Ducky and her orthopedic shoes

This is Ducky.

These are Ducky's feet.

Notice how they curl?
Ducky can't straighten her toes.

In all my years of raising baby chicks, this is the first time I've encountered this.

I first noticed Ducky's feet when she was 2 days old..... I could tell she wasn't able to walk or stand very steady like the other chicks, so I picked her up and was shocked at what I saw. She also seemed to have some other problems- she was not interested in food or water and she was a lot smaller than any of the other chicks. I swallowed hard and thought maybe it was best to let nature take it's course, if you know what I mean....

But you know me- I couldn't let go without at least giving Ducky a fighting chance.

She was at once put on some drops of some special liquid baby formula (powdered vitamins and sugar water) and after spending several hours on the internet researching chicks with curled or deformed feet I found what I had been looking for. Apparently this is not an uncommon occurrence, and frankly I was a little surprised that I had never had this happen before. I'm still not sure what caused Ducky's problem, but according to some of the helpful websites I found it could have been caused by several different things. I also found the directions for making splints for the toes to correct the problem using cardboard and tape- but only if it was caught in time. I was optimistic that Ducky was young enough that her feet could be fixed- that is, if  she survived the next few days.

A day passed, then another... then another...

After three days of giving her my special formula, she seemed to be getting a little stronger.

Ducky was.... well, plucky!

I brought her into the house to fit her for her special booties to correct the toes, and had to get out my magnifying glasses because her feet were so tiny. To make matters worse, Silkies have 5 toes instead of 4 like other chickens do, and trying to cram the little toes of a squirmy baby chick onto a tiny piece of cardboard was going to be a real test of my patience. (Not to mention eyesight.)
But if Ducky was going to have a chance for normal feet it was now or never.

Lily, meet Ducky.
Ducky, Lily.

 Here are the "soles" of her booties....





Here we are with one shoe on, one to go; then it's just a matter of trimming off the excess tape and cardboard without cutting Ducky's feet. (As if this hasn't been nerve-wracking enough already...)

And here she is with her new shoes! Maybe this will help explain why I named her Ducky- she looks like she has webbed feet.

She continued getting her daily formula to build up her strength.

I waited for 3 days before taking off the booties.....

Here are Ducky's feet now!

Unfortunately, she lost the left shoe at some point without me noticing and it didn't have time to work like the other one did. You can see the middle toe is still curled some, but the right foot- which was actually worse than the left one anyway- looks great. The best part is she can walk and stand just like normal! I could splint the left one again, but Ducky seems to be glad to be rid of her special shoes and for now she is walking great so I may just leave it be.

Ducky still has along way to go... she is so much smaller than the other chicks. But she is back with the others and doing good, and I'll continue to give her formula until I'm satisfied she is eating and drinking like she should. Ducky has proven to be a tough little gal so far, so I'm hoping for the best!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Friday Farm Fotos: A little "Biddy" surprise....

If you've read this blog for any time at all, you know my love for baby chicks borders on insanity.
However, I try to contain myself so I won't become one of those people on that Animal Hoarders show that has 800 chickens running around.
I keep the Silkie population down by gathering the eggs as soon as I can because there is nothing those hens love more than to go broody and hatch babies.

But I think I've been outsmarted.

One day while cleaning weeds out around the coop I heard some familiar peeping noises coming from nest box # 3......

Surprise.

Yep, definitely outsmaah-ted.

Apparently, one of those sneaky little hens had an egg tucked under her so tightly that the egg went unnoticed during my nightly inspection of the nest boxes- even after I stuck my hand under her and felt around.

(Which I'm sure she enjoyed very much...)

*Sigh*

Well, you know me- I wouldn't want a baby chick to have to grow up all alone...

*snicker snort*

So, I let a few eggs lay around until someone got in the mood to sit on them.

(which of course took about 5 minutes....)

And a couple of weeks later-

You know what they say- chickens are like potato chips, you can't have just one.

Or twenty.

Happy Friday, everyone!

(peep!)

Friday Farm Funny: Chickie Puberty

Remember these cute, fuzzy little chickies from just a couple of months ago?

Well, that has given way to this:

TEEN-AGED CHICKIE PUNK ROCKERS!

Okay, so maybe it's not that bad....

Happy Friday, everyone!

It's a good thing she doesn't have to diaper all these babies....

Still in the hay... our barn is full but there are still more bales in the field to pick up.

(But we're almost finished! YAY!)

Have a great weekend!

Friday Farm Foto: Hello, world!

