Well, we are heading into the last week of April in a few days. Easter has come and gone with the spring winds, we are still finding the occasional hidden Easter egg around the house. Time has been going so fast, and I have so much to do that it feels like only yesterday was February. It is cold and lousy weather, we still have piles of snow around the yard, and it snows off and on almost daily lately. But it warms up enough almost every other day to have the fresh stuff melt. What we really need is some sunshine!
We got the hen house reno done, we insulated the floor and painted for all the new chicks. They all arrived on April 11th all 75 of them. 60 are all little fluffy yellow meat bird chicks, and 15 are little black, layer chicks, given free by the fall fair committee, 10 pullets and 5 roo's. One of each to be returned to the fall fair, the rest are ours to keep. They are all so cute, and are growing so fast already.
We have a cold going through the hen house right now. I have no clue where they picked it up, or exactly how severe it is as of yet. I noticed it a week ago now, and I still have some sneezing out there, including Sylvester, my big Polish roo. I am still rather worried about them, when I went and spoke to the lady I buy all my grain from, she just told me to cull the whole flock. She said when one shows symptoms cull it, and burn the carcass, it is the only way to control the spread of the disease. Well, it isn't that I don't think that she knows what she is talking about, but I think that she could be going a little over board. I am not ready for that yet. They are all eating, drinking and enjoying their fresh air. So should they start looking listless, or should one die, then I can think more severely like that. But for now I am going to try to ride it out. I have ordered some antibiotics and they should arrive some time next week, so if they aren't better by then, I will treat the whole flock. A few of the girls have quit laying, and the egg shell colour has faded from a nice brown to a very pale brown. I can't even put into words how much I hope that they recover from this.
My tomato plants are all up, and are about 6-8 inches tall. I started about 100 of them this year, because of being un able to find any last year. I sure hope that we start getting more sun and less cloud, cold, and snow though now because they are getting rather leggy, dispite being right in a South facing window.
The bassets are doing well, Odie is battling yet another ear infection. We just can't seem to get rid of it completely. It doesn't help either that Hoover keeps on licking in his ear. The old guy has an appointment with the doc on the 30th of April and hopefully we can get better meds for his ear and a possible diagnosis for the scabs on his nose. I will be holding my breath that it is not lupus.
The cat managed to sneak outside a few weeks ago, and is being incredibly sly. He refuses to come to us, and if he sees us actually turns around and high tails it as fast as he can in the other direction. Little brat!! We are still feeding him, kid 2 brings fresh food out to the garage every day to make sure that he doesn't starve. Last night however I saw a nice sized black and white cat strutting through the yard, so I think that he might have found a friend out there too!
In other house hold news Pebbles, Luigi, Cledus, and Super frog are all doing great. So is the human family, kid one ended up with the flu the Tuesday after Easter, so I missed work and he spent the day hugging the toilet bowl, poor lad. I slammed my finger in the house door in March and more purple is still growing out from behind the cuticle. I am beginning to wonder if it will ever end. It hurt mighty bad too! Then last weekend kid 1 got his finger stuck in the steering wheel of his go cart, so we had to take the steering wheel off and take the boy with wheel attached to emerge to get it removed! It went well, no wait at all, and no blood or tears involved at the hospital. He was so embarrassed too!
I will try my best to get some pics over the next week or so and do a wordless Wednesday soon. So many new and exciting things going on here every day!
Please don't forget folks, there is NO creature or person that loves YOU more than he loves himself, other than your dog, so PLEASE adopt don't shop!!
Showing posts with label Sylvester. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sylvester. Show all posts
Friday, April 20, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
Back in the swing....
Well here we are, swinging into the middle of January all ready. Things are going pretty smooth here, my back has finally let up and returned to the "regular old ache" that it has had for the last few years. The boys are back in school, my oldest even got to be on the news! They asked him what he liked most about being at the new school, and his answer was great! He can sometimes get a little shy, but sailed through like a pro! :)
We have a lot of snow, more than the last 2 winters already. It doesn't seem to be showing any signs of stopping any day soon either. Today was even a snow day for the boys, with all the busses cancelled in the city. I love it, it just keeps piling up out there, making a monster of a snow hill for my boys. Hubby might bring home the big loader from work to make the pile even taller. The pick up with the flat plow only manages to get the snow hill up to about 7 feet high. A front end loader can get it up to about 13 feet I believe. Which would be great motivation for the boys to go out and play.
