Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Bama Proud looks like the pup is doing a great job. Since I'm down to just the one pup I kept I sometimes have to scold her. She chooses something extra small and wants to play with them. But as soon as I tell her no, she stops. She is a really good dog. She learned the last couple days that having her belly rubbed is a good thing! I can't walk outside any more cause I have three dogs and a duck running around me. I swear I am going to break some bones trying to navigate between them.
Poor chopper hasn't had much time with me lately. He is so needy. I really have to take some time to day to clean up his mess in here. He does a pretty good job staying in the kennel when I'm not here but he slings food all over the place.
I've got some ducks and some chicks in the hatcher I need to get moved too. Not sure how many hatched yesterday while I was gone.
I'm sure my Dad will be at the rest home to visit my Mom at least a couple times a day. He was so tired when he left yesterday I had to help him to the car, then go get it from the parking lot and drive it up to the entrance so he could make it there. I guess I'll buy each of them an anniversary card cause I don't know how else to handle it. My other sister should be in town today so I hope she intends to spend time with my Mom. I have many things I just have to do today.
I use the deep litter method in my chicken houses and wouldn't want to use anything else. I only clean them about once a year. I dont; scrape off roosts either. The result ends up a nice dry powder that they love dusting in. I actually like it much better before I clean them out than when I am first starting over. It takes a while to get that biological action going right.
Tweety I put ducks of all ages together. That picking at each other stops after they get used to each other. I think it is just a duck thing. Chopper is kind of rough with the new babies but within a few hours he lets them settle in with him. I've never had an older duck actually injure a younger one. You would think they would but they don't. Little ones can get trampled if the ducks are frightened and it is crowded but that is pretty much where it ends.

 

[tntblake]

I'm so glad she is doing so well! I am impressed! Donovan's appt. went ok. They are sending him to the pediatric ortho On April 2nd. They should have sent him there in the first place. He is still having problems. In fact, it happened again last night. I hope they can figure it out soon.

Oh, the power of youth to heal. It was a month yesterday since the surgery and she is now walking almost without a limp. She is still wearing her full leg brace but it is opened up to allow full range of motion. She prefers to wear it for the support - I think she's still afraid her knee will go out from under her. She's still going to physio 3x week and does her exercises on the days she doesn't, but she's very conscientious like that and just does them - I haven't even had to nag her. How did your appt go with your son? Hopefully he won't need surgery but if he does.....I imagine he'll heal if anything faster, since he is younger.

Oh gotcha. No, I don't scrub the roosts. I figure they're just going to jump up on them with feet that have been walking through poop anyway. In my small coop, the roost was a 2x4 with the wide side for the roost, and it got almost no poop on it. Then I decided to go with a wider roost (actually, I had the scrap lumber lying around and it was the right length when I built a larger coop and needed a longer roost) that is a 2x8. Big mistake, in a way. They seem to like the roost just fine but it is wide enough that they can both roost on it AND poop on it, so now I have to scrape the roosts clean every few days. Fortunately this winter was mild enough it never really froze on but I can imagine that being a problem. So when we move to the new place, I think I will go back to smaller roosts.

 

[Candace69]

Danz, Wanted to give you a Xena update, Arabela has decided she is going to train her, I see them ALL over the place, Bella taking her on walks, making the rounds... lol But today, I caught this, what do you think she's telling Violet?

 

[MarcAustin]

If i havent mentioned, thank you all for your support and tips thus far. Knowing I can reach out to experienced people puts me at ease. Newbie question of the day: Yesterday I was on the back stoop with one of the sussex who should be about 2-3 weeks now. She found a patch of these purple weeds and start going bonkers over them. Someone mentioned before about waiting awhile to let them have any grasses, but she was just picking the flowers off. I stopped her after the 2nd when I suddenly panicked they might be poison. See attached pic. Okay to treat with these? wait awhile? anything else? They all seem to be doing well and growing but sometimes they seem like they could use some entertainment. Also, the sexlinks seem to be mentally challenged compared to the sussex and BRs . Thoughts?

 

[HEChicken]

Hey MarcAustin, in my experience they seem to have some sort of internal "tribal" knowledge that tells them what is safe to eat and what isn't. That's not to say they never get it wrong but honestly, I've never worried too much about what mine get into, and so far haven't had any issues with them eating the wrong things. The main thing to be concerned about when they start experimenting with foods other than their chick feed, is to make sure they have grit available so they can digest the things they try.

 

[Trish44]

tnt, good luck with your son's appt, hopefully they will have some answers for you.

Hawkeye, my coop didn't smell at all for months & then just recently it got to smelling with an ammonia smell, so I figured it was time to clean it out. I had an awful lot of poop & shavings in there. For the most part the poop was all dried except for the latest stuff. The worst area of course was right under their big roosts. I have a 2x4 frame I built on the one side almost the full length of the coop where most of the birds roost. There are maybe 3 or 4 that use the old 2x2 roost just because they started there I guess. Anyway, it's clean to start over for the hot months. I know it will take awhile for the compost action to start again, so I guess that's one reason not to do it very often. I just felt like I should get it done before it gets any hotter.

tweety, I'm sure your ducks will get used to each other. I never had a problem with mine fighting or anything once they were used to each other.

It's so humid here today, I'm sweating already. I think I hate humidity worse than anything, I just don't take that well or the heat either. Well I sold my two little doe rabbits this morning first thing. I had them up for sale for a week with no inquiries & then had two people wanting them in one day. These were the ones I had rescued from being eaten by a snake & I couldn't stand it. At least where they're going they won't have that fate. I kind of hated to get rid of them, but they just don't fit into what I'm planning to do here, so some had to go to make cage room. Now I've got to get out today & work on the outside hutches. I've got to get those operational so I can move more rabbits outside for the summer. I think it's just going to be too hot in the garage since it's a metal building with only two small windows. I may end up having to build another hutch in the end. I have enough outside ones for 9 rabbits so far & I think I have 11 & 5 babies. Of course the babies are just tiny right now & have to stay with momma.

Things started earlier for me today than usual. The people coming for the rabbits didn't want to wait any longer to go back to Wellington, so I didn't look my best when they came, oh well. I've got a guy coming soon for eggs too. I have two regular customers now, so that's nice that I haven't really had to advertise that much lately.

 

[MarcAustin]

Hey MarcAustin, in my experience they seem to have some sort of internal "tribal" knowledge that tells them what is safe to eat and what isn't. That's not to say they never get it wrong but honestly, I've never worried too much about what mine get into, and so far haven't had any issues with them eating the wrong things. The main thing to be concerned about when they start experimenting with foods other than their chick feed, is to make sure they have grit available so they can digest the things they try.

tks so much ! Do you just put grit in with the feed, or scatter it around near the feeder ??

 

[Trish44]

MarcAustin, I looked that weed up, it's henbit & it's actually edible, so don't worry about your chickens eating it because it won't hurt them.

 

[chicken danz]

Henbit won't hurt them at all. The flowers are very sweet. Besides it is so invasive the more they eat the better for evberyone. You offer grit on the side not in the food. Just place a little in a bowl or something they can get to. At this stage they are probably too small to eat normal size grit.Some clean sand will work or some cage bird grit, just don't feed them silica sand. If they are outside eating that stuff they will also probably pickup enough grit themselves to do fine.
Candace looks like Zena is telling the other pup she is boss for sure.

 

[chicken danz]

I'm excited. I have a pip in one of my goose eggs. I've never hatched a goose before. Awesome!!!!