Oxine AH

 Sharing a link to an article about the uses of Oxine, unactivated. It's effective against mold, viruses, bacteria and more, and can be used in chickens drinking water and as a treatment for respiratory issues. 

To read the article, 

CLICK HERE

First Saturday Lime Review

 

Rainy Months And Fancy Feathers

 

Rainy Months and Fancy Feathers

Here we go again guys..the cold, wet months are here. I wanted to just take a second to offer my 2 cents on housing feather-footed breeds, and more fragile breeds like Silkies and Polish. Cochins do well during cooler weather. The hot months are when they suffer. Having heavily feather feet though, it's best to keep them inside when it's very muddy, or in a covered run that's not sloppy. Besides damaging their feathers, they can get mud and ice balls on and between their toes. 

Fragile breeds like Silkies, Polish, and frizzles of any breed, absolutely need to be kept inside a draft-free and dry coop when it's cold and wet. 

I urge you to please reconsider keeping those breeds if you can't provide that type of housing for them. 

Frizzles can not puff up their feathers and keep warm like other breeds because their feathers don't lie close to their body. 

Silkies don't necessarily mind the cold, but if it's wet and cold, there's a good chance of them getting chilled and sick because again, their feathers are more like fur and they get soaked. They can also get mud and ice balls on their feet. 

Polish have profusely feathered heads, and if that crest gets wet in freezing temps, it freezes. How miserable for them?! Polish are just a fragile breed, period. 

During warm and wet periods, there's a whole other set of problems, for any breed, but respiratory illness and coccidiosis are two of the top problems of warm OR cold weather when wetness is also a factor.

Just passing on some advice from past and current experience. Consider the housing you're able to provide when choosing what breeds you'd like to own. 

Spur Removal

So, after one of my Cochin hens was seriously injured by the rooster, I've been looking into solutions. I did order some hen saddles, and used them some but it's been too hot to keep them on the hens. Then I started searching for info on spur trimming and removal.
I've never done it or had to, but it became a serious issue that needed a solution.
I tried trimming and filing but the spurs were still like daggers.
So, I got up the courage to try removal...
It went fine!
I was definitely nervous and imagined major bleeding and anything else that could go wrong, but it was quick and simple. My boy seemed just fine during and after.
Here's a link to Happy Wife's video on how to do it with a simple pair of plyers and blue kote to seal the wound after...

Spur Removal

Roosters Wounding Hens?

Scroll if you don't want to see a healing hen's wound...

Let me tell you guys, this photo does no justice to the horrific wound this girl had. I was always a person that thought hen saddles were ridiculous..maybe not.
This is one of my big cochin girls. I noticed her hiding and deathly afraid of the rooster. When I checked her over, I discovered that her right side under the wing was torn wide open. You could literally see muscle tissue and gaping skin...omg, I felt so bad for her.
It was an injury from the rooster mating with her. Sometimes their spurs can cause this. I've never had it happen so I wasn't expecting it.
I almost put her down immediately, but my Cochin girls are not only valuable, they are my pets. She was still eating, drinking and moving around, so I decided to try and give her a chance.
I boiled out the wound with peroxide in case any flies had gotten in there and to kill bacteria ect. It was a pretty clean wound. I had my husband grab this blue kote type of spray and I've treated her with that now for several days.
She's doing amazingly well and healing up!
This stuff is great. It kills bacteria and seals wounds.

Sharing with you all in case you ever have this happen. I've decided to keep my hens separate from the rooster from now on except for short breeding periods.
I don't and haven't ever had this issue with other breeds.
Speaking of my own, they have soft loose feathering that comes out easily and their skin can easily be torn by these large heavy roosters.
Hope you never have to experience it, but I'll always have some of this spray on hand for wounds.

Biosecurity - People Security

I sometimes list chicks or adults on Craigslist and Facebook when they are ready for new homes. I've encountered some "interesting" people that way. Generally they ask fifty questions and want to see fifty pictures and then go ghost.
Why..why pester someone and waste all that time when you were never serious about buying anything? They will also usually want me to take less than I'm asking.
I never let people come to our home unless they are someone I know well, or are local and right down the road. I've had people get extremely offended when I've said no I'm sorry, you can't come to my home, I will meet you in a public place.
Now being on the buyer end myself sometimes, I understand wanting to know that someone is keeping clean and healthy conditions. I gladly show pictures and videos of my coops. But, the world we now live in is too crazy and dangerous to give strange people your address and let them see exactly what you have, and exactly where you have it. Seeming tire-kickers have went to sellers homes to look at livestock, said they would think about it, then came back and robbed the people blind..their home AND their animals!
Nope, I won't do it, and if that offends someone, they'll just have to move on.

There's also the issue of visitors who have chickens, unknowingly bringing disease in on their shoes, clothes and hands to your birds. That's also why I've all but quit selling at swaps. Someone handles several other chickens,  then wants to handle yours..not good.
It's impossible to avoid all risk of disease unless your birds never get out of an indoors barn or coop because wild birds also carry some disease that can spread to chickens and waterfowl. You can also unknowingly bring disease home on feed bags but...we can at least use common sense and do the best we can to avoid sicknesses, which includes always quarantining new chickens for 30 days.

Biosecurity and people security.

They're Baaack! Buffalo Gnats