Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

It isn't very elaborate. I built a sort of shelf along one side of the coop supported by the wall and end of the coop along with a 2x4 at the outside corner. It is maybe 20 inches wide. I put the waterer on some pavers below it to protect it from poop, and ont of the feeders hangs just a little above it near the corner of the coop. It allows them just a bit more space if they have to stay in during bad weather. I also keep egg shells in a dish in the corner of it.




This picture was taken as I was getting it set up at first. I now have shavings up to the bottom of the waterer (and a bigger waterer), and less stuff on the table. To put it in perspective, the roost in the background is 2 1/2 feet above the floor and in this picture about 6" on shavings on the floor. I now have more shavings, so her jump wasn't really high.

When I checked in after the light went out in the coop, she was on the TOP roost in the corner near the top of the ramp by where the fan is in this picture. In the following picture taken last winter, she (in better days) is on the other top roost next to the white chicken. The end near the fan is considered lower "class" by the girls. Poor baby. How far she has dropped in rank.



Both pictures are taken from the north end of the coop standing in the people door.

Thank you for that! I am constantly on a search for better ways to do things. My feeder is working okay right now but is on the floor of the coop and they do kick straw into it sometimes, so a "table" might be a good plan. However the silkies would never be able to get up to it so probably I should just leave well enough alone. I like your roosts. Sorry Scout's status is lower but hopefully she will regain status as her leg heals.

Josie, that is funny that you feel big but Mommahen says you look small. With my first, I felt huge and thought it must be obvious to everyone that I was pregnant. When I was 6 months pregnant we were house-hunting. At an open house, I was looking around at a house for its suitability for our growing family and the realtor came over to do his sales pitch. At one point he said "And, if you decide to have kids one day, this will make a great room for a baby...." and I just looked at him slack-jawed because I'm standing there with what feels like a huge belly pointed towards him and he apparently hadn't even noticed I was pregnant. Sigh.

 

[chicken danz]

So I wonder if I'll ever get caught up this week. I had planned to get busy on cleaning again in the house last night and had a call from a friend. She had a sick bunny. I don't know anything about rabbits but she knew I had a medicine chest and internet. So she came over with the rabbit and we got it treated. But she stayed all evening and I hadn't even had dinner. She said she didn't know what she would do if she couldn't call me to the rescue. She had a goose she brought over this summer that was attacked by a dog and had half it's beak ripped off and developed a terrible infection. I treated it several times and gave her meds to continue with at home. The goose recovered totally and is back to acting normal most of the beak grew back but it is misshaped. But he is doing great. Makes me feel good but her visits are always so long!!! I feel the same way about Josie. She is my back up.

I'll do something whimsical next

Here's my first effort at a template. It's not as full as the one I made for myself because of the limitations of the technology available to me, but it's a start. http://www.zazzle.com/rustic_chicken_template_mug-168039198705691877
That is very nice.

Well, a 2 week update on Scout, my Golden Campine with the bum leg. When I left, she couldn't use it, and in fact, it was tripping her up. She had no resistance when I pressed up on her leg.

I have been gone for 2 weeks, and my DH has been taking care of her. She has been isolated (sort of) in a portable hoop coop. In the 2 weeks, she has regained some use of the leg. She can hop around now that the shock of losing some of her mobility has passed, and she is using the leg for balance. When I held her she had some strength in the leg and pressed her foot back against my palm when I pressed up toward her body. This morning I let her out with the rest of the flock, and aside from some jockying for position, so far so good. She was pretty bossy before the injury and Karma is a b*^ch. She is hanging out with my EE Lily (bottom of the pecking order), and she is still alive after a day with the others. She has kept sort of to herself except for Lily. She is able to hop/fly up to the bottom roost and the feeding table, and she is able to get up the ramp to the coop. Right now she is in the coop with her flock.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. (and checking on them every 15 minutes

Sharol

Glad to hear she is doing good, Sharol. I still have the 5 campine chicks I hatched. I sure hope I have some girls in there and can raise some of my own later in the spring.

