Michigan

[chicken grandma]

THEM D.F. STARLINGS HAVE MADE A NEST IN MY EAVES! Bun of a sitch, how the heck did they manage to get a hole in the screening! I am going to need a cherry picker just to get up there and get them out! Dang it all, if its not one thing its another...

Oh!! I would take the nest out as soon as I could. Before eggs before babies.
I let birds build their nest in my eaves ONCE! Then when our house had bird mites in it - I learned the lesson. Don't co-habitate with wild birds. I would get a cherry picker out today Nova and get it down!

 

[RBahmer]

I didn't see that until I went back and found it. I would be very happy to do that for everyone.
I think am suddenly having one of those old rooster attacks. What was it we were talking about?

YAAA Opa. I will take one then LOL

 

[Olive Hill]

DaughterofEve - It looks like a hemangioma. My daughter had one on her shoulder when she was a baby. It started as a tiny speck and grew and grew and grew. When she was four months old it was about the size of a half dollar and raised half an inch we had to have it surgically removed. That said, the doctor had said most shrink back down on their own by the time the child is five to eight years old. Her's was just in such a position that he was concerned when she started crawling she would hit it on something and, when ruptured, they can cause a lot of bleeding. I'm not certain, but I would assume they would eventually shrink in a bird, too? Try googling hemangiomas in birds and see what treatment you come up with. Good Luck!

 

[Opa]

Quote: One what?

 

[chicken grandma]

I have heard what Juise described - kids in the garden with fresh chicken poop = problems.

I have bought chicken poop at the store for fertilizer and it is pasturized.

Also, Dr. Karcher at M.S.U. told funny story about putting chicken poop around young trees and burning the roots.I realize he may have meant chicken poop without a bunch of leaves and other materials mixed in.

After that experience, he said that he now composts it for 6 months with other materials before he uses it as fertilizer.

 

[Mom 2em All]

Olive, my brother had one behind his knee when he was a toddler.
The doctor had to remove it too. Was on a small stalk, raised- and in a place where it would get ruptured simply by putting on his clothes.

And it sure could bleed.

 

[NovaAman]

I think I only made it back six pages before I gave up and started scanning to get back to here.  You all were chatty last night.  We went out for fish dinner and drinks with some friends.  Good times.  I'll try to remember everything I was thinking as I was reading.... 

On mixing birds, we mix all ages without issue, BUT ours are truly free range.  In an enclosed space it probably won't work out so well because that survival competition kicks in and you end up with more fights, more accidents, etc. 

On compost, I'm more like RaZ in that I don't follow the conventional rules.  A lot of ours gets turned in immediately.  The thing is raw material isn't what burns plants, an overabundance of it is what burns them.  Spread it out, mix it in.  Nova, I wouldn't get rid of your rabbit and duck stuff.  Mix it all together with your chicken stuff, the materials you rake up around your yard, shredded paper if you need more carbon.  It's all great nutrition for your garden, why waste it? 

Oh no! I am sorry, I meant I wad going to use the rabbit and duck stuff and just continue composting the other stuff.

 

[Olive Hill]

Your chicken's manure may carry all kinds of nasties with it. The most notable being that dreaded E.coli the media likes to report on so much. Things to remember though:

1) Most backyard compost piles don't get hot enough to kill E.coli (and a host of other nasties) anyway.

2) Most veggies are not in direct contact with the soil.

3) Your chickens only have one exit. Every time you bring an egg into the house, you're carting in microscopic bits of feces and everything inside of it. How many of you with kids let them collect the eggs? How many of them then touch their faces, mouthes, surfaces in your house, etc? Are they dead yet?

All of the recalls and reports on food borne illness have people particularly on edge about their food these days. Give your immune systems some credit, the very fact that you're living with and your children are growing up with livestock and garden-fresh veggies predisposes you to having a stronger one than most people. Studies show farm kids are less likely to be ill and suffer from asthma than city kids. The quantity and variety of pathogens they're exposed to day-in and day-out is a good thing.

 

[taprock]

Oh!! I would take the nest out as soon as I could. Before eggs before babies.
I let birds build their nest in my eaves ONCE! Then when our house had bird mites in it - I learned the lesson. Don't co-habitate with wild birds. I would get a cherry picker out today Nova and get it down!

X2 Starlings are where my battle with Northern Fowl Mites began.

I candled my eggs last night. Out of the 42 only 2 had detached air cells. There were a couple with blood rings and a handful of unfertilized, but overall things look good. I didn't toss the eggs yet, I'm always hesitant. I will candle again in two days and toss the bad ones then, or the ones with nothing. What does it mean when they have huge air cells? The appeared to be developing but on a couple the air cells were a third of the egg.

It's supposed to be in the 40's today and 50's for the next week.

Except the rain - we will have lots of mud.

 

[RBahmer]

Your chicken's manure may carry all kinds of nasties with it. The most notable being that dreaded E.coli the media likes to report on so much. Things to remember though:

1) Most backyard compost piles don't get hot enough to kill E.coli (and a host of other nasties) anyway.

2) Most veggies are not in direct contact with the soil.

3) Your chickens only have one exit. Every time you bring an egg into the house, you're carting in microscopic bits of feces and everything inside of it. How many of you with kids let them collect the eggs? How many of them then touch their faces, mouthes, surfaces in your house, etc? Are they dead yet?

All of the recalls and reports on food borne illness have people particularly on edge about their food these days. Give your immune systems some credit, the very fact that you're living with and your children are growing up with livestock and garden-fresh veggies predisposes you to having a stronger one than most people. Studies show farm kids are less likely to be ill and suffer from asthma than city kids. The quantity and variety of pathogens they're exposed to day-in and day-out is a good thing.

X2. I must agree with you on this one Olive.