Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[MustLoveHens]

TO-Congrats on the horse! You got a great buy on him....So, what is his name? We need more details.....Better yet being him to the Bash....hehehe

Dan and Raim-Thanks for the info on the laundry post! I wish I had a tree, that would make life easier!

GR65-Ok, I have read your post and wanted to get DH's take on your mite problem. As we brain stormed, we came to the conclusion that it's likely not the new bedding but that you have an exhisting infestation. We are leaning to possible Northern Fowl Mite or Red Poultry Mites. Normally Red mites live where it is warm so I'm thinking it's the NFM you have.
For the chickens you need to dust every two weeks to cover all stages of the mites life cycle. You may also need to dose the birds with ivermectin. DH did that once for a badly infested rooster he was given and let me tell you, those bugs died like a bolt of lightening hit them. I'd contact Ron Keane at UW-I think he is the Ag Extention Poultry Guy and ask him what to do. He might know how much ivermectin to give your chickens and what the withdrawl time is for the eggs. Ivermectin is pretty powerful stuff for chickens so caution is needed for the dosages.
As far the chicks go, I'd hesitate using Sevin/Garden Dust on them. Try DE on those little ones. You may have to do them on an almost daily basis with the DE. I don't know what your using for a brooder, but you might want to put them in a plastic tote type of brooder situation to make it easier to clean and monitor the mites on the babies. Mites won't live on plastic. They need wood to live in.
HTH

BBP-Congrats on the bucklings!!! Glad to here your horse was a good boy for the trainer! He is one tall dude!!!

 

[mazojoe]

Ok... Quick check in!
Mazo... I take no credit for the goats. That's AAAALLLLL YOU! I'm really sorry about the ducks. To go from 12 viable eggs to one chick is horrendous! Enjoy our goats for as long you can. They are funny! Have your little girl race them. Goat racing is pretty funny over here. The goats run behind the kids for fun, catch up to the kids to see them sweat, then do a little goatie jump and smoke 'em! Funny sh!t
Went running to Madison today, picked up blue prints for the hubby. ( he s a self employed roofer. ANYONE down here need a roof, let us bid on it. It's a fine line between self employed and unemployed, and we're not on the good side of that line right now...) Anyhoo...
Last soccer practice fr the 8 yr old, and the 13 yr old has a tennis meet tonight. Of course they are virtually at the same time in two different towns... Grrrreat!
Better go...

nope you are an enabler!

 

[DAS]

Ok, for those of you that said you wanted a big cat----when are you going to come and get them?

Here is another pic for you. This is a different cat. He's more interested in the live geese that are locked up than he is in the dead chicken in the trap.

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

I'd rather have the cat around than this stupid hawk.

 

[babylady4]

BBP what kind of hawk are you dealing with?

 

[DAS]

I'd rather have the cat around than this stupid hawk.

We've been lucky and never had a problem with hawks. We have plenty of them around along with resident eagles. Kind of fun to watch the eagles train their young every year. We do provide a lot of cover for the birds. We freerange about 50 birds during the day. Everyone is locked up at night. Unfortunately, bobcats hunt day and night. Whenever the food is available. The young pullet in the photo made the mistake of sleeping too close to the fence and the bobcat managed to get his paw through the fence and kill her.

 

[DAS]

The verdict is in: we are pretty certain the cat has cancer. We had several options to choose from: doing a needle aspiration via ultrasound, or exploratory surgery to determine what the mass is and what is causing the liver issues, or the conservative route of just medication until he no longer shows improvement. I chose the medication route; he is almost 15 and has lost over half his body weight and in his condition I do not think he would tolerate anesthesia well. So we are keeping him home and medicating him until it is time to put him down. The kids are sad but they understand..... well except the youngest, he is killing me with his crying. Actually it is more like sobbing and just plain making everyone miserable.

At least the soap turned out; it looks like a weird purple-blue color right now..... I wonder what the end result will be? Alkanet root will change color with the pH of the soap, sort of like built in litmus paper.

Nice horse TO!

I know how you are feeling. We lost one of our cats a couple of months ago. He was showing the same symptoms as yours. We couldn't get his glucose levels under 500. He was only 11 years old.

 

[Celtic Chick]

Mazo, TO's chickens like Captain and Coke!

And sherry! Can't forget Tommy's favorite drink of choice!

Terri, that is a beautiful horse. I'm glad you got him. What a deal (I think? I have no idea).

I know he will be happy with his new forever home. Just get a strap for your glasses before you go riding next time.

No getting injured! Especially right before the bash.

I hope your hatch gets better. Poor chickies.

