Consolidated Kansas

[Kansas Prairie]

Yes it has a fan. It's a Genesis 1588, styrofoam

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Sharol - Scout is a very pretty girl. I am glad there is hope for her. Having Dr. Mendoza as a vet is so great. Anyone close enough to Emporia to make the trip there should know ~ there is an avian vet in
Emporia. I hope he stays for a long time.

Oh, that "little" grandson is pretty great also. You are going to enjoy him so much.

 

[JosieChick]

According to the article I read that got me started with trying it, there is no egg or meat withdrawal with the Ivermectin.
Ok, I am sorry if I am being a pain but I have to add my two cents and my veterinarian's expertise to this matter.
1-Any time you use a medication that is available over the counter "off label" (meaning there are no directions on the label on how to use the medication in the species you are treating) there are no established guidelines for withdrawal on meat/eggs because they haven't been researched. Any time you put a chemical into an animals body it is going to pass to the bloodstream and into the tissues. How long it is there for and at what level it is safe for us to consume has not been studied for ivermectin (and a LOT of other meds) in poultry. It costs millions of dollars for pharmaceutical companies to obtain labeling for drugs and to expand to other species.
2-It is technically illegal to purchase and administer a drug that is "off label" to an animal without a veterinarians direct supervision and direction. DH wants me to let everyone know this because this is also how we as consumers "lose" these drugs when they are pulled from shelves in feed stores and online suppliers because they are being used inappropriately. There is a fabulous example of an antibiotic whose name eludes me right now that our goose received last summer at our equine vet when he was attacked by a coyote. It is a wonderful broad spectrum drug that lasts up to two weeks in water fowl so was a great choice for him. BUT, it is off label. So the veterinarian is giving it with the knowledge that it is effective and bio available in a goose but using his knowledge of drugs and their ability to function in an animal that the drug is not labeled for. The drug was labeled for horses and cattle. Unfortunately the drug has been banned from use now and actually heavily pulled from the market to limit its use for a period of time because its overuse in non labeled species is causing bacterial resistance to the chemical compounds of the drug. So now the equine/bovine market has lost a valuable drug for their species because of its over use in other off label species.
3-Below is a study of pigeons dosed with ivermectin and the obvious residual effect of the ivermectin in their offspring. SO parent pigeons pass ivermectin to their young through their eggs and the squab maintain a level of ivermectin in their tissue for a period of time.
4- Withdraw time for any chemical given to your birds should be a minimum of 2 weeks, I would personally go 3 for ivermectin because as a drug it is cleared very slowly in larger animals like cattle. Ivermectin has one of the longest withdrawal times in cattle of any drugs used for meat/milk.
5-I apologize for my confusion on using liquid injectable ivermectin orally. It is safe to be given orally in drinking water. According to DH you must be very, very careful with the dosing and would be best to just contact your veterinarian and ask them to kindly give you a safe dose for drinking water admin. It can be highly toxic if overdosed. I plan on using this with my birds to avoid all the headache with giving them each a dose of horse wormer twice a year so thank you to everyone who brought this topic up to save us the trouble and keep our birds healthy and parasite free!
No drugs have been approved for the treatment of parasitic nematodes in pigeons, but ivermectin, a broad-spectrum endectocide, has been used extra-label by prescription. Producers currently allow for a 2-wk withdrawal time before marketing squabs. However, because its use is extra-label there is no legal maximum residue limit for ivermectin in squab meat. The purpose of this study was to examine the depletion of ivermectin (passed by the parents to the squabs) from the tissues of squab. Adult pigeons brooding squab were treated with ivermectin in their drinking water (3.3 µg/mL) for 3 d. After dosing the parents, the ivermectin concentration of the breast meat and liver of squabs was found to be greater than the maximum residual limits established for livestock, indicating that ivermectin was transferred from the parents to the squabs. However, ivermectin was not detected in either the breast meat or the livers of squabs 1 wk after dosing. These results indicate that there is a rapid decline in tissue levels of ivermectin in squab.


