Jest Another Day in Pear-A-Dice - Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Alberta

[CanuckBock]

Wrote a long pictureful reply to all that just posted.

BYC decided to shutdown and it's gone.

Maybe in a coupla weeks, maybe tomorrow. All I know is today, I don't have any more time for this kind of stupidiness in technology. Just finished getting the woodbox full in the Man Porch, thinking about vaccing sheep...or not. Dogs wanna play and that always makes me day, eh!

Later,

Tara

PS My post to Ask a Chef went thru though...strange indeed.

 

[drumstick diva]

Maybe you could ask Rob to launch a full investigation into what happened to your post? Bermuda triangle - I don't think so.

 

[CanuckBock]

Maybe you could ask Rob to launch a full investigation into what happened to your post? Bermuda triangle - I don't think so.

Who's Rob and how is suppose to help retrieve a problem with this forum?

I am old, hate repeating myself and when made to REPEAT conversations I already completed...grrr...technology SERVES ME, I don't serve it BUT the people that posted deserve a reply. Point form...

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Go to Ask a Chef for more potato talk.

I am glad that organic is available but there are like 20 approved chemicals allowed in the US for organic growers to use...then we have e coli problems, salmonella...sometimes NO chemicals and trying to be natural has a worse price to pay. I do know we cannot prove organic foods are better nutrient wise...I just have this funny nagging feeling we are going to have an AHA moment like when DDT was found to be bad...har har. Then we stopped using it to paint our kitchen shelves with...

Thank you @chickisoup - right now the two carts are in the garage and was worried about the high humidity in thar. Rick has the pond fish and the pond plants...but GREAT to know taters are good in that environment...we got freezing fog yesterday, so much fun watching students in boots slide on down to board the bus...good gack! So until the weather decides what it is doing, I remain drumming fingers waiting to finish my potato harvest ventures...bagging to paper and sorting to kinds and storing for winter.

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@drumstick diva

Pineapple top, grown inside, lots of places to find instructs on Net.

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@Teila

You certainly have a great patch of paradise too. Love your visitor to your top pond...what kind please?

I have had all sorts of Oz beasties...swans, rosy burke, the dogs...even my ram Boss Man has top and bottom Australian Dorpers...I love Australian creations. I however, don't like heat...when you're down to skin in an ice bath...what do you need to peal off then...moved from Kamloops at 104F and horror'd the 110F days... give me cold and let me layer and eat pie...me be happy and joyous as I can deal with cold, but heat, not my cuppa.

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One can find us up at any hour in the night here. Rick is a light sleeper...but not like we put on the neon sign OPEN for the patrons leaving the bars...har har. In regards to robbery, I am told they charged the person who broke in to the neighbour's vacation home. Course "I" know both persons involved. See how the proceedings go. Someone said addiction drove them to do it but whatever. Funny how one person's needs seem to overshadow another person's rights not to be violated and have their property harvested to feed another's mistakes. I HATE people for stealing from their fellow man. Victimizing your neighbours...really? Been lots of thefts round...police caught one operation about 10 minutes away that had crated quads (hmm...you heist those with a fork lift from a dealer...really?) and lots and lots of Chev trucks. Woman charged as master minding the "operation." Kills me...but then marriages go bust too when times get hard. For our fam, when times got tight, so did we. Easy to have relationships in the good times...they just flow, it is when the times get tough your real stuffing gets tested and we bin down that enough times to know; hug tight, fists quenched and ready to duke it out. Team is better than alone.

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Foamers is fine, she don't mind being left out because she still gets to run run with the girls, gets her treats and time well spend with her. Old dog, happy one.

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Teila wrote:

Teila, what variety of Langhsan is your chicken with the white half moons?

Off colours can be due to all sorts of things so recording what time of year, what temps, what conditions all would help correlate a reason. The cuckoo version of feather expression occurs because the chook is THAT sensitive to night and day differences in temperature. Fast feather growth, energy diverted from making crisp markings at night goes instead to keeping the bird warm...then daytime, that energy goes to feather marking...so you end up with fuzzy and crisp and wavy and not markings...due to day and night temp changes. Red bar, black bar, white bars across feathers are due to some sort of stressors from something as simple as you changed the water and it tastes different. Sorta like the markings in your finger nails...a good doctor examines the condition of your finger nails if you have an illness they are struggling to nail down. So nails, hair, feathers in birds...all reflect the conditions they are residing in. Good bad or neutral.

Vulture Hock - this often DQ is wanted in the Booted Bantam Breed​

I usually only like to recount my personal experiences for others when questioned. Read it in a book, then see it in my own coops...white on the end of feather, that would be my Mille de Fleur Booted Bantams. Like the Speckled Sussex, they tend to get gayer (whiter) over time. Huge variance in expression, you can breed lots and choose the ones that are "perfect" as adolescents for showing but by next season, too white. I have had some hatch with NO white and slowly get white tips. I am an advocate of one dose of Recessive White in both MDF and Partridge...makes the colours POP. Dr. Carefoot wrote about this too in his book. White is no pigment, perhaps when white forms on tips, there is some trigger saying "not to begin" pigment. I love my MDF to help me remember what speed pigments are made..

