tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810033429461791744.post1179838596476366186..comments2024-03-16T12:45:12.251-04:00Comments on Raised By Wolves: BroodyHeather Houlahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13891198124130533198noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810033429461791744.post-21491459555625498682009-03-08T19:40:00.000-04:002009-03-08T19:40:00.000-04:00Try the difference between flock and herd; grove a...Try the difference between flock and herd; grove and orchard; ram, wether, and ewe; heifer, cow, calf, steer, bull, and on and on. My SAT in 1978: flock is to bird as covey is to _________. Probably unfair to city kids who are not widely read, although I learned covey from a book and real life. The analogies section has since been dropped. With my interest in words and their derivations, I should have been a philologist, but that Nietzschean option was not offered at a certain college afflicted with a superiority complex:<BR/>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_College<BR/><BR/>Please don't trash all my fellow trade-school graduates! Certain medical schools feature rural medicine programs. I can vouch for this one, at least in the late 1990s:<BR/>http://mdadmissions.msu.edu/main/rpp.htm<BR/><BR/>As a former city girl with an interest in cultural anthropology, I was prepared to try to understand the rural culture I found in Vermont (during residency). Of course, the program didn't help, except to explain what 'Jeesum Crow' meant. Other residents, most without rural experience, looked down on farmers, volunteer fire departments, and the ilk. Farmers were stupid, uneducated, a throwback. I found this attitude not only in American city people, but particularly in foreign residents. A computer scientist friend told me that her coworkers tagged her as stupid when she let slip that she raised chickens. My hay man has a Master's Degree in forestry (and works 3 jobs). My sheep mentor is a retired Episcopal Priest who attended Divinity School at Princeton. <BR/> <BR/>Not to say your generalization doesn't hold up. However, I'm trying to get a little girl who lives in drug-ridden public housing interested in 4H. She loves my sheep and watched lambs being born. She learned to walk slowly and move quietly. Unfortunately, she has decided she wants to be Britney Spears. I assured her that she could be both a singer and a veterinarian. And I don't let her use the term baby sheep. It's ram lambs and ewe lambs around here.<BR/><BR/>I appreciate your blog!Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15647552175140931761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810033429461791744.post-6232789683220226712009-03-04T10:54:00.000-05:002009-03-04T10:54:00.000-05:00Some years back when we first had chickens & o...Some years back when we first had chickens & one became broody, we also decided to put a clutch of eggs under her. We brought her food & water several times a day since she would not leave the nest. About 10 days or so into the process my partner came up with the idea of candling the eggs so we could remove any that weren't developing. The plan was that I would pick up the hen & hold her while the eggs were quickly checked by shining a flashlight through each one. I held the hen in both hands in front of my chest with her head facing away from me. It had not occurred to me that in keeping to the nest she had also refrained from defecating for 10+ days. This brings me to my reason for writing, which is to offer this advice: If you decide for any reason to pick up a broody hen, point her rear-end away from yourself.<BR/>Regards,<BR/>Max<BR/>My website on dog ligament injury:<BR/>http://home.earthlink.net/~tiggerpoz/index.htmlmaxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08214895936121555295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810033429461791744.post-87312343370638384552009-03-03T22:43:00.000-05:002009-03-03T22:43:00.000-05:00Hi Sarah --I also have three New Hamps, and I like...Hi Sarah --<BR/><BR/>I also have three New Hamps, and I like them very much. They are very nebby, and two of them are lap chickens. The orps are bigger and considerably fluffier, which helps them cover more eggs/chicks when brooding. I think the New Hamps are brighter.<BR/><BR/>Maybe I ought to look into one of your junglefowl roos -- if Henery doesn't straighten up his act, he'll be joining the guineas. I think it's an adolescent phase.<BR/><BR/>The lactation confusion is not helped by the new practice of keeping cows in production with hormone injections.Heather Houlahanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13891198124130533198noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810033429461791744.post-14962029088494378472009-03-03T21:33:00.000-05:002009-03-03T21:33:00.000-05:00Love the humming white coop in the kitchen!Your bu...Love the humming white coop in the kitchen!