Naked Chicks ... that Glow

This is creepy:



Glowing in the dark, GMO chickens shed light on bird flu fight

In the realm of avian research, the chicks with the glow-in-the-dark beaks and feet might one day rock the poultry world.

British scientists say they have genetically modified chickens in a bid to block bird flu and that early experiments show promise for fighting off the disease that has devastated the U.S. poultry and egg industries.

Their research, which has been backed by the UK government and top chicken companies, could potentially prevent repeats of this year's wipeout: 48 million chickens and turkeys killed because of the disease since December in the United States alone.

But these promising chickens - injected with a fluorescent protein to distinguish them from normal birds in experiments - won't likely gatecrash their way into poultry production any time soon. Health regulators around the world have yet to approve any animals bred as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for use in food because of long-standing safety and environmental concerns.

Bird flu has become a global concern among researchers over the past decade because of its threat to poultry and human health, and UK researchers have been toiling in genetic engineering for years to control its spread.

People who are in close contact with infected poultry are most at risk for flu infections, and scientists are concerned about the risk for a human pandemic if the virus infects someone and then mutates. No humans have been infected in the latest U.S. outbreak, but there have been cases in Asia in recent years.

"The public is obviously aware of these outbreaks when they're reported and wondering why there's not more done to control it," said Laurence Tiley, a senior lecturer in molecular virology at the University of Cambridge, who is involved in the experiments.

[...]

At Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute, scientists are using genetic engineering to try to control bird flu in two ways: by blocking initial infections in egg-laying chickens and preventing birds from transmitting the virus if they become infected.

[...]

To genetically engineer chickens, the UK researchers inject a "decoy" gene into a cluster of cells on the yolk of a newly laid egg. The egg will hatch into a chick containing the decoy gene, which it will be able to pass on to its offspring.

The decoy gene is injected into the chicken chromosome alongside the fluorescent protein that makes the birds glow under ultraviolet light, similar to glow-in-the-dark posters in college dorm rooms. The birds would not be bred to glow if they are commercialized.

When the modified birds come into contact with the flu, their genetic code is designed to trick the virus into copying the decoy and to inhibit the virus' ability to reproduce itself.

In one study with a form of decoy, scientists put 16 infected conventional chickens in contact with a mixture of 16 normal and 16 GMO chickens that contained a decoy. The GMO birds were found to be less susceptible and succumbed to infection more slowly than the conventional birds, said Tiley.

FARMER PROTECTIONS

A more flu-resistant bird could be a notable advance from the basic steps that farmers now rely on to avoid infections in barns, including banning visitors and disinfecting vehicle wheels.

Wild ducks, which can carry the virus, are thought to have spread the disease in the United States by dropping contaminated feces and feathers on farms. Humans can then transport the disease on their boots and trucks. [...]

I wish I could be more enthusiastic. The problem is, when you start genetically modifying plants or animals, you may solve a problem in the short term. But in the longer term, you may be creating bigger problems, caused by unforeseen side effects of deliberate genetic modifications, and by worse threats from diseases/insects predators that evolve themselves or change their behavior to adapt to the new genetically altered plant/animal.

Scientists may keep altering the plant or animal in response, till it becomes so modified from the original that it becomes degraded and vulnerable to something the original never had a problem with. And if the genetically modified mix with the originals, that vulnerability spreads to all of them. Our food supply could die out.

With so many people experiencing unemployment, we would be better off using people to go back to smaller farms using tried and true methods that don't degrade our food supply. But I don't see that happening, because:

1.) Agribusiness wants to keep their monopoly.
2.) Farming is hard work, and most people in advanced Western societies won't do it.

So we do the easy thing and let this continue, only to pay a worse price down the road. There has to be a better way.

     

Bird-flu in the USA

U.S. Bird Flu Outbreak Hits Millions of Iowa Egg-Laying Hens

Many of the 3.8 million egg-laying hens in an Iowa flock probably have bird flu as the biggest single outbreak of the virus reported in the U.S. added to concerns that turkey and egg supplies will be hampered by the disease.

