Minnesota!

[Minniechickmama]

When I checked on them, they had fluid that was like snot textured and stringing out of their mouths. They had labored breathing and were collpased like they couldn't breathe =(

That doesn't sound like sour crop at all though. Is it possible they were over-heating? If not, I would be looking at other culprits. I am sorry you are having troubles.

 

[rainin22]

That doesn't sound like sour crop at all though. Is it possible they were over-heating? If not, I would be looking at other culprits. I am sorry you are having troubles.

Thanks for the help Minnie, we've been keeping a close eye on them since. Is it possible those faverolle's just weren't healthy to begin with? All the other breeds are doing great. They spent the night in the coop with a heat lamp and I just checked them this morning =) Everyone's there and happy!

 

[Minniechickmama]

Sometimes that will happen where you get a batch of one breed that just don't do well. Usually it goes back to the parents, and there isn't anything you can do about that unless you own those. Of all of mine, the Silkies are the ones that either they are fluffy, puffballs running around all over the brooder, or they are wimpy and sickly looking from day one. I think it is just tougher for bantams sometimes.

 

[Drea07]

I think so, BUT I may be deluding myself. They will pick up things like pop can pull tabs but they drop them without trying to eat them.

What we did is set barrels in the woods and places the chickens run. we bought us each one of those long sticks with a clamp on the end they advertise for old people. We use those and five gallon buckets and walk the woods pick junk and dump in the barrels..


We will be doing this for the next 300 years.

Think I will give it a try while keeping an eye on them and see how it goes. I really want them to be able to run around and get the exercise and entertainment....not to mention taking care of my spider problem. Just worries me that they will eat some tin foil or something else.

I hear you on the 300 years. Was telling DH it's going to take us years to get it all cleaned up. On the up side, I did find a cast iron gate that would be a perfect for the run access.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

I heard back from my friend with the incubator. She's a Kindergarten teacher and she set eggs from our flock last Wednesday. It seems our boy, Rog, is shooting blanks!

0 development in the eggs. Anybody know if 3 year old Rooster is pushing it for fertility? I guess I just assumed he would be still okay at 3. What have you heard for breeding purposes and to ensure fertility. Interestingly, too, last fall after his molt he grew several feathers that are white (or without pigment) on his head and a couple primary wing feathers that are white and were always red before. Roger. My Old Codger.

 

[Drea07]

Our property is the same way. I'm pretty certain that the people who lived here prior to us were hoarders (we closed last November). Our current chicken coop was storage for them and was filled to the ceiling. I do believe all of that came out of their house. The first time we viewed there was only a pathway in two of the rooms. They also had 13 cats. We had to rip up all of the flooring down to the floor boards due to cat urine. We have also found some strange things in the woods. Garbage everywhere, trees grown around Christmas lights/eyeglasses/dog leashes/metal scrap, broken glass, knives all over the place. Seriously I have probably found 15 different kitchen knives just laying in the grass. It is kind of outrageous. We had a water conditioning guy out here after we first moved in that told us the unfinished basement was FILLED with dog/cat urine and feces. Needless to say we have done a lot of demo and cleaning of this property . . . Strangest part was the guy who owned this had a PhD in Environmental Services (he told us this himself). They certainly weren't very "green".

Wow! Just wow. We were lucky enough that the people we bought the house from were very clean, but they were only there for a year and a half before they had to move. The people they bought the house from were the ones who left all the garbage. Found out from talking with the neighbors, the house sat empty for two years.

I actually found the remnants of a bed by what used to be a raised garden bed. Think it may be the strangest thing I have found thus far. Did find a spoon and Donald duck bed sheets few days ago.

 

[duluthralphie]

I heard back from my friend with the incubator. She's a Kindergarten teacher and she set eggs from our flock last Wednesday. It seems our boy, Rog, is shooting blanks!

0 development in the eggs. Anybody know if 3 year old Rooster is pushing it for fertility? I guess I just assumed he would be still okay at 3. What have you heard for breeding purposes and to ensure fertility. Interestingly, too, last fall after his molt he grew several feathers that are white (or without pigment) on his head and a couple primary wing feathers that are white and were always red before. Roger. My Old Codger.

Maybe you just happen to get eggs from the ugly hens, I bet if you get some from the cute hens they will be good.......


Od Codgers have very discriminating tastes....

 

[duluthralphie]

Think I will give it a try while keeping an eye on them and see how it goes. I really want them to be able to run around and get the exercise and entertainment....not to mention taking care of my spider problem. Just worries me that they will eat some tin foil or something else.

I hear you on the 300 years. Was telling DH it's going to take us years to get it all cleaned up. On the up side, I did find a cast iron gate that would be a perfect for the run access.

Those occasional treasures are fun!

I know there is an OLD waffle iron out in our woods I am hoping to find. A guy that lived this house in the 30's and died a few years back at 97 told me he threw it out in the woods one day when he burnt his hand on it...He said he wishes he had kept it because it was old when he threw it out there...

 

[duluthralphie]

I am no longer building a guinea Gulag, it is becoming a turkey pen instead, unless the guineas tick me off again. The Guinea hens are laying in a nest they made under the nest boxes in the woodchips and sand. The bad part is some of the chickens are copying the guineas. I put 4 fake eggs in the guinea nest the other day to keep them laying there..... Last night there were no fake eggs and only one chicken egg in the nest. They had moved the fake eggs into a new nest they had built 2 feet from the old one. Weird psycho birds!

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Alot of the eggs were the Buckeye's and she is not that fond of his affections. Plus she can get herself away from him quite well as she weighs about the same as he does. She's so strong too. And then she does have her little buckeye face....well that only her mother, me, loves. I think you are right Ralphie. He does play the favorites game.

But Lucy his go-to gal lately she's pretty....IDK....

My parents had a fishing resort and the owners before them used the woods nearby for a dump. There were tin budweiser cans, household goods/plates/glasses/ spatulas, wooden boats, minnow buckets, brown glass gallon hilex jugs with finger loop on the neck and still out there is a coca-cola cooler that weighs a ton. I want it so bad though. Project for my dad and I I guess. But it looks like it has .22 bullet holes in though. Still cool looking.