Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[ozexpat]

Update time.

Finally we found a couple of guys to finish the pig pens. The concrete started on Saturday. A huge relief. Within two week the girls will have their new spacious home. The boar is back to full strength but we commited to AI by giving all three gilts a dose of PG600 on the same day. They all went into estrus three days later. I am going to use three different breed boars. Duroc, Pietrans and Large White. If we have successful "hatches" I will keep three large white gilts and one each of the Duroc and Pietrans crosses. The large whites will become "production" sows while the crossed gilts will get crossed again to make a couple of nice hybrid boars. We will keep the boar for now.

Apart from the quail, I will probably not persue the chukar for much longer. Primarily, I really dont like caging birds in small cages and I really dont want to invest more money in these birds at the moment and I need every coop I have. We will see how it plays out for now. It saddens me to see them in cages so the Chukar may go in with the quail in a coop for now.

Chickens, turkeys, guineas and ducks are plenty. Peafowl are still on the cards as decorations. When we started all this, it was like throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks. Small birds arent sticking. I will re-evaluate pheasants next year but no eggs will be in the golf bag this season.

I am going to spend a lot of time with the birds next trip. I will be sorting hundreds of partially feathered birds to assess breeds. We need to decide where we want to go and how we are going to get there.

School starts when I get there. The working student program is back under evaluation as Dominic and Ibo settle down and some normality is being felt.It would be great to have someone who can communicate directly with me so I dont have to rely on my wife being around there all the time. The kids will also be back in school.

The list of things to do there is forever expanding. I cant wait to get stuck into it.

The adventure continues.

 

[perchie.girl]

Love the chick pics.

We should have our first first ever Guineas hatch this week. Very exciting. The dehumidifier pooped out mid hatch but it has been rather dry so I am hoping they will be ok. The Guinea due the next week candled well last night. We have 30 viable eggs in that batch

fingers crossed OZ

Hey I got news.... New computer is Getting ordered on Monday. They need three days to build if they have the parts on hand.

I am getting 250 Gig SATA memory instead of a hard drive for OS and software installation. as well as a TB standard hard drive.


deb

 

[ozexpat]

Awesome. I have that software for you. Coincidencly I just am waiting for a 250gb ssd drive to disk clone the hdd from my laptop.

They are screaming

 

[perchie.girl]

Awesome. I have that software for you. Coincidencly I just am waiting for a 250gb ssd drive to disk clone the hdd from my laptop.

They are screaming

Thanks... Are you getting a portable with USB connection? I have a 500G WD external drive someone gave me last year and it is screaming fast. I cant imagine having a SSD.

I am sticking with Windows 7 64 bit.

deb

 

[Leftcoastnative]

Ok, I'm all caught up finally....finished reading all the way to the final page.....

So, a little bit about me just for general introduction..... I'm retired, living pretty much as a recluse in the subdivisions. Don't have any chickens, although we did when I was a kid, pheasants, too. A couple of my Dad's many, many projects. Being the oldest of four kids, I seemed to get responsibility for 'em. I sometimes think there must be a special place in heaven for oldest kids.
I spent a 18 months in the Philippines while in the Navy (this was back in the days when we had the "draft" i.e. compulsory military service). What an education that was! I came to two big conclusions shortly after arrival there. 1. If I was gonna survive with any sanity left, I was gonna have to get drunk, real drunk and stay that way as much as possible....... So I did... 2. The best thing the Philippine nation could do for itself would be to throw the American military out of their country and send 'em packin'. Might be surprised how many of my fellow sailors felt the same way. I'm sure glad I live in a state with no military presence - that's a plague upon the face of the earth.
They didn't leave of course. The American military was way too "established". But I think Mt. Pinatubo (many, many years later) kinda took care of it for them. I really liked the Philippines, but the Navy wouldn't let us get out and see the country! We were "restricted" to areas I didn't particularly care for! That "restriction" kinda rubbed me the wrong way. I did get in on a few snorkeling and swimming adventures in the South China Sea...that was great.

Got out of the Navy, threw the seabag and booze away, tried going back to school (Oregon State) - only lasted a couple years, couldn't make that work.
So I joined the "workforce". It may be of some interest, one of the jobs I had was driving a "livehaul" truck. That would be the truck that goes out (after dark), loads up with broilers (that's the "marketing department" name for 'em - they were just around 8 week old chickens - thousands of 'em), then hauls 'em back to the.....uhhhhh.... processing plant. It was interesting to drive a truck that cannot stop for anything....floods, snow, mudslides, whatever....
When you're loaded up with six thousand live chickens, can't allow yourself to be stopped by anything.
Sometimes old brood hens, sometimes old egg layers. Those eggs layers live a short, brutal life in obscene conditions!
Wound up finally in a papermill - steady work, good wages, benefits, regular hours, union job protection (security). Finally earned a retirement - and here I am.
I love the web. I've always been a bit of a "learner". Like to learn about stuff. The web is perfect for that. And it came along just about the right time for me.

