Pipd's Peeps!

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Happy Hanukkah, to those who celebrate it! I thought I had mentioned this here at some point, but can't find it for searching... But a few years ago, my aunt gave me two of those hen-in-nest candy dishes, an orange one and a green one. I just love these dishes, they're so cute! Well, I missed out on a third one a year or two ago, which was quite disappointing, and recently just happened to mention it to my mom in conversation. Apparently that was fortunate, because she had been struggling with what to get for me this holiday season, and that gave her the perfect idea. So, my little candy dish flock has grown! I'm super stoked!

She even remembered that the one I missed was a clear one, which I appreciated. I took a picture of it on my Pokemon USUM poster so it showed up better.

The little ones are actually salt cellars--little dishes to keep salt in so that you can get a pinch or two to sprinkle over your food, rather than using a shaker. They are SO cute!

And the rooster was because she wanted to get a red hen in nest dish because it's my favorite color, but she couldn't find one, so she improvised.

Then my sister approaches me and tells me she saw something at the store and just had to get it for me, so I also got this little jeweled hen on a nest, which opens up at the middle to store little things like jewelry.

It has been a very chickeny holiday gift-giving day... and I couldn't be happier about that!

 

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Wow, two posts in as many days?! Geez, it's almost as if I have a lot of free time right now!

Anyway, wanted to keep things updated here, so here's what's up. My Cream Legbar, Poppy, has always had a stiff left leg, almost like it's arthritic, though she's not old at all, only 3-and-a-half years. Well, tonight when I went to count the hens and close them up for the night (which really doesn't amount to much because they're 'snowed in' with the terrible 2 inches of snow we've gotten ), I noticed that Poppy was huddled under the nests instead of on them or the perches. When I nudged her out of there so that I could move her, though, I noticed she was walking more oddly than is usual on her bad leg. I managed (despite her stubbornness about walking around in the dark) to determine that she seems incapable of putting much, if any, weight on her bad leg. Her crop was also empty, as if she had been sitting there for a while without moving. I don't like to chance them toughing through things like this, especially when the flock is refusing to leave the coop, increasing the odds of aggression or trampling, so I went ahead and brought Poppy inside. I figure she and Elly were broodmates as babies, so they might get along okay, and since Elly is all alone, she might like some company anyway. For now, Poppy is perched on top of Elly's pen because I didn't have anywhere else to put her. I'll figure it out tomorrow. Hopefully, Poppy's leg is just extra stiff due to the cold and there isn't a deeper problem than that. We'll see how she progresses tomorrow.


Editing to add, just as a side note, this is a very sudden temperature change, so I am also keeping a close eye on her for signs of overheating. Folks often don't consider it in reverse, but going from very cold to room temp can be as hard on them as going from room temp to very cold. It's about the same as going from air conditioning to 100-degree weather outside--not fun at all, and definitely not relieving! My room is typically cooler than the rest of the house, so I'm hoping that will help. If not, I have a plan in place for what to do with her if she's too hot inside.


Anyway, here's Poppy, very confused about her sudden change in surroundings:

Another amusing picture that I took this morning when the snow was fresh. I have here a clear shot of a mouse saying, "Nope." They live under the Guinea coop, unfortunately, but they don't seem to bother the Guineas or eat their food, so no big deal, I suppose.

 

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As expected, Poppy is putting more weight on her bad leg this morning. Not as much as I expected, but an improvement from yesterday. Here's hoping that a few days of warmth will get her back to normal!

What was not expected this morning was for her and Elda to decide to duke it out through the bars of their cages, knocking down Elly's food dish with a clatter and creating a mess. What a way to wake up! They seem to have calmed down now and are remaining civil, so I guess they just had to establish who would be big boss bird of the hospital pens. (Pretty sure it was Elly, though Poppy was pretty agile for a hen with a bad leg! )


Edited to fix wording.

 

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We've had a mini warmup here the past few days, so I spent today outside working all day. The rooster pens are almost, ALMOST done!!

