Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

I have 5 of my little lavender orps hatched so far from this last bunch. I had 10 fertile eggs from the dozen when I candled a 10 days ago or so. I didn't recandle, but just put them all in the hatcher. I sure hope the others hatch and I have some pullets this time!! I get so excited about these birds. I would love to have a huge group of breeders. Maybe tomorrow I will try to set up a light and try to vent sex them. First time for everything!
I need to get another bin set up in here for them. I want them where I can monitor them closely.

 

[michelleml]

im not sure dh would be crazy about having more than one coop up.

 

[michelleml]

all you horse owners what do you feed your horses during the winter? she is in pasture sense she is young we don't ride her so i'm trying to prepare for winter any help is appreciated

 

[HEChicken]

all you horse owners what do you feed your horses during the winter? she is in pasture sense she is young we don't ride her so i'm trying to prepare for winter any help is appreciated

Michelle, my horse is casually worked - a couple times a week throughout the year he gets ridden for about 2 hours, and in the spring and fall we do the occasional all-day trail ride. I supplement year round with a 12% grain. He gets a 1/2 coffee can morning and night. He also gets 2 flakes of hay morning and night. I don't vary the feeding throughout the year so he gets the same summer/winter. He also gets turned out into our pasture 3x a week and can graze there. In the spring there is fresh grass to eat but other times of the year the pickings are slimmer. In addition, when I am out there, I am allowed to turn him out on a field that has brome. In the spring it is so rich that after about an hour they've eaten as much as they should. I try to turn him out for an hour or so 2-3 times each week.

As far as other winter care.....I pull shoes at the end of fall and he goes barefoot until spring. The feet grow more slowly then so we have the farrier come out and trim about every 8 weeks. I don't blanket except on the coldest of cold days. My guy is pretty hardy so it is only when it is single digits that he starts to notice it is cold. Last winter I didn't even pull my blanket out of storage at all.

 

[Hawkeye95]

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.

That's great!

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?

WOW-- that is way cool!! What did you decide to do?

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

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.

Well my DH is having to make two trips this week without me. He finally seems to understand why I can't go & is being pretty good about it, thank goodness.

So sorry about your turkey!! Wow, that is crazy they died when it was cooler. Good luck with the GP fiasco to the vet. I'd cover those seats with big thick quilts and blankets or they will tear it up. I don't care how old my vehicles are, I wouldn't want them torn up either.

Glad your DH is okay with you staying behind. Too hot to leave the animals alone, for sure.

Maybe tomorrow I will try to set up a light and try to vent sex them. First time for everything!
I need to get another bin set up in here for them. I want them where I can monitor them closely.

How do you vent sex?? Is there a youtube or something that tells how to do it?

all you horse owners what do you feed your horses during the winter? she is in pasture sense she is young we don't ride her so i'm trying to prepare for winter any help is appreciated

I feed grain ALL YEAR LONG. There isn't a season you can not feed grain. You can't stop feeding in the summer just because things green up. I don't care how much "grass" is out in that pasture, they need supplements and constant supply of hay at all times. I buy mineral and salt licks and those are out by the barn. I have these really handy rubber pans they sit in to keep them from getting dirty. (the pans are made for the licks) Then I buy a top dressing that is chock full of vitamins and extra fat and that goes on top of their grain. My paints are easy keepers, so they get 2 cans a day and no top dressing-- that equals about 12+ pounds of grain. My older mare is so old now that she needs a lot more grain and so she gets 4 cans. These are not the small measuring scoops for grain-- those are too small. I use the extra large coffee cans from SAMS. I buy the $8.79 bags of 12% sweet feed at Atwoods, and I use up a bag every day more or less-- on the less side since I can scoop out 2 cans for the next day. So since I'm never in my truck in the summer-- because I always have kids with me (I have a regular cab and can't fit 3 kids in front) I just pile up 7 bags of grain in my trunk in my minivan. Unfortunately that means that I get grain every single freakin' week. As soon as the kids go to school, I'm taking my truck to get grain and will get 2 weeks worth of grain like I do in the Fall/Winter. I will get over 1,000 lbs of grain and that lasts me 2 weeks.

