Consolidated Kansas

[PrairieChickens]

You can hear my roosters clear across town... I know, because I'm clear across town from my roosters and I can hear them! lol I've asked my neighbors if the sound bothers them and so far all of them have said, "No... actually, it's kind of nice", usually with a surprised look on their face...like they never thought they'd enjoy the sound of a rooster crowing.

It reminds me of being a kid and visiting my grandparents' farm, actually.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

When Tyson closed a lot of the mexicans left and probably most of the illegals also. I have no idea if the cock fighting left with them. If the bakery closes this afternoon, that will make for another big adjustment for the town. Glad I don't live there anymore.

 

[mikeksfarmer]

I understand you can cook any pumpkin for eating. Just put it on a cookie sheet and bake it at 350 for about an hour or until soft. Cool cut top off and scoop out seeds for your birds. Scoop out flesh for pies or what ever. You will have to season it like you would canned pumpkin. You can do squash or even sweet potatoes the same way. I made sweet potato pies the other day two ways. 1 Pumpkin pie spice, 2 measured all the spices that go into pumpkin pies. Both were great.

Question please. Would anyone care to comment on the egg laying life of the average chicken? I figure a hybrid would lay stronger and longer but wear out quickly. More of a haritage breed would lay strong but rest sooner and come back to laying after a moult more often. I think I have too many hens doing time on my food bill with out laying and need to make some descissions about their future.

 

[Kansas Prairie]

This wouldn't go with our home decor, our home is like a big man cave, but I thought it was creative and cute. I could see this in one of those fancy coops too!

Edited to give credit for this picture: http://www.designsponge.com/2011/07/before-after-birdcage-chandelier.html

 

[checoukan]

Well got to get busy, been catching up on the thread. Have to go give the birds a bath that are going to Hutch Saturday. Going to offer some for sale up there, as I am finished with them, and I have summer hatch birds to get ready for the spring show, So. Hope everyone is enjoying he day, it is just wonderful out, I have some of the rosecombs out in the sun shine, oh, do they like that!!

Maidenwolf, I do want to order some dog treat, bisquits from you, will try to get together with you next week, as I am not going to be around the computer much.
Danz, did you get rid of the predator that was flying in?
hawkeye, I will see you saturday. I think I will leave like 3 in the morning to get to Hutch on time. EEEKKK, I get up early but not that early!
Josie, take it easy, things will start to level out. Gotta take care of your little peanut!
Oh goodness, can't remember who all been talking about what, but

to all, watch out for the deer.
Oh yeah, I hope to post some pictures of the legbars as they grow. Plan on posting pictures Sunday, if all falls in place.

 

[HEChicken]

Question please. Would anyone care to comment on the egg laying life of the average chicken? I figure a hybrid would lay stronger and longer but wear out quickly. More of a haritage breed would lay strong but rest sooner and come back to laying after a moult more often. I think I have too many hens doing time on my food bill with out laying and need to make some descissions about their future.

Essentially all hens are born with approximately the same number of eggs. A production egg layer will lay more often (i.e. up to 6 eggs per week on average) compared to a heritage bird who might only lay 3 eggs per week on average. This means that the production egg layer will burn out twice as fast. So after two seasons of laying, the production bird may be winding down, while the heritage bird still has 2-3 good years of laying left. Hope that helps.

If anyone has the email address for the council in Emporia, I will be happy to send them the same letter I did to Overland Park. I don't live in Emporia but can express my opinion to perhaps help those who do.

Well, my old house is sold.

No, its a good thing really. I got the offer within 2 weeks of putting it on the market and the whole transaction went about as smoothly as you could hope. I don't regret our move and I'm happy to be where we are now. But....its the emotional pull of the thing that gets me. I built that house as a single mum and when I moved in, I swore that was it - I was there for life. But life has a habit of following its own path so....here we are now. I went over this morning, prior to closing, to walk around one last time and say goodbye. It was tough but its time to look ahead to the future now.

The fermented feed really is a hit but my birds have always enjoyed mash and I guess that is really what this is. They certainly all dive in and there is lots of squabbling. I need to find another bowl or two to put it in so there is room for everyone. I decided to follow Karen's advice and did not drill drain holes in my bucket. This morning I stopped by Walmart and bought a set of cheap strainers and that worked pretty well. I just dished out a couple of cups, left it in the strainer for a minute to drain out the bulk of the water and then dumped it in the bowl and served.

 

[chicken danz]

I understand you can cook any pumpkin for eating. Just put it on a cookie sheet and bake it at 350 for about an hour or until soft. Cool cut top off and scoop out seeds for your birds. Scoop out flesh for pies or what ever. You will have to season it like you would canned pumpkin. You can do squash or even sweet potatoes the same way. I made sweet potato pies the other day two ways. 1 Pumpkin pie spice, 2 measured all the spices that go into pumpkin pies. Both were great.

Question please. Would anyone care to comment on the egg laying life of the average chicken? I figure a hybrid would lay stronger and longer but wear out quickly. More of a haritage breed would lay strong but rest sooner and come back to laying after a moult more often. I think I have too many hens doing time on my food bill with out laying and need to make some descissions about their future.

Mike, the hybrids for laying and even some of the types who are known as good layers such as leghorns and rocks, only really lay for about 2 years or less with any consistency. The reason being that they lay so many eggs so long that they just wear out. Kind of like me after having 5 kids!

The crosses and breeds that don't lay so much, can lay for 5 years or longer although they do slow down. I haven't culled any hens for old age. I just can't do it. I am going to start breeding my own red stars though and I will be culling probably every couple years. There is a good market for older hens. People want them for bakers. I do plan to breed a few of my older girls soon and save their offspring so I can eliminate them probably next summer. I just won't be eating them myself. I'll let someone else do it. I don't even like thinking about that since they have done a good job for me. But I know I can't continue to feed a bunch of birds that I won't get any use out of.

Originally Posted by Kansas Prairie

That looks like a bird house up side down. Kind of cute! Reminds me of some of the designs they used to do on Trading Spaces. I loved that show. My perfect Saturday night was staying home and watching Trading Spaces.
I just got through rigging up a temp pen around an old camper topper. It's not great but I will be able to catch a couple elusive birds I want to sell tomorrow.
Now I need to get back out there and get the feeding and watering done. I'm selling my melanistic pheasants tomorrow and as soon as they are gone I need to replace the netting on their pen and make it taller. Then I can use it for a trio of peafowl. It's not real roomy but it will do for this winter. After the birds are gone from the pen I put up yesterday I am going to put up one more and move the blue slate turkeys and the younger guineas in them. It will reduce some of my walking and dragging a hose this winter. If I had just one more gate panel available I could set up the second pen right now. I guess waiting a few days won't hurt me.

 

[Kansas Prairie]

The fermented feed really is a hit but my birds have always enjoyed mash and I guess that is really what this is. They certainly all dive in and there is lots of squabbling. I need to find another bowl or two to put it in so there is room for everyone. I decided to follow Karen's advice and did not drill drain holes in my bucket. This morning I stopped by Walmart and bought a set of cheap strainers and that worked pretty well. I just dished out a couple of cups, left it in the strainer for a minute to drain out the bulk of the water and then dumped it in the bowl and served.

Do you have the fermented feed in a heated building? I just wonder if I could ferment out in the barn, I don't heat the barn. I don't want to bring anymore chicken stuff in the house. They are beginning to think I'm goofy over the chickens, maybe I am. hhahahaaha

I do sprout grains mostly wheat, during the winter months, one pound of grain usually produces about 5 or 6 pounds of sprouts and they love them.I need to weigh the grain and make sure that is correct, I've read that's how much it produces but I've never weighed before and after. I only do one pan at a time, unless there is a blizzard coming then I'll start two pans about 3 days apart, so they can get some greens while they aren't out getting bugs and stuff. I use cat litter pans with holes.. I pour grain in, water and drain daily, they grow and there's no odor so nobody complains, and the birds LOVE it. Saves $$ and it's easy.

 

[HEChicken]

Do you have the fermented feed in a heated building? I just wonder if I could ferment out in the barn, I don't heat the barn. I don't want to bring anymore chicken stuff in the house. They are beginning to think I'm goofy over the chickens, maybe I am. hhahahaaha

I have it set up in the feed-room of my coop which is definitely NOT heated. What I gathered from Karen's post is that it takes from 6-24 hours depending on whether or not it is in a heated area so I just figured this time of year it would go closer to the 24-hour time frame. However that said, even after only 3-4 hours, I could smell it starting to ferment.

I bought a gallon of the cheap Walmart ACV today, per Karen's recommendation. I poured off a cup of the cheap ACV, then poured a cup of the Bragg's ACV into the gallon and then wondered what to do with the cup of cheap ACV. Then I felt really dumb!!! If one cup of ACV can grow the mother in a whole gallon of ACV, then adding the cup of cheap ACV back into the Braggs would surely allow the mother to grow in it too, right? (Please tell me I'm right.) So that's what I did and I hope I didn't just ruin the rest of the bottle of Braggs.

 

[chicken danz]

Sounds right to me Heather. I need to find the ACV with the mother. So far I haven't located it around here close. I hate driving to find what I need. I do use the other ACV and it has some great properties on it's own. I keep a jug in the brooder house and put it in their water every now and then. Seems to give the babies a boost.
That's an excellent idea about using cat pans to sprout grain, KP. I've not done that but I like giving the birds treats. I could try some of this bird seed and see what I could grow off of it. I just couldn't figure out where and how I would grow it and how to keep it from getting moldy. Now I know. I have a grow light in my basement and I could set up the cat pans down there.