Consolidated Kansas - Page 1450

Danz, thanks for letting me know about the blue kote working on the hen's back, I do have some of that. I also just got a bottle of the Vetericyn too so I could add that to my chicken medicine cache. I just hate that those darned roosters are being so rough on my hens, the poor things. I really just think if I got rid of the one it might help, he is the most aggressive of the 3. I just can't see myself processing him, he's been too good of a rooster for us & honestly I think he would be a good one for someone else if they didn't already have too many. You just have to let him know you're the boss & not him because he had flogged me a couple of times & I just drop kicked him both times & chased him back & now he doesn't bother me. I had read that you have to face them, look them in the eye & back them off & they don't like that & he certainly didn't, he wanted to be the aggressor & when he wasn't then he just gave up on it with me. I know what you mean about pulling off those spurs, I don't know if I could do that either & what rooster is going to hold still long enough to get that done.

 

Well it's time to go out again & start another round & feed this time.

Thanks Josie and Danz! Go figure I would actually almost cave over a noisy little bird!:-) That solves that.... Maybe. They sure were cute! The kids are absolutely bent on a duck. Are there any quiet ones?:-)

Hawkeye, we have a crazy little Phyllis Diller bird we picked out of the bantam pullets at Orschelen's. No one picks on her, but man can that bird move!!! She is the first to food, first to escape, first to fly anywhere. She is a hoot! We call her Daffy..... Knock on wood, my crew pecks at each other slightly to move each other around when treats are out, but they all seem to get along really well. Bloom( silkie) is the boss at meal time and Molly, the Buff Orpington is the protector. They must all be pretty calm breeds compared to our Polish :-)They absolutely crack me up trying to get up on the roost all together or when they all pile together around the bags of ice or frozen pop bottles of water :-) Outside of Molly, the bed head bird and a white rock, I have just Silkies, D'Uccles and Ameracaunas though, no real production birds. Just pets :-) My Silkie, Bloom, and D'Uccles are my loudest birds. The D'Uccles just cackle, but it sure is different sounding than the birds I heard today. I guess they are all pretty quiet :-) I bet they would all be comical with those painless peepers on! Gee, that sounds like something from Harry Potter. Lol

I have a wooden privacy fence and keep both gates locked with padlocks at all times. But then I do live in the city and have neighbor boys who have thought it was hilarious to torment my dogs.... I can only imagine what they would do if they could get at my birds.

Trish can you hire someone to come ice down your birds while you are gone? I did that while we went to Chicago. I had them come 2 times a day. I didn't lose anyone, and poor Molly got sick after I got back and had been iced and watered down personally. I understand how scary it is to think something in your care is out there melting without relief....

Danz, if you do decide to sell your Polish, we would love to buy her- if it is a her :-). They are just too comical!! The way they shake their heads and twist and turn them when you talk to them makes me laugh. Good therapy birds :-)

Oh Danz, we also saw a peacock today at the fair and Sera announced loudly, " Mom, that peacock broke his tail turning around in that tiny cage. What is wrong with these people? Peacocks need big cages like at the bird farm! She knows better! ". I had to shush her and tell her that wasn't possible at the fair , and hide my laughter, because that poor bird did have a broken tail.... And it was turning around and around in it's cage. She still shocks me at the things she catches on to.

Oh & I just wanted to share this recipe with you all, it sounds kind of strange, but I had seen them make it on one of the Diners, Drive Ins, & Dives shows & looked up the recipe on Food Network. It looked so good that we just wanted to try it. I'm not a big fan of firing up the oven in this hot weather, so we waited until really late last night to make it. Here is the recipe, it's really yummy, we had a piece today! Oh & by the way, I didn't make the pie crust, too much work, so I used a frozen one.

 

Blueberry Goat Cheese Pie

Recipe courtesy Moira Sommers, Co-Owner/Chef of 3 Sisters Cafe in Indianapolis, IN

Total Time:

1 hr 10 min

Prep

15 min

Inactive

30 min

Cook

25 min

Yield:

1 Pie

Level:

Intermediate

Ingredients

Crust:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 to 3/4 cups cold margarine
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• Pinch salt
• Cold water
•  

Filling:

• 1/2 cup soft goat cheese
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• Pinch salt
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil
• 4 cups fresh blueberries
•  

Topping:

• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup melted butter

Directions

For the crust:

Combine the flour, margarine, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Work with your fingers

gathering and crumbling until you have a crumbly mixture, about the size of peas.

In small amounts, slowly add cold water, gently incorporating by hand. As soon as the dough comes together in a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

For the filling: Mix the goat cheese, heavy cream, egg, sugar, flour, salt and basil together in a bowl. Add the blueberries and mix to desired texture.

For the topping: Mix the almonds, sugar and margarine in bowl, set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Roll out the dough and place in a 10-inch pie pan. Pour the filling into the crust and sprinkle the topping over the top. Bake 25 minutes, rotating at the pie halfway through.

Just a quick note to tell you my great news. I told DH about the units on CL that Hawkeye posted. He didn't want to buy those because he figures with our luck it would last a week and then be done. So he did lots of research online and made some phone calls and found a floor unit at Sam's that they gave him a 20% discount and it only cost $240. The portable ones were around $500 for my room size. The one he bought is a window unit but he's willing to put it in through the wall so as not to block the windows. The windows are sliders also, so that makes it a little more complicated. But now, I'll be able to cool the craftroom down enough to keep the birds from dying on me. Maybe next year I'll get one for the coop? We'll see. It's going to be such a relief to have a place to cool off the birds that really get stressed. I was really worried about spending anymore right now but he's more on top of the money stuff than I am so it's doable. I'm so happy to think I'll have A/C out there this weekend!

I haven't had any trouble with my girls but I feed early in the AM and late in the evening when its cooler. I have noticed if I try to feed them at 10 or 11 in the morning Molly just turns her nose up and walks away and Lucie will only eat about half of her bowl. I think the they don't want to be full and laying around panting in the heat. 

 

I am sure everyone's feeds are going to go up with all the crop failures and recalls they have been having. I was going to ask about the bag size the other night but forgot. I am surprised nutrena makes a 50 pound bag! I shop at orschelns (closest to us) and I used to buy purina but they stopped carrying it and I was annoyed that they only had a 40 pound bags of the nutrena. So strange, I might have DH pick up feed at Atwoods down in Andover, I don't think we have one anywhere near where I am up here. 

Danz-There is a gal on the facebook chicken swap that wants to trade a slate blue tom for a slate blue hen. She is in Chanute and her name is Kimberli Dameron. Weren't you looking for a tom?

Josie, yes I did try the chicken saddles & they worked for awhile & then the hens started taking them off & losing them so I kind of gave up on it. It really wasn't worth having to fight with them to get them back on all the time or buy new ones when they lost them somewhere out there. I sprayed the one hen with the torn up back tonight with the blue kote & we'll see how she does. I hate to confine her to a cage if I don't have to, but I don't want them to kill her either, her back is really bad. I had seen that she had a sore place & then today they just tore the skin way more. That blue slate tom must have just gone on there tonight, I hadn't seen it.

 

Karen, I'm so glad for you on the air conditioner, yay! That will make you feel so much better & maybe you can relax a little more & your blood pressure can go back down, good for everyone.

In fact, there are   The reason I got muscovies over any other breed of duck is that they don't quack - they are almost completely silent.  As ducklings they peeped but once they stopped peeping, they went quiet.  I understand that they will hiss when threatened or broody but other than that, they are very quiet.  I haven't heard mine hiss yet.  I've always thought ducks were cute but a) didn't want to mess with the mess they make around water and b) didn't want the noise.  Muscovies are perfect for me because they aren't as interested in water as other ducks.  Oh sure, they like to get in and sit in it in this heat (but then, so do the chickens), but from what I understand, they don't need a water source for swimming.  They are a heavy bird that doesn't like to swim as much as other ducks because their feathers fray.  One source said they are not a duck per se but a "perching water bird".  But they look so much like ducks, I find myself calling them that anyway.  They wag their tails like dogs and have a little crest on their heads that they can choose to raise or lay flat on their heads.  They raise it to show emotion, and wag their tails then too.  I read one article that called them "extremely intelligent".  I don't know if I'd go that far but when you look in their eyes, even as ducklings, there is a serene wisdom looking back at you.

