Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Sunflower, that is about what I am paying for mine. But every week when I go get another load it goes up some more. A year ago I was paying about $5 a hundred for corn. Now it is up to $14.50 a 100. Milo and oats have taken a tremendous jump as well. I am still feeding over 1000 pounds a week and it is very expensive. I get about 1200 pounds at a time and it is now costing about $250 where even a few months ago it was about $175. That is precisely why I am downsizing and trying to concentrate on a group of layers and then breeding some nice chicks. The game birds pay for themselves about once a year but you have to put a lot of feed into them while you wait for a payday.
I love my birds and I don't want to get rid of any of them but I don't make nearly enough off of them to begin feeding them.

 

[cherwill]

Poor New Sophia laid two eggs today! We stuff the nesting boxes with taped together egg cartons at night (because the young 'uns will roost in them if we don't) so I know there were no eggs before this morning. Since she's the only one who lays the blue-green eggs, they both had to be hers. The other laying EE lays olive eggs, and the two remaining EEs are a couple of months younger and not laying yet. One of New Sophia's eggs was covered with what looked like a thin layer of dried egg yolk, but I could find no sign of a broken egg in the box.

I don't know what's gotten into my birds, but we're getting 4-6 eggs a day lately, and one day I got 7 eggs from our 8 layers. FINALLY! My in-laws are going to be thrilled because I finally have enough eggs to supply them with some again. I hope it lasts.

Here's a picture of New Sophia's egg, Dorothy's first egg, then her second (and much larger) egg, then an average sized egg from one of our older layers. I can't imagine what a surprise that second egg was! The rest of Dorothy's eggs have been closer to the size of that first one, maybe slightly bigger.

 

[HEChicken]

Cherwill, all four of those eggs looks to be a different color - are you quite sure it was New Sophia and not another layer that laid the second egg?

 

[Hawkeye95]

hawkeye the kids want the same people i also have a 10 yr old that wants the pillow i think i saw them in the ltd commodities catolog i may try them. My DD who is three took a nap in her room today so i think its just going to take some time.

What do you all use for feed? Do you let your flock out to free range most of the day and find food on their own?

Michelle

http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Twiligh...8&qid=1343480382&sr=8-1&keywords=dream+lights The Dream Lights are the pillow pets that my kids want. They glow and they are supposed to show a scene on the ceiling when you push them. This one is the most expensive-- but the others range around $28 on Amazon. You may even be able to find a much better deal on eBay. I shop Amazon and eBay all the time.

Hawkeye, I do already have one tiny little tabletop fridge up in our office, but it only holds about 6 dozen eggs. Sometimes I have 10 or 11 dozen before I get someone to come get some. I probably will have more than that this fall when my young chicks start laying & it's cooler. Right now not all of my hens are laying in this heat. The lady that is my best customer came again today & took all 8 dozen I had, so that should make my DH happy again. She said she is surprised my hens are still laying at all in this heat & I said yeah me too.

oh wow, that fridge of yours sound teeny tiny!! The mini fridge we have downstairs is a stainless steel number and is tall enough that it is nearly counter height. It's meant to fit into your kitchen under the counter. But we just have this special nook we built out for it down stairs. It's a lot bigger than what you're talking about and we didn't pay too much for it. When we first moved into this house, we got a temporary fridge for a couple of month and it was an apartment sized fridge. It was nearly as tall as me, except that I could see over the top. Adorable, good on energy consumption. They don't cost a whole lot, either. It was a Roper. We gave it to DH's dad when we got our fancy fridge and he stuck it in an apartment of his.

I have a friend who buys feed from the coop by the ton and it is her high protein mix - she sells to me for 17 cents a lb! I can ask her if she's interested in selling to other locals - she has quite a large poultry thing going and sells a lot of eggs and broilers. Anyways - Winfield/Oxford area, let me know.

Sounds like a good deal, for sure. I'm down your way, but don't know if I want in or not. I don't need a whole lot of feed anyway. Is it mainly corn, or crumbles... what does it look like?

