Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Well I read on the turkey thread that if you go out & whistle that the tom turkeys will gobble, that sounds silly but I thought I would try it & see if it worked. It worked all right, they gobbled like crazy & there were at least 3 in that bunch I have that are toms for sure so that means half of the RPs at least are boys. The hens only make a bup-bup sound & don't gobble, so I know that the one little RP that I hatched out is a hen now, it was staying anyway, but I'm happy it's a hen. I'm hoping I have at least one more hen in there or I'm going to be in search of another hen because I wanted two. The dominant tom will display if he feels threatened, he puffed all up when I went out & whistled at them & gobbled with the rest, which is cute because he's not full grown yet. Anybody need an RP tom?

I'm going to go out in a bit & see what I can do with that pen to try to get it together, wish me luck. I would rather try to do it first before I ask my DH to help & then if I fail I can say I tried.

 

[chicken danz]

What kind of whistle Trish? You mean like a wolf whistle or just a whistle like whistling a tune? I never learned to wolf whistle. My stupid blue slates are 6 months old and I still don't know for sure what they are. I think there could maybe be just one hen. I would love to find out. I've never heard any of them gobble but I know there is definitely a couple Toms in there cause they have puffed up. I really think they are all boys. I really wanted 2 and 2. That way I could keep a trio and eat one of the Toms for Thanksgiving. No such luck.
I put a dozen lemon cuckoo orpington eggs in the hatcher today. They looked good except one of them. Of course I think I started out with 24 and culled the others early on cause they didn't develop.

 

[chicken danz]

I was sure I had posted a picture of my little pea chick but I guess I never got it done. It is blurry but here (s)he is. I am so excited that it is white. That is exactly what I wanted. I so hope he lives.

 

[JosieChick]

Hechicken-They learn cars really fast, it is amazing isn't it? Molly barks at every darn car that goes by but when DH is coming up for the weekend I hear his car coming and Molly wags her tail!!

Trish- That is a really nice turkey pen, will you come to my house next? The GP puppy is about 6 1/2 months old and I could kill her on a daily basis. She keeps chasing chickens, pulling feathers out of my poor bronze turkey, carrying chickens around by the tails. I supervise her constantly and have used a remote collar but it is a high tech one and doesn't apparently have a bad enough bite so I am going to get a stronger one and spy on her. She is smart and knows when I am around and when I am not. She never does anything to the birds until I go around the corner and can't see her. Stinker.

Danz-Cute pea!!! I just picked up 4 cameo pea chicks last night from that place up in KC. They are really cute but very shy right now. I will try to get some picks of them soon. The guy raises a TON of peafowl, you should see this place. The entire property is pens and pens of peas! He said keep them off the ground for as long as possible. The longer they are off the ground the better they do and if you can get them past 6 months you are usually golden. He also deworms his every 3 weeks with everything under the sun. Since he has so many birds I figure he must be on to something. He said Peas are not like chickens. Chickens can survive with a parasite load but peas will die of it fairly quickly. I think he said he uses wazine, piperazine and fenbendazole but I will double check. I love the white ones, they look like a fairy tale creature. He had whites too and I almost told him to give me some of those too but DH would have died if I came home with anymore than I did. He may still die a little at the four....

Well I have baby silkies, hawkeye I will try to get you a fix tomorrow or Friday. They are adorable. Of course one got stuck in the shell and is spraddled. Ugh. I also have some other eggs hatching under a broody cochin. SO far she has proven to be a very good momma!

 

[Trish44]

Josie, is that the place up in Liberty you're talking about with the peachicks? I saw an ad on CL for them & from their pics they did have a lot of them. I'm thinking of maybe sweet talking my DH into going there while we're in KC the first week of August if they still have any, but with that many I would be shocked if they sold them all by then. He might not gripe so bad if we're going for peafowl instead of something else. I was thinking of maybe getting some black shoulder or some other color depending on what my DH wants. I saw that they had quite a few colors listed. I was wanting some more, but different blood line than the ones I have. We want to see pics of yours! Just hang on for a couple more months & I'll bet your GP pup will settle down. It seemed like they just got to this point where they became different dogs all of the sudden. Mine never did anything to the chickens, BUT my alpha rooster laid down the law to them first thing when they came & they didn't dare go near his hens. I had them for 3 days when he just decided if they were staying he was letting them know who was boss & boy did he ever. Those dogs give the roosters a wide berth to this day. The only issue I'm having right now is I have this little young black sex link pullet that can't seem to get in the pen with the rest at time to go in for the night. I'm thinking that Jasmine is trying to herd it into the run, but it goes the opposite direction & she gives chase. Tonight I got after her because in the process of trying to get it to go in she chased it behind the coop & I had to go rescue it because it had gotten wedged inbetween the back wall & some stuff sitting back there, she was terrified. That's the only thing I can think of why Jas would do that is that she knows the chickens are all supposed to go in at a certain time & when this one doesn't get in there she thinks she should get it in. Otherwise she never bothers any of my chickens at all. That turkey pen is just a dog run with chicken wire over the sides up aways so they don't get their heads stuck in the fence, turkeys are kind of bad about that. I had covered the north side already when the dogs were using it & the top has chicken wire & tarp over it. It it rains too much I have to go out & push the water out, it's not the greatest setup, but it's working for now. At least they have a lot more room in there than they had in the pen they started out in. Now the little peachicks are in that one & they have lots of room right now.

