Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Peep-Chicken]

Yes, my daughter and I will be showing some of our Silkies. We've already started bathing some of them...this pullet was not impressed at all with her bathing and blow drying...

Aww she's so cute! https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/927445/mi-fall-fowl-fest-2014

 

[thechickenflock]

For the past 2 days one of my free range ducks has been acting off. Getting lost, wandering off from the others, not eating or drinking, she is 12 weeks old. Today she is having what looks like seizures and she is very weak. She also has ooze from her left eye. What can cause this?

I found a exotic animals vet (Dr. Fulton was not answering the phone)

and managed to get in a few hours ago, it turns out she got botulism from eating too much dirt (AKA Being a duck)

It is also somewhat common apparently. The symptoms of botulism ares not eating and drinking, and loss of muscle control, which is what caused the twitching and flailing about

, the eye discharge was likely from something getting in the eye while flailing

. Long story short she is now on antibiotics and is getting fed liquid macaw food through a feeding tube twice a day

. Only 12 weeks old and with feed and everything else she has cost me almost $120

. She better start laying to earn her keep soon

.

 

[Opa]

Some days you just can't get a break. Our woods was heavily damaged by the Emerald ash borer invasion so we have a lot of dead trees. Then 2 years ago a tornado really devastated it. I had to climb over at least a dozen fallen trees in order to get to my deer blind. Since the farmer's nephew was going to inherit the farm and the old man seemed to be going down hill, I wasn't about to do much to improve the woods.

Now the nephew has been tossed out, the farm is now ours and getting the dead wood out while it is still useable makes sense. With the new dozer I had cleared a path to my stand and back out which will make life much easier come hunting season.

Today my intent was to drive the dozer half the distance to my blind and then turn south and start cutting firewood, thereby cleaning a path to a blind that the tornado destroyed and providing the farmer with his winter fuel supply.

However, almost immediately upon entering the woods on the previously cleared path I found that the last storm had dropped several more live trees that were blocking the path to my blind. Spent the entire day cutting and it hardly looks as if I've started.

There was enough to do just clearing paths and cutting the dead or fallen trees without Mother Nature deciding I needed more.

One of my farm projects this summer has been to trap the woodchucks that having been burrowing into the barns. While they do little damage once into the barns, the tunnels provide egress for coon that are destructive. Stupid things destroyed the seat to the combine and their droppings are on everything.

So I have a dozen conibear traps set at some of the tunnel entrances and they have been quite effective in feeding the local vulture population. Today I caught the largest ground hog I have even seen. When I showed David a picture of it he immediately named it "Groundzilla". He had entered through a tunnel at the back of the barn and tried to exit though a hole in the shop door. Something had chewed a hole thru the door and I had a 220 conibear sitting on the threshold to catch anything trying to exit.

He managed to get his head thru the opening only to meet his demise at the waiting trap. I tried to pull him out through the opening and was unable to do so. To give you some indication of his size the trap on his neck is 7" wide and my big old feet that are in the picture are size 12.

 

[1muttsfan]

Wow what a lunker

 

[taprock]

I miss my silkie, I wish I was closer and could get a few.

I have an odd injury that I found tonight. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/927530/infected-cheek. Hopefully she will do ok, but she looked in pain tonight.

While I have been seeing hawk, there were more a few weeks back which I'm sure are the ones you farther south are dealing with now. My concerns lately have been raccoon and coyote. I missed a coyote the other day...twice only to realize the gun was sighted for 300 yards and I was shooting about 120. I think the coyote was just laughing trying to figure what I was doing. The friendly raccoon has not been seen yet, it was kind enough to leave some dropping next to the chicken coop. We also had a porcupine wander through but I didn't consider him a threat to the chickens so I let him go. I shouldn't have because he took out the sweet corn instead.

 

[snowflake]

I found a exotic animals vet (Dr. Fulton was not answering the phone)

and managed to get in a few hours ago, it turns out she got botulism from eating too much dirt (AKA Being a duck)

It is also somewhat common apparently. The symptoms of botulism ares not eating and drinking, and loss of muscle control, which is what caused the twitching and flailing about

, the eye discharge was likely from something getting in the eye while flailing

. Long story short she is now on antibiotics and is getting fed liquid macaw food through a feeding tube twice a day

. Only 12 weeks old and with feed and everything else she has cost me almost $120

. She better start laying to earn her keep soon

.

can chickens get that? did not know they could get botulism from dirt, learn something new every day

There was enough to do just clearing paths and cutting the dead or fallen trees without Mother Nature deciding I needed more.



He managed to get his head thru the opening only to meet his demise at the waiting trap. I tried to pull him out through the opening and was unable to do so. To give you some indication of his size the trap on his neck is 7" wide and my big old feet that are in the picture are size 12.

although that sounds like a lot of wood you may be happy for it in the next couple winters....
that is a BIG woody, the one getting in our coop was huge to, he seems to be gone now,I blocked his main entrance. maybe we got lucky and he died of old age

Hope to see a bunch of you at Fowl Fest in a couple weeks!!! Had some late in the year hatches from some of our broody hens....

those are real fluffy chicks

 

[ladyrsanti]

Here's poor Poppy. Fowl pox? The two scabs that recently formed near her eye made me suspect it. I tucked the photo in a spoiler in case anyone has a weak stomach first thing on a Friday morning over acidic coffee on an empty stomach. Don't want anything coming up over the keyboard. Apparently fowl pox can be spread by mosquitoes and we have certainly had our share of those this cool, wet summer. Plus it hasn't spread to anyone else so far which, to me, makes coryzoa less likely because it spreads like wildfire with a 1-3 day incubation period. Fowl pox is much slower.

This is her good side. You can't tell there's anything wrong with her from this angle. It's been six days since I first noticed the swelling (though she understandably favors her good eye and could have been hiding it from me for a while). She's still acting normal, thankfully, except for a little bit of respiratory issues (coughing).

 

[preciouskitty]

@ladyrsanti
Oh, the poor baby

Boy, all the recent losses & illnesses are really bumming me out...

I think something is wrong with my one 19 week old EE, Shyla. Have her in the house in the chicken infirmary; she does seem a little perkier this morn..

 

[thechickenflock]

How does one dispose of a dead duck?

 

[Stacykins]

How does one dispose of a dead duck?

Burying is a good option. If that is not possible, double or tripled bagged and into the trash. If it will be a while until trash day, I freeze the carcass, then pull it out to toss on trash day. That way it isn't horrendously smelly from sitting in the bin all that time...