Consolidated Kansas

[cherwill]

Well we got back home about 11:30 last night after being in OKC yesterday. I have a new grandson, Rayce Blaine, 7 lbs. 14 oz & if I say so myself, of course I'm a little biased, lol, he is a cutie. Between all of the grandparents he's going to be spoiled rotten, he has two sets of them down there in OK. He really is a good baby, he hardly cries & when he does it's very briefly. We got there soon after he was born by C-Section & as soon as they got them to a room & settled in we got to go in & spend time with them, so he got lots of cuddling right from the beginning. The other grandmother will be back there today & they will be staying at her house while mom recuperates so she will get to spend a lot of time with him. I hope we get to see him as much as possible. Big sister got to see him by video from my DS's android phone. Anyway, it was a very exciting day & something I will remember & cherish.

Here is grandma & baby Rayce:

Congratulations! You're not biased at all; he IS a cutie!

Aw HEChicken I've never had lambs. But I remember feeling my goats bellies with the little kids moving. Just makes me feel happy all over. The sun is shining and that is wonderful. Even though it is still in the teens here the sun is melting some of the snow out of the gutters and such.
I haven't made it outside yet. I decided to do a little dish washing since I couldn't find the sink any more! Now my sleeves are wet.

Here's a pic of my hatches this week. I am missing one of the turkeys in this picture. I have 6 turkey poults, one barred rock, one white orpington, and 4 lavender orpingtons here.

Ahh ... that was like a dose of sunshine right there.

I think he is actually going to be okay. Such a relief.

I sure hope so; I'll keep my fingers crossed. You've sure fought for him. He's a lucky bird, even if he doesn't know it or appreciate it!

I'm so tired of being cold. I don't get tired of hanging around my house and yard, but I sure get tired of being cold.

 

[Bumblefoot Bill]

Congratulations Trish on your new Grandbaby!

Got our first egg from my birthday chicks! 19 weeks and 2 days. I think it came from one of the Turkens, she seemed a little uncomfortable yesterday.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Trish - Congratulations! Your grandson is a cutie for sure! Such a precious bundle of joy!

Danz - Those fuzzy butts look great! In a month, I'll be hatching some.

Hechicken - I so needed a positive story and your turkey tom is giving me a grin on my face as well. So glad he is doing better with the meds. I've heard of blackhead. Does it affect just turkeys or chickens/ducks/geese as well?

Congrats to those who got their first eggs. I'm still excited to see eggs in the nest boxes.

I lost a bird to this cold. No injuries, nothing. Fine one day and dead the next. Sigh... This is a younger bird that I hatched from the eggs from Danz too. I'm a bit upset about it. Hoping the warmer weather will help.

Speaking of eggs... egg production has kept up despite the snow and cold. I'm glad because for some reason, I want to bake more now than when it was the holidays. I've baked sugar cookies, brownies, fudge, hokkaido breads (LOTS of it), Chinese BBQ buns (for steaming and baking), and plain Chinese buns. My son really enjoys baking and helps measure the ingredients so we had a blast. I was dead tired after working a long day but some how, I mustered the energy to get some baking in with my kid. I cherish those moments.

As you can guess it, since I'm posting early in the morning that I'm working the late night shift... again. I'll be doing it every week till the end of Tax season. Not fun but necessary. I'm just glad I can read some posts here and a few other places online while I'm doing the deployment so at least it is not so bad.

Stay warm everyone. The warming trend starts today! I think my chickens and ducks may just do a happy dance when the snow is all melted!

 

[ashncarson]

Speaking of eggs... egg production has kept up despite the snow and cold. I'm glad because for some reason, I want to bake more now than when it was the holidays. I've baked sugar cookies, brownies, fudge, hokkaido breads (LOTS of it), Chinese BBQ buns (for steaming and baking), and plain Chinese buns. My son really enjoys baking and helps measure the ingredients so we had a blast. I was dead tired after working a long day but some how, I mustered the energy to get some baking in with my kid. I cherish those moments.

Have you or anyone else every made egg bread? http://www.grit.com/food/recipes/super-simple-flourless-egg-bread.aspx This is the recipe that was shared with me.

 

[cherwill]

Congratulations Trish on your new Grandbaby!

Got our first egg from my birthday chicks! 19 weeks and 2 days. I think it came from one of the Turkens, she seemed a little uncomfortable yesterday.

I lost a bird to this cold. No injuries, nothing. Fine one day and dead the next.

I'm sorry to hear that. This cold has been crazy.

Speaking of eggs... egg production has kept up despite the snow and cold. I'm glad because for some reason, I want to bake more now than when it was the holidays. I've baked sugar cookies, brownies, fudge, hokkaido breads (LOTS of it), Chinese BBQ buns (for steaming and baking), and plain Chinese buns. My son really enjoys baking and helps measure the ingredients so we had a blast. I was dead tired after working a long day but some how, I mustered the energy to get some baking in with my kid. I cherish those moments.

That's great; those are not just moments, they're precious memories and traditions for your family.

Have you or anyone else every made egg bread? http://www.grit.com/food/recipes/super-simple-flourless-egg-bread.aspx This is the recipe that was shared with me.

That looks interesting. If my birds decide to start laying more than one or two eggs a day, I may try making this!

 

[tazcat70]

They are doing great. I have lost 3, one due to my fault.

 

[chicken danz]

Incubating of course

- I am a sucker for a turkey.

Speaking of turkeys….if you recall, about a week ago I dosed my RP tom with Safeguard, feeling concerned at his lethargy. Although he'd had Ivermectin a month or so before with the rest of the flock, I was concerned his lethargy was due to worms, so decided to dose him individually with the Safeguard. I tend not to be able to talk about upsetting things as they are going on, so what I haven't mentioned since is that he continued to go downhill after the Safeguard treatment. A day or two after treatment, I started seeing sulphur-yellow poop spots around the yard. They could have come from anyone but my gut told me they were from him. I started researching and went back and read Danz' posts about her tom's illness and death a few weeks ago.

I also found another article followed by another thread on BYC, both of which indicated the bright yellow poop is caused by liver involvement (which I already knew) and that it was most likely the dreaded Blackhead. One user had success treating with Metronidazole combined with force feeding. The theory is that the reason the poop is yellow is the liver is metabolizing body fat due to the fact the bird has stopped eating, so force feeding forces it to process real food instead of body fat.

I hastily ordered Metronidazole (Fish Zole) from eBay and it was scheduled for delivery last Saturday. In the meantime, I started cooking him a couple of eggs each day and force feeding. And it was force feeding indeed. By now he had taken to the coop and never left the roosts. He was totally uninterested in eating or drinking anything and each mouthful I got down him was a fight (at least he still had fight in him). Each attempt ended either in my exultant "got it"! or my cursed "darn it" as a mouthful was spat out to the floor of the coop and gobbled up by the perfectly healthy hens waiting below. To my delight the Fish Zole arrived a day early (so much better than if it hadn't arrived Saturday since at that point it couldn't have got here until Monday). Anyway…..I immediately opened the bottle and started dosing - also a fight. The recommended dosage is one pill twice a day. Friday night wasn't too bad. Saturday morning I got it in him only to have him spit it out and it was lost in the bedding below the roosts. Either a hen ate it (not desirable but shouldn't hurt) or it is buried. I had to go back up to the house and get another pill and got that one down him. Every dose since has been a fight but that is the only one we've actually lost. After each dose I've looked for signs of improvement but he remained holed up in the coop, on the roosts, never down eating or drinking. The one time I lifted him down and set him in front of the waterer, he and the BR tom started fighting and I had to separate them. After that I didn't want to make things more stressful for him so I left him to choose where he wanted to be. I even wondered if he wasn't sick at all and his self-imposed confinement was due to fear of the other tom. Right on cue he pooped in front of me and the yellow diarrhea confirmed I really was dealing with a sick bird - not a scared bird.