Danz, no the whistling is just like you would call a dog or something, really any kind of whistle you can do. I can't whistle too well either, but it didn't matter. You have to watch & listen well because after the first few seconds they quit reacting to it. I know for positive I have two RPs that are toms & the black Spanish is too. I'm just on the fence about 3 of them yet. I will have to do that again & watch & listen closely to the ones in question. The little one I hatched definitely is a hen, she just says bup-bup, she is so cute, she likes to talk to me at the gate. I'm just hoping I have one more hen so I can have my trio to keep. Then I will sell all the rest. I already have my black Spanish sold, I'm just waiting on Candace since she just had two surgeries & is recovering. Your little pea is really cute, I'll bet it will do fine if it got started eating & drinking well, that seems to be the secret & why my little one didn't I don't know. The other ones I got seem to be doing great. I do have them in a pen on the ground, so hopefully they won't have problems from it. I do have some wazine, I wonder how much I would give them in a gallon waterer? I don't know if the guy that had them had wormed them or not. They're still pretty young, do you think it's OK to worm them now?

KarenS, my Swedish Flower Hen eggs have been hatching all day. So far I have 5 hatched, 4 more are pipping & the other 3 aren't doing anything yet, but they're a day early. I can't wait to get them all hatched & see what they all look like, they're so darned cute! There is so much variety with them is what is really cool about them. The older they get too the more color they get. I can see why they were named what they were, it just fits. They're very curious sweet little birds too, I really like them, I'm sure you will too. I can't wait for yours to hatch! How many eggs did you get from Eileen? If yours don't for some reason do well since they were pullet eggs I will be selling some of my chicks later on, but I have to wait & see what all I have first so I can keep what I want for breeding. With these I'm hatching out I should get a pretty good assortment. The problem will come in when I have to choose which to keep & which to sell, that may be really hard.

 

[JosieChick]

Josie, is that the place up in Liberty you're talking about with the peachicks? I saw an ad on CL for them & from their pics they did have a lot of them. I'm thinking of maybe sweet talking my DH into going there while we're in KC the first week of August if they still have any, but with that many I would be shocked if they sold them all by then. He might not gripe so bad if we're going for peafowl instead of something else. I was thinking of maybe getting some black shoulder or some other color depending on what my DH wants. I saw that they had quite a few colors listed. I was wanting some more, but different blood line than the ones I have. We want to see pics of yours! Just hang on for a couple more months & I'll bet your GP pup will settle down. It seemed like they just got to this point where they became different dogs all of the sudden. Mine never did anything to the chickens, BUT my alpha rooster laid down the law to them first thing when they came & they didn't dare go near his hens. I had them for 3 days when he just decided if they were staying he was letting them know who was boss & boy did he ever. Those dogs give the roosters a wide berth to this day.

Yup, it sure is! It is Leggs peafowl and here is his website http://www.leggspeafowl.com/. He has a ton of colors and they are all wing banded so he knows which is which. He has younger ones too I believe. I told him I wanted 4 cameo but he only had 3 that were in that group listed so he pulled one out of a brooder that was two weeks younger. They are a bit sparse for feathers. I think he is a bit over run with pea chicks and they are picking on each other. Hoping now that they have more space they will grow out their feathers. He keeps them on wire too for quite a while and I have kept a few batches of chicks on wire and they always rub all their belly fuzz off on it.

I hope the puppy settles down. What I need is a really mean roo. I was actually thinking about trying to find a really nasty aggressive rooster and letting her learn a lesson about chasing and chewing on chickens! I have such a bunch of laid back birds, the orp roos would never dare go after a dog that big! Or even a little dog at that!

