The Middle Tennessee Thread

[puddleby]

Penny Hen, the Green River show is in Brownsville, Kentucky (right over the state line, so not that far from you) on Saturday, October 12. Need more info, let me know!

 

[Chrystal Dawn]

Chrystal Dawn, I am so very, very sorry. I know only too well that soul mates can come to us in many forms, including galline. I know the pain of missing them when they have gone ahead...not gone, just gone on ahead - and we'll catch up....
I'm wondering which avian vet was not available for you. I know a good one in Nashville and hope this is not the one who let you down. This kind of information is good to share...we all need to know where to turn in the event of an emergency.
My thoughts are with you and your beloved Dorothy....

Thank you. I appreciate that very much. I know I'll see her again somehow. I think she knows how loved she was with me and I like to think that she'll be reincarnated into my next chick. Fingers crossed.

It was Avian and Exotics Center of Nashville on Bell Rd. I still don't know of an emergency avian vet so if anyone knows of one, please share that information.

 

[CarolJ]

I had a strange thing happen this week. I had seven new chicks (hatched Sunday) in a separate pen with a broody. When I checked on them Wednesday, I noticed that one chick had something on one of its eyes. I picked it up to look closely and saw that eye had been pecked out! The socket was bloody, and the eye was gone. I'd never seen anything like that! The chick was doing fine otherwise, so I left it alone. Then on Thursday, when I checked on them, another of the chicks was chirping loudly and stumbling around. I looked at it and was horrified to see that both its eyes had been pecked out! I couldn't believe it! I took it out of the pen since the blood was attracting more pecks from the other chicks - the area around each eye was a bloody mess. I had to put that chick down because it couldn't survive totally blind - and it just looked miserable and traumatized. There was no way to tell which chick(s) were doing the pecking although I saw what looked like blood on the beaks of a couple of them. They had plenty of food and water - plenty of room - the mama broody was right there with them. Two days have passed, and there have been no other pecking incidences. The remaining six chicks seem healthy and active. The one that had one eye pecked out is doing great.

I've had lots of chicks over the past couple years, and I've seen them peck at each other - but I've never seen them actually injure each other before. Anybody else ever have that happen? My husband said I need to find out which chick (or chicks) did it and get rid of that chick. But there's no way to know which one did it. Would the broody have done it? Since two chicks had blood on their beaks, was it likely a group attack? I'm really puzzled by the whole thing.

 

[Chrystal Dawn]

Has anyone tried sand in their runs? If so, how'd that work out?? I'm thinking about getting some of this quikrete sand for mine. http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/100318450 Let me know if you guys have tried it please.

 

[Penny Hen]

My Dorothy passed away about 5 hours ago. The emergency avian vet in Nashville never called me back so I called them again and they told me that they don't see chickens if they lay eggs. I would tell you how I feel about them but I'm afraid if I did that I would be banned from this sight.

I drove her out to Black Fox in Murfreesboro and they got us in right away and took her in the back, put her under, gave her steroids and antibiotics, and sutured her up. The vet told me to give her pedialyte and baby food and baby her and hope for the best. I got home and had to get ready for work and I brought her with me so I could keep her hydrated but she passed shortly after I got here. I'm pretty much devastated. There will never be another one like her. She was a dog soul in a chicken body. She always came running to me and if she heard me near the back door she would have to peck at it to let me know how much she needed a treat. If I was sitting in the backyard, she'd be in my lap and if I was talking to the neighbor, she'd have to fly up and sit on the fence to be near us and get loved on. I'm going to bury her beneath the peach tree that she loves to dig up and bathe under.
Thanks for all the advice and encouraging words. I'm glad there's people out there besides me who understand how hard it is to lose a chicken without making stupid jokes about having it for dinner.
As for the neighbor, she's paid for her vetting and bought me a new coop and is rehoming her dog. I'm very fortunate to have such great neighbors.

I am so sorry. Though I can't figure out what laying eggs has to do with seeing the vet?

