Culled All Our Poultry ~ Mycoplasma

It is my belief that I contacted this disease this spring when I brought in a bunch of chicks from else where.  After I had the chicks for about 10 days, I noticed a very sick little cochin chick who had very puffy gummy eyes.  I thought it was an eye infection so, I tried to clear it up with antibiotic eye drops.  Well, the eye drops did nothing to clear it up.  Soon I noticed the same symptoms in some of my other chicks.  Then chicks started dying.  I lost 11 of the shipped cochins first to this, and it also spread to my own chicks that I hatched which were very active and healthy until the shipped birds were added.  It also spread to my meat birds and to my turkey poults.

Their symptoms were:

Eye and Nasal Discharge

Sneezing

Coughing

Wet gurgly sounding breathing

Lack of appetite

Swelling of the sinuses and around the eyes.

And tissue swelling and red in the corners of the eyes.

I thought I would include some pictures to show what some of the chicks looked like.

In this chick you can see how the face is swollen.  It's all puffy about the eyes and sinuses.  In some cases the eyes are sticky and glued shut so that they can not see.

The chick stands all hunched up and ill looking.  Eyes only partially open.  Not showing much interest in eating or drinking.  Chicks cough and sneeze.

You can see this chick has been rubbing it's eyes on it's shoulders.  You could also see nasal discharge.

I'd been medicating this chick, but even so you can see that the corners of it's eyes are inflamed, red and visible.

The Turkeys had lots of swelling around the eyes and sinuses.  They eyes also were gummy with discharge around them.

In some of the eyes you can see how watery they are.  Also bubbles are present in the eyes.

You can see just how much they eyes are swollen under them.  Some of them had swelling in one or both eyes.  Because of the shine, wet looking discharge the turkeys pecked at it hence the wound above the beak. (probably spreading it further...)

After loosing several of the cochins, some of my own hatched and some turkeys, I sent in 2 turkeys and 3 chicks to be tested.  These birds had to be freshly culled and sent with icepacks to the Animal Health in Abottsford to have a postmortem and tests done on them.  To cull them I used the cervical dislocation method, which is fairly quick and bloodless, since they want the bodies intact.  So I culled, packed and sent off the birds.

A day or two after they received the birds I received a message that there was Mycoplasma present.  I spoke with the vet over the phone and he confirmed that Mycoplasma was indeed present in our Turkeys.  He hadn't gotten the test results back from my chicks that I sent in yet.  I had been medicating the chicks so he said that it would be hard to detect it in them since the symptoms had been cleared up.  It was agreed that since my turkeys had it for sure, and they had been in contact with my entire flock older chickens, chicks and guinea fowl that everything was exposed to it and it would be best to cull it all, clean house and start over in about a month or so (I decided to wait a year before starting again.)

Mycoplasma is a contagious respiratory disease that poultry can get.  It's a chronic' disease, and even though the birds can and most times do survive this, they remain carriers and can pass it on to other birds.  They can pass this on through coughing, sneezing, dust, eggs and semen.  Incubation period for it is 10 - 21.  This disease is fairly common apperently.  But as someone who breeds and sells poultry, I felt that it would be unfair of me to keep my birds and risk infecting anyone elses.  

You can read about Mycoplasma here:  

http://www.poultrydiseases.net/online/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=26&limit=1&limitstart=0

So last week I culled all my poultry.  This was an awful thing to do.  I still feel horrible when I think on it.  It's one thing to cull a badly injured or dying bird that you know is suffering horribly.  But it's an entirely differnt thing top pick up a bird bird that looks perfectly healthy and end it's life.  I know that even though they look healthy they could be carrying mycoplasma and pass it on to anyother poultry that I bring here.  But it doesn't make it any easier.  Many of these birds are ones I have raised since they were either eggs or day old chicks.  Most of the older ones were pets.  I was very attached.  

I also used Cervical dislocation to do this.  How I did it was to take the bird,  Hold it to calm it.  Grasp the feet in one hand, support the body in the other and lower the bird so that it is upside down with it's chest and neck laying on the ground before you.  Place a broom handle across the back of the neck behind the head, step on the broom handle quickly one foot on either side of the head and quickly and smoothy pull up on the feet.  Pull up until you feel the neck give.  This dislocates the neck, and ruptures the blood vessels in the neck.  It is supposed to be painless since it also severs the spinal cord (but who's to say just what the bird feels).  I couldn't bear to see the birds flop around so I held them as they passed.  After all these were my pets and it broke my heart to do each one.  (See, I still tear up when I think of it.)

After I finished culling, I made a big  pile of brush and dry fire wood and got the fire going good and hot, then burnt almost all of the chickens, except for my daughters 2 favorites.  My daughter wanted to bury them, so I felt that this would be a good way to perhaps bring her some closure too.  We dug a hole by a cedar tree, lined the grave in ferns, placed the little hen and rooster in and covered them in more ferns.  RIP little Millie and Little Peep.

After I thought I was pretty much done culling and burning, I was going to go into the house, but thought I would do one last egg check to see if any were missed earlier (and I guess just to go into the empty hen house and say a silent good bye).  While I was standing in there, I heard a cluck.  Yes, a cluck coming from outside in the pen.  I couldn't believe it and almost thought I was hearing things.  I went out to the pen, and out from behind some glass windows leaned up comes one last Blue Laced Red Wyandotte hen.  It was almost like one of those bad dreams when you think that it can't get any worse, and then it does.  She comes running over to me.  Oh my!  Here I was thinking that I was finished killing and the worst was done and over with and out comes this last bird.  So I picked her up. Sat on a bucket.  Held her and had a serious cry.  I never imagined in my life that I would have to kill anything.  Let alone chickens which I love.  It was so tempting to keep her, sitting there with my face buried in her soft feathers.   But it needed to be done.  I did it, and probably that one last one is what stands out most in my mind now.