 

[Trish44]

Josie, my DH was horrified when my RIR roo went after those pups right after we brought them home, but I told him that the roo was doing his job protecting his hens & he just had to set the ground rules. He got them but good a few times, spurs & all if they got too close to the hens for awhile. He doesn't worry about them now that they got it all straightened out, but man those pups went yipping away & even now if he gets too close to Jasmine especially she will just slink away. I was worried a little that it would scare them away from watching over the chickens, but it hasn't. They lay right outside the run at night usually unless they hear something. It's nice because most all of my pens are all in a line along with my rabbit pens & they can see all of them right now. The breeder coop will be a little offset, but still within their sight & they sleep down there in the daytime anyway. Thanks for the website link, I'll go look at that. Now I just have to convince my DH we need to go up there when I go see my Dr. in KC. He usually lets me choose what I want to do when we go because it's usually close to my birthday. This time it will be a week or so early, but that's OK. Oooh after looking at their web site I want to go now!

 

[Hawkeye95]

well, I don't have much time, our judging starts here in a bit. We were at the fair yesterday until a little after 8pm. The poultry superintendent isn't going to do this next year and she is training me to take over for next year. So we set up cages and she showed me the process of how she organizes the LF by their classes. I learned that Houdans, Polish, etc are all Continential -- I had no idea what they were, I have polish! LOL SO much to learn, I was trying to keep up best i could. She was showing me how the cages torn down and how to flip the tables to get bigger cages on. Sigh. We worked for a few hours yesterday and got tags on the cages and then waited for everyone to show up with their birds. OH!!! and when people started arriving, we left really quick to have my son's yeast bread judged... and the judge was so impressed with the bread, he got a PURPLE!!! I'm so excited for him! When she discovered he did not use a bread machine, and he rolled it out, etc...she was thrilled and then told him the consistency and moisture was perfect and that the crust had the perfect color, etc... She never even saw the little finger dent in it! LOL!! The other loaf had sloping sides and this one was perfectly even. SO I'm glad we took it anyway. Okay-- have to run and be sure we have the Lab coat, our grooming supplies, etc... I'll post pics when I get back later... don't know when that will be as this should be a long day.

Josie--- yes please!! lets see those chicks!!! Did you get any vaults?? How did your toes come out? Congrats on your new littles! OH-- and I want to see your peas, too!

 

[sharol]

We would ALL LOVE to see the pictures of SF hen chicks as soon as you can take them.

***snip***

KarenS, my Swedish Flower Hen eggs have been hatching all day. So far I have 5 hatched, 4 more are pipping & the other 3 aren't doing anything yet, but they're a day early. I can't wait to get them all hatched & see what they all look like, they're so darned cute! There is so much variety with them is what is really cool about them. The older they get too the more color they get. I can see why they were named what they were, it just fits. They're very curious sweet little birds too, I really like them, I'm sure you will too. I can't wait for yours to hatch! How many eggs did you get from Eileen? If yours don't for some reason do well since they were pullet eggs I will be selling some of my chicks later on, but I have to wait & see what all I have first so I can keep what I want for breeding. With these I'm hatching out I should get a pretty good assortment. The problem will come in when I have to choose which to keep & which to sell, that may be really hard.

 

[HEChicken]

Congratulations to you and your son Hawkeye!!! He must be thrilled. What a great lesson for him in working hard.

Congrats also on the Superintendent position, though I'm sure it must feel overwhelming.

Tory is continuing to settle in here. Yesterday I took her off the tether first thing in the morning and she hasn't been on since. I had some anxiety about having her unattended overnight in case she wandered too far and couldn't find her way back but.....I was woken at 5:30 by her barking and there was a lot of relief that she was still out there and still watching out for us

The only issue I have with her now is....she went after one of the chickens yesterday. I have a little English Game Hen who is tiny - she is about the same size as my 6-week-old broody hatched LF chick. She is small enough to get under the fence in one place where there was a little gap, and she and the chick do this off and on all day. They run back under whenever they want to. Well, Tory came down to the chicken yard with me and the game hen was out, and Tory went after her. I'm sure it was just the typical "Oh, it moves, that's interesting, I'm gonna chase it" reflex but since neither of my other dogs responds to them in any way, I had hoped she wouldn't either. The game hen is small enough she took flight and easily flew back over the fence so she is fine. I've since taken rocks and placed along that little area where the two of them were getting out to try to prevent it happening again. But....how likely is it that an LGD who has gone after a chicken once, will learn not to? And, will she still be interested in protecting them even though she would go after them herself? I'm thinking "yes" to that question because my inclination is that her instinct isn't so much "I must protect this livestock" as "I must run off anything that doesn't belong here" so if she sees a fox or coyote, she will still run them off. Any thoughts?

Other than that, I am very impressed with her and enjoy watching her in action. Josie, you mentioned how they learn vehicles and I am so impressed that in addition to ours, she has also learned my neighbor's vehicles. We were out there this morning and they were leaving for work, and their walk from their house to their vehicle, getting in and driving away didn't warrant more than a glance in their direction, let alone a bark. Yet a car slowing and turning in the driveway certainly gets her attention.