Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

OH! I had two chicks hatch so far this morning from my shipped eggs. There are 3 more with pips and two eggs that aren't doing anything. So I'm praying everything hatches.

 

[HEChicken]

Oh that is a great idea! Except that now the price of hay has gone thru the roof, so I think it would be cheaper to buy the hardware cloth!

Maybe that's only funny to ME since I'm stuck spending a fortune on hay. Sigh.

OH! I had two chicks hatch so far this morning from my shipped eggs. There are 3 more with pips and two eggs that aren't doing anything. So I'm praying everything hatches.

Congratulations on the two that have hatched so far! Hope the rest pop out soon.

On the corn, I have grown it in the past but what I've found is that about the time my corn is ready to eat, Dillons is selling corn on the cob at 5 for $1. Heck, I can't even grow it for that by the time I buy seeds and pay my water bill. Also, for what you get, corn takes up quite a bit of space - just two ears of corn and then the plant is done. The last couple of years I have leaned more toward the vegies that keep producing - tomatoes, cucumber, kale, chard and so on. For the same amount of space, I have a plant that will keep producing for months.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Yay, it rained! We needed it badly and I'm so happy for my plants. It got a little noisy and windy but nothing too serious. I woke up with an awful head cold on top of the strep. Not good. Doesn't bode well for my productivity today. Sigh.

I'm late getting up so better go make the rounds before the chickens and ducks get mad with me.

 

[chicken danz]

David I'm with Trish. I buy cheap regardless of size of brand. I actually buy the bigger doses and squirt part in the mouth in the morning and the rest in the mouth at night. I just nip a hole in the end with my teeth because I am too lazy to look for something to cut it with.
My stupid alarm clock quit working. Grrr! It is probably cause it gets knocked off the table all the time. I like the little battery operated ones because they work when the power is off without having to remember to buy a 9 volt battery as a back up. So I over slept this morning. I wanted to get up early so I could have my peaceful coffee time before I started getting ready. We had this huge storm go by last night. Yep that's right, .....It went by. We got the wind and the thunder and lightening but nothing else. I see they changed the forecast so it looks like I'm be watering this afternoon. Dang it! I've got to get a fence up around the garden too before the dogs and chickens decide its a place to dig.
I think this fall I'll try to get my farmer out to plow it up really well so I can mix the dirt deeper. What I have amended seems pretty nice but it's rock hard below where the tiller goes. It will probably be really nice for the grass and weeds too. I raked and raked but there's still tons of grass in that soil. I was hurting really bad last night and DH said we are too old to garden. I told him No that we weren't. It was just getting things started that was going to take the energy. But maybe I am a little too old to put in a large garden. If I ever get chicken tunnels built I can see it could be very easy. Of course that probably won't happen this year for sure.
I created a second humidity pan for my hatcher yesterday. I had been using a cake pan and set it on a separate shelf below the ones I had eggs in. Somehow I ended up with 2 guineas and a chick getting up on that shelf and drowning in it. So I took a disposable about cake pan sized plastic container, cut the center of the lid out and hot glued a piece of 1/4 inch hardware cloth in the hole. The lid was too flimsy to do anything fancy with. I set it on the bottom, I guess we'll see if it works for a while. I lost a few ducks because the humidity went down when I was gone on Friday. I can get it up to where I need but keeping it there is another problem entirely. I may have to have a custom water tray made or something some day. The idiots that owned this hatcher before me drilled several more holes in the outside. Even though I have them covered with duct tape and try to leave some air space it dries out too fast. They were hatching Emus and I don't know if they needed a lower humidity or what. If the holes were a nice standard round hole I would just buy plugs to fit but they aren't.
Guess I'd better get around and start getting ready for church.

 

[HEChicken]

The idiots that owned this hatcher before me drilled several more holes in the outside. Even though I have them covered with duct tape and try to leave some air space it dries out too fast. They were hatching Emus and I don't know if they needed a lower humidity or what. If the holes were a nice standard round hole I would just buy plugs to fit but they aren't.

From what I've read about hatching emus, they don't go into lockdown - just continue the same humidity settings from incubation to hatch, so your theory makes sense.

Perhaps just a piece of hardware cloth over the top of the cake pan would work? It would allow the water to evaporate and add humidity but prevent the chicks from getting in the pan to drown.

 

[WichitaKidd]

David, love the names Laverne and Shirley! Wow, you sure do spoil them, keeping them inside until they are 6 weeks old! Mine usually get the boot by 3-4 weeks. Around 3 weeks they start spending days outside and by 4 weeks it is nights as well. My first batch of chicks hatched Jan 29th, and I still had them outside by 4 weeks old - they did fine. They are really pretty hardy.

