Minnesota!

[KlopKlop]

Our 15000th post today! Chicken addicts indeed!

 

[Minniechickmama]

I hate to disagree with you BC. however, the word is important as long as you use the same one for the same command. BUT I am not downplaying the tone and volume they play hugely in if the command is really to be followed.

Dogs are so attune to small clues, tone of voice, body language and so forth. I think I read somewhere, dogs can learn 200 words and know what they mean. We are always amazed with ours when we mention we are going to bed, they go to their beds. They love routine though, change is hard on them.

It really doesn't matter what the words are you use, so long as they are used consistently. For instance, when a dog jumps up here, the word is off. Some people use Down, but then they turn around and use Down to mean 'get off', so the dogs are confused. You can teach them to lay down by saying "Scooby Snack". If you always use that to mean down, then that is key. I saw a video where someone trained their dog to play dead by using "Bang". It's a cute trick, but if that was what that dog was trained with, it is no trick at all, really.
It also depends on the dog and the breed of dog how well they might respond to voice or gesture commands. Just yesterday I was reminded how our dogs now don't respond to certain things like our old dog, Trouble did. He actually knew several words, and some we had to be REALLY careful not to say. The words "outback" and "golf" and "frisbee" and "play" all meant to go out the back door of our condo, walk out back, across the field under the power lines to the close golf course where we would take him to play frisbee. If we mentioned anything about actually going to PLAY golf, we had to spell it. That was when The Lion King came out, and he looked like a black lion laying in the back of the yard under the palmettos, so we would whisper "Mufasa" and he would perk up and come running right over to see what was going on. He was a Chow/Doby cross and the most wonderful dog to have. I love our dogs now, but even though they are good people dogs and smart and friendly, they are not like old Trouble was. It has been 10-years and I still miss him a lot. He was our first kid.

He would be a great cross if you want a barnyard mix. I am thinking of keeping one of Bert Jr's blackish brothers for crossing. I think they would make a great meat type layer/. I really like the bleeding of the red in them. I am not sure if that is passed on to young though.

What I don't like about black birds for butchering, and the reason all the CRXs are white, is because once you butcher, you get all those black ink spots in their skin. It is pretty unappealing. Which is why i skinned all the black birds I have ever butchered.

My thoughts are to respond smarter, in a way that gets the point across without stepping in poop.

You need to be a wordsmith when you come across idiots just trying to cause trouble. One can make another appear a perfect fool and not be rude or indignant at all. I am sure I learned that from the book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People"

A way off the subject item:

We use American Express for most our spending, we have for years.

We do not go through our account statements as well as we should, I guess.

We (meaning Judy) found a charge from McAfee for an automatic renewal. We have not used McAfee in years. AMerican Express was great, however, calling McAfee was not a pleasant experience. They refused to remove the charge, claimed we authorized and used McAfee.

They said we signed up for it in 07 and were still using it. The first person we talked to barely spoke English and was offended when we asked to speak to someone that did speak English. Not their fault I a not bi-lingual but still impossible for me to deal with someone when we can not communicate. I have a hearing loss and foreign accents on the phone are very difficult for me.

They did not have our current address even, and we have been in this home for nearly 4 years. They tried to sell us another product instead of cancelling the one we had. We feel they took us for years of renewals. We knew we were not going to get that back. BUT they said we missed the "time frame " in which we were allowed to cancel and would have to wait for next year to cancel.

If this experience did anything, it assured us we would never use a McAfee product again.

You want a real headache? If you have Waste Management, try canceling and see what they try doing. I had to get a lawyer just so they would remove their dumpster, then they were going to charge me to pick it up. Plus, if you don't give them 3 months advance on canceling, they charge you for 3 months of service. Go read about them online, there is all kinds of crap they pull with people. We may lose some points on our credit score because we are not paying them another dime.

This is what I've worked out as a breeding plan.

1. We, as a family, decided we like Jersey Giants and Buff Orpingtons, and will focus on breeding pure lines of them.

2. The rest of the group - Australorps, Bresse, Wyandottes, Swedes, and that sexy brown rooster can mingle, lay eggs and live out their worth with us.

I have a mixed flock of the birds I still liked but decided to not breed from. I put an Ameraucana rooster over some of those hens to produce Easter Eggers. Unfortunately, most of them just turn out black or black with leakage. But they still lay eggs and still make green or blue eggs, or the boys end up being dinner somewhere.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Our 15000th post today! Chicken addicts indeed!

I wasn't even paying attention. So where does that put us on the greater scale of how popular we are?

 

[scandiafowl]

Do the bresse live up to all the hype I have read about?

At this point they are two white hens that hang out with all the others.
They are only worth the hype if they are fed the special diet that makes them taste "worth the hype", similar to Kobe beef.

