Thursday, March 24, 2011

Hmmmm

Blossom is hard at work sitting on those 8 eggs, but I don't think more than 2 or 3 chicks will hatch, if any... Half the eggs were cold and candling showed sloshy insides (quitters).

She's kinda rough with rolling them around and has scratched all the bedding away so the eggs are laying on hard plywood.

As long as she gets two babies, I'll be happy!

They're due March 30th so I'll keep you guys updated :-)

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

OoooOOoo more babies!

My awesome silkie hen Blossom has been hard at work sitting on a pile of eggs for a week now, and it looks like there might be seven babies on the way - wheee!

Here's to hoping for some cute wittle silkies and maaaybe a frizzle in two weeks!

Mojo! We need chickie mojo! w00t w00t!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

News and such

Well!

The coop's been busy!

First, Coco made a miraculous recovery from her illness - I truly thought she wasn't going to make it but lo and behold, she's totally fine now. The power of positive mojo... and Tylan-50 antibiotics. That was a close call I hope to never repeat!

But as life gives, life also takes away...

My husband found one of my two gorgeous sweet buff orpington pullets, Wanda, cold and dead in a nesting box last Saturday. No signs of illness or injury so I think she must have been egg-bound... She was only seven months old :-(

In a rage of losing so many chooks the past few months, today I put 13 eggs (for good luck!) under Blossom, my broody silkie mama. She's hatched babies before so let's see what comes out of it in three weeks, if anything. I got some eggs from one of my friends and am crossing fingers and toes to get a few chicks - specially the black frizzle bantam cochins!

Spare COME ON CHICKIES mojo gladly accepted!

In return you get cute pics, updates, videos... LOL!

Speaking of which, remember cute baby Penguin aka Smudge?


He somehow caught the Uglies, poor thing!
Pretty sure he's a boy... 
Who knows, maybe he'll turn out handsome once all grown up?


Everyone's feathered in and developing personalities to match-
This is Nelly, whom I think is a girl...
At this age (6 weeks old) it could go either way, to be honest.
Girls! I need girls!


The babies were moved to the big silkie pen today and they are LOVING it! Finally room to flea-jump everywhere, plenty of places to explore, lots of food to throw around - the adult birds are super patient and sweet with them, I was amazed and relieved to see that as you never know how it can go.

I love my chooks :-)

Friday, March 4, 2011

Please pray for Coco...

My sweet sultan hen, Coco Chanel, fell terribly ill last night.

She was fine during the day, and then bam! Some sort of bronchitis? I don't know what happened other than she is gasping for every breath, wheezing with her beak wide open, struggling to get oxygen in her lungs, sneezing and gurgling.

It sounds horrible, like a mewing cat with every painful breath.


I isolated her in a heated condo, syringed Tylan-50 into her crop as she is not drinking, 
and hoped for the best...

She made it through the night, although she isn't much better this morning.

She hasn't touched her medicated water at all and I'm afraid to syringe more meds into her, as every dose is potentially going into her lungs and that would be fatal.

She ate a few bites of food but is fluffed up and you can see she's exhausted from trying to breathe.
I feel so useless :-(

I have to leave for the weekend and am only back late Monday,
so it's out of my hands.

My husband will do his best to take care of her and keep me posted.

Any spare mojo, healing vibes and prayers you can spare would be greatly appreciated.

I love this sweet, tiny, gentle girl :-(