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Quote: Thank you for the welcome. Nice to meet you.
Also thanks to you and all the other members here that have shared their sympathy with all of us stricken with loss & injury by predators.
It warms my heart. You all rock!
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~Dee~

Yep we have some very nice and caring peeps here! It's a good bunch!
 
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The one in the shelter was whole, but I broke off flakes of the other bale for them when I spread it out. Sometimes I shook the flake into bits.




Quote: Your poor mom. LOL Years ago I remember the first time I saw one of our pigs eat a frog. I was so grossed out as it crunched it up. I know how your mom felt. hehe.
Just the other day, my black sexlink George saw a tiny mouse bouncing through the pen. She raced after it, but it escaped through the chicken wire. I told mom that poor George was sad that she lost her prize, and she just shuddered and made wretching noises over the thought. It was great.

My mom was surprised when I told her the chickens eat the rodents. They kept theirs penned growing up and they weren't supposed to be pets (mom tells me stories about how they made them into pets and hoped they turned out to be a girl so they wouldn't be eaten). She knew they ate all sorts of bugs, she said they used to catch grasshoppers to feed to their own special chicken. Only thing she couldn't figure out was how the chickens could open their beaks that wide, so I told her how they beat them squishy and then fight and pull them apart. I recommend you don't let your Mom see that, it gets kind of gruesome.
 
Salma is eating much better this morning!

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Her energy level is a bit higher, too. She's not eating on her own but she is more enthusiastic about being fed. She even pecked some out of our hands somewhat vigorously. Her comb and wattles look more red and less pathetic. In another hour or so when it warms up, I'm going to put her outside with the flock in the dog crate. Unfortunately the blue mutt can sense that Salma's weak and is keen to terrorize her, so she's staying in the dog crate until she fully recovers. I swear I will not hesitate to rehome the blue mutt if it becomes a long-term issue, despite the fact that she's our best layer both in terms of quantity and big, dark, delicious yolks. Anyway, for now I'm just glad Salma is improving.

Her poop is pretty runny, but I imagine that's normal when she's getting an entirely new diet? It's a blend of plain whole milk yogurt, her own egg scrambled, dried mealworms, and sugar. We may try the B-12 thing if we can find something cheap enough.

Her eye looks OK. It's got a thin layer of bloody goop over it, but I keep squirting saline in there. She does open it sometimes. I don't know if she can see out of it or if she ever will again, but at this point I don't think it's going to heal shut, so that's good.

I really think it all started with the sugar water. My wonderful boyfriend's idea, of course. She just didn't have enough energy to eat and that really perked her up enough to do so.

I'm not celebrating yet because I know she could get worse again, but for now, I'm a pretty happy crazy chicken lady.
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That's good to hear! Hang in there, sounds like she may have turned the corner!
 
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I understand your DH's concern, obviously with this in the family, I too have been WAY freaked out about mosquito's too! I use spray when I go out and I am super freaked out when I find them in the house! At this point there hasn't been enough studies done on the West nile in people. My sister's MS condition and West Nile, is complicated, as in the Dr's aren't sure what's causing what. Thanks for the kind words, I was just being the Big sister!!
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One reason why I got my Scovies is cause they love mosquito's and flies and all kinds of bugs!! They do a pretty good job, but, I have noticed a few more squito's tryn to get into my house!! Everyone just needs to be careful, and watch your babies!! The tough part about that is trying to find a lotion that works that doesn't have toxic substances! I'm sure in this next year, there are going to be lots of information and lots of stuff put out about it!
Don't be too hard on the hubby he's just concerned and for good reason!

It's funny - he's usually not overly concerned about illnesses that gets mentioned in the news. For some reason, the West Nile thing has him bothered. He watches a lot more news than I do, so he may have seen some pretty bad news stories about it.

I'm always the one saying "don't put that chemical on my kids" and I'm anti-chemical control in the yard, too. He and I have battled that one for years. He's now threatening to bring back chemical fertilizer for the lawn and I'm like "don't you dare!" I think I'm going to make up some chicken poop tea and try to get to the lawn before he does. Even if I make the tea wrong, I doubt I could kill it any worse than it already is.

Yea and ya know I don't watch much news either, but, my mom and dad live in MI and they were telling me about all the deaths there and in TX, and I agree with you about the chemical thing, this unfortunately was not something I thought about when I was younger, I have been thinking more and more about it as I've gotten older. I have put enough chemicals on and in my body, I'm done with that!!
Good idea about the tea!! ( I love you blog by the way!) It should work fine!!!
 
Have a great day everyone. I've got a lot to do today. The big project... a brooder to work on.
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Yesterday we had our driveway sealed. It's nice and pretty and black again. Makes me want to get the front yard greened up. I've been watering the back yard this past week and it has greened up pretty well. The chickens love it. They're eating a lot of grass, 'cuz most their poo is grass now. Eeeew.
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TMI? LOL!

We got our oldest's MSP scores. We're pretty proud of the kiddo. He scored high in the "Advanced" level of Math and Writing. He got 100% in the Advance Writing section the second year in a row. When he aced his writing pre-test last year, his teacher told us that was "never done". I don't know if that is true or not, but we're pretty proud of him. I told my husband I'm going to have to be careful and not come to expect him to get high marks in the Advanced level. We're so used to him achieving high marks, and it seems to come pretty easy to him, so I know we'll have to keep our expectations in check. There may come a day it might not be quite so easy for him. Some days that boy leaves me wondering how I should parent him - there are days he begs me to play math games online, and I have to tell him to go outside and play. I'm never sure if that is the right thing to do. I know many parents who would love it if their kid wanted to play math games, and I'm having to tell my kid that he can't.

I haven't candled any eggs lately, but nothing stinks, so I'm hoping that means we're good. At this point, I just don't want to touch them. I don't need the clutz in me to come out and accidentally drop an egg.
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I can't believe in less than a week we may have new chicks to watch.
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I hope so, but I'm not getting my hopes up too high since this is my first time going through this, and I'm not sure if I did everything right.

That's wonderful!!! That's something to be proud of for sure!! And ya know what? There is plenty of time to play math games, kids need to be kids and learn how to play outside and not be cooped up, playing video games all day, day after day. I realize that this is a learning game, but, making time for both makes a well rounded child! Just MHO.
 
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