What cnetter said... My hens LOVE to contribute eggs to a broody hen, which is why I mark the eggs I want her to hatch with a little 'x' in pencil--that way I can remove new eggs laid daily and can tell hatching eggs from fresh ones. I'd be ready with a little private broody pen for mom and the new babies, and move her and the eggs into it as soon as you hear/see peeping and pipping. She shouldn't abandon hatching eggs, so don't worry about upsetting her with the move. I found out the hard way that hens will squabble over who gets to mother new chicks--the chicks both died. :( Now I seperate the mom and babies until the babies are at least two weeks old. Have fun with the chicks! :) Velvet ~:>

If her crop is full of water...does she seem excessively thirsty? Watch her and note how much water she drinks. Any unusual poops? Excessive thirst + green poops could mean kidney or liver failure. Feel her keel (breastbone)--has she lost any weight? You need to isolate her and determine if her crop is emptying. Put her in a small cage or somewhere indoors where she cannot possible get to anything to eat or drink. JUST FOR THE NIGHT, take away her food and water. When you do so, note the size of her crop. In the morning, check her again--her crop should be empty. If it ISN'T, then she isn't digesting properly. GIVE HER BACK HER FOOD & WATER REGARDLESS. If her crop is empty, well and good, she may just have a digestive upset (has she eaten or drunk anything unusual lately? Does she have access to long grass which can get would up in her crop?), and would benefit from a tablespoonful of plain yogurt with active cultures once or twice a day for about a week, and soft foods that are easy to digest. If her crop has NOT emptied overnight, than she has a bigger problem. It could be an impacted crop or a sour crop. Sour crop first: Is she barfing up any water? Pry open her beak and take a sniff--yeah, I know--is there a nasty smell? Nasty smell = sour crop, which is undigested food beginning to ferment or rot. An impaction could cause food to build up and go sour, or it could be caused by her digestion being off. Keep up with the ACV, olive oil and crop massage, but add in plain yogurt with active cultures, it'll help restore the 'good' bacteria to her gut. My friend Alan has great info on impacted crops and how to treat. This link will lead you to his 'Articles' page, use the list on the left to scroll down to 'Impacted Crop'. Make sure and read BOTH methods--old & new--for all of the information: http://browneggblueegg.com/Article.html He also has an article on 'Sour Crop' that is worth reading. He states that he no longer attempts to empty impacted crops as this has resulted in the death of several birds--so if you decide to do anything which involves helping your bird to regurgitate fluids/solids, do it carefully and with much forethought. The following is from another chicken forum I'm on, this is NOT my experience, I haven't had to do this yet! But here it is, just FYI: ***************************************** Here is more info on sour crop and how to treat: Impacted Crop By Alan Stanford, Ph.D. Brown Egg Blue Egg I Relied Upon Glenda L Heywood National Poultry News and the The Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow Copied with Alan's permission From: http://www.browneggblueegg.com/ImpactedCrop.html Impacted crops are not caused by your birds needing more grit. Grit is indeed necessary for birds that eat other than commercial feed; they need grit when they eat scratch grains, greens, and when they free range. Birds use grit in their gizzards to grind food; but the gizzard is far "downstream" from the crop. The crop is a kind of foyer into which all the food packs before moving into the digestive system. Things that cause impacted crops are anything a bird eats that is too big to move into the digestive system. Some of these too big things are whole grain (especially for small birds), grapes, and greens. When free ranging birds eat greens they rip off small pieces and these pieces pass freely out of the crop. One way I caused impacted crops in our flock was letting the flock out on once long, freshly mown grass. They have no problem with long unmown grass because they can rip off little pieces. Long strands of fresh cut grass pile up in the gizzard and can't get out. You need to flush and empty an impacted crop. You can use an eyedropper, a syringe without a needle, or a childs ear syringe. Be sure to put the dropper or syringe all the way back in the birdÂs mouth. There is a hole at the base of the tongue that leads to the birdÂs lungs. You must be way past that or you will damage your bird. First Treatment You can start by putting an eyedropper full of vegetable oil into the crop and then massaging the crop. This will soften the impaction. Put the dropper all the way back in the bird's mouth and slowly push out the oil. Any vegetable oil is good: olive oil, corn oil, or canola oil. Mix 1/2-cup baking soda 1 pint of warm water Fill the syringe and insert it as far as you can into the