Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

Medawinks, I am SO sorry about Bloom. I was out all evening and just now reading the updates, I was sure I would hear that she was doing better by the time I got to the end so it was a blow to see your last post. I really hope Sera and Andy are doing okay.

Karen, it sounds like you've had a stressful few months with illness. I hope this is the end of it for you and the kids and you get through this and that is the end of it. It can be so hard with the exposure to germs around other kids. My DD never had a sick day in her life for her first two years when I was home with her. Then I had to go back to work for just 10 weeks, and she had to go to daycare for those 10 weeks, and she (and I) spent the entire 10 weeks with cold after cold, bronchitis, flu and then finally I got a walking pneumonia. That played a large part in my decision to stay home with her (and subsequently her brother) after that.

Hawkeye, those greenhouses are gorgeous. I think it certainly helps that they are photographed in a field full of wildflowers but even without that they would be cute. DH has been talking a lot lately about wanting to set up a solarium/greenhouse. He can visualize things whereas I have approximately zero ability to visualize so I just kind of have to say "that sounds nice, Dear" and let him take the baton and run with it

We have actually had some rain here too, finally, and the last time I looked at the rain gauge it was homing in on 2". I won't have to refill waterers for quite awhile. My coop has a gabled roof with no gutters and after the first rain, I noticed that the rain dripping off the roof was creating a small trench on the side of the coop. So to prevent that, I lined up every water-catching bowl I could come up with including the duck's swimming pool, and they are now all very full of water. The ducks are in heaven!!! I am adding to the to-do list, to install gutters and a rainwater barrel after this. Our pond is looking better today than it did yesterday - yay!!!

 

[HEChicken]

Trish, you posted while I was typing - I'm glad I went back and looked. It sounds like you had a rugged night but I'm glad you were able to get them all moved. Someday I have to come and see your place so I can visualize it all. What is this "hill" of wish you speak????? Sorry - poor attempt at humor. Living in the area I do, there is little that qualifies as a hill.....tell the turkey hen to hang in there - I'm comin'.....

Oh, Karen, I meant to say - that Aloha hen of yours is gorgeous. I've been thinking a lot about that project lately and if I were ever going to get into a breeding project, I believe that suits me more than about anything. With that in mind, I started looking through my birds, wondering which, if any, could contribute anything at all and realized that with the exception of the Sussex and Aloha I got from you, "I ain't got nothin'" None of my birds even has yellow legs!!! Haha.

 

[cherwill]

Okay, I'm back to being obsessed with greenhouses again lately. There's no way I have time to build one, but I want one soooo much and some of these DIY houses are so cute!! Here's a few of my favorites!

okay.... sorry about the Greenhouse overload!! But-- aren't they adorable?!?!

I want one or both of these!

Just finished reading up on everyone. It's nice to get caught up again. So, after the kids got in school they quickly brought germs home and I've been sick also. What a bummer. I'm over it now and trying to get caught up on everything that went to heck while I was lounging around the house. Sheesh!

Today was wild. One of my daughters went to a sleepover birthday party yesterday. While I was shopping at Sam's I got a call that she had fallen and hurt her wrist badly enough that one of the medical parents thought it needed x-rays. It took me forever to get from the north side of Wichita to the south to pick her up. I couldn't get hold of DH, even though he was home to go pick her up and take her to the E.R. so away I flew! Poor kid. Finally got her picked up and off to the E.R. for xrays and turns out it's a bad sprain so it's going to make it a little painful to play the flute for awhile, but she didn't have to be casted.

I'll throw in a pic just for fun. Up front is my spottiest Aloha girl. Isn't she a cutey? I think she's the one who laid the white egg, but don't know for certain.

I hope things settle down at your house soon! I used to get sick a lot more often when I was babysitting my niece. I don't even know how I got exposed to anything (unless it was West Nile; I'm a mosquito magnet) since I don't get out among people much!

I love that spotted girl in the front; she's gorgeous.

No luck for our Bloom girl.... She will be sorely missed here. Morning just won't be morning without her singing to us all.
Never put DriStall down while chickens are in the run.....
We learned the hardest way possible. My kids are a mess and my abilities to see life slip away in my arms really need to be stronger....

