I have found myself doing these or similar things lol
It's been a busy weekend. I finished painting the outside of the one coop, but not before discovering three wasp nests in the making inside. I tried the hot water and soap trick, which got most but not all of them. A while later one came back and dive bombed me right on the side of the face. It was the first time I'd been stung by something and I have to say its not as bad as I thought, based on the way a lot of people react when they see a bee or wasp. Of course, I'd rather not have it happen again!
I am down 9 birds and hopefully some more today. I sold a turkey, a cockerel, 2 3-month female guineas, and 4 week-old keets yesterday and someone is coming this afternoon to get some keets. I don't know if I mentioned it, but in my last hatch I had a keet hatch with an ENORMOUS eyeball. I thought it was popped out of the socket as there was some blood coming from the socket. Over the course of a day and a half it shrunk down to normal but had a white haze over it. Then the next day it began swelling up again. He did not seem in pain and he was getting around, eating and drinking and being normal and no one was messing with him. I thought perhaps it was glaucoma. On Saturday, however, he started having diarrhea and acting strange - just stopping and standing still for long periods of time, sort of swaying. His eye looked pretty bad, with the pupil very constricted but it looked like it was full of blood. I can imagine the pressure in his head was pretty bad. I put him to the side in a cage while I was continued painting...he was maybe 20 feet from me. I was trying to decide what to do with him, as I didn't want him suffering and I didn't know if his diarrhea would get anyone else sick. Well, somehow he got out of the cage and I think he tried to run up to my broody Japanese bantam that is raising chicks. She doesn't like chicks that aren't hers at all. I didn't hear anything or even know he was out, but when I went back to check on him real quick he was beside the cage and dead. I think she knew he was sick. His eye was actually broken open, hopefully posthumously, and it had indeed been full of blood. Honestly, I was somewhat relieved. He didn't even cry out and it was only a time of 5 minutes between when I put him in the cage and found him dead, so I think it was quick.
In other news, my lavender hen went broody and spent her first night on the nest last night. She tried to go broody about a month ago, but the nest was in the woods so I fought her off of it and took all the eggs. There is a network of fox dens near the nest and I wasn't taking the risk. I got lucky and they decided to rebuild the nest in my landscaping right under my living room (first floor) and bedroom (2nd floor) windows. It looks bad because I have not been weeding that area to keep them laying there. I need to mark the eggs so I can take any new ones off when she goes on a break. I think there are at least 30 eggs in there.
It's been a busy weekend. I finished painting the outside of the one coop, but not before discovering three wasp nests in the making inside. I tried the hot water and soap trick, which got most but not all of them. A while later one came back and dive bombed me right on the side of the face. It was the first time I'd been stung by something and I have to say its not as bad as I thought, based on the way a lot of people react when they see a bee or wasp. Of course, I'd rather not have it happen again!
I am down 9 birds and hopefully some more today. I sold a turkey, a cockerel, 2 3-month female guineas, and 4 week-old keets yesterday and someone is coming this afternoon to get some keets. I don't know if I mentioned it, but in my last hatch I had a keet hatch with an ENORMOUS eyeball. I thought it was popped out of the socket as there was some blood coming from the socket. Over the course of a day and a half it shrunk down to normal but had a white haze over it. Then the next day it began swelling up again. He did not seem in pain and he was getting around, eating and drinking and being normal and no one was messing with him. I thought perhaps it was glaucoma. On Saturday, however, he started having diarrhea and acting strange - just stopping and standing still for long periods of time, sort of swaying. His eye looked pretty bad, with the pupil very constricted but it looked like it was full of blood. I can imagine the pressure in his head was pretty bad. I put him to the side in a cage while I was continued painting...he was maybe 20 feet from me. I was trying to decide what to do with him, as I didn't want him suffering and I didn't know if his diarrhea would get anyone else sick. Well, somehow he got out of the cage and I think he tried to run up to my broody Japanese bantam that is raising chicks. She doesn't like chicks that aren't hers at all. I didn't hear anything or even know he was out, but when I went back to check on him real quick he was beside the cage and dead. I think she knew he was sick. His eye was actually broken open, hopefully posthumously, and it had indeed been full of blood. Honestly, I was somewhat relieved. He didn't even cry out and it was only a time of 5 minutes between when I put him in the cage and found him dead, so I think it was quick.
In other news, my lavender hen went broody and spent her first night on the nest last night. She tried to go broody about a month ago, but the nest was in the woods so I fought her off of it and took all the eggs. There is a network of fox dens near the nest and I wasn't taking the risk. I got lucky and they decided to rebuild the nest in my landscaping right under my living room (first floor) and bedroom (2nd floor) windows. It looks bad because I have not been weeding that area to keep them laying there. I need to mark the eggs so I can take any new ones off when she goes on a break. I think there are at least 30 eggs in there.