 

[FoxyChicken]

Okay, so now that I’m at a proper keyboard I can tell you guys about my experience with Coffee’s troll...
This past spring I gave my broody hen eggs to hatch so I decided I would start a hatch-along thread just to have people to chat with who were on a similar schedule as me. This was my first time hatching so I thought I could maybe get some questions answered along the way or get some advice. So this person, we’ll call him “Troll”, joins me along with a handful of other nice people. Troll seemed fine at first, kind of a know-it-all, but hey, you get all kinds of personalities in these forums and just like in real life (I believe anyway), you try to get along with everybody and respect your differences. The way he was talking I assumed he was an old pro at this, but it turns out he’s a retired 55 year old computer analyst who’s been trying to start up a farm for the past three years and this was also his first time hatching. (I don’t know for certain he’s a he, I just got that feeling…) So anyway, we get to hatch day and I had four chicks hatch and 4 eggs that didn’t. I asked the folks on the thread how long I should wait before I toss out the unhatched eggs, and he answers me by saying that a broody hen will never leave a nest with unhatched eggs in it and that I shouldn’t interfere with the hatching of the remaining eggs because in his “experience” the outcome is never good when humans try to help, if a chick needs help mama will take care of it. Okay dude, I wasn’t planning on helping any chicks hatch, like I said I was just wondering when I should toss the unhatched eggs. Remember now, this person has never hatched eggs before and he is hatching with an incubator, not a broody. As it turned out, my broody was up off the nest with the chicks the next day. So much for a broody hen never leaving a nest with unhatched eggs...

Whatever, I’m sure he’s not the first person to give bad advice on BYC.
So now some of his chicks are starting to hatch (I think he had over 40 eggs set), but he’s on day 22 and has just realized that he’s had all of the eggs set upside down the whole time! I think he ended up with over 50% hatched, so it didn’t turn out too bad I guess. Well then the wise one goes against his own advice and tries to help a chick along that he felt wasn’t progressing fast enough and it died! At this point I really didn’t have anything against him, he hadn’t been outright rude to me, just acted like he knew everything while it was obvious he didn’t. That’s when he wrote the post that ticked me off. He said that I should have started the thread by stating some hatching facts like “pointy end down” and “don’t rush the hatch” etc etc… like now it was MY FAULT that he screwed up his hatch!! REALLY?? First of all, I was hatching with a broody so I just gave her the eggs and let her take care of everything. I don’t know the first thing about hatching with an incubator. Second of all, if you’re trying to raise chickens for money maybe you should do some basic research on hatching eggs before you start and not rely on another person who has never hatched before and is just doing it for fun to tell you how to put eggs in an incubator!

As annoyed as I was with him, I didn’t actually reply at all to his “suggestion” on how I should have started my thread. I really thought hard about it, and almost did reply, but I knew it would just result in more heated exchanges. Not worth my energy.

 

[scandiafowl]

Okay, so now that I’m at a proper keyboard I can tell you guys about my experience with Coffee’s troll...
This past spring I gave my broody hen eggs to hatch so I decided I would start a hatch-along thread just to have people to chat with who were on a similar schedule as me. This was my first time hatching so I thought I could maybe get some questions answered along the way or get some advice.  So this person, we’ll call him “Troll”, joins me along with a handful of other nice people. Troll seemed fine at first, kind of a know-it-all, but hey, you get all kinds of personalities in these forums and just like in real life (I believe anyway), you try to get along with everybody and respect your differences. The way he was talking I assumed he was an old pro at this, but it turns out he’s a retired 55 year old computer analyst who’s been trying to start up a farm for the past three years and this was also his first time hatching. (I don’t know for certain he’s a he, I just got that feeling…)  So anyway, we get to hatch day and I had four chicks hatch and 4 eggs that didn’t. I asked the folks on the thread how long I should wait before I toss out the unhatched eggs, and he answers me by saying that a broody hen will never leave a nest with unhatched eggs in it and that I shouldn’t interfere with the hatching of the remaining eggs because in his “experience” the outcome is never good when humans try to help, if a chick needs help mama will take care of it. Okay dude, I wasn’t planning on helping any chicks hatch, like I said I was just wondering when I should toss the unhatched eggs. Remember now, this person has never hatched eggs before and he is hatching with an incubator, not a broody.  As it turned out, my broody was up off the nest with the chicks the next day. So much for a broody hen never leaving a nest with unhatched eggs...   Whatever, I’m sure he’s not the first person to give bad advice on BYC.
So now some of his chicks are starting to hatch (I think he had over 40 eggs set), but he’s on day 22 and has just realized that he’s had all of the eggs set upside down the whole time! I think he ended up with over 50% hatched, so it didn’t turn out too bad I guess. Well then the wise one goes against his own advice and tries to help a chick along that he felt wasn’t progressing fast enough and it died! At this point I really didn’t have anything against him, he hadn’t been outright rude to me, just acted like he knew everything while it was obvious he didn’t.  That’s when he wrote the post that ticked me off. He said that I should have started the thread by stating some hatching facts like “pointy end down” and “don’t rush the hatch” etc etc… like now it was MY FAULT that he screwed up his hatch!! REALLY?? First of all, I was hatching with a broody so I just gave her the eggs and let her take care of everything. I don’t know the first thing about hatching with an incubator. Second of all, if you’re trying to raise chickens for money maybe you should do some basic research on hatching eggs before you start and not rely on another person who has never hatched before and is just doing it for fun to tell you how to put eggs in an incubator! 
As annoyed as I was with him, I didn’t actually reply at all to his “suggestion” on how I should have started my thread. I really thought hard about it, and almost did reply, but I knew it would just result in more heated exchanges. Not worth my energy.