Another long day. I thought my chickens had cut back on laying but DH found at least 10 dozen they had laid out in the barn here and there. I hate wasting all those eggs. I might take some of the red star eggs and try hatching them. I have a big ole brahma roo who thinks they are his ladies and brahmas are great layers as well. I think it would be a decent laying mix for the future. At least I wouldn't just be trashing all those eggs.
I went to town and delivered 5 cockerels and two drake pekin ducks to my Chinese client. He now has decided he wants to buy a couple hens from me. He looked at my garden yesterday when he was here. Today he said your garden has no bugs. I have to kill bugs all the time. I want to buy 2 hens to eat bugs. I told him I could sell him the hens and he would have some of his own eggs. Of course he has no fence or a coop. I have noticed he does garden the most spectacular way. He has vegetables planted in every little nook and corner without it looking out of place or unsightly. It is all weed free and very tidy. An amazing use of space. I really could learn a lot from him. He uses no chemicals at all and his vegetables are beautiful. Today he gave me some chinese cucumbers which are weird looking things. He said they have a lot better flavor than American cucumbers. He told me if I liked them he would save some seed for me for next year. He has built trellises using natural branches and stuff that are more or less woven and look beautiful. It amazes me how some other cultures make so much better use out of all that they have than we do.
I also went out and gave my peafowl some more left over salad greens. The strategy I am trying has really worked. I was told to give them ice in their water and any kind of veggies and greens. So I've been dropping a 2 liter bottle of ice in their water and giving them cucumbers and peppers since that is all I have right now. Sure enough the hen got up from her nest and she has three eggs in there!!! I am so thrilled. It is late for a peafowl to lay but by golly she is.
Yesterday I gave the geese some grass I pulled and a bunch of radishes that had gotten woody. They were thrilled with them. I may never end up with a decent garden for myself but if I can feed the refuse to the birds I am happy. I wish I lived closer to some bigger restaurants. I would take all of their leftover veggie greens and cuttings.
Josie I watched videos and read from that link. There were a couple of horses in there that made me tear up. Now the problem is if I see a horse that needs help I am going to want to rescue it!! I am going to have to really make myself behave. I will have to keep reminding myself I can't save the world.
I went to the poultry barn today at the fair to see the entries. I was glad to see several of my birds were there that I sold to various people. I even gave a friends daughter a couple of young guineas this spring and they got 1st prize. One of my buff cochin chicks I sold her got a purple. A pair of pheonix I sold another friend got a purple and a red. All three of the bantam polish another guy got from me had one prize or another. Personally though I didn't see the kind of birds I expected. Most of them looked pretty raggy. It is an open outdoor facility. There were some fans aimed more at the people that were sitting there and some misters but not much to protect the birds. Some of them didn't look well at all.
I noticed all of the entries were the children of whom I sold the birds. So my stupid question of the day is this. If these are 4H birds, and only children enter, how on earth can I enter birds next year when I have no children?? I am so convinced I could rock the competition off their heals. My birds are much nicer than most that were there. I don't want to travel all over to enter birds but I am trying to get some respectable stock to show. Where can I show them?
I'd better go check on DH. He is out trying to finish the gate post for the electric fence.

I just became aware of a Luffa plant (edible) and people grow them and make their own sponges. http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=689 On other sites, they were calling them chinese cucumbers. But then when I googled chinese cucumbers, it brought up an entirely different plant. BUT--- how cool would it be to grow your own Luffa??? Was that show a county fair??? If it's a county fair, they allow an "Open" class there. If it's just a 4-H show that has nothing to do with the county fair, it might not allow Opens. But the county fairs do. Next year you can enter, just talk to the barn superintendent before the fair and tell them you are coming so they can count cages. Then you'll have to go get cage cards a week (or just a few days) in advance. Fill those out and turn them in so they can have the cages ready when you get there.

Poor New Sophia laid two eggs today! We stuff the nesting boxes with taped together egg cartons at night (because the young 'uns will roost in them if we don't) so I know there were no eggs before this morning. Since she's the only one who lays the blue-green eggs, they both had to be hers. The other laying EE lays olive eggs, and the two remaining EEs are a couple of months younger and not laying yet. One of New Sophia's eggs was covered with what looked like a thin layer of dried egg yolk, but I could find no sign of a broken egg in the box.

I don't know what's gotten into my birds, but we're getting 4-6 eggs a day lately, and one day I got 7 eggs from our 8 layers. FINALLY! My in-laws are going to be thrilled because I finally have enough eggs to supply them with some again. I hope it lasts.

Here's a picture of New Sophia's egg, Dorothy's first egg, then her second (and much larger) egg, then an average sized egg from one of our older layers. I can't imagine what a surprise that second egg was! The rest of Dorothy's eggs have been closer to the size of that first one, maybe slightly bigger.

Each of my birds lays the same exact color each day. My silkie hens lay a light tan color-- but one is darker than the other, so I always know who is who. These eggs all look to be different colors--- I don't think any of these are are by the same bird. The one on the right side end, looks more like a Wyandotte egg. At least that light tan color is the same color my Wyandottes lay-- mine are a bit darker, but not by much. Anyway, not saying you have a Wyandotte -- but if you have a tan egg layer, there's your culprit.

