The Old Folks Home

[Arielle]

Good morning everyone!!

No one has mentioned the hurricane, so hopefuly we are all out of the path of Issac. Poor New Orleans--looks like everyone was in a panic over a cat 1 storm. Justifiably so. Live and learn. I so remember 7 years ago.

 

[Stumpy]

We are about to have some bulldozer work done on our place to correct drainage problems. Meanwhile I filled and put in place some sandbags to keep water running into our dog yard. Whew! This body doesn't handle manual labor well.

Then Isaac turned westward, but I'm not complaining. We didn't need the rain. I kept hoping it would go to Oklahoma and help them.

 

[Wisher1000]

Wisher, what no Louise?

Actually, Henrietta, Opal, Thelma Steele, and Jeanette are the names of my mom and her sisters. All of them are gone now and I don't know how they would feel about having a foursome of chickens named after them, but I mean it as a tribute. They are all RIR (Mom and her sisters all had red hair) they all love spending time together (same with the four sisters) and they always get along, never a quarrel between them (ditto). I know they would all be insensed and feign offense, but would laugh about it when they were alone, not just joke, LAUGH out loud, as they did loudly and often when they were all together.

We called Thelma Steele "Teal" all her life so I don't really think Thelma when I call the hen by name. I will look to see if there is a Louise in the bunch that have not been named, but like GryEyes, I usually let them name themselves in their own time.

One exception to that is the latest roo named Wilson. My DS asked to have a chicken named after the volley ball friend on Castaway and an episode of Mythbusters. Our Wilson is white with black splashes and is likely an EE/SLW cross. He actually looks more like a Dellaware hen.

 

[dsqard]

Wisher, I have adopted Linda's method of letting them "tell" me their names as well. DS named the four original pullets I bought but I don't call the remaining two by those names. In fact I think of them as Silver and Goldie only because they are a SLW and a GLW but they haven't really "told" me their names. Currently I have Whitey, Tom, Jake and Elrod (the Blues brothers), Curious, Edith (the dingbat turkey), Joe, Boo Boo Biddy, Broody Biddy, Randy and Squirrel. The rest of them are not named. I figure the cockerels that will be going to freezer camp when the weather gets cooler will not be around long enough for me to know their names.

 

[Arielle]

THe latest weather report at noon said there is still more rain to fall from this storm; so I hope it heads for the areas in greater need.

We name a few birds. Not all. Just the special ones. WHitey the silver speckled hamburg is a notable little cock. Raptor, I've mentioned him in other posts, is a terrorist. The Three Muskateers, the turkey toms, cruise the yard following me around EVERYWHERE. One of my boys gets duck duty, to move any and all fowl out of the path of the car . I don't name everyone, even some of the special ones don't have a name yet. Maybe in time. Each hen with chicks is referred to as "the broody hen" -- so the term refers to the current hen. THere is a hen that looks a lot like a mille fleur--guess I just thought of a name for her " Millie"

 

[Wisher1000]

Morinng all.

The woman I got the pea eggs from has agreed to let me raise it. She has not been researching 'how to' and I have. She has no internet access, I have already invested close to $100 in materials for a wire bottomed brooder and in starter feed. Also, I think a male (it's mine if he's a male) would be more difficult to move from hens (from her farm to mine) than a hen (it's her's if if it's a female) would be to move to a farm with a male.

We talked on the phone last night and she told me about a woman who has a broody EE hen sitting on four chicken eggs and eight turkey eggs. I called the lady and she told me that she has never hatched any chicks before but has, in the past, bought day olds to raise. She said she would give me the turkey eggs if I wanted them. I suggested she leave them under the broody as long as the hen is dedicated, in a safe place, and can cover them all. I offered to go to her place and candle them to make sure they are fertile and offered to be on standby in case the eggs needed to be incubated inside. She is going to give me the turkeys! I think they both thought that I would put them under my broody but the poor girl has been on the nest since the second week in June and I think she needs to rest. I am going over there tonight to candle for her and to maybe decrease the number of eggs the hen has to fuss with. She found the hen sitting a week ago but thinks she was sitting for a week before that. I should be able to at least see if anything is developing. If one looks good, I'll leave it. If it is clear it'll get tossed, but if I'm not sure, it will come home with me to go in the bator until I can be certain, one way or the other.