Sounds like someone who can't take responsibility for their own errors. I've observed (read) how he tries to control post discussion as well.

As his reputation spreads, his presence will be less welcome.

 

[Mistahbue]

Today I had to put my old Aussie down. Paddy was 14. The vet came out to the house which was nice, he passed with all of us with him. He is the whitest dog second on left in my avatar.

So very sorry about that!! They take hold of our hearts. No matter how long we have them it is never long enough!!!

 

[Mistahbue]

Got 2 reprimands and a deleted post.. Guess i can live with that.. and i will watch my opinions a little better...

in our forum?!

 

[Mistahbue]

Okay, so now that I’m at a proper keyboard I can tell you guys about my experience with Coffee’s troll...
This past spring I gave my broody hen eggs to hatch so I decided I would start a hatch-along thread just to have people to chat with who were on a similar schedule as me. This was my first time hatching so I thought I could maybe get some questions answered along the way or get some advice. So this person, we’ll call him “Troll”, joins me along with a handful of other nice people. Troll seemed fine at first, kind of a know-it-all, but hey, you get all kinds of personalities in these forums and just like in real life (I believe anyway), you try to get along with everybody and respect your differences. The way he was talking I assumed he was an old pro at this, but it turns out he’s a retired 55 year old computer analyst who’s been trying to start up a farm for the past three years and this was also his first time hatching. (I don’t know for certain he’s a he, I just got that feeling…) So anyway, we get to hatch day and I had four chicks hatch and 4 eggs that didn’t. I asked the folks on the thread how long I should wait before I toss out the unhatched eggs, and he answers me by saying that a broody hen will never leave a nest with unhatched eggs in it and that I shouldn’t interfere with the hatching of the remaining eggs because in his “experience” the outcome is never good when humans try to help, if a chick needs help mama will take care of it. Okay dude, I wasn’t planning on helping any chicks hatch, like I said I was just wondering when I should toss the unhatched eggs. Remember now, this person has never hatched eggs before and he is hatching with an incubator, not a broody. As it turned out, my broody was up off the nest with the chicks the next day. So much for a broody hen never leaving a nest with unhatched eggs...

Whatever, I’m sure he’s not the first person to give bad advice on BYC.
So now some of his chicks are starting to hatch (I think he had over 40 eggs set), but he’s on day 22 and has just realized that he’s had all of the eggs set upside down the whole time! I think he ended up with over 50% hatched, so it didn’t turn out too bad I guess. Well then the wise one goes against his own advice and tries to help a chick along that he felt wasn’t progressing fast enough and it died! At this point I really didn’t have anything against him, he hadn’t been outright rude to me, just acted like he knew everything while it was obvious he didn’t. That’s when he wrote the post that ticked me off. He said that I should have started the thread by stating some hatching facts like “pointy end down” and “don’t rush the hatch” etc etc… like now it was MY FAULT that he screwed up his hatch!! REALLY?? First of all, I was hatching with a broody so I just gave her the eggs and let her take care of everything. I don’t know the first thing about hatching with an incubator. Second of all, if you’re trying to raise chickens for money maybe you should do some basic research on hatching eggs before you start and not rely on another person who has never hatched before and is just doing it for fun to tell you how to put eggs in an incubator!

As annoyed as I was with him, I didn’t actually reply at all to his “suggestion” on how I should have started my thread. I really thought hard about it, and almost did reply, but I knew it would just result in more heated exchanges. Not worth my energy.

good grief! what a nob!

 

[duluthralphie]

You want a real headache? If you have Waste Management, try canceling and see what they try doing. I had to get a lawyer just so they would remove their dumpster, then they were going to charge me to pick it up. Plus, if you don't give them 3 months advance on canceling, they charge you for 3 months of service. Go read about them online, there is all kinds of crap they pull with people. We may lose some points on our credit score because we are not paying them another dime.

I would refuse to pay anything also. But it is different for say my kids who still need and care about a credit score. We are fortunate enough to be in a position where other than Insurance rates it makes little difference to us. If you are young and working to build a good score to buy a house or other major purchase these companies have you over a barrel.

From what I understand, if it is just one company like you have with a dispute like this you can write the credit bureaus and have the damage mitigated.

On the dog thing,,,,

I have seen police dogs that are trained in a foreign language or nonsensical words so a suspect cannot yell a command the dog understand at the dog.


BTW the reason I am back is I was outside working for an hour and a half and decided I needed ONE more cup of coffee, and it is sprinkling enough to be miserable out.