I’m hoping I can be back on more now that we are starting to move into our fall. There are still so many projects on the go here, some days it seems there is just no time at all! I’m currently stretched quite thin, but if I can get a working 4wd vehicle for winter I have a place I can raise some chicks with power and heat, and running water, all the luxuries! The catch is the same as my gardening was this year though, it’s a half hour drive away. Considering how my tomatoes languished with my “it’s too hot to walk over there!” This summer, I want to be 100% certain, before I even think about rearing chicks that far from home, that I have a reliable way to get to them...
Other things I’ve been busy with are Bumble foot in two Roosters (Dean, very mild and on my get to that ASAP list, and Roostie’s extremely severe and in both feet, so a major priority) and a crop problem in one hen (impacted and sour). Roostie has always walked funny (he’s about 13-15lbs) so I didn’t notice his limp until it became fairly pronounced. Also because of his size I try not to really handle him unless I absolutely have to. Luckily for me, he’s also my sweetest and most docile Rooster. I am treating his feet one at a time, because currently his right foot (the worse one that I started treating first) he won’t really use and he needs to be at least a little mobile. He also will not stand to be separated from his hens, so I had to set up a small fenced in yard for them. That he allowed my to hold him with one arm while using the other to remove part of the bumble was astounding, and I know my face was far too close to his while I was working on it (it I had tried that with Chickie Hawk he would have taken out my eye for sure!), and I know it must have been quite painful for him at times as well. He looked at me with such trust the entire time “I know it hurts, but she is making it better” was writ all over his little chicken face.