MDF Booted Bantam feathers ​

White tip, first part of the feather formed means NO pigment, then instructs are given to "release the hounds" (sorry) meant release the pigments and what shows up first...RED is slower than BLACK, so white then black then red shows up...late for the parthay.

Grey muzzle on a dog, example thar of melanocytes (cells responsible for pigment expression) getting tired as we age. We get grey because grey is a dilution of colour, colour being red or black and strength of expression being lessened. I guess we don't POP so much no more as we age gracefully, eh!

With ACDog HyBlade, the world's 1st DNA parentage proven and DNA colour tested Red from Blues ACD...we had a time sorting out why the tips on his hair was black since I kept getting told by persons you would THINK should know, that because his e/e restricted pigment (suppose to be no pigment according to their definition of what homozygous Restriction did...HA!) he would not and should not have had dark hair tips. My conclusion was that whatever the e/e was suppose to be doing, it was LATE at the start and the hair follicles produced pigment in the hair tip (first part formed and broken thru skin) before the restriction stepped up and said, "STOP!" LMBO

Keep mindful, feather end markings can be black->white...
Something as simple as blue dilution can change black and leave red pretty alone
Difference between blue laced to buff laced is merely double dose of blue dilution ​

Yer girl's half moon white feather tips are being instructed to produce NO pigment. Why that happens, you will have to investigate that yourself to know--genetics (be more likely consistent to see it turn up with every moult), environment, you are the witness.

With nasty transients like Starlings...you see them first after moulting with nice markings (white dots on feather ends) but they wear the tips off their feathers from abusing them and end up looking pretty drab before they once again moult and gain those white dots on the ends of their feathers all over again.

Does your hen appear more white feather tipped after a moult and less white tipped before she moults. Wears the white off or?

Between different breeds, there can be different colour genetics that make one bird less likely to fade colour. Some lines of self-whites bleach yellow in the sunshine, some are affected by consumption of cartenoids like yellow corn or even eating GREEN grass (yellow and blue = green...so there are yellow pigments in green foods, eh). Personally, I would not deny chooks sunshine or greens because I was gonna have a tiffy over them changing colour. I would care if I showed I suppose but we show NO landfowl so no issue.

Over the years, we have been blessed with white birds that don't fade and are not affected by greens...pretty white Call Ducks when growing in new feathers, preen with a yellow oil...so a more matured feather will be whiter, naturally having cured and less yellow oils applied to discolour them. Bad washing for show practises can dull pigments, a buff can be paled, pastels can be further dimmed...you have to be careful not to wash away the beauty and make the bird's otherwise solid colour all patchy.

Such a sweet boy and that tiny Higgins White Dove project hen in the background -
She was on the rail bossing him around-standing on tippy toes and giving him that GIRLY "I am gonna peck you" look.
Bossy mini monster that female!
He has no idea how much bigger HE is...gentlemen that one!

Since 2008, I have had two Partridge Standard Chanteclers gradually go completely white feathered. Yes, coloured red and black pattern (so both pigments affected) to a decent self-White. Completely absolutely healthy and just faded to I have a male right now that is only showing a few coloured feathers if'n just one (not searched his body completely and simply don't care too...he's purdy, nuff for me!)...otherwise he is a beauty of a self-white and I am absolutely delighted with him.

See the coloured feather in his saddle?​

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There, not as long as my initial post but that be gone and no crying over spilt milk...stupid technology...grrr.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[drumstick diva]

Tara re: your disappearing post. Rob is BYC's Rob - all seeing, all knowing - Boss!

 

[scottcaddy]

Tara re: your disappearing post. Rob is BYC's Rob - all seeing, all knowing - Boss!

My Dear Diva,

Are you by any chance, trying to butter up Rob?

Scott

 

[Teila]

Hey Tara

When I am replying to a thread or post, I type my response in Word [Notepad or similar would also suffice], then copy and paste into BYC. Working in IT, I know the perils of losing a lot of work and also find this easier when replying to multiple posts.

We have many feathered visitors but the little bathing fella is a Noisy Miner.

Thank you so very much for all the helpful information regarding Dusty’s ‘moons’, I will make an effort to keep a track of their occurrences, frequency and environmental changes.

 

[drumstick diva]

Shame on you Scott, I really do like Rob! I like you too and you know it. No ulterior motives involved

 

[scottcaddy]

Shame on you Scott, I really do like Rob! I like you too and you know it. No ulterior motives involved

Who...Me.....? All I was trying to do was to say, was that you where building Rob up into something more then he is.
BTW, I also like Rob, he has always been nice to me and other people from what I have seen or heard about.
I do likesyamuchly my Dear Diva!

Scott

 

[CanuckBock]

Hey Tara

When I am replying to a thread or post, I type my response in Word [Notepad or similar would also suffice], then copy and paste into BYC. Working in IT, I know the perils of losing a lot of work and also find this easier when replying to multiple posts.

We have many feathered visitors but the little bathing fella is a Noisy Miner.

Thank you so very much for all the helpful information regarding Dusty’s ‘moons’, I will make an effort to keep a track of their occurrences, frequency and environmental changes.

Pretty birds...like mini feathered rainbows. Still varmits in a flock that descends upon one & clean us outta seeds or fruit (yer trees & shrubs?)...but nice varmits is how we feel. LOL The noisy miner sounds like our Jays, pretty but cheeky.


When I am not tired with too many irons in the fire...I too will cut and paste my WIP's, BUT into my e-mail program...thus also saving any photos I post...I believe the links to wherever they are stored are saved because on many, far too many an occasion, I have rescued a post that went BLIP into never never land.

My problem right now...too much on the go to be completely diligent and then, then I rely on the fail safes (non existent obviously) to save my sorry butt. Ah but that is where it fails, rely on something as stunned and stoopid as technology and it fails one. No matter.

I forgot to mention (or am now mentioning it again...) that you can microwave potatoes fairly well in warmer seasons. My MIL told me about this and simple Net search will net you photos, video (my service provider does not provide that perk for me) and then, Voila...not heated up house and yet, still enjoying the BAKERS is you love them bestest.

Which reminds me, we did get to try out the Purple Caribe as baked and delicious...I even added some Chili but best as butter on it and the taste was superb.

Oct 16, 2016 - Purple Caribe baked​

Dogs, oh them girls...off to Best Vet for annuals before show today...big long drive, two hours to get thar and then two more back BUT good best vet to see girls.

So who got their butts puffed, fluffed, bathed and now smell pretty as a flower...poor gals. But oh my, how shiny they be. No photos yet of them in that condition, was late at night by the time I finished on both and just put all them towels in the drier.

Oct 16, 2016​

Vacced sheep.

I like the armpit for sub Q's...​

Only blood of any amount drawn was my own when D'Arcy kicked when I was toe clipping and the top of the old hoof shears took off some of my hide. Seems like it is always moi that ends up dripping blood.

Old gal Peanut..."My that be a scratch you have thar!"​

Duro, "It's OK...we love you so much for taking such good care of us."​

Funny how the Dorper girls were quite concerned--like the dogs, can wag tails and use their noses...smellies on sheep are quite adequate--imagine using them to scent lure? Almost healed up the scratch now, it is itchy so good sign.

"Oh my...chinny chin scratches...MY fav!"​

Kinda like the chooks...until they know you can give out good scratchies, they kinda ignore you...good thing and then when they KNOW you dish out happiness...you are pestered.


Lookit the goofy grin...

Whee...spinner...hilarious...them sheeps.

Who's got a big butt...is that be you?​

Next time I poke them...will be to vac them for internal parasites...so need ballpark weights again, to know the dosage to give.


Love my boy...Boss Man

Isn't he a handsome regal fella...
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That boyish charmer...
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Ah now, to review my fav project...just checked, and I bin working on the Higgins White Dove project (to use real blooded Standard sized Chants to make Bantam sized Chants...) has been ongoing since 2005. That's a fair amount of time.

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So will post my F4 creation and the apple of my current eyes.

F4 - Higgins White Dove real blooded Bantam Chantecler - October 20 2016​

Not only is this beasty of a hen a beaut and white as the new fallen snows (to think I would invest THAT much effort to make a self white, eh!), she is productive like no tomorrow, supplying an egg a day and beauty eggs too. So not just pretty skin deep, through and through.

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Funny how in just one generation...you can take the leaky red and see it gone.

F3 female in the Higgins White Dove Bantam Chantecler project​

Not been overnight in the whole scape of this project ...but time flies when you see success, eh.

Rick is suppose to come home with two pallets of fabricated bricks for the ponds this morn.

My old source for sheep mineral salt...best deal still...compared at $9 for a kg of Phosophorus compared to the one I was investigating...at $24...never enough to three times the amount. Good gack, eh. Rick said he's happy I did the research. Sheep would have lacked P and maybe eaten too much mineral trying to balance out their needs. Plus had copper in it too...I don't prefer to feed sheep copper...toxic. Amount for goats, fine, but the same amount to a sheep...nasty.


Picked up Halloween outfits fur the girls.

Emmy's a witch...​

Lacy's a princess...​

Filled the wood boxes in the Man Porch on the sixteenth too.

Oct 16, 2016 - girls inspecting what keeps the woodstove going ​

Gotta fly, later, eh.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[drumstick diva]

Tara have the girls forgiven you for getting them those costumes ?