I'm so sorry.

Well it's been a bad night here for me as well. I had told you all that I have sick birds in my grow-out pen. Tonight we had torrential rains & since there was no vegetation left alive in my yard, it was just all dirt now there was nothing to stop the water at all or the dirt for that matter. I had a flash flood in my grow-out pen & turkey pen. I fortunately was outside doing chores when the rain started again & this time it just poured from the sky in buckets, when we get rain we get RAIN. Those who have been here know what kind of a hill I have here so water just runs down that hill like a river when it rains hard. Well I was in the grow-out pen when water just started pouring into there, I mean it was coming in fast & furious & I'm thinking oh geez what am I going to do now, these birds are going to drown in here & there are some fairly small chicks in there still. Here they are already sick & now they were getting soaking wet fast. I looked around & saw one of my medium dog crates nearby & thought I just have to start catching these birds & take them all up to the main coop or they're not going to live through this. So here I was in my garden clogs with water & muck running into my shoes trying to catch scared chickens & throw them into the crate as fast as I could & mind you it was still raining cats & dogs out there with lightening & thunder like crazy. I'm thinking to myself that I hope I don't get struck by lightening or get electrocuted because I had the heat lamp on in there so I could see. I just kept chasing birds & of course they ran into the far corner where I couldn't really reach them because the roost is across the pen. I would catch a crate full & carry them through the water up the hill to the coop, empty that one out & come back down into the water again to get another load. I had to do that three times & by this time I was into water up over my ankles quite aways & sinking into slimy muck. The doors weren't opening very well on the pens because the water had washed mud & debris into the gate, so I had to push that away every time I tried to open the gate. I had to run out to the new coop where there is a pile of 2x4s too & shore up the top of the pen & tarp because they were filling with water & I was afraid they were going to come in on me & the birds. The turkeys were freaking out in their pen because it was flooding in there too, but I think they will be OK because they got up on their roost out of the water. I couldn't begin to push the water off of their tarp, so I will have to get my DH to help with that tomorrow. When it dries up again I'm going to take all of the covers off both of those pens & use the netting I got, I think that would be better than the darned chicken wire that hangs down & just is a mess. I need to put some supports across both of those pens too so that won't happen again. Anyway, the chicks are all in the coop & I have a heat lamp in there to hopefully help dry them off & keep them warm. This is just what they all needed since they were already sick. They were as wet as a bird could get, just soaked. I woke up the other chickens coming in bringing birds in & turning on the heat lamp. I'm sure they wondered what in the world was happening. I sure hope they don't pick on my little SF Hen chicks & Cream Legbars in the morning before I can get out there. Oh what a mess that's going to be in those pens in the morning, ugh. We have a flash flood watch out for Winfield tonight, I wonder what it looks like at the fairgrounds where people are coming in for the bluegrass festival. We had a big flood one year & they had to move a lot of people out of the campgrounds because it flooded there, it's right by the river. They ended up having a lot of the festival that year out at the lake & it was kind of a mess.

Oh my! And you got them all. You're a rock star!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

I love the greenhouses too...especially the first one.
Medawinks I hope Bloom is doing better. I'm trying to send you all the positive vibes I can.
Karen so glad to hear your back among the living. Life is never quiet there is it? Your spottiest aloha looks a lot like one of my little Orlandsk pullets. She is still only about 8 weeks old though so things can change a lot.
I am a bit surprised that the Swedish don't have more dramatic color when they hatch. I can't wait for my next batch.

So what do other people do on a Saturday night. I've been out in the dark trying to catch chickens. It works for one or two and then the others get wise and take off. I feel so mean. They aren't going to be eaten. They are just going to some one else's house to lay eggs......... Well, the girls are. The boys are going to be put in a separate pen so as they grow they can become part of a Chinese cuisine. The wild ones are something else. I can't get within 10 feet of them even in the pitch black dark. I came back in so they would settle down so I could catch some more of them.
It feels good to lighten the load but it sure seems like there's a lot less chickens out there. I realize as I am accounting for them I have had many disappear. About 8 of my red stars are gone. I've got some polish and pheonix that have disappeared from the breeder group. Makes you wonder why you never find a body or feathers or anything. I suspect that some of them got out far searching for food and got overheated or eaten by a predator. Sometimes they wander pretty far into the field looking for bugs. Hopefully soon I'll have my breeders all penned and just the layers will be out ranging.
My next step is to start selling off some of the big breeder roos I won't be using. Now that will be hard! I love my big ole roosters.