Not much is going on around here - I feel very boring at the moment. My ducks have really taken to the air lately, enjoying quite long flights in circles around the property. This morning we were drinking coffee and three huge birds buzzed past our kitchen window on their way to altitude. Their accuracy is improving though and after a high, long flight, they can land on the top rail of the fence, or even the peak of the coop. They enjoy lording it over everyone for awhile before flying down into the yard to resume foraging with everyone else. Kind of fun that they could leave any time they want to now, but choose to stay in the chicken yard 99% of the time.

I hatched several batches of chicks this Fall with some trepidation because I've heard from Danz and also read elsewhere, that they tend to hatch more cockerels in the Fall. I really don't need more boys and wanted to hatch some girls to raise over the winter so by Spring they'd be ready to join the laying flock. My first hatch, 9 out of 10 eggs hatched, so I hoped that the 50/50 rule would give me 5 girls, 4 boys, but figured the opposite would be true. There were several who seemed to pink up early and I thought I had a bunch of little cockerels on my hands. But one by one, as they've grown bigger, the "boys" started looking more girly. They are now 10 weeks old and I can't hardly believe my luck. I have 1 cockerel and 8 pullets!!!
This happened to me too! I have had very pullet heavy hatches early fall which is awesome!! Saves me the trouble of rehoming and processing!

That reminds me. Greenfire had a 8 week old pair of a breed of chick that was the first to be released in the U.S. a few weeks ago. That pair went for $1285.00 for two baby chicks. Now tell me that isn't extreme?? There was also $60 shipping on top of that! I love the rare breeds but I can guarantee there will be no birds that expensive on my farm.

mommahen- Yes, thank you! I have been asking lots of questions. These diapers were always washed in cloth diaper detergent and line dried. The owners even made sure to school me on proper cloth diaper laundering before they would let me take them! They area in really nice shape. I found a lot on Ebay and was so excited but they had been washed in fabric softener and I am not even going to risk it. I am sure maybe they could be salvaged but I don't want to run the risk of having leaky diapers. I watched a bunch of you tube videos on different types of cloth diapers and how to put them on. I came downstairs one evening and DH was watching the videos. Now he likes to go around the house giving cloth diapering advice like "Be sure the cloth diaper is tucked under the edge of the diaper cover to avoid leaks." Cracks me up. The girl in the videos is quite serious but they were well done.

Josie, I just wanted to mention incase you are buying used diapers. I've read something about if they're washed in bleach it breaks down the waterproof part, and if they're washed with fabric softener they don't absorb as they should. I could have this completely backwards so look it up but I wanted to point it out so you could research and ask the right questions. You probably already did, but I just wanted to be sure.

I love this thread too and coming here is my 'break time' and it's my chance to catch my breath. It would hurt me if people here were cranky with each other and it wouldn't be a break to come. I'm thankful for each of you and all of the support and help regarding chickens or otherwise.

Yeah...that would take a pretty big bucket

Hawkeye- Your culls are awesome! I have heard of Birds of Paradise, she has stunning birds. I can be pretty lousy at keeping up with laundry so I figured if I had a stash of these they could be good overflow. The plan is to have 25-30 AIOs and then use the motherease for back up if I get behind on laundry. I have my eye on a lot of covers on ebay that are really cheap and there are a few bumgenius AIOs in there too. I am getting ten from a gal in Overland Park too. So we are well on our way. A lot of people try out cloth and don't want to deal with it so there are a lot of nice cloth diapers out there for sale that have been hardly used!

Well, I'll always probably have some! I'm guessing my culls will be getting nicer and nicer each year. I have nicer birds now than I started out with.


Thank you! Yeah, the picture of my new roo-- the sunlight sort of makes him look like he has gold in him, but there isn't one spot of off-coloring on him. He is black as night! I got him from Birds of Paradise-- she's been raising blacks for years and years. She's never done splits-- and she has some pretty nice blood lines with hers. She showed her blacks in Open, and won BV (best of variety out of blacks) and BB (best of Breed) -- so won out of the entire group of silkies--over other ALL colors! So she really cleaned up in the blacks and then out of the entire Open Class! So I'm confident I have some super nice birds to start my work with. I talked with her as much as I could to pick her brain and hopefully have come away with some good info.

