Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

Today is fall coop cleaning day. I have taken out all the roosts and the feeding shelf and a ramp to the upper roost and scrubbed and repainted them (had to do that early so the paint would dry.) I'm in the process of removing the shavings, but the girls ran me out to lay eggs. Next are the nest boxes and the inside scrub down. I need a rest. NOW.

When Hermione lays that egg, I'll go back in and finish getting the shavings and the nest boxes out.

I am spraying the parts (roosts, shelf, and other stuff) with some eucalyptus cleaning stuff (Whip it -- supposed to be safe for all living things) and letting it soak and then scrubbing and rinsing with copious amounts of water. I will probably dust with Sevin in all the nooks and crannies before I put stuff back, and I'll put 2 or 3 bales of shavings and a bunch of DE on the floor after it dries out.

I expect this job to take most of the day, but once a year isn't bad. I use a modified deep litter method, so there isn't much nastiness in the litter. I pick up the poo every morning from under the roosts so there is only the daytime poo to be absorbed. The up side is that there really isn't ever any smell except first thing in the morning and the flies are kept to a minimum, the down side is disposing of the wood shavings that really have little poo in them so they make very bad compost.

Well, this was my break. Gotta get back to work. I hope the girls and Butch appreciate my hard work.

Sharol

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Actually pumpkins work in two ways. One the food itself is high in vitamin A which all birds needs additional dosages of to help resist parasite infections. That is why feeding fruits and veggies of any kind is a great benefit to chickens. It not only improves their immunity it will help with egg production etc.
The seed itself has a chemical in the coating that paralyzes the worm thus allowing it to be flushed out of the chickens digestive system. This will help with any kind of worm that lives in the digestive system but not anything that lives in the lungs or meat of the chickens, which are fairly rare any way.
I suspect ACV also works from the conditioning stand point with vitamins. But ACV is also a natural antibiotic.My doctor told me some time ago that virtually nothing can live through the high acidity of vinegar. That is why it is healthy to drink and eat and use for any kinds of infections. As far as worming I'm not positive what effect it has other than it may be too acidic for the worms to survive.

absolutely agree,, Mine get lots of fruits and veggies for sure and raw ACV in the water once a week or so. I want them to have as much natural vitamins and minerals as possible. I just think if it is a small infection of round worms maybe the pumpkin would help but if the birds were infested then it would be time to go to a bigger fix. I grow pumpkins and squash for the birds they go nuts over it.. I also am not positive on if ACV is a wormer, but it would make sense if it were..

 

[maidenwolfx80]

also ,, found out that 2 of my supposed hens are absolutely roos,,, found them crowing this morning...

That leaves me with 8 roos and 9 hens........

 

[chicken danz]

Sounds like time to sell or butcher! I hatch most of my birds rather than buy hatchery stock for the most part so I always have about 50% roos to deal with. I am glad I have a market for them. Wish I could sell them as babies. I might actually break even on them. I just haven't taken the time to try to vent sex them. It sure would be nice to have all autosexing breeds but then I'd miss out on some of the eye candy in the process!

 

[Trish44]

Danz, I'm so sorry about the owl attack, I wonder what you can chase off an owl with? Wow, I hope that feed works out for you after that trip & the cost.

tweety, I sure hope you feel better soon & they figure out how to help you.

Sunflowerparrot, the ACV won't hurt the cats & dogs, it's actually healthy for them too as well as the chickens.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do about my feed situation here. I'm going to call another local CO-OP today & find out prices there. I need feed, so I've got to get it figured out ASAP. I was going to call yesterday but my cell phone messed up & I had to wait until today to use my DH's cell phone & call customer service to get it fixed. Whatever they did fixed the problem, at least for now. It was the strangest thing, every time I tried to make a call I would get this message telling me if I wanted to make a long distance call to a land line or mobile phone I had to use a credit card. I don't know if my phone got hacked or what, you just never know these days what people can do.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

X2 -- a covered run is the best. I had a hawk literally sitting on the fence of my run to my layers. I ran out there and yelled at him. He was not willing to fly off too quickly. He definitely gave me the "eye" before he finally took off.

Cute! I LOVE that movie-- Curly Sue! I hope that works to get her toes straight.

