What did you do with your flock today?

[Shetland lover]

I cried and cried until I didnt have anymore tears to cry.
I had to say godbye to my little buddy Picasso.
He brought me so much happiness.
This one is gonna be tough to heal from.

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He kept me company everyday and I loved him.

I'm so sorry for your loss. It's the hardest thing losing those you love, whether human or animal. You will have given him the best life he could have wished for, I'm certain.

 

[Shetland lover]

I have had the longest yet shortest week ever...I don't know if I'm coming or going!
I sat down Wednesday with my dear friend that does my hair each week cuz I can't and went to put on my seat belt! We both died laughin!!!
Finally got a moment with no mother and no grandbabies...went down to sit with my babies for few only to see the wind blowing insanely through the area I never finished wrapping! So just got that done with the last shower curtain i had. Held two baby cochins and they found their way underneath my scarf and around my neck pretty fast! I hadn't had hardly any time to bond with either 2 hatches with life happenin!
Then Coco decides he's gonna be a big boy and mount Lizzie (Bluey's girl and Joey's wants to be girl) and I never seen 2 boys come down off their porch so fast! Joey just jumped like he was skydiving down on top of Coco. I thought he was holding him there making him submit...but I'm actually not quite sure what he was doing now. Bluey goes down the stairs and then is pecking the back of Joey..meanwhile the whole time poor Coco (4 month old Cochin that is bein told by everyone in the coop even my lil d'uccles that he is a lil turd) is on the bottom smashed flat into the ground.
So tell me Joey wasn't doin the doo to the roo!?
Atleast I'm pretty sure it's safe to say Joey breaks his toenails cuz he's so dadgum rough and tootin!
And I was gonna ask yall something else but idk what it was now lo lol

Poor lil' Coco! Gladys mounts poor Penelope most mornings and has a little crow - just to reinforce to everyone she's boss. I'm sure it's mainly directed at Ferdy though, she never does it unless he's stood in front of them! At least little Stanley isn't getting too much hassle yet. Just from evil grandma Clara. It's funny but Gladys has hated every single roo we've had when they were babies and teens but she seems to love little Stan. I thought he'd be punished by Gladys and Ferdy once he started trying out his 'love moves' on Pru (his mom) but not so far. He was wandering round with Pru and Ferdy yesterday. Ferdy was tidbitting both of them, they looked like a perfect little family rummaging in the fallen leaves, accepting treats from dad!

I'm delighted your littles are doing so much better

 

[Shetland lover]

Well I’m not mentally capable of responding to all the convos I missed but it sounds like everyone is staying cold except @TropicalBabies who still has lovely weather and sunsets!

I am mentally and physically exhausted again…and just trying to keep my head above water. After losing Raven and baby chick, I braced for losing Fluff but he showed signs of maybe doing better and eating and yesterday took a bad turn and I don’t expect him to make it through the day :-(
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I decided to check over all the chickens and discovered my Lav Orp pullet had that same black crust on her skin that the Polish did and within 24 hours she stopped walking. It has been confirmed that it is gangrenous dermatitis and I need to disinfect the whole coop, all the bedding, and replace the bedding. She is now on Amoxicillin, gets daily baths to soak the scabs, then I drench iodine over the whole area and after that dries I soak it all in chlorohexidine foam. She’s on day 4 of the antibiotics, is getting B Complex and E vitamins, poultry cell, and the iodine baths and I can see it beginning to recede. I think the drainage in this coop must be slow and the ground stays wet too long…so gonna have to watch out for that and hope it solves this issue. While it doesn’t seem all that common, it’s apparently an issue here with my coop. I have a chocolate Orp, Mauve Orp, and two silkies in that coop and none of them have it. I am starting to think maybe I’m just not doing a good job and need to quit chickening :-(
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Lonely baby d’Anver cries for snuggles every day, but finally opted to snuggle the Olaf stuffy we gave her for now—but I feel so bad and need to find her a friend. The friend I had been looking at I felt a bit sketched out by the convo with the person and opted to wait. She’s almost 3 weeks old now!
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So on top of ailing chickens and lonely chick, our two senior dogs have been needing a ton more attention, I had to do soccer coaching, take my child to the doctor for X-rays, manage ANOTHER cold I brought home from our trip, AND mentally handle the quadruple murder that happened in Moscow the morning we left there. It’s just been a lot mentally and physically and I’m just spent. Just needed to vent and say hi. Think good thoughts for Asha—she’s totally fine in every other way and has a really good appetite. She ate a ton of my scrambled egg concoction too—eggs, cornmeal, poultry cell and iodine—yum!
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Hope you are all having a lovely Sunday.

Oh bloody hell! What a load of you're having to deal with. I've just been learning about gangrenous dermatitis on my chicken vet course, weirdly. It's a nasty thing but you're doing all the right things to get it under control. The bacteria responsible are CIostridium septicum, CI. perfringens type A and Staphylococcus aureus, independently or in combination and all three are almost always present in the environment. In addition to the poor drainage, is the coop quite humid? That's usually a trigger for infection apparently.

I'm so sorry about Fluff. I hope he turns the corner again for you and I'm sending you both positive thoughts and prayers

I had a lone chick a couple of years ago and he did just fine. He spent a lot of his time in a woollen hat tied around my neck when he was small which stopped him being distressed. I work mainly from home so it was possible for me to do that. Idk whether your circumstances would allow that. I also made sure he had plenty of contact with my other chickens so he was already well socialised when the time came to allow him outside - he always preferred being indoors with me though

Please don't give up chicken keeping. You clearly love your birds and are doing the very best by them.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Every day I think is the last frigid night...nope - 16° now...this is too cold for this time of year! Bahamas are looking better each day!!! I'm just gonna have to leave all my babies, mom and life here and enjoy it cause DH bumped up our 2 days in the last week. He can't wait to get outta here lol!

