Farm Flock: follow along with *all* the birds in our flock

[bug_n_flock]

Today we got dug out(and I had an absolutely horrid day).


IDK who knows what where, but I am diagnosed PTSD. Some days are better than others, today was absolutely awful. I woke up in the middle of a nightmare with my heart pounding out of my chest when my alarm went off in the AM. Mr. Bug stepped out to the restroom and didn't know what was up. The water contractor was here so he then ducked down to the bridge. I fell back asleep and had another nightmare and woke up again heart pounding.... Mr. Bug nowhere to be found. He had gotten distracted chatting and then had had to lie down(has a blood pressure thing where his blood pressure sometimes falls if he stands too long and isn't well rested, hydrated, fed, etc.). He came back to the house and I got up. It was just a dream and after a little while I was ok again.. spent the AM with Freedom(who is trying to nest in the corner of the room, so yaaaay hormonal "half" tame macaw). When I came out of the room Mr. Bug was nowhere to be found. I texted and he said he was at the bridge and almost done. I sent another message asking if he was staying hydrated and out of the sun. He responded that he was, so I moved on to other things. Last night's fire was still smouldering, so I built it back up and enjoyed the fire and being outside for a while... and then longer.... I texted again after 2 hours had passed and he again said they were almost done. I pointed out he had said that 2 hours ago and he replyed he lost track of time and a few minutes later came back. The water guy is quickly becoming a friend. I don't fault Mr. Bug for losing track of time while chatting with a new friend, but I by that time was having a very rough time with some dark stuff going on upstairs.


We decided to go for a drive and get pizza for dinner, maybe a change of scenery would help. We got a few miles down the road when we spot this guy in the middle of the road:


View attachment 22587


Obviously we pulled over and picked him up.



We kept driving for a while, not wanting to let shy Pete out somewhere where he would get pancaked on the road. Well... lets just say shy Pete doesn't have a shy bladder... he peed ALL OVER ME. Now, normally I would think this hilarious, and looking back it is already funny, but at the time it was *WAY* more than I could handle and, after letting him out in a nice area in the national forest, I completely lost it. Completely. Talking full on sobbing. Done. Over. All I could handle. It was awful.


And then we went and got pizza, I was no longer sobbing but still way in a bad way. We came home and ate by the fire and I freaked out more. And now we are inside about to watch a tv show and go to bed. I am better than I was, ish, but still not great. Sorry if tmi, but I do sort of look at this parrot forum as one of my main social outlets. I mean, there aren't exactly a heck of a lot of people around out here. Eta: I don't dislike the solitude(I love it in fact), I just also do enjoy talking to people some times. This site fills a lot of that desire for human contact.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Today was a *much* better day. I think the nightmares just set me on a bad path mentally yesterday. 100% better.


Spent most of the day outside with the chickens identifying breeds with the help of some of my chicken mentors. Was a good day. Shared my lunch with them, chased George around whenever he tried to pick on Nibbler and Waddles. I think he is starting to get the picture between The Warden and I now that I am actually able to chase the little bugger around.



Got soil to fill the raised bed and that should be done tomorrow. Also going to run a clothesline tomorrow. Tired of the laundromat, going to be manually doing laundry for a while, but it beats a trip all the way into town. We also are going to build an outdoor shower because staying in a hotel every so often to supplement what we have affectionately been calling "hobo baths" seems a little silly. So that is also an upcoming project.



Still waiting to get Freedom in to the vet. Their 1 and only bird vet is on vacation until the 17th, so that is when her appointment is for. We will extend her quarantine until at least we get test results back.



Dinner tonight is leftover pizza reheated on the grill or in the fire, haven't decided yet. Took a rabbit out of the freezer, but it is still frozen solid so will be dinner tomorrow or the day after, whenever it defrosts. Also have rabbits in the barn who are ready to go to camp whever we get around to it. We also need to breed our rabbit does again, they have not bred in several months for the one, and the other 2 have not been bred yet(they are way old enough for it).