Yes!!! You can make your own ACV with the Mother!! Here are a couple of links to different ways of doing it. I bet it would be really fun to do. I want to make my own too! I have apples falling off the trees that aren't good anymore and I want to use them up! The second link is a blog that I follow and she has pictures.
http://thehealthyeatingsite.com/apple-cider-vinegar-recipe/
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/search?q=apple+cider+vinegar

OMGosh!! I almost totally forgot that I had "The Incubator of Death"!

How quickly we forget the BAD times... and wow, those were stressful, awful weeks of me trying to figure out what the heck was wrong and why everyone was dying over an over again. SOoooooo glad I learned that lesson-- that is one I will never repeat again. I now keep 3 therms in my incubator along with my hygro. Whew! I hear you on just wanting the chicks and not having to hatch eggs that may or may not make it in the mail. But it is cheaper to buy eggs than buy chicks. I think I'm going to have nice enough birds myself to be able to do most of my own breedings this coming year. I'm hoping to buy a super nice cockerel at eastern Nationals when I go up there. I have some very nice pullets and I need some nicer boys, I think. My boys are super nice, but I'm worried about their wings. They aren't split-- the ones I'm down to, but they don't quite look perfect either. I've posted them to a Silkie discussion board and even they aren't sure-- they could be immature (haven't fully grown in-- they are 4.5 months old) or just not "quite" there, and never will be. Sigh. I don't know if I can count on them growing out of it or not. I hate to buy yet another boy, but if these don't pan out, I have to have something! Regardless, I am having so much fun doing this!

Thanks for the ACV link -- that's something I'm going to try.

We both had "Incubators of Death" at the time.

I was very frustrated with something that had happened with my bator but your comment made me laugh. Yes, it's so much cheaper to buy the eggs but I am a bit short on patience and when I saw those chicks advertised I just wanted them NOW. I can't imagine that any of your birds aren't quite right because they are just so darned cute! I hope you find the right roo. I know what you mean about the fun part. I have eggs in the bator from my Big Spotty Speckled Sussex and I'm excited to see how the chicks come out. I have one pip, so far, but they aren't due to hatch until tomorrow. Can't wait! The hens were EE, New Hamp, Buff Orp, SSX and one Aloha. Fun! My Alohas aren't laying very consistently, yet, still too young.

Wow am I pooped out tonight! I went out after my DH left for work & took apart the shelter house from the little temporary pen I had sitting across from the woodshed. My DH keeps telling me that I have to get that moved before he needs to put wood in there for the winter. So I had that on my to do list today. It wasn't easy moving that pen even in two parts, but I finally managed to get it moved out of the way. I'm thinking of putting a partial front on the shelter & using it in my grow-out pen. It would be better than the dog house I have in there. But I need to clean it out first & put some paint on it so it won't rot over the winter. I have used that pen for guineas, peachicks, pullets, just about everything for when they were small, it's been a handy little pen to have. I probably will use it again in the spring for when I get some meat chicks.

Then after I got that pen out of the way I could get to the side of the coop so I could work on installing one of the smaller tilt out windows I got. I already had cut a hole there & had put hardware cloth over it for the summer, but I had intended all along to put a window in there before winter. I had to cut the hole a bit bigger to get the window in there & that turned out not to be as easy as I thought. I should have gone out & gotten the sawzall, but I thought it was a fairly small amount, so I thought I could use the hand saw, boy it was harder than I thought & took longer. By the time I got the hole big enough & got the window in there it was starting to get a little dark. I had to hurry & go inside & get the hardware cloth put on so I could open the window tonight since it's warmer. I was running out of light in there & if the screwdriver hadn't had a light I wouldn't of been able to finish it. The chickens were starting to come in to roost & they didn't like the sound of my screwdriver. One of my young Speckled Sussex pullets ran out the door & I had to mess with getting her back in & at that point I wasn't much in the mood for chasing chickens. They have this game they play, it's called let's run all the way around the coop so she has to chase us & then we'll run in the door before she gets there. It must be fun for them, but not so much for me. I also took the old roost out of there tonight to be able to get to the window to work on it & I plan to take it apart & make one like the other one of 2x4s instead of 2x2s. None of the chickens use the old one since I made the better one anyway.

