***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[HeyBigRhondaq]

Rigor will not pass in 30 minutes, it takes over 24, and sometimes longer if resting in the cold refrigerator.   I can not answer how it wasn't tough as a child, but can say w/o a doubt if you are trying to eat any meat that is currently in rigor, might as well be eating chewing gum.

I was young...maybe there was more time between processing and eating. And maybe it was a morning to night thing and enough time had passed. I need to ask my mom and grandma to be certain. Regardless, I plan to brine mine the next go-round and see how that goes.

I concur on meat still in rigor. Even if you crockpot it, it will be chewy!

 

[NanaKat]

Candled the SFH eggs, its only day 3 but out of 14 eggs 8 are definitely developing e And @HeyBigRhondaq the blue egg Arlo was gifted at the poultry show???Totally developing! We are so excited for a pure bantam ameraucana (sp?). Also have 13 sizzle/silkie eggs and everyone of them looks good! And here is my new little girl (from Rhonda), I love her so much She really follows me everywhere around their run and does my chores with me. @NanaKat so glad to hear surgery is over and you are healing. I bet you get stir crazy pretty easily Do you still have the black bantam cochin cockerel available? I'll send you a PM in a few days @YardBirdMom Im hoping these next 3 weeks go by quickly for you. It sounds so intense and how sad to be away from your husband and chicks. @Ksane Just feeling so sad you're going thro so much with your beloved birds. Arlo says And I think you've sold me on favarolles. I will have to look for some next spring. They lay a colored egg right?

Such a pretty pullet. Congrats on the eggs...hoping for a great hatch. Yes, the Black Cochin bantam boy is still available. He is chasing girls.,,,

@ashtree Awesome news! I love that Arlo loves his chickens SO MUCH. What a kind-hearted kiddo! Glad the girls are doing well. Let me know when they finally lay! I caught my Jubilees playing around in the nest boxes. Hope they decide to lay soon. I made some adjustments to my set-up...new roost ladders, etc. the barn area is a MESS. (I'm not good at cleaning as I go.) I still have a few little coops I want to finish, so I'm saving the cleaning til after this weekend. I'll post pics when I'm done. One is sentimental...story will come with the pics. I'm sending good thoughts out for all, but especially @nanakat and @YardBirdMom. Here's my pics for the day...

I still think I have 4 girls and 1 boy. I don't know if my black girl is actually black though. She's got a lot of brown on her...

I think I may have a bunch of true Cochins but in non-traditional colors. I'm sure there is a better word for that, but it eludes me. Oh well, I may still breed them, but I really wanted living incubators anyway.

The bantam Cochin have more color varieties than the large fowl Cochin.

. YARA Everyone is showing their beautiful birds so I had to show off my babies. These are Blue Double Laced Barnevelders. They are getting so big! I love them so much!

nice!

 

[i-love-my-honey]

Home from surgery trussed up like a stuck pig! They performed a nerve block so it feels like I'm carrying someone else's are in the sling. Great meds too. Good fo 24 hours. The com chair will begin tonight. See the doctor again The end of the week. For a therapy schedule.

So glad! Praying for a quick recovery!

 

[Ksane]

Home from surgery trussed up like a stuck pig! They performed a nerve block so it feels like I'm carrying someone else's are in the sling. Great meds too. Good fo 24 hours. The com chair will begin tonight. See the doctor again The end of the week. For a therapy schedule.

Good, this is wonderful to hear. I've been thinking about you. So glad you're safe and sound in your own bed.
Rest easy and sit with the birds, that's your only job for the next few wks!

 

[BetsyOK]

So happy to read that you're home and on the mend. I know you can't be kept down!

 

[NanaKat]

up at 5:30 this morning ..it was sooo good after missing my coffee yesterday morning. They don't put coffee in the IV bag. But I did get dextros sugar dropped to 64 before surgery. You would think they could inject caffeine

Hubby took my picture tp send to the grandchildren so they would know Nana was okay....so thought I would share it here.


he also went out this morning and has scrubbed water containers and filled up feeders that were ready to top off.....such a sweet man! I sat and enjoyed another cup of coffee.
The boys are welding up a 18 inch metal pipe to be a tin horn for a pond dam. they keep the birds locked until they are finished. Larry is afraid the birds would be blinded if they look at the welding flame. Then they will let them out for the rest of the day.
Quail are hatching today.

