Michigan

[NovaAman]

That would make a really nice habitat for button quail! You could see them and the dust would stay inside the tank and it is high enough that they won't bump their heads when they jump up. I would put pine shavings in that and a pair of button quail!

LOL, Oh, I could just imagine my moms face if I were to say I wanted that tank, and did what you suggest! She'd mess herself big time.

 

[Brethren49619]

I wasn't planning on butchering a cockerel today. And I know young males can be rambunctious. But he was done when he ripped beakful after beakful of feathers out of one of my most mellow hens trying to mate, then kicked the crap out of her when she finally had enough and ran away. So he is in the oven now, roasting away. He weighed 2lbs 12 ounces, not that bad. It'll be a perfect meal for my mother and I, with maybe some leftover meat for stir fry or curried chicken or something tomorrow.

Was "dinner" one of the two extra Araucanas you have?

 

[NovaAman]

Northern Black Widow Spider (Latrodectus variolus)

Northern Black Widow Spider is found throughout the eastern US, from southern Canada south to Florida, and west to eastern Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. In Michigan, they appear to be more common in the western Lower Peninsula. Outdoors, they are found in old stumps, hollow logs, under fallen fence posts, in abandoned animal burrows or piles of brush, and in the corners of sheds and crawlspaces. In the northern black widow, the distinctive "hour glass" marking on the underside of the abdomen is incomplete or split in the middle. Northern widows also have a series of red spots along the dorsal midline of the abdomen, and many have a series of lateral white stripes on the abdomen. The web of the black widow is an irregular mesh of strands in which the spider hangs in an inverted position.

Surprisingly, as common as this spider is, black widow bites are infrequent because the spider is actually very timid and prefers fleeing when disturbed. That’s a good thing because the venom of a widow spider is 15 times more toxic than that of rattlesnakes. However, due to the small amount of the venom injected into the bite, widow bites are far less serious. There is less than 1% mortality (mostly children) of persons bitten by black widows. The toxin affects the central nervous system and the severity of the bite depends on many factors including the age, size and sensitivity of the victim, location and depth of the bite, and when the spider last used her venom. Pain is felt almost immediately after the bite, and increases for 1 to 3 hours but may last for 24 hours. In severe cases, large muscles become rigid with spasms, there is a rise in body temp, blood pressure, profuse perspiration, and a tendency to be nauseous.


And Juise wanted to give me one for a pet... Yes, that is exactly what she was trying to do.

 

[Shamrock4]

I decided to let the bunny go, because he was old enough to take care of himself. The reason I kept him in the first place was because he had a bite wound, and cat bites get infected easily. It was not bad so I washed it and applied antibiotics and let him go in a brushy, far away area where hopefully the cats wont find him.He is wet because he ran through his water.

As I wrote that, the cats caught another bunny.

 

[Brethren49619]

Alright, here's one for ya -

Get a phone call this evening.

Friend of Mom's is at the hair dressers. Asks how mom is doing.
Is told I am keeping Mom busy with the chicks. "Oh, she has chicks," says the hairdresser.

Do you think she wants some Peacocks? I have a male and 2 hens....



OK...., so I AM thinking about it, but just one question

Does this still count as chicken math?????

2 Quarter Horses
1 miniature horse
1 miniature donkey
12 chickens
2 dogs
2 cats
3 Peacocks????

And my DH thought I was kidding when I wanted to name the farm "E _I_ E_ I_ Whoa!"

 

[NovaAman]

LOL. That is a great name for a farm!

 

[RaZ]

Raz why do you till the run, do you mean a chicken run?

A lot of the run was my compost pile until the chickens flattened it. I had dumped in some soil, leaves, and mulch. I wanted to turn it for the worms for the hens. And to even out the odd piles and holes the hens made.


The hole that Broast made was big enough to fit a basketball.

Does this still count as chicken math?????

2 Quarter Horses
1 miniature horse
1 miniature donkey
12 chickens
2 dogs
2 cats
3 Peacocks????

And my DH thought I was kidding when I wanted to name the farm "E _I_ E_ I_ Whoa!"

Doesn't 2 quarters of a horse only equal a half?

 

[Juise]

Was it something I said...

Oh, it was everything you said. Lol, no, I realized a little belatedly that this would be my mum's birthday weekend. Er.. good thing I planned on going anyway? But anyway, I will spend it with her instead of running off for half our visit.

In my defense... maybe.. sort of... It's not that I forgot her birthday, it's that I forget the current day.

I had read that to keep a wild cottontail baby alive it needed cecotrope to live.

BFM, I have frequently heard / read that, too, I think you were misinterpreted.

This is the site I most often use with little bunnies. Wild cottontails are quite a bit different than domestic rabbits. Here is the section about mamma poop:

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"Some bunny rehabbers feel that probiotics do help somewhat in preventing intestinal disorders. The products they commonly use are PetAg’s Bene-bac, Fox Valley’s Formula LA200 or human Flora Smart in dried or past culture.
But a greater number find that giving natural rabbit cecotrophes beginning when the baby is 3 days old works better. When given, a pea-size amount is sufficient. Place it in the bunny’s mouth rather than mixing it with its formula. Whether or not you give the baby probiotics, giving cecotrophes will be esential to the bunny's survival. You may find that "yucky" but human physicians are just now learning how important intestinal bacteria are to good health. These links will take you to two recent key articles on the subject (link 1, link 2[/FONT]) [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif].
Probiotics products are not a substitute for seeding the baby cottontail with its normal bacteria as quickly as you can. I do not give both cecotrophes and lactobacillus/bifidobacter cultures simultaneously because Lactobacillus promotes an acid environment, in which cecotrophic organisms do not thrive. In rodents, it takes a minimum of 59 separate organism strains before the physiology of their digestive tract remains normal. A total of 55 different organisms of this type were found to naturally live in cottontails."[/FONT]​

I'm sorry I don't get to meet you this weekend! Hopefully we won't actually have to wait a year. Cute chickies and cute little boy.

DUDE! My kid wanted me to pull him on his sled with the lawn tractor! LOL. Kid you not!

Awww, come on, Mom! That sounds like fun!

​

 

[Stacykins]

The method I use is a sharp axe. One stroke as fast and hard as possible does the job. I don't like the throat slitting method, I just don't. I mean, they're completely conscious when it happens. I don't care if people argue their nervous system isn't advanced, or they bleed out so fast the pain is minimal, I think it isn't the most humane method. Heck, even an axe isn't perfect. So yea, that is what I do.

Was "dinner" one of the two extra Araucanas you have?

He was actually an olive egger boy. Those two extra Araucana lads talked to you about are little guys, at five/six weeks they won't antagonize hens. And since they are tufted and rumpless I would rather, find them homes than turn them into supper. This boy was, oh, 16ish weeks old? I was going to butcher him eventually, just not so soon. I have a few other Araucana boys of the same as as the butchered boy, but they are cleanfaced and/or tailed, culls essentially.

 

[1muttsfan]

Anyone interested in that lovely fish tank (and do I ever wish I had room for it) should probably know that it weighs over a thousand pounds full. So you will need a concrete or reinforced floor.