The Old Folks Home

[gryeyes]

I am sitting here smiling at my special-needs rooster crowing. Jack just hopped up onto the coffee table and crowed. I am awaiting my order of three chicken diapers (for Jack and the two pullets which should have been integrated into the flock a month -or so - ago but.... )

Hey, the weather wasn't cooperating. Too much shock from the inside house/outside coops temperature variance.

 

[wolftracks]

I am sitting here smiling at my special-needs rooster crowing. Jack just hopped up onto the coffee table and crowed. I am awaiting my order of three chicken diapers (for Jack and the two pullets which should have been integrated into the flock a month -or so - ago but.... )
Hey, the weather wasn't cooperating. Too much shock from the inside house/outside coops temperature variance.

I have heating issues inside and there were days I went outside and it was warmer. This rain is killing me. They say we have one more day and then we're going to dry out, but how long? I have chicks in tubs in here and too wet and cold to put up a couple of hoop coops. I do need to rehome a few though. I have Blue Copper Marans chick, but no feathered shanks. He is out of my blue hen and my FBCM roos. So I have one little cockerel that needs to go and one of my lavender egg progect cockerels and 2 of the pullets from the project. I just don't have the space or I would be keeping them.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I am sitting here smiling at my special-needs rooster crowing. Jack just hopped up onto the coffee table and crowed. I am awaiting my order of three chicken diapers (for Jack and the two pullets which should have been integrated into the flock a month -or so - ago but.... )

Hi Pot! Love, Kettle.


Yes, I've been dangerously close to the line of animal insanity for at least a year now. I keep thinking it shouldn't get much worse and then... oh look a chicken. Just in the past year... The ducks were supposed to go to freezer camp, but instead my banty hatched out 2 more (it was the cutest thing ever - by about 3 days old the ducks were bigger than she was), which were also supposed to go to freezer camp... yet they're outside right now hunkered down in their coop. Then I somehow got turkeys (how did that happen again DiDi?), and they were supposed to go to freezer camp, but instead they're living with the chickens and getting along reasonably well so it's not a big deal to keep them, and then it was the goats that were thrust upon us when a coworker downsized... and now here I am contemplating hatching out more poultry and producing kids and a milking goat. A lot has changed in a year.

How can you not love this?

 

[Arielle]

So true!!!

I had a neighbor that didn't like that I had rotties. Neighbors on both sides of her had rotties. She forever compained to me about th other neighbor and here I go and get a rottie, then two and three. . . . ANd way she would call and complain my dogs were barking . . . . it was the lab . . . . not the rotties. Rotties are not barkers. Generally a very quiet dog, and alerts as needed but he doesn't constantly bark like a lab can.

My old girl knew some 25 commands and was always quick to obey. Miss that dog. Sweet girl. My father, a lab lover, said in a booming voic "WHat do ya want with a rottie? " in the best Mainer accent. I said" wait until you meet her' and thought you'll change your tune. My dog spent the weekend on the coach cuddled up to my father! Point made. She was far mor friendly and outgoing than many rotties. Her boys are slower to trust.

She was from a very good AMerican line; her papers read like a who;s who with BOS and working dog stuff like tracker,obedience trial dogs etc, I even picked up a magazine like publication about rotties and got to meet her father's line!

I just get tired of having to work at being top dog. Rotties should only be in the hands of competent owners. If you can't train a dog, get a lab. I'm thinking of getting a lab again, much easier! A field trial type, not an English show dog this time.

 

[gryeyes]

One of my Cayugas hatched 15 ducklings - FOURTEEN survived - earlier this year. Suddenly I had 28 ducks. Friends keep suggesting various places to call to see if somebody else would like some ducks for their ponds, but it's not happening.

I happen to LIKE seeing the mass of 'em gathered in the yard, escorted by Kate the Toulouse goose. (Angus isn't as duck-centric as Kate - he actually sleeps in the coop at night with everybody else and wanders around as one of the non-goose flock members.) Gonna have a 15x10 foot pond built for the waterfowl. Two feet deep should do it.

