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That almost sounds good. Funny thing is, I LOVE pickles and I was always afraid to try anything else pickled. Last winter while at a friend's house she tricked me into trying pickled green beans, now I love those too! The only place I've been able to find them (now and then) is Horrock's.
Opa -- I will admit I've been in a sweatshirt all day. It's chilly out there! What variety of Horticulture Beans do you grow? Our snap beans really took a dive when the weather was so hot but seem to be coming back a bit now. We picked quite a lot today for what we have been getting. I'm trying to decide if I want to freeze them for fresh eating or make some dilly beans. I've got blue lake and dragon tongues sitting here.
Just looking for someone interested. I am in the Flint area. I am trying to find a good home for our four hens, just don't have the right setup this year to try and keep them over the winter. Looking for someone who wants some good egg layers. I think two are RIR, and two are black with gold feathers around the head and neck. All four are laying everyday, and they are all great personality birds. Follow me around the yard everywhere I go. Just don't have the right set up this year to try and keep them supplied with unfrozen water, plus the wife is fed up with the poo everywhere. Hate to get rid of them, because I am enjoying the eggs, not to mention they are fun to have around. Will mostly switch over to quail next spring that way I can keep them a little more contained. Just wondering if anyone is looking for a few more girls, and I hate dealing with craigslist to try and offload them. Thanks all.
Wow, just caught up here. Newaygo lost power for a couple of days so did my internet service provider. I still had power though. We processed 7 young roos today. Perfect weather for it.
I now have a broody. Shug, my Delaware that just laid her first egg three weeks ago has decided to go broody.
Well... the chickens did not find the coop on their own tonight. Luckily the mamas would settle in on the grass near where the coop used to be and call all the babies over so then we could swoop in, grab a bunch of babies at once, put them in a bucket and over a few trips with a couple buckets we were able to get them all down to the right spot. Most hens we were able to herd down and in and the mamas I grabbed up and carried down once we'd gotten all the babies from around them. They get babied a bit because they do such a good job for us. I think there are 5 left out, I might go on a chicken hunt with a flashlight later and see if I can find them all. I need my eggs. I think the rest of them are going to be on lockdown tomorrow to "home" them a little better. I am NOT herding chickens every night.
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I'm not usually partial to Delawares but she is really pretty.
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Hmmm, well, maybe we could help you do some troubleshooting? See if maybe we can come up with an action plan to try to improve the situation...
I can tell you one thing for sure, even if it's well above 100 degrees and 100% humidity it is not normal to lose a bunch of birds -- not even a couple birds -- to the weather. If there is no evidence of infectious disease and you're losing birds then you have to start looking at environment and management. And please know I am not attacking your set-up or keeping in any way. These things do happen and then we just have to troubleshoot what isn't working. I once lost many, MANY birds in one night due to a simple environment problem. When I built the outdoor brooder they were housed in I didn't take into consideration the possibility of torrential downpours. The rushing water from the flooding during a really heavy spring storm washed into the brooder, and we had about 200 very wet chicks on our hands. I saved about 75% with a hair dryer and patience, but it was still a terrible loss. Now, this environmental issue was more obvious than yours -- my brooder design obviously couldn't be trusted to withstand 6 inches of rain per hour
-- but it's the same premise really. You live, you learn.
Maybe we could start with the obvious and if we don't find anything dig a little deeper until we do?
Did they test the lesions to determine which bacteria was infecting the hen with peritonitis?
How many birds do you have? What size pen(s) are they in? What are the dimensions of their indoor area?
I know you had quite a few at one time, are you buying your feed in bulk? If so do you have a feed tag with the ingredients and nutrition profile you could share? Also, how do you store it?
Well, it's not poor design of the barn/garage in our case. It is very old, but Aric has made it very tight and secure. Even before he did that water didn't get in. I have wondered if maybe it's too tight. We had a mouse problem for about a month in April until we put all the feed in Rubbermaid containers. I haven't seen any since. Aric spent a whole day totally cleaning and sanitizing the barn after the mouse problem!
As far as the diagnosis, it was sterile peritonitis. But to be honest here, everything I read did not fit whatsoever. They were not sick, bloated or lost appetite. They were fine one minute, gone the next.
We have 32 birds that have a large run (I don't have the dimensions with me) and big coop. The coop is big enough for a large truck and then some because it was built for a garage in the 50's. It's never been used for that though. At night when everyone is in we'd easily have room for another 20-25 birds but I don't want that many!
Yes we buy in bulk usually at FFH and it's kept in water tight Rubbermaid-type containers. I won't be home til tonight or tomorrow (I hope so I can't get the tag off the bag). They're washed out almost every time a new bag is added. They are fed strictly layer in the morning and scratch at night. In the winter it's layer and cracked corn. They are also offered oyster shells and plenty of garden veggies and fruits (no chemicals are used in ours or the neighbors gardens!).
All of the ducks and various chickens are let out to graze in the yard at least once a day, sometimes more. No chemicals there either. I grew wild flowers for them to snack on along the sides of both houses.
I do want to get to the bottom of this. Maybe I'm kidding myself into thinking I can be a "farmer". I've never had a problem with the ducks, except for Sunny dying, but she came from an old lady friend of Vicki's and I think she was old when I got her. All of the problems have been chicken only. Aric likes the chickens so I can't very well say no more chickens. He'd probably get rid of me before them!
I noticed there were a lot of respiratory diseases that chickens can have that kill suddenly. Also coccidia is a quick killer. A fecal check or an autopsy would give you some more info. I am not sure how to have those done where you live. Hope those thoughts are helpful to you. It would be nice to prevent more losses if we can all brainstorm and solve the puzzle.
