Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

I decided yesterday rather than hassling with Marshmallow in the car and driving to Garnet and back to take her stitches out myself. I have had so many stitches removed from all my surgeries I knew how they did it. She was laying on the front room floor and armed with a pair of scissors and some tweezers I went to work on her. Had them all out in seconds and she didn't even flinch. I saved myself money for gas and an appointment and a lot of time and hassle. I am patting myself on the back!
I've done nothing so far today except to go yell at the ducks once for getting into the road. Another reminder to look some more for someone to build me a fence! The only time they do that is when it rains or is moist outside. Not sure why.
Josie you reminded me with your post about meal worms that I really want to do that. So I've been reading and studying on it. It does sound like if you want it to be productive you can put a lot of work into it. What are you using for containers? I have a couple of smaller aquariums I was thinking about using.

 

[JosieChick]

I decided yesterday rather than hassling with Marshmallow in the car and driving to Garnet and back to take her stitches out myself. I have had so many stitches removed from all my surgeries I knew how they did it. She was laying on the front room floor and armed with a pair of scissors and some tweezers I went to work on her. Had them all out in seconds and she didn't even flinch. I saved myself money for gas and an appointment and a lot of time and hassle. I am patting myself on the back!
I've done nothing so far today except to go yell at the ducks once for getting into the road. Another reminder to look some more for someone to build me a fence! The only time they do that is when it rains or is moist outside. Not sure why.
Josie you reminded me with your post about meal worms that I really want to do that. So I've been reading and studying on it. It does sound like if you want it to be productive you can put a lot of work into it. What are you using for containers? I have a couple of smaller aquariums I was thinking about using.

Good for you!! My entire gaggle of geese was walking down the MIDDLE of the road a few days ago. They got chased with a stick back to the pasture. Million dollar flock of geese getting creamed by a guy pulling a combine right?!?

I have my mealies in one plastic container for now. It is maybe a foot and half wide by two feet long and about 6 inches deep. I need to get another container for when they start hatching new baby worms but I have not gotten that organized. I just got tired of paying $8-9 dollars for a container that is gone in several days and thought what the heck, I can raise them!! I have seen people use the drawer system but I don't have one of those and was trying to keep my start up cost low. I think aquariums would work really well, they can't climb slippery surfaces so you should be all set there. I guess they like it dark but you can put paper bags or newspaper in for them to hid under too.

 

[Trish44]

tweety, welcome back, sorry you have been sick, but it sounds like you're on the mend.

Danz, raising the worms isn't that hard, I started some & then just have not gotten back to doing anything with them. I had worms in the beginning & then I seemed to just have a bunch of beetles for a long time. I kind of gave up on the whole thing. They like toilet paper rolls to hide in & lay eggs on & pieces of paper towel. I had plastic lids in mine to lay pieces of apple on or carrot shreds. They seemed to like the apple slices the best though.

I'm still feeling like crap & my DH is getting angry because I'm still sick, geez what can I do about it. I've been laying around thinking if I take it easy I won't have a relapse. If I get up & try to do too much I just end up back in bed anyway. My ear is still messed up & my eyes are still draining, yuk. I plan to call the Dr. this afternoon & see if there is anything they need to send out for the conjunctivitis. Man I'm getting tired of feeling like this, I lay there & think of a million things I need to be doing & I can't do any of it.

I still haven't caught that stinking chick in the garage, you're right Hawkeye he's a crafty one. Even my DH tried to catch him with a net & he was too fast for him too. He has all the escape routes figured out where he can run under things like the brooders & whatever to excape. You see him one place & then all of the sudden he comes out somewhere else. You would think he would be starving by now & want to be caught. I tried to find him last night to see where he was sleeping, but he's too smart for his own good.

It rained here last night & boy we needed that bad! It did make some messes of things, I had to clean out some feeders this morning, but that's OK. The turkeys are muddy, but hopefully it will dry out today. Those turkeys are really funny, they talk to me all the time. The one that I know now to be a tom just started gobbling a little bit, it's really cute.

 

[chicken danz]

Well I checked and we did get maybe an 8th inch of rain last night. Every bit helps.
I am so disappointed. I finally opened the hatcher and it was only shell pieces from the guineas laying on the lavender eggs. No pips yet! I'm also waiting for a couple of marans eggs for Pikeman to hatch and nothing on those yet either. I should have loaded more eggs to make sure I got a few of them.
I'm just not sure about shipped eggs. They just never do well. You can't fix damage that is done before you get them.
The lemon eggs I got this time were packed very well and not washed. I think I have a decent chance of hatching some of those this time around. Of course it will be nearly the 2nd week of July before they will hatch.
Josie I would panic if my geese got in the road. I about had a coronary when they were out running in the yard the other day. The little miss with the bad knee is getting around much better. She just moves a slower than the others, and still limps but seems to be functioning better. It looks like maybe some of the swelling has gone down.
Trish I looked yesterday and I'm up to three eggs in my peacock pen. I understand she should go broody after she lays the 4th one. I am loosing patience. I keep wanting to take them but I think she needs to hatch them herself. I'll only take them if after a time she doesn't start sitting.
I should be getting more eggs shipped but haven't heard from the seller yet. I guess I need to contact her soon.