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

I too find this forum a great place to vent/talk about lifes up and downs..more like an extended family than a forum So keep on keeping on Ms bug and share along with us! We're not only bird people,we are people people
(how's the foot doing btw?..or was it the elbow?...knee???...left butt cheek??? :07



Jim

 

[bug_n_flock]

Well. We got guineas sooner than expected. The water guy texted last night asking if we by any chance wanted some tomato transplants and a couple of male guineas. So, he came by today to drop them off. We are home #3 for these little roos at least. One has bumblefoot, poor guy, and both are pretty freaked out. We have them in a large dog kennel with food and water out by the pen that the younger chickens sleep in. After a week or so we will let them out to free range, but we want them to know where home is before we let them out and risk them following the call of the wild lol.



Gosh, I love their noises! My aunt has guineas so I just associate their calls with farm life, and before we got them something was just missing from the cacauphony here. Gosh I just KNOW I butchered the spelling of that word, lol.



As for the tomato transplants? Hahahahabaha omg he brought over like a billion of them, and all different kinds, and peppers too! A dude just like us who gets carried away with garden plans very easily. cannot wait to make chili and fresh salsa and pickled peppers and.... hehehe we finished the first raised bed yesterday, but have yet to fill it(we have soil, etc, to fill it with. Just have to do that today). The chickens thought it was a fun play area yesterday and were hanging out in it and on it and around it like little feathered weirdos. (I have photos, will share a bit later)


Mr. Bug surprised me with a hummingbird feeder after I mentioned to him that the other day in Freedom's room with her in the cage and the window open, a hummingbird flew in the window about 3 times, looked around confusedly, and left. It was a very odd and cool experience. So that is now hanging up in a shady area where I have been hanging out with the chickens lately.



The foot is better? Ish? I skipped my last ortho appointment in mid/late May, and I don't intend to reschedule it(don't do this, kids at home). I have already had 9 foot xrays this year and I think that is my limit for radiation, barring any other injuries of course. For several days I have been in the boot and 100% off crutches, and I am getting stronger now every day. Last night I decided the boot is doing more harm than good, and I will not be wearing it any more. The liner material is irratating my skin in several places, the boot itself is cutting into my leg in a couple places, and it just started to give me a heel blister yesterday-doing more harm than good at this point. To be safe, I am using the crutch again today, since I am stupidly walking around just in sandles(no idea where my boots are, so will have to go to town and buy a new pair later today).


Today is 6/5, and our cackle chicks have officially hatched and will be shipped out today!!! Cannot wait to meet them in a few days!!!!



Alright, enough of an update for now. I'm off to go stare at birds and fill a raised bed.


Oh, any tips for helping the bumblefoot guinea? The home immediately prior to us got him that way and it just never went away. Never dealt with a bird with bumblefoot, is there something we can do for him? Iodine on it, or anything like that? Clean dry bedding, obviously, but anything else?

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Well. We got guineas sooner than expected. The water guy texted last night asking if we by any chance wanted some tomato transplants and a couple of male guineas. So, he came by today to drop them off. We are home #3 for these little roos at least. One has bumblefoot, poor guy, and both are pretty freaked out. We have them in a large dog kennel with food and water out by the pen that the younger chickens sleep in. After a week or so we will let them out to free range, but we want them to know where home is before we let them out and risk them following the call of the wild lol.



Gosh, I love their noises! My aunt has guineas so I just associate their calls with farm life, and before we got them something was just missing from the cacauphony here. Gosh I just KNOW I butchered the spelling of that word, lol.



As for the tomato transplants? Hahahahabaha omg he brought over like a billion of them, and all different kinds, and peppers too! A dude just like us who gets carried away with garden plans very easily. cannot wait to make chili and fresh salsa and pickled peppers and.... hehehe we finished the first raised bed yesterday, but have yet to fill it(we have soil, etc, to fill it with. Just have to do that today). The chickens thought it was a fun play area yesterday and were hanging out in it and on it and around it like little feathered weirdos. (I have photos, will share a bit later)


Mr. Bug surprised me with a hummingbird feeder after I mentioned to him that the other day in Freedom's room with her in the cage and the window open, a hummingbird flew in the window about 3 times, looked around confusedly, and left. It was a very odd and cool experience. So that is now hanging up in a shady area where I have been hanging out with the chickens lately.