Sorry you are sad your house sold! I kind of know how you feel. I am going to be very sad to sell this old school house, I really love this house. It is good news that it sold so quickly though and you didn't have to wait forever for it to sell or get a whole bunch of terrible offers. We did so much work on our house in Wichita and we got the most insulting offers on it. It was so frustrating.
I cried when I signed the contract on my old house. And then I cried again when I signed the deed over just a couple months ago. I still wish I could have moved it here. It was home. I loved it. I really don't like this house but it is where I want to be so it will have to do.

I read how you sprout but am still confused. Do you just put the wheat in the cat pans without any kind of substrate and keep them moist and where do you get wheat from for sprouting? I would love to do this for my geese during the winter. I have started adding timothy hay pellets to their feed to get them more "green" during the winter months.
Josie I would go to a co-op or some like place and buy a 50 # bag of seed wheat. It is cheaper than just bulk wheat any way. I am tempted to do the same but wonder if I can handle another project!! I am starting to feel like a failure cause I can't get anything taken care of.


We have been super busy working on the landscaping out front of the house for when it gets listed and getting boxes sorted and packed into our pod. The pod is very handy, I wish we could pack the whole house this way instead of having to rent a moving truck.
I'll bet that would be handy. When we moved we would pack up a trailer load at a time and have to move it the same way. It took so many trips. I think it would be nice to have something you could pack to the gills and not still have to make the drive the same day.

I have been in a much less cranky mood, thank heavens!!! My poor belly is starting to feel stretched out these days, it is so funny. I woke up the other morning and felt like it had grown overnight!!

Just wait until your last couple months. You can actually see it growing then!!!

u just open a can of peas and give them some on a plate?

I buy the biggest & cheapest bags of frozen peas I can find. I just put them in a collander and run warm water over them. It only takes a minute to thaw that way. All my birds love peas.

I've got my mamma silkie sitting on 4 eggs, so I'm just counting down the days till they hatch! I'll be sure to take pics. She said that the father is a buff rooster, but the mommas are all blues and blacks. I'm pretty sure the buff is a recessive gene, so i'll most likely get blues or black. That's okay. I'm just happy to have mamma get to raise her own. We created a door and have her locked in the duckhouse now because the other birds kept going in there and laying eggs for her to also sit on. LOL.. either that or she was stealing their eggs. LOL
Probably stealing them! So glad you are feeling better. Yeah Botox!

