Taylorsville

That was yesterday. I don't really have much to post for results. I only showed 3 and they were very young. The 2 Tort sisters are about 11 weeks I think and they showed relatively well, placing 1 and 2 of 3. I had to scratch Dreamgirl. She came up with a poopy butt the day before and had lost weight over the pin bones. Decided it best to leave her home. Many thanks to the secretary for not charging me for the scratch. My main reasons for doing the show were to deliver some rabbits, and sell a few. I sold a couple and made the deliveries. Jackson was returned to his owner, and Camaro and Anaba are on their way to Michigan. [wave byebye] That emptied 3 holes.

We arrived at the fairgrounds to find a situation. I got there at my usual fairly early time, but the building hadn't been opened as it usually was. I saw a couple cars go around to the back, but didn't think anything about it since many park in back. Friends pulled in shortly after I did and we waited to see if anyone was opening the building. No one did. Then some people that we didn't recognize arrived. We asked if they had keys and they looked at us kind of oddly. They said something about holding a "celebration" in there. We said we were there for the rabbit show. That's when we learned it was being held in the barn behind the main building. Ooookay.

Sure enough there was everybody else. It didn't look good. The barn is...well...a barn with stalls and walls separating areas. It could get crowded. Did the best we could to find some floor space. Then we learned what had happened. At first, we were told the building had been double-booked, and the club didn't find out until Friday when they came to set up. Which was odd since the club books every year at the same time and it had been booked for a year. Then we learned the other booking was actually for Sunday, but the people complained about the odor left over from last year's Sat. show and booked the building for Sat too, even though they weren't using it then. The building stayed locked up all day.

It actually turned out better than we thought it would. While still a bit crowded, we managed to figure it out. Kudos to the club for maintaining order and organization on such short notice. A hot day was forcasted, but the barn stayed fairly cool, probably cooler than the building would have been. It did begin to heat up a bit toward the end of the afternoon, but most of us were leaving by then.

One of the main drawbacks, besides having to weave around stalls and walls to get anywhere, was the poor lighting. There were just regular bulbs in ceiling fixtures. Our dwarf judges couldn't examine color very well, so they didn't. For some reason, there were no scales so there were no DQs for weight, either. There were quite a few questionable jrs (in my opinion). So you could say this was a pretty relaxed show, which is kind of nice sometimes.

Here's a few new pix of some birds.


These are either Partridge Wyandottes or Rhode Island Reds. These are the older two, there's another younger one. Still haven't sexed yet. There's not much comb to give a clue.


Spiffy the Spangled Old English. Isn't he handsome! Looking forward to his full rooster tail.


Spiffy and Blue vying for face time (I guess). All the roos are getting along so far. Time will tell if that will continue. The 2 buff Cochins in the cage.

The lone guinea hatchling in the incubator didn't make it, and none of the other eggs hatched. Oh well.

Show season is pretty much over for me. I have no other shows on my calendar until fall. Unless I change my mind about the Dickson show in July. It's so far, probably not. The only other thing I have in the near future is the Southeastern Dwarf Fanciers Rendevous in 2 weeks. There's no show, it's a social day and club meeting.

Keep cool, summer is heating up in the south.

tnt

5.26.11

[shrug] Sometimes, I can't think of a good title for a post that will probably go on about different things

In Rabbit News:

I've sold a few rabbits and still have a few more available. This weekend is Taylorsville, and this is probably my last show for a while, maybe until fall. That means the sr does still available will probably be taken off the market and put back to work for the time being if they don't sell this weekend.

Not really a big problem. Dreamcatcher is a good doe to have handy for fosters, and I have got keepers from her. Cirocco is young, and she proved herself a great brood doe her very 1st time. The main problem (for me and the reason she is for sale) is that she's an otter. I got lucky with this litter, they're both broken self does. Being an otter limits what I can breed her to. No tort or anything that carries it. Himi isn't a good choice, either. I'm left with broken black bucks which is not the worst thing, but I would prefer a solid. If it comes down to it, that's probably what I'll do. The other thing I like about her is her clean stripy pattern which she threw on her offspring. She also has a jovial personality. Gets it from her sire I guess as he threw clowns in other litters.

Clowns. Don't you love them? They are the ones that seem happy-go-lucky and often have funny little quirks. The other day I caught Stylesetter (also for sale) doing something I don't think I've seen a rabbit do before. He was laying on his side leisurely washing his paws and face. This is something rabbits usually do standing up. He looked like a lazy cat.

Another quirky bunny is the broken chestnut doe Finale who is also for sale. I'm not working with broken agouti anymore and her name is for the end of that. I really should take the camera when I go out there. She was laying in a odd position for a dwarf. Stretched out like a English Lop. Her hind end was rounded up the way that breed is posed, her chest and head flat on the floor. I've since caught her in this position more than once so apparently it's comfortable for her.

I may have dug myself a himi hole. I sold both of my sr bucks and the borrowed buck is going back to his owner this weekend. I have a couple cute bucks in his litters, but they are just babies. That means my 2 remaining sr himi does won't have mates unless I use the tort or a broken. Which I'll do if I have to. Chevette is bred to the loaner but she's a 1st timer. If she fails, I'll have to go outside the box. I may hit a friend up for something I can use until the baby boys grow up.

So why did I sell the sr bucks? My policy is to only keep rabbits I'm going to use for breeding. Even show bucks must go when they no longer fit in the program. That was the case with these bucks. I was done with them.

I have to go through the loaner buck's litters today. Incredibly lucky that each litter has 1 cute buck and the rest does. I'll keep both bucks for now, and a doe from each litter. The rest will be for sale after the loaner's owner takes his pick.

In Guinea News:

It looks like maybe I was wrong about the hen's nest. She is still disappearing in the same area so she must still have eggs out there. Even if I could find it, getting to it would be tricky. It's in an over-grown area that I'm not inclined to go crawling through without protective gear. I could run into poison ivy or nasties like black widows or yellow jackets. Yeah, don't really wanna go in there.

One keet hatched in the incubator. If you remember, the 10 eggs were possibly compromised by the 3-night power outage. 2 others pipped but died in the egg. No sign of action from the rest. So I have this poor lonesome little birdy still in the incubator after 3 days. Didn't make sense to set up a brooder bin for one tiny keet, so I was waiting to see if any more hatched. I noticed it pecking at the design on the paper towels that line the incubator so I began putting food there. It is eating and I assume it's drinking the water in the humidity channels. I'll give it a couple more days and then move it into something else. The weather has been so warm, it should be fine without a heat lamp.

In Chicken News:

I lost the red Cochin. It's just gone. No evidence anywhere, not even a feather. My best guess is a snake got it. That hurt, it was one of my favorites. Then the barred and one of the younger mottled Cochins died. Bummer. The last 2 were still in a brooder in the bunny shed. They weren't big enough to join the rest in a transition cage. I only have 2 buff Cochins in the cage at this time, and the new guinea keets are in another. Oh yeah, one of the blue keets died as well.

Spiffy has gotten ever more friendly. He will sit on my hand for a quite awhile and seems to beg for me to pick him up. He likes to stand on my shoes when I'm sitting down in there. I do that a lot...just sit and watch them. He will fly up to perch on the back of my chair. He's becoming more beautiful, too. The black feathers in his tail are iridescent green, and the ones in his wings are purple. His neck feathers are bright reddish tan, and then he's shades of brown all over with white spangling. He's definitely my favorite. Yeah, gotta take the camera.

tnt

Nest News

In the Nestbox:

Out of 4 does due this week, I got 2 babies in 1 live litter. There was a big pile of DOAs! Jeez! Baroquen (1st timer) and Flashdance had 4 each. Baroquen built a lovely nest of fur...on the wire. Some of hers were born alive, but the cold night did them in.

I'm still waiting on Nyx but she's also a doe I don't trust. As of last night, she had put fur in the box, but all the nest material had been kicked out. She always does that which is why her kits haven't lived past a few days unless I foster them. She was being real witchy about my checking the nest. Luckily it's much warmer this morning, so maybe she'll have something for me when I go out there. I do have a promising fostered broken from her last litter and there will be a decision to make on whether to waste any more time on her.

So who got it right? Good ole reliable Honeycomb x Dot.com has 2 broken blacks. Not enough color but the kits are nicely sized and shaped so I'll let her raise them for the non-extension they are carrying, and I need her to take Nyx's if she has them.

In Guinea news:

It looks like the hen's nest was compromised. A predator must have found it before I could. That's what you get, my dear, for nesting "in the wild". I was all set to watch her closely (or try to) yesterday to find it, and then realized she wasn't going to go there. She hung out with the males all day, and didn't even leave the fence. She should lay again soon, and the game of hide & seek will start again. The eggs in the incubator are estimated to hatch within a week.

I thought I could keep guinea hens confined to the Summer House to force them to lay in a safe place, but now know that won't work. They're just too big to share the space with the bantams. I'm working out an idea for another penned space just for guineas.

In Bantam news:

I sold 6 excess birds at the rabbit show last weekend. That helped. There was just too many of them! I feed them morning and evening and they mob me until I do. After feeding them and then the rabbits out there, I take a moment to bird-watch. After they fill their crops, they go to the freshened water bowls. Then they relax so I can observe them putzing around. I bring in some weeds for them to pick through, and that's always fun for them and me.

Speaking of water. I think I have to invest in a chicken waterer. It's a hassle keeping them in clean water. They perch on the bowl rim and the dirt on their feet fouls the water too fast.

Spiffy, the spangled OE, has become my pet. I can touch him when he walks by my feet. He lets me pick him up and set him on my knee for petting. He has even flown up on my knee! I can't wait to see what he looks like when mature. He has so many interesting things going on in his feathers. Iridescent black peeks out from under white, brown and tan on his tail and wings. He is going to be gorgeous.

I had been hearing an odd noise coming from the birds, but couldn't see who was doing it. I finally caught Spiffy trying to crow! That was so funny, it's not a proper crow at all. More like something stuck in his throat, but he was all puffed up like he was somebody. He's only about 7-8 weeks old, and I didn't know they would crow that soon.

I still haven't sexed the Cochins, even the oldest 2. There isn't enough difference in their combs to give me a clue. I'll have to study some pix online to see if there's something I should be looking for. Same for the 3 partridge possible Wyandottes. They will have small rose combs so it will be hard to tell on them, too.

It got so cool (50s) for a few days, I had to turn the furnace on. It wasn't even warm enough during the day to warm the house. Also didn't see the sun for days! It was dark, dreary, and drizzly. The sun finally came out for a bit yesterday and it got to 70. Forecast calls for even warmer from here out, and hopefully more sun.

tnt

Updates 5.11.11

The website has been updated and the Barn page includes new pix of the Summer House / Poultry Palace.

There's also pix of a few new jr does. The "Dream" sisters are a continuation of the dream theme that started with Dreamboat Annie (now living elsewhere). Broken Dream is kind of unimaginative until you understand why. She lost a back toe when she was a baby. I don't know what happened but it was ripped off somehow and there's only a nub. So that dream of a show doe was broken. But she'll make a very nice brood doe. The sisters are almost identical with slight variations in pattern.

Here are pix of the newest chicks.


These Cochins are from the breeder at the swap last weekend. Red, Buff, and Mottled Black (3 of these). Red is my favorite (yep, that's its name). I don't know if the head will stay like that, probably not, but that would be cool. They are considerably fluffier than the TSC Cochins, and the Mottleds are more white than the older TSC Mottleds. The breeder's adult Mottleds were more white than black. Very pretty!

The next batch is the last shipment of TSC Cochins. I quit! I promise, no more new chicks.


I think Silver Laced, Gold Laced (3), and Barred.

I probably won't name all the birds, but some have acquired a handle. The Spangled Old English cockerel is Spiffy because, well, he's so spiffy-lookin. He's also one of the tamest, although he gets rough on some of the others. Oddly, he and the white Japanese cockerel seem to be buds.

Then I discovered the black OE pullet has 5 toes on one foot. One of the front toes is split like a Y with claws and everything. I call her High Five, but don't know if I'll keep her. She's really bossy with everyone, and I can't have her picking on the younger Cochins.

The new guinea keets.


Royal Purple (4) & Coral Blue (6).


Cochin chick and guinea keet for comparison. I'm not sure on age, but I believe the keet is 3-4 days and the chick is 5-7. Trust me when I say guineas hatch smaller than bantams. Amazing when you know how big the adults will be.


Guinea egg & Grade A Large egg from the store.

The guinea hen is setting somewhere. I know the general area but haven't found the nest yet. I know this because she goes missing for most of the day and just comes out a few times to forage. I've been trying to watch where she goes, but keep getting distracted while she meanders around with the males for too long. When I remember to notice, she's already gone to the nest. Guineas are very hard to see when they are on the nest so I have to see where she goes.