I've got a to do list to get done before really cold weather, so these two things today were the first two on that list, there are quite a few more things on there. Then I will have to start doing things to get ready for our vacation. By the time we get back from that it will be into the holidays & the year will be over, gosh time goes way too fast any more.

OMGosh, Teresa! Those naughty birds!

12 pages of posts I missed. I confess I skimmed a lot while trying to catch up. We've been busy scraping paint and sanding at the house we're working on. Fortunately, no one actually lives there so we aren't disturbing anyone with the length of time it's taking us. I'm doing what I can while trying not to make my foot worse. I'm actually almost done with the primer phase of what I can reach, but DH is still scraping and sanding. By the time we get home, we just want to eat and vegetate in recliners until we get enough energy to go upstairs to bed! Today we mowed instead of working on the painting project, so I decided to check in here and I was 111 posts behind.

Unfortunately, this job has just about convinced DH we have no business thinking about a hobby farm. I'd like to think my foot is going to get better; there's certainly no reason to think it would be permanent. I think he's thinking we're just getting too old for so much physical work and I have to confess I've had the same doubts in the past. We're never both thinking the same thing at the same time.

It's been a bad week at McPherson College, with two deaths this week and another student who recently was determined to be pretty much brain dead. DH is on vacation this week while we work on the painting and his shift got the call about a 19 yo on a bicycle being hit by a car. His shift is all fairly young guys, a rookie and a couple who'd not yet experienced anything so ... gruesome. He feels bad that he wasn't there, but also knows they're going to have to deal with those kinds of things now and then. My nephew knew the boy on the bicycle; not well, but they'd done a few projects together in classes. He's generally freaked about all the deaths in such a small school, and doesn't know what he feels about the boy he knew. I'm horrified, and sad for the family of the boy on the bicycle. But I'm also dwelling (to an unhealthy extent) on the 17 yo who hit him; his life is forever changed by a second's distraction. Sometimes I have nightmares about things like this; something you never think will happen to you, something so permanent and you can't ever go back and make it right.

...

I hope the week ahead is better for everyone. I probably won't able to check in again for several days. Too old, you know ....

I hear ya on the too old part! It's crazy when you get sore everytime you move a little to quickly or strenuously, never mind forgetting half the things you need to complete a project. Sheesh!

I was very sorry to hear about the tragedies in McPherson. It's just so sad all the way around. I hope you're having a good day in spite of it all.

so, It's confirmed. I have two silkie roosters I had a barium test done yesterday and have been very sick since. Didn't go in yesterday and DH brought me back home from work today cuz I couldn't stop throwing up, but when I let the dogs outside to go potty before I headed back to bed (haven't made it that far yet...) I heard not one, but two crows They were going at it full blast, so they might have been crowing for a while, just didn't hear it because I was at work. I'm very sad, but I have to put them on craigs list to sell. I don't want the city coming down on me, especially since chickens have been in the news around here lately.

http://lawrence.craigslist.org/grd/3294969069.html


I hope everyone is doing good. I have to head back to bed and see if I can get my tummy to settle down. This zofran isn't working apparently.

Tweety, so sorry to hear about the crowing and that you aren't feeling well. Hang in there girl, you're one day closer to feeling better. That's what I always tell myself when I'm sick and just can't get over something, or a diagnosis is slow in coming. Hope you get the right meds to calm that stomach down.

Now that I know what an EE is, if they are a mix that produces colored eggs, then if you breed them do they gradually lose the colored eggs? What mixes make an EE? I want colored eggs, I think the kids would really enjoy this. We got one chick from Orsheln's this year that was a 'rainbow layer' which I thought meant colored eggs, but I've since learned this is not so. BUT, there was only one and we took her but she looked like a skunk as a chick, she is a dark gray with 2 black stripes down her back and little puff balls on her cheeks, she's more fiesty than the buff Orpingtons and my barnyard mixes. That is an Americauna right? Maybe she will lay a colored egg?