I think you'll like the Motherease-- I'm not big into fitteds and covers... but it might be fun for overflow. I think you'll LOVE, LOVE the BumGenius. I used those too, and I really liked them. I hate that they are velcro. You'll really appreciate your snaps over velcro, but BumGenius is such a great diaper, you will like it anyway. I have plenty of diapers in stock. I have some DUO's (two-size in one) and I have lots of sized diapers-- those will always fit better than DUO's just because they are made for a specific size, and they will just work better. People love the fact that you buy one diaper and get two sizes-- and hey, I do too!! But once you use "Sized"-- you'll see that they perform better than anything you can get your hands on. Also, MommaHen is right about the bleach-- never use it. It breaks down the threads in your diapers, and it also will delaminate your waterproof covers. NEVER use fabric softener, it makes your diapers repel liquid... so that when they pee-- it won't soak in-- it will just be a mess. But the rules are easy once you go over them. When you get them, I can tell you how to strip them before your first use, and it's a pretty easy process!


Congrats on your new "equipment"! I think you're going to love shooting them. While I was gone at Nationals, my DH called and told me that he had a friend over and they were out shooting clay pigeons in our back pasture. I was glad to be where I was, but figured, of COURSE! He would go and do something fun like that while i was GONE! LOL! Oh-- and we don't bury dead coyotes, we just drag them to the tree line and let nature take it's course. They decompose REALLY fast.

That is what I told DH. I think I will just drag them into the tree line and let the buzzards have them. The vultures keep the red tails away too which is nice.

My hens still aren't laying. My barred rocks are, but the others aren't. Nice to hear that yours are-- I hope mine aren't too far behind! I really love the brown eggs-- just because it seems 'homey' and earthy. So I LOVE my barred rocks-- I'd get more of those. My Polish are more pretty than anything, but they laid really well all Spring and Summer. But they haven't started laying since they started molting, so I hope it's soon. I really need to do the Ivermectin worming. Going to get that done this week, I hope. Was there an egg withdrawal on that treatment????
I am getting like on egg a day so I feel your pain. I am going to deworm too since the egg supply is dry.

Update on Scout. She isn't able to balance on the leg, and it is still pretty limp. I'm going to take her in to my vet early this morning. I don't really have a lot of options with her. I have to leave Thursday a.m. early, and my DH (who is a saint) is not going to want to nurse her in the house (especially if there isn't much hope for the leg). I can't have a house chicken (not going to happen, even with a diaper, even Scout). I suppose if the vet says there is permanent damage, I'll have to have her euthanized. What a hard call. I was hoping I would wake up to improvement, but it just didn't happen. Maybe Dr. Mendoza will have a suggestion.

Sigh. It had to be Scout.

I will wear a coat! It is so darn cold anyway. The abdominal cavity dampens sound by about 40 dB anyway so it would only be around 80 dB from a gunshot at the most which is not in the range of damaging noise in such a short exposure period. If I target practice for an hour we might be more concerned but it should be pretty safe.
Josie, don't forget to protect your babies ears when shooting the .223. At least wear a heavy coat to muffle the sound.

That's sad. She looks very healthy to me. I don't think I would cull her regardless.
House chickens aren't bad....short term. I don't think I want one running free around here though.

I know! I want to see this costume too! I hope my kids want to be cool things for halloween!
I am still waiting to see a picture of Sera's peacock costume too!!! Where are you besides busy Medawinks!

Phew! I need to get my butt in gear and get outside and do some stuff. I am so tired from working yesterday and my nose is not happy with all this dry air and come to think of it I think that was a pregnancy symptom too. So I guess I get a double whammy this winter. We are working on a house in Towanda right now. It is old but kinda cool in my humble opinion. We are trying to figure out what a reasonable offer is because it is priced kinda high so the realtor is getting us some info. There are some discrepancies about the foundation structure so we shall see. We also would have to put in a shelter for the horses and horse fencing. There is a large metal barn that can be converted for chickens though which would be nice. I am really hoping because it has nice old hard wood floors and a wood stove. I hate newer homes that are wall to wall carpet. It just isn't my thing. Plus this place has almost 10 acres and only one neighbor on the mile of road! So quiet, I love quiet.

