Consolidated Kansas

[JosieChick]

Madge, my RP hen sounded a little congested this morning. That worries me because I don't have anything going around in my flock. I first heard a congested sound the first time she was out (on Friday evening) but they were making so many new vocalizations out of excitement for being out, that I talked myself into believing it was just another one because I just heard it the one time. Once she was back in the pen, I listed carefully and she sounded fine. Saturday they came out for a longer time (about 3 hours) and I heard a couple more times where she sounded a little raspy but since it only seemed to be happening when they were out of the pen, I still figured maybe it is just a sound they make. But this morning there was no mistaking it. I guess I'll try VetRx on her, although she doesn't like being handled so that alone will be stressful for her. I have Denagard and Duramycin on hand and I know they work for different things, so I don't know which would be the best to try. Any ideas?

Oh - it was so cute when David was here as Ned Kelly gobbled constantly - I guess because someone he didn't recognize was visiting.

Hechicken- I had to start my whole flock on sulfa antibiotics in their water because of my brahma hen that I lost. It came back as a bacterial infection that causes fowl cholera and may be from migratory birds. I think that is why we have so many sniffles right now is because there are a lot of wild birds flying over us to go south for the winter. The Denagard works on a very limited spectrum of bacterial strains so you may not get what you have with it. I might try a sulfa which is more broad spectrum or see what the duramycin covers.

I've had my birds a year and a half and have never vaccinated/wormed them (partly because i have no idea of the proper way of going about it), they seem fine but then again i don't have a clue what to look for... any advice?

I deworm at least twice a year with wazine and oral ivermectin. Wazine does most everything except round or tape worms, I can never remember which. I use horse dewormer for the oral dosing and the cattle pour on for topical ivermectin for external bugs. Let me know if you want dosing. Someone mentioned safeguard and I think they make that for goats. That might be a lot easier than the horse dewormer because I think you can put it in their water. I withdraw eggs/meat for two weeks after just to be safe. I also sell eggs so I want to be sure I don't mislead people about the quality of my eggs by selling them when the birds are on a chemical dewormer.

Deworming is very important to your birds health. I have a friend who lost a rooster and upon necropsy it was discovered that he died of a worm impaction in his lower intestinal tract. They can cause birds serious trouble. Especially when we keep birds in confined areas and they walk through each others poop and eat off the same ground every day. There is no way to know what your birds have for parasites without taking a fecal sample to a vet.

We are going to take a 12 hour trip today to get feed. I sure hope this works out the way I plan. I'm wanting to feed the my birds the highest nutrients I can for ultimate spring hatches. A person I know who produces top national show birds, feeds this way so I am hoping it works for me as well. I'm still battling in my head about how much to buy and where I can store it all. This is going to be a major expense but in the long run I hope it is worth it.

Wow! 12 hour trip for feed, where are you going?? Hey, can you get bagged mixed feed at the coop? I was thinking about checking in Ottawa to see if they could mix me homemade scratch for cheaper than I buy it at the store.

Hi Everybody,

Well this weekend was a successful one. My baby chickens are quickly outgrowing their brooder, and I was getting upset that the coop wasn't started yet. I wanted it started a couple weeks ago. I gave my husband some pictures of coops from BYC that I liked, thinking he would build on of those. I guess all this time he was trying to come up with his own style. He showed me the plans and started building it Saturday, it should be done next week, then we will need to worry about the how to design the pen. It is coming out adorable, looks like a children's playhouse. It is New England Cape style ( we are from the Boston area ), with a farmer's porch and railing for the chicks to sit on. It has 8 nesting boxes ( I warned him about chicken math ). I can't wait to post some pictures.

I have been putting my baby ducks in an ex-pen in my adult ducks pen, so they are separated by the fencing. We have done this three times. We have one female Cayuga that will not leave their side, trying to put her beak through the fencing. I decided to let her meet then without the fence, ( put the other ducks in their house ), and after 5 minutes they started biting each other pretty hard and I had to separate them. How long does it take to introduce them? My ducks are about 6 - 7 weeks old, they are a good size but not full grown, I don't think I want them with the males until they are closer to being full grown.

Oh how fun! A New England cape! You must post some pictures when it is done. This is right up my alley, I moved here from southern Maine several years ago!

