Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Washburne, Nora's biological mother, passed away in the night. Heartbroken, but not overly surprised. She had started to go blind, similarly to what happened to Zinnia a while back, and I was keeping an eye on her to make sure she was continuing to eat and drink, but apparently she was not getting enough despite that. I tubed fluids into her last night as soon as I realized something was wrong, but she was in pretty bad shape and I kind of knew she wouldn't make it through the night. Poor gal. She was single-handedly (-wingedly?) the entire foundation of the corner coop flock, along with Pete of course, since the other two hens in that coop stopped laying entirely last year, so she lives on in her many daughters and two sons I've kept from last year's hatches.

Surprisingly, she did not seem to have mites despite the state she was in. In fact, I looked at several of the birds in most of my coops last night and only saw a few on one single hen in the mixed flock. Even Roha, who had had them so bad the last time they kicked up, didn't have any signs of them. So where Nora ended up with such a bad infestation, I'm not sure. Only thing I can figure is she had had only a light infestation on her like the other hen and the warmth of the house kicked them up real bad. Everyone and everything in the coops is getting sprayed today, regardless of whether I saw mites on them or not, so hopefully that should knock them back down at least. Based on the weather forecast, I might have to wait a few weeks to treat them any more aggressively than that, though.

 

[2ndTink]

Nora update, today versus when I found her, non-injury side:

View attachment 3741535

Injury side; not much difference here, but her swelling has come down a bit, especially her earlobe and wattle, and her color is better (spoilered for those that still don't want to see it, though):

Spoiler: pictures

View attachment 3741536

I've unfortunately just now discovered that she has mites, though. Another mite treatment needing done. I may go ahead and get a fresh bottle of Elector to see if that helps, and we're definitely going to keep treating biweekly as long as I can stand to to see if that gets rid of them for longer. I'm so sick of treating them for mites!!

That means I'm going to have to clean out and treat the brooders once Nora moves back outside, too, and wait at least 4 weeks before putting chicks in there, just to be safe. I was hoping to put her back outside fairly soon anyway so that she can reintegrate into the flock without too much trouble, but as long as she's back outside before the end of the month (and nothing else comes up in the interim), that shouldn't interfere with my hatching plans for the year at least.

Not mites!!! Ugh!

That's good tht swelling is coming down, it's heading in the right direction anyway.

Keep healing up quickly Nora! You need to make sure @pipdzipdnreadytogo has room for more chicks!

 

[2ndTink]

Washburne, Nora's biological mother, passed away in the night. Heartbroken, but not overly surprised. She had started to go blind, similarly to what happened to Zinnia a while back, and I was keeping an eye on her to make sure she was continuing to eat and drink, but apparently she was not getting enough despite that. I tubed fluids into her last night as soon as I realized something was wrong, but she was in pretty bad shape and I kind of knew she wouldn't make it through the night. Poor gal. She was single-handedly (-wingedly?) the entire foundation of the corner coop flock, along with Pete of course, since the other two hens in that coop stopped laying entirely last year, so she lives on in her many daughters and two sons I've kept from last year's hatches.

View attachment 3742422


Surprisingly, she did not seem to have mites despite the state she was in. In fact, I looked at several of the birds in most of my coops last night and only saw a few on one single hen in the mixed flock. Even Roha, who had had them so bad the last time they kicked up, didn't have any signs of them. So where Nora ended up with such a bad infestation, I'm not sure. Only thing I can figure is she had had only a light infestation on her like the other hen and the warmth of the house kicked them up real bad. Everyone and everything in the coops is getting sprayed today, regardless of whether I saw mites on them or not, so hopefully that should knock them back down at least. Based on the weather forecast, I might have to wait a few weeks to treat them any more aggressively than that, though.

I'm so sorry for your loss of Washburne, she was beautiful. I'm glad you have her progeny to continue her legacy.

Oof, you've had a week emoji post hugs, because I'm not a real life hugger

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I'm so sorry for your loss of Washburne, she was beautiful. I'm glad you have her progeny to continue her legacy.

Oof, you've had a week emoji post hugs, because I'm not a real life hugger

I've been having a time with my flock lately, yeah Hopefully with Nora recovering so well and the mites treated again, though, it'll be quiet for a while.

