Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Vegas looks like a sweetie.

She is! She loves to sit in my lap or on my shoulder and cuddle when I'm out with the birds. She'll poke at my ankles until I sit or crouch down for her to hop up.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

This weekend's babies!

I finally got a Splash!!

And some bonus booty pictures because they're cute

The attitude here! She says her eyes are up here, thank you very much!!

Marka also hatched out 3 little babies this weekend.

UGH, such cuties!!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Sad news. My barred oegb just passed. I'm not exactly sure why either. He was hanging around the waterer yesterday afternoon when I let the birds out to free range - he didn't go out. His crop was squishy and his comb was purple. I isolated him and gave him nutri-drench. He just kept going down hill today. Sad day. He's going to go for a necropsy due to the field next to us being sprayed just 3 days ago. It might just be a coincidence - but, I need to know for sure for peace of mind.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I'm so sorry to hear that! Definitely check it out! Are any of your other birds acting off or was it just him?

We get crop dusters in the area occasionally as well and it's always made me a bit anxious. Thankfully we have several acres of woods between us and the nearest fields they could be dusting, so hopefully it doesn't reach me or my birds.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

I'm so sorry to hear that! Definitely check it out! Are any of your other birds acting off or was it just him?

We get crop dusters in the area occasionally as well and it's always made me a bit anxious. Thankfully we have several acres of woods between us and the nearest fields they could be dusting, so hopefully it doesn't reach me or my birds.

Just him. He had a purple comb and a squishy crop. It could have just been a coincidence. He went pretty fast. None of the others are having issues though. It makes me wonder if he found something in the dirt because they have been digging pretty deep.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Well hopefully the necropsy gives you some answers at least. That's awful either way.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Turns out I am not great at keeping up with regular updates on more than one thread. Let me see if I can summarize the past month or so from my silkied Cochin thread, plus a couple other things not relevant to post over there.

Waaaay back in June, around the last time I posted here, I had a near-loss of a pullet who squeezed through the fence, fell into Crash duck's pool, and was stuck in there for quite a long time, thankfully in water shallow enough that she didn't just drown. She had been so chilled and soaked to the bone that I wasn't sure she'd pull through, but after drying her off and warming her up with a blow dryer, and having my sister hold her wrapped in a towel to keep her warming up while I went back out to close up the coops for the night, she perked back up and was fine. And she's not one of the chicks that was meant to be a keeper... but I started calling her Duckling after that event, so I guess she's got a name now anyway.

Since then I've also had two more mamas hatch babies, Peanut Butter and Amaretto. Washburne is sitting on eggs now as well, though it's looking like just one is developing out of hers.

Zinnia started going blind at the end of last month, but she seems to have stabilized at fully or nearly fully blind in her right eye and only a slight loss of sight in her left eye. No idea why that happened.

We lost Gus on July 5th. After the air quality alerts we were having at around that time, he had been quite disheveled, and the high humidity and heat didn't help that, I don't think. I put the last of the eggs fertilized by him under Wash with the hopes of a few more Gus babies, though unfortunately only the one developed.

Cazzie Cochin had a bout of fly strike that I caught a week or two ago. Unfortunately, she sleeps on the steps to the roost down near the floor, so I didn't think to check her during any of my regular nighttime butt checks. Thankfully it didn't seem to have progressed far and was easily remedied. She's got a nasty-looking patch on her rear end, but she's healing and back to moseying around like she always does.

I've spent the past 10 days or so fighting coccidiosis in the youngest chicks. They finally seem to be out of the woods on that now, and the brooder babies spent their first night outside last night without any issue!

I also treated the entire flock for mites yesterday. My Cochin breeding groups, the boys in rooster row, the duck and Roscoe, all of the broodies with babies, the majority of the main flock, and all of the youngsters from April all the way to the ones that just spent the night outside for the first time had 0 signs of them. However, I was seeing them on a few of the older birds including both Silkie roosters who would spread them to everyone else, so I wanted to get ahead of them before it became another major infestation. Every single bird, from adult all the way down to tiny baby, was treated. I am still exhausted today!