Thanks for listening.....

 

[perchie.girl]

Ok, I'm all caught up finally....finished reading all the way to the final page.....

So, a little bit about me just for general introduction..... I'm retired, living pretty much as a recluse in the subdivisions. Don't have any chickens, although we did when I was a kid, pheasants, too. A couple of my Dad's many, many projects. Being the oldest of four kids, I seemed to get responsibility for 'em. I sometimes think there must be a special place in heaven for oldest kids.
I spent a 18 months in the Philippines while in the Navy (this was back in the days when we had the "draft" i.e. compulsory military service). What an education that was! I came to two big conclusions shortly after arrival there. 1. If I was gonna survive with any sanity left, I was gonna have to get drunk, real drunk and stay that way as much as possible....... So I did... 2. The best thing the Philippine nation could do for itself would be to throw the American military out of their country and send 'em packin'. Might be surprised how many of my fellow sailors felt the same way. I'm sure glad I live in a state with no military presence - that's a plague upon the face of the earth.
They didn't leave of course. The American military was way too "established". But I think Mt. Pinatubo (many, many years later) kinda took care of it for them. I really liked the Philippines, but the Navy wouldn't let us get out and see the country! We were "restricted" to areas I didn't particularly care for! That "restriction" kinda rubbed me the wrong way. I did get in on a few snorkeling and swimming adventures in the South China Sea...that was great.

Got out of the Navy, threw the seabag and booze away, tried going back to school (Oregon State) - only lasted a couple years, couldn't make that work.
So I joined the "workforce". It may be of some interest, one of the jobs I had was driving a "livehaul" truck. That would be the truck that goes out (after dark), loads up with broilers (that's the "marketing department" name for 'em - they were just around 8 week old chickens - thousands of 'em), then hauls 'em back to the.....uhhhhh.... processing plant. It was interesting to drive a truck that cannot stop for anything....floods, snow, mudslides, whatever....
When you're loaded up with six thousand live chickens, can't allow yourself to be stopped by anything.
Sometimes old brood hens, sometimes old egg layers. Those eggs layers live a short, brutal life in obscene conditions!
Wound up finally in a papermill - steady work, good wages, benefits, regular hours, union job protection (security). Finally earned a retirement - and here I am.
I love the web. I've always been a bit of a "learner". Like to learn about stuff. The web is perfect for that. And it came along just about the right time for me.

Thanks for listening.....

Thankyou Leftcoastnative.... I too am a left coast native... in general.... California in particular.

deb

 

[ozexpat]

Glad you caught up wcn

 

[chickensnbees]

Happy Mother's Day to Mrs. Oz! It takes a very special person to make the sacrifices you have for your children. They are truly blessed. Enjoy your beautiful darlings today!

 

[Phage]

Happy Mother's Day everyone!!
Human mommies and chicken mommies alike!

 

[Tomtommom]

My son gets his permit next month. I bought him a 4x4 Yukon and added extra roll cage around the front, through the firewall and beside and over the front seats. Put extra large side mirrors on it, too. The whole time I was working on it I kept having flashes of the old "Who's the Boss" episode when Sam gets a car. Anyone remember that? I'm making sure my son will be safe but I wouldn't recommend anyone drive in Virginia for the next year or two!

Yup, remember that episode! I am terrified of the day mine start driving... their daddy was quite the speed demon and he has plenty of stories about it.. I fear the worst.

I love this picture! And those birds are cute as a button.

I am so over run with chickens and now the Guinea are laying up a storm. I may just end up giving up on quail all together. This will be their final test. If I am not getting 30 eggs a day in a month they will all go in the fridge. The quail that is.

We have had so many attempts and tragedies with these little buggers. The irony is that quail do well in the philippines. Maybe mine just never got the memo.

From the sound of it you'd be better off focusing on the birds that do work. If quail do so well, surely there are a lot of other folks keeping them then? Having a corner in the market with something just you provide (the chickens) seems to make more sense. Just my 2 cents ofcourse!

Lovely pictures as always. That water looks so inviting and so much fun! Love reading your stories.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!!
Human mommies and chicken mommies alike!

Why thank you!



Our latest project:


Because, you know, first thing most folks do when they bring home a newborn is dig a 4 foot deep hole in their driveway.... right? Did I mention I've been digging too? 2 weeks post-partum... my doctor would be yanking out his hair if he saw me

It's for a storm shelter, by the way. We've been wanting one for a while.. finally decided to do it. Dragging three little kids to a community shelter just doesn't work..

Oz, send us some of your workers? We're too dang cheap to pay the folks around here. One guy wanted $500. Sheesh!