Sdwd

[Serrin]

Why stress over sexing them Cyn? Just hand them all over to LH in May. They'll magically all turn into roos as soon as they touch her hands. Problem solved!

 

[PepsNick]

Quote:
Hope it goes well.

 

[speckledhen]

Oh, yeah, right, Amy! LOL. Well, could be some of the males will be obvious by four weeks old, so I can bring the two most likely males and a pullet or two, that is, if they are fertile then. I cracked open one of Dusty's and two of Smoky's and Dusty's did have the ring, which was the reason I was optimistic about these being fertile. So, either they just aren't developing for some reason or the blastodisc is just a bit confusing. I hope when I re-candle, I see development. Meg's lone egg in there is very porous and blotchy, so it is almost impossible to see anything till the chick is half grown.



Oh, I got to see my Mille Fleur babies just a bit ago. I definitely have a trio! So, that means that out of four chicks I've picked from the assorted bantam bin, the first being my Cochin, Shadow, I've picked only one cockerel. I'm getting a better ratio with just fishing them out of a bin than hatching, LOL.

 

[NellaBean]

Holy moly we're on page 2. Unacceptable! Cynthia maybe you can pick me some babies out of the bins! The only time I have good luck picking out girls are when they have red sex links in the straight run bin or "old chicks" that have feathered out obviously as girls.

Well, okay wait, except for the part where I don't want ANY MORE BIRDS.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Cyn, I hope you are feeling better!

Kathy, thanks for posting the pics of the babies

Nick, what play are you doing now?

Nella, do you have a wagon or something to help haul those heavy bags? I have to use a sled to haul the water to the coop. I should use the Husky we have

LH, I have thought seriously about acupuncture since I cannot take most meds.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

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Laura!! You make an appointment to see your doctor right away! Gallbladders are nothing to mess around with!

Thanks Serrin, I did talk to the nurse on Friday and she relayed to the DR. He thinks it is the gallbladder and wants me to have an ultrasound done and then see a surgeon. In the meantime I am to have a clear liquid diet, jello, broth, etc.I am still waiting to get the call for the ultrasound. I cannot take most pain meds because I either cannot tolerate them or they make the MG worse. Soo.. I sit here waiting. I guess it's good that I have a high pain tolerance. I did eat a banana today though

 

[NellaBean]

I do have a wagon but there is still quite a bit of snow on the ground....I don't know if it would work! Last time I cleaned brooders I used the wagon to get the bags up to the top of the hill....the hill is steep enough that one time I made the mistake of loading it up with a couple hundred pounds of bagged feed and it was all I could do to get it stopped before it hit the really steep part. Picture me with my feet planted and putting full force into the wagon while sliding down the slope. LOL, it was ridiculous. Had it gotten away I expect it would have crashed through both fences and be approximately 35 miles away by now.

Even with the wagon, I have the steps to get up, so would still have to carry it over halfway so its not even worth the trouble. SIGH. If it wasn't so muddy and snowy, I would back the truck down there, load them into the bed and then drive them up and around. I don't know if my mower/trailer would get enough traction to get out.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Well, be careful Nella, don't go getting hurt hauling that stuff! I will pray for better weather to get here soon!!

 

[Cetawin]

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Amy dear sweet sweet Amy

Now where is that smiley with the halo?

Cyn...I want all the girls all of em I say and one big beautiful boy...and a second one so I have a back up if roo number should dare have a fault.

Hillbilly Hen - the accupuncture worked for me...I have not had one since the therapy. Once he got rid of the last one in 15 minutes of treatment, I went back 3 times per week, then twice per week, then once per week and then once per month for a few months and not a single one since. The $25 per treatment, all combined was far less than I spent on meds on ER visits for sure. No needle pricks, just a pressure for a second.....6 at the base of my skull on my neck, one in each shoulder and one in each hand. Done deal. I highly recommend trying it...most people respond well to it...some have no response to it but it is sure worth a try.


Wanna see why I love my (Cheyenne's) goofy partridge silkie? This is Jet checking out my Phone camcorder.

It is real short just a few seconds of her goofiness.

 

[Serrin]

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Gloria Jean! Report please! How are your girls doing? Any improvement yet? Any body new coming down with this? By the way, do you have a name for what ails them? What size dosage of Duramycin are you giving them and how are you administering it? Orally or by injection?

I fully understand how you feel about your flock Gloria Jean. These crazy little birds are not just little walking protein factories. Oh no! Not by a long shot! I view mine as my babies too. And it always hurts so bad to see one have so much as a flea on them, let alone having several be actually sick. I so hope they're doing much better on the Duramycin and will be back to their riotous selves again soon!

Well darn that GeeGee!! She has screwed it up again!

She got back on the wrong nest after 2+ days of sitting on the six I marked yesterday as being the eggs I was going to let her hatch! And darn it anyhow! One of them was Maggie's egg!!

*Heavy Sigh!*

So now I need some information from those of you well versed in the ways of young and inexperienced broodies. When I checked GeeGee tonight, she was, as I indicated, in the wrong box. It's probably as much my fault as hers. The next door box had six eggs in it as well. And in the light of the heat lamp in the coop, I could see how she could easily mistake the color of the eggs in her nest for that of those in the neighboring box. They all look the same under red light you know!

Anyhow, I decided to give her one more chance at this broody business, with the solemn vow to myself that I wouldn't repeat the mistake of leaving any eggs in the coop other than what she's laying on. And to check more often than just morning and evening for any new eggs. Maybe that will help her to keep from getting confused as to just where she's supposed to be!

So, my questions to those of you in the know are these: If she has already been broody for about four days already, what are the chances that she'll set these new eggs all the way to hatching time? Might she cut off incubation four or more days prematurely at the end, simply because nature is telling her that time is up? And if she craps out say a day or two too soon, and IF I catch her at it, is there any chance of putting them in the incubator, finishing out the incubation and then return the chicks to her. Would she care for them? Or would I be stuck rearing three little chicks that I honestly don't have the time to raise myself right now? Or should I just resolve myself to marking eggs every day and removing them at night, replacing them with fresh eggs daily and only let her think that she's brooding?

I'm so torn on this one. Largely because I've never had a broody with fertile eggs before. I've had girls go broody on me before, but it was a straight up no-brainer. No rooster = no fertile eggs. It was easy to humor them or just toss them off the nest. But these are potentially fertile eggs now. That means potentially little lives are hanging in the balance.

What would y'all do? Have any of my SDWD Family here ever had this dilemma? What did you do? How did things turn out?

The practical side of me is saying to stop this now...nip it in the bud as they say. It's the wrong time of the year to be brooding around here. We might have very mild temps this week, but by this time next week, it could easily be back down in the negative territory on the thermometer. And who's to say that by the time they hatch in the first week of February, we won't be under a 3 foot deep blanket of snow??

NOT a good time to have little fuzzy butts on the ground! But, the chicken lover in me sooooo wants GeeGee to be successful at this. I want to have as many mama girls as the Great Spirit sees fit to give me!

So please, give me some much needed advice folks. I really want to know what you would do if you were in my shoes.