The Old Folks Home

[Teila]

Teila , any chance your chickens are Cilla (Black), Dusty (Springfield,) Tina(Turner),

Dumstick Diva; you might be onto something ... Blondie and LuLu do not have surnames

Yep, all my girls are named after female singers .. cos they sing so well!

 

[Wisher1000]

I am trying my hand at breeding to standard. I am dedicated to improving Silver Campines and have been working at it for over two years now, and it is really slow going. Last night I dreamed that I was away for a week and I had moved my chickens to our rental property so the people there could care for them. I had built four or five pens and segregated by quality and importance to me. I put the best ones in a pen close to the house so they would be better protected. The other pens were scattered about in the pastures. I came back to find that the pen had been torn down and there was only a patch of bare dirt in it's place. When I ask what happened to my chickens, the people keeping them said they had a "chicken expert" friend come over and he said they should cull (kill) that pen due to an infestation of mites. They were afraid the mites would spread to the layer flock.......

Wisher? Obsessed much?

 

[Bunnylady]

Oh,my, Wisher, I bet you were fit to be tied!

I don't think you're taking it to an unhealthy level, whatever your subconscious may say.

 

[sourland]

Wisher, better check for mites.

 

[Wisher1000]

Yes, I was mad in the dream. I asked the woman how she would like it if I was keeping her dog (fluffy little white lap dog) and decided to kill it due to fleas and didn't even call her to let her know, just let her come home to find that it was gone. She was mortified and insisted it was not the same. "They're just chickens!" Very frustrating!


Subconscious? That was my husband! LOL! I told him about the dream and asked if he thought it meant I'm obsessed. He said he could have told me that without the dream.

 

[Wisher1000]

Wisher, better check for mites.

I think I will.............

 

[sourland]

Last night the Princess and I went to a college football game. We had seats # 201 and 202 A - P. We found the A section, but seats started at 300? She got on the elevator without me and left to ? I found that the P seats were in a priority section, but would not call her because I was p*ssed at her attitude. --- Yep, a dream. Where the heck did that come from?

Then this morning I discovered (after the fact) that she did not replace the toilet paper roll!

This was not a dream - more like a nightmare.

 

[vehve]

Last night the Princess and I went to a college football game. We had seats # 201 and 202 A - P. We found the A section, but seats started at 300? She got on the elevator without me and left to ? I found that the P seats were in a priority section, but would not call her because I was p*ssed at her attitude. --- Yep, a dream. Where the heck did that come from?

Then this morning I discovered (after the fact) that she did not replace the toilet paper roll!

This was not a dream - more like a nightmare.

We keep a stash in the bathroom for that exact reason.

Wisher, better reconsider who you let take care of your dream chickens... or maybe never leave them even.

 

[JW12]

Last night the Princess and I went to a college football game.  We had seats # 201 and 202 A  -  P.  We found the A section, but seats started at 300?  She got on the elevator without me and left to ?  I found that the P seats were in a priority section, but would not call her because I was p*ssed at her attitude.  --- Yep, a dream.  Where the heck did that come from?

Then this morning I discovered (after the fact) that she did not replace the toilet paper roll!    This was not a dream - more like a nightmare. 

The no toilet paper thing is grounds for a good grounding! We get down to half a case and I'm in full on panic mode!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Yea antifreeze will kill nearly anything

A blow gun and some sea snake venom or poison dart frog venom.

Since we have chickens, my dw thinks its classy to have chicken paraphernalia. I hide it everytime she leaves. Its like an easter egg hunt for her

I've received gifts of egg sales signs, a rooster coffee cup and a setting hen shaped egg basket.

I had a friend that had frog-themed stuff all over his house. He wasn't "collecting" frogs; people just gave them to him for some reason.

There are many ways of supporting and participating in a spouse's hobbies, Dude; it sounds like your wife likes yours. I have a life-long horse addiction, which my spouse supports by making comments like, "Have fun with the big, dumb, stupid animals." He delights in telling me about things like a bumper sticker he spotted on a sports car; it read, "This would be a Porsche if my wife didn't have a horse." He likes them, at least I think he does; he often shows me Craigslist ads of miniature geldings/stallions/jacks for sale and says, "Blondie (or Betsy, or Syd) wants a boyfriend." Then there was this morning, when the conversation somehow turned to animals and their ability/need to ingest water. When I pointed out that horses drink water by sucking, he said, "I think a lot of people would tell you that horses suck, period."

