Consolidated Kansas

[Ivywoods]

Hawkeye it's really hard to tell if it will happen again. I'm not familiar with silkies, but I do know it happens a lot with young pullets. It's really nothing to worry about, that is unless you are wanting to sell eggs. You don't want to turn your customers off. I've eaten a lot of eggs with blood spots. It's not a problem. An egg is about as close to meat as anything, and meat has blood in it.

Sometimes when the ovum separates from the ovaries in the hen a little bit of blood is captured in the egg. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[chicken danz]

Actually you can't see her well in these pictures. She was the last one born and only has a half mask. It's a lighter color and she is in the feed bowl in the pictures. Now that they have found the great outsdoors they are all outside running around there this morning. Crazy dogs. They don't act cold at all. At least it will be easier to get pictures now.
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So DAAAANNNNNZZZZ-You said you have one picked out... which one are you thinking? I'm wondering if it's the same one that Mike and I are considering....you first.....

 

[Ivywoods]

Danz-Okay, great. That's not the one we were considering. I'll pm you about it.

 

[HEChicken]

thanks.... but ewww!! I don't want to run into any more blood spots!

It takes a little getting used to. Funny thing is, after writing the above I decided to go and make French Toast for the fam, and opened a Marans egg to find quite a well-developed blood spot! Its not that it happens in every other egg but I've seen enough of them over the last few years that I truly don't give them a second thought now - just whip up that yolk with all the others and start dipping the bread.

 

[chicken danz]

Hawkeye lots of pullets produce blood spots early on but they outgrow it in time. Commercially they just cull them out. The ovum has a blood supply and when the hen is forming the egg she fails to get it shut off in time. Same thing Ivy said. I leave my eggs on the counter all the time. It is also quite safe as long as you don't wash them and remove the bloom. You can actually leave unwashed eggs at room temp safely for a week.
I am sure I am going to have several dozen eggs that I'll have to trash cause they will be frozen. DH hasn't been gathering them for me the last several days. I guess I am going to have to bundle up today and go gather them. I haven't been outside at all in days other than to just feed the puppies. I can't quit coughing if I breath that cold air. So far I think I might be feeling a little better today. I don't cough unless I start moving around. Maybe those antibiotics are starting to kick in. They had better. I only have one more day to take of them.

 

[HEChicken]

Danz, that doesn't sound good. You should have noticed a difference in the antibiotics within 24 hours of starting to take them and if you didn't, any improvement now may just be that your body is starting to heal and the antibiotics are irrelevant.

DS has had a bad cough the past week. Last night I boiled a jug of water, put it in a pyrex bowl got him a towel and had him breath in that moist air for as long as he could take it. We really did notice a difference in how much he was coughing afterward.

 

[ChooksChick]

Geez it's cold out today! Oh Danz, I tried out those gloves you said you had gotten this morning & they do help, but my hands still hurt, so I think I will have to get another light pair to put under them. With the Raynaud's if my hands get too cold they sure hurt bad. I went out & all of the rabbits water was frozen solid this morning in the garage so I had to pour some warmer water over it & hopefully they will have some water for awhile anyway. Even the clips for my gate in front of the chicken run were frozen shut today. I got one loose, but told DH to try to get the lower one to open on his way out to the garage. I couldn't latch the gate without being able to get that open. I guess they got wet & then that moisture froze on there. Not that it keeps the dogs out of there anyway, not right now anyway until they get big enough to not fit through there any more.

I use these: http://www.magidglove.com/North-Nor...-Nylon-Winter-Gloves-Black-PVC-Palm-Coat.aspx and it is the only time in my life that my Reynaud's hasn't been excruciating during the winter...and you can dip your whole hand into water without getting wet, too! I have VERY long fingers, like the kind to palm a basketball, and I wear the 8 in these, so if you have small hands, definitely buy accordingly, because space inside the gloves diminishes the effectiveness. I grabbed hubby's large by accident and wasn't nearly as warm. They do have them at a local bearing shop here in Lawrence if anyone wants to grab them here. I haven't looked around to see if anyone sells a 7.

My incubator ran dry yesterday. I don't know how long it was dry, either. I had put in water a couple days ago and checked it then. So it had run 2 days without me checking the reservoir. These eggs are going to be VERY lucky if they hatch. I figure I've already made a ton of mistakes with them. I hope I haven't killed them all.

They are on day 5.

I don't use any water at all during incubation- take a look at the cheat sheet in my signature for the explanation. It works well for me!

Hello to the new folks! There are a bunch of us in this thread, and I'm happy to see all the new 'faces!' Honeycreek, I drive past the new Honeycreek disposal plant everyday on my wat to the farm...I'll try not to link you with that image!

 

[HEChicken]

Okay, this is the new "hutch" style coop I've been working on! OH--- and you can see my yellow coop that I just finished in the background on the first picture. Last year, my kid's redwood playset was torn apart in a bad storm (along with our shed and pergola, a few other things...) Soooo... I am reusing the wood. The wood is totally fine. It's already treated. I do think I'm going to paint it anyway. But here is what I got done so far. Tired, so I don't know if I'll do anymore today. I'll probably finish it tomorrow. SERIOUSLY... this is the first build that has taken me practically no time at all. I'm getting GOOD! LOL!!! Actually, I spent most of the morning hunting thru the wood debris and dragging it out and cutting it up. I probably could have had it done by now if I hadn't wasted so much time hunting.

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How's the new coop coming along Loralee? Any updated pics?

 

[chicken danz]

DH set up a humidifier for me in the bedroom he uses in the shop. It made my sinuses feel better but I don't know if it helped anything or not other than comfort. I put some medication on a cotton ball and discovered I have totally lost my sense of smell. I can't smell anything. Even sniffing vet RX straight out of the bottle I can't smell it at all. It's crazy.
I have to go out and catch guineas for Candace today. That is going to be a challenge!. DH has a balaclava I think I'll borrow so I won't breath any cold air. If I can stand it covering my face. I get kind of claustrophobic about having my face covered. I can't leave it for him to do because he is NO GOOD at catching and would only get the birds more upset.
I will give this a couple more days and if it doesn't improve a lot I'll go back to the doctor. The worst thing is, I have had to stay away from my Mom and Dad and they depend so much on things I can do for them. I've been promising to go shopping for some frozen food for them so they could try it as an alternative. They are having trouble taking care of getting meals lately. But I haven't been anywhere except to the doc. I usually take them to church on Sunday but have had to forgo that the last two weeks. I hate letting them down but don't want to chance getting them sick.

 

[Hawkeye95]

How's the new coop coming along Loralee? Any updated pics?

Aww, thanks for asking! I did get a bit more done, but then I got really sick right after that. THEN it started raining... and THEN it's been cold as heck outside! LOL!!! I haven't gotten any more done! How about that? My "fast" build has been on hold for several reasons. Mostly weather related. We keep getting rain here off and on, too. Our yard is still a bit flooded. Which-- really isn't typical for our land. It drains well usually, but I think because of the drought we've been in, it's just too much water all at once for it to soak in well. The last couple of days, we have ice pools out there. I'm ready for Spring!! I think after I build this hutch-- I'm going to make another one, too. For the growing chicks that I hope to be hatching! I'm not sure if silkies are good with babies.... I've heard they are, but want to be sure. I have a ton of wood from my poor broken playhouse. After this, we're going to clean up the yard again and take a ton of stuff to the dump. I'll post as soon as it's warm enough for me to get back out there. I did chores in the barn yesterday getting things cleaned up and checking the horses over, etc... and by the time I came in, I couldn't feel my toes or my fingers. I HATE winter.