Saturday, March 14, 2015

Catching up

Sorry for not posting to anyone who actually reads this blog. Things have just been so insane and difficult, with the cold, sick baby, same baby turning 1, husband being ill, me being ill, did I mention the ridiculous cold wind snow and ice?

Some of the new babies, this is the 1st batch of 30

The brother and my husband built a fantastic brooder, by adding new parts and altering an older style model that my uncle was nice enough to gift us on the condition that we actually make use of it. Given that it is currently housing 82 or 83 chicks yeah it is getting put to very very good use!

The princess turned a year on the 6th. Much hilarity and happiness ensued. She has some delightful new outfits for summer and next fall, a butterfly that talks, and two yes two ride on toys. One is a super cool noise making airplane that she utterly adores, the other a simple bright pink Case IH push tractor that JD and I got for her. Currently she is experimenting to see if there is a way she can make use of both at one time.

Whole brooder 

We've also been battling the head and chest cold from he double hockey sticks. Poor princess caught it earlier in the week. A doctors appointment had us upping her dose of tylenol, and temporarily adding in some ibuprofen on days that she couldn't quite keep her fever down. She and I are slowly on the mend. Very very slowly. I'm still sneezing up a storm, and she is horribly congested. Running the humidifier at night seems to help greatly. 

The husband has also been battling Lyme's disease. After several months of not feeling up to snuff, and just generally being miserable he finally went to the doctors. Several tests, consults and such later it was determined he had a combination concussion and early stages of Lyme's going on. A couple weeks of taking it easy and some heavy antibiotics and he is creeping back to being his usual self.



Other issues around here, some varmint has been killing a bird or so a night for weeks. We finally figured out one of our culprits is a vicious barn cat, grabbing birds and yanking them through the wire. So we have been rebuilding the coop space trying to eliminate all points of possible entry. We thought we had the issue resolved, as we went over a week without losing any of our girls or boys, only to find a buff Cochin had been killed 2 nights ago. Now more alterations will have to be made, so as to try and keep any more birds from going in the wrong direction.

The boys are also putting together 3 new chicken coops. What with the purchase of 80 some new birds, and wanting some nice breeding stock, more coop space is a definite necessity. Within a week or 2 we should have three very nice 10-12 x 20 or so coops built and ready for stock. 

1 comment:

ellie k said...

I do read your blog every time you post, please keep it going. Hope everyone is on the mend by now. My husband has been sick for a month, most of it is coughing for about an hour non stop. You need to try to trap that cat, it will never stop catching chickens once it started on the other side it may keep rats out of the barn. Love the baby chicks.