Montana

[DuginMT]

Heard my roo King crowing for the first time this morning, at 16 weeks old! He crowed at least 4 times, at about 7:10 AM. Pretty good crows, I thought, not too loud yet. Now tonight I will talk to my neighbor to see if he would accept King if getting free eggs every week. If not, I will try to re-home him. Anybody in or near Billings have a good home for a sweet Buff Orpington roo? He is the one in my Avatar, now a little older and sprouting more fancy tail feathers!

Doug

 

[Azriel]

Doug, the funny side ways dance is the roo asking the girl if she would like to get real friendly, as in friends with benifits, haha, you should be seeing eggs soon

 

[DuginMT]

Boy I hope so Azriel, the boys and I put oyster shell in their run today and three golf balls in every nesting box. They could be another month or so out from laying but we are hoping they get the idea. Let them out tonight and a red-tailed hawk perched on a power pole about 200' away and was sizing them up, so we herded them back into the run after 10 minutes or so. Doubt the hawk would have attacked with the three of us sitting out there but you never know.

 

[DuginMT]

Good news and bad. I talked to my neighbor today about our rooster King and he said we could keep him but he would appreciate some eggs from time to time! So King has a home here! He was concerned about eating fertilized eggs so I had to explain to him why he would not be able to tell the difference.

About 2:30 PM I was walking our basset hound dog Emily in our back yard on a leash. The boys were in the house. Emily always has her nose to the ground. All of a sudden she jumped back and I saw a rattlesnake in the grass, ready to strike again! Emily was trailing me, so I must have about stepped on that snake. I pulled Emily away and she had a puncture mark on the side of her muzzle. Only one fang got her, but her muzzle started to swell up. I killed and bagged the snake and took it and Emily with the boys to a vet clinic that was open. The vet thinks she will pull through but will probably be in there for 2-3 days, at a cost of about $1000. Bummer! I bought the boys new cowboy boots right after that. They had outgrown their old ones.

Doug

 

[montanachicks]

Doug, so sorry to hear that Emily is feeling under the weather, hope she's doing better soon. What a brave dog, tho! omg -- $1000!

I'm glad that King will have a nice home! My supervisor at work used to buy eggs from me all the time until we were talking about the "fertilized" eggs one day & I showed her a picture that I had found online, how you can tell if an egg is fertilized ......... she got this look of horror on her face and hasn't bought any eggs from me since. She has made mention several times of having this fear of cracking an egg open (even store bought ones) and finding a "partial chick" in it. I have tried to explain the process to her, and that fertilized eggs do not taste any different than un-fertilized ones, and it certainly won't hurt you but she wants nothing to do with that. We laugh about it when the subject comes up, but I lost a good customer -- guess I should have kept my mouth shut.

You mentioned your rooster doing "the sideways dance" -- have any of your pullets allowed him to do his duty? Have they started squatting yet? -- if so, that is a very good sign that you'll be seeing them soon. The first time one of my newest pullets did the squat as I walked up behind her, the first new egg showed up in less than a week. I'm with Azriel -- you should be seeing eggs soon. That is always so exciting, and the excitement never wears off or gets old!

 

[DuginMT]

Yes, a Black Australorp pullet did the squat today as soon as my oldest boy set her down. She squatted down with her wings a little out, almost touching her breast to the ground. Good signs!

 

[Azriel]

Doug, so sorry to hear that you Emily was bitten by the rattlesnake, its good that you were able to get her to the vet. Hope she has a full recovery. Just to let others know, there is a rattlesnake vaccine that will help the dog not get as sick, you still have to get to a vet, but you have more time.
Its so fun to get new pullet eggs, hope you start seeing some very soon.

 

[karlamaria]

Holy cow ! A rattlesnake now that's scary in a back yard with kids. I'm so glad you got the dog to the vet, even though 1,000 is highway robbery. Today's ets like to empty our pockets . Sending prayers your way she fully recovers .

 

[karlamaria]

I'm a bit confused here lately, by way of my EE giving me first blue eggs ( very light blue) and for the past 2 months now white eggs. I looked and she has while ears. That floored me since she was giving real pretty very light blue eggs when she started laying in March, but now her eggs are white, oh and I saw my leghorn has red ears. Brown eggs from a white leghorn? Ok now that's real weird!
So an EE white white eggs and a leghorn with brown eggs. Well we shall see, that leg horn is 3 months old, another month or so and she should lay.

 

[herfrds]

Yeah!!!! I have vacation time next month!!!! From the 17th to the 21st!
Going to take DD down to Billings. Hope to meet up with Azriel about some pullets!

Been busy at work until Thursday. I was stocking some stuff and something in my lower back cut loose. Thought I had slipped it out of alianment but after I saw my chiropractor it turns out I pulled the muscles on the left side of my back.
Told go home and ice it til it is numb. Got a note for being off work for 3 days. No standing, no lifting and minimal walking. Of course it has to happen on the busiest weekend of the year. People were not happy with me but nothing I could do about.