Today is not only errand day around here, but also the end of a long HOT week with record temperatures in the upper 90's. When I got back home I went up to the barn unload the feed bags and heard chirping coming from the chicken coop- I had the calender marked and thought my Silkie hens weren't supposed to start hatching for a couple more days, but looks like Sadie fooled me and got a jump on the other hens. (There are some bragging rights in the hen house for that, I'm sure. "Mine hatched first! Na-na-na!")

Thanks for your well-wishes for Lily- she is doing fine after her surgery, although this heat has been hard on her... she's been inside all the time except when bathroom breaks are necessary.

Thanks to the heat, the barn fans are going full blast right now...

(Edie likes to have her ears laid back from the fan.)

 Looks like we're in for an early hot summer.

Short post today- I'm off to visit all my bloggy friends!

Happy weekend everybody!

Been a baaaad blogger.....

I really haven't been with the blogging thing lately.... I guess any excuse is better than none, so here a few- I really got fed-up with Blogger for a while... trouble uploading pictures, (still having issues with that) and all your wonderful comments suddenly stopped coming to my inbox... I checked and no spam blocker or junk mail filter was on, then suddenly, they started coming through a different email account I had.... not really sure what's up with that, but...
Also, I've been a little preoccupied at the barn lately... Miss Lucy, who gave birth to the twins Pepper and Polly in January, has been a very sick little sheepie. I first noticed her not acting right about two weeks ago, and since then I've tried all my best remedies (and a few I'm not really sure about) but mostly I've been waiting on her hand and foot hoping and praying she gets better. She seems to be slowly improving but not out of the woods by any stretch. She is the sweetest thing ever and I would hate to lose her, or worse yet, have to have her put down...



My six Rhode Island Red chickies are now 6 weeks old and have been moved to the great outdoors where they are growing like weeds. They've feathered up beautifully and are starting to develop little "personalities"- I have a bully, a diva, two shy ones, a maverick, and a loner. Needless to say, things sure have been quiet in the house without the contented little peeping coming from the laundry room...

I think you can just about imagine what happened on my last trip to the feed store.

Oh brother, do I need an intervention.....

This time around, I have four Americauna chicks (green egg layers) to replace the ones I lost in the racoon attacks back in the fall. Once all these chickies are full grown, they will join the RIR peeps and Sarge and Big Bird in a brand new "Girls Only" hen house built by Hubby and specially designed for egg production. (*Squeeeeal*!!)
Sarge and Big Bird are the only survivors from my original flock and are now getting up in years, but are still as spunky and spicy as ever, even after Hamburger's demise.

No Sarge, I didn't mean to say you were getting old.....

Sure do have to watch what you say around here... you never know who might be listening!

Now I'm off to do some much needed catching up with all my wonderful blog friends.

(Who I hope haven't forgotten me!)

Chickie Love, Part II

I love going to our local feed store this time of year.... it makes me almost giddy with excitement. For me, nothing says spring is on it's way quite like seeing all the shiny new gardening tools on display, the wonderful seed packets full of promise... and hearing the peeping sounds of day-old chicks coming from the front of the store.
Here is where I start to lose my mind... I know what my better judgement says, but my heart seems to scream speak a little louder than the voice of reason. So, I'm sure you can imagine what happened next...

Yes, I know... but when does anyone really have too many chickens?

At least that's what I keep telling myself...

And Hubby....

Meet the newest little jewels in my poultry family- 6 of them...
One-day-old Rhode Island Red pullets. (Pullet is a fancy term for a young hen.)
No rooster needed- just add water and plenty of feed for these girls and one day they will lay the biggest, tastiest brown eggs around.... oh, nothing against the little eggs that come from my fuzzy-bottomed Silkies, but it does take 2 of them to make one good sized egg.

See?

I really do listen when the voice of reason speaks!! *giggle*

*Sigh*....

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a long time may remember the story of why I'm so crazy about chickens.... if not, go here.

Happy Friday everybody, from me 'n the peeps!

Welcome to the world, little fuzzy-bottoms...

If you let me, I could get really carried away showing you my 15 new Silkie babies... this is not the final count either because Sadie is now sitting on the 6 eggs she laid on top of poor Clementine while she was busy brooding.

*Sigh*....

I love fuzzy bottoms....

I have a fever, and the only cure is more fuzzy bottoms.