Danz, so why did the owls pick on them if they're big? You'd think they'd go for the smaller birds. A chicken condo, that's a great idea. My 17yo dd works at the little store in town and she said that people were coming in only to buy the bakery goods. There were people asking for more when they ran out. Modine and Didde too???? OMGosh! I worked at Didde for a short time. I worked at IBP for a short time too. Yeah, what's left in Emporia? Not much. I didn't hear about Wolf Creek either. I heard the little Wonder Bread Outlet store in Humboldt already closed, but I didn't verify that information. The way my dh is stressing over the turkeys getting out I can't imagine how he would act if we had peacocks too. He just doesn't want them pooping in the barn.
Owls are birds of opportunity. Anything they can fly off with they will take. Even if they just take the head. They have huge wings and can carry a lot of weight. I had a white cat when we first moved here. The owls took him. Just picked him up and we never saw him or a hair after that. I think the other cats all survived cause they were dark colors.
Breads should stay at the same price level (other than what they would go up anyway) unless people go into a frenzy to throw off supply and demand. I think the big thing now is people like the treat cakes so they want to have some on hand. There are other brands so I'm not sure why they are going nuts like that; unless hostess was making them for everyone else. I have no idea..
I keep my turkeys and my peacocks penned so they only poop where they live. I would love to let them out but I have chicken and duck poop around every where so that is enough. You could always clip a wing so they wouldn't fly. I don't like doing that though cause I am afraid they won't be able to get away from predators. I also worry about my birds getting in the road. People go speeding by here like crazy. I don't know how I've managed not to have some hit. They stay in the yard pretty good unless it rains and it seems like then they all run for the other side.
The turkeys seemed unhappy penned up, maybe they weren't, I don't really know why I thought that. This afternoon when my dh left for work I let them out to play with them and they were really anxious so we backed off and let them have some time to stretch. They were hanging out around the other pens so we went inside to eat and while we were eating I saw them walking down the road in front of the house. Of course I got scared, and I didn't want to scare them farther so I watched and waited and pretty soon they started walking back but then walked right past the drive way and then across the street and into our neighbors pasture. We have permission to be over there, and on the corner is another neighbor who just owns the corner and he's always practicing shooting targets and I was scared he'd shoot them or something. I got really worried when they walked that way. My 15yo and I walked out there strategically thinking we would walk way around and herd them back home. We couldn't find them anywhere and we walked out over a half a mile from home and headed back. It was wide open, we should have been able to see them. Well, when we got home there they were. How did they do that? They spent the afternoon in the roosters' pen and they were behaving, all of them so that was fine with me. Evening came and they went on top of the barn roof. No my dh isn't so happy with me, not because they're on the barn roof but because they're out. We will see what morning brings. I'm totally enjoying the turkeys, they're so entertaining. We were trying to get them to display today but didn't get too much of that. I think it was just a hard day of adjustment for them.
I think I'd keep the turkeys penned up until they know where home is just to be safe.
Can turkeys smell? I suppose they can. Today we had a hen (chicken) wandering around and when she walked over to the rooster area where the turkeys were I noticed Casper getting that darker red color. I thought, no way! How did he even know she was there? Then we removed her, and watched the color go away, brought her back and both turkey were looking over there like they knew she was coming back. They're so smart.
Don't forget birds can see in a 360. I love how turkeys can change the color of their heads; pink to red and their white to blue, and then blow their body up to double its size. And I live to hear them gooble. I had heard all my life that turkeys were dumb. But they have proven they are very intelligent.

I was still wearing normal clothes at 6 months with my first child. I Just wore stretchy things reather than firm fabrics. But every child there after I swear I was showing before I knew I was pregant. Josie you are such a tiny girl it just seems different to be a little bigger. Up until maybe 10 years ago I was about your size so I know what you mean. I weighed like 107 pounds through most of my child rearing years. I can't even imagine being close to that now. I'd settle for half way in between though.

I have two white orpington chicks hatched. Actually one day early. I am thrilled. I hope there will be several more.

 

[JosieChick]

I just got rid of my ducks, but peas were their absolute favorite!! I would give mine thawed frozen peas and they would gorge themselves on it if I let them. It's also a great source of niacin that they need to survive!


Good News!! We caught the possum! I walked into the coop tonight to lock them up and there was the possum at the feeder eating the chicken feed. It froze and I froze. I screamed at hubby and he grabbed the cat carrier. I picked it up by the tail as it "played possum" and just dumped it in the carrier. We took it out to the lake and let it go in the woods, about 10 miles from the house. I don't have the heart to kill it, but didn't want it near my birds. I'm so happy we finally got it!

And in other good news, the botox injection is still working! I've not felt this good in months.

I've got my mamma silkie sitting on 4 eggs, so I'm just counting down the days till they hatch! I'll be sure to take pics. She said that the father is a buff rooster, but the mommas are all blues and blacks. I'm pretty sure the buff is a recessive gene, so i'll most likely get blues or black. That's okay. I'm just happy to have mamma get to raise her own. We created a door and have her locked in the duckhouse now because the other birds kept going in there and laying eggs for her to also sit on. LOL.. either that or she was stealing their eggs. LOL

Hope this finds everyone well!

So glad you are feeling good and way excited for your little momma hen!

