Utah!

[Cynthia12]

it has been a long time dream of mine to have emu but i do not have the land for one but it sure would be funny to see the neighbors reaction to them

donna here is hoping all your flock is doing great. if you do hatch legbars let me know

yes i am still after a legbar lol. good to hear from you

just so you all know there is a 20% off coupon for cal ranch on their facebook page but its only for the next few days and cant be used on things like feed, guns and all that good stuff.

hey, there's a few other good things in there..so my husband says.
Good to see you birdman..what you been up to? Keeping warm? Out of that gunky air? They say this weekend snow should do the trick to getting it out for us. I can't believe how bad it is out there. We were out in it.
Went to my neuro today with my MRI. Oh man, the things I need to get done..one of the worst being, another nerve test. They don't feel good. Especially when they go all the way up the arm. Going to see if the ins. will pay for the MRI now on my back. Going back to the dr. for my throat.

I got my replacement barred rock eggs. He sent 28! One was broken, and two were wet, I don't set those..even if I can't see a crack. I open the ones that are bad to see if they are fertile. Two out of the three were..so, if they don't work this time, I will chalk it up to IA being a not so great place to get eggs from. Sometimes the route from one state to us, just doesn't do well. But, having said that, the last eggs were sooo cold! I am pretty sure one looked like it had split! So, this was really good of him to replace those eggs. He has been in and out of the hospital too..but still got back to me when he was out. We waited until we knew for sure none were developing. Then he sent me more once we knew. Great communication. Now, I really hope they do well, just as much for him as for me. )

 

[Cynthia12]

Hello All!

I've been completely out of commission on this board for months and months because of family things and a ridiculous amount of work, but I am hoping things are lightening up now so I can resume at least an approximation of normal life. Still working 4-5 12 hour shifts each week, but it's better than the 6-7 I was doind for months there. The hospital has been horribly busy for a while now--people are really getting sick at an alarming rate this winter, and I see looking at some of the past posts that a lot of you are getting hit with the same illnesses we are seeing here. Hope everyone is at least starting to feel a little better. My boys and I have all been sick off and on for months now, and I've got the bad Mommy of the year award for not being home enough (too much work).

However, it is getting on towards that hatching and chicken time of year, though none of my chickens at the house seem to realize that since they haven't laid one stinkin' egg since October. Buggers. I'm not sure how our chickens in Duchesne are doing, since we haven't been able to get into the land for weeks now because of the snow. I'm pretty worried about them--it has been so cold, I'm afraid I might find dead frozen chickens when we get up there next. Unfortunately, all of my legbars and BLRW's are up there, so that would be a serious bummer. I wanted to try to get up there this weekend--had a big plan to bring sleds and use them to hike food up to where the coops are, since the drive into there from the main road is virtually unpassable, even with our 4WD. Now that everything is iced over, I'm not sure we're going to be able to do even that. If we can't get in there soon, we will have starved frozen chickens. Need a stinking snowmobile these days to get anywhere, I swear. If it doesn't drop anymore snow, I may try to get in this Sunday when I am finally off work for a couple of days (theoretically, though that may not actually happen )

I really want to start hatching eggs again soon. That big ole incubator is just sitting there staring at me longingly. Joel (my middle boy) is dying to have Welsummers again. I want a couple of Marans just for the pretty eggs. And, if any of the legbars are still alive, I would really like to hatch those eggs. And the BLRW's, of course. I don't think I will hatch as many this year as last year, though--the whole chicken plague thing that went through my place last year kind of disheartened us. I'm definitely not going to buy any chicks from folks I don't know enough about to trust, since that's where we traced that blasted disaster back to. I also don't have enough time to do as much hatching, plus Zach wants to use one of the incubators for his leopard geckos, since they are getting close to breeding. Those suckers take months to hatch out.

Anyway, must get back to work now--this has been one of the most busy nights we've had because of all the ice and the falls and fractures from it. Plus I have to get through my annual review before I go home this morning. Really just want to go to bed, since I have to be back again tonight, but it's going to be a few more hours...