Contrary to what you might think, I haven't been spending ALL my waking hours peeping into the box of peeps in my sewing room... well, most hours, but not all of them. I have managed to do something productive, like.... buy more patterns on eBay! *Squeeeal*

I bought two new chicken patterns- one is for an appliqued apron and the other is for a cute little shelf-sitter. I'm in the process of cutting out the patterns right now, so they're spread out all over my cutting table. I also organized my fabric stash and cleaned off my sewing table.... now that the garden is finished and mowing is slowing down (just a little) I plan on spending the hottest part of the day inside with my sewing machine.

I also made some more grape jelly for Hubby this weekend using the most incredibly easy (and yummy) recipe from my Ball canning book....

Quick Grape Jelly

3 cups of bottled unsweetened grape juice
1 package powdered pectin
4 1/2 cups of sugar (I actually thought this was a bit much the first time I made it, so I cut it back to 3 cups this time and it was still plenty sweet enough!)

Combine juice and powdered pectin in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved and return to a boil. Boil hard one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and skim foam if necessary. Ladle into hot jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Adjust caps and process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

This recipe makes about 4 half-pints, so I doubled the ingredients and came out with nearly 5 pints. Hubby was very happy!

Have a happy Monday, everybody!

2 out of 3 ain't bad

Just in time for Mother's Day, the little terrorist is finally the proud mother to 2 baby chicks... hers and one of the Hostages. The other hostage egg was a dud, apparently. (Ironic?)

This weekend went by so fast... Hubby has been fixing the radiator on his tractor, so my potting/storage shed was put on hold temporarily. (Rats.) Still no pictures... I'm waiting until it doesn't look like a privy before I let you see it. I will give you a "tease"- we ordered the same color of tin that's on our barn, so it will have a matching roof! (squeal, gush) I will have my own "mini-barn"! I'm thinking about putting a little sign on the front that says "Paula's Pout House". (cute, huh?)

In the few short months I've been at this blogging thing, I have come to know which part of the country (or world) most of you live in who read my blog, either by you telling me yourself, or seeing it on your profile. And even though I don't know exactly where you are, it's nice to have an idea where of you and your families live... I try to picture in my mind the way the land looks, if it's a large city or small town, if it's been dry or raining... things like that. But when I hear of bad weather or tornadoes coming near where I know some of you are, I'm almost sick with worry, and hope and pray that everything is alright. (I guess that sounds sappy or dumb, but that's who I am.) That's the way I felt last night and this morning after hearing of some of the devastation in places close to where some of you live. I'm hoping this post finds you safe, and that all is well with you and your family.

I have ENS. (Empty Nest Syndrome)

My little Silky babies have graduated to the great outdoors......



But I'm feeling a little sad....
I'm sure going to miss hearing their little contented peeping sounds in my living room, but I won't be missing the faint smell of poop coming from their box. Belle, Beau, and Cecil are loving their brand new world, and I still keep them indoors at night for now, so everything is working out OK. They haven't gotten all of their silky feathers yet, so they are in an awkward stage right now.



Hubby and I had another busy weekend... Hubby is converting one of our old chicken coops into a little storage/potting shed next to the house just for me. (Yay!) I will post pictures soon... right now it looks like an outhouse, so you'll have to wait a while to see it.

I found a delicious (and easy) recipe for Tuna Cakes in a new "Taste of Home" cookbook my wonderful Father-in-law gave me.

2- 6 oz. cans of light tuna, flaked and drained

1-6 oz. package of chicken stuffing

1/3 cup of mayonnaise

3/4 cup of water (I drained the tuna water into a measuring cup, then added water to it for more flavoring. It was good!)

2 tbsp sweet pickle relish (this is optional- I'm not a big sweet relish fan, so I left it out.)

Mix all ingedients in a large bowl, then cover and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes. Pat out desired sized patties (or use an ice cream scoop) and cook in non-stick skillet or griddle until golden brown on both sides.

Oh, and don't forget the sweet tea!

Another project off the list

You may remember the road to the barn project we finished a few weeks ago.... since then we've been working on a place for Daisy and Edie to spend their summer. The grass around the barn has been picked down and tromped on this winter, so we fenced in a small section of the pasture field for them, complete with a little sun shelter. Hubby finished tying in the fence last night, and this morning, the girls are checking out their new digs.


This is the view from the other side.....
(our house is in the background- see D & E's matching log cabin in the corner of the lot? LOL)

Hostage Crisis, Day 4: the little terrorist is sitting tight in Solitary Confinement. 17 more days to go until hatching.
(Hopefully.)

Which brings us to a dilemma- the Solitary Confinement coop was supposed to be Belle, Beau, and Cecil's new outdoor home.... because they need a new place SOON. My living room is starting to smell like poop. Hubby? I love you.... Ready for a new project?