Washingtonians

[Nikki99]

I've never seen a tick in my yard. We've lived here for 8 years now, and my dogs and cats have not needed flea or tick treatments, except for the time my cat had to stay overnight at a vet's office (oh yeah, he had to have radioiodine therapy for hyperthyroidism, too...) and came home with a flea. We treated everyone with Advantage for a couple of months, and it was done. We only rarely make it out to the forest to hike, so we don't have much opportunity to encounter ticks. But every time we visit family in Texas, we see dogs, cats, and chickens crawling in fleas, and the dogs often have ears full of ticks. Bleah. And our families wonder why we don't want to move back "home"!

Jennifer

We have ticks here! We don't have huge problems with them, thankfully, but every now and then we spot one trying to find a "spot" to eat.

Waaaaaaaaa! Vthats me crying because I basically flea sprayed myself in the face. Burning eyes and throat and sneezing and burned throat for the last half hour even after washing thoroughly and drinking a ton of water. The can of spray I was using locked into the open position and I had to scramble to maximize its usage before it ran out and was wasted. I hate fleas!!!!!,!!!!

O-M-G!! Ouch!! Well, at least you are flea treated now!! Hehehehe.... In all seriousness though, I hope your ok, that couldn't have been pleasant.

This morning (6:30 am) as I was walking up to the chicken yard, it dawned on me that the birds were being extra loud. Then it hit me, that's the 'alarm' song, so I quickened my step. When I get up there I can see that there is at lest one dead bird. A quick glance around, and I see another victim, only this hen is not quite dead. I pick her up gently and take her into the shop. A quick once over shows that there seems to be a single puncture wound behind her left eye. There is blood in her feathers. I make no attempt to clean this up, as the bleeding has stopped. I put her in one of my hospital cages, thinking that I will have a second body to bury when I get home from the office.

I am pressed for time in the morning so I did not spend a lot of time looking at the dead bird. No blood. None at all. But I do see what seems to be a single puncture would around the neck area. All day while at work I am thinking of the injured hen, unable to stand or even hold her head up. I am pretty sure that she'd be dead by the time I got home. I normally get done with work around 2, but today it was 3:15 before I was able to escape. To my surprise the gal was still holding on. I was able to coax her into drinking some water. If she shows improvement by tomorrow morning I think she'll live.

I've done some googling and the only thing I can come up with is ... Chupacabra.

Anyone else have any ideas on what the predator could have been? I don't think we have Chupacabras this far north


VF

Oh no!! I'm sorry to hear about your chickens. I'm gonna say weasels as well. We have neighbors that are seasoned chicken peeps and they know that we are not, so every now and then, they send their kids over to update us on what predators to watch out for through different times of the year. Spring and summer they warned us about the increase in hawks in our area and they weren't joking! One day we saw 10 flying together over the house. For the fall season they said "now it's time for weasels" and that they generally leave puncture wounds and that's the only marks you'll find, other then a dead or almost dead bird. Anyway, I hope she's able to pull through this.

Would you please be so kind as to educate me? I think I am missing something here!

You my friend, were not alone.

Well I finally had to go to the doctor today. He gave me some meds (I am not a fan of pain meds) that may hopefully offer some relief. Also sending for x-rays and then possibly to see a surgeon. Right now I would entertain the idea of amputation if it means relief.

I'm sorry your in pain. Hopefully they can find and fix whatever is causing it.

 

[UrbanEnthusiast]

BF and I are going to pick up the first two pallets today to stock up for our new coop!!

 

[FirewifeJess]

BF and I are going to pick up the first two pallets today to stock up for our new coop!!

How exciting! I haven't even put finishing touches on the huge coop and run I already have and I want to add to it! LOL Darn chicken math! I have figured out that with 11 hens all laying we'll only have an extra 1-2 dozen eggs after our family eats what we need. I guess that's good. But I'd rather have way too many eggs than not enough and if they go into a moult we won't have enough

 

[hallerlake]

Quote: I have a sister in Sedro Wooley.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Boo. Hiss. John just dropped an egg. Our first wasted broken egg. I am bummed! At least it was a teensy tiny egg from Princess; hers aren't even peewee eggs but they still have the yolk and everything! LOL

 

[hallerlake]

BF and I are going to pick up the first two pallets today to stock up for our new coop!!

I have a pallet you can have. I'm near Northgate.

 

[lisaheath1]

Hi everyone,
Thought I would share a pic of my handywork for this week, lol. I have made my own feeder. And it is awesome, with a nice screw off lid so I can fill it easily. (easier on the arthritis) But I did put two buckets of rocks on top because they feel the need to get up there and sit and I don't want poop in the food. If anyone has an idea that would be better looking<---- I'm all ears I really don't like the two buckets of rocks look, lol. But it works for now Perhaps I should hang it, but its heavy and I haven't thought up a plan for how to do that. hmmm

Next week I will be making a bigger waterer. I want to use those nipple waterers on the bottom of a bucket and hang it in there so they won't be sitting on it. But again with the heavy bucket and how to hang it.

Anyway, I'm open to suggestions Thanks

 

[VelvettFog]

How exciting! I haven't even put finishing touches on the huge coop and run I already have and I want to add to it! LOL Darn chicken math! I have figured out that with 11 hens all laying we'll only have an extra 1-2 dozen eggs after our family eats what we need. I guess that's good. But I'd rather have way too many eggs than not enough and if they go into a moult we won't have enough

Are coops ever finished? I'm always thinking of the next thing I want to do to mine.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

People wonder why I don't like working with sticks! It's because wood working and all the measurements are STUPID ! ! ! ! ! Think about it how big is a 2"x4" ?? It's some stupid thing like 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" And then stuff like I sent the girls to get me a bundle of 12' 2"x8" well guess what!! The boards are 12'+ 1/2". Since I am repairing existing the measurement is not adjustable. So now I have to waste time cutting 1/2" off all 100++ boards. STUPID !!! See if I was working with steel a 2x4 would be 2x4 no less and no more!!! I won't even start about drilling a hole in the wrong place or cutting it too short.
I know there are people on here who enjoy working with wood and they do some nice work. But me I prefer to stick to metal working where measurements are true and not some imaginary number!

 

[Farmin Momma]

Ok, finaly cought up after 300 some odd posts!

Today the kids started school. I am always excited for them to go back to school but yet I feel so lost with out all of them here. Also today I delivered 5 chickens to their new home at the neighbors of my DF. Yesterday said neighbor wanted to pick the chickens that would be going to his house from mine. RonB and KMHunter had both donated 2 hens each. I figured because the hens they gave me were so great that if he could pick which ever ones made him happy. Turns out he wanted four of mine and took one that I had recived from KMHunter. Everything worked out great.

I think I may have found why so many of my hens are not laying. As I was catching up in reading posts, ya'll were talking about scratch treats and I think somone mentioned that if you feed it to them to much it slows down production. Is that right? Well if so that is why I don't get nearly the amount of eggs I should, a lot of times I feed it to them every morning. So no more treats for a while as far as that stuff and we will see how it goes.

Well, got some chores to do around the house and the hen house and I will be back later.