Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[babylady4]

Hey everyone, wake up! Where are all the early birds anyway?????? It is 7 AM!!

While down in the Southern part of the state, we stopped at this little farm stand that specializes in mushrooms....... and no, not the 'fun' kind, but gourmet eating 'schrooms. I believe the place that grows the mushrooms is River Valley Ranch. I bought a 1# bag of Oyster and Shiitake, and a 1# mixed bag of whatever they grow. Sauteed up the Oyster and Shiitake mushrooms last night, and had the DH grill up a tenderloin. YUMMY!!!! Too bad we ate all the mushrooms! I am trying to figure out what to do with the mixed bag....... soup sounds good....

We had a nice relaxing campfire last night too. Good to be back home, but it would have been even better is some magical cleaning crew had transformed my house........ oh well, a girl can dream!

Off to work.

 

[Colton]

Just got in from opening the birds. And it seems the chicken gods smile upon me now. The hen that got stung, positive now, is doing better the swelling is going way down and no other birds have bubbles. The bubbles are not like those ones in the pics. She eats and drinks, well, aggressively. And she layed an egg two days in a row.

The other pullet, the limping pullet is doing well. She roosts and runs around. She hated being separated, even when she wasn't by them. I thought that there was a better chance for her to do real damage separated, so I brought her back with the others. When she walks, you can barely notice it, but when she runs she does that limpy run. And she knows her limits. If she runs, she sits down and rests for a couple minutes. I am thinking it is just a sprain. Maybe a torn tendon? But she is doing great.

Oh, and my dad said "YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS" I am ordering 30 chicks from Meyer Hatchery, I think. Is that a good one? Should I get them vaccinated for Mareks? I probably will unless there is a good reason why I shouldn't. Thanks, Colton

 

[Bigfamily4me]

Meyers - yes

Maereks - yes

 

[Colton]

OK, thanks!! Placing the order as soon as mom gets up!!!

 

[RBerryChicks]

OK, thanks!! Placing the order as soon as mom gets up!!!

Very exciting - good for you

 

[RBerryChicks]

Layer is for just hens that are laying.

Chick or grower is perfect for all other birds, even old retired birds not laying. Layer feed for birds not laying can be problematic and lead to all kinds of issues.

Thanks delisha, I've read that laying pellets could cause the young birds to have kidney problems and my big girls are laying like normal while eating the chick starter (they have oyster shells freely available), so yup - I'll continue the chick starter until the young'ns are about 18 - 20 weeks.

Now my next question (just full of them . . . or it

), I will be getting eight Delaware pullets from the same breeder that sold us the fertilized eggs for my broody hen. These pullets are about one week older than my hatch. Hubby has built yet another little coop/tractor that will ultimately be our broody coop, but will house these eight during the quarantine and integration period. I would like to place this coop near the main flocks fenced run for the first 30 days, then we will move the coop (w/small run) into the big fenced run. After a couple weeks of that, we will begin to open the little coop run so they can venture out with the rest of the flock, working towards placing the eight into the big coop one evening, with the plan to be ready to break up any real nasty tiffs early the next morning. WHEW . . . ok the question, how far from the rest of the flock does the 30 day quarantine placement need to be? Is it just so neither flock can pick at the other flocks droppings? If so the pen will accommodate that. I ask this because I've read about airborne illnesses. Sorry for the long post and hope it made sense.

Not only am I a newbie, but as you can tell I tend to get a bit annal, must be the bookkeeper in me

 

[delisha]

They are good questions.


Logically a football field is not far enough away for some diseases. What transfers illness from coop to coop is the person doing the chores. It is picked up on the bottom of your shoes and on your hands.

This is what I do and it is just my own personal practices. I am not saying it is what you should do or not do.

I have a building outside of my fenced area. That is my containment area. It is only about 20 feet from my fence. I use a different pair of shoes in that coop. (red)
I feed my birds first, so I am protecting my birds more for the first week. Week two I add one of my birds to the new birds. If any birds are ill I cull them all.
Week 4 I add the new birds.

I have two new birds here. I was worried about them more than my birds. The new birds have not been exposed to as many things as my birds have been since the new birds were on virgin soil. I put my birds with the new birds after one week to help them build immunities before full exposure. I will be putting them with all the birds shortly. They need time to build those immunities. I give them greens to help boost those immunities, and for these birds I do not change shoes. I am not worried about them giving my birds anything different, since they are my original birds.

 

[jvls1942]

good morning,, and what a bunch of enablers !!!

Colton, , yes to the mereks shot,, and spend the extra $$$ and order pullets only..

what breed of chicken are you going to order ??

I took my Blazer in to the fixit shop yesterday.. gas lline leak.. Dick called me just now..gas line leak, brake line leak and only firing on 5 out of 6 cylinders.. can't get the distributor cap off.. might break a bolt. then would have to replace the whole distributor..
Can you say lots of $$$$ boys and girls ??

I had a hit on my ad for the crossbow .. just waiting for the guy to call me..

going to transfer small chicks in with the Buff Orps this morning..

sometime today I will take Marlene her keets.. she still hasn't sold any from the last batch .
It looks like both of us will be over wintering lots of guineas.. she will have 32 as of today.. IDK how many I have,, 40 or 50 ??

all cuppa'd up,, better go get some of these things done..

........jimthinkingwhenitrainsitpours............

 

[vickiw]

Morning everyone
Whew! Took me a bit to get caught up! We took off early yesterday and made a day of shopping , etc. Hubby had to pick up a new pressure tank for the well. The bladder in the old one died. Nothing serious, just one of those things that goes with having a well. I got in some FF shopping. Picked up the new issue of Chickens magazine. Great issue. BYP and Chickens are my two favorite mags, and I also really enjoy my Hobby Farm Home as well, especially to curl up with in the winter. I love my Kindle and all the great free reads I get with it, but I just still love curling up with a good book or mag.

Thank you Terri looking forward to fall!

FRENCHIE - a "FRENCHIE" kind of day is one in which starts out all planned and simple but winds up like popcorn, going off in all directions!

It was really hard to face it was time to let my little Crockpot go, and I was so grateful that hubby agreed to do it for me. I am sad but I don't feel too bad. I just keep reminding myself she had more than a year to live as a real, normal, chookie with her lungs filled with fresh air, her toes in real earth and her crop forever filled with good things. RIP my little girl. Ok, on the up side, I am NOT going to miss the constant bottom washing.
She was REALLY GETTING STINKY!!!

The other girls have really been quiet. I expected some roost issues with the new dynamic, but lockup went smoothly. I don't know if it was that, or Noodle getting hurt or the cat or all of the above but everyone has been really mellow.

BTW- about the kitty. It was not a stray and seriously doubt it did the damage to Noodle. It didn't even hiss at me when I had it cornered. I just wanted it out of the fences and Frightened enough to not want to come back. I know where it came from, a neighbor, (everybody has one ) , the same one who's bonfire started a fire that burnt over three hundred of our hand planted planted pines a few years back and if not for the great work by our local volunteers and the DNR, our other neighbor's home and thousands of acres of state forest could have been lost as well (thankfully the wind didn't shift putting our buildings at risk until after the crews were all on site). Anyway, knowing them, this kitty has never seen a vet in its life and I wanted it nowhere near any of my critters.

enough stalling, I better get to work. Great day everyone!!!!!

 

[nesther]

I'm sorry about Crockpot! What breed was she?