Good Morning! <=2017

[Colleen Kinzie]

I keep having to log in again but it' not all the time. Cleared browser cookies etc.

Same for me KB
Martin. I'm always on same device.
i phone
Thanks

[Killerbunny]

Well poor Mr. Chunky is now without a spur. One of the turkey hens has taken a dislike to him and they ended up fighting through the dog pen wire. His spur was just hanging by some flesh so I've cut it off and given it the BluKote treatment. ANyone know if it will grow back? It was off very close to the leg. He is fine now just mildly embarrassed.

[Killerbunny]

Log in not a problem ATM.

[WLLady]

kb yeah, it'll grow back, but depending on how badly damaged the core was it might come back in split or curled....silly birds.
i had to lock my one pen of turkeys in because the moms kept trying to get their little 3 inch tall poults to jump out the 5 inch off the floor door, which is a foot drop outside to the ground. they would NEVER have gotten back in! so i closed them in, so hopefully the poults don't end up out in the rain and drown in the puddles!!!!
pouring again here. big thunderstorms. but hopefully 3 days without rain coming up. my sweet corn has tassled. it's all of 3 feet tall this year. WTH?! oh well, maybe we'll get corn, maybe we won't. the cucumbers that aren't swimming (there are advantages in years like this to be on river sand) are growing easily 2 inches a day! i'll have to be making more relish this weekend.
stay dry (or maybe "stay less wet".....) everyone.

[Ontario Chick]

Oh, poor Chunky.. they have to fight whatever the cost, maybe you should leave them to it until both spurs are off/
OK, it's official, wettest season on record in Ottawa, in the eighteen days from June 15 to July 2, it rained every day.
Since April Ottawa has had 563 mm of rain. Normal is 266 mm.
Oh, and I found a Newt in the basement, I guess it was trying to find a new home.
Have a dry one!

[Killerbunny]

Hope you saved the poor thing!
Chunky is fine just injured pride. I think this particular turkey is very protective and hates it every time her babies get near the chickens. Yes both spurs would have been convenient but if I ever let him free range he needs protection.

[WLLady]

good morning all! another soaking wet morning......i swear everything is growing mold or lichen or algae or mushrooms. checked on the turkeys this morning, and found all my guineas in with the turkeys....guess they were just making the rounds. and found all my little turkeys in with the older turkeys in completely the wrong pen. oh well. they aren't fighting, and they can't get into where the two momma are brooding their babies, so it's all good. i just lifted the fence so they could run under and get away from the bigger birds if they need to.
the guineas can walk through the fence....so they're just fine to get in and out.
the giant horse flies and deer flies are CRAZY now! pretty much drove me out of the garden yesterday evening. poor horses are staying in (on their own accord) to get away from them!
our raspberries just finished and now the black berries are going strong. so yummy!
and fun, i got my PTO mug!!!! it survived the dishwasher beautifully, and is now sitting on my desk at work-with my name on it so if anyone steals it it's MINE! LOL.
hope everyone has a decently dry day......

[KimChick]

Good morning! We are enjoying our ten turkeys, 40 meat chickens, and our year-old laying hens and rooster. Turkeys are a hoot with all their different chirps, barks, and whistles; meat chickens are not very smart and very pecky on our boots, gloves and pants.

[poultry_admin]

We have 5 submissions for the picture of August competition. 5 more slots available until Saturday evening....

[windwalkingwolf]

