Sitting with a cup of coffee. (coffee lovers)

[chickisoup]

Hi everyone!!!
Oh Alaskan, how could you ever be ignored??? Never, ever on here!!! BTW, just read your latest blog post, I always love your pics. You aren't anywhere near any of the wildfires I saw on the news this morning, are you?

TJ-I am so very sorry for your loss (I apologize for responding so late but I haven't been on here all day) Might I make a suggestion? You might consider giving the puppy a "ride" to the pound and let them know you are aware where it came from but you were unable to communicate with the owners. Let them handle it. It is neither good for your sanity or for the puppy that it be let run loose. Very possibly the pup doesn't even have it's shots and the pound will take care of that. Maybe a bill from them will cross the language barrier better than you could.
If it's ok with you, may I add you and your girls to my prayer list for healing? Physical for your girls and you for your heart.

Teachick - I hate that you are having trouble with your chooks. I hope you are able to get answers soon.

Pollitos - how is your mare doing? I truly love horses.

Ok, now, I want to know who was doing the broody dance and aimed it my coop!!! Huh, huh, come on fess up, who's guilty? Was it you Ron???

I'm thinking since it doesn't seem I can get any blue aussies I just might get some eggs from my neighbor that I gave the big Aussie roo I got from a "breeder" with his bro that were supposed to be pullets (I also wound up giving away his brother because I just didn't have enough girls and he was an idiot) and she also has the other hen and roo that I gave her from my order of BA's from Cackle Hatchery that my broody came from . Since the big roo named Max is boss, I stand a good chance of getting some of his genes. Hmmm, this just might work out! (as long as I don't wind up with all cockerels )

 

[Alaskan]

I am very Murphy's law.

HOWEVER...... The well guy came out.... Turned there was no problem to fix (arg! Horrid renters! Don't they know that they must tell me when things spontaneously fix themselves.. And repairmen cost money??? ) but the repair man charged me ZERO and nope, I don't live in town, standard is $80 minimum..


So.. That was very anti-murphy and quite pleasant.


I think that the pound suggestion is PERFECT! I second it!


And thank you for reading my blog, and no, I am not close to the fire, but just barely close enough to see red tinged clouds on the horizon towards the north.

 

[ronott1]

Hi everyone!!!
Oh Alaskan, how could you ever be ignored??? Never, ever on here!!! BTW, just read your latest blog post, I always love your pics. You aren't anywhere near any of the wildfires I saw on the news this morning, are you?

TJ-I am so very sorry for your loss (I apologize for responding so late but I haven't been on here all day) Might I make a suggestion? You might consider giving the puppy a "ride" to the pound and let them know you are aware where it came from but you were unable to communicate with the owners. Let them handle it. It is neither good for your sanity or for the puppy that it be let run loose. Very possibly the pup doesn't even have it's shots and the pound will take care of that. Maybe a bill from them will cross the language barrier better than you could.
If it's ok with you, may I add you and your girls to my prayer list for healing? Physical for your girls and you for your heart.

Teachick - I hate that you are having trouble with your chooks. I hope you are able to get answers soon.

Pollitos - how is your mare doing? I truly love horses.

Ok, now, I want to know who was doing the broody dance and aimed it my coop!!! Huh, huh, come on fess up, who's guilty? Was it you Ron???

I'm thinking since it doesn't seem I can get any blue aussies I just might get some eggs from my neighbor that I gave the big Aussie roo I got from a "breeder" with his bro that were supposed to be pullets (I also wound up giving away his brother because I just didn't have enough girls and he was an idiot) and she also has the other hen and roo that I gave her from my order of BA's from Cackle Hatchery that my broody came from . Since the big roo named Max is boss, I stand a good chance of getting some of his genes. Hmmm, this just might work out! (as long as I don't wind up with all cockerels )

@sourland does the broody dance!

I have been hit with it because his broody GPS is often wonky....

 

[TeaChick]

I lOoked it up... And you don't really get swallows... Depending on exactly where you are, right along the coast, the tree swallow will winter over, and at the very northern edge of those southern states a few swallows nest in the summer... But mid state in the southern states, they just migrate through...

Except for the barn swallow, and those are much louder, and messier, and more like city folk

and those don't need houses, they make mud nests on the sides of buildings... Like barns!


You do have the Purple Martins... And those are very swallow like... But are also a bit city folk like.... But not as messy as barn swallows.... I see those large communal nests that you can buy for them at lots of places for sale...

I used to get the tree swallows, and I love them the best I think! They make a soft constant chittering, and are clean birds... I have a nest right above my bedroom window, and they have never made a mess for me to clean up.

I would also get the violet-green swallow which is almost as lovely as the tree swallow, but they stay along the rockies and further West... So they don't ever come close to you.

For the first time ever... Two years back? I had some cliff swallows show up, they are very similar to the barn swallows, and they too make mud nests.