 

[SharkmanDan]

I have two questions, on different subjects.
First, I need to do sinus cavity surgery, on a nearly full grown French Midget Turkey. Any ideas on how to restrain her, to minimize the chance of hurting her, while doing the surgery?
Second, I have a guinea issue. They really need to stay out, most of the time, to be effective, and force them to forage. Otherwise they are "Welfare Birds" standing around, looking for a handout. The problem is, I have a dog, that I've had 7, or 8 years, and had rescued him from the streets as a starving puppy. He's a chicken (& guinea) killer. I've been keeping him indoors, while the chickens were out, in the daytime, then once the chickens are cooped up, he goes out for the night, as I go to bed, then let him in, as I awaken, to make coffee. He is pretty easy to keep away from the chickens, because he's a well behaved dog, indoors, but sees the fluttering birds as toys, and catching them, just to kill them, is like a game to him. He'll eat small amounts of the meat, but not much. It's more about the killing. So, him inside, while the birds are out, and vice versa, seems to work well. Until last night, when he found a way to get to the guineas. He has spent many nights out there with guineas, without a loss, prior to this. However, We lost somewhere between 6, and 10 guineas to him last night. I awoke this morning, and found 6 of them, eviscerated in the yard, and, of 18 guineas, I am only seeing 8. There may be 4 more, scattered in the woods, around the house. I just won't know, until and if, I ever see them again.
So, my question is this. I can't keep him indoors all of the time (he's a big-80#-Catahoula Cur), like I can my toy poodle and mini schnauzer. And the guineas, sometimes want to coop, and sometimes refuse to coop up. As I understand it, the most effective way to keep the guineas, and get them to forage, is to (once they are fully feathered and able to fly, WELL) leave them out, full time. We have 15 acres, and another 20 or so wooded acres surrounding our property, for the birds and dogs, to roam, and play in. I lived for 53 years in a house with a tiny yard, and part of the reason I moved here, was to give my dogs room to be dogs. So, I'm not in favor of chaining him up, and fencing a large enough area, is too costly. Even the electronic, fenceless fence, was tried, and caused a tragedy, when we first moved here, so my wife will never allow that, again.
All that said, since chickens are relatively easy to coop up, are there chickens that can be good at bug (mostly ticks) control, that I could use, in lieu, of guineas?
Thanks, in advance, to everyone, for your thoughtful help.

 

[Ksane]

@NanaKat Love the picture! Poor little grandkids worried about their Nana :-(
Ummm, and yea....when Roger's done there send him on to my house. I promise not to keep him too awful long before I send him off to the next on the list.
Great husband! They have a way of really coming through for us, don't they? Kinda' makes up for the times they're a PITA

 

[Kyzmette]

GAAAAAAH! I just had my first BAD case of coccidosis. I can't believe how AWFUL this is! I've never had to deal with this before, because I keep my babies inside and change their bedding regularly, so I don't know how this happened. One day they're perping and peeping and happy babies, and the next day I found the first body... then another the day after... then another the day after that. I couldn't figure out what was killing them until the third died, and that's when I found BLOOD speckling their bedding! I'm just beside myself that they had to suffer before I realized what it was. So once the blood appears, that's a sign that it's really bad, right? This was two days ago, and I immediately started them on Corid and have been changing the bedding daily, and haven't lost any since then. Do they have a good chance of recovery? These babies are only 4-6 weeks old.

I know I hear about people dealing with this all the time, so I shouldn't beat myself up since I've been hatching all this time and never had to deal with it before, but I just HATE when I'm responsible for some poor little baby's pain. I had just cleaned out the storage room and set up room in there for them, so I'm wondering if it's something about that room. It was overcrowded with stored junk for a long time, so I had to clean out signs of mice. If a mouse got in there with them to eat the food, could that have caused coccidosis? OMG, now I'm just sick over that thought.

 

[kelielliott]

Added vinyl floor to the coop and roost. Hoping to make cleaning easier and save the plywood.