Maine

I'm experiencing another chicken emergency.... One of my Buff orps is off- she is walking a little funny, sitting down a lot, and seems to be shaking her head often.  She is around 7 months old. If anyone has any hints to what might be going on, that would be great- My big question here is whether or not I can treat her of if I will need to cull her...


Strange, we had a similar thing happen today, although the symptoms sound slightly different.

I thought our Columbian Wyandotte was shivering, but soon realized her legs were shaking. She can push herself up to a shaky standing position, but puts her wings down for support and mostly sits. She is mid-molt and was shockingly light weight.

We put her indoors in a cat carrier. I offered a dish of feed mixed with a little buttermilk, and she acted ravenous, taking huge gulps until it was gone. She drank a lot too. Mine doesn't have the head shaking, or look puffed up. Just weak in her legs, with no obvious sign of injury.

This same bird had recently (2-4 weeks ago) started sleeping alone in a small community nest box under the roost. There were a couple days she didn't get up right away, but she was in a major molt, it was cold, and a few others stayed on the roost too.

I assume she must have something wrong, unless she was weak from molting and got chased away from the food repeatedly (?). She is not the lowest on the pecking order. For now, I'll see if she improves with lots of high protein food.

Did you separate your Orp? I had a very sick bird once, -no idea what was wrong, other than mites. We treated her with Ivermectin and had to force feed her for days, but she sprung back. It took weeks before she was running around acting normal.
Good luck. I'm always at a loss for what to do with a sick bird.
 
Sorry to hear you've had a string of bad events. I can't help with the Topsham area, but I hope you get your feet back under you and are able to pursue your farm and chicken dreams.
SCG is pushing Showgirls, if you ever want some of those. They come with cookies, apparently.
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Ohh, what are Showgirls? I keep seeing the name here, but don't know what they are. I like that they come with cookies, hah.


I wondered where you had run off to. Sorry you had a bad experience, but you're right to keep at it. Remember that it takes planning and compromise to get where you want to go. Just make sure that each step you take is a small step towards your end goal, even if it doesn't outwardly appear to be so. For an example, my end goal is a large private agrarian property (not where I currently am) but my goal took me to the inner city in Baltimore for 4 years to get this far. I had to get an education to get a job that would pay for my habits. So it aligned with my goal even though it appeared on the outside to be the opposite of what I wanted.

I'll definitely take your advice, and I'm definitely not giving up. I'm going to try taking it slower now, though, and focus a little more on saving money instead of jumping starting on everything right now. I see you finally got your goats?? I remember that when I visited, you mentioned hoping to get them. What kind did you get? And are you planning any more slaughter/processing of anything anytime soon? I'd love to get some more practice in. ;)
 
A showgirl is a naked neck silkie. I had PigPen when you came to visit. Poofy little white fuzzball.

I got 2 goats: nubians, 1 wether and 1 doeling.




We finished all the roosters for this year, but need to make a decision on the ducks (most likely at least 3 if not all 5 have to go) and the two turkeys soon.

And saving money and being fiscally responsible is such an awesome feeling. I know you can't plan for everything that happens, but getting a good leash on what you currently have is a great start.
 
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I finally got a temporary run set up for the hoop coop chickens. The coop is now in our garden, where it will stay for the winter. They were very happy to get out today! If you look carefully on the right, you can see our snow and new garden electricity.

 
A showgirl is a naked neck silkie. I had PigPen when you came to visit. Poofy little white fuzzball.

I got 2 goats: nubians, 1 wether and 1 doeling.




We finished all the roosters for this year, but need to make a decision on the ducks (most likely at least 3 if not all 5 have to go) and the two turkeys soon.

And saving money and being fiscally responsible is such an awesome feeling. I know you can't plan for everything that happens, but getting a good leash on what you currently have is a great start.

OH! Turkins, right? They were totally adorbs. :) I'm loving your goats!! Their little floppy ears are too cute. Do they get along well with the chickens? Is your doeling going to be your primary source of milk? I'm going to watch how that turns out. I like Saanen goats a lot, but I've never personally known anyone to keep a dairy goat. I do have a friend online who's in love with Nubians. My only reservation is that it's difficult/impossible to get butter out of goat milk, which is why I'm more pulled to the idea of [someday] owning a dairy cow instead.

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help! I'm sorry to hear that you're getting rid of the ducks; how come? And I didn't know you had turkeys now! Are they going to be your Thanksgiving feast? Once I start raising chickens, I'd like to raise a Thanksgiving turkey (since I don't eat meat that isn't local, I don't partake in my family's meat meals, and buying a local turkey is too expensive for us). I think they're such funny creatures. Anyway, so I'd be interested in seeing turkeys being processed so I have a picture in my mind other than a giant chicken being plucked and gutted. :)

Ugh, it is an awesome feeling. I miss it a lot. At the beginning of last year, I was nannying and making bank, and I had completely paid off one of my credit cards and was making regular payments on the others, and I had a ton of savings in my car fund. Then I bought my car and the savings vanished, and my job ended around the same time. Since then, I've been working part time and got crushed by credit card debt (and then car repairs) again, oy. Fortunately, my new job is going to be more regular than my part-time summer job. Just in time for new bills to start piling on (school and hospital bills). So I'm just taking things one step at a time for now. Not giving up, though, of course. I still find myself talking about the wonders of chickens to acquaintances, lol.
 