 

[lizzyGSR]

One of my ducks did something yesterday that I found quite funny, so I thought I'd share.

When I feed my birds, I usually put the food into several different ice cream buckets. I then add a bit of water to the food and then take it out to bird pen, dump the food into pans (my smaller ducks have problems reaching the bottoms of the ice cream buckets) and then I leave the buckets in the pen for the birds to "lick clean". My birds have a tendency to run from one food pan to another, perpetually thinking that the other birds are getting something better than what they're getting. One bird ran past a bucket and knocked it over. The next bird that ran past that same bucket was one of my khaki campbell ducks. This duck ran between the bucket and the extended handle, effectively attaching the bucket to her side. She ran around a bit before she finally figured out that she needed to back up to get out of her predicament. It was so funny watching her trying to figure out why this thing had "grabbed" her.

 

[HEChicken]

That reminds me. Greenfire had a 8 week old pair of a breed of chick that was the first to be released in the U.S. a few weeks ago. That pair went for $1285.00 for two baby chicks. Now tell me that isn't extreme?? There was also $60 shipping on top of that! I love the rare breeds but I can guarantee there will be no birds that expensive on my farm.

Can you imagine opening the box to find one or both chicks expired during the journey? Or having an owl or fox attack and of course the expensive birds would be the first victims???

I want to be a part of the people who help some of these breeds recover again. Plus I've always loved having anything that wasn't common place. I used to grow some very rare flowers for the same reason. Paying a fortune for seeds and then waiting years for a plant to bloom for the first time.
I guess that is why I am so broke today!!!

Me too! So far I haven't made any headway on that but it is my ultimate goal.

Phew! I need to get my butt in gear and get outside and do some stuff. I am so tired from working yesterday and my nose is not happy with all this dry air and come to think of it I think that was a pregnancy symptom too. So I guess I get a double whammy this winter. We are working on a house in Towanda right now. It is old but kinda cool in my humble opinion. We are trying to figure out what a reasonable offer is because it is priced kinda high so the realtor is getting us some info. There are some discrepancies about the foundation structure so we shall see. We also would have to put in a shelter for the horses and horse fencing. There is a large metal barn that can be converted for chickens though which would be nice. I am really hoping because it has nice old hard wood floors and a wood stove. I hate newer homes that are wall to wall carpet. It just isn't my thing. Plus this place has almost 10 acres and only one neighbor on the mile of road! So quiet, I love quiet.

Yay for the house in Towanda!!!

Thanks for the information on withdrawal - that makes complete sense. Fortunately, I administered at a time of year when egg production is almost non-existent so it isn't an issue. And the main issue was Ned Kelly, the turkey, who, ahem, doesn't lay eggs at all LOL. It worked so well with him that I really do like it as a wormer - as you say, far easier than administrating a wormer orally to a large number of birds. So hopefully it won't end up getting withdrawn.

I did see another suggestion for administering Valbazen. One user cut up cubes of bread and soaked the cube with the dose of Valbazen, and then only had to feed the bread cube to each bird - much easier than having to squirt the dose down the throat. That method would be easier with a very small backyard flock though, where it is easy to make sure each bird gets only one dose.

One of my ducks did something yesterday that I found quite funny, so I thought I'd share.

When I feed my birds, I usually put the food into several different ice cream buckets. I then add a bit of water to the food and then take it out to bird pen, dump the food into pans (my smaller ducks have problems reaching the bottoms of the ice cream buckets) and then I leave the buckets in the pen for the birds to "lick clean". My birds have a tendency to run from one food pan to another, perpetually thinking that the other birds are getting something better than what they're getting. One bird ran past a bucket and knocked it over. The next bird that ran past that same bucket was one of my khaki campbell ducks. This duck ran between the bucket and the extended handle, effectively attaching the bucket to her side. She ran around a bit before she finally figured out that she needed to back up to get out of her predicament. It was so funny watching her trying to figure out why this thing had "grabbed" her.

