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Month: June 2013

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Every now and again we have a chick or a full grown hen whose  neck and head are crooked. This particular chick was in the brooder when I noticed that she wasn't moving to the freshly filled feeder with the rest of the flock. Typically, as soon as the feeders are re-filled, the chicks crowd around them. I noticed her head was tilted on a sharp angle -  almost upside down. I gave her a quick exam; she hadn't been smothered, crushed, or stepped on. I placed her in a small bucket with shavings to cushion her and got out the bottle of B-12 vitamins.

If you ever find one of your poultry with this condition here are the steps to follow:

  • Get B-12. Sublingual drops.
  • Use an eye dropper to administer B-12 (Do not use the dropper that comes with the B-12, you don't want to contaminate the bottle with bacteria)
  • poured some of the B-12 out on a dish, used an eye dropper or syringe (without the needle) to draw up the vitamins. A few drops are more than enough for a chick.
  • Tilt back the chicks head, open up the beak and squeeze in the drops. Make sure the chick swallows them.
  • Don't use more than a few drops, we're trying to heal, not drown, the chick.
  • Keep her in a small box or container that's open on top and place it in a safe area where dogs, cats, or other chickens can't bother her.
  • Repeat the drops three times a day for a couple days.

Every few hours you should see improvement. After one dose her head and neck should start to return to normal. Give the chick water in the same method as the B-12 a couple times a day and offer a small amount of feed free choice. If you don't have B-12 available try using raw liver. Chop the liver very fine or use a food processor to make a paste. Open the chicks beak and feed a small amount of liver. Massage the chicks throat to make sure she doesn't choke. Follow this with a few drops of water. Feeding liver will take longer to correct the crooked neck than the B-12 drops. You should see improvement within a couple of days.

 

 

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GE Wheat? We haven't Got Any GE Wheat...or Do We?

 

USDA Discovers GE Wheat

USDA officials are investigating the discovery of Genetically engineered wheat found in Oregon. Monsanto was authorized to field test the Roundup Ready wheat in 16 states from 1998- 2005 but Monsanto withdrew it’s application in 2004. The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services emphasized that this wheat doesn’t pose a food  safety concern. The FDA stated that the GE wheat variety was as safe as any non-GE wheat currently on the market.

Monsanto issued this statement:

“The glyphosate-tolerance gene used in Roundup Ready wheat has a long history of safe use. The gene that was used in Roundup Ready wheat also produces the same protein that has been and is used widely in corn, soy and several other crops by millions of farmers throughout the world.”

My wise and wonderful grandmother use to say, “Right is right even if no one does it. Wrong is wrong even if everyone does it.” I think those words perfectly apply here. Just because millions of farmers world wide are using a product doesn’t mean it’s a safe or that it's a good product.

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Cookie ran past me and shouted something about needing to find a marking flag. I had no idea what he was talking about but I followed along to help him look . We found an older, tattered one in the machine shed. When I asked what he was marking he ran ahead to show me. He was seeding the pasture behind the hoop building with oats, barley, clover and rape seed.  He noticed a Killdeer faking a broken wing, carefully he searched for the nest and found it in the gravel at the edge of the field. That's when he rushed past me looking for a flag. I'm proud that our boys have an appreciation for nature and respect their habitats. Over the years we've had unusual guests at our farm. When Garrett was younger he would find snakes in the spring and keep them until August, then he'd release them. Turtles, squirrels, bunnies, snakes, opossum, salamanders, and starlings have all made their way from our farm back into their natural habitat. Here's a small sampling: