Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

It was so nice to see everyone yesterday! Hawkeye, the silkies are settling in nicely. I have them in a small run I can move around and keep right outside my backdoor, for now. That way I can go out and talk to them often.

Awww, so glad! They are super friendly and sweet little things. My kids have done a great job making them very friendly and in need of attention.

I am glad to report that JosieChick, her friend, and myself managed to get the ducks off the lake in the park. It went really smoothly at first until one duck escaped. There were some wild mallards with the domestic ducks. The stupid Mallard drake was the problem. He kept freaking out and going back to the water and the last domestic duck would take off with them. Finally we were able to get them convinced to come back up and eat and we got him cornered in a day pen thing. Now the ducks will safely be at a domestic home and be safe. It was nearly 6:00 before I left, but it felt really good to be able to participate knowing that their lives had been saved.

Oh that is wonderful that you caught them all!! So crazy though-- sounds like it really gave you girls a run for your money! LOL!

Cherwill- I LOVE mowing! It is so relaxing.

So I had a terrible experience on my drive home last night. This is moderately GRAPHIC so if you are faint of heart don't read on!

I LOVE mowing too!!! I always do the mowing, and not just because I'm home and makes it easy on us, but because I just want to and find it really relaxing! And when the kids are driving me nuts, I can jump on there and can't "hear" them anymore! LOL I do the gesture to my ear-- like can't hear you when they come out there to find me to whine about something. hehe Girl, I am SO THANKFUL that it wasn't you that hit that deer! Wow. That was a praise the Lord type of deal, but wow, sooooo terribly awful for the deer. I'm so sorry that it happened.

I got a call that woke me up this morning telling me that our roofing is in at Lowe's, so in a couple days we'll have to make a trip up there to pick it up. I opted not to go today so my DH could just work on the coop instead, we aren't ready for the roof yet anyway. He's working now on cutting out the people doors on the back out of the OSB. There won't be that much OSB on there after all the doors are cut out because that side is mostly doors. I can use that OSB for something else. I can't wait to get this thing going & get it done, I so want it finished before we go on vacation.

YAY for your roofing coming in! I re-worked my roost last weekend! "Tis the season for fixing up the coops, I guess! I have a ladder style roost and I have mine on hooks so that I can take them off and move them and they will either lift up, or just move off very easily. I love the set-up!

YIKES!!!! The only chick to hatch has been to adventurous and injured itself!!!! In the incubator i have damp wash rags, and the chick climbed up on it and touched its eye to the heating element!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I felt desperate because he woulnt open that eye and its blueish in the middle now!!!!!!! i'm such an idiot!!!!!!!!!!! I got so scared i quick (extremly fast) opened it just enough to fit my hand in and then closed it to take him out because he kept trying to do it AGAIN!!!!!!!!!! right now he is RIGHT under the heating lamp in the brooder, because i didn't want to leave him in the bator and do it again!!!!!! WHAT DO I DO!!!!!!!!!???????????????!!!!!!!!!!!! I gotta go real fast to check on him again!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so sorry, but if it's not burned or bleeding, it should be okay. I would get some saline drops to drop on it a bit, though. If you had the neosporin, I'd put a bit of that on there, too. Chickens heal very quickly! So I imagine he will be just fine.

I sure enjoyed having everyone over who came yesterday. It was fun to meet WichitaKidd and Sunflower, along with Sunflower's friend, R. She was just delightful and I'm so glad you brought her, Sunflower. It was great to see the "usual suspects" again also. Hawkeye, your DD is such a treasure. I could tell she had been taught how to handle chicks properly and loved seeing how much she loved the chicks. Danz tested some of Hawkeye's birds and I'd never seen that done before so that was interesting. We picked up some new tips for keeping the humidity up during lockdown. There were also birds being picked up and dropped off, kind of like a mini swap-meet! The food was really yummy (thanks everyone)! Anyway, thanks to everyone for coming. I truly enjoyed it.

I loved it too!! I had so much fun yesterday! Thank you for having us over! I'm sooooo glad the testing is done-- and THANK YOU Danz for doing that for me!!! I'm registering them and sending it out in the mail by Thursday so that I can get them sorted and figured out who is going on the Junior and who is going to the Open. It was like a swap meet! So fun!

Karen, what I decided on mine is that the top roost (naturally the most popular) was too high and the jump down may be contributing to bumblefoot. So I wanted to lower the roosts and I decided rather than have a ladder style, where only the top row will ever really be desirable, I would have all of the roost bars on the same level. I went from 3 roosts to 4, but they take up less space than the 3-roost ladder I had before. Basically, I came out from the coop wall with support bars, added a "leg" on the front, and then put in 4 roosts about 12" apart. The neat thing is that the way I attached it to the wall, it will swing up out of the way when I need to clean.

