Consolidated Kansas

[tweetysvoice]

Sapphire - Beautiful picture of the Pekins!!! ANd I think your Cochin looks like a Daphne

HeChicken - WOW! I want neighbors like that! How wonderful of them to help you out!!

Josie, Good luck with your grad projects! I just took my final exam the other day and start a new class on Monday.

Ivy, sounds like you scored big on the birds at KSU! I want some of that magic feed to - not necessarily for the chickens, but for my ducks! LOL and WOW! That's some big *** eggs!! I think a huge BaGAWK is in order for those!

Trish - Thanks for the bunny pictures! They are soooo adorable!!! I miss raising rabbits. We did that growing up.


Busy day today for me. I got to babysit my granddaughter all day (awww, darn. poor me. lol) She did really well considering this is the first time she's been without mommy. She ate a whole lot more than mom thought she would. I went thru all the milk that was brought! (it's hard to guess when she's breast fed how much she'll go thru bottle wise). I'm glad she brought "extra" for tomorrow. LOL. Here I am teaching her how to stick out her tongue!

 

[HEChicken]

So, HEChicken, I went out to take a pic of your cockerel and for a sec I wasn't exactly sure which one it was. But then I pulled myself together and remembered it had the beard, red wings and was just a bit smaller than the other cockerels. There is another that looks similar except it didn't have a beard and I knew yours did. There's one other that's darker than this one with red on it's wings so if I took the wrong one, let me know and I'll take another pic for you. We took some time with this one today to hand feed and hold it. It didn't mind once we broke out the treats!

Wow, Karen, thanks for that great picture! And I can't believe the size of those Anconas! I know what you mean - when I saw them they were not notieceably bigger than the Alohas. It always seems like ducklings keep the baby fuzz longer than chicks.

They must have some kind of magic no stink feed they use.

You made me laugh! If you ever find out their formula for the magic feed, please share - I'm sure we'd all love to get in on that.

On another note, we have been getting HUGE eggs from my older layers that I have here. We noticed they are laying eggs that are visibly larger than our turkey eggs.! I decided to weigh one. I have a digital gram scale. The one we picked up this morning weighed in at a whopping 84 grams. It's huge, and it's not a double yolk egg.

Last summer my BSL, who was 17-months-old at the time, went broody. After sitting for a week to be sure she was serious about it, I put her on eggs so she sat a total of 4 weeks. Then she raised her chicks for 15 weeks!!! I kept thinking she'd give them the boot from about 6 weeks on, but I guess she just really enjoyed being a mama. Anyway, by that time she hadn't been laying for 19 weeks, and when she finally started back to laying, she laid really huge eggs. I weighed a few and every one of them was 92g - and they weren't double yokers either. I literally could not fasten a carton around them. She did that for a few weeks and then one day I noticed that I wasn't getting the giant eggs any more. They are still large - around the 75g mark - but not the whoppers. Its almost like after a 19-week break from laying her body had so much to produce that she had to lay the huge eggs to get it out of her system or something.

HeChicken - WOW! I want neighbors like that! How wonderful of them to help you out!!

Busy day today for me. I got to babysit my granddaughter all day (awww, darn. poor me. lol) She did really well considering this is the first time she's been without mommy. She ate a whole lot more than mom thought she would. I went thru all the milk that was brought! (it's hard to guess when she's breast fed how much she'll go thru bottle wise). I'm glad she brought "extra" for tomorrow. LOL. Here I am teaching her how to stick out her tongue!

Yes, I think we really lucked out. We talked to them on the phone last night and it turns out they sent their two teenage sons over to mow for us. The woman said she was concerned it was getting too long for us to mow. What great kids to be willing to do that and what nice neighbors. Now we're trying to think of what we can do for those kids as a thank you. Any ideas would be welcome!

Congrats on getting to spend the day with your granddaughter - what wonderful memories the two of you will share.

