Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Yay! I can't wait for some of those beauties!

That is very like the Dumpy's short leg gene. 25% loss in shell when bred short to short. Most breed Long legged roo (long leg is any over 1 1/2") over short legged hens and vise verse. I find the whole thing fascinating, that coupled with the age of the breed (over 700 years, with some indication to the ancient Celts keeping them!!!) just makes them irresistible to me!

When you get your Dumpys you will have to post pics so we can see them. I had never heard of that breed before.

sharol those Orps are hard to sex until they really get some size on them. It took me a very long time to finally figure out what I had on my Buffs & now I'm waiting on some Jubilees to get big enough to tell. I love the Jubilees myself because they remind me so much of the Speckled Sussex & they are one of my favorite breeds. It sounds like you have some hard decisions to make on which birds to keep.

I looked in on some of my pens in the breeder coop yesterday & I now have 3 hens sitting, ugh. I really didn't want more chicks but these hens just have their own ideas. One is a Mottled Orp, one is a Jubilee Orp, & the other is a New Hamp. One of my Lavender Orp hens hatched out one chick & had it with her for days & then it just disappeared into thin air. I don't know if it somehow got out of the pen & then a cat got it or what. I just haven't found any sign of it. It made me sad that she took such good care of it for several days & then it just disappeared.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

When you get your Dumpys you will have to post pics so we can see them. I had never heard of that breed before.

sharol those Orps are hard to sex until they really get some size on them. It took me a very long time to finally figure out what I had on my Buffs & now I'm waiting on some Jubilees to get big enough to tell. I love the Jubilees myself because they remind me so much of the Speckled Sussex & they are one of my favorite breeds. It sounds like you have some hard decisions to make on which birds to keep.

I looked in on some of my pens in the breeder coop yesterday & I now have 3 hens sitting, ugh. I really didn't want more chicks but these hens just have their own ideas. One is a Mottled Orp, one is a Jubilee Orp, & the other is a New Hamp. One of my Lavender Orp hens hatched out one chick & had it with her for days & then it just disappeared into thin air. I don't know if it somehow got out of the pen & then a cat got it or what. I just haven't found any sign of it. It made me sad that she took such good care of it for several days & then it just disappeared.

LOL I'm sure you guys will be begging me to STOP posting pics of them!!! I am going to call Sandhill again on Thurs to see if they can give me a timeframe, I can't stand the wait

 

[chicken danz]

I have trouble with most of the orps. At least the lavenders tend to get a little leggy if they are boys. Other than that it's a toss up. The BBS seem to be easily sexed early on for orps though. I have some chicks a couple months old and I'm at that spot with them. Can't quite sex them. I've also figured out some of my brahmas will fool you. They'll get a prominent reddish comb and you swear they are cockerels then all of sudden you know they are pullets. That is the one true beauty of partridge colors. At least when they start feathering in you can tell their sex.
Terrabella , I think if I were going to breed the dumpies I would breed short leg to short leg. Simply because if you get the long legs in there you ruin their main feature. Actually 25% isn't a huge loss in hatching. You could easily have more than that in non-fertile eggs. So if you set 10 eggs and they were all fertile you would loose 2-3 chicks. That's not that bad of an average. You just accept the loss ahead of time and then it's not anything upsetting.I have a couple hens sitting on air. They switch from box to box where another hen lays an egg and if you take that egg they just continue to sit. I check underneath them, get pecked, and there's nothing there. Dumb birds. These are my layers so I don't want any more to sit.
I got very little done today. I wasn't feeling good. I ran out of BP meds this weekend and called in a refill. It was too early to refill because the doctor told me to double up on the script and I was still using the old script for one pill a day. The drug store was supposed to call the doctor for a refill but obviously failed to do so. Had I known that I could have reached him yesterday or today. I wen to the drugstore after you could get into the doctor's office phone. Now it will be Thursday before I can reach him. I'm not a happy person at all.
Then I discovered my pheasants have some kind of cold or something. I lost three of the babies and there are several more out in the pen with swollen faces. I started them on vet RX and tylan and hope it clears them. The young ones are in with my breeders and I sure don't want to loose the breeders.
I have another cage full of young ones in the building but I really don't want to start over next spring with all new breeders. Lousy luck.

