Gnarly Bunch - Chapter 13 - 10/1/12

10/1/12

Update on the Gnarly Bunch: Toby gaining ground every day and the girls are looking sleeker as well. 

The hen treated for the nasty gleet the other night is showing signs of improvement...small signs but still improvement.  Vent area is dryer and less odor already... a good sign!  

  

I'll tell you something I found out about this NuStock....I've been battling fleas on the dog for the first time ever this year.  My dogs have never really had enough fleas that a flea collar couldn't fix.  This year we got a visit from a stray dog that played and wrestled with my dog before I could get my hands on him.  When I did, I found the poor dog was just crawling with very large fleas and was miserable from digging at them.  Maybe why someone dumped him off.  

Well, I've tried everything I could think of in the natural side... garlic (yes, my dogs have eaten it for years and they didn't die) in the food, garlic dusting on the body.  Cedar shavings in his bed. Lemon juice spray... nothing. 

Then I went to flea powder. No results.  Gave him a bath in Dawn with a little kerosene in the water...that worked for awhile but they came back.  Finally went to the chemicals.  Flea and tick spray did nothing.  Even bought some Sevin dust...nothing.  More garlic and I thought we had kicked them.  

Then we had another wet week of weather and they are back with a vengeance.  For the first time ever, my dog scratched himself until he was bleeding on his stomach and under one leg.

Everyone I spoke with who had used the expensive Frontline and Advantix and such said it did no good this year… the fleas were that bad, so I didn't want to spend all that money and still have no results.  

When I saw Jake had dug a hole in himself and had hundreds of flea bites on his belly, I just rubbed some Nustock into the wounds and all over all the bites.  I put NuStock on any place that had thin hair and even placed some at the base of his tail and behind his ears.  Instant relief!

I haven't seen the dog itching since and that was 3 days ago.  

I might be onto something here... so I looked up pine tar.

http://magnoliazz.hubpages.com/hub/All-Natural-Flea-And-Tick-Repellent  

http://www.ehow.com/how_6758327_kill-fleas-pine_o_pine.html

Update on the Gnarly Bunch:  Three eggs today!  All medium to large, huge and very orange yolks, two were fertile, very strong shells.  Ranging further from the coop today... went down about an acre away from the coop for a little bit.  Getting comfy in their surroundings, I'd say. 

They are looking so much cleaner, smoother, more feathered each day... I even saw one of the BA's (Black Australorp) feathers had the start of a sheen of green in the sun this morning.  Both of those gals looked pretty dull when they arrived, though the one Black Star had a good sheen on her feathers.

This same BA, whom I dubbed as Ruby, acts a little like she wants to hang around me... if for nothing more than in curiosity.  I've had quite a few BAs over the years that were very friendly and moochy, even when not handled.  I like that in a bird, though I also admire the independent ones as well. 

I don't enjoy the lonely hearts and loners much... they do not adapt to socialization in the flock, they don't seem to get bred as much by the rooster, they don't fight for their food rights and they often get separated from the flock, making them a target for predators.  They don't seem to keep a good weight and they don't seem to lay as well.  I have two of those right now, a Speckled Sussex and a Partridge Rock and the PR currently won't roost in the coop but roosts underneath an old truck we have.  Not good...  and I expect she won't be here for roll call one morning.    

Gnarly Bunch - Chapter 14 - 10/2/12