What did you do with your flock today?

[Shetland lover]

It is 9 degrees here with windchill . I have to take the puppies to the vet today, so I have to keep them warm, but I also have to keep momma home. She is going to be a hot mess. But luckily I have most of that figured out. I just don’t REALLY know how to comfort mom. But I have a ham bone that I am going to give her while we are gone. So MAYBE that will distract her and keep her happy, if not just entertained.

I checked inside the chicken coop for the temp and it and the duck coop are setting at about 23/25 degrees. So as cold as that is I’m happy with it knowing how cold it is with the wind chill. But the ducks still could care less, they are just swimming their little fluffy butts off.

Oooh, puppies! Are they and momma all doing well? Will we see photos soon, pretty please?

 

[FBMcrazy8]

Well the puppies did pretty good at the vet. I expected to have BIG trouble with momma. So I had a plan. I boiled a ham bone (already pre smoked but had to heat it up), and while that was going I decided to get a basket together for them. I put a REALLY heavy rug (odd shaped just one I came across a while ago and thought it would work great for the puppies) in it to stop the wind from coming in. I heated up a zip lock bag with rice and dry beans and put it in there. Then put it in the basket with another piece of fabric on top to protect them from getting burnt.

So that is where things worked out great. I had planned on taking the puppies from her and then putting her in her kennel by putting the puppy basket on the top so she would go in. We didn’t want her running around the house trying to find them and stressing. The kennel is her comfort area so we thought it best. BUT instead, I put the ham bone in there and she leaves the puppies to eat on it! Win win!

Got back home and she was her old self. She was shaking her butt at me the whole way out the door. Which I let her out to go potty first because I knew she wouldn’t leave after I brought them inside. She went potty and I brought her and puppies inside. She was so happy to see them but SOO mad at me. Probably also doesn’t help that when we left they were quite and when I get back they are crying.

@TropicalBabies that roads weren’t too bad luckily and the puppies were able to stay warm. The vet is luckily only 10 min away, if that, it maybe closer. But thank you! I have been so worried about this winter coming. Still nervous…

Here is some puppy pictures @Shetland lover

 

[ChicksnMore]

I'm thinking about it. We actually have an outside shower that is plumbed and that is about it. Seems like it could be an opportunity

I can just picture the sun making rainbows through that glass as you shower! My youngest tried to make an aurora with colored bottles when she was little...she got so mad at me for trying to explain that she couldn't throw the light into an empty night sky! So I shut up and just helped her try. Its a fun memory

Yeah, at this point it could be anything. I’m just so stumped, her face started to swell back in March, but it was so slow I didn’t realize it until much, much later. No other symptoms (aside from things directly relating to the swelling, like obstructed vision) and no one else is experiencing symptoms. I’ve tried a couple different meds and nothing has helped. : (
She looks like a completely different bird than she did is the beginning of the year.
View attachment 3326155

Wow what a change! I had thought she was like the white faced Spanish who's face skin seems to swell and thicken as they age. No ideas here but I like @TropicalBabies suggestion. There's so many knowledgeable people on here who might have good ideas about it. Hope she does well Frankie

So, for the white pullet, her mom could have been an ISA Brown, which has White Leghorn genes, or the Golden Comet with White Rock genes. Still guessing on cockerel, maybe the cream legbar gene.

I've always wanted cream legbars. Someday maybe.
So that'd be the white leghorn or white rock genes carrying the recessive white right?

It is 9 degrees here with windchill . I have to take the puppies to the vet today, so I have to keep them warm, but I also have to keep momma home. She is going to be a hot mess. But luckily I have most of that figured out. I just don’t REALLY know how to comfort mom. But I have a ham bone that I am going to give her while we are gone. So MAYBE that will distract her and keep her happy, if not just entertained.

I checked inside the chicken coop for the temp and it and the duck coop are setting at about 23/25 degrees. So as cold as that is I’m happy with it knowing how cold it is with the wind chill. But the ducks still could care less, they are just swimming their little fluffy butts off.

That's so duck

Well the puppies did pretty good at the vet. I expected to have BIG trouble with momma. So I had a plan. I boiled a ham bone (already pre smoked but had to heat it up), and while that was going I decided to get a basket together for them. I put a REALLY heavy rug (odd shaped just one I came across a while ago and thought it would work great for the puppies) in it to stop the wind from coming in. I heated up a zip lock bag with rice and dry beans and put it in there. Then put it in the basket with another piece of fabric on top to protect them from getting burnt.

So that is where things worked out great. I had planned on taking the puppies from her and then putting her in her kennel by putting the puppy basket on the top so she would go in. We didn’t want her running around the house trying to find them and stressing. The kennel is her comfort area so we thought it best. BUT instead, I put the ham bone in there and she leaves the puppies to eat on it! Win win!