Donna

So good to see you here. I don't think we talked much, but I enjoyed your enthusiasm over the chickens like the rest of us. Come on back now, ya hear? Good luck on getting to your flock. I take it you place a lot of food for them when you can, to last a while until you can get back to them? Sounds like there are a few folks here that want some legbars. How come I don't remember you having legbars? In that case!! lol...
My daughter used to hatch the leopard geckos. She loved those things..yes, she! lol..I had to wonder, what do you see in those. Now if it were my teen son, I would understand better.
You need to get going on some hatching eggs..the rest of us are..we like company! Let us know what you are going to hatch! You know what I love..are those Welsummers! If you get a lot of those hatched, I would want a couple. See ya soon!

 

[sundancenbare]

I just went out to check on my ladies and my barred rock is molting! In JANUARY! Is this normal? My speckled sussex molted her neck feathers in the fall. I've been noticing a lot of BR feathers out there, but when I looked at her she looked like she'd just lost the feathers around her vent, which for some reason always have poo in them. Her vent isn't blocked, just gross feathers back there. I haven't tried to clean her in the winter because it's too cold. So is it normal for a chicken to molt in January after the coldest cold spell we've had in years? She looks pretty pathetic.

I finally got an egg again today!

I've been checking the boxes just as part of my routine even though there hasn't been an egg in weeks. I'm pretty sure it was the BSL, it had a black feather on it.

I have 2 that are moulting. It is wierd but nature works in mysterious ways

 

[corvidae]

Donna who is feeding and watering your chickens in Duchesene? Can you ask them to bring them out and bring them home to SLC while the weather is so bad. It would be a shame to have them suffer and die. From what I know about people in Duchesene, my son lived there for years, they are a friendly bunch and I am sure would help if asked. Having chickens is a priviledge and you really don't want them to die because of neglect, That is really abusive and I have heard so many nice things about you I can't imagine you would intentionally abuse any animal.

Well, I doubt they will die of neglect, given that there are 3 different adults who go up there to care for them. That said, however, I personally haven't gotten to see them in a while and I am paranoid about it--my roommates get up there quite a bit, but some family matters and work have kept me from being able to do much of anything for a while. Back when I actually had a life, the boys and I went up there several times a week. The system we have set up there doesn't actually need someone up there more than once every couple of weeks--or really, even once a month--but I get tense about it. Plus, I like to see my birds.

While I know my roommates took more than enough feed up there not too long ago and the birds were fine, I get a little freaked out about it because I didn't personally see to the matter. Tom (one of my roommates), innovative dude that he is, came up with this passive solar heating system up there this year, but I am still worried about the rather extreme cold we've had lately. Maybe I shouldn't be so worried, since I only keep very cold hardy breeds and my birds down here have done just fine in the cold (it's about 5 degrees colder in Duchesne, from all the weather reports), but I still do worry about it. I don't recall it being this cold in Utah for this long in years. I'm starting to feel like I live in the backwoods of Vermont. Or, possibly, Alaska.

Anyway, we will see how things stand this weekend--looks like a bunch of the snow melted off today, so as long as it doesn't dump on us again, we should at least be able to get to the main road by our land and sled in feed--that's pretty much what my roommates had to do when they went up. Got their non-4WD truck stuck in the snow and had to hoof up through 3 feet of snow 1/4 mile up the drive to the coops.

Hm. I think I'd better pick up some better snow boots in the morning...

 

[corvidae]

Heya Sphinx!

The problem isn't getting up to Duchesne itself, it's getting to the coops from the main road. Main road splits off to a dirt graded county road (Sam's Wash) that wasn't powed at all the last time my roommates went up. Then we have to drive about 1/4 mile off that to get to the coops. My roommates had to drag the feed in by foot--they made it through the county road (though I gather it was pretty dicey), but got stuck trying to get onto our land. I figure the county road must be plowed by now, and I have a better car for those conditions than they do, but we still might have to hike in with the 300 lbs or so of feed I plan to take.

Cross your finger that it doesn't snow again until AFTER Sunday!

 

[corvidae]

So good to see you here. I don't think we talked much, but I enjoyed your enthusiasm over the chickens like the rest of us. Come on back now, ya hear? Good luck on getting to your flock. I take it you place a lot of food for them when you can, to last a while until you can get back to them? Sounds like there are a few folks here that want some legbars. How come I don't remember you having legbars? In that case!! lol...
My daughter used to hatch the leopard geckos. She loved those things..yes, she! lol..I had to wonder, what do you see in those. Now if it were my teen son, I would understand better.
You need to get going on some hatching eggs..the rest of us are..we like company! Let us know what you are going to hatch! You know what I love..are those Welsummers! If you get a lot of those hatched, I would want a couple. See ya soon!