Anyways, all of my birds are gone.  Chickens, Turkeys and Guinea Fowl.  The yard is strangely quiet when you go out side.  We've had a few neighbors stop by and comment on the lack of birds about.  When offered condolences, I really don't know what to say.  

I have shoveled out the coops and am working on scrapping them down, then I will disinfect them.  I need to pick up one those car wash brushes that you can attach to a garden hose to help me scrub down things, and garden sprayer to spay disinfectant.  And so now the clean up begins.

When I do start over, I will try and just bring in hatching eggs and treat them with an egg dip of Tylan, which is supposed to kill any mycoplasma present in the eggs.  I will  be very careful with any new chicks brought in, keeping them separate  for at least 4 weeks to be sure they are healthy.

I have also bought a copy of The Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow so I can look things up if anything shows it's self.

If nothing else this spring I have done a lot of research and learned quite a bit about this disease and about bio-security.  

Millie pigging out on cookies 

Sick Chick Update.

Well, I've been avoiding writing about what's going on here with the chick situation.

To tell you the truth I have been so disheartened about it and am just having a real hard time.

My Chicks are still sick.  Several have died.  Some on their own, and some I've had to cull because they were so ill.  

I'm not exactly sure what is wrong with them, but I suspect Mycoplasma.  They are showing several of the symptoms of it.  And so are the Turkeys.

Their symptoms are:

Eye and Nasal Discharge

Sneezing

Coughing

Wet gurgly sounding breathing

Lack of appetite

Swelling of the sinuses and around the eyes.

And tissue swelling and red in the corners of the eyes.

It's really been quite scary.  Actually I've been terrified.

If it is Mycoplasma, it is quite contagious and because I had moved the meat birds and turkey's into the grow out pens in the main coops, all of the rest of my poultry have been exposed to it.  Even if they survived this intitial outbreak of it, they would remain carriers for the rest of their lives and can pass it on to other birds.

I have had them on Tylan and on Oxytera-a which is an antibiotic as well.  Their symptoms are somewhat better in some of them, but it seems that most days there is at least one death.  Lately it's been the meat birds, one by one.  A few days ago we had to put some turkeys down because the facial swelling was so bad.

I have decided to send some in for testing to see just what I am dealing with.

If it comes back that this is indeed what I do have, my husband and I have decided to cull our flocks.  This isn't an easy decision.  It's hard, hard, hard.  I've hardly been able to sleep and I have no appetite. I cry.  Lots.  But I think that this is what we have to do this time.  

I want to one day be able to sell hatching eggs, chicks and chickens and don't want to have to worry that I am going to pass this on to someone else.  I can't have that on my conscience.  There is a fear in me that friends or family who have poultry will come and visit me and bring this home with them on their shoes or clothing.  

From what I hear, I don't absolutely have to cull my flock.  I could just treat them as they have flair ups.  From what I understand, this illness is quite common and many flocks have it, but people don't know what they are dealing with.  The chances are good that I will actually end up coming into contact with this again.

But this time I will deal with it by culling.  Another reason we have decided to to this is so that we can continue to get and raise our Turkeys.  Turkeys are quite susceptible to this disease, as I have found out.  In fact, from what I hear, if you have Mycoplasma present in your flock, you should not raise turkeys.  We want to have our turkeys.  One day I would love to have some year round pet turkeys, and to do this we have to get rid of this disease.

Last week I phoned Dr. Cox of the Agricultural department.  He suspects that it is Mycoplasma too.  Especially when I described the turkeys to him.

So today, I went and spent some time with the chicks watching and listening to see who looked and sounded the worst to send in to be tested.  Not an easy thing to do, picking out baby chicks and turkeys that you know you will have to kill first thing in the morning.  I'm not looking forward to it at all.

But I guess knowing what I am dealing with will bring a certain piece of mind.  Knowing if by culling that I am making the right decision.

If it comes to culling, I can't imagine what it will be like to not have anymore chickens, turkey's or guinea fowl for a while.  The wait time after disinfecting for mycoplasma is about 3 weeks, which isn't that long.  But my husband would like to wait for a year before I get anymore birds.  

For a few days there, I could hardly go out and look at my birds.  I fed, watered, and collected eggs as quickly as I could, because I felt so guilty about having to cull them.  Most of my main flock I have had as chicks or hatched from eggs.  I interact daily with them.  They are more then just chickens to me.  The majority of them are pets.  My chickens over the years have given me great joy, comfort and entertainment. They are my escape on a hard day when I need quiet time.  It may sound weird but on a bad day, I go and stand in my chicken house in the evening and just watch and listen to the chickens.  It's comforting. 

Anyways, tomorrow is the day to send them away and then the long wait to get the results....  

I think it will be hard to sleep tonight....

Chick update

I thought I would give an update on how the chicks are doing.

Well, They aren't doing so hot.  It seems that some how we have come in contact with an illness.  It also seems to be contagious, because most of my chicks are now coughing, sneezing, gurgly breathing, have puffy eyes and are all huddled under the heat lights.  I've had several deaths too.

This has really been stressing me out and I have been so worried.

When it first started, there were some puffy eyes, and I assumed that my turkey poults who were in with the chicks were pecking eyes.  There was also some sneezing, and I put his off to that maybe they had gotten a chill when one of the 3 heat lights got unplugged.

So I moved the turkeys and plugged back in the heat light.  But puffy eyes were still happening, and the sneezing turned to coughing and gurgling.  I put them on Electrolytes and Vitamins, and in draft free area's.

The other morning I had 3 chicks die.  I sort of panicked, because I've never dealt with illness with this many chicks before.

The chicks seem to have come down with Mycroplasma.  I don't know for sure, because I haven't had them tested, but they have the symptoms of it.   Both the Chicks (both heritage and meat birds) and the Turkey Poults have it.

I was really hoping that I could get away without the use of antibiotics.  Especially because of the meat birds, some of which we planned to butcher in 2 weeks.  But with them this ill, and all the risk of loosing so many I put them on Tylan last night.

When a friend of mine heard of my plight, she rushed all the way out here with some medication.  I can hardly beleive the kindness and generosity of this lady.  I am so very grateful!  I hope one day I can return the favour (Only I would never wish this on anyone.)

So now that they are on the medication, I feel a ray of hope!  So far today we haven't had any die, so that's just awesome!

And now we wait to see if the Tylan kicks in and things turn around.

Gettin' Ready For Meat Birds and Turkeys!

Yes, today I am getting ready for the big day tomorrow!

Tomorrow we are bringing home 25 day old turkeys, 60 day old meat birds and 10 day old Rhode Island Reds.  That's a total of 95 chicks in one day!  (Not counting the 24 I already have and the 30 Cochins I have coming next week!)  I'm secretly excited about it for now.  I'm sure the excitement will wear off fairly quickly once they get bigger, lose that cute fuzziness, the dander and smell gets to me.

Last week I built a nice Brooder Box.  It's 8 feet by 4 feet wide and the sides are about 2 feet high.  I divided off a section with a removable piece so I can have a smaller part for other chicks.  I lined the bottom in Vinyl to make for easy cleaning.  Then spread shavings on top of that for litter.

I use red heat lights, to help prevent the chicks from picking on each other.

I have hung a heat light about 18 inches up off the floor, for warmth.  The water is up on a pizza box out of the shavings, and I put the food on a piece of vynle flooring to help keep some of the shavings out of it (same reason I put the water up).  When the chicks are bigger I'll put the food up on something as well.

Here you can see the chicks that I hatched last week in the small section of the brooder.

I know that soon they will outgrow the lovely little brooder I built,  and I'm desperately hoping against all hope that the snow is gone by the time I want these out of the basement.  (Fat chance of that.  I think the snow plans on staying around for a while!)

Anyways, there you have it.  There's my brooder set up in my basement.  I also have a brooder box in my chicken house, and some grow out pens as well.  I'll have to get around to posting pictures of those.  

Let the hatching begin!

Last night I figured I would test out my new candler I made to fit over my husbands big flash light and I had a surprise!  The first egg I picked up peeped!  I thought I was hearing things, because after all, I gave them the hatch date of March 19th and that is not until Monday.  I had a closer look at the egg in my hand and sure enough there was a pip!

Of course, my curiosity got the better of me, and since I had my home made candler set up right there, I had to pop it on to get a look at it!  Usually I don't candle during lock down. Usually it's right before I put them in lock down to remove any dead eggs.

Turns out that I counted wrong when I gave them their hatch date.  I recounted, and the 'new' date is supposed to be March 15th.  I counted several times to be sure this time.  So the eggs are actually starting to pip on day 19!

There was one polish egg pipped and one cochin egg pipped, as well as peeping coming from an Easter Egger egg.  You can only imagine my excitement and surprise!

Broken into the Air Cell.  Polish Egg.

This one isn't there yet.  You can still see the blood vessels in this one.  It was alive and moving around.

Cochin egg, into the air cell.

This is an egg that has not been incubated.  Freshly laid.

So I took the racks out and put them on their sides.  I usually would put them fat sides up in an egg carton for hatching, but didn't want to take the extra time to do this with the lid off.  So I hope this changing of position at this stage doesn't have a bad effect on them.  

I also put added more water to the water troughs and a couple wet sponges to try and up the humidity.  The humidity has been about 40% lately.  It went up to 55%, and a little while ago I cracked the bottom open and squirted some warm water in there to try and up it more.  I hope it isn't to dry in there.

Oh, Yay!  Just now as I was typing, I heard exciting peeping and went and checked, and there was an Easter Egg chick out of it's egg.  I checked about 15 minutes before, and it just had a fair sized hole pecked!  And the polish egg that I first saw pipped last night is starting to zip!  

Here's the first Chick!  An Easter Egger wins the race!

The polish egg that was pipped last night started to zip right after the Easter Egger hatched.

And zips some more...

A little more zipping, and it gives a stretch...

It gets it's foot up...

And out...

Getting ready for the big shove...

At last it lifts it's head.

Hatching is hard work...

Stretching the wings for the first time!

And at last the Easter Egger chick has a friend!

As of now there are 4 hatched, and 23 eggs left to go!

Let the hatching begin!!!!

Thought I would add a picture of my home made candler.

Rotten Ronnie Strikes Again!

Yes, the little bugger was up to no good!

