Consolidated Kansas

[cherwill]

Hawkeye, I wish I could grow roses. Over the years I've tried various types and evidently have a brown thumb with roses. The only exception is the Double Knockout. My neighbor started buying them and said they were impossible to kill. I got three of them a couple of years ago and she was right. My grandpa used to grow all kinds of roses; he had a huge patch of them out front. They were gorgeous.

HEChicken, thank you making me feel not so bad about my missing chicken! Did you ever figure out how on earth your hen got on top of the coop?

 

[checoukan]

I am so sad, my dog, Arnie got hit this morning. I hate this road in front of our house, people drive so fast!!!
This lady was going so fast she knocked him at least 50 feet away, so sad, but my fault, I was not home, and had not tyed him up. I feel so bad, and it hurts so much, can't stop tearing up.

trish glad you are getting a new bator, you will like it. Hope you get the auto-humidity with it, sure takes the guess work out.

Hope everyone is enjoying the time outside, it is so pretty out right now.

 

[Ivywoods]

Rosie-I'm so sorry about Arnie. I know how bonded to you he was, and visa versa. He was definitely a unique dog.

I did hear that ChickenDanz's mom died last night. Please say some prayers for her and her family.

On a lighter note, I had wild turkeys in the back yard again when I got home from PT today. Yay! I hadn't seen any since the episode with our dog that killed 3 of our turkeys. I replaced with two blue slate turkeys, but they were pretty quiet and I never did hear the tom gobble. Last Saturday I picked up 2 pair of royal palms. They gobble at the slightest noise. They even got my quiet blue slate to gobble some. I looks like it's working, because the wild ones were out there. I just love having them around and watching them. I like to be able to go outside or sit on the deck and listen to the tom's gobbling back and forth in the woods.

Well, another road trip tomorrow. I just agreed to buy two rather large stacking cages for my chickens. These are bigger than anything I have, and I'm pretty excited to get them. I just need to figure out how I'm going to re arrange things in the barn.... again.... to accommodate them. I ordered 2 sets of supplies for my auto water system, so when I get these set up I will use my remaining set for these cages. There are a total of 12 pens. I have a few little modifications planned in order to make them easier to clean and smoother so the chicken's feathers don't get messed up. Gee. Seems like I've always got some project going!

Trish-Congrats on getting a new incubator. You will love it. Did you get the auto turners and auto water supply? That makes it SO nice! If you fill this one up you are going to have chicks coming out your ears!

 

[tweetysvoice]

Tweety, my chicks were labeled Ameraucana but since I got them at Orscheln, they're probably really EEs. Congrats on your birds putting themselves to bed in the coop! I'm not sure if that's a good thing for mine, after what happened tonight. We got home after dark and DH went to put them in the crate since they roost on top of it instead of in it. He came in and told me Blanche was missing. I squatted down and didn't see her in the crate. We spent 40 minutes in the backyard and up and down the alley with a flashlight, even got Tai out to see if she could find her because Tai gets really birdy around the chicks. I heard some squawking in the crate and looked inside again. Three birds all near the door. Then I heard a noise from the light ... squatted down a little further and craned my neck and there was Blanche, sitting on the cord between the light and the edge of the crate.

So Blanche apparently is ready to put herself away at night, but I'm not sure we can handle it!

That made me LOL!!

 

[Ivywoods]

Just checked my incubator. Of the eggs I took out of the nest after the broody hens got down with the chicks, two of the eggs have now pipped. I was happy to see that because when it happened I didn't think to grab the eggs right away, and they did get kind of cool before I got them back in the incubator.

The little wheaten ameraucana that wasn't doing very well that I brought in the house is now doing just fine. I was concerned about his foot and leg being stiff and not working right, but I've kept an eye on him, and he has managed to get it working just fine now that he is out running around in their little brooder tub. I'm going to have to move them to bigger quarters soon. There's a lot of chicks in that little plastic tote.

 

[HEChicken]

Trish, congrats on the incubator - when does it arrive?

Checoukan - so sorry about Arnie - how awful for you to find him or see it happen even.

Cherwill - yes, I did find the gap she used to get up there and since I blocked that off, she hasn't been able to get up there again. She was only 11 months old at the time this happened but I noticed she didn't lay any more after it. I figured it was the stress from her adventure and the dehydration/lack of food for those two days. But a week later it was clear she was in a full molt. I wasn't expecting any of those pullets to molt this past winter as they were still pretty young. Her hatchmates never did, and laid pretty well throughout the winter. But once she got back into full swing, she's back to being a feisty-natured good layer again. She's the only hen that will actually chase down the dogs and cats (perhaps I can thank her for the fact they're all a little afraid of the chooks and give them a wide berth?) and also defends the rest of her flock from me, by pecking at my legs any time I walk by, LOL. She's too young to be the lead hen but I figure she's working her way up to that position.