Hawkeye - thanks for the info on the silkies (a few pages back - I'm just slow to respond). I was really surprised to hear the one is considered a blue. He/she has always looked black to me in person, but in the pics I saw how much lighter color there was on the front - I never noticed that in person. I also didn't notice until I was posting the pics, how big the comb is getting so I think you may be right and that one is a boy. It kind of fits since that one is the friendliest - the first to come running to greet me whenever I go to see them, which seems more of a boyish trait than girlish. So it looks like I might have a pair but I'll be happy either way.

 

[HEChicken]

I spent the day outside yesterday. I went to the new house and got my compost set up complete - yay!!! At my current house I have a commercial compost bin that I'm underwhelmed by. It is a little black bin with doors that slide up on the bottom to be able to shovel out the compost. Yeah, right. After several years, trying everything under the sun, that little bin has yet to turn anything into compost. After a year, what comes out is still recognizable as what went in. I think its problems are aeration - it is too closed up to allow for good ventilation - and moisture. The lid has a few holes in it but they don't let in much moisture. So in order to make compost I would need to water the heck out of the thing, and I simply forget to do it. Last summer I used to add a gallon of water a day and it still made crunching noises when I tried to turn it. Which is the other problem with it - you can't get a pitchfork in there to turn the compost.

So I decided with the additional space at the new place, I was going to set up a WORKING compost system. I gathered a few pallets when I found them for free. Two are 4x6 so I sent them on their sides, and together they span 12'. Then I took four 4x4 pallets, to make the ends and two dividers about 4' apart. The result is 3 4x4 bins. The pallets are open on the sides to allow for ventilation. The top is open so rain will add moisture. The front is currently open but I will have to put a pallet in front to create a barrier. The funny thing is, I lay in bed last night not sleeping and worrying about that. Our new next door neighbors (on the other side from the mowing neighbors) keep chickens. And let them free-range. And they free-range through the hedge-fence onto our property. And during the night it occurred to me that although MY chickens won't have access to the compost, theirs are probably over there right now flinging all my nicely layered compost right back out of there. So I need to get a barrier put up on it ASAP.

Anyway....for the last few months I have been gathering compostable materials. When I clean out my horse pen, I bag some of the best stuff - the poop mixed with the dropped hay - and I also used my leaf shredder to shred a bunch of leaves from the fall. So after setting up the system, I started layering the horse poop and the leaves into the first "bin". The idea is that after a few weeks or months, when that bin has reduced some, we will take a pitchfork and throw it all over to the second bin. Repeat and by the time it has been in the third bin awhile, it will be compost. Meanwhile, while that lot is finishing in the second and third bins, we will be starting to fill the first again.

I should have taken pics when I was done but will try to remember to take the camera with me when I go out there today and will post them later. I'm happy with how it came out, except that two of the pallets were 6" taller than the others. If I'd known ahead of time I would have put them on the ends but I thought they were all the same size exactly, and those two ended up as the middle dividers. Not a biggie - its just compost - but visually I would have preferred to have the taller ones on the ends.

 

[chicken danz]

First of all I want to say I thank so many of you for all your prayers and thoughts. I didn't read all of the posts but did a quick scan when I could and saw that many of you had expressed your sentiments. You have no idea what that means to me. I feel like I have a whole community of friends here. You are some awesome and thoughtful people.
I am doing amazingly well considering. I think being there when my mother passed was the key to dealing with it. She left quite peacefully and immediately I could see the stress and pain leave her face. That is the picture I try to keep in my head. I certainly have my moments, but I just try to remember she isn't suffering and it calms me.
I guess my job now is to try to care for my Dad. I hope he will let me take him to church like I did Mom. It was such a special time for she and I.
Back in the chicken world. I lost many potential chicks and ducks because I wasn't here to tend to the hatcher. I hope the birds in the incubators do OK cause I am sure there was some time the humidity was way low. I wasn't going to pile the extra responsibility on DH to care for those when he was working and had to care for my birds as well.
I did hatch several birds regardless in the last couple days.
I'm really excited and thankful that Susie picked up my pullets at K-State and managed to get me a some extras. I am really happy I will have some great future layers. I'll be selling many of my mixed pullets and hens soon. I have some awesome layers but need to downsize and hopefully these new birds will be super feed efficient. It's all part of my master plan to reduce my feed bills but still produce chicks and eggs to help pay for the feed. I really realize now just how much I have to do and I need to reduce my work load.
My little 18 month old granddaughter was here yesterday afternoon and I finally got to show her birds and stuff. She was pretty scared of the older birds but loved the baby chicks and ducks. I have that one hen that the concrete block fell on and broke her leg who loves to be held and petted. My granddaughter really liked her but was I could tell when she saw her beak it scared her a little. My son said they would come back soon and bring her boots and let her feed and stuff. That thrilled me because they are super cleanliness freaks and very citified.

