Thrush, Trimming, Updates, and, umm...More.

Hello!
Long time no post...I actually had pictures for both of the last Sunday Stills posts but just somehow...never got around to posting...

SOOO much has been going on with Daisy and I since the cross country schooling, and yet nothing has happened...

The schooling brought up various questions about Daisy's soundness and life has a barefoot horse that I really needed to sort out...I actually have each of the questions written down, and answers, but...I don't feel like sharing. Not today...maybe another day. Or maybe never. I can't decide...partially because the answers contain words that could be considered, um...offensive, I guess, to certain people...who will probably never read this, anyway, but I'd rather not share right now :).

ANYWAY, I need to say a BIG thank you to Mrs. Mom especially for being willing to email me, answer questions, look at my photos, give me advice on Daisy's thrush, etc...you were SUCH a help, I SO appreciate it! Thank you very, very, very much!

Daisy did have thrush...it's gone now, I'm pretty sure. It was still lingering in her right hind last Monday when my trimmer came, but I've been ACV spraying, and it's gone.

And now, DRUM ROLL PLEASE!
I TRIMMED DAISY'S HOOVES LAST MONDAY! FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!!!!!

Yes, yes, you can stop gushing now. I know, I know, really, please be quiet...I KNOW, stop getting so excited!


(I'm not really sure what made me write that^^)

But for real, I did trim Daisy's hooves...my trimmer gave me one of his old(er) files, and showed me how to trim Daisy's hooves (I'm supposed to remember, BACK 45 degrees! Not in that order...) and next Monday (not tomorrow) I will go about, umm...*trying* to trim her hooves myself. He said I could go ahead and trim her hooves two weeks into the trim...which is cool. I got the whole trimming the edges down fine (at least, the left side, where I can use my right hand...I have yet to try with my left...that will be awkward :P) but I'm a little unsure about trimming her bulbs...that's where the "BACK" comes in...and I go to just about height of the frog...but not lower...and...yeah...we'll see. :P

High school is keeping me very busy these days...*thanks*. :P

I haven't been riding as much...and Daisy's showing it through weight gain (not totally because of lack of riding, though :P) and grumpy (er) attitude (grumpier than the usual grump than she is). I just call her Miss Grumpy these days and scratch her behind the ears more often...the pictures above were from a few weeks ago now.

I went to ride at Jean's yesterday, and am going again on Wednesday...she got some new horses at an auction, and they turned out quite nice. I like them a LOT! :))

Alrighty...well...the chickens got a new coop. So I will eventually be posting pictures of the build and finish on my other blog (Link at the side, over there ------>>> )

Horsefly Season

Bonjour, my blogger friends!
No, I'm not in France. I'm still in NY, in the height of the horsefly season. AKA, the WORST time of year ever. Even worse then winter.

Horseflies are JERKS. I was wondering already where they were this year, but now I realize they must just not come out until just before fall. These buggers are HUGE. And disgusting, and PAINFUL. I read up about them a bit; these flies have "scissor-like" teeth that slash open the skin of a horse/cow/person, so that the blood comes out and they can lick it off. It's very painful. Luckily, due to them being so huge, they're very easy to smack and kill. However, I must have killed at least 30 or 40 this season already, and they're still there. Of course.

Riding is kinda a pain right now; literally. I haven't been bit, but I DO NOT want to be. They fly all over and threaten biting you. Yesterday Daisy got bit by one while out grazing, and she was bleeding, so I felt SO bad. Today, I had her out to free-graze, and I listened to her outside the window running back and forth to avoid them. She went in her stall, the only place to avoid them, but came back out; poor girl just wanted grass! I had sprayed her with fly spray already, so I was trying not to watch; I knew she wanted to graze, but I hated the flies.
Then I looked out and saw this:


Daisy doesn't normally go in the garage, but apparently she was about to go in, hoping for some relief. And I found these munching happily on her:

OUCH(just so you all know, I killed all three just after the pic was taken).
SO. I stood there wishing I had a flysheet. I've never bought one, used one, never considered one...but then, like *magic*, I thought of my show sheet! And, voila:

I got it on my birthday a year ago from my cousin, Anika, and planned on using it for showing, to keep Daisy clean...I never ended up using it, though, because Daisy never rolls anyway (yey for me!).
Daisy kinda spook at it, though, as she always does when wearing a blanket for the first time in a little while. Notice how her butt is pulled in; yeah, she spooked BAD, trying to run away from herself :-P lol.