This afternoon I took a few eggs that got frozen and broke them into a bowl to carry down to give the hens but when I got there I decided to offer the bowl to him first. By now, when he sees me enter the coop he gets as far away from me as he can but I held out the bowl so he could see the contents and he peered at them, then walked over to try the egg. Hallelujah - he dipped his head and started eating. Although my arm ached from holding the bowl at arm's length for so long, I stood there as long as he was willing to eat. I hoped the egg would act as an appetite stimulant and when I returned to the coop this evening to do evening chores, my wish was granted. He was out of the coop voluntarily for the first time in at least a week, and was eating snow like he's afraid it will run out. The waterer had water in it and I refilled it but he seemed to prefer to eat snow. I let him have at it - I'm just thrilled to see him ingesting anything, and I'm sure he is very dehydrated after not eating or drinking for so long. I waited until he quit eating snow and then grabbed him to give him his evening pill. He growled at me the whole time I held him but all I could do was grin.

I think he is actually going to be okay. Such a relief.

HeChicken I'm so glad you have saved your turkey. Mine didn't end up having Blackhead as I confirmed in the necropsy but it certainly made me much more aware that I need to take precautions. I did however confirm that one of my peachicks had died from blackhead after the fact. So it's out there for sure. I treated my Tom with metronadazole but it didn't save him. He had gone septic from a leg injury. I did treat both hens with a full course of metronadazole though before I sold them to make sure. Better safe than sorry. Cold isn't supposed to kill the blackhead protozoa but heat will. I would be sure to clean up any of the poo you find just to make sure the other turkeys don't accidentally ingest it. The protozoa die quickly without a host so
that is why I am treating my turkey pens with sevin as soon as the snow melts and the ground is wet. I hate to kill earthworms but it seems like a better option than loosing turkeys. I am also giving cayenne pepper in the food as that is supposed to help as well.
Oh BTW extreme thirst is another symptom of blackhead so don't stop dosing him yet. You need 7-10 days of meds to make sure it has totally cleared him. I'm no expert I just spent days and days researching because I didn't know enough.

Congratulations Trish on your new Grandbaby!

Got our first egg from my birthday chicks! 19 weeks and 2 days. I think it came from one of the Turkens, she seemed a little uncomfortable yesterday.

Congrats on the egg!!!

Trish - Congratulations! Your grandson is a cutie for sure! Such a precious bundle of joy!

Danz - Those fuzzy butts look great! In a month, I'll be hatching some.

Hechicken - I so needed a positive story and your turkey tom is giving me a grin on my face as well. So glad he is doing better with the meds. I've heard of blackhead. Does it affect just turkeys or chickens/ducks/geese as well?

Congrats to those who got their first eggs. I'm still excited to see eggs in the nest boxes.

I lost a bird to this cold. No injuries, nothing. Fine one day and dead the next. Sigh... This is a younger bird that I hatched from the eggs from Danz too. I'm a bit upset about it. Hoping the warmer weather will help.

Speaking of eggs... egg production has kept up despite the snow and cold. I'm glad because for some reason, I want to bake more now than when it was the holidays. I've baked sugar cookies, brownies, fudge, hokkaido breads (LOTS of it), Chinese BBQ buns (for steaming and baking), and plain Chinese buns. My son really enjoys baking and helps measure the ingredients so we had a blast. I was dead tired after working a long day but some how, I mustered the energy to get some baking in with my kid. I cherish those moments.

As you can guess it, since I'm posting early in the morning that I'm working the late night shift... again. I'll be doing it every week till the end of Tax season. Not fun but necessary. I'm just glad I can read some posts here and a few other places online while I'm doing the deployment so at least it is not so bad.

Stay warm everyone. The warming trend starts today! I think my chickens and ducks may just do a happy dance when the snow is all melted!

Time with your children is one of life's most precious things. I used to bake with my sons as well. Funny the boys always enjoyed cooking more than the girls did. They still do.
Sorry you lost a bird to the cold. I think I lost 3 but they were still brooder birds. The floor of the brooder house is cold regardless of how warm I get the air above. It amazes me that it can be so warm in there yet water will freeze sitting down low. I don't know what I can do about it unless I could raise the building and insulate underneath it. That is not going to happen for sure.
Chickens can catch Blackhead but it normally doesn't make them sick.
Taz you would love turkeys if you ever got them. They are just the sweetest birds ever!!!
I'm optimistically looking forward to some warmer weather. We aren't supposed to get as warm as what is predicted south of here. 50 is about the max temperature but I'll take it for sure.

