The 7th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-A-Long!

Cynthia12 · Mar 13, 2016

Having fun checking out the Possible Olive Egg makings.

aplynn · Mar 21, 2016

OK so I am going to vent real quick..... I got an emergency call from a local animal shelter yesterday about 2 baby ducks about 3 weeks old that were in need of some help. A women went to a store bought 2 Pekin Ducks so that her daughter could play a prank on a teacher at school. Well, after the prank was over she didn't know what to do with these babies so she stuck them in a small shoe box and put a book on the top of the box, she had a shot glass in the box with water full of poop and she had been throwing sugared cereal into the box for 2 1/2 week to feel them. She finally decided it was time to get rid of them and was going to drop them off at a local park on a river bank....... Thank god there was a cop there and got a bad vibe by what this lady was doing and he took the ducks to a local shelter, unfortunately this shelter is not equipped to take "farm animals" as they call them and called me to see if I could help. After they were checked by a vet these poor babies are SUPER dehydrated, they are anemic, their legs are so cracked they are splitting and bleeding. The male has a dry crack in his beak and the vet had to scrape dried on poop off the inside top of his beak.

I DONT GET IT, I DONT understand how people can just be so horrible. I was supposed to be fostering these ducks just until they are healthy enough to be rehomed, but alas I am a foster failure and will be keeping them. They have had it bad enough I am not about to let them go to another bad situation. Besides, they follow me EVERYWHERE and our resident bunny has already made them her BFF's LOL

aplynn · Mar 22, 2016

Here are the little duckies they are nice and clean and have had 2 days of nice healthy food and lots of cuddles... They seem to have taken to my big dog Kaysen he kind of likes them too

NotAFarm · Mar 24, 2016

Sumi posted this on the Quotes and Thoughts thread, and I thought it might be appropriate for some of you:

The Cottages · Mar 27, 2016

Our hatch has started!!! 1 of 7 in our small bator. and 3 of 13 in the large one.. FUN!

Penny Hen · Jan 27, 2016

Nate the Great, I understand your trepidation. You may not know this yet but what you are observing is the fall out you get when both parents HAVE to work to maintain what ever there status level is. The parents are working full time and are so exhausted by doing the work of more than one person they don't have any energy for their children. The children become strange like that because there main role models (their parents) are acting strange and disassociated. As a young woman in my teens and twenties (I am 50+) I was very adamant about women having the right to choose to work even if they have kids. What experience taught me is that at least one parent needs to only work part time to the other parents full time. Try to do more than that and the children suffer as well as the parents.(Of course if you are a single parent you have no choice.) If you are working out of your home that is not so bad. The important thing is to be there when you are needed to teach an important Life lesson. Shoving the parenting off on teachers and babysitters is a poor substitute. Children feel unwanted and tend to act out in ways like you fear (wanton crushing of chicks). They are sad and angry but the consequences of showing that to adults is too much so they take it out on the helpless.

This is what happens to people when you steal their hope. I bet if you could get an answer from them you would find that none of them expect to live past their mid-twenties. My two second cousins didn't. They are now 30 and 28 and have with great difficulty pulled their lives together. But for many years they were punks because they had no hope. And even though I was right next door I didn't see what the heart of the problem was. The youngest one was 23 when he told me that he really hadn't expected to live that long.

We have to be the Change. All of us who still have Hope for this Life have to show it to those who have lost their way.

If you ever decide to risk a baby chick, do it to an audience of one. This way if their masks slip they are not as likely to be afraid and do something ugly out of fear.

wornoutmomto3 · Jan 27, 2016

Start collecting those eggs, but make sure you get the right species. Or things could get interesting at hatch time.

(Found this pic floating around social media in one of my chicken related groups/pages.)

Wickedchicken6 · Jan 29, 2016

NTBugtraq said:
Well, I gotta leave the thread. Good mornings and good nights honestly just feel like ppl trying to increase their posts. So many things said in the thread that would be way better as private messages, I don't get it. Have fun folks, but consider that BYC has to store this stuff on a server...

Well, that's unfortunate. I think everyone's just excited about eggs and hatching and our birds, and it's great to chat with others who are likeminded. I can't speak for anyone else, but I for one learn A LOT about things said on here that's not necessarily meant for me. Even when I answer someone...the answer I give is for everyone. Any piece of information is good, even if it gives a person food for thought. Sometimes it may just help down the road.

And sometimes it's just nice to give a kind word or receive a kind word.

Wishing you the very best on your chicken endeavors!

mlm Mike · Jan 30, 2016

ChickenLady2014 said:
Please add me on the list for the EHAL, thank you