I know, I know. Shouldn't spoil them. Hard to do when they are little. Main reason I've been keeping this group inside so long is that my older chicks are much bigger. Was waiting until the littles were bigger before trying to integrate them in with my other birds. Yesterday was more of a test to see how the big kids would react to the littles. I don't have a good way to segregate them in the coop. Otherwise, they probably would have been out full time a week ago.

David I'm with Trish. I buy cheap regardless of size of brand. I actually buy the bigger doses and squirt part in the mouth in the morning and the rest in the mouth at night. I just nip a hole in the end with my teeth because I am too lazy to look for something to cut it with.

Well that makes sense. I know that Dillon's has 3 different sized doses: 100, 400 & 1000, each one bigger than the other. The 100's are pretty small; not sure I could hold onto it. Will try the 400's & see how it goes. Thanks for advice.

 

[Ivywoods]

Ivy!! That little pup and her momma are precious!! So much fun! We have some papi poo mixes that look very much like you havanese They can go anywhere with us almost. One of mine is a classroom therapy dog. He puts up with ANYTHING. Even being carried around upside down
RVRoman, I am glad you were able to get your son out of that pool!! Don't sweat your phone. Buy a bag of rice and put the phone in it and seal the bag back up. It will draw out the moisture. You might not need a new phone if you can go without it for a week Just one BCM? My two are inseparable very sweet birds and are very protective of my bantam d'uccle pullets.
Reading about the incubator woes .... I don't think I will ever be brave enough to try that. I kill houseplants too easily. I do fine with things that make noise when they are hungry though! Trish, I hope your eggs are OK!
What is the premier swap? Would it be something my kids might enjoy?

That was one of my considerations about getting another dog. I wanted one that could travel with us, which none of our current dogs can. I wasn't really counting on getting two, but it is working out great so far.

Thank you for the tip! I'm actually using the rabbit feeder for the Oyster shell. I didn't want to put in another feeder. But I sure do like those rabbit feeders, I'd never thought of using it for their feed. I may try it now that you have a solution! Do you have a picture of that set up, so I can get a better feel for it? I think I understand... maybe. LOL! I bought the smallest rabbit feeder for the oyster shell... but I may go buy the really large one for their feed!

All of the little feeders I modified are secured onto the brooder I built so that you can't see the front. I'll see if I can find another one to show you or maybe unfasten one of the ones I've already done. It's very easy.

OH! I had two chicks hatch so far this morning from my shipped eggs. There are 3 more with pips and two eggs that aren't doing anything. So I'm praying everything hatches.

Congrats on the new babies. I just had a whole boatload (well, maybe a tray full) go into the hatcher today.

Yay, it rained! We needed it badly and I'm so happy for my plants. It got a little noisy and windy but nothing too serious. I woke up with an awful head cold on top of the strep. Not good. Doesn't bode well for my productivity today. Sigh.

I'm late getting up so better go make the rounds before the chickens and ducks get mad with me.

Hope you get to feeling better soon.

 

[Ivywoods]

David, love the names Laverne and Shirley! Wow, you sure do spoil them, keeping them inside until they are 6 weeks old! Mine usually get the boot by 3-4 weeks. Around 3 weeks they start spending days outside and by 4 weeks it is nights as well. My first batch of chicks hatched Jan 29th, and I still had them outside by 4 weeks old - they did fine. They are really pretty hardy.

Medawinks/rvroman, I second the bag of rice idea. My niece dropped her phone in the ocean, and after 48 hours in rice it was working again. Then she went to the mountains, dropped it in a river and it was swept away.

Trish, so glad you got your tablet after all the hassles. Congrats on the new chickies - hope some of the remaining eggs hatch as well.

My turkeys are on day 20, about 36 hours since I went into lockdown and nothing yet. I'm not expecting anything to happen but will give them the full 21 days before I check on them.

You know, there really is some merit to getting them out there by this age. From some of the reading I've done keeping them in the warmed house or brooder too long negatively affects feather quality. I think there's a lot of truth to that, and along with that idea, I think it probably affects their overall condition and health. I know I've been guilty of keeping my brooders warmer than they needed at time.

From watching my broody hens raise their babies when it was still pretty cold out, those chicks are right out in the cold a lot of the time, but then of course they can always run back under the momma for warmth. The hen raised chicks I've raised seemed to be somewhat healthier than brooder raised chicks, although they do not always gain weight at the same rate. Maybe that is healthier, too.

