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

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Uh oh! Well, 'lionlops' are a popular pet breed, maybe you can sell them? I wish my darn rabbits would have a litter!

I already got one of nieces taking one, I'm gonna work the family angle first. They should be stinking cute, hopefully I can resist, and find homes for all.

 

[speckledhen]

Went on into town, to go grocery shopping. Apparently they had no power for a couple days, so all chilled, refrigerated, and frozen food was disposed of. They are not getting enough trucks in to meet the meat, dairy, and produce demand. Far too many shelves are empty at this point. A little bleach is back on the shelves, and a little soap, but not much. No paper products yet. No cat litter, and very little in the pet food aisle. A little cereal, and a few pop-tarts, but for the most part, the breakfast food aisle is empty. It's a good thing I am still stocked up good, so I'm not desperate for anything.

Good for you, Cheryl! See? It's crazy. And gas prices have made a big jump, I noticed.

BTW, your souffles look lovely!

Thanks! they were pretty darn good, actually.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Thought I'd post some photos since I haven't before in this thread. Hope that's okay


Got the tarp back up in the garden for the fall cleanup. I couldn't attach it to the fence yet as it would shade the nasturtium and the cilantro so I"m trying the portable fence posts for the time being.

The tarp is to give them courage to go out in the open area so that they have a place to hide from hawks. Gives them more security. (2 Buckeyes working under there.)

Back in the corner they are spreading compost.

The compost corner. The stuff laying on top is some apple pieces that had worms (and some rotting water mellon rind) that I put out yesterday so it's not composted of course. They do a great job at spreading compost. Late in the fall we'll start a new compost heap in the middle of the garden. Then next spring, the birds can come out and spread it on the garden for us.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They look like they are having fun being little rototillers @Leahs Mom

 

[Leahs Mom]

Yep. They certainly have the good life!

 

[speckledhen]

@Leahs Mom, love the pictures. I used to plant nasturtiums all the time. Maybe next year, I'll go back to putting them in hanging baskets again.

 

[1muttsfan]

And the flowers are edible.

 

[speckledhen]

And the flowers are edible.

I know, which is one reason I planted them. They taste sort of peppery. Speaking of flowers, you know the forsythia blooms, the yellow ones? I was wondering why the chickens liked to eat them so I tasted a couple. They taste sort of like lettuce to me. I won't taste everything they eat, trust me, LOL.

I am so tired and my back feels like someone cranked it too tight. I completely cleaned out three pens, sprayed all the cracks with Orange Guard, then sprinkled a mix of poultry dust and DE around, then put new shavings. And I also dusted those birds in those pens. Will have to do the other pens, but need more shavings. For the first time ever, I found mites on a chicken..but I was rather expecting it eventually on the elderly hens, especially Snow and Amanda, who cannot dustbathe.

Snow won't even attempt to dustbathe, nor will she voluntarily stay outside, hasn't for a very long time, she's so crippled. I've even taken her to a pile of dirt and rubbed it into her feathers, with her protesting the entire time. She had mites so I knew the others did, too. I've never had to deal with mites. DE was not going to cut it with mites and they are so, so teensy, you can barely see them. I checked all in Atlas's pen. He and Gloria Jean, the hen he mates the most, had some on their tushes, but the others had no sign of them. I had already put invermectin pour-on on everyone, but it sure didn't fix the problem. That was just over a week after I wormed them all with Valbazen. I did the bantams except for Sissy and the two roosters who are all a PITA to grab for anything. Will get them tomorrow with the permethrin dust. Their pen, the old ladies' pen and Atlas's pen were all total cleanouts.
Tomorrow, will check the other birds. Ran out of muscle for the day, but shavings are low anyway. I think from now on, we need a definite cleanout schedule in the barn, plus I want to take a vacuum in to get all that standing dust on high-up surfaces, which could house some critters. Can't blow it out with the compressor because I can't remove all the groups from the barn-nowhere to put them and they don't get along with each other, especially the roosters. This is one reason I am getting weary of keeping separate rooster groups. I was so close today to deciding to let go some birds, but it's so hard.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Sounds like you got a work out today. I'm tired just reading it. My husband does most of my cleaning these days, though I attempt it here and there.

Mites like broody hens and you have had lots of them. Here it has been an extremely buggy year.

 

[speckledhen]

Sounds like you got a work out today. I'm tired just reading it. My husband does most of my cleaning these days, though I attempt it here and there.

Mites like broody hens and you have had lots of them. Here it has been an extremely buggy year.

It's been a TERRIBLE pest year for flies, garden pests, etc, so I guess this is just a continuation of that. And I really did expect that Snow would eventually get mites, being adamant that she will not dustbathe. Other than her and Amanda, who are crippled, all of the birds take luxurious dustbaths. I found Atlas deep in a hole just two days ago, so happy that he didn't move away when I bent down to run my hand down his back, LOL. I also think that ill birds are more prone to pests. And the bantams don't get out as much as the others do, but when they do, they are dustbathing fiends!

This is my first experience with mites, but I guess over a dozen years without them is pretty good. Even my crippled Zane never had mites or lice. I had to do everything for him and always kept his cage dusted with DE, but he also was living alone, not with other birds. The only time he really had contact was when Gypsy wanted to visit, or he was out on the ground with a broody and her chicks being Uncle Zane.

My first rooster, came to me covered in lice/mites and had favus as well. But those were taken care of in his quarantine period and he never had them again.

Getting a headache from the muscle strain. Guess I'll have to take something or suffer later tonight. We went to a feed store to get the poultry dust and they had some Wrangler shirts on sale. I got one for DH he liked that was marked down from $56 to $23. Even that is more than we usually pay but it's a really nice shirt. He put on his cowboy hat, too, but he should have put on his boots that he won at a western store giveaway grand opening.See? My man.