Pretty mean.
My wife's collections are thimbles in a shadow box and hand carved tall skinny ladies on the mantle - both from all the places we've traveled to.

I am not a fan of poisoning cats. I cannot shoot them nor use a bow and arrow. No traps are available. I have little choice. I lost a total of 48 birds with four breeds wiped out. This has set me back over a year. If those 48 birds were sold as chicks I would have made over $600. If i bred from them, in seven months or so I would be making $600 per week from them. I have poured all I can into this hobby and I need to be able to get returns.

These are absolutely 100% feral. They are not somebody's Moggy.I am just tring to find the most humane way possible.

The baits are set in locations that only a cat can get to. No dogs will be harmed. They go out at 8pm and inside at 5 am. No birds will be harmed.

Lets finish all the poison talk.

Agree. It's getting extreme.

As for traps, are they illegal or just unavailable?
These are simple and if you can place them where only the vermin can reach them, they're very effective and inexpensive.

http://www.captaindaves.com/buckshot/onetrap.htm

oz, had a feral cat get one of my Heritage Rhode Island Red pullets. I was steaming mad. Caught her eating it out behind our shed. I set a live trap, put some tuna in the back of the cage. Boy she was mean! Didn't dare put your hand in that cage. We did not take her to the pound. She would have been put down for sure. We went way west of us where there are fields and barns. Pretty sure that kitty knew how to catch a mouse or two..or even pheasant.
If you don't have a live trap, you may just have to invest in one of those the next time you are in the states. Or a couple if you have a lot cats. It would be well worth the money from the sound of it. Just take those wild cats somewhere else.

More likely kitty will also be taking songbirds. Take them somewhere else to be another person's or wildlife's problem.
If it was me, the feral cat caught in a trap would never see freedom again.
I keep a large 65 gallon trashcan filled with water for all vermin in traps.

It's always just a little strange to see them, but there is a prickly pear that is native here. You know it's poor soil when you see them growing; one of the few means you can use to control them is fertilizer, believe it or not. Prying pieces of them out of mower tires is a nuisance. I've heard that one of the prickly pear relatives, cholla, has a reputation for jumping at people; dealing with prickly pears, I can almost believe it!

We had a lot of prickly pear on our farm in the Ozarks. I do believe it. I swore I never touched them but would have all the almost invisible spines in my hands. Hence the name.

I am trying my hand at breeding to standard. I am dedicated to improving Silver Campines and have been working at it for over two years now, and it is really slow going. Last night I dreamed that I was away for a week and I had moved my chickens to our rental property so the people there could care for them. I had built four or five pens and segregated by quality and importance to me. I put the best ones in a pen close to the house so they would be better protected. The other pens were scattered about in the pastures. I came back to find that the pen had been torn down and there was only a patch of bare dirt in it's place. When I ask what happened to my chickens, the people keeping them said they had a "chicken expert" friend come over and he said they should cull (kill) that pen due to an infestation of mites. They were afraid the mites would spread to the layer flock.......

Wisher? Obsessed much?

I dream chickens a few nights a weeks. Sometimes they're predator nightmares. Sometimes I don't know if it was a dream or real.

If you can do pairs and trios or trapnest, the breed improvement goes much faster. I had some breeder pens, 2 for pairs, one for a trio and two for a cock and 5 hens. Whenever I catch a hen in the nest I mark the egg with both parents. I always pedigree eggs by cock. (much easier now with only one rooster)
Knowing both parents and a good pedigree system you can improve a breed in a quarter the time of just culling the inappropriate breeders when they mature.

Last night the Princess and I went to a college football game. We had seats # 201 and 202 A - P. We found the A section, but seats started at 300? She got on the elevator without me and left to ? I found that the P seats were in a priority section, but would not call her because I was p*ssed at her attitude. --- Yep, a dream. Where the heck did that come from...

I was trying to figure out where you went to a college football game this time of year.