Wry neck in Silkie chicken

I never expected a crash course in chicken issues when I put that first egg in an incubator. First it was the spraddle legs issue with Fedora and the other chick.

Now Parker has what is called (Wry Neck (sometimes called Crook Neck or Stargazing) The exact cause of the condition can vary, from genetics to a head injury.It can be  vitamin E or selenium deficiency, in the chick or from the parent.

The chick can turn its head around and fall to the ground at any sudden imbalance or scare. I will add a video to show how fast this happens.

I have added Vitamin E in the form of broccoli and crushed raw sunflower seeds.  Also crushed Selenium pills. As tuna is quite expensive to give allot of it to the bird. And I am a bit afraid that it may contain mercury toxins if I feed to much to it. It is a shame we have to fear the food we eat.

I am on day 7 of trying to help it. I will not give up. They say a week to 10 days. I find it comes out the the what I call sizer like episodes. The wist day it was more than 12 house of sleep for the poor baby. Now it is a few min to a hours or so. I have hope. It will get better.

Hope

 When things in life start to weigh you down. Depression starts to creep in. You sometimes want to throw in the towel and give up. Till you are reminded hope is the answer. If you loose hope of a better tomorrow, you become trapped in doom and gloom.

I know once things start to go wrong in your mind. It becomes an avalanche. One thing after another. You let them become a tornado. Sometimes it is like quicksand. But all you need is a helping hand.  It can be as easy as reminding yourself. (There is always hope.)

This issue of today can go away. It may not be the way you want it too. But everything in this life is temporary. We just need to be strong enough to start over. Every minute and every day is a new start. Take a deep breath and start over. 

Photo of  a sever storm that came and went with no harm caused.

Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

Potato onions

 I received a wonderful gift in the mail yesterday, My friend (D.....) sent me some of her father in-laws potato onions. She said they were yellow onions with a strong flavor. The are definitely, multiplier onions.   Where with normal onions, you plant 1 bulb, you get 1 onion. Multiplier and potato onions (you plant 1 bulb and it splits up into many onions.)

You may ask, What is a potato onion?
The original onions our ancestors grew were potato onions.
They are not uniform is size or shape. They have been passed down from parents to kids many times. They are becoming lost to the world of food.Because, everyone wants perfect uniform looking veggies. So onions have been bred for size shape and taste. This is the price we pay for commercial produce.  We loose the old world heirloom foods. I am so lucky to be given this gift.

She told me "My father in law brought them to Indiana from Kentucky where they were growing wild on a property, they had years ago."

So for now. I am going to call them (The Holland family potato onion) Because he discovered this one.It is not like any other I have been looking at online.

She also included Gladiola bulbs

These seem to grow in groups of 3

Not sure if paper is brown or red

 I wonder if this could be the red potato onion?
Please let me know if you have seen this variety before.
Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

Yokies parents.

 Hi, everyone. I am so happy to say, "We know who Yokies parents are now.

 Yokie has developed enough feathers to see his dad is this  red pyle rooster on the left. His mom is one of the two blue Cochin frizzle hens. (They look look black with a light undertone)
Note: Both of his parents live in Georgia. Yokie was shipped to me as a egg to hatch.

Yokies baby (Tux) may turn out to be a blue frizzle, getting the color from Yokies mom.

Yokie has a few blue feathers. His rust red, orange color feathers can be called gold. But basically Yokie is a red, white and blue Calico Frizzle. LOL
It is so nice to see the family history of your pet chicken. Now anyone who gets one of Yokie and Willows chicks can look on this post and see there family tree.

 Willows is a Partridge Silkie. only 2 of the 5 chicks look like her.

Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

Raising Silkie chickens

 It was a really nice day today. Willow took her little one named Tux out to teach him how the scratch the ground and find things to eat.

Tux seems so small compared to the others

Willow and Tux enjoyed some time soaking up the sun's rays.

Yokie is so full of color now.

It is hard to believe he was there size not long ago. 

 Yokie was born on May 31, 2015. And now he is a dad. That was quick.

 The other 4 are growing up fast too

This is Fedora the oldest. 

The 2 white one look like puff balls, with bloomers. 

And Parker is still the runt. It kinda looks like Fedora a bit.

They are all so much fun.

Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

Being irresponsible

I use to dislike people who were being irresponsible. I like to be able to count on people doing what they say. I like honest caring responsible people. But days like today. I wish I was a kid again. I do not want to be in control of everything.

I wish I was a kid with a mom to cook, clean etc. A dad to fix everything. But, I became a mom who did it all. I could fix things, along with etc.

Today the steam carpet cleaner will not squirt out water. It has to be in the hose. I let hubby, try to look at it and he insisted on something not wrong with it. He would not listen to what I said is the issue. He went to bed. So I have to take this apart if my hands will let me. And see if I can fix it. . The plastic tubing they use for things like this, will collapse.  That keeps water from flowing. I thought about using the air compressor to blow out the line.

Yet, I sit here and procrastinate.  I need to do this and that. And yet, I type and type. Vent and vent in silence.  I do nothing. So I sit here writing.

All along my mind is saying. Grrr. I want to be a kid again. I want someone to take care of me. I want to have fun and play on the computer like my grand kids do. LOL. I am thinking/writing out loud!

OK, this did not get anything done in my house, But it made me laugh. Or at least smile.
Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

Willow meets her older babys (Chicks)

Oct 23, 2015 Willow hatched her egg 3 days early. She turned out to be a good mom to this black and white or grey baby, She has seen the other 4 from afar. I was afraid to let her near. Because she ran across the room and pecked the oldest (Fedora) in the head. She did not want it around.

But today she was Ok, with them outside the baby gates. I put one in she was ok. But they were not to get in her nest. So in a bit of time. I hope she will like them all.

