Online Large Fowl Chat Thread

[CapricornFarm]

Today DH finished up the new creep feeder. I knew the adults were going to try to get the feed, but they were circling like sharks. He couldn't believe that Bella actually got her head in over the top of the door to get to the trough. So he put another board on, hopefully that will do it. One kid figured out how to use it so far, I think we are going to have to make the entrance bigger.
I got up early and went to the auction today. Prices were not as high as I had hoped, but I did sell a truckload so that will help with the feed bills. I didn't buy a single bird! Just decided to concentrate on taking care of what I have. The work load is catching up with me.
After I got back from the auction , I built the pyre for the triplets. I raked the pasture and cleaned up and tended the fire and cried. Bunny is still calling for them, and I am milking her to keep her comfortable. At least it was a pretty day.

 

[Arielle]

Glad you unloaded a truck load of birds as that reduced your workload.

Yes, the adult goat/sheep do work very hard to steal all the grain they can! Have you every tasted their grain? Gritty and salty and if it has molasses coating, add sweet tot that list. I might like it better if I was a goat.

DH took a ewe and her 2 black lambs to a public even for the weekend. Last year he took the two rams, nice boy that they are. Kids in the city don't get to see these wonderful sights very often. He brought home 3 coke bottle of what looks like cola syrup. Very bad year of maple syrup. Had to add water before starting the boil due to the size of the boiling unit and . . . . well it boiled a long time and syrup is nearly black. And tastes great. Two out of three years have not been good. We need our cold winters back.

I hope Bunny will figure out soon that her babies are gone. Otherwise, how is she doing? Sorry you had a crappy day dealing with the final duties.

Your beautiful weather arrived here today. I moved 7 pullets into the hen house and the girls are generally accepting of them, especially if they stay out of sight.lol THe boys are getting to know the new girls too. I will give them a few days to get to know their new home before letting them free range with the big girls.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Bunny is grouchy, butted Slim I suspect. He has a long scratch down his side. It could have been another goat, but I took him out of her pasture. She looks thin and anemic, so I am worming her and I am giving her more electrolyte mix. Her teats are small and difficult to milk but at least she doesn't fight me. She is grazing but not eating much feed. I am going to pick her more leaves tomorrow . She didn't eat the carrots I cut up for her, will have to buy some apples.
Why do ALL farm chores require bending? My back continues to plague me. Pills, hot packs, hot soaks all help a bit but then I go back out and aggravate it again. I may be forced to cut way back on livestock. Moved about 20 young birds out of the insulated room and into a pen in the other side of the barn. They are fully feathered anyways. There is going to be a sale next week end at R&J feed , a swap meet like they held last year at TSC. But no shade there, so I might have to take the pop up tent. If I go. My younger son is supposed to visit that weekend. How I am going to clean up the house before he and his girlfriend visit, I have no idea.
My cat has decided she likes laying on me while I am in the tub! She never minds getting a bath, but this is ridiculous! She will also retrieve toys.

 

[chick-among-us]

Hot I hope you can alleviate your back pain some how....do you know what you originally did to it? have you tried a chiropractor? or having your kidneys checked?Anyhow hope it gets better and poor bunny finds her way soon.
My mare delivered a beautiful,creamy colored little weak, very sickly foal a couple years ago. All avenues where exhausted and I finally had to make the "decision" I was frantically calling the vet and anyone else, while the baby was suffering and thrashing where he lay, I remember when I KNEW I was gonna give the word... there would be no help in time...it was time for my dear friend to come with his gun (we live in the country and of course it was Sunday) so there would be no peaceful way...I was physically ill.... I cried so hard you would have thought it was a human...and I'm not a cry baby...I am no weepy woman. I walked over to a wall and leaned on it...took a few moments to "really think" maybe a solution of some kind....I punched the wall is all I remember (I am not given to physical violence either but man was I angry) and gave the word to have the baby put down. I walked over and gather the mare and she and I walked out to the pasture where we just walked until I heard the shot...No lie that Mare flinched like she knew and started SCREAMING...I just let her go and she ran to the gate hollering for the baby and I will swear that mare ran that fence line for miles that day while the baby was being taken care of. We finally let her in the paddock where he was after he was gone so she could,say goodbye and KNOW his fate instead of thinking he was alive and needing fed somewhere...it truly helped her to know he was gone,but she sure showed the depression...for days and days and it took a long time for her to quit calling "just in case" I guess...
The baby named Stevie...was laid to rest in the pasture he would have grown up in and where his sister and mother run and graze. When we let her into the pasture to graze, she would walk nose to the ground over his grave and smell...then walk slowly away...I have so many pics of her grazing very close to his grave like she would have with him had he lived. Hopefully this year she will have another baby,as we hope she is bred. It will be the first since then. May GOD have mercy and not put me and her through that twice.

 

[chick-among-us]

wow where did that come from?! How depressing... sorry yall!
We bought 3 little chicken coops, small but cute for up near the house. I am going to paint them all different colors, like little cookie cutter, row houses...and call em Blue coop,green coop and so forth...maybe move some chicks up and OUT! Got a sportsman bator! SOO exciting! Just hatched out a butt load of cuties for a local woman time to send those off! they are hopping around eating thier adorable fuzzy butts off. I have a whole bunch Im hatcing for the local feed store. AND have sold every egg my hens have and will lay for another day or so! Then Im gonna collect for me to set eggs for chicks to sell next go round! I have a lady who wants six laying hens, she will take juvenilles, but where will I get those? ughhhhhh...another lady wants chicks... six pullets..I'm a roo magnet did I mention that

and that all the chicks are sold?

I am hoping to paint the little coops before we put them together...maybe today? Spring break the kids are home,I shall have them HELP me....."ohhhhhhh children!!!! Come here Darlings....."

 

[shellyga]

Deb.. so sorry to hear that your back continues to aggravate and cause you pain. It seems like this past week has been a blur but I am getting done slowly. I wanted to get the coops cleaned out this weekend but Saturday was busy with grocery shopping and then the auction. I went early -- arriving at 5 so the one bunny I took would be up closer to the front/middle of the line to sell (auction starts at 7) WELL no such luck.. there were TONS of caged animals so she was still towards the end. I didn't even leave the auction until about 1:30 AM.. of course I brought a bunch of eggs and a few chicks home.. plus I bought a quad of Black Australorps.. no where to keep them separated at the moment but hopefully soon.
Sunday was just as busy it seems. Hubby and I said down for our weekly financial "summit" meeting and with all the plotting and planning..plus coffee drinking.. it was noon before we started doing anything truly productive. I had two chick customers that have been wishy washy about when to meet for two weeks.. so yesterday was the day. Both were coming from about 1 1/2 hours north of me.. so DH and I got into my truck with 20 chicks and headed to the state farmers market (about 40 minutes ride) to meet them a little closer.. sold the chicks and then we went on the hunt for a new vacuum. I HATE buying vacuum cleaners.. let me just say that. We came home with nothing but need one desperately. Looking on the Internet for good ones that can handle pet hair and country scuds that gets tracked in. If anyone has a good one to recommend.. let me know.

Now for the fun stuff.. I have my grandson today since I am off work. He will keep things lively today. Spending the week (well have to work Tues-Friday) to get house cleaned up for my daughter and her boyfriend visiting from California. I have chicks hatching today.. just saw the first one in the incubator.. so not sure yet what kind it is. More eggs to put in the incubator today.. delaware and some black copper marans.. AND some black/lavendar split orpingtons.. gotta love little chicks.

Yikes.. it is too quiet.. better go see what the little boy is up to...

happy day everyone
Shelly

 

[CapricornFarm]

I had my back checked out and the MRI showed multiple herniated discs . So it is unlikely to get better any time soon. If it were just my back, that might be bearable, but my IBS is continually causing me pain and I am depressed . I try to ignore it all but some days I cannot. Just wish there were a cure for at least one problem.
Chick-among-us, I feel your pain x3. So sorry about your colt. Hope she has a healthy baby this time.
My egg auctions are not selling either, IDK if I am charging too much or what. One guy bid, then edited to cancel. Will have to try to sell locally I guess. I went to feed the babies in my brooder and one of the two baby ducks was dead. It was smaller than the othe so may have had issues. But it still hurt.
I need to wrap and ship swap eggs and a few others today. So I will be going to town.

 

[CapricornFarm]

It was kind of a cloudy, drizzly day, but the sun peeked through a bit. Mailed off four boxes of eggs, more to send out tomorrow . I have to be at the dentist by 10 am. Got a cavity under my crown. WTH? So I will need drilling and a new crown. Hope insurance pays for it.
The lady came and put a deposit on the two doelings today and will pick them up Friday. I dewormed Bunny , gave her more antibiotics and some drench today. I am going to let her stay out in the pasture tonight since it is not supposed to be cold. Peppermint Patrick got dewormed as well, he is going to visit the neighbors for a few weeks. Their does need breeding, I think he can get the job done. The new bucklings they swapped me are yelling for their ma. One doesn't even sound like a goat any more, he is squealing! Hopefully he will stop that soon.
Must get more eggs ready to ship tomorrow .

 

[shellyga]

UGGG dentist..I need to make an appointment and will bite that bullet soon. I have decided that I am allergic to doctors of any sort..

Deb.. I am sending healing hugs your way.. I wish I could discover some miracle cure for you..

and as for your eggs.. I love them. The auctions on BYC are hard for me to find.. not sure if others have the same problem.. but I know you send quality eggs, packed great, at an awesome price. I am sending you a PM asking about a couple of breeds..

We are battling a stray cat.. a BIG one..here at the "farm".. I have seen it several times and we have lost a couple of chicks. The last straw was when my grandson and I were walking up the sidewalk to our house and the darn thing ran past us from UNDER our porch! Yesterday the we had let the BBS orpington flock out to range on their side of the fence and later I go out to hear the alarm calls from the two roosters.. the cat was aggravating them. I don't think it is big enough to take down an adult chicken of their size..but I have a mama with a single chick in that group. DH came out with the gun but cat had disappeared. We are getting a couple of traps from a friend to trap and remove the cat soon hopefully.

Well I have done it.. finally ordered my sportsman incubator.

I am so excited. It is being shipped from about 3 hours south of me.. so hopefully it will arrive very soon. The cost of shipping versus cost of gas to go pick it up was about the same so I decided my time was worth more. I have staggered hatches in all of my incubators at the moment but as they hatch out, I'll be cleaning them up and selling. It will be nice to be able to set more at one time.. I know.. I know.. I am a hatchaholic but I love it.

I have a good market for my birds..plus the trend at the auction each Jan/Feb makes it worth growing out what chicks don't sell. Now to get the last two coop areas for the groups I want to separate.. always plotting and planning.. it is the life of a chicken owner.

Well time to get some early morning chores done before heading to work.. if I didn't have work to go to every day.. what a wonderful life.. but the money I earn is necessary so I guess I will go..

Happy day everyone
Shelly

 

[CapricornFarm]

Thank god this dentist is super gentle! He even numbs you up before he numbs you up:-D But two hours in the dentist chair is no treat any way you look at it. I did score some bubble wrap since they were unpacking supplies. Spent half an hour trying to print labels on USPS.com, still did not work. I think Adobe was not working right. Shipped two boxes, got more to ship tomorrow . Going to Jackson, need feed etc.
I wore a heat pack for a while today and took a short nap this afternoon. Tonight I moved the Wheaten Ameraucanas in with the EE, since I sold the other roosters. I only have two pullets and two roosters anyway so why put them separate? I should be able to tell the eggs apart by color. So now I have an empty pen in the barn that needs cleaning.