The Old Folks Home

[chickadoodles]

That's why I love the Dollar Tree store, I always feel rich, there is NOTHING in there I can't afford to buy. The Spic & Span liquid cleaner is the very best bug killer I have ever used. Makes me leery of using it in the house.

I know the feeling Diva. We shop in the Dollar Tree and the Dollar General all the time to save money on things that I know are higher in the grocery store.
I often use spray n wash as a bug killer it's instant!


Scg I had told you that I would do a swap with you come spring however my heart doctor has told me to get off my feet as much as possible and told my DH that I cannot keep up with the birds.
So I have listed them for sale every where I can think of.

 

[chickadoodles]

I have had a snake eating my broody hens eggs daily. Well I found it today and it was after one of my broody hens chicks! I had to run to get the hoe to wack it with.
I am terrified of these things and I had to grab it by the tail and pull it out of the wire fence and out where I could wack it. Not an easy feat!
WARNING GRAPHIC!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I have had a snake eating my broody hens eggs daily. Well I found it today and it was after one of my broody hens chicks! I had to run to get the hoe to wack it with.
I am terrified of these things and I had to grab it by the tail and pull it out of the wire fence and out where I could wack it. Not an easy feat!
WARNING GRAPHIC!

Ok, you're brave. And you can't keep up with the birds yet you can manhandle a snake?

 

[drumstick diva]

Chickidoodles, it's amazing what we can bring ourselves to do to protect our children (of any kind). You take the cake though - I could never pull one out by the tail

I can whack them with a dull hoe that really just creases them a bit. My friend says she whacks their heads off (with sharp hoe) and the thought of the head popping up is so icky, I'll stick with my crappy hoe.

 

[chickisoup]

Well, turns out I was wrong about having 2 broodies. I just wasn't paying close enough attention, sigh. Turns out the second one wasn't broody after all, she was sick. She seemed fine when I shooed her out of the nest box yesterday pm and her normal self this morning or as normal as any of them were behaving with a bunch of strangers running around putting on a roof. They all went into hiding as I expected but later when I went out to check on them and give them a treat, Gravy didn't come out from under the bench. Odd. I scooped her out and put her on my lap where she promptly closed her eyes and went to sleep as I rubbed her crop. Not her at all. I eventually put her in the coop and hours later she was standing exactly where I left her. She finally now is laying down in the straw on the coop floor. I don't expect her to be alive in the morning. She is showing no outward signs, no wheezing, no limping, no hard crop, nothing except when I first put her in my lap I noticed her comb was tilted over and her one wing was trembling but stopped as I stroked her and of course the total lethargy. I am at a loss. Why am I losing my birds? The symptoms don't match up (Noodle who died a month earlier had an on again off again bad limp w/o reason for month prior to her suddenly going down hill and gone within 2 days). My girls are healthy happy hens until one at a time suddenly they are not. Oh, and the 3rd red I had that I gave to my neighbor a couple months ago possibly died the same way this one is going. She has some reds from the same batch of chicks mine came from so she isn't sure which one died. (She doesn't pay much attention to who's who in her flock) What I am afraid of is my rescue birds had more than just the CRD I worked them thru and were carriers of something worse. They were never fully healthy no matter how hard I tried and either died or had to be culled one by one. My last rescue has been gone more than a year now but both Noodle and my 3 production Reds were here before they were gone. Anyone have any ideas? My Cackle Aussies are 15+ months old now and have been perfectly healthy, except for taking turns being broody. I just hope whatever is taking my other girls is just not going to be passed on to them. I'm down to 4 birds going into winter but I just am afraid to add any more until I know for sure what is going on. ARRRGH!!!

 

[chickisoup]

I have had a snake eating my broody hens eggs daily. Well I found it today and it was after one of my broody hens chicks! I had to run to get the hoe to wack it with.
I am terrified of these things and I had to grab it by the tail and pull it out of the wire fence and out where I could wack it. Not an easy feat!
WARNING GRAPHIC!

I'm with you!!! I have a totally unreasonable fear of snakes. Especially since there is not one snake in this region that is poisonous. I try to act all brave and just move them along but inside I am screaming!!!

