Avalon1984-Chicken, horses, pigs, oh my!

[Bettacreek]

The wax looks gorgeous! Thank you for posting the picture, lol. I've been feeling like a stalker poking in looking for the wax, lol. I'm sorry to hear about the horses. I'm glad that the stud lady is willing to work with you, but the ultrasound fees suck. :/

 

[Avalon1984]

Thank you all. Yeah, the vet fees suck, but I am one of those people, I'd rather do it right. Thankfully, because of the vet I was able to tell that Carmen was already coming back into heat, where I didn't have her scheduled until 2 weeks from now, so that is good. Obviously the old owners were a bit...off on her dates.

I currently have a hen dying. I hate it when that happens. Looks like she has cancer and whatever I have fed her, it didn't help, she is just skin and bones. I have her in a crate in the house but her head is waving back and forth, a sure sign her body is shutting down. I turned the light off on her so she would go to sleep...the coward inside me doesn't want to put her down, although I probably should. The hopeful part of me wants to see if she lives through the night. Nature is unfair.

 

[lazyday]

It is hard to know what the right answer is, I just think what ever you choose to do will be the right one. I am sorry for you and your hen

 

[the funny farm6]

I am rarely able to do the deed. I wait for my husband and make him do it. I can thump rats for the snake and kill the butcher rabbits but...

Sorry to hear about the horses. Hopefully they take this time.

 

[Denim Deb]

I'm the same. It's one thing if you're butchering it for food, but if you're not, that hopeful part wants to give it a chance.

 

[Boogity]

Avalon, contact some of the beekeeping supply businesses like Kelly's, Brushy Mountain, Mann Lake, etc. Sometimes they offer very good "swap" allowances for rendered wax. It's a way to reduce the cost of new frames, foundations, and other beekeeper's supplies. I think all of the supply businesses need as much wax as they can get when they use the wax in foundation making. It might be worth a try.

Also candle makers are usually looking for a source of beeswax.

Here is a 2# block from my solar melter. It's kind of dark because I had a lot of old comb in the melter.

 

[Avalon1984]

Hey Boogity, I love your wax and I will definitely think about contacting my bee product suppliers. First I still need to finish the product, seems like I have been looking at the pot forever but right now I need to focus back on the horses. Wish that at least one of them would have takenwell, she did, and then aborted. Sigh.

My hen was dead this morning. She was starting to have the twitches last night and I turned the light off so she could hopefully have a peaceful death. I will give her a proper burial when I return from bringing Carmen up north for her experience with the stud I picked out. I just cant thank the lady enough, most breeders wouldnt be as patient. Thur I will drive Megan and Avalon up, I will have to make 2 different trips because those two fight like cats and dogs in the trailer and I dont have a divider in the head part, so there goes 90min up, 90min down, 90min up, 90min down.

Friday Katie will leave again. I will need my husbands help because she has Stringhalt and has a really hard time getting into the trailer. She kind of has to hop in, but then she keeps hitting her head. Need to get her a horsie helmet. That poor stud up north is going to have his hands full servicing 3 needy mares throughout the week and weekend, and into Tuesday.

The vet was trying to give me a guilt trip on trying to get 4 mares pregnant. I told him that is how it works, if you want to make money, you need to first invest a little bit. I may already have one of the foals sold, and the others I have plenty of interest for. He is used to looking at fancy barns down the road and since we are not fancy, maybe he thinks we are not worthy of breeding horses. We may not be fancy, but our place is safe and our horses are well taken care of. Maybe that doesnt matter anymore as long as the barn looks nice. He also thought I was unemployed and I told him that was not the case. He was still nice enough to give us a good discount on the ultrasounds. He should however save his speech for the lady down the road who is on welfare, Social security and child support while having 17 horses, a 30 horse boarding barn, a big F350 (which she takes to the food bank to beg for food) and 40 acres of landof course, all conveniently put into the name of her 70 year old parents. Sigh. So that was my rant today. If all goes well we will add an 8 stall barn this fall but that is still up in the air at this point. Hopefully then we will be worthy again.

I need to also get going on processing my extra roos and turn the roo house back into the hen house. I could really use some new pullets since my good layers are getting older and I keep losing some here and there. I think by the time I get done with breeding, chick days will be over. Hopefully a lot of people will want to dump their hens shortly thereafter because it is too much work and I can get them for cheap. That is what my quarantine area is for.

 

[snapshot]

I'm sorry about your hen but you did all you could including keeping her comfortable.

I hope you can get your mares bred this time! Have a great day today!!!!!!!!

 

[Denim Deb]

Does your horse have regular string halt, or Australian string halt? If it's Australian, check out your pasture for a type of plant in the dandelion family called cat's paw (Hypochoeris radicata). It's been linked to Australian string halt.

Hope they take this time. I have a divider in my trailer, but can't use it. It needs to be fixed, and I'm afraid of one of the horses getting hurt on it.

 

[Avalon1984]

Thank you all. It will be a good day, I wont give up on getting those horses bred. It is just hard seeing it cut into our profit but that is why I always calculate costs on the higher spectrum, and income on the lower spectrum. Leaves room for adjustments.

Katie has Stringhalt from an injury. We could tell where they were trying to fix it but never could. She handles it well, unless she has to go up or down something. We bought a pair of stocks for when she gets trimmed and keeping her hooves trimmed well has helped a lot. Hopefully by next year well have enough money to get a better trailer that will allow her to move around a bit more (right now they are in there like sardines) so that should help quite a bit. I told her, she could save herself the trouble and just become pregnant. No trailering needed.