Not sure why they only showed up once.... But they showed up very late, and I am not sure if they successfully raised a clutch.

Yeah, I think the closest thing to a swallow shaped bird we get is actually a kite, which is quite a bit larger.
Nope, we don't get bar swallows here, at least not that I know of.

I've seen Purple Martin. I was wondering what they were; they look to me like a cross between a crow and a Blue Jay. I'm not building or buying houses for them though.

Those tree swallows sound nice.
I don't want mud-nest-making anythings around my house/yard.
We have a Wren that's got a nest in between the screen and glass sliding doors on the back of the house, ones we don't use. We've seen eggs in there, but I don't know anything about whether they hatched or anything. I guess so; there weren't any eggs or shells or anything in there a while after we found the nest. And it was where the kids couldn't get to it, so I know nobody messed with it.

Mg is a mycoplasma that causes respiratory issues, and yes, baytril is the medication need to treat it. It pops up every year... Not really sure why I was suprised.

Oh no! Are you doing research on what type of predator it is, or how to get them in the coop?? I've only lost one bird to a predator, and it was a bear... Not much I could do against something like that.
I have a Cochin cockerel that is my DS favorite, and I honestly don't know what to do... It would be nice if he just disappeared!

Ooooo! Broodies are so much fun! What kind of eggs are under her?

Sounds like us and coccidiosis. =(

Oh, I put those too close together. I'm doing chicken breed research, working on getting something that's going to suit our property and family better than what we have right now, and better quality than hatchery. So I've been looking at breeders and talking to ppl and looking up breed profiles and stuff like that.
Separately, I've been losing chickens, mostly young juvies. The kids found one under the back porch this afternoon. It was one of my NH pullets; her neck had been ripped open. I was so mad! I'm glad we found her, but I wish she hadn't met such an ugly end.
We're going out early this evening (me and the girls) and we're going to try to get the chickens in the yard (out of the woods) and hopefully into their coops earlier than usual this evening. I'm way down in the South, so the sun doesn't go down until a quarter to nine and it's still light at 9 pm. Ugh!

Those Cochins are endearing little things, aren't they? I have two Partridge pullets coming up. I expect them to start laying (and going broody) in the spring. Hopefully, they'll make it.
I hate feeling that way, but I thought that yesterday, that it would be easiest on everyone if Sherman just turned up dead or was gotten by the predator or something.

She's got 8 New Hampshire eggs under here. She started out with 13, but apparently 2 of them broke, so she tried to move the rest to the side of the hole in the hay and missed three. Hopefully she gets a good hatch rate! =)

Hi everyone!!!
Oh Alaskan, how could you ever be ignored??? Never, ever on here!!! BTW, just read your latest blog post, I always love your pics. You aren't anywhere near any of the wildfires I saw on the news this morning, are you?

TJ-I am so very sorry for your loss (I apologize for responding so late but I haven't been on here all day) Might I make a suggestion? You might consider giving the puppy a "ride" to the pound and let them know you are aware where it came from but you were unable to communicate with the owners. Let them handle it. It is neither good for your sanity or for the puppy that it be let run loose. Very possibly the pup doesn't even have it's shots and the pound will take care of that. Maybe a bill from them will cross the language barrier better than you could.
If it's ok with you, may I add you and your girls to my prayer list for healing? Physical for your girls and you for your heart.

Teachick - I hate that you are having trouble with your chooks. I hope you are able to get answers soon.

Pollitos - how is your mare doing? I truly love horses.

Ok, now, I want to know who was doing the broody dance and aimed it my coop!!! Huh, huh, come on fess up, who's guilty? Was it you Ron???

I'm thinking since it doesn't seem I can get any blue aussies I just might get some eggs from my neighbor that I gave the big Aussie roo I got from a "breeder" with his bro that were supposed to be pullets (I also wound up giving away his brother because I just didn't have enough girls and he was an idiot) and she also has the other hen and roo that I gave her from my order of BA's from Cackle Hatchery that my broody came from . Since the big roo named Max is boss, I stand a good chance of getting some of his genes. Hmmm, this just might work out! (as long as I don't wind up with all cockerels )

Thanks, Hon.
The girls and I are going to go out early and get them in the yard, and hopefully we'll be able to entice them into their coops early so as to avoid any further losses. It'll mean being outside much longer than usual this evening, but it's worth it not to count one short this evening.
We're reasonably sure they're getting nabbed at dusk, b/c they stay out in the woods late and then sometimes we hear an alarm call about half past eight.

I thought Sourland was the Broody Dancing Magician around here.
@ronott1 , you do the broody dance too???

I hope all goes well with your endeavor to get Blue Aussies!!!

 

[TeaChick]

I am very Murphy's law.

HOWEVER...... The well guy came out.... Turned there was no problem to fix (arg! Horrid renters! Don't they know that they must tell me when things spontaneously fix themselves.. And repairmen cost money???