 

[chicken danz]

Thanks Hawkeye. It is a county fair but I didn't see anything marked as open class. There sure weren't many birds. I expected so many more since they had approved having at least hens in town this year. So do those in the open class compete only with others in the open class? I am confident I could win a number of breeds but I certainly don't want to be the only entrant. That wouldn't be a contest. By the same token I wouldn't want to win over the kids either. I would just like to be able to say that some of my birds won without saying some of my off spring won. Just because they came from me doesn't make them outstanding if they weren't cared for the way I would. I could see who I've sold to that cares for their birds and who just basically enters them.
I'm regretting that I didn't ask my son more questions about 4H. He did flower arranging and livestock judging but had nothing to do with chickens. I was just happy he was showing an interest in an outside activity. He was my brain child and didn't care much for sports so I encouraged him to do whatever he was interested in.
So the last few days I'm getting a lot of education about fairs and horses. I still love learning things. I love it when people ask my advice or ask me things but it is always refreshing to know I've learned something new.
My duck buyer is showing up soon and I got up really late. I was just enjoying laying in bed too much. It's such a rarity. I should be out watering them but I'm "watering" myself with a cup of coffee instead.
Our first attempt with the electric fence netting wasn't good. We only had power a few feet. I guess we are going to wet the ground some today and see if that helps the ground rods function. I am thinking the old positive/negative fences of past years were maybe easier to set up.

 

[Trish44]

cherwill, I agree with Hawkeye, those two eggs aren't from the same bird. The one on the end does look like the same color as some of mine lay, but I can't pinpoint the Wyandotte because I have never been right there when she laid, but I do know she lays an egg similar to that because I've seen where she lays most of the time. That other egg, the 2nd one over from the right almost looks olive, do you have an olive egger?

I'm just surprised my hens are even still laying with this darned heat. I have kept the fan going in the coop non-stop lately. I either have it pointed at the roosts or during the day at the nest boxes & they seem to appreciate it.

Yeah Hawkeye, this little fridge we have in our office was just intended to be for something to drink & maybe some snacks when I had my knee surgery & couldn't get up & down the stairs well for awhile. I had a torn meniscus & had to have surgery over a year ago. When my DH went to work it was hard for me to get downstairs to get things for awhile, so I just made sure there were things in that little fridge to get me by until he got home again.

Danz, could there be any weeds or anything short circuiting the electric fence? I think that is one issue with those things.

Well better get motivated here, I need to get a grocery list together so I can do that chore later on. My DH left to go to the gym to run this morning & came back only about an hour later saying he wasn't in the mood to run today, huh? So he went out to work on the coop instead, yay, that's all right with me. He has started building the front wall framing, some progress at last. He said that when he left to go into town there were a group of wild turkeys at the end of the driveway. I'll bet our turkeys are calling them in, but the dogs won't let them come onto our property. How does a dog know one turkey from the next I'm wondering. The only difference is that ours are in a pen & these aren't, maybe that's why they figure they don't belong here, I don't know.

 

[cherwill]

Cherwill, all four of those eggs looks to be a different color - are you quite sure it was New Sophia and not another layer that laid the second egg?

Each of my birds lays the same exact color each day. My silkie hens lay a light tan color-- but one is darker than the other, so I always know who is who. These eggs all look to be different colors--- I don't think any of these are are by the same bird. The one on the right side end, looks more like a Wyandotte egg. At least that light tan color is the same color my Wyandottes lay-- mine are a bit darker, but not by much. Anyway, not saying you have a Wyandotte -- but if you have a tan egg layer, there's your culprit.

cherwill, I agree with Hawkeye, those two eggs aren't from the same bird. The one on the end does look like the same color as some of mine lay, but I can't pinpoint the Wyandotte because I have never been right there when she laid, but I do know she lays an egg similar to that because I've seen where she lays most of the time. That other egg, the 2nd one over from the right almost looks olive, do you have an olive egger?

Sorry, I wasn't very clear with my explanation. The picture isn't of the two eggs New Sophia laid yesterday, it's just meant to show a variety of the eggs I get and how (EE) Dorothy's first and second eggs (the two in the middle) were quite different in size. They weren't laid the same day. IRL they were much closer in color than the photo shows. There are only two new birds laying that I know of and they're the EEs. The BOs, Australorps and Wyandotte all lay various shades of beige or tan eggs. New Sophia is the one I'm sure laid two eggs yesterday. I didn't take any pictures of that. She's the one who lays the tiny blue-green eggs, like the one to the far left in my photo. There were two of those yesterday, one olive egg and several tan eggs. There were no eggs at all when we let them out of the coop, so I know none were laid from the night before. Since there are only two EEs laying and their eggs are quite different in color from each other, I think she had to have laid both of the blue-green eggs. Unless one of the two remaining EEs started laying, but they're both at least 2 months younger than Dorothy and New Sophia. Those two just started laying a couple of weeks ago. Could the younger ones be starting to lay already, even though they're so much younger?