 

[Trish44]

Danz, welcome back we missed you. We were all so sorry to hear about your mom & you were in our thoughts & prayers every day. That's great that you got to have your granddaughter there with you to show her your chickens & ducks, I'll bet she enjoyed that!

HeChicken, it sounds like you have a good start on your compost at your new place. When will you move there? Wow, I wish I had neighbors like yours too, that's great! I also have a compost bin like you said you have & I know what you mean, I have fed it for a long time & haven't gotten anything back out of it. I think they needed to put more holes on top or something. I would never be able to have an open compost bin with my chickens free-ranging, that would be their first stop to get in it & throw everything all out of there. They have scratched all of my mulch out of all of my flowerbeds & now they look awful. There is mulch all out mixed with the grass in the front yard. I guess you give up a neat yard & flowerbeds to have chickens.

Well my little Ameraucanas that I hatched in the first batch still haven't gone to their new homes yet, hopefully next Friday they will when I start the chicken train for the chicks Shana & Candace ordered from the CO-OP & the hatchery. They sure are growing & I'm pretty sure I can pick out at least one rooster in the bunch, he has a lot bigger feet & is taller than all the rest. He is protective of the smaller chicks too. I have to tell what happened yesterday. I was trying to separate them out one at a time into another cage so I could keep track of which ones I had picked up. I finally got them all in the cage & turned around for a minute to look at my rabbit in the cage behind me. When I turned around that chick I think is a rooster had his wings spread around the smaller chicks keeping them warm. I thought that was the cutest thing for how young they are.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Welcome back, Danz. It was good to hear your mom had a peaceful passing. The first year was really tough for my dad but helping him helped me. So glad you were able to have some time with your granddaughter, I hear there's just nothing like it. I'm old enough to be a grandmother but I still have a 7 year old. Late bloomer.

HEChicken, you've been busy! Making progress feels so good.

Tweety, forgot to tell you how I enjoyed the pic of you and your little beauty!

It's just a trifle chilly outside but still nice. I've been out to visit my DH who has been busily working on the coop! YaY!!!!!

 

[Hawkeye95]

By the way, I need your expert building advice. I need to build another brooder box because I have chicks here I'm hatching & then some new ones coming this week from two different places to supplement my laying flock. I want to do this one a little different than the one I bought from that guy. I have this plastic tub thing that is rectangular & has a lip on the top. What I'm thinking is of building the box top part just like he did that one with the wood sides & the hardware cloth top, but instead of hardware cloth on the bottom with a tray under it like he did I want to have a slot where the tub fits under there & just have pine shavings in the bottom with the chicks. Are you picturing at all what I'm talking about? I'm just unsure how to make the slot for the tub to sit on so it could slide out to clean it. The tray the guy put under the cage of the other one should have had sides instead of just being flat because when you pull it out to clean it all the stray food & whatnot falls on the floor & then you have all of that to sweep up. You know how messy little chicks are, they knock half of their food out the bottom of the brooder & down onto that tray. Anyway, if you can picture what I mean & have ideas for me let me know. I need to get this thing built this week.

From what you're saying, you want your chicks IN the tub with the shavings. I would just build the box to fit the tray you have in mind and use a firring strip or something to make the railing under the box so the tub can slide in it. I did the same for my pop door. I screwed in a "frame" around it and then put a thin piece of wood around that to hold it in over that. If that doesn't make sense, I'll find a pic or draw it for you. Basically you're building a drawer!

