Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Hawkeye, those are some funny pics of the wet birds, they look like drowned rats like my little dogs do when I give them a bath, especially the Yorkie. I'm sorry about your bread

, glad you had another loaf. All of that bathing & blow drying chickens looks like a lot of work. I'm sure your son is going to learn a lot doing the shows though, what a great experience for him.

HeChicken, it sounds like Tory is doing really well, I think she will do great at your place! She's a beautiful dog! I hear my GPs out there right now barking at something.

I finally got a pic of my little peafowl chicks, it's not the greatest because they run into their house if I get too close, but you can somewhat see them.



They seem to be settling in well & eating & drinking fine.

Here is a new pic of my turkeys, you can see how big they're getting now, a couple were out of camera range.



They seem very happy in their new pen & they like their roost I put in for them too, they roost on it every night. They talk to me when I go out to feed them or give them water. I actually like all of the sounds they make & at least one of them is starting to gobble. I'm thinking I may have more than one tom, but I'm not sure yet. I only want to keep a trio, so hopefully I will have that & then whatever I have left I will sell.

Over to the right of this pen I'm going to put up my other small dog run I got & put my new Wheaten Ameraucanas in it. The grow-out pen is getting kind of crowded, so I need to get on it. I moved all of the frame down there tonight, but now I have to figure out how to put it together. It's one of those that you wrap the chain link around the frame & clip it on. I'm sure I will need my DH to help me get it together, especially the wrapping part, he will be thrilled.

 

[sapphireblu76]

I hope I'm in the right place we just moved to Kansas a little over a month ago and so far we are loving it. I'm not crazy about all the bugs but i guess with time we will get over it. I'm from TX and a city girl so living out in the country is a big change for us. We currently have 4 buff orpington and kids love having them


Michelle

Sapphire I don't remember how far you were. I know you had a long drive up here to get the pup. As long as I have my gas paid for and fees I pay to the state to get the flock number I don't care, particularly if I can test several flocks in one trip. If I test a single flock I normally charge $5 plus $1 per bird to pay for gas,serum, and the fees. But say, if I drove to the Wichita area and could get several people at once I'd probably just take donations for my gas and serum. I doubt I would use that much serum. I could give you all the forms and the letter to get the flock number and let you handle that angle of the expense and sending it in, which isn't much.
The key to getting it done is being able to have the chickens brought to me one after another and not having to wait to have them chased down. If I have to wait that limits me to getting only one or two flocks tested in a day (depending on the size of the flock of course) which isn't practical.

We're in Hutchinson. If it's not too far out of the way on the way to Wichita, I'd be glad to make a donation for gas and serum. I don't show or anything, but would like the peace of mind of the NPIP testing, especially if I start selling hatching eggs or chicks. We have pens set up already, so the "caught" pen and "done" pen would be no problem. I would still like to get the testing cert for myself, but I will just have to wait a bit, I have too much going on at once, lol.

Thank you all for the advice re LGD's. Tory didn't bark once last night which surprised me. I certainly do like the aspect of people guardian as well. I already have one who barks at anyone who comes in the driveway. She even gets her hackles up but wouldn't actually bite. Our regular mail lady and our UPS guy don't seem concerned by her and just hop out and deliver their packages. But the regular lady must be on vacation and all of last week an older guy did the run. He was really nervous of her. I met him out there one day and told him the dog won't bite but he said when he saw the hackles raised, he wasn't so sure. I can't blame him - I'm sure it is a hazard of the job. Yesterday a package arrived while Tory's owner was here getting her settled in and both my dog and Tory barked at him. They weren't even close to him (Tory was on her leash under a tree far from his truck) but I could tell he didn't want to get out of the truck so took pity on him and walked over to get the package from him.

So, since Tory barked at the mailman and at the jogger last night, I do feel confident she'll bark when she has to and if she doesn't bark at nothing, that is fine by me too.

