***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[NanaKat]

Nana so glad you were able to get the calf & momma through the rough delivery. Neighbor had one a few wks back. Calf was so big dislocated the hips of mom will birthing & the calf died. Took wks to get the heifer back up & going. They were having to lift her with the tractor just so she could eat & drink. Cattle are too much for me! Have to keep saying that, everytime I see calves running across the pasture I fall in love. Good thing we are surrounding by cattle pasture. I can just enjoy them & not have to care for them!

I enjoy watching the calves when they discover they have legs and take off running with their little tail flags in the air...and the worried new mommas go running after them, bags swinging. And we have several big compost piles of hay and manure that hubby scrapes up ever so often. The calves play "King of the Mountain" on those and so the turning process is so easy. Even have a bull that likes to head butt the piles and make the compost toss.

 

[Greybear23]

Just thought I would put a few pics off my favorite birds.

Nice!!

 

[Tony O]

Quote:

The pleasure was all mine.

 

[RetiredArmyWife]

 

[spunkychickenmomma]

Is it to late to plant garlic? I found a great sale on them so I got 12 now I am trying to decide whether to plant them or try and preserve them in oil.

I planted garlic for the first time this Spring. It started out doing great, but doesn't look so good now. I have it planted in an old tire with plenty of loose rich soil. Hopefully it will perk up some. I use lots of garlic when I cook!

 

[RetiredArmyWife]

Any ideas on breeds for the above chicks? I think the small blue one is an OEGB, the three buff ones Orpingtons. I have no idea about the two spotty ones. They look similar but one has feathered legs. The one without feathered legs looks a little bit like an OEGB mix but I couldn't get a good picture of her.

 

[artsyrobin]

3 is my crossbeak- poor little thing- he keeps up with the rest for now though- had to lock mama up to get these shots...she is vicious! don't know that i'll let her raise another batch- these are salmon favs-

 

[bfrancis]

Forgot to add a question for the quail people here,

How do I care for the baby button quail? OR the adults for that matter? I don't have quail and it looks like these will hatch out smaller than cotton balls! Luckily I have small wire cages that I had finches in. Could I put them in my aviary? It is rather big and I am also building an outside aviary. There are finches and parakeets in there now. I am adding diamond doves soon. Will they get along with the others? I believe button quail are more of a pet quail am I right?
Thanks for the help!
Shellie

Hey Shellie, sorry didn't get to meet you there. Were the button quail in plastic cartons from Stoney Creek? If so, those were the ones I brought. The incubation instructions are in the "fine print" on the label.

When they hatch, the babies are so tiny...and can become "splay legged" very easily. Equine pine pellets are perfect bedding, gives them purchase to stand on, holds heat and smells well. (Others might say, "oh, just put down paper towels"...you can try it, but speaking from experience, bad idea.) The brooder needs to be at 95*F for the first week, drop 5*F per week until your reach the inside ambient temps. ( I say inside because buttons do much better inside than out. They can not handle the extreme temps cold or hot...but deal with heat better they are a tropical bird)

On food, Game bird starter or GBS. It comes in crumbles, but even then, the crumbles are too large. I find putting a handful in a zip lock bag and crushing to the consistency of very fine sand, power fine is bad. At 6 weeks old you can switch to the normal crumble and feed them that for life.

Button quail are monogamous and mate for life. Some folks will try the colony style life, but they will do much better in pairs.

Buttons are more pets...but are still spazy, they won't sit on your finger or anything. A lot of folks will get them to put in the bottoms of their inside aviaries for clean-up maintenance birds, eating all the dropped seeds and such from the perching birds...but they still need the 26%-28% protein...they will die on seeds alone.

My email was on the carton as well, feel free to email any questions you may have or run into.

Good luck!

Bill

edited for the PS, how are those other chicks doing? The Ameraucanas and d'Anvers?

 

[youfordz]

hey ksane- what do i have here...

A CHICKEN!!!!!!

 

[youfordz]

I love those birds that stand tall and proud like that.

I can sympathize w/ the non cooking husband I have one of those too. He is the baby child of his family that is what I blame it on, the "babies" are sooooo babied! (yes I am the oldest in my family so there may be some unresolved childhood issues

)

i'm the baby in my family.
and the baby in the family i have now!
and the biggest bay according to the wife and daughter.