Lavender patterned Isabel duckwing barred - lavender brown cuckoo barred - project and genetic dis

[Kiki]

How's it going in your neck of the woods?
You glad to see the rain stop?

 

[ChicKat]

How's it going in your neck of the woods?
You glad to see the rain stop?

On Tuesday I traveled to Silsbee, about 1-hour from here. They got hit a lot harder than here. The bank that I went there for had just reopened since Friday.

Power here was only out for Thursday evening until Saturday morning
-- and yes, it's so nice outdoors that (except for the black bugs flying everywhere including in your face...HATE when they get between your eyes and your glasses-- Hate that anywhere you drive you need to immediately wash your car when you get home. Hate that they pile up in the doorways only to be replenished the next day -- so you can sweep them away again. (Louisiana Entomologist says that they will soon be gone)) It will be nice working outside.
The limbs that fell were I think only old dead ones and due to weight of rain and not due to wind. None fell across my roads - except one way in the back, that I hesitate to try to get to -- I have water here and there. (This property has a seasonal swamp and a pretty regular little tiny pond -- good only to be a mosquito hatchery and not much else. ) I have a lot of those Mosquito dunks - and they DO work -- even though they are expensive IMO. Got my "BadBoyBuggy" electric 4WD stuck in the swampy part beside the road when I lost control fording a steam at high speed so I wouldn't be bogged down. I'm thinking this one has the wrong tires -- because my old one could easily do things that gets this one stuck all-the-time. :O(

Then I got a scary computer virus attack on Labor Day. It gives you the message to call Windows support - and your computer is frozen. When you call windows support -- it isn't Microsoft - it is a boiler room in India. They want to charge you $400 to buy protection for your computer for 3-years. WHAT a racket -- almost as bad as ransom ware. IF you ever get that -- hold down the ALT key and hit F4 until your computer unfreezes. Upgraded my virus protection for my computer -- and had a technician over today -- meanwhile I was keeping off the internet.

So at least I can say it hasn't been dull and boring. We were spared the worst of it -- but did I say that I got 26 1/4" of water? About 1/2 the annual average rainfall thanks to Harvey.

Now your situation was much more dire and exciting than mine -- mine has just been annoying. I missed the electricity a LOT. Talking to the lady in the bank she was saying how you feel so much cleaner from a hot shower than you do from a cold shower... I think they had power out a lot longer.

Are you back to normal now -- ?

Funny things -- I went to the local Wal*Mart on Sunday I think it was to get some dog food -- and they were out of bread. In Silsbee I stopped at McDonalds and they had a reduced menu to only hamburgers, fries and chicken nuggets. Stopped at a dollar store on the way home and they had no dairy/milk. The technician who came today to fix my computer...was really grateful that I gave them some eggs -- because he said his wife will be really happy -- the stores don't have eggs.

This is stuff we are so not-used to in the USA. My chooks are being good girls and giving me 6-12 every day....

 

[Kiki]

My local store is almost back to normal.
Still zero eggs on the shelf...They sell out as soon as they hit the shelf.
I'm sure I could sit on a corner and sell eggs am might even become rich doing so...not really..
I gave all my extras to family last week.

We were just able to get back to my mom's house on Wed. Clean up started today and will continue for gosh knows how long.

You can keep the bugs up there! I do not want them. And hopefully Camp keeps all the snakes on her side of the boarder. I might die if I run into one!

 

[ChicKat]

no, no, no don't die!!! I will keep my bugs.

Good to hear that you are getting back to normal -- and your mom's house can be reached. It is just plain crazy times isn't it?

There's a photo here of the pile of bugs, but right now -- unable to upload it.

I'll try later. All these computer idiosyncrasies, make me berserk.

Ouch and boo hoo -- another pict I'm unable to upload shows the gigantic egg that one of the project pullets produced. The egg is 3.319 Oz. - it looks more like a goose or turkey egg than a chicken egg -- photo is next to a normal egg that weighs 2.128 Oz. According to the USDA, large size egg is 2.0 Oz.

Me poor lil' chook.

 

[ChicKat]

Here are some pictures of my crop of those bugs

they are so thick around the doors, on the roads, in the air.....they even get in the house -- piles of dead bugs. in a word..ick

Here's a close up:

one thinkg kind of funny you can see the piles of black dead bug bodies where I just swept them into the dirt on both sides of the sidewalk. Okay -- their larvae feed on decomposing materials. So probably it is just making a nursery for the larvae and next spring there will be zillions more of these insects piling up.