I'll keep an eye on feeding. I did feed them all together this morning and there were still no issues but I did stand right there with them to oversee. Actually, they're funny how respectful they are of one another's food bowls. All three dogs wanted to look/smell the other bowls to ensure no one was getting something special, and once they'd determined each was getting the same thing, they returned to their own bowl to eat.

Next question: I know some of you have said that for a large dog they don't eat as much as you'd expect. But just how much is that? My dogs are about 40lb apiece and get a level cup morning and night (I.e. to the top of a 1-cup measuring cup, not to the 1-cup mark). I've doubled that for Tory and she is licking the bowl clean. Should I feed a little more even, since she may still have a little growing to do?

I give Sarge a big feed scoop full every evening. He always leaves half of what I gave him for the next day, so eventually there comes a day where I really don't need to put a scoop in his pan. He eats less than my medium sized indoor dog.

Funny story for you! Today is day #3 that I've allowed my birds (2 drakes, 4 ducks, a duckling, and a gosling) to free-range. It is a little cooler today, so we're watering the lawn a little later in the day than usual. My husband went out and moved the sprinkler to right beside the tree that my birds have been hanging out near. I looked out a couple of minutes ago to find my birds not only playing in the water from the sprinkler

but also trying to catch some in their mouths to drink!

I've seen our dog do this (the water bowl just isn't good enough

), but I've never seen any of my birds do it. Silly, silly birds!

Isn't it great to watch? I love watching my ducks play in the water. I put the hose in their tub to fill it and the duck under the water to play with the water coming out of it. Then when I spray them they try to drink it out of the air and flap real big and preen in the spray. Such funny critters!

Okay, so I have some funny pictures!! Today we spent getting ready for the fair... we baked bread, got it prepared and recipe all ready, etc.. THEN we got cleaned up and started washing chickens! We still have one more to do, and I'm so tired, I think we'll do her in the morning. She doesn't have to be at the fair until 5pm. Plenty of time to blow dry and fluff out.

Here is an unsuspecting bird in the sink... (muwahahahaha!!) Fluffy and beautiful for now...

And after her bath... not so fluffy and probably not feeling so beautiful (giggle)

And of course... poor Zorro got another bath. Although I'm really unhappy with his hackle feathers... I'm thinking I might have to go back and try to whiten out his hackles tomorrow morning!

Maybe try some Oxy on it!

He's been drinking that yellow electrolyte water and it has stained him. Sigh.

omgosh they look so funny when they're wet!

Hawkeye, those are some funny pics of the wet birds, they look like drowned rats like my little dogs do when I give them a bath, especially the Yorkie. I'm sorry about your bread

, glad you had another loaf. All of that bathing & blow drying chickens looks like a lot of work. I'm sure your son is going to learn a lot doing the shows though, what a great experience for him.

HeChicken, it sounds like Tory is doing really well, I think she will do great at your place! She's a beautiful dog! I hear my GPs out there right now barking at something.

I finally got a pic of my little peafowl chicks, it's not the greatest because they run into their house if I get too close, but you can somewhat see them.



They seem to be settling in well & eating & drinking fine.

Here is a new pic of my turkeys, you can see how big they're getting now, a couple were out of camera range.



They seem very happy in their new pen & they like their roost I put in for them too, they roost on it every night. They talk to me when I go out to feed them or give them water. I actually like all of the sounds they make & at least one of them is starting to gobble. I'm thinking I may have more than one tom, but I'm not sure yet. I only want to keep a trio, so hopefully I will have that & then whatever I have left I will sell.

Over to the right of this pen I'm going to put up my other small dog run I got & put my new Wheaten Ameraucanas in it. The grow-out pen is getting kind of crowded, so I need to get on it. I moved all of the frame down there tonight, but now I have to figure out how to put it together. It's one of those that you wrap the chain link around the frame & clip it on. I'm sure I will need my DH to help me get it together, especially the wrapping part, he will be thrilled.

