Consolidated Kansas

[tweetysvoice]

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Welcome Clairdazzle! I'm from Larryville as well! Nice to meet you and great to see another Lawrencevillian loving chicks!

 

[tweetysvoice]

Trish,
If you already have a raised garden then the hard part is done! The nicest thing about breaking it up into sections (and you can even just do that with string) is that you plant one plant in the middle of the square (for larger plants like tomatoes and peppers) and you know anything else popping up would be a weed! Smaller plants such as lettuce can go 4 or 8 in a square - just spacing them out as if they have their own spot. I'm looking forward to growing stuff just for the chicks! I've had rabbits and guinea pigs most of my life and started gardening just to supplement their diet, so it's not at all any harder for me to add squash (which i personally hate) to have it as frozen treats for the flock.

 

[tweetysvoice]

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TOO Funny!! I've lived here in Lawrence for 20 years and never even considered that Larry Kansas was actually a place! ROFL!

 

[Trish44]

tweety, I want to put some dividers in the beds because it would be easier to have a walkway to get to the different areas so I didn't have to walk in the garden & compact the soil. As it is, the beds are too big & wide & hard to manage. After seeing a friend of mine's garden area I really want to re-do mine to make it more manageable like hers. Her beds are small enough that she can stand outside of them & do about anything she needs to do. She never has to till anything up & that sounds great to me. I just have so many projects I want to do in the spring though that I will have to choose what is the most important, which right now is building the breeder coop.

I took some pics of my new baby bunnies tonight so you all can see them. Here they are:

Baxter is the white one with the spots & Bonnie is the black & white one. Bonnie is much more shy & skittish than Baxter, he really is a cuddler. They're both so soft, it's hard not to want to hold them all the time, but I'm trying to let them get used to their new home first. I'm looking for a rabbit hutch for them & I have found one if it works out. We will be going Sunday to look at it & see if we can manage to get it in the truck & get it home. DH doesn't know about that yet, he'll be thrilled that I have again gotten him into another "situation" as he calls it. The guy that has it says it's very heavy, so we'll see if we can lift it or not.

 

[Trish44]

Oh, BTW, I forgot to say that I rescued these bunnies from being eaten by a 20 ft snake, so I felt good that at least these two won't be snake food. DH said after I told him that I can't rescue all of them & I told him no, but at least I rescued 2.

 

[cherwill]

I haven't posted much, but I've been around a while and I'm hoping someone here can help me. My town is in the process of passing an ordinance banning roosters.

I have a production red roo, maybe 1 1/2 yrs old. He's never been aggressive; he's friendly enough, but kind of standoffish at the same time. He takes great care of his six girls and has been a really nice roo to have around. Because I know him by name and like him so much, I'd prefer he not go somewhere he'll be eaten. If someone here wants him and can come get him, I'll let you know if they pass the ordinance for sure (there's maybe a half percent chance it won't) and we can make arrangements. We're in McPherson. The last time we had to get rid of a roo, we had a hard time finding someone locally who would take one. By the time we found someone, we weren't in a position to ask too many questions and he ended up in a barn full of other roosters. I don't want to know ...

 

[Hawkeye95]

Chooks, that house sounds amazing! Sounds like a fair price for it too, if it's as nice as you say. That would be exactly what I'd hope to find. My DH is going to check in with a head hunter and see about software opportunities in KC. We will find out if he gets a transfer this February with Boeing and if not, we'll be on the hunt. He really isn't in the know about what kind of companies are in KC or that area. He does have some ideas, though-- but things are always changing. We have a new software start up here in Wichita, but my worry is that it wouldn't pay as well. I keep wondering how things will change in just a few months, and there's just no way of telling. BTW- very interesting about sanding off some of the shell on the BCM's! Never have heard/seen that before and that is a really neat trick!

Ivy, do you have pips or chicks yet? I hope so! I was reading about my Brinsea and people said that it does well on staggered hatches and opening it up. They said it warms back up quickly. So that is good to know. That way I can keep adding eggs as I get them. But now I don't know if i should be incubating anything right now anyway-- especially if we'll be moving, that would be adding chicks that I have no room for. I was planning on building them their own breeding coop to themselves this Spring. That isn't going to happen now. I don't want to be setting up more things I'll have to move.

