Wednesday, January 9







When it rains….it pours.

We were treating our chickens for eye worm the last couple of days, but yesterday, we found that most of the birds had a fever. We could feel the body heat through our gloves as we were applying the VetRX liquid to their swollen eyes. Upon further checking, we found that there is no fever present with eye worm infestation, so now what? We continued to lose one to three chickens every night…..or even had them drop during the day, right after checking and finding no dead ones. A half hour later when we went in again, there laid a dead hen. Geez Um… our flock will be decimated if we don’t find a cure for this mystery disease. Vick talked to Liddy from Appleby’s, but they didn’t have anything iron clad to tell us. Vick did a little more checking on-line and is now treating for a respiratory thing. She added Tetracycline to the water yesterday and again last evening and they seemed to perk up. We added heat lamps at each end of the coop so they could get under them if they were cold and uncomfortable. We’re hoping this does the trick and we can knock this thing out in another day or so. We need to wait a good four days after pulling the meds out of the water before we can use their eggs again. We stopped using them yesterday when we started the medication of the water they all drink. It certainly wasn’t much more of a loss, as we have only been getting five to eight eggs a day anyway. This could the end of our poultry farming if we don’t get this thing knocked down. Only time and the next week will tell! Only one barn is infected, so we don’t have to throw those eggs away, but sometimes there are none in there….or possibly we just get two. This one is where the old chickens are…The geriatric coop…so to speak!  

The pellet stove in the house is down AGAIN! I’ve rebuilt this thing once over twice it seems, because we are always working on it. Last year it was the $500.00 control box….and later in the winter; it was tight bearings on the auger. I removed the bearings and installed new ones for a fraction of the cost we would have paid to get OEM bearings, because I went to NAPA and picked up the regular ball bearings they stock for ten bucks a piece. This time it was the system snap disc unit that went bad. It was only $17.00 through and eBay dealer which sells this kind of stuff. We should have it by the weekend or the beginning of next week. We’re using the liquid gold (oil) burner in the basement now. The furnace burns upwards of 30.00 worth of fuel oil in a twenty four hour period as opposed to $10.00 worth of wood pellets, so it isn’t something we want to do too long…   


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053002 Cluckin' "A" Critter Farm, LLC

2 comments:

  1. Gee, I'm really sorry to hear about your chickens both for the egg and your poultry business and for the poor chickens too. :( I hope you can come up with a diagnosis or at least get it under control. What a huge difference in cost with the pellet stove & oil furnace! We have oil, that is our sole method of heating but it isn't too bad. We spend about $600 a heating season. I'd rather keep that $600 but we have to stay warm. LOL.
    Take care guys.

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  2. Hi Lisa, good to hear from you again. I think we finally got a good diagnosis on the chicken problem. We believe it was a respiratory type cold problem. The antibiotic has seemed to knock the problem down and the chickens are doing much better. Unfortunately we cannot use the eggs until four days pass after removing the antibiotic treatment.
    We're still waiting on the new part for the pellet stove, but are hopeful it will arrive today. I miss sitting in front of the pellet stove, not only missing the heat, but the ambience given to the living room when it's lit.
    Thanks for your comment! As always, we appreciate your input. It's nice to know that people are reading the blog. As always skip and Vick

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