The road less traveled...back to good health! They have lice, mites, scale mites, worms, anemia, gl

[jockeyeba]

She's lovely, Melabella!  Just wanted to say, if that is your name, it is the most melodious and pretty name I've heard in a month of Sundays...I love saying it!  Melabella.  I said it again! 

Awww.... thank you Bee!

I adore my name, simply adore it as I was named after one of my favorite people to have ever walked the earth.   My maternal grandmother, Carmela Leonardi DiMauro.  My nickname stuck very early on, Mela (means apple in Italian)... my mother said when I was a baby.  Bella,(meaning beautiful)  of course in my parents eyes because to them I was beautiful.  Melabella it was.  Carmela means Garden and Mt. Carmel is often thought of as a garden paradise. 

If I ever had to be lost in the wilderness, I would have wanted to be lost with my grandmother.  She was the world to me growing up, this incredible dynamic Sicilian immigrant making her way in NYC when she arrived here at 20 years old.  She was a peasant, who learned to live off the land from her parents who lived on a citrus farm.  She could cook anything, take care of any animal or person, graft trees, grow anything, cooked like a gourmet chef with whatever ingredients were available and sewed all our clothes, bedspreads, curtains, and whatever else we needed.  We would walk in the woods, and she would point out what I could eat, and what NOT to eat. She was always taking small clippings of things, and they would be miraculously growing in her house a few weeks later.  One time, I took her to the N Y Botanical Gardens, she was in her 80's, and could walk anywhere.  When we got back into the car after walking around for hours, she unfolded her apron and unfolded at least 10 cuttings of samples she had been pilfering along the way.  "Noni" I shouted,,, "That's illegal!"  she responded..."who owns plants of the earth, only God"  She told me stories about feeding her baby sister with goats milk after her mother took sic after delivering her.  She had to care for her sick father who was dying at the age of 10 while her mother was at work, trying to earn enough to feed them.  I hung on her every word, and I felt like the CAT's MEOW that I was the one named for her, not my other 6 brother, sisters or cousins.  She was the BOMB as my kids would say, and for us oldies... that means she was everything, certainly everthing to me. 

I get a lot of compliments on Melabella, I once joined a large group of woman who were so much fun online watching a live cam litter of puppies we were all following.  The owner of the dogs said the same thing to me...."where did you get that name Melabella, I think I will name one of my dogs that, it is so much fun to say"  It makes me smile because I feel it's Noni talking to me from somewhere up in a place I can only imagine about.  So, it's not suprising to me at all, she reached through another wonderful Earth woman, who lives her life much the way she did, to say hello to me today, and remind me that she loves me.  I am so very happy to have her name, and thank you for the wonderful compliment and chance to express a bit about myself to you all.

Have a great rest of the day all,
Melabella

 

[jockeyeba]

Yes...that is often the way.  I love all the beautiful and cute things that one can buy but in the back of jmy mind I'm thinking, "I'd like to have one but who could pay that price?"...all the while knowing that there are many, many who can and will pay that price.  That's what makes the economic world go 'round and 'round. 

I'm just a tightwad by nature and by necessity. 

 

Paint your own THat's what I do!

Found the cutest cheap ornaments to make all crafty this Christmas.

Use up those burnt lightbulbs! You can even make them into chickens...

My family has this tradition where every Friday we get together and do a Christmas craft. Week before we did mason jar candles.

We picked everything we needed in the yard except the cranberries. The floating candles were 10 for a dollar at the dollar store

love the candle!

 

[jockeyeba]

I, too, have been known to 'help myself' to a cutting or 2...
I'm with Noni on this one

I pick seeds.  I'll admit it.  If I see a stand of unusually colorful nettles or indian paint brush or tall grass I wait till fall and make the kids help me gather those seeds, by the bank, in the grocery store parking lot medians.......in parks.  This year I got some Lavender from a huge fragrant bush outside an empty strip mall.  Ive got the seeds in the fridge in cute little bags I got from my daughters' room.  SSSHHHHH.
Below is something funny while wewait on theQuiz answers......



 
LOL this hilarious!!


An old man in Miami calls up his son in New York and says, "Listen, your mother and I are getting divorced. Forty-five years of misery is enough."


"Dad, what are you talking about?" the son screams.
...