Oh how cute! I do find the ducks to be quite entertaining. Our vinyl fence extends into the chicken yard and the ducks love to perch on top of it. One night last week one of the younger ducks flew over the fence, landing in front of me. A few minutes later, same duck, same thing. And a third time. A few minutes later I hear a mad scrambling and look over to see the same duck, holding onto the top rail with her beak, while trying to scramble up onto it. Then I realized - those flights over and landing in front of me had all been failed attempts to land on the top rail! But she kept practicing, waddling back under the fence and making another stab at it, until she succeeded (well, almost, but she did get her bulk up there eventually). I called out to congratulate her on her success and she bobbed her head back and forth, obviously delighted to have finally joined the other ducks on the top rail.

Well, I'm feeling a little disappointed. I finally got the Victor mouse trap set up at the barn in the feed room this past weekend. I baited it with peanut butter and oatmeal, like Danz suggested, and set it against a wall, in an area that is clearly frequented by mice judging by the amount of droppings around there. It was there two nights and I went back to see how many mice would be crammed in there to find it....completely empty

Well, hopefully once they get used to it being there, they'll start to run through it and get trapped.

 

[chicken danz]

Funny story, Lizzy!
Josie I am probably overly concerned when it comes to an unborn child's hearing. But they do hear. They know the sound of their mother and father's voice. If you listen to a certain kind of music when you are pregnant that is the music that will calm them after they are born. I've lost the biggest part of my hearing which wasn't good in the first place, due to shooting guns (even with hearing protection ) and working in loud environments. Let me tell you having damaged hearing stinks. Anyone who has had multiple babies can tell you this is true. They hear a lot of what is around them, regardless of how muffled it may be. I know I am over protective but this baby is special to me. I think I am as excited about it as I was my own grandchildren.
I am sad. I had a little cripple girl. She was a cochin that was broody hatched and had severe splay leg. But she survived and got along very well. She would flop over to me when she saw me and I would pick her up and carry her around, then always set her in the food pan so she got in there before the bigger chickens.
I went out to feed and I can't find her anywhere. She stays in the old garage pen and it is the only pen that isn't covered. When I left her last night she was sitting in the feed trough. That was right before dark. There is no sign of her anywhere. If a predator got her it had to be a flying one.
It really sadens me because she survived all other odds and was a real lap chicken. I figured she would never lay or anything but she was just a super sweet bird. I've looked everywhere and there isn't even feathers to indicate where she went. I suppose the owl has a sibling or we had some hawks make it in.

Dang it Heather. That's a shame. Maybe throw in something else with the peanut butter to get some attention. Cat food? Cheese? leftover meat?
I've got to get moving. It's so cold out today. I've got to box up some chicks and do some shopping too.

 

[tntblake]

mommahen- Yes, thank you! I have been asking lots of questions. These diapers were always washed in cloth diaper detergent and line dried. The owners even made sure to school me on proper cloth diaper laundering before they would let me take them! They area in really nice shape. I found a lot on Ebay and was so excited but they had been washed in fabric softener and I am not even going to risk it. I am sure maybe they could be salvaged but I don't want to run the risk of having leaky diapers. I watched a bunch of you tube videos on different types of cloth diapers and how to put them on. I came downstairs one evening and DH was watching the videos. Now he likes to go around the house giving cloth diapering advice like "Be sure the cloth diaper is tucked under the edge of the diaper cover to avoid leaks." Cracks me up. The girl in the videos is quite serious but they were well done.
Hawkeye- Your culls are awesome! I have heard of Birds of Paradise, she has stunning birds. I can be pretty lousy at keeping up with laundry so I figured if I had a stash of these they could be good overflow. The plan is to have 25-30 AIOs and then use the motherease for back up if I get behind on laundry. I have my eye on a lot of covers on ebay that are really cheap and there are a few bumgenius AIOs in there too. I am getting ten from a gal in Overland Park too. So we are well on our way. A lot of people try out cloth and don't want to deal with it so there are a lot of nice cloth diapers out there for sale that have been hardly used!


