Dia learns 'Stay'

Infectious Coryza

We have a diagnosis for the chickens. I am 100% positive we know what the 'cold' is. It's called Infectious Coryza. In mild forms it causes some sneezing and in severe forms it causes massive sinus and eyelid swelling. Luckily, in the large birds, only Two-Face got hit severely. Now the babies have it and 3 of the 10 are on the 'severe' boat. Bad news is, Coryza causes a drop in egg production and beginning of laying, so that's most likely why we still don't have eggs. The good news is that it's only transmitted from chicken to chicken, so wild birds, humans, and other animals are unaffected, and it isn't transmitted from chicken to egg.

Good news: Two-Face's eye is opening! I never thought it would happen! I actually saw her, and then thought maybe it was another bird getting sicker and not her getting better because it was such a big difference. I ran around and checked all the other birds that looked like her just to be sure.

Go little immune systems, go!

Will it survive?

Ever see David Letterman's segment 'will it float?'... they take strange, random objects and toss them in water and see if they float. There's also a YouTube spinoff of this called 'will it blend?', where they take random objects and put them in an industrial blender.

Well, here, we play a game called 'will it survive?' Not that we intentionally put anything in harms way, but often there are those moments when something goes wrong. For instance...

An infection sets in a creates a bulb the size of a tumor on a chickens face that does not respond to antibiotics. Will it survive? (yes... she's strange looking, but fine.)

A chicken runs away and spends 48 hours living in the woods with coyotes. Will it survive? (she sure did!)

A chicken is caught and squashed by the dog but is rescued without outward trauma. Will it survive? (no... it didn't.)

A baby chicken is accidentally doused right in the face with organic pesticide. Will it survive? (yup!)

The 'cold' spreads to the baby chickens and 3 of the 10 have it so bad their eyes are crusted shut and can't see at all. Will they survive? (unknown.)

I've been flushing the crusted eyes with warm water and wiping them and trying to get them open enough so they can see... I worry that if they can't see they'll just lay around and get dehydrated. I also gave the really bad ones a tiny tiny shot of tetracycline.

Still no eggs. Three of the larger flock have all the signs of being ready to lay. Their faces are red, their combs are large... just no eggs. Not that I don't go out there and look three times a day.

IDSnews.com | Assembly Hall stages disaster drill

This is totally unrelated to the Gnome, but it was how I spent the day yesterday and had a great time. I played the hostage. Thanks to the SWAT team, I was rescued unharmed! Although SWAT apparently doesn't take any chances and treats the hostage as a 'bad guy' until all bad guys are detained.

IDSnews.com | Assembly Hall stages disaster drill

Ugh, respiratory virus

The older birds have finally transmitted their virus to the baby birds. I can't remember if I've explained this situation before... basically, unlike humans, chickens will usually carry their respiratory viruses (colds) with them all their lives even after they've recovered. So they are always contagious. We knew the baby birds would get it eventually. We didn't lose any when it went through the original flock, so we're hoping this will be the same situation.

The baby birds have snotty eyes that they keep itching on their necks, so then their neck feathers are snotty. It's pretty gross.

Two Face's swelling has gone down A LOT, but we don't think she'll ever go back to normal. Instead of it being a huge red tumor on the side of her face it's a flat white blob. Like when someone loses a ton of weight and their skin didn't shrink? Like that. She must have gotten something stuck in the cavity because this morning it was filled with goo and I worked a really gross glob of what looked like cottage cheese out of the cavity. Now, I have held the still warm heart of a chicken in my hand and not even blinked, but this was gag inducing. So I've gone back to the routine of filling the cavity with polysporin.

Lord, I do not need more than one bird with only one eye. Let this virus run through the babies quickly and without facial tumors.

I read somewhere that chickens like watermelon and it's good for them when it's hot. I had a half watermelon in the fridge that we never ate and it started to get too ripe, so I just tossed it in the fence. This morning there is nothing but rind left, and they're picking the rind apart bit by bit.

Preserving

Onions in stockings, dried tomatoes, dried herbs, and a Dia guarding the path.

Roger makes a path, large produce prizes

Roger has mowed us a path back to the end of the property. He then mowed a large area under a tree and dug a fire pit. We have chairs and tiki torches out there now. It's the best place in all of Indiana to sit, I swear.




We are drying tomatoes from the garden, tiny apples from the neighbor's trees, and chili's to make crushed pepper.



We also have some really large produce! I took pictures of these... a huge pink tomato and chili and jalepeno peppers.

Woodchucks

We have gone an entire day without catching a woodchuck, so we MAY have gotten them all. But we're not convinced yet. A brief scan of the internet says that woodchuck litters range from 2-9 babies. Nine? NINE?? We shall see.

Why don't we have eggs yet? It is now week 18, and according to my calculations based on our breeds and other people's experiences, we should at least have some tiny eggs by now. I've noticed more urgent digging in the barn lately as well. So I set up an experiment.

I set the live trap next to a hole in the chicken coop. (We've done this many times before without success using our previously successful baits: broccoli and lettuce) I baited the trap with an egg.

WE HAVE CAUGHT TWO WOODCHUCKS IN TWO DAYS. Both times the egg was devoured.

There you have it.

These are probably the babies of the woodchucks we caught in March as they are smaller and have really small tails. The theory goes that they were babies and were not doing much digging and just hanging out under the barn and coming out to eat grass and such. But now they are big and digging and at the very least, eating chicken feed, and at the worst, EATING MY EGGS.

How many woodchuck babies are in a litter? I will google this and report later.

Dustbathing Chickens

Why do chickens dustbath? They seem to do it during the hottest parts of the day, so part of it might be to stay cool. I've also heard that it suffocates the mites and lice, so they do it to relieve itching. Here's videos of both adults and babies bathing.