“Despite best efforts, we now confirm many of our birds are testing positive” for avian influenza, closely held Sonstegard Foods Co. said in a statement dated April 20. The company said its Sunrise Farms unit close to Harris, Iowa, in Osceola County has 3.8 million hens.

The U.S. in February 1 had 362.1 million egg-laying hens, and Iowa with about 59.6 million is the state with the most, the latest government data on March 23 showed. Commercial turkey flocks with more than 2 million birds in eight states have been reported with the virus by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
“A lot of poultry meat and eggs won’t make it to market,” John Glisson, a vice president of research at the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, said during a panel discussion Tuesday at a National Chicken Council conference in Cambridge, Maryland. The U.S. and Canada are “implementing plans that have been set up for years” to fight disease, he said.

Hormel Foods Corp., the owner of Jennie-O turkeys, said Monday that annual profit may be eroded because the virus is hampering production. The company’s shares headed for the biggest decline in six weeks.

[...]

Before Monday, avian flu was found primarily in commercial turkey flocks, particularly in Minnesota, the largest U.S. producer.
The virus was first confirmed in a commercial turkey flock in the central U.S. last month after an outbreak began in wild birds and backyard flocks in the western U.S. in late 2014.

The disease has been found in some states that fall along a Mississippi River migratory route for waterfowl. China has halted all U.S. poultry imports since January, and other nations have imposed bans. Birds in flocks detected with the virus don’t enter the food system, according to the USDA.

“It’s not a food safety issue, it’s not a human-health concern, but we certainly are worried for this particular flock owner” in Iowa, Randy Olson, the executive director of the state’s egg council and poultry association, said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “We’re worried about the spread of this disease, and we’re encouraging all flock owners whether they have hundreds of birds or just a few in their backyards to practice very strict biosecurity." [...]

Here is some info about backyard chicken biosecurity:

Avian influenza basics for urban and backyard poultry owners

[...] Biosecurity steps to protect your flock

In order to help flock owners to keep their birds healthy by preventing disease, biosecurity is a must! Introductions of HPAI come from waterfowl (ducks and geese) and gulls that come to Minnesota. Once poultry are infected, they can spread the disease to new flocks. Now is a great time to review your biosecurity. The USDA provides the following tips on preventing AI in your poultry:

Keep your distance (separating your poultry from disease introduction). Some examples are:

Restrict access from wildlife and wild birds to your birds by use of enclosed shelter and fencing of the outdoor areas. Use of smaller mesh hardware cloth which allows exclusion of wild birds while still allowing outdoor exposure.
Caretakers should not have contact with other poultry or birds prior to contact with their own birds. Restrict access to your poultry if your visitors have birds of their own.
Keep different species of poultry and age groups separated due to differences in susceptibility.
Look at your own setting, what can you do to prevent your birds from contact with other birds that could introduce HPAI?

Keep it clean (cleaning and disinfecting). Some examples are:

Keep feeders and waterers clean and out of reach of wild birds. Clean up feed spills.
Change feeding practices if wild birds continue to be present.
Use dedicated or clean clothing and foot wear when working with poultry
Clean and then disinfect equipment that comes in contact with your birds such as shovels and rakes.
Conduct frequent cleaning and disinfecting of housing areas and equipment to limit contact of birds with their waste.
Evaluate your practices. Is it clean or is there room for improvement?

Don't haul disease home. Some examples are:

Introduction of new birds or returning birds to the flock after exhibition. Keep them separated for at least 30 days.
Returning dirty crates or other equipment back to the property without cleaning and disinfecting. This includes the tires on the vehicles and trailers.
Take a look and be critical. Is that site where you have set up a quarantine really separated well enough to keep your flock safe? Where do you clean crates? Can the runoff get to your birds?

Don't borrow disease from your neighbors

Don't share equipment or reuse materials like egg cartons from neighbors and bird owners, you could be borrowing disease.
Do you have what you need to separate yourself from your friends and neighbors? Now is the time to get the equipment and supplies you need to make that possible. [...]

Basically, no free range chickens. And what is a back-yard chicken, if not free-range?


More Bird-Flu headlines HERE.
     

Our August Surprise. Actually, seven of them.

Every year, the Bantam chickens try creating secret stealth nests to hatch out chicks. We don't want any more Bantams, so each year I find most of the nests before they hatch out. But they ARE clever, and each year, at least one hen succeeds in hatching out a batch before I can find her nest. Here is this years batch:



Just a few days ago, I heard some peeping sounds from a cardboard box on our back porch. The box had been filled with scrap pieces of wood. Not enough room for a nesting hen, I would have thought, but I was wrong. A Bantam squeezed her way in among the wood pieces. When I removed the largest wood piece, I saw her, with her seven little chicks running around her.

I suppose a real farmer who didn't want them would drown them in a bucket of water or something. I guess they are lucky I'm not a real farmer.




Each chicklet is smaller than my thumb! They can run through chicken wire, just barely slowing down enough to squeeze through the holes.

I used to fuss over the Bantams when we first got them, making sure everything was just right, by the book, when the chicks were hatched. But that seems funny now. Why? Because they are like cockroaches; almost impossible to eradicate!

And for such small birds, they eat like horses. But on the plus side, they eat a lot of bad insects, so they aren't completely useless. We use their eggs (and the excess roosters) as dog food.




In this last photo, the mother and babies are next to a full-sized chicken, so you can see how small they all are.

This group of chicks we have nicknamed "The Pleiades", because there are seven of them. And because we hope they will all be females, instead of dog food.

     

Born Yesterday...

Actually, it was the day before yesterday. And "hatched" might be a more accurate description.


There were four chicks in this batch. In the next photo, you can see #4 peaking out from under mama's wing:


I put the eggs under the hen on Mother's Day. They hatched on Memorial Day. So I guess you could say they are Holiday Chicks.


Here they are basking in the setting sun. In a day or two, I will let them outside so mom can teach them to forage.


The hen is not their biological mother. She is a Bantam-Cochen mix. The chicks are hybrids of two larger breeds: Leghorn mother, Americana father. Leghorns make lousy mothers though, so I put the eggs under the best broody hen I had at the time.

They are going to grow much larger than this hen. She has quite a task ahead of her. Fortunately, she's quite tough. ;-)
     

How quickly they grow. And fly too!

I had published this photo previously, taken on Easter Day:



Here is how the little babies look today:



They have gotten so big, that they jump out of their container every time I open it now. And they don't just run around, they fly too. So today is the day they got moved outside, to the nursery in the chicken coop:



They have a heat lamp there, for any really cold nights we might still have, and a separate run outside. They can see all the other chickens, and vice-verse, so they get used to seeing each other before we introduce them into the general population, in about two weeks. Perhaps sooner, we'll see how it goes.


     

Farm Report: New Chicks and a Rooster Coup

Here is a photo I took of our new Leghorn chicks that we got from the local Feed Store. They were about two and a half weeks old when the photo was taken, which was Easter Sunday. They are growing fast.

In the last report, I mentioned that the Bantams where hatching chicks, five and one in process. Well the 6th one died not long after hatching (it's true: never count your chicks before they're hatched). Then, the 5th one died when it fell into the dogs water dish and drowned.




So there are four left, it looks like two little roosters and two hens. One of the hens is a runt, she lags behind, but manages to survive thus far.

There was a bloody coup in the coop last week. Literally. My poor little white Bantam rooster was covered in blood. The two larger feathery-foot hybrid roosters ganged up on him and bloodied him pretty badly. He survived, but is no longer the Alpha rooster; he's now a reluctant "Delta", though he still keeps the other two on their toes, giving them a hard time.

The Egg Report for March

Full size hens: 79 eggs. Bantam hens: 96 eggs.

Total for March: 175 Year to date total: 355


End of Farm Report!
     

Farm Report: January and February Egg Counts

We're letting three of the feathery-foot daughters of Turendot, our Cochin hen, have their own babies this year. So far I've counted 5, with #6 trying to hatch out yesterday. Here is a recent photo, with a bold blond chick. The others have a tendency to run and hide when I take out the camera. But not our little Lana Turner. She can't wait to be discovered.

We are having all kinds of flowers here on the farm, from the fruit trees (apples, plums) to the daffodils:







But we are still having night temperatures in the 30's. We could yet get some snow, but who knows? Rainfall this year has been below normal.

Pat has more photos on his blog: Spring at Robin's Wood


The EGG REPORT:

January: Bantams 49, Large Hens 37, for a total of 86.

February: Bantams 68, Large Hens 26, for a total of 94.

Current total this year: 180.

We would have had more eggs, but since we have three hens sitting and hatching, they stop laying eggs until they raise their chicks. We also lost a hen in a hawk attack a few weeks ago. A rooster, too. That's one of the things that prompted me to let the chickens start raising their babies early this year. We need replacements. That's the way it goes on the farm.

End of Farm Report.
     

Farm Report: "Chickenblogging" disappointment

When I bought my DV movie camera, I had high hopes of making short videos about life on the farm, and putting them on my blog. It hasn't worked out too well, for a variety of reasons.

My Brilliant Career as a Chickenblogger - NOT
Mostly, it's been too time consuming. I have to film the footage, transfer it to the computers hard drive, edit it, then save it in a format that can be uploaded to the blog or to Youtube.

It's the last step that has proven to be the most frustrating. I can save it to a format that looks good, but then I can't upload it because... I'm not sure why. All the formats I've been able to use to upload to blogger or to Youtube are of inferior quality. If I try to upload the better quality ones I get "error" messages. This one below is the best I've been able to manage for Youtube:




It's not absolutely awful, but I'm not satisfied with the quality. If it isn't excellent, then I can't be bothered with it, it seems like a lot of work for nothing.

The other problem is, the subject matter itself. This video was taken in October. While I was waiting to find the time to transfer and edit the video, the chicks continued to grow very fast. And "things" happened. Two of the female chicks drowned in the duckpond. One of the male chicks hurt his leg, and had to be... "harvested" (turned into dog food).

So six of the chicks have survived, and are almost grown up now. Two are hens, and four are roosters. Three of the four roosters are most likely destined to become dog food, because we can't keep a lot of roosters. Not the happiest ending to the story. And video wise, I haven't been able to keep up with the story, and I'm not sure I even want to.

It looks like my career as a chickenblogger has ended before it's begun.


The Egg Report

I didn't get to any reports for the past three months, so here they are now.

October: 25 pullet eggs, 78 Bantam eggs, for a total of 103

November: 14 pullet eggs, 14 Bantam eggs, for a total of 28

December: 19 pullet eggs, 16 Bantam eggs, for a total of 35

Totals for the year: 568 pullet eggs, 895 Bantam eggs.

Combined grand total of 1,463 eggs in 2009.


I'm using the term "pullet" loosely, because most of our full sized hens are no longer young. At the height of Winter, we usually don't get any eggs, but this year has been different. Our youngest full-sized chicken is an Orpington, which are known for laying eggs all year-round. And the Bantams that are laying eggs now are the Bantam-Cochin hybrid hens. I would like to cross breed them with the Orpington. The hybrid roosters fancy her, so we will see how that goes.

Here is a pic of the hybrid family while they were still living in the nursery:




The two baby hens are sitting under their mother. The photo was taken at the end of October; they are all much bigger now, nearly full grown. I was going to move them out the nursery at Christmas, by removing the perch so they would have to join the rest of the general population. But before I could do that, their mom did it. She just went and sat with the rest of the birds, and her children followed her. She's been using the babies to climb the social ladder in the coup, literally. She is trying to force her way to the top perch, but their has been resistance from the pecking order.

The two girls still stick close to their mother, but the boys have become much more independent. A bit like juvenile delinquents. Typical roosters.

