Hi, everyone!
First, I want to say that the Baumanns in Garnett are lovely people and taking my surplus roos there to prepare for freezer camp was a wonderful option. I will certainly do this hereafter, as well. They have a great facility and are very ethical and respectful in their care of the birds, so I felt better about it. I am hyper-empathetic and anthropomorphize to the nth degree, so making a pragmatic decision such as this is nearly miraculous, much less following through on it. I am glad for their services and will definitely recommend them to anyone. Because they are USDA certified, you could then sell your properly stamped, inspected, vacuum sealed poultry, should you choose to do so. It took about an hour to get there from Lawrence, and it's a lovely drive.
Second, on squishy-booty chicks: sometimes it's mushy-chick syndrome. This is a bacterial infection that enters at the umbilicus (the stub below the vent) at hatch, and most don't overcome it, however they can have a squishy caboose due to other things, such as large yolk and vitamin/mineral deficiency in the egg from which they hatched.
Whenever I have a weak chick, I generally use the same treatment: baby parrot formula and sand, sprinkled liberally over their normal feed.
The probiotics in the formula essentially perform the same function as the yogurt someone suggested, and because it tastes good, they eat it readily. They also get a boost in vitamins and minerals as it's very high in both, as well as a good digestible protein content. I keep it on hand for injured birds, too, because one of the first things that happens when a bird feels ill is that it stops eating, which cascades into getting weaker, etc.
I hope everyone is doing well, getting lots done, and enjoying the lovely weather. I really wish it would give us just a gentle rain every couple of days...but I like the mild temps.
I'm nearly done with the new facility, which has 5 duplex coops (each of which houses 2 breeds, separated), a triple, and one single, which houses a breeding pair. I have one more coop to build, a peafowl house to build, and two more gates. I currently have 11 gates into various runs and divisions. There will be 11 panels I will have to make and install for the space under each coop-space for the feed and water area, which will be hinged for easy access. I have all of the coops in a long row with the back of all of the coops in a 'hallway' for accessing the people entrance into their sleeping space, with the gate into each run on the sides. The pop doors are on the front of the coop into the run. Once the food doors are installed, I won't have to go into the runs for normal maintenance. Avian netting is already on more than half of the runs, but I need to finish that up, as well...it's just really not a one-person job.
I need to paint everything, and I don't have proper roofing material on any but one...I was going to shingle, but I don't want to, and a friend who works for a sign company offered me these HUGE pieces of vinyl like what they use for billboards- white, numbered 1-8 in GIANT numbers. I think I'm going to use these for my roofing! You'll be able to fly over and identify my coops!
So: the resulting divisions are: Blue/Black/Mottled/Silkied bantam Cochins; Lavender/Porcelain/Mottled/Lavender Mottled d'Uccles; South American Koro Sea Raraku; South American Mapuche/Nikkei/Quechua; French Black Copper Marans; Partridge Chantecler; Blue/Black/Splash/Lavender/Partridge Silkie; Paint/Red Pyle/Blue/Splash/Silkied Ameraucana; Gold Laced/Isabel/Lavender/Porcelain Orpington; Oread Rangers (my own dual-purpose project bird which produces heavy roosters in about 12 weeks).
I'm trying to decide how to further divide into the remaining pens, as color divisions need to be more stringent...gah! Hard to believe this is after greatly diminishing the breeds/colors I'm playing with...oh! I forgot I'll be putting my Chocolate Project in one pen, too- Marans, Silkies, and Cochins, BABY!!! It'll take for-bloody-ever, but I'm moving the gene into the other breeds. This little Chocolate roo is going to have a bunch of different girlfriends!