The bassets had just a small little trail in the kennel to walk on, obviously because of how much they love the deep snow. ;) So because we had to carry in wood the other day Hubby snow blowed a nice path from the shed to the house, the bassets (and Pebbles) were thrilled! It was like a whole new yard to them. Snow that was unsniffed for about 2 weeks is like gold to these guys. It doesn't take much to make them happy. Anyways, Hoover poked himself in the eye the other day, it was all red and his haw was swollen, I treated it with antibiotic drops for two days and it all healed nicely. It was rather funny how much he loved to come and wipe that eye goop on my pant legs though. Odie ended up with a mild ear infection on the weekend, poor lad. I have been treating him with drops as well, and it seems to be clearing up rather nicely. He didn't even mess with it at all today. This doesn't seem like a great way to begin the new year, with both of the bassets hurting them selves. I hope that this will be the end of the problems as it was the beginning.
The chickens are all well now. I lost 2 over the holidays to Mareks disease, Momma our beautiful black banty hen, and one of my silkies. That leaves me with just the 4 silkies now, and I have yet to know if any are roosters. I still have the 3 nasty black hens separate from the rest of the flock because of pecking. The polish are settling in rather nicely and 2 of the 3 roo's are crowing their heads off now. One of them is even doing his "job" as a rooster with a bunch of the hens, but still not all of them. I still have 2 very testy red hens in there that will occasionally pick and pull feathers out of my polish but Sylvester is slowly gaining control over his flock. When I see no more of him running from those 2 nasty hens I will put one of the black ones back in there and give her a week or so to settle down, then I will add the last 2 together. I just hope all of this occurs before spring! These guys all need to live together permanently so they have got to learn to get along. I have two hens with bumble foot, who knows how they got it, it was very new so I cleaned the coop and did foot surgery on the hens, Big Red sailed through it, when I changed her bandages today her foot looked great, I cleaned it up, put new bandages and brought her back out to the coop. The other red hen now named Mia, (after Mia Hamm who was born with a club foot but still managed to become a famous soccer star) didn't fare so well, when her bandages were removed today her foot pad had doubled in size and was red and hot. So I had to re-open the wound and dig out the root of the infection. It went well, it took about an hour, but when I was done the foot was soft, and clean and the hen was happy enough to eat a whole slice of bread. :D
So as you can see there is never a dull moment here at "The Hens Nest". We are all keeping busy and all have plenty to smile about. The female cat has returned to her Moms house, but Salt the male is still here for now. We are seriously thinking about keeping him because they offered but we are waiting to see what happens over the next week or so till we make up our minds. The frog is doing super, eating and growing, a pretty nice pet actually, he never wakes me up at night to pee, never barks, or pees on the floor. A ideal pet really! Well, happy Friday the 13th to everyone. I am not superstitious, to those of you who are I hope you had a great day anyways. See you on the flip side! Hugs and droolies for you all.....
We have a lot of snow, more than the last 2 winters already. It doesn't seem to be showing any signs of stopping any day soon either. Today was even a snow day for the boys, with all the busses cancelled in the city. I love it, it just keeps piling up out there, making a monster of a snow hill for my boys. Hubby might bring home the big loader from work to make the pile even taller. The pick up with the flat plow only manages to get the snow hill up to about 7 feet high. A front end loader can get it up to about 13 feet I believe. Which would be great motivation for the boys to go out and play.
The bassets had just a small little trail in the kennel to walk on, obviously because of how much they love the deep snow. ;) So because we had to carry in wood the other day Hubby snow blowed a nice path from the shed to the house, the bassets (and Pebbles) were thrilled! It was like a whole new yard to them. Snow that was unsniffed for about 2 weeks is like gold to these guys. It doesn't take much to make them happy. Anyways, Hoover poked himself in the eye the other day, it was all red and his haw was swollen, I treated it with antibiotic drops for two days and it all healed nicely. It was rather funny how much he loved to come and wipe that eye goop on my pant legs though. Odie ended up with a mild ear infection on the weekend, poor lad. I have been treating him with drops as well, and it seems to be clearing up rather nicely. He didn't even mess with it at all today. This doesn't seem like a great way to begin the new year, with both of the bassets hurting them selves. I hope that this will be the end of the problems as it was the beginning.