) but the repair man charged me ZERO

and nope, I don't live in town, standard is $80 minimum..


So.. That was very anti-murphy and quite pleasant.


I think that the pound suggestion is PERFECT! I second it!


And thank you for reading my blog, and no, I am not close to the fire, but just barely close enough to see red tinged clouds on the horizon towards the north.

Yay that the guy didn't charge!

What's the pound suggestion? I missed something again. =(

Glad you're not close to the fire!!! Enjoy the pretty clouds and I hope the fires die soon!

@sourland does the broody dance!

I have been hit with it because his broody GPS is often wonky....

I've been missed by it repeatedly.
Hopefully, I catch more after the hot weather than I got this spring. Only one broody.

But no eggs, really.
I've been meaning to ask you all. My chickens don't seem sick, but I'm getting 1-2 eggs out of 15 layers. Any ideas on what's going on?

Also, I started them on Wazine, and it says not to eat the eggs or meat. It says don't slaughter birds for meat for at least two weeks after dosing, but it doesn't give a time frame on the eggs.
What would you do?

 

[Alaskan]

Pound suggestion.... The take the puppy to the pound if he comes to her yard again... That is a great idea!


Eggs and drugs.... No idea... I have never drugged my chickens.....

Very low egg production:
Molting?
Super hot, so heat stress?
A sneaky egg eater? (That is always my nightmare answer... I had one once, it ate over ten eggs a day.. When I butchered her, the only thing in her crop was egg. Luckily I only had the one).
High worm load... That is what the drugs are for, right? Because they had worms?
All super old?
A neighborhood egg thief? (Not kidding, there are such people )

 

[TeaChick]

Pound suggestion.... The take the puppy to the pound if he comes to her yard again... That is a great idea!


Eggs and drugs.... No idea... I have never drugged my chickens.....

Very low egg production:
Molting?
Super hot, so heat stress?
A sneaky egg eater? (That is always my nightmare answer... I had one once, it ate over ten eggs a day.. When I butchered her, the only thing in her crop was egg. Luckily I only had the one).
High worm load... That is what the drugs are for, right? Because they had worms?
All super old?
A neighborhood egg thief? (Not kidding, there are such people

)

Duh! Yes, I like that idea too.

I try to avoid it, but I've been losing so many and DH doesn't believe in just letting them keep dying.

I don't think they're molting.
Yup, upper 90s for about two weeks or so.
I don't think I've got an egg eater that's eating ten to twelve eggs a day. If I've got ten to twelve egg eaters, then I'm going to have a very full freezer in a few weeks. But I'm not hearing as many egg songs lately either.
Yeah, hence the drugs. I don't think specifically that they have worms, but I figured it was a possible cause, and it's been a while since I've wormed, so...
Nope, 12 of them are less than a year. The three Comets are 2.5 years old though, so they're on the way to freezer camp soon.
Not ppl, but we've killed an inordinent number of gray rat snakes this summer. "Tell your dad to get the machete!!!" We've gotten about half a dozen.

 

[chickisoup]

Looks like the broody thing was a false alarm, for now anyway. She hopped off the nestbox late this afternoon. However, she has had a SERIOUS attitude problem for over a week, grumping at the other girls, parking in the nestbox and hackling up and YELLING at me when I kicked her off to get the eggs (plural because they all fight over that box). This is one of the BA's I got from Cackle Hatchery last spring so she is just over a year old. Quiet, shy, meek aussies but today when I went to check if she was sitting on anybody's eggs she tried to bite me!!!

I'm thinking because she is so young, she just may not have quite figured out this brood thing yet. Think I will leave eggs under her tomorrow and see if she decides to stick. If she does I can always swap out the eggs for fertile ones from my neighbor.

Alaskan - we get both tree and barn swallows. Well, actually my neighbor gets the barn swallows but they come to our field to chase bugs. We put up several swallow nest boxes in our field for the tree swallows. There were fewer that past couple years but this year there were no vacancies! In fact they even tried to take over the blue bird houses but they lost that battle.

 

[Alaskan]

@TeaChick it sounds like you have both the heat, AND perhaps a worm load AND maybe a giant group of snakes (what is that called? a flock of snakes?

)

whatever... you have three very probably causes for a lower egg production... and if the snake freaks out the girls before it eats the eggs, then that can cause them to slow or stop production.

After any big attack in my coop, the girls often stop laying for a full week or even two.

@chickisoup silly broody, and I sure am happy someone has a good crop of swallows!

 

[chickisoup]

@chickisoup silly broody, and I sure am happy someone has a good crop of swallows!

I love to just sit and watch them swoop around after mosquitoes. Only thing is after the first hatch fledges, it can get downright dangerous outside at times because the young ones get too focused on the bugs and almost run into you!