Consolidated Kansas

[michelleml]

Has anyone ever tried chunky chicken caviar?

 

[schellie69]

Schellie69, I wish I was closer or I'd come get it. I could find a home for it eventually even if it was a ringneck. You could also have an Amhurst or red golden but I think it has too much light color on the face and neck to be one of those. It takes 3 hours to get to Salina from here.
Yes all the polish have vaulted skulls. Makes them really susceptible to brain damage if they get picked on.
Josie, I cranked up the humidity a little and hope they hatch. They'll just do it in their own time. Since polish don't go broody I've never hatched one under a broody hen. Maybe some day when and if I ever get organized I'll try that.
I just tried to candle my two peafowl eggs and I don't think there is anything in them. Grrr! Another wasted bunch of money. They were supposed to be silver pied whites and I waited almost a month to get them. Not good! I wish I could get hold of this gal that is closer so I could get a couple more chicks.

I would be happy to meet you half way or maybe even drive up there with it I really want this little one to find a home I can try get a few more close up pictue's it is not very friendly right now I will try and get a few close up's of the face and neck area. If that would help find this little one a new home.

 

[schellie69]

I had a visit from a very hungry fox last night. I'm lucky it only got 3 of my birds but they had to be Alohas, didn't they. Two roosters and one hen that was DS's pet. It was the first time I didn't dash outside with my flashlight in my pajamas when the neighbor's dogs began barking. I thought, here I am every night paranoid about something getting my birds and tonight I'll just prove it to my neurotic self that all of this dashing out into the night is totally unnecessary. I saw footprints in the mud where we run water on the grounding stake and they looked like a smallish dog, so I'm assuming it was a fox. I just feel sick to my stomach. It was my biggest roo and one of the smallest fiesty roos.

So, I guess I've proven to myself I cannot just go to sleep at night without making a dash outside to chase off unwanted guests. I really need a Great Pyr. Don't know how I'll ever talk my DH into it.

I am sorry that you lost your chickens there is a great pry up for re-homing i saw posted on here maybe it is time to get one.

 

[chicken danz]

Schellie69, I have to make a trip to Topeka within the next couple days. Any chance you could meet me in Topeka? I know that is still a long distance. I have some juvenile pheasant I've hatched that he might fit in with after a brief quarantine. I am waiting on a call that eggs are ready to pick up.
OH Karen I can't believe a stupid predator got through and got some of your birds. I am sure you are just sick about it. Maybe you will have to shut them all inside the big coop at night until you can find a way to get rid of that fox. Does John have a gun? Or maybe you could set up a tender trap if you can find a large one. Bait it with a sacrificial chicken. Then once it is caught kill the no good ...............
I think you need HEchicken and her dead on eye to shoot it for you. You are sure it wasn't a coyote or a dog? Did it take the birds or leave them behind?.
I hope your DS isn't too upset. I know it must be very disappointing.
michelleml, what on earth is chicken caviar?

 

[michelleml]

how does everyone introduce to new chickens to your current flock? i have read to quarantine them for at least a month and you should try to get them close in are is this correct? I found someone local that has a few BO and some blue laced red wyandotte pullets that i would like to add to my flock but the blrw are only 4wks old and my BO are 10-11 wks old any advice

Michelle

 

[HEChicken]

This is like a website inside a website. Its goign to take me a whole day to read all this

So glad you found us! As others have said, don't worry about reading the whole thing. Its really just a conversation and since it started 3 years ago, many of the topics are outdated and irrelevant at this point, so if you just read the most recent page or two, you'll be pretty much up to speed. Feel free to jump in! Where in Kansas are you and what is your poultry situation? (i.e. already have, planning to get?)

I hope you find a home for your pheasant! I haven't said much, but only because I don't have any and wouldn't know what to do with it!

x2. Sorry, but I'm not sure I've ever even seen a pheasant before. Isn't it funny how the chicks of all the different species start out looking so alike? My Coturnix quail chicks looked a lot like chicken chicks and guinea keets but as they grow, they end up looking vastly different. If you hadn't told me that was a pheasant, I would never have guessed.