Well, I guess, I should take some of the blame my self.  After all, I should have done a rooster count last night when I tucked everyone in.  But I will admit it.  I didn't.

It all started yesterday when I let the roosters and guinea fowl out, so the run-a-way guinea fowl would be enticed back into her coop.

The roosters came out and went down the trail.  Now if you have read my poem about Rotten Ronnie, you would have seen that he and The Fonze my polish rooster, were enemies.  But now they are fine friends, hanging out together when you let them out.

A few days ago when they were out, they snuck into the Mini coop which is buried in about 3 feet of snow.  The door to it was open about 6 inches enough for them to squeeze in, but not enough for me to get in to get them.  So I waited until night when they went into the little house part.  I could open that door enough to reach them.  So I got them when they bedded down and returned them to the main Rooster/Guinea Fowl coop.

Well, yesterday when I let them out, they remembered this little get away, and snuck back in there.  A while later the wayward guinea fowl was captured, and I herded everyone back into the coop.  The Fonze was on the trail, and I had to literally pick him up and carry him in, because he was refusing to go in his self.

Now, I had company over while this was all going on, so I finished up and went back in to resume visiting.  They left and I made supper and what not, then later in the evening, I went out to shut the hens in.

At this point, I just want to say that since fall, I have kept my roosters separate from the hens, so come spring, I can pair them up and begin collecting eggs, without the 6 week waiting period for one roosters rooster juice to run out and the proper one's to take over.  I have been very careful about this.  Warning kids with in an inch of their lives to never open both doors at the same time, or to let the Roosters get in with the hens.  I have seriously had nightmares of this and woken up in cold sweats.

So today was a bright and sun shiny day, and I figured since the Roosters have been out everyday since last Thursday, it was the hens turn at some freedom to soak up the rays.

Just now, I went out to shut the hens in, and who did I see so proud amongst the hens?!  Why that Rotten little Ronnie, all standing tall like he was the king and had every right to be among the lovely ladies.

It seems, he didn't go in yesterday with the roosters.  Instead he opted out to spend the night by himself in the mini coop where I couldn't see him, because the snow is so deep around it.  Yes, he must of thought he was in heaven today when he climbed up out of the snow surrounding the coop and seen the hens.

This little dude is like the Energiser Bunny,  and he's had a little lost time to make up for (not counting the short time I had him paired up with a silkie hen a few weeks ago).  He's not picky on the size of the hens, so I can only assume that he was getting while the getting was good.

I am shaking my head at myself, for not remembering him yesterday.  Now I will have to wait another 6 weeks until I can pair up the chickens to collect eggs for hatching.  That takes it to April 16th.   Oh my!

Chickens Are Not Vegetarians.

Despite what many people are led to believe chickens are NOT vegetarians. 

Here's the thing that gets me.  I've seen TV shows that promote buying Vegetable fed chicken meat from stores.  Vegetable feed chicken being healthier.  This bugs me.  

Chickens are not vegetarians.  They are Omnivores and will snap up a morsel of meat in a second!  They need this protein in their diet.  Is it fair to deny them meat (or bugs)?  As a person, you have a choice weather you want to eat meat or not.  And that's all good.  But feeding chickens a diet of veggies (and grains) just isn't natural for them, and you are denying them the choice to eat meat, therefore taking away their choice of a part of their natural diet.  Is this fair to the chicken?  Chicken rights!!! Ok, I'm just being silly.  But it does bug me that so many people are lead to believe that Chickens don't eat meat.

Chickens enjoy meat very much.  I recall several instances in which I have seen chickens consume it of their own free will.

One time, my parents came out to camp in their van in the yard.  We were having dinner, and their little Weiner dog was running around scarfing up the chicken food.  We threw the dog a piece of meat, well, the chickens got very excited about this and grabbed the meat before the dog could get it and ran off with it.  Funny thing to see the dog eating chicken food and the chickens eating her meat.

Chickens are mighty hunters, though you might not think so.  You can see them at it in the long grass or the leaves, as they look for their little prey, be it bugs, frogs or mice.  They remind you of Raptors, but don't they say, that chickens are distant relatives of the dinosaurs?

A few summers ago, while we were outside, we heard a screech, and looked up to see our daughter chasing a chicken screaming and yelling at it.  Big Butt, the chicken (named for her big, bulbous, bald butt) was running flat out, with a trail of chickens racing behind her, and behind them was my daughter.  Dangling, kicking from the mouth of Big Butt was the grand prize.  A frog.  Big Butt, then somehow managed to get far enough ahead that she had time to eat her dinner.  I don't think Madeleine ever forgave Big Butt.

Woe to any mouse that happens to try and sneak into the chicken house during the day.  Those chickens will take it down.  I have seen chickens chase , catch, kill and eat unfortunate  mice with great relish, and I don't mean the kind you have on your hotdogs.  

Chickens are rather smart at times.  They have it figured out, that if they follow the cat when he's hunting, that he will either scare up mice or they can steal mice that he catches.  I've seen this too, where they steal the cats mouse.  Last winter, the cat had a mouse he was bringing home still alive, and the chickens intercepted him and stole it.  The mouse didn't stand a chance between the cat and the chickens.

Just today, while I was outside trying to take pictures of my daughter, feeding the chickens scratch, they found a mouse.  I don't know if it was one they had or one the cat left, but the chase was on!  One chicken will be running with it, looking for a place to hide and eat it, and another chicken will steal it, and they will just keep on going.  Yes, these chickens today, chose the mouse over scratch.  (I  have to admit that I disposed of their mouse.  It was in bad shape. )

The smallest hen, claims her prize!  .... for a second!