Guys this chicken math is not making since to my DH so I sent him here to read a few threads.. We are building a better/bigger coop next spring and he kept asking why it needed to be bigger than the square footage required for our flock and well that is what led me to send him here lol. He thinks it is silly but he isnt an animal person anyway... At least he gets why it needs to be larger now and says he will make accomidations.. Cant wait to start building

I also read about the pumpkin seed thing but I believe it is only a preventative. I use safeguard to worm my flock and it is a great product. There is not a long hold time if you worried about that, growing up it is what the gparents used and we always ate the eggs, did not toss them after use. I of course read up on it alot and found it is not going to hurt you in that small of a dose and hey you will be parasite free as well

LOL I know I am going to get it for this post....

Do you get safeguard in a liquid and is it mixed in the drinking water? It sound like it might be a great time saver for me if that is the case.

Oh bummer! The guy who was hatching the Cream Legbars contacted me and said somebody messed with the bator and the temp was sky high for a long period and ruined the hatch. Don't count your chickens before they're hatched, right? Oh well, I'll live and I'm $300 richer. I decided I'd rather pay the big bucks for chicks than try to buy multitudes of hatching eggs that were shipped through the post office. Who knew it was this difficult, either way?

Life.

Have a great day!

Bummer! I don't blame you on buying chicks, at least they are on the ground running. With eggs you just never know.



Well, I lost a duck sometime last night or this morning. She is just gone into thin air. Anybody have any ideas? I don't see a big pile of feathers but my birds are molting and it looks like a giant feather explosion in the yard right now anyway so it is hard to tell. The only thing I can think that would take one bird and leave no trace is a hawk. I would think anything else would have left blood, feathers, a body part etc. Or some sign of struggle? I guess I will have to move them into a different pen for now, stinks because these birds are sold as of Friday and now I have one less to sell her.

 

[HEChicken]

How do you use the apple cider vinegar? I have that here.

You can put ACV in the water - about 2 Tablespoons per gallon. The only thing is, the ACV you have may not work, as it has to be the organic, unfiltered ACV that has "The Mother" in it (it will say that on the bottle). If it is filtered ACV, it won't hurt but won't help either.

I saw this on Craigslist if anyone is interested. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- craigslist > for sale / wanted > farm & garden - by owner Broiler chicks, chickens - $1 (Manhattan) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 2012-09-21, 12:17PM CDT Reply to this post [email protected] [Errors when replying to ads?] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The KSU poultry farm has excess Cornish cross broiler chicks for sale from a teaching project. They are between 2-3 weeks old, around a half pound in weight. Good birds to feed out. All males. These types of birds are meant for meat, and are not good for small flocks or egg production. We have about 350, take as many as you want, 50 cents each. Call 785-539-5041 for more information. • Location: Manhattan •it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests PostingID: 3286918745

That is an awesome deal - wish I were closer! Day-olds are four times that at the feed store and they don't weigh a half-pound!

And on all of my silkie boards that I've joined, everyone has the same comments-- and most people don't even keep them outside. Everyone has built these silkie mansions for them and have them indoors 24/7 to keep the wind, rain and temperature swings off of them.

Amazing! I really don't think I'd want them living indoors for the smell. When I had my silkies, I got them at 10 weeks old and they lived in a cage in my basement for the first few weeks. I carried them outside during the day because even just two of them, and cleaning out the cage regularly, the smell was pretty overpowering.

Guys this chicken math is not making since to my DH so I sent him here to read a few threads.. We are building a better/bigger coop next spring and he kept asking why it needed to be bigger than the square footage required for our flock and well that is what led me to send him here lol. He thinks it is silly but he isnt an animal person anyway... At least he gets why it needs to be larger now and says he will make accomidations.. Cant wait to start building

Whenever I get home from going anywhere, my DH asks "Do you need help carrying in chicks?"

I guess too many times I've gone out for awhile and come home with more birds so now he just asks the question routinely.

We ate the eggs through the wazine treatment with no ill affects, and only withheld them for a week after the Ivermectin. I didn't let my grandaughter or pregnant daughter eat them, though. No point in taking chances.

We ate our eggs too, mainly because I totally forgot about withdrawal. By the time I thought about it days later, it was too late and we'd eaten a bunch of eggs. We never did have any ill-effects.

Oh bummer! The guy who was hatching the Cream Legbars contacted me and said somebody messed with the bator and the temp was sky high for a long period and ruined the hatch. Don't count your chickens before they're hatched, right? Oh well, I'll live and I'm $300 richer. I decided I'd rather pay the big bucks for chicks than try to buy multitudes of hatching eggs that were shipped through the post office. Who knew it was this difficult, either way?