 This is Yokie he is the one I hatched from an egg May 31, 2015. He is the dad to this last one. And maybe the white ones. He is all wet from being out in the rain today. Soon I will have to decide on what little ones to let go of. I know I can not keep the ones related to him. I know some people do. But I do not wish to do so myself.

 The tall dark one to the left is the oldest (Fedora) The other dark one (Parker)

 One of these will be called Dusty, the other?

 The new baby in the video

Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

Update on the spraddle legged chick

I am so happy to share with you that Fedora is doing well. My daughter brought over the 2 newly hatch chicks to keep Fedora company. They will be full size chickens. They are a little bigger than Fedora. But they got him/her to eat. So all is well in the outlook of this chick.

They are so much fun to watch. I have to give the 2 back soon.

 But Fedora will not be alone. Tomorrow, or any minute now. 4 eggs may hatch.
I hope they come out well and happy. The 2nd egg 2 days after, Fedora.Only peeped a hole in the shell. I thought the father to the chicks was a standard white silkie. But it is possible a larger rooster got to Willow.  That could explain why the chicks are too big for the shell.

Soon Willows eggs will contain Yokies baby's. He is a frizzle. He is so sweet. He is always near her. When she has an egg he stand by her or cuddles up like he is going to help her sit on an egg.

Willow has no interest in hatching or sitting on an egg. She is not broody.And does not want to be with the new chicks.She will look at them That is about it.
I now wonder why the person picked, Willow to be sold. All I can do is assume, she is not a mom type of bird. Or egg issues. Maybe Willows egg size is too small. I don't know.But I hope all goes well.
You may ask, Why I am hatching the eggs?
I can not bring myself to put the egg in the fridge knowing there is life inside.

Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

What I did to help the chick with Splay or spraddle leg condition

 Day one.Sept 20. This chick was a bit big for the egg. So that may be the reason for it's condition. The sibling to this one peeped on the 22 and did not make it out of the shell. It was too big for the egg. But in the video below. I will tell you other reasons this condition can happen. And show you how I helped it.

Partridge silkie chick

 I did not get photos of the first brace. It is in the video below.
This is the 22 of Sept I had him in lighter weight braces for his or her legs.

 The 23 of Sept. I had to remove the braces , It was running and tripping with them on.I named it Fedora. I gave Fedora a teddy bear and sprinkled some food on it. So It started eating a bit more. Still not using pooing but a little once a day. .

 The 24th of Sept. Fedora loves the bear. I take it outside to get sun at least 10-15 min a day. Fedora is getting stronger and has just a little issue with the right hip. But it doing very well walking.

 The 25th. 2 eggs hatch at my daughters. She brings them over. Fedora is so surprised to see them. Fedora, starts eating and scratching her feet on the ground. There is still a little slipping of the left hip. But, S/he had her first normal poo.So looks like this is going to be a normal chick. :)
I am so thrilled and happy. :)

 Here is a video of day 1

 Day 2 and 3

Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

A new adventure in raising Silkie chickens.

 It looks like my nest is not so empty anymore.

You saw a few photos in my last post. Why raise Silkie chickens? 
I did not tell you the story of how this started. But some of you know from Facebook. or YouTube. 
 My new hen is named Willow, a Partridge silkie. She is said to be about a year old. I did not plan on raising chickens. But I find it hard to put those eggs in the fridge. Because, I know they are fertile. She was with a white Silkie rooster when I bought her.

You may ask how do I know they are fertile? The first egg laid was accidentally cracked, by my grandson. In the yoke, was a white spot with white thread like veins. Kinda like a small faint look of a bulls eye around the white spot too.

I gave my daughter the next 6 eggs. The first one hatched. on September 20, 2015. It was exactly 21 days in the incubator. It is adorable, But could not get up and walk. It is slow to start eating too. But there is hope.

My next post will be on helping this chick overcome. Splay or spraddle leg condition.


Also soon to come to this blog. :)
I now have a new incubator. It has all the bells and whistles. Egg turner, Digital temperature control, it show humidity level. So you have to adjust that  by more or less water in the bottom.

I will also conduct an experiment,  Fact or fiction?

How to tell a girl egg from a boy egg?

I have read, that more pointed eggs would be roosters and the more rounded eggs would be hens. I also have heard this does not apply to all breeds of chickens but does seem to work for the large breeds but not as well on bantams. 

I have read  using all.rounded eggs for hatching and have resulted in about 75 % hens. 
I also know if this was true for all breeds. The commercial breeders would not hatch pointed eggs. So we will see, how this works on my current eggs.  

Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

Why raise Silkie chickens?

Because they are fun! They are like miniature chickens. Compare pot belly pigs to real pigs. One was meant to be a pet. I raised the white one from an egg. I had a full size rock/buff orphington  to go with him. But they both turned out to me roosters. The Buff names Izzy became too aggressive. He would chase the cat and pluck a few bits of fur from Silk. My other cat. Where Yokie is so sweet.

We found Willow to keep Yokie company. I could not find a younger female silkie. It took 3 month to know Yokie was a Roo. Willow is said to be about a year old. I did not realize she would be laying eggs right away. But she fits right in with the family.The cats even get along with her too.

These 5 eggs are the latest ones. They have a pink hue of color to them. They are small. Just a bit smaller than what you buy in the grocery store. She lays one every other day. So if you were to want the eggs for food. You need 2 hens to get  1 egg per a day.

 Yokie started out almost full white in color. He now has a brass red color. A black or blue feather here and there. Some feathers look more brown than red. So he is turning into a calico colored Rooster. He is a frizzle. Cochin Silkie mix. I look forward to see what he looks like when matured.
Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.