Consolidated Kansas

[sapphireblu76]

Well, i must be doing something right. The hen is holding her head up the right way now. She is still fluffed up, but at least she's not upside down anymore.

Fern is a very nice looking pup! I hope she is everything you wanted and more

I love that brooder set up. I have used a very large fish tank and a chicken wire pen in the garage in the past.

We are having very nice temps out today and yesterday. We got some much needed rain the other day, too. I really wish it would keep up this way, but I know the heat will return :/

 

[chicken danz]

I guess I live in the worst part of Kansas! It was 95 at noon and it is straight up 100 degrees right now here.
Sunflower I am really happy the puppy is working for you. Candace now has one of my female pups from my last litter she is going to use as a breeder. So many of us are interconnected with our dogs. There are several here that have one of my Pyrenees. I hope you continue to love her. If she bonds to you you will never have a better companion.
My oldest Pyrenees is a momma's girl. I can't imagine not having her.
I got the Serama hen and the chicks moved to the brooder house but she was NOT happy at all. She wanted nothing to do with the chicks after I moved her. So I just shut the door and left her alone. I'll check back later.
I also discovered my smallest midget white turkey is an albino. All the others are much larger than she is and have blue eyes. She however has red eyes. I moved them outside today but was afraid to move her. Do you suppose being outside will bother her eyes?

 

[michelleml]

its a 100 here also no real breeze just hot. I got my oldest registered for school this afternoon so he is ready too go.

Danz do you have any blue laced red wyandottes? or any lavender orpington?

 

[chicken danz]

I don't have any blue laced red Wyandottes. I considered it, but my Wyandottes haven't been a real hardy breed so I willl probably not pursue breeding any more. I do have lavenders but won't have chicks before spring. Mine are all still young or due to hatch within a few days. I so love the lavender orpingtons. They're gorgeous. It's taken me a while to even get this young stock but they are all from import lines. I know they will be absolutely worth it.

 

[michelleml]

i would love to see pictures of your lavender orpingtons when you get a chance. do you keep all your birds together or do you keep separate? i see many people sell different birds and wondered if they keep all the same breeds together and have separate housing

 

[ChooksChick]

i would love to see pictures of your lavender orpingtons when you get a chance. do you keep all your birds together or do you keep separate? i see many people sell different birds and wondered if they keep all the same breeds together and have separate housing

Hi everyone! Just popping in again...on my way to the farm in a few.

I keep my Lavender and Isabel Orps in the same run/coop, and I keep my B/B/S/Mottled Cochins together, same with my Silkies, Ameraucanas, and so on...if the colors are compatible they are together. I make a note of that when selling eggs so folks know there are multiple colors as possible outcomes.

There are some breeds that have to be separated, such as my Black Copper Marans, and they have their own run and coop...so I'm like Danz with 478 coops and runs, waterers, feeders, bruises and poop spots on my clothes...

Off to the farm!!!

 

[chicken danz]

Renee you're hilarious. I do have tons of coops and pens but most of my birds are free ranging. They have their own area but when I'm not trying to breed a particular bird for offspring I prefer they run free. I've been working on a project for over two years to turn an old trailer house into a breeding facility with individual runs so I can separate breeds. But this and that keeps setting me back and I never seem to get far when I'm working on it. I am determined I will get it done this fall some way. Some of my breeding stock is getting old and it's time to breed the best to the best. I'm also reducing breeds but at the same time getting some new ones so it's always an ongoing project. I am sure chooks has some adult lavender orps she could take a pic of. Mine are just young.

 

[cherwill]

This cooler (funny how how 90s/low 100s is "cool" now) weather has been really nice. I'm pretty sure there hasn't been enough of it to affect our electric bill, though. That last bill was crazy, and I know the next will be, but DH is adamant that the air conditioning be left where it is. It's set at 78, which is often a little too cool for me if I'm just watching TV, but not cool enough when I'm up and working so I haven't really argued with him about that. I don't even know what else we could do to lower it; we already do quite a lot.

Trish, I made that Blueberry Goat Cheese Pie a couple of days ago and we love it. I substituted frozen blueberries and it took a lot longer to bake, and I didn't have sliced almonds so I chopped some whole almonds. That made the topping chewier, but it was still tasty. The goat cheese gives it a nice ... something ... without being overwhelming. I'm always thrilled to find new ways to use my herbs, and the basil was tasty in there. Again, it was just enough to give a nice flavor in the background without overwhelming the blueberry flavor. DH thanks you for posting the recipe!

Ugh, my allergies were acting up this morning too. I did turn off the air conditioner and open all the windows, but I think I'm going to have to turn it on in the next few hours...

Our well ran dry last October, and we hauled water until March. It's almost gone now, but we live only a mile from a Government well that we can take from. (THANK GOD!) It's been scary though. And it doesn't help that I started reading The Grapes of Wrath.

My allergies have been acting up a little more the last couple of days, but DH has been just miserable with his. I'm thinking for us it was the little bit of rain we finally had. We're both allergic to mold spores.

Introducing Fern She is home!

