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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Pondering

I have been pondering today trying to figure out where I am going to put chickens of different ages to keep everyone safe from abuse. I have a good brooder house for lil babies and it has 16 in it that are about half grown. I am thinking I will take the deer netting we have and staple it to a strip of lumber and attach it to the wall and make a partition in there to separate the chicks till the little ones get feathered out. I don't want to ask for another chicken house to be built.
Haven't accomplished much today here at home. I had what I thought was pink eye and ended up going to the eye doctor this afternoon when it got worse. Well as it turns out I don't have pink eye, the cornea is swollen and inflamed from sleeping with my contact lenses in Sunday night. So I have steroid eye drops now to use for a week. And they tell me not to wear my contacts for at least a week like I could stand to put them in anyway.  Just my dang luck. I have never had anything so painful in my life. As the eye doctor said the cornea in the eye has the most sensitive nerve endings in the entire human body. And I can believe that.
Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

2 comments:

Mrs. Mike said...

When integrating birds of any age to the flock, I always disturb the ‘pecking order’.

I have a small, gated holding area where I separate out several of the flock and divide the new birds, big or small, to each group of birds. By disrupting the pecking order, smaller birds in particular, are not nearly as abused. I then switch around two or three hens, every day, for just a few days. It resrticts the hens from creating a new 'order' and allows the new hens to assimilate into the flock.

Take care of that eye!

stella said...

Hi Mrs Mike, I think I am gonna try to keep some of the young cornish an cull some of the year old ones out an butcher the roosters. They are good size and feathered out well. I had thought of just using the deer netting that I have to make a partition in the brooder house to keep the big ones from walking on the little ones till I take care of the roos. Dang I have had a really low hatch rate this year and am thinkin I may have to go ahead and order some cornish cross jus to get meat in the freezer in a hurry. Will post on what ever the heck I do. Or when I get it done. But lil birds in a box in muh summer kitchen is not smellin so good right now. lol
My eyes are much better today, thank you. The steroid drops got the swellin down in the cornea and its not painful now. What a relief.