Consolidated Kansas

[pikeman94]

Thanks again for all the well wishes. Now that I am starting to feel better, I am trying to decide whether I should expand my coop or build a new one. Decisions, decisions.....my only issue with expansion is that I would have to complete it in a day so that the girls have their coop back. Has anyone ever been in this pickle?

 

[Deerfield Acres]

queenbigbear, love the pics! Have no idea what kind of bantam nugget is though.

The coop is insulated and the windows are on the north and south ends so it gets a nice breeze through it. Here's the coop, less paint, nest boxes, summer fan, roof vents and covered run: (Did I say it was done? Ah well, done enough so the birds can use it now) I have a solar charger to power the fence and it works great, although I didn't touch it to find out. I took the meter thing's word for it.

The bunnies are in the coop in their cute hutch for now but when it gets too warm they will go behind the coop in the shade.



I need to enclose the area under the roosts with chicken wire so they won't huddle under there in the dropping. Of course, right now they're acclimating so they're especially uneasy. My best SSX roo was sneezing this a.m.

The stress of moving is really hard on these birds. I've got sav-a-chik in their water and now vetrx, so all I do now is pray they'll survive. You would think at 12 weeks they wouldn't be that touchy but the SSX just seem to be less hardy than the others.



The SSX are starting to get their spots! They are very sweet birds but I'm thankful that the Aloha crosses with SSX don't have such touchy systems.




Here's a better pic of the rabbit hutch:



I have 2 New Hamp pullets, 5 Red Star pullets, 3 Buff Orp pullets, 5 Speckled Sussex pullets, 4 Easter Egger pullets, 2 Speckled Sussex cockerels, Heather's Easter Egger cockerel and two mini rex bunnies in the coop right now. So that's 22 birds and 2 rabbits and it seems roomy enough.

Okay, I better get my show on the road! Have a good day everybody.

 

[chicken danz]

Queenbigears, I'm not sure about the coloring but the head looks kind of Wyandotte to me. Are the feet clean or feathered? It's kind of hard to tell from just a head shot.
I was too tired to write last night. I went in to see my Dad yesterday and it was so much harder than I thought. Every however in that house it was Mom all over. When I stopped an thought about it the house is all Mom. The garage was Dad's domain. I tried to be cheery but I broke down trying to talk.
I had to laugh. My Dad was cleaning out drawers and stuff and came up with over $500 cash my Mom had stuffed here or there. She always did that so they would have emergency money. She would move it to a savings account when she got a lot. At least that is money that medicaid can't take from him to pay for Mom's care. Hiss top plate broke 2 days ago and it will almost pay to have it fixed. Dad gave me her left over inhalers and her nebulizer. I sure hope I don't have to use the nebulizer. I have one but her's is much smaller. I haven't had to use mine in a few years now.

Yesterday Marshmallow went blasting out to the chicken pen barking and growling. The gate was opened like always but a hawk flew into the pen but then got tangled in the netting on top. Go figure, every last one of those chickens were double the size of that hawk. That was an out and out bold act. Thank goodness for my dog! Fluff was asleep on the front porch so he wasn't much help at the time. Marshmallow got a special treat for dinner for doing such a good job; Leftover steak and cheesy bacon potato fries from Texas road house.
We used to eat at Chicken Annie's when we lived in Oklahoma. That was some awesome chicken. I don't eat many fried foods but I sure would if I could cook some like that.
DH got some work done on the game bird building yesterday. Sure would like to see some more progress there. He has to go back to work for the next 4 days so we will be back on hold again after today. I wish he'd set the post for the pen, cause I could finish it up myself even though the building is far from done.
I've got an incubator full of ducks and chicks this morning. Need to get those moved out. I want to totally clean out and disinfect my brooder house before I put any more chicks in there though.

 

[pikeman94]

Karen that is a good looking setup! It motivates me to getmy butt in gear. Of course I need to completely heal first!