I have my roost 3 feet high with the ladder going up to it. My ladder has hooks on it that attach to the main roost-- super easy to take it off or just flip it up.




Chicken Danz--- THANK YOU so, so very much for testing my birds!!! I'm so excited to get them all ready for Nationals!! Yippee!!!!

 

[tweetysvoice]

Good evening all!
Josie - It was great meeting you today! Thanks again for the beautiful birds!!! We went ahead and just introduced all the birds right away cuz I'd like to get them all settled and sleeping together by the time the temp falls to 28 degrees Sat night. There was a few chasing and rough-ups but not too many feathers flew. The whole flock balance was thrown off, so i'm sure it will take a few days for them to work everything out. I was surprised to see that it was my Buff Orp that was doing most of the chasing as I was sure she was the lowest on the totam pole - well, not counting the silkie. Maybe she just wanted to tell everyone that she's higher up than them and the others weren't worried about their positions. LOL. Chicken politics!

Now for the pics!

Meet Bunny and Rabbit - the easter eggers!



Crow and Butterfly - the Javas (about 3 months old)



Goldie and Lacey - Gold Laced Orpingtons (these girls are a bit older than my current flock by a couple months and were the worst picked on tonight - they held their own though!)


Raine - Splash Silkie!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Josie I bathed little Josie (I'm so sorry, I named her after you! LOL) today and fluffed and puffed her and groomed her all up. She got her nails trimmed and everything all cleaned and whitened. I wanted to show you the "Before" pictures of what she looked like pre-wash, and then then during her wash-- which is pretty funny, because I gave her a 'soap mohawk', and then her "After" pics after I blow dried her and fluffed her and sprayed her out. I hope you don't want her back after you see what she looks like now! LOL

Before:

During:

and AFTER:

I was pretty impressed with my fluffing skills.... but I did start with a good bird to begin with.

Thank you!

I'll be taking her for sure to the show!!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Good evening all!
Josie - It was great meeting you today! Thanks again for the beautiful birds!!! We went ahead and just introduced all the birds right away cuz I'd like to get them all settled and sleeping together by the time the temp falls to 28 degrees Sat night. There was a few chasing and rough-ups but not too many feathers flew. The whole flock balance was thrown off, so i'm sure it will take a few days for them to work everything out. I was surprised to see that it was my Buff Orp that was doing most of the chasing as I was sure she was the lowest on the totam pole - well, not counting the silkie. Maybe she just wanted to tell everyone that she's higher up than them and the others weren't worried about their positions. LOL. Chicken politics!

Now for the pics!

Meet Bunny and Rabbit - the easter eggers!



Crow and Butterfly - the Javas (about 3 months old)



Goldie and Lacey - Gold Laced Orpingtons (these girls are a bit older than my current flock by a couple months and were the worst picked on tonight - they held their own though!)


Raine - Splash Silkie!

Awwww, Tweety!!! They are all so beautiful!! I'm so excited for you! Those EE's are just gorgeous!! The GL Orpingtons are pretty amazing, too!! Big Congrats!!!!

 

[JosieChick]

Josie I bathed little Josie (I'm so sorry, I named her after you! LOL) today and fluffed and puffed her and groomed her all up. She got her nails trimmed and everything all cleaned and whitened. I wanted to show you the "Before" pictures of what she looked like pre-wash, and then then during her wash-- which is pretty funny, because I gave her a 'soap mohawk', and then her "After" pics after I blow dried her and fluffed her and sprayed her out. I hope you don't want her back after you see what she looks like now! LOL

Before:

During:

and AFTER:

I was pretty impressed with my fluffing skills.... but I did start with a good bird to begin with.

Thank you!

I'll be taking her for sure to the show!!

Ohhhhh!! She is beautiful!!!!! I am so happy you have her. She deserves to look like a gorgeous girl, not a sticky muddy mess!!!! I am grinning ear to ear looking at her, I knew she was a special girl under all that mess! She has pizazz and now you can see it! I knew you would love her and get her all fixed up! I can't believe you named her Josie! One of my first hens name is Josie, I always thought it was a cute chicken name, I am so tickled with how she looks I can't get over it!!

 

[JosieChick]

Good evening all!
Josie - It was great meeting you today! Thanks again for the beautiful birds!!! We went ahead and just introduced all the birds right away cuz I'd like to get them all settled and sleeping together by the time the temp falls to 28 degrees Sat night. There was a few chasing and rough-ups but not too many feathers flew. The whole flock balance was thrown off, so i'm sure it will take a few days for them to work everything out. I was surprised to see that it was my Buff Orp that was doing most of the chasing as I was sure she was the lowest on the totam pole - well, not counting the silkie. Maybe she just wanted to tell everyone that she's higher up than them and the others weren't worried about their positions. LOL. Chicken politics!

