Consolidated Kansas

[lizzyGSR]

My DH and BIL worked on my duck house most of the day on Friday. I joined them when I got off work. We made a lot of progress, despite being forced inside by the rain. I thought I'd share a picture of my almost-complete duck house! WE still need to put the front on, cut and frame the doors and windows, put the trim on, and finish painting. It's taken us 6 weeks to get this far (got the wood the day we brought the ducks home, and the ducks are now 7 weeks old). Hopefully, it won't take us another 6 weeks to finish it up! My husband is working evening shift this week, which means that he leaves the house just before I get off work... I am SO READY for my ducks to be outside permanently! They are too messy to be in the house!

 

[JosieChick]

Hi all!! Buried in school work!!!

Welcome new peeps to the Kansas thread!

Bye all, back to the grindstone, grad school is the pits some days....

 

[Deerfield Acres]

KarenS, I forgot to say that I sold something this afternoon that I had on one of the other swaps & got enough money to get the humidity kit for my GQF, so I ordered it, I can't wait for it to get here! I may be asking you some questions once it gets here.

Yay!!!!! I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. I'm so happy for you!

 

[HEChicken]

My DH and BIL worked on my duck house most of the day on Friday. I joined them when I got off work. We made a lot of progress, despite being forced inside by the rain. I thought I'd share a picture of my almost-complete duck house! WE still need to put the front on, cut and frame the doors and windows, put the trim on, and finish painting. It's taken us 6 weeks to get this far (got the wood the day we brought the ducks home, and the ducks are now 7 weeks old). Hopefully, it won't take us another 6 weeks to finish it up! My husband is working evening shift this week, which means that he leaves the house just before I get off work... I am SO READY for my ducks to be outside permanently! They are too messy to be in the house!

Its looking really good - a decent size too! Is where they are building going to be its permanent location? Looks like you can look out the windows of the house to check on them!

 

[HEChicken]

Guess who just crowed? Not June-Bug, whom I suspect is a boy and am already calling JB.....


No, no, no. My crower is Mildred, the one I was really hoping was a girl:


June-Bug hasn't crowed yet so I guess I can still hold out hope I have a pair. Right? RIGHT????

 

[Hawkeye95]

Trish, hope your little chickie is doing okay this morning! Sounds like he was feeling better last night. OH!! And congrats on your new accessory for your incubator!

Lizzy-- hey, your duck house looks great! It certainly is big enough for them! My projects take probably 3 times as long as I think they should. Mostly because other things come up when I could be out there working.


HeChicken... uh oh, I'm so sorry! I don't know if your Blue is a pullet. Sure looks like another rooster.... but hey, maybe not!! I guess until "she" crows... you can hold out hope.



Well, I have chicks that should be hatching later tonight or tomorrow. I filled everything up with water and I'm ready to go again. I hope at least one of them hatches! My little chick is lonely. I have two eggs that should be ready now-- they were both alive last night when I was refilling. I threw out an egg yesterday that had stopped and formed a blood ring. I had thrown out another egg about 3 days ago for the same reason. These silkies are not the easiest things to hatch.

 

[tweetysvoice]

My DH and BIL worked on my duck house most of the day on Friday.

The house looks great already! They are going to love it! I completely understand about wanting them out. I was glad we did it at 6 weeks, I can't imagine having them in there at this age!

Hi all!! Buried in school work!!!

Bye all, back to the grindstone, grad school is the pits some days....

I feel your pain Josie.. School is pretty tough work for me as well and I'm not even in grad school, just a second semester Junior! Only about a year more to go! It's been fun going to school as an adult, I get a lot more out of it than when i was young. What are you going to school for?

Guess who just crowed? Not June-Bug, whom I suspect is a boy and am already calling JB.....


No, no, no. My crower is Mildred, the one I was really hoping was a girl:


June-Bug hasn't crowed yet so I guess I can still hold out hope I have a pair. Right? RIGHT????

Awwww.... I'm soooo sorry! I'm fearful that I won't get at least one female out of my three. How old is Mildred? Gonna give him a new name? Like Miller? I"m curious as to when they start crowing. I'm fairly sure from everything that I read that I'll hear a crow before I see an egg.

Well, I have chicks that should be hatching later tonight or tomorrow. I filled everything up with water and I'm ready to go again. I hope at least one of them hatches! My little chick is lonely. I have two eggs that should be ready now-- they were both alive last night when I was refilling. I threw out an egg yesterday that had stopped and formed a blood ring. I had thrown out another egg about 3 days ago for the same reason. These silkies are not the easiest things to hatch.

Good luck on the hatches!!!!!!!!!!

