The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[speckledhen]

speckled, could he have possibly pecked at a Bufo Toad? They're highly toxic. To be honest, I am not sure I'd actually know the difference between a regular toad, and a Bufo Toad. To the best of my knowledge, I've never seen a Bufo Toad, but when we were renting, living in the subdivision, several people had trouble with them. They're deadly to cats, and dogs too.

I have no idea. Would have to look it up to see what it looks like. Mostly, the birds avoid the frogs/toads around here, other than the most tiny ones. They seem to freak them out a little bit. We have toads around, but if they are the poisonous type, I'd have no idea.

 

[seminolewind]

Wow. I hope Bash pulls out of it. Maybe infection or sepsis? Cocci? Less common in an older bird but it does happen.

 

[speckledhen]

Wow. I hope Bash pulls out of it. Maybe infection or sepsis? Cocci? Less common in an older bird but it does happen.

I've never seen cocci in adult birds here. And everyone else is fine, other than being stupid-broody or old. I have no direction to go with this. It's not unheard of for a rooster of his size and age to just drop dead and the heat has really been a sudden increase, much hotter than our usual May, or even our July-Aug temps. So, could be anything. I noticed nothing before yesterday, but of course, with chickens, you know they don't show signs until they are really down, especially roosters who take their duties so seriously.

 

[seminolewind]

My daughter and SIL had an inground pool put in. They bought that aluminum fencing that looks like black iron. They decide to do it themselves. I know they were thinking "piece of cake" like just dig post holes and put the fence up. Not realizing that it's not the time it takes to dig a hole, but the time it takes to get everything perfectly lined up and level, and with that kind of fence you really don't have any room to fix small errors like we do with wood and wire , LOL. I'm a fencing queen but not with that fancy fencing.
So he calls me for help, I go over and there's really nothing to help with. We can't dig holes in advance, it takes 1 person to get them straight level and perfectly attached. Now he hit his first big root.

All I can say is , if you spend $50k on a pool, and buy $3500 of fencing, maybe they should think about spending the $2k for someone to put it up-the right way.

 

[seminolewind]

I've never seen cocci in adult birds here. And everyone else is fine, other than being stupid-broody or old. I have no direction to go with this. It's not unheard of for a rooster of his size and age to just drop dead and the heat has really been a sudden increase, much hotter than our usual May, or even our July-Aug temps. So, could be anything. I noticed nothing before yesterday, but of course, with chickens, you know they don't show signs until they are really down, especially roosters who take their duties so seriously.

I've had issues with cocci in adults basically as secondary to something else going on. The heat can probably do a number on a big bird like that. I had a Polish rooster flip over dead one day for no reason I could see. I saw him doing what turned out to be the "death dance". Really odd. I found nothing around.

How does he look today?

 

[seminolewind]

Cynthia I guess your raised garden beds work well? I'm considering it because the ground here is so difficult.

 

[speckledhen]

Cynthia I guess your raised garden beds work well? I'm considering it because the ground here is so difficult.

Yes, they do well if we amend with the good soil from the other garden, which evolved from a mountain of composted poopy shavings from the barn. That far garden has great soil, but we wanted to re-open the garden closer to the house so the soil there is not as good, hence the raised beds.

Here is Bash in a video I posted on my channel, filmed a little while ago. He is now laying in the back corner underneath the roost:

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Yes, they do well if we amend with the good soil from the other garden, which evolved from a mountain of composted poopy shavings from the barn. That far garden has great soil, but we wanted to re-open the garden closer to the house so the soil there is not as good, hence the raised beds.

Here is Bash in a video I posted on my channel, filmed a little while ago. He is now laying in the back corner underneath the roost:

. Hopefully he rallies. Poor guy.

 

[speckledhen]

. Hopefully he rallies. Poor guy.

I do, too, but I am not very hopeful at the moment. We made sure he got some water using an extra large syringe. He's just so drained. He won't stand more than a couple of minutes, then he collapses in the spot he was in. His hens are concerned, you can tell.

To give myself more time to make a decision and keep my options open, I put 5 eggs under Jill. Two are Cora's, but I have no idea which hen the other three belong to, hopefully, not B.J. Her eggs never develop for some reason, much like my Lt. Brahma hen with Suede.

I wasn't going to, then I figured with my luck, I'd not do it, and Hector would keel over dead and I'd have no roosters to watch out for the group at all.

 

[speckledhen]

Grr, someone on my channel asked if I'd had an "unusual mortality rate" and suggested getting the Dept of Ag involved. Unusual? Yes, in that most seem to hang on FOREVER! Geez. No, and 8 yr old and an 11 yr old hen died. That's it recently. And I said I would NEVER get the state involved in my barnyard. They serve big agri-biz. They are here to protect commercial flocks from us, not help us help our flocks. No way will I ever contact this state about anything to do with my chickens, period. Why do they always want you to get the government involved when one blasted chicken dies? Sheesh. That really irks me.

Roosters die all the time from heart issues, predator attacks, stress, etc. I have such a knee-jerk reaction to that suggestion. Gosh. If I was sure there was something contagious running through the flock, the LAST entity I've contact would be the state! I'd take care of it myself. My flock doesn't affect anything except themselves as long as I don't allow them to leave my property.