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@tnspursfan09 great avatar pic!!!!!

Bubble beards are the coolest, right?
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Today is a bit of a sad day. SCG has to go home and our adventure has to end. I have to say that this was one of the most "interesting" vacations I have been on. We would come back to the hotel each night tired and get up the next day for the next adventure. Haven't had a ton of time to post and don't have a lot of time now but I will share some pictures from our Grosvenor Arch hike.










 
What a day
th.gif
So, the one weak chick died yesterday. I thought that was it for the totals.

8 new chicks...4 eggs not hatched (varying stages of development)
1 chick dead

Today.....I had been letting mama hen and the babies have the run, and made the older flock free range. That last 1.5 days. Next door has 3 juvi peafowl. My birds do not like them..are scared of them I think. So after 2 rounds with the peafowl, I decided it was time to integrate babies and big birds. So far ...no dead chicks. Mama was put in her place though, buy one of the older hens when mama physically pulled a pullet out of the nest and kicked her out of the coop. THAT ..was interesting.

When I was watching the peafowl and my flock.....I was also watching one of the older pullets. This one had just turned 13 months on May 1st. Well, she is the only one with a bald spot from too much rooster treading. I thought maybe she was gored by a spur. She kept sitting down, was not as active as she usually is, and her comb was flopped over....still bright red, but flopped over.
I had also noticed what looked like urea trailing down her butt feathers......but she didn't clean it off.

When I caught her, I looked closer. Almost looks like egg yolk. The way she is acting though, I think an egg was broken inside of her from all of the rooster activity. I think ..tomorrow...or Friday, I need to cull her. I don't think there is that good of a chance for her recovery at this point. I will cull her and see if she is still edible and fit for human consumption. If not, I can cook her up for cat food. What a shame too. She was 1 of 4 pullets out of 2 hatches. A total then of 13 birds. The other 10 were cockerels.....who went to the freezer.
 
What a day
th.gif
So, the one weak chick died yesterday. I thought that was it for the totals.

8 new chicks...4 eggs not hatched (varying stages of development)
1 chick dead

Today.....I had been letting mama hen and the babies have the run, and made the older flock free range. That last 1.5 days. Next door has 3 juvi peafowl. My birds do not like them..are scared of them I think. So after 2 rounds with the peafowl, I decided it was time to integrate babies and big birds. So far ...no dead chicks. Mama was put in her place though, buy one of the older hens when mama physically pulled a pullet out of the nest and kicked her out of the coop. THAT ..was interesting.

When I was watching the peafowl and my flock.....I was also watching one of the older pullets. This one had just turned 13 months on May 1st. Well, she is the only one with a bald spot from too much rooster treading. I thought maybe she was gored by a spur. She kept sitting down, was not as active as she usually is, and her comb was flopped over....still bright red, but flopped over.
I had also noticed what looked like urea trailing down her butt feathers......but she didn't clean it off.

When I caught her, I looked closer. Almost looks like egg yolk. The way she is acting though, I think an egg was broken inside of her from all of the rooster activity. I think ..tomorrow...or Friday, I need to cull her. I don't think there is that good of a chance for her recovery at this point. I will cull her and see if she is still edible and fit for human consumption. If not, I can cook her up for cat food. What a shame too. She was 1 of 4 pullets out of 2 hatches. A total then of 13 birds. The other 10 were cockerels.....who went to the freezer.
rough day at the chicken office - hang in there

@dsqard get those muscles relaxed and hurry along to post more pictures!!
 

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