Danz, I'm sorry about the ill birds. No fun! I used the VetRX for about 2 weeks on the silkies and they are all fine now. How is your SLW roo doing today? I sure hope he made it! Sorry about your lost partridge silkie.

So you think my 7 month old silkies might be getting close to laying!? Eeek! Exciting, and yet a little scary-- because I don't have a nest box set up. What could I use?? Thinking some kind of box or bucket... or..?? Okay question, I never did clean off Zorro's bottom from his runny butt he had a couple months back. Most of it has come off- and I did work at it a bit just breaking it up and pulling some of it. But there is still a "slick" that is stuck. ANd short of washing him or cutting it off-- it's not coming out. Will that (or could it) interfere with his fertility with the girls??? Ideas on that? I could certainly wash his bottom (let him soak in my sink) if that is the case.

Trish, those rabbit babies are soooooo cute!!! Awwww! I LOVE the white one with the eye liner! I've seen ones just like him at the fair! Good luck on getting your new hutch. I'd be holding those babies constantly! How could you not? Are they friendly? I've never had a bunny- do they bite? Glad you got your panels set up and the dogs have a home again. It will be nice when they don't need it anymore. Wow, your americauna sounds like a really crazy roo. Good thing you have him separated now.

Tweety, I have a raised bed too-- Its not very big. It's 8 X 8ft (made it with rail road ties) and threw in nice compost and top soil I bought. I didn't have a problem with weeds either, but I did go out there and pull weeds every morning. There would only be a few each time. I like to stay on top of things and keep them tidy. I was going to build another 8 X 8 raised bed this year, but will just do that where ever we go. I was hoping to have veggies. Last year was all about making my herb garden first. I lined 3 sides with a row of rosemary, another with Lavender, and another with mint. The middle I did a couple of rows of flowering herbs that made it look really pretty, and then on the back side, got practical again with basil, and other herbs that are annuals that I'll have to replace each year. The front side is all perennial so that it will always look nice, even in the winter. I had it all thought out so that when I dug out the back, it would still look pretty from the front!

Cherwill, that is too bad about the ordinance! Wow, I wish these cities would realize how great they are-- its too bad they won't just allow one.

I don't need a rooster (we're going to be moving) but did you try CraigsList? You could say he's nice and a pet? Anyway, good luck on finding him a home. Let us know if that ordinance passes.

Okay-- so yesterday, I put my little WCB Polish back out in the coop. Her crest has filled in, but the feathers haven't popped out of the tubes yet. But I figured that would be fine since it's all back to white color and she looks so much better. Well, I had to bring her back in because one of my Wyandottes came up, took one look at her and decided to go after her crest. I guess it does still look kind of funky. So I'll wait until the tubes fall off and the feathers can fluff out to put her back. I think it would have gone well-- the other Polish seemed totally fine with her. Sigh.

 

[ChooksChick]

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Put her back in a cage where everyone can see her for a few days, and then when you release her, re-arrange the roosts and put in new litter. Have lots of grapes and thawed corn to toss around with a few apples so they have lots of other stuff to focus on. You want to keep their ADD active or they'll focus on the one thing that's different. If you keep her in a cage with them, they'll be more accustomed to seeing her again by the time you release her.

Edited to add: Let her loose with all the treats in the morning when they go outside- put lots of stuff around to keep them busy outside, so they also have that going to distract them, AND she has room to get away.

 

[Ivywoods]

Pictures taken out my front door this morning.

These snow geese come in every year. The flocks number in the hundreds of thousands. They circle the ponds and cornfields. As they walk across the fields it looks like a moving snowbank. Usually they stay around here for a few weeks to a month or so, depending on the weather. This is the first year since we have been here that they have been here this early in the year.

 

[ChooksChick]

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WOW!!! What direction are they going? North or south? It's late in the winter for them to be traveling in those great numbers even though it's been such a mild winter, isn't it??