My chickens get scraps from my kitchen.  Included in these scraps are sometimes cooked meat or eggs.  I feel that what we eat, they can eat (although I avoid giving them really sugary or salty foods).  I've found that chickens can be picky with some veggies, or even fruits.  But I don't think I've ever seen them turn down meat.

Yes, chickens enjoy a good old feast of meaty food.  Theirs no denying that, if you've ever had chickens.  But this is the nature of the beast.... Or shall I say, Chicken!

I want to add, that if I see my chickens eating mice that I try and get rid of the mice, because I worry about internal parasites being passed on from the mice.  Yuck!  

Incubation, Day 8

Last night, I unplugged the incubator and carried it into the darkest room in my house at night (The bathroom), to do a little candling.  

For Candling I use my big Mega Light.  I don't have a Candler yet, but this seems to work ok.  Some eggs I find hard to see through, like dark shelled eggs, and the Easter Egger Eggs.

When I candle, I shine the light through the fat end of the egg, and sort of rotate the egg and tilt it a bit to see what's going on in there.  At this stage, you can see blood vessles, and a dark shape in there.  As I watched I could see the dark shape moving around.  It's pretty neat, and gets more exciting as the eggs grow.  Candling can be addictive.

So This is what I had, and what I have now.

Started with:                                       Fertile:

6 Easter Eggers                                    3(?) Easter Eggers (the shells are hard to see though, so I left them all in)

11 Phyllis Diller (Polish X Frizzle)         8 Phyllis Diller

10 Cochin                                            8 Cochin

6 Blue Laced Red Wyandotte              5 Blue Laced Red Wyandotte

9 Polish                                               7 Polish

4 Silkie X                                            0

4 Silkie                                                2 Silkie

So, I'm not sure what happened with the Silkie X's.  I had a bantam cochin X in with Rotten Ronnie, and he was giving it for all he was worth with her and the little silkie.  I know that perhaps I should have given a few days more before I started collecting eggs (for all the breeds), so the first ones I collected didn't surprise me about not being fertile.

I was most surprised to see that the Blue Laced Red Wyandotte eggs were growing.  I really wasn't expecting it.  My roo got so frost bit this winter on his feet that I thought it would make mating hard for him.  But I guess where there is a will there is a way, and Frosty is able to do his job.  I'm really excited about this!

After I candled, I filled all of the water trays back up, put the incubator back on the turner and got it going again.

In my last post I was having temperature troubles.  Well, I turned the temperature up a bit at a time, until it reached a good temperature.  It seems to be holding quite well now.  I'm not sure why it had the drop, but I hope it stays good now.  As for the clicking, I tried the vaseline on the pin that holds the incubator, and haven't heard a click since!  I am really, really happy about this!

Incubator Issues

Last night I did a quick candle of the eggs in my incubator.  It looks like most of the Polish and Polish X Frizzle eggs are growing.  Some of the others, the shells are too dark for me to see through very well, yet.  Mind you it's only day four.

Since I have put the eggs in, I have been having trouble with humidity.  I just can't seem to keep it up.  The Brinsea Octagon 40 has four slots in the bottom, and you are supposed to fill two of them up with water and keep topping them up until lock down.  I had the vent closed 2/3rd of the way.  And still the humidity would not go up.  It was staying at 25 - 30%.  I tried closing the vent all the way.  No Change.  I also noticed that the temperature went down one degree to 99.5 (was about 100.5).

So last night I did my candle, and topped up all four of the water slots with very warm water.  Put the lid back on and crossed my fingers.  After a few hours, before I went to bed, I checked my incubator and noticed that the temperature varied.  I have 3 different thermometers in my incubator.  I thought this was because I had the lid off and it was still catching up in temperature.  The humidity was reading 60% with all 4 slots filled with very warm water and the vent closed all the way.

This morning I got up and checked my incubator. and was surprised to see that the temperature was still reading low, so I turned it up slightly.  One (the Spot Check) has the probe sitting in between the eggs about centre of the egg.  One is sitting on top of the eggs, and the other is stuck on the lid about half way up the lid.  All three thermometers are now giving me entirely different readings.  The lowest (in the eggs) is reading 97.8, the middle one is 98.3 and the highest is 99.0 degrees.  It's been a few hours now, and still no change to the temperature, so I just turned it up a little more.  Also the humidity is back down to 40%.  

Oh, did I mention that the turner is clicking?  I noticed it last fall when I did a test hatch but thought it might be because it was new and working out kinks.  But it is still clicking and worse now.  It clicks ever 5 - 20 seconds.  I've tried to re- adjust the incubator on the turner, WD40ing it.  It sounds the same when the incubator has eggs in it or empty.  I contacted the company and my clicking issue has been sent to the top guys, and I haven't heard back from them.  The clicking is quite loud, so that we can hear it upstairs in our bedroom with the door shut.

I feel rather sick about the whole thing, because I have wanted a good incubator for so long and it was a big deal for me to get this one.  And I really had to talk my husband into it, saying that Brinsea were top notch incubators.  I haven't mentioned to my husband the temperature issue that has risen yet.  He was all for sending it back last year when it arrived without the digital control, and again the other day when we got it going, and it was clicking again.

Ohhhhh what shall I do?  This is only the second time I have used this incubator.  

