Washingtonians

[itsren]

PS - Renee it's been 4 months since you blogged. Hurry.up. I enjoyed your blog until you quit!

LOL! I'll try to catch up after the kids are back at school.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Here's Caunnie's injury that I found this morning. Top arrow - ugly scab on the comb. Bottom arrow - cracked beak - the crack goes all the way across the beak.

Could Rhodie have done this?

I think injuries are par for the course with chickens. Mine are STILL pecking it out and figuring out their places in the order; that means that many of them have comb/wattles injuries like that one, though smaller for sure. Looks like they scuffled pretty good but not like you can do anything about it. I know your run is small; how small again? Perhaps they're just sick and tired of being cooped up and started getting upset? Maybe they just need to be let out in the morning and locked back up at night? That's what we are doing on days DH isn't home; he hates the poop everywhere. They are much happier and have less fighting when they are out and about in the yard.

 

[Hinotori]

I hate spiders. My method to get rid of ones I see, even in the house is; Go grab a chicken. I just lift my rock, Omelet, up and she'll dispatch any pest. I've thought about having a house chicken just to have one inside to take care of invaders.

 

[FirewifeJess]

I hate spiders. My method to get rid of ones I see, even in the house is; Go grab a chicken. I just lift my rock, Omelet, up and she'll dispatch any pest. I've thought about having a house chicken just to have one inside to take care of invaders.

I tried this once with a giant spider and my big buff orp who loves spiders...no go. Spider was TOO BIG for her and scared her!

We have a LOT of those in the house. The kind that literally RUN across the middle of the floor at night and you can still see them in the dark they're so big. LIke from horror movies. ugh. Last summer I was sitting in the basement on the couch with Jeanine and saw something out of the corner of my eye crawling on her. I whacked, giant spider fell inside her shirt, I grabber her under the armpits and stood her up on the floor in front of me and ripped her shirt off all in one fluid motion; she thought I was attacking her, poor girl. Nope, it was a killer spider with a body the size of a silver dollar and it needed to DIE! I'm terrified of spiders.

 

[Dwkuska]

Thanks!

I finally found this link, too... it has links for both the Avian Laboratory and the Plant and Insect Laboratory: http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/services.html

LOVINCHICKYPOOS: If you have hobos, be careful! My neighbor has a very bad scar from the huge ulcer that the hobo bite gave her. DH and I did a bunch of research tonight. We are *hoping* they are giant house spiders (a relative of the hobo) and not the hobo. Here's a PDF that can help you identify them: http://pep.wsu.edu/pdf/PLS116_1.pdf

I'm still going to pay the $25.00 and have the one we killed checked out. We have way too many of them. If they are giant house spiders, I won't bother to spray - I guess the giant house spider will kill hobos. I hope to verify the appropriate action to take when I talk to the people at the lab in Puyallup. When my neighbor took her two spiders in, they were confirmed hobos. She said it took about 2 days to get the results back.

Yeah gotta be careful I think its the Hobo's that have a neuro toxic venom. Which means if it bites you and goes untreated it can cause necrosis and limb loss. Let me know what they say.

Here's our miracle SFH. It pipped at the wrong end over 24 hours ago. And last night it hatched all by itself. Seems perfectly fine!
***by the way, I have extra SFH chicks......want one??***

If that was an open invitation how much are you asking?

 

[JennS]

Yeah gotta be careful I think its the Hobo's that have a neuro toxic venom. Which means if it bites you and goes untreated it can cause necrosis and limb loss. Let me know what they say.
If that was an open invitation how much are you asking?

Hobos have hemotoxic venom. A bad bite will cause necrosis in a small area, which may lead to sloughing off flesh that has died. Nobody has ever lost a limb to a hobo, although it is possible someone could to an untreated infection. (I know it's splitting hairs, but as someone who likes spiders I feel it's an important distinction.) The bites are only really dangerous if you are bitten near something important, like a joint or your spine. They certainly aren't pleasant, but they aren't in the same class as widow spiders, which have neurotoxic venom.

Jennifer

 

[Imp]

I hate spiders. My method to get rid of ones I see, even in the house is; Go grab a chicken. I just lift my rock, Omelet, up and she'll dispatch any pest. I've thought about having a house chicken just to have one inside to take care of invaders.

I rarely see spiders inside. People tell me it's because I have cats.

Russ

 

[Dwkuska]

Hobos have hemotoxic venom. A bad bite will cause necrosis in a small area, which may lead to sloughing off flesh that has died. Nobody has ever lost a limb to a hobo, although it is possible someone could to an untreated infection. (I know it's splitting hairs, but as someone who likes spiders I feel it's an important distinction.) The bites are only really dangerous if you are bitten near something important, like a joint or your spine. They certainly aren't pleasant, but they aren't in the same class as widow spiders, which have neurotoxic venom.

Jennifer

Thanks for the correction. Ok so its black widows who have the neuro toxin? I will remember that I just remember seeing a shoulder bite and they were talking amputation because so much had um... rotted away so to speak.

 

[TerrorBird]

I think injuries are par for the course with chickens. Mine are STILL pecking it out and figuring out their places in the order; that means that many of them have comb/wattles injuries like that one, though smaller for sure. Looks like they scuffled pretty good but not like you can do anything about it. I know your run is small; how small again? Perhaps they're just sick and tired of being cooped up and started getting upset? Maybe they just need to be let out in the morning and locked back up at night? That's what we are doing on days DH isn't home; he hates the poop everywhere. They are much happier and have less fighting when they are out and about in the yard.

My little ones are very funny when they fight. They'll lock eyes from about 40 feet away and charge toward each other. One might jump and the other barrels right under, then they turn and fluff their neck feather "frills." They might get one or two pecks in but I've never seen any bad injuries, only very minor comb/face wounds. I do think that letting them out every day helps (if you have the ability to do so) and having a larger run if you can't let them out fairly often is important.

 

[itsren]

Hobos have hemotoxic venom. A bad bite will cause necrosis in a small area, which may lead to sloughing off flesh that has died. Nobody has ever lost a limb to a hobo, although it is possible someone could to an untreated infection. (I know it's splitting hairs, but as someone who likes spiders I feel it's an important distinction.) The bites are only really dangerous if you are bitten near something important, like a joint or your spine. They certainly aren't pleasant, but they aren't in the same class as widow spiders, which have neurotoxic venom.

Jennifer

I don't know the scientific terminology... but, here's what happened to my neighbor. She was picking raspberries. She thought she got poked by a vine and thought nothing of it. She was wearing long pants - and the poke was on her shin. I believe it was the next day before the wound ulcerated - when I saw it, it looked like a huge hole and was swollen and red around it. It took a very long time to heal. This happened a few years ago. Last night she showed me the bite mark - it is still there and still bothers her. They did find 2 spiders, took them to the WSU lab and confirmed them to be hobo spiders.