Busy Busy Busy Start to Spring 2024

The chicks we picked up in February are almost six weeks old. Of the 71 we received, 70 have survived, and we have them in a large grow-out space now, protected from the elements but, at the same time, giving them "la luz natural" so that they will be all ready for coop living next week. We still have some large warmers in place for those that are still not quite ready for chilly nights. When it rains, it is kind of chilly too. But, they are having a blast in their temporary space. 

In the meantime, my two Golden Comets were approaching their second year, so I sold them to a local farm and picked up three Comet pullets that are just now starting to lay.  That was a few weeks ago. I just finished up the quarantine and have shifted them into the flock.  Moved the entire flock on fresh grass, stocked them up with grit and oystershell, filled their waterers with vitamin supplements, and filled the feeder full to ensure that they all lack for nothing, reducing the chances of any major fights. Each day, I go out with treats.  Yesterday was sunflower seeds.  Today, they received strawberries. 

About two weeks ago, I noted that one of my hens was under the weather, her crop was all bloaty and I felt a larger than typical lump in her crop.  I isolated her with water and nothing else to eat for the night. The next day, the bloaty was less but the impact felt like a bunch of rocks, was not very squishy, and she had not poohed.  We squirted 5cc of olive oil into her (by mouth) for two days and tried massaging the mass. In the meantime, I picked up monistat 7 (linked to article as potential treatment) to treat the sour crop. When I knew she was finally poohing again, I gave her a little grit to help with digestion. The family has been working together for treating her every day.  

She obviously has an impacted crop still (but much better) and had sour crop (seems to be gone).  We treated the sour crop with monistat 7 giving her .5cc per day (no oil during this treatment) for seven days.  The mass continued to decrease in size, and gradually got softer.  Keeping her water medicated with vitamins, and tried a variety of soft foods to help her digest the mass while, at the same time, keeping her nourished.  She liked the prescription canned catfood for a couple days, then turned her beak up at it. Tried mashed cooked vegetables... not wanted.  Tried mashed fruit we had frozen in the freezer. She ate a little, and poohed a little, but, it was obvious there was not a lot of nourishment with the fruit.  

Read about how to ferment chicken food and since we have chicks, we have the 20% protein chick start available.  Fermented the chick start for three days and it was a hit.  I didn't want to give  her too much on the first day, but yah.  She poohed a lot of the mass that keeps getting a little smaller and softer each day. After a week, we were done giving her the monistat, but we added olive oil to the remaining fermented food that we had stored overnight in the fridge. Takes about three days to ferment and we have a small "running" production of  fermented feed going now.  On the second day with the fermented feed, we warmed the mash a bit, added 5cc of olive oil and gave her about three level tablespoons of the stuff.  She poohed right away, and so I gave her two more tablespoons in the afternoon. She eats it quickly, and has perked up quite a bit.  Like I say, this has been two weeks worth of treatment and we are not done yet.  There is no evidence of any sour crop or bloating, so I think we are just working on getting that mass to digest. 

And I will note, that early on, twice, we almost culled her because she was in so much distress.  Several sour crop and impacted crop articles indicated that the only way to "unbloat" her was to tip her upside down to let the stuff drain out.  But I had read just as many articles about the fact that if this is done incorrectly, the chicken can accidentally get fluid into her lungs and die a painful death. I will admit that it took a couple of days for the bloating to go away by not feeding any more food, and only giving her water the first two days. Giving her the oil at the beginning of each day, then massaging the mass several times per day helped move things along to the point that she could pooh, and once the pooh started happening, we knew we were on the right track. When she ate the catfood and then ate the grit, we felt a huge relief. Prior to that point, the first few days, each time we assumed we had hit a wall and that she was suffering more than necessary, we would get things ready to cull her, only to come back to see an amazing rebound on her part. She told us, indirectly, that she was NOT done yet! 

There are no vets in the area that treat chickens. There are some that treat "exotics" but even those are hesitant to treat chickens. Plus, cutting open the chicken to get the impact out is no guarantee for survival and is very expensive for a chicken that, at the most, is about $50 to replace. But, my main concern was to minimize her suffering as much as possible.  She IS much better, her coloring never got too bad, plus, her eyes never dulled during all of this. So, I'm just watching her closely and working on her, day by day. Today, she too received a fresh strawberry as a treat along with her fermented mash with a squirt of olive oil.  She is poohing a lot of "green" which, I assume, indicates that, day by day, she's getting rid of a mass of "grass" in her gut. Slowly, but....

UPDATE:  4/1/24 I checked on the hen again (like normal) to massage the mass and decide what to try giving her today, to feel an empty crop.  Nothing was stuck in there today! Now to wean her back onto her regular pellets.  Today and tomorrow, I'll still feed her the fermented chick feed.  Then will give her some all purpose poultry pellets on Wednesday and Thursday to see how she does with digesting those.  If all goes well, will give her some oyster shell so that we can get her back into the flock and no longer keep her in isolation. Wanting her to be back on track before that. 

