What did you do with your flock today?

[kurby22]

Oops @TropicalBabies spoke too soon...doesn't sound like they were at all happy afterwards!! Yikes!! Very mad kitties! Hopefully today has been better for all of you!

I haven't had much chance to catch up on threads, but today ended up being a sad day and wanted to vent. I went out yesterday to check egg boxes and noticed fresh blood in the shavings...and looked around at the chickens and found my daughter's very favorite chicken she named after herself...with a very significant amount of her insides hanging out and she was straining and bleeding. I brought her inside and gave her an epsom soak, wiped it with witch hazel, sprayed it with Vetrycin, and tried to push it all back inside her and then felt around a bit for evidence of an egg...she immediately pushed and strained and out came her insides again. I tried holding it all in place with a disposable face mask, and then gave her a epsom soak again this morning. I was letting her rest while in meetings and she was gone by the time the meetings were over. My daughter is just going to be devastated and I am dreading her coming home from school. I'm most concerned with the fact that this only leaves 6 standard sized hens that are laying and can handle the boy attention. The big boys don't seem to have much interest in the bantams, even though they aren't super tiny. Maybe it will get better when they get closer to POL, but so far its the big girls getting ALL the attention.

SO, it's probably not the best solution, but I'm thinking the best way to soften the blow is to see if we get a chance at an Aria Jr. baby by hatching a few of our eggs. It just so happens that Miss Betty has decided to go broody again...so I gave her about 5 eggs that are the most fresh and we will see if anything happens...I'm not sure that Aria Jr had laid any fertile eggs yet, so may be a bit of a let down, but fluffy chicks always help, right? So fingers crossed we have some luck and Betty provides a proper broody incubator...figured it wouldn't hurt anything to try.

RIP Aria Jr. we will always love you.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Ohhh that will be hard on her ... I am so sorry @kurby22

 

[629864]

Ya, was hoping the share would scare away some winter blues (or white, grey and brown). Many of you folks I am sure are ready for your spring.

Yep. Definitely ready for spring. I'm waiting for March 1st, then I'm going to nudge the buffs back to brooding if i can. I think they'd go now if I left eggs in their favorite spot (the covered cat cave), but it's too cold for that right now.

Winters are fabulous here, like many other people's spring. We have not really gotten our rains yet. Sure they are coming soon.

Reminds me of the winter rainy season when I lived in Israel. But there it's just cold rain. Not at all like the tropical rains you have.

Too funny... I'm sure one day she will get her wish .

Indeed.

How's the electric fences and that whole ordeal? I'm sure it is a good investment in the long and short term.

We got up the connectors/insulators, but the rain started sooner than expected and ... well ... we didn't want to be working on electric/metal stuff in the middle of a rain storm. So we compromised and adjusted the shelter in the paddock with existing hotwire for the next few nights. It's not as spacious as the barn, but they've got gobs of fresh dry straw and three giant dogloos layered with a thick straw bedding as well. They'll be fine. Last I looked before dark, the dogs and two sheep were snuggled down together in the shelter and the two goats were deep inside one of the dogloos. Once the ice has melted this weekend, we'll add the wire to the connectors/insulators and it'll be done.

 

[629864]

So picked up the Zombies @ 5pm. They were really upset so instead of bringing them to my pals like planned I brought them home to eat and pee and settle but they never did the whole night. It was awful. They growled and hissed and hated each other. They also climbed and complained a lot. I had first put them in the XL+XL cage but they were more or less freaking out in it, so I brought them inside where they seemed calmed- other than the hating and growling... jumping and very over active... ugh, totally exhausting and a complete 180 of how they really are.
I really missed my chickens yesterday. It was a long day with small adventures and a few chores. Making it home, seeing the crew and opening up the run just made my world round. That is what it is all about... chickens♡

Oh wow...I'm sorry they were such terrors after their snipping...but then, I probably would be too. Poor things. And poor YOU!

And yes, chickens definitely add sunshine to even very cloudy days.

