Surviving Minnesota!

[I Love Layers]

Sorry to hear of your loss. I found out an estranged cousin of mine on my dad's side lost her battle with brain cancer on Thursday. She was 30. She battled the return of this cancer more than once too. The losing part never gets easier. I still expect my cousin to walk around the corner during family gatherings and he passed 23 years ago. So keep the memories close and remember to make more with those close to you.

The worst part was that this guy was near 90. He was the most energetic man I knew. Very hard working also. Next thing I know he's gone.

 

[lvie]

I had a second cousin like that ILL. I met him late - approx seven years ago, maybe eight. He gave me the sense of belonging I had never had. At age 94 he was walking me to the original family homestead on the St. Croix River bank near Somerset, WI. He just passed this last August and will be missed by so many. His wife of seventy years is still alive. She is my second cousin also. He by my grandfather, she by my grandmother. They had 14 children together. Yea. I could go on and on, as previously proven. Hold those memories and the lessons learned close ILL. You are a lucky person to have met him.

 

[KlopKlop]

Update on steer doing splits. So I met the nice guy from elm dale locker who comes to the farm to start the butchering process. Father in law and I are lift the 1400 lb steer up with aid of skid loader and wide straps. Get it upright take the straps off and poof the thing takes off running like a bat out of he double hockey sticks. We try everything to settle it down to no avail. Nice guy from locker plant says, it appears today is not its day of recogning. 4 hours later the dumb thing is still running around like no injury. I can honestly say I have never seen that happen in my limited 36 years of animal rearing.

For the other Monty Python fans made me think of....

 

[lvie]

Okay - true confessions. There is some kind of a bug crawling on my body. This has been happening for a couple of months. Yesterday and today I noticed it is ten times worse when I have been in the coop. I have dusted the coop. I am tired of this. Itching and scratching and drive me crazy.

We have so much company that at first I thought it might be bed bugs. I have pretty much ruled that out. My DH NEVER complains about itching.

I finally have spotted these - about the size of a pepper grain from the FINE kind. I looked up human lice. That said that they are a hygiene issue. That if a person changes their clothes ONCE A Week and washes their bed linen it should take care of the problem. I felt I had conquered the issue until I went in the coop. I thought I was going to go nuts itching while in that coop.

Any help you can offer? Are there bugs that the chickens have that humans can walk away with?

 

[lvie]

That steer story is cool! Loved reading it and would have loved to have seen it. Just so he doesn't thing this is the thing to do just to get all that attention now.

 

[Momof3plustwins]

Genetic people out there. Depending on how my silver wyandottes feather out as they fully mature I will check their lacing but it doesn't look very promising compared to my golden laced. I know I can mix the colors and get some of each and even depending on the rooster used they can be sexed linked. But will it be able to improve my lacing on the silvers if I use good golden laced? I am hoping so.

Ralphie, being as you are raising Dominiques I pose this question. For color purposes in breeding choosing my hen it should be one of lighter color instead of my dark one. Because the barring is too thick on the darker one, right?

Ralphie you also mentioned you were disappointed in the Cuckoo Marans. In what way? I believe you mentioned you got them from Cackle. I also got all of our Aug babies from Cackle. I remember your straight run troubles. My Cuckoo Marans at least the cockerel is quite large. The biggest male of all the babies.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Minnie,,,,,


Do I need to bring waterers, feeders, feed and or water with me to the show?


Is there anything that can make a PC stop molting and bring all her feathers in in 4 days?

No, you needn't bring feed or water or cups. You should bring a small watering can to water them with, and maybe a small bucket to get feed with. They provide scratch with heavy cracked corn content and you toss in the bottom of the cage. It feeds them but it also gets them moving in the cage and perks them up to show off. You won't feed them Saturday morning though, you don't want them showing with a full crop. Feed Friday night and they will be fine, then take care of them again right after the judging is done.

No, no way to stop the molt. I may put my older Cornish trio in anyway since I paid for the cages, but some of those are looking a bit on the porcupine side of things.

 

[Minniechickmama]

WWD gets upset when I bring a chicken into the house for a little visit even. I am betting an over nighter and I would wake up dead.

What do you think the real reason for cast iron skillets is?

Just won our game against Elgin. Found out that a very inspirational man to me died last night... Kind of ruined my adrenalin....

Congrats on the game, and I too am sorry for your loss. Losing those you love and/or have great admiration for is never easy. Honor him with remembering all he taught you.

Here is that crazy barnyard mix i was talking about. God forbid if he would stand still! he wanted nothing to do with me sneaking up on him and when he runs his head reaaaally bobs which was funny. it also didnt help that me trying to sneak up on him made my pooch think i was inviting her for a game of chicken herding which made it that much harder lol...

anyways.... here he is. i am thinking he must be a Buckeye over a barred rock since he has a pea/rose comb. Conrad (my rainbow rooster) has a huge single comb and i dont think he is hiding a recessive rose comb (you genetics guys can chime in here, i forget what over rides what). The only other hens i have with a pea/rose is one of my silver laced hens. this guy is definitly barred.

so thoughts/









And one bonus picture of my chicken herder/chicken poo cleaner upper doing her self appointed duties...