Hi everyone :) I am wondering if anyone can put me in contact with some local Sebastopol breeders?

Also I will have some hedemora hatching eggs in spring... I read some people were looking for them.
I have three lemon blue hens and a black and red handsome roo. They are wonderful chickens and I'd love to see more of them in Maine
 
quote: Snowpetals

"Also I will have some hedemora hatching eggs in spring... I read some people were looking for them.
I have three lemon blue hens and a black and red handsome roo. They are wonderful chickens and I'd love to see more of them in Maine"

I'm interested in some Hedmora hatching eggs this Sring, if I have a reliable broody. That and a slickie and a cream legbar trio... Oh my goodness, I've got the bug.

My CLB roo, Reggie still dosent look sick but still cant control his right leg. He is learning to brace himself against the wall of his cage and put his right wing down to support his right side and thus is moving around a little better. We took him into the coop to see the hens but he felt vunerable and hid behind the water stand. This has been about a month now.

Snowpetals, how about some pictures of your Hedmora hens and roo?
 
OH! Turkins, right? They were totally adorbs. :) I'm loving your goats!! Their little floppy ears are too cute. Do they get along well with the chickens? Is your doeling going to be your primary source of milk? I'm going to watch how that turns out. I like Saanen goats a lot, but I've never personally known anyone to keep a dairy goat. I do have a friend online who's in love with Nubians. My only reservation is that it's difficult/impossible to get butter out of goat milk, which is why I'm more pulled to the idea of [someday] owning a dairy cow instead.

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help! I'm sorry to hear that you're getting rid of the ducks; how come? And I didn't know you had turkeys now! Are they going to be your Thanksgiving feast? Once I start raising chickens, I'd like to raise a Thanksgiving turkey (since I don't eat meat that isn't local, I don't partake in my family's meat meals, and buying a local turkey is too expensive for us). I think they're such funny creatures. Anyway, so I'd be interested in seeing turkeys being processed so I have a picture in my mind other than a giant chicken being plucked and gutted. :)

Ugh, it is an awesome feeling. I miss it a lot. At the beginning of last year, I was nannying and making bank, and I had completely paid off one of my credit cards and was making regular payments on the others, and I had a ton of savings in my car fund. Then I bought my car and the savings vanished, and my job ended around the same time. Since then, I've been working part time and got crushed by credit card debt (and then car repairs) again, oy. Fortunately, my new job is going to be more regular than my part-time summer job. Just in time for new bills to start piling on (school and hospital bills). So I'm just taking things one step at a time for now. Not giving up, though, of course. I still find myself talking about the wonders of chickens to acquaintances, lol.

Turkens, yes, but showgirls have the silkie smooth feathering and showgirls are banty. So slightly different but same principle.

The floppy ears are cute on the goats, I love it when they psychotically go running and their ears go flying right along with them.


They don't mind the chickens, the chickens for the most part stay out of their pen (because the ducks are slobs and the duck pen is before the goat pen so they get sidetracked in their quest). I've also wanted to own a dairy cow, but then I actually went to a dairy, where I saw the waste products coming out of said dairy cow and was moderately horrified at the sheer volume and mess of waste products.

The ducks are a pain in the winter, with all their water. I'm constantly hauling fresh water (cause of course the hose is frozen) which they splash everywhere and it freezes. I may keep one of the pekin pairs so that I can continue to hatch ducks and eat duck (I don't eat any meat that I don't grow myself, or that BF doesn't shoot and drag out of the woods) because duck is delicious. But going into winter with the dread of hauling water... makes me want to get rid of at least half of them. If I could find a better way I'd be all for it because otherwise they are minimal trouble.

We've never done a turkey before. I got some eggs for free in April and hatched 2 girls out of it. They were meant for meals, and we'll need to do them soon before it's too cold, but BF thinks they're cute and not big enough yet so he keeps putting it off. I think they're cute but the incredible stupidity of them makes me want to eat them. Our schedule has also not been conducive to a butchering session - we both work weekends at the same place, but at different times, so when we both have a weekend off together it's spent getting stuff done that we've put off (like this weekend building a goat shed).
 
Hi everyone :) I am wondering if anyone can put me in contact with some local Sebastopol breeders?

Also I will have some hedemora hatching eggs in spring... I read some people were looking for them.
I have three lemon blue hens and a black and red handsome roo. They are wonderful chickens and I'd love to see more of them in Maine


Oh, are you the person in Belgrade? I am uncertain about the Hedemoras. I want them, but I'm worried about the susceptibility to Marek's, and don't know if I want to get into vaccinating. I think they are beautiful though, and well-suited to our climate.

Do you have breeding Basques, too, or just some hens? I only have 2 hens, and 2 roos.
 
Nope I am in south gardiner :)I do know the fellow in Belgrade though as well. I have 4 basques... 2 cockerels and 2 pullets..Two from skyline and two from Greenfire. I will see if I can get some pictures up soon.. Right now they're running through the forest having a bug eating contest :)
 

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