Danz, so why did the owls pick on them if they're big? You'd think they'd go for the smaller birds. It seems like birds of prey pick on birds that are "easy" to grab. Brahmas are such big easy going birds I bet they don't fight back as badly as some of the smaller, scrappier birds. The same thing was happening to my ducks.There were roosters that were smaller in that pen but the hawk kept taking the ducks because they don't fight back. A chicken condo, that's a great idea. My 17yo dd works at the little store in town and she said that people were coming in only to buy the bakery goods. There were people asking for more when they ran out. Modine and Didde too???? OMGosh! I worked at Didde for a short time. I worked at IBP for a short time too. Yeah, what's left in Emporia? Not much. I didn't hear about Wolf Creek either. I heard the little Wonder Bread Outlet store in Humboldt already closed, but I didn't verify that information. The way my dh is stressing over the turkeys getting out I can't imagine how he would act if we had peacocks too. He just doesn't want them pooping in the barn.

The turkeys seemed unhappy penned up, maybe they weren't, I don't really know why I thought that. This afternoon when my dh left for work I let them out to play with them and they were really anxious so we backed off and let them have some time to stretch. They were hanging out around the other pens so we went inside to eat and while we were eating I saw them walking down the road in front of the house. Of course I got scared, and I didn't want to scare them farther so I watched and waited and pretty soon they started walking back but then walked right past the drive way and then across the street and into our neighbors pasture. We have permission to be over there, and on the corner is another neighbor who just owns the corner and he's always practicing shooting targets and I was scared he'd shoot them or something. I got really worried when they walked that way. My 15yo and I walked out there strategically thinking we would walk way around and herd them back home. We couldn't find them anywhere and we walked out over a half a mile from home and headed back. It was wide open, we should have been able to see them. Well, when we got home there they were. How did they do that? They spent the afternoon in the roosters' pen and they were behaving, all of them so that was fine with me. Evening came and they went on top of the barn roof. No my dh isn't so happy with me, not because they're on the barn roof but because they're out. We will see what morning brings. I'm totally enjoying the turkeys, they're so entertaining. We were trying to get them to display today but didn't get too much of that. I think it was just a hard day of adjustment for them.

HEChicken, it was just the opposite. The first 10 hatched fine and quite easily at 40%. I liked how the inside of their shells looked actually, they looked cleaner and the membrane was stuck to the shell and not them at all. When I increased the humidity that inner membrane was attached to them. I don't understand why, but I felt like I messed it up when I increased the humidity. Didn't you say you opened the bator just a tiny bit to add water? Sometimes I swear it is the "change" in humidity that does them in. I used to panic and crack the bator to add water and then everyone would be stuck. Even if it only dropped a tiny bit and recovered quickly. So if I have trouble with humidity I just keep a close eye on hatching chicks, if they pip and don't zip within 24 hours I start to worry about them being stuck. It may also have to do with where your fan blows in your bator. When I was using a hova bator with a small fan in the center the eggs on the outside edges and directly under the fan had more trouble because the air blew directly on them. That might be part of your problem too. They were doing just fine and NO ONE opened the incubator, we actually taped it shut so no one would even do it accidentally. So I would have had 7 shrink wrapped chicks, including the 2 that died. There is no way of knowing at what point they became shrink wrapped. One was completely zipped when it died, one died and when I opened it to see the inner membrane was against it but it tore it a little, there was no way he could have even pipped because he couldn't move. The 5 that made it pipped and that's it. All 5 are fine, but 1 is still in a pen by his/herself but clearly gaining strength. I'm just going to do it again and see if I can get a better result. I'm sorry Madge is getting to you, I was just kidding about her feeling jealous but maybe she just knows she doesn't have his attention and that bothers her. Can turkeys smell? I suppose they can. Today we had a hen (chicken) wandering around and when she walked over to the rooster area where the turkeys were I noticed Casper getting that darker red color. I thought, no way! How did he even know she was there? Then we removed her, and watched the color go away, brought her back and both turkey were looking over there like they knew she was coming back. They're so smart.