Then, on top of everything else, our brown duck came up lame again this spring.  Last year was mid-April, I believe, that occurred after an April snow/ice storm.  This year, we have had a lot of cold rain that just puddles out in the field, making for a very sloggy pasture space. The chickens, at least have cover over their pen, but that's not an easy option for the duck corral, short of making them stay inside their coop every day.  So, yah, the start of bumblefoot for the duck on the other foot this year.  

Normally, March is the last of the freezing temps, but in 2022 and 2023, mid-April brought in some really cold temps with snow.  Hoping we don't get that this year! Too many plants have green buds on them already. Throwing out fertilizer around all the trees, shrubs and fruit bushes.  I would hate to lose any of them again! I have a lot of sheets and covers this year, though, as a Just In Case, but the baby trees out in the field are just too many to cover! 

About a little over  half of the chicks will be going to new homes next week and then we will be down to raising the rest to the 10 weeks stage, integrating some into our flock while the rest will go to their new homes.  I totally oversold the Color Pack Blue Layers I had ordered (they were popular) so I will be brooding a new batch of the Color Pack in mid-April specifically for our flock.  In August, I'll thin out the older flock and keep about a dozen of the new gals for eggs. 

Chilly Winter Rolling into Spring 2024

Haven't posted anything lately.  Not that we are not doing anything, just nothing to really post about.  We did get some really cold and blustery weather mid-January with temps dropping down to 0°F and knocking lots of trees down. Lasted about 10 days and ended with freezing rain.  So that was exciting. Thankfully, this year, we only lost power for a few hours, a couple of times, and so we didn't need to spend a lot of time trying to keep birds alive.  As it was, we were able to keep them locked inside their coops with lights and water fount heaters that allowed them to drink and eat and stay relatively warm. 

February wasn't too bad. Mostly wet until the end of the month, when it started getting cold again, and had a few snow showers that didn't stick for very long. 

We ordered about 70 chicks from the hatchery located in the mid-west of the country.  The chicks typically arrive on the second day after shipping and always seem really healthy.  We did lose one chick that seemed to be a failure to thrive situation.  It simply was not growing. But, the rest have survived beyond the typical die-off stage/ So we are up to our armpits with chicks at the moment.  

Set up a corner of the garage with three brooders.  The third brooder is smaller than the first two, but for now, we have it filled with the youngest chicks that are almost two weeks old.  The first batch of chicks are almost three weeks.  To help keep the space warmer, we hung some canvas tarps from the ceiling and amazingly, it seems to do a really good job of holding in the heat for the chicks. 

We still have eight of the pullets we started last spring. Plus, we have an older Barred Rock that was returned to us by a customer who decided she wasn't wanted any more.  That Barred still lays an occasional egg, and settled in with the flock.  

We just sold the two 20 month old hens we had held over from 2022.  They are still laying fairly well, but we are changing things up and plan to buy three Novogen pullets that are just starting to lay (that were raised on another farm last October). 

This year's breeds are Barred Rock, Blue Sapphire (Rock), Gold Comet, Color Pack Blue (lays blue eggs), Rhode Island Red, Buff Orpington, and Welsummer. 

A Heavy Apple Crop 2023

 I should have thinned these long ago!  My Bad!  Branches are near breaking and there is no more room, literally, for apples to grow! Will figure out what I can do with unripe apples.  

While many people had bumper crops of cherries around here,  in June this year, for the first time in a long while, we only had one cherry.  I guess our apples decided to make up for that? 

Still struggling with getting the raspberries to grow.  I had one survive from last year of the three I planted.  So I bought two more, and planted them, and one of those is trying to hang in there while the other from last year is still doing its thing.  I don't know how long I need to wait for the berries to actually produce. I guess I should read up on that. So, I guess I will be planting again next year, in hopes that I can have three plants, eventually. The biggest issue are the moles.  Ugh! 

Blackberries, on the other hand, have certainly thrived this year.  I did bake a fresh blackberry pie today. The fruits of my picking labor, I guess. 

Bountiful BlackBerries 2023

 The blackberries are hitting heavy this year. Probably helped that we had a couple sprinkles of rain in July, but nothing to really consider rain. The temps have been in the mid 80s most of the month, with just a few days in the 90s.  The perfect temps for wild blackberries.  Picked 5 pounds yesterday evening, and hope to get another 10 pounds in the next few days. 

The nice feature about wild blackberries is that they have their own pectin, and if cooked just right, make great jams and jellies.  Cooked down a couple pounds of berries today to make up a couple cups of jelly. 

It's cooling now, but, yah, I had to sneak a couple of spoons before I put them in the fridge to finish. YUM! 

It's the end of the month.  Sold four hens and returned the recently injured hen back to the flock.  She's being chased by the two older hens.  I am hoping that settles down soon enough.  Poor gal lost her ranking near the top and has to start all over. 