 

[Shetland lover]

Every day I think is the last frigid night...nope - 16° now...this is too cold for this time of year! Bahamas are looking better each day!!! I'm just gonna have to leave all my babies, mom and life here and enjoy it cause DH bumped up our 2 days in the last week. He can't wait to get outta here lol!

Ooh! You are soooo lucky going off to get some sun and much needed warmth
Your babies will be fine but I know you'll worry constantly about them. I'm terrible! Sure the coop is going to burn down or something else totally unlikely

 

[FBMcrazy8]

Every day I think is the last frigid night...nope - 16° now...this is too cold for this time of year! Bahamas are looking better each day!!! I'm just gonna have to leave all my babies, mom and life here and enjoy it cause DH bumped up our 2 days in the last week. He can't wait to get outta here lol!

Sorry is that a ‘-16’ or just 16. The negative is WAY too cold! I have been lucky enough to not hit negative digits yet.

I got up to about 20 degrees with a windchill bringing it down to about 10. But the sun has been out all day. Right now it’s 49 with windchill bring it to 44. Still way better.

Enjoy your time! I’m sure your little ones will be just fine! Sending positive vibes your way. I really think sometimes we all need a break. Go for it and have fun!!

 

[FBMcrazy8]

I decided to do a small photo shoot with the babies… mom actually didn’t mind. She came to check on the babies and then laid in my lap. And she is for sure not a lap dog. So when I say short… it was SHORT I’m attaching just a couple that I managed to get.

Ducks pond broke fairly easily this morning with what I was able to break yesterday. I’m hoping the sun works on the rest…at least thins it out a little.

My chicken that was laying soft shells has come back to laying hard shelled eggs. Thank goodness. I tried to prevent that at all costs but you can only lead a horse to water, you can’t make them drink it.

 

[kurby22]

Oh bloody hell! What a load of you're having to deal with. I've just been learning about gangrenous dermatitis on my chicken vet course, weirdly. It's a nasty thing but you're doing all the right things to get it under control. The bacteria responsible are CIostridium septicum, CI. perfringens type A and Staphylococcus aureus, independently or in combination and all three are almost always present in the environment. In addition to the poor drainage, is the coop quite humid? That's usually a trigger for infection apparently.

I'm so sorry about Fluff. I hope he turns the corner again for you and I'm sending you both positive thoughts and prayers

I had a lone chick a couple of years ago and he did just fine. He spent a lot of his time in a woollen hat tied around my neck when he was small which stopped him being distressed. I work mainly from home so it was possible for me to do that. Idk whether your circumstances would allow that. I also made sure he had plenty of contact with my other chickens so he was already well socialised when the time came to allow him outside - he always preferred being indoors with me though

Please don't give up chicken keeping. You clearly love your birds and are doing the very best by them.

Thank you for the kind words Chickening is hard and sometimes feels like a losing effort…but maybe it’s because I have too many birds with life as busy as it is…I’m probably going to stick with the number of large breeds I have and focus on bantams going forward. My yard handles the smaller birds much better and we only need like three hens for eggs

Fluff may need to be put down…he’s worse today and meds aren’t making any difference and I don’t want him in any more pain. I’ve never had to put down a full grown chicken, but the vet isn’t available till Wednesday. Ugh :-(

I have a close chicken friend here in town who decided to get chicks from Meyer Hatchery on the 28th. So I picked a couple of buff laced polish pullets…my last try for Polish and thinking if they make it here in good health they will be a good size for lonely baby. Based on all the stuff I’ve read on here, Polish don’t do too well in shipping so I’m not expecting them to make it but will be pleasantly surprised if they do. Lonely baby, if a girl like I suspect…will have a much less passive personality than my other two d’Anver pullets…so she will bring much needed sass to my flock! I hope all the special attention she’s getting makes her a special girl

My segregated flock of d’Anvers gets to go on a trip in two weeks…we decided to give a poultry show a go and see what they are like in comparison to the County Fair Plus it’s in Paso Robles where there’s good wine tasting and the ocean nearby So I took some pictures yesterday and put on their leg bands and started my assessment of who needs what. The blacks are in very nice shape and the self blues are not…but they could be worse so I’m bringing them to see how they do and get feedback from other breeders. Hopefully they’re nice to me!

Also spent an hour out in the sun (it’s a beautiful fall day) with the big kid flock and gave the pullets in the gangrene coop a chance to mingle with the flock finally. It has helped me be grateful for my babies that are healthy and thriving. They seem to be doing okay with the occasional peck to put them in their place. Asha is loving inside time but not a fan of bathing in iodine and chlorohexidine! She pecks at me when hungry or wanting snuggles

I’m in a better mental state today thank you all for the kind words! Also @TropicalBabies i would gladly take some of your birds but my DH said “thank you but we have plenty”

 

[kurby22]

Some of my d’Anver babies

 

[kurby22]

I decided to do a small photo shoot with the babies… mom actually didn’t mind. She came to check on the babies and then laid in my lap. And she is for sure not a lap dog. So when I say short… it was SHORT I’m attaching just a couple that I managed to get.

Ducks pond broke fairly easily this morning with what I was able to break yesterday. I’m hoping the sun works on the rest…at least thins it out a little.

My chicken that was laying soft shells has come back to laying hard shelled eggs. Thank goodness. I tried to prevent that at all costs but you can only lead a horse to water, you can’t make them drink it.

Sooooo cute