I'm the same way about hugs, by the way, so no worries there!

 

[2ndTink]

I've been having a time with my flock lately, yeah Hopefully with Nora recovering so well and the mites treated again, though, it'll be quiet for a while.

I'm the same way about hugs, by the way, so no worries there!

My flock was pretty drama free until I decided I needed to get silkies and start breeding them. Now it's just craziness

The layers only once had mites, a few egg bound hens here and there, but otherwise pretty low maintenance. Those cute ones like your cochins though, oofta! High maintenance!
Ooh, I had been thinking I saw a black silkie with silver leakage the last few days, I kept double taking and then deciding I didn't see what I thought I did I finally had my phone with me, caught the little buggers, and got a closer look under the light, and a photo! Yep, he's getting pure white leakage. His name is Dash, and as long as he grows out pretty decent compared to the SOP, and his brothers, he may get to cross with some paint ladies (that I don't have yet... more hatching needs to happen!)

Genetically, he'd be bl/bl, S/S?


I hope your flock settles down, we need our stress relief to stop causing us stress!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

My flock was pretty drama free until I decided I needed to get silkies and start breeding them. Now it's just craziness

Yeah, I feel like the crux of it is just that, that birds that have been more strictly bred to a standard just have more issues from that strict breeding. It sure feels like it, anyway! My hatchery birds feel like they live forever, some of them are 11, 12, going on 14 years old, but my breeder birds have had so many random issues. I'm hoping that my two older Cochin hens actually lay this year so that I can hatch some of their babies instead of just hatching chicks out of pullets and young hens all the time. Maybe that will help a bit with longevity

The layers only once had mites, a few egg bound hens here and there, but otherwise pretty low maintenance. Those cute ones like your cochins though, oofta! High maintenance!
Ooh, I had been thinking I saw a black silkie with silver leakage the last few days, I kept double taking and then deciding I didn't see what I thought I did I finally had my phone with me, caught the little buggers, and got a closer look under the light, and a photo! Yep, he's getting pure white leakage. His name is Dash, and as long as he grows out pretty decent compared to the SOP, and his brothers, he may get to cross with some paint ladies (that I don't have yet... more hatching needs to happen!)

Genetically, he'd be bl/bl, S/S?
View attachment 3742680

Silkied feathering can make leakage so hard to be sure about! I have one rooster that I've gone back and forth for over a year about whether he has leakage or not. Some lighting, I swear there's leakage there, but then he turns his head and he's jet black all over again. Drives me nuts!

Yes, your rooster would be bl+/bl+ S/S if the leakage is as pure white as it appears in those pictures. Saying bl/bl without the plus sign is not necessarily incorrect, though! The plus sign just clarifies that that is the wildtype allele, basically the version of the gene that would be in the wild population if unaltered by human intervention. In this case, that's the lack of the blue dilution, bl+, that leaves black pigment as black instead of diluted to blue or splash.

I hope your flock settles down, we need our stress relief to stop causing us stress!

For sure! Dang! I used to call them my little feathered therapists all the time, but these days they're more like little feathered gray-hair-enhancers

 

[2ndTink]

Yeah, I feel like the crux of it is just that, that birds that have been more strictly bred to a standard just have more issues from that strict breeding. It sure feels like it, anyway! My hatchery birds feel like they live forever, some of them are 11, 12, going on 14 years old, but my breeder birds have had so many random issues. I'm hoping that my two older Cochin hens actually lay this year so that I can hatch some of their babies instead of just hatching chicks out of pullets and young hens all the time. Maybe that will help a bit with longevity




Silkied feathering can make leakage so hard to be sure about! I have one rooster that I've gone back and forth for over a year about whether he has leakage or not. Some lighting, I swear there's leakage there, but then he turns his head and he's jet black all over again. Drives me nuts!

Yes, your rooster would be bl+/bl+ S/S if the leakage is as pure white as it appears in those pictures. Saying bl/bl without the plus sign is not necessarily incorrect, though! The plus sign just clarifies that that is the wildtype allele, basically the version of the gene that would be in the wild population if unaltered by human intervention. In this case, that's the lack of the blue dilution, bl+, that leaves black pigment as black instead of diluted to blue or splash.