Then she was fine. Fly-free and happy, she got to keep grazing. :) yey!

I must say, I think she looks like she's grazing in a pair of pajamas :-P lol

Soo...I imagine I'm not the only one who struggles with the horseflies....what do you do to keep them away??

Until next time,

Sunday Stills: Clouds

Hey, look who's BARELY getting the post out?!

Yeah, I don't blame you if you miss my Sunday Stills post this week; too busy to post my pics until now...

The first one is of the new guide dog puppy my friend is raising; that cute pup's name is Dahlia :).
The second is the sky, already featured once in my other blog :-P.
The third was taken with my camera phone, which is why the quality isn't THAT good; it's my chicken, Sydney.

Have a great week!
I'll be updating you about my show on Saturday evening tomorrow (hopefully)! :)

Check out more clouds here at Sunday Stills!

The Chick's Big Move

16 Adorable New Birdies

For All Those Chicken Owners...

I thought I'd tell you, in case you're interested, about this contest that Purina Mills is hosting, called "America's Fanciest & Funniest Chicken Photo Contest".

I got a postcard for it that says "Be a part of America's fanciest and funniest poultry photo conest by sending in your best shot of your fanciest bird struttin' his stuff or your funkiest chicken doin' his thing. Entries will be judged by employees of Purina Mills, LLC and will be lookin gfor the following criteria: Originality, overall artistic compesition, use of color, and photo quality. Enter at www.betteranimals.com/fanciestandfunniest . Two categories to win in: Fanciest Bird. Funniest bird. Limit 4 entries per household. Deadline is May 31, 2009. For complete rules see www.SunFreshRecipe.com

They show examples as being chickens with dresses on and stuff...soo I thought I'd tell you, in case any of you out there have dressed up your birds ;-). Maybe I will, Idk... :)

oh, and 10 people in each category will win the Grand Prize, 12 free bags of SunFresh Recipe Poultry feed and 1st place winners (20 in each category) will get a SunFresh Recipe apron...soooo yeah....

It's COLLLDDDDD out!

Helloooo!
Quick post...

It was said all weekend that it would get down below zero this week...and it did! Yesterday I had to drag an extension cord all the way to the coop from the garage to hook up the heat lamp. And switch out the bulb. But, voila, here it is! It's in the video below ;-).

The barn cats are surviving fine...they sleep together and are warm. I brought them a heated pillow this morning, but that's all.


Stay warm, everyone!

Bibbi & Survivor

Hello again!
Sorry it's been so long.

Last week I asked if you guys though Survivor would be lonely without friends.
And we felt, as you said, that she would be lonely.

So we went to the family's house who has our chickens presently.

And we got Bibbi back.
We are insane, I know--give 'em away, get one back.
But I'd like to say that, though they will be slaughtered, our chickens seem very very happy at their new home. They now have (*gasp*) their own rooster! A VERY pretty, golden rooster, which loves our chickens. We spoke with the wife of the man who picked up the birds, and she seemed very nice--they have 25 of their own (VERY beautiful) birds and she was kind and I believe our chickens won't suffer when they're killed, so I'm happy, I guess.
Anyway.
Bibbi was quiet on the ride home. She sat in a cat cage. We brought her up to the coop with Survivor in it, and I opened the "human" door of the coop, and then opened Bibbi's cage. She didn't come out at first, and then suddenly she came running out and she seemed to recognize the coop, and she jumped in and started eating food. Survivor looked like she was in shock, she was so surprised, but she was clucking, and she came off the roost and went and looked at Bibbi. Then she drank water. RIGHT away, she drank. Which makes us think that maybe she was too afraid to come off the roost to drink and eat before.

She and Bibbi seem very happy now. Bibbi used to be one of the quietest hens in the coop, but she's now the "leader" of her and Survivor--she comes right to the door and she's always just -there-....