The chickens are all well now. I lost 2 over the holidays to Mareks disease, Momma our beautiful black banty hen, and one of my silkies. That leaves me with just the 4 silkies now, and I have yet to know if any are roosters. I still have the 3 nasty black hens separate from the rest of the flock because of pecking. The polish are settling in rather nicely and 2 of the 3 roo's are crowing their heads off now. One of them is even doing his "job" as a rooster with a bunch of the hens, but still not all of them. I still have 2 very testy red hens in there that will occasionally pick and pull feathers out of my polish but Sylvester is slowly gaining control over his flock. When I see no more of him running from those 2 nasty hens I will put one of the black ones back in there and give her a week or so to settle down, then I will add the last 2 together. I just hope all of this occurs before spring! These guys all need to live together permanently so they have got to learn to get along. I have two hens with bumble foot, who knows how they got it, it was very new so I cleaned the coop and did foot surgery on the hens, Big Red sailed through it, when I changed her bandages today her foot looked great, I cleaned it up, put new bandages and brought her back out to the coop. The other red hen now named Mia, (after Mia Hamm who was born with a club foot but still managed to become a famous soccer star) didn't fare so well, when her bandages were removed today her foot pad had doubled in size and was red and hot. So I had to re-open the wound and dig out the root of the infection. It went well, it took about an hour, but when I was done the foot was soft, and clean and the hen was happy enough to eat a whole slice of bread. :D
So as you can see there is never a dull moment here at "The Hens Nest". We are all keeping busy and all have plenty to smile about. The female cat has returned to her Moms house, but Salt the male is still here for now. We are seriously thinking about keeping him because they offered but we are waiting to see what happens over the next week or so till we make up our minds. The frog is doing super, eating and growing, a pretty nice pet actually, he never wakes me up at night to pee, never barks, or pees on the floor. A ideal pet really! Well, happy Friday the 13th to everyone. I am not superstitious, to those of you who are I hope you had a great day anyways. See you on the flip side! Hugs and droolies for you all.....
Friday, November 25, 2011
As the winter winds begin.....
Winter is quickly closing in on us. Our mornings great us dark, with frosted roofs and lawns. The afternoons warm up to about 1 degree, with little wind and a little bit of sunshine now and then.
The hens were still going out in the afternoons till about a week or so ago. They would all run to the camper to dust bathe underneath. Then out to stroll the yard in 2 groups, one of 5 red hens, always together, I call them the trouble makers. The other with 3 red hens, the 3 black hens, and Tracy the big white hen. They love scratching in the fallen leaves, looking for bugs and worms that surface in the afternoon warmth. I enjoy the sound of them outside, the singing of the ladies and the constant rustle of leaves. It makes me smile, apparently the neighbour was enjoying them scratching in his leaves too. Momma hen, the one who set on the 4 eggs this past spring is locked in with the Polish chicks, in hopes that she might bond with them, and regain some status when spring time comes seeing as she will be friends with the new roosters. (Fabio and Sylvester)
I had to separate the Polish and layer hens a few weeks ago. We had a few days of awful rainy, and cold weather, so I kept all the ladies inside. It was just too windy and cold to let them out. Well I guess that they got bored or angry at the little guys and began picking on them once again. I went out in the morning to discover all of the tail feathers missing from 4 of the 7 chicks. When I call them chicks, don't think of little yellow fluffy guys, these are as tall as my hens, just not as plump looking. They are still young however and are afraid of the big hens. They also still peep like a chick so the hens feel more secure when pulling their feathers out. I was shocked to see what those "bitties" did to them in one afternoon. I tried them back with the silkies, but to no avail as they tower above them, they stole their heat lamp, their food, pecked at them, and chased them into a far corner. So I ended up doing a chicken house reno that day, so now the Polish are in their own 9 x 3 pen inside the hen house, waiting till they mature a little more and the roosters begin crowing, and the hens begin to cluck. At that time, they will all be able to be together without problems. I hope!
