Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

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!

OOH, can you tell me which shows???! When/where? I am coming up empty handed looking for shows right now! And our 4-H clubs (that I know of) aren't doing any right now.

I think turkey are awesome! That is so fun to be out there with them. I love their noises. I hope you can find that egg quick that is smelling. Maybe by tonight or tomorrow morning you'll discover which one it is. (without it exlpoding!) I don't know what Bobwhite look like-- but doesn't Daren have those too? Are they pretty small?? I think quail would be fun! But I'm going to stick to my silkie project and not do anything else. I'm learning so much right now-- too much to handle! For example, I'm unforunately learning first hand about the brachydactyly gene which is common in feather legs. It's also what causes a shortened outside toe or a missing toe nail. (my new chick has this!) Lucky for me, it's not a DQ, but it's not a trait I want in offspring. And I just learned that you have to have both parents that have a copy of that gene to pass it on. Guess what I have??? Sigh. Looks like i need to find another nice rooster for my pullet and another hen for my rooster!

But I'm going to be far more careful and picky about what their toes and wings look like this time around. I really lucked out with the ones I have, but now I have a better idea of what I'm doing. But even if I stick with my paring, it's only a 50% chance they will get it. Breeding is HARD!!!!

Which birds were you thinking of showing? Just wondering which breeds you are working on? Did you get any of those black rosecombs from your sister?

 

[BamaProud]

Bama-I have 6 pullets coming that will be yours if you want. They are the white KSU pullets. Let me know. I believe they were $6 each, but I don't know if they are going to charge tax or what, so I will let you know when I get back.

I want them. Pm me when would be a good time for you .

Danz, you are still in our prayers and thoughts.Hope everything goes well with your Dad.

 

[tweetysvoice]

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!

My first idea would be to throw them a small barbeque or something like that. Something you can use to get to know them better as well. Good neighbors are hard to find, so getting to know them might give you the opportunity to let them know all about your chickens and possibily teach their boys how to help if you ever needed more muscle

I spent the day outside yesterday. I went to the new house and got my compost set up complete - yay!!!

I would love to see how you set it up! Right now I just have a "pile" o stuff and want to create something better to contain it.

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.

I'm so happy to hear that it was a peaceful passing. I know that she was so thankful that family was there and she wasn't alone.
How exciting to be able to share your chicks, ducklings, and chickens with your granddaughter! I can't wait till mine is old enough to know what they are - my hope is that she'll want to come over all the time because of them! hehe

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!!!!!

You'll have to show us pictures of the progress!!! And yes, It is quite chilly here as well!

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.

Do eggs actually explode in incubators? What happens if that does happen, do you have to wash off all the other eggs and the inside? That's a horrid thought. Rotten egg is the worst smell in the world!


Another wonderful day with my granddaughter. Now I don't get to babysit for another couple weeks. I'm going to be watching her every other weekend (She'll go to her ex-step-mom's house the other weekends). It was so nice! I didn't realize how much I missed having a baby around. She's such a content baby. Only cries when she's hungry. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

I'm axiously waiting for the call/email from Renee about the silkies! She said that she put several under a broody on Friday and was expecting them to hatch any day. I must be patient - I must! LOL

 

[HEChicken]

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.

When we move is still a little up in the air. We are staying in our current house through the end of the school year because we didn't want to have to disrupt the kids school with only 6-8 weeks left of school. I had planned that we would move the first weekend they were out of school but then got the baseball/tournament schedule and that will continue to keep us busy through July. So long story short, we will have to wait until school lets out AND there is no baseball tournament that weekend.

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.

....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.

Sorry about the rotten egg - I hope you're able to find out its origin before it explodes.

On the bobwhite quail, the only quail I have raised are Coturnix and the reason I chose them is because like chickens, they are happy to live in colonies - 1:5 is a pretty good ratio. My understanding of bobwhites is that they do best in pairs. So 25 chicks could leave you in a housing bind when they mature and need to be split into 12 pairs. I could be wrong but its worth looking into before you get too far into them.

My first idea would be to throw them a small barbeque or something like that. Something you can use to get to know them better as well. Good neighbors are hard to find, so getting to know them might give you the opportunity to let them know all about your chickens and possibily teach their boys how to help if you ever needed more muscle

I would love to see how you set it up! Right now I just have a "pile" o stuff and want to create something better to contain it.

A barbeque is a great idea - I think we'll plan on that after we move out there. In the meantime I'll probably try to bake some cookies for the boys - I think they'll appreciate them more than eggs!