I had a visit from a very hungry fox last night. I'm lucky it only got 3 of my birds but they had to be Alohas, didn't they. Two roosters and one hen that was DS's pet. It was the first time I didn't dash outside with my flashlight in my pajamas when the neighbor's dogs began barking. I thought, here I am every night paranoid about something getting my birds and tonight I'll just prove it to my neurotic self that all of this dashing out into the night is totally unnecessary. I saw footprints in the mud where we run water on the grounding stake and they looked like a smallish dog, so I'm assuming it was a fox. I just feel sick to my stomach. It was my biggest roo and one of the smallest fiesty roos.

So, I guess I've proven to myself I cannot just go to sleep at night without making a dash outside to chase off unwanted guests. I really need a Great Pyr. Don't know how I'll ever talk my DH into it.

Oh NO NO NO NO NO NO! Karen, I am so, so sorry. DH and I were just talking this afternoon and pondering whether foxes are actually worse this year or if I'm just more tuned into the posts that relate to them as a result of my experience. He thinks it is probably just that when a thread title has the word "fox" in it, I notice it more than I did before and probably he's right, but before my fox visited, I don't really remember hearing that much about them. I was far more worried about coyotes and raccoons than I was foxes.

I know they were project birds and the ones you gave me were birds that didn't fit into your project but if anything has changed on that - particularly the Aloha hen - PLEASE let me know. I need to return your dog crates anyway, so if I can help in any way by giving you back a bird that you are able to use in your project, I would be delighted to do so.

 

[HEChicken]

how does everyone introduce to new chickens to your current flock? i have read to quarantine them for at least a month and you should try to get them close in are is this correct? I found someone local that has a few BO and some blue laced red wyandotte pullets that i would like to add to my flock but the blrw are only 4wks old and my BO are 10-11 wks old any advice

Michelle

Quarantine is a good idea because its possible your birds are carriers of something even if they are not symptomatic, and vice versa. If one group are carriers and the new birds aren't, they might be susceptible. In addition, the new birds might have mites or lice or internal parasites that they can share with yours, so the quarantine period is a good time to treat for any such things so that when you introduce, you know you aren't also introducing pests.

As for how to integrate. The more space you have, the better, in my experience. At my old place, my whole backyard was their stomping ground. New spring chicks were introduced gradually by placing them in a 4x4 A-Frame grow out pen I had, that had an attached 6x4 run. The chicks were able to see the big hens, and the hens could satisfy their curiosity about the new chicks for several weeks while the chicks grew bigger. (They weren't put in there until they had had their 3-4 weeks in the inside brooder). After awhile, I would open the door of the grow out pen and allow the chicks to come out as they were ready. I really never had any integration issues doing it that way.

More recently (only a week ago), KarenS kindly gave me some birds after a fox devastated my flock, but as we only recently moved and are still getting settled in, I didn't have a separate area to quarantine so I confess I went against my own advice. I gave up the A-Frame in the move, but had a little 2x4 run covered in chicken wire and I put the new birds under that, in the middle of the coop area so the rest of the flock could talk to them through the wire, without any risk to anyone. After a few hours, I let the new ones out and all was fine. But again, they have a ton of space to move around, so there was nowhere the new flock could be cornered and bullied or picked on - they had plenty of space to retreat if they felt intimidated. A week later you would be hard pressed to identify the new birds - they are just part of the flock.

So my advice would be to try to give them as much space as possible. If you are able to separate an area of your coop by chicken wire and put the new ones in there to allow them to meet and interact without risk of injury, that's a good idea. And when they are all together, if you can add additional feeders and waterers, that won't hurt because sometimes the original birds will react to the new ones by trying to keep them from food/water.

 

[tweetysvoice]

This is like a website inside a website. Its goign to take me a whole day to read all this

Welcome!! Feel free to jump right in! I hope your not trying to really all 1395 pages before you get to our messages about not having to read all the pages! LOL There will be times that we miss a few days and I'll just go back about 3-4 pages - no way I can catch up when I've missed 20.