I hope that made more sense!

 

[chicken danz]

I just sold all of my baby ducks and then had someone show up and buy 5 dozen eggs. I had to gather them cause I was still feeding and watering and egg gathering is usually my last chore. Anyway it is nice to have another 64 ducks out of here. I let my remaining Pekins out of their pen and they are having a great time. I put a pan of water out and was spraying them with the hose and they were so enjoying it. DH took some pictures. I had a huge crowd there cause the Anconas decided to join in on the fun.
I just got the Mandarin pond cleaned and am refilling it right now. I had to come in and cool off before I did any more work. I can't believe how late it is already and how much I have to do yet. I wanted to go buy some blue slate turkey chicks today but I haven't even had time to get around to calling them yet.

 

[HEChicken]

Sorry, I wasn't very clear with my explanation. The picture isn't of the two eggs New Sophia laid yesterday, it's just meant to show a variety of the eggs I get and how (EE) Dorothy's first and second eggs (the two in the middle) were quite different in size. They weren't laid the same day. IRL they were much closer in color than the photo shows. There are only two new birds laying that I know of and they're the EEs. The BOs, Australorps and Wyandotte all lay various shades of beige or tan eggs. New Sophia is the one I'm sure laid two eggs yesterday. I didn't take any pictures of that. She's the one who lays the tiny blue-green eggs, like the one to the far left in my photo. There were two of those yesterday, one olive egg and several tan eggs. There were no eggs at all when we let them out of the coop, so I know none were laid from the night before. Since there are only two EEs laying and their eggs are quite different in color from each other, I think she had to have laid both of the blue-green eggs. Unless one of the two remaining EEs started laying, but they're both at least 2 months younger than Dorothy and New Sophia. Those two just started laying a couple of weeks ago. Could the younger ones be starting to lay already, even though they're so much younger?

I hope that made more sense!

Oh gotcha! I've had it happen and hesitated to mention it because I figured people would poo-poo the idea as impossible but when I mentioned it on here several people said new layers will sometimes do that. In my case, I also knew it was the same bird because I only have one Cuckoo Marans and her eggs are quite distinct from the others. The first time she did it, she laid 4 eggs in one day

They were all hard-shelled too. Needless to say she didn't lay at all the next day or two. It was several weeks later that she did it again and that time she laid two eggs in one day. In both instances I knew they hadn't been left from the day before because on the day she laid four, there was another new one there every time I went out to look that day!

Well, we have decided not to keep Tory. Long story short, the stress of dealing with her was worse than the stress of worrying about the chickens. The first couple of weeks she was doing fine but this last week she really started to roam and it was stressing out DH and therefore causing tension between us. Although the neighbors have so far been nice about it, he is acutely aware that we are new to the neighborhood and he doesn't want rifts with the neighbors before we even get started here. Already I have roosters crowing and guineas, so a wandering dog might be more than they can take. Also, she started to run out to the fence and squeeze under whenever a jogger or bicyclist would go by and ignored my command to stop. I understand LGD's are free spirits but they are still dogs at the end of the day and in my mind, they can't call the shots - they have to accept me as pack leader, just like my other dogs do. Tory will come when called - if she feels like it. If she doesn't, she'll just look over at me and continue on her way. And if there were a jogger, bicyclist or someone walking another dog, forget it. I've had to run out and apologize profusely more than once and while everyone has been understanding so far, quite honestly, I wouldn't be that happy if I were the recipient of a huge dog running at me barking while I jogged past so I wouldn't blame someone one bit for getting upset enough to report it. We've spent days discussing various options, and I've talked to my neighbor from two doors down about installing do-it-yourself electric fencing. He did his own and rigged up a neat way to do it, borrowing a relatives tractor and hooking up a hook upside down so it dug a little farrow when it was pulled. He even got the wire to feed down through the hook and directly into the ground and then his wife walked along behind pushing the dirt back down with her foot. So I was going to ask him to help me do the same at my place. However even he said the ground is just too hard now and we should wait until Fall so in some ways it felt like I got a free pass to wait a few months (although his isn't the only place she roams). Although that also means 2-3 more months of daily stress over wondering where she is at any given time. I had previously asked my neighbor if I couldn't just install it above ground but he said he wouldn't recommend it because it would be too easy to take it out with a mower or weeds or even weather, and then the system wouldn't work at all until repaired.