Life.

Awww...sorry it didn't work out.

Hechicken- I had to start my whole flock on sulfa antibiotics in their water because of my brahma hen that I lost. It came back as a bacterial infection that causes fowl cholera and may be from migratory birds. I think that is why we have so many sniffles right now is because there are a lot of wild birds flying over us to go south for the winter. The Denagard works on a very limited spectrum of bacterial strains so you may not get what you have with it. I might try a sulfa which is more broad spectrum or see what the duramycin covers.

Wow! 12 hour trip for feed, where are you going?? Hey, can you get bagged mixed feed at the coop? I was thinking about checking in Ottawa to see if they could mix me homemade scratch for cheaper than I buy it at the store.

Thanks Josie. Next question: where do you pick up sulfa antibiotics? I feel like maybe that came up recently and I apologize I can't recall the answer and as fast as this thread moves, I'd probably have to back 500 pages to find it!

Wow Danz - that is a LONG drive for feed. I guess the price must be worth 12 hours of gas - I'll be curious to hear more about it.

Well, Madge is definitely more congested today so I'll start her on Duramycin as soon as I get done here. I feel better at the thought that it might be wild birds - at least its not something I did wrong.....

 

[JosieChick]

Thanks Josie. Next question: where do you pick up sulfa antibiotics? I feel like maybe that came up recently and I apologize I can't recall the answer and as fast as this thread moves, I'd probably have to back 500 pages to find it!

Wow Danz - that is a LONG drive for feed. I guess the price must be worth 12 hours of gas - I'll be curious to hear more about it.

Well, Madge is definitely more congested today so I'll start her on Duramycin as soon as I get done here. I feel better at the thought that it might be wild birds - at least its not something I did wrong.....

I ordered a gallon from valley vet supply but it turned out the family center had it in stock. TSC might have it too. It is often used for cattle or pigs. This is what I bought http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e078e5-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&gas=sulfa

But I would imagine you might be able to find something similar at the feed store. It might not be the exact same but anything in the sulfa class will work. Or you can also try tetracycline which covers several common bugs.

 

[Trish44]

Josie, I just got the powdered form of that antibiotic in the mail today, so I'm going to give that a shot, maybe it will be the cure, I sure hope so. I didn't know it came in a gallon liquid form, if this works I may have to order some of that.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Guys this chicken math is not making since to my DH so I sent him here to read a few threads.. We are building a better/bigger coop next spring and he kept asking why it needed to be bigger than the square footage required for our flock and well that is what led me to send him here lol. He thinks it is silly but he isnt an animal person anyway... At least he gets why it needs to be larger now and says he will make accomidations.. Cant wait to start building

Glad he's on board! Makes it much easier to sneak in more chicks!

Oh bummer! The guy who was hatching the Cream Legbars contacted me and said somebody messed with the bator and the temp was sky high for a long period and ruined the hatch. Don't count your chickens before they're hatched, right? Oh well, I'll live and I'm $300 richer. I decided I'd rather pay the big bucks for chicks than try to buy multitudes of hatching eggs that were shipped through the post office. Who knew it was this difficult, either way?

Life.

Have a great day!

Oh no! that is so sad that all of those babies died! WOW. I would be completely heart broken if that were me. I now watch my incubator like a hawk when I incubate, but if it happened while he was gone at work or something, there is nothing he could have done. Will he be hatching again soon?

Yeah, I hope the thing gets here soon because I want to start working with Jasmine & the guineas.

Well we didn't quite get the job done on getting the windows for the coop as of yet. We went & got some, but when we got back last night & started checking them out to see if they opened well & all & noticed one of them is missing the mechanism to open the window & some other bars, so I called the guy back & he's supposed to be looking for another window for me. Darn, now we have to wait again to get that end framed & put the siding on, grrrr. I was so happy to have found those windows, I sure hope he can find me another one to use on there.

Hechicken- I had to start my whole flock on sulfa antibiotics in their water because of my brahma hen that I lost. It came back as a bacterial infection that causes fowl cholera and may be from migratory birds. I think that is why we have so many sniffles right now is because there are a lot of wild birds flying over us to go south for the winter.