It's my understanding that depending on the mix, you can lose the color entirely or make a different shade of the original. That's why there are varying shades of blue eggs with most of them having a more green tint to them. There are olive eggers which are created by crossing a blue egg layer with one of the very dark brown egg layers like Marans or Wellsummer. I've heard some have had EE's that laid yellowish or purplish tinted eggs, but those are really not common at all. I have eggs in the bator that are supposed to be hatching tomorrow. The roo was a Speckled Sussex (pinkish beige tinted eggs) crossed with EE girls (blue/green eggs) so we'll see what comes of that. The EE's typically have the coloring you're talking about and a true Ameraucana would only rarely ever be found at Orsheln's. You have to get them from a breeder, usually, while the hatcheries all pretty much just have EE's to offer, even though they call their birds Ameraucanas. Ameraucanas have a standard of perfection that has to be adhered to which dictates only certain feather colors/color patterns. With EE's you get a very broad range of feather colors and patterns. I'm no expert, but that's my understanding.

Yesterday, our pastor (who is also a carpenter) came over and helped us with our barn. We made some visible progress (not just giant holes in the ground to avoid stepping in). I am so excited! I am really excited to be able to move my horses out here and to get my mom off my back about doing so (my horses are currently on my parents' property).

Anyway, on to the pictures!

Before today, all we had were giant holes. My husband had to dig a dozen holes that were 2 1/2 feet wide by 4 1/2 feet deep. We've gotten less than half an inch of rain all summer, so the ground is rock hard. Digging was quite a chore.



After yesterday, we actually had some visible progress!



My birds have been free ranging since Friday afternoon. I hadn't let them free range for two weeks, thanks to the addition of the five khaki campbells. They seem to be moving around the yard more now than they had prior to the new additions. So, I think that's a good thing. I still think my goose might not be getting the grazing time she needs, but she seems to be the pack leader, so hopefully she'll get braver about leading.

Yay! Progress!

Lots of catching up here to do.
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Well we got home about 1:30 last night. When we drove up I witnessed an owl INSIDE of the garage who just ripped the head off one of my salmon faverolle hens. This owl actually was inside the building with only a narrow door opening to get in. Now I know that is for sure what got my pheonix hen and chicks. I've been shutting every one up at night but there is no way to shut this group up any more. I was so upset and couldn't believe it flew inside the building to take a sleeping chicken. Worse yet it must have been without a sound because all three of the dogs were laying in the front yard and would have run if they'd heard anything. There's nothing else I can do if the stupid owls are brave enough to go in a building and grab a bird while it sleeps. I have "wild" chickens of no consequence that sleep in the barn and it is much more open. I have no idea why the owl didn't go there instead. I just have no clue what to do at this point. There is no way to shut this group up until I have my breeder facilities ready. It made me feel so angry!!!

So here is the deal with my trip yesterday. There is a bird seed maker that is in Lawton Oklahoma. Jones Seed company. Only a few times a year, they make what they call Special Mix which is a combination of any and all of the different seeds and stuff they put in all of their bird feeds. They make parrot feed, cockatiel seed, wild bird seed, finch seed etc etc. This mix is not any guaranteed analysis and you have no idea how much of what will be in it. But it is made from top quality ingredients and it is clean. It works out to be much higher protein etc than anything you would normally buy for your birds. An acquaintance of mine lives down there and this is what he feeds 50/50% with his normal layer/grower rations when he is getting his birds conditioned for shows and a slightly lower mix for spring laying. He sells his show birds for $1500 a pair at maturity. To me that says a whole lot about the quality of this feed.
Usually when they make this mix it runs out almost immediately and they normally make about 20 ton at a time. This time they made 40 tons. I've been checking with them for several months trying to get the time right when I could buy this stuff and have time to make the trip. Obviously because it cost me a couple hundred dollars in gas and about $800 for the product I have to believe in it. It actually works out costing less than what you would pay for wild bird seed.
I think not only my chickens but my ornamental birds and game birds are going to really benefit from this. I hope to make this last all winter with some management. You have to keep in mind that I feed about $250 in feed every 10 days to 2 weeks so to justify it I have to remind myself how that adds up. I had to dig deep in the pockets to buy this. I bought two ton of it or 80, 50 pounds bags and paid another $15 to have it put on two pallets and shrink wrapped so it could be fork lift loaded onto the trailer. I think I will initially mix a little with my regular bird feed and feed a little as treats or scratch to see how they like it. It of course has things like BOSS and peanuts in it that they love so I am sure they will really like it.
Some of you that live closer to the Oklahoma border could make the trip in like 3 hours or so each way so it wouldn't be so expensive and time consuming. And if you weren't driving a truck and pulling a huge car hauler trailer it wouldn't cost so much in gas. I was just going to buy 1 ton and put it spread out over the axles in the pickup but that would have been a huge load and hard work on the truck. Pulling the trailer saved wear on the truck even though it cost much more in gas.
The whole point is to give my birds the best possible food for the money so they are in perfect laying condition for spring.