I had a visit from a very hungry fox last night. I'm lucky it only got 3 of my birds but they had to be Alohas, didn't they. Two roosters and one hen that was DS's pet. It was the first time I didn't dash outside with my flashlight in my pajamas when the neighbor's dogs began barking. I thought, here I am every night paranoid about something getting my birds and tonight I'll just prove it to my neurotic self that all of this dashing out into the night is totally unnecessary. I saw footprints in the mud where we run water on the grounding stake and they looked like a smallish dog, so I'm assuming it was a fox. I just feel sick to my stomach. It was my biggest roo and one of the smallest fiesty roos.

So, I guess I've proven to myself I cannot just go to sleep at night without making a dash outside to chase off unwanted guests. I really need a Great Pyr. Don't know how I'll ever talk my DH into it.

I'm sooooo sorry Karen! How horrible!!!! Maybe you did chase off the fox all the other times that you ran out with your flashlight, so don't beat yourself up about that one time!

how does everyone introduce to new chickens to your current flock? i have read to quarantine them for at least a month and you should try to get them close in are is this correct? I found someone local that has a few BO and some blue laced red wyandotte pullets that i would like to add to my flock but the blrw are only 4wks old and my BO are 10-11 wks old any advice

Michelle

I introduced my silkies to the flock by keeping them in a small (4x3) wired dog kennel within the bird run so they could see and meet each other and not get to each other. I did this for two weeks, but I would definately quarantine any new birds you bring in that you didn't raise from baby chicks! Since the others are only four weeks old, by the time you've quarantined them for a couple, they'll be ready for outside (unless of course they've already been outside) and then a couple weeks of introduction-separation. This is just my method. Others do all sorts of things, but quarantining and seperating them for the health sake of your current flock is almost mandatory!


Soooooo I found a second egg!!! I'm still not sure whose laying it. It wasn't there at noon and was there at 4pm. AND She laid it in the nest box!! WHOOHOOO!! I'm hoping that wasn't a fluke since the first one was laid right in the middle of the misting patio! I've been out petting the birds all morning and all of the LF are hunching down when i scratch their back, so that's not a clue. LOL. I also added a bowl of really crushed up egg shells for the birds to graze on. I've been saving egg shells since I first ordered chicks (back in January) and crushing them with a rolling pen so they are unrecognizable as eggs.

We had to extend the patio out a bit today (well, DH did it) because the misters were creating a muddy mess right on the outter edges. They do love to play in mud! LOL

 

[sunflowerparrot]

I was geared to this thread after asking about getting a dog to help protect my country animals. I'm not wanting to actually spend a lot of money on a purebred, but would like some information, thoughts, advice, etc about what kind of dog I should get. I have chickens and kittens at the moment. Will expand in the next year to a goat, rabbits and free range chickens. I don't want a huge dog.. will not have a fenced area (have 27 acres.. with water), dog will not be an indoor dog or come in at all.. will have to "fend" for itself outside.. but I will feed/water daily.

Suggestions? Know anyone with puppies.. what is a good breed for what I'm looking for.. etc Thanks!

 

[schellie69]

I was geared to this thread after asking about getting a dog to help protect my country animals. I'm not wanting to actually spend a lot of money on a purebred, but would like some information, thoughts, advice, etc about what kind of dog I should get. I have chickens and kittens at the moment. Will expand in the next year to a goat, rabbits and free range chickens. I don't want a huge dog.. will not have a fenced area (have 27 acres.. with water), dog will not be an indoor dog or come in at all.. will have to "fend" for itself outside.. but I will feed/water daily.

Suggestions? Know anyone with puppies.. what is a good breed for what I'm looking for.. etc Thanks!

I would look at the great Pyrenees (sp) I am not sure what other to tell you I think mutts are great dogs just make sure to work with them about what they are to do and they usually will train well.