What did you do with your flock today?

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Oh no! Poor Schulz! I hope he’s just feeling off and not bad sick my friends flock was vaxxed too and they all now have Mareks AND Avian Leukosis so it is possible but hopefully very unlikely! I get to stress out now about my flock randomly getting Avian influenza too…there’ve been several cases in the Valley in the past 3 weeks Try b complex vitamins! They really helped Axel

Yes, Aria has such a gentle heart and despite all my efforts she continues to attach herself to the boys. Sighhh. Why they gotta be so sweet until puberty?? She took selfies with him today to remember him by…and then went to therapy tonight and talked about chickens nonstop apparently hoping Ariana Sushi is a girl, but given my luck thus far she will be a he!

OMGeeze she's so adorable...with a heart full of chickens!!! Just precious! How old is she?
The boys are really bad about getting is to fall in luv with em head over heels til those hormones kick in and then we could kick ourselves over and over again...if they don't kick us first! I know exactly how she feels!!!
My little grandson that is bout to turn 4 (where does the time go!) has been "kicked" a couple times too many by the boys and now he really doesn't wanna have much to do with em unless they are babies! Which makes me wanna just have more babies which I do not need!!! I've made efforts to keep the boys away from him whenever we go to give em all luvins but the d'uccles get a little eager to get their sesame seeds and so he just prefers to garden now...the excitement and luv he has is just when we incubate and those first few weeks after hatch.
I think there's a life story in there somewhere .

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Well, I just finally came in. I spent the day getting the porch and courtyard ready for labor day. Mostly that meant trying to remove all the spiderwebs and moving things around to clean behind and under.
I trimmed the grape Vines because they were blocking light from my tomatoes. Tomatoes here are like @TropicalBabies experience...but I keep trying anyhow. I keep thinking someday I'll find the right type that'll like it here!
Anyway, I treated the chickens to some of the vines, and when I got to the young yokos, Schultz tried to jump on me and fell. So I gave him a look over and hes definitely sick. Not bad yet...but off balance and a messy bottom. I brought him in and gave him some medicine in his water, washed his bottom and set him up with some high calorie feed and a dish of kefir for the probiotics. He has such a huge personality ands just so fun. I know it can't be Mereks cause he was vaccinated for that and no pox signs. But we have found a few dead sparrows so I do think bird flu is circulating out there. Anyways...fingers crossed for him.
Exhausted here...hope everyone's night is good.

How's Schultz doing this morning?!
Hopefully he just needed some electrolytes and luvins!

 

[TropicalBabies]

Good morning peoples, happy Saturday and 3 day holiday weekend!

Ari is so funny! What a love and to chat up the therapist (and here I was kidding a few posts back) about chickens ♡♡♡ Future chicken farmers of America! Surely convincing the therapist too ♡♡♡

My goodness there are some frisky boys happening. Bummer that it has effected your grandson negatively @gbb. That is sad and I am sorry

Excellent suggestion on the B vits @kurby. Little sad I did not think to mention it myself lol but REALLY glad you did. Especially with the weather being warm. @ChicksnMore I really hope your boy is ok ♡♡♡ maybe heat stroke and/or vitamin deficiency ☹? A good reminder (for/to me/all) to stay up on things. I've been lax with my vitamins in the water lately... better get on it.

This bird flu is scary. Hard to think of and it is getting so close. Is the USDA still culling flocks? Maybe just certain areas of the country? I'm cringing of it coming here. We had avian pox and malaria wipe out much of our native bird population in the 1800's and it has not recovered. I'd hate to see us get hit with this flu but sure it is inevitable

I had a pal of mine stop by yesterday. She grew up on a small farm many years ago. I was a little embarrassed of my funky (yet charming) set up and the fact that I have the seniors up here and everyone is at some stage of molt and mess. She did not seem to notice the mess but was taken with the matriarchs, Mazzie and Indie- the fearless and wise old gals stood unflinching at the fencline and stared her and her dog down. Spider was somewhere in the back... probably telling the girls to get behind him lol. Anywho, she had practically cringed as she told me of her negative experiences with chickens pecking her when she was young. She is a tuff lady with great humor. I enjoyed seeing my old friend and in the end she did enjoy my beatup flock with a bit of a twinkle in her eye.