What?! That's the pits about the stupid owl. I've got a couple owls roosting in my trees who carry on hooting back and forth at each other. Darn things. Between the coyotes, foxes, owls and hawks, I'm a nervous wreck! I'm really sorry about your Faverolle -- such nice birds.

That sounds like a really great deal on quality feed! My concern is how to store it so that it doesn't go bad? What a trip, I bet you're beat!

Today is fall coop cleaning day. I have taken out all the roosts and the feeding shelf and a ramp to the upper roost and scrubbed and repainted them (had to do that early so the paint would dry.) I'm in the process of removing the shavings, but the girls ran me out to lay eggs. Next are the nest boxes and the inside scrub down. I need a rest. NOW.

When Hermione lays that egg, I'll go back in and finish getting the shavings and the nest boxes out.

I am spraying the parts (roosts, shelf, and other stuff) with some eucalyptus cleaning stuff (Whip it -- supposed to be safe for all living things) and letting it soak and then scrubbing and rinsing with copious amounts of water. I will probably dust with Sevin in all the nooks and crannies before I put stuff back, and I'll put 2 or 3 bales of shavings and a bunch of DE on the floor after it dries out.

I expect this job to take most of the day, but once a year isn't bad. I use a modified deep litter method, so there isn't much nastiness in the litter. I pick up the poo every morning from under the roosts so there is only the daytime poo to be absorbed. The up side is that there really isn't ever any smell except first thing in the morning and the flies are kept to a minimum, the down side is disposing of the wood shavings that really have little poo in them so they make very bad compost.

Well, this was my break. Gotta get back to work. I hope the girls and Butch appreciate my hard work.

Sharol

What a project! But you're right, once a year isn't bad at all. That's a great tip using the eucalyptus oil. I'm going to try that on mine. Oiling the roosts is supposed to control scaly leg mites, I believe. Is that why you use the eucalyptus oil on the roosts? Hope the girls let you back in so you could finish up!

My girls are bossy like that too!

also ,, found out that 2 of my supposed hens are absolutely roos,,, found them crowing this morning...

That leaves me with 8 roos and 9 hens........

Oh my. Not good.

Sounds like time to sell or butcher! I hatch most of my birds rather than buy hatchery stock for the most part so I always have about 50% roos to deal with. I am glad I have a market for them. Wish I could sell them as babies. I might actually break even on them. I just haven't taken the time to try to vent sex them. It sure would be nice to have all autosexing breeds but then I'd miss out on some of the eye candy in the process!

Autosexing would sure make things a lot easier. I hate it that the CL hatch went wrong. I like them for their blue eggs but the Rhodebars are prettier birds, IMHO, but the trade off is green eggs. Have you checked out the Isbars at Greenfire? WoW! I think they are very pretty birds but the cost of them is pretty scary. Still, I really want all of the above, plus some Silkies, Buff Sussex, GL Wyandottes, and who knows what else?

Now that I've finished replying, I bet there are several more messages already! That's the great fun of this group. Things just keep hopping!

Today is my DH's birthday. He loves to mull over what he wants for his birthday, so I still haven't gotten him anything because he's still mulling. He can't even decide what he wants for his birthday supper or which kind of chocolate cake he wants. In his world, there is no such thing as a birthday cake that doesn't have chocolate/fudge in either the cake or the frosting, but what you put with that is key. Deciding what he wants is most of the fun for him, so I don't gripe about it, just wait till he's good and ready. I never have any trouble deciding what I want for mine. I always have it well planned out in advance. Mulling is not my forte. If I can't get the whole thing wrapped up in advance, that is a real buzz kill. DH doesn't actually like to start deliberating until it is his birthday and he would feel very cheated if he had to do anything in advance. Interesting how people can be so different and how important that difference can be to them both.