 

[Trish44]

Danz, I sneaked another look at my peacock eggs in the cabinet bator last night & I'm still seeing movement, so I'm hopeful. They go into lockdown the 25th, so keep your fingers crossed. The ones in my Brinsea I'm just not sure about, they're not looking so promising. They're not due until the first week of July, but I just feel like I should be seeing more than I am. I'm not holding out too much hope for those at all. Good luck with your peahen, I hope she sits for you. Do you remember that little campine hen I got at the Yates sale? She still is running wild, I haven't been able to tame her at all, but she's a good little girl. She went broody & was sitting in my planter on my front porch right outside my front door, so I decided if she was going to sit there she might as well be sitting on something so I gave her 7 Ameraucana eggs to sit on. She has faithfully been sitting on them & I hardly ever see her off of there. My DH says he sees her once in awhile over getting a drink, but that's it. So we'll see if she's able to hatch me a few more chicks. I hope to catch them when they hatch because she is several feet off the ground, plus there are cats everywhere out there that would love to have fresh chick to eat. They wouldn't know that from any other bird, so I couldn't get mad at them for eating a chick.

 

[HEChicken]

I got my auto door installed

Now I just have to wait until dusk and make sure it closes.

It did take some time but would be easier on a different coop. First I had to figure out a good placement for it. The front (south) and east facing walls of the coop are visible from the house so my preference was to place it where I can look out and see that it is open in the morning. Also, the manufacturer recommends that the light sensor be mounted on the south facing wall so that worked for me too. I started by trying to find somewhere on the south facing wall I could put it but due to the location of the nest boxes and the door, plus the studs, I couldn't find a good place to mount it there. Then I looked at the east facing wall and ended up being glad I couldn't put it on the south side since we often have winds from the south or north but rarely from the east so it seems better to have the door in a wall where there is less wind. Once again, the nest boxes (being in the south east corner of the coop) impeded me a little but the space between the stud at the end of the nest boxes and the window seemed perfect. Holding up the door in that space, it fit like a glove. Whew. That was harder than it should have been.

Next challenge was to cut out the hole. My coop has metal siding so I needed to put a metal cut-off wheel in my circular saw, then cut along the lines I had drawn, then change out the blade again and cut through the OSB. Finally I had a door-sized opening in my coop. Mounting the door itself was easy - just four bolts, using a 1/4" drill bit. Then I had to drill a 5th hole to pass the power cables through to the inside of the coop. The battery needs to sit on a shelf where the birds can't try to roost on it, and I was lucky that I had a perfect spot for it above the window and didn't need to install anything additional. Plug the cables into the battery and the door immediately started moving.

Next I had to install the light sensor. Here's where I ran into a snag. When I first looked at the website for the Pullet Shut Door, it said the light sensor comes with 15' of cable. However in email communications, the guy said 10', and I just assumed it was either a typo or he was thinking about something else while writing. But I guess they changed from 15 to 10 and hadn't updated the website yet (they have since because when I checked this morning, the website now says 10'). I really need 15' to mount the light sensor on the front of my coop with the cable tucked away safely. I have written to them to see if they can help with this. I did install the light sensor but I'm not sure how well it will work since the cable wasn't long enough. Its a little annoying quite honestly, because this is not a cheap door and to have them get stingy with cable that costs pennies.......ya know?

Last thing was to install the solar panel. The instructions say to generously apply caulk. That was a challenge because when you are moving you can't always locate things you know you have but....I finally found it. I figured out a good place to put the solar panel, ran the wires back through the coop to the battery, applied the caulk, put the solar panel on the roof, and hooked up the wires. At first I was confused as there is only one set of connectors on the battery, but two things need to attach to it - the door cable and the solar panel. I finally figured out that the solar panel connectors allow a piggy back so that the door can connect to them. I really feel that information should have been in the installation guide that came with the door. It is in the online manual but I sure didn't see it in the paper version.

Anyway, we shall see tonight if it closes when it should. Sorry if this is too much detail - its just I know that others were considering ordering the door and thought more information might be more useful than less.

 

[medawinks]

Hawkeye, I would be excited to buy one of your culled pullets I don't care how many toes they have! We are really enjoying our "Asian ground parrots"! Yours are gorgeous!

 

[chicken danz]

Heather that was very informative and I'm sure everyone who is thinking of one of those will appreciate it. It is just too much cost for me to justify with my many birds. I never shut coop doors anyway except maybe in winter. It certainly sounds like you know what you are doing.
Medawinks I've been meaning to tell you I have a chick for you if you want it. (Free) It is a little buff silkie chick about the color as the hen you bought at the premier swap. It is the last of the off spring I have from the ones I had. I am thinking it is female just because of it's stance. I am going to put my other silkies for sale at a give away price. I just have way too many projects going here and I'm not messing with them at all. I did ship some eggs to Colorado last week from them but didn't charge for them.
Oh that reminds me, nice to meet you yesterday, SilkieChick. Hope the babies are doing well today. Your daughter is gorgeous by the way.
Trish, I haven't candled my other peacock eggs yet. I guess I hope if I ignore them I'll get something out of them. I may try to hatch some under a broody if I don't sell all my girls by the time I get more eggs.

 

[Silkie Chick]

Chicken Danz: Thanks for the compliment. Silkie Chick is very excited to have the guineas. She watches them (along with the rest of the flock) for hours. It was lovely meeting you, and I now know where to go when I need to add to one of my flocks (silly chicken math).

Live and Learn.

If it wasn't for her chicken knowledge I'm not sure we would be where we are. ~Mama Hen to Silkie Chick

 

[chicken danz]

My DH said as we were leaving yesterday. It sure is nice to see a young person with an interest in something other than video games and hanging around with the in-crowd. He rarely says much of anything so I know he was impressed. He could see how excited she was about the chicks.
Oooh! I just discovered something nasty. I had a pheasant egg that started leaking in the hatcher. That's what I get for keeping it closed tight hoping for pips. So I had to clean out the hatching trays and all the parts to get rid of that smell. I hope it is gone. I hope I didn't chill the eggs. I got some more guineas moved to the brooder in the process. Also Rob if you are lurking hatched another Maran chick for you. It's still soaking wet.
This day is going too fast! I can't believe how late it is already.