 

[Trish44]

I have trouble with most of the orps. At least the lavenders tend to get a little leggy if they are boys. Other than that it's a toss up. The BBS seem to be easily sexed early on for orps though. I have some chicks a couple months old and I'm at that spot with them. Can't quite sex them. I've also figured out some of my brahmas will fool you. They'll get a prominent reddish comb and you swear they are cockerels then all of sudden you know they are pullets. That is the one true beauty of partridge colors. At least when they start feathering in you can tell their sex.
Terrabella , I think if I were going to breed the dumpies I would breed short leg to short leg. Simply because if you get the long legs in there you ruin their main feature. Actually 25% isn't a huge loss in hatching. You could easily have more than that in non-fertile eggs. So if you set 10 eggs and they were all fertile you would loose 2-3 chicks. That's not that bad of an average. You just accept the loss ahead of time and then it's not anything upsetting.I have a couple hens sitting on air. They switch from box to box where another hen lays an egg and if you take that egg they just continue to sit. I check underneath them, get pecked, and there's nothing there. Dumb birds. These are my layers so I don't want any more to sit.
I got very little done today. I wasn't feeling good. I ran out of BP meds this weekend and called in a refill. It was too early to refill because the doctor told me to double up on the script and I was still using the old script for one pill a day. The drug store was supposed to call the doctor for a refill but obviously failed to do so. Had I known that I could have reached him yesterday or today. I wen to the drugstore after you could get into the doctor's office phone. Now it will be Thursday before I can reach him. I'm not a happy person at all.
Then I discovered my pheasants have some kind of cold or something. I lost three of the babies and there are several more out in the pen with swollen faces. I started them on vet RX and tylan and hope it clears them. The young ones are in with my breeders and I sure don't want to loose the breeders.
I have another cage full of young ones in the building but I really don't want to start over next spring with all new breeders. Lousy luck.

You would think a pharmacy would know that a BP med is important. It sounds like they really dropped the ball. I would tell the Dr's office about it. I'm sorry about your pheasants, I hope the medication helps.

We got rain today so it was cooler for the day but it's supposed to get hot again tomorrow. I started putting up a fence over beside the garage to try to keep the sheep from going around to the neighbor's place where there is a dog loose. I'm kind of worried about them going over there for many reasons. I got about 3/4 of the fence cobbled up but I need to go bring another piece over & put them together & then I will have to put in 3 more t-posts to try to hold it up better. It's not a great job but for the sheep it should work. They respect fences much more than goats do.

I couldn't get 4 of my geese in the pen tonight, it seems like they go back & forth between being good & going in & like tonight they were all over the place. I finally got 3 in & gave up at dark on the other 4. I was hoping the older ones would teach the young ones where to go in to get fed, but they aren't really integrated yet. I finally got the 5 young ducks in at dark as well, they keep following the geese around. I sure hope they all learn soon to go in where they belong, I just can't chase them around all the time with my knee like it is.

 

[Ralph Moyer]

My hens just about stopped laying, when it got so hot, but I started adding cayenne pepper to their feed again, and today I gathered 49 eggs out of 55 hens. I don't know what that pepper does to make them lay, but it does make mine lay. I have eight different breeds, so it must be the cayenne pepper that is making them lay.

I have been reclaiming storm door frames and trying to make a better place for my Coturnix quail. I wish I had an outlet for the quail eggs other than hatching them or pickling them. Quail are a good meat dish, but you can get too much of it too.

We did get a light shower this evening. the grass was getting brittle. I don't know if I am glad or sad. I don't like to mow grass, but I like for my poultry to have all the grass they want. It is a little hassle for this old man to move pen around, and it doesn't take long for a half dozen chicken to clear a 10x10 area. I was hoping that I could fence off more of my pasture for poultry, but I don't seem to find the time to do it by myself.

 

[chicken danz]

My hens just about stopped laying, when it got so hot, but I started adding cayenne pepper to their feed again, and today I gathered 49 eggs out of 55 hens. I don't know what that pepper does to make them lay, but it does make mine lay. I have eight different breeds, so it must be the cayenne pepper that is making them lay.

I have been reclaiming storm door frames and trying to make a better place for my Coturnix quail. I wish I had an outlet for the quail eggs other than hatching them or pickling them. Quail are a good meat dish, but you can get too much of it too.

We did get a light shower this evening. the grass was getting brittle. I don't know if I am glad or sad. I don't like to mow grass, but I like for my poultry to have all the grass they want. It is a little hassle for this old man to move pen around, and it doesn't take long for a half dozen chicken to clear a 10x10 area. I was hoping that I could fence off more of my pasture for poultry, but I don't seem to find the time to do it by myself.

I wish I could figure out how to allow grass for the birds as well. I like the idea of a central house with pie shaped pens around it that you can rotate them through but I need a couple hundred less birds and some major fencing to do that. I can guarantee a 10 X 10 pen with a handful of birds will be bare within 3 days. I haven't found a way to combat the grass issue. I never have to mow unless it is to knock down some high weeds. The geese, ducks, and free ranging chickens keep it all under control. It used to take me 6 hours to mow my yard. It would probably take just as long now since I have so much junk to mow around. My mower broke a belt and I started it the other day and it died. Now I can't get it started. I was going to move it but it's stuck until I can figure out what broke. I imagine I have some safety cable or something that broke. Some times these safety feature are a real detriment.
I haven't tried cayenne in the summer. I have used it in winter. I have a few breeders I need to hatch from right now. I may try that just to see if it works.
I got up at 6AM and it's been pouring ever since. I know we needed rain but this is depressing. I wish it would rain at night and the days would be clear. At least if it's cooler out today it will be a refreshing change.

 

[Trish44]

I have not tried the cayenne in the summer either, but I may have to try that. I'm getting about 9-10 eggs a day right now from 30 hens & I'm having a hard time keeping up with my egg customers. I think even after my price raise awhile back they're still getting a bargain now that the stores raised prices on eggs. I may have to raise them again in the fall if they stay high. I need to keep the price as low as I can though or people will go elsewhere. I never get enough to totally cover feed costs but it does help.

We got rain here again this morning & it's still a bit cooler so I'll take that. My darned geese gave me problems again last night going into the pen so all 3 younger ones & one of the older ones spent the night outside. I hope they start learning soon where they get fed & where they need to go at night. Most of the time now the older ones go right in but last night one stayed with the younger ones & refused to go. I finally gave up at dark.

 

[TytoAlba]

Can anyone raising their chickens in rural Kansas give me any information about their internet service provider, speed, and data caps? I'm finding it can be very difficult to get decent internet service at some rural locations. I'm afraid satellite internet wouldn't be sufficient for me to use for work given the lag and data caps but there don't seem to be many alternatives. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Trish44]

Can anyone raising their chickens in rural Kansas give me any information about their internet service provider, speed, and data caps? I'm finding it can be very difficult to get decent internet service at some rural locations. I'm afraid satellite internet wouldn't be sufficient for me to use for work given the lag and data caps but there don't seem to be many alternatives. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

We have wireless through Sumner Communications but you have to have a tower close by. You might check with Pixius & see if they're in your area. I know we went through 2 years of Satellite service & it was the pits. The download limits didn't even allow you to get software updates unless you did it at 3 a.m. during their "free" time. We were always getting shut down as a punishment for 24 hours to dial up speed. It was totally ridiculous. Until we get fiber everywhere, which will take years there really aren't great options for rural internet.

 

[chicken danz]

Can anyone raising their chickens in rural Kansas give me any information about their internet service provider, speed, and data caps? I'm finding it can be very difficult to get decent internet service at some rural locations. I'm afraid satellite internet wouldn't be sufficient for me to use for work given the lag and data caps but there don't seem to be many alternatives. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

I had satelite and it was the worst ever. I can just say that my particular service was bad. I do understand it has a lot to do with the area you are in, and how many people are on your service, what level of plan you have etc. My friends have a different service and the satelite got moved somehow by the wind or something and they had to wait almost a week for a repair. Then it cost them money out of pocket because they didn't have that extra benefit built into their plan.
I actually have a service through Verizon that is a 4G hot spot... although there is no 4G service here it works with 3G and all the others. It will continue working even if you exceed your data limit. I never shut my computer down but have learned to shut down windows I have open when I go to bed or something because all those pop up advertisements on pages like facebook and BYC add up to a lot of data even if you aren't sitting there. Since we have Verizon phones the hot spot device has it's own unique number and is charged along with the phone service. But I am sure you can buy it seperately. We get a lousy phone signal but the Hot spot works great. Very rarely do I ever loose service. If I do I can reboot it and it's back. I do almost all my business via internet and most of my shopping. I find it the best option available.
The hot spot can be put in one location and serve the whole house if you have multiple computers, it can be hooked to an individual computer if you want, or you can take it with you when you go some where. Here's a link to one that is similar. http://www.verizonwireless.com/internet-devices/ellipsis-jetpack-mhs800l/
I was on the road all day yesterday. That's two days in a row I've been on the go. I really just want a day at home now!!! If it's possible I am even further behind now than I was. We got a lot of rain yesterday but I think it all just ran in the cracks and encouraged more flies to show up. Only the topmost surface of the ground is wet. Just enough to be irritating.
I guess it's supposed to reach 100 again this weekend. I really could just be over summer right now. I normally love it. Give me a month or two and I'll complain about it being too cold.