Enough philosophizing and time to get back to it!

 

[mommahen10]

danz, I think I may be covered with giving them fresh fruits and veggies from the garden, they've had tons but it will slow down soon as most of the garden is depleted at this point. I'm so sorry about the owl murderer. That's terrible. Is it illegal to shoot an owl? Can you trap it in there and scare the heck out of it so it won't come back? Wait for it to go in and block the opening, maybe with the dogs in there already? It seems pretty likely that it will be back. If you try the vent sexing thing maybe I can try it too and we can compare notes. I've been looking at their wings and making guesses when they're a day old but I don't know how accurate that is because it seems like they should look different for different breeds. Can you tell the sex of a chicken by the vent when they're older? I can't see any difference, yes... I looked. I looked up Lawton, OK, it's 5 hours for me, and 3 1/2 from Wichita.

maidenwolf, I'm sorry about your hens not being hens. How old are they?

I need some advice. I have a 2 mo. old, she was walking kinda weird yesterday and seems not so steady so I just moved her by herself to give her some time to rest. I thought maybe just because I moved them she was having a hard time adjustiing. Today when I checked she seems to have more energy, but I inspected closer and she has a wound on her belly. It's stinky and has some gross drainage. My first reaction is to wash it and put some neosporin on it. I haven't done it yet, any input is appreciated. She's not a fancy chicken or anything, I just want to do what I can to help her.

 

[mommahen10]

Karen, I wouldn't have a clue about the breed stuff. Not a single clue, I'm doing good to know what only part of my own flock is. Even at that, I could be wrong. I want some blue eggs, which ones lay blue eggs? What does a blue egg layer have to breed with to have chicks that lay more blue eggs? Is it one of those things that even if you breed the right ones only 1:4 will lay blue? I need to review the punnet square stuff. So what's my little chick from Orcheln's? A mix of something maybe? She's cute anyway, I think I'll keep her. Hope your hubby enjoys his birthday and his chocolate.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

danz, I think I may be covered with giving them fresh fruits and veggies from the garden, they've had tons but it will slow down soon as most of the garden is depleted at this point. I'm so sorry about the owl murderer. That's terrible. Is it illegal to shoot an owl? Can you trap it in there and scare the heck out of it so it won't come back? Wait for it to go in and block the opening, maybe with the dogs in there already? It seems pretty likely that it will be back. If you try the vent sexing thing maybe I can try it too and we can compare notes. I've been looking at their wings and making guesses when they're a day old but I don't know how accurate that is because it seems like they should look different for different breeds. Can you tell the sex of a chicken by the vent when they're older? I can't see any difference, yes... I looked. I looked up Lawton, OK, it's 5 hours for me, and 3 1/2 from Wichita.

maidenwolf, I'm sorry about your hens not being hens. How old are they?

I need some advice. I have a 2 mo. old, she was walking kinda weird yesterday and seems not so steady so I just moved her by herself to give her some time to rest. I thought maybe just because I moved them she was having a hard time adjustiing. Today when I checked she seems to have more energy, but I inspected closer and she has a wound on her belly. It's stinky and has some gross drainage. My first reaction is to wash it and put some neosporin on it. I haven't done it yet, any input is appreciated. She's not a fancy chicken or anything, I just want to do what I can to help her.

Gosh, that's what I would do. If you have any Oxine (dilute according to package instructions), I would use that to clean the area just because chickens are normally exposed to staph and that is supposed to be good stuff for cleaning bumblefoot and other wounds. If not, I would just clean it and put neosporin on it and I would probably give her some Duramycin in her water. I get it in the powdered form at Atwoods. I'm no expert, but that's my best advice.

 

[mommahen10]

I only have Orcheln's available to me for right now. I have some amoxicillin, can chickens have that? I was able to break down the dosage for kittens and dogs. I don't have Oxine, I will call Orcheln's, but I do remember a wash thing that the vet gave me for some kittens. I will look and see what that is too.