Good Morning! in 2018

[WLLady]

So where are the spring photos??! Buried in snow!!!!!

[hayladee]

Egg binding is when an egg gets stuck moving from the oviduct into the cloaca before being laid. It can happen for several reasons-narrow cloacal opening, rough egg shells, inconsistent calcium depositing in the shell, abnormal pelvis bones...all kinds of reasons. Usually if a hen is egg bound she will stand very straight-like a penguin with her butt close to the ground....trying to stretch herself enough to help the egg drop into the cloaca. Sometimes soaking the hen in warm water will relax the muscles inside enough to allpw the egg to drop. Sometimes the eggs piling up behind it will push the egg down. But if the egg doesnt finally drop the other eggs back up behind it and end up going out the top of the oviduct - called laying intraperitoneally- and this means the hen will die eventually as the eggs spoil inside and jam up the space around her organs.
Once a hen is egg bound once it is more likely to occur again...

wow, never considered poultry having "birthing" issues ....makes total sense, every other animal species can have birthing problems...love learning new things here. does that happen often?

[JimW]

? white legbar? thats nothing but a white leghorn that lays blue eggs! isn't the whole point of a legbar is the sex identification at 1 day old?
That's like dealcoholised beer, or decaf coffee...I mean...what's the point?

Oh Bert,

And what is wrong with a white leghorn that lays blue eggs?

The white legbars are actually still auto-sexing, just more subtle, female has faint stripes.

So it is a white "leghorn, with a little crest, that laying blue eggs and sexable at day 1!!!

I have attached a photo from the Internet, not my photo, not sure if I am allowed to do that? But here is photo.

JimW

[Bayvistafarm]

Good evening!

Went finally to an osteopath. MY GAWD, why I put up with this sciatica as long as I did, I will never know. Have spent the last 2 months.... $40 a week... but its finally working!! Now my freaking shoulder needs work... painting/washing walls injury. Why in the F do we have to get old!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????????

Been hatching chicks. Moved the 50 out of the brooder today, with some chicks I bought from WLLady. Colleen and I made a quick road trip up for a visit, and chicks. Bummer Martin wasn't there.

Hatching again Thursday. Have to babysit Mason all day. Melissa's husbands gran died... and a service is Saturday. There goes MY saturday. Have to go over and babysit (she has to be there at 11am) and when he wakes up after lunch, take him to the visitation, where I will pay respects... and come home.

Finally, the house is ready enough to move into... but want to wait for the accountant, and get taxes done, before I move all my bookwork (and lose it), and put up with reconnection of service for internet/phone/cable tv. I have nearly everything moved up, except things I use daily....all my canning stuff is up there... canning we haven't eaten.... all my jars, appliances that are only used once in awhile... cupboards are filled with dishes I will use from now on... and my lead crystal glasses... stuff that has been put away so the kids wouldn't smash them. Most of my towels/dish rags.... using Gary's moms silverware that is good (taking what I need from here), got all my books/movies/knick knacks..... all up there. Stuff out of hutches, cupboards....pictures off the walls....extra on sale stuff I've bought (costco sales) up there.....

Colleen came today, and we cleaned out the basement of this hell hole, and Gary and I made a dump run. Need new freezer/fridge/dishwasher. AND I JUST FINALLY GOT A STAINLESS STEEL PUT IN HERE 2 YEARS AGO. GEEZUS this move is expensive, but selling the farm for next to nothing, and having to live on $20 grand a year... will hopefully pay off in newer energy efficient appliances. (Seems a shame to practically had over a 4 million dollar property and all the assets for so little.... but if he can't make it a go... then we all lose our beautiful farm to live on). Course, the Oven/stovetop is built in there.... only 12 years old. Dishwasher there will go, its crap. My 'just a fridge', is older, but going in the basement. There is a cupboard built around the fridge up there, and it will only fit a normal fridge. So..... some big purchases coming up. I've been told ONLY ONE freezer. Great. I have 3 running here. One right full of hamburger from a cow.... one with my 1/4 beef, turkeys/chickens/ducks... in one... and my one downstairs full of corn/beans/bread/butter on sale/purchased stuff like fish/sausage/fruits I froze....bread... you know how it goes. So, getting a bigger one. Hopefully.

Moving my stove downstairs, got an old computer desk down there, will can and pickle down there, and I've been processing jars out in the canner with my turkey fryer for years anyway. Can do that in the garage attached to the house. When I've done it down here outside, the wind gets in the way. Hope I can refrain from burning the house down.

I've spent enough time working up there, I've finally accepted the move.... and come to terms with stuff. We should be out of here in 2 or so weeks. We can move the dresser up, the hutch....had to buy a new couch... old/new one is a sectional, and simply won't fit in the house. Thru doors mostly. The idiot who built that house probably lived in a cave. Doors so narrow. Doors built with walls and closets in the DAMN way, just inside, so you have to abruptly turn a corner when your trying to get stuff in the door. Getting the washer/dryer (front load) will be a blast. doorway into hall, and narrow hall to back room. I'd sure like the meet the guy who did build it. FORCE him to move my stuff in. Course, that was in the 50's. If he isn't dead yet, he should be.

[baronrenfrew]

Jim, feel free to disagree with me (do you really care what people think? that's really none of your business!), and there's nothing wrong with a blue egg laying leghorn (crested or not).