LOL! I've just come back in from rounding up the cornish birds for a young couple who bought them this evening. Yay! It just opened up and poured on us. So funny we're spending our Saturday night out in the rain chasing chickens. You have to round them up yourself though, while I just call in my chicken catchers! While I was waiting for the couple to arrive, I sat on the front porch swing and listened to the owls chatting up each other. I felt pretty smug because I know for a fact they aren't getting any late night chicken snacks here!

No luck for our Bloom girl.... She will be sorely missed here. Morning just won't be morning without her singing to us all.
Never put DriStall down while chickens are in the run.....
We learned the hardest way possible. My kids are a mess and my abilities to see life slip away in my arms really need to be stronger....

Oh, medawinks, I'm so sorry for you and the kids. It is extremely hard when it's a beloved pet.

Well it's been a bad night here for me as well. I had told you all that I have sick birds in my grow-out pen. Tonight we had torrential rains & since there was no vegetation left alive in my yard, it was just all dirt now there was nothing to stop the water at all or the dirt for that matter. I had a flash flood in my grow-out pen & turkey pen. I fortunately was outside doing chores when the rain started again & this time it just poured from the sky in buckets, when we get rain we get RAIN. Those who have been here know what kind of a hill I have here so water just runs down that hill like a river when it rains hard. Well I was in the grow-out pen when water just started pouring into there, I mean it was coming in fast & furious & I'm thinking oh geez what am I going to do now, these birds are going to drown in here & there are some fairly small chicks in there still. Here they are already sick & now they were getting soaking wet fast. I looked around & saw one of my medium dog crates nearby & thought I just have to start catching these birds & take them all up to the main coop or they're not going to live through this. So here I was in my garden clogs with water & muck running into my shoes trying to catch scared chickens & throw them into the crate as fast as I could & mind you it was still raining cats & dogs out there with lightening & thunder like crazy. I'm thinking to myself that I hope I don't get struck by lightening or get electrocuted because I had the heat lamp on in there so I could see. I just kept chasing birds & of course they ran into the far corner where I couldn't really reach them because the roost is across the pen. I would catch a crate full & carry them through the water up the hill to the coop, empty that one out & come back down into the water again to get another load. I had to do that three times & by this time I was into water up over my ankles quite aways & sinking into slimy muck. The doors weren't opening very well on the pens because the water had washed mud & debris into the gate, so I had to push that away every time I tried to open the gate. I had to run out to the new coop where there is a pile of 2x4s too & shore up the top of the pen & tarp because they were filling with water & I was afraid they were going to come in on me & the birds. The turkeys were freaking out in their pen because it was flooding in there too, but I think they will be OK because they got up on their roost out of the water. I couldn't begin to push the water off of their tarp, so I will have to get my DH to help with that tomorrow. When it dries up again I'm going to take all of the covers off both of those pens & use the netting I got, I think that would be better than the darned chicken wire that hangs down & just is a mess. I need to put some supports across both of those pens too so that won't happen again. Anyway, the chicks are all in the coop & I have a heat lamp in there to hopefully help dry them off & keep them warm. This is just what they all needed since they were already sick. They were as wet as a bird could get, just soaked. I woke up the other chickens coming in bringing birds in & turning on the heat lamp. I'm sure they wondered what in the world was happening. I sure hope they don't pick on my little SF Hen chicks & Cream Legbars in the morning before I can get out there. Oh what a mess that's going to be in those pens in the morning, ugh. We have a flash flood watch out for Winfield tonight, I wonder what it looks like at the fairgrounds where people are coming in for the bluegrass festival. We had a big flood one year & they had to move a lot of people out of the campgrounds because it flooded there, it's right by the river. They ended up having a lot of the festival that year out at the lake & it was kind of a mess.