Nice looking birds! We just got one of those "wrap around" kind of kennels...you CAN do it by yourself, but it was soooo much easier with a second pair of hands.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Yes, birds are hysterical! I have really been enjoying letting mine free range. They've been spending quite a bit of time under the spruce tree that stands just outside my office window. I'm not sure why they like that location so much, but it is nice for me 'cuz I can keep an eye on them without having to take a break from my work (I'm a software engineer - I work from home).

Yes, I have a paint mare and am in the process of acquiring a quarter horse (QH X TB). Both of my horses are currently staying with my parents in Central KS as it is so dry here that there is NOTHING in the pasture, even the weeds are dead/dying, though the recent rain and cooler weather has helped.

Video is easy to post here... Right beside the link that allows you to add pictures is the link that allows you to post video (it looks like film). However, it requires that the video reside somewhere else (i.e. youtube). I don't have a youtube account and don't care to get one, so I guess I'll just wait 'till I can find another way.

Oh right!! I totally forgot! I remember that now. I bet our pasture is much worse than yours is. No reason you couldn't have your horses there. You have to have to have hay out anyway. I keep hay out all year long-- all thru the summer and winter. There isn't enough in our pasture to support daily grazing. There are weeds, don't get me wrong, but it's nothing they want to eat. I also feed them 12% grain daily to maintain their weight.

Do you do trail riding mainly?

OH, and Hawkeye-I'm not sure when your show is, but your birds should have SEVERAL days to preen and "poof" back up after a bath and before you show them.

I think silkies must be different. I would never wash a day before, but this is from the advice of several of the really active silkie exhibitoners. They all recommend washing the day before because their feathers don't need the oils and whatever else to fluff back up. If anything, they look fluffiest right after their blow out and then kind of go back to normal a couple days later. I know when I was showing our polish when I was a kid, we would wash about 3-4 days ahead of time so they would have a chance to preen all the oil back into their feathers again.

OH!! and I PM'd a silkie breeder last night that does BIG shows and travels the US to do them-- I explained how I washed him and what time our show was; she said I did everything right but I won't get that yellow out. She said it really looks like sunburn and I'll have to wait for molt for the yellow hackles to come out. Sounds like that spot is pretty typical for sunburn, too. Bummer. She did say I could try a little bit of Tide in the problem areas, but she said it didn't look like food/water staining. I guess live and learn and we'll get better at this.

Hawkeye, those are some funny pics of the wet birds, they look like drowned rats like my little dogs do when I give them a bath, especially the Yorkie. I'm sorry about your bread

, glad you had another loaf. All of that bathing & blow drying chickens looks like a lot of work. I'm sure your son is going to learn a lot doing the shows though, what a great experience for him.

HeChicken, it sounds like Tory is doing really well, I think she will do great at your place! She's a beautiful dog! I hear my GPs out there right now barking at something.

I finally got a pic of my little peafowl chicks, it's not the greatest because they run into their house if I get too close, but you can somewhat see them.



They seem to be settling in well & eating & drinking fine.

Here is a new pic of my turkeys, you can see how big they're getting now, a couple were out of camera range.



They seem very happy in their new pen & they like their roost I put in for them too, they roost on it every night. They talk to me when I go out to feed them or give them water. I actually like all of the sounds they make & at least one of them is starting to gobble. I'm thinking I may have more than one tom, but I'm not sure yet. I only want to keep a trio, so hopefully I will have that & then whatever I have left I will sell.

Over to the right of this pen I'm going to put up my other small dog run I got & put my new Wheaten Ameraucanas in it. The grow-out pen is getting kind of crowded, so I need to get on it. I moved all of the frame down there tonight, but now I have to figure out how to put it together. It's one of those that you wrap the chain link around the frame & clip it on. I'm sure I will need my DH to help me get it together, especially the wrapping part, he will be thrilled.