She's also laying eggs! Only one every other day, but it's still nice! :)

So our two chickies are happy.

The ladies. lol

Over and up,

And Now There Are Six

I'm going to tell you a story.

Picture a girl going out for a trail ride, bareback. She heads out onto the trail and doesn't get more then 15 paces before she hears shrieking. She thinks instantly that it sounds like a chicken. A familiar chicken. But surely it can't be a chicken of hers, seeing as how her chickens have been gone now for one full week. She decides it must be a turkey in distress. She urges her horse forward at a trot and peers through the trees, trying to see. Suddenly, movement catches her eye, and the girl spots a very frightened chicken running through the snow covered wood, followed by a very mischievous young cat named Gronemeyer. The girl screams like she's going to die, yelling like crazy to stop the stupid cat from killing the one chicken that made it away from the slaughter man's hands the week before. She hops off her horse, and without really thinking, she snaps her horse's reins to a very small tree branch and races through the woods. The cat is now sitting, content to watch the show, under a tree, while the chicken runs around, bewildered. The girl follows the chicken through the woods. The chicken ambles along, just out of reach of the girl, until the chicken goes just behind the trunk of a tree. The girl stands on the other side of the trunk and peeks around the left side of the trunk. There is the chicken, peeking back at her. The chicken moves to the right side of the trunk and peeks around. So does the girl. This process continues itself as the girl contemplates how to snatch the bird. She decides she has no other choice, and as the bird peeks around the right side of the trunk another time, the girl grabs the bird's tail feathers. The bird cries out, but the girl grabs her and hugs her to her chest. Survivor has been found.

Yes. This is a true story. ;-)

That is exactly what happened to me today. Last week, when the one single bird got away, I honestly didn't think about it. I considered it dead, probably hunted by another animal, and after one day, I forgot about it. I really didn't think I'd see that bird, but to see it running through the woods...well, what a miracle.

Now dubbed "Survivor" for obvious reasons, the Ameraucana hen sits in her chicken coop.

She was so exhausted when she got it, but she ran through the coop like she remembered it. She has lettuce to eat, and scratch, and water, and hay to bed in.

And for a chicken that can survive in the woods, in the snow, when it's 20 degrees at night, for one week, and not die, there is no end in sight. We will keep Survivor.

We're hoping she won't be too lonely. What do you all think? Is it bad to have one lone chicken?

She was actually one of the only two chickens who DIDN'T have a name before.

She does now.

Happy ending?

BTW, I want to give Daisy some credit:

For being tied to a little tiny tree, and her reins literally clipped there, and so close to home, and not even being told to "Whoa, stand" she was great. She stood really patient, and walked along nice while I held the chicken in my arms.
This is good, considering how she was on Saturday.

Now there are six pets.

Goodbye, Birdie

Since about September our chickens have been laying less and less eggs, until since October we've gotten only 1 egg a day, one weak shelled egg, if at all.

Chickens are very expensive to feed. And if they aren't giving eggs, it's even worse....(I can't think of a better way to phrase that...it's not meant to sound harsh)...plus, they have a depressing life in winter. They sit in their little house, in the cold, for practically months because of the extreme snow and ice at our house. And it's hard to take care of them as well.

All these factors caused us to make a decision. This may make some of you bloggers out there who absolutely love your chickens to hate us. But I'm being honest. We decided we had to have someone slaughter them. After contacting a person who ended up not taking them, we found a family a few towns away that has had chickens, and has slaughtered roosters and chickens before, and would be willing to do it for us.

So yesterday our chickens left. He seemed like a nice man, and he said he did the deed quickly.

We will not be eating them. We gave them to the man, and we expect to not ever see them again. I couldn't stand eating them.

One chicken actually escaped the box the chickens were being transported in. It got into the woods. Unfortunately, it did not return home. We do not know which one it was.

The chickens are staying with the man to be fattened up more, and then they will be slaughtered.

Today we are 10 animals less in our family. Only 5 now. We will miss our chickens, but this is life. We got eggs from them for a full year, and next spring we hope to get chicks again.

Hope you don't hate us.

The pictures were taken yesterday, as they enjoyed their last supper...although, that is technically their second last supper...the first last supper was red cabbage from the restaurant ;-).