And I think that's just about everything from my neck of the woods. @Crazy Maizie it's been a while now, any word back on the necropsy?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I'd noticed for a few weeks that Callette was slowing down and starting to show symptoms similar to Elda toward the end, droopy and dusky comb and heavy breathing. Elda, herself, passed away of heart failure rather suddenly mid summer a few years back. So I figured that Callette was on her way out for a while now. Yesterday and the day before she was looking particularly rough, so we were braced to make preparations for helping her on her way today. Well, she passed on in the night, saving us the trouble. This is sad for me, as she was one of my beloved Silver Gray Dorkings, but also a bit of a blessing. She apparently had not been taking care of herself, so despite treatment, she was harboring mites and allowing them to feed and continue spreading in the flock. With her gone, I can repeat treatment and hopefully resolve the mite issue now. For the most part I have not seen any mites on anyone else, save a stray one once in a while when helping birds up to roost or on the eggs in the nest boxes. In any case, other than the ones on Callette, none that I'd seen had fed. So I'm guessing part of the effectiveness of the elector is from the birds preening and spreading it around themselves, something I guess Callette had not been doing. Poor girl.

Anyway, suffice it to say, my sweet Callette will be missed. Her constant, quiet talking and inquisitive nature had made her a sentimental favorite for me, like most of my Dorkings are. She was 7 years old this year. Rest in peace, sweet girl

 

[Crazy Maizie]

As far as the cockerel necropsy, it was my understanding the guy that came out to check our property for over spray was going to send him. But, once I got home, the cockerel was still here and my husband said the guy decided not to take him. So, I just buried him. We haven't heard back about the over spray yet, but they said it could take 10 weeks.

I found a home for 2 of my other bantam cockerels, but still have one left. I let my favorite crele go as they were going to a family and I felt that the 2 that were picked should do well. I miss him showing me where to nest.
I have my bb still and one crele that showed more rusty color. He's been testing me lately, so hopefully the 2 that left don't start testing as well. But, maybe they all test at a certain age? Ginger, the female bb, is still my sweetest. When I'm cleaning, she will go in the coop and peck at the side door until I open it.

I've been treating Lemon for bumblefoot and I'm just about done with that. She's looking quite ragged too as she is the favorite plus very accessible since all the other girls can get away. This weekend I'm going to separate her to help her grow her feathers back and give her a break.

I should separate the boys, but I think she needs a break from all of them. I'm working really hard to find the crele a new home. Then, I want to find some more bantam pullets to help get the pressure off of her, but need to find ones not as agile as an oegb.

Anyway, that's all I've got for now.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Ah, well hopefully you hear back from them soon!

Glad you were able to find a home for some of your boys, even if you had to let your favorite go. I feel like all of them do test you to a certain extent when they hit some point in their maturing process, but some test very little and figure out it isn't worth it, while others test a lot. When mine get to that stage, I just ignore them when they're acting like that and they usually figure out that it isn't getting them anywhere.

Poor Lemon! Yeah, give that girl a break and see how things go. Good luck with finding that last little guy a home, and with finding yourself some bantam pullets! I'm still trying to find my extras places to go. I keep getting inquiries about them, and then no one following through. I really, really hate to do it, but I'm about ready to send all my extra boys to the freezer. They're hitting the age where they're driving me and the girls nuts! I'm reasonably sure I'd have all my extra pullets out of here tomorrow if I didn't have so many cockerels that I'm trying to sell them in pairs so as not to be stuck with all the boys.





Last night was round 2 of the mite treatment, every single bird except for the ~week olds and younger up in the brooder inside that I'm fairly confident have not been infested. I didn't see any signs of them on my 1-2 month olds or 3-4 month olds, nor on most of the adults as I was going along, but I had one on my hand after handling one of Marka's babies, after treating Amaretto and her babies, and one or two off of the adults as I was treating the rest of the flock. Everyone outside of the main coop seems clean of them, even rooster row that's right next to the main coop. I really sprayed everyone down good this time and every nook and cranny in all of the coops, especially where birds tend to sleep, so hopefully that does the job.