Those Peas are so cute! They already have that little feather thing sticking off the back of their head! So funny! I love your RP's! So beautiful!!! That branch you put in there is perfect for them! They are getting big! They don't have much more growing to do now. They are smaller turkey anyway.

 

[HEChicken]

ooooooh. Oh no. Well yes, he's been in the sun quite a bit. Sigh. Well, that's cruddy news. Means it's not fixable, then. Sigh. Well, he is what he is then... and we'll deal. Ah well. Tonight, someone (I think my youngest) stuck their finger into my son's yeast bread that was already packaged up for the Fair in it's ziplock baggie. We about had a melt down with full out war here. Sigh. Fortunately, we have two loaves, but that was the best one, of course. Now a bird with yellow hackles. I figured it was from the electrolyte water... but he has only had it off and on. I just assumed that must be it. What a day this has turned out to be!

LOL! At this point, we're just going to go to have fun and forget about being too serious about it.

Oh no! So sorry about both the bread and the yellow feathering. I think that's a good attitude - just go and have fun, but it is disappointing when you've worked so hard and looked forward to it for so long.

Here is a new pic of my turkeys, you can see how big they're getting now, a couple were out of camera range.



They seem very happy in their new pen & they like their roost I put in for them too, they roost on it every night. They talk to me when I go out to feed them or give them water. I actually like all of the sounds they make & at least one of them is starting to gobble. I'm thinking I may have more than one tom, but I'm not sure yet. I only want to keep a trio, so hopefully I will have that & then whatever I have left I will sell.

Love your turkey pen and I can't believe how much they have grown!

I have a little dilemma with Tory. 95% of the time she is perfect - sticking around here, playing with the dogs, going for a little explore but coming right back. But then she wants to go off property and visit the neighbors and even when I see her leave and call her, she turns around to look at me, so I know she is hearing me, but then she goes right back to what she was doing. I decided this morning that I would leave her off the tether all day to see how she does. Almost immediately she went out the gate and to my neighbors to the east. I started down the drive to her and by the time I got halfway to the gate, she came trotting back through and followed me back to the house. Then DS came out to chat and I got busy showing him something. I had seen Tory wandering in the direction of the hedgerow that separates our property from the one to the west and then suddenly realized she was gone. That time she was gone about 10 minutes. I called several times but got no response. Finally I saw her out on the road looking a little lost. When I called her, her head whipped in my direction, she came under the fence and loped toward me so I think she was standing in the road trying to figure out where she was and how to get back.

I know you all said LGD's wander. The problem is, our property is part of a land division, where a bunch of 10-acre properties were created. They are rectangles that are longer than they are wide, so although our neighbors aren't close in comparison with our house in the city, they are closer than perhaps some of you who have more acreage. So having her wander, isn't a good thing.

The people who lived here before us installed an invisible fence system but only in the front 3-acres. The problem is....it goes across the front, down the east fence, across our pasture fence and then instead of going all the way to the west fence, they ran it about 60' inside the west. The chicken yard is in the area between the invisible fence and the hedgerow. If I put Tory on the invisible fence system, she will be unable to keep out a predator that enters along the hedgerow as our fox did. Essentially, the fox could cross the street, come in the hedgerow, climb the chicken yard fence and be in the yard killing chickens, and Tory would be helpless to prevent it happening.

The other option is to enlarge the invisible fence to include the whole 10-acres. DH suggested I contact the company and inquire as to doing that, so I called yesterday and about swooned when the guy started talking numbers. Heck, they want $300 just for another collar! $95 to come out and look at the place and provide a quote. And for installation of the fence itself, they charge by the foot, and 10-acres is a lot of feet. Even deducting for the fence that is already there, we are still talking thousands of dollars.

Looking at it from a practicality standpoint, (DH's standpoint), I wanted a small flock of chickens to provide us with eggs. My flock expanded and we moved to more acreage. I built a Fort Knox coop (no small expense) to keep them safe, but a predator got them under circumstances I didn't anticipate. So I tell him I want to get a large dog that has to be fed and cared for, to protect them during the day. And now we need to spend thousands on fencing to contain said dog. At this point even I am thinking "Where does it end?"

