Roots, Roost & Rafter

Goodnight from Junior (aka "Junior Chicken Sandwich"), Tansy, and Kleio peeking from the back. 😉 The birds are all settled into bed and I'm about to do the same. Once I'm there I've got half a dozen messages to reply to and then it's lights out. It's been a busy day!

My friend Michelle over at Butt Nugget Gardens has been 3D printing the most useful chicken accessories, and I've been so excited to share what she's been up to. She just posted this updated list of what she offers this morning so I had to come share it with you guys.

There are lots of incubator accessories, leg bands, and (my personal favorite) a water riser that helps keep chicks from kicking shavings into their waterer - which, if you've ever brooded chicks, you know is a constant battle. I have a pink one! 🩷 Everything she makes comes in really pretty colors!

If you need any of these things, go check out what she's offering and support a member of the local chicken community. 😉

I finally had a little time to put together a price list and test print a few things. These are the items I feel pretty good about.

For the inserts and dividers, the price is per BUT discounts on multiple will save you some money 💰

Quail Inserts:
$10/each
$17.00/2 pieces
$24.00/3 pieces
$32.00/4 pieces

Chicken Inserts:
$12/each
$20.40/2 pieces
$28.80/3 pieces
$38.40/4 pieces

The Hatch Cups are:
$24/6pack Small (chicken)
$28/6pack Medium (duck)
$30/6pack Large (goose)

Need it shipped? No problem!
Free shipping on orders over $50 until July 3rd.

Please note: Orders will be on a first come, first served basis and prints will happen in real time as orders are placed.

I'm considering doing a giveaway for a MATICOOPX20 Accessory kit. Would anyone be interested? 🤔

The response to The Rooster Registry since the CBC interview has been genuinely overwhelming in the best possible way. My inbox has been full of people wanting to help, and I'm so grateful for every single message.

People have offered to transport roosters between owners and adopters, to foster boys who need a temporary landing spot while they wait for their forever home, and to sponsor the Registry's operating costs. These are incredible offers and I want to make room for all of them, I just need to figure out how to do it right.

The Rooster Registry is just a baby at three weeks old, and it's just me behind the scenes running it. I have a lot of heart for this project but I also know all to well what happens when you try to take on too much at once. You've seen my chicken village, right? 😅 I'm practically famous for biting off more than I can chew. This project is really important to me though and, rather than dive in head first, I think it's smart to take some time to set things up properly rather than rush and burn out before the roosters who need us have had a chance to benefit. I also need to figure out just how deep I want to go with this. I want to maximize my time and ability to help without overwhelming myself. My heart is saying “go, go, go!” but my brain is saying “hold on a second, let's do this right”.

I've also had a lot of suggestions about how to monetize the Registry, and I want to address that directly. I appreciate that people want to see this project thrive, I do too. But charging people to list a rooster or find one has never been part of the plan, and it never will be. The whole point is to make rehoming as easy and barrier-free as possible. Any money that comes into the Registry should go right back into keeping it running and getting it in front of more people, not into my pocket.

I'm happy to volunteer my time here. That's not a hardship, it's a choice. If I want to actually earn something from my chicken obsession, I've got Feathered Fundamentals (my chicken keeping workshops) for that. If you're hoping to learn about keeping chickens, I happen to know someone who can teach you. 😉 Spoiler alert, it's me lol

I'll have more updates on how you can help with The Rooster Registry coming soon, for now just keep spreading the word. Telling people about the Registry when you see someone looking for a rooster or trying to rehome one is one of the most helpful things you can do. This idea doesn't work unless people know about it.

If you want to go the extra mile and have access to a printer, those posters in the attached image are available to download from The Rooster Registry's website under the “Support the Registry” link in the menu. Print a couple out and hang them in your hometown to help spread the word. (If you do this, please take a picture and tag me, I'd love to see where they end up!) I'll drop a link in the comments.

Thank you all for caring about these birds as much as I do. My heart is full. ❤️

~ Krystal

Just a normal picture of one of my favorite flowers after a very abnormal (but in a good way) day 😅 Thank you to everyone who has messaged or left ridiculously kind comments. ❤️

The CBC News Halifax interviews I did with Molly MacNaughton have both dropped - the audio that has already aired on CBC Radio and the video that will be airing on CBC Television soon. I just got the video this afternoon.

Facebook will not allow me to post an audio file and it will also not allow me to post the video because it's "news" and news isn't allowed on Facebook in Canada 😒

I've embedded both files in one place on my website if you'd like to listen/watch. I'll drop the link in the comments because another thing Facebook doesn't like is links in posts.

It's a fickle beast, almost as fickle as Pippa. 😅 (If you're new here, Pippa is a former house hen who has not forgotten her diva ways now that she has moved back to the village.)