 

[629864]

Oops @TropicalBabies spoke too soon...doesn't sound like they were at all happy afterwards!! Yikes!! Very mad kitties! Hopefully today has been better for all of you!

I haven't had much chance to catch up on threads, but today ended up being a sad day and wanted to vent. I went out yesterday to check egg boxes and noticed fresh blood in the shavings...and looked around at the chickens and found my daughter's very favorite chicken she named after herself...with a very significant amount of her insides hanging out and she was straining and bleeding. I brought her inside and gave her an epsom soak, wiped it with witch hazel, sprayed it with Vetrycin, and tried to push it all back inside her and then felt around a bit for evidence of an egg...she immediately pushed and strained and out came her insides again. I tried holding it all in place with a disposable face mask, and then gave her a epsom soak again this morning. I was letting her rest while in meetings and she was gone by the time the meetings were over. My daughter is just going to be devastated and I am dreading her coming home from school. I'm most concerned with the fact that this only leaves 6 standard sized hens that are laying and can handle the boy attention. The big boys don't seem to have much interest in the bantams, even though they aren't super tiny. Maybe it will get better when they get closer to POL, but so far its the big girls getting ALL the attention.

SO, it's probably not the best solution, but I'm thinking the best way to soften the blow is to see if we get a chance at an Aria Jr. baby by hatching a few of our eggs. It just so happens that Miss Betty has decided to go broody again...so I gave her about 5 eggs that are the most fresh and we will see if anything happens...I'm not sure that Aria Jr had laid any fertile eggs yet, so may be a bit of a let down, but fluffy chicks always help, right? So fingers crossed we have some luck and Betty provides a proper broody incubator...figured it wouldn't hurt anything to try.

RIP Aria Jr. we will always love you.

I'm so sorry Kurby. That just sucks. Give your daughter extra hugs from all of us. Fingers crossed that she will be comforted by the chance of new chicks in the nearish future.

 

[629864]

We're expecting anywhere from 1/4 - 1/2 inch of ice with the possibility of also up to 6 inches of snow on top of the ice. *sigh*

So windshield wipers up, straw bedding added generously to every place outdoor animals sleep, and even the guineas got locked up in a coop tonight. There was a whole lotta grumbling from the buffs, guineas, and a few of the EEs who think they should have rights to the feeders until the last possible moment. But I insisted and they got huffy about it, but eventually everyone looked at me like I was nuts and scurried into the coop to evade me. Mission accompished and coop locked up tight. Well, they can actually get out if they try hard enough, but I think even the guineas are smarter than to sleep out in an ice storm. Here's hoping they don't storm the exit all at once and barge through my barricade before I go out to check on them all in the morning.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Oops @TropicalBabies spoke too soon...doesn't sound like they were at all happy afterwards!! Yikes!! Very mad kitties! Hopefully today has been better for all of you!

I haven't had much chance to catch up on threads, but today ended up being a sad day and wanted to vent. I went out yesterday to check egg boxes and noticed fresh blood in the shavings...and looked around at the chickens and found my daughter's very favorite chicken she named after herself...with a very significant amount of her insides hanging out and she was straining and bleeding. I brought her inside and gave her an epsom soak, wiped it with witch hazel, sprayed it with Vetrycin, and tried to push it all back inside her and then felt around a bit for evidence of an egg...she immediately pushed and strained and out came her insides again. I tried holding it all in place with a disposable face mask, and then gave her a epsom soak again this morning. I was letting her rest while in meetings and she was gone by the time the meetings were over. My daughter is just going to be devastated and I am dreading her coming home from school. I'm most concerned with the fact that this only leaves 6 standard sized hens that are laying and can handle the boy attention. The big boys don't seem to have much interest in the bantams, even though they aren't super tiny. Maybe it will get better when they get closer to POL, but so far its the big girls getting ALL the attention.