Trish44, Hawkeye, Yup, I did the same thing when I first got my zero turn. I felt so foolish. Of course, not as foolish as I did when I slid over the muddy side of the catch creek and had to ask my husband to pull it out with his Trail Blazer. But, that's another story.

We took Shadow and Dottie, the mini rex bunnies I got from Teresa, for an excursion outside. We started out with their little vests and leashes on but they have a bit more to grow before they fit properly, so we ditched the paraphenalia and they explored a bit but ran back to us for safety.

Yeah, I still will forget to engage the brake and it won't start. I have to remind myself what I'm doing all the time. I LOVE your bunnies!!! Where did you get the gear? That's a really great idea! They look so happy and cute!

No accidents or funny incidents to report, but it was an interesting trip indeed. The best part was being able to spend some time with 19 y.o. DS on his birthday.

We ended up coming home with 48 chickens loaded into cardboard boxes in the back of the jeep. I was NOT looking forward to this trip home! Windows open for sure! However, I was very pleasantly surprised and frankly amazed I could NOT smell these chickens. We had the rear windows open a ways, but really not that far. The Tom Avery poultry facility at KSU was the cleanest poultry place I have ever visited. The birds are clean, too. When we got home I had to clip the wings on all of them since the pen I will have to keep them in does not have a top on it, and I don't want them learning to fly out. I stuck my nose right down on those birds and they did not have an odor. I was truly amazed. I thought after being in boxes for the trip home they would pick up the smell of the poop in the box. Well, I mustered up some good ole country girl nerve and stuck my nose right in one of those poopy boxes. No smell.

They must have some kind of magic no stink feed they use.

After clipping the wings on 48 chickens I had a pretty good sized pile of feathers to sweep up, and I noticed that they had all found the feeder and were going at it with gusto. I think they will adapt well. I imagine they will smell like chickens, however, after eating my layer ration for a while.

That is a LOT of birds to have in your car! Yikes! Glad they didn't smell! You should ask what kind of feed they use! I can't believe you cut 48 wings! Wow, that is a ton of work. You could have made an indian head dress with all of those feathers. hehe!

KarenS, what cute pics! The bunnies looked like they were enjoying themselves. I love the pic of the chick & the duck too!

Hawkeye, OK you asked for bunny pics so here they come. I had a heck of a time getting any decent pics of the 3 week olds. Every time I tried to snap one they hopped off & turned their backs to me. Here is my favorite Mini Rex & the one I'm keeping:



And a close-up of her sweet face:



This is momma Chinchilla bunny checking out the babies after I took pics of them:



And here are the remaining 5 babies, (she did lose the smallest one)


They're just beginning to get some hair I noticed today. When I reach into the box & touch them they jump all around & make little squealing noises. I had pulled the hair off from over the top of them to get a photo, They burrow down into it.

IVY, it sounds like your trip went OK, wow that's a lot of chickens you came home with! Your hen that lays a huge egg sounds like my Barred Rock that lays them like that a lot. I can't help but think she will stop laying earlier because of it. The other one lays extra large eggs, but not like that one. Some of my hens are on strike right now, I don't know why, but they seem to have stopped laying right now. They were laying like crazy for awhile & now I'm getting about half as many eggs a day as I was, not good for egg sales.

OMGosh!!!!!! The cuteness!!! That is sooooooo adorable!!!! Thank you so much for those pictures!!!

I really, really love the angle face on that little black bunny!

 

[Hawkeye95]