<BR/><BR/>Your buff looks a good deal like my New Hampshires, a lovely older breed that had a pivotal roll in my pick of a certain UC for college at an early age. Long story, but I have a dozen of 'em in my barn yard (in addition to several other breeds), and they are a favorite. Copper in color, not nearly as aggressive towards other chickens as Rhode Island Reds, and a nice all-purpose breed. One of the hens actually intimidates the Border Collie more than our goats do, but they are not too people aggressive. Speckled Sussex are also a gorgeous breed, the hens are bold and great at free ranging. One of the hens goes next door to free range, but always comes home to lay her eggs. Good girl!<BR/><BR/>I also have several red junglefowl- ameraucana crosses, which for the most part look like large red junglefowl with beards. They are quite pretty and the three roosters are all so laid back that I feel obligated to let them live in hopes that someone else will want to add them to their breeding program.<BR/><BR/>I recall being in the grocery store one day with a friend who urged me to buy the "white shelled eggs because the brown eggs were the ones that had gone bad".<BR/><BR/>Try talking about dairy animals and drinking milk from your own farm to see just how far people are removed from the food supply. I have to try to not look horrified when a woman with children will ask me how to get a doe to produce milk. You would think once they'd had children, they would realize how the whole coming-into-milk thing works, but really not so much.Sarahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05404312674626308999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810033429461791744.post-76186596266922889682009-03-02T15:14:00.000-05:002009-03-02T15:14:00.000-05:00Heather Heather Heather Heather Heather.Pip's $60,...Heather Heather Heather Heather Heather.<BR/><BR/>Pip's $60,000 nose is most likely worth between 1.8 (least favorable matchup: average winter day/subject wearing high visibility colors, comparison of dog/handler team vs. a single human searcher) and 7.7 (most favorable: summer/low-vis colors) human searchers, at least for daylight searching. Which, in the math of SAR planning, is more than good enough.<BR/><BR/>I seem to recall you mentioning I should pull a book off your shelves more often -- maybe you should try staying awake during one of your husband's talks occasionally!Ken Chiacchiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04626815789187013583noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810033429461791744.post-23533139549224618712009-03-02T11:17:00.000-05:002009-03-02T11:17:00.000-05:00Last week I met the first fully-employed rat terri...Last week I met the first fully-employed rat terrier I'd seen in years. Lovely little dog, balanced and steady. A committed, efficient and proven rodent killer whose years of physical labor are taking a toll on her body, and her veterinarian is concerned about that. Owners are too. <BR/><BR/>Sparrow is a lucky dog, to the extent that her owners totally GOT the conversation I brokered about meaningful work and quality of life. Squirrels, beware.<BR/><BR/>Meanwhile, go Buffy!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810033429461791744.post-10098815286890263802009-03-02T10:13:00.000-05:002009-03-02T10:13:00.000-05:00Please let me know how you like the taste of the g...Please let me know how you like the taste of the guineas and how you cook them. I have an excess of them and need to do some thinning.Country Mamahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03145567006658005073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810033429461791744.post-40748900275627889382009-03-02T09:29:00.000-05:002009-03-02T09:29:00.000-05:00Can't wait to see the results of her efforts. I al...Can't wait to see the results of her efforts. I also had the "how does a rooster work" conversation with several college-educated people at a dinner party once. Despite my best efforts to explain the process of fertilization (not too different than our own!) they were still completely in the dark by the end of the conversation. Mind you, any peasant in a third world country gets it. Makes you wonder about the future of this nation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810033429461791744.post-62237588946399158982009-03-02T00:34:00.000-05:002009-03-02T00:34:00.000-05:00Well crap. Why couldn't the lovely Ms. Buffy wait ...Well crap. Why couldn't the lovely Ms. Buffy wait until May to go broody? Mutt layers would fit in just peachy here -- but crippled and coopless is no way to start a flock.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com