the oyster shells.
Now I'm back in the office. It will be a very busy 2 weeks due to Tax season drawing to an end. Then the 5 days after 4/15 is the "perfection period" so we can verify all electronically filed returns are all transmitted flawlessly.
Have a great day everyone. It is gonna be another cold day or 2 before it starts to warm up again.
Kuan