Now for the pics!

Meet Bunny and Rabbit - the easter eggers!



Crow and Butterfly - the Javas (about 3 months old)



Goldie and Lacey - Gold Laced Orpingtons (these girls are a bit older than my current flock by a couple months and were the worst picked on tonight - they held their own though!)


Raine - Splash Silkie!

Ohh, such nice pics! Glad to hear they are settling in with out too much ruckus! Poor orp girls, they are always getting picked on!

 

[tweetysvoice]

Yeah, i'm pretty sure it's because they were perceived as the biggest threat to the flock dynamics since they didn't stand down to the other birds. DH was nervous about all the chasing, but I assured him that it was all part of them determining their positions within the flock. The Javas are probably just happy that they aren't the only ones getting picked on now. LOL As soon as I threw down some scratch, everyone forgot about who was chasing who and they all started eating. That's when we got the best pics.

We just went out, now that It's dark, and put everyone into the coop for bed. All new birds had paired up and were sleeping in very odd places. The EEs were on-top of the water barrel, the Orps were on-top of the coop and the silkie was on-top of the tree stump. LOL. They didn't fight us picking them up and putting them onto the roost, so I think all's going to be good for the night. I'll check on them again here in 1/2 an hour. That's me - I'll be checking on them for a while.. lol

 

[tweetysvoice]

Awwww, Tweety!!! They are all so beautiful!! I'm so excited for you! Those EE's are just gorgeous!! The GL Orpingtons are pretty amazing, too!! Big Congrats!!!!

Thanks! I"m so very happy with them. Josie raises beautiful birds! The EE's almost look like they have hawk heads, which is so cool!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Ohhhhh!! She is beautiful!!!!! I am so happy you have her. She deserves to look like a gorgeous girl, not a sticky muddy mess!!!! I am grinning ear to ear looking at her, I knew she was a special girl under all that mess! She has pizazz and now you can see it! I knew you would love her and get her all fixed up! I can't believe you named her Josie! One of my first hens name is Josie, I always thought it was a cute chicken name, I am so tickled with how she looks I can't get over it!!

I hate to say it, but she even stunned me with how nicely she "cleaned up"! LOL I'm just so darned excited about her! She was so calm and happy about everything. She did very well with the blow drying and then the fluffing and spraying. She's a show girl at heart, for sure!

The kids played with her today and she got lots of attention.

Yeah, i'm pretty sure it's because they were perceived as the biggest threat to the flock dynamics since they didn't stand down to the other birds. DH was nervous about all the chasing, but I assured him that it was all part of them determining their positions within the flock. The Javas are probably just happy that they aren't the only ones getting picked on now. LOL As soon as I threw down some scratch, everyone forgot about who was chasing who and they all started eating. That's when we got the best pics.

We just went out, now that It's dark, and put everyone into the coop for bed. All new birds had paired up and were sleeping in very odd places. The EEs were on-top of the water barrel, the Orps were on-top of the coop and the silkie was on-top of the tree stump. LOL. They didn't fight us picking them up and putting them onto the roost, so I think all's going to be good for the night. I'll check on them again here in 1/2 an hour. That's me - I'll be checking on them for a while.. lol

So glad they are doing great!

Thanks! I"m so very happy with them. Josie raises beautiful birds! The EE's almost look like they have hawk heads, which is so cool!

Yeah, those are stunning! Beautiful birds!! All of them, but yeah, those EE's are pretty amazing.

 

[Trish44]

HEChicken, my ladder roost that I just took out was hinged to the wall so that I could raise it to clean out the coop, but these new roosts will be fairly easy to clean under too on that side because there are no legs, they're hooked to the wall & another board that was already there. I will try to get out later tomorrow & take some pics, but I did notice that one end is a tad higher on the step up, so I supposed I will have to level it just so my DH won't come in & tell me it's off kilter, he's such a perfectionist about things like that. I wasn't really too worried about it since it's a chicken roost after all, but I know I will hear about it. I will only have to remove a few screws to move it, so it won't be that hard. The roost I just put in there actually takes up much less space than the old one too, so there is more room to get in & out to the nest boxes & all. You know I never thought about it, but if you ever found an old wooden ladder at a garage sale or something that would make a great roost hooked at each end to the walls in the coop, great idea! My new roost also has a step up in the main coop so they can jump up on the first level & get up to the higher one. They were having a little trouble getting up & down, so this gives them a way to do it without hurting their feet. My roosts in the dog run pens I have are just 2x4s hooked into the chain link panels & the same in the hoop coop. The turkeys are the only ones that have a tree branch for a roost & they love it. I have a big tree stump in there at one end that they can use to jump up on to get up or down if they want to & I have seen them use it. That way they don't have to hurt themselves jumping down. I think the tom did hurt his leg one time jumping down off the roost. Speaking of the silly tom turkey, today I was out there painting & he kept walking over by me & I would tell him he was such a pretty boy & he would display & dance around for me fanning his tail, I just laughed so hard at him, he's a clown.