 

[Arielle]

SCG-- you can delay breeding your goat and so delay dealing with the kidding and kids. Committing to milking everyday, or twice a day is a serious commmitment. I don't drink milk any more and my kids ( children) rarely as they eat plenty of yogurt and cheese. Since your girl is so young, perhaps wait until next fall to breed. ( I am throwing my ram in this week end, but I don't milk.)

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I know I can wait but with my short summers it's going to be waiting a year so I want to be certain I want to wait. We don't drink a lot of milk either, except we're using it for cereal right now daily because the stupid chickens aren't laying, and BF isn't sure he'd drink/use goat milk (odds are good he wouldn't) so it's just a lot to weigh. My boss appreciates that I can think of every conceivable angle and pro/con of every situation, but sometimes I wish I was less of:

 

[wolftracks]

So true!!!

I had a neighbor that didn't like that I had rotties. Neighbors on both sides of her had rotties. She forever compained to me about th other neighbor and here I go and get a rottie, then two and three. . . . ANd way she would call and complain my dogs were barking . . . . it was the lab . . . . not the rotties. Rotties are not barkers. Generally a very quiet dog, and alerts as needed but he doesn't constantly bark like a lab can.

My old girl knew some 25 commands and was always quick to obey. Miss that dog. Sweet girl. My father, a lab lover, said in a booming voic "WHat do ya want with a rottie? " in the best Mainer accent. I said" wait until you meet her' and thought you'll change your tune. My dog spent the weekend on the coach cuddled up to my father! Point made. She was far mor friendly and outgoing than many rotties. Her boys are slower to trust.

She was from a very good AMerican line; her papers read like a who;s who with BOS and working dog stuff like tracker,obedience trial dogs etc, I even picked up a magazine like publication about rotties and got to meet her father's line!

I just get tired of having to work at being top dog. Rotties should only be in the hands of competent owners. If you can't train a dog, get a lab. I'm thinking of getting a lab again, much easier! A field trial type, not an English show dog this time.

And I'm no where near a Lab lover. I do like the Chocolates, but they've done the same to Labs as they have Rotties and Pitts. They don't know what they are breeding.

I love that. Open a book and see your lines. My first one was German from the mother and American from the father. Mom's lines were all over a Rottie book I used to have. Wish I could find it again, but don't remember the author. Don't get me wrong, there are some good lines here, There are also some that will win and shouldn't. And American's think every breed has to be huge and then, lets add this to the look and that to the look. And pets dogs bred to make a buck are just a crap shoot. Another breed which I have always loved was Goldens. Then they got popular and OMG!!! I was at the Cow Palace one year with our Rotties. I thought our 98 dog group was big. We started at somewhere between 8 or 9am and the Goldens started in another ring at the same time. We were done, watched another breed for a while, watched the Goldens, went o lunch and came back and the Goldens were still in the ring. It took half a day to finish them. Thing is, when you win against that many at one show, you've done your job well, but wow.


I want goats! I bought one for Makayla when we first moved here. Bottle feed her, got her through Scours???? and then someone stole her out of the backyard when I had just come in to fix her a bottle. We heard a goat down the alley the next day and my husband and I went to investigate, but it was a pygmy. Never did find her, but it was heartbreaking watching Makayla walk around they yard yelling "Bella" in her little sad voice.

I'd also like to have some feeders of sheep, steers, a hog, and who knows what else. I was almost killed by sheep when I was 3 or 4, so it gave a whole new meaning to Mary's Little Lamb for me. They do taste good though.

 

[wolftracks]

One of my Cayugas hatched 15 ducklings - FOURTEEN survived - earlier this year. Suddenly I had 28 ducks. Friends keep suggesting various places to call to see if somebody else would like some ducks for their ponds, but it's not happening.
I happen to LIKE seeing the mass of 'em gathered in the yard, escorted by Kate the Toulouse goose. (Angus isn't as duck-centric as Kate - he actually sleeps in the coop at night with everybody else and wanders around as one of the non-goose flock members.) Gonna have a 15x10 foot pond built for the waterfowl. Two feet deep should do it.

We were supposed to get ducks when Bill died and Cayugas are what I wanted. I don't blame you for keeping them.

 

[Wisher1000]

I am thrilled that we have so many new members (to the thread) and that most are "old" friends. I have to wonder what brought them all at the same time... did some one leave the gate open?