The Old Folks Home

[topdycke]

I am so sorry to hear this! Health issues sneak up on us as we get older.

Auto watering systems and big feeders allow me to leave for a night or two.

You may be able to keep some of your flock and use auto water and the no-waste feeders to manage away time.

 

[Kusanar]

Spring is here and the Gambel Quail are pairing off and getting frisky (and rather noisy in the process).  

Spring is here and we're gardening with a fury.

Spring is here and I'm incubating/hatching again.

These sentences are related.  Several fresh nests (less than 8 eggs each) were found while landscaping in the backyard and in peril of our inquisitive dogs, so bye-bye nests and time to dust off the Brinsea.   17 eggs now rockin' the bator.


(Our local wildlife rescue has given their blessing.  Last year I gave them a dozen or so little popcorn-like peep heads.  So cute, but -- boy -- are they LOUD.)

Will you be keeping the baby quail or giving them to the rescue when they hatch?

 

[ronott1]

You may be able to keep some of your flock and use auto water and the no-waste feeders to manage away time.

Hi!

It is great to see you posting here

 

[microchick]

Thank you Drumstick Diva, Peep_Show and Penny1960. I love my hens but my roosters are my babies and the fact that most of the birds I've lost have been young cockerels and mature roosters has been a pretty hard pill to swallow.I was hoping this would hold off at least till I have a chance to talk to our vet. He won't treat birds but maybe he would do a necropsy for me just to confirm what I'm just about certain is happening.

It stopped raining for about 15 minutes and for like 3 minutes the sun actually came out. So far we have had about 3.5 inches of rain with more predicted overnight and tomorrow.

But for a brief moment I understood how Noah must have felt when that dove came back with an olive branch in it's beak.

We don't have quail around us getting noisy but we do have Whip Poor Wills going non stop. Trade Ya!

 

[pennyJo1960]

I can commiserate about the rain as we have have webbed feet
out here this year thay have said all along this has been one of the wettest winters in years

 

[microchick]

We had a fairly mild and dry winter so the rain is badly needed.....but not all at once for pity sake.

 

[pennyJo1960]

We had a fairly mild and dry winter so the rain is badly needed.....but not all at once for pity sake.

I understand that I am so sick of the rain praying for dry weather

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Quote: I'm guessing I was probably between the ages of 5-7. Maybe 8. So 75 - 78. It seems as vague as me thinking of Welcome Back Kotter. I remember not liking Kotter because I couldn't understand it. ..lol. It ran starting in '75. It never occurred to me that I could look it up now.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Quote: I understand where you're coming from. That sure sucks.

Yes, @Wickedchicken6 We order everything from earrings for me to RC motors for my husband and everything in between. If you can find things in their US warehouse you usually get delivering within 2 weeks. From China, 3-5 weeks. Rarely you can get things faster. DH has received orders from China in 10 days, I'm never that lucky. Their shipping can get a little wonky at times but if you are persistent they will make it right with you. And their fastest mode is via DHL. We laugh because their orders usually go past us via railway to KC and then come back east to Macon Co Missouri. We said we could save about two days on delivery if they would just find them and in the cargo cubes and toss them out to us on the way by. We'd gladly stand by the railroad tracks that are a few miles to the north of us and catch them.

What's worth the time is simply browsing their web and reading their Chinese to English translations. They can be pretty hilarious all by themselves but gotta give them credit, they try. I just don't understand why they can't find one employee who speaks fluent American English.

This makes me very excited.

(Now to find that card)

 

[Wickedchicken6]

@Kusanar I can only imagine.

This is the description of the item:

14x18 Inches 5D Diamond Painting Garden Chicken Coop Cross Stitch Home Decor

The DIY diamond painting can be used to decorate the family room, make life more harmonious.
DIY painting diamond is exquisite to give to friends and loved ones to express good wishes to share.
DIY diamond draw a person of any age can be made since, including children, family members and so the family more warm.

That was enough to make me buy it all by itself. Sometimes I just get so tickled.

I cried on poor Chickisoup's shoulder this afternoon. Thank you dear lady for the use of that shoulder and finally feel ready to write about what happened to me this morning without breaking into tears. I had to put my dear 2 year old Welsummer rooster down this morning. He was perfect yesterday, no problems at all. He's been eating, actively pursuing the hens, doing everything a rooster should be doing. This morning I found him sitting on his favorite perch, comb and wattles completely blue. Breathing labored, mouth hanging open. I knew.

I picked him up in my arms, cuddled him a bit, went back to the house to borrow my husband's farm hand gun and Chester and I took a walk out to the pasture for the last time. This is the second rooster in three weeks and not the first to show these symptoms. I was going to open him expecting to find lung tumors or heart tumors or both. DH talked me out of it. He knew, too.

I don't know where this is going to end or how many birds I will have left when all is said and done. Before this started I had 53 chickens in my flock. I'm at 46 today. In the past 8 months I've lost 7. Until today all the deaths had been in birds between 7 months and 14 months. Chester was 25 months old and the first Welsummer to succumb. He is also to date the oldest. I was hoping the Wellys would be spared but it's not to be.

I feel so bad for them. They are all good birds, each and every one of them. I give them the best care I can, yet it's becoming clearer and clearer even without a necropsy that we have Marek's on our property. Even the original flock's breeder was here one day and said if her chickens saw how well mine were living they'd pack up and move here. I don't know what to do anymore except hang on for dear life and pray the deaths end soon. I can't help but wonder how many birds I'll have left when it's ran its course.

Okay guys, group hug...........

.......

(because there are no words)