@Alaskan "We shop at the dump, and thrift stores, but still have wifi"

We do exactly the same. That is one of the ways we are able to live comfortably on our fixed retirement but I have always been able to pinch a penny into a dollar and never ever cared if I wasn't keeping up with the Jones' even when I lived in the city. (I was even able to dress pretty spiffy on the cheap in my younger days

) When we were getting ready to move onto the land I saved us a ton by hitting the yard sales (it still amazes me what some of those fancy home owners in the suburbs thought was junk) picking up all kinds of tools, etc. for pennies. One guy even GAVE me a brand new lawn mower because he said it wouldn't start but I could take it if I wanted. Took DH literally 5 minutes to put it together right and fire it up. This new roof and windows are the first things we've done to the property ever that we didn't just do ourselves.

 

[ronott1]

Well, turns out I was wrong about having 2 broodies. I just wasn't paying close enough attention, sigh. Turns out the second one wasn't broody after all, she was sick. She seemed fine when I shooed her out of the nest box yesterday pm and her normal self this morning or as normal as any of them were behaving with a bunch of strangers running around putting on a roof. They all went into hiding as I expected but later when I went out to check on them and give them a treat, Gravy didn't come out from under the bench. Odd. I scooped her out and put her on my lap where she promptly closed her eyes and went to sleep as I rubbed her crop. Not her at all. I eventually put her in the coop and hours later she was standing exactly where I left her. She finally now is laying down in the straw on the coop floor. I don't expect her to be alive in the morning. She is showing no outward signs, no wheezing, no limping, no hard crop, nothing except when I first put her in my lap I noticed her comb was tilted over and her one wing was trembling but stopped as I stroked her and of course the total lethargy. I am at a loss. Why am I losing my birds? The symptoms don't match up (Noodle who died a month earlier had an on again off again bad limp w/o reason for month prior to her suddenly going down hill and gone within 2 days). My girls are healthy happy hens until one at a time suddenly they are not. Oh, and the 3rd red I had that I gave to my neighbor a couple months ago possibly died the same way this one is going. She has some reds from the same batch of chicks mine came from so she isn't sure which one died. (She doesn't pay much attention to who's who in her flock) What I am afraid of is my rescue birds had more than just the CRD I worked them thru and were carriers of something worse. They were never fully healthy no matter how hard I tried and either died or had to be culled one by one. My last rescue has been gone more than a year now but both Noodle and my 3 production Reds were here before they were gone. Anyone have any ideas? My Cackle Aussies are 15+ months old now and have been perfectly healthy, except for taking turns being broody. I just hope whatever is taking my other girls is just not going to be passed on to them. I'm down to 4 birds going into winter but I just am afraid to add any more until I know for sure what is going on. ARRRGH!!!

Two of my Cackle Australorps died of liver rupture. It is related to fatty liver disease and is common in certain breeds that are good layers. It often shows up on hot days.

I sent them in for necropsy and they found it. One was 10 months old and the other one was a bit over a year old.

 

[chickisoup]

Two of my Cackle Australorps died of liver rupture. It is related to fatty liver disease and is common in certain breeds that are good layers. It often shows up on hot days.

I sent them in for necropsy and they found it. One was 10 months old and the other one was a bit over a year old.

Thanks Ron. That was something that I thought of too but I didn't know it ran in breeds. Hmmmm, looks like I need to do some more research. I thought it just happened when you overfed your birds or got the protein/calcium out of balance.

 

[Bunnylady]

I have had a snake eating my broody hens eggs daily. Well I found it today and it was after one of my broody hens chicks! I had to run to get the hoe to wack it with.
I am terrified of these things and I had to grab it by the tail and pull it out of the wire fence and out where I could wack it. Not an easy feat!
WARNING GRAPHIC!

Looks like one of the rat snakes - probably a gray rat snake (non-venomous). Annoying to have them eating eggs - I remember picking one up and hearing the eggs inside it bumping together. Yes, I am nutty enough to handle snakes that I know are non-venomous; I even tolerate those that I know are no threat. We have a resident rat snake that must be around 5 feet long by now; it can't get at any of my eggs or baby rabbits, though it does good work on rats!

 

[ronott1]

Thanks Ron. That was something that I thought of too but I didn't know it ran in breeds. Hmmmm, looks like I need to do some more research. I thought it just happened when you overfed your birds or got the protein/calcium out of balance.

Here is the necropsy report for Jessica: