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Messages - Sarah Meaders

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My pleasure! Anything I can do to help the ABC!

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News and Information / Re: A special thank you to everyone!
« on: June 19, 2018, 05:52:56 AM »
Lindsay, you are such a blessing to so many! I have never met you in person, but you have been a huge support for so many, not just chicken related either! I was hospitalized multiple times with each pregnancy for the same issues, plus others, and I so know how much of a struggle it is. I am praying for you and your family!

Yes, your work on the newsletter was a Godsend! Please know how loved you are!

Sarah

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Housing, Health & Hatching / Re: Ice Storm
« on: February 27, 2018, 05:44:04 AM »
Paul and Angela! I am so sorry you have had to deal with all this! I do hope your eggs come out ok! Praying for y'all!

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Breeding / Re: Documenting project colors for Qualifying meets
« on: February 27, 2018, 05:38:39 AM »
Hello all,

I am interested in becoming involved in the bantam splash wheaten project and am wondering how many birds does that involve, housing you all use or recommend, and record keeping. Thanks!!

Hi Tiffany! The Splash Wheaten Project is in year three right now. We have a long ways to go! I am glad you are doing bantams because we don't seem to have as many bantam breeders as we do LF.

Right now we are doing several test breedings to learn some of the more head scratchers where the SW male phenotype is concerned. We have loads of "opinions" on what should be manifesting and what shouldn't, but not much science to back up anyone's opinions, including mine! So we are breaking ground there. This is going to be multiple years long.

I hope that this year solves a lot of mysterious and gets us closer to understanding the wheaten pattern with the homozygous Bl. Please feel free to ask any questions you have on what we have discovered thus far, read the articles on the SW FB page, or email me, FB message me and I will be glad to elaborate with pictures and our findings of the past two years! Welcome aboard!

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Housing, Health & Hatching / Diatomaceous Earth
« on: October 11, 2017, 07:38:32 AM »
This post is about Diatomaceous Earth. Full disclosure, I am NOT an expert with this stuff at all, nor am I experienced enough to be considered "wise counsel" with pest/parasite control in animals. This is my experience.

For anyone who uses DE in any aspect, PLEASE DO NOT ignore the recommendation to WEAR A MASK. No matter how many times you have used it with no issues, WEAR A DANG MASK. And NEVER dust ANYTHING in an enclosed space. I don't care how windy it is, wait until the wind stops if you must, but do NOT dust your birds inside an enclosed area. Here's why...please read every word.

Almost two years ago, I dusted my Australorps inside their pen, which was enclosed on three sides for the winter. Since it was very nice outside, I didn't wear my normal face mask. One hen got irritated at me and began flapping like crazy after I dusted her, sending DE dust in the air all around me. I thought nothing of it and kept on. I did, however, send my son away to avoid the dust. The next day, her eye was very swollen, but she acted fine. She never did show any other symptoms of distress or illness.

Now, me, on the other hand, whole different story. Two days after I dusted her, I felt myself getting sick, as if I had caught the flu. I fought it with my regular go to remedies, but by the second day, which was three days after dusting them, I was on the couch with not even enough energy to get up and get myself a drink. I was running 102+, was obviously very dehydrated, and having a hard time breathing. Went to ER, tested negative for the flu, Chest XRay was not very impressive, but my doctor's gut told him I had to have had pneumonia, even though all diagnostics said I didn't. My breath sounds were not junky, just very diminished. It was obvious to him I was not moving air as an otherwise very healthy 40 year old should be.

My second night in the hospital, my heart started bottoming out; as in going down into the high 20's and low 30's, it started having 2nd degree type 2 blocks, and my blood pressure was bottoming out. I could not be supine without having crushing chest pain, and I was not responding to antibiotics. They did a CT on my chest, and they finally saw severe abnormalities in my lungs right over my heart. This was a very odd form of pneumonia. Even my cardiologist was scratching his head after he did an echo and a few other basic heart tests.

I was finally discharged from the hospital after a WEEK. I had to take breathing treatments at LEAST twice a day to even be able to breath enough to walk across my house. My heart continued slowing down, and I couldn't sleep in my bed for weeks from the crushing chest pain when I lied down flat. Several months later, I saw a pulmonologist and we walked through the entire ordeal. She noted that it took nearly six months for my lungs to clear out based on the many CT Scans I had. Even with a clear CT, I was still on daily asthma medication and needed my inhaler daily. I could not handle even the slightest smell without having an asthma attack. I had to change deodorants, my daughters couldn't spray their hair, I could no longer burn candles; it was bad.

While talking to my pulmonologist, she asked me about the days leading up to me falling ill. It was then that I remembered dusting my Australorps. She concluded without a doubt that I had breathed in the DE like my hen did, and the result was "Chemically Induced Pneumonia" caused by the DE. The damage was severe enough that my heart responded by decreasing the work load on my lungs until they healed. If I hadn't went to the hospital, and if my doctor hadn't have trusted his gut against all diagnostics, I would've died there on my couch.

Today, nearly two years later, I am FINALLY off of daily asthma meds, but I still use my inhaler a couple times a month. I can handle most smells better, but only in small quantities. My heart still slows down and goes into arrythmias occasionally, but not near as often. I cannot walk or work near as long as I once could without gasping for air and my heart protesting. I will have to be seen by my pulmonologist regularly to monitor for long term damage. DE has been known to cause cancer later, so we will be watching my lungs closely for the rest of my life.

