Consolidated Kansas

[prairie]

Thanks for the tip about the vinegar. I used to have a book with lots of vinegar uses in it but can't find it just now. It is amazing what all it is good for! I use vinegar and water in my carpet cleaner and it clean the carpet great -- the smell dissipates in about 15 min. I don't like to use a lot of chemicals in cleaning so I do use a lot of vinegar and just plain soap.

 

[prairie]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...g-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation

I saw this on another forum and love it -- thought you all might be interested.

Kare

 

[Trish44]

Well I've got to decide what I'm going to do with my little turkeys that aren't so little any more. They really are starting to get crowded in that brooder & they are making a big mess in there. Turkeys seem to be a lot messier than chickens. They're getting pretty good at flying, so I have to be really careful when I open the lid that they don't fly out of there. I can't tell any difference in any of them yet as far as sex yet, so I don't know what I have. They're starting to make more turkey sounds now instead of just chirping or whistling noises. I have always liked listening to turkeys gobble, we have wild ones here, so we'll see when I put these outside whether the wild ones will come closer or not. I don't know if my GPs will let them come over or through the fence or not though, they bark at them when they're on the outside of the fence.

I have one Swedish Flower Hen chick hatched so far & I thought I heard at least one more peeping in the shell. I wish they would hurry up & start hatching so I can see what they're going to look like, I'm excited! My little Yorkie heard that first one peeping in the shell before we did & was jumping up & down wanting to look. She would sit there all day if you would hold her up there so she could see & just watch the chicks, she is just fascinated by them.

IVY, are you going to try to get your Royal Palms back into the pen at night or just let them roost in the trees? I just wonder how vulnerable they would be to predators if left out all the time. I know some people do let theirs stay out & then others lure theirs in with treats at night like I do with my chickens. I guess they like sunflower seeds & corn especially. These young ones I got seem to be really healthy & strong, so I think you're onto something with the diet being a big factor. The breeder I got these from is very particular about the feed for their birds & were really worried about these being shipped so far. But they have done just great even with a 24 hour ride in a box. They packed them in with grapes to pick on & that probably helped keep them hydrated. I can't wait to see what sexes I have & see them grown. I won't be keeping all of the ones I have once I determine sexes, I really only wanted a trio & I probably will be selling the little Black Spanish too because I don't want mixed birds. I don't want it to be eaten though, the poor little thing worked so hard to survive that it deserves to live after that & the same for the RP that I hatched. Before that one gets too much bigger I want to band it so I can always tell it from the others.

 

[chicken danz]

I just loaded the incubators again with duck and guinea eggs. I'll keep hatching them because the market is good for them. Had a neighbor come down wanting to know what all I had. Another person requesting me to raise quail. I just don't know if it would be worthwhile cost wise to get into quail. I've had a constant stream of people asking me for them though. He said he ran over a turkey hen and wanted to know if I would hatch the eggs and raise them up to a couple months. He said there were two hens there so he didn't know if the first one would take over the other's eggs or not. He hasn't shown back up with eggs yet.
I gathered eggs and don't have the birds fed yet. I'd better get to it.

 

[Trish44]

I just saw this on another site regarding using vinegar as a substitute for toxic weed killers, I thought it was worth sharing: http://zduckman.hubpages.com/hub/Non-Toxic-Weed-Killer. It's another use for vinegar.

 

[prairie]

Trish, thanks so much for posting this!! I use vinegar for a lot of things but never thought about for weed killers. Gonna try this around my patio blocks!

 

[HEChicken]

Trish, so glad all animals were okay, if not a little thirsty, when you returned. I do so know the anxiety that goes along with being away and not knowing. With a flock of all adults, I've gone away as long as 5 days and was able to leave enough food/water for them. The nest boxes were overflowing when I got back but they seemed to do just fine without me. But when it is little ones in brooders and you have multiple feeders/waterers to worry about, it can get very hairy.

My muscovies and keets are growing like crazy and have almost outgrown their brooder. I'm going to have to get creative on figuring out how to keep them happy for the next two weeks until we move them to the new place.

 

[prairie]

Danz, I think there are a lot of people looking for guineas. Wish I had more! Perhaps another trip to your place is in store for more guineas-- although hubs says to wait and see if we can hatch some ourselves. My guineas are not cooperating with me in laying eggs and my hens are not going broody. Think I am getting anxious to have some babies! I'm having fun with the little ones I got on Saturday! I bet though there will be a bunch of them broody when we leave on a 10 day trip in July! Guess I need to be patient! grrrrr!

 

[HEChicken]

I bet though there will be a bunch of them broody when we leave on a 10 day trip in July! Guess I need to be patient! grrrrr!

I'm just getting started with guineas so still learning lots about them (mine are 2-3 weeks old now). Do they tend to go broody frequently? I know when I kept Coturnix, they have a reputation for rarely brooding and even when they do, give up before hatch (its the ADD - they only have to sit for 16 days!!!) Anyway, for some reason I was thinking guineas would be like coturnix but I guess they only thing I'm basing that on is that they both eat gamebird feed LOL.

 

[prairie]

HeChicken, I don't really know a lot about them just want lots for the tick and bug control. Danz can chime in here cause she knows a lot about them.

Hubby doesn't know it but I am seriously thinking of getting an incubator but just don't want the work of raising babies -- would rather the hens do that.