Katiebob

Oh bless him I'm sure he'll be fine once he has some ointment for it too. Thinking healing thoughts for him and a for you.

I'm sorry to hear your partner isn't well Lots of lots of positive thoughts and good wishes sent for her - and for you too.

Good luck Cheryl It's all very exciting. My experience with an incubator and buying in 'fertilised' eggs was about a 20% success rate but it does very much depend on loads of things so I'm hoping you have better luck I've used a similar incubator to yours - or so it would appear from the pictures - but yours may be more up to date. I've used DEFRA approved hen producers and just people I've found on e-bay for the eggs with no discernible difference in hatching rate so I do think there's an element of luck, regardless. I never bothered to candle my eggs so just waited for the result. Be interesting to see how you get on with that One of the reasons I didn't candle them was because I thought I wouldn't be able to interpret the results accurately! My hens were soooooo happy that today at last the ground had defrosted sufficiently for them to scratch properly in the soil and look for grubs. I don't think there were any grubs anywhere near the surface but it didn't stop them having fun

What a horrid situation to be in My mum has mild dementia and has recently been moved to a care home. From what I can see they are very good and do help her with her meals etc but today she had a fall (cos she won't ring her buzzer ) and then the dementia took over and because my sister was in visiting her, she announced that all the staff were trying to starve all the 'clients' Despite this, she thinks the food is great!! She said she hurt herself in the fall and that as she is the spokesperson for all the other 'clients', they will starve without her To be honest it's not funny, although it does sound it. It's just a bit tragic However, as you were there, and saw what was happening with your father, I would agree that a meeting with the Care Manager would be a positive step forward

and loads of positive thoughts sent for both George and you I hope he's feeling better soon.

Ok, deep breath, the water is back. Hopefully it was just an airlock. Anyway, it's given us time to fill up buckets for the horses, dog bowls etc. Phew And thank you for the sympathies - they were very much appreciated

so very sorry. Sleep tight Honey

Sorry, I know I don't appear in here very often and I've not read back at all so apologies but I am just so fed up. We have no cold water which means I can't fill up dog bowls, water buckets etc. I understand that the outside taps might freeze but it looks as if the house water is stuffed too I'm just soooooo fed up with this ..................

Wow, long time since I've been in this thread. All the pics are great It's still -4 here and in the winter we usually turn Frant & Finn out into the sand school but today (cos the sand school is frozen solid) we've turned them out into the top paddock, where they haven't been for a while. Frant is blind in one eye and the silly sod lovely boy has just run into a tree and skinned his face Fortunately it's not a serious wound, just taken the fur off but I'll bet he's going to have a bit of a headache for a while Horses, who'd have them

Actually I think I meant to say they were Polish Bantams!! Whatever they are I think they're purebred because the person who gave them to me specialised in that breed but had to give up due to ill health. Not a typing error on my part, just a memory error .................... which brings me to the next part of your post ...... yes, it will be a Maran - a Copper Blue maran now you mention it!! I'd forgotten, I bought 6 silver laced Wyandotte eggs and 6 Copper Blue maran eggs. Two hatched (one of each) but one died. I'd assumed it was the Maran that died but obviously not No doubt, it will mature when it's good and ready then I'm such a numbskull most of the time Must be my age

Happy Birthday, Sarah Hope you're having a brilliant day

Wonderful news - onwards & upwards Max At least it sounds like you will be able to control Max's eye problem

Ok, to continue: Black lace Wyandotte bantam: One of my strange Dutch bantams with a pompom on it's head (they were given to me) The other one has a white pompom and is even weirder It's in the next picture with my unidentified chick! and my strange looking chick who I can't identify I worked out I got the hatching eggs in July last year - I still can't decide what this bird is going to be though, hopefully it's a hen!! I'd say it was a Bluebell except it's got feathered legs. The shape is very similar to my other Bluebell but who knows? Probably a hybrid of one sort or another. One day it might even lay an egg though heaven knows when Fascinating hobby and I love them all, despite their sometimes strange appearances!!

Cheryl - your chooks DO look well By some strange coincidence, I also took a load of pics of mine today too - particularly the ones I'm always going on about! Moulting hen is still moulting but very much with us, thank goodness Sorry, the pic is a bit out of focus but gives you the general idea although in reality she looks worse than this! Hen on the right is a normally feathered black rock, on the left is the one that's moulting but it's difficult to see in the pic: This is my handsome Amber Star cockerel. Isn't he gorgeous? and this is my Amber Star girl so I suppose, technically she's his wife Then there's my beautiful Barnevelder hen - her feathering is double laced and I love her to bits and I can't wait to get another couple of Barnevelder hens in the spring. And another one to show off her beautiful feathers: I'm going to stop here and post this before I lose what I've done. I'll add some more pics in a sec.

