I Built A Bridge!

[Teila]

Howdy Bridge Club

Once again, behind the times!

TG aaaaw, your babies are adorable!

at conjuring chicks out of shavings!

IC Cochins rule! Love the pics!

I am seriously contemplating going back to bed this morning. Chimee, has a touch of diarrhoea and I am keeping a very close eye on her this morning, she has made a few trips to the litter and is now curled up in one of the many hidey-boxes they have around the house; obviously not feeling very well. If she does not improve soon, emergency trip to the Vet with Sunday fees! Oh Joy! Still, better to be safe than sorry and she is worth every penny. So, I have spent the morning cleaning up after her many trips to the litter, then she threw up a hair ball and when I went out to feed the gals and clean the coop, had to deal with two intestinal lining offerings! Hoping my nose will go into shock, shut down and cease working for the remainder of the day!

As per usual, I have nothing to offer, everything cruising along nicely; except for Chimee. Fingers crossed it is nothing serious

 

[lizgarf]

Hi everyone,
TG, great news about Waylon! Super cute babies, too! I love the slide game!
Good to hear from you, IC! Glad you can spread the chicken love in Italy!
Teila, I hope things aren't too serious with Chimee! Glad the hens are keeping the drama down.

Things here are fine, except I'm officially worried about Bettina. Even though she's laying now and poops seem fine, she just hasn't been herself this winter. She won't wander far on her own accord. I often carry her up to wherever the other hens are in the yard, and then carry her back to the coop. She walks with a bit of a limp - not like she's injured, but like it's a lot of effort to walk, and the most significant sign, other than low energy, is low body carriage. Like she doesn't feel like sitting up straight, though she will on occasion, and her tail is always pointing down. Also, her eyes look wet and tired, and her beak is often open, like she's panting. I haven't done any research yet, and I probably should. Any ideas? It's odd, because she's been low-level off for a few months now, but doesn't seem to change much., and like I said, she's laying (albeit long, skinny eggs). I would think with a chicken illness, things would tend to go downhill fast. She's actually still growing pin feathers, though it's hard to imagine there's any room for them anywhere.
Here's some pics, where I tried to convey the low body:




Other than that, things are great. I'm getting about 6 eggs a day! Frida and Jan are the only hold-outs. The eggs are beautiful. The hens are really easy these days, though they have been a bit destructive in the yard. Diego has been showing them how to jump up and eat the blueberry blossoms - I am not pleased about that! My crazy work period is almost over and things should be at a much more manageable pace in about a week! Woohoo! I'm even starting to think about vacations!!

I hope it's a beautiful day wherever you are! It sure is here!

 

[Teila]

Howdy folks

Liz aaaw hon, I wish I could help with Bettina! The symptoms you describe I have researched in the past, probably not all at the same time and a combination of some, but research will probably tell you all sorts of things; laying issues, parasites, worms etc etc etc to the point that you might be none the wiser.

If she was not laying, I would go for impacted egg or internal laying, but as you mention, she would go downhill fast and not go on for months and she is laying.

What ails chickens is so hard to determine. I do hope that she is OK or that you find out what is wrong.

For a change, I have news……..

I ended up taking Chimee to the Emergency Vet who wanted to keep her overnight on a drip and do some tests but also gave me the option of taking her home and keeping a very close eye on her.

Chimee was so scared at the Vets, we opted to bring her home and if she did not get better we could take her to her Vet this morning. She was miserable for the day but much better this morning and ate some boiled chicken and tonight she is trying to hunt geckos through the fly wire

As the Vet suggested, it was probably just a bout of gastro or something she ate.

In other news … Cilla is broody and I have caved!!! Tonight she is snuggled up on one egg she stole off someone and I have feelers out for Pekin Frizzle eggs ... I am the first to admit, I am a hopeless case! It has been 12 months since I let her have some bubs and hopefully I will get that one or two gals I have been looking for with no luck.

 

[lizgarf]

Hi folks!
I hope those of you with long weekends are enjoying them!

Teila, I'm glad to hear that Chimee is improving and she didn't have to stay a the vet's over night. I swear, my cats only get sick on the weekends!
I support giving Cilla the eggs! I hope the hatch goes more smoothly!