 

When I started researching them, they seemed almost too good to be true - a good meat bird that is also a good layer that is also a good mother and is also quiet and doesn't make a mess around water?  So far I've found the hype to be true.  Mine aren't laying age yet but everything else I read has been spot on so far.

 

That sounds divine.  I can't wait to try it....

 

I don't know if I've said this before but....your DH is a keeper.  Seriously, congrats - that will be awesome.  And when the craft room is not occupied by birds you can still enjoy the A/C.

 

Maybe I'm just over-tired, but that just cracked me up.  I had visions of the hens reaching around and carefully taking off their saddles, putting them down and later, scratching their heads thinking "Now WHERE did I put that saddle?"

I can't remember everything I've read so I'll apologize in advance for everything I forgot ...

 

Trish, that pie sounds wonderful. I love blueberries and I love goat cheese. I'm going to have to try it. Timing is everything sometimes, and I'm with you on not wanting to leave your birds. Right now, I don't like to be where I can't run home and check on them several times a day.

 

Karen, your DH does good work! I don't have too much patience for the research stage of things.

 

HEChicken, I hope your parents can stand the sudden shock of the temperature change. I think I'd stay in Melbourne and come to Kansas in October or something!

 

MyABCs3, congratulations!

 

Those of you with dogs, are your dogs shedding like crazy? It's ridiculous around here. Shouldn't they have lost the winter undercoat a long time ago? And I'm shedding like crazy, too. My mom says we shed our hair in spring and fall, so what's up with this? Is it like the trees dropping their leaves due to heat stress?

Josie, no, don't think I'll be getting peas.  Unless we move out of this neighborhood.  Not sure the neighbors would appreciate that.... but then again, I don't know.  Since we could be moving, now wouldn't be the time to get any large bird like turkey or peas.  Just don't know what we're going to do.  I think I'm going to build wire pens in my horse barn along the side of the wall up front.  That means we need to get rid of a ton of crap in there.  Mostly kid junk.  I'd like to have my silkie breeding pens set up in there and it would be a great place to have them for this winter.  It stays pretty nice in there when I shut down all the doors.  And there's plenty of electrical outlets in case I do need to hook up a heat lamp if they are suffering just in case.  These silkies do seem like they require a bit extra care, for sure.  Ah well.... totally in love, can't stop now!  LOL!!  I love that pen of yours-- what a score!!!!

 

I can't imagine a portable or break down cage at a fair that would house a peacock.  I've never seen peas at the fair-- probably just for that reason.  Those cages are just big enough to get turkey in without messing up their tails.  And even then, you'll see a lot of fraying and broken tail feathers from a bird being in a cage.  But that is pretty smart of Sera to recognize what was going on and see how it was effecting the beauty of the pea's tail.  Quite a shame.  

 

FANTASTIC!!!!!     So glad that you are getting your ac unit for that room!  That is really going to make life so much easier on you.  That's a great price for a new one at Sams, too.  Good shopping skills he has there! 

 

 

I have one hen wearing a saddle right now-- been wearing it for weeks.  Yes, even in this heat.  My rooster just won't leave her alone and I don't have another place to put him.  But I can't imagine her getting that saddle off.  It has elastic with snaps and it fits perfectly.  I bought it from someone who specially makes them for silkies.  So maybe the fit has a lot to do with it.  I have more saddles from her, and had one on my other hen, but my rooster rarely breeds her or even looks at her.  Odd.  Anyway, she didn't need it, and in this heat, decided not to burden her with it.  But the fabrics I picked out are just adorable!  I do enjoy seeing them wear them.  :)  So sad about your hen with the messed up back.  That's going to take quite a while to heal.  You might try a saddle again and see how long you can get it to stay on when she is on the mend.

 

So far haven't noticed my dogs shedding, but they are kept really short and go to the groomers every few weeks.  Interesting, though!  :)