A Day In The Life Of A Chicken Keeper

I actually wrote this last year.  My family convinced me to send it into Hobby Farms Chicken Magazine and I forgot about it.  Several months later, I heard back from The Chicken Magazine!  They liked my story and said they wanted to print a slightly shorter version in the letter section of their magazine.  You can imagine my surprise.  It was run in the Summer 2011 issue.

Well, I thought I would share with you my original version.

A Day In The Life Of A Chicken Keeper

So, my chickens are just plain naughty right now.

The night that I moved them into their new home, the Two Hamburgs decided to sleep directly under the heat lamp on top of the brooder box and just about burnt down the new house the first night in it.  

All settling in for their first night in the new chicken house.

I can laugh about it now when I see them with the lovely holes burnt into the feathers on their once pretty backs.  The feathers are now charred and singed almost to the skin.  I can just picture those 2 best buds relaxing under the nice warm light, nodding off... "Hey, Gerta, this sure feels nice and warm, huh?" Gerta, with her eye closed "Yeah, Bessie, It just puts me right to sleep.  Warmest I've been since we were chicks..."  "Yes, Bessie, Nice and toasty... speaking of toast... Do you smell something burning?"  


Yes, I can picture them sitting there side by side as usual, fluffing up their curling and smothering feathers, and giving them a shake or two, before the heat of the burning becomes to much to bare.  I don't know why those girls didn't burn down the house...  I mean, I like crispy skin, but preferably on my dinner plate, not living birds.  Phew, close call.

Bessie, with the girls in the spring.  Her back still showing her close call several months after her close call.

The Fonze rooster (my polish), has been scrapping it out through the fence with Dinner Pot Pete (Easter Egger roo), and cracked his beak some.  

Dinner Pot Pete

My big Brahma Buddy, has it figured out if he waits by the nest boxes he can grab any of age hen that comes out of the boxes.

Buddy, looking proud.

Well, now, that I've got all the chickens, both my old chickens and new into one house, the old ones decided it would be good to teach those young chickens a thing or two.  The main thing they have shown them in the last couple days is how to eat eggs.  


I'm so, so upset about this!!!! I suspect that the "I just laid an egg!" cackle, is interpreted as a dinner bell to the other chickens.  


Yesterday I thought, "So, you like eating eggs do you?" and I devised up a couple lovely 'special' eggs full of the yuckiest stuff I could think of.  I mixed up a concoction of Vicks Vapo Rub(lots), hot mustard (lots) and tons of cayenne.  After blowing out a couple eggs, I injected the yucky stuff with a syringe.  Then I put these 2 gourmet eggs into the nest box.  


Well, I don't know what kind of freak chickens I have, but when I went to check for eggs this morning, one of these surprise eggs is completely gone!!!!   Talk about devilled eggs.  It must have burnt their sinuses off!  Unbelievable! 

Anyways, I raised the heat lamp and surrounded it with wire, so fixed that problem for now, until I decide what exactly I want to build.  The Fonze is in segregation until the wounds on his face is healed.  Dinner Pot Pete is due for the pot any day now.  And, as for the egg eating, I'm not exactly sure what to do.  I've been going out to collect eggs often.  I don't want to cull the whole flock, so ... We'll see.

The Fonze

Well, there lays my adventure for the last couple days of chicken keeping.  It's very enjoyable despite it all!  Definitely gives me things to think about.

The End

Well, I just have to say, that my trick with the nasty tasting eggs did work in the end.  While they ate the first one, they only broke the second one and left it laying there. 

Fired up the Incubator!

Last fall, I ordered a new incubator.  A lovely Brinsea Octagon 40 with a turner.  I did a test hatch with some Easter Egger eggs and found it worked better then my Hovabator.  Eight out of the Twelve eggs hatched.  In the past I was getting about half of the eggs hatch in the Hovabator. 

It's been a long winter, waiting to use my incubator again.  I keep my hens and roosters in different coops during the winter, so that come spring, I can pair up birds and start collecting eggs after only a few days.  This has worked well for me.

So, I paired up some roo's and hens into their breeding pens, and let the loving begin.  A few days later I started collecting eggs.  

I fired up the incubator on February 23rd.  

Incubation for chicken eggs takes about 21 days, at 99 - 103 F degrees.  Sometimes, I find that small banty eggs will hatch a little sooner, then the big ones.

Into the incubator I popped 

6 Easter Egger Eggs

6 Blue Laced Red Wyandotte

11 Phyllis Diller Eggs (Frizzle X Polish)

10 Barred Cochin Eggs

1 Cochin X Blue Laced Red Wyandotte Egg (She quit laying when I paired her up with the Roo)

9 Polish Eggs

4 Silkie Eggs

4 Silkie X Eggs

Which brings me to 50 beautiful eggs.

March 19th the eggs should hatch.  Last night I candled some Polish eggs, because they have white shells and are easy to see.  After only 4 days, I could see development, in most of the eggs!  I tried a few darker shelled eggs like the Easter Egger and Cochin Eggs, but am unable to see anything through those shells yet.  I'm not sure how many of them will be fertile though, because I may have started collecting a little soon.  Also my Blue Laced Red Wyandotte rooster, has frost bitten feet, and is very clumsy at mating, so I don't know just how successful he is, but I couldn't resist putting some eggs in anyways.