VERY interesting! Glad you did a necropsy on the hen! Very true about all the wild birds and them flying over. And with so many flying over, I have found a couple of dead wild birds in my yard! I was out mowing and was so surprised when I came across them! They were different breeds, too! So either they died of old age, or something else.... ick! I'm with Heather, if something happens to my birds, I would hate to be the cause of it! I have tried to be very careful. I know that showing my birds puts me at a higher risk, too. But I would hate to give it up, and figure I can be as careful as possible. And with everyone else being on high alert at the shows for illness-- no one wants a sick bird there.

I ordered a gallon from valley vet supply but it turned out the family center had it in stock. TSC might have it too. It is often used for cattle or pigs. This is what I bought http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e078e5-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&gas=sulfa

But I would imagine you might be able to find something similar at the feed store. It might not be the exact same but anything in the sulfa class will work. Or you can also try tetracycline which covers several common bugs.

Thank you for the link! I think I may buy this one, too!!

My Dh is going to think I'm crazy when he see's my chicken closet full of drugs for them!

 

[medawinks]

Karen.... Drat! I was eager to see your new chicks in a pic. My lavender ameracauna is laying a pretty turquoise egg but the blue intrigues me maybe someday ...

Trish, I bought Duramycin in a bag, powdered form, from Orschelens. It makes up something like 40 gallons. I don't think I will ever run out.

Danz, 12 hours??? Where are you going? Wow..... I am impressed!!! Sorry Feather went on a laying strike :-( when she starts up again you should get one every other day, if she does like she did here. One of our Marans is laying now and the kids are so excited to go egg hunting every day.

I was looking at the second largest splash Marans chick and noticed that her toes are all curled up weird..... Is there something I can do to fix that? Andy swears they have been that way all along, but I sure don't remember noticing it....

Also, if anyone is into neat kitchen gadgets....
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000I5NXBU/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?ref_=pe_175190_21431760_M3C_ST1_dp_i1
I bought this one at the local kitchen gallery. My kids LOVE it! They can doctor up an egg with cheese and ketchup, or add mayo and pickles after it cooks, stir it all up and spread it in a sandwich lickety split! All kinds of possibilities, but sure made cooking an egg for a sandwich fun for them

 

[Hawkeye95]

Josie, I just got the powdered form of that antibiotic in the mail today, so I'm going to give that a shot, maybe it will be the cure, I sure hope so. I didn't know it came in a gallon liquid form, if this works I may have to order some of that.

I'd love to hear how it works out! If it works well, then I'll def be buying the large gallon size of it!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Karen.... Drat! I was eager to see your new chicks in a pic. My lavender ameracauna is laying a pretty turquoise egg but the blue intrigues me maybe someday ...
Trish, I bought Duramycin in a bag, powdered form, from Orschelens. It makes up something like 40 gallons. I don't think I will ever run out.
Danz, 12 hours??? Where are you going? Wow..... I am impressed!!! Sorry Feather went on a laying strike :-( when she starts up again you should get one every other day, if she does like she did here. One of our Marans is laying now and the kids are so excited to go egg hunting every day.
I was looking at the second largest splash Marans chick and noticed that her toes are all curled up weird..... Is there something I can do to fix that? Andy swears they have been that way all along, but I sure don't remember noticing it....
Also, if anyone is into neat kitchen gadgets....
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000I5NXBU/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?ref_=pe_175190_21431760_M3C_ST1_dp_i1
I bought this one at the local kitchen gallery. My kids LOVE it! They can doctor up an egg with cheese and ketchup, or add mayo and pickles after it cooks, stir it all up and spread it in a sandwich lickety split! All kinds of possibilities, but sure made cooking an egg for a sandwich fun for them

You will need to cut out a card board triangle and tape her feet down to them. If you use vetwrap, you'll give her more traction. Those toes won't come out on their own. You can google "chicken shoes" here on BYC. I'll see if I can hunt down a picture or a link for you to look at.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Well, this is the best I can find right now. Usually, I've seen people cut out cardboard and place that on the bottom of the feet. Then tape across the top and under it. I have to run! Piano lessons tonight! (I'm the chauffeur)

 

[ChicknBaron]

I've just noticed a large hawk flying/hanging around the chicken coop today and yesterday, (i knew this day would come) and this morning he was quietly watching them in their coop from the telephone phone pole next to it i didn't let them out until about 5 pm since i didn't see him. I don't want to have to order a hawk deterent of the internet, do any of you have any homemade hawk deterents that work for you? please help