Yesterday I also cleaned the cabin inside, washed out feeders and storage containers to store the 2 big bags of red bran flakes I had ordered, got in a 1/2 hour walk, yard work and cut up 20 feed bags.
Today, after I transfer bran into the DRY containers, I will set up my sewing machine and apply new shared tricks of the trade. Think I mostly have it but looking forward to being able to finesse a little and am rather excited to start back up. Also, DH is coming up for a walk and visit so should be a fun day.

Stay safe, have fun all!

 

[ChicksnMore]

Hombre is a pick pocket too. He is very social and lots of fun.
I'll drum up some UH tomatoe seed to send you way soon. I wanted to send some B of P seeds for fun. Give me a bid... I am rather scatter and or unprepared.
Well, they can still get Mereks w/ vacs, just less chance I think. But, crap. Yes BF... oh gosh. I really hope not. Maybe one of those ill tempered snakes bit his toe
How is snake hunting going?
Well, you must be having a thing for the long weekend. Bet everything looks lovely ♡ have fun!

Seeds are always fun!
I'm really really hoping it's bf. That I know I can cure, especially when caught early. Mereks is just nasty. We've had it here before and I know it can linger so I just vaccinate all the babies. We had one roo that survived it when it went through here and I kept him til he died of old age. We kept him isolated which wasn't too bad for him because he was raised an only chick and just loved people. But he would throw his head back til it touched his tail after Mereks. We called it his star gazing...I should have put him down as soon as I knew he was sick but I just couldn't. He's been gone about 5 or 6 years? And Mereks ran through here about 8 years ago...can it survive that long in the soil?

Oh no! Poor Schulz! I hope he’s just feeling off and not bad sick my friends flock was vaxxed too and they all now have Mareks AND Avian Leukosis so it is possible but hopefully very unlikely! I get to stress out now about my flock randomly getting Avian influenza too…there’ve been several cases in the Valley in the past 3 weeks Try b complex vitamins! They really helped Axel

Yes, Aria has such a gentle heart and despite all my efforts she continues to attach herself to the boys. Sighhh. Why they gotta be so sweet until puberty?? She took selfies with him today to remember him by…and then went to therapy tonight and talked about chickens nonstop apparently hoping Ariana Sushi is a girl, but given my luck thus far she will be a he!

Omg those pictures are just a piece of perfect!
Does she have one bird that's her special forever keeper bird? It helped my kids to be able to pick out one roo that they knew I would keep forever just for them. Of course, then they ended up falling in love with hens they had to keep too etc etc....lol. But it did help with the roo love! They were fine with getting rid of any roo that fought or got picked on by their special bird. If they were getting attached and they saw the other roo pick on their bird...they quickly lost attachment, and if they were getting attached and their bird picked on it...they'd feel sorry for the new bird but still loved their bird more. It made it easier for them to say goodbye to all the roosters. They started watching close to figure out who were girls so they could fall in love with birds they could keep. And it meant that it wasn't just me telling them what needed to be done...they were learning it from experience and feeling like they had a say.
My fingers are crossed for Ariana Sushi too! Your daughter reminds me of my kids when they were younger...she's a wonderful young lady!

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Welp old Joey is in bachelor pad again...2 days in a row I've struggled with him as soon as I walked into the run. I knew when I saw him pacing back and forth on chick cam this morning it was gonna be rough. He's gotten me with his spurs, same leg twice now - lil turd!
So he can stay cooped up by himself for few days!
I got on real button up zipping shorts today! I still can't believe my pain tolerance after all these years has finally gotten better...doesn't help that God is too good either!
Gonna go take out leftover salad to all of em now.
Yall have an awesome day and weekend and thank you all again for the pick me up messages! My mind is much better!!!

 

[ChicksnMore]

Well Schultz looks about the same today except I didn't need to wash his bum this morning. He's still acting almost normal but his balance is completely shot.

He's getting tetracycline in his water and 20% all flock with a sprinkle of brewer's yeast for the b vits. And kefir...the birds love kefir and since it's packed with live bacteria it helps a lot if a bird has digestive problems. It usually does a bang up job on sour crop, runs etc.