I remember reading a conversation that a famous horsewoman, Mary Twelveponies, had with a young girl who had just lost her first pony. She was comforting her and this girl who was somewhere between eight and ten told her that her mother had said it was like the flowers in her garden. First in the season you had crocuses, blooming through the snow, then they would die and the pansies would come in until the weather was too hot. Then the petunias, and the geraniums and roses through the summer and in the fall the mums. All of them beautiful in their own season but none of them alike. "Is that how it is with horses, Mary?" asked the girl. "Yes dear, that's exactly how it is," she replied, tears in her eyes.

 

[Penny Hen]

I had a strange thing happen this week. I had seven new chicks (hatched Sunday) in a separate pen with a broody. When I checked on them Wednesday, I noticed that one chick had something on one of its eyes. I picked it up to look closely and saw that eye had been pecked out! The socket was bloody, and the eye was gone. I'd never seen anything like that! The chick was doing fine otherwise, so I left it alone. Then on Thursday, when I checked on them, another of the chicks was chirping loudly and stumbling around. I looked at it and was horrified to see that both its eyes had been pecked out! I couldn't believe it! I took it out of the pen since the blood was attracting more pecks from the other chicks - the area around each eye was a bloody mess. I had to put that chick down because it couldn't survive totally blind - and it just looked miserable and traumatized. There was no way to tell which chick(s) were doing the pecking although I saw what looked like blood on the beaks of a couple of them. They had plenty of food and water - plenty of room - the mama broody was right there with them. Two days have passed, and there have been no other pecking incidences. The remaining six chicks seem healthy and active. The one that had one eye pecked out is doing great.

I've had lots of chicks over the past couple years, and I've seen them peck at each other - but I've never seen them actually injure each other before. Anybody else ever have that happen? My husband said I need to find out which chick (or chicks) did it and get rid of that chick. But there's no way to know which one did it. Would the broody have done it? Since two chicks had blood on their beaks, was it likely a group attack? I'm really puzzled by the whole thing.

Is the top of your run closed? Crows are notorious for pecking out eyes. Were their eyes of a different color than the others? My mother remembers as a kid that they had white chickens but one of them had one black feather. All the other chickens kept plucking at it until one day they tore it out and the blood welled up. At the sight of the blood the whole flock descended on her like piranha and pecked her to death. These were Leghorn crosses by the way.

 

[Penny Hen]

I am thinking of ordering from Sandhill Preservation in the Spring. I have my eye on a couple of their rare breeds but they limit the numbers so I have to order something else to go with them to make 25. It occurred to me to ask if anyone else would like to order 5 or 10 of something instead of me just buying cheap filler birds (Americana/EasterEggers).

I am looking at their Manx Rumpies (limit 5) and their Whitefaced White Spanish (limit 10). Both of their lines of these birds rate high in production as well as well as large size of egg. I adore rare breeds but I need them to pull their own weight. I may only get the Rumpies. The WfWS are $10/bird. It all depends on how much I can save up by spring.

 

[Goose and Fig]

Oh Manx Rumpies! Those have been on my list for so long, I just gave up.


I have 10 FREE baby black sex link barred roos available. Had to order some pullet chicks for a project and they came as packing peanuts. The locals all seem to want delivery to town of said FREE chickens, so that is not going to happen. PM or EMail me if anybody wants them.

 

[Oramman87]

I am looking for silver seabrights but I don't Have a incubator but thank you for the heads up.

 

[Chrystal Dawn]

I am so sorry. Though I can't figure out what laying eggs has to do with seeing the vet?

I remember reading a conversation that a famous horsewoman, Mary Twelveponies, had with a young girl who had just lost her first pony. She was comforting her and this girl who was somewhere between eight and ten told her that her mother had said it was like the flowers in her garden. First in the season you had crocuses, blooming through the snow, then they would die and the pansies would come in until the weather was too hot. Then the petunias, and the geraniums and roses through the summer and in the fall the mums. All of them beautiful in their own season but none of them alike. "Is that how it is with horses, Mary?" asked the girl. "Yes dear, that's exactly how it is," she replied, tears in her eyes.

That's very sweet. Thank you. =)