 

[Ivywoods]

It's cooled down today and our 35-40mph winds have died down some, so I think today will be the day that I finish transplanting my grapes. One of the friends who dropped off some eggs yesterday also dropped off some tomato plants. I don't have a garden ready at all. I think I will just dig some pretty big holes, ammend the soil with some of my compost and then mulch like crazy around them. If I put them pretty close to the water hydrant they should get watered frequently enough.

Danz-It seems you never get the grass all raked out. If I were you, I would get several bales of wheat straw, and once your plants are up high enough, mulch like crazy around them. By crazy I mean like 6 inches deep. Straw packs down quite a bit with time, so don't be afraid to much too much as long as you are not covering the plant or keeping it from getting enough light. If I didn't mulch heavily I would never be able to keep up with weeds. Then for next year, do the same thing over the top of the area you want to plant. Cover it heavily all winter with compost, chicken manure and shavings and leave it to cook all winter. In the spring, rake off only anything that is still in large pieces, such as straw that hasn't decomposed at all, and till the rest in. I'm always amazed at how much softer and workable the ground is after I've done this for a season.

Hawkeye-A while back you mentioned buying a soil mix at Wal-Mart. You should know me better than that! I live on a farm, girl! I MAKE soil with horse, chicken and goat poop, all the shavings that come out of the coops and pens as well as any old hay that gets wasted by the animals, combined with any yard waste or other organic material. I pretty much do a no muss no fuss method in that it all just goes into a BIG pile in the back by the pens. Right now that pile is about 6 feet high by about 20 feet wide and 20 feet long. Much of it has set for several years, so I always have more than enough compost to work with. Generally our soil is some of the best, but I do have a few places in the yard where the dirt has been removed and is right down to a pure clay and sand layer that just about nothing will grow in.

 

[cherwill]

I only have 9 layers and get about 4-6 eggs on average a day.

My barred rocks lay every single day, while the Wyandottes and Polish are about every other day, sometimes every day. Depends. Maybe it's the breed of chicken you have? About ducks-- I'm sure someone else will pipe up. My dad used to raise them, I don't recall there being a reason not to have them in water right away. I know they dive for the water and make a mess from day 1. Why does your niece want ducks and not chickens?? This baffles me! LOL!! I'm not a fan of duck eggs, and ducks are super messy. REALLY messy. Chickens are so much cleaner. On the other hand, ducks are really happy and very friendly.

My 6 layers are 2 BOs, a BO or BO mix, 2 Black Australorps and a Wyandotte. The Wyandotte is my best layer, she lays 4-7 eggs a week. If I only get one egg, it's usually hers. The BO or mix is the second best, even though she lays those odd-shaped eggs. The EEs aren't laying yet, though the 2 older ones will probably start within a month or so.

I think my niece would be happy to have any animal at all. A friend of her dad's was over talking about the ducks he'd just bought and got her and her mom all excited about that. My brother has always been adamant about no larger animals (they've had various fish, shrimp, frogs and guinea pigs). So he made them a deal: niece could get her ducks, my SIL can get a tattoo of a peanut, and he gets to fix up his motorcycle.

DH wanted me to plant sweet corn but I said no. I just think it takes too much space and then the worms get in it and it draws in coons and stuff to eat it. He knows zero naughta nothing about gardening so this is 100% my project. Silly City boy from New York. I'll buy some if I need any.
Prairie I don't know if I'll go to Premier Saturday or not. I guess it will depend on how much stuff I sell this weekend. I still have lots of chicks to move but it won't pay for my trip up there to sell them. I really like going to that one. I am thinking of putting an add in for some of my pullets and would like to stay home if I do. I don't know how well they would sell there.
I have baked beans in the oven for a church dinner tomorrow. so I'd better got check on them and close this for now.

Mmmm ... baked beans sounds delicious.

We don't plant corn, either. We thought about it, but we can get such good corn from Gaeddert's and it takes a lot of space to grow a little corn.

Here's a funny shot of Buffy. I think being out in the sun today did her some good. She was fairly active & was able to hold her head up most of the time to a more "normal" position.

Awww ... she's a sweetie.


Thanks for the info on ducks. I passed it on to them. They've already got the duck house (made out of a cabinet, I think) nearly finished. The ducks don't arrive until the end of the month. They ordered 2 males because females are too noisy? I don't know anything about that. Does duck sexing work any better than chicken sexing?

My MIL used to have ducks and she gave me duck eggs now and then. I always used them in baking, so if there's a big difference in taste, I didn't notice. I don't really like the taste of eggs anyway! I like them to cook and bake with and I make omelets and quiche and things where there are other flavors in addition to the egg.

Congratulations to everyone with newly hatched babies!