This might make you scratch your head, how about Conrad over a Dark Cornish? Surprisingly, when crossing Cornish in, you get some leggy birds sometimes. The neck is long for a Buckeye, but I didn't think your Buck was really pure. The Pea comb is dominant, so if you had either a Buckeye or Cornish in him, it would express the Pea. The coloring is Dixie Rainbow. I have found that the other patterns are pretty much subdued when crossing a Buckeye rooster over other hens, but I am sure that isn't the rule, just my experience. I keep looking at his LOOONG neck. LOL

Update on steer doing splits. So I met the nice guy from elm dale locker who comes to the farm to start the butchering process. Father in law and I are lift the 1400 lb steer up with aid of skid loader and wide straps. Get it upright take the straps off and poof the thing takes off running like a bat out of he double hockey sticks. We try everything to settle it down to no avail. Nice guy from locker plant says, it appears today is not its day of recogning. 4 hours later the dumb thing is still running around like no injury. I can honestly say I have never seen that happen in my limited 36 years of animal rearing.

I bet that scared the begeebers out of you! LOL! I find livestock to be quite entertaining. Like the turkeys a couple of years ago that I figured out I couldn't keep in the back of the truck if I put them and put the gate up and left the hatch open, but if I closed the hatch and left the gate down, they would all stay in because they were too dumb to duck under. See @duluthralphie here is a case where 'ducking' is a good thing. Quack Quack!

I had a second cousin like that ILL. I met him late - approx seven years ago, maybe eight. He gave me the sense of belonging I had never had. At age 94 he was walking me to the original family homestead on the St. Croix River bank near Somerset, WI. He just passed this last August and will be missed by so many. His wife of seventy years is still alive. She is my second cousin also. He by my grandfather, she by my grandmother. They had 14 children together. Yea. I could go on and on, as previously proven. Hold those memories and the lessons learned close ILL. You are a lucky person to have met him.

Oh, honey, you and i are cut from the same cloth! type like we speak and speak what we think, right?

Okay - true confessions. There is some kind of a bug crawling on my body. This has been happening for a couple of months. Yesterday and today I noticed it is ten times worse when I have been in the coop. I have dusted the coop. I am tired of this. Itching and scratching and drive me crazy.

We have so much company that at first I thought it might be bed bugs. I have pretty much ruled that out. My DH NEVER complains about itching.

I finally have spotted these - about the size of a pepper grain from the FINE kind. I looked up human lice. That said that they are a hygiene issue. That if a person changes their clothes ONCE A Week and washes their bed linen it should take care of the problem. I felt I had conquered the issue until I went in the coop. I thought I was going to go nuts itching while in that coop.

Any help you can offer? Are there bugs that the chickens have that humans can walk away with?

I feel like that sometimes, especially after finding bugs on some birds. It sounds like feather mites/poultry mites. They don't live on humans long. Take a shower and you should be fine. I shower every day after I do chores, otherwise I stink and itch. Sometimes I smell like a rhino's behind after cleaning pens or washing chickens, so I should have an outdoor pre-shower for those days. LOL

Genetic people out there. Depending on how my silver wyandottes feather out as they fully mature I will check their lacing but it doesn't look very promising compared to my golden laced. I know I can mix the colors and get some of each and even depending on the rooster used they can be sexed linked. But will it be able to improve my lacing on the silvers if I use good golden laced? I am hoping so.

Ralphie, being as you are raising Dominiques I pose this question. For color purposes in breeding choosing my hen it should be one of lighter color instead of my dark one. Because the barring is too thick on the darker one, right?

Ralphie you also mentioned you were disappointed in the Cuckoo Marans. In what way? I believe you mentioned you got them from Cackle. I also got all of our Aug babies from Cackle. I remember your straight run troubles. My Cuckoo Marans at least the cockerel is quite large. The biggest male of all the babies.

If you cross, you will likely end up with worse color. There is a color calculator you can test it out on though at : http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html I plugged in your GLW male over an SLW female and it looks like you would get some with double lacing and some with a yellow/gold combo color. What you really need to do is find a male with good color and put him up with the darker females. The hatchery SLWs don't too often come out even close to correct color. They select to look 'sort of like' the breed and variety, but their main focus tends to be on production. If you want birds that look like they should, you need to look for someone who breeds for them to be correct. The trade-off is that they may not lay as well.

 

[lvie]

Good Morning Chickeners . . . . .

 

[lvie]

Minnie - THANK YOU - I consider that a Huge compliment that you say we are alike in that we appreciate the gifts given to us by the wise, learned, older influences in our lives. They are true treasures.

About the bugs - yes, I believe that may be what they could be. Feather / Poultry mites. Today I will 'powder' each hen, rake the coop - again - and mix that DE in good. I shower each night (cuz I really only clean two small coops compared to what you do Minnie - piece of cake - there are only 22 birds and 6 are chicks) and wash my hair and throw my clothes into the washer at 160 degrees each and every night. The pillow case and blanket and p.j.s go in to the washer in the morning. I use tea tree oil on my skin for now and am taking a tab of Garlic each day.

Man! What we do to have chickens! I did LOL at it being a hygiene issue and to change your clothes once a week.