Yesterday was another day of rain rain rain..... I awoke wishing I could go back to sleep. The light rain had turned to heavy rains. So another day of cleaning the coops put on hold. After caring for all the dogs and our two joyous new additions: Atlas and Oakley, I headed to the coops in my longest heaviest rain gear I could find.
As I approached, I saw my Ameraucana coop was flooding as well as Rhode Island reds which I had started cleaning two days ago. When the rains began the Red's coop turned to MUCK simply because the winds and the heavy rains blew right into the fenced open areas of winter sludge. So I was hoping that Wednesday would allow us to continue the winter cleaning. As I approached the Ameraucana coop, I noticed one of my hens known as Olive, was barely moving and was walking funny. I took her to the shed for further inspection and found that there was an egg stuck. From my previous experience which I was hoping would work, I hurried and mixed up some electrolytes with added calcium. As I began giving it to her through a syringe, she was very eager to take it from me which was a plus. I sat her back down and as soon as I finished with the birds down below and the birds in the barn, I would be back to take care of her. The morning wasn't getting any better. I dropped the meal worms in the water, the duck coop as as crazy as ever, I had eggs everywhere, Willie, our free roaming rooster, was bound to get one of my ducks, and I had Fudge chasing Martha: which may be a story for tomorrow.
I went back and took her inside to my mud room. As I looked outside I knew the rain was not going to stop, so I decided what to do what was best for Olive and I prepared a warm epsom salt bath in my mud room. Needless too say, some of our household members were not thrilled at all. Right away, I heard have you lost your mind mom. But I knew if she did not pass the egg within 48 hours I could lose her. So I set to work setting up a warm epsom salt bath. Once again, I was very lucky as she was very happy to sit in the warm bath and she was so happy to oblige, that 25 minutes flew by. I took her out and put her back in the small cage I have for birds, covered her and let her sit until the next morning hoping that she would pass the egg. Well come morning, no egg, no nothing. So once again I prepared the bath and sat her in the warm water. This time she was not as thrilled and was very restless. It lasted about 15 minutes when I finally gave up and was about to put her back in the cage. She went a little crazy flapping her wings and squawking and flew right out of my grip hitting the cage and all the fine new pine flew everywhere. Hmmmmmm. What a mess! I was so happy to see her sit on my floor and as I sat the cage on the floor, she walked right over to the cage and sat down in the pine looking up at me like what's wrong. Unfortunately, the egg did not pass and I am afraid a visit to the vet may necessary if there is not an egg by tonight. The good thing is she is moving more and seems to be doing a lot better than yesterday. So lets hope we have an egg by tonight.
