Washingtonians

[Stumpfarmer]

So we got home from the store just after dark. DH likes to shine his light out in the field looking for deer while I get the gate open. Their were a lot of eyes tonight and he said "the shadows look big".  So he turned the truck left and shown the headlights out over the field. 10-12 Elk out there. The lights made them decide to move on to the back of the property. Which was just fine with me, they were about 15 feet from the silkie pen where I had to go check on birds and pick up food. 

Can we say Elk STEAK!!  LOL!  yea I know, ya can't do it, but, man!!  I think the excuse of a crazed elk rampaging through my chicken coop would be a good excuse!!  LOL!    
" But Osiffer, I had to stop him before he kilt all my hens!!"      Just sayn!! 

I think one of those elk would fall down and go boom! Very tasty, I love elk to look at but I love it better on my dinner table. whoot.

Elk also makes good chili.

 

[UrbanEnthusiast]

I wish I could help. I have no idea. It's frustrating not knowing what to do, isn't it?

I had to kennel my little Drama away from the other two girls for quite a while while her leg healed - it about drove all of us up a tree. They wanted to be together so bad. Toward the end, Drama stayed in a plastic dog carrier, but the dog carrier was out with the other girls. It was all Caunnie could take to not be able to be inside that dog carrier, too. And when I finally let Drama free, Caunnie hung out in the dog carrier for a while. I guess she thought the grass was greener inside the carrier. Then she got bored with it and realized it wasn't all she thought it would be. Silly bird.

Aw, that is a very cute story. And thanks for the support even if you can't offer advice. It helps.

Put the mean bird in the crate for a day or two when you reintroduce Salma. That should take her down a peg or two, and give Salma a chance to reintegrate.

Yes, the other day we actually locked the mean one in the coop for a couple hours and let Salma range with the other three. It worked well except the mean one was mad as a hornet. I fear it might ultimately make her even more aggressive towards Salma. Am I just projecting too much human-like motivations onto these birds? LOL.

 

[pettec63]

Can Humans get Cocci ?

I've perused my Parasitology book from Vet tech school and no where does it say it is Zoonotic.
Here are the Zoonotic diseases associated with birds
Toxoplasma gondii ( Toxoplasmosis) Ingestion of raw meat
Schistosomatids ( Trematode) contact with organisim in water ( swimming)
Biting lice contact with infected birds

**taken from fourth addition Veterinary Parasitology Reference Manual by William J Foreyt 1997 **

 

[Hinotori]

Quote:
What officers? Even the one that lives down the road wouldn't come looking. Everyone has been setting up their own ranges and firing guns around me lately. Someone was firing around midnight a few nights ago when I let the dogs out for their last call.

The funny thing is that when I told Mom last night, that was the first thing she said, too. Elk Steak!

 

[pettec63]

Quote:
I'm down to 2 a day. That bragging about 3 out of 3 each day bit me in the butt.

It's gonna take a lot longer to get those gifts out to neighbors. Esp. since Caunnie's eggs are embarrassingly long and skinny. Bleh. They are single yolk eggs - just long and skinny and sit funny in the carton.

You just need to put a light on them, there was someone else on here, oh I think jess,
they need aprox 14 hours of light to maintain egg production, if you put a timer light on them, to make up those hours, they should continue to lay through winter, I did it a few years ago, and I need to move my hens back to the main coop where I have power cause that's what I'm gonna do!! Problem is most of my girls are very young and just at POL so if I don't they won't probably lay till spring!

 

[pettec63]

Quote:
What officers? Even the one that lives down the road wouldn't come looking. Everyone has been setting up their own ranges and firing guns around me lately. Someone was firing around midnight a few nights ago when I let the dogs out for their last call.

The funny thing is that when I told Mom last night, that was the first thing she said, too. Elk Steak!

Geez!! midnight!! that's a bit much!!

 

[pettec63]

Quote: I think one of those elk would fall down and go boom! Very tasty, I love elk to look at but I love it better on my dinner table. whoot.

 

[pettec63]

Quote: I think one of those elk would fall down and go boom! Very tasty, I love elk to look at but I love it better on my dinner table. whoot.

Elk also makes good chili.

Yea buddy!!!

 

[Hinotori]

Quote:
I went looking it up because I know I've been told there are Cocci that do infect humans. This one is about dog cocci but has a little info on human cocci at the bottom and zoonosis capibilities.

http://animalhealthcare.com/handouts/general/coccidiosis.htm

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:
I'm down to 2 a day. That bragging about 3 out of 3 each day bit me in the butt.

It's gonna take a lot longer to get those gifts out to neighbors. Esp. since Caunnie's eggs are embarrassingly long and skinny. Bleh. They are single yolk eggs - just long and skinny and sit funny in the carton.

You just need to put a light on them, there was someone else on here, oh I think jess,
they need aprox 14 hours of light to maintain egg production, if you put a timer light on them, to make up those hours, they should continue to lay through winter, I did it a few years ago, and I need to move my hens back to the main coop where I have power cause that's what I'm gonna do!! Problem is most of my girls are very young and just at POL so if I don't they won't probably lay till spring!

My issue is that they've dramatically dropped off egg production even WITH the lighting I have in the coop. It's a 40 watt bulb in a 35s/f coop; should be adequate! Right now it goes on at 4:30am, and sunset is 6:27pm still, so this should be fine. I was getting 7-8 eggs a day and now I'm getting 5-7. Princess and Willow haven't laid eggs in over a week; I only got 5 from Willow before she quit again. My 4 brown egg layers are still laying every day for the most part, and everyone else is around every other, to every third day