 

[lizzyGSR]

Its looking really good - a decent size too! Is where they are building going to be its permanent location? Looks like you can look out the windows of the house to check on them!

No, that's not going to be the permanent location. It was just where it was on a level surface and close to an outlet. We had my in-laws help us move it so that it's closer to it's permanent location, even though we're not sure where that's going to be. We're trying to make decisions as to where we want to put a loafing shed for my horses and where we want to put a (future) garage. If we put the duck house where we'd originally planned, it would interfere with where we've been thinking of putting the loafing shed.

As for the size, I have claimed 4 adult ducks (I think 3 of them are swedish and one of them is Rouen) that my DH's grandma is trying to give away. However, I have nowhere to put them until the duck house is finished. She wants me to take them as soon as possible, though, because they've been free ranging during the day and some of them hide in the trees instead of going back into the pen at night. She's afraid something will get them. I wanted my duck house to be large enough for 6 ducks, with a little bit of room in case I decide to get more ducks (or to try something new and get a couple geese) next year.

 

[HEChicken]

Well, I have chicks that should be hatching later tonight or tomorrow. I filled everything up with water and I'm ready to go again. I hope at least one of them hatches! My little chick is lonely. I have two eggs that should be ready now-- they were both alive last night when I was refilling. I threw out an egg yesterday that had stopped and formed a blood ring. I had thrown out another egg about 3 days ago for the same reason. These silkies are not the easiest things to hatch.

that you have a good hatch. Yeah, from everything I've heard, Silkies and BCM are among the more challenging to hatch.

Awwww.... I'm soooo sorry! I'm fearful that I won't get at least one female out of my three. How old is Mildred? Gonna give him a new name? Like Miller? I"m curious as to when they start crowing. I'm fairly sure from everything that I read that I'll hear a crow before I see an egg.

Miller....that might work. I'm so used to Mildred that I might slip up a few times. Not that he cares, I guess! They are both about 18 weeks old. I got them from Renee at 10 weeks old and I was thrilled to get them started since I was that much closer to having a broody that way. At that age she thought they both looked pretty girly but I always knew there was a chance of boys. Still, I hoped that at least one would be a girl....Oh well, you do the best with what you have right? I'm now looking ahead to putting Mildred, er, Miller over my little silkie mix hen and then try to hatch her eggs. The results would be 3/4 silkie so any hens might be willing to brood for me.

Three nights of storms. I'm so thrilled to have so much rain although it certainly will mean some mowing. DH is going to call our neighbors today and tell them not to mow because I WILL be out there to do it. I'm going to give it a day to let the ground dry out and then go and mow tomorrow. The 7-day forecast indicates it will be dry and hot (and probably muggy because of the rain we've had) so we'll all be able to make some progress on our outdoor projects.

 

[Ivywoods]

Looks like MILDRED is really a MILTON!

Hawkeye-hope you get another chick soon. I just hate having one lonesome chick.

Josie-It's been a long time, but I do remember what it was like this time of year. It was SO HARD to keep my mind on schoolwork when it was so nice outside and there were so many things I wanted to do BESIDES study.

Trish-You will love your auto waterer. They are so nice and you can keep your humidity at a much more constant level.

LizzyGSR-Congrats on the progress of your duck house. I agree. Ducks are just too messy to be in the house. They are such cute little boogers but what a mess! They will love their new digs.

Hello to everyone else!

I know I'm nuts. I've already admitted that. I guess we just can't get along without our animals around here. We recently rehomed our poultry pulverizing pooch, Digger the dachshund. He was a serial chicken killer. No reforming that hound. He was such a nice dog, but not for chickens. I'm very happy with his new owners and he is adjusting well. Not all that long ago we lost the little chihuahua that had been my step son's dog as he was growing up. Taco was an old dog. We don't even know how old because he was an adult dog we got from a rescue. So that left us with one house dog, Rooter, my son's dog. Rooter is very bonded to me, and he is the most fun and playful dog we have ever had, but he is not a good lap dog (WAY too hyper) and he is going blind now and can't travel because he gets carsick easily.

So I decided to get another pup.

This is not the exact one I am getting. I don't have a real good picture of mine. It is only 4 weeks old right now. This is a picture of an older dog that looks exactly like the little dog I will be getting. This one is an older brother to mine. Mine is a female havanese. She will mature to about 10 pounds. After having dogs that were each of my 3 sons dogs, my daughter's dogs, my husbands dogs, (Danz-Remember how Mike latched on to Brittany?) I will now have a dog that will be MY dog. I'm so excited. I just wanted a little lap dog, companion and travel buddy.

I don't think this one will be any threat to the chickens!