Tory is really doing great - I just don't want the stress of not knowing where she is because she went off property, and I don't want to get dinged by animal control for not keeping her ON the property. I can try going around and talking to the neighbors to explain, and hopefully most of them would be understanding but it only takes one who is not. Know what I mean?

 

[Hawkeye95]

Well, I'm bummed, looks like I have a yellow hackled bird until molt. I guess live and learn. I didn't realize the sun would do that much damage. I guess when I build the silkie pen out back, I'll be putting on a full roof over it. That or I won't have any decent birds to show. Sigh.

So, we got everything done yesterday except the one bird. She already had a bath last week and I might just do more of a touch up on her rear and feet rather than a whole bath. She's been wearing an apron, so I may just have to wash her and blow her out to fluff her up... so we'll see if her feathers are all stuck down now or if they will fluff with the dog brush without being fully washed. I have my bird "hairspray" to fluff them. It has a bit of oil in it, and the last time I used it, I think it weighed down their feathers too much. I may try something else instead.

We just have swim lessons and then we're off to the fair this afternoon. So my morning for now is free.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Oh no! So sorry about both the bread and the yellow feathering. I think that's a good attitude - just go and have fun, but it is disappointing when you've worked so hard and looked forward to it for so long.

Love your turkey pen and I can't believe how much they have grown!

I have a little dilemma with Tory. 95% of the time she is perfect - sticking around here, playing with the dogs, going for a little explore but coming right back. But then she wants to go off property and visit the neighbors and even when I see her leave and call her, she turns around to look at me, so I know she is hearing me, but then she goes right back to what she was doing. I decided this morning that I would leave her off the tether all day to see how she does. Almost immediately she went out the gate and to my neighbors to the east. I started down the drive to her and by the time I got halfway to the gate, she came trotting back through and followed me back to the house. Then DS came out to chat and I got busy showing him something. I had seen Tory wandering in the direction of the hedgerow that separates our property from the one to the west and then suddenly realized she was gone. That time she was gone about 10 minutes. I called several times but got no response. Finally I saw her out on the road looking a little lost. When I called her, her head whipped in my direction, she came under the fence and loped toward me so I think she was standing in the road trying to figure out where she was and how to get back.

I know you all said LGD's wander. The problem is, our property is part of a land division, where a bunch of 10-acre properties were created. They are rectangles that are longer than they are wide, so although our neighbors aren't close in comparison with our house in the city, they are closer than perhaps some of you who have more acreage. So having her wander, isn't a good thing.

The people who lived here before us installed an invisible fence system but only in the front 3-acres. The problem is....it goes across the front, down the east fence, across our pasture fence and then instead of going all the way to the west fence, they ran it about 60' inside the west. The chicken yard is in the area between the invisible fence and the hedgerow. If I put Tory on the invisible fence system, she will be unable to keep out a predator that enters along the hedgerow as our fox did. Essentially, the fox could cross the street, come in the hedgerow, climb the chicken yard fence and be in the yard killing chickens, and Tory would be helpless to prevent it happening.

The other option is to enlarge the invisible fence to include the whole 10-acres. DH suggested I contact the company and inquire as to doing that, so I called yesterday and about swooned when the guy started talking numbers. Heck, they want $300 just for another collar! $95 to come out and look at the place and provide a quote. And for installation of the fence itself, they charge by the foot, and 10-acres is a lot of feet. Even deducting for the fence that is already there, we are still talking thousands of dollars.

Looking at it from a practicality standpoint, (DH's standpoint), I wanted a small flock of chickens to provide us with eggs. My flock expanded and we moved to more acreage. I built a Fort Knox coop (no small expense) to keep them safe, but a predator got them under circumstances I didn't anticipate. So I tell him I want to get a large dog that has to be fed and cared for, to protect them during the day. And now we need to spend thousands on fencing to contain said dog. At this point even I am thinking "Where does it end?"