First of all I want to say I thank so many of you for all your prayers and thoughts. I didn't read all of the posts but did a quick scan when I could and saw that many of you had expressed your sentiments. You have no idea what that means to me. I feel like I have a whole community of friends here. You are some awesome and thoughtful people.
I am doing amazingly well considering. I think being there when my mother passed was the key to dealing with it. She left quite peacefully and immediately I could see the stress and pain leave her face. That is the picture I try to keep in my head. I certainly have my moments, but I just try to remember she isn't suffering and it calms me.
I guess my job now is to try to care for my Dad. I hope he will let me take him to church like I did Mom. It was such a special time for she and I.
Back in the chicken world. I lost many potential chicks and ducks because I wasn't here to tend to the hatcher. I hope the birds in the incubators do OK cause I am sure there was some time the humidity was way low. I wasn't going to pile the extra responsibility on DH to care for those when he was working and had to care for my birds as well.
I did hatch several birds regardless in the last couple days.
I'm really excited and thankful that Susie picked up my pullets at K-State and managed to get me a some extras. I am really happy I will have some great future layers. I'll be selling many of my mixed pullets and hens soon. I have some awesome layers but need to downsize and hopefully these new birds will be super feed efficient. It's all part of my master plan to reduce my feed bills but still produce chicks and eggs to help pay for the feed. I really realize now just how much I have to do and I need to reduce my work load.
My little 18 month old granddaughter was here yesterday afternoon and I finally got to show her birds and stuff. She was pretty scared of the older birds but loved the baby chicks and ducks. I have that one hen that the concrete block fell on and broke her leg who loves to be held and petted. My granddaughter really liked her but was I could tell when she saw her beak it scared her a little. My son said they would come back soon and bring her boots and let her feed and stuff. That thrilled me because they are super cleanliness freaks and very citified.

So glad to see you back Danz! Sounds like you had an incredible amount of things going on. Sorry you lost chicks. I think it does help to be there when someone you love is passing. It made me feel a lot better when I was there with my grandma, I held her hand and she squeezed my hand right before she left. It does help ease your mind and it is a relief their pain is over. I'm very sorry about your mom, but I'm really glad you could be there for her. I hope your dad will agree to go to church with you and let you help him out. It's going to be really lonely for him, too. That is AWESOME that your granddaughter enjoyed her time with the birds. Glad that her parents are on board with that, too. Sounds like a fabulous master plan to get rid of your other bids and get more food efficient birds to lay for you.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Hawkeye - thanks for the info on the silkies (a few pages back - I'm just slow to respond). I was really surprised to hear the one is considered a blue. He/she has always looked black to me in person, but in the pics I saw how much lighter color there was on the front - I never noticed that in person. I also didn't notice until I was posting the pics, how big the comb is getting so I think you may be right and that one is a boy. It kind of fits since that one is the friendliest - the first to come running to greet me whenever I go to see them, which seems more of a boyish trait than girlish. So it looks like I might have a pair but I'll be happy either way.

NO problem-- even really black looking birds can be a dark blue if they have a lighter undercoat or lighter areas on them. It's not a bad thing, I love the Blue color. And yes, many people say that their roo's are the most friendly. I know mine is! He loves attention and is just a sweetie. You may end up liking him the best!

Tweety, that is a really adorable picture of you and your granddaughter! What a gorgeous baby! I love how they learn to mimic your actions, it's so heart warming.

 

[Ivywoods]

Just came back from the coop. All the new pullets are doing well. They are still pretty skittish. I'm sure my coop is very different from any environment they have experienced before. I opened the pop door earlier and they freaked. You would have thought I had shot at them or something. They settled right down, though, and kind of checked it out. One pullet went out a ways, got scared and came back in. When I came back in the house they were all still in the coop. I'll just let them explore and learn their way in and out on their own. I'm sure it's a lot of new stuff for them to take in.

On a sour note, when I opened my incubator this morning I could smell a little bit of a rotten egg smell.

It's not real strong and I can't tell which egg the smell is coming from. I sure hope I don't have an egg explosion in there. That would be bad news.

My new turkeys are all adapting well. I'm not sure who is enjoying them more... me or my DH. He goes out in the pen and walks around with them and looks through the weeds for eggs. I've caught him in there every day. I'm glad he likes them. He has also decided he wants to raise some bobwhite quail. I don't know anything about them, so I will let them be his project. I have a friend who has some hatching right now, so we are going to trade some eggs and a couple pullets for 25 quail chicks.

I'm going to be REALLY short on brooder space here pretty soon!

I had planned to go to a couple shows during the time I am off work recovering from my knee surgery. Much to my dismay, most of the birds I would have taken to show have started to molt. Several are in a pretty hard molt, so shows are out for this spring. They look half plucked right now and their beautiful tails are GONE! I guess I will just have to aim for this fall.

LOVE all the pictures, folks!