Illinois...

[megpie021]

Did your DH find any new chicks? Don't worry, he'll become desensitized to it.

For us it's a running joke. DH is happier not knowing the number so the kids & I keep that info secret from him. Anytime someone asks how many chickens we have, they get a very vague answer. Mostly because the number fluctuates. ie- We just hatched 21 chicks a few days ago. That's a huge population jump! But, those will all be sold, so why count them? Likewise, we're growing out 9 chicks, but in reality, we're only keeping 3-4 of them. We also have some 1-2 yr old lav hens that we're breeding right now, but the kids have decided that they want more variety. When we're done hatching lavs this spring, those girls will be sold. Some roos may also be replaced. The egg & chick sales help pay for feed & other expenses. In the end, DH only wants to eat delicious eggs and not have to care for the flock. He jokes about "not liking" the chickens, but he's the 1st one to gather kitchen scraps for them. He likes to feed them & even talks to them. He also brags about our flock, eggs, gardens, & compost to others. I find that so funny because he hates being outside, thinks nature is "too messy," & prefers to spend his time in an air conditioned computer lab.

He's come a long way, though. He never had a garden & grew up eating canned vegetables.

In fact when his family moved into a house with a fruit tree, his mom had them cut it down because she was afraid her son would eat some of those "buggy pears." His side of the family won't eat our eggs because they didn't come from the store. At least DH knows what real food tastes like now, and our kids spend plenty of time playing outside.

Hahah even better, his trip from yesterday was moved to today, so while we were out running errands before the In Laws arrive next week he bought me a little welsummer! Something about me batting my pretty eyes being hard to resist or something

I think it also helps that they are some of the cutest chicks. He loves her and named her. She is a hatchery chick so I know she might not lay the super dark or super speckled eggs, but I will cross my fingers for now. Also everyone made it through the night again. There were what had to have been pretty watery poops in the brooder this morning. All chicks are up and running and active this morning, making me a lot less worried. He really likes the chickens, adoring Peaches the most because you can scoop her up and she doesnt even make a sound, just lays down. and looks around some. He has been really supportive of this whole thing, I just think the last week was rough on him because it was rough on me. HE was telling me yesterday about how I will need to start making him hard boiled eggs for snacks on his trips haha.

I am very excited to get my garden going. Its something I started doing as a teenager, after growing up probably a little more similar to you DH. My family thinks its so funny I am this gardening chicken raising camping kind of person now. Because until about my Junior year of highschool I was pretty prissy and hated getting dirty. I do still have one issue with gardening and that is that I am super arachnophobic. Gardening often clashes with that. Maybe my girls can help me with that by getting rid of some of them in the yard. I have starters going in the little plastic trays and I am very excited to get them moved out too once the weather calms down.

 

[cavemanrich]

@megpie021
The Brown Recluse is not very common this far north. You still need to respect them. They are mostly in sheds and barns rather than in gardens.

That would be the only one to be concerned about. Black widows are in warm desert climates like Arizona. I did see them when I was there, but I was still able to outrun them..

 

[Faraday40]

Yuck spiders!

I love to garden, but also try to stay away from them. Strange that I can handle giant Madagasgar Hissing Cockroaches & all sorts of insects, but those arachnids creep me out. I admire their webs, find them facinating, and like that they keep insect numbers down, but get one too near me & my skin crawls.

DS doesn't care for them either - but he has good reasons. When he was 3 yrs we had a series of ER visits for a nasty bite. He was with me in the basement & just started crying. At 1st I though bee sting because we were watering plants a few min earlier, but saw no stinger.

Within 10 min I called the doc & it looked like this:

It measured 1 cm & growing

Within 30 min it was like this & we headed to urgent care instead. (The flash made the redness look pink. It was more nasty in person.)


He got some Benadryll & antibiotics. It continued to grow & covered most of the left side of his calf by morning. He got to go back to urgent care. By the second night it finally stopped growing but his calf was so swollen & sore he had trouble walking for several days.

Poor little guy had the same thing happen at age 4. Sadly between the insect bites & the allergies, he doesn't like gardening with me like he used to.

 

[megpie021]

Thanks for the uuhhhh lovely pictures there. I cant even look at pictures of spiders. I wake up with bad nightmares about them being in the bed a few times a year. I have since I was little. No clue where it comes from. Its not good, but oh well.

On a more fun note, we had some outdoor time today for the bigs. And I realized I have neglected to mention some of our family. We went in to the store for supplies about 2 weeks ago with our exchange students in tow (from Germany and Brazil) and came home with these

I havent been able to find any rules on ducks for this area.. so hopefully they wont be an issue. They are little sweeties. And they are the reason I have to be done with the chick collecting

Husband and the girls were in love with the ducklings and before we knew it three were in a box. We will have to start ordering supplies from Amazon or something because our family clearly can not be trusted near babies.

Here are my big girls they decided to all attack a leaf at once... Licorice is the red and grey one, Peaches the white, Cinnamon the Buff, and Pepper is the black one. Waiting for more lacing to kick in on her.


The littles were passed out when I went in to check on them so I am letting them be for now. I am very glad we have a pretty big back yard that is also pretty private. We are trying to not abuse the system TOO much. But these girls are so fun its really really hard to stop.

 

[chickendreams24]

@megpie021 The Brown Recluse is [COLOR=008000]not very common[/COLOR] this far north. You still need to respect them. They are mostly in sheds and barns rather than in gardens. That would be the only one to be concerned about. Black widows are in warm desert climates like Arizona. I did see them when I was there, but [COLOR=FF0000]I was still able to outrun them.[/COLOR].

