Mrs. McCluckinson

When I first acquired chickens, we started off with 6 "straight-run" young adults.  They were named, somewhat, so we could refer to them and know who was who...Mrs. McCluckinson was one of them, my daughter-in-law named her.  I have named very few of my chickens, they are more known by traits.  I usually don't name them until something happens and I have to give them special attention for awhile.  I have a chicken sick-bay if you will...

Mrs. McCluckinson is now in sick-bay.  I am not sure what happened to her, she was hiding out in what we call the low-boy tractor, it is covered with a tarp and keeps the rain off of the few chickens in that area.  It is my original chicken pen and chicken tractor area.  I noticed her and Red Racer spending a lot of time on the perch in the wire dog kennel they sleep in at night...every time I went out there she was on the perch with Red Racer (Rhode Island Red hen).  Then one morning she was laying on the ground with Red beside her.  I went to pick her up and she was limping really badly.  So, she is now in sick-bay...well she has been in sick-bay for almost a week.  I inspected her and found no obvious injuries, her comb was pale and that is a cause for concern.  She is eating and drinking and hobbles around in the cage I have her in...but mostly is resting.  I have given her a dose of Ivermectin which should take care of any parasites she may have, I give her antibiotics in her water and started injections of Tylan 50.  Her comb color is improving but, she is still limping pretty badly.  Mrs. McCluckinson quit laying over the winter and has not laid an egg in at least three months.  I guess she will be one of my special needs hens, hopefully whatever is wrong will improve soon.  I have a soft spot for my special needs critters, they will be taken care of as long as I am able to do it.  Mrs. McCluckinson is one of my hens that will go broody, she and Brown Racer have hatched out a few batches of chicks for me.  

In the mean time...I have more babies that hatched this week, some Buff Polish, at least one Cream Legabar and a few from eggs that were unmarked, so I am not sure what they are.  I have three brooders of chicks in the house, two brooders of chicks in the water heater shed, and the baby geese are in a kiddie pool in there too...it is surrounded by cage wire so they can't escape.  I will be playing musical chickens soon.  I will shift the geese to the outside duck and goose area, and put the roosters in the low-boy and move the older chicks to the pen the roosters are currently in...I think.  After I get all that done and clean everything, I will put the oldest chicks in the house out in the brooders in the water heater shed.  I will keep the chicks born this week in the house for another couple of weeks, and then I may have a week...then hatching will start again!

I am trying to get good breeding stock on a few breeds.  I just set Dorking and Cream Legbar eggs, and I have a batch of mixed types of Marans eggs that will hatch first, I am hoping to get a Blue Splash rooster...we shall see.  Last year I hatched about 12 batches of eggs over 7 months.  I didn't want to hatch that long this year, so I got another incubator and hope to get it done faster this year.  I sold 10 hens last weekend, I may sell some more.  I am hoping to get a good hatch out of the Dorking eggs this time around, the meat on them is suppose to be good and if I get a bunch of roosters, we will end up trying it out in about 5 months.  I am afraid I have a lot of roosters growing up...when they rush at you and peck your hands at two weeks old...you can just sense it.

Now I really need to figure out what I am going to do with all of them...

Special Deliveries

I Have basically been delivering baby chicks today, they were suppose to hatch yesterday.  I could hear them and was afraid if I didn't they would die.  We had power fluctuations and problems yesterday with all the snow everything kept going on and off clicking and such.  They pipped internally and basically were shrink-wrapped.  I have been working with them on and off all day.  The last one finally kicked the shell off, I opened all of them and moistened the membranes and peeled off enough so they could breath earlier.  Hopefully these five will make it, three of them are Double Laced Blue Barnevelders  and only 3 of the 6 eggs I bought developed.  They are a beautifully feathered chicken that lays a darker brown egg.  I didn't know anything about them until I purchased some mixed rare breed eggs last year.  They are rare in the U.S. But are originally from Holland, I think.  My other eggs in the incubator are on day 10...I candled them and all but one of the Dorking eggs are developing, 7 of the 18 Speckled Sussex did not develop and it is hard to tell on the Barnevelders...but I think they are all developing.  I got my replacement Polish eggs in and Put all but two of the Java eggs in the same incubator yesterday.  Hopefully my correct eggs will arrive tomorrow and then after they sit 24 hours I will reload the incubator that the chicks are currently in....by correct, I mean the person whom I bought them from shipped me the wrong eggs the first time.  The eggs should have been blue and green when they came in...all of them where white!

Ok, maybe I need to explain better.  I am selecting breeds of chickens to raise that are endangered or rare breeds listed on the Livestock Conservancies Heritage Breed List.  I have picked some that are critical, endangered and on the watch list.  I have mostly Heritage Breeds, but a few breeds that are just rare...like Cream Legbars and Barnevelders.  I have been looking for eggs to purchase on eBay and am trying to get breeding stock from all over so that I have different lines that are unrelated.  I bid on and won an auction for Isbar, Cream Legbar and Olive Egger eggs...blue and green eggs are the color of their shells...or should be.  The eggs I received were all a creamy white.  I contacted the seller about them, and she made a mistake and sent me someone else's eggs.  I asked what these were...and found out they are Houdan, Sultan and Bearded Silkie eggs...What I consider Fru Fru chickens.  I am going to incubate them and see if any hatch, but I will probably try and sell them if they do.  I am not really into Fru Fru chickens...but I reserve the right to change my mind.  My husband fell in love with Polish chickens, so he very well might fall in love with these...I may too.

Something funny is our mail lady.  She knows I am hatching eggs and will keep them with her and under the heater in her truck if she knows about them.  The wrong eggs were marked "Fragile Glass" and she put them in the bed of her truck...I am not sure any will hatch.  I talked to the mail lady today and told her about the eggs being marked like that, I am hoping that she will put the correct eggs in her truck cab since I warned her.  She has been pulling half way through the yard to hand deliver packages to me if she sees me in the yard with the chickens too.  We talk sometimes and she told me about some of the predators in the area.  I told her about our predator problem a few weeks ago.  She has had chickens before.