 

[KsKingBee]

~~Danz, the turkeys are in the hoop coop, I don't want to turn them out yet because of the two bronze toms are free ranging like all the birds do except the peas. I need to sell one tom if I can find a buyer. Only the little RP hen is laying so far, we get an egg about every three days, I am sure the cold is effecting the laying. OQB was the egg eater this time, she thought that the eggs were not fertile and that they had been cold and would not hatch. I try to tell her a little cold won't keep them from developing but she is a red headed Okie.... HeChicken, congrats on saving your tom!

have an issue in the pea pen now. We have had one of them coughing for a few days, and now we have three young ones with swollen, frothy eyes. I gave them a shot of Agrimycin and started with durmycin in the water. Durmycin is a soluble powder tetracycline hydrochloride. Don't know what the illness is but am hoping that antibiotics are the cure, no nasal discharge but we think it is a respiratory problem. We just finished a round of Roster Booster yesterday so they should be wormed. ~~**** computer wont let me post a picture. or emoticon. :mad

BYC site was shut down when I was trying to post last night, here is a pic of the pea.

 

[HEChicken]

Taz, sorry to hear about the losses.

Tweety, sorry also for your loss.

Okay, so more info on the Blackhead. The protozoa that cause it can live for up to 3 years, and disinfecting does not always make a difference as it can blow in on dust. Chickens are typically carriers and though they can become symptomatic, they usually do not. It is turkeys and peafowl that are the most vulnerable. If you have local pheasants or grouse, it can also be spread via them.

Interestingly, cayenne pepper is said to be not just a prophylactic but a cure. I read about this when researching last week but totally forgot about it after ordering the Fish Zole. I don't currently have any but I could have run to the store and got it if I'd realized.

Blackhead used to be considered a death sentence, and once you had it in your area, it was advised to not even try to keep turkeys. Now that it can be treated, it is not nearly as much a concern. And so far, I would say it is not nearly as contagious as I originally believed either. I have 7 turkeys and only one got sick.

I think I'm going to see if I can find a source to purchase Cayenne in bulk and use it as a prophylactic on a quarterly basis. Watching for symptoms and being proactive as soon as a bird looks ill, is probably key to preventing losses. And, I have to wonder if "surviving" blackhead might lead to greater future resistance. On the other hand, it might also make them more vulnerable to reinfection.

It seems like there is always something to learn with animals! For me the scariest things are the unknown - seeing a symptom and not knowing what caused it or what to do about it. Each time I encounter something for the first time I have to start from scratch learning about it, but after that it doesn't seem as scary and I feel better that I will recognize it next time and know what to do about it. In this case, I'm glad to have the Fish Zole on hand so I can treat sooner if I see it again. And I figure, if I survived twice daily medicating of a turkey in sub-freezing temperatures after slogging through foot-deep snow drifts to get there, treating in better conditions will seem like a walk in the park

The ewes' bags are filling - about grapefruit sized. I'm guessing delivery is still 2-3 weeks away though.

 

[Trish44]

tweety that egg bread looks good! Where do you find oat bran? I know you can buy wheat bran in the store, but I didn't know for sure where to find oat bran.

It's almost 32 degrees here, yay! It's supposed to be a high of 38 today according to the forecast & then get warmer every day after that. I know the chickens will be as glad as the rest of us. I can't wait for this crud to get melted off.

Congrats to everyone with their first eggs, that's always exciting. I still love seeing the little pullet eggs as each one starts laying, they're so cute starting out, like little miniatures.

I have 3 sets of eggs going into the hatcher today that are due Friday, wish me luck. Some of them are wheaten Ameraucana eggs & I am so hoping for some pullets in those, I need some new blood in that pen. The others are Speckled Sussex & BLRW. The 2 week old SS are doing great as well as the BCMs, Welsummers, & the three Barnevelders. The heritage RIR chicks are getting so big, I hope the weather stays good enough they can be integrated outside soon. I'll have to get current pics of them so you all can kind of see how dark their coloring is, they're not at all like the production reds or any of the hybrids.

HEChicken, I did read about the cayenne as well when I was reading. You might check with Spice Merchant in Wichita to buy it in bulk, they do sell spices by the ounce or pound. You could get a lot of cayenne in a pound I'm thinking.