Can't suggest which one you should go with as all mine are with PetPlan but it might be worth asking them if they give discount for multiple dogs? (PetPlan do this) Normally if you're insuring 3 or more, you will get a discount. Worth a try

I used this company: http://www.motorholme.co.uk/ but I had a nightmare (no electricity, no water) AND NO REFUND either. Bit like a tin tent on wheels. It was very expensive too. Possibly my experience was unique but I wouldn't be able to recommend them with a clear conscience even though many of the vans do allow you to take dogs

Will be thinking of you and Max today Positive thoughts for you both

That is really sweet of you but I think tonight's supposed to be the coldest night so if she survives then I hope the temperatures are going to improve. But if you're offer is still open (and I'll confirm if she's still alive in the morning), I'd very much appreciate that If you let me know where to send a donation/cost etc. I'll pm you my address. Cheryl - I bought some silver laced Wynadotte eggs and one hatched - and it's the strangest looking bird I've got Quite possibly the eggs got mixed up but it was hatched months and months ago and it's still growing, has feathered legs and I can't identify it yet However, you might like to consider getting some Barnevelder hatching eggs. They are truly beautiful birds and they lay really dark brown eggs, like Maran eggs.

Oooooo, good luck Really looking forward to hearing how you get on. It's minus 5 (at least) tonight and one of my black rock hens has decided it's time for her moult She looks so bedraggled it's untrue but she has hardly any feathers (and if I remember correctly this is the same chook who last year shed almost every feather she had before she grew any more!!). I hope she's going to be warm enough She does look comical but all the same, she might have picked slightly warmer weather

So, if Beverley Cuddy thinks it's not ok, then it's not ok? Do you always base your views on those of others? If not, why quote her? There are more sensble views on here than she has pronounced (and she has no more evidence). For what it's worth, you could come round here with a wide angled, long range lens and make mischief. With a pack of 12 dogs, we would be probably fantastic suibjects. If he did it, then he's guilty but I couldn't guarantee that I wouldn't raise a hand (with a stick if I had one in my hand at the time) if mine started fighting. Tonight there was a big fight and they had a bucket of ice cold water (complete with broken ice) thrown over them. It was the nearest thing - it had to stop and you just use whatever is handy. If that's what you want to believe, then I suspect there's nothing anyone can say that will make you believe otherwise. Dogs are dogs and sometimes the best trained dogs will still fight. Those pictures were taken with a camera using a very long range lens, there was no evidence that he actually hit the dogs and I understand that people are innocent until proven guilty. (not including judgement by media).

I think I'm a bit late on this thread but let's just say, I'll be going to bed well before midnight, sadly. I used to enjoy New Year's Eve celebrations but I'm now too old/boring to be queue-ing for drinks etc!! It's been a horrid day, with my first phone call today from the hospital asking me to visit my Mum who is now sufering dementia She thought the staff were trying to killl her and was threatening them So after a 3 hours stop at the hospital, I joined a queue to get parked at Tesco! Having bought a few essentials, like dog food, cat food and wine, I got home - mucked out my horse, took Tammy & Gemma to the vet, cooked dinner and have now sat down here, and quite frankly, can't wait for my bed!! I think our 2009 New Year might be just a quiet night in Happy New Year to everyone, lets hope 2009 brings lots of happy events

Taz is in foster with Sue and I and he really is a nice boy. He is very, very bouncy so wouldn't be suitable with very young children because he'd knock them over but his temperament is totally lovely and he'd be fine with older children - in fact, once he gets to know you he loves all humans although he is a little shy to begin with My onlly recommendation would be not to rehome him with cats or small furries (if they free range) because he does have the collie chase instinct. He does pull on a lead but I'm sure this could be corrected by using a Gentle leader or Halti and lots of trainiing. He is like a sponge - desperate to be taught what's ok and what's not. His previous owners really didn't do much in that department but he's not a bad boy - just doesn't understand his boundaries. He would be best as an only dog although another sensible dog in the household would be ok cos he's dog friendly. Just that from a training perspective it's always easier if there's only one dog. He'd very food orientated so clicker training would be simple! I'll follow up this post with some new pics of him. He is a total babe as long as you have some previous experience with collie type dogs.

Sue & I are really pleased to know he's doing well and his foster mummy and daddy look Fab. Good luck little KC

As promised, an update on Tammy She still has really bad diarrhoea but the vomiting seems to have stopped, thank goodness. She saw the vet today finally (he was off with the vomiting bug yesterday ) but it's tentative good news, I think. He agreed with me that she's far too lively just to pts without further investigation although she is worrying us because she weighs just 2.4 kg Anyway he took bloods - and they have shown that she has no major organ failure. He's sending off a sample of blood to double check about thyroid but he suspects it's a chronic bowel irritation disorder which (without any major surgery for a cat of her age) there are a number of treatments, including, as a last resort Presidnole. So, hopefully, we can keep Tammy happy and comfortable for a little while yet. She's also on a diet of turkey (or chicken when I run out of turkey) so she's pretty contented!! On the Gemma front, I really should post in the dog section but a quick resume would be that they can't stop her season but if it doesn't stop naturally, we will go ahead with the spay anyway, even though it's not ideal and the vet will do the kidney biopsy at the same time. At least they'll know what they're dealing with i.e. excess bleeding etc. Not an ideal situation but better than it could be. Thank you everyone for your good wishes for both my lovely pets

Tammy has a temporary reprieve because the projectile vomiting has stopped and the vet I want to see isn't working until tomorrow. I have an appointment for both Tammy (who looks a bit uncomfortable so I'll get her checked out) and Gemma who has been in season now (still bleeding!) for the past month so something wrong there. I'm planning to get Gemma spayed later this month anyway but need to get this season over or something done to sort it out - poor girl I'll update this thread as soon as I've got any news - thank you everyone for your good wishes for Tammy.. She is beautiful, just a little elderly now