Pipd's Peeps!

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Yeah, I don't even know if I want to do it honestly - more birds equals more worry.
All I really want is hardware cloth vs the fencing I have now.

That's very true. The more birds, the more that can go wrong all at once. I don't think I'd trade it now that I'm here, but I definitely feel you on that.

Covering it in hardware cloth would be a great idea, too! And you can always hang tarps over the wire in the winter if you really wanted to add a little more cold weather shelter. I don't think you could go wrong either way!

 

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I tubed water into Diesel this evening. I don't think I had the right size syringe and I couldn't find my vitamin / electrolyte powder until after I'd already tubed him, of course, but it went relatively smoothly. He even let me put a few feed pellets in his mouth while I was at it, though not nearly enough for it to be a proper meal, of course. I'll get a bigger syringe ready for tomorrow and give him a bit of the vitamin powder in the morning, then start tubing him food later in the day if hydrating him doesn't get him going again.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

❤

 

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Diesel's not looking great this morning. I'm still trying my darnedest for him, but I'm not feeling optimistic with his current state.

Since it was predicted to get so cold overnight, I did bring him inside to a hospital pen yesterday afternoon. With feeding he has started to have normal-looking droppings, albeit small ones thus far. I'm going to feed him three times a day and I think I might go ahead and tube water in between feedings as well to keep him hydrated. Going to make for a busy day, but I desperately want him to pull through.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Poor guy. Is it a delicate breed?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I wouldn't classify them as a delicate breed, no. It just feels like I've had rotten luck with the silkied Blues specifically, but not really because of them being frail or anything. I just haven't had much luck hatching many of them, and of course that last hawk attack had to be on one of the few I did hatch. Diesel's the first to seemingly just be dying without an obvious outward cause. I do think bullying had something to do with it, but who knows. He's fading pretty fast at this point, so I'm not sure he'll make it through the day.

I guess I have no choice but to change plans again. Looks like Pete just got lucky. He's a bit scrawny, but I like him more than Jack overall, so he's my male of choice between the two of them. I think I'll put him with just the Blue girls and focus on getting some more Blues. I should be able to hatch 50-50 Blues and Blacks from those Blue girls with any Black male, so it's better than nothing. Fingers crossed for some light Blues from them.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

To my surprise, Diesel is still with us this morning! No real change in his condition, but as long as he's willing to keep fighting, I'll keep going with him.



Also, I didn't get the chance to post this last night, but Bella laid her first egg yesterday! That's two of the three silkied Black Cochin pullets laying now, and still 0 for two on the Blue girls.

It's supposed to warm up this afternoon and the forecast shows it staying warm for the foreseeable future, so I'll be working on pens this week for sure! I don't have all the bedding I need to clean all of the pens for rearranging, so today I'm just going to move the silkied Cochin pullets and Pete to the little coop and move the OEGB boys, Rigel and Achernar (who are currently living in the little coop), to a hutch until I can make a run over for bedding and get the other coops cleaned up.

 

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OH OH OH OH, I forgot to mention this as well! My sister heard me talking about that fancy wire soap cutter and since she had some extra money from her tax return, she looked it up and bought it for me. I used it on the mint soap (that I still hadn't cut yet ) and I love it! I can't wait for my latest oil purchase to get here so I can make more soap and really use it! (I did forget to get more fragrance oils but it's fine, people use unscented soap, right? )

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I moved the five silkied Cochin pullets to their new coop last night. They were less than pleased with their new accommodations and many complaints were lodged.

Rather than really stir them up by moving Pete in last night as well, I waited until this morning to move him. He is so happy to have a flock of his own! He's not been with hens since before he hit maturity, so he's not very graceful as far as breeding goes, but he's trying his best. He's been doing a lot of courting and dancing, and offering them any tidbits he finds while they scratch around their pen, too. I have high hopes he'll shape up to be a good flock leader!

You may be wondering why only four pullets are present in the above picture... That's because Bella was being extra dramatic and refused to come down off the perch at first. She was down with her flockmates by the time I'd finished feeding everyone else, though, so I guess she got over it.

This is a bit blurry because it was taken through the window by the perches, but you can see Bella was not happy with me.

In more somber news, Diesel's crop did not empty overnight, a strong indicator that he's shutting down and won't pull through. I'm upset, but I feel like I did everything I could have to help him, short of maybe noticing sooner that something was wrong with him. Darn. I was really looking forward to lots of Blue babies this year.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Funny about your gals. Bella's face says it all.

Sorry to hear about Diesel. ❤