I haven't had a sick bird in years (just luck) but everytime I've had one get sick it's the start of a string of sickness. So I'll be watching the birds closely and I'm really glad I have them all separated into so many pens. Maybe I'll get lucky and can keep it to just the young yokos.

The snake huntings been going good. I haven't found anymore baby rattlers but did find a baby kingsnake and an adult kingsnake! Kingsnakes are just the best snakes to have around because they eat rattlesnakes. Hopefully they'll stay. The baby rattler the other day was less then a foot long and couldn't rattle yet. So thinking it was new hatched. It's only the second rattlesnake we've seen this year, so not a bad year....unless there's more hatchlings out there.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Good morning peoples, happy Saturday and 3 day holiday weekend!

Ari is so funny! What a love and to chat up the therapist (and here I was kidding a few posts back) about chickens ♡♡♡ Future chicken farmers of America! Surely convincing the therapist too ♡♡♡

My goodness there are some frisky boys happening. Bummer that it has effected your grandson negatively @gbb. That is sad and I am sorry

Excellent suggestion on the B vits @kurby. Little sad I did not think to mention it myself lol but REALLY glad you did. Especially with the weather being warm. @ChicksnMore I really hope your boy is ok ♡♡♡ maybe heat stroke and/or vitamin deficiency ☹? A good reminder (for/to me/all) to stay up on things. I've been lax with my vitamins in the water lately... better get on it.

This bird flu is scary. Hard to think of and it is getting so close. Is the USDA still culling flocks? Maybe just certain areas of the country? I'm cringing of it coming here. We had avian pox and malaria wipe out much of our native bird population in the 1800's and it has not recovered. I'd hate to see us get hit with this flu but sure it is inevitable

I had a pal of mine stop by yesterday. She grew up on a small farm many years ago. I was a little embarrassed of my funky (yet charming) set up and the fact that I have the seniors up here and everyone is at some stage of molt and mess. She did not seem to notice the mess but was taken with the matriarchs, Mazzie and Indie- the fearless and wise old gals stood unflinching at the fencline and stared her and her dog down. Spider was somewhere in the back... probably telling the girls to get behind him lol. Anywho, she had practically cringed as she told me of her negative experiences with chickens pecking her when she was young. She is a tuff lady with great humor. I enjoyed seeing my old friend and in the end she did enjoy my beatup flock with a bit of a twinkle in her eye.

Yesterday I also cleaned the cabin inside, washed out feeders and storage containers to store the 2 big bags of red bran flakes I had ordered, got in a 1/2 hour walk, yard work and cut up 20 feed bags.
Today, after I transfer bran into the DRY containers, I will set up my sewing machine and apply new shared tricks of the trade. Think I mostly have it but looking forward to being able to finesse a little and am rather excited to start back up. Also, DH is coming up for a walk and visit so should be a fun day.

Stay safe, have fun all!

I didn't know Hawaii loss most of it's birds at one time! Islands tend to produce some truly unique species so I'm very sad to hear that.
Your pal sounds delightful. I just love the picture you paint of your birds greeting her...lol.

Welp old Joey is in bachelor pad again...2 days in a row I've struggled with him as soon as I walked into the run. I knew when I saw him pacing back and forth on chick cam this morning it was gonna be rough. He's gotten me with his spurs, same leg twice now - lil turd!
So he can stay cooped up by himself for few days!
I got on real button up zipping shorts today! I still can't believe my pain tolerance after all these years has finally gotten better...doesn't help that God is too good either!
Gonna go take out leftover salad to all of em now.
Yall have an awesome day and weekend and thank you all again for the pick me up messages! My mind is much better!!!

Poor you having to deal with Joey! I really hope that works out ok for you and wish I had any good advice to offer. I liked @TropicalBabies ideas for how to deal with it...that sounded like it could work. I always butchered big boys if they attack people. I'm nicer to the little guys and just scoop em up and hold em while I do my work, and the one little guy I have that did that did stop after a while of being held everytime he attacked. So I'll definitely be trying that if I ever get a big guy that attacks again.

So glad your mending and starting to feel better!

 

[FBMcrazy8]

Good morning everyone! I’m glad to hear your doing better @Gammas Bearded Babies!

