Bit of an update!

Just a bit of an update ... has been ages!

Purkinje has grown up a lot since the last photo - 15 weeks old now!

The Pox, Nugget + Purkinje:

The eglu has some new LED solar lights on and a clear shower curtain to keep out the wind/rain, which you can kind of see in the photo.

I knew Pox wasn't a Speckled Sussex bantam but couldn't remember what the breed was - they had a few at Ash End with a label up on the pen with stuff about the breed then yesterday it clicked ... Ancona! Matilda + Theodore are finally laying again after a moult, Theodore looks surprisingly like a cockerel! She looks huge compared to Purkinje!

There's another Open evening at school on Wed so Purkinje will be going in, and maybe Matilda or Nugget aswell, have got a load of facts and pictures ready to take in to put out.

Bantam egg!

The bantams laid their first egg today!
Its a tiny little pure white egg and it came from the Buff Rock.
I've red mite powdered them, clipped their wings and nails and will worm them to make sure they're fine to go in with the others. The buff rock has slightly scaley legs, so I've put vegetable oil on both their legs just to be sure its not scaley leg mites.

New bantams

I went today and re-homed the cockerels :) They'll be living in with a flock of ex-barn hens and when they're a bit bigger I think they'll be sold on as breeding cockerels.

I picked up some new bantams while we were there - a Speckled Sussex, a Buff Sussex and 2 Buff rocks.

Speckled Sussex called Pox:
Buff Rock:

They're in a rabbit run next to the Eglu with the Brilley chick in it, and in a few weeks they'll be integrated with her, then a while after that they'll be integrated with Matilda + Theodore.

The Buff Sussex and 1 Buff rock have gone to live with my Aunt + Uncle - their first chickens :D

More Doves

Its all starting again.
The last chicks were around for a week, and then one morning I came down and one had died, later on the other died aswell - I think they were too cold because they were big and only had 1 adult sitting on them.

Judy has laid another 2 eggs ... again, they are fertile ... again.
I like having her hatch them, but if they keep dying I might have to start thinking about taking the eggs away as its such a shame to put all that effort into hatching the chicks and then abandoning them :/

We'll see what happens this time!

Home & away

I've managed to find someone that will take all of the cockerels and he has some bantam hens for sale :D

He has a chicken rescue place and they'll eventually be sold on to people that need a cockerel and hopefully they'll be bred from still.
He has some light sussex, speckled sussex and buff rock bantams all for sale, and I've reserved the 3 sussex' and may ask my aunt + uncle if they want the buff rock bantams. I wanted bantams rather than large fowl because the Brilley chickens are classed as LF but are small, so will suit bantams, and being younger the bantams will be a similar size to her.

The chicks (or some of them) are going into school today for open evening, it'll be interesting to see what people think because they haven't seen them since they were a week old!


Now I'll have to juggle intro's with the Brilley Chick and the bantams.

4 cockerels

I've just found out the 4 Cream Crested Legbars are all cockerels :(
They all have big combs coming through, I can't believe I didn't notice it before.

I'm going to have to find homes for 4 now instead of just Fry.
I'm hoping to get some hens to integrate with the Brilley White chick so she isn't lonely before she is integrated with Matilda + Theodore.

Chicken Dispatch, Gut + Bone course

I went to Banbury today on the train on a course to learn how to Dispatch, Pluck, Gut + bone chickens.
It was a good day + good course, I was in the first group, then stayed to help out for the rest of the day.

We had to dispatch a chicken using the broomstick method, which was quick and easy to do, then stop the chicken flapping by holding it close to you. I thought it was all done in a really good way, and Alison explained everything properly.
We then plucked our chickens sat round the table and once they were done, put away for me to do the rest at home.
A Blue Peter moment and we were all given chickens that were dispatched and plucked on Thursday. We learnt how to gut a chicken which was ok, then how to bone it.
I was rubbish at the boning, so probably won't do it again, but it was good to see how you do it.

Watching people gut and bone on the courses after us was really helpful to watch, to remember how to do it all and take it in properly.

At the end of the day we went to the pub for a meal to meet a few Omleteers :)It was quite strange to recognise people all day that I'd never met before and feel that you 'know' them.

Raising meat birds would be something I want to do - but Mom + Dad aren't sure because they think I wouldn't do it and they'd become pets. I really like the idea of knowing exactly where your meat has come from and what has gone into it - as long as we didn't name them, it should be ok ... and we may have a spare eglu next spring ;)
Thanks to everyone - especially Clare for ferrying me around all day!

Nearly 5 weeks old

The chicks are nearly 5 weeks old tomorrow and they're looking like proper little chickens now!!
Fry is getting wattles + has a big comb

I'm still not sure if the Brilley chicks is a boy or a girl ... no comb as

yet but sometimes stands like a boy. Purkinje's comb is quite big, but still pink.

Vets

Only cats and dogs in the vets today. This morning I was watching surgeries, a dog had a growth removed from his nose, tom cat neuter + cat spay (both were rescue cats had ringworm) and one the the vet nurses cans had its right hind limb removed - there was swelling around the joint and the x-rays and the bone didn't have a clear edge and the vet thought the femur was going to collapse. It was really interesting to watch, the sciatic nerve had to be cut, then the bloody supply, a hack saw was used to cut through the femur.
The cut is made quite high up, so that the animal knows there is no leg there and so that they don't try and use a stump of the leg.
Once the bone was removed and Andy was taking a sample, the bone collapsed in his hand so it was good that they removed it in time and that it didn't collapse under the weight of the cat.

In the afternoon I sat in on consults with Brian, one of the other vets.

Chicks Photo Update

Just an update of photos of the chicks:

They're all getting on fine and becoming a bit more friendly, jumping up on top of the brooder - all the time!

Another Brilley ...

I've lost another Brilley chick - the smallest one with the black wings - it was always a bit runty but seemed to be strong, so I don't know whats caused it.


I don't know if they're from bad breeding, my bad care of them or if they have some infection - but the other 4 CCL chicks are all fine.

Another chick died :(

Another one of the Brilley chicks has died :(
It looked like it hadn't been eating. I have no idea why the second one has died, hope its not contagious and that the others don't get it.
I've put some Poultry Tonic in their water to hopefully give them a boost. I was thinking about separating the Brilley chicks and the CCL's, but if it is contagious its too late now :/

I emailed the breeder and he said it sounds like cocci, but they haven't been near any contaminated birds or equipment so I don't think it is, unless it can be passed down in eggs.

Day 10

Its day 10 and the chicks are doing fine. I cleaned them out and switched them onto wood shaving instead of the non-slip mat and they seemed a bit confused!

Brilley Silver + White chicks.

All the chicks together

Its tiny compared to the others! :)

The 4 Cream Crested Legbar chicks together, Fry (male) is at the front.

4 CCL's - Pox, Nugget, Purkinje + Fry

1st Driving lesson

We broke up from school today and I've just had my first driving lesson and it went quite well.
We drove to a quiet road and did some commentary driving, talked through all the controls, adjusted the seat, steering wheel and mirrors then spoke through how the clutch works and things like that - intentionally stalled the car to see how it happened and then I drove the car a bit.
I drove up a straight road, pulled in, then again but with going around a parked car, and then I drove up the road, going into second gear and pulling up behind a parked car.
He asked how I thought it'd gone and I said I thought I was too heavy handed with the foot pedals, and he said I was better than most people, so Lewis is pleased :D

Chicks ar home :D

I bought the chicks home this afternoon and they are all fine and in the breakfast room :D

Up to 7 chicks

Just been to school to check the chicks and a water pipe in Biology has burst!

The chicks are fine, the one that was pipping yesterday (in the video) hatched, another hatched and there is an egg that has pipped and should be out tomorrow. The one from yesterday and the pipped one yesterday have gone into the brooder with the rest of the chicks.

The Brilley Blues are smaller chicks, and they're meant to be autosexing, but I can't see any difference, and I thought they were meant to be blue chicks aswell :lol: - I'll find out.

Up to 5 chicks

The first Brilley Blue chick has hatched this morning, and there is another that is pipping.

I recorded a video of the chick and you can see it breathing inside the egg :D

The CCL chicks are all fine, they seem to have grown loads already! Fry has already got litte wing feathers :)

Up to 4 ...

The 4th chick hatched during the night and I think its a girl, so hopefully we have 1 boy and 3 girls.
We've named them; Blue is called Fry, Yellow is called Nugget, Pink is called Purkinje and th Orange one is called Pox :)
In the brooder

Purkinje

In Biology

Fry :D

3 Chicks

2 more hatched today. The one that hatched yesterday is a male, and the 2 from today are females. There's still one pipping and yet to hatch.
Some photos:
Empty egg shell:

Arjun + a female chick:
Me + Phillipa:

Male chick:

3 chicks in the brooder:

First chick :D

3 eggs pipped earlier during Biology and then I went on a trip and got back just before 4 o'clock - and the first chick was just out of its shell XD

Hatcher

The polyhatch seems to be working well, and we put the first batch of eggs in at 9am. We went back at lunchtime to check the temperature and someone had turned it off at the wall and the eggs felt cold! The temperature was down in the 20's and should be at 37 degrees :(
We quickly put them back in the original incubator while this one heated up and then put them back in. It was a maximum of 4 hours that they were cold for, hopefully they will be ok.
We candled the eggs and got rid of the 2 CCL infertile eggs and one infertile BB egg.

