If you want an animal to get them. Rat Terriers will go after them...and the chickens though.
Yeah.. I'm trying to avoid things that go after chickens. I caught a rather plump rat yesterday. I'd seen a hole in the ground and put the trap right by it. In Odin's old place I see 2 holes. Once I get a trap I'm going to put it right by it too. I also caught a possom yesterday. These things all need to go bother something else. I saw some pretty big deer tracks in some mud too.. but those can live.
Lol! I took photos for one of the is it a hen or a roo threads and look how much bigger Sallie is getting. Negan better be thankful she's a sweetheart! You can also see Rene's graying tush and Ethel's humongus tail..don't know where Dutch was, probably eating.
View attachment 1568910 View attachment 1568911
So fluffy & pretty!
I thought you were talking about the MIL surgery for a second.
I wonder if you did that really thin long string of gauze soaked in the Vetericyn then stuffed into the bumble. That’s how they heal puncture wounds from the inside out.
LMAO... I guess that would have an affect on her walking.
Funny that you mention that.
Her worst one ever came up fast and went clear up through the top of the foot. Her bumbles are almost never hard nuggets. They are more diffuse. I actually pulled down the bottle of dakins solution for that one. Soaked a gauze strip and packed the wound three or four days in a row. When I was satisfied that the infection was dealt with, I used a sterilized fat rubberband ( cut so it was a strip) as a penrose drain that I tied loosely so I could flush the channel with betadine daily. Left the drain in for a week before pulling it.
When I say I’ve “dealt with bumblefoot” I am NOT kidding.
Only my welsummers get it.
Never anyone else. So weird.
That makes me a little hopeful that my chickens just don't have them and I'm not missing them.
Look up Joseph Carter “the Mink Man”. He trains mink to hunt rats in conjunction with dogs. It’s really cool.
I think someone posted one of his videos here once (probably you)... I saw one where they had babies & he was pulling them out and checking them. They're so cute. I actually got to see a wild mink once. Not too near where my chickens are, thankfully... It ran across the road in front of me. It was HUGE. Like a giant ferret.
Speaking of chick pics, I've got some pics of my top two Cornish cockerels.
This one is my favorite so far,
View attachment 1569063
View attachment 1569066
This is the runner up.
View attachment 1569064 View attachment 1569065
I have one pullet that has lighter coloration. Too bad it is too light to be standard, her lacing is gorgeous. I'll probably keep her around as a layer.
View attachment 1569068
She's beautiful!
So someone is moving to Texas and can't take their birds. They wanted to but waaay to hard. So they have been rehoming and trying to get the birds taken care of so the hard part of actually moving can start.
View attachment 1569079
Here is Chicken City! The white bird on the left and the group on the right are all new. I originally had them all together in the double crate but she was picking a fight so separate for now.
She's the only standard. A astrolorp x leghorn. Lays pinkish eggs.
View attachment 1569083
Trio of Porcelain D'Uccles.
View attachment 1569084
Three Bantam Cochins and the black in the background is actually the white hen with bantam cochin.
I would have never suspected an aussie x leghorn would make a mostly white bird. Can't wait to see her pink eggs too. Are you going to keep the bantams separated from the others?
:::
:::::
Super annoyed with a non chicken friend. Called and asked about borrowing his truck. (The moving person has a small coop that the D'Uccles where in. Said if the home buyer doesn't want it it's mine.) So say what going on and just asking cause it's up in the air but want to be prepared. I said something about, "I got the chickens might as well get their house." and the lecture on my chickens started.
He grew up on a cattle farm. So feels that chickens are livestock. When I was talking about Sugar and how I found her and was trying to nurse her back to health he said I should have just culled her. I know I'm a softie. I don't like to cull. I don't want to. But if I thought she had no hope or was suffering I would have done it. I'm keeping an eye on Gladys. Her spirits are high and she seems happy. Will she ever walk normal? Probably not. But she eats and drinks and POOPS. So why not let her live. He would have culled her too.
Gives me this "you're a farmer" crap. No. No I'm not a farmer. These are my pet chickens. Do I have a lot of pet chickens? Yes. But they are a flock animal. They do better in a flock. The flock is healthy.
I don't have 30 cats. Eating and pooping all over the place and making each other and me sick.
I have chickens living like chickens should.
::::end rant::::
That sucks. If I had a truck I'd offer it to you. Would it fit in one of those $20 Uhauls? I'm assuming you were probably trying to do it as cheaply as possible, but if you're going to get attitude about it, renting a truck or trailer might be way easier. Too bad there isn't an Uber for renting trucks for stuff like this.
Not going to even kid ya'll that was the weirdest bumble. Not bad weird just odd. The underneath where the "tail" was looked sort of hairy? And the hole and cavity were way smaller than I anticipated. It was like it was mostly liquid and plug no cheese to speak of. I'm not going to knock it though, i'll take better than expected any day of the week.
I wonder if it wasn't so bad b/c it had kinda burst open the night before and cleared itself out.