For sure! Dang! I used to call them my little feathered therapists all the time, but these days they're more like little feathered gray-hair-enhancers

My oldest are just turning 4, I'm still learning a ton!

I hope you get a lot of really good eggs from your older hens, it makes sense that they may be heartier birds and their pass that on to their chicks.

Lol, yep, I'd been playing the find the leakage game with Dash for several days. it almost just looked extra shiny.

The "wild type" has not sunk in at all yet

Oh, and "grey hair enhancers" are they just causing our S/S to show?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

My oldest are just turning 4, I'm still learning a ton!

My oldest will be 14 in April, but I've had chickens for even longer than she's been around, and heck, I'm still learning! There's so much with these birds that I don't think you can ever truly know it all, and even if you did, well, then your birds will find a way to teach you something else new!

I hope you get a lot of really good eggs from your older hens, it makes sense that they may be heartier birds and their pass that on to their chicks.

That's what I'm hoping for, anyway Thank you!

The "wild type" has not sunk in at all yet

No worries, genetics is a lot to take in all at once! Just think of wildtype as the traits you'd see in red junglefowl, the wild ancestors of chickens: https://ebird.org/species/redjun They were smaller, lean, sporty type birds, built for living in the jungles of the Indian peninsula and surrounding areas. So, for example, single combs, non-feathered shanks, and that sort of fiery red and black coloration on males and brownish coloration on females are all wildtype. Walnut combs, feathered shanks, and blue plumage are not wildtype.

Oh, and "grey hair enhancers" are they just causing our S/S to show?

My goodness, I had no idea I was homozygous silver!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Nora update! I decided to quote the other pictures to compare rather than posting them again.

Nora update, today versus when I found her, non-injury side:

Non-injury side. The swelling has gone down quite a lot now! She's just a bit puffy underneath her eye at this point.

Injury side; not much difference here, but her swelling has come down a bit, especially her earlobe and wattle, and her color is better (spoilered for those that still don't want to see it, though):

Spoiler: pictures

The injury side is looking a lot better, so I don't think I'm going to bother spoilering it this time. The swelling is down a lot on this side, and that pretty eye finally opened up more. It does look like her eyelid may have been damaged a little bit at the back edge, but she seems to be doing fine and is healing as she should.

She's looking pretty good at this point! I think I'm going to give her a couple more days to let the mite treatment really kick in before I send her back outside again, though. I'm sure she'll be happy to be back with her sisters, and no other incidents have happened, whether that's because I've been moving Trixie to another perch every night or mere coincidence with that.

 

[2ndTink]

My oldest will be 14 in April, but I've had chickens for even longer than she's been around, and heck, I'm still learning! There's so much with these birds that I don't think you can ever truly know it all, and even if you did, well, then your birds will find a way to teach you something else new!




That's what I'm hoping for, anyway Thank you!




No worries, genetics is a lot to take in all at once! Just think of wildtype as the traits you'd see in red junglefowl, the wild ancestors of chickens: https://ebird.org/species/redjun They were smaller, lean, sporty type birds, built for living in the jungles of the Indian peninsula and surrounding areas. So, for example, single combs, non-feathered shanks, and that sort of fiery red and black coloration on males and brownish coloration on females are all wildtype. Walnut combs, feathered shanks, and blue plumage are not wildtype.




My goodness, I had no idea I was homozygous silver!

So, wild type isn't what happens if all the genes are recessive necessarily, the red jungle Fowl was chosen as the baseline that all genetics are compared to? It's not the absence or presence but a chosen standard, then every other color gene is compared to that standard?

So if I think of it as a stack of wood building blocks, I start with a baseline of everything it takes to make a red junglefowl, each block represents one allele, then I could swap out the red jungle Fowl allele blocks for "non wild type" mutations of each allele? So in my rough sketch below the single comb black remain but the two blocks for color have been swapped for Bl so the bird would be splash colored (assuming no other genes play into how it is expressed)



Next time someone picks at me for my grey hair I'm just going to tell them that's my homozygous silver leaking out I'll see how confused I can get my biker friends, they always call it chrome