YO GEORGIANS! :)

Pics
Date sort Score sort
Quack Addict said:
Anyone Here raise Guineas? We are going to start a flock and would prefer to get them from someone here than a complete stranger.
Click to expand...

http://www.tc-country.com has a lot of guinea chicks. I know it's not someone on here like you asked, but thought I'd mention them. The lady who owns the store is very knowledgable and helped me save one of my baby EE. Just an option if you don't have any luck here.
 
Flowerbh said:
Sooooooo disappointed!  Just candled my 40 eggs in the bator before I put them in lockdown.  I finally got a flashlight strong enough to look thru the dark eggs.

Of the 12 free FBCM eggs from a friend, only 2 were fertile and developing!
Of 7 duck eggs, only 2 developed
Of 5 eggs from another lady, only 2 developed (I paid for 3, got 2 free)
Of the 22 BO  FOR my friend, 18 are good   And these were the eggs he gave me that were over 2 1/2 weeks old!  Go figure!

I cracked open the eggs to see them..  They were not fertile.  No blood or anything.  Ugh!  So out of the whole batch that started with 40 eggs, only 6 will be mine.  The others belong to my friend!  I am so disappointed that the FBCM eggs were not good!  I can't seem to get a dark egg layer.  My wheaten Marans stopped laying again.  The little BCM I bought a month ago turned into a roo and when the lady went to exchange it,, she only had babies so I traded him for an older OE thinking I was about to hatch a whole batch of FBCM!  Oh well.  There is always next time!
Click to expand...


This just seems to be a bad year for chickens in general. Even McMurray had to delay my bantam order by over a month because they weren't hatching well. The rough winter kept several goose owners from having a prolific laying season, and I have lost a lot of my flock to predators which aren't normally this bad! Plus while my hatch rates have still been great, my chick deaths have been way up too. And my really good layers, like the bantams, are going up to a week without an egg.

I'm so close to saying "screw this" until next spring!
 
I'm done until next spring, for real now.

I posted that last bit at 4:30am when I was awake for no good reason. Before going back to sleep I swore I heard a loud chicken cluck from outside of my window. I went outside with a flashlight and didn't see anything. My two EE's refused to be penned up last night, but they weren't in their usual spot on top of the pen, either. I figured they went up into a tree. Everything else seemed calm and quiet, so I went back in.



Now I'm kicking myself in the *ss for not looking more.


Predators got Skeeter last night. My big EE roo, who was DEFINITELY alpha, and yet never hurt a single human. If I pinned a hen down for being aggressive (which I had to do once) he didn't run over and try to pin me or kick me when she protested and squawked. He didn't quite trust me - I couldn't pick him up and cuddle him like I could my old "Buddy", or my little "Mommy Ommy". But when I had him inside a couple of nights ago because he and Brownie stayed their dumasses in the rain, he let me pick him up and carry him back outside without fuss. And although he always stayed at arm's reach, he'd eat from my hand. He was my best pal when it came to flipping over rocks and logs for the girls to grab bugs, because he'd come when I called him, check it out, and then call them.

And they always came running when he called. They loved him. He lost his longest tail feathers in a battle with a raccoon about a month ago, when the raccoon took one of his hens. The raccoon did get the hen, but I'm sure he got plenty of damage too! And if I was outside when a hawk was nearby, he'd run over towards me (still staying at arm's length) and then look up at it, knowing I'd follow his gaze. Anytime my sister's dog got out, I'd run near the chickens and call them, to keep them close until the dog was caught. He learned from that, and figured out I was protecting him. He had the loudest, longest, deepest crow, and the only one that sounded "real" out of every rooster I've ever had. And when I had trouble finding a hen that would run off to lay eggs, I would sometimes look at him and say "call" and he'd start crowing for them.

But Skeeter had his own way of doing things, and he did not want to be penned up last night. Usually they lead the geese and ducks in, and Skeeter walks in first to let the little bantam frizzle know who's really boss. And yesterday afternoon, we did have a spat, because he kept trying his best to breed with the d*mn geese! They're just babies, but he apparently knew which two were female, because he never went after Wonder.

But when I woke up at 7am, I went outside to look again with the daylight to help me, and I didn't have to go far. By the time I got to the fire pit (about 25 feet from the house) I had already found two separate piles of his feathers. A total of five just in our back yard, three more in the neighbor's back yard, two on the side of the house, and one in the front. And to make it even more heartbreaking, it's the same exact path he usually takes to find me when I'm up front and call for him. He was probably trying to find me for help. He knows I would have, too.

The cluck I heard this morning must have been his last effort. The predator was most likely a fox - it's the only thing around here that would be capable of taking that big boy down. And obviously with all of this back story I'm typing out - I'm devastated. He was my boy - my top dog. He's the one I trusted around the kids, and the one they trusted to never attack them. And he's the one that EVERYONE loved. Someone mentioned him here when he was in the video of the chicks, duck, and goose eating cabbage. He won a few online "rooster shows" too. And someone once contacted me saying "people have created entire breeds with less than what you have here." He was just over two years old and had gone through so much (including me fleeing Columbia County and a two-hour move).

And now he's gone.

I collected some of his feathers that were in very good condition from the piles in the back yard and brought them inside. I don't know what I'll do, but I'm sure I'll do something with them to hold on to them. And today, I'm going on a mission. I'm looking up animal traps right now, and in a few hours I plan to go shopping for some welded wire. I'm going to build a SECURE pen for every last one of my chicken breeds. I'm going to get some Corid and start treating them for Cocci - even if they don't already seem to have it. I'm going to put Tetracycline in all of their water for a few days, and then put Wazine in it. And once the pens are built, I'm spraying each of them down with Malathion, top to bottom, let it dry, give chickens a DE "bath" in transit, and move them into the new pens. I don't even care about doors on these pens just yet. I'm on a mission to get all of my chicks and chickens healthy and SAFE. If that means even I can't get into them, fine. I'll work on that later. As long as I can toss food in, and squeeze a water hose in, I'll take it.

Skeeter's loss is my last straw. They took my best one. Now I'm about to take them out.


 
Last edited:
CD, so so sorry about your beloved rooster. I am so glad you are going to take steps to build a secure environment. You seem to have a lot of predators there! Our hardware cloth goes down into the earth a foot and then turns outward a foot to keep predators from digging into the coop. We topped that off with big rocks. It might be a good idea not to get more chickens until everything is secure. It's just too sad to lose them! Hugs to you.

Ps. I will give you all the free roosters I get if you want some more, but I know they will never be the same as Skeeter!
 
I'm sorry for your loss. It sounds like you are doing the right things. I lost my rooster last month too to a fox and their was another attempt last week which was twarted by my German Shepherd. We have 4 foxes around here. (2 grey, 2 red we think) Although I am typically a huge softy when it comes to wildlife, I want these foxes DEAD! I'm tired of my girls being penned up in their run. They and I are happier when they are free ranging.

barnie.gif
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom