What did you do with your flock today?

[PopoMyers]

But before all of that drama and my sour feelings towards the human race lol
View attachment 3374358
Spider waiting for his favorite girls to jump down off their roosts.
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Beetle keeping an eye on the mornings preenfest. The ground too cold and wet for their feet. We were 65° this am. Burrr!

65 is cold for you. In comparison, snow is lava for mine. If it's above freezing, mine don't seem to mind. Balmy 50 today. Our TN friends are having a rough time with wildly fluctuating temps. Y'all be safe, over there @Gammas Bearded Babies and @FBMcrazy8

 

[PopoMyers]

@kurby22 so sad to hear about Jojo, and all the issues you've had to deal with, and now the flooding. A friend of mine's daughter in CA had terrible flooding, saved the goats, lost all their chickens and home is halfway under water.

@TropicalBabies oh, my, what a lovely volunteer papaya tree. Yum! I had started a couple from seed for my sister in HNL but had to pull both of them. Ended up being males.

Sore all over again, after getting the rest of the run area turned by hand. The roof is a bit lower on this side, luckily I'm short, but not short enough to avoid constant bending while doing it. Tarps we have up also sweat! It is 91% humidity, so with the colder temps at night, and warming days, it's drippy. My hair and back were wet by the time I was done. Moved the mole trap. Nothing caught, yet. Asked DH to put Sam cat inside the chicken enclosure tonight when he gets in. Exposed and destroyed all the rat tunnels today, so maybe the cat will catch them. Took the dive and ordered two treadle feeders, which should help, as rats cannot get inside them, unless they weigh over 1.8 pounds.
A dozen eggs from two days. Found a misplaced egg as I was stirring the dirt under the coop. Not sure how long it's been buried in there, but at least it like a refrigerator, and not a summer oven.

 

[kurby22]

@kurby22 so sad to hear about Jojo, and all the issues you've had to deal with, and now the flooding. A friend of mine's daughter in CA had terrible flooding, saved the goats, lost all their chickens and home is halfway under water.

@TropicalBabies oh, my, what a lovely volunteer papaya tree. Yum! I had started a couple from seed for my sister in HNL but had to pull both of them. Ended up being males.

Sore all over again, after getting the rest of the run area turned by hand. The roof is a bit lower on this side, luckily I'm short, but not short enough to avoid constant bending while doing it. Tarps we have up also sweat! It is 91% humidity, so with the colder temps at night, and warming days, it's drippy. My hair and back were wet by the time I was done. Moved the mole trap. Nothing caught, yet. Asked DH to put Sam cat inside the chicken enclosure tonight when he gets in. Exposed and destroyed all the rat tunnels today, so maybe the cat will catch them. Took the dive and ordered two treadle feeders, which should help, as rats cannot get inside them, unless they weigh over 1.8 pounds.
A dozen eggs from two days. Found a misplaced egg as I was stirring the dirt under the coop. Not sure how long it's been buried in there, but at least it like a refrigerator, and not a summer oven.

Thanks @PopoMyers he was a beautiful boy and I will definitely miss his quirky weirdness. Polish are a trip!

Sounds like you worked hard today!! Those rodents are persistent just like mine!! I was just getting ready to get some sleep when my coop camera notification buzzed. So I looked and it appeared the camera had fallen off the upper rafter where I keep it and I had a close up view of a rat butt! So, not knowing what had happened…I rolled out of bed, put on my glasses, sighed and put on my robe, went out back, found my mud boots in the dark that had been left out by my child and they were all wet…and put them on the wrong feet and said “Screw it” and trudged up our super soggy backyard slope to the coop. Opened the run gate and was rained on from the droplets sitting on the bird netting…so now my glasses are all spotted with water and opened the coop door. Not sure where it came from, but the rat came flying toward me and as I flinched it darted past me to the front corner where I’d recently discovered they’d dug a hole. So I assumed given the mess in the coop that it had scurried down some hole and run away. So I picked up the camera, wiped off the dirt and plugged it back in in its spot and figured I’d do a quick health check and see if there were eggs. I moved around my bricks and hardware cloth to see where it had breached the coop. The bedding was in major disarray and piled like it had been dug around in all along the base…so I spread things out but couldn’t find find the hole, cursed and stood up to go and what’s staring right at me in the rafters at the back corner—the big brown rat. Frozen and likely hoping I didn’t see it. So I cursed again, propped open the coop door and went out to open their door to the run. I finally figured out this rat must’ve snuck in before the door closed and then was panicking trying to get out and moving bedding everywhere to find a hole. So I opened the pop door and then trudged back into the coop, sliding ever so slightly back and forth in the soggy, very slippery mud and used a stick to poke the rat hoping I wouldn’t regret it and end up with a rodent in my face or hair. Instead he ran towards me and then turned down the roost bar and climbed ONTO my chickens to get across the roost. They just sat there like lumps! No wonder chickens are so easy for predators at night Anyway, the dismount off the last Cochin hen was sloppy and it fell off the roost into the bedding on the floor and then tore off out the pop door. I told him he was lucky I’m nice and a total weenie about killing things and then locked the coop up. The eggs I found were in my pocket of my robe and as I came down the soggy muddy hill I slipped and ran into the tree and two of them broke in my pocket So it’s now almost 1 am and I’m back in my bedroom, wet, a bit muddy, with a robe pocket full of egg yolks. I’m officially a crazy chicken person. Washed out the robe pocket, washed my hands, dried my hair, cleaned my glasses and finally I’m back in bed and too revved to relax and sleep so I just had to share with people I know can sympathize and laugh because you’re crazy chicken people too

 

[Shetland lover]

my 2 roos are uncle and nephew and have been doing about the same thing! They've only had one fight a while back but not major.