I have a couple non chicken friends that feel that way too. I have learned that chicken talk with them is off limits....kind of like religion or politics. When they say things to me like your non chicken friend said to you....it would hurt and infuriate me. Now it's off limits with them. Funny thing is.....I find that I rarely want to spend time with them so that problem has fixed itself
Sadly that's true about a lot of people nowadays. I'm not going to get into it, but I cannot even believe what some people think these days. I keep facebook for family and friends, but rarely share / comment on anything political. But on twitter it's all politics. I come here for chickens.. though I do share the occ. chicken pic on fb. And I go to Pinterest and Candy Crush to escape. I also do genealogy stuff too, but when that gets overwhelming I need a break. I also have people I avoid talking to about things.. but you can't NOT see your mother, esp when that's where your chickens live.
I think what annoys me most is that although I don't agree with his view that chickens are livestock and should be treated as such I understand why he feels that way. I respect his opinion and let him have it, that's his opinion.
But because my opinion is not the norm, even among some chicken owners, I'm just wrong.
There's people who have 'pet' dogs and 'work' dogs and those work dogs don't get treated like pets. Same for cats & any other animal. So it's perfectly reasonable to say there can be 'pet' chickens and 'farm' chickens. I'm sure there were chicken people who thought I was straight up insane for spending $80 to have a chicken put to sleep, but I certainly couldn't do it myself. I mean I *could* if I had no other choice, but with the way I bawled like a baby that wasn't going to happen. After the experience w Odin & beating a mouse to death w/ a brick, I'm 75% sure I *could* do it if it were an emergency, but I'm not about to go out and pull the big boys off the roost and take them out.
Well, i have not done any heavy lifting and i have limited my bending over. I did have a nap as well. And taking my pills. So pretty good over all.
Are the pills helping?
I miss Smuv.
Look at me you guys! I am a mess!
View attachment 1569371
This doesn't even look like me!
That's actually what I expected you to look like after. Maybe the reaction was just delayed. You can still see fine, right?
Male quails are idiots, and if there are no hens, they breed each other. They grab birds by the back of their necks and pull out feathers so the birds end up bald and sometimes bleeding.
Good to know... I won't be getting quails any time soon since I didn't win the lottery, but you know how it is when you see something pretty and think 'I need that'.
Three weeks?!!
Got handcuffs?
Handcuffs? You shouldn't be doing THAT either.
On the subject of things we crazy chicken lovers do...
I spent 45 minutes standing out by the coop in the rain this evening waiting to see if the flock could agree on sleeping arrangements without drawing blood. Amelia (little naked butt) was absolutely determined to sleep with the flock tonight instead of in the hospital coop. So I stood there and watched and waited while they sorted things out. Even made emergency modifications to the sleeping area to try to help her.
I am happy to say, that after all the screaming and pecking they eventually all settled down, with Amelia back in her old spot
I also got treated to the glorious sight of a sleeping Roux. When he hunches his neck to sleep, his whole face disappears behind his tremendous wattles
+1 I did that the other day and I'm going to justify it b/c we know how mean those tiny dinosaurs can be about their 'spot'... they're like Sheldon, except w/ weapons attached to their faces.
You know, it would not be this bad if i had not had an accident taking care of my chickens. I have no friends or relatives here to care for my animals. Should i let them starve? Winter is coming, should i let them freeze? My husband will not be doing my chores, he had torn ligaments and cartilage in his right wrist. He is out there daily chopping wood to keep us warm.
So it's not so simple to just stop doing stuff and watch tv. I thought friends were supportive. I didn't get this surgery done just to be pretty. I am old and fat, and have no vanity left.I need to be able to see.
I feel like you guys would feel some empathy if i were a chicken. I spent my life taking care of others. Now no one cares for me. I am so sad.
We care about you. We're just really worried that you'll get an infection. When I got the hole in my foot in the chicken dusting area I was like 'whatever, it'll be fine'.. until I started thinking about how my chickens are constantly walking through there and that there was probably chicken poop on everything and inside my foot and how I'm not coordinated to begin with so how would I manage w/ a prosthetic foot. Luckily I had some bactroban at home from when my daughter went to the dr after her surgery so I used that, but even though it was my foot the dr did say to stay out of the coop until my foot healed. I didn't listen b/c stuff needed to be done, but I did make sure my foot was wrapped well, and I wore real shoes out there. So I understand that you need to go out and collect eggs and feed them check on them, but maybe wear a hoodie w/ the string drawn to cover your forehead and some kind of glasses, b/c we all know how dusty even the cleanest coop is. You look like you're healing great and it won't be much longer, just be careful. We're worried about you, just like we were for Stacey during the hurricane, and Suzi during her surgery, and Ron during the fires, and everyone else when they're in a situation (We're going to need to be medicated when Rae has her baby next year). If you were a chicken we'd have you locked in a cage in our basement, utility room, or garage and would be checking in on you constantly to make sure you're feeling better, seeing if you need anything, force feeding you and fretting over the condition of your poop and asking everyone here about their opinion of what to do. We love you and we just want the best for you. Just be careful and be safe
.. but we're going to worry b/c it's #3 of the top 10 things we do best. (#1 is eat and #2 is procrastinate)
And that's enough feelings for one day. Gotta go shake that off w/ some twitter.
, I'm 180 posts behind... So I'll try to catch up when I get home tomorrow.
