Maine

[ashandvine]

I guess this hasn't been a good week for most of us. I lost my first chicken. No idea why. She was rather mopey the past couple days but there were not signs at all of her having any illness or injury anywhere. She just seemed ... mopey is a good word. I thought that the rooster was just overmating her. Then I found her dead in her nest box this morning. She was laying right up till the end. No one else has any symptoms and she wasn't old as far as I know. I was told about 2 years old. She was very sweet, demure. I feel odd about her death as if I should have known. I am reading and reading. I just got two baby geese and was so excited ... now I am even MORE like a new mom over them because I didn't see this coming. I like that this spot allows me to come talk about trying to do right by these birds and all the many many details of keeping them. No one else wants to hear it. Thanks. I hope your weeks all get better very quickly.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I'm sorry for everyone's losses.

We have major boy problems over here (lots of anguish and fighting in the rooster bachelor pad and a poor drake that is the favorite amour of another drake that is losing weight because he is always chased and harassed).

Boys... always causing trouble.


Hope this week starts to improve.

 

[MustardTiger]

Indeed. What the hell is wrong with this week? Everyone should go out and buy a lottery ticket because we all have had enough bad luck to go around and are due some good luck!

We had to dispatch Eliza the sick pullet. It was Mareks. I can just tell from the research I did and how she splayed one leg forward and one back. We left them in the coop since the weather was so crazy today and when I got home from work she was all splayed out and pecked bloody. she was so much worse...

First time either one of us has had to do this. It was not a good feeling but I am glad she isn't living a horrible, painful life anymore.

Thanks all indeed for providing a space to vent and all the great info!

 

[buckabucka]

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

"Poultry lice are host specific and cannot be transferred to humans."

I realize that poultry lice don't infest humans. What I was thinking is that some got on my arms and clothes and just started walking around on me. I've had mites do this. The mystery is, why did they go to my scalp?
If they were actually blood sucking lice, that humans get, then it was a coincidental timing. The strange thing is, I never had any symptoms or crawly feeling until about an hour after handling the hen. And we can't find one nit in my hair, and why didn't DH catch this from me?
I did read that chewing lice (poultry), generally have a head bigger than their thorax, and blood sucking lice have a head much smaller than their thorax. I was studying one of these bugs that DH killed and plucked off to show me, and the head and thorax look the same size. I think I would need a microscope, really. The magnifying glass isn't strong enough.

If I didn't mind having bugs crawling on me, I could do an experiment. Go out and pick up the same hen, carry her around for a while, and then study my clothes and my arms. But I'm not ready to do that yet. Maybe when the memory is not so fresh!

 

[hoppy]

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

"Poultry lice are host specific and cannot be transferred to humans."

they won't live on you but they will crawl on you until they figure out your not a chicken.

 

[hoppy]

sucky week for me too but I won't get in to it on here. things should be getting better from here on out for me anyway.

 

[buckabucka]

Wow, sorry to hear about everyone's losses!
Let's hope this week is better.

 

[Paulajon]

I am sooooo frustrated today. I spent yesterday cleaning out the two indoor brooders and the beginning grow out coop. I moved the four turkeys, one goose and one golden comet pullet from the grow out coop to the recently built hoop house to join an older golden comet and the orpington rooster. This got them away from the messy ducks and into a larger area. Everything was going great. Everyone was getting along.

Then at midnight I heard a squawk and the dogs went nuts. So I got up put on my muck boots and ran outside armed with a flashlight and a shovel leaving the dogs inside. All I saw were the three Muscovies sleeping in their normal spot near the front steps. And one very frazzled rooster. I knew that was not good news. The rooster should have been safe and secure in the hoop house. Yet here he was about 150 ft away from his home. So I went over to the hoop house. Something had ripped the wire along the right side of the door frame. The one weak spot of the whole thing. I had two headless turkeys, blood and feathers everywhere and no sign of the younger golden comet, one turkey and the goose.

The remaining turkey was in the back and looked traumatized. The golden comet didn't look much better. I fixed the hole and checked on the duck pen that is about ten feet away. Everyone there was safe and sound.

The rooster spent the night on his own but was right next to the hoop house this morning. He went right in when I opened the door and checked on his remaining charges. The pullet seems okay and is active. The turkey hasn't moved much but is alert and did eat some.

I hate losing birds. And this will be the third year that I have tried raising turkeys and failed. Last year it was a bobcat that got two. The year before was a mangy fox that killed everything. This year I believe it is another fox that is the criminal. Now is the time for someone to invent and market a portable force field for chicken coops. One that repels any predators by flinging them about 100 yards any time they try to get into a coop.

that sucks, sorry.I have a book that tells how to identify the predators, it saids that a opossum will usually kill a single bird in a visit and typically only the abdomen will be eaten,Raccoons prefer heads and crops, more than one bird may be killed. Skunks will likely chew off one or more chicken heads and leave a lingering odor, dead chickens with necks eaten and heads missing are probally minks, weasels. foxes carry their prey away as do Bobcats, coyotes and predatory birds. So sorry .

 

[Paulajon]

sucky week for me too but I won't get in to it on here. things should be getting better from here on out for me anyway.

Hope it gets better for you

 

[joanie_maine]

Sounds like the varmits are out looking for food for their young

Remember, minks and weasels can squeeze through spaces larger than one inch.....racoons force their way in....foxes forage, have a route and can come by daily even during daylight.

Also, this hot/cold weather is a stresser for birds. And the warm weather makes bacterial growth easy.

I'm busy keeping pens dry, water dishes disinfected, using fans when it's really hot and securing the barn like Fort Knox against predators! I've lost one hen due to heat/old age and another hen to being in the wrong place when roosters were fighting through the wire

On a lighter note.....swaps in the Farmington area on July 1st (Wilton TSC) and July 8th (Farmington Aubuchons Rt 2)