That's very promising, Gammas Bearded Babies. I'm really hoping they continue to get along as I can't bear the thought of having to re-home Stan.

 

[Shetland lover]

I am actually surprised at how many people around here are selling their chickens. And to be honest I think a lot of it has to do with nobody wanting to pay for the price of eggs and looking for chickens that are at POL. So everyone with chickens is thinking, we can make money here. There is a lady that is selling black australorps that is like 5 min from me for $25 a hen. I have considered getting some from her but at the same time why…I can buy chicks that I know will have the Mareks vaccine and will be coming to me clean…I don’t know what that set up is like or what their property has as far as diseases.

omg I sooo want to do this some day as well!!! I LOVE sharks! My oldest has fallen in love with them as well! I don’t think she would go in a cage but if she knew she would see sharks she would be in love!

I'm absolutely obsessed with them. Have been since I saw Jaws when i was about 7 or 8! For my 40th, DH took me to Scotland to dive with Europe's largest sand tiger shark. She's a magnificent creature and an experience I'll never forget!

 

[Shetland lover]

I really think my guy is going to loose his whole leg. I don’t know this for sure but it is NOT looking good. However as you all can see there is still some good looking flesh. I want him to have a fighting change but I don’t want him miserable as well. I don’t know if I should put him down or what. I will probably wait to see what ends up falling off and if he has a hard time getting around.

I'm so sorry. I think wait and see is the right strategy. Chickens can absolutely cope with just one leg and like you say, there's still a good amount of healthy tissue. All my thoughts and prayers are with you both

 

[Shetland lover]

You must explain more!!

And MORE!!! sounds like a total adventure! Most exciting

@ChicksnMore sorry about your baby. I hope this is as much of a non event as you can have. I know your birds are in capable hands.

Hoping today is a good turn around day for you @FBMcrazy8

And no more sneezes @Gammas Bearded Babies View attachment 3375126

Headed in the right direction with Molly @FrankieDoodle

Good health and forward motion as always @kurby22

I like the father & son dynamics myself Seems more forgiving in chicken world.

Happy Aloha Saturday!
Almost time for me to watch the chooks wander in the mornings darkness, setting off their motion sensor lights and waiting for the sun to rise. Silly chickens 67° in the run with clear skies, no wind right now. I'm sneezing away because of all of the Mango and Kukui blooms lolView attachment 3375181
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I have been hand feeding a wild robin all winter (and a mouse that dropped on my hand from the fig tree!) and a few days ago he flew down to my olive tree for his live mealies. I put my hand out but he didn't come over straightaway and seemed a bit hesitant. So I moved my hand to the fig tree where he's normally fed while watching and chatting to him and as i did so, i felt something land on my hand. "That bloody mouse!" I thought and looked around. And there was the robin - lil' Robs - that I normally feed sat on my hand. The other robin came over for it's food after that. I think it needed lil Robs' s reassurance that it was safe to do so. Thinking back, there's been a few occasions when lil Robs has been a bit shy taking food from me. Now I think I was feeding the "new" robin when that happened.

I'm totally obsessed with sharks and rays of all kinds. I've always wanted to free dive with great whites and cage diving is the next best option. When DH arranged for me to dive with the sand tiger shark for my 40th, he said "I'll make it with a great white for your 50th" so...
He says it's in hand but won't tell me where as there's a couple of countries that allow it and that bit is to be a surprise.

Your property looks gorgeous as always! I'm so envious. And Boo is looking great!

So beautiful ! I'm still stubbornly hoping for homegrown papaya fruit even if my poor abused trees are little midgets . I'm looking at your pic and drooling right now

@kurby22 @Shetland lover the bubbles haven't come back since her eye rinse and the swelling is going down instead of increasing. I went ahead and did some terramycin and I have both doxycycline and tetracycline but haven't given her any yet. I'm thinking it's just an injury at this point but I've never seen eye bubbles before...and because both eyes bubbled I instantly thought disease...anyhoo...whatcha think? Definitely not ammonia caused and still no respiratory symptoms.

That's great news that she seems to be healing!
Usually, with injury or a foreign body under the lid, only one eye is affected, but who knows? It's always possible.
It may be that you've headed a respiratory infection off at the pass by prompt treatment. In the early stages, respiratory infections can just be the infraorbital swelling and eye bubbles.
In any event, you were quick to take action and that's paid off

 

[Shetland lover]

Spent the day wandering the desert museum with youngest and hubby. They had a kestrel out walking around with his handler. View attachment 3375436

Stunning bird! They are so dainty looking. Very like our European kestrels apart from the facial markings.

 

[Shetland lover]

Yes it’s been 3 weeks. He still isn’t using it very much but I can see he will at least loose 2 if not 3 of is toes. It is really bad. I haven’t let him go back outside cause of the temp drop, I didn’t think it would be good for him. I just wish I could do more for him. I wish I knew how bad it was and if I’m just delaying the inevitable. He still eats and drinks and FOR SURE crowing. I just don’t know what I can do to help him or what I even should do.

Keep him indoors until he's fully healed. It could be another 3 weeks or so until the gangrene mummifies and falls off so you won't really know for sure until it does.
I've seen a roo with a prosthetic leg that was made on a 3d printer! He managed to still mate and live a normal life. If, as it sounds, he's healthy and not suffering otherwise, don't write him off just yet

 

[Shetland lover]

In Costco picking up supplies today and spot this.View attachment 3375815View attachment 3375816
What an easy conversion into a fairly affordable coop- for the space. Love it!

My run is a converted greenhouse. It's been fantastic.