Catnip

We're also growing catnip. This has made Jeza and Kysoc both very happy.


Other misc. highlights include Dia's excursion into a bag of medicated chicken feed and, not surprisingly, getting sick. She did managed to refrain from vomiting all over the house, which we are grateful for.

Potatoes and garden

So much to update I'm going to break this down into several posts in order to make them more organized. This post is for our garden, which is doing very well! We have corn that is most likely ready to eat (we're trying it tomorrow), a baby eggplant, very productive pepper plants (purple jalapenos, red chilies and sweet bananas will be pictured), and lots and lots of potatoes. We will be selling potatoes this season. Details on that will be emerging later.

Of Life and Death (A Sad Post)

So this is a sad post. You might cry; I know I did. Feel free to skip on over if you’re not up for it.

So remember how we just bought 3 Barred Rock pullets at the auction? And I wrote a short note about how they weren’t adjusting well? (Yes, yes, you know where this is going.)

Well, the good news is we managed to catch the bugger that fled and was living in the raspberry bushes. She survived 36 hours in the wild with no worse for wear.
Anyway, so before the auction started I was going through all the small animals and found this UPS box with 3 chickens literally stuffed into it. I pulled the chickens out and looked them over and they seemed young and healthy, although one of them was MUCH smaller than the others.

I bought them, took them home, and put them in a stall away from my flock to watch them. The small bird appeared to be missing her tail in addition to just being small. She also slept ALL THE TIME. The others also seemed tired and stressed, but she gave the impression of Mono in chicken form.

The next day I let them out in the chicken pen to get them some fresh air and meet the flock. They hung out there for a few hours. The small one, once again, falling asleep every few minutes. I picked her up and went over her very carefully and found several troubling things. First, she fell asleep in my hand while I was holding her. Second, she sneezed twice. I picked some crusty stuff off her nose and a trail of mucus came out. And most horrifying to me, she had a large fluid filled sac on her breast. Roger was standing next to me, and I just said, ‘Rog, I think we need to dispatch her.’ And he went and got the ax and I held her until she fell asleep and we killed her.

I’m worried about the other two, as one of them had some crusty stuff on her beak after close inspection. The other did not. I think they have more than a 50% chance of recovering if they also have whatever it was… they do not have any blisters on their skin and I haven’t heard them sneeze at all. I am worried about my flock, as they have been exposed. It was minimal exposure in a large grassy area, but they are also being kept in the same barn, although divided by a wall. My flock has been vaccinated for Marek’s (the most common fatal chicken malady) and is on a medicated feed to prevent Cocci, another horrible fatal disease. After consulting my chicken health book, I believe they have a cold, the flu (yes, the bird flu), or bronchitis.

All of which have a low mortality rate in healthy chickens. So it’s most likely the worst thing that can happen is everyone gets sneezy for a week and recovers. And no, the bird flu usually does not transfer to humans, unless it’s very severe. If the whole flock dies, I’ll start worrying about catching bird flu. I did add a broad spectrum antibiotic (tetracycline) to the water in case it is bronchitis.
I also discovered what the blister was. It’s called a breast blister, and it’s from rubbing on a cage or the ground constantly. She was very small and lacking her tail, so I wonder if she was crowded in a battery cage. Poor girl had a really horrible life.

Please buy your eggs from people that raise their chickens well. Even some 'local' or 'free range' places raise sick birds or keep them in crowded or stressful places.

New baby chicks

We went to Dinky's Auction House on Friday night. It's a huge, 10 ring auction house that sells EVERYTHING from loose nails and screws to cars, ducks, cows, refrigerators, and guinea pigs. We stayed in the small animal ring because I wanted to score a box of chicks. We sat through 2 hours of small animal auctioning before we left. Guinea chicks were a big hit; they sold between $3 and $5 a chick. (They were sold by the box, usually of 6, 10, or 20, but the bidding was price per chick.) Really cute rabbits went for $10 a rabbit... big eating rabbits sold for about $2. I got a box of 10 Araucana's for $1 a piece! A gentleman next to me tried to raise to $2 but he didn't call fast enough and the auctioneer called it for me.

I also bought a box of Barred Rock pullets. They're causing me trouble, so more updates on them when I get them sorted out. Suffice to say, one of them ran away into the woods and I haven't seen it in 24 hours and the other two are having a hard time adjusting.

Basil, the farm at night

Rog took some good photos of the farm during the sunset.

We have another intruder in the barn. It has been digging tunnels. We filled in the tunnels, and it redug. We laid chicken wire, and it ATE THROUGH THE WIRE. See pictures. Any hints on what the hell this is would be helpful.

We also trimmed back some of the basil and are in the process of drying it in the dehydrator.

Dia gets two toys

Remember when Dia didn't know how to play? I'd throw a ball, she's look at me. I'd give her something fun, she'd walk away. Now she stockpiles so she can lay on two toys at once.

Chickens - 3 months old

I've always posted links to YouTube videos, but I thought I'd give the blogger video tool a try, so these may look a bit different. The pictures are of the accidental rooster that may be getting rehomed soon because, well, we don't want a rooster.

Harvest #1

Blue potatoes, roasted and mashed. Green beans. Cucumbers. Making first batch of pickles this weekend.

Lots of new plants!

Roger assembled the cart for the mower, plus we have several baby plants on the way!

Last of the meat birds

We have put the last 10 meat birds in the freezer. Thank goodness that's over. That was A LOT of work.




Roger has been working on putting together the cart that came with the mower. He worked on it for about 5 hours yesterday and still hasn't managed to get it finished. He is very frustrated with it.