In other coup news... you may remember the hen called Freezerburn, a brown hybrid hen from the first batch, with a white face that looked like a freezerburn? Well she had her first molt this year, and when she did all her face feathers grew in brown instead of white, and now she is a much sought after "babe":




In fact, she and the Alpha rooster in the coup have become an "item"; they often hang out together, and he looks after her as one of his favorites. At last, some happy news in the coup. They are hand-tamed, and two of my favorites. I'm hoping they make some babies in the spring.

End of Farm Report!

     

"Feathery Foot Club" adds nine new members

Seven of the new members can be seen here. The other two are being sat on by their mother. This will be the last bunch for the year, if all goes by plan.

Hopefully most of them are hens, we could use some more egg production. August's egg count:

Pullets had 65 eggs (8 less than previous month), Bantams had 91 (48 less), for a monthly total of 156 (47 less). The yearly total is now 1,174.

End of Farm Report.

     

Farm Report 08-02-09; Flowers, July's Egg Count

I liked this rose dripping with dew the other morning, so I took photos:



We've had more summer rain and drizzle than usual this year.



It's been nice, because everything is still very green; the plants are loving it.



It's just starting to get dry now, and a bit dusty. That usually happens sooner, so the extra moisture was nice while it lasted. The water level in the well is dropping too, but slowly.



We've had plenty of flowers but the best is yet to come. I think we have more flowers in August than at any other time of the year. I always look forward to it.

Pat has more pictures of our summer flowers:

Blooms and bugs

Woolly pussies and other weeds and wildflowers

The Egg Count for July was as follows:

Pullets had 73 eggs, Bantams had 130, for a monthly total of 203. That's the same amount of eggs as last month. The yearly total is now 1,018.

End of Farm Report!
     

Farm Report: Hybrids, Freezer Burn, Egg Count

In a previous post about our new Hybrid Cochin/Bantam chicks, who I called the Three Heathers, I speculated that some of the Heathers might be Heathcliffs. Well as it turns out, two of them are. Here is all of the Hybrid birds together:


In the center foreground is Heather the hen. Behind her are her two brothers, Heathcliff and Heathcliff Too. Peaking in on the right, is our white-faced hen, "Freezerburn". You may recall that she was hatched later than the other three, from an egg I had accidentally put in the refrigerator for two or three weeks.

Andy bet me that it wouldn't hatch after being refrigerated, so I tried it as an experiment, and well, it hatched! She was raised by a Bantam hen who hatched the egg. She turned out smaller than the others, with a white face. I called her "Sputnick", but Andy and Pat call her "Freezerburn" because of her white face and her, uh, history of pre-hatching refrigeration. I've relented and gone with their name for her, because, well, if the shoe fits...




Freezerburn was not accepted by her siblings at first, because she was born later and hatched by a different hen. I had to keep her and her surrogate mom in a separate cage at night, let them loose in the daytime, and put them back each evening. Because of that she was handled a lot and became very tame. When her mother weaned her, Freezerburn imprinted on me for a while, because she had no siblings to hang out with. But slowly, gradually, her other hybrid siblings accepted her as one of the gang.




They hang out together pretty regular now. They all have feathery feet like their mom, so I call them the Feathery Foot Club. They can all fly, almost as well as the Bantam's can, and better than their Cochin mother (who can't really fly at all). The Orange-brown rooster seems to be growing a bit bigger than any of the Bantam roosters, but it remains to be seen if he will grow big enough to cross breed with the Pullets.

The Egg Count for June was as follows:

Pullets had 74 eggs, Bantams had 129, for a monthly total of 203. That's 15 more eggs than the prior month.

Hopefully we will have two more Pullet hens coming on-line soon, as our three new Buff Orpington's are maturing. Here they are with Pat:




One of them is a rooster, so if the Hybrid Rooster doesn't get big enough to cross breed, this rooster may be able to fulfill that role for the bigger birds. The three Orpingtons are living in the nursery section of the coop right now, to get used to being with the flock. They will probably get their first venture outside, free-range, this weekend.

End of Farm Report!
     

Farm Report: The May Egg Count

This report is kinda late. I've had a lot of other stuff to do that's kept me from blogging much, but if I wait much longer, it will be time for the June Egg Report as well. So here is the count for last month:

In May, we had 125 bantam eggs, and 63 pullet eggs, for a total of 188 eggs. That is 3 more than last month, but the amount of large eggs is less. We need more large hens, and so we got three Buff Orpington chicks from the local feed store:


I took this photo yesterday, they were much smaller when we got them, here they are already about 5 or six weeks old. They are two hens, and one rooster. The little blue-eyed monsters grow fast. They're very active, but have a mellow and tame temperament. You can read more about Buff Orpingtons here.

Egg count total for the year is now 612. I plan to put the data into a spread sheet, so I'll be able to make a graph and start tracking it that way.

Other farm news: here we have the ongoing progress of our "Dinosaur Food" plant, with the latest picture at the bottom:








Notice the large cones in the center at the bottom of the plant. Those are the plant's flowers, I believe.

End of Farm Report!
     

Farm Report: Egg Layer's Union makes trouble

Loafing union members, during a "work slow-down"

Last month I started the Monthly Egg Count for the Farm Report. But since then, we've had some "broody" unionists causing a work slow down at the Robin's Wood Egg Factory. Here is this months figures:

In April, we had 100 bantam eggs, and 85 pullet eggs, for a total of 185 eggs. That is 54 eggs LESS than last month. What could be the cause? I suspect it's the Egg Layers Union of Broody Hens.

When the hens get broody and start sitting on the eggs, they stop laying. We hatched out some chicks last month, so that would account for some of the drop. Also, I'm aware of at least one illegal renegade nest, in the wheel barrel behind the shed. I will have to do a raid on that today.




Of course the mommies expect maternity leave, with all expenses paid. And they get get it. Sometimes you just have to compromise with these unionists.

Fortunately we still have enough eggs for our own use, so we can't complain.

Total for the year so far: 573 eggs.


Last month, I posted a photo of our Dinosaur Food Plant, which looked like this:



Here it is this month:



It's getting to be Dinosaur-size pretty quickly.

End of Farm Report!
     

Farm Report: "Heather has Two Mommies"

Last month the first chicks of the year began to hatch. I've been letting the chickens hatch eggs from Turendot, our Chinese Cochin hen, because I want a hybrid cross of her with the Bantams.


I nick-named the first chick "Heather", because she has TWO mommies. The Hen on the left is Turendot, her biological mother, and the hen on the right is the Bantam hen who hatched Heather.

Heather imprinted on the Bantam that hatched her, but also was attracted to Turendot; she would run excitedly back and forth between the two hens, taking turns napping under each one. Both hens started to treat her as their own, and shared the chick; hence the name "Heather" (from the controversial book).




But Turendot has since hatched two of her own eggs, and now there are three hybrid chicks. The third was hatched on Easter Day. Here are the three "Heathers" with their two mommies:

Maybe they aren't all Heathers. I'm hoping there is at least one Heathcliff in the batch. I'd like to have hybrid rooster; it would likely be larger than the Bantam roosters. The Bantams are too small to breed with our full size Barred Rock, Bluff Rock or Road Island Red hens.

Hawks have killed our big hens because they are slow and can't escape quickly. The Bantams can fly and escape quickly, but their eggs are too small to be useful for much. I'm thinking that if I can cross breed the two kinds, using the hybrid rooster as a kind of plumbing "step-up" to... "make the connection", the resulting birds would be medium sized, with some of the Bantam's speed and agility, but with bigger eggs. Anyhow, it's an experiment.

We have a fourth chick now, it was from a hybrid egg that I discovered that I had accidentally put in the refrigerator for a few weeks. Andy said it would not hatch out, but I put it under one of the Bantam hens anyway, to see what would happen (yes, another experiment). Well, it worked:




Eggs that have been refrigerated can indeed hatch. Whodathunkit?

