Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

So sorry for all that trouble you had to go threw to get rid of the mites in the coop.  I hope  you don't have to do that to the guineas and the ducks.  Poor babies at least you caught it and are getting rid of them.  They are going to feel  a whole lot better.  

Take care and good luck I hope you get rid of the nasty things.  

Gosh, I hope so, too! I am going to go ahead and do Crashie since she's been living in the same room as Donna and Roscoe, and both of them had mites, too. I don't know if I should do the outside ducks or not, since they're in a completely different coop and rarely have any kind of contact with the hens. I'll have to check them over and see if I really need to... The Guineas will be a LOT harder, though, so I don't think I will treat them unless I see evidence on them. They are just not tame at all like your two, so just catching them and restraining them to check will be a trial, let alone treating them with the spray.






Today's accomplishments:
- Sprayed 29 of the chickens with permethrin spray
- Bathed (with the much appreciated help of my mom) 11 birds with particularly severe infestations, the worst being Ben, who was just covered in them :/ They are now sleeping in my parents' bathroom while they dry. Thank goodness my parents tolerate of all this...
(the last bird was Rooska, who had her bath yesterday)
- Cleaned my room, including removing all feathers that I could find, vacuuming up all the shavings, dusting, and spraying a little permethrin around up there just in case
- Cleaned Crashie's night-time pen and sprayed it. Crash is VERY upset right now, because she has to sleep in her living room pen while that dries!
- Re-bedded the now dry coop so the girls could go to bed in there. They were very grateful to have their coop again!

Doesn't seem like a whole lot when listed like this, but bathing and spraying the birds took up SO much time!



Tomorrow's chores:
- Get those 11 birds back outside and clean up the mess they will have made in that bathroom
- Get a pen set back up in my room for Donna and Roscoe
- Clean and scrape off the deck, then spray it thoroughly with permethrin
- Clean and spray the nest boxes so that they can go back in the coop
- Clean and spray the hutches so that they can be occupied again
- Re-bed Crashie's night-time pen so that she can go upstairs tomorrow night
- Spray Crashie with permethrin
- Clean Crashie's downstairs pen and spray with permethrin

And I think that's it! Almost done! Then I have to repeat spraying all the birds in a week, and hopefully there won't be any more signs of mites by then, because if there are, then I get to repeat the next week, too! UGH. I think I need a break from my winter break!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Done, done, done! I hope never to do that again!

No live mites to be found on any of the birds today after their treatment yesterday. I did have one live one on my arm after carrying Donna and Roscoe to their clean pen in my room, but it didn't look like it had fed of of them (no red tinge to it like they have when they've eaten), so hopefully any others remaining are not enjoying the taste of permethrin and starving to death, the little pests! All that's left is to retreat in a week, and hope they're still pest free at that point.


In lighter news, the confirmation letter from Sand Hill for my chicks next year FINALLY came today!! e Merry Chickmas to me!


And merry 'Chickmas' and happy holidays to all!

 

[pattyhen]

Merry christmas and may all the mites be gone.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Thanks, they're looking good still. I'm definitely relieved and I'm sure they are, too!




I'm experiencing something that I feel like I haven't felt in some time, at least since the beginning of this past semester. I'm not stressed from classes right now, no one is sick or injured in my flock, and the mite problem seems to be under control. I think right now I'm actually, truly happy. I've got nothing but love in my heart for my girls. THIS is why I keep chickens.

I've been promising pictures of the flock for a while, and today is a lovely, sunshiney day, so I think today's the day to finally take them. Stay tuned!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Picture time! I went up to my room to get the charged up battery pack for my camera, and Donna was being such a stinker that I took a couple of her, first. Isn't she lovely?

This picture pretty adequately sums up how much attitude this little birdy has.

I also got a picture of Roscoe:

Actually, I got a picture of all my rooster boys today! Reuben:

Benjamin:

Winter:

And Umru:

And on to the girls, here's Cazzie, looking floofy as always:

Such a sweetie, in spite of her scowling face

Flury floofy-poofy floofles! She was dust bathing. This look is saying, "Seriously? Taking pictures during my bath?"

She then was chased out of her dust bath (by a meanie!), but thought she was still dust bathing, I guess? She was perched on the kick board here, lying on her side. I don't even know how, but that face

My precious Elly Welly Standing in the door and waiting patiently for me to find a seat so she could have her lap time:

I couldn't decide which cuddle picture I liked more

Sweetie-face! I actually put the camera up by my face so I could capture this. She's always throwing me the sweetie face while she's getting her cuddles. I just adore my Elly!

Endymion was being such a ham!

Little Frannie getting a drink. She's finally looking better from her molt!

Freema, who may or may not be the meanie that was mean to Flury. Look at that face, she's not even trying to hide it!

Mabel means business!

Sweet Rangi

And a few of the outside duckies! They are so chubby and cute!!

"Excuse us, we weren't done complaining yet!"

I also tried to get pictures of the Guinea boys, but they wouldn't cooperate, so... :/ Oh, well.

 

[Cluckcluck1215]

Such pretty pictures, Kristen.I love Trudi and Malcom, such pretty ducks.Gasp we are missing one i portent picture of a certain ducky name Crashie!How is she?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Ah, Crash is Crash. Noisy and as full of complaints as ever! She's especially bitter right now because I went and cleaned her pens out to make sure she wasn't harboring any mites. How DARE I rearrange her living space without her explicit permission! And I replaced all the shavings she had finally gotten all dirty with nasty, CLEAN shavings. Oh, the shame! Yeah.

 

[pattyhen]

I loved all the pics you have such pretty chickens and ducks. I can see where Crash gets her good looks from. She is a little spoiled and I don't blame you if I had her I would spoil her too.

I'm glad the stress is over from the exams and the mites. I hope you just get to kick back and enjoy all your birds.

We've had a dang hawk in the yard for the past two days. It hasn't bothered anything knock on wood it doesn't come back. I've never seen a hawk like this one it has a big huge tail. I looked at pics of hawks and I think it is a Coopers hawk.

I hope you have a great day and thanks so much for sharing the pics. How are the eggs doing? Have you candled them anymore?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Ooh, be careful with Cooper's hawks! Those buggers are determined! There was one here yesterday, too, but thankfully it seemed to only be interested in hunting the English sparrows that hang around during the winter. I love birds of all kinds, but it's hard to appreciate these guys when they pose such a threat to my flock!


The eggs are looking good! Tomorrow is day 14, when I weigh them. I never got around to weighing them on or around day 7, but a simple calculation and I should be able to determine the weights they should be at this point so I can be sure they're losing water like they should be. Last time I shined the flashlight into them (which was last night or the night before, I don't remember for sure), I could see babies wiggling around in all of them still!






Oh, and I went through and updated 100 Pictures of my Flock again! I'm pretty sure I won't get it finished this year, either, but I did get much closer than ever before! I'm going to be looking at updating the checklist for next year, I think. The way I did it this year worked out very well, and I think I can do it again in 2017, even though it looks like I'll be taking a class in the summer next year meaning I'll have less free time. :/ But oh, well. The nice thing about just having it go on in the background like this year is that I can just take pictures when I have the time to and not worry about it, and then update the checklist every once in a while to see what my progress is.

 

[shadow rabbit10]

Hope you have been well, Pipd. You sound like you've been busy! Nice to see all your lovely pictures again, I'll have to check out your updated flock page. And you're right about those cooper's hawks. One tried to pick up my Silkie a few years ago and we had to beat it with a hose to make it give her up. And the jerk still had the nerve to come back later. They're persistent alright. I hope everyone had a great holiday!