Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Well now I'm afraid to even go out and look at these darned birds. I've checked several before and never found any evidence of bumblefoot. But if I did I woudn't know where to start in taking care of it with dang birds every where.
michellemi, a lot depends on what breed of birds you have to determine how much they lay. If you plan to sell eggs I would recommend at least 6 hens. But I don't believe you'll ever have enough to pay for your feed unless you go with something like leghorns or red stars that are bred for feed/egg conversion. I think the perfect ratio of hens to rooster is 9 hens to one rooster. He can handle that many if you want to do your own breeding and that many hens can give you a nice bunch of eggs. I also recommend to add hens slowly so they aren't all the same age. If you don't they will all moult about the same time and you'll have a few months in there you are feeding them and getting nothing in return.
Sunflowerparrot I love to see someone using natural resources that we think of as an invasive weed. I can't remember where I was reading about it but without the cattails, the migratory bird population would probably expire. Cattails are loaded with gluten which adds a lot of protein.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Sunflowerparrot I love to see someone using natural resources that we think of as an invasive weed. I can't remember where I was reading about it but without the cattails, the migratory bird population would probably expire. Cattails are loaded with gluten which adds a lot of protein.

------ Here is one website that talks about all of its uses. We have probably 10 acres of this stuff! Boyfriend spends most of his time here on a tractor cutting it down (and getting stuck in the swamp.. lol). http://www.squidoo.com/wild-foods-cattail-roots

I'm going to start loading a lot of this mowed stuff and beg for a spot in the building/barn to store it so I have plenty for winter to add to the chickens' and cats' bedding to keep them warm over the cold months - ohhh... cold months - can't wait! Then we'll be complaining about the cold? lol

 

[HEChicken]

Sunflower, I wish I lived closer to you. I am intrigued by the idea of using them as bedding. Do you have a picture showing it in your coop? Do you just rake them after mowing, dry and put them down as is, or do you have to run them through a chipper/shredder before they're small enough pieces?

 

[chicken danz]

Here is another page I found on them while I was looking for the article earlier on how vital they are to feeding migratory birds.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/duffyk43.html

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Sunflower, I wish I lived closer to you. I am intrigued by the idea of using them as bedding. Do you have a picture showing it in your coop? Do you just rake them after mowing, dry and put them down as is, or do you have to run them through a chipper/shredder before they're small enough pieces?

I can get a picture for you tomorrow. I Just load it up in the back of a cart and haul the cart with a 4-wheeler.. and toss it into the coop. I don't do anything special with it - boyfriend mows it down with a tractor and it lays out in the field. It is great bedding so far.. I will also take a picture of one of the mowed sections. We have found (before mowing) areas in the cattails that we assume were deer were using as bedding.

 

[Hawkeye95]

So, boyfriend and I went to Lowes and looked around... my coop isn't going to be cheap... wow - abour $1300 for a 8x12. But, we'll be using good materials and hopefully not have to worry about too many repairs down the road. This does not include the cost of the electrical stuff that we'll do too. I will have a wire dug underground that will run from our meter pole to the coop... then about 3 outlets in the coop, a light that will be on a switch, a safety plug for a heat lamp, outlet for a window AC and a ceiling fan.. I think the chickens will have a nicer place to live than me!! My brother is a licensed electrician and I paid to fly him here from New Orleans in exchange for doing all my electrical work for me Was cheaper than hiring an electrician and I get to see my brother and he gets a 2-week paid vacation! We have 3-phrase electricity in the "barn" (building really.. but barn sounds much better) and he'll do a little bit in there like put in a plug for a deep freeze I am going to need to get before October.

I wish the temps would cool down ... I wish it would rain ... I wish my coop was done ... I wish my puppy was here ... I wish, I wish, I wish

What do you wish for?

I wish we knew what we were doing next year!

Other than that, if I could dream big, I want another barn!! OH and about 3 days of solid rain would be nice. Have fun building your coop! Sounds like it's going to be awesome!! So fun!!! So exciting!

I can get a picture for you tomorrow. I Just load it up in the back of a cart and haul the cart with a 4-wheeler.. and toss it into the coop. I don't do anything special with it - boyfriend mows it down with a tractor and it lays out in the field. It is great bedding so far.. I will also take a picture of one of the mowed sections. We have found (before mowing) areas in the cattails that we assume were deer were using as bedding.

I'm close to you... and considering it, but want to see what it looks like.

 

[tweetysvoice]

She is totally grossed out by my chicken houses and the poo but she has a collection of fancy rooster statues in her home. Go figure!

This made me giggle! I have several friends at work that are both intrigued and grossed out by my chickens as well! But this reminded me of an awesome find I found at our Dillons store over the weekend. They had an isle of summer stuff on sale for 75% off.. This statue was reguarly 40 bucks, but I got it for 9.99!!! It now has a prominant place over my fireplace.. LOL

Just stopping by again to give an update on the possible ordinance change in Rose Hill. The Council will be voting on whether or not to approve my request this Monday, August 6. Hoping that the outcome is positive!

Crossing my fingers for you!!!!

What do you wish for?

I wish it would rain, I wish the weather were about 20-30 degrees cooler, and I wish that I didn't have to deal with these darn flies anymore! LOL


Tonight I witnessed something odd with two of my silkies. After giving them their evening treat (frozen peas was on the menu for tonight), two of them started to square off and kept chest bumping with wings spread wide and squawking at each other. - this lasted for over 3 minutes - One finally grabbed the other's neck, gave it just a little tug, and then they both shook it off and went off doing what ever they were doing before. I'm wondering what this might mean. I hadn't seen that with any of my other birds, other than when they were itty bitty. I'm really hoping this doesn't mean that we have a couple roos. (I'm still paranoid that we have at least one). So far there's been on crowing at all, at least that I've heard.
This weekend's agenda is going to be to create a small dog house like structure for the silkies to sleep in at night since they refuse to go up the ramp into the coop at night and insist on sleeping in the duck house. They get stepped on every night when we are rounding everyone up and they ducks head into their house. So I'm going to build them a small house on the ground that they can cram into with a door small enough that they duck can't get into. I'm assuming that silkies don't like to roost, that they'd rather sleep on the ground.
I'm also going to try to do a full coop clean out. I need to rake out all the straw that is muddy and gross from the misters and try to set up some kind of barrier so the run-off from the patio doesn't go into the inner coop.

 

[Trish44]

tweety, that rooster is so cute, I love it! I bought a rooster that hangs & I haven't done anything with it yet, I think I will hang it somewhere on my new coop when I get it done.

sunflowerparrot, I want to see this cattail stuff too, I could use some for bedding in my coop & pens. Is it just the tops you use or the whole plant? I may have to come over one of these days & look at it because honestly I didn't notice it when I looked into your little crate coop. The back of our old truck has been full of wood, we're going to have to figure out where to unload this stuff so we can go get more. The stuff in the back right now is OSB for the walls.

 

[HEChicken]

Ohhhh....Tweety, you're making me nervous. That description of your silkies sounds so familiar. My two used to do that too when they were "teenagers" and it turned out they were both roos. They started crowing around 19-20 weeks of age.

 

[tweetysvoice]

Ohhhh....Tweety, you're making me nervous. That description of your silkies sounds so familiar. My two used to do that too when they were "teenagers" and it turned out they were both roos. They started crowing around 19-20 weeks of age.

Darnit.. that's what I was afraid of. I'll have to get rid of both of them if that's the case. I might have to find me another female then that's about the same age so the one single female isn't lonely. Funny how the extra one the Chooks threw in there because she was spray-legged is turning out to be the female of the three. Glad I took the time to fix her up right!