I guess now I will be treating all of the birds since I had to put the sick ones in with the whole flock. I wish I had that denagard here now. Heather you'd better hurry & get this turkey before anything else happens here, gosh!

Medawinks, I'm so sorry about bloom, you really tried your best. I know it won't be the same, but maybe you can find another bird close to what you had.

Karen, I love that Aloha in the front of your pic, she's really pretty!

Hawkeye, I love the greenhouses, especially the very first one, that's adorable! I think you should build one, you could do it.

I will try to get some pics tomorrow of the breeder coop with the frame partially up, I haven't taken any since we did the floor. I guess my floor got washed off tonight really well. It was really dirty from leaves blowing all over it & pieces of limbs. I'll get an updated pic of the hoop coop too. I still didn't get anywhere to get more supplies to work on that since my bird emergency happened tonight. I had planned to go grocery shopping, but that all went to you know what with the flood. Now I will have to go tomorrow & I hate shopping on Sunday. Our Walmart gets sold out of stuff really fast because everyone goes right after church to shop. You should see the shelves by evening in there, it's ridiculous. When all the festival people get to town it will be even worse to find some things. I'll bet some of the people already here are glad they weren't allowed yet down in the Pecan & Walnut Grove areas or they might have been moving camp really fast. Well I guess I'll survey the damage out there in the morning. I'm really tired now after all of that. My GP pups were so soaking wet & it was still pouring when I got birds moved, so I fed them in the garage & then made them go back outside & they weren't happy about it. They got in a huge fight over the front porch since it has a roof & they were really going at it. They knocked over my big ceramic planter, I didn't look & see if they broke it, but I had to pound on the front door to get them to stop fighting. Those two get in some pretty big fights for sisters.

Wow! You sure had your hands full this evening! I can't believe there were three of us slopping around catching chickens this evening. What a mess for you though. That sounds like something that would happen to me! Hope that Denagard gets there quick. If I hadn't used up all mine, I would give you some.

Medawinks, I am SO sorry about Bloom. I was out all evening and just now reading the updates, I was sure I would hear that she was doing better by the time I got to the end so it was a blow to see your last post. I really hope Sera and Andy are doing okay.

Karen, it sounds like you've had a stressful few months with illness. I hope this is the end of it for you and the kids and you get through this and that is the end of it. It can be so hard with the exposure to germs around other kids. My DD never had a sick day in her life for her first two years when I was home with her. Then I had to go back to work for just 10 weeks, and she had to go to daycare for those 10 weeks, and she (and I) spent the entire 10 weeks with cold after cold, bronchitis, flu and then finally I got a walking pneumonia. That played a large part in my decision to stay home with her (and subsequently her brother) after that.

Hawkeye, those greenhouses are gorgeous. I think it certainly helps that they are photographed in a field full of wildflowers but even without that they would be cute. DH has been talking a lot lately about wanting to set up a solarium/greenhouse. He can visualize things whereas I have approximately zero ability to visualize so I just kind of have to say "that sounds nice, Dear" and let him take the baton and run with it

We have actually had some rain here too, finally, and the last time I looked at the rain gauge it was homing in on 2". I won't have to refill waterers for quite awhile. My coop has a gabled roof with no gutters and after the first rain, I noticed that the rain dripping off the roof was creating a small trench on the side of the coop. So to prevent that, I lined up every water-catching bowl I could come up with including the duck's swimming pool, and they are now all very full of water. The ducks are in heaven!!! I am adding to the to-do list, to install gutters and a rainwater barrel after this. Our pond is looking better today than it did yesterday - yay!!!

Yay for the rain!! and Yay for your pond!!!!! Yup, I'm hoping that's it for the sick kids and what not around here. Great idea catching the rainwater. Every time I go to Atwood's I look at their rainbarrels. One of these days I'm going to break down and buy one but could actually catch tons of rainwater around here with the shop and everything. I'll just be happy to start with one.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Oh! Thanks, Cherwill! We got real creative and named her Ginger. Go figure.