Yesterday, I was stunned to see 2 young deer walk into the yard in the middle of the day! I have never ever seen deer here! Somehow they snuck past the neighbor's dogs, and mine didn't notice either. The guineas alerted me to look out the window. I wish I could have got a photo, but it didn't take through the window. They were right up here by the car which is in front of the gate! That's when my dogs noticed them. They didn't know what to think. I could tell because their barks were less confident.

A thunderstorm just blew by, but it was gentle here. It moved out very quickly and didn't rain a lot. Of course, I checked the weather map to see what it looked like. Yeah, still pretty gun-shy. This is the 1st storm since the twisters. Weather has been perfect otherwise. Clear, sunny, and warm.

tnt

Getting back to normal.

The cleanup continues and things have calmed down a bit around here. There is still much to do, but it's amazing what they've accomplished. Power has been restored to almost everywhere that can get service. They got it done so fast with a lot of help from outside utility companies. The good weather we've had since then helped a lot, too. Phone lines are still out, but that's not as important in this age of wireless communication.

The mail was finally able to get back here yesterday. I had to go to the post office a few days ago to send some things out, and the postmaster explained that the restrictions on who belongs in the areas included the mail carriers. I could have signed a form to hold my mail to pick up myself, but I didn't have anything important coming (that I know of) so I could wait it out.

I found another odd bit of damage the other day. There's 5' chainlink around the backyard, and wild honeysuckle is growing thickly on the back corner. So thick, I didn't notice until I was close that the fence is copping a 25-30 degree lean outward for about 20' from the corner. The honeysuckle must have caught the blast like a wall. Again amazed at the persnickety nature of tornadoes, and that my house and outbuildings were spared! That corner is only about 50 feet from the Summer House carport and rabbit shed! There's some loose stuff under the carport and most of it wasn't even moved!

What else?

I've been working in the Summer House setting up for the chickens. All the chicks are still in transition cages, and the oldest batch is in a sort of pen so I can control them until I'm ready to turn them loose in there. I'm also doing a bit of culling now that I know what I have in the chicks. Tomorrow, I'm going to a Small Animal Swap in Kingsport (about an hour away) and hope to sell the culls. That's the other reason they are still caged...to make it easier to load them up in the morning.

As of now, it looks like I have:

3 Dark Cornish - not sure on sex, but they still have no combs to speak of so I'm saying pullets. Culling.

2 Black Old English - cockerel and pullet. Culling.

4 Self Blue OE - Looks like 3 cockerels and 1 pullet, but I'm not sure on one of the smaller ones. That's a drag. Would have liked to keep all that pretty color. I should only keep 1 roo for that color, so I'm culling at least 1, maybe 2 if I decide there is in fact 3 roos.

1 Spangled OE roo and 1 Black Breasted Red OE pullet. Trying to decide whether to cull the BBR since she doesn't really fit in my "pretty bird" plan. Hens of that variety are dull. Although she does seem like a rather sweet bird which could go in her favor.

1 White Japanese roo. Keeping to see how Japanese handle my winters.

3 Partridge Wynadottes. These were question marks because they didn't develop like any of the others. Much slower feather and comb development. I realized the round body and small curled tail was similar to the Cochins, and the lack of comb means the Wyandotte's rose comb. I knew I really liked these chicks for a reason! That was a breed I was interested in.

2 Buff Amercaunas - cockerel and pullet.

13 Cochins. Lots of variety here! I couldn't resist when I went to TSC last week for feed, and the latest bantam shipment was ALL cochins! So I brought home 6 more.
* edited to add 5 more bought at the sale.

5 Mottled Black
3 (possible) Gold Laced
1 (possible) Silver Laced
2 Buff
1 Barred
1 Red

Yes, it's been a lot of fun learning how to ID these chicks.

I'm also taking bunny culls to the swap. I was going to take them to the next rabbit show (the birds, too) but hopefully this swap will eliminate the need for that.

Nothing much happening in the rabbitry right now. Don't have any litters due until around the 18th. Playing with the current litters a lot to start picking my keepers. Looks like there's a lot of does! Honeycomb's 2 torts are does and ready to be weaned out. Probably keeping both of them. One is a show bunny, and the other looks like BUD but should be showable for a while. Honeycomb is also due on the 18th (Dot.com) and I'll probably sell her after that litter since I have several daughters to replace her. The rest are about 4 weeks and we're working on posing.

Oh and I'm pretty excited. I saw an ad for "color" guineas, and got my name on a wait list for hatchlings. Just got word today, they are hatching and it looks like colors I wanted will be available. Cool! Blue (or some variation of blue or lavender), royal purple (I think this is a dark brownish) for sure, and I hope for buff.