The Temperature is holding nicely at 99.5 - 100.5 F degrees.  But, I am having trouble getting the humidity up.  It's sitting right around 30%, (Should be 50-55%) which is strange, because the humidity in my house reads 43%.  I would have thought given the warm conditions, added water, and evaporation, that the humidity would be higher in the incubator.  I even have the vent, all the way closed, to try and up it.  Tonight I am going to candle again and I will try adding water to another slot in the bottom of the incubator and see if that doesn't bring it up. 

Yes, tonight I will candle and have another little look and see if I can't tell better who is growing and who is not.  It will be easier with the light eggs, such as the Polish, silkie and X's.  I will get rid of a few if I can't see growth to make some room in the incubator.  What am I making room for, you ask?  Well, my neighbour is going to run me down some quail eggs she has going in her incubator!  I'm so excited!

Coop Cleaning And Such

Well, I must be getting the spring itch.  This time of year seems the longest time of year for me.  It seems to drag on and on.  I look out the window and all I see is snow, snow and more snow.

It is going.... slowly.  I think we are down to only about 3 feet of the white stuff now. 

The other morning's view from the Cable Car while I was taking the kids to the bus.  Even though I complain of the snow, I am in love with the scenery here.

I've finally got my coop cleaned.  I've been wanting to do this since we had a cold snap in January which froze everything.  Then we got a huge dump of snow.  Then the snow got tracked back and forth into the coop, and at last my coop thawed.  Yes, it thawed all at once and became a muddy mess.  All that lovely frozen chicken poo created a lot of moisture all at once, too.  

But alas, the snow was so deep outside, and soft that it made packing the old litter out of the coop to the back of the property where we pile it impossible.  I mean, how can you pull a sled of that heavy stuff through 4 ft of soft snow?  

Well, finally for pretty much the first time this winter, the snow has gotten hard enough to walk on.  I love it when I can walk on the snow like that.  It makes things so much easier.  

After our lovely big dump of snow.  

So I loaded up my sled with heaps of litter from the coops and brought it to the back of the property.  This year was so much better then last year.  You see, there is a slight hill you have to go down to the back of the property where we pile it.  Just picture this.  Here's me last year, pulling my heavy load of poo to the little hill, then trying to run down the hill keeping ahead of the load of crap, only to have the crust on the snow give way, and my legs to break through and getting hit from behind with the load.  Not a pretty sight.  lol.  But even I had to laugh.  Any ways, this year it was frozen enough that I didn't break through, and the job got done smoothly.  I managed to get it all done in one day.  Both the larger hen house, and the rooster/guinea fowl coop got the cleaning. 

Since I don't want my Roo's mixed in with the Hens, I let the hens out first while I shovelled and hauled.  It was a nice sunny day, and some of the hens ventured down the shovelled path a little.  Others stood on the heap on the sled, refusing to budge even when I started hauling it away.  So a few girls got a little sleigh ride.

When it came time to do the Guinea Fowl/ Bachelor Pad, you can only imagine the excitement.  Some of the roosters went out and calmly stood, mean while, the guinea's literately flew out the door over my head, and landed out on the frozen snow and squawked their little heads off.  They protested so loudly, that a neighbour heard them down the road and was wondering if there was something big going down.  Then one decided that it would head across the yard.  Luckily, it didn't go to far, or go sit in a tree to prove a point.  

A guinea fowl, being silly sitting on a pole for a day before it headed to a tall tree to spend the night and another day.  This was earlier this winter, before the snow really came.  Notice how you can see the dog house in this picture, and the picture before, it has disappeared under all the snow?  How about the apple tree, and the mini coop by the wheel barrel? 

The hens were quite excited about it.  I opened the bale of Peat, and left it in the middle of the floor.  You should have seen those girls, kicking and scratching in that stuff.  You would think they hit the jackpot!  There were hens dust bathing in the pile with the peat particles floating through the air as they kicked up a storm.  They sure do a good job spreading it out.

Since last summer I have been putting peat in my chicken house.  I find it to be working quite well, as it keeps things pretty dry (Up until recently).  The hens love to scratch and bathe in it, and it keeps the smell down.  Last summer I figured that since we have heavy clay soil and have to add some peat to it, I thought that perhaps I should first use the peat in the chicken house, they can add their magic to it, I can let it compost for a year, then add it to my garden.  I'm thinking this is going to work pretty well.  This way I get double the use of the peat moss.  Not only that, but it is only half the price I was paying for a bale of shavings for the coop.

I can hardly wait for this heap to compost.  This is the first I've clean the hen house since last summer, and really it was pretty good until it got wet. 

I also got the top of the nest boxes, roosts and other places scrapped off.   I think they have a secret mission to poo on anything that they can stand on. 

I'll wait for later in the spring before I do any wall washing.  I just don't want to add the extra moisture to the coop.

We also finally butchered 5 roosters I've been wanting to get rid of for quite some time.  A few of them I was sad to see go, but, how many roosters can you keep?  Especially if they can't be used for breeding.  These ones weren't very big, so I didn't bother plucking them.  Instead I opted out for doing something I had heard someone else doing that worked well for them.  Since most of the meat is on the breast and thighs, I just pulled back the skin off the breast and thighs and removed these from the carcasses.  Usually I clean, and pluck all the birds, and sometimes it's more work then it's worth.  This actually worked very well.  I put the thighs, drum sticks and breasts in a bowl of water and let them rest for a few days, then cooked them the other day, and made some curry honey mustard chicken.  Tasty little Roos.