 

[HEChicken]

HEChicken, what a situation! Crazy birds -- sense of smell must not be too good.

Got the weeds out of the onion bed, found some wretched pill bugs and ants. Hate those things, so I grabbed my trusty Sevin (I'm thinking about buying stock in the company

) and gave them a bit of dust. Then I feed them, mulched and am feeling quite accomplished.

My cockerels are getting fiestier, picked on one of the bantams this morning. Good grief! Pick on someone your own size.

My understanding is that their senses of smell and hearing are pretty sharp but their sense of smell is even less well-developed than ours, so perhaps that is why he didn't realize he was sitting on feed (kind of funny really since it was probably the sight of the feed that enticed him to climb in there but once in he forgot it was there!)

I imagine you have your hands pretty full with all those cockerels of yours - between the crowing and the other rooish behaviors. How soon do they move out to the coop?

 

[Trish44]

checoukan, I'm so sorry about your dog, that's so hard to lose one like that. I had a lab when I lived in Derby that I had for 13 years & one night this guy came along & hit her on the road in front of our house. We had the same situation you have with people driving too fast & the guy didn't even see her. He actually did stop & tell me how sorry he was, but it was too late for the dog. Hugs to you!

No, I'm not getting the auto humidity thing with this incubator, maybe I can add it later? This maxed out my budget just getting the incubator. Later on I would like to get the clear door for it also, but for now, I just need to be happy with this much & I'm so excited. It does have the auto turners in it & the hatching tray at the bottom. It's the 1502w model if anybody wants to look at it on the GQF web site. The W just stands for wood since it has the wood case, but other than that it's just like the newer plastic model they're replacing it with. I don't know yet when it will be shipped as of yet, I just got it ordered right before I left today, I wanted to get it before my DH changed his mind. When he lets go of money you have to grab the moment while it's there. I drove up north of Wichita after my hair appt. today & picked up some more Royal Palm turkey eggs. This is the guy that has those Chocolate turkeys that he got crossing the Royal Palm & the Bourbon Red. I got to see them today & they are gorgeous. I told him I may come back later on & get some of those eggs. That tom turkey is so pretty & he was showing off when I was there. I wonder why it is that the Royal Palms tail feathers seem to get so messed up, I noticed that his all looked like they had something chew on their tails. He had lost the roofs off some of his pens in the storms the other day, so he was trying to get those replaced.

Anyway, with the turkey eggs, the Welsummer eggs I just won on eBay, & the black sexlink eggs I got from the same guy I got the turkey eggs from in addition to the Ameraucana eggs & Easter Egger eggs I've been collecting here I should have a good start on filling up my new incubator. Do you all think it would be OK for me to go ahead & put them in my hovabator incubator until my new one arrives & I can get it set up & running & then transfer them? Since I don't know how long it will take to process my order & for it to get here I'm thinking I need to get some of these eggs in the bator. Some of my Ameraucana eggs have been waiting awhile to go in since my Brinsea is full right now. I also don't want these turkey eggs to have to sit too long either before I put them in. Now I hope those peacocks start laying soon so I can get some of those cooking for my DH. He's going to be surprised when those hatch.

 

[tweetysvoice]

I am so sad, my dog, Arnie got hit this morning. I hate this road in front of our house, people drive so fast!!!
This lady was going so fast she knocked him at least 50 feet away, so sad, but my fault, I was not home, and had not tyed him up. I feel so bad, and it hurts so much, can't stop tearing up.

Can't believe I missed this one. I'm soooo sorry checoukan! How awful

I'm really sorry to hear about Danz's mom as well. Today just wasn't a good day all around it sounds like.

I spent most of the morning with my DH in the emergency room. Since I work there, I stayed working, but honestly was in his room most of the time. He woke up with a 600 blood sugar and felt horrible. Apparently his Metformin pills aren't working anymore and he has to now go to diabetic insulin. We were really hoping to avoid this, but he already feels better after the shots.

 

[Trish44]

tweety, I'm sorry to hear about your DH, but it sounds like he will be better on insulin. Wow, I'll bet that was scary to wake up to such a high blood sugar, at least you knew what to do for him.

Sending prayers to Danz & her family in this difficult time.