Tory is really doing great - I just don't want the stress of not knowing where she is because she went off property, and I don't want to get dinged by animal control for not keeping her ON the property. I can try going around and talking to the neighbors to explain, and hopefully most of them would be understanding but it only takes one who is not. Know what I mean?

OH wow, that is insane how much those fences cost! We don't have one, so no idea on that. We do have a shock collar and I believe we bought it for about $95. We used the collar to keep our dogs in the the yard. Well... one of them. The other one is a good girl- ha! Anyway, it was a real PITA, but we stood in a window where we could watch, because she only ran off when we turned our back for a minute. Then when she was running and getting close to our property line, hit the button and she was shocked. Kept it up until she knew where her boundary was. Now we don't even have to use the "shock" but just push the "sound" button. You're supposed to push the sound first.. then if no response, then push the shock. Ours has a knob that can adjust the shock from very low to high. We have it on the lowest setting and found that to be adequate.. but we're talking about a very small dog. Perhaps that might be a better option? I don't know. If you go talk to the neighbors, they may be understanding, but maybe not like it. So long as she isn't causing trouble they may not have any problems. But here's another issue-- if those people have dogs of their own, their dogs may want to go after yours or they may feel uncomfortable about letting out a tiny housedog with a huge GP in their yard sniffing around. Speaking from experience-- and mine is very different because the dogs that come over are MEAN.. But we have a 'neighbor' down the road who lets his dogs wander and when they come over, they would love to kill my dogs and my dogs want to go after his dogs and run away off my property after them, and so I'm forced to keep my dogs inside when they are out there. It's annoying. Of course, these are the same dogs that growled at me and threatened me on my own property. Same guy who told me to just shoot them if I felt I had to.. but left me with the feeling that he would be VERY unhappy with that out come. I feel powerless about his dogs and the fact they have nearly killed one of my nice boxwoods along my drive because they pee and mark on it every morning. I've stopped that for the most part-- I set out HUGE rat snap traps they got into. I hope they broke a paw. And I bought expensive chemical dog deterrant which I sprayed the bushes and then sprinkled out pellets. Expensive, because not only are they killing an extablished bush that is in a row of bushes-- so if you lose one, then the row would look creepy, but the chemicals have to be reapplied every time you water or it rains. Those dogs have also stolen things out of our yard and I've seen them chewing on them in THEIR yard. Talk about anger when you see your kids toys you bought being used as chew toys.

I never go get anything they steal, because I know those dogs would try to kill me.

My point is that even if your dog is much better behaved and doesn't growl at someone on their property or is just wandering around, someone is apt to be annoyed by it. That's all I was saying with my experience. However... maybe not, because my other neighbor has a black lab that comes over and wanders around and she doesn't annoy anyone. Mainly because she's a happy dog and lays down and rolls over to be petted and is more of a "happy annoyance" than a scary one. She's also a girl, and won't go marking and peeing on my bushes and killing them. LOL!! She also doesn't steal our kid's toys or tear off my downspouts off my house-- yes, the other dogs have done that! Anyway, I'm not sure what your solution is going to be. But maybe you could check craigslist for a shock collar to start off with?? See if you can teach her to stay in your property?

 

[Ivywoods]

Yes, silkies must be different. I admit, I've never had silkies. Yes, it is definitely an advantage to keep show birds out of the sun.

Danz-If you wash your birds several days ahead, you have to put them in a pen with fairly deep shavings and be sure to keep the cage or pen clean. They do manage to stay pretty clean that way. Actually, one of the worst times for them to get dirty is during the haul to the show. Invarably they manage to poop and get it on themselves, and there is certainly not time to give them a bath at the show. A lot of people take baby wipes so they can do a little "touch up" as needed.