I'm so excited!

 

[Wisher1000]

SCG - Here is the info from the Nutrena tags - I mixed the two 50/50 to achieve 24% protein. Anything you can tell me about the best way to store or harmful effects of freezing and/or possible drug interactions will make me love you forever!

18% Medicated Chick Starter (Amp) to aid in the prevention of coccidiosis
Active drug ingredient -- Amprolium ......... 0.0125% (113.5 grams/ton)

30% Medicated Turkey and Quail Starter (BMD200) to aid in the prevention of transmittable enteritis due to Clostridium colinum
Active drug ingredient -- Bacitracin Methylene Disalicylate .......... 200 grams /ton

 

[Arielle]

Turkeys are so fun--will these turkeys be instead of your fall hatcha thon?? Opps, wait a moment, it IS fall or close enough!!

I'm waiting for a few poults. I candled last night agian. I moved them to the hatcher where I could better manage them these last few days. I understand you enthusiams completely--big black eyes! I have about 25 poults 1-2 weeks old now so a few more will be ok. Did I say ok? I mean WONDERFUL!

I'm already thinking of next year, the 2nd Cinquo de Mayo turkey hatchathon. I will need to put the tom and hens underlights for earlier eggs. Mine started laying the week after we set.

Do give us an update on those eggs-- I love seeing the details like veins and a foot moving in the whiteish eggs. More thrilling than a marans egg.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

SCG - Here is the info from the Nutrena tags - I mixed the two 50/50 to achieve 24% protein. Anything you can tell me about the best way to store or harmful effects of freezing and/or possible drug interactions will make me love you forever!

18% Medicated Chick Starter (Amp) to aid in the prevention of coccidiosis
Active drug ingredient -- Amprolium ......... 0.0125% (113.5 grams/ton)

30% Medicated Turkey and Quail Starter (BMD200) to aid in the prevention of transmittable enteritis due to Clostridium colinum
Active drug ingredient -- Bacitracin Methylene Disalicylate .......... 200 grams /ton

I will get on this research project tomorrow. Today was my "day off" (I work the coming weekend) so I only went in for 5 hours

. Just got home.

I, too, am incubating. Have some houdans, favorolles and ameracanas (I have no idea how to spell any of these, and frankly, don't care at the moment) in the bator less than 24 hrs. I really can't tell the difference between the houdan eggs (white) and the ameracanas (supposed to be green). I'm incubating for a friend, and won't get to keep any of the chicks (while I'm at it, YIPPEE on getting to keep your peachick!) but I'm surprised the eggs are white. I know that most breed for physical type and that egg color can suffer, but white eggs? Really? Or am I missing something? Eggs are marked F, H or A for the breeds.

 

[Cynthia12]

This is only my opinion, but I still wouldn't freeze it. Do you have any way of putting it into a more air tight holder? Think large tupperware, large ziploc bags, old popcorn tins...?

What is generally recognized is once a bag is open you want to use it within 6 months. I would extend that out further to 8 or 12 if you could get it into something that's not the original feed sack bag.

If you're sure you want to freeze it, give me the medication name(s) and I can do some research on degradation at work (on a break or before/after work, so not charging the taxpayers for my research... although you taxpayers generally owe me since I rarely take breaks and often work through lunch and before/after work - not complaining, it's my own choice most of the time!!)


My dad mailed me some organic Virginia peaches on Saturday. I was really excited about making some peach-cherry amaretto jam. Unfortunately the 4 days they were in the mail resulted in this (excuse my sweatpants):


My observation on the peaches: Apparently all branches of mail service treat our fragile packages the same (This was FedEx). I've seen countless posts regarding leaky packages of eggs arriving from USPS, and although this was sad, at least it wasn't eggs. Also, my father has obviously never packed eggs for shipping. Amateur.

Oh dear, he was probably so happy to get some of those off to you. Fedex?? Wow, good to know.