It's funny that you suggested that Josie. We did bring him over to meet his girls today. I think he would be just fine to stay with them. He's very polite, you must have taught him well. My BOs are with a hatch we had of the same age, the BO's just a few days older. They were all doing fine, and out of no where one very tiny rooster cornered him and backed him down. He got really scared and flew out back to the other little pen and actually got back in. We will rearrange and try again tomorrow. This little rooster, he's way tiny. Hahahaha! Big wimpy boy! The chicks we hatch grow so much slower than the ones we've bought. The BOs are way bigger than he is, probably twice his size. What I can't decide right now is if I'm going to keep the other pullets the same age in there too. I mean, the other ones are black so I would think that any offspring not from the BO's would be black. I think your first generation chicks from a lavender orp roo over your BOs are going to be black with possibly a bit of gold leakage in their hackles. So you may not be able to distinguish between the BOs and the black hens. That would give him more girls. Maybe I should just look for more BOs. That may be a better idea. I have to giggle about your growing baby belly. I know you probably feel big but you look so tiny. I actually don't feel that big and I kinda feel silly when I tell people I am pregnant because they think I must have just found out!!! It was just funny how it has been all in one spot and then I woke up and felt bigger, like it happened overnight! It kind of surprised me how stretched it felt, like everytime I took a deep breath. Really though, you probably did grow overnight. After while you'll feel bigger every day, it's so amazing how fast they grow. I'm glad you are feeling less cranky, it's no fun to feel cranky.

Tweety! Yay for catching the opossum. I can't believe that thing was still on the loose for so long. OMGosh! I can't believe you just picked it up. I'd have been so scared.

HEChicken, I agree totally with what you are saying about the birds learning what feed is and what is good and all of that. Kids are that way too. It's hardest to teach the first one, after that they all follow along. I guess that means that we should be sure to teach the first one well.
Sharol, it looks beautiful to me. You have everything set up nicely.

Thank you for that! I am constantly on a search for better ways to do things. My feeder is working okay right now but is on the floor of the coop and they do kick straw into it sometimes, so a "table" might be a good plan. However the silkies would never be able to get up to it so probably I should just leave well enough alone. I like your roosts. Sorry Scout's status is lower but hopefully she will regain status as her leg heals.

Josie, that is funny that you feel big but Mommahen says you look small. With my first, I felt huge and thought it must be obvious to everyone that I was pregnant. When I was 6 months pregnant we were house-hunting. At an open house, I was looking around at a house for its suitability for our growing family and the realtor came over to do his sales pitch. At one point he said "And, if you decide to have kids one day, this will make a great room for a baby...." and I just looked at him slack-jawed because I'm standing there with what feels like a huge belly pointed towards him and he apparently hadn't even noticed I was pregnant. Sigh. Dh keeps telling me I look pregnant but I don't feel like I do that much yet. It is pretty small still. Really we still have 5 months to go so I think I am going to hit a point where it really starts to grow but we aren't there yet. It felt funny how stretched out my skin felt!! I was really itchy for a day too.

So I wonder if I'll ever get caught up this week. I had planned to get busy on cleaning again in the house last night and had a call from a friend. She had a sick bunny. I don't know anything about rabbits but she knew I had a medicine chest and internet. So she came over with the rabbit and we got it treated. But she stayed all evening and I hadn't even had dinner. She said she didn't know what she would do if she couldn't call me to the rescue. She had a goose she brought over this summer that was attacked by a dog and had half it's beak ripped off and developed a terrible infection. I treated it several times and gave her meds to continue with at home. The goose recovered totally and is back to acting normal most of the beak grew back but it is misshaped. But he is doing great. Makes me feel good but her visits are always so long!!! I feel the same way about Josie. She is my back up.


Glad to hear she is doing good, Sharol. I still have the 5 campine chicks I hatched. I sure hope I have some girls in there and can raise some of my own later in the spring.


I buy the biggest & cheapest bags of frozen peas I can find. I just put them in a collander and run warm water over them. It only takes a minute to thaw that way. All my birds love peas.

I feel like there was more to this multi post and I was going to reply to a couple things but this is all I got? BYC is weird sometimes. Glad to hear that goose is doing well. I remember you talking about him, poor thing. I just love my goobies, if I had to get rid of everything except one pen I would keep my geese. Their entertainment value is worth it. They are finally starting to run as a flock all together. I have been penning them together at night to help with fresh water.