However even to install it myself, buying the system online and paying him to help me install it was going to end up costing several hundred dollars so I had to sit down and give it more thought. I have a small flock of poultry, and to protect them I adopted a large dog who is going to need care and feeding the rest of her life, only now, in order to keep the dog home where she can actually DO her job, I have to spend hundreds to keep her in. And it hit me that although I value my flock, that was going overboard.

The other piece of it is that I'm not sure how good a LGD she is going to turn out to be anyway. It is to the point now that she will disappear in the morning to go and play with above-mentioned neighbor's dog and be gone (if we don't go and get her) for hours. They are far enough up the road that if something were going on down at our place, she would never know it. When she comes home, she sleeps for the day (which is fine - I get that they are nocturnal dogs) but this dog sleeps far more soundly than most people. I've walked over her, opened and closed the house door or car doors loudly right next to her and its not that she's just deciding these are sounds she doesn't need to react to - she is so sound asleep she never even hears us. When Trish came to visit the other day, my other dog ran out and barked and sounded the alert that someone was here - I don't think Tory ever knew Trish was here even though we walked down to the coop a couple of times and stood in the driveway talking - only feet from where Tory was asleep under the front porch - before she left. And, although she did find the possum the other night, when a stray cat ventured onto the property, Tory never saw it. I had to lead her to within 20' of it and once she saw it she chased it off but it made me wonder how effective she would be at chasing off a daytime predator, like my fox that attacked at 5:30 in the afternoon - a time when Tory is typically still sound asleep. I'm not that concerned about nocturnal predators as my coop would really be pretty tough for something to break into.

So what we have decided to do is to go back to the two dogs we already had, except we are now putting them in the chicken yard to sleep at night. We're going to even move our Dogloo into the chicken yard so they'll have a way to get out of the weather and a place to sleep in the winter. And, if we're going to be gone for a few hours, we can put them in there then too. I trust both of them completely around the chickens. They've slept there the past two nights and even though the chicken door is open by the time I go to let them out in the morning, none of the birds seems worried about the dogs. I am hopeful that their presence will keep any nocturnal predators from even thinking about climbing into the yard. I'm also going to hope that the 5:30pm fox was an anomaly and that future attacks will not happen during the day (although like I said, I'm not sure Tory would notice if she was here

)

 

[Trish44]

HEChicken, I'm sorry that Tory has not worked out. It may be that she just wasn't the right dog for you since she has not grown up with your chickens or been with any kind of birds or livestock before. My pups grew up on a ranch with all kinds of livestock & birds around & they were exposed as soon as the mother brought them out to the barn when they were tiny, so it's just in their makeup to protect what is here. They checkout any new birds or animals that come in & it's like they catalog them so they know what belongs, it's pretty amazing to me that they do that. Anyway, I hope your other dogs being in the chicken area discourage predators from coming in there. You do have a nice fenced area for the birds, the only concern I have is the trees right behind there where some things like possums & raccoons could hide, but maybe if they see the dogs in there they will stay out.

Danz, it sounds like you had a good day with sales today, that's great! I sure wish I could sell some rabbits, that would make me happy right now. I have 5 baby Mini Rex that I really need to find homes for soon, but people are so reluctant right now to buy them in this heat. I have about 3 adult rabbits I also need to move out of here to make room for 2 new bucks I need for breeding. I lost one of my breeding bucks awhile back & now only have one I can really use, so I was trying to find some, but the ones I want are in Missouri & it's going to cost me too much to get them transported right now. I could probably arrange to get them if I was going to KC, but I have decided not to go right now due to the heat, I'm going to postpone my appt. until later in the fall when it's cooler. I just can't take the chance of leaving for 2 days right now & don't want to have to pay someone to come over to take care of things. It's just better that I don't go anywhere right now.

cherwill, I guess we all misunderstood you about the eggs, you do have a variety there. I also have quite a variety in my egg basket when all of my hens are laying, which they're not right now. I was looking around at my hens today & only a select few are even laying in this heat. I can't blame them though, it's so hard on them.

I think my DH got most of the front wall frame built today & said he's out of screws & we need to go get more wood, so I guess that kind of slows down the flow again until we can get out to buy some more. I'm happy to see some progress on it though. I think once we start putting up walls it will go a little faster. Just getting started on them I think is giving my DH a little more confidence now that he has some plans to go by. I can't wait to see it all go up. It was funny because when he was out there putting in screws earlier every time he would use the electric screwdriver the turkeys would gobble at him.