I have a theory about Bettina - I think chicken pox has been going through the flock. I've been noticing black welts on their combs for awhile now and had assumed lice, but pox makes more sense over all. It's been warm enough for mosquitos and there has been some standing water. The spots look like pox and they haven't all had it at once, but everyone is seeming to get it eventually. It also would explain why Marsha stopped laying for a few weeks after she had started back up again. Not all hens experience it the same way, and it is conceivable that it's hitting Bettina harder, but not hard enough to really knock her out. I'll continue to keep an eye on her and feel for bound eggs (she actually hasn't laid the past couple days), and hope they're all healthy enough to get through it.

 

[MistyMountain]

Hi All!

TG, Looooove the babies! I seriously have spring fever! I can not wait for a broody! I do have one BO that tries to go to bed in the nesting box each night, but no broody behavior. Keep the pics coming!!

IC- Woot Woot for the egg count! I'm up to a dozen a day as well!! The world does need more cochins 

Liz- I have no advice to offer on bettina, but I do hope things turn around for her. I have read about pox in the past, and it seems like they recover well from dry pox, but the wet pox can be tough. I hope she is back to herself soon.  [/CONTENTEMBED]

Teila- I hope Chimee has recovered as well. It's so hard when they get sick!   Hooray on eggs for Cilla!! Pics are required, of course, for those of us stuck in the snow.

Stuck in the snow? Yup, that's right. We got 12" in the last two days. I am not complaining, though. we have not had any real snow all winter and at least one good snowfall for a snowman, snow angels, a snowball fight, and sledding is a must. DH has us all dug out, though. Yay for tractors!! Something we did not have when we got that 2 foot snowfall last year. I don't think the boys will be going to school all week, though.

Not much on the chicken front, other than they will not leave the coop because the white stuff is scary! I even shoveled for them and raked up the leaves underneath. I will be making multiple trips out for eggs and changing frozen water though. Thursday's high is 9* and low of -4* real temp. We have not had any frostbite issues this winter as of yet, but I will be adding almost a whole bag of shavings to the coop tomorrow as a preventative. Everyone is hanging in there, but someone has started picking. UGH. I think it is Chica. If it were warmer out, I would send her to the mini coop with two friends.

Anyhow, I leave you with a couple pics. First, looking toward the road from the front of the house. Second, looking up into the trees after I made a snow angel and thought about taking a nap.

 

[lizgarf]

Hi all,
MM, I am so jealous of your snow! We have none in California this winter! It's really tragic. I finally have gotten caught up with work enough to take a break and I want to take Reggie to the snow, but there's nowhere to go, except the ski resorts, who are making snow to add to the tiny bit that has survived this warm winter we're having. I can't exactly buy a lift ticket for her.

Thanks for your thoughts on Bettina. She seems to be maintaining - she'll perk up and run if startled (thanks, Reggie), and will make beak-smacking sounds when she sees me, since I've been slipping her yogurt lately when the others are elsewhere. But, she's still not leaving the coop on her own, has the low body-posture off and on, and she hasn't laid for at least a week now. I do think pox is going through the flock. Each of the young ladies has it at the moment, but their energy seems great. Lucy hasn't laid for a few days now, after she laid 2 eggs in a row with big piles of poop on top! I have no idea what that was about, other than maybe she's not feeling well because of the pox. Other than the confusing laying patterns, the spots on their combs, and Bettina's refusal to wander and her slumped posture, everyone seems fine.

In other news, I'm trying to get used to not facing down daunting work deadlines for the first time since October! My crazy-busy workload culminated with a 50-minute argument at the court of appeal in Santa Ana on Tuesday! That was insane - normally they're 15 minutes max per side. But, these judges had a lot of questions, and it sounds like they were on my side and it'll be a published opinion, which is pretty rare and exciting! (for the defense) Let's just hope they got it right! It's a new and confusing area of the law, which is why there were so many questions. Exhausting, but exhilarating. And now, I have time to garden, sing, and plan a well-earned vacation!

 

[Teila]

Good morning Bridge Club

Liz you could be onto something with the pox. Again, I hope Bettina gets over whatever ails her soon.

It sounds like you deserve that down time! Congrats on surviving the argument and the publishing! Enjoy your well earned rest.

MM you are allowed to send me a virtual smack on the back of the head because I am sure all that snow is not fun for you but it sure does look pretty!

I see your snow and raise with water!






We had a front come through Thursday afternoon when it started raining and stopped briefly Friday evening. Cilla had not moved off the nest for 24 hours, the run was flooded, the garden is underwater, water is threatening to enter the house and next door’s pool is threatening to overflow (they are higher than us and we are in the path of the water).

During the brief break, I ensured Cilla got a little wander.