The foot is better? Ish? I skipped my last ortho appointment in mid/late May, and I don't intend to reschedule it(don't do this, kids at home). I have already had 9 foot xrays this year and I think that is my limit for radiation, barring any other injuries of course. For several days I have been in the boot and 100% off crutches, and I am getting stronger now every day. Last night I decided the boot is doing more harm than good, and I will not be wearing it any more. The liner material is irratating my skin in several places, the boot itself is cutting into my leg in a couple places, and it just started to give me a heel blister yesterday-doing more harm than good at this point. To be safe, I am using the crutch again today, since I am stupidly walking around just in sandles(no idea where my boots are, so will have to go to town and buy a new pair later today).


Today is 6/5, and our cackle chicks have officially hatched and will be shipped out today!!! Cannot wait to meet them in a few days!!!!



Alright, enough of an update for now. I'm off to go stare at birds and fill a raised bed.


Oh, any tips for helping the bumblefoot guinea? The home immediately prior to us got him that way and it just never went away. Never dealt with a bird with bumblefoot, is there something we can do for him? Iodine on it, or anything like that? Clean dry bedding, obviously, but anything else?

Sorry for me being ignorant..but what IS bumblefoot anyway? The only bumblefoot I know is on Inger's little parrolet..BUMBLE! :54:


Jim

 

[bug_n_flock]

It is a foot infection that I think all animals can get. Certainly I know parrots get it if they sit on those concrete perches all the time. Zoo animals used to get it a lot.... back when they lived in tiny concrete floor iron bar cages. Also comes from dirty bedding, maybe something to do with all the nitrogen burning their feet? His toes are all swollen and look really painful, poor guy. We are running to town now quickly hoping to stay ahead of a storm

 

[bug_n_flock]

Well. We beat the storm, but *man* was it a storm.... lots of lightening, penny sized hail, and gusts of 60mph. Even knocked out cell service for a while. Was pretty unnerving. Moved the birds to small cages to make whatever evac plans we came up with easier(really, it kept me busy is what it did, since we were rained in and have no storm shelter or anything, and are currently living in a mobile home. We wouldn't even be able to go to a neighbor's house since our closest neighbor is still past the bridge).



Soo, upcoming project major priority: build a storm shelter. Thankfully everything was fine and we are all fine.



Filled the raised bed Juuuuust as the storm got here, so tomorrow we will plant transplants.



I did some reading up on bumblefoot and it is a catch-all term but often is staph infection of the foot. Tomorrow we will bother the poor guinea and really take a good look at his foot and see if there is anything we can do to help him out. At the least, we will soak the foot and clean it real well. Will update in the morning on his situation.

 

[bug_n_flock]

We are attempting a strategic "rain out". God, I'm so worried.



Got most of the transplants planted, got a fence up to keep the durn chickens out of the area, and then got flash flood alerts on our phones. The ones that make that terrible noise and ping you regardless of data or gps being on... the ones that mean serious business. crap.



Mr. Bug just left. No doubt the bridge will be submerged soon. I am staying behind to watch after the critters. The main road our dirt road is off of also floods out. Talking knee high plus water across the road in some places. Many others in the area also flood. I'm so nervous for him. But if he goes fast he can get there before the water starts to rise. We filled jugs and he is preemptively shutting off the water line in.



He is going to head to a friend of our's house. The ones who run the cat sanctuary/rescue who helped us out getting her medical care when we first found our foster dog in a field full of bullet holes. We have those baby chicks arriving at the post office in the morning, we can't afford to both be rained in.


Sadly we ran out of time to look at bumbleguinea's foot. We will do it some time tomorrow God willing and the creek don't rise... again.