PLEASE don't fall into the false thinking that a pasture can support a horse, because it can't. OH, and also, try to buy brome over prairie hay UNLESS you know the guy cutting the hay and he can tell you face to face that the prairie is not full of weeds. I would never buy prairie if I didn't know the supplier. I did buy a mix of brome and prairie this year, BUT I've been using my hay guy for 20 years now. He knows me and if I get weeds in my hay, there is hell to pay. I paid $65 this year for my round bales. But it's too late in the summer now-- if you are buying rounds now, they will be around $85 a bale. You have to snap it up early. I use a supplement called "Cool Calories" to boost any horse that is looking like their ribs are starting to be visible. Sometimes it's hot and they don't want to eat well, or they have an off day, whatever. All it takes is for them to skip a feeding or two and you have an underweight horse. And let me tell you, it takes forever to get them back. And BTW-- my idea of ribs being visible probably isn't what you think. If you can run your hands along their sides and feel each rib, I'm concerned. I like to work hard on getting weight on in the summer months so that when we get into winter, they have some weight to help them in winter.

That brings me to winter-- if they aren't getting into shelter and are getting wet or putting their head down a lot, then you need to blanket them with a waterproof canvas cover with thick felt on the inside. Winter presents just as many problems as summer does, but just in different ways. Horses are more than likely to colic in winter than in summer. THAT is because they drink less water, (easier to bind up when they don't drink well) and so to combat that, I buy the mini salt licks that go into their feed bins and throw their grain on top of the mini salt licks. That forces them to lick the salt and then run out and drink plenty of water. (this is on top of the regular 50lbs salt lick I have outside) I have a horse that colicks once a winter almost regardless of what I do, so I stay on top of it. You don't want a vet bill for colic-- first of all, they can die pretty darned fast, and second of all, a vet stay with hydrating IV's, tubing with oil and water, and muscle relaxers-- it adds up. I spend close to $500 every time. It's much cheaper to feed them right, provide their salt and minerals, and watch them with an eagle eye before anything serious crops up. When we get into winter, I can help you watch what to look for. Check them every day for eye injuries and foot problems. Those two things are like a reoccuring theme here. I have an eye ointment that I now keep on hand at all times-- if you see an eye leaking or a an eye that is only half open-- that is nothing to "wait and see" about. Horse issues are never "wait and see" issues. I had an idiot friend who lost an eye on one of her horses because the first day she noticed the eye was just leaking/runny. The next day it was swollen up and by the time she took her horse in, the eye was gone and the horse was fighting off a severe infection in her body too. So stupid.

Do you have a ferriar? I can recommend one and I know HeChicken can recommend hers. Get them on a 6-8 week schedule depending on how fast their toe grows out. Even in the winter!

I'm sure between me, Heather and Josie, you'll be well informed on what to do! They may have other ideas on how to supplement in winter or other tips. We all get into something that works for us, and so opinions will differ a bit, but generally, it's the same all across the board.

ETA-- I might want to add I'm a little crazy obsessed with my pets, so I do often get a little over anxious about them. I spend a lot of time watching and checking them. After reading Heathers-- she makes me sound like an obsessive complusive person! LOL (and I think Heather takes excellent care of her horse!) I've done it this way for years and have a 39 yr old horse that doesn't look her age. So I'm doing something right even though I might sound a little extreme.

My neighbors are more relaxed (they have the same feeding weight, though-- they feed two cans on their 18yr old and 4 cans on her 28 yr old). It's going to depend on how old your horse is and how they hold their weight.

 

[HEChicken]

Wow, Hawkeye, I had to go back and read that over and over - a bag a day????

I will never again complain about the cost of grain. A bag lasts me a month....

I think I know the tall coffee cans you are talking about from Sam's - big, red Folgers right? About 50% taller than regular coffee cans? We only use the regular coffee cans (the plastic ones with handles, not the actual cans) and then my horse gets half a can morning and night so he is eating significantly less than yours. I wonder why the difference? What percent protein is the feed you use? Mine is more expensive per bag - usually in the $12-15 range. Also, mine is a 50-lb bag. Perhaps yours are only 40lb? Still, I'm surprised that you only get 8 coffee cups out of a bag. My bags are 20% bigger, I'm using the smaller can and only giving him a 1/2 can per feeding but even so I'm surprised there is that big a difference.

Oh - I mentioned 2 flakes of hay morning and night. We feed square bales rather than round. Not my decision (I am at a barn with about 10 horses and years ago they had issues with some round bales. I can't remember the details because it was before my time, but I guess the horses ate too much and colicked (all of them) or something like that, so they refuse to buy round bales any more and we only get square.) We've been using the same supplier for a long time and were able to negotiate a fairly good price so I guess we stick with that. It is brome.