Yes, we take 6-8 50 lb bags of feed up each time, plus some flock blocks and usually a bunch of treats/veggies/whatever we have handy. Generally, the feed will last them at least 6 weeks, but we like to keep a couple spare bags on hand up there anyway, just in case.
Those leopard geckos are actually pretty cool. I didn't like the mealwork farm Zach has to feed them with at first, but then I realized I could steal some of his mealworms to handfeed the chickens with when I felt like it, so I don't say a word about it now!

Zach has 19 leopard geckos, plus his crested gecko, and he somehow just managed to talk me into spending $500 on upgraded habitats for them. Jeez. He also permanently heisted my Reptipro incubator for his leopard gecko breeding plans. Expensive child, that one.

I really like the Welsummers, but Joel is the one who is obsessed with them. Personally, I could just as easily go for a few Marans, and I've been starting to scout about for just a couple of chicks. Welsummers seem to be hard to find around here, though, so it looks like I'm going to have to do the shipped egg thing. Hate that, but Joel is insistent, and the Welsummers are very sweet. We'll see what I can find...

 

[corvidae]

Speaking of the land in Duchesne...We had some company contact us this past fall, wanting to survey for possible oil on the land. Given that we bought the land for the boys and they don't want anything to disrupt their happy little nature wildland, we flat out told the company no. Turns out, though, that this blasted company bought the stinking mineral rights on our land and we can't stop them! How freaking outrageous is that? Evidently, they can even put wells on our land and there is nothing we can do about it. I had multiple long and heated conversation with people from this company, all to no avail. They even said that if they found oil on the spot where our cabins or coops were located, they could use that spot, though of course they will very kindly pay for any damages. I believe I started ranting about the cost of chicken emotional therapy at that point. That spot where the coops and cabins are is the best and most sheltered spot on the whole 11 acres. I will freaking lose it if they ever tell me I have to move them.

Then they started talking about surveying further to find the best placement for a pipeline they are considering putting in. I *might* have started babbling about the fine benefits of eco-terrorism, but it is something of a blur, since I was absolutely seeing red by that point.

My poor son got really upset about all this. He is a total Greenpeace-save-the-polar-bear-and-animals-are-better-than-people kind of kid, so the thought of anything happening to his land is really disturbing for him.

Moral of the story--if you ever buy land, make sure you get the mineral rights...

 

[themadchicken]

This warm weather is messing with my chickens! went out to lock everyone up cause the neighbor seen a raccoon climb over the fence into my yard last night next to the coop and 2 bantams were outside the coop looking for weeds that were showing up due to the melting snow. I went into the house and got some hot dog buns that were getting dry and tried to coaxes them back in the coop. I figured if i showed the bantams the buns and throw them into the coop they would follow right. WRONG. All the hens inside the coop attacked the buns and decided the best place to eat the buns in peace was outside the coop. So now instead of 2 I'm trying to get 7 chickens back in the coop, luckily the other 9 stayed in the coop.

Kimmypie, i have 1 EE that has been moulting for the last 2 months. She is my top hen and she looks really ruff. There is a couple big bare spots on her back were you can see skin. She seems really irritable but seems to be OK. She still gives my 2 eggs a week. Everyone stays out of her way except Rusty the rooster. But i have seen him give way if she screams loud enough. She is so funny, she does this really loud deep growl and everyone moves out of her way. We named her Big Mama when she was younger and the name so far is a perfect match.

 

[the-bird-man]

hey, there's a few other good things in there..so my husband says. 

  Good to see you birdman..what you been up to?  Keeping warm?  Out of that gunky air?   They say this weekend snow should do the trick to getting it out for us.   I can't believe how bad it is out there.  We were out in it. 
 Went to my neuro today with my MRI.  Oh man, the things I need to get done..one of the worst being, another nerve test.  They don't feel good.  Especially when they go all the way up the arm.  Going to see if the ins. will pay for the MRI now on my back.  Going back to the dr. for my throat. 