mouth of the chicken. Have someone hold the bird upright in front of you. Slowly and very gently fill the crop, do not over fill and get liquid into that hole at the base of the tongue. Gently press up under the chickenÂs breast and slide your hand up to the crop. This makes the bird open its mouth and the impacted mess will come out the bird's mouth. Push the contents up and out of the crop and out of the mouth. You can face the bird toward the ground to help empty the crop. Repeat this gentle stroking pressure until nothing comes up. If there the crop is not empty, flush it again until it is empty. Once the crop is empty, give another dropper of oil. Coop the bird away from other birds so it can rest. Provide about a cup of water with 1 teaspoon terramycin dissolved in it. Give no feed. Second Day If the bird is droopy on the next day, put molasses in the birdÂs water for about four hours (1/4 cup per gallon of water). Remove the molasses water after four hours and give the bird fresh terramycin water. The molasses water will flush soured food from the birdÂs digestive system. Follow Up Treatment If the crop impacts again, repeat the flush. Continue the terramycin for 7 days to avoid secondary infection. After 24 hours, give only soft food for a week or so. This lets the inflamed and irritated crop recover and prevents another impaction. The soft diet can include crumbles and chopped hard-boiled or microwaved eggs. You can feed bread if it is soaked in milk or buttermilk. Buttermilk is especially good because active culture buttermilk has good bacteria in it that help the birdÂs digestion. Be sure to also give the bird some beneficial bacteria. They keep digestion going correctly and fight disease by crowding out disease bacteria. You can just mix 1-2 teaspoons per bird of ACTIVE culture yogurt with a small amount of food and give this as the only food until they eat it. You can also buy lactobacillus at health food stores, pharmacies, Wal-Mart, and Lake's Unlimited 800-634-2473. Give no grains, no large pellets, no not soaked bread, and no grass or greens because these can cause another impaction. Feed only things that almost fall apart when wet. Glenda Heywood likes to feed this for the week 1 slice wheat bread 1/2-cup buttermilk 3 tablespoons active culture yogurt with no artificial sweetener Babyfood (or unsweetened) `apple sauce (as Barb recommends below). Adding oil to the food will help avoid another impaction. Cod liver or wheat germ oil are good because they provide vitamins A, D, and E. Only add about 2% of the feedÂs weight. Adding oil to the food will help avoid another impaction. Cod liver or wheat germ oil are good because they provide vitamins A, D, and E. Only add about 2% of the feedÂs weight. Barb Silcott's Preventative and Followup Treatment "If you have a bird that continually comes up with an impacted crop, once you've emptied the crop and start making your soft feed for it, add some baby food type applesauce. (Unsweetened regular applesauce should be as good.) The applesauce helps get the crop emptied a little quicker and is also acidic which helps with the bacteria problem." "This works for sour crop, too. In fact, when we're hand-feeding parrots, we always add some baby food applesauce to the formula to prevent sour crop. Works great! With all the parrots I've hand-fed over the years, I've never had a case of sour crop. I specify baby food applesauce because it doesn't have any added sugar which just aggravates the problems." ******************************************************** Re: Sour Crop Subject: Re: Sour Crop I am new to this list, but I thought I would express my opinion. I had a 1 year old hen with a sour crop 2.5 weeks ago. We had thrown alot of old yeast rolls out in the lots and then let them free range that evening, the grass had just been mowed. Several days later I noticed she wasn't eating and had lost alot of weight. I did some quick research and this what I did. First we held her and then tipped her forward, massaged her crop and forced up a smelly white/yellow liquid. I had to do it 3-4 times to get it all up. Make sure you let her up after each time to let her get air, otherwise she will try to breath while puking and can suck the liquid into her lungs. If this happens she will not survive. After her crop is as empty as possible, use a laxative solution to get things moving. I used 1 teaspoon of Epsom Salt in 1 fl oz water(I have heard of people using vegetable oil: olive oil, corn oil, or canola oil). I put it down her throat with a long eye dropper, make sure you go past her breath hole. I did this twice using 1/3 of the solution each time. Immediately after she wanted to eat. I put her on very fine laying crumbles, later I added fine screened cracked corn. I also added a mild antibiotic to her water to keep her from getting a secondary infection. The next day there were 3 large piles of poop, full of rotten grass. She was isolated, very mad, for a week and grained over a pound of her weight back. She is back with the other hens now and is getting fat again. ********************************************************* OK, me again. Hope this helps! Velvet ~:>

