I too couldn’t answer @Shadrach’s question until the chick situation resolved.@Shadrach I can answer your question now.I wanted to wait until things settled down with the chicks, out of respect. My flock/tribe is mostly fine. I lost Dorothy last week… she was the mostly White Leghorn that had trouble making egg shells. Ruby, the Buckeye on hormones, has had three episodes where I thought for sure it was the end. But she has fought like hell. There is an incredible will to live in that bird. I had vowed not to tube feed her, as I thought it would be cruel to force her to live. She started getting very, very weak, but still seemed to want to live. So I changed my mind and started tubing. I kind of regret not doing it sooner, as she is responding well. At the same time, sometimes I think maybe I should have had her euthanized at her last avian vet appointment. I’m kind of thinking I’d like to build her up and then the moment she turns the other way, end it. Here was this morning’s feeding:
As for me, I got extremely stressed and ended up with high blood pressure and tachycardia. Stopping my morning cuppa joe and taking a break from work brought my blood pressure down, but the tachycardia still pops up now and then. Was allergic to a med and ended up in the ER, but I’m mostly well. I will need to wear a heart monitor for a couple weeks to get a definitive diagnosis, as my little pocket heart monitor thought it might be atrial fibrillation (diagnosis is currently supraventricular tachycardia).
You may remember last year the rats ravaged my tomato garden. This year, my tomatoes are kicking a$$. Happy about that!
Just briefly, all is mainly fine here at the Chicken Palace and the ladies are loving being out and about in the long grass. No snow!
Diana and Elizabeth are having a hard time putting shells on their eggs. Intense calcium supplements worked with Diana but not Elizabeth.
It worries me greatly.
Maggie however is now 11 months on from laying a series of lash eggs and is defying the odds by being very much alive. She is as loud and opinionated as ever and laying normally.
The two Roadrunners are as speedy and nuts as always - Dotty has taken to waging war on my ankles, and Minnie continues to lay diminutive eggs and fly everywhere.
I didn’t add anyone else this year but I think I will in the spring.
I haven't seen a mouse since the other morning