 

[Jen5200]

Sorry to hear your guinea has bumblefoot (I’ve always wanted guineas....still working on convincing hubby). I’ve treated it in both chickens and turkeys - it’s not terrible. I cleaned really well, used a drawing salve like prid and wrapped foot - did this for a few days. It seemed to draw it more toward the surface and make it easier to remove. Depending on the severity you can sometimes just squeeze it out at this point, being sure to get all of the “kernel” of infection out. Bird pus is quite solid (sorry to be gross), so it all needs to come out. Clean it well, antibiotic ointment and bandage until it starts healing. I have had bumbles that needed a small incision to remove. ALWAYS wear gloves as it is normally staph infection. Good videos online to help along (but if I remember right, you have limited data available at your house). Anyhow - has been a fairly quick and easy procedure the 3 times I’ve treated at home and is normally quite fixable.

Stay dry and hoping the bridge becomes available soon . You’ll be good, sounds like you are well prepared.

 

[bug_n_flock]

The flash flood turned out to be overly dramatic of the weather people, lol. But Mr. Bug is still going to stay at the rescue tonight just to be safe. The heavy rain is mostly passed, but there is still a flooding from runoff warning in effect until 3:30, and looking at radar predictions(which aren't always accurate tho), it seems the on and off light to moderate rain we are expecting all night will start to get heavier between 3 and 5 am. Best to play it safe we decided. I'm having a lonely frozen mac and cheese with tuna dinner and then going to bed lol. Early start to an exciting day tomorrow!


Jen, that is a huge relief that it went so simply and smoothly for you treating your birds. Heres hoping bumbleguinea's feet can be treated so easily. *very* encouraging. I really like the little guys and hate the idea of him out there in pain right now. I also saw online that some people dress bumblefoot with medical honey, any thoughts on this? I gave myself a heck of a doozie of a partial thickness burn on the wood stove this past winter. Honey dressings really helped to draw fluid from the blister, aid healing, keep away infection, and minimize scarding. Almost had to go to ER for the initial burn, and it has healed to where it is hardly noticable now, and the scarring may go down still further... Think I got the burn in late Feb, so still fairly recently.



I also have bird doxycycline, would this be a good idea to give him? I know it is often used to treat abcesses etc in humans. We also have penicillin and ammoxacillin, but these are fish antibiotics and I don't know if they would be ok for birds? I will take pictures of his feet tomorrow and post them to see if you have a better idea then. They honestly seem pretty bad. Toes very very swollen compared to the other bird's. Red, scale damage. We have not looked at the undersides of his feet yet, though. I'm hoping it responds well to treatment.



Good luck convincing hubby! These guys are so weird and awesome. Their noises just make me so happy, I really don't get it that so many people seem to find them loud and annoying. Shrug. Plus they seem to have a particular fondness for eating ticks!

 

[Jen5200]

I just love the noises most birds make - I’d love to have geese, guineas and peafowl, to go with my turkeys and chickens . I’m a fan of anything that eats ticks!

I haven’t used honey on a bumblefoot, but I did use it on one of the chickens with a prolapse and it seemed to help with swelling. One of my tom turkeys had bumblefoot and his toe swelled up huge. I did have to open up his foot a bit to remove the infection, cleaned it daily and filled it with antibiotic ointment. Swelling came down in about a week, stopped wrapping to keep it clean after 2 weeks. Hasn’t recurred and it’s been a year. I don’t keep antibiotics except Tylan on hand (for respiratory infection), and didn’t give him any for his foot - so can’t help much with advice about if your antibiotics will help.

I’d be very interested to see pics of his feet.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Haven't been able to get out to the pen where they are. The rain has made the ground too squishy and slippery for me to be outside. I'll have Mr. Bug bring him in once things settle down and we can have a look at him then.



Baby chicks were a little bit delayed due to the storm, arriving around midday rather than bright and early. Mr. Bug grabbed them and came home, got across the bridge just fine, but by the time he went out to clean a waterer for the chicks, the bridge was impassable. Forecast calls for rain all weekend and we are under a flood advisory until Monday.



