Thread formerly known as Hatch day is today

[Shannonmeans]

Good afternoon all! Celtic I hope the military will listen and follow the dr.'s request for your husbands treatment.

I am waiting patiently for a definative list of the birds you will sell this fall. I hope to get some good quality ones to add to the ones I have. I was thinking of you and your family and birds when I watched the weather channel for a few minutes before I came to work. We need the rain and can't get any. It is record breaking heat here. I'm really afraid for my birds, they just seem so stressed. They just pant constantly. Even the chickens seem to be begging me to help them. Its hard watching them. I have everyone in the shade with unlimited water that I keep as clean as possible.

Julie, I know an elderly gentleman who has some of the asian game birds and he really likes them but his rooster will attack him if he has to pick up one of the hens for anything. He has been badly bruised a couple of times. Those things are big and can hit you hard. I can't remember if they are Shamo or one of the other breeds. I've seen them though and they are huge. If any other rooster gets in the pen the rooster kills it very quickly. I don't know if I'd get them. I'd be afraid that they would kill something around my place.

Janet, Thats sounds wonderful about the sanctuary. It is so nice of you to take in some birds who need a home so much. You do know though that these stories on here about the birds getting turned loose or needing a sanctuary, or getting shot by the game wardens etc, etc, are scaring the living daylights out of me. I may not be able to sell the babies or eggs out of my birds for fear of their fate after they leave my hands. Sigh. Thats the reason I quit raising rat terriers and why its so hard for anyone to get me to sell a horse. I'm such a worrier! My daughter always says that I'm not happy unless I'm having a nervous break down about something that may or may not happen. You know you asked which is the worst fate for the drakes, at least if they are swimming along and suddenly get shot by a game warden, at least they weren't terrified first. Thats just my thoughts on the matter. But enough of that.

 

[Shannonmeans]

Definately! Heck, they are pretty good size, but I spent more on hatching eggs in March and April than I did on them by far!

Marty, I could have had the biggest pair of diamond earrings instead of all the eggs I bought. Darn it! Why didn't I think of that?

 

[Shannonmeans]

Julie, good catch yesterday! The khaki boy sounds like he had quite the body guard set up. Nice the parks are happy to have your help too. I agree the brown layers should be culled from EE to keep the pastel egg colors stronger. I deffinetly wouldn't call a white layer (silkie) crossed to a brown egg layer an EE. Birds crossed with Ameraucuana and or Auracana (both true blue egg layers) would be EE.
EE's fairly straight forward, they are cross between a blue egg gene carrier, and none blue egg carrier. Pea combs are most likely to give green/blue/olive toned eggs. Straight combs are most likely to be some shade of brown. EE's never breed true, as in you can breed a blue roo to a blue hen and get a rainbow of feather colors in the off spring. Sadly the hatcheries don't sell anything but an EE miss labeled, and people just need to get over their snootiness when it comes to it all.
EE are mutts, they don't breed true, but they are some of my favorite chickens to have here. They lay wonderfully in our heat too, so even better, and they make a nice looking egg basket. Anyways...
Shannon if I could keep them all I would. (goslings) however if I kept everyone this year, I couldn't keep some next year.

Plus they all don't measure up to stay for breeding purposes. Some will be very close, some will be a matter of two of equal quality and picking one of the two. I actually have a list of key items to judge them on and photo examples when I can to use for comparison. My goal is to pull and run the following for 2013:
Grey - trio or maybe two pairs
Whites - three trios (have two this year)
Lavender - trio
Lilac - trio
Buff - trio
Then I have the splashes and saddlebacks. Have a number of lilacs growing out to pick from as well as grey. Already pulled my whites, and then the lavenders this past week.
Hubby got released from our local hospital, his Dr there wants to have him sent to the Mayo. We shall see what the militates response to that is. I am expecting a fight ahead of us. He was happy to be home, and is doing pretty good.
Sun is getting its rear up now so I can see how many branches fell over night from the winds. Glad we didn't get the 9" of rain some on the other coast of FL got yesterday. The rain we got was enough after the weeks of rain we had already.
Happy Monday all.

Celtic, Do you put your young geese up in some sort of secure place at night? We do because of the coons here. After they get grown, should we continue to do so or can they ever come and go as they please? I'm talking about Sebs and Toulouse. Are your saddlebacks all grey saddlebacks? I really want some other colors. I want to wait til fall though so I can see pictures of the actual birds before I buy and have some idea of what the final product will look like. Please let me know as soon as you what you will have available this fall. I'm not trying to bug you but I'm afraid there are so many others doing the same thing I'm scared I'll get left out.

 

[Iain Utah]

LONG day here. Spirit lost all mobility with the 2nd cast, so I went back to the vet this afternoon to have it redone. The vet attempted 3 different types of casts, each with slight improvement. Then we studied all the before/after pics I brought with me and he decided to intentionally immobilize her to torque the heel and outside toe, as he believes it will really help her. So, she will have to use the sling and be on pain meds for the next few days. But looking at before/after pics, we are both very hopeful that this will substantially benefit her in the long run. As the vet emphasized, we are not trying to get her to be able to walk well right now. Rather, we are trying to correct her feet/legs so she can walk normal for the rest of her life.

