Surviving Minnesota!

[Bogtown Chick]

Here they are!
2 Blue and 1 Lavender Ameraucana. Glad to have them.

 

[duluthralphie]

I really like the middle one BC....


Here are the first 4 White Sports. The 5th one needed another sponge bath and a brushing. I then put her back into the hatcher to dry off, I also had one CLB that needed a bath and brushing. Sometimes they just do not fluff up correctly if the humidity gets low.






And here is a full box of cuteness, ( and no it is not me in a box!!!)...







And finally a really cute little EE. It already has the start of muffs and tufts.







I am pretty sure he is a rooster, because he is so cute and good looking...

Just as I am pretty sure the last white sport is a female because of all the bathing fluffing, combing, brushing and general preening she needs to even have her picture taken... ( Was that Ivie or Cluckies that figured that out, I forget)

 

[I Love Layers]

Checked all the show birds. The hen doesn't have any anymore. I am not bringing the LF cochin rooster, his are worse. One of the sex links I was showing in the trio also had it by her vent, thankfully I have a replacement.

There's only 2 infected is far.
I am cleaning the coop tomorrow, and the show chickens will be separated.
I think the Apps brought it..

 

[Dandelioness]

Hello, all ~
It's so nice to read about folks meeting up and all the new acquisitions and fair things.
Brought home eight healthy keets and a BCM chick. Left two BCM chicks to dry off and hoping for more birds to hatch tomorrow and the next day. One other guinea keet died, but its insides were still outside when it hatched. :/
Gardens and chickening coming along nicely.
I grafted the new chicks onto my old silkie. So far, so good. I will check on them again tonight before turning in.
This "cool" weather has been great! Hope you're all enjoying it ~

 

[destiny_56085]

Checked all the show birds. The hen doesn't have any anymore. I am not bringing the LF cochin rooster, his are worse. One of the sex links I was showing in the trio also had it by her vent, thankfully I have a replacement.

There's only 2 infected is far.
I am cleaning the coop tomorrow, and the show chickens will be separated.
I think the Apps brought it..

Those aren't mites. They are chicken lice. What you are seeing on her neck are the eggs glued to the feather bases. The bugs themselves are rarely seen in daylight. Get the bird in the dark and take a flashlight to the feathers parted and you will maybe see oblong light colored bugs. You will see ratty looking feathers with tiny rice like holes in the feathers and birds scratching. Mites in comparison look like red/black pepper dots on the bird and feed on the mucous around face and vent. They leave a cradle cap like gunk on the skin too. Best way to get rid of them is to pull those feathers loaded with eggs. You can treat the bird for bugs, but when those nits (baby lice) start hatching, the cycle will start all over again. Personally I give those infested birds a flea dip, thorough bath with flea/tick shampoo, and then treat with Frontline Plus. Frontline has Fipronil in it and has long lasting effect so you don't have to keep retreating every few days.

 

[destiny_56085]

These are the eggs and young lice pasted on the feather shafts.....

These next 2 pics show the feather damage you see at first. The lice chew holes in the feathers.





A bad infestation:

 

[Bogtown Chick]

I've dealt with lice and mites twice. I hope to be done always. But I've been seeing little sparrows in my out door feed dishes. So I guess there's always a risk with free ranging and such.

New girls perched in the kennel at roost time. I stuck a branch through the holes/ wires. Give them a slight feeling of safety being roosted at night. Dd and I held a couple tonight. Let them get used to us and such.

Ralphie the box of cuteness is on overload. That's for sure!

 

[I Love Layers]

Those aren't mites.  They are chicken lice.  What you are seeing on her neck are the eggs glued to the feather bases.  The bugs themselves are rarely seen in daylight.  Get the bird in the dark and take a flashlight to the feathers parted and you will maybe see oblong light colored bugs.  You will see ratty looking feathers with tiny rice like holes in the feathers and birds scratching.  Mites in comparison look like red/black pepper dots on the bird and feed on the mucous around face and vent.  They leave a cradle cap like gunk on the skin too.  Best way to get rid of them is to pull those feathers loaded with eggs.  You can treat the bird for bugs, but when those nits (baby lice) start hatching, the cycle will start all over again.  Personally I give those infested birds a flea dip, thorough bath with flea/tick shampoo, and then treat with Frontline Plus.  Frontline has Fipronil in it and has long lasting effect so you don't have to keep retreating every few days.

Thank you!
There's only a few birds infected so far. I will do all the stuff tomorrow. Only my EEs and one barred rock have it so far

 

[memphis]

Hello from south of the Mason Dixon. Hot, humid & miserable down here. Typical summer in the south..

Was wondering how Coffee is doing. We havent heard from her on our Turkey Talk thread lately.

Ralph...in your search for the perfect foofoo bird...have you gone to Feathersite?

BT....love your avatar. One of my favourite pics of the big Tootsie.

So far all my chickens & turkeys seem to be surviving the heat. Little concerned about some of the older girls...but they seem fine. My 6 year old SS is even cranking out eggs.

 

[duluthralphie]

Good Morning..


BC you must be feeling pretty cocky with 2 of the top 3 posts yesterday Of course knowing there is not a competitive bone (cough,cough, cough) [excuse me something got caught in my throat ], I bet it is no big deal to you.


Memphis I have ordered my Fufu's for next year. Not a great source but not bad, it will mean so real hard choices for breeding birds and take me several years to get anything near show quality. But in actuality most buyers do not care about that, or most my buyers anyways. I get a few that do with the CLB's but because there is no SOP and everyone is "guessing" no 2 seem to want the same thing. I have a couple rooster heading to Montana for a breeding and show program out there. I am trying to anticipate the needs of the breeder and what kind of birds they want to help with a defect in their flock. I am finding it way more stressful to sell breeding birds than barnyard birds. I have been sending pictures of roosters showing their defects and strong points back and forth. Luckily for me white earlobes is something they need, and my CLB's as a rule have huge white ones (yeah, I have some losers too but they are soup and don't even know it yet.)

I also have some with great frames and legs, the barring is good and the coloring on a lot of mine. When I start picking them apart I am looking at little things, wing angle, blurred barring, comb not 100% straight, crest size, If you look hard enough you can find something on the all. But like a said way to stressful, it is easier to sell to someone that just wants a fufu in the backyard to show the neighbors.

Hopefully I can flood the market with Silver duckwing yokohamas next year and make them the fufu to have. It will give people something to do grooming those 10 foot long tails for hours...

I have Guineas starting to hatch tomorrow through Monday. My guineas never all hatch the same day. Turkeys right after that.

I sprayed my garden the other day with round-up. I hate to spray but I bought a few loads of compost and I ended up with a ugly weed in it. I have been tilling and it does not die. I think it is a burr of some kind. It is sure not native on my farm. I think I remember seeing it as a kid on my Grandpas farm. He lived on heavy dark soil and not sand. I am not sure if it will grow out of the composted area but I do not want to take a chance.