“We can't stand the sight of each other any longer,” he says. "I'm sick of her face, and I'm sick of talking about this, so call your sister in Chicago and tell her," and he hangs up.


Now, the son is worried. So he calls up his sister. She says, "Like hell they’re getting divorced!" and calls her father immediately. "You’re not getting divorced! Don't do another thing, the two of us are flying home tomorrow to talk about this. Until then, don't call a lawyer, don't file a paper, DO YOU HEAR ME?” and she hangs up.


The old man turns to his wife and says "Okay, they’re coming for Christmas and paying their own airfares."

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[Leahs Mom]

Do you think wild birds or rodents were helping them clear out the bag?

I never saw anything near the hen house and it was all FF that month. We do have squirrels around the area but I'm around enough to observe and never saw one go on the inside of the electronet. Anything is possible so I don't rule that out. But - it's mighty strange that there would be no interest in November from outside marauders if that was the case!

 

[Beekissed]

Nope...I've cut the Gnarly Bunch down to half rations and they are sometimes licking the plate but often not. They have already lost weight down to a "fighting" weight and are more actively foraging on greens as we speak. They don't act excessively hungry...just acting as per usual.

 

[sonjap]

Oh my gosh, I just wandered over to the OT thread and there's over 1,200 pages! With this thread I was lucky that I was with it when it started. (Even though it's still hard to keep up with sometimes.) How do you recommend tackling the OT thread?
I sure wish someone could glean through all that and make a page with the highlights like the Natural Chicken Keeping blog. I'm sure there's a lot I could learn, but that's so overwhelming!

 

[nakstk]

As if trying to read though this thread wasn't addictive enough now I find myself addicted to read the blog too. lol I love learning about chickens

 

[Beekissed]

About the OT thread: There are whole groups of people who are starting from the beginning...like reading a big book..and copying and pasting pertinent items into a Word Document for their own use. We were getting a lot of complaints about how long the thread was and how people didn't want to sift through all that information and I usually just tell them that WE all had to sift through and GIVE the information, so if we can do it, they can do it...even if they got to the party late.

Time is time and all of our time is valuable, so if the information is important enough for people, they will take the time to read it. And, trust me, those who take the time are very, very glad they did. You won't find any blog, website or forum that has the quality and variety of information that the thread contains anywhere else. I guarantee it.

Right now the thread is moving its followers to the next phase in chicken keeping but it won't mean much unless someone has the basics down pat first. It will still be helpful but it deals with knowing what to cull for in a flock to get the best quality of birds and performance, and most folks that are just starting out are trying to find out how to just keep the dang things alive. It will all make much more sense if one starts from the beginning.

Of course, if anyone has an immediate question or concern it is usually answered quite promptly.

We like threads that are going somewhere...and these two are going somewhere good. Hop on!

 

[aussie pete]

go read the 1200 pages it is so worth it .
like everything worth having ,you have to put in some effort

 

[aoxa]

My EEs came into lay between 20 - 26 weeks old. Not too bad.

My EEs lay bluer eggs than my pure Ameraucana bantams, though not as good at the consistency. I have quite a few EE x BR and hope they will lay better because their father is from really good lines of layers.

Your EE x Black Australorp should be better than EE x EE for laying.

Though any blue laying EE crossed with a brown layer will only lay brown or green eggs. You'd loose the blue by doing that. If you want to cross them out to a higher producing breed, yet keep the blue - do it with leghorn. That should really improve the laying!

I have 4 Americaunas and 3 Australops in my flock.  That is how they were advertised.  They came from Estes Hatchery a month or so after Easter 2012.  For a couple months I have been getting 1 blue egg per day and yesterday I finally got 4 in one day.  So I'm not certain they are full blooded but they have (the americaunas ) cheeks or muffs, very small combs and dark gray legs.  The Australops are lovely they have a very Spanish look to them and are fairly large with almost black legs and 2 of them have nice irridescent plummage.  One is matt black with no shimmer.  So I'm thinking May chicks are finally laying!  and maybe a couple came in earlier.  7 months almost though.

From a hatchery? Most likely just EEs

They have to be one of the 8 recognized colours: Blue, Black, White, Blue Wheaton, Buff, Brown Red, Silver or Wheaton.

I have some EEs with slate legs as well. Just so happens the slate legged birds are not the white ones!