On a brighter note - here are the eggs.

Right side is 3.310 oz left side 2.128 oz

 

[Indyshent]

@ChicKat Get some mosquito fish and/or Muscovies. Both species have been imported all over the world to control mosquitoes and reduce awful things like Zika and malaria. Mosquito fish are related to guppies but survive cold weather. Muscovies are tasty and fun birds to keep around and will annihilate mosquito problems, but they're also pretty good rodent control.

Guineas are great for pretty much every other bug (and snake, and sometimes even hawk) problem. They're stupid, noisy and tasty self-replicating alarm systems, too.

Been lurking here for awhile but hadn't had anything to add before. Been pondering making a new breed or color variant myself for awhile. Need to finalize breed plan and get a firm grasp on the genetics to make it happen. One of the things for me is trying to figure harmful effects of any given allele. It's all well and good to make a pretty chicken, but a lot of those mutations negatively impact the bird--like many dilution factors harming feather quality or rose comb causing decreased rooster fertility. So, I'm trying to make a pretty, preferably autosexing, cold-hardy Leghorn type, preferably laying neat egg colors all the time... and maybe even silkied feathers eventually.

 

[ChicKat]

Indyshent - thanks for the good advice.

My ponds are mostly 'seasonal' -- but this year the season for the one that is tiny and shallow that I do call the "mosquito hatchery" is a l-o-n-g season!!

Mosquito dunks are very cool because they are biological warfare to mosquito larvae and don't harm other critters...frogs, dragonflies etc.

These black flies -- the so-called 'love bugs' are so acidic that you need to wash them off your car each time you drive it... they can clog the vents to radiators -- and because they are so acidic they aren't eaten by birds or frogs etc. Great huh? The Louisiana entomologist on the radio station I listen to said that they are similar to Monarch butterfly in that respect that they are unappetizing to anything that would normally reduce the insect population. Vacuum them up in your shop vac and soon it is a huge stench. The woman at the tractor repair shop has them badly like I do (I think a nice source of fresh water is the key here) - and used the blower to try to blow them off her doorstep/porch and the debris flew up all over her (mostly dead bugs and their wings).



Guineas! OMG - heard a strange noise out in my woods about 1 1/2 years ago - and went out there only to find a 'herd' of guineas talking it over as they walked right down the lane toward my house and chickens. It was so unexpected, I thought that they were aliens from outer space and their faces looked so painted like clowns. Have no idea where they came from or went to -- I chased them off my land and into another woods on the other side of the road that goes behind my place. What?? It's one thing, IMO to be expecting them and know they are there -- but when they appear out-of-the-blue it is really weird. They're unlike any other bird I'm familiar with -- more like something really exotic. Didn't want some unknown fowl on the property transmitting some unknown disease to my flock.

How very cool that you are going to work on a new chicken! I would say 'go for it'.
Also is cool that you are thinking everything through and making sure that you end up with what you want...by the time your project is done.

For these Lavender patterned Isabel duckwings with barring ...They are so gorgeous. Never knew that a chicken could be so pretty! Good egg layers too.

 

[Indyshent]

Oh, they're certainly lovely. I just don't know about another "one color" autosexing breed because it gets boring for people who want variety, and lavender gets degraded by sunlight pretty quick seemingly. It's so pretty though

Thpught it would be cool to keep the black, blue, and lavender partridge genes in an autosexing barred flock because then one could get some variety of color in a single breed flock.

 

[Indyshent]

We've got some of those bug here, too. I find them around milkweed, if they're the ones I'm thinking of. Would be why no one's eating them Hopefully they're gone soon.

Guineas are odd looking, but I've heard they're super tasty, and they are really good about killing other bugs and snakes

 

[ChicKat]

We'very got some of those bug here, too. I find them around milkweed, if they're the ones I'm thinking of. Would be why no one's eating them Hopefully they're gone soon.

Guineas are odd looking, but I've heard they're super tasty, and they are really good about killing other bugs and snakes

that would make sense about the milkweed - Milkweed is the host plant for Monarch butterflies too.

Agreed that Guineas are good bug eradication - and organic too. I've also heard that they are good 'watch dog' type critters.