Got back home and she was her old self. She was shaking her butt at me the whole way out the door. Which I let her out to go potty first because I knew she wouldn’t leave after I brought them inside. She went potty and I brought her and puppies inside. She was so happy to see them but SOO mad at me. Probably also doesn’t help that when we left they were quite and when I get back they are crying.

@TropicalBabies that roads weren’t too bad luckily and the puppies were able to stay warm. The vet is luckily only 10 min away, if that, it maybe closer. But thank you! I have been so worried about this winter coming. Still nervous…

Here is some puppy pictures @Shetland lover

Aaaaa! Squishy tubs of baby lard! Give them and momma little hugs and scritches for me

 

[ChicksnMore]

Spider bites doing great. The red area is a barely there bruised look now and I think the ulcers quit growing. Still no bigger then a pinkie nail so not bad at all. Bless antibiotics!

Still no pupa in the mealie bin! Maybe I'm being a tad impatient though . I want gobs and gobs of big, squirmy mealies!

Almost forgot to add...I switched the apple core for potato chunks and no more half eaten mealies.

 

[FBMcrazy8]

That's so duck

Aaaaa! Squishy tubs of baby lard! Give them and momma little hugs and scritches for me

Lol I sure will! Just as soon as momma is over being mad at me.

The ducks are just so silly.

 

[Shetland lover]

Well the puppies did pretty good at the vet. I expected to have BIG trouble with momma. So I had a plan. I boiled a ham bone (already pre smoked but had to heat it up), and while that was going I decided to get a basket together for them. I put a REALLY heavy rug (odd shaped just one I came across a while ago and thought it would work great for the puppies) in it to stop the wind from coming in. I heated up a zip lock bag with rice and dry beans and put it in there. Then put it in the basket with another piece of fabric on top to protect them from getting burnt.

So that is where things worked out great. I had planned on taking the puppies from her and then putting her in her kennel by putting the puppy basket on the top so she would go in. We didn’t want her running around the house trying to find them and stressing. The kennel is her comfort area so we thought it best. BUT instead, I put the ham bone in there and she leaves the puppies to eat on it! Win win!

Got back home and she was her old self. She was shaking her butt at me the whole way out the door. Which I let her out to go potty first because I knew she wouldn’t leave after I brought them inside. She went potty and I brought her and puppies inside. She was so happy to see them but SOO mad at me. Probably also doesn’t help that when we left they were quite and when I get back they are crying.

@TropicalBabies that roads weren’t too bad luckily and the puppies were able to stay warm. The vet is luckily only 10 min away, if that, it maybe closer. But thank you! I have been so worried about this winter coming. Still nervous…

Here is some puppy pictures @Shetland lover

Oh my! They are super, super adorable. I need one, or 4! Please give them all big hugs and squishes from me too.

 

[Shetland lover]

Yeah, at this point it could be anything. I’m just so stumped, her face started to swell back in March, but it was so slow I didn’t realize it until much, much later. No other symptoms (aside from things directly relating to the swelling, like obstructed vision) and no one else is experiencing symptoms. I’ve tried a couple different meds and nothing has helped. : (
She looks like a completely different bird than she did is the beginning of the year.
View attachment 3326155

Could it be botulism?

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Just catching up with the thread. I see Ferdy eating egg shells quite often but not oyster. I sometimes wonder if in some primitive part of his brain he thinks he's cleaning up after the ladies to throw potential predators off the scent? Or maybe he just self regulates how much calcium he needs, who knows? I feed everyone Garvo chicken food. Not ONE of them will eat pellets, Spoilt little monsters!

mine all have a communal shout about seagulls on a daily basis. And the racket when we had the roofer to fix the roof and they caught sight of him! Poor man wouldn't come down the ladder as he thought they'd attack him...I mean, they're only a couple of inches tall Does anyone else's roos join in with the egg song? Ferdy sings it like he's laid them single-handedly.

My boys are incredibly important to me too. They have such big personalities, even Stanley at just 12 wks old. And they are so affectionate. All flock just isn't available over here so everyone gets Garvo Alfachick, separate egg shell, oyster shell and flint grit. Ferdy and Stanley also get a grain mix with a much lower calcium content and rooster booster in their water. They all get greens every day, and fruit whenever I have some they like. Told you they were spoilt! I've only ever had soft eggs from my ex-battery hens either when they first came out of production cages or at the end of their laying life.

Yep all my boys do it too!

 

[FBMcrazy8]

Oh my! They are super, super adorable. I need one, or 4! Please give them all big hugs and squishes from me too.

Will do for sure! Mom is still made at me…I’m hoping she gets over it soon. She keeps staring me down. But I get it, I would be mad too.

 

[PopoMyers]

So that'd be the white leghorn or white rock genes carrying the recessive white right?

I believe so. I read that White Rock are a bright white, and the leghorns not as, kind of like the difference between a daylight and warm light bulb. Both the mom breeds are that rust red/cinnamon color. Not sure where the SG cockerel's genes have a recessive white, unless one White Plymouth rock snuck in there along the way.