She's adorable!

which would you keep. The house we bought has a double door fridge(maytag 2010) but the freezer is way too small. We have a larger double door fridge/freezer(whirlpool 2007) but its been in storage for the past 3 years was only used for a few year before storage and we have a deep freezer trying to figure out which we should keep. I could sell one and use the money on fixing up the house or christmas money.

DH says he likes the one we have in the house cause we don't have to move it and it has a lock on the water/ice despenser. But i like the older one sense it has a little more space in the freezer

I think you'll be glad you kept the new one. As others have said, the newer models are usually more energy efficient and reliable. If your deep freezer is a chest freezer, that's even better than having a larger freezer section to your fridge. Chest freezers are very energy efficient, especially if you use it more for long-term storage. That's what we do -- keep the stuff we use on a more or less daily basis (most frozen veggies, herbs, etc.) and tiny stuff in the small freezer section of our fridge, and bulkier or long-term things in the chest freezer downstairs. Having a "spare" freezer also allows you to buy some things in bulk and take advantage of good sales (a quarter or side of beef, for example) to help save money in the long run.

Fern's first 24 hours... I probably loved on her too much last night - I just couldn't help it

I don't think it's possible to love up on them too much!

do you all have a brooder or do you just let your hens do it natural? I found this picture and asked DH if he could make one for me and he said yes not sure if he know what it is but he said yes. What does your brooder look like and where do you keep it?

That looks like a really nice set-up. Since we live in town and only have room for a few chickens, we usually only have 4-6 chicks at a time. We have kept them in large plastic tubs, and this last batch we kept in the top part of a large plastic dog kennel.

 

[Trish44]

cherwill, I'm glad you liked the pie, we loved it too. It definitely is better with sliced almonds on top, it makes it kind of a glazed topping with the sugar & butter mixture. I didn't have the fresh basil since about everything has died here, but the dried worked fine.

Well it's been an awful day here for me, it started off just bad. I went out this morning to check on all the birds & found two of the Royal Palm turkeys dead in the pen, one tom & one hen. That was really upsetting since they were supposed to be going to HEChicken as soon as she got her pen ready, arrrggghhhh! This darned heat, I could scream! I think the culmination of so many days of being overheated just did them in because I had been putting water in a pan for them to stand in & spraying their pen down so the ground was cool, giving them iced water, the whole bit. They were fine yesterday morning when I left for Wichita & still when I came back that night, so they died some time during the night. I just don't think they could take it any more, poor things. I just feel so bad about it.

Then after finding the turkeys I went out to let the chickens out & half of my little guineas were out again, so I had to catch them all & put them back in. I had to do that twice today, not exactly what I wanted to do today. I finally figured out where they were getting out & put bricks there, so for now I solved the problem. I hope they grow fast so they can't squeeze under & through things so easily because they are buggers to catch. I figured out that we got Royal Purple, that's mostly what I have & then 4 Pearls. I will be excited to see how they look when they're feathered out. I didn't get such young keets before when I had them, so I didn't have the escaping problem before.

I went to Arkansas City today & got a dog house for $10 to put in my grow-out pen just for the birds to get in if they want to. It's just a plastic one that is kind of medium sized, but it's good enough for what I wanted it for. It came apart so I could get it in the pen where I needed it, which was an issue because the gate isn't very wide at all, so anything very big or that wouldn't come apart wasn't going to fit through there. I put it in there & threw some straw in & the birds immediately started checking it out, so I think they liked it. Then while I was down there I had seen an ad for straw on CL for $3 a bale, this year's cut, so I went & got 5 bales of that while I was out. I use it in my pens to keep things cleaner & the birds like to scratch around it in. It's easy then to just rake it out when it gets too nasty. It has helped some with having to keep misters going & spraying things down to kind of soak up the wet places. Anyway, now I know where the guy lives so if I need more I can go get it easily.

I have to take my GPs to the Vet tomorrow for some shots & this will be their first time in a car since they were tiny pups & I brought them home, so it should be interesting. My DH is going to help me get them there because I told him there is no way I can handle the two of them by myself. I figure Jasmine will be the one to freak out on us. Lily probably won't be as much of a problem, but Jasmine just doesn't like being messed with or doing things that she isn't used to. Even brushing her is a challenge. I got this brush that helps get the loose hair out & gets the tangles out without pulling their hair so bad & I was trying to brush them tonight. Lily just sits there & lets me brush her, but I had to hold onto Jasmine's collar & she was pulling against me trying to get away, it was real fun trying to hold onto her & brush her at the same time. Wish me luck getting them to the Vet & back without them tearing up the car. We're taking my DH's old car, but he said he still didn't want his seats torn up, oh fun. I'll let you all know later how it all goes.

Well my DH is having to make two trips this week without me. He's taking our granddaughter back down to OKC to get her tooth fixed again since she knocked off the cap the dentist put on before. She has to be down there Weds.at 1:00 for her appt. I don't know how that trip will go with him taking a 7 year old by himself, we'll find out. He is going to see his family next weekend & to his brother's 50 year anniversary party without me too. In light of all that has been happening lately with my birds & the heat I just don't feel I can leave right now. He finally seems to understand why I can't go & is being pretty good about it, thank goodness.

 

[sunflowerparrot]