FT, I hear your drummer loud & clear. And he plays a beautiful tune.

cs, we all gotta go out of town this weekend, right Cheesies?

BBP, congrats on the goats, so sorry about the call.

mxm, so sorry about your Andie.

I'm glad you had the support of a loving family during your ordeal.

Bl4, I'm so sorry about Squirrel. I hope they're wrong, or at least that the meds give him a good quality of life for a good long while.

Wow DAS, you too? I am so sorry to hear that.

Now I feel bad. Ramses is responding so well to all his heart meds. The vet says his levels are still unpredictable & the fluid accumulation has not lessened, but he looks a hundred times better than he did. He acts like there is nothing wrong, even though he is skinnier than he used to be.

My sis has a Maremma (like Jim's) that is 14 and has tumors in her chest and bladder. For a while, she was bleeding alot, so much so that she had to wear diapers. My sis stopped giving her dog food & started cooking for her, putting chicken or turkey thighs & legs in a slow cooker with lots of rice and veggies & feeding her that along with an egg dish (I can't remember what is all in that). I swear that dog is not the same one. She still moves a little slower than she did in years past, but she stopped bleeding, has more energy and is looking fantastic. Between her meds and her new diet, she is at least having a much better quality of life. Miracles can happen, even if only for a little while longer. I hope Squirrel & anyone elses beloved pets get theirs.

I had an interesting evening. DH was at band practice so I had to round up the critters by myself. Luckily everyone was already in the carport and the biddies & tweens were on their roosts in the coop. The lavs were waiting to be let into the rabbit (and broody/chick/growout) area, but I decided to try to get them to go roost in the coop with everyone else. Yeah, I know, momentary lapse of sanity. Anyway, I tried to herd them towards the door, but they keep evading it. Finally it started getting pretty dark so at least it got easier to catch them. So one by one, I carried them into the coop & set them on one of the roosts. Thankfully noone jumped down. The 2nd to the last one even jumped up by herself. Whoo-hoo! So at least for tonight there is peace in the kingdom.

Speaking of which, I better get to bed. Sweet dreams, all!

 

[Cindlady]

Hi All....

GR65... Sure hope you get the mite thing figured out. When mine had mites I used Ivermectin and it worked well, but I didn't have chicks.

krist.... A dominate hen trying to be a roo is not that strange, especially if the roo is young yet. Once he's of mating age she will probably let him be a roo and head the flock. For now she's probably showing her dominance.

MJ... congrats on the goats... hope they work out for you.

TO... nice $200 horse! Get him plumped up a bit and spoil him a bit, he should be great!

BBP... congrats on your goats!

Bl4... so sad about your kitty.

mxm... too bad about your hen.

CC.... hope your kitty gets better!

Well, this was an eventful night! I was in DH's room trying to find my suitcase and heard little tiny mewing! Isis had her babies!!! She had had 3 when I found her. She was in a small closet we store "stuff" in (not clothes) behind a small TV. Apparently she had one before she got behind the TV and couldn't get it where she now was. I was pretty cold but mewing. I scooped them all up and took them to the box we had set up for her. She stayed and I was hoping she would warm up the cold one. A few hours later Young son came home from a funeral (a class mate... long story) and his friend (old GF) was pretty bummed so I took her to see the kittens and there was a 4th! The cold one was all warmed up with a full belly too!

Night All!

 

[Apyl]

Aprl you need to find a feed mill, not sure close to you but ask a farmer! did a quick google all seem to be "a drive" but mill prices should be around $20 + or -/100 depending on what you need CFS in Cashton are good folks that I have done business with, they have trucks running in your area ck with them might have to make arraignments where to meet or pickup,,,,

Thanks for the info. I'll look into it.

TO - GREAT horse. Boy I wish I had more open property DD would LOVE to get a horse.

Bl4 - Sorry about your cat

MxM - Sorry about your Andalusian.

DAS - keep you big kitty

BBP - We have hawks too and the occasional Eagle but haven't had a loss yet. My Pekin acts as look out and qucks like crazy when she sees something and all the flock runs for the coop. IT's pretty funny.

Cind - congrats on the new baby kitties

Sorry if I missed someone, I couldnt remember were I left off reading last night.

Good Morning everyone. Boy is it nice outside already. I opened the coop by 6:30 and surprised the flock They were happy to come out early. My white silkie is Crowing like crazy now, its so cool. I can't wait for more to crow. I keep hoping my Buff Orpington named Buckbeak would crow, he's my favorite. Shifu is growing fast, I'll be transitioning her to the coop soon to make room for the babies I have coming the first week of June. Well thats about it for now. I gotta get the kids off to the bus.