Well I must get outside and get everyone fed. We need to run to KC to pick up a sofa we are buying off craigslist. We sold our old furniture when we moved up here so we have no living room furniture except a futon and now we are going to be moving into a big old farm house!

 

[mikeksfarmer]

I got the new Meyer Hatchery catalog today, I haven't got to check it out yet, but I did thumb through it and the pictures are so much better than they were a few years ago. It opened up to Exchequer Leghorn with an order limit of 2? Also saw Blue Copper Maran chicks are $20...WOW!! i can't wait to look at the whole catalog, I love hatchery catalogs I always learn from reading them. It's better than the toy catalogs.

I got mine too and thought some of their prices were a little steep. Black coppers are like $8 each. Love looking at all the pics as they teach me a lot and it helps when I hear you all talking about what you have. I saw that last fall Ideal had black coppers for $2 -3 I would like to ultamatly get birds from more than one place as I want to reduce the inbreeding. So maybe some chicks or eggs from IVY then some Chicks from Ideal. Just rambling dreems.

 

[mikeksfarmer]

Welcome you new folks I am sure you will get great ideas and advise here. Lots of good friends too.

 

[chicken danz]

I am loosing some multi posts too. I just remembered I was going to comment on your post about me breeding Cloud. Years ago I had kennels. I learned from that experience. You had more emergency C sections and birthing problems if a dog was young. A GP supposedly isn't mature until she is about 2.5 years. So I figure waiting until they are two anyway is the only responsible thing to do. I figure that would be like having an 18 year old girl pregnant. I did okay at 18!

So far she hasn't been in heat yet so I am waiting for that. (Or at least I hope she hasn't!!!) I think I will put a chastity belt on her when she does the first time!! Marshmallow went through 3 heats before I let her get bred and we still had problems.
I'm kind of in the same frame of mind. I would give up the pheasant and most of the chickens before I would ever give up my goobies. Trudi just told me the other day my little lavender headed girl was named Debbie. I didn't know she had a name. I can tell her yell from the others. It is higher pitched. I was kind of hoping she would decide to lay this fall but nothing so far.
I don't know how the cat pan thing works and am waiting for an explanation as well. I have sprouted seeds before though. I just used a damp paper towel under them and a place where the bottom of the pan was warm. But with that method I had to use them quickly cause they would either dry out or mold.

 

[checoukan]

Danz, when DD had pups, I knew Earl had bred her, but didn't pay any attention to her. Went out in the goat barn one morning and there she was with her babies, all 7 of them and never one minute of trouble. That was until Earl walked in. That mornig I did back up, she was not directing her warning at me but Earl. Yikes,
When you put the vaporizer on your sick chicken in the basement that almost died, How much ozine did you put in?
Hawk and I both bought some at the show, and I will have it in the med cabinet, but want to make sure that I know how much to put in if I ever need to use it.

Went to the show in Hutch, spent most ot my time with Hawkeye has lots of fun. She did have her DS take pictures fo us together with our birds.
My Cockerel won his class in both shows, the other bird got 3 both shows. My pullets and hens, once again did not do well as they really need more show conditioning, and with molt and stuff, well just cant compete with that, I have to get better show pens for them. Man I wish my new barn was built.

DH's family thanksgiving is today, I really would rather stay home and just mess with my chickens, but, go, eat, and come home and NO Dishes!!!!!

 

[chicken danz]

I had the same result here when Marshmallow had pups both times. She would tear into Fluff. Big dumb boy would stand there and cry cause he couldn't understand why his best buddy didn't want him around any more. Unfortunately Marshmallow was always too good of a mom. She would stay with the pups and not get up and exercise or eat or drink and would consequently not clean out good. I nearly lost her with two different litters. I just decided it wasn't fair to let her whelp any more. She's my special girl!
Congrats on the wins. Can't wait to see pictures. Hawkeye did post one on facebook of her son yesterday.
Mike several of us here have BCMs so I am sure you could get a nice unrelated group if that is what you are wanting. I try to breed in multiple lines myself so I can keep from inbreeding.
I really am going to have to get pens set up during the winter so I can do some serious business.

