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

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I am worm phobic. Not touching any here, the birds can find their own.

I like tea too, green tea. What part of the UP are you in? If you don't mind me asking?

 

[speckledhen]

Yay for Jill! And I'm happy to hear about Hector. Maybe he would be better if he got a bunch of new hens at once - sometimes that seems to confuse them.

I agree Lisa, and hope you can take some time off. Wouldn't it be fun if we could all meet for tea and chat? Compare birds and projects, trade goodies?

I find freeze dried mealworms so much easier to deal with than live worms. I wonder if there is any way to freeze dry them at home? Not that I want any in MY freezer.

Yes, I think if I had to give all of Atlas's hens to Hector, he'd have to deal, right? But, I won't do that now, not until Atlas is gone. He'd go crazy seeing his hens with Hector, he hates him so much.

Oh, what fun that would be, the tea and chat! Gosh, we are all so spread apart!

 

[Leahs Mom]

The first time I purchased dried mealworms I wouldn't touch them. Just too creepy looking. I'd shake them from the container, but wouldn't touch them.

Enter grandson. I had asked him if he wanted to feed the new "teenage chicks" some and he did...but he said, "Can I eat some?"

I'm serious. He had just returned from living in Seattle and his science had done a chapter on edible insects. They had grilled some mealworms and anyone that wanted to try them could. He volunteered.

So I said, "Sure". And he tried some. But, of course, they weren't salted,etc. so they were pretty bland.


Anyhow, now it doesn't bother me to have them in my hands. But it took several months before I could touch them!

 

[kitkat5505]

I love the new spring quilt, so colorful!

The first time I purchased dried mealworms I wouldn't touch them. Just too creepy looking. I'd shake them from the container, but wouldn't touch them.

Enter grandson. I had asked him if he wanted to feed the new "teenage chicks" some and he did...but he said, "Can I eat some?"

I'm serious. He had just returned from living in Seattle and his science had done a chapter on edible insects. They had grilled some mealworms and anyone that wanted to try them could. He volunteered.

So I said, "Sure". And he tried some. But, of course, they weren't salted,etc. so they were pretty bland.


Anyhow, now it doesn't bother me to have them in my hands. But it took several months before I could touch them!

Yuck, I don’t like touching the dried meals either, I shake them out of the bag lol.

Last fall a section of our yard had a grub infestation and a couple little neighbor kids were having a blast picking them out of the dirt and then taking a bowl of them to the chickens. The chickens were in heaven.

Life is busy here. My EE that has had laying problems spent another day in my bathroom. Not egg bound this time. No obvious clues to what is up with her. I worry she’s just going to die young from some reproductive issue. After some calcium and a bath and some alone time she was acting mostly ok so I put her back out. I don’t have the energy to do much else with her, my baby has been sick for 2 days and so I’ve gotten very little sleep. And our kitchen is being remodeled and I feel like everything is just chaos right now lol.

 

[1muttsfan]

Hope your baby feels better soon

I'm in beautiful (but cold) St. Ignace, where Lake Huron and Lake Michigan come together.

My last Basque hen, she's 6 and went broody last summer for the first time, has respiratory issue. She had a big frozen poop ball and when I trimmed her up she started gasping and turned purple. Also gasps when she eats too fast. Her crop is normal, though. Something wrong inside.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Hope your baby feels better soon

I'm in beautiful (but cold) St. Ignace, where Lake Huron and Lake Michigan come together.

My last Basque hen, she's 6 and went broody last summer for the first time, has respiratory issue. She had a big frozen poop ball and when I trimmed her up she started gasping and turned purple. Also gasps when she eats too fast. Her crop is normal, though. Something wrong inside.

That's cool, so you are right by the bridge. We went to Mackinaw once. Very pretty in that area, plus being on the great lakes must be a bit warmer? I have always enjoyed the breeze that blows off of lake Michigan, and our couple of trips along the coast were nice. You are in a really nice area.

 

[getaclue]

Growing up country, I dug my own fishing worms, and baited my hook with them, so I don't really have an aversion. Mealworms are not actually a worm, but a larvae. They're not slimy, but they do wiggle some in your hands. I use a sorting pan, actually it's a gold mining pan, to separate the mealworms from the adult mealbugs, and pupae. The pupae, and mealbugs are needed to keep things going.

While I can feed them live, I can also put the mealworms in a ziplock bag, then into the freezer. They can be kept in the freezer, but when you want to reclaim the freezer space, I take them out of the freezer, and bake them on low heat for a little bit. When they have cooled down, they are returned to the ziplock bag(s). At that point they are freeze dried, and can be stored on a shelf, for future use. So far, it's much more cost effective to raise them, than to buy them. I had not thought of giving live ones to the chickens, until I went to the mealworm seminar.

 

[speckledhen]

I did a short clip on how I cull newly hatched chicks with issues, at the request of Jaime at Guildbrook Farm. She emailed me to ask me to do one for her. I'm want Tom to do one on how to graft fruit trees when he's well. We have a pear tree we want to graft onto from another one so might as well film it.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Growing up country, I dug my own fishing worms, and baited my hook with them, so I don't really have an aversion. Mealworms are not actually a worm, but a larvae. They're not slimy, but they do wiggle some in your hands. I use a sorting pan, actually it's a gold mining pan, to separate the mealworms from the adult mealbugs, and pupae. The pupae, and mealbugs are needed to keep things going.

While I can feed them live, I can also put the mealworms in a ziplock bag, then into the freezer. They can be kept in the freezer, but when you want to reclaim the freezer space, I take them out of the freezer, and bake them on low heat for a little bit. When they have cooled down, they are returned to the ziplock bag(s). At that point they are freeze dried, and can be stored on a shelf, for future use. So far, it's much more cost effective to raise them, than to buy them. I had not thought of giving live ones to the chickens, until I went to the mealworm seminar.

I was also forced to bait my own hook as a kid or I couldn't fish. It's how I developed my worm phobia. Too bad I didn't know about fake bait and using canned corn for fishing. I had a hard time hurting the worms.

 

[1muttsfan]

Here near town we are anywhere from 5 to 15 degrees warmer than 5 miles Inland. Also cooler in the summer. The Lakes act like big heat sinks.

A few winters ago my BF was working in the Huron mountains north of Marquette. In Big Bay, along the Superior shoreline, it would be sub zero every morning - but up at elevation it would be 20 degrees colder. Some days the air temp was 30 below.