My little turkey poult is a little lonesome. He is cheeping quite a bit more. peep Peep PEEP PEEP. peep Peep PEEP PEEP. Kind of makes me think I've got a cricket in the dining room.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Yes, silkies must be different. I admit, I've never had silkies. Yes, it is definitely an advantage to keep show birds out of the sun.

Danz-If you wash your birds several days ahead, you have to put them in a pen with fairly deep shavings and be sure to keep the cage or pen clean. They do manage to stay pretty clean that way. Actually, one of the worst times for them to get dirty is during the haul to the show. Invarably they manage to poop and get it on themselves, and there is certainly not time to give them a bath at the show. A lot of people take baby wipes so they can do a little "touch up" as needed.

My little turkey poult is a little lonesome. He is cheeping quite a bit more. peep Peep PEEP PEEP. peep Peep PEEP PEEP. Kind of makes me think I've got a cricket in the dining room.

OH! he could be like a Seymore #2! He might really attach to you and be your little follower.

They have the cutest peep. I still hope you get more babies, though, that would be the easiest! Oh and yeah, unfortunately, my rooster has been out in the sun quite a bit. I didn't understand how damaging the sun could be, until now.

 

[cherwill]

Hawkeye, those are some funny pics of the wet birds, they look like drowned rats like my little dogs do when I give them a bath, especially the Yorkie. I'm sorry about your bread

, glad you had another loaf. All of that bathing & blow drying chickens looks like a lot of work. I'm sure your son is going to learn a lot doing the shows though, what a great experience for him.

HeChicken, it sounds like Tory is doing really well, I think she will do great at your place! She's a beautiful dog! I hear my GPs out there right now barking at something.

I finally got a pic of my little peafowl chicks, it's not the greatest because they run into their house if I get too close, but you can somewhat see them.



They seem to be settling in well & eating & drinking fine.

Here is a new pic of my turkeys, you can see how big they're getting now, a couple were out of camera range.



They seem very happy in their new pen & they like their roost I put in for them too, they roost on it every night. They talk to me when I go out to feed them or give them water. I actually like all of the sounds they make & at least one of them is starting to gobble. I'm thinking I may have more than one tom, but I'm not sure yet. I only want to keep a trio, so hopefully I will have that & then whatever I have left I will sell.

Over to the right of this pen I'm going to put up my other small dog run I got & put my new Wheaten Ameraucanas in it. The grow-out pen is getting kind of crowded, so I need to get on it. I moved all of the frame down there tonight, but now I have to figure out how to put it together. It's one of those that you wrap the chain link around the frame & clip it on. I'm sure I will need my DH to help me get it together, especially the wrapping part, he will be thrilled.

Pretty birds. I recognize the "turkey" house; we had one just like it, though not for turkeys!

 

[chicken danz]

Hechicken, just give Tory a little more time to learn where home is. Maybe you could walk her around where you want her to focus her guarding. Another method to train a dog is to use an obedience training collar. They are the ones with the metal spikes. It mimics the same action as a mother dog uses to correct her babies. You can walk the dog and if it goes to get out of the fenced area you just pull back sharply. Here's a link to what I am talking about.
http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e07483-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&gas=collar
I think if you just give her a little time and let your nearby neighbors know that she is learning where home is all will be fine. It just takes a little time. Show her lots of attention right now so she gets a sense of belonging. I certainly wouldn't consider spending that kind of money for something like an invisible fence. I think she is just scoping out her territory.
Hawkeye I've seen some really awful looking birds come here for testing from people who didn't have a clue about showing. They would buy some ratty old bird and think they had something special to show. I think the judges are pretty keen on these things and can tell a well cared for bird from others. And your son is prepared so that is that much more to his benefit.
As far as the bread goes that just adds character. Makes me smile because a judge will probably get a nice happy thought in their head when they see a tiny finger hole.
Afterall it's to teach the kids and with kids disaster just happens. That is what makes them so precious.