 

[chicken danz]

Oh Checoukan I almost forgot. I just poured in maybe a half cup. Never really measured it. Glug! Glug! I just put the vaporizer in my brooder house night before last with some Oxine in it. I figured it wouldn't hurt. I have to keep it shut up a little tighter than I like when it is cold so I figured I could improve the air quality for the chicks a little. I have a lot of $$ tied up in that house right now. Makes me a little nervous.
I am still so jealous of your poultry barn. I keep trying to figure out how I could build one here but it's just not feasible in my budget. I keep thinking if I didn't have so many little poultry buildings I could build a big one where they are. Not going to happen unless I would somehow have a windfall of cash.
I moved another batch of Swedish Flower hens out to the house last night. I was kind of worried about them... they seemed so disoriented. I had a heat lamp in there, so temp wise they should be fine. I really need another dedicated space for just Swedish. I have a nice group. It's going to be hard to decide which roosters to cull. They are all so pretty.
I also moved another group of oversized babies to the chicken tractor. They were all feathered well but used to a warm building. I hope they did okay. They are some of my hatchlings that I am going to sell here shortly. I have a couple different buyers so it will probably whomever forks up the money first.
Speaking of that I should get out and start choring.

 

[cherwill]

Picking up this little guy (the one on the right..) Monday..



Hoping Fern (7 months old now) accepts the new addition..

How cute!

Hey neighbor! I live in Edgerton, and my wife drives a school bus for Wellsville.

While I'm waiting for my computer to go to the next page I will update on my hatch this time. There were 21 eggs left in the incubator at the time of lockdown. Up until that point, there were probably about 15 eggs I had thrown out, most just didn't develop at all and a few started and just stopped. Of the 21 left in the incubator, 10 hatched spontaneously and the humidity was dropping below 40% an I added water through the holes without opening it and it went up over 70%. At this point I lost 1 chick that had completely zipped, I stuck a wire in the hole and turned the egg over and it fell open. It was a white chick. I barely cracked open the side to release some of the humidity. By barely I mean, I stuck a fuzzy pipecleaner in the side and the humidity did go down slowly. All of the 10 chicks were hatched by yesterday morning, there were 5 more pipped that made no progress by evening. All 5 of these were shrink wrapped, all 5 are alive and fine now. There were
6 more eggs in the incubator and no signs of life. I poked a hole in the air cell side, 1 was shrink wrapped and clearly died trying to get out. The other 5 had to have stopped developing just recently, there was still some liquid. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, please. What I noticed was that the first 10 that hatched the membrane looked like it was just 1 membrane and it was stuck to the shell. These chicks were very active right from the start and were playing and drinking water through the wire before i removed them from the incubator. I removed them yesterday evening and then took my time with the pipped eggs and helped them out. There was minimal bleeding, and they recovered pretty quickly but I don't think they would have made it through the night. So, of the 15 new chicks that I have I'm seeing some very different colorings than usual. Usually out of 10 chicks I will get roughly 1 white, 1 barred, and 8 black. This time there are more whites, one red/orange, and two multi-color that remind me of the EEs without the muffs. I don't know where this came from. Either a hen who hasn't been laying has begun laying again, or there was another rooster in there. I don't get it. Something had to be different. Nothing has changed in the hens other than the 2 black ones that I liked and kept I added them to our flock. They are black, and offspring of the rooster that is in there which is black. I had some roosters in there but were removed about the same times, but they are black too except for 1 that is white and they are also offspring of the same black rooster and are only 4 months old. I've never seen them acting like grown ups yet. They are now removed. I don't know what to think right now.

I'm sorry the hatching is so difficult. I would love to be able to hatch, but sometimes I read about the all the problems people have and I'm maybe glad I can't.

PrairieChickens, your mug is adorable!!! I can't get one, but I like playful and cutesie stuff. I love plain and simple, I love ribbons and dots. Got anything along those lines? I can't wait to see what you come up with. This is indeed where the PARTY is!!!

I don't know why I didn't get your original post quoted, PrairieChickens, but I looked at your mug template and it was really nice.

Sometimes when I want my chickens to try something new that they are turning their beaks up at, I'll tap it with my finger to kind of simulate the action of pecking at it. Their instincts kick in and they basically think "Well, if she's going to eat it, I want some too". It's how I taught our chicks to eat the garden scraps we brought them, because believe me, at first they were like "What is this mess you are depositing in my space?" Now they can't get enough of things like watermelon, cantaloupe, and tomatoes.

My chickens used to be suspicious of everything I brought them at first. I would either "peck" at it with my finger, or hold some in my hand and they'd finally come around and try it. Now they're so used to me bringing delicious treats that they start in on whatever it is right away. I don't know anything about ducks or how picky they are. I know my niece loves to give her ducks dried mealworms and they're crazy about them. I'm pretty sure that's an expensive treat, though.

I just got rid of my ducks, but peas were their absolute favorite!! I would give mine thawed frozen peas and they would gorge themselves on it if I let them. It's also a great source of niacin that they need to survive!


Good News!! We caught the possum! I walked into the coop tonight to lock them up and there was the possum at the feeder eating the chicken feed. It froze and I froze. I screamed at hubby and he grabbed the cat carrier. I picked it up by the tail as it "played possum" and just dumped it in the carrier. We took it out to the lake and let it go in the woods, about 10 miles from the house. I don't have the heart to kill it, but didn't want it near my birds. I'm so happy we finally got it!

Good job on the possum. I don't think they're easy to catch.

And in other good news, the botox injection is still working! I've not felt this good in months.

I'm so glad it's working this well for you. It's about time something did!

It's good to be home and back in the routine. I'm still adjusting to the 2 hour time change, though.

When I woke up this morning (at 7!!!), the chickens, including Scout, were all out in the run. She was back in the group and clucking for breakfast along with the others, so maybe we are over the hump with her. She is still hopping mostly on one foot, but her feathers are smoother, and she seems to have had a good night.. I honestly thought she wouldn't survive this long.

That's such great news about Scout. She's determined to survive.

We cleaned out the stove (wood) yesterday, and the shop-vac filter exploded. The house was foggy with ash. Ick. We exhausted it with the whole house fan, though, and it wasn't too bad. We have a 7 year old Earth Stove, catalytic, that uses oddly shaped fire-bricks inside. I ordered replacements (at great expense) and half of them came right away. So while I was in there, I replaced the ones that were cracked and broken. The last four will have to be replaced when I get the new stones -- hopefully. last year, I couldn't find them anywhere, but according to a place in California, now they are available from lennox (who bought out Earth Stove).

Gah! I can only imagine what a mess that was! I'm keeping my fingers crossed because that hasn't happened to me yet, but it sounds like something that would.

Today we will clean out the chimney, put the hoop back in the shed, trade out the straw bales in the run, and plant asparagus. That sounds like a lot on a football Sunday. I guess I'll have to prioritize -- straw, asparagus, hoop, chimney. That should work.

It is a beautiful day, though. Everyone enjoy it while it lasts.

I'm cleaning house today because from Tuesday on, I'll probably not be doing much but cooking of some sort. I have to bring things to DH's family's Thanksgiving Thursday, and I do all of Thanksgiving for my family. This year it's on Saturday. I always try to do as much ahead as I can so the actual day isn't so hectic. I can make pies and prep veggies and make the cranberry sauce in advance, and I like to brine the turkey (this year we have to do two, one for each celebrations because somehow no one else thinks they have time, even though they only have to deal with ONE Thanksgiving!) and that takes time. DH is smoking them this year, so that will clear up some oven space. I love Thanksgiving, but I don't love having two of them so close together -- Christmas is always the same way.