Hi Guys,
Sorry I've been quiet, dealing with a really annoying cold that won't leave me alone plus John is away in Texas so I'm holding down the fort with the two little ones alone. I'm going to try to reply to all the open threads... (ha!)
1/ Welcome to Backyard Chickens NY Duck! We are all pretty much chicken owners on this thread although there is one fancy pigeon breeder that pops in occasionally and I think more than a few parrot owners as well. You are certainly welcome to hang out and pick up crochet tips though, lol!
2/ Al, I'm sorry you haven't been feeling well. Did I mention I bought the cookbook for arthritis written by a young top rated chef? I haven't really had time to read it yet but one of the key foods he talks about is parsley. Try a parsley smoothie? I'll look through it tonight and see if I can come up with one or two more appetizing recipes of his to pass on. I hope you can get back on Humera soon.
3/ Maggie I am sorry about your sick birdie. I too don't have anything useful to offer but I do know Terry Golson on HenCam.com recommends a bath in epsom salts when nothing else seems to work. At a minimum it can't hurt while you're waiting for the antibiotics to come in. I also had a pullet, our Speckled Sussex Perry Katie, get very sick for no good reason at all pretty much a month after she started laying. Because she was sweet and because I was just starting out with the chicken keeping I had her to the vet a few times. Long story short when she died we did a necropsy and it was cancer. There wasn't anything we could have done to stop it. Don't beat yourself up too much, things happen occasionally. Here's hoping she makes a full recovery.
4/ Suzanne I may have found a home for Ben. I was at Hilltop Hanover Farms tonight with the girls for their end of season pot luck supper and of course talked the ears off the two young farmers by the chicken shed. They have a flock of 25 hens, they weren't sure what breed they are but I suspect Red Comet and they were looking for a rooster to establish some social order and prevent them from pecking at each other. I emailed the head chicken dude Bret and told him about our thread so he may come and check us out. What I really wish is that I could take Ben after those hawk attacks. I suspect that would be asking too much of my neighbors though.
5/ I am sort of working on a holiday present for the group that entails a visit to the Bronx Zoo. I'm just going to assume that a Saturday is the best day to plan this unless everyone has a weekday that works for them? Basically it would take just about an hour and you would be free to stay at the zoo as long as you wanted afterwards. I hope I can get this together, it was something I had the chance to do for the first time this week and it was just amazing. That's all I can say for now.
I hope I didn't miss anything because that's all the time I have now! There is screaming from the other room now..... argh....
XOXO,
Heather