Also I cleaned out the breeding pens, and put a few chickens in them.  The Fonze (polish Roo) is in with a couple polish hens and Phyllis Diller, my Polish X Frizzle.  A couple Barred Cochins are in the top pen, with a very zealous Barred Roo.  Rotten Ronnie the silkie has a hen with him, and he's making up for lost time in the bachelor pad.  I don't think I will have to worry about fertility there.   And Frosty, my Frost bitten BLRW rooster has a few hens with him.  But to be honest, I don't think Frosty has gotten the hang of mating with his poor feet, which got frost bitten in a cold snap way back in November.  He's quite happy to have the ladies in with him, though.  Borris, the Easter Egger is getting quickies with his couple hens.  I don't have enough pens this time of year, so I take him out with the pair of hens, and let him spend an hour or so quality time with them.  

A barred Cochin Rooster.  How could you not love a fluffy butt?

Boris the EE and his hens.

So I've started collecting a few eggs for incubation.  I plan on hatching a few to take to sale this spring.  Speaking of that, I've also been working on helping to organize a Poultry Small Animal Sale in May.  I'm very excited about it.  This will be my first time helping to organize anything like this before.  So far it's going well.  I'm just crossing my fingers that we wont have a spring flood, and blow my plans. I guess time will tell.

Another thing I've been attempting is to sew some Chicken Saddles.  Chicken Saddles are a covering that you put on a chicken to protect her from Roosters claws and spurs.  Hen's can also wear them if they are getting picked on or have bear backs until their feathers grow back.  

The saddles are made out of denim on one side and a canvas on the other side.

The hens don't seem to mind wearing them.

Well, that's about all the excitement that I've been up to lately.

Rotten Ronnie the Rooster

Last fall, I wrote this poem about a little silkie rooster that I have.  I got Ronnie as a small little fluffy chick.  He was so cute that I decided to keep him when I was getting rid of roosters.  Little did I know what he had in store for us...

Rotten Ronnie the Rooster.

Once there was a rooster, cute and small.

He ruled the roost, he ruled them all.

He was small, and he was neat.

He was so fast upon his feet.

Feathers so silkie, soft and red.

He had a poof up on his head.

Eyes of brown, smart and bright.

He kept them peeled to start a fight.

He would strut and he would walk.

Quite the character, this little cock.

He was small, but he didn't know.

He would keep them all in tow!

All the roosters would run and flee.

When Rotten Ronnie, they did see!

The Fonze would run and he would hide.

In a small nest box, he would abide.

When Rotten Ronnie was about,

Even the hens would scream and shout!

Ronnie, Ronnie proud and cool.

Had the Mo-jo to make old men drool.

From hen to hen, he would run.

Getting some action was his fun!

Question of fertility was never in doubt,

When Rotten Ronnie was lurking about.

Turkey's, Dachshunds, he'd come on the fly.

Who would believe it from such a small guy?

All the big roosters, would quiver with fear.

From around the corner, Ronnie would appear.

Finally the day came, I could take it no more!

Rotten Ronnie had to go, a new home in store!

Maybe a new flock would make him behave.

Maybe the one chance his soul to save.

So warning and returns, I did arrange.

But I had high hopes his attitude would change.

But change it did not, I was saddened to hear.

Ronnie really is rotten!, the message did appear.

Ronnie wouldn't leave ANYTHING alone.

He had to come back to his old home.

In a diaper box, to home he did ride.

Where something that stinks, should abide.

Poor Rotten Ronnie, stuck in a pen.

Without any love or even a hen.

I think his intentions were to do alright.

But all that he did was look for a fight.

All that running has made him a waste.

Probably tough as a boot, he would taste.

And now I sit and ponder what to do?

Should I change Rotten Ronnie into stew?

Well, I have to tell you, we still have Rotten Ronnie, all these months later.  Here's what happened.

Rotten Ronnie to a holding pen he did go

With the eating roosters, on death row.

But Ronnie Ronnie, bad and mean,

Made those roosters cower and scream.

That could not be, it would not work.

Why, oh why, was he such a jerk?

So out we let him to free range.

But his time away had brought a change.

Into the yard a new rooster had come to stay.

Boris the Ameraucana, to save the day!

Ronnie was tough and he was bad.

But Boris was tougher and he was mad!

And so with jumping and kicking they did fight.

Ronnie and Boris dueled until the night.

And when dawn broke, the winner was clear.

Rotten Ronnie hid, and quivered in fear.

Ronnie, Ronnie, small and meek.

Hid by the tree for over a week.

Oh so lonely, with his head hung low.

Poor old Ronnie didn't know where to go.

And so to people for company he turned.

An important lesson had been learned.

Rejected and alone with his head hung low.

Our heart string tugged for the poor fellow.

Keep him we would, if he would only behave.

A second chance to give him, his soul to save.

And now Ronnie resides with roosters galore.

In the bachelor pad he lives until it's spring once more.

And so you have it.  The story of Rotten Ronnie.  His attitude is completely different these days.  He's a meek and mellow little fellow.  When I go in the Bachelor pad he comes and stands by my feet for a pet, and right beside his is The Fonze.  They get along fine now.  Funny how it all turned out, and we almost ate Rotten Ronnie.

Here's Ronnie, all tall and proud even though he was molting and his tail was pretty much gone.

Here he is after Boris put him in his place.  He hung out by himself over by this tree for weeks.  Poor little fellow.  We felt so sorry for him.

Here's Boris the Rooster.  The new king of the yard.

Here I am with Ronnie, and The Fonze.  Ronnie's looking cute here with his tail.