Pipd's Peeps 2014!

[autumnhearth]

For those of you not keeping up with the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreak, it came out yesterday that H5N8 was found in my county here in Indiana. So that's what I'm dealing with at the moment. No free ranging right now, and I may have to postpone the babies' first hatchday party until I feel safer about it. I'm working on containing the girls better so there is less of a chance of wild birds getting in with them. No one's going to be happy about that, naturally, but I can't lose these girls. I'm apparently not in the quarantined portion of the county, though I'm still on high alert as anyone should be. It's worrying, but I'm trying not to panic.

Oh no! I just saw the news yesterday. I was wondering when it was going to get to Indiana, as we're in Ohio. I would be a nervous wreck if it was in our county or even a neighboring county, yikes! My in-laws are in Stark County and have a small flock and I have a friend in Brown County with chickens as well (I went to IU). Fingers crossed for you and your precious flock!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I'm keeping it together. Still have a nauseous feeling in my gut, but keeping it together. Honestly, logically, it's probably been here all along and this is just the first case reported. It sounds like it was a result of someone letting their birds commingle with wild waterfowl, so that is a little relieving to me. We never see wild waterfowl actually on the property (there really isn't anything to attract them; no ponds or anywhere for them to graze), and my birds never leave the property, so hopefully an up in biosecurity will keep it at bay. I worry about my girls, though. I love them all so much. Just got to keep it together and hope for the best!

 

[lightchick]

Youngsters with no commitment, that's what they are! Kit's over it already, and Elly quit before she started. AND, the Sebrights finally decided to call it quits, so we're down to She Who Might Be Broody.

So that's the good news.

Also in the good news section, I candled the five eggs last night. Five little duckies greeted me.

They're growing beautifully and staying active!



Now for the bad news.

For those of you not keeping up with the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreak, it came out yesterday that H5N8 was found in my county here in Indiana. So that's what I'm dealing with at the moment. No free ranging right now, and I may have to postpone the babies' first hatchday party until I feel safer about it. I'm working on containing the girls better so there is less of a chance of wild birds getting in with them. No one's going to be happy about that, naturally, but I can't lose these girls. I'm apparently not in the quarantined portion of the county, though I'm still on high alert as anyone should be. It's worrying, but I'm trying not to panic.

Your ducks are adorable!
I gave Ana an Ameraucana chick yesterday and she's excepted it.
We have AI surrounding us. It's less then 30 miles away!

 

[carikermoon]

Haven't been on in a while but have to say that the pics of the wet hen (now I truly get the saying "madder than a wet hen") made me laugh...good thing I wasn't driving King anything at the time.

Reuben is BEAUTIFUL! What a handsome boy!

Trudi is a cutie! I hope that the hatching goes well--I've never tried to hatch. It seems so nerve-wracking--I just don't know if I could handle that suspense. And consider how addicting chickens are, I'm worried that there would be no stopping me if I started mainlining...er, I meant hatching...chicks.

Meanwhile, I will keep sending positive thoughts your way with regards to AI. That's another one of those suspenseful things that I just can't stand...and there's nothing good that can come of it at all that I can see.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Happy Hatchday Babies!! e

I cannot believe it's been so long since I made the drive to Meyer's and met five of the most precious girls I've known! We've had some rocky times, and sadly, not everyone has made it here, but my remaining little ladies are a whole year old today! My babies are all grown up!


So between the HPAI scare and the nasty, wet weather, I've made the decision to postpone the babies' hatchday party for now. I don't know when I'll do it. Maybe later this week, as we have some decent weather in the forecast and the girls are itching to stretch their wings, poor darlings. It's been as rough on them as it has been on me. :/ Whenever it happens, though, I will definitely post the fun here.





In the mean time, I'd like to pose a question. Now, I'm aware that this isn't the most popular or active thread around and it probably doesn't matter all that much, but I traditionally close my yearly picture threads with the hatchday party pictures and make the thread for the next group of babies. Since I will not be adding chicks to my flock this year, now more so than ever, I thought maybe I would just switch to a flock picture and blog type of thread instead. I just want a place where I can dump all the pictures I take of my birds, as well as where I can post cute stories or vent or generally just keep updates on my flock. But, I'm wondering if it's even worthwhile to close this thread and create a new one just for that. I'd like to be able to put the link to my flock page in the first post more obviously than it is in my signature so that anyone stopping by could use that as an easy reference for figuring out who the heck I'm talking about sometimes, but I have long since lost the ability to edit the first post of this thread. On the other hand, I don't post all that much, so would I really need a whole entire new thread for that? Anyway, just wondering what y'all (the few frequent posters ) thought.



Oh, and since I'm posting, last night was my day 14 candling for my ducky eggs. 4 babies wiggling away and developing right on track. Looks like I may have lost a second one, though, as number 5 (Left Bottom) appears way too still. The egg doesn't smell or look rotten (I think?), so I'm leaving it in the incubator for now, just in case. Carikermoon, you are 100%, totally, completely, absolutely correct about this process being nerve wracking!

 

[shadow rabbit10]

Yay! Happy hatchday! Sorry about your duck egg. Maybe you can just wait and see? I don't think you would smell the rotten egg until it it opened (my teacher has had dead Canada goose eggs in the open lab for 2 weeks and they don't smell, but I wouldn't want to open them). I've heard calls are hard. I totally think you should start a blog type thread about your flock. I love seeing your pictures and stories and you are one of my favorite members to read about on BYC. It doesn't matter how many people follow it, because there will always be a group who enjoys reading your posts. Also, it really doesn't matter of you don't post that often. Sometimes I prefer low activity threads because I myself am too busy to keep up with them frequently, and I'm sure others are the same way. Plus I wouldn't say you rarely post. And like you said, you want a place to talk about your flock, so I say go for it and make one.

 

[autumnhearth]

Happy Hatchday! I would love to see pics and stories of your whole flock and a will follow either here or on a new page, I can see the pros to both.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yay! Happy hatchday! Sorry about your duck egg. Maybe you can just wait and see? I don't think you would smell the rotten egg until it it opened (my teacher has had dead Canada goose eggs in the open lab for 2 weeks and they don't smell, but I wouldn't want to open them). I've heard calls are hard.

Yup, definitely going to wait and see on that egg! While I was looking things up, I came across too many posts about people thinking eggs were dead and cracking them open. Not gonna happen. I've only read that you can smell if they start to rot, though, I've never experienced it personally, so I have no idea.

Calls are hard, from everything I've experienced and read. I just realized this morning that hatch day is approximately one week from tomorrow and I'm getting very anxious! I've read up on everything, but I'm so scared I'll mess it up. The last time, it was an all-night ordeal, and that was with just one!


In other news, I SWEAR I saw one of those eggs wiggle last night after I candled it! I put it down and after a second or two, it appeared to wiggle just a little bit! EEK! I've still got to work on a brooder!








I think I will go ahead and make another thread after the hatchday party, just because it's kind of my own little tradition at this point. I definitely will post the link here once it's up. I got some of the supplies for the party today, but I still need to get some of their favorite veggies to dice up and decorate the 'cake' with. I was thinking of doing it today, but it looks like we're getting more rain. SIGH. So I guess I have time to get the rest of the stuff around.

 

[shadow rabbit10]

Yay! Good luck with your eggs! I got some bad rain today too. But, it's been pretty dry, so I'm not complaining

 

[ChickenChatten]

I love hearing about your flock! Can't wait for the ducklings to arrive!