Chicken Whisperer

We had some decent storms overnight with more predicted later this afternoon.  So this morning I went to check on the baby chicks.  These chickens were born on March 10th and were moved out from under the heat light and put in a blocked off section of the coop about two weeks ago.  They had a round plastic tub turned on its side as their shelter.  So I get over there and they are all wet and huddled together in the plastic tub.  Looking into the tub, I noticed that there were two that had been trampled.  I get all the ones out and the two that are there I leave on the floor of the coop for a few minutes while I go look for a larger container to put in there.  I want a larger one so that hopefully this won't happen again this afternoon when more storms come.

After setting up the larger container, I get the two chickens out and they are mostly dead.  They had very shallow breathing, they were mostly flat (picture pancake here), caked in chicken poop, their wings, legs, and neck in odd positions and the worst - their eyes were already glassed over.  One of them even had another chicken standing on his head!  But since they were still breathing I couldn't just leave them out there.  I got another bucket and brought them in the house with a heat lamp.  I told my co-workers that they probably had a 5% chance of survival if I was going to place a bet.  An hour later I took a work break and went to check on them.  They were still alive but had not moved.  Another hour later.... not much improvement, but they did open one eye each and look at me.  Two hours later... They were sitting up!  Now about 5 hours since I brought them in the house, I went down there and they were eating some food.  I think their chances now are closer to 80%....

I didn't take a picture at their worst... because honestly, I thought their chances were just so slim!  But here they are now.

Beehives

Today was the day Rod has been so excited about.  For his birthday, his Dad gave him two beehives.  He has spent a lot of time doing all the work that is needed to get them ready.  Today was the day where he got to actually go pick up two hives with a total of approximately 12,000 bees.  ($200 worth - which is $100 per nuc) 

The sugar water feeder.  For right now he will feed them 8 pounds of sugar mixed with 1 gallon of water

The empty hive.  When he picks up the bees he will have 5 of the frames each

How do you transport bees?  This is what the box looked like that he brought home

There were quite a few buzzing around their heads

Looking for the queen

The queen is the one with the green dot.  They use a different color for the dot each year.  This is how they know how old the queen is.  For 2014, the dot is green

Egg Hunt and Rod's ER visit in the same Day

Beautiful Spring Day!!! That is how today started out.

Rick, Laine, and Christopher came to visit.  Chris loves to watch the chickens.  He isn't too sure of the goats or pigs, and he loves all the dogs.  We started out playing in the house some, then we went to see the baby chicks and finally to see the big chicks.  Rod and Laine went to get us some BBQ and Rick and I took pictures of Chris.

So after they came back, we ate and Rod got some food stuck in his esophagus.  This happens to him fairly regularly and normally it eventually go on down.  But this is a "new" spot that it get stuck in so it wasn't going down.  He didn't want to go to the doctor, so we did an egg hunt with Chris instead.

An hour later, it is obvious that this bite of BBQ isn't going to go down.  We are going to have to go to the ER.  So Rod takes a shower... he is stalling hoping it is going to move... and Laine, Rick, and Chris leave... and 1 1/2 hours after it got stuck, we are on our way to Skyline.

We waited about 45 minutes until they get him into room.  The nurse comes in, checks blood pressure, tells us she is doing an IV and leaves.  Then the lab guy comes in... This is funny because Rod says "you must have the wrong room".  The lab guy says "are you Rodney Cagle".  Rod says "yes, but I don't need any blood drawn, I just have a piece of food stuck in my throat".  The lab guy (as he is getting the needle ready) says "no one leaves here without a Lab Bill"....  It was a funny exchange.  Most people that know Rod knows he hates needles.

The nurse comes back and says that they are going to give him some medicine that only works about 10 - 15% of the time.  And it takes 1 1/2 hours to work and the on call doctor will be there at 6:00.  So we wait and wait.  He keeps hoping it is going to finally move on down..... and we wait.... 6:00 comes and they come get him to go to the OR.  The on call doctor is here, talks to him about the procedure, the anesthesiologist explains everything, etc.  Now the nurse is back with the medicine to put him under.  She is going to give it to him and she said you will start counting backwards.  She has the medicine in the shot and Rod says "Wait".. I think I was able to swallow (all this time he couldn't even swallow his own saliva).  He was 30 seconds from being put under.  She goes to tell the doctor and the doctor says to make sure he can drink a full glass of water... and sure enough, it has moved!  So they come get me and everyone is laughing about it....

4 hours and probably a pretty good hospital ER bill and we are back home!

I took a picture of Rod at the hospital and he really, really didn't want me to post it... So I won't.

So here are some sweeter pictures of Chris from the day!!!!!!