As Hawkeye said, the pasture alone cannot provide what they need. I think pasture time is crucial because they need to be able to stretch out and move around. In an ideal situation mine would be out all the time. But, we have a 10-acre pasture to share between 10 horses so we rotate grazing and each horse gets 3 days out. When they are not on turnout they are in pens that are very large (big enough if they want to they can canter from one end to the other). Each pen has a shelter, water tank, hay feeder and their grain bucket hanging on the fence. My horse is in a double pen with the mare he is bonded to and there are two other geldings that are penned together but everyone else has a separate pen, although they are in a row so they have company right over the fence. In the turnout pasture there are more lean-to shelters, hay feeders, and a water bowl that our barn manager rigged up that is awesome. It is only about 8" deep but he hooked it up to the water pipe so it constantly refills and therefore we never have to worry about it getting empty. We also have mineral/salt licks available to them all the time. So its not a bad set-up although not perfect either.

Trish, glad you figured out where the keets were getting out. I didn't have issues with mine getting out until we moved to the new place and they occasionally flew out. They never could figure out to fly back in so I always had to go and herd them back in but the neat thing was they were so anxious to get back in rather than take off. If I were you, I would rather train them to sleep in the coop than the trees though, as they are so vulnerable to predators in the trees. Even with your dogs there to chase away ground predators, owls will still get them, and anything that is able to get past the dogs and climb the trees will get them too. That is one of the reasons I decided not to keep mine in the end. I couldn't free-range them because of Tory and I wanted them to sleep in the coop rather than the trees, but that meant they could only control the ticks IN the chicken yard - not outside it, so they weren't proving to be as useful as I would have liked. I miss them though - they really were entertaining.

Good luck getting your dogs in the car. I only tried to get Tory in one time and she was having none of it. If I had to take her to the vet, it would definitely take both of us to get her in the car and then I'm afraid she'd whip around and jump out before we could close the door. I told DH she might have to forgo the regular vet treatments and shots since getting her there would be such a hassle. I think you can buy all the vaccines except rabies and do it yourself so that might be an option. The only issue with doing that is that no-one will accept the vaccines if they are not administered by a vet (like boarding centers etc.) but since I won't be boarding her, that won't be an issue either.

Danz, so sorry about your lemon cuckoos - how disappointing to lose them like that. Congrats on the albino though.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Wow, Hawkeye, I had to go back and read that over and over - a bag a day????

I will never again complain about the cost of grain. A bag lasts me a month....

I think I know the tall coffee cans you are talking about from Sam's - big, red Folgers right? About 50% taller than regular coffee cans? We only use the regular coffee cans (the plastic ones with handles, not the actual cans) and then my horse gets half a can morning and night so he is eating significantly less than yours. I wonder why the difference? What percent protein is the feed you use? Mine is more expensive per bag - usually in the $12-15 range. Also, mine is a 50-lb bag. Perhaps yours are only 40lb? Still, I'm surprised that you only get 8 coffee cups out of a bag. My bags are 20% bigger, I'm using the smaller can and only giving him a 1/2 can per feeding but even so I'm surprised there is that big a difference.

Oh - I mentioned 2 flakes of hay morning and night. We feed square bales rather than round. Not my decision (I am at a barn with about 10 horses and years ago they had issues with some round bales. I can't remember the details because it was before my time, but I guess the horses ate too much and colicked (all of them) or something like that, so they refuse to buy round bales any more and we only get square.) We've been using the same supplier for a long time and were able to negotiate a fairly good price so I guess we stick with that. It is brome.

As Hawkeye said, the pasture alone cannot provide what they need. I think pasture time is crucial because they need to be able to stretch out and move around. In an ideal situation mine would be out all the time. But, we have a 10-acre pasture to share between 10 horses so we rotate grazing and each horse gets 3 days out. When they are not on turnout they are in pens that are very large (big enough if they want to they can canter from one end to the other). Each pen has a shelter, water tank, hay feeder and their grain bucket hanging on the fence. My horse is in a double pen with the mare he is bonded to and there are two other geldings that are penned together but everyone else has a separate pen, although they are in a row so they have company right over the fence. In the turnout pasture there are more lean-to shelters, hay feeders, and a water bowl that our barn manager rigged up that is awesome. It is only about 8" deep but he hooked it up to the water pipe so it constantly refills and therefore we never have to worry about it getting empty. We also have mineral/salt licks available to them all the time. So its not a bad set-up although not perfect either.

Almost a bag a day.. I get two more cans out of it the next day. And it's an average-- because I dump all of my bags into the bins in the barn, but I do know about what I use, because when we take all 3 horses somewhere, I know how much to pack. Atwoods is only carrying the 40 lbs bags, which is disappointing. I used to buy the 50lb from the CoOp, but their prices went up to about $13 a bag and so I made the switch and per pound, I am paying a lot less now. Where are you buying yours and why is it so expensive? Maybe you need to check Atwoods! I went out to the barn and ripped off the tag. I buy the Ranch Pro sweet feed brand (Atwoods store brand). Says:
Crude Protein 12.0%
Crude Fat 2.5%
Crude Fiber 15.0%
Calcium 1.75% and on and on. I bet it's pretty comparable.

The bag suggests to feed at the rate of 1.5 lbs to every 100 lbs of body weight per day. So my smallest mare is about 850 lbs. So that would be a little over 12 pounds of grain every day. But my paints are MUCH larger than that. You saw them when you were out, but maybe you didn't realize the width and height of them. They are really sturdy. I actually feed them over the 12 pounds a day and I feed my smaller mare twice that... but as we've discussed it's because she can't graze or eat hay. So there is nothing else but grain for her to keep her weight on. And if you noticed, none of them are over weight.

I have fought with weight issues in the past and I've found that my super sized coffee can gives me the perfect amount of grain and keeps them at a nice steady weight all year long. It sounds like you have a super easy keeper there to only feed him a can a day. Lucky you and cheap too!! There isn't any way I could cut back on feed like that. But at least the paints can eat the round bales. Poor Cassie (my senior girl) gives it a shot and takes a mouth full and chews it around and spits it out. Anymore, I think she's given up on even trying to eat grasses, because i never see her attempting to graze or even eat hay at all. She just stands there watching the others eat. Poor thing. So really, I just have two horses eating my round bales, so it lasts a long while, and it's soooo nice in winter not to have to throw hay. Anyway, some time I should fill up one of my jumbo coffee cans and actually see how many pounds it holds-- I must be using more than I think I am.

In which case, I guess they need it, because they all look good.

We have a float on our large stock tank. So it keeps refilling itself after a horse sips out of it. In the winter, I throw in a bottom heater and a float heater for the top to keep the top open. It used to be that the tank heater at the bottom would keep the top open, but the winds quickly ice over the top and I found I was having problems with it. We wrap a couple layers of heat tape around the water pipe and the float-- so my float works all year long!! It's an awesome set up, I never have to add water or worry much about it-- so long as the heaters are working, that is.

I've seen those "dishes" that are refilling-- did your stable buy that set up or create it? The ones I've seen online almost look like the dentist sinks-- sort of like a small basin. I think that's a really neat idea.

 

[cherwill]

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.

Sorry about your turkeys, and the ever-escaping guineas. Sounds like you need to start the day over. Good luck with the dogs!

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.

That's good news.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Little Miss Fern keeps squeezing under the chicken wire fence So - I went and bought 24 tent stakes - HA! I win (maybe and hopefully!) lol - There was one area where the fence just didn't meet the ground too well and for some reason that area of ground is soft and a stake wouldn't go into it securely. I put up 2 pallets inside the fence next to that area and then dragged a large limb over and set on top of the pallets - that should keep her from that area - the rest is pretty secure now. I will watch to see if she gets out anywhere else and just continue pounding stakes into the area. It is best to fix her escape problems while she is young before those areas become habit for her.

It looks like we might get rain! Rain would be wonderful

I need to go get a little pooper scooper so I can keep the fenced area clean that the chickens and pup share - probably isn't sanitary for the chickens?? Or am I worrying about nothing?

Question - when can I not put Fern into a crate at night? When can I just let her stay in the fenced area? (The fenced area isn't really predator proof - it's just a barrier really.) Would a coyote go after her and she'd not be able to defend herself - or would a coyote just not even bother coming out here because of her? Sorry for all the questions - I just really want to do this right and my top priority is her safety.

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

The bag suggests to feed at the rate of 1.5 lbs to every 100 lbs of body weight per day. So my smallest mare is about 850 lbs. So that would be a little over 12 pounds of grain every day. But my paints are MUCH larger than that. You saw them when you were out, but maybe you didn't realize the width and height of them. They are really sturdy. I actually feed them over the 12 pounds a day and I feed my smaller mare twice that... but as we've discussed it's because she can't graze or eat hay. So there is nothing else but grain for her to keep her weight on. And if you noticed, none of them are over weight.

WOW! 24 lbs a day?!?!?!

I guess that if she can't graze or eat hay though it would be different. I think my grandparents give a few pounds a day (can't remember exactly how much) but they have constant access to good hay and pasture. In fact, now I think "my" horse (the one that I ride and train, but sadly can't keep here because we don't have the space or the money

) is a little overweight. He's always been a little tubby though.

Sorry, that just really surprised me

.