Phew! I need to get my butt in gear and get outside and do some stuff. I am so tired from working yesterday and my nose is not happy with all this dry air and come to think of it I think that was a pregnancy symptom too. So I guess I get a double whammy this winter. We are working on a house in Towanda right now. It is old but kinda cool in my humble opinion. We are trying to figure out what a reasonable offer is because it is priced kinda high so the realtor is getting us some info. There are some discrepancies about the foundation structure so we shall see. We also would have to put in a shelter for the horses and horse fencing. There is a large metal barn that can be converted for chickens though which would be nice. I am really hoping because it has nice old hard wood floors and a wood stove. I hate newer homes that are wall to wall carpet. It just isn't my thing. Plus this place has almost 10 acres and only one neighbor on the mile of road! So quiet, I love quiet.

FYI If you are on fb, Josie, there is a group called Kansas Cloth Diaper Talk and Swap. They are mostly ladies from around the Wichita area but most also ship and accept payment via paypal. The ladies on there are a wealth of knowledge and there are lots and lots of super cute dipes for sell. You might want to check it out! https://www.facebook.com/groups/kscdswap/

 

[Trish44]

That reminds me. Greenfire had a 8 week old pair of a breed of chick that was the first to be released in the U.S. a few weeks ago. That pair went for $1285.00 for two baby chicks. Now tell me that isn't extreme?? There was also $60 shipping on top of that! I love the rare breeds but I can guarantee there will be no birds that expensive on my farm.

Wow Danz, which breed was that? I can't imagine paying that much for chicks because it would be too traumatic if something happened to them. Whoever bought those must just have money sitting around to burn, must be nice.

One of my ducks did something yesterday that I found quite funny, so I thought I'd share.

When I feed my birds, I usually put the food into several different ice cream buckets. I then add a bit of water to the food and then take it out to bird pen, dump the food into pans (my smaller ducks have problems reaching the bottoms of the ice cream buckets) and then I leave the buckets in the pen for the birds to "lick clean". My birds have a tendency to run from one food pan to another, perpetually thinking that the other birds are getting something better than what they're getting. One bird ran past a bucket and knocked it over. The next bird that ran past that same bucket was one of my khaki campbell ducks. This duck ran between the bucket and the extended handle, effectively attaching the bucket to her side. She ran around a bit before she finally figured out that she needed to back up to get out of her predicament. It was so funny watching her trying to figure out why this thing had "grabbed" her.

Lizzy, that's funny, I'll bet it was entertaining to watch!

Josie, so just to clarify, are you saying it's safer to actually use the injectible Ivermectin in the drinking water than putting the pour on directly on the skin of the birds? I just want to make sure I understand because I already did the Wazine a couple weeks ago & I probably need to do the Ivermectin too & if I need to get the injectible then I'll order some.

All of my multi-quotes didn't come through darn it. Danz, are you going to be raising those blue barred rocks? I can't wait to see what they look like. I want to get some more barred rock chicks next spring so I have some coming up for when my others stop laying, they're just my best layers. I wonder if the blues are as good as the regular barred rocks at laying? I'm sorry about your expensive eggs, I can empathize with you on that. I wasted quite a bit of money this year on eggs that I got nothing from also.

Sharol, I'm sorry about Scout, I hope she can recover enough to at least get around.

HEChicken, congrats on your chicks, you're lucky you got so many pullets, I'm not usually that lucky. I know from what others told me that in the chicks I hatched out this summer there were quite a few cockerels out of the bunch, I have one of them back now. However, I did get pretty lucky with the three chicks I saved to use for next year for breeding, I got two pullets & a roo out of those. I just didn't like the roo I hatched as well as one from an earlier hatch that I like the body type on better for breeding, so I bought him back.

Today is going to be as nice as yesterday & I have lots to do today, so everybody enjoy the weather & have a good day!

 

[cherwill]

Sharol, Scout is beautiful. I'm going to be hopeful that she can eventually get around well enough that she won't need to be euthanized.

Oh, good tip on the vinegar - I used to use that on diapers too and it works awesome. Also Danz, I took your suggestion of buying vinegar at Sam's Club and was pleased to finally find something that is cheaper at SC than at Dillons! I bought several gallons and am so glad to have it on hand. I like to pour it down sinks and into toilets for cleaning as it dissolves hard water deposits and leaves them smelling fresh. I also use it for all kinds of other cleaning (my window cleaner is just vinegar and water), and use quite a bit when I'm pickling eggs too.