The mommies and chicks have the run of the yard in the daytime, and I lock them up at night. They seem to get bigger every day. Now we just have to wait and see what the little thuglets turn out like as they mature.

Never a dull moment on the farm!
     

The Monthly Egg Count in Our Jurassic Park

Last month, I did a report about how our local egg factory here on the farm went back into production. I keep notes on the production, so I thought I would do a monthly report on the output.

February was the beginning of their cycle. We have twenty-eight chickens; seven of them are large hens, fifteen are bantam hens, one is a small Cochin hen, and five are bantam roosters. We have ducks and Guinea fowls too, but they haven't started laying yet, so I'm leaving them out for now.

Last month on the first of March, I counted the total eggs for February, and we had 82 bantam eggs, and 67 pullet eggs, for a total of 149 eggs.

In March, we had 132 bantam eggs, and 107 pullet eggs, for a total of 239 eggs.


Total for the year so far: 388 eggs. Not bad. One of the large hen's is not laying, because she's been ill. Not eating, wasting away. We got some antibiotics from the local feed store that we've been giving her twice a day. At first she perked up quite a bit. But she's still weak, and she's not eating. I'm not sure there is anything more we can do for her if she won't eat.


Below in the center of the photo is a leafy green plant which we call "Dinosaur Food", because the leaves and the plant grow to be quite large. In the Botanical Garden in San Francisco's Golden Gate park, they grow so huge, that they look like props from a movie set.


The plant in this photo is only just beginning to grow. Perhaps appropriately, it's surrounded by the contemporary versions of the Saber Tooth Tiger, and assorted Velociraptors. A farm yard full of fowls is a bit like having your own Jurassic Park, in miniature.

The more you get to know them, the more thankful you are that they are... small.


Related Link:

Jurassic Park comes true: How scientists are bringing dinosaurs back to life with the help of the humble chicken
     

This factory has geared up for more business

And what factory might that be? Just ask this contented, non-unionized factory worker, hanging around outside the factory door on her extended lunch break:


It's the egg factory at Robin's Wood. Our hens had stopped laying in November. They began laying again in February. Below is a recent product sample:


The total of eggs for February is 82 bantam eggs, and 67 pullet eggs. Not a bad start. And no Trillion Dollar stimulus package required. ;-)
     

Rain, Fowl Dramas and Power Supplies

I haven't been posting lately, for a couple of reasons. Getting the farm ready for winter has meant putting extra effort into completing a few projects before the rains start happening full force.

There have also been some dramas with our fowls. Our flying Mallards completed their fall molt, and began to fly. We had clipped their wings when we first got them a year ago, so they would not fly away. But now that they were used to this being their home, I thought it would be safe to not clip them. It was glorious, having them fly around the farm, then spiraling down around me for a landing. I was hoping to video tape it for the blog. But last Wednesday, they flew over the house and vanished. At sunset, the male returned by himself.

Dilly, Dally and Dolly before their Fall molt.
As of Wednesday, it's been "Goodbye Dolly".
I can't know what happened to the female. I think she would have come back if she could, so I fear the worst. So it seems we've learned the hard way that we need to keep their wings clipped. We clipped the drake, so he will stay and keep our female runner duck company, and not risk getting shot or eaten by something.

Then on Halloween, a hawk attacked our bantams, I heard the commotion and got out the front door just in time to see it about to get one of the nine baby chicks. I chased it off, but a count of the chicks showed that there were only eight left. I didn't see it fly off with a carcass, and I couldn't find a body, so I wasn't sure what to think. Much later in the day, a recount showed that there were nine chicks, so one must have been hiding really well.

There's been several things I've wanted to blog about regarding the election, but my computer is having problems. I think it's the power supply, it seems to be overheating, and probably needs to be replaced. All things considered, I haven't been on-line as much as I'd like. I'll have to try to get it all sorted out soon.

