Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[blueducklings]

Pistachio!

COCONUT

 

[ChickAudie]

beer nuts

I win

Well, maybe if there is a sweet one in the bunch, it can be Boston Baked Beans?


Carolyn - I really hope your hen feels better

I might have some helpful suggestions in 3-5 (years)

 

[FirewifeJess]

Oh my hen, how do I love thee...let me count the ways.....

She is roosting on the back of a chair in the kitchen. She doesn't want water or food today. She is still pooping though, so I assume she's still just moving the blockage through. Tail up today though, good sign!!

 

[FirewifeJess]

Carolyn, has anything stressed her lately? Anything at all, big or small? Based on this past week of Laya sick,I would start with cocci treatment. Kinda sounds like her gut is overwhelmed with something bad. Any plants she could have eaten that aren't good for chicken?

 

[blueducklings]

COCONUT

WING NUT

Great...I'm going to be awake tonight at 3am naming nuts...

 

[Stumpfarmer]

I suspect my D'anvers is going to be doing broody duty before she's a year old, if she's at all like her mother (according to the woman I got her from). Is this a dark or light Brahma, just out of curiousity?

They're Dark bantams.  Just babies right now, and I'm just guessing.  My Lights that I had years ago were very broody, but who knows with this line, didn't intend to get them so will probably just show them this fall and then sell them.

Edit: And yes D'anvers will sit like crazy.

My cousin has a DBB pair; I don't like the hen because she's unphotographable with any autofocus I've tried, and she doesn't go broody (and may be sterile; he put the pair in a 10X10 kennel last year and none of the eggs hatched; the Rooster has a bunch of half EE offspring) but that's barely an anecdote.

I've been trying to get a structure put together so I can pick up a couple more d'Anvers pullets; having broody bantams was part of my original plan. My Grandma Jane used bantams to set Turkey eggs two at a time, so I figure four Hamburg or three larger eggs would not be out of their coverage, so to speak.

Well, the water's done, guess I should get back outside.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

I can't ask this on facebook since my husband and now my son is on there ~ Has anyone dealt with facial tics or any other tics, either in themselves or their kids?  My son has always been a little..strange, in a charming way, but his tics are a little more weird lately, and he's starting middle school this year.  We are concerned about what is going to happen in middle school if he can't control it a little.  We are dealing with some jerk mean kids at his school right now, unrelated to his tics, but it doesn't help I'm sure. It's all very draining. He was elbowed in the face during a basketball game during recess last week and chipped a front tooth.  The tooth is fixed, and things are changing at school (thanks to one loud mother--ME!)   What can I do to help him with his tics though?  We took him to a doctor again today and basically he says, wait and see.  Watch him and see if it gets worse. Help him learn to relax and decrease anxiety.  Increase his physical activity (I started swimming lessons this week for both kids again and we have already been walking greenlake once a week and encouraging him to ride his bike)  We are decreasing TV/video games, he already has no caffeine, I am getting him more active.  Considering hypnosis to help him relax.  His tics change over time, each will last a few months to a year and then just disappear, and be replaced by another.  Some are a little weird but tolerable, some are kind of creepy.  His most recent one has been scrunching his eyes over and over again while talking, sort of a furrowed brow look.  That has been going on for many months.  But this week he started doing this thing moving his mouth way over to his right.   Last year he had severe eye rolling, always to the top left.    Two years ago it was *constant* coughing.    It never ends. 

I am bipolar and have general anxiety issues, but have gotten it under control in the last year and a half (I genuinely believe the chickens have helped!).  I don't want him to take 38 years to be happy  

Facial tics are one way Tourette's can manifest- as is the coughing. Try to get a referral to a pediatric neurologist. The fact that minor ticcing can set a kid up for bullying makes it a serious medical problem and your doctor may just be inexperienced in dealing with it.

 

[BGMatt]

I keep going back and forth on weather or not I want to use broody hens or if I want to continue using the incubator and brooder method for chicks going forward. D'anvers are such sweet little birds. I had some for about 4 years that I brought back from Ohio when I went there for the joint national some years ago. If I ever decide to actually focus on a bantam breed again they'll be in the running for sure.

My dark brahmas don't care for the camera much either (of course none of the chicks really seem to) but I'm hoping at the very least some of them turn out ok.

 

[FirewifeJess]

I've decided that as soon as I can get myself another small coop in the yard, I'm going to try and find some bantam Salmon Favs to live together in that coop. Probably 3-4 of them. I've been absolutely intrigued with this breed for almost a year but I don't want the docile little things to have to brave my big girl coop. I hope to make enough egg money this summer to get a small coop/run (like the Foursquare coop on MPC) for these birds. We will see if I can make it happen!

 

[blueducklings]

Facial tics are one way Tourette's can manifest- as is the coughing. Try to get a referral to a pediatric neurologist. The fact that minor ticcing can set a kid up for bullying makes it a serious medical problem and your doctor may just be inexperienced in dealing with it.

Was he very ill when these tics started?