All of this because I didn't wear a mask. I will continue to use DE, but I will NEVER dust in an enclosed space like that, whether I have a mask or not. I am lucky my hen didn't get sick.

Please PLEASE don't mess around with dusts of any kind, be it DE or any other. Even if I use ash, I will wear a mask. Foreign substances have no business being in the lungs of anyone, and the cilia of the nose and the defense mechanisms of the lungs can only filter out so much. Please wear masks when working with things that can get airborne. Your life could very well depend on it.

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Exhibiting & Promoting / Re: May 20 Sussex County Show
« on: April 29, 2017, 08:32:57 AM »
Just wanted to bring this back up. This meet happens to be the APA District meet, too. Sure would be amazing if as many Ameraucanas as possible could be there representing! Not to mention the number of super experienced breeders of poultry in general!

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Exhibiting & Promoting / Re: Ameraucanas vs. Easter Eggers?
« on: April 29, 2017, 08:31:36 AM »
Technically, yes, meets the SOP AND breeds true 50%. HOWEVER, as all too many of us have experienced, ethically, I strongly believe a breeder SHOULD NOT label their birds Ameraucana if they have a recent cross breed. I cannot define "recent" because I am still a newbie. But if a bird is throwing 49% off colors when bred to a tried and true Ameraucana of the same variety, I personally would hope the breeder would label that as an EE.

I only say this because many of us have had the unfortunate experience of purchasing chicks or even full grown beauties that meet the standard in phenotype, only to hatch many chicks that have offshoots. I am not talking about one every hatch. I am talking just under half. Not fun.

Just my opinion....

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Breeding / Wheaten/Blue Wheaten Sickles
« on: April 29, 2017, 07:09:19 AM »
Question for Wheaten/Blue Wheaten breeders.
The standard for the male tail in both call for shafting in the sickles, red in Wheaten, orange in Blue Wheaten. Does ANYONE have a picture of this in their cock bird? Of all the pictures I have combed, I cannot see this shafting. Honestly, it may not show up in pictures, especially with the lustrous color in the wheaten. If someone has time to go look closely at their males, that would be great! I have also posted this question on the Real Ameraucana Group on FB.

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Exhibiting & Promoting / May 20 Sussex County Show
« on: April 17, 2017, 07:27:45 AM »
I see we have a meet at the Sussex County Poultry Fancier Show May 20 in Augusta, NJ.

Who all is planning to go to this meet and what are you showing?? :)

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News and Information / Re: 2017 Ameraucana Breeders Club Handbook
« on: February 27, 2017, 05:33:15 PM »
Very excited for the new articles, too! I love educational articles, and this handbook won't disappoint! :)

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Breeding / Re: Splash wheaten coloring
« on: January 04, 2017, 04:19:30 PM »
Yay!!! Thanks for your thoughts, Don!!!!

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Breeding / Re: Splash wheaten coloring
« on: January 04, 2017, 08:14:58 AM »
Jim, yes, I also agree. If you look at BW cockerels in the juvenile stage, they have similar lacing as what you referenced. I have a pic of your cockerel at 8 weeks that shows the lacing. Posting it with this reply. :)

BTW, your photodocumention of Flash throughout his growth has been absolutely invaluable!! Thank you so much for your hard work!!

Sarah

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Breeding / Re: Splash wheaten coloring
« on: January 03, 2017, 07:53:55 PM »
Dewayne, I didn't even notice that edging!! And that is good news in my opinion. I see hackles and saddles like your BW and I know the clean is achievable and a worthy goal. I am excited to hear more from more people, too, because personally, I love the coloring in the breast, so I hope it is something that is actually a good thing, like the lacing in the BW.  :D

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Breeding / Splash wheaten coloring
« on: January 03, 2017, 04:50:33 PM »
We are seeing nearly full grown SW males in addition to the very few adults that we had going into this effort for APA acceptance. There are a few areas in the proposed standard description that will be up for full debate, but not until we have many more to fully examine. The first topic for discussion is the breast coloring.

I am attaching photos of one the cockerels that hatched January 2016. These pics were taken today, 12 days shy of the cockerel's first birthday. Note the SHAFTING in the breast feathers. The shafting is an orange-red color. This shafting is in every photo of every SW cockerel of this age that I have seen thus far. In earlier months in the juvenile weeks, the breast coloring has orange-red LACING.

I am also attaching a picture of this SW's sire, a Blue Wheaten. You can see very faintly that the feathers in the breast also have this color pattern, just in blue and dark blue.

The BW standard allows for orange or orange-red TICKING in the front of neck and in the fluff. And in the breast, it says "blue, preferably laced with dark blue."

It is incredibly important that we write this description very well and accurate, not only to what is normal, but also to what is achievable in the sense of improvement.

So the question right now is what is the genetic reason for this shafting that is is nearly all SW cockerels? Are there actually cockerels and cocks out there that DON'T have this shafting? If so, is the genotype linked to another genotype that IS in the standard? Is it linked to the undesirable, and highly improvable, hackle striping? Or is something that SHOULD be included in the standard to read "orange-red shafting on white-grayish tinged white" (or something like that)?

I ask all experienced Blue Wheaten/Splash Wheaten breeders to share your knowledge, experience, and if possible PICTURES so that we can get closer to making some decisions.

Thank you!

Sarah Meaders

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Can we get a roll call of Ameraucana breeders who are going to this show?

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