Minnesota!

[KlopKlop]

Just wait until your see all the chicken themed stuff DW got from MIL tonight

 

[lalaland]

Scandia, hope dog is home by now.
erlibird, hope your husband is done being a jerk. holidays sometimes bring out the worst in us.


phew. I'm exhausted. My dd, sil and gd are all asleep! got here about 5, had dinner, opened presents, and whoosh, all asleep. poor babies, all of them. I don't mind of course. That baby is the sweetest.

I had a rough afternoon with Goldie. I took her down from the roost this morning early, and popped her in her kennel. About 10 I went out to take her mealworms and to let her out in half the coop. Came back about 1 and realized she had a basically empty crop even though I had been believing that she was eating feed, and also that some spot near her tail was causing her pain if I touched it.

So, I brought her in for a good epsom salt soak and close exam. I let her soak for 20 minutes, fed her mealworms while she soaked. she refused all the enticing foods I could come up with except the mealworms. When I examined her, I couldnt find anything but her tail end by the gland is definitely tender. I cleaned out a plug of dried up nustock from one of the puncture wounds - it was pushing her flesh out. So it is all good pink flesh, but it is a fairly big divot, I put a light coating of nustock on that. Not sure if I should have left the plug in, but I felt like it was keeping the wound open. Got her dried, popped her back in the kennel with a heat lamp.

At roost time, she was frantic to get out of the kennel and on to a roost. So I let her. She is moving better, but....still the appetite issue.

I will have to get up early again and get her off the roost. If she is allowed to run with the flock, I won't be able to make sure she at least has apple and mealworms, so I need to keep her separate until she is eating better. And if she moves just right, too many wounds are going to be visible and ripe for getting picked on by the others.

I think I will have to go back to my earlier plan of cordoning off some of the coop for her.

merry christmas all!

 

[The BlanchRanch]

SO i have my prototype fodder system set up finally! I had all these fancy ideas in my head and I was starting to measure wood today and realized i was way way overthinking it! at least for my first attempt!

Basically what I've got is 6 little plastic tubs and a coffee can now i drilled a series of holes into the bottom of 5 tubs and then matching holes into the lids. The 6th tub acts as a catchment tank at the bottom. So what happens is I stack the tubs up like in the photo (eventually each layer will be filled with sprouting seeds) and 2-3 times a day I will dump water on the top tub and it will flow from tub to tub in a zig zag with the excess staying in the bottom catchment tank to be recycled or dumped onto my other houseplants. The coffee can is used to soak the batch of seeds for the first day, then I will dump them into the first tub and start more seeds soaking. the next day, repeat again so i will have 2 tubs of sprouts growing and 1 can soaking. Continue this for 6 days and the top tub will be 5-6 day old sprouts ready for the chickens! i keep the process up and each day i will have sprouts for my chickens!



I will take more photos as it progresses! Originally i had this plan to build a rack in my basement that the trays would slide in and out of and it would be cool, but then i had 2 thoughts:
1) what if this doesnt work or my chickens dont like it and i am out that much effort
2) my basement is a cool 52-ish degrees or so and that is a bit chilly for growing sprouts!

If this goes well i will look into improving the system. Currently I am into this experiment for about 6 x $0.89 for the tubs.

Alfalfa or bean?

 

[The BlanchRanch]