 

[chicken danz]

Trish you paint a very good picture. You poor thing, I am sitting here reading and all of the sudden we had a downpour. We really haven't gotten much rain until now. Here I spent all evening out in the dark catching chickens. I moved them to a pen with no shelter -just a pen made out of cattle panels and netting. I feel awful. Poor things are going to be soaked. I don't know that I have anything to put over it right now to cover them. Talk about feeling like a bad chicken mamma! I guess I should run out there and see what I can find. Surely I'll trip on something in the dark and fall in the mud.

 

[sharol]

Wow, it sounds like I had a comparatively quiet evening. We lost power for a couple of hours about 4:30 when the storm went through. The good news is that we got 3" of rain yesterday and nearly an inch the day before. It's pretty wet, but everyone was in the coop when it started raining the 2nd time. When I went out to count beaks at 10 after the rain slowed down, the girls and Butch were all on the roosts and the whole place smelled of wet feathers.

I'm sorry for the loss of Bloom, Medawinks, it is so hard when children are involved in a loss like that.

Sharol

 

[chicken danz]

I went back out last night and drug my feed tarp across the yard in the rain and covered the chickens in the pen. Poor things were all huddled and soaked. I had shut up all the chickens earlier. so this morning I see another dozen or so of the, shall I call them "feral" chickens out running the yard. I have no idea where those birds sleep! I let everyone out this morning and even the ones in the pens are soaked. It didn't rain that much- just that one big burst of rain. Those of you that have gotten lots of rain are so lucky! I am just thankful for what we have gotten. Maybe those duck eating cracks in my yard will start washing back in now.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Trish - wow.. sounds like you had a lot of drama in the rain - sorry to hear about all that. My chickens got soaking wet in those storms.. Fern was super wet, but the kittens managed to stay completely dry! Hmmm.... I wonder which animal species is the smartest around here?

Medawinks - I'm so sorry about your loss How sad. I used to think that chickens were just chickens - then, I owned some and love each and every one of them. I hope your kids are ok over the experience.

My brother (56 years old) came into town on Thursday and is here till Sept 4th - I must admit that 1) he is driving me completely insane - he.does.not.shut.up.for.one.minute.all.day.freaking.long! 2) he loves to debate and everything, no matter the topic, turns into a debate and he needs to analyze everything that is said, how it is said, who said it, etc. 3) he takes forever to do anything - he has been writing a list for Lowes since 7:30 this morning and is still going over it with me 4) he is like a bull in a china shop... he knocks things over just walking through the living room.. has spilled several drinks by knocking them over when reaching for something.. etc. 5) he doesn't turn lights off when he leaves a room! he doesn't put things back when he has used them..

Ok - done griping... must find way to not kill brother...

 

[medawinks]

Thanks for all the well wishes and good vibes.

Trish and Danz, I hope your birds are OK from the downpour. It sounds like the adrenaline surge experienced among us last night due to this rain was equivalent to the havoc the torrents of water were creating. Such badly needed moisture all at once...

We are drenched again here. My yard is so muddy! So are my dogs...

I love the greenhouses!! I saved the pics for my "someday".

Tweety, I am so sorry your stomach is giving you so much trouble! I have a friend who struggles with the same illness. I have collected many recipes for blended meals with kid appeal and solid nutrition if you would be interested. A family has recently brought in some ensure to donate to a student that is a clear liquid in blackberry pomegranate. It actually tastes good. Yes, I tasted some to see if it would be worth the expense for my DD when she has her bone grafts in her jaws. The smell is different, but it really did taste good! I was very surprised!

Andy was pretty devatated and slept on the floor in my room, but seems to be OK this morning. We will blow out some of our Bloom's eggs and save them in a display/ memory box to remember her by. He does want another Silkie hen at some point so he has a chicken of his own laying the eggs to find ( since the others he had never claimed as "his" ) so we will be looking for another silkie hen with lots of personality. We all loved that little bird's spunky talk and how friendly she was.

Karen, yes, it sounds like you have also had the back to school chaos hit! I am glad to hear there are no casts and illness is at bay. Your aloha is so cute!!!!

There are some nasty viruses already hitting. I am sorry so many have been coping with them. No fun!

I hope everyone gets to enjoy something with family and friends today!