Just have to get wire on the doors and hang them tomorrow, and then all that's left is winterizing and getting a small yard put together so the boys can continue to mingle. I'm so excited to finish these! When the snow started flying, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get them finished this year. Having the boys in their pens rather than in the one section of the coop will make the girls happier this winter--more room for them when there's snow on the ground, and the mini yard gives them a bit more room when there isn't snow while being a bit more covered so that they're better protected from hawks. PHEW!

In other news, Perdita laid her first egg yesterday!! I don't have a picture of it, but here is a cell picture of Perdi this morning! Doesn't she look so grown up?

Now, not all is going so well around here, unfortunately. Poppy's condition has not improved and, in fact, has gotten just a little bit worse. She's pretty much lost all use of her leg now. In the past, when birds have presented with similar symptoms, I've not been able to pull them out of it. She's on a round of vitamin B complex to see if that helps, and beyond that, well... Let's just hope the vitamins help.

Anyway, gotta run out and close the coops for the night. I'll take some pictures of the pens once they're done!


Editing to add, oh, and Abra was being cute this morning, too.

 

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Rooster pens are done as of today! The boys will move in tomorrow and I'll do the finishing touches then (just some winterizing and perches). Pictures will have to wait until tomorrow as it was dark by the time I finished their play pen.

Currently, I'm sitting with a heating pad on my right shoulder, because I guess cutting hardware cloth, fencing an entire pen, moving it, backfilling dirt, digging up old fence posts, driving new fence posts, stretching fence, and hanging netting is a little strenuous? I cut approximately 50 feet worth of hardware cloth over the past 2 days (that is, both cutting the sections I needed and cutting the tips of wire off of them, too). I never want to cut hardware cloth again!

No change with Poppy. But it's only been a day.

 

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Rooster pens! I moved the boys in this morning, but there's still a little work to do, particularly building perches for them to sleep on. These pens are about 4x8 feet, plenty big enough for them, but they will not be closed in during the day unless they are snowed in, so they actually have more like a 8x16 space, plus a little 8-ish foot diameter round space off to the right that I added on a whim because it didn't seem like enough space to me. The green plastic netting over top is to keep them from jumping up onto the pens, which would allow them to walk out if they chose to. I didn't want to stoop under it, so I propped it up with some scrap wood. The boys are enjoying checking out the new digs so far--we'll see what happens once the sun starts setting and they panic because they can't get to their usual spot to perch.

Here's a panorama of "Rooster Row", which looks very odd because the picture curved up for some reason... Needless to say, the pens are flat, not all wonky like that.

Editing to add, roosts are done now! At first they seemed scary, but it didn't take long for them to check them out. Theodore was first to test them (after Darwin goosed him and he hopped up See the guilty party heading to the right in the below pic).

Well, if they didn't eat Theodore, then they must be okay. (There are still five of them, just Tygo didn't want to come over with me standing there because apparently I traumatized him when I caught him to move him over here.)

 

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The boys survived their first night in their new pens! Here they are this morning. Don't they look so traumatized?

Trudi and Malcolm were being goofy this morning, too. I missed catching it on video, but Malcolm was 'air-bathing', which apparently upset Trudi, so she was walking a rough circle around him and quacking at the top of her lungs. Here are a couple cell phone pics of them afterward, looking innocent.

Speaking of video, I do have a short slow-motion video to upload today. I finally caught one of the rooster boys crowing, and he even did some wing pumping beforehand! I'll get that posted later, either here or on my Slow Motion thread.



EDIT: Here it is! That's Darwin, if anyone wondered.

 

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We got about 4 inches of snow today. It started when I went out to open the coops, so the girls came out at first, but soon went back in. It made the day a bit easier, as I just closed them back in, so there was nothing to worry about with them this evening, though I still went out and checked on them before bed. I also separated the boys in their two pens so that they aren't overcrowded while snowed in, but they can still see each other through the wire and hopefully remain buddies. Darwin, Dante, and Theo are in one pen, while Murph and Tygo are in the other (which is *slightly* smaller, though honestly not that much smaller; the other one is just a couple inches wider due to a measurement goof). Anyway, I also found all the holes in my old boots thanks to the snow leaking through as I walked out to the coop tonight--looks like it's time to switch to the new boots!

