The Old Folks Home

[superchemicalgirl]

SCG--thanks for the details AND THE PICTURES! All before you left for work in the morning too!

I will have another look at the feet, when DH can help me wrestle the 30# tom!, and look for a dark area. I have looked at the soles trying to figure out what I have, don't remember seeing any dark spots. But now I am a bit more a aware of what to look for, I'll look again.

It is quite easy to spot, especially with the swelling. I've found that most don't limp unless the bumble gets really bad, and I've had some really bad (like, embarrassed to show people, afraid the ASPCA will come find me) bumbles.

The tutorial and pics were easy, I had actually posted the same thing in the Maine thread not too long ago...

Did you wrassle the turkey?

It does sound like an awful thing to use a razor, but that is how it's done, and for those who haven't had to do this, believe it or not, when the chicken is wrapped up, they don't jerk away. Once you get that plug out, you can almost see the ease of walking, even with them taped up!
I try so hard to have a lot of shavings where they jump off the roost, but the little stinks will kick it around, so I am always shoving it back to the middle where they jump down in the morning.

Oh yes, the first time we cut into a bumble I couldn't look I felt so bad. Sometimes I can tell it hurts them because they shake in their wrapper and it makes me want to cry. But afterwards they feel so much better it is worth it.

We don't cut too much into the foot, just around the scab and then lift the scab off, squeeze the foot to get some pus out, then irrigate and wrap. Some people dig around in there, we generally don't unless the scab is convoluted or we can't get the scab lifted up and out cleanly. We've rarely had to open feet back up to do more cutting, but we do occasionally. We've found that if you get the scab off and get the triple antibiotic ointment packed in there and keep them off it that it almost always heals... just remember it really does take about 2 weeks.

 

[Wisher1000]

I only got 6 eggs tonight. I had been getting 12 - 14 in the spring, then it dropped to about 10 when it got hot. I went out and started looking in the boxes and found a BO on a nest and boy, was she mad. She didn't take kindly to me feeling under her to see if she had eggs or golf balls. She pecked hard and gave me some long, ominous broody screams. Now I am thinking that if she sticks it out, I may try to transfer the pea eggs and the other 4 she has collected to this new broody and try and break the first one. She is so thin that I can feel her hip and breast bones when I pet her. I am afraid that she will get so pulled down that she wont recover. She has been on the nest since the third week in June. She gets up and drinks and eats but only once a day. I know that I can give her some day old chicks to mother and take the eggs for the other hen, but I may have a hard time finding some chicks right now. I won't dunk her in a bucket of water and I don't have a wire cage above ground. Do you think if I put her on the roost after dark each night it would eventually break her?

 

[ChestnutRidge]

Ok, here is the little pullet that I love from one of your eggs Arielle...

She is very pretty!

Thanks for sharing photos!

Yikes!

You must be very brave and patient to have this scene in your kitchen! I am just amazed to see her standing so nicely in that pan. That water must feel gooood on her poor foot. Thank you also for the directions. I'll have to save those.

I'm back to work now. One more week and then the kids will come back. We're in a new building this year, so there are a lot of loose ends, but it's gorgeous. I've never been in a building where everything is new before. It's really nice (but also makes me wish I had a good quality breathing mask I could wear for a few months...). Trainings, meetings, unpacking. So it goes.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I only got 6 eggs tonight. I had been getting 12 - 14 in the spring, then it dropped to about 10 when it got hot. I went out and started looking in the boxes and found a BO on a nest and boy, was she mad. She didn't take kindly to me feeling under her to see if she had eggs or golf balls. She pecked hard and gave me some long, ominous broody screams. Now I am thinking that if she sticks it out, I may try to transfer the pea eggs and the other 4 she has collected to this new broody and try and break the first one. She is so thin that I can feel her hip and breast bones when I pet her. I am afraid that she will get so pulled down that she wont recover. She has been on the nest since the third week in June. She gets up and drinks and eats but only once a day. I know that I can give her some day old chicks to mother and take the eggs for the other hen, but I may have a hard time finding some chicks right now. I won't dunk her in a bucket of water and I don't have a wire cage above ground. Do you think if I put her on the roost after dark each night it would eventually break her?

Maybe it'll break her, but you don't know. Most of my broodies feel their way back to the nest in the middle of the night if I throw them on the roost after dark. It's amazing to watch. If they don't, at first light, there they are. I've also tried locking them in cages, wire bottom or not. Never had a success there.

Broodies are pretty hardy creatures. Last year I had a broody for 16 weeks ish. She was so skeletal I thought she would die. I brought her in daily to the garage and fed her a very high calorie mash - high protein food softened with water, topped with egg, sunflower seeds and cracked corn. Just remember this next time you pick her up... it takes the broody poo to a whole 'nother level. I eventually let her hatch chicks because the ducklings I got her because I couldn't find chicks hated her with a passion. And that's how I got ducks, folks.

My poor little runty is broody, too, and has been for as long as I can remember. I could look on the calendar, but it's been months. I take her out daily and feed her the high protein stuff, but I can't let her hatch chicks. She's the lowest of the low on the pecking order and the two times she was allowed chicks in the past she was unable to protect them and the chicks died. She went right back to being broody afterwards. Being broody isn't for the weak! It's amazing how strong those hormones are. Good thing they've left me alone!

What would be the harm in letting her hatch them besides time? Can you do the daily high calorie mash for her? Does anyone near you have eggs partway through the incubation process that you could take some? If your broody leaves her nest you can always toss the eggs to the next broody, granted she's been sitting for at least a week.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:

The prewashed lettuce mixes that are in a cellophane bag and kept in a plastic box.

We are still working on them! DH asked if we had finished them all--really? Are you kidding DH? How much lettuce can a person eat in a day? Even at 2-3 salads he bought enough for a small army.

 

[Arielle]

We had some heavy rains last night--hoping the squash I planted late ( early AUgust) will grow in time. Wishful thinking though. Eyeing the package of peas. Anyone else have a garden?

 

[Stumpy]

I planted squash late last summer, but not this late, and it did quite well. I am in zone 8, though. We have had a problem with squash vine borers in the past, so this year I tried wrapping the young plants with little cardboard (toilet paper) rolls at the base and they are still producing a little bit. Our tomatoes did very poorly, partly because of too much rain, I think.

 

[Arielle]

Do you have some vine borer activity inspite of the paper collars?

Tomoatos-I'm hoping for a few of those; I planted those late too and they are still green. THey have not had the bottoms chewed off yet this year. I'm waiting for the woodcuck to discover them again . . . .

 

[Stumpy]

Do you have some vine borer activity inspite of the paper collars?

Tomoatos-I'm hoping for a few of those; I planted those late too and they are still green. THey have not had the bottoms chewed off yet this year. I'm waiting for the woodcuck to discover them again . . . .

No. They really seem to have made a difference. You can also use aluminum foil. The method is to wrap the plant at the base down in the soil a bit and up an inch or two because the borers tend to enter the plant in that area.

I didn't realize woodchucks liked tomatoes. I was so surprised to see this little guy at my house.

 

[yinepu]

No. They really seem to have made a difference. You can also use aluminum foil. The method is to wrap the plant at the base down in the soil a bit and up an inch or two because the borers tend to enter the plant in that area.

I didn't realize woodchucks liked tomatoes. I was so surprised to see this little guy at my house.

mine loved bananas