 

[HEChicken]

Karen, your coop looks absolutely AWESOME!!! You don't have any problems with them drinking from the waterer with the VetRX? I tried that once, per the bottle's instructions - warming it and the water and mixing it in and all but the chickens wouldn't even touch it. Honestly, it doesn't really smell potable. I love the smell of camphor and when I have a cold I still like to put a little Vicks under my nose and on my chest to help with congestion but I wouldn't want to ingest it, and apparently my chickens felt the same way. After 12 hours I finally gave in and set a waterer with regular water next to it and they drank like they were parched. I really think even when I wasn't looking they just weren't willing to drink the water with the VetRX in it. Since then, I've only used it to put a little on the beak but haven't had much success with doing that either. I've been lucky not to have many sick birds but those that I tried it on never seemed to show any improvement from it

 

[chicken danz]

Karen, very nice looking set up. I am just sure I have to get more orpingtons. Love those birds. They are sweethearts.
I am still treating the birds. It seems that sneezing is pretty infectious. I've been keeping some Vet RX in the water and some probiotics in their feed and I'm thinking maybe I have it under control. They seem to be doing better.
Pikeman, maybe you could add on to your coop and then take out the wall in between when you were done with the new addition. Just a thought. Glad you are feeling better. Don't over do it. Let your body heal a little. Work but give yourself some breaks. Mama Danz strikes again. I can't help it!

 

[queenbigears]

Nugget has feathered legs, a greyish blue color to the body and an orange head. His / her feathers are coming in a light peach color with some dark brown at the tips. hope that helps

 

[Ivywoods]

Just came in to drink a glass of tea, put my leg up and ice my knee down. I still have to do that now and then. It gets pretty inflammed. It's a BEAUTIFUL day, and I've accomplised quite a bit already, so I'm on a roll.

I had a NEW IDEA for those of you who like to RECYCLE, REUSE and REPURPOSE. Anyone got any old buckets with holes in the bottom that won't hold water? You keep them around for ..... what?

I found one that was cracked down the side and decided it was not much good for anything. I am constantly looking for blocks of wood or something to put under my feeders and waterers in my brooders. The wood blocks work fine, but once they've been in there for a while they get pretty nasty and are nearly impossible to clean so I just throw them out.

I took this cracked bucket and measured up 3 inches from the bottom and cut the bottom off. It works perfectly to put the waterer on to keep it up out of the shavings and so they don't poop in there so much. You could cut different buckets at different heights depending on the size of your birds or chicks. Generally I believe the ideal height is about the level of their backs.

Hope someone can find this information useful! Have a great, beautiful day, folks.

 

[JosieChick]

Yea, that's what I got for them - It's really tiny, but you are right - compared to the size of the birdies - I can see how a regular waterer would still be huge for them!! I played mama chicken last night and would tap the ground for them to peck at food, then tap the water and they'd all run over and start drinking. We went back and forth like this a few times. It's too cute!!

You are such a good chickie mom!!!! SO prepared too!

Aren't they fun little buggers, so much personality. Just be careful, I had one that I had a terrible time putting outside, she became such a pet that she didn't move outdoors until she was almost 8 months old. Even once she was outdoors she would do this loud SQUAWK call for me to come out and visit a couple times a day!

 

[cherwill]

Ivy, you cracked up me with the image of chicks hatching like popcorn! I can just see it in my head ...

Karen, your coop looks fantastic. You have a nice setup in there.

Queenbigears, your chicks are cuties, especially Nugget. I have no idea on the breed, but I sure like the coloring on him/her.

I'm getting a late start today. We have the State Firefighter's Conference here this year, and kicked things off with a poker run yesterday, so we got nothing done. I had an appointment this morning, then spent a little time with ice on my lower back. Now that it's almost lunchtime, we're finally getting out to buy some cucumbers and do some more planting in our gardens. Things are looking great so far. I don't want to jinx myself, but it looks much better than last year. I'll try to get some pictures up later, as well as some pictures of the hens we got in exchange for Stan and boy-Dorothy. I'm not sure what to name them -- Dorothy and New Sophia???