This morning I went out to the chicken coop to let them out. I have been very cautious of my cockerel lately. I open the door and walk backwards to the run door. I won’t turn my back on him and I have to keep an eye on him. More in the mornings than any other time. But he is normally first one out and I’m not too far. He normally fluffs up his feathers (kind of like a guy puffing out his chest). But this morning he just started acting like he was gonna come at me. So I just told him you better not little dude, you better not. He relaxed his feathers until a pullet came out. And for the first time, he didn’t just grab neck feathers but actually got on top of her. Of course they aren’t ready and she wasn’t having it. They are only 14 weeks old. I went and grabbed them some food and did my best to ignore him but he met me at the door. Brave little turd started pecking at my feet. The girls will do that but that is typically if I’m just standing there and they think I should have a treat. He is doing it while I’m walking and kind of aggressive. He got in front of me while i was walking and got kicked. I went back in with another scoop of feed and he went far away from him. I’m gonna have to start doing things differently because I don’t want to hurt him but I also don’t want him to hurt me. Luckily he doesn’t have spurs yet and it doesn’t look like any are coming in yet. I’m hoping he will cook off once the girls are ready for matting.

The other day we started with our plans for the duck coop. The part we were stuck on was how high to go up, and how to put a top on the run. We needed something high enough that I could get in and shut the door without me having to squat down and waddle in there. We believe we have a solution but as we got started we ran out of screws. So have to wait until we have time to go and get more.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

just scoop em up and hold em while I do my work,

Yeah I normally do that but I'm not supposed to be bending over still which makes it hard. And of course not wearing proper "attire" which makes me hesitant to just walk right on through him. So as slow as I am even on a great day, he has plenty of time to get all his hackles raised up and jump at me 2 or 3 times.

I’m hoping he will cool off once the girls are ready for matting

I'm praying that calms Joey down....2 of them are sooooo close! They are at 20 weeks right now! Can't come soon enough for old horndog...I mean Joey! DH has even given him the nickname Joey Buttafuoco...yall remember him?

 

[ChicksnMore]

Good morning everyone! I’m glad to hear your doing better @Gammas Bearded Babies!

This morning I went out to the chicken coop to let them out. I have been very cautious of my cockerel lately. I open the door and walk backwards to the run door. I won’t turn my back on him and I have to keep an eye on him. More in the mornings than any other time. But he is normally first one out and I’m not too far. He normally fluffs up his feathers (kind of like a guy puffing out his chest). But this morning he just started acting like he was gonna come at me. So I just told him you better not little dude, you better not. He relaxed his feathers until a pullet came out. And for the first time, he didn’t just grab neck feathers but actually got on top of her. Of course they aren’t ready and she wasn’t having it. They are only 14 weeks old. I went and grabbed them some food and did my best to ignore him but he met me at the door. Brave little turd started pecking at my feet. The girls will do that but that is typically if I’m just standing there and they think I should have a treat. He is doing it while I’m walking and kind of aggressive. He got in front of me while i was walking and got kicked. I went back in with another scoop of feed and he went far away from him. I’m gonna have to start doing things differently because I don’t want to hurt him but I also don’t want him to hurt me. Luckily he doesn’t have spurs yet and it doesn’t look like any are coming in yet. I’m hoping he will cook off once the girls are ready for matting.

The other day we started with our plans for the duck coop. The part we were stuck on was how high to go up, and how to put a top on the run. We needed something high enough that I could get in and shut the door without me having to squat down and waddle in there. We believe we have a solution but as we got started we ran out of screws. So have to wait until we have time to go and get more.

It's looking great!

Yeah I normally do that but I'm not supposed to be bending over still which makes it hard. And of course not wearing proper "attire" which makes me hesitant to just walk right on through him. So as slow as I am even on a great day, he has plenty of time to get all his hackles raised up and jump at me 2 or 3 times.

I'm praying that calms Joey down....2 of them are sooooo close! They are at 20 weeks right now! Can't come soon enough for old horndog...I mean Joey! DH has even given him the nickname Joey Buttafuoco...yall remember him?

That is hard! Maybe carry a stick to wave him off? We have a neighbor that walks with a big stick and waves it behind him as he goes to make sure no dog gets him from behind...lol.