I was able to find a good home for the two Marans that I had, and the two smallest hens, a Wyandotte and a Rhode Island, that have been kinda stunted in growth because they were so small before even going into the main flock, and each have some leg issues. They will be in a small flock now, and that should help them to thrive. 

Slow Start to Garden 2023

Big Sigh.  While I did get a good start on some of my crops, like corn, potatoes, and dill, my other crops have been more of a late start or a restart.  Lost all my garlic that I tried to winter over to something. Basil has been planted in a bad space so I started a couple more in a planter, as a just in case. The ones in the planter are finally starting to kick into gear.  

Only half of the green beans that I planted came up, and so I have replanted more, today.  The cantaloupe are flowering, but seem to be mostly (all?) male flowers. Only one short row of carrots have sprouted.  Have replanted carrots three times, but seems the hot weather is the major issue with them.  

Lost the first tomato plant I had.  Had to buy another start and we do have several tomatoes maturing.  Lost one of the two bell pepper plants.  The second one that I purchased has bloomed before the first one I had. 

Have never grown sage before, and it seems to be doing very well.  No complaints on that one.  Oregano keeps wanting to bolt on me. Hot hot too hot weather.  I also am trying a different type of rosemary plant.  Fingers crossed that it does better than the last one I had. Replanted a new planter of thyme and it is finally starting to kick into gear, as well. 

Lettuce?  I have replanted lettuce three times now and normally would have harvested two planters by now.  Something kept eating them as soon as they started to get about two to three inches tall.  This third planting (about two weeks ago) is coming up and I have it covered with a mesh in hopes that I can actually get some lettuce off this batch. \

Corn IS starting to sprout some ears.  It is not as tall as the sweet corn I typically grow, but it is supposed to produce quicker. Not that it has, really, but yah... it's all about the weather. 

I am waiting for the Russet potato leaves to start to die back so that I can harvest those.  I'm guessing probably two more weeks.  The Red Lasoda potatoes have not even started to flower, so I'm guessing that will be a September harvest. 

Although I planted a seedless grape start in 2022, that first year was rough on the plant and it died back to the root when we had a very late freeze in April. It did finally start to grow last summer, but we didn't have any grapes. This year seems to have been a better year and looks like we might get a few grapes if something (wild animal or insects) don't eat them before we can.

It's always a challenge with such extreme weather pattern changes from year to year. 

Pullet's Bad Cut 2023

 Sometime, our pets and our birds do crazy things that end up hurting themselves. This past week, one of our pullets seemed to get her head stuck to her detriment.  I still am not certain where she did this, but the whole back side of her neck just below her head was bloody from one side of her face to the other.  I didn't take photos because, in truth, it looked pretty bad and, well, yah. It was gnarly. It wasn't still bleeding when I discovered the injury but was still very red, albeit totally scabbed over. 

I washed it off, best that I could without drowning her and then applied a bunch of Povidine, then isolated her for her own protection from the others. 

Almost a week later, the scab is crumbling off, with only a small scab on the very back of her head (top of her neck) left.  It still looks gnarly in the center of that scab, but her head feathers are covering it up so that it's not so obvious that she was injured.  All the feathers are missing where the scab was originally, but, yah, it's not infected.  The skin is healing and hopefully, soon, new feathers will grow back in place. 

They Proved Me Wrong! July 2023

I saw this Sail Tarp (Triangle Shade) online for a great price.  Marked down a lot, I'm assuming, because it's probably not purchased a lot? Instantly I loved it, because I could see great potential of using it for the ducks.  They would be able to hide under it quickly to get away from the hawks and owls that swoop over our field, looking for food. While I don't think they would ever attack my ducks, I know that those predators really scare my ducks. The ducks quickly scamper into their coop to hide.  I wanted to give them another option, while also giving them some shade, which would allow them the option to keep an eye on things without running into their coop. 

My tallest stakes are four feet, and no amount of "taunt" is enough to keep the center of the tarp from drooping.  At the lowest point, the tarp dips to 2.5 feet from the ground. My ducks are all about 2 feet tall.  I honestly never thought that they would hang out under the tarp with it being so close to their heads.  But, nonetheless, I put the tarp up inside their pen to at least get them accustomed to the tarp as a non-threatening object, until I have the taller stakes to lift the tarp higher. 

So, today, after about a week, the ducks have proved me wrong.  They will and do go under the tarp for shade. First I saw Indigo, then shortly after that, I saw Diego and Sparks, and then finally saw Toast hanging out under the tarp, in the shade. Today is not a hot day, by any stretch of the imagination but , yah, they are using it. Wish they had been braver earlier when we had temps in the high nineties, but, hey, that's just the way animals are. 

I started most of my garden pretty late this year.  So, I have been really thankful that our hot days didn't burn the plants. We are getting some quick growth from our little crops. Corn, the most.  I need to take a moment to really weed around them, but the stalks have really grown a lot in the last few weeks of warmer weather.