Here is a pic I took today of my compost set up. I woke up in the night worrying about my neighbor's free-ranging flock getting into it and flinging everything back out so when I was out there today, I found this roll of 5' wire that was the perfect length to go across the front and wrap around the sides. Its temporary until I can figure something more permanent but at least I can relax this week and know that what I've put in there so far will stay. I have more horse manure bagged and ready to go in but it was at the barn so I couldn't add it today. I set aside some leaves (in the bags in the middle space) so that I can continue to layer the leaves and manure once I bring those bags over. By then the pile should be a decent size. One of the middle pallets appears to be leaning a little. They're secure with tie plates so its not going to fall but I'd like it to look better so I'll try to straighten it up next time I'm there.


And here's a pic of my dogs who love to go out there and look so happy every time we do.

 

[chicken danz]

I had a busy day today just trying to catch up on some of my chores from the past week. I have a few large nests of eggs that have hens on them I guess I will just leave alone and see if they hatch them. Some of them have been there a week so I might as well give them a chance.
I went to my sister's today and we sorted through some of my Mom's clothes. I am going to take many to my Asian friend who buys eggs from me for their restaurant. She is tiny and Mom was wearing size 1 and 2 so maybe at least she could get some good out of them. My mother had some really beautiful clothes. I wish I were small enough to wear some of them. She always dressed nice, unlike me.(I'm your basic jeans and t shirt gal. I also brought home a plant and three flower arrangements. At least I can enjoy them and think what a shame it is that Mom can't see how beautiful they are.
DH made a small shelter for my Sabastopol geese so now they can be in a kennel and eat grass from the yard. I have a heat lamp in their pen just in case they get chilly. Chopper got moved outside last Tuesday. He was sleeping in his crate on my back stoop. But he has decided he likes the geese so he is with them now. I enjoyed him but a house duck just requires way too much care.
Maybe in the next few days I'll get busy on the trailer again. DH is working nights again so the peacock building is back on hold.
I also discovered one reason I had so many chicks and ducks that didn't hatch. My auto water system isn't letting any water out, so all they had for humidity was the extra pan I put in the hatcher. I haven't taken the time to figure out what the problem is yet.

 

[tntblake]

Just thought some of you would get a chuckle out of this craigslist ad I came across today. I also posted it on the craigslist thread. Ever heard of a rhodesian red chicken? It is the new Chicken/Rhodesian Ridgeback cross! Lol

6 chicks for rehoming - $2 (west wichita)

Date: 2012-04-17, 7:10AM CDT
Reply to: [email protected] [Errors when replying to ads?]

2 rhodesian reds, 2 feathered leg kuckoo maroos and 2 other black ones. They are all small pullets.
please email me and I will get right back to you.
thanks

 

[Ivywoods]

Just thought some of you would get a chuckle out of this craigslist ad I came across today. I also posted it on the craigslist thread. Ever heard of a rhodesian red chicken? It is the new Chicken/Rhodesian Ridgeback cross! Lol

6 chicks for rehoming - $2 (west wichita)

Date: 2012-04-17, 7:10AM CDT
Reply to: [email protected] [Errors when replying to ads?]

2 rhodesian reds, 2 feathered leg kuckoo maroos and 2 other black ones. They are all small pullets.
please email me and I will get right back to you.
thanks

Kuckoo maroos-gotta be a kangaroo in the mix somewhere! LOL!
My DH and get a laugh every night when we read craigslist. I'm surprised how many people really have no idea what they have and even less of an idea of how to spell it!

 

[tntblake]

Kuckoo maroos-gotta be a kangaroo in the mix somewhere! LOL!
My DH and get a laugh every night when we read craigslist. I'm surprised how many people really have no idea what they have and even less of an idea of how to spell it!

I know right?!? I usually laugh when I read them but very rarely do I see one I have to share! Some people should really educate themselves a little before posting it on a site that so many people read!

 

[pikeman94]

Just popped into say I will be offline for a few days as I recover from my gallbladder surgery. Tomorrow morning I get it out. I will check back in as soon as I can. Talk to you all soon!

 

[cherwill]

Trish, your bunnies are so pretty. We had some bunnies when I was a kid and I still think their fur is one of the softest things on earth.

Tweety, I'm glad to see you're being a good influence on your granddaughter! That's a great picture of you two.

HEChickens, I love that compost setup. Your dogs look like sweeties, too.

Pikeman, good luck with the surgery and hope you have a quick recovery.

I'm too tired to tell you about it now, but I think my brilliant idea about the pallet strawberry planter is not so much brilliant as it is harebrained.