We have a webcam set up and is running on the school network, but can't be viewed outside school which is a bit pointless as you can just go and look at them, but we're going to have them streamed live on the plasma screens around school.

New Hatcher

I went to school on the way back home from Nottingham just to sort the chicks out. I thought I was taking my incubator in for the first batch of chicks to use as a hatcher but school have managed to borrow one from another local school.
Its a Brinsea Polyhatch (which we used to use at the farm all the time) and they're usually good and hold their temperature well. I turned it on and have left it running over the weekend, hopefully it'll keep its temperature and will be ok :)

VetSim - Day 4

The rest of the Marine Mammal Medic Course was today - the practical part.
Me, Chris and Jen were all in different groups today, but it was fine. I started off with the dolphin.
We talked a bit about the situation, what to check for and signs to look out for. We put some KY jelly over its eyes to keep them moist, put a sheet over it to protect it from the sun and then started to lift it. We rolled up the tarpaulin on one side, rolled the dolphin and slid the tarp underneath, we rolled the dolphin back and pulled the tarp out from underneath so the model dolphin was in the middle of the tarp and all lifted together.
I lay down on the tarp and people lifted me and walked a little bit to simulate walking to the sea ready to be refloated.
After the dolphin was the seal. Seals don't need KY Jelly on their eyes, or a cloth, but you walk up along the side of the seal with a towel and in one go you have to jump on its back, cover its head with the towel and hold its neck down so it can't bite you. Then you have to check it for lesions on its flippers, checks its mouth and eyes and then we lifted it. It had a knack to it and the seal was really heavy - I can imagine it being really hard with a live seal as it would be trying to wriggle out and bite you.
Next and last was the whale. The situation was that the whale had been stranded on the beach and we'd been given permission from the vet to refloat it. We had to do similar to the dolphin, and roll up the pontoon, roll the whale and put the pontoon under the whale and take it out from the other side. Next the pontoon sheet is clipped onto the floats of the pontoon and the pontoon is inflated with compressed gas. It needs to be done slowly as not to alarm the whale. A female sitting next to the head of the whale is meant to be calming for the whale aswell.
After it was all inflated, we lifted the whale. We took it all apart and did the same thing again without the instructors telling us what to do, to check that we all knew what we were doing.
We left Nottingham just after one o'clock and got back at around half past two.

VetSim - Day 3

Today at VetSim was all Animal Sessions.
Another start at 9am but this time with Parrots and Macaws. They were all rescue parrots and the man did a talk about them and about how to care for them and then we did a quiz. Some of the things were really interesting, like there are over 300 breeds of parrot!
After Parrots we moved onto Skunks & Meerkats (from the same place as the parrots, again from Birmingham!). There was a group of 4 Meerkats all in a run, then a baby and a male with 3 legs in a different cage. They again were rescued animals and we were allowed to stroke the male but not hold him because he was vicious with other people. Other people held the baby and she was ok with people, although she did bit one person.The skunks were passed around and didn't smell as bad as I was expecting, a bit like a wet rabbit. The adults had their scent glands removed, but a law was passed 2 years ago banning it, so the baby still had his. After that we went over to Large Constrictors, there was a smaller one which was passed around and we tried to listen to its heartbeat. Then the bigger one came out and we held it then put it over our shoulders, it was stronger than I expected. Then we went to Eagles and Vultures which was interesting. They were all fed on cockerel chicks coming from the commercial hatching industry, but had their yolk sacs removed because they are high in calcium.

We went and had lunch then went to the Snapping Turtles. We were taught how to handle them, draw a triangle from the back legs to the middle of the back and thats the only place you can touch then, as they have long necks and bite. You pick them up by the tail and support underneath.
Afterwards was Canine Blood Bank, which I didn't know existed, dogs donate bloog which can be used by vets in blood transfusions. I had to leave early and miss the next session (Elephant Conservation) because I had my Mock Interview. I think it went well and I could answer everything she asked me - she said it was good and that I had well thought out answers.
I was back in time for Anatomy which was good, they described the difference in different animals and different breeds and problems we as humans have created for animals, for examples the breathing of Pugs and Boxer dogs and birth of Bulldogs.

Some people left at 5 and the rest of us had dinner then went and started the Marine Mammal Medic Course. It was all lectures today, Biology Of Cetaceans and Seals, Cetacean Strandings and Seal Rescue - they were all given by the BDMLR (British Divers Marine Life Rescue).