Okay I just have to add that you didn't mention that the brown recluse is poisonous although not frequently dangerous to people. My brother was bitten by one when he was in Georgia in the army. While they were out in the bush over night one crawled into his sleeping bag and bit him on the back of the neck. They didn't realize it right away and his neck became extremely swollen and he couldn't turn his head. Although there are no pictures I believe it became a a blister and such similar to Faraday40's DS. They sent my brother in gave him the antidote and sent him back out. Without any other care.

Yuck spiders! I love to garden, but also try to stay away from them. Strange that I can handle giant Madagasgar Hissing Cockroaches & all sorts of insects, but those arachnids creep me out. I admire their webs, find them facinating, and like that they keep insect numbers down, but get one too near me & my skin crawls. DS doesn't care for them either - but he has good reasons. When he was 3 yrs we had a series of ER visits for a nasty bite. He was with me in the basement & just started crying. At 1st I though bee sting because we were watering plants a few min earlier, but saw no stinger. Within 10 min I called the doc & it looked like this: It measured 1 cm & growing Within 30 min it was like this & we headed to urgent care instead. (The flash made the redness look pink. It was more nasty in person.) He got some Benadryll & antibiotics. It continued to grow & covered most of the left side of his calf by morning. He got to go back to urgent care. By the second night it finally stopped growing but his calf was so swollen & sore he had trouble walking for several days. Poor little guy had the same thing happen at age 4. Sadly between the insect bites & the allergies, he doesn't like gardening with me like he used to.

Okay that's just icky. I too hate spiders. Incidentally I have woken up on a few occasions with a spider on me in bed! Ick ick ick. I have also had them drop on me when I was in the shower a couple of times. I swear they do it for a good laugh. Lol nothing like running screaming from the bathroom butt naked with soap in your hair bc a spider dropped on you. Been there done that. I've been told when a large spider is involved that I turn into a cartoon and people expect me to run through the walls leaving a body shaped hole behind. Did you guys ever consider that perhaps it may have been a brown recluse that bit your DS?

 

[megpie021]

Been there done that. I've been told when a large spider is involved that I turn into a cartoon and people expect me to run through the walls leaving a body shaped hole behind.

This is me.

 

[chickendreams24]

This is me. 

Lol glad I'm not the only one. And personally it's just rude when they're in your bed or shower. Like I can usually handle it except when they show up in places that they just shouldn't.

 

[megpie021]

The second place husband and I rented together had an epic spider problem. I was bit a few times, and they loved surprising me in the shower. It got to the point where I had to have him check the bathroom before I would shower. When they are in the yard or garden I usually get husband to just move them. In the house is a kill zone. I dont want them getting any ideas that this is a nice comfy place for them!

 

[Faraday40]

When I was younger & more adventurous, I traveled. My dream vacation was a trip to Africa. Talk about exotic, deadly dangers! DH & I applied bug spray with DEET as soon as we finished showering. Because of the malaria risk & the drug resistance in the area where we were traveling, DH & I had to take Larium. That stuff was awful. We had some strange side effects including paranoia & hallucinations. One night I saw a huge spider on the netting of our bed. (I asked DH & he saw it too.) In my mind, it was trying to prevent me from going to bed. By hanging on the netting I had nothing hard to smoosh against. I grabbed my boot & took my best shot. As I carefully lifted to boot to see if I was successful, I saw no body. So I was convinced, I had an angry vengeful spider out to get me for trying to kill it. I was very grateful to leave that tent alive the next morning! The trip was wonderful but the Larium really did a number on me. Then after returning to the States, we had to continue taking Larium for a full month. I remember having severe insomnia & wild daydreams while trying to set up my classroom that August.

The following year, I went to Belize & Guatemala with a bunch of teachers. Thankfully I already had the shots & was able to take a diff anti-malaria drug with no side effects for me. However, the scorpions were bad. On our 1st morning in the researcher camp, a fellow teacher spotted one while in the shower. She ran out of her hut screaming & ran into ours wearing only a towel. Another teacher brought her hubby along who left his suitcase open during the night. As he pulled out his shirt a scorpion fell to the ground. He was more together & didn't streak through camp. By our 2nd morning, everyone knew to search showers, toilets, & beds before using them & also to zip up suitcases & shake out shoes. I thought the big tarantulas would be a problem for me, but they were very shy. One of the researcher's kids who lived there took me on a tour to show me all the tarantulas in camp. She explained that we had to walk very quietly or they'd get scared & hide. After she gave me the tour, I knew exactly where I needed to stomp around when passing by. I can't understand why DH refused to go with me on that trip! LOL

 

[Faraday40]

Thanks for the uuhhhh lovely pictures there. I cant even look at pictures of spiders. I wake up with bad nightmares about them being in the bed a few times a year. I have since I was little. No clue where it comes from. Its not good, but oh well.

On a more fun note, we had some outdoor time today for the bigs. And I realized I have neglected to mention some of our family. We went in to the store for supplies about 2 weeks ago with our exchange students in tow (from Germany and Brazil) and came home with these

I havent been able to find any rules on ducks for this area.. so hopefully they wont be an issue. They are little sweeties. And they are the reason I have to be done with the chick collecting

Husband and the girls were in love with the ducklings and before we knew it three were in a box. We will have to start ordering supplies from Amazon or something because our family clearly can not be trusted near babies.

Here are my big girls they decided to all attack a leaf at once... Licorice is the red and grey one, Peaches the white, Cinnamon the Buff, and Pepper is the black one. Waiting for more lacing to kick in on her.


The littles were passed out when I went in to check on them so I am letting them be for now. I am very glad we have a pretty big back yard that is also pretty private. We are trying to not abuse the system TOO much. But these girls are so fun its really really hard to stop.

Definitely cuter than spiders!