No, I ain't dead . . .

I haven't really been busy(OR DEAD), just distracted. I have read most of the blogs that I am subscribed to, even if I didn't leave a post. I got over the pneumonia without ever going to a DR. I still get to coughing from time to time, but that may just be temp changes from going in and out. My lungs feel clear.

The chickens are doing well. I lost one and almost lost a couple others to worms. The one I lost was a Gold Comet named Celeste. The day she looked sick was just too late. Chickens are so good at hiding problems. I wormed her, but it was too late. She died that night. My bantam Mottled Cochin Cockerel got such a vitamin nutrient deficiency that he had a seizure. He took a few days, but made a full recover. There are a couple more, but all have recovered. I was using Ivomec for worming, but what ever parasite this is the Ivomec doesn't kill. I had just bought a bottle of Valbazen with the intentions of switching wormers when this all starter. The Valbazen does the job and has saved them.

This young man is my potential breeder for next year.He is a Black Standard Cochin. When I took this picture he was only 6 months old. This show line is very slow to mature and he had/has alot of filling out left to do. I plan to show him in a couple months. Come April he will replace his dad with the 5 standard Cochin Hens. His dad is moving in with some Black Giant Laying Hens. He will have 11 hens to keep his retirement enjoyable. He is with the laying hens during the days anyway so a permanent move will not be difficult. He just has to learn to go to roost with them in their house and not walk back to the Cochin house.

~~Matt~~

Here Again

I am finally getting back to blogging. I missed reading everyone's blogs for so long. I have been sick and with the lack of energy I just didn't feel like sitting here reading. The end of last month I was feeling off, but mostly just tired. Nov 2 I got up with an upper respiratory infection with a cough. As that started clearing up after 4-5 days it moved south into my lungs. This was my first experience with walking pneumonia. The hardest part was trying to take care of the chickens. A round of the coops and I was gasping for breath and coughing my head off. I had NO energy and stayed completely exhausted. I was flat out useless. It is taking forever to get over this crap. The first 2 weeks were the worst. All I wanted to do was take a good deep breath. We had several days of beautiful weather that I was not able to take advantage of. I have so many projects that I want/need to finish.

My lungs have cleared up quite a bit, but I am still coughing and still have some fluid in my lungs. Maybe I should have gone to a doctor.

I skipped Thanksgiving. Everyone went up to my Brother's house in TN. I just did not want to go across the mountain. I figured it would get me sick again and I wanted to go to a Poultry show.

The poultry show last weekend was in Winston-Salem, NC. There were over 1500 birds in the show. It was a great showing of alot of very nice birds. I spent about an hour taking pictures and another hour talking. That was about it for me. That amount of dander and dust has had me coughing at full blast since I got home.

More in a few days.

~~Matt~~