Official Squatch Watchers

[Molpet]

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

We spent the day (when boys weren't napping) at my parents house. We got to hang out with one my my sisters (one couldn't come because of work, the other didn't want to come because *family drama*). The boys got only a few presents but they were very happy with what they got. All told, I think they didn't get more than $100 in toy presents this year. My mom got me half a wardrobe for both boys which probably cost a bit more.

We spent about 2 hours this morning splitting up my flock. I gave 10 hens and my NH Red rooster to my parents. I pulled my banty roos out to cull and threw the banty girls in with the main flock. Besides a few pecks and a little bit of tussling, they seem to be getting on fine.

I went through the 20 Dark Cornish hens I still have (that aren't part of the original trio) and I picked out 4 to keep. @Molpet I wish we could make it work to get you some of my reject hens. Some of them have really GREAT confirmation, but their coloring is bad and their tails are too high for my liking. I want to maintain the lacing, coloring, and tail set so I can potentially sell trios at some point. I'm also selling off or butchering the Cornish girls I'm not keeping. I posted them and the 4 LF Cochin girls I have about a half hour ago and I already have a buyer for the Cochins. It will be nice to limit my feed bill.

Boy do I wish I lived closer

 

[apryl29]

Hope everyone had a nice holiday!

21, so sorry about your pupper.

I know I’ve been commenting randomly but not talking chicken. Apryl asked so I’ll update... it’s not great.

The loss of Frannie then Clayton hit me hard. I was not expecting either but the guilt from Clayton was bad. I was still dealing with the mites in my laundry room when more birds took ill. In all honestly I’m not sure who I lost when. I had a limping Swedish Flower cockerel, a Swedish Flower cockerel who couldn’t walk and a Crested Cream Legbar not walking. The leg bar was full of mites that just like on Clayton I could not kill the mites. One cockerel just died. The other had something wrong with his leg. Over extension or slipped tendon... something not quite right. Rest and a brace didn’t help and at one point while trying to “help” I actually broke his leg. It snapped like dry kindling and he didn’t even notice. The leg was dead. So I culled. The Cream Legbar girl never got better. Wouldn’t/ couldn’t use her legs. In the end she was culled too and necropsied. Found a few worms and her gizzard walls were really thick. Nothing odd inside it but reeaally thick walled. I have no Deathlayers left. I lost the last one just the other day. All but this last one I just found already gone. This final male was once again covered in mites. Horror film skin crawling levels of mites. He received the “kitchen sink” treatment. Meaning throw everything including the kitchen sink at it. Ivermectin topically and orally. (Again all of about 3 worms expelled) Elector PSP and more then one dawn bath. (Bath first then PSP) I even sprinkled DE right on the mite colonies and around the area. I thought he was out of the woods, he was eating on his own, then found him dead. Looked like he laid down and went to sleep. He was fed mackerel, nutri drench, poultry cell, eggs... you name it if I thought he would eat it and get some strength back he was offered it. The mites seem to attack a weakened bird. If I really look for them I can find mites on other birds. But not the scabby encrusted colonies I found on Clayton the Legbar girl and the Deathlayer.

In good news Lila hatched a few more eggs. Silvia was being a broody monster so I gave her a few eggs from a friend. Ones that if they didn’t hatch it was no loss. Of course Lila jumped on the broody bandwagon so I split the eggs up between the girls. Lilas hatched and Silvias didn’t. She didn’t seem to mind. LOL I tried giving her one of Lilas and she looked at it and me “what do you want me to do with this?!?” She was done being broody just like that. A few days later Lila adopted. Someone had a single chick and I was asked if Lila would take it. She gladly clucked and sat on it. I also have six Silkies. Jointly started a breeding project with a friend. I have a brooder area in the coop so put them with a heat plate in there. They are a mix of all the Silkie feather types. Satin, Frizzle and regular Floof Silkie feathers.

I’ve been crocheting like crazy too. My niece asked for “hats from Aunt Kimberly” for her birthday and Christmas. (Which are days apart) That’s what she told me she wanted, her mom, and my mom (Grammy). “Hats from Aunt Kimberly.” So I made 3 matching hats for mom and the girls. A hat for their dad. A bunny hat for the new niece (4 months old now) and little baby mittens. I also made Minnie Mouse ears with bow for the birthday girl. And my most time consuming project, a Wonder Woman hat. It’s more like a wig. You actually crochet spiral curls to put on a hat base. Then of course the Wonder Woman crown. I’ll have to put some pictures up. I hope she like it. She about lives in a Wonder Woman dress I gave her and wears a superhero cape over almost everything else.

That’s all I can think of for now.

Hope everyone has a Happy Yule! Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Whatever you celebrate or even if you choose not to. Love you guys

Wow, so sorry to hear about the mites & the losses. I hope you're able to get them under control. Yay for new chicks & LOL about the bra baby. It looked really tiny in the video when you were passing her to the mama, but in the next video it looked much bigger.

Two new babies today!
View attachment 1986981

Congrats!

Hi everyone! Merry Christmas Eve!

Today is the Milk Drinker’s 6 month birthday. He’s had a big week. He started crawling he is now going everywhere and getting into everything. I have to do more baby proofing. I started giving him real food to chew on and taste. He loves apples and chewing on carrot sticks. He ate about a tsp of meat sauce with parm last night. He also really likes green beans and turkey. It took Thing 1 until he was 15 months to want to eat. The Milk Drinker is really eager for food. He also FINALLY completely cut his bottom two teeth. He’s had corners poking out since he was two weeks old, but they just sat there. It’s taking some adjustment. They are sharp little suckers. I can’t let him casually nurse anymore. He has to be serious about the business of nursing or he can’t nurse. When he isn’t serious, he’ll pop on and off and is more likely to bite. I weighed him yesterday and he is 24.5 lbs. 2.5 lbs heavier than Thing 1 was at this age. He is a half inch shorter and had the same sized head though he still fits in the infant car seat that Thing 1 out grew at 3 months. I don’t know. Kids are weird. Thing 1 is becoming so much more talkative. Today I was watching both boys while DH made a feed run (8 hour round trip). The Milk Drinker crawler up to Thing 1 and spit up on his arm. He pulled his arm up with a disgusted look on his face and said “Eww! Mommy! Clean my arm. Clean my arm. Clean my arm please!” I laughed and cleaned him up and told him that he used to spit up on me like that when he was the Milk Drinker’s age. He looked at the Milk Drinker, looked at me and said “That’s gross!”
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@Kiki

They're getting so big! Glad you had a nice holiday!

 

[apryl29]

I had 6 glorious days off of work & it was amazing! Kids had a good xmas, then shipped them off to their dad's until Sunday. Had a quiet day alone yesterday, then last night when I went to wash the carpet found my carpet washer is leaking water out of the bottom. Of course the part can't be bought anymore. A coworker suggested trying epoxy to fix it so I'm going to try that & hope it works. I'd planned on buying a new carpet washer in the spring, but I also expected this one to keep working until then.
Nice and warm today, mid 60's. First spring. I'm going to let the birds out for a bit this evening (under a very watchful eye), if my brother isn't hunting.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Boy do I wish I lived closer

Same here, but even if we met in the middle, that would still be 9 hours of driving for each of us. I plan on breeding this year, so I'll have to get you some eggs.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Hope everyone had a nice holiday!

21, so sorry about your pupper.


Wow, so sorry to hear about the mites & the losses. I hope you're able to get them under control. Yay for new chicks & LOL about the bra baby. It looked really tiny in the video when you were passing her to the mama, but in the next video it looked much bigger.


Congrats!


They're getting so big! Glad you had a nice holiday!

Thanks Apryl.
It is ok. My old guy isn't in pain anymore. I miss him but there really was no other choice.

 

[ronott1]

The chickens or the people?

Both if you have them!

 

[Redhead Rae]

My mom got the Milk Drinker a Dino outfit.

Thing 1's favorite present has to be his "glasses" he's been obsessed with glasses recently (since most of the adults in his life wear them). He's been wearing 3D glasses around, but I thought that would mess with his eyes so I got rid of them. My mom decided it would be fun to get him prescriptionless glasses and he's been wearing them nonstop. He looks so much like Ralphie from A Christmas Story when he wears them.

Here are this chickens I'm selling.

Dark Cornish hens.

The LF Cochin fluffbutts.

 

[ronott1]

My mom got the Milk Drinker a Dino outfit.
View attachment 1988302 View attachment 1988303 View attachment 1988305
Thing 1's favorite present has to be his "glasses" he's been obsessed with glasses recently (since most of the adults in his life wear them). He's been wearing 3D glasses around, but I thought that would mess with his eyes so I got rid of them. My mom decided it would be fun to get him prescriptionless glasses and he's been wearing them nonstop. He looks so much like Ralphie from A Christmas Story when he wears them.
View attachment 1988306
Here are this chickens I'm selling.

Dark Cornish hens.
View attachment 1988307
The LF Cochin fluffbutts.
View attachment 1988309

Very nice pictures!

 

[drumstick diva]

He makes an adorable Dino

 

[Redhead Rae]

My mom got the Milk Drinker a Dino outfit.
View attachment 1988302 View attachment 1988303 View attachment 1988305
Thing 1's favorite present has to be his "glasses" he's been obsessed with glasses recently (since most of the adults in his life wear them). He's been wearing 3D glasses around, but I thought that would mess with his eyes so I got rid of them. My mom decided it would be fun to get him prescriptionless glasses and he's been wearing them nonstop. He looks so much like Ralphie from A Christmas Story when he wears them.
View attachment 1988306
Here are this chickens I'm selling.

Dark Cornish hens.
View attachment 1988307
The LF Cochin fluffbutts.
View attachment 1988309

@Kiki I posted more pics!