Good bye, birdies.

Bathing Bibbi---UPDATED!

I am now able to open the page with the videos, so I have embeded them below!

The top one is part one, the lower one is part two, of washing Bibbi, the chicken...check below for more info. Pictures of her all clean to come! :D

How Do You Give A Chicken A Bath?

This is Bibbi. I believe she is a faverolle...anyway, she spends probably 23 hours and 45 minutes of her day sitting in one of the nest boxes--whether there are eggs in the box or not, she sits there. Once a day I do her the favor (Yes, a favor) of shoving her out of the box so that she is forced to go eat food and drink. Of course, as soon as I do that she runs like a mad hen squawking out the coop shed and into the pen to drink water and eat some food like she has just been let out of prison and hasn't eaten in months. Really, she acts like we force her to sit there! So, my first question is, do any of you know how to discourage her from sitting in the coop so much and get out in the fresh air?

Also, because she sits there so long, when she lays an egg she tends to, sometimes (I'd say twice a week) crack the egg and get the yolk all over her stomach. She did this recently, and she has the egg sticking all over her stomach, and her feathers are all gross and ewwww, gross...so I'm going to give her a bath. I was going to give her one today, but I haven't because it's not that warm out, and we are not bringing her in the house. I think I'll do it like it says here, mixed with the way this lady here does it...except not in the kitchen.

Have any of you ever given your chickens a bath? Any suggestions?

3:34 PM

Strange Egg---Chicken or Hummingbird?

A few days ago I went out to the chicken coop and found this egg on the ground. I don't really think it's a chicken egg--it's very small, and our chickens are over a year old, it's been a year since they started laying eggs, so they can't possibly still be laying such small eggs, right?

I think maybe another bird flew in and laid it... Anyway, I tried to crack it in a bowl. It wouldn't crack, though, the plastic-like layer on the inside wouldn't break, so I slit it with a knife.

This is it! Isn't that yolk SMALL?! I thought it was really weird. I wonder if, because of the way the yolk is shaped, if it was already a baby bird...?

Do snakes lay eggs?

This is the yolk up close-about the size of, or smaller then, a jelly bean.

So this is it. Now-

-What are your thoughts? Could it be the egg of a hummingbird? A chicken egg? Do snakes lay eggs? That is the question.

On a different note, I start school again next Thursday--one week left. **Grumble, groan, rolls-eyes, sigh.**

6:33 PM

Ribbons/Trophies/Plaque, and Eggs

^^^^^^^^^^^
Just a gorgeous pic I took of Daisy on Tuesday morning, at the same time that I took the video (see post below this one!!!!)...isn't it a great pic of her? I'm sooo happy that she looks so shiny, and fit, and even her socks (the white on her legs are called socks) are relatively clean. Too bad she has her fly mask on...but I still like it! :)

^^^^^^^
These are my ribbons, plaque, and trophies! I had a few people ask for a pic of them...I think you meant with me, but I didn't get that to happen, so I just got a picture of the stuff itself...

^^^^^
Soooo, this is the plaque (or, as 4H calls it, a revolving trophy). It was started in 1996 by the Heads Up 4H Club (as it says). They mad the original board and top plaque, and put all the small plaques on it, and the idea was that every year the winner of the Junior, Western Command Class would get the trophy, engrave their and their horse's name (as well as the year) on it, and pass it on to the next year's winner. I won it for this year, and I found that the person from last year hadn't filled their name and horse's name in! SO, I'm hoping to find out who it was, put the info in, put mine in, and keep it, because my name would be the last one-it's the last empty space! It's really interesting to read the names of the horses, and people, and think that when I was still really little, that trophy was started! I like the idea of it...

Now, I'm posting this because I wanted to show what the eggs in the last video (see below post!) looked like after I washed them, because they looked pretty gross and unloved sitting in the box :-P. Don't they look nicer now? There were a dozen altogether, but two of them ended up having weak shells and breaking, so Abby (our dog) got them with her dry food for dinner. :) It gives her a shiny coat. :^)

9:30 PM

Chicken Coop/Daisy Video

Tour of the Chicken Coop-Finally