SO, it's probably not the best solution, but I'm thinking the best way to soften the blow is to see if we get a chance at an Aria Jr. baby by hatching a few of our eggs. It just so happens that Miss Betty has decided to go broody again...so I gave her about 5 eggs that are the most fresh and we will see if anything happens...I'm not sure that Aria Jr had laid any fertile eggs yet, so may be a bit of a let down, but fluffy chicks always help, right? So fingers crossed we have some luck and Betty provides a proper broody incubator...figured it wouldn't hurt anything to try.

RIP Aria Jr. we will always love you.

Oh my goodness @kurby22 that is horrific. Boy, this has been a terrible winter for you and your flock. I am so absolutely sorry for you all and especially your daughter. Yes, maybe chicks... just kind of speechless

 

[TropicalBabies]

Well... deep sigh. Took kittens to my pals house this afternoon. She was a tad wound up. Must be the control freak in me but I really wished she had been calmer. Oh well, told the kittens they were going to have a project with her.
They seemed pretty good in all. They have a room of their own but we all know they will rule the house lol. Her house is triple the size of ours so they looked pretty happy about that.

After i got home I did some chores (like floors and litter boxes!) It is definitely quiet here and I do miss them a lot. I'll go visit to help me let go. I'm sure as I see them adjust and thrive my heart will mend. It's what moms do.
Think I need to hatch some chicks too....

 

[kurby22]

Oh my goodness @kurby22 that is horrific. Boy, this has been a terrible winter for you and your flock. I am so absolutely sorry for you all and especially your daughter. Yes, maybe chicks... just kind of speechless

Thanks guys. I was just sort of shocked at how quickly she went from fine to gone This winter has been quite heartbreaking and super hard on my daughter. She’s just such a soft soul…she told me she doesn’t know if she should bond with anymore chickens because she’s bad luck and they will die :-( ugh. She asked me to share this picture with my “chicken friends”

On a less sad note, Puff is starting to be a good little rooster boy. Elinor and Coco were carrying on about laying today and everyone came to the coop to participate. Coco clearly felt Elinor needed a nest box friend…and Puff wanted to sympathize

And Puff felt he needed to be there with them…so he went next door to the other box

And Coco decided maybe he was lonely…

Chicken antics are the best part about owning chickens

 

[629864]

Weather update:

We've been getting hammered with ice pellets (not sleet, not rain, not snow....pellets) since yesterday at about 4pm. Woke up to so much ice piled up on the front porch that we couldnt open the front door without shoveling. Hard to do when the ice tries to form a solid block.

The reds weren't in the greatest of shape this morning, but I didnt see any blue wattles or combs. They just were NOT thrilled when I opened the coop door and they saw what was outside. I had to force them to come out so I could get them all to the enclosed run (about half of them I had to pick up and carry over because the ice was just miserable). I got them to eat and drink and then got most of them to agree to go into the little's coop. The other 6 are in the wrapped dog crate I had set up weeks ago for the new buffs. One red got overlooked and left in the coop alone for just 10-15 minutes. I found her when I went to clean out the poop. In just those few minutes alone, her comb had already turned mostly blue. I took her to the little's coop and put her in a nesting box where she snuggled down right away into the bedding. Checked on her a little later and she was still there and her comb looked a LOT better.

Everyone now has access to food and water (that I have to boil and take out there every hour because it keeps freezing)...and hopefully the warmth from more chickens huddled together will keep them all from freezing. The guineas went into the little's coop last night and havent come out even to drink, but I do hear them chirping in there, so I think they're snug. I'm afraid to open the human door to check on them all again because they usually all panic and rush out the chicken opening into the enclosure. Not that any of them wanted to even budge from the coop after I opened their little place so they could get out to the run. I want them to stay where it's dry and at least warmER if not actually warm. A few chickens have ventured out a bit, but I'm confining them to the enclosed run and the one coop until tomorrow.

Dogs and goats/sheep didnt seem bothered by the cold this morning. They're all under the barn until sundown, when they'll go back to the other shelter like last night.