Maine

[IZZYBELLA]

And the rats are gone.

How's everyone else's going?

Finished this quilt up today, too.

Wow - I love this!!

 

[Mainechickie13]

Ended up finding 4 silkie eggs about 2 hours away! Getting them Wednesday super excited! Anyone got any helpful hints for incubating and raising silkies?
Thank you

 

[lazy gardener]

Read all of Hatching eggs 101 in the learning center. Do dry hatch. Get your bator set up and run it a few days before you set eggs to trouble shoot your temps. (put some water bottles in the bator to approximate the volume of eggs you will be incubating.) If you're not filling the bator with eggs, and are not using a turner, keep some water bottles or other thermal mass in there to act as a heat sink. Almost all bators have high/low temp areas in them. common one is near the motor on your turner if you have a turner. Be sure your thermometers are calibrated. I like to calibrate my thermometers to 100* in a cup of warm water using a digital or old fashioned mercury thermometer as my gold standard. Calibrate your hygrometer also. Run your bator in a room with steady temperature. After the eggs go in bator be prepared for temp to drop. That's normal wait for it to stabalize. If you had the temp set properly before putting in eggs, you shouldn't have to touch it for a few days. But, with my bator, it's not at all uncommon to have to keep turning the temp back as the chicklets mature and start putting out their own heat.

 

[oldfartfarmer]

My six new chickens, 2-Giant jerseys, 2- white brahmas, and 2 easter eggers,
started laying about a month ago when it warmed up,

my one (i think) maybe both--easter eggers dropped some pretty baby blue eggs, every other day for 3 days, around the same time,
but on the floor not in the bucket, this was a month ago, since then no baby blue eggs,,

normal? or do i have something wrong?

i don't use any lights, i open there doors early in the morning, so full daylight as soon as the sin comes up, and a lot of caged open range

layer feed plus black oil sunflower seed, house scraps,, there happy chickens

im confunded

 

[DwayneNLiz]

My six new chickens, 2-Giant jerseys, 2- white brahmas, and 2 easter eggers,
started laying about a month ago when it warmed up,

my one (i think) maybe both--easter eggers dropped some pretty baby blue eggs, every other day for 3 days, around the same time,
but on the floor not in the bucket, this was a month ago, since then no baby blue eggs,,

normal? or do i have something wrong?

i don't use any lights, i open there doors early in the morning, so full daylight as soon as the sin comes up, and a lot of caged open range

layer feed plus black oil sunflower seed, house scraps,, there happy chickens

im confunded

pretty normal when they first start, they are getting all their organs in gear, and with temp swings egg production can do funny things

 

[oldfartfarmer]

pretty normal when they first start, they are getting all their organs in gear, and with temp swings egg production can do funny things

LOL thank you,

 

[CoopChick719]

And the rats are gone. How's everyone else's going? Finished this quilt up today, too.

Beautiful quilt SCG! I told my mum & dad about.

I think I tore my rotator cuff this weekend. It may be a while before I can dig and lay hardware cloth. Hoping to get in to see a doctor soon. I'm only good at one-armed chores.

Hope you are feeling better, bucka

probably 2 parts pb, to 1 part borax. borax is very poisonous, its an old timer thing that i was taught

Do you think there is a risk of secondary poisoning w/the borax? Reason I ask is I was ready to start using this & some poison until I saw a gray cat running from behind my coop w/a rat in it's mouth. It proceeded to devour it still within plain sight of me. I encourage this behavior so I don't want to poison someone's cat & my new "live trap"! I put down My sick hen last week and sent her to Orono for testing. Haven't received any results yet so I'm calling tomorrow. No one else is showing signs of illness.

 

[buckabucka]

Sorry you lost your sick hen, CoopChick. I'll be interested to hear what the necropsy says.

My arm is getting better! Doctor says my quick improvement means it's a strain, not a tear. If I can't get back to full range of motion in a couple more weeks, I'll get PT.
The rats and mice are still eating the peanut butter/poison mix. I think there may be hundreds of them though.

 

[DwayneNLiz]

Do you think there is a risk of secondary poisoning w/the borax? Reason I ask is I was ready to start using this & some poison until I saw a gray cat running from behind my coop w/a rat in it's mouth. It proceeded to devour it still within plain sight of me. I encourage this behavior so I don't want to poison someone's cat & my new "live trap"!

I put down My sick hen last week and sent her to Orono for testing. Haven't received any results yet so I'm calling tomorrow. No one else is showing signs of illness.

yes, there is a very high chance of poisoning the cat, that stinks, i wouldnt want to poison someones pet either

sorry about the hen, i'm glad you sent it for testing

 

[CoopChick719]

Sorry you lost your sick hen, CoopChick. I'll be interested to hear what the necropsy says.

My arm is getting better! Doctor says my quick improvement means it's a strain, not a tear. If I can't get back to full range of motion in a couple more weeks, I'll get PT.
The rats and mice are still eating the peanut butter/poison mix. I think there may be hundreds of them though.

Thanks bucka! Glad to hear it's a strain! My friend had rotator cuff surgery. He said it was a painful recovery.

yes, there is a very high chance of poisoning the cat, that stinks, i wouldnt want to poison someones pet either

sorry about the hen, i'm glad you sent it for testing

I guess I'll continue to set traps.

UMaine Animal Health Lab got back to me. It is most likely Marek's or leukosis but without a histology they can't tell for sure. Since they confirmed what I suspected, I decided not to have it done. That test was another $50. Also it was a rooster not a hen as I thought. I'll post the report in case anyone is interested.

So I guess I will keep a closed flock from now on and disinfect before I go & when I return from anywhere other chickens are present.
The fractures noted in the report were done after I put him down. He was frozen and wouldn't fit in the shipping box.

University of Maine Animal Health Laboratory
5735 Hitchner Hall, Orono ME 04469
16181 2-7-2017
A black layer breed young adult rooster was submitted for necropsy after euthanasia by the owner. The feathering was in good condition, but immature. The wattles and comb were bright red, but immature. The bones of the head, proximal neck, and upper right leg were fractured, apparently post-euthanasia. A large amount of fecal soiling was present at the vent. Blood was present in the eyes, beak and feathers of the head.
The pectoral muscling was in good condition, and the body condition score was 2.5 (0-5, emaciated to obese). A small amount of food was present in the crop. The proventriculus and ventriculus contained a small amount of yellow feed and a moderate amount of grit; no lesions were seen. The pancreas was pink and within normal limits (WNL). No lesions of the small intestine or ceca were seen; no parasites were seen. There was a moderate amount of fecal material in the cloaca; otherwise, only a small amount of ingesta was present in the intestine. A well-formed Meckel’s diverticulum was noted.
The lungs were slightly congested, and some blood was present in one lung (likely due to euthanasia). The trachea, airsacs and pericardium were clear. The heart was WNL.
The cervical nerves were WNL. Very little thymic tissue, but a prominent bursa of Fabricius, was noted.
The liver was slightly pale and very slightly swollen. The gall bladder was moderately full. The spleen was WNL. The kidneys appeared well-formed, with the exception of a relatively enlarged caudal lobule on the right side. A tan, firm, irregularly cylindrical translucent mass under the right caudal lobe of the kidney and encompassing the right sciatic nerve was noted, measuring approximately 3 cm long and 0.5 cm in diameter. The left sciatic nerve appeared severely enlarged (approximately 0.3 cm diameter).
The testes were symmetrical, approximately 1 cm long (immature) and black in color.