Man I'm pooped tonight now, I had to chase a little welsummer pullet around & around through the woods tonight. Today was her first day to be out to free-range since being let out of the grow-out pen. The three young ones I let out yesterday & added to the main coop hung around the outside of the grow-out pen all day today wanting back in. Silly chickens, they had freedom & didn't know what to do with it. I ended up walking right up to the lavender orp rooster & picking him up, he is so laid back I was just floored. I picked him up & just carried him around & then took him into the coop & he was so calm the whole time, I think I'm going to really like him. The welsummer pullets were a whole different ballgame. Two of them I just had to open the grow-out pen & run them in there & then catch them with the net & then take them back to the main coop. The last one though gave me a run for my money tonight, wow, I was about to wring her neck by the time I finally got her back into the grow-out pen & caught her.

Well I think Jasmine has learned her lesson with bothering the guineas. I didn't put her shock collar on her today, I went out to paint on the shelter for the grow-out pen this afternoon & let the guineas out & the whole bunch came out bigger ones & smaller ones all together, 19 of them. I decided to just let them all stay out & see how they did, so the larger ones hung out together & the younger ones stayed in their group. Jasmine was off sleeping while Lily watched over everyone, it seems like they take turns taking naps, which is really nice. Anyway, Jasmine never even came out from her sleeping spot to check out the guineas at all. I let the turkeys out of their pen for awhile too & they didn't go too far again. My DH was right behind the hoop coop cutting out doors with the saw & the birds were kind of freaking out due to the noise, but other than that all was well. When I had to go cook lunch I herded the turkeys back in & they went in calmly & I decided to just leave the guineas out & see what happened while we ate lunch. I left them out until later afternoon & went out to find the whole bunch laying down in front of the hoop coop. I opened the door & all 19 went in at the same time, I was thrilled they're doing so well with going back in. I think this is going to work out well this time. This bunch is so much easier to handle than the ones I had last year, those were just wild as they could be & I couldn't do a thing with them. These I have now seem so much easier to work with, maybe it's because I have had them since they were tiny & they are really accustomed to me, I don't know. I'm hoping they will get a little braver & start ranging just a little farther from the pen so they can clean up the ticks in the wooded area. We just get so many ticks on us walking through there & we have to go in there now to get to the new breeder coop & even to the hoop coop, so it would be nice if they would get used to going out & start eating bugs a little farther out. I'm sure they will get better as they get used to coming out more. They're doing really well though I think for the few times they have been out. Lily was laying out in the front yard with a wild rabbit she had caught & was guarding that. She only growled at cats if they came too close & she thought they were going to take her catch. Lily actually is the best behaved now believe it or not, she was the problem child as a puppy, but she really settled down & is a really good dog now. She listens very well now too, which she didn't do at all before. Somebody asked me, I think it was HEChicken about how Jasmine did with the turkeys & she didn't pay any attention to them at all, it was only the guineas she bothered, no chickens or turkeys at all. I just think it was the noise the guineas were making that got her attention & now she knows they are to be left alone just like the chickens & she seems fine with them now that she got shocked a couple times. She just didn't want anything to do with any of it after that buzz from the collar twice, that really got her attention, I'm impressed.

I'm working my way through my to do list for fall, but I still have quite a few things left on there yet. Tomorrow morning we have to take the cat to the Vet & my DH's car in for service. He has been having some issues with overheating, so he's going to have that looked at & the oil changed. We'll leave his car at the shop & take mine to take the cat in to get looked at. She has been having an issue with some skin problems & now today doesn't seem to feel well at all, so I don't know what is going on with her now. This is my DH's favorite cat, so I hope it's nothing really bad that is wrong with her. He is really a cat person through & through, that is all he had when I met him was a cat. He has had to learn to like dogs since I have always had them. His little dog now has her little paw wrapped around his little finger though, she won his heart very quickly, she is just a sweetheart, she's a Maltese/Shih Tzu mix & she is a lover. You just can't be mad at Bella too long, she is too loveable.

Sunflowerparrot, I can't wait to see pics as your new puppy grows, I'm so excited for you! I wish I was going to be around when you go pick her up so I could go.