Hatchery gave us 7 guineas rather than 6. Sadly, one of Mr. Bug's blue Swedish ducklings was doa, and a little smelly. They were only in the mail for a day and a half so the little one must have passed quite early in their journey. poor baby, and poor babies who had to travel in that box with her. one of the baby chickens was a little chilly and poorly on arrival, but after 20 minutes under heat, her eyes are open and she is peeping and moving around.



Many of the chickens they sent are poooofy and remind me of a persian cat, they will likely have face feathers as adults. They sent some more polish chicks, a couple of Naked Necks(!!!! I've wanted these since I first learned that they existed!! SO happy!), the hatchery surprise box also included a baby turkey and a duckling, whos breeds we are trying to ID. I *think* the duckling is a fawn and white indian runner, and the turkey is either a royal palm or a blue slate.



One of the geese already pooped on me. Hehehehehehehe <3 <3 <3


We have 3 brooders set up for now, but will need to set up more soon. 1 has the poorly chicken, the guineas, and the turkey, 1 has all the chickens(will need to be split up tomorrow at the latest), and 1 in the bedroom has the waterfowl.

 

[bug_n_flock]

So, we have decided to keep all 8 in the clutch of budgies weaning now. We have been so busy lately that we really didn't have the time to spend taming and socializing these babies. So the price we would feel right asking for them, would likely land them in homes that didn't give a poo about them. Neither Mr. Bug or I like the thought of that, so we will be ordering more large indoor cages(until we build the outdoor aviaries) and keeping all 8. We will probably work to socialize them a bit, but we are not expecting them to be nice wonderful tame budgies(since right now we do not have a lot of extra time anyway). We took the nest box out of that cage last night, and sadly had to put 2 new eggs into the freezer. I hate doing that so much, but that pair raised 2 clutches and 13 babies total this year. I just can't in good concience allow them to raise a 3rd clutch. So budgie baby season is over for now at our farm. We may or may not have a second season in the Fall, we will see. It depends on quite a few things.



The last 2 budgies we sold, we didn't get the best feeling in the world about to be perfectly honest. They transfered the babies from the box to the cage they had with all the windows of their van open, and one of the babies got loose in the van. Then it flew out into the parking lot where Mr. Bug caught it(poor girl was terrified, thank God we had clipped the babies). The people didn't seem to think this was a huge issue, and then said they were going to go to wal mart to get some bird toys. :/ so we are seriously thinking about making some big changes here. Like hand feeding at least supplementally so we can call them "hand fed" instead of "socialized" this will allow us to charge significantly more. Not that we are after the money, but that a 100$ budgie is *way* less of an "impulse purchase" price. We try very hard to make sure the babies are going to great homes, but that doesn't always work out. Now, I'm not saying those 2 went to a bad home, just that we felt a little less than amazing about it, and we do not want a repeat of that.




The guinea is bad. Way bad. Worse than I thought from looking at the top of his feet. Do you think it is kind to try helping him, or kinder for him to go? I am also going to post on a poultry specific forum and see what they think. Yes, we were not wearing gloves while handling him, but we were not cutting open the feet, and we scrubbed with antibacterial soap and used alcohol hand sanitizer after. Gosh, I feel so so awful about how bad they are and we didn't realize sooner.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Poultry forum doesn't seem to think it is bumble. Waiting over there for one of their experts to chime in. God, I feel awful about this poor bird. He is active, talking, eating, drinking. I hope we can help him.


Edit update: my aunt(has had guineas and a 260+ acre "hobby farm" for over 20 years) thinks that it is bumble, just a really bad case. Still waiting to hear from an expert on the poultry forum. My aunt replied "maybe" when I asked if we could still save him. Going to do all we can for him, up to and including saying goodbye humanely, if that is what he ends up needing. I just hope we can save him though.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Starting with a foot soak and then will do an epsom salts and water soaked gauze wrapping covered with vet wrap. Will change this frequently and hopefully that will bring infection more to surface. Will try cutting open to remove infection, then dressing with antimicrobial and wrapping and giving systemic antibiotics. If that doesn't help we will maybe try amputating depending on how the bird is doing overall. We really don't want to give up on him.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Both poultry forum and aunt also mentioned this could be from frostbite.