Good Morning all! This is a hatching update for @Killerbunny the terrible, horrible, no good enabler who lent me an incubator (because clearly, one is not enough lol) and also shoveled BSW turkey eggs my way hand over fist , and also an update for anyone else who cares to hear it.
Well, after one decent chicken hatch (about 20 chicks) and one decent duck hatch (total of 18 ducklings including six under a duck), things went south as the humidity shot up. Second duck hatch was poor, only 4 ducklings, and only two healthy muscovy ducklings out of 9. Goose faired a *little* better, Incubator hatched 3 China goslings out 4, one died shortly after hatch, 2 are healthy. From Embden eggs I got 4 goslings out of 9 eggs, two are healthy (though one had splay, it was corrected very quickly, <24 hours, so I didn't cull), one died shortly after hatch, and one has an uncorrectable slipped tendon. Unfortunately, that one is still with us as a house gosling--DH saw it as I was taking it to the sink to dispatch it and made me put him back. You'd think I would have learned by now to never let him see the gimpy ones, or let him know what I plan to do. Anyway, the geese sat on 7 good eggs, 6 made it to the end but only one hatched healthy. The rest died in egg, and one got steamrollered. You KNOW the air is wet when goslings don't make it. I successfully fostered the Chinas onto the China goose even though she was never broody, she'll adopt ANYTHING. She is now happily playing Mom, and the babies took right to her even though they were over a week old when I put them out! The 2 Embden goslings I hatched also happily latched onto their Embden parents and now the Embden's have 3 babies in tow. SO much fun to watch them mowing the lawn! While all this is going on, turkey and chicken hatches went south and stayed there. Very abysmal hatch rates, lots drowned, lots weak or with bad legs or feet. They would pip their eggs and water would just POUR out, poor things. KB gave me a load of BSW eggs...just pullet eggs so I didn't expect too much...only 9 made it to lockdown, only four hatched and two were culled almost immediately. One had unabsorbed yolk sac, a green swollen belly (omphalitis) and cried non-stop, and the other had beak deformities and exposed brain. I couldn't believe that one was even alive, much less that it hatched!
Muscovy Mum sat on 13 eggs, hatched only 4, and one died. That's unheard of...generally if they sit on them the whole time, they're good and they hatch. Lily always punts bad eggs out of the nest, and bad muscovy eggs are few and far between, and usually happen because muscovies don't turn them enough and embryos get stuck to one side of the egg and die. The dead ducklings were fully formed, most pipped, and just drowned. I set 42 chicken eggs in the incubator, and at the same time, set 8 eggs each under three hens, two of which (Frankie and Little Mama) were co-sitting a nest and I let them because both are seasoned broodies and good mamas...Andy was a first-timer, and I was very surprised she went broody as she's never shown any sort of inclination in that direction. Anyway, all three hens did not do well in this weather...rotters would be under them until they exploded, but they'd punt out perfectly good eggs with growing embryos inside. Andy ed her nest once, a bloody great big stinky broody . She's NOT a small hen, so you can just imagine the mess. By the time the 21 days was up, the girls were down to 3, 2, and 2 good eggs. I had 20 good chicks hatch from 30 or so that made it to lockdown, so as they popped out, I popped them under the anxious mamas, who sighed contentedly and tucked them in. Andy is proving to be a very good, protective momma, and keeps her kids very close to her and close to home, and is big enough to keep the roosters away. Frankie and Little Mama on the other hand, are straying afield into what used to be a horse pasture, and losing some chicks by getting them stuck in the shaggy, sticky cleavers. If I hear them yelling, I can rescue them out, but I'm not always out in time to hear them. I've rescued three yelling their heads off while the mamas had already given them up and moved on, and found one strangled to death and one that likely died of cold when it was stuck in rain or dew. I know there's more I haven't found, but them's the breaks I guess :sad: I know it's Frankie's fault, she just LOVES eating cleavers. So anyway, during all this more bad hatches are going on--1/10, 2/10, and I knew I should quit for a while until humidity went back down BUUUUT I had already committed to buying some Giant eggs from a lady with some decent birds, including some of Bill Millens'...and I really wanted some of his, for lack of a better word, "Giantness", to cross with my own line and see what I get. His hens are taller than mine, and his roosters are fuller in the bum. I got 18 eggs from Deb, threw out 7 very early, but the rest made it to lockdown. 8 chicks hatched. One has severe wry neck. It's better than it was at hatch just over a week ago, he can eat and drink on his own, but I can feel a slipped disc and I really should cull, even though it's not his fault that the hatch was wet. Also, two of the 8 had omphalitis and died shortly after hatch. So, 8 chicks, 5 are healthy. And THEN, I get the best turkey hatch I've probably ever had--13 of my own turkey eggs set shortly before the Giants, 10 made it to lockdown, 10 healthy hatched, albeit some early, some late, water pouring out of eggs, but ALL are healthy and doing well, and the Giant chicks taught them to eat and drink which is always awesome. Bolstered by this success, despite ambient humdity still being 65-70%, I have set more eggs, silly me. You probably don't want to know how many (ok, 54 ), about half were quite old and at 5 day candling I threw out 18. more room in the incubator equals more eggs set today, 18 more so back up to 54. Because I NEEEEED more chicks. I still have 12 poults, 7 chicks (6 giants and one 'only' that lives with the older poults) 6 ducklings and one gimpy gosling in the house. BTW, @Killerbunny , I never did use your incubator as a hatcher, by the time I got it set up, I already had one duckling hatched in my own incubator, and they made a horrendous, staining mess in the best of circumstances, and I didn't want to turn your lovely white incubator disgusting shades of what looks like slime mould that will never come clean :wink: so yours was/is the incubator, and my own well-stained one is the hatcher. And, you can have yours back at any time, just let me know, before I get myself in further trouble! I just discovered a hidden muscovy nest today.......
P.S.
Of the first two incubator hatches (20 chicken 12 duck), they are now old enough to sex fairly reliably, even the pea-combed chicks. I have 17 cockerels and of the ten surviving first-round incubator ducklings (forgot to mention 2 were culled due to not growing), no less than SEVEN are drakes
One of those first-round ducklings hatched with wry-neck as well, which in retrospect was my first indicator of trouble, and he also has a HUGE crest (Magpie's are not supposed to be crested). He still has a head tilt, and that coupled with his enormous pom-pom means he is absolutely adorable. And I absolutely have no clue what to do with him. He can't be bred as a Magpie, and he's too cute to eat. I've got to take a picture of him, I think you'd agree. I cannot have separate "pet duck" housing. Well, I COULD, but I don't want to...I need to pare down as it is. Maybe sell him as a pet duck, but I must admit I'm a little attached. I mean, seriously, his enormous pom-pom (which is hilariously lop-sided) is so big, it wobbles around when he runs