Good Friday morning all!!! Crunch,crunch, crunch......really enjoying my celery. Thanks! Thanks for the accolades! I hope I didn't jinx myself for posting it here since I have at least 10Lbs to go.... I have 4 5LB bags of sugar on my counter to remind me of how much I have lost.......... Marci, I had no idea this child was so bad that she needed intervention. Wow, sorry you have had to deal with that but I am glad it's you because she might not get the care she needs otherwise. I hope things go well and I hope you get some rest this weekend. Losing sleep over it is not good for you. Are you able to do some yoga to help you unwind in the evening? Just a few minutes of breathing exercises and a few relaxing postures may help you sleep better. Try these breathing exercises: 2-to-1 breathing This breathing pattern relaxes the body by subtly stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system, thereby inducing a state of relaxation. As you lie in bed, gently slow down the rate of exhalation until you exhale for twice as long as you inhale. You can coax a longer exhalation by contracting the abdomen slightly. Dont try to fill or empty or empty the lungs completely you are simply changing the rhythm of your breath. In the beginning it may help to count to six on the exhalation and three on the inhalation, or four on the exhalation and two on the inhalation (or any other 2-to 1 ratio you find comfortable). Focus on the smoothness and evenness of your breath, gradually eliminating any jerks and pauses. Counting Breaths Using the effortless 2-to-1 pattern described above, lie in bed and pay close attention to you breath. It should flow smoothly, evenly, and continuously. When the pattern is well established, take: * 8 breaths lying on your back * 16 breaths lying on your right side * 32 breaths lying on your left side Very few people complete this exercise. Sweet dreams! Try the 8 poses in the link below. I do the child's pose each night and it helps immensely. Raeanne, I know I can't do anything about it. Ommmmmmmmm but I want to find a comfortable place with her. I know it will all work out just the way it's supposed to! Beside, alot can happen in 9 months!! Maddie, you should try those breathing exercises and yoga poses too Sister! Night sounds very like very painful reading to me. Let us know how it is. I am glad you are writing the note.......it will help you go through the grieving process. BJ, thanks for your words of support. You sisters are all great! Besh, I know, I AM such a loser! Have you watched the Biggest Loser? IT's a great show. Today I am leaving at noon to go to the ride/drive that I host in my town of Hancock, NH for my driving club. It's going to be a splendid weekend which is great. Unfortunately, due to drought, the foliage is mediocre at best right now. Plus we haven't had a hard frost yet which is an essential ingredient to fall color. Sweet Pea will be styling as her cart is back from repair and actually looks brand new! It's much lighter than the old cart which we've had to use so she will be very happy with the lighter load. If I don't get a chance to check in again............I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend.

Raeanne - You are so right about having to sit down and have a good cry if that sauce fell!! Now I think I will be even MORE cautious carrying it downstairs! LOL Don't beat yourself up about the cheesecake. We have to allow ourselves treats. The trick is to take small amounts and stop when you are satisfied. I am finding that the longer I stay away from sweets, the easier it is to take only a small bite or two. The fear that I will become addicted again is too great! And the fear that my new pants won't fit is even greater! LOL Speaking of sweets, I am testing my willpower today and making pumpkin bread for a bake sale. I just put 6 mini loaves in the oven (and didn't lick the beaters or my fingers) and plan on giving 5 away and keeping one for DH and I. I will have my share for breakfast and when it is gone, there won't be anything else to tempt me. This is what I have been doing since July and it has been working so far. Then I am making a banana cake for my sewing club and I plan on having a small piece Tuesday night and giving away what ever is left. The ladies can each take a piece home, I will take some into work for the secretary and my cohorts, and DH could take some to work if there is any left after that. I still don't trust myself to have the leftovers sitting around for a week while I wait for DH to eat them. Laundry calls! I washed a Kleenex this morning in with a dark load and you know what that means. 1000s of little white flecks all over the place. I put the load in the dryer, but it didn't get rid of all the flecks, so I am running the load through the rinse cycle. Sheesh! Like I don't have enough to do. And I can't even blame the Kleenex on DD since she doesn't live here anymore! LOL Later, Marci