Speaking of guineas. I have the 10 eggs I salvaged from the fox-killed hen's nest in the incubator. I was worried the power outage for 3 nights would kill them. The 3rd night, it got pretty cool in the house and incubator. I was told to continue incubating and hope for the best, so that's what I'm doing. I'll sell most of those (if any hatch) to turn my flock over to colors. I'll definitely clip wings to try to keep them in the fence.

tnt

The aftermath.

It's been a rough week! My heart goes out to all the victims of the recent chain of tornadoes. There were 2 twisters here the night of Wed. 4/27, one right after the other. The 1st one smacked a community just SW of here. The 2nd less than a half hour later hit my area.

We were so lucky back here! The house at the end of the road is gone. That's less than 1/2 mile away! The destruction actually began about 1/4 mile down the road and blocked the road with downed trees. The forest comes right up to the narrow road all the way up. I heard and felt the blast when it went by, and I dreaded daylight showing me the damage. Was so surprised there was none. At least not to anything that mattered.

The power went out a good hour before it hit so we didn't know what was happening. Early the following morning, patrolmen came back here on motorcycles to see if we were ok. They had to come in through the fields behind me. Said the road was completely blocked (it's a dead end) and asked if we needed anything. Said there wasn't a power pole standing down there so it could be a while before we had power. Other than electric, I had what I needed. I have public water and there was plenty of food for me and the animals. My neighbors were self-sufficient as well.

I'm thanking the forest for sparing us back here. The path was over open ground and just swiped the forest edge when it went by. They worked fast and had the road open for us by late afternoon. I went out the next day to get some things and see what it looked like. I have never been this close to so much destruction! After the smashed house on the end, it just got worse. Red Cross came back here several times to see if we needed anything and to inform us where we could go for help if we needed it. My road is even narrower right now as there isn't much room for the downed wood.

My friend's sturdy brick house is destroyed. He's about a mile away as the crow flies. I finally hooked up with him later that day and was so relieved he's ok. He was definitely shell-shocked. He said they were in the basement at the 1st warning, and came up when they thought it was clear. That's when the 2nd twister hit, so it's amazing they weren't hurt. Buildings all around him were smashed as well. I heard at least one of the reported deaths was in his area.

On the way home, the people who lived in the place at the end of my road were there so I stopped to talk and see if they needed anything. They were thrown out of their beds over 300 yards and amazingly, only suffered bruises. Debris from their house went a lot farther. Oddly, a little single-wide and small barn just behind them on the property were still standing, although they had a lot of damage. The next place down is another single-wide and it was barely touched. In fact, debris from the house caused the most damage in broken windows. An old single-wide had been abandoned at the back of that property and it was rolled over against the woods behind it.

Tornadoes are strange that way. It wasn't until coming home that I noticed the tin roof on the little pump house is gone. It's a lot lower than the house and other outbuildings and somewhat sheltered by trees. I would have thought if anything the tall old shed near the house would have lost its tin roof but it didn't. It already had some wind damage from the "normal" high winds I get back here, but nothing much from this storm. We thought we were fairly safe close to the mountains. Tornadoes are very rare here. Goes to show, no one is ever completely safe from nature's wrath.

I went to a FEMA meeting in the other community yesterday. They were very well organized with command centers set up in both areas. They had tons of donations and told everyone to take what they need. The destruction was just as bad there, and I think more people died. Senators and other officials are on hand, and I heard that one of the helicopters that flew over the area several times might be President Obama. He was supposed to have been in GA/AL for the disasters earlier this week down there, and might have flown over here as well.

Patrol cars are stationed at the in-roads to the areas to control lookyloos and looters. Yeah, there was already that going on. Sometimes, I really don't like the human race.

The little Netbook got a lot of use. I had internet. I had to conserve the charge, but I was able to check in. One of the things I went out for that 1st day was a special device so I could charge it off the car.

We got power back here Saturday afternoon. I really didn't expect it so soon. Was told that since there was no line damage back here, they started here. I guess it's practical to take care of the easiest issues first and work out to the worst. Was without for 3 nights and part of the day. I did a lot of reading by booklight! The power went off for a bit later that evening. I assume so they could work on connecting lines.

In fact, it just went out again while writing this! Thank you, Blogger, for saving it! I expect this will go on for a while so I better shut down the puter for now.

tnt