I got my replacement barred rock eggs.  He sent 28!   One was broken, and two were wet, I don't set those..even if I can't see a crack.  I open the ones that are bad to see if they are fertile.  Two out of the three were..so, if they don't work this time, I will chalk it up to IA being a not so great place to get eggs from.  Sometimes the route from one state to us, just doesn't do well.  But, having said that, the last eggs were sooo cold!  I am pretty sure one looked like it had split!  So, this was really good of him to replace those eggs.  He has been in and out of the hospital too..but still got back to me when he was out.  We waited until we knew for sure none were developing.  Then he sent me more once we knew.  Great communication.  Now, I really hope they do well, just as much for him as for me.  )

yeah i am staying warm and trying to stay out of this air the best i can. spending all the time with family i can. oh two of my sisters are pregnant and are due at the same time in june or july, i cant remember for sure. good luck with your health stuff. hope your one son with the health issues is doing better. and i hope your one son is having fun in georgia. not sure if i told you or not but my dad served there way back in the day, well at the time that mission was a few states but its where my dad came in contact with ups and then they ended comeing to utah about the same time he got back so that is why he went to get a job with them.

Speaking of the land in Duchesne...We had some company contact us this past fall, wanting to survey for possible oil on the land. Given that we bought the land for the boys and they don't want anything to disrupt their happy little nature wildland, we flat out told the company no. Turns out, though, that this blasted company bought the stinking mineral rights on our land and we can't stop them! How freaking outrageous is that? Evidently, they can even put wells on our land and there is nothing we can do about it. I had multiple long and heated conversation with people from this company, all to no avail. They even said that if they found oil on the spot where our cabins or coops were located, they could use that spot, though of course they will very kindly pay for any damages. I believe I started ranting about the cost of chicken emotional therapy at that point. That spot where the coops and cabins are is the best and most sheltered spot on the whole 11 acres. I will freaking lose it if they ever tell me I have to move them.

Then they started talking about surveying further to find the best placement for a pipeline they are considering putting in. I *might* have started babbling about the fine benefits of eco-terrorism, but it is something of a blur, since I was absolutely seeing red by that point.

My poor son got really upset about all this. He is a total Greenpeace-save-the-polar-bear-and-animals-are-better-than-people kind of kid, so the thought of anything happening to his land is really disturbing for him.

Moral of the story--if you ever buy land, make sure you get the mineral rights...

wow that is crazy! i would be so mad about that. it sounds like they have more rights than you do. and if you have a well i would be worried about that too because the last thing you need is something effecting your drinking water. and i would throw a fit if they try to put a well on the land because that is taking your land too, i mean i understand they have mineral rights but you have land rights and i do not see how their rights overrule your rights. i think i would be talking to a lawyer if i were you and i would go talk to the feds and state government too and become super educated on the issue. maybe they will not find anything to drill for? good luck!

 

[Cynthia12]

Yes, we take 6-8 50 lb bags of feed up each time, plus some flock blocks and usually a bunch of treats/veggies/whatever we have handy. Generally, the feed will last them at least 6 weeks, but we like to keep a couple spare bags on hand up there anyway, just in case.
Those leopard geckos are actually pretty cool. I didn't like the mealwork farm Zach has to feed them with at first, but then I realized I could steal some of his mealworms to handfeed the chickens with when I felt like it, so I don't say a word about it now!

Zach has 19 leopard geckos, plus his crested gecko, and he somehow just managed to talk me into spending $500 on upgraded habitats for them. Jeez. He also permanently heisted my Reptipro incubator for his leopard gecko breeding plans. Expensive child, that one.

I really like the Welsummers, but Joel is the one who is obsessed with them. Personally, I could just as easily go for a few Marans, and I've been starting to scout about for just a couple of chicks. Welsummers seem to be hard to find around here, though, so it looks like I'm going to have to do the shipped egg thing. Hate that, but Joel is insistent, and the Welsummers are very sweet. We'll see what I can find...

When you decided on getting those Welsummer eggs..and think you can handle a bunch, I'll go in on the eggs! I have one pullet. I am crossing my fingers she does ok. Poor thing, she is a loner, because her joined at the hip friend was a cockeral..and I can't have roos. He went last week. I am watching her while I put her in with the big girls in the day, and back to the grow out pen at night. Think they are finally coming around to her, so, will try to keep her out with them tomorrow.
Oh, and about snow coming..I think we are in for a biggy by this weekend.

Sorry for bad news everyone! We always get a lot where we are.