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

[allosaurusrock]

I wish they got Medicare to pay for the feed those Brahmas eat! Wow, they are really chowing down this time of year, never saw them eat this much.
I agree that it had to be something congenital in MaryJo. And yeah, I have a great number of very elderly hens. Tiny, who will be 10 about February, is currently laying every two to three days, and so is Wendy, though by standards here, at not quite 6 years old, Wendy is barely middle-aged. Zara and Athena are also laying, but they're just 4 years old. Only two of the six Brahma hens are laying, neither of Hector's girls are laying. Finally, Jane and Maddie kicked back in and they are my youngest. MaryJo used to be one of my best layers. I am definitely depending on the middle age and older hens for eggs now. I hope that June's body has quit trying to produce....every time she did over the last couple of years, she prolapsed. Seems her body cannot make an intact shell. She is almost 12 years old now, same as Snow and Panda. Georgie hasn't laid in about three years. She's almost 11 now.
What I find crazy is that Amanda, who will be 13 in March, was laying this past April, even crippled and confined to a cage. Poor old gal, I adore her, spunky as she still is, but I wish she'd just quit and go on to that Great Roost in the Sky. She has sure earned it. I think my last original Marvin Stukel BR, Wynette, is winding down. She isn't acting like her normal bossy, spunky self, lays around a lot, doesn't show as much interest in food lately. Such a stunning hen, that one. She was recently laying, too, so it's just old age with her.
This is what happens with birds with good genetics and good care. It's good and not so good. They die of natural causes quite a bit, but not until they've been mostly non-productive for years, like Gypsy. I wouldn't have minded if that hen lived to 25. I miss her.



I hate for them to go after living so long, but I do look forward to the day my feed bill will be cut in half. I currently have 33 birds, 5 of them roosters and 3 of those roosters are old.

Whoah! Your hens do live a long time!

 

[speckledhen]

Had to call the cops today. I happened to walk out on the deck late this afternoon and was heading around the side of the house when I heard a short beep of a car horn. That made me go to the power line easement side because it sounded too close and there is nothing over there. I heard someone walking through the leaves on the property across that easement road and saw a man I didn't know heading up the hill toward the road and our property. I stuck my head in the door and alerted Tom. We watched the guy walk up to the road, start down it, then he veered to the edge of our property and kept walkng, but we have a fence so I didn't know if he cut it or jumped it or what. He began walking up toward the house when Tom leaned over the deck railing and said "Can I help you with something?" The guy was bald, white haired, tall and slender , out of breath, said he was sorry, he'll leave now, that he had a fight with his girlfriend who called the police and he'd get off the property now.
Tom asked where he lived, he said Dogwood Ridge, a street at the end of the main in-road in our subdivision, then Tom asked how he got in with the fence there. He said he jumped it. Tom pointed him around the house toward the driveway and told him to leave by the drive gate, which was open waiting for UPS today. We called the Sheriff because we thought if his girlfriend called the cops, maybe she was hurt. And why was he running through the woods and trespassing? Tom followed him out and in a few minutes two police cars showed up. I happened to glance down the hill of our road and saw the source of the car horn I'd heard, a red sedan that he'd apparently driven down past our driveway and over the hill and abandoned to walk back up through the woods (which made zero sense). We flagged down the cops who said it was not his girlfriend, but his mother he got into a fight with, but she was okay. We showed them the car and apparently, that was his mother's car he'd taken. Creepy weird.

I told Tom that if I had my big dog, he might not have made it up close to the house like he did. If i had not heard him coming through the woods like that, he would have been up close to the house and not sure what he would have done. Strange.

 

[allosaurusrock]

Oh that’s super creepy. I’m glad that you’re okay.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Had to call the cops today. I happened to walk out on the deck late this afternoon and was heading around the side of the house when I heard a short beep of a car horn. That made me go to the power line easement side because it sounded too close and there is nothing over there. I heard someone walking through the leaves on the property across that easement road and saw a man I didn't know heading up the hill toward the road and our property. I stuck my head in the door and alerted Tom. We watched the guy walk up to the road, start down it, then he veered to the edge of our property and kept walkng, but we have a fence so I didn't know if he cut it or jumped it or what. He began walking up toward the house when Tom leaned over the deck railing and said "Can I help you with something?" The guy was bald, white haired, tall and slender , out of breath, said he was sorry, he'll leave now, that he had a fight with his girlfriend who called the police and he'd get off the property now.
Tom asked where he lived, he said Dogwood Ridge, a street at the end of the main in-road in our subdivision, then Tom asked how he got in with the fence there. He said he jumped it. Tom pointed him around the house toward the driveway and told him to leave by the drive gate, which was open waiting for UPS today. We called the Sheriff because we thought if his girlfriend called the cops, maybe she was hurt. And why was he running through the woods and trespassing? Tom followed him out and in a few minutes two police cars showed up. I happened to glance down the hill of our road and saw the source of the car horn I'd heard, a red sedan that he'd apparently driven down past our driveway and over the hill and abandoned to walk back up through the woods (which made zero sense). We flagged down the cops who said it was not his girlfriend, but his mother he got into a fight with, but she was okay. We showed them the car and apparently, that was his mother's car he'd taken. Creepy weird.

