***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[lynn1961]

5 inches of rain here, how has everyone else faired the storms over the past few days ?

 

[RetiredArmyWife]

5 inches of rain here, how has everyone else faired the storms over the past few days ?

Not sure what we have here, but I would enjoy it a lot more if my roof didn't leak. Poor hubby had to go up there and tarp it while it was still thundering. The roofing company can't fix it until the weather clears. Still can't help but be happy we are getting this rain after last year.

 

[upcdayz]

Good evening all. Just got back from the lake house a couple hours ago. Worked on chicken coops until my shoulder gave out, then the rain came. I talked to a few handymen to try to find someone to finish building for me. I guess it's time I realize that I'm not superwoman anymore and arthritis has control over my limbs. Will see what kind of price the handymen charge before making a decision.

In the coops here at the house I found some surprises.It looks like the neighborhood opossum is back. In one coop I found two eggs that had been cracked open and the insides eaten. The girls have found alternate egg laying spots in yard now. One was found in the cannas that are coming up and another was found in some leaves on the side of the house. In the other coop I found two baby chicks under the unidentified large fowl broody hen and two more eggs that have pipped. That was a nice sight to see. The chicks are silkied Seramas. They're still wet from hatching. Soooo cute! Will check tomorrow morning to see if the others have hatched.

Got lots of rain at the lake last night. Some roads were flooded but none that we had to go down. The temperatures have sure dropped.

 

[BlanchardOK]

Ahhh in for the night - looking forward to the sale here in town Saturday!! I got the bulk of the coop done and ready to stat the run and nesting boxes and such - coop is 10x9. .. . already thinking that might not be the size I will need. lol.... scared about chicken math


Sadly three little chicks drowned in the 6+ inches of rain we got here at the house... it is terrible to see a little chick die after working and caring for them.

 

[mefordz]

ty. you make some pretty neat posts on here, i see.

who me???????

i'm just a lonely old geezer with no life!!!!!

actually i'm just well medicated and have no idea what i'm doing most of the time.

just ask them, they will tell you the same thing!

 

[nnbreeder]

We just had to put down two if the chicks that were sick with the upper respiratory infection. There is a third one that was barely showing symptoms but she seems to be getting worse now. They weren't getting better and weren't growing. The one that got sick last was way bigger then them. Every chick from that batch had it. The bigger chicks that I got the same day and the Buff Orpington that was the same age that I got that day seem perfectly fine. Could they have been born infected?

Yes they could have been, There are many diseases that are egg transmittable. Most of the Mycoplasms are egg transmittable and they cause resp. distress.

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/203400.htm

They can be tested for the various diseases but the most reliable way to test is to euthanize them and then do a necropsy on them. But even then there may not be anything solid come of it.

Poultry disease control is geared to the big producer where it is more cost effective to cull an entire barn of birds and start over then to go ahead and feed them out for another few weeks and then have the carcasses rejected at slaughter.

 

[nnbreeder]

It has occurred to me I have been thinking about my future chicken processing equipment purchase all wrong.

I have been trying to calculate how many meat birds I would have sell in order to justify purchasing $2,000 worth of equipment. But then, while processing those roos last weekend, all of whom were old enough to make skinning them a bear of job, I realized a decent plucker should actually be seen as a labor saving device for the home. Scald and toss in 3 birds and in 30 seconds it's done. I don't plan to ever buy another chicken from the store, so that means processing my own for the foreseeable future.

So, I'm now thinking of this purchase more like a riding lawnmower or a dish washer. It will make a job I feel I have to do anyway significantly easier. The fact that I will eventually make all that money back through bird sales is simply icing on the cake.

How's that for rationalizing a purchase?

[Christina and others, I haven't completely tossed out the idea of a grant to pay for most of the equipment. I'm just not sure I want to wait that long for some of it, what with 125 meaties coming in the mail this week. I figure at least a plucker and a couple of cones need to be purchased pretty soon.]

Well the equipment should last you 20 years or more with the care you will give it so that is $100.00 a year for it's use. I'm pretty sure that you can clear way more then that in a year's time.

 

[Cjarvis]

evening all, thought I would pop in and say hey before I fall over, read through and caught up been a chatty bunch with this weather haven't ya..

My hatch, Nanakat's, Okieridge. and Mitzi's are all doing good and popping right out looking good even given the rain just had to change the humidity a bit to compensate for the rain.

 

[Cjarvis]

Cathie, that little cockrell is looking pretty decent from the photo, I'm glad the kids are enjoying him.. It's amazing that a few feathers just a bit off turns an otherwise nice bird to a bug eater.

 

[Buster52]

Ahhh in for the night - looking forward to the sale here in town Saturday!!

We are going to try to make it and might bring a table top plucker and a couple of incubators to sell. We are switching to tub style and cabinet, respectively.