I hate seeing her uncomfortable, but sometimes we have to do what we have to do.
Here are before/after of her foot and a pic of the procedure this afternoon:

 

[Iain Utah]

Since I've sold my gander my little girl has seemed a bit lonely. Since it's been too hot for me to spend much time with her outside, she's been coming in for visits.

So precious!!!

 

[Kevin565]

IU you are truly one of the MOST dedicated owners I have ever met

LONG day here. Spirit lost all mobility with the 2nd cast, so I went back to the vet this afternoon to have it redone. The vet attempted 3 different types of casts, each with slight improvement. Then we studied all the before/after pics I brought with me and he decided to intentionally immobilize her to torque the heel and outside toe, as he believes it will really help her. So, she will have to use the sling and be on pain meds for the next few days. But looking at before/after pics, we are both very hopeful that this will substantially benefit her in the long run. As the vet emphasized, we are not trying to get her to be able to walk well right now. Rather, we are trying to correct her feet/legs so she can walk normal for the rest of her life.

I hate seeing her uncomfortable, but sometimes we have to do what we have to do.
Here are before/after of her foot and a pic of the procedure this afternoon:

 

[JulieNKC]

IU you are truly one of the MOST dedicated owners I have ever met

x2

 

[Iain Utah]

Janet, Thats sounds wonderful about the sanctuary. It is so nice of you to take in some birds who need a home so much. You do know though that these stories on here about the birds getting turned loose or needing a sanctuary, or getting shot by the game wardens etc, etc, are scaring the living daylights out of me. I may not be able to sell the babies or eggs out of my birds for fear of their fate after they leave my hands. Sigh. Thats the reason I quit raising rat terriers and why its so hard for anyone to get me to sell a horse. I'm such a worrier! My daughter always says that I'm not happy unless I'm having a nervous break down about something that may or may not happen. You know you asked which is the worst fate for the drakes, at least if they are swimming along and suddenly get shot by a game warden, at least they weren't terrified first. Thats just my thoughts on the matter. But enough of that.

Shannon, we are kindred spirits.

 

[Triplell]

X2 here too!!! If I may inquire what are the vet bill or is he doing this for educational purposes. I love all of my animals but with a very fixed income this would be hard to swallow if I had to pay. If you don't wish to say I totally understand. The improvements are fantastic!!!!!!!!

 

[Goin Quackrrs]

Good morning. Trying to wake up with my coffee before leaving for Spirit's vet appt. She is looking much better this morning and seems like she just needed a good rest to recover from all her running around. I am most curious to see the vet's reaction to the dramatic change in her mobility and look forward to the next step in this long journey towards Spirit having somewhat normal feet/legs.

One other piece of news.... I met a guy yesterday who runs a local avian sanctuary and he has extra female geese that I can adopt (for a whopping $15 donation) to balance out my boy/girl ratio in my free range flock. He said he has an 8-10 year old african girl (I have her on hold) and either an Embden or Toulouse girl. I am super pleased to have found these geese and feel great to also help out our sanctuary. Hope to get to the sanctuary tomorrow or the next day to pick them up.

Hope everyone has a happy Monday!

Excellent news on the new geese!

Wow. I think hubby would love them. He's laid claim to my runner drake already. At first he thought there was something wrong with him until I explained that's how they are supposed to look. Then he said that's his duck and he's not going anywhere, lol. So I think he would like dinosaur looking stand up straight 3 foot tall chickens.

First time I saw a runner it was love at first sight.

I learned from the sanctuary that if they get complaints at the parks here, the wildlife division goes out and shoots them with 22s. The sanctuary people try to grab as many as they can and rehome the girls, but they sell the boys for meat. I wonder what is the worst fate for a drake.... to be swimming along and get shot.... to be swimming along and become a predator's dinner.... or to be hauled from point a to point b so a human can flip him upside down and slit his throat.

With that said.... yesterday, we moved our bachelor flock to the side yard next to our house. They seem content with their new digs. Lucky boys.

All the more reason for ducknapping!

Here is the latest report on Spirit.

First he watched her movement with the cast and he said and I quote "that is amazing!" She seemed inspiring to him.

Then, he took the cast off her foot, which was tricky because he had to use a power dremel to cut it off. We wound up putting her under gas and he still nicked one of her toes. The toes curled back some, but there was definite progress. However, given the challenges of taking a hard cast off, he decided to try different material. He took a thick piece of moldable foam to shape the bottom of her foot, then heavily wrapped it up. She is having major challenges adjusting as it is rather heavy and bulky, and not forced into flat position like the cast, but since she could manage to get up from laying position with her good foot and walk a few steps on grass, he decided to try this for 3 days (although she is restricted to indoor carpeting until next appt). As he put it, we will just have to keep trying different things until we can make it work. I replied, "where there is a will, there is a way." I told him he is my hero for at least being committed to trying until we find the way. He blushed. What a sweet man.

Next appointment is Thursday at 9am.

He will find something that works.

Just set up a appointment to sell some hatching eggs

. I was asking 3 for 7 but this older gentleman is extremely sweet and seems to really love his other pets. So I'll give him a better deal.

Since I've sold my gander my little girl has seemed a bit lonely. Since it's been too hot for me to spend much time with her outside, she's been coming in for visits.