The Old Folks Home

[Alaskan]

Hey any one heard from Alaskan lately.... I checked his stats and last time he was online was two days ago.


@Alaskan Whats up....?


deb

Thanks for thinking of me....

I have been busy, and in a funk.... and busy.

Stupid end of year stuff, paperwork stuff, I hate that... and reality rearing its very ugly head.

But don't worry, I still exist.

I am supposed to have a batch of eggs hatching starting tomorrow...


but I am also pretty bummed, not only did my Marans rooster die, but also one of my chicks has a crossed beak (so the giant question of who has it, do I nee to cull the mother of the chick... the dad of course died..... dunno)

My first chick that I raised up from my super expensive Bantam Blue Wheaten Ameraucana pair, is a blue boy.... so that could be a good thing.... but he peeps almost continuously! I am starting to wonder if something is wrong with the chick.... dunno... super odd.


Also, my ducks, the ones that are supposed to make me money every summer with little ducklings...... my best mama duck came off of a nest with only 5 ducklings... I wanna smack her. And the duck that had been sitting next to her decided that she better get off too. I think her smallest hatch ever before had been 11... so not sure why I have 5. And the incubation for Muscovy is so ultra long... it all bites.

 

[Alaskan]

Oh, one good thing though.. I had been worried that my Muscovy drake was maybe going to be getting infertile... looks like I don't have to worry about that this summer, only 2 clears in the egg pile... a bunch of rotten ones though... not sure why the mom did such a poor job.

 

[drumstick diva]

I know it's not the thing to say BUT, ya know the adage ''don't count your chickens/ducks before they hatch." I think Ben Franklin or one of his friends said that. Sorry Alaskan.

 

[getaclue]

I began using the Ramik blocks when the last house we rented was infested with rats. My husband discovered them, and didn't tell me at first, because he knew I wouldn't move in. I was instructed to put them OUTSIDE, not inside. I put a few around the house, and the majority of them around the property by the fence. It drew them out, and killed them, so I didn't have any stinking up the house. They worked just fine.

When they began clearing the property across the street from the coop, everyone nearby got inundated with both rats, and mice. The bucket trap worked fine for the mice, but not for the rats. I'm not talking about a few rats, and more would relocate with each phase of them clearing the property, and with each phase of construction. They came in waves, and not just a few. I grabbed the Ramik blocks, and used it like I did at the house, putting just a few near the coop, but the bulk further away from the coop, towards the wooded area. Once you can't see any signs of them anymore, continue putting fresh baits out for a few more days, especially in areas where they appear to be getting eaten. I've learned that for every half dozen rats I can see, there are a LOT more that I can't see. It's not instant, but it didn't take long to get the problem totally under control. I suspect most of the bad reviews are due to the fact that they are not a one-bite, instant type bait, and/or they thought they had a rodent, or two, when in fact they had quite a few more. Another thing that could be a problem too, is they are only putting them in the house, instead of outside, which results in more being drawn inside for the bait.

There are a lot of products that are banned here, because something might feed on the poisoned mice, rats, etc, and be harmed. Fish Hawks are so protected you can't even build on a property that has one of their nests on it. In a way, that is good, because I would hate for my chickens to be harmed by eating a mouse, or rat that I had poisoned.

 

[ronott1]

Thanks for thinking of me....

I have been busy, and in a funk.... and busy.

Stupid end of year stuff, paperwork stuff, I hate that... and reality rearing its very ugly head.

But don't worry, I still exist.

I am supposed to have a batch of eggs hatching starting tomorrow...


but I am also pretty bummed, not only did my Marans rooster die, but also one of my chicks has a crossed beak (so the giant question of who has it, do I nee to cull the mother of the chick... the dad of course died..... dunno)

My first chick that I raised up from my super expensive Bantam Blue Wheaten Ameraucana pair, is a blue boy.... so that could be a good thing.... but he peeps almost continuously! I am starting to wonder if something is wrong with the chick.... dunno... super odd.


Also, my ducks, the ones that are supposed to make me money every summer with little ducklings...... my best mama duck came off of a nest with only 5 ducklings... I wanna smack her. And the duck that had been sitting next to her decided that she better get off too. I think her smallest hatch ever before had been 11... so not sure why I have 5. And the incubation for Muscovy is so ultra long... it all bites.

So sorry about life sucking!

cross beak is not an inherited characteristic--it is a genetic mistake--It is not passed on but is caused by an error in replication.

Cull the cross beaked chick and keep breeding as normal. It is not going to become a problem in your flock.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have never meant anybody who has more chickens than they need

That would be me, at least according to my wife.

 

[vehve]

CC, nothing anyone who has ever seen a tornado would call one... They're known as thrombi, basically a very localized miniature tornado, usually just a few feet across and they blow around a bit of leaves. The most serious ones we get here are F2's. When it comes to destructive wind phenomena, we usually see more damage from storms, where winds can knock down some trees. A few years ago we had one particularly strong storm blow over and in some places it left 100 yards wide and a few hundred yards long areas where all the trees had fallen in it's wake. But mostly Finland has pretty weak storms. Our worst storms seldom have windspeeds above 25-30 mps (55-70mph), when measuring average wind speeds over a period of 10 minutes.

Or in short, "No, not really.".

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I heard there was one in England last week. ONE, ha!!

 

[vehve]

Heavy rain here is when we get an inch in a day.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Rain finally moved out by noon yesterday. We received 3.5 inches in 4 days. Prior to that it was an abnormally dry spring.
2 more dry days to get grass cut before the rains return.