So this morning; meet ex tropical cyclone Marcia …. Well hello Marcia, I would invite you to stay but to be honest, would prefer if you p’d off ASAP!

Here we go again………….



The good news … 2-4 hours and it should start clearing. Not only are we sick of it, I am sure the girls are over it also. All the rain is bringing the worms to the surface so that is something to take their little chicken minds off the fact that they are soggy

Not the best week, I had my phone stolen on Thursday night and have been lost without it … before I got a chance to e.mail my sister to let her know that she could not ring me and also let her know that we were not drowning, she had been ringing and texting and getting a ‘disconnected’ message … she was having a minor heart attack until she got my e.mail to which she replied “I must say that was appalling timing. If you are going to get your mobile phone nicked, could you please NOT do it when there is a category 5 cyclone bearing down on Queensland” She also suggested that maybe I should have ducks not chickens .. I love her sense of humour!

Cilla is still sitting on duds and a breeder was coming up this way and was going to drop off some fertile Pekin Frizzle eggs but the weather has put a stop to that. So, at this stage I have no definitive plan for when Cilla will get her eggs but I have a couple of options once this weather has improved.

Thank you all for your thoughts regarding Chimee. She did not require another trip to the Vet and is now back to her happy, playful self ... must have been something she ate or a bout of kitty gastro.

Off to monitor the water levels in the moat and make sure no silly chickens end up swimming!

 

[Teila]

Just sharing some pics! We were very close to evacuating the girls but the rain has eased and should stop in the next 30 mins or so and I will be able to go and start trying to clean them up!

 

[lizgarf]

Wow, Teila! That's intense! I'm glad everyone is ok and that is should be stopping soon! And, glad your sister gave you a chuckle! Cleanup does not sound fun!

With the snow pounding the east coast of the US and a cyclone pounding the east coast of Australia, I should probably stop complaining about the endless sunny weather here!

 

[MistyMountain]

Liz, Reggie would love it here! Lilly does! At least for a while, then she gets this big sad eye shivery look and wants to go lay down in front of the wood stove. In her defense, we have also had the coldest weather all year on top of the snow. It was definitely into the negatives. I put a whole bag of shavings down in the big coop between 3 days to try to keep it super dry in there and avoid frostbite. I also rubbed some coconut oil on all the floppy combs and roosters, mean old willie included!!

As of this morning, we have at least an additional 5" of snow and it is showing no sign of stopping. It is supposed to turn into rain this afternoon/evening. The boys were off all week last week, and we had to reschedule dentist appointments for this upcoming week…. but… the weather is going to stay cold and I don't see us going anywhere for a few days. In Wisconsin, it's no problem. One foot of snow? School is still on. The mountains are a different story, though, and there are roads around here that probably have not been cleared since the last storm. DOT even forgot about a road in the city!!

I have a confession to make. We've all had our chicken spanking moments… well, I've just topped that. I threw a snowball at a rooster. I missed, on purpose of course, but it worked. Blackbeard jumped out of the coop when I opened the door because there was snow on the ground. Where does he go? Right into the snow. So I try to herd him like a cow or a horse. Yeah right. He went every which way. I followed him up down around over and through the treeline. Finally he got close to the door of the coop. Instead of walking over there and having him go exactly where I didn't want him to go, I threw a snowball right behind him. It worked! Then another, and another. Finally an hour later he was back in the coop. Grrr!!

Liz, it may have been brought up before, but do you worm? I was looking up natural worming on youtube and lady had a little clip where she said that when she gets poop on her eggs it is a sign she needs to worm and does so by adding DE to their feed and swears by it. I know here on BYC DE is a huge debate on all fronts, but it was interesting to me because I would rather do something natural than chemical.

Congrats on the argument!! Glad you get a moment to relax now! Keep telling us stories of warm sunny weather (and send pics!) it will make us feel warmer

Oh Teila, you can keep that water!!! Our house sits up high, so no worries of flooding, but oh that would be bad for us! I often say if it is ever flooding at our house, we're gonna need an ark! WIth that much sitting water, I hope you don't have a basement that floods!! I remember a big flood back in WI when I was little. Dad just had to open the basement windows and let the flood waters in or they would break the glass. We found a turtle in the basement! Luckily our basement was just storage, so no real damage done. In fact, every time it rained we would have little rivers to jump over down there to get to the laundry area or the basement fridge.

I'm sorry to hear about your phone. I will never understand the actions of some people. I like your sister's sense of humor too!

Stay dry…er warm…. er sunny everyone!!