 

[Jen5200]

Yup, he definitely has a nasty foot. I would be cautiously optimistic though if he’s walking, talking, moving and eating well. It could be frostbite damage but I still lean toward bumblefoot. However it started, it sure looks like it has turned into an infection (which needs to be resolved). Your plan sounds good, and similar to what I’ve done in the past. I was amazed how the swelling went down in my turkey’s foot once I removed the infection kernels, cleaned it well and got antibiotic goop into the wound. His one toe was swelled up to the size of my thumb and I seriously thought he might lose the toe....but he did keep it and it looks fine now. My fingers are crossed for you...hope you’ll update on his progress!

 

[bug_n_flock]

Have gotten more good input from the poultry forum. Going to start him on fish mox and as soon as we can get out to get it, baby asprin. Definitely infected and definitely needs treated, but the updated prognosis is *much* better than the initial one. Both there and from you, Jen, there is still plenty of hope he will recover. I'm so glad. After a good soak, his toes are pink, not pale or black or anything.

 

[bug_n_flock]

We have Bumbleguinea in a dog crate on chucks pads (to keep him as dry as possible) in the bathroom. Didn't seem right keeping him outdoors when we are under a flash flood watch until Monday.



I have a towel down on the bed and am playing with the geese and ducks. I absolutely LOVE waterfowl. <3 Their noises, their absolutely *ridiculous* stubby little babywings they flap every so often making me gigglesnort. The goslings do the neck straight head down peeping like how adult geese do. :3 aaaaaaahhhh It's so cute!! I am a parrot person, don't get me wrong, but I. LOVE. WATERFOWL.



Oh, and Nibbs is finally sitting on those eggs in the barn.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Long update. Bear with me. Some good, some bad, some ugly.



It has been nearly 3 weeks since my last update here. A lot has changed..



About a week ago something figured out that we have chickens free ranging and took a bird. Same thing next night. And the night after. So we started looking for a dog or 2 who could live outside and deter whatever our predator is(trailcam out of batteries and placed at the entryway, I'll get to that in a bit). After no success via typical rescue routes, I posted a craigslist ad. I was contacted by someone with 2 lab mixes that had to go together, father and son. They were raised with chickens, kids, dogs, cats, everything. Good dogs. So we decided why not, we weren't doing anything else that day. So we hopped in the truck and drove all day to go get these dogs who would hopefully work out as farm dogs. We get about 5 minutes away and the people call to say Buddy(son dog) wasn't home, either stolen or off wandering, but Repo(daddy) was, so we could get him now and they would drive partway to meet us if/when Buddy came back and they hoped this didn't deter us from wanting Repo. We finally got there and met Repo and the people. Repo seemed like an alright dog, a little thin but also muscular so not underweight or anything, just a lean dog. Decided we did want him, and then the people started talking more, and out hearts started to crack. The more the people spoke, the bigger those cracks got, until our hearts finally shattered. We left that day with 3 dogs, and we are going to drive all the way back to them to get Buddy on Wednesday. These dogs are completely rescues, from some extremely kind people who honestly could probably use some rescuing themselves. Poverty is absolutely heartbreaking. These people didn't even have money enough to feed themselves. But the dogs always got fed, even when the people didn't. They had had only a few dogs and very little money(disabilities) and were working on getting them spayed/neutered thru low cost clinics when their house burned down in Febuary(not a story, we saw where the house used to be, and the whole area stunk vaugly of burnt house). Then they got overwhelmed and the dogs started breeding.