I told Tom that if I had my big dog, he might not have made it up close to the house like he did. If i had not heard him coming through the woods like that, he would have been up close to the house and not sure what he would have done. Strange.

That is very scary. I'm glad I have dogs. I'm also glad you are okay. That would keep me spooked for quite a while afterwards.

 

[getaclue]

I don't have a big dog, but I do have a serious surveillance system, which covers all of our property. Anyone, or anything moving around our place, triggers alarms. Yes, we turn most of the audible alarms off when Dh is mowing, and such, but other than that, they're on. We are not defenseless in the event of misguided strangers coming on our property.

 

[1muttsfan]

Ugh, hope he goes away and stays away.

 

[speckledhen]

Apparently, he came back later and tried to get the car. Big mistake he made trying to drive back up our street. You need a running start from the bottom, more level area or you need 4WD. He got stuck. One cop got behind him and one in front and blocked him in. So, as of last night, his car was stuck next to my fence near one front corner of my property, or his mother's car, rather. Why climb a fence when you can just walk down a deserted dirt road with no houses? He was thinking the cops were looking for him, which they were, but if he'd walked a few more feet, my fence ended and he would have walked right into my pasture, not having to semi-crush my livestock fencing.

I have to get the rest of the land fenced and gated soon. I can just see someone trying to camp down there just out of sight. Guess I need a drone to keep an eye on my lots down there. A company contacted me and wanted to partner and send me a drone so I could advertise for them on my channel. When I said I may not qualify because my homesteading channel was not monetized and I had no plans to do so, they said have a nice holiday, LOL.

 

[getaclue]

So basically, he stole mama's car. I hate encounters with low-lifes like that. A few miles down the road, there are a couple overgrown fields that back up to a wooded areas, along a creek. Every so often, a few homeless people will set up camps back in there. That's why we had to set up a camera closer to the road, that shows the mailbox.

They would walk to the store everyday, after the mail would run, and hit every mailbox along the way. Everyone around here was complaining about it. Dh was going somewhere one afternoon, and actually caught one of the females in our mailbox. When she saw him, she said she found it open, and was just closing it. He couldn't arrest her, because she didn't have anything from it, in her possession at the time. Same thing happened with the detective that lives down the way. When she saw him, she shut the mailbox, without taking anything, and gave the same story, that it was open, and she was just shutting it. Now, our camera catches everything happening at the mailbox, and is clear enough so anyone messing with it, can be easily identified in the recording.

BTW, we learned that in the event of a criminal activity, caught on our surveillance system, Law Enforcement has to come take the video clip off the recorder, for it to be able to be used as evidence for prosecution. If you simply give them a video clip, the other side will claim it's been tampered with, and have it thrown out as evidence.

 

[allosaurusrock]

Geez! That’s so scary- again I’m glad that you’re alright.

 

[getaclue]

3 years ago, when my daughter, and grands were still living on their grandmother's property, the grandmother kept complaining she was hearing voices outside at night. She's very old, and not always lucid, so everyone attributed it to her dementia.

She's got about 25 acres of land, with a duplex they converted into a single family home, in the center of the property. Right near the house, there is a large, block, enclosed, 3 bay garage, and workshop. On the other side of the property, away from the house, on the corner, near the road, was an old, large, barn looking, shed that had been used as a produce stand. The old produce stand was still in good shape, but had been emptied out, and was just sitting there. 2 of the garage bays were empty too. At the beginning of the driveway to the house, was the double wide my daughter, and grands were living in. The main house was a good bit deeper into the property, and she was at a point furthest away from the produce stand.

One of her grandsons would come over weekly, and mow the property, since he knew how to operate the big tractor, and equipment. A few weeks after she was complaining about the voices, he was out there mowing, and noticed that the produce stand door was ajar. He knew that was not right, so he went to investigate. People were living in the produce stand. No one was in it at the time, but their stuff was. He finished mowing, and came on up to the house, then went out to the garage, and began checking in the bays. People were living in the garage bays too. It's like a whole homeless community had taken up residence in all her outbuildings. Law enforcement was called. It was reported, and photographed, especially the drug paraphenalia. The whole family came over immediately, and went to work bagging up all the belongings, and setting them by the road to be collected by their owners, or the garbage men on garbage day. The produce stand was torn down, and the debris hauled away. The garage bays were secured, to keep anyone out.

That's freaking scary to think that so many homeless people, and some of them druggies, were living so close to her house, and everyone thinking she was delusional when she complained about hearing voices at night. It's even more scary knowing that, while not as close, my daughter, and grands were very nearby that situation.