I use vinegar for almost all cleaning, that and baking soda. I put vinegar in the laundry, too, and my clothes never smell like salad dressing! They are, however, soft without being waterproof (which is what my mom gets with her fabric softener -- towels that won't dry anything).

One of my ducks did something yesterday that I found quite funny, so I thought I'd share.

When I feed my birds, I usually put the food into several different ice cream buckets. I then add a bit of water to the food and then take it out to bird pen, dump the food into pans (my smaller ducks have problems reaching the bottoms of the ice cream buckets) and then I leave the buckets in the pen for the birds to "lick clean". My birds have a tendency to run from one food pan to another, perpetually thinking that the other birds are getting something better than what they're getting. One bird ran past a bucket and knocked it over. The next bird that ran past that same bucket was one of my khaki campbell ducks. This duck ran between the bucket and the extended handle, effectively attaching the bucket to her side. She ran around a bit before she finally figured out that she needed to back up to get out of her predicament. It was so funny watching her trying to figure out why this thing had "grabbed" her.

I don't understand those people who think our birds are just personality-less blobs that lay eggs. They're lots of fun and pretty, too.

 

[JosieChick]

Funny story, Lizzy!
Josie I am probably overly concerned when it comes to an unborn child's hearing. But they do hear. They know the sound of their mother and father's voice. If you listen to a certain kind of music when you are pregnant that is the music that will calm them after they are born. I've lost the biggest part of my hearing which wasn't good in the first place, due to shooting guns (even with hearing protection ) and working in loud environments. Let me tell you having damaged hearing stinks. Anyone who has had multiple babies can tell you this is true. They hear a lot of what is around them, regardless of how muffled it may be. I know I am over protective but this baby is special to me. I think I am as excited about it as I was my own grandchildren.
I am sad. I had a little cripple girl. She was a cochin that was broody hatched and had severe splay leg. But she survived and got along very well. She would flop over to me when she saw me and I would pick her up and carry her around, then always set her in the food pan so she got in there before the bigger chickens.
I went out to feed and I can't find her anywhere. She stays in the old garage pen and it is the only pen that isn't covered. When I left her last night she was sitting in the feed trough. That was right before dark. There is no sign of her anywhere. If a predator got her it had to be a flying one.
It really sadens me because she survived all other odds and was a real lap chicken. I figured she would never lay or anything but she was just a super sweet bird. I've looked everywhere and there isn't even feathers to indicate where she went. I suppose the owl has a sibling or we had some hawks make it in.

Dang it Heather. That's a shame. Maybe throw in something else with the peanut butter to get some attention. Cat food? Cheese? leftover meat?
I've got to get moving. It's so cold out today. I've got to box up some chicks and do some shopping too.

Thanks!! I am going to turn into a cloth diaper nut!

FYI If you are on fb, Josie, there is a group called Kansas Cloth Diaper Talk and Swap. They are mostly ladies from around the Wichita area but most also ship and accept payment via paypal. The ladies on there are a wealth of knowledge and there are lots and lots of super cute dipes for sell. You might want to check it out! https://www.facebook.com/groups/kscdswap/

Sorry for any confusion. Not safer just different. There was a discussion about using injectable ivermectin in the drinking water to cover what wazine won't kill. Topical ivermectin is good for external parasites like mites but does very little for intestinal parasites. Some of the drug is in theory absorbed systemically when applied topically but how much is unknown (even though people will still argue this point there is no research showing that external application of ivermectin also covers internal parasites) So you have to use ivermectin internally too. The injectable liquid is good just needs to be treated with caution. Proper withdraw time on meat/eggs and careful dosing to prevent overdose. Don't want to kill your birds trying to deworm them!

So the ivermectin topical does bugs on the outside, ivermectin injectable does bugs on the inside.

Josie, so just to clarify, are you saying it's safer to actually use the injectible Ivermectin in the drinking water than putting the pour on directly on the skin of the birds? I just want to make sure I understand because I already did the Wazine a couple weeks ago & I probably need to do the Ivermectin too & if I need to get the injectible then I'll order some.