One gentleman gave us his own pet dog, Bella, telling us how she slept curled against his side every night, but he couldn't afford to feed her. He wanted photo updates only though, since he cannot read or write. He said when his other dog had 11 pups, he chose 2 to keep but 1 had died(he gave me the other pup, pit bull collie mix somewhere between 9-12 weeks old). Our hearts simply broke. There was a dog with his owner that had a huge burn scar covering most of his back, and a small amount of still healing burn in the center- he had been in the fire. Obviously the dog had gotten medical care, or he wouldn't possibly have survived a burn of that size.


We will not be able to keep Bella, but the puppy and Repo are here to stay. Bella is a sweet dog, but the first night here they literally ripped thru a chain link kennel and Bella killed both adult guineas. In the morning when we were trying to figure out if it was the now-loose dogs who killed them or our nightly visitor, Bella broke into a rabbit cage in the barn, killed one of the two adult female breeders inside it, and set free the second one while trying to kill her too. She also chased off all of our free range poultry and they stayed hidden for hours, long enough we were worried they wouldn't come back, or that there was a greusome scene somewhere that we just hadn't discovered yet.



Thankfully by that evening the birds had all made their way back, and we found the lost bunny safe and sound but still terrified. She is now safely back in her own cage in the barn. Bella is living as an indoor dog now, and only outside supervised and on leash. We are looking for a boxer rescue who can take her in, as she is boxer/pit mix. Before we did that, though, we contacted the people we got her from and explained the situation. We offered to find her a home(not taking her to a shelter where they would probably kill her), bring her back to them(with or without our help to find her another home while staying there), we gave them the power to choose what to do. They asked us to find her a new home.



Repo is a wonderful dog, we have changed his name to Rico and he seems not to have even noticed. He is not confined, but he doesn't really go anywhere. We are going to install an invisible fence and have him and Buddy neutered next week just to cut down on wandering even more.



We also took in from the rescue we help out locally, a mom cat and 2 bitty kitties. The kitties will be outdoor kitties to keep down rodent populations, and mom was supposed to be a foster. We think we will keep all 3 tho. If momma Jord gets along with our other indoor cat Charlie, they can be indoor cats together. The kittens will still be outdoor cats.



George is no more. He just kept going after people more and more and I finally had enough. His hens and chicks are all doing well though. The eggs Nibbler was sitting on didn't hatch, they were getting too hot during the day. We tossed the eggs, and then Nibbs came down with a very bad respiratory infection. Swollen head, tongue, trouble breathing, foamy eyes, it was very scary and came on so fast! I thought we were losing her to be perfectly honest, and I was terrified. But a few days of antibiotics later and she is fine. Still have her confined and on antibiotics, and she is soooo mad about being confined and not allowed to run around. May have saved her life in this dog and predator drama, though.



One of the female turkey chicks disappeared a couple weeks ago and I thought she was done. But then she showed back up a few hours later and I was relieved. She has been doing this often and I just figured she was exploring or hanging out with wild turkeys, until a couple nights ago when Rico was wandering around and then suddenly got chased off by a turkey. I shown a light around and realized that that bird was our "missing" turkey hen chick.... she is sitting on a nest under the trail wagon! Haha well, ok that explains that. Good luck birdie! We would love to have some baby turkeys running around outside! :57:


Freedom still hasn't gotten in to see the vet yet. We just finished off a week or so straight of solid rain and there were only a handful of windows during which we safely could get out. But we have hit (FINALLY) a dry patch and we should only have 1 or 2 storms in the next week or so. Will have to call the vet and make her an appointment. I rescheduled it 2x before they were like, "want to just call when the rain passes to reschedule?" Lol. But not in a judgey way, more of a "we've been there" kind of way. So she is still in quarantine in her own bedroom for now. In all the dog drama and emergency shuffling around of crates and rooms, I have brought Alex and Hima into our bedroom so in case a dog manages to get loose in the house, they will have the best chance of being safe. We do not have space for all of the birds in our bedroom, and those two are the most exposed of our pet parrots, so they were the 2 who moved.


Will have to do this as 2 posts, getting an "error post too long" message lol