I have been keeping rather busy, I have one end all sanded and primed on my sink. The front is in the process but I ran out of sandpaper, so it is on hold till I go and get some this weekend. I have been busy crocheting, I made a cute little basset and an equally cute little monkey. 2 more bassets to make, and 2 beagles. I have been working on my Christmas card, I finished my rough draft then changed my mind. So back to the drawing board this weekend. We had some beautiful weather 2 weeks ago, so with plenty of help from my hubby we got the new door on the "Hens Nest" it looks really great. I also got the window and door trim painted, as well as the soffit and fascia. Now I am just looking forward to getting the rest done in the spring. I have big plans in my head!
It was snowing here, we already had about 12 cm, but that has nearly all melted now. I do believe that the weather network said it is supposed to come down all tomorrow afternoon. Yay, it makes the boys really excited when they see the snow and they have to dig out their snow pants because it is getting so cold out. They are looking forward to having enough snow to get out the snow mobile. Oh and lets not forget about Christmas, what kid isn't excited about Christmas. With a month left today I am going to have to get my shopping finished! About half done, and haven't even began my baking yet! So until next time, keep warm and hug those you love! Unless it's a goldfish, might be better for him if you just "kiss his glass"!!!!
The hens were still going out in the afternoons till about a week or so ago. They would all run to the camper to dust bathe underneath. Then out to stroll the yard in 2 groups, one of 5 red hens, always together, I call them the trouble makers. The other with 3 red hens, the 3 black hens, and Tracy the big white hen. They love scratching in the fallen leaves, looking for bugs and worms that surface in the afternoon warmth. I enjoy the sound of them outside, the singing of the ladies and the constant rustle of leaves. It makes me smile, apparently the neighbour was enjoying them scratching in his leaves too. Momma hen, the one who set on the 4 eggs this past spring is locked in with the Polish chicks, in hopes that she might bond with them, and regain some status when spring time comes seeing as she will be friends with the new roosters. (Fabio and Sylvester)
I had to separate the Polish and layer hens a few weeks ago. We had a few days of awful rainy, and cold weather, so I kept all the ladies inside. It was just too windy and cold to let them out. Well I guess that they got bored or angry at the little guys and began picking on them once again. I went out in the morning to discover all of the tail feathers missing from 4 of the 7 chicks. When I call them chicks, don't think of little yellow fluffy guys, these are as tall as my hens, just not as plump looking. They are still young however and are afraid of the big hens. They also still peep like a chick so the hens feel more secure when pulling their feathers out. I was shocked to see what those "bitties" did to them in one afternoon. I tried them back with the silkies, but to no avail as they tower above them, they stole their heat lamp, their food, pecked at them, and chased them into a far corner. So I ended up doing a chicken house reno that day, so now the Polish are in their own 9 x 3 pen inside the hen house, waiting till they mature a little more and the roosters begin crowing, and the hens begin to cluck. At that time, they will all be able to be together without problems. I hope!
I have been keeping rather busy, I have one end all sanded and primed on my sink. The front is in the process but I ran out of sandpaper, so it is on hold till I go and get some this weekend. I have been busy crocheting, I made a cute little basset and an equally cute little monkey. 2 more bassets to make, and 2 beagles. I have been working on my Christmas card, I finished my rough draft then changed my mind. So back to the drawing board this weekend. We had some beautiful weather 2 weeks ago, so with plenty of help from my hubby we got the new door on the "Hens Nest" it looks really great. I also got the window and door trim painted, as well as the soffit and fascia. Now I am just looking forward to getting the rest done in the spring. I have big plans in my head!
It was snowing here, we already had about 12 cm, but that has nearly all melted now. I do believe that the weather network said it is supposed to come down all tomorrow afternoon. Yay, it makes the boys really excited when they see the snow and they have to dig out their snow pants because it is getting so cold out. They are looking forward to having enough snow to get out the snow mobile. Oh and lets not forget about Christmas, what kid isn't excited about Christmas. With a month left today I am going to have to get my shopping finished! About half done, and haven't even began my baking yet! So until next time, keep warm and hug those you love! Unless it's a goldfish, might be better for him if you just "kiss his glass"!!!!
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