Just wait until your see all the chicken themed stuff DW got from MIL tonight
Our house is getting overfilled with it. We will have to tell people to stop giving us chicken knick-knacks.

~~~~*M*E*R*R*Y C*H*R*I*S*T*M*A*S*~~~~​

​

But those ornaments are really cool.

 

[The BlanchRanch]

Merry Christmas to all !

And to you too, my good friend, and all the rest of you as well!!

 

[The BlanchRanch]

Everyone, I wish for you a blessed Christmas.

And if you happened to spot stupid dog tell her to go home

I hope your dog is home and happy napping by the tree!!!!!

 

[The BlanchRanch]

Well my Craigslist 8 are down to 3. Hard lesson learned but **** round worms are going to kill them all I reckon. I've kept them mostly separated from the keets we hatched and the McMurray hatchery chicks and Lena so I think everyone else is okay. Since getting the necropsy results Gina Hercules and the no-name Silkie I did do Wazine treatment in the water. Lost my Gracie over the weekend -- she was my last LO. They went to the brain - she was paralyzed Saturday afternoon and died Sunday.

So I expect the roo and the two hens that are left to keel over before they are a year old.

Learned my lesson - no more chick purchases from Craigslist.

If I don't check back before Friday here's hoping everyone has a wonderful Christmas! I'm wishing for more chickens come spring. I got the large eye roll just a few minutes ago when I said I was gonna order chickens......

Sooo sorry. Hope you can save the last of them.

 

[The BlanchRanch]

I had a rough afternoon with Goldie. I took her down from the roost this morning early, and popped her in her kennel. About 10 I went out to take her mealworms and to let her out in half the coop. Came back about 1 and realized she had a basically empty crop even though I had been believing that she was eating feed, and also that some spot near her tail was causing her pain if I touched it.

So, I brought her in for a good epsom salt soak and close exam. I let her soak for 20 minutes, fed her mealworms while she soaked. she refused all the enticing foods I could come up with except the mealworms. When I examined her, I couldnt find anything but her tail end by the gland is definitely tender. I cleaned out a plug of dried up nustock from one of the puncture wounds - it was pushing her flesh out. So it is all good pink flesh, but it is a fairly big divot, I put a light coating of nustock on that. Not sure if I should have left the plug in, but I felt like it was keeping the wound open. Got her dried, popped her back in the kennel with a heat lamp.

At roost time, she was frantic to get out of the kennel and on to a roost. So I let her. She is moving better, but....still the appetite issue.

I will have to get up early again and get her off the roost. If she is allowed to run with the flock, I won't be able to make sure she at least has apple and mealworms, so I need to keep her separate until she is eating better. And if she moves just right, too many wounds are going to be visible and ripe for getting picked on by the others.

I think I will have to go back to my earlier plan of cordoning off some of the coop for her.

merry christmas all!

Cleaning out those plugs will do wonders. Any kind of swelling isn't good. Bet she turns the corner now!!

 

[Cebarmlds]

Scandia, hope dog is home by now.
erlibird, hope your husband is done being a jerk. holidays sometimes bring out the worst in us.


phew. I'm exhausted. My dd, sil and gd are all asleep! got here about 5, had dinner, opened presents, and whoosh, all asleep. poor babies, all of them. I don't mind of course. That baby is the sweetest.

I had a rough afternoon with Goldie. I took her down from the roost this morning early, and popped her in her kennel. About 10 I went out to take her mealworms and to let her out in half the coop. Came back about 1 and realized she had a basically empty crop even though I had been believing that she was eating feed, and also that some spot near her tail was causing her pain if I touched it.

So, I brought her in for a good epsom salt soak and close exam. I let her soak for 20 minutes, fed her mealworms while she soaked. she refused all the enticing foods I could come up with except the mealworms. When I examined her, I couldnt find anything but her tail end by the gland is definitely tender. I cleaned out a plug of dried up nustock from one of the puncture wounds - it was pushing her flesh out. So it is all good pink flesh, but it is a fairly big divot, I put a light coating of nustock on that. Not sure if I should have left the plug in, but I felt like it was keeping the wound open. Got her dried, popped her back in the kennel with a heat lamp.

At roost time, she was frantic to get out of the kennel and on to a roost. So I let her. She is moving better, but....still the appetite issue.

I will have to get up early again and get her off the roost. If she is allowed to run with the flock, I won't be able to make sure she at least has apple and mealworms, so I need to keep her separate until she is eating better. And if she moves just right, too many wounds are going to be visible and ripe for getting picked on by the others.

I think I will have to go back to my earlier plan of cordoning off some of the coop for her.

merry christmas all!

Thanks, He's being better.
I'm happy to hear Goldie keeps improving!

 

[Cebarmlds]

And to you too, my good friend, and all the rest of you as well!!

Thank you!