All in all I think both turned out pretty good, Molly definitely did a great job at piecing the video together! She was really awesome to work with btw guys. You know I was nervous as heck but she made it so much easier for me.

Facebook is hiding the link in the comments so I'm going to add it to the post after all. You can watch/listen here: https://rootsroostandrafter.com/ -interview

Listen In At The Link: I spoke with Molly MacNaughton from CBC Halifax about The Rooster Registry, and the interview aired on CBC Radio this morning (and also yesterday afternoon, apparently!).

If, like me, you missed it, I’ve shared the audio on my website so you can listen there. Facebook won’t let me upload it directly, so that was the easiest workaround. 😉

https://rootsroostandrafter.com/ -interview

Also, please forgive me if I'm a bit slow to reply today. The amount of messages I've received this morning is incredible (but also a little overwhelming! 😅) and I'm working my way through replying to everyone in between chores. Thank you to everyone who has reached out, I'm definitely feeling the love today. You guys are the best!

Roots, Roost & Rafter Stories of daily life in Wattlesford. Poultry education. Rooster advocacy.

Guys, apparently CBC radio aired my interview this morning. I'm getting emails already. Did any of you happen to hear it? I didn't know it was going to air so I completely missed it. :(

Of all the days for Poppy to develop a swollen foot, she picked the one with a national news crew filming her for The Rooster Registry segment. 😅🤦🏼‍♀️ The chickens, it turns out, do not care what day it is or who's watching. Just my luck, right? I can’t tell you how pleased I was to notice her foot in the middle of them getting TONS of footage of her.

The important thing though is that I did notice and that she is being treated. It would have been better if I had noticed BEFORE they came though. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I got a look at her after they went home and it’s definitely a bumblefoot infection. At some point she must have cut or scratched her foot and bacteria got in there to cause an infection. Poor girl. She’s not limping at all but I imagine it’s sore. It looks sore.

Poppy has not been a cooperative patient so far. She does not want to sit nicely on my lap, she does not want me touching her foot, and she is deeply unimpressed that there is now something ON her foot. I ended up covering the end of the vet wrap with a super sticky bandaid (not touching her skin, just holding the wrap down) because otherwise she'd have it undone in under a minute flat.

A couple of years ago she had bumblefoot in this exact same foot, and by the time it healed she'd turned into an absolute professional about sitting still for treatment. She has apparently filed that memory under "things I no longer need to know."

In case it's useful to anyone else dealing with this, here's how I treat bumblefoot without cutting, squeezing, or digging around in the foot.

How I Treat Bumblefoot (Non-Surgical Method)

1) Wash the foot well to remove dirt, disinfect with chlorhexidine, then dry thoroughly. If the foot's especially dirty, a quick soak in warm water first can help - just the foot, not the whole bird. A cup of water works fine for this, just stick their foot in it while you hold them.

2) Apply a generous dollop of drawing salve (I use ichthammol salve, the white tub with the black lid labelled “Trimol” in the kit photo).

3) Cover the salve with a pre-cut square of non-adherent gauze. The salve holds it in place for the next step (unless the chicken is particularly kicky and trying to escape).

4) Wrap the foot with a 1" wide strip of vet wrap, starting above the back toe and wrapping around under the foot several times, passing between each toe, ending back where you started. A small bandaid over the end of the wrap helps stop a determined chicken from picking it loose. Just make sure the toes can move freely and nothing's pinched.

That's really it. Repeat this process every other day, unless your chicken removes the bandage sooner or it’s quite wet/muddy out (every day is better then). A quick photo at each change makes it easy to track healing. Unfortunately I have not done this step, getting Pop bandaged quickly before she wiggles away has been the priority so far, so I’ll have to rely on my memory until she is better about letting me treat her.

I'll try to get some better pictures for you guys but, for now, you get a photo of my chicken foot care kit, a picture of the wrapped foot (before the bandaid was added), and a video of Poppy attempting to undo all of my hard work in real time.

So the interview with CBC happened. I survived and I didn't throw up. Yay me!

They were here for about an hour in all and, while the first part of the interview was definitely shaky, eventually I clicked into "enthusiastic chicken lady mode" and things got easier. Honestly though, I'm not sure that was better. 😅 I could feel myself being overly excited about my answers but I could not rein that excitement in. I'm not sure I even blinked. I'm afraid I may look like a crazed lunatic, but I can guarantee no one will watch the video and think "this woman doesn't like chickens." 🤣

It looks like it'll air early next week, so at least I won't have long to sit with the nerves about how it turned out. After this, I think I'm going to go hide in a quiet corner for a bit and take a little break from doing things that are way outside my comfort zone.

For now though - it's done, and I'm really glad I said yes.

*** My last post explains the interview. The entire thing was a bit of a whirlwind with the opportunity presenting itself yesterday afternoon.