The "Flip Ultra" quick video Farm Report

Photo taken from Flip Video, via Muvee software

I got my Pink Flip Ultra camcorder this week, and have been trying it out. Is it any good? Ultimately, I'd say "yes". But it depends. Let me explain.

[WARNING, 11-29-30: before buying the Flip Ultra, you should know that I am returning mine. You can read my update review to see why.]

The footage it records is better than a cell phone video, but not quite as good as what you get with a real camcorder, such as my Canon ZR 800. Still, the Flip Ultra IS pretty good. BUT... when you go to upload it to the internet, the file it creates for uploading is not as good as the original it creates. But fear not, there are ways to get around that.

The camcorder comes with "Muvee" software in the camera, which it uses to save videos (in the AVI format), and to convert them into another file format (WMV) suitable for uploading to the internet. Here is a quick sample of a WMV file created by Muvee:



bit rate 550 kbps, 496 x 370, size: 5.89 MB

I find the sound quality and image in the above video clip kinda crappy, like you would expect from a video made by a cell phone. So I saved the original AVI video file made by the Flip camera to my hard drive, and then used my preferred video editing software, ArcSoft ShowBiz 2, to convert it for uploading. I saved it in a higher resolution WMV file, resulting in the following:



bit rate 2015 kbps, 640 x 480, size 21.2 MB

This, I think, is not bad. The sound and image are better. Blogger dictates the size of the video frame on this page, but I think when posting in other venues I would be able to post this in a larger size, and still have good quality.

In this clip, you may notice at one point, I do a short zoom-in with the camera's built in zoom feature. The focus goes ever so slightly soft when the zoom is used, and gets sharper again when zoomed back. I was a little disappointed by that, but it's not severe, and therefore not a deal-breaker, at least not for me.

The sound quality is excellent. When walking around with the camera, some of the movement can seem a little bit jerky, compared to a conventional camcorder.

The original file created by the Flip was in AVI format, with a bit rate of 177 kbps, 640 x 480, size: 50.1 MB. The still shot at the top of this post was taken from the original file with the Muvee software.

Ideally I should show you a sample with people and voices in it, but I got our burn permit this week and have been busy this weekend on the farm, burning piles of brush we collected over the summer. Oh all right, here is a brief sample, with Yours Truly waking through the house. I hold the camera up to a mirror so you can see it's size; it's no bigger than a cell phone, but the lens is bigger than the ones that cell phone camera's use, so the quality is better:



bit rate 2015 kbps, 640 x 480, size 12.5 MB

Note when I zoom in on the TV screen, the slight blurring that happens. But all things considered, I think this camera is great for what it is: an easy to use, simple and convenient device that can record up to an hour of video on it's built-in memory. Great for making quick videos for video blogging. However, if you are making family archives for posterity, like your son's birthday party or your sister's wedding, you might want to go with a more conventional camcorder.




As I put the Flip Ultra through it's paces, I'll be showing a lot more videos and will likely give a more comprehensive review at a later date.

Oh, and for the "Farm Report" part of this post:

The video is of our Mama Bantam hen, with her 9 chicks she secretly hatched out last month. In the video she's bringing them into the coop near sunset. She was waiting for me to come in and let them into their little nursery area, where they can eat and sleep without competition from the bigger birds.

She still sits on them in the nesting box, even though they are getting quite big. Watching her do that is like watching one of those little cars in a circus, that has a 100 clowns inside; you wonder, how does she fit them all under there? It's becoming increasingly difficult for her.

We've had some cold nights, with temperatures going down into the 30's, but the chicks seem just fine. They have their feathers grown in now, so as long as they eat and fatten up they should be fine.


Related Links:

Farm Report: two chicks in a screen test

Farm Report: Our Humming Bird Heaven
     

Uh-oh. Look what turned up yesterday...

Yesterday afternoon this proud mama shows up with NINE of the little... "darlings" she hatched out secretly somewhere.

There is another mother hen who's been missing too. Is she going to show up with... this is starting to feel like "The Camp of the Saints". Enough already!

Pat has more photos here: Underage naked chicks