Poppy is not doing very well at this point, and I really think we're losing her. She's gotten pretty thin at this point with no improvement in her mobility. She has been eating and drinking well, but kept moving away from her food and water so she couldn't reach it. She keeps scooting backward and can't stand without being off balance. She had backed into a corner and was sitting in her droppings, so I had to bathe her today. I moved her to a sling to prevent that, but she's fighting that for all its worth, and keeps spilling her food and water as a result. At least she's got the energy to do that... Maybe being up where she can work her legs while at the same time being able to reach her food and water all the time will help?

Here she is in her sling right after I got it set up--and yes, it was wet at the time from her spilling her water, sigh. Elly's being jealous in the background.

Fast asleep... I hope she's more comfortable now. All this is is a cardboard box and an old T-shirt that I cut holes in for her legs and rear end. I folded the bottom of the shirt over her back to kind of keep her wings under control, so hopefully no more water spilling...

In light of the very prominent chance of losing her, I'm thinking that when I hatch from my Silver Gray Dorkings crossed to Darwin, I'm also going to put Endymion in with them and collect her eggs to hatch. My other Easter-eggers are getting older and not laying as much, and after losing Izzy and now possibly Poppy, I won't be getting very many colorful eggs anymore. Endymion has lovely eggs whose color should pass on to her offspring pretty well since Dorkings are white egg layers, and hopefully the Dorking calmness will tame down any of her chicks so they aren't completely bonkers like she is. She's also silver-colored, technically, so there's a pretty good chance that her chicks sired by Darwin will be sexlinked as well, though being that she's an Easter-egger, who knows what genes are hiding under the surface. It should be interesting to see what happens from that cross!

 

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Happy New Year, everyone!!

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Well, 2018 is just as underwhelming as I thought it would be.

Just kidding of course--it'll take a few days before I'll know that for sure.

Updates on the flock from last year... Well, we're still snowed in, so the girls are getting pretty stir crazy. I've just come across their bag of dried mealworms (which seriously gross me out, but oh well), so I think they're going to have a snack later today. I also just found a bin of seeds from when I had Budgies, which I think I'm going to try sprouting for a nice, green snack for them in a few days.

Poppy is still hanging in there and actually doing surprisingly well at this point. I think the sling has helped her a lot! I have some tweaking to do on it still. She kept falling backwards in the first version, so I cut leg holes farther forward. That turned out to be too far forward, so I had to make modifications so that her droppings could fall past the sling. So, of course, now she keeps scooting off to the side so that her droppings are still hitting the sling. A few more tweaks and I should hopefully have it set for her.

We did, however, abruptly lose a Guinea cock a couple days ago. Curly. He'd been totally fine, and then suddenly one morning I found him huddled in the corner with his head tucked, not moving at all. He didn't survive the day. Not really sure what happened there...

But, spring seems closer than ever now, and I'm optimistic about adding new life to the flock by spring break with a hatch. Nadine came back into lay a few days ago, so it's likely that the Marans will be that first hatch. I have to wait for Callette and Lydda to come back into lay for the Dorking hatch I want to do and, well, they aren't the most active layers anyway.

Speaking of Nadine coming back into lay, check out what she made. That's a more normal large egg from Perdita beside it. (The color is washed out a bit--it's definitely darker than that. )

And, well, I think that's all I had to share for now. This is my last week of break before what's shaping up to be a really tough semester (but hopefully my last, so there's that?), so I'm going to be spending a lot of time just relaxing and keeping my stress level as low as possible. That may include taking some pictures with the girls, too--although their coop is a disaster right now from them being snowed in, so they might not be the prettiest pictures.