I'd be disappointed if you weren't searching out the neatest of birds n breeds! (where do you find the time? I barely handle the few birds i've got)

BVF? God Bless Ya and good luck eh? (i got tired just READING your thread let alone doing any of that!)

[WLLady]

Ah farm succession. NOT a fun process. Hang in the BVF!
But, i am so glad your sciatic pain is getting better!!!!! sucks to be in pain all the time and still trying to function.
when we moved our washer upstairs we couldn't get it up the stairs (and our place is not small!) so we loaded it in the bucket of the tractor and lifted it up to the second story. same with the bed....LOL. where there's a will there's a way. and you wanted to change out the window anyways, so why not just pull out the window and go through there? ha ha i know i know. it's still friggin snowing out, no pulling out windows quite yet!!!!

i am hoping to move munchkins from the basement to the coop tonight. i have next hatch due saturday, so lockdown today....a very few chickens....but all pre-sold, so hopefully only in the house for 24-48 hours. then i have to decide if i'm going to do another set before my meeting or not....guess it depends on how much work hubby is willing to do....lol. my marans are stubbornly not fertilized. and my barred rocks, well, they only got the new male 2 days ago, so i'm hoping they'll be fertilized by tonight or tomorrow. last night's eggs were not fertilized.....YET. he's being a good cockerel so far, pleasant to the ladies and finally stopped trying to beat up the rooster 2 pens over....lol.

can't believe it's only wednesday. feels like it should be friday....been busy.
hope a great one everyone

[Ontario Chick]

Good morning!
Have been trying to let everybody out for couple of hours every day on rotation bases, at the moment divided in to 2 flocks and 2 breeding pens, so everybody gets about 1/2 to an hour each, not that there is that much to pick yet and too cold for bugs, but at least the get some fresh air.
Yesterday afternoon the dog started his "hysterical" high pitch bark, so went to check, and a beautiful Fox was crossing the front lawn.
Just brought home the fact that if I am at the front of the barn and the chickens are behind the barn, fox could be having a go at them and I may not even know. So back to high alert!!!

[WLLady]

hayladee-the egg binding i've only had 3 chickens that had issues with it...i'd say not super common, but it can happen.

[Bayvistafarm]

I should be in bed. Someone dropped in... but hes at the door ready to leave.

I checked under my red turkey hen, and shes got babies!! Shes so nice... pulled out 5! Dipped their beaks. So freaking cold. They are so new, they can hardly walk, lol. And they have straw to navigate over. There are two eggs still under her. Didn't bother them too much, but if not hatched tomorrow, I will take them out. She will not leave them to take the babies to food/water. They started hatching two days ago.

Hatching upstairs now. This morning I could hear peeping as I was doing quickbooks. A day early, but the bator was sitting on a cushy couch... against the plush arm, with blankets around it. Cool room. A tad warmer than normal. The Brinsea, nothing yet, but it wasn't on a couch. But.... its come to my mind, that the turner never turned. The bator was ALWAYS in the same spot whenever I came into the room. Oh well. 15 eggs in there. See if anything hatches tomorrow. I'm actually glad hatching in the bigger one started early. If we get this ice storm on the weekend, and lose power, I can always fire up the woodstove and keep them as warm as I can, until the generator gets going. Then I will likely bring a heat lamp from the barn and set it up in here, have to find a working plug... I know the room where both incubators are, has working plugs.

I hatched turkeys in the bator two weeks ago.... took them from the red girl, when she got off them at night, and ended up on the floor of another horse stall. 12 eggs. Ended up with 6 good. I put them in the brinsea and 5 hatched. I put them outside two weeks ago, and had them in a rabbit cage with the brinsea brooder. They lasted two days, and I went in one morning, and two were dead. I was sure that they had eaten and drank. I'd seen one or two at a time or two eating/drinking. I lifted them out, and realized that they may have gotten too cold. Stupid thing. But that barn is an "L" shape off the main barn. They are in the very end of it, and it catches all the wind but the north. I lay the dead ones on the floor, and noticed one gape once. Then gaped again. The death gape. Holy! I got the small brooder box emptied of chicks that had mostly feathers, (there were 5 from my niece), and enclosed the remaining poults in there. And the one that was all but dead. I came back in 6 hours later to check on them, and the dead one was up and normal! Very much alive!! I cannot simply believe that at all. It was even the flattened dead shape they get, when the others huddle on top of them, lol. Miracles! I feel HORRIBLE about that other poor poult. Obviously a tom, a big one, with thick legs! Damn.

We took 2 cows to Kitchener Sale tonight. One cow aborted a month ago, and the other is pregnant, but not due until September. I'm fed up with late calves. We just shipped out 3 of calves born in 2016 last January! Geezus.

So, we have about 38 ready to start calving any day. The cows are shaping up. I wish we didn't have that to do this spring. At least I know now, when the accountant is coming, and can book the internet/cable stuff for a move in 2 weeks Friday. I was told by someone at cogeco to call at least 2 weeks in advance.

Well, time for bed... I will go check and see how many have hatched since noon. Good night.

[JimW]

No worries Bert, until the breeder asked if I wanted to buy the white legbars I never knew anything about them, did not know they even existed. The white legbars and hopefully a few Opal Legbars (from BC when I go there in May) are my only new types of birds this year in my plans. I hope, lol. I am not god at sticking to a plan.

Opal Legbars... not my photo..

opal LB.jpg (68.03 KiB) Viewed 3981 times

JimW