***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[NanaKat]

With yesterday's rain we now are up to 8.25 inches...all our ponds have been overflowing. That will surely get us thru the early summer months.
We will soon pull in the pairs to tag, band and immunize the newest calves. Then we will be hauling pairs and bulls to our off farm pastures.
With all the mud in the pastures, we have been fortunate not to have a scours outbreak!

Hatch up date...10 in the brooder, 5 in the hatcher, 5 pips and 22 to go. None of the 6 banty eggs have pipped yet, but today is the scheduled hatch date. I'm hoping for the Serama to hatch along with the CWOEGB. While I was gone the CW hen died so getting chicks from her would be nice.

The garden is soaked, but the raised beds are keeping the tomatoes drained enough that they are quickly growing. even have a tomato beginning to turn color. At the MIL's garden, the tomatoes are not in raised beds and her plants are beginning to yellow. They need better drainage.
A few pictures from today:
The garden in bloom


Babies in the brooder and my Lovebird Naranjo...the last one.


Run off from one of the ponds...and a lovely rose in bloom

 

[Jeansrie]

She has an amazing crest! -(that is what the feathers on the top of her head is called, right?)

Yes a crest - her name is Daisy because that's what she reminds me of!

 

[BetsyOK]

Jeanne's splash showgirl rooster is gorgeous! He's absolutely wonderful with all the attributes you want in a showgirl, and is a calm, gentle bird as well! Her chicks are very nice, at least insofar as all those I've seen!

 

[margaret8]

Well here goes! I can't seam to get the BST to work! So if you don't mind I'll post here. I live in Edmond and I have guineas, a bunch of guineas. I just hatched off over a100 keets. They are 3 days old and I have that many more to hatch! I would like to have $5.50 a peace.they are wonderful! I now have little if any bugs, including ticks.

 

[Kyzmette]

Sorry for the bad hatch.  I wonder what is going on w/ the hatches this year???  Broodies are having issues w/ it to not just incubator hatches.

Kass, I'm so sorry about Frick.

Are there any theories on how air pressure might impact hatching? Heart attacks and strokes occur more frequently when the barometer hits that headache-inducing pressure level. It's always possible that incubation during storm season could see some damage to weaker cell walls during long periods of high pressure.

 

[Kyzmette]

My chicks from that batch of Coweta eggs are getting pretty big. I have a couple of lavenders, some blacks, what looks like a couple of mottled, and then I have a couple that are colored like these two. The blacker one... is that chocolate? And what is that buff pattern?

 

[mjgigax]

Jeanne's splash showgirl rooster is gorgeous! He's absolutely wonderful with all the attributes you want in a showgirl, and is a calm, gentle bird as well! Her chicks are very nice, at least insofar as all those I've seen!

Splash! oh oh, I am more and more crazy about Showgirls.
I had 2 more Showgirls and a Silkie hatch yesterday. One showgirl is Blue, one is Blue Partridge and the Silkie is Blue.
My Showgirl roo is my most "aggressive" roo. (That is not saying much, I have all gentlemen around here.) I think he is just protective of his girls, after all they are the most beautiful ladies in all my flock.

 

[BetsyOK]

Update on guinea fowl with bumblefoot:

I'm surprised to be able to give THIS update. I posted several months or so ago about a guinea with severe bumblefoot. I brought her in the house and kept her in her for about 4 or 5 weeks. At first I soaked her feet and legs in Epsom Salts and opened all the pockets of infection (there were MANY on her feet, up her legs and on her hocks) every other day for about two weeks, packing the pockets with neosporin. I then injected her with the appropriate dose of penicillin for a week. All this time she was very alert and ate avidly. She was very thin when I brought her in.

I decided I was no longer going to cut on her feet and legs (it was too traumatic for both of us), and she was somewhat improved. The apparent points of entry of the infections were not on the bottom of her feet, but rather on the upper side of one foot. I couldn't see any clear cut point of entry on the other foot.

About that time she lost most of the use of her right leg and her toes on that foot curled into a claw. She got around by stumbling on the back of her closed "claw foot" on the right side, dragging her leg into position with difficulty. I put her outside in a rabbit hutch type of structure so she could be in the fresh air and could hear her flock. After a few days, she began calling to them very often. She continued to be very alert and to eat well. I knew from researching that bumblefoot can be fatal, and realized I might have to consider euthanizing her at some point.

Vashi and I then decided if she had any chance of any life or improvement, she should be back in the pen with her flock where she would be able get more exercise by moving around. She continued to have no use of her foot and limited use of the leg, and the dominant male would stop by and peck her every time he passed her, but it was obvious he wasn't hurting her, and she put herself in places where her head was protected. She continued to "lurch" around when she moved, using her wings for balance, but went out into the yard when I let them out, and was able to get herself around to eat bugs and vegetation and then back into the pen. I made sure she had plenty of food in several places, and she continued to eat well. By that time, I had abandoned thoughts of possible euthanization.

About a week ago Vashi and I both noticed that she was standing with her right foot opened and the toes flat on the ground. Since then, she walks and runs with a fairly strong limp, but she can move very fast--though not as fast as the others. The pockets of swelling are less than they were when I first started working with her, and I think they are all gone from her legs and hocks, 'though settled around her ankles and toes.

These birds have wonderful recuperative capabilities! I don't know if she'll ever be able to perch or fly, but she does seem to have a fairly high quality of life otherwise.

Hope this will give some encouragement to others who might need to work with this type of infection.

 

[mjgigax]

My chicks from that batch of Coweta eggs are getting pretty big. I have a couple of lavenders, some blacks, what looks like a couple of mottled, and then I have a couple that are colored like these two. The blacker one... is that chocolate? And what is that buff pattern?

It might just be chocolate. I am just learning about Chocolate breeding and some do hatch very dark.
I finally got some fertile eggs again from my Orps, (after 2 weeks of blanks). There were 2 and they both hatched and both look black to me. The chicks from my Cowetta eggs and from the very first eggs from my flock have a few that look like your dark chick. One is most definitely a dark brown though. It sure will be interesting to see what be end up with.

I may have posted this before but I bought a dozen light blue eggs, labeled Ameraucana, at Newcastle auction that hatched out everything but the kitchen sink. I kept 2 - feather legged naked necks!

 

[kelielliott]

I got it! It has taken months but we are NPIP!