Stella's Social Club

[Hangtown Farms]

They are fluffing up. I am so excited about the new start with Lukka and Isi's kids!

hmm love the dark one. I wonder if it will be blue ,black and gold?
Looks like alittle of all colors. maybe the next great rooster

 

[Mahonri]

Love the chick pics!!!

 

[drumstick diva]

Oh Kathy, what beautiful chicks.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
Good to know, thanks!

 

[The Sheriff]

I am back. We spent the day leveling the coops and straightening them out. The big one is the middle is gonna' need steps! I'll build those tomorrow.




Grandson Cameron is here this weekend and he scoured the property for deer skeltons. Here he is with two skulls on the Polaris. Note the carcasses in the back. Yikes.











After that he demolished the little prayer shack we tried to save as a goat house. We couldn't get it into the goat pasture without destroying it and decided to tear it down. Cameron enjoyed demolition.




Look where the animals all headed when he started swinging the sledgehammer! Smart animals.





I was at the other house this morning to feed the chickens and turkeys. I was in the turkey coop when I heard Isi yell and a big ruckus. I ran out to see two Cooper's hawks attacking the free rangers! They were going from one to one trying to pick them up! I ran to the gate and out there and they finally flew away. The surprising thing is that none of the chickens ran! They just stood there as the hawks came down after them one by one. Had I not been there I think there would have been losses for sure. I can't wait to get them over here, under netting.

Kathy those babies are adorable! OMG I can't wait to see what the paint looks like.

Finishing a couple of blog posts them I am off to bed. My back is killing me from lifting and bending.

 

[Mahonri]

Will you miss the big barn you had at the other place?

Didn't you have "fake rocks" with holes for the free range Icelandics to run under?

When my birds see a hawk they run for the pop door like crazy.... it's amazing how quickly that they can all fit through that door.

 

[The Sheriff]

We have a full basement here that will hold most of the barn stuff. To be honest, the barn just got filled up with a bunch of junk anyway and maneuvering around was difficult. Michael stashed a lot of stuff in there just to get it out of the garage and then never organized it. It was more for his sports stuff that he never uses anyway. Under the deck here is room to park my scooter and the quad plus I am getting a small shed built for feed storage. I hope we go through the junk in the barn before bringing it over and get rid of most of it. But, I do not have any voice when it comes to issues like that so I am sure it will just get packed in the basement over here too.

I do have fake rocks for them to hide under but they never moved! Just stood there! Hopefully we'll make some progress on the runs today and can get them home with us soon. Unfortunately rain is forecast for the next two days. I ordered shelters for the donkeys and emus and they were supposed to be delivered and installed already but guess what? Now they are saying another two and half weeks! Tried to get my 50% deposit back but they can't do it because they already made them! What? Then get over here and installed them! On Monday I am going to threaten to bash them on Craigslist where they do the bulk of their advertising. Might not help but nothing else is either. They are in Nevada and gladly took my order and charge me $150.00 for delivery. Now they say they can't deliver until they get another order from my area so they can combine them to cut costs. Then I'll have to wait for the other customers shelters to be built too! Luckily there is a shade shelter on the far end of the property that the donkeys can get under. The goats have their dogloos but the emus are on their own. The olive trees should provide some measure of protection. Why can't people just be honest from the start? It would make the world a better place.

Gotta' go check on the chickens and turkeys.

Mary

 

[Happy Chooks]

Some sad news here.

I had a pullet that several months back was wobbly on her feet. She was about 13 weeks at the time and when I inspected her I found a huge infection from a wound on the back of her neck. I gave her 2 shots of penicillin 3 days apart and she seemed to recover fine.

She's now 21 weeks old and a few weeks ago she started being wobbly on her feet again. I inspected her and found no injuries, but did find that she has no meat left on her - all you feel when you hold her is her keel bone and her crop. I knew it wasn't anything contagious, but couldn't figure out what it was. No symptoms other than wobbly on her feet and it didn't look like Mareks, didn't look like cocci, etc. I dosed their water with vitamins/electrolytes, just to be on the safe side.

A friend had told me that maybe her organs suffered damage from the infection she had. She is still the same size she was at 13 weeks. I started feeding her a scrambled egg every night, which she would gobble down.

Last week, I thought, I wonder if older pullets can get wry neck? So I got some vitamin E and started adding that to her egg. I did quite a bit of research on it and I'm now convinced that's what she has. Her head is always tucked into her body and when you pick her up, her neck gets kinda floppy. I also read that an injury can cause wry neck, so she's probably had it since the infection.

As of last night, she's no longer eating for me, I only got a couple of bites of egg in her, so it looks like I'm too late. I'm just kicking myself for not seeing it sooner.

 

[kathyinmo]

Awww, I am so sorry to hear that, Kelly. We learn from each other, and your lesson may just save someone else's bird. Thanks for sharing your story with us.

 

[speckledhen]

Kelly, there was probably nothing you could have done to change the outcome. I've had enough experience to say that with confidence. Please, don't beat yourself up over it. It's sad, of course, but you did all you could for her. Some are just too precious for this world.