Consolidated Kansas

[checoukan]

maidenwolf, this is something you don't see very often, an may never see again. Its like why do some get cancer and others don't. Its all genetics. You can try lots of things, but in the end you are going to have the same result. You know life has not guarantee's, go find a really nice healthy chick to replace it, and all will be well. Watching an unhealthily chick is heart-wrenching, I know, I have had many babies and lost my fair share. Who know the baby you get to replace this one may be the best companion you ever had!

 

[checoukan]

Its possible, but mine just don't seem to like milo. I don't feed whole corn either, I always use chopped. I have a grinder that I could use, but it makes everything into a powder, and then I get looks from the birds like "YOU EXPECT ME TO EAT THAT"! Talk about spoiled birds.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

maidenwolf, this is something you don't see very often, an may never see again. Its like why do some get cancer and others don't. Its all genetics. You can try lots of things, but in the end you are going to have the same result. You know life has not guarantee's, go find a really nice healthy chick to replace it, and all will be well. Watching an unhealthily chick is heart-wrenching, I know, I have had many babies and lost my fair share. Who know the baby you get to replace this one may be the best companion you ever had!

Thank you. I am glad to hear it isnt something I did. I feel terrible for her. My daughter knew that sometimes these things happen but why did it have to happen to hers... That is seriously what she wanted for her bday, she is going to be so upset. Ok who has chicks? I dont know when I can scrape up the money because we are catching up bills etc. That chick was one of the breeds my daughter wanted and I got her for her birthday.

 

[checoukan]

What breed is it, I am sure we can find a replacement somewhere!!!

 

[maidenwolfx80]

She is a silver laced wyandotte. If those are not available she like the blue and splash marans and cochins, she likes brahmas and blue laced red wyandotte also ameracauna blue or blue wheaten or lavender. Those are the ones I remember her picking but there were others

 

[lizzyGSR]

lizzy`` No better than my birds eat milo, that ration would not work for me.

Thank you for the input. I guess it's time to do a lot more research on waterfowl nutrition.

SW corner, by the Colorado and Oklahoma line.

I'm in the NW corner, by the Colorado/NE line. You're the first person in western KS I've met on here (that I know of).

There is milo in my scratch grain mix, and it goes straight through them whole most of the time. I find whole seeds in their poo. (and on the ground, they don't like it much). Crimped might work much better, though.

ARe you talking about chickens, ducks or both?

 

[Hawkeye95]

Oooops Hawkeye, no you don't need zinc, that for ear lobes.

Yeah the bag works well, and I put my billfold in there too.

Kansas prairie, I lived in Hugoton for a while, then Deerfield, then Dodge City. I moved to Ok., and lived In Goodwell for 10 years, ended up moving to Hooker lived there for about 3 years.

I still have family in Lakin and Garden City.

ooooh-- and to make your earlobes whiter? Okay! Yeah, mine need to stay a bright blue! LOL That would be bad! hehe!! You've been all over!

Oh no

I dont have the nutri-drench but yes I have seen it. How does this happen and will it happen to the others? Is it something I could have avoided or that I caused? I am so upset now. I wanted to care for these babies and aise them strong and healthy and so far they were and the rest are strong as oxes and already growing tail feathers and their wings are fully feathered.. Oh goodness please tell me this wont happen to the others just cause it is happening to her. No Now I have to find extra money to replace her because she is my 8 year old daughters,

The nutri-drench is a mixture of electrolytes. You can try to mix up your own with sugar and salt. I use a syringe to get it down them. (IF they won't drink the water) I now just have the large packet of Electrolytes from the farm store-- it was pretty cheap, and it has most of the vitamins in it. Also, your probiotics will have some Vit E in it-- so if you have yogurt, that could help the bird, too. But really, Vit E capsules and water mixed with electrolytes are the best bet. I give electrolyte water to all my chicks for the first 5+ days or so. I want to be sure they get all the vitamins and boost them as best I can right after they hatch. Do you have any of those small "Sav-A-Chic" packets? That would work too. My electrolytes brand that I use is called "Vi-Tal". It's a Water Vitamin, Electrolyte, and Mineral Support. It has Vit E in it. When I get in a shipped bird, or a new bird-- like when I got Josie's bird. I started her bird on the "Vi-Tal" and put probiotics in her food to make sure she wouldn't be stressed out and if she was, it wouldn't upset her mineral balance. Birds are so precarious! They can go from healthy to sick in no time at all. Her bird did end up being a bit stressed and started in with the big gaping/yawning/ mouth with a sneeze--- so I ran her on a low concentrate of antibiotics for a few days and she is good as new.

If you lose your bird, at least now you know what to do. When you can afford it, go buy a bag of the electrolytes. You'll need it more often than you think! Every time a bird gets injured, or sick, they will need it.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Hawkeye- I have been giving them the vi-tal for 3 days now. First day was sugar water and then fresh water then the vi-tal. I do have sav-a-chick probiotics I was goin to mix up for them starting today.

 

[chicken danz]

I am so far behind in posts so let me try to dig through this mess.

Well My DH worked a little on the coop today & got the last door cut out on the back of the coop, but didn't get that last piece of OSB screwed on yet. He has the two ends now to put OSB on & then he can start putting siding on. Hawkeye, do you have any ideas about putting the skylight sections in on the roof? Should we just leave that whole piece of OSB out or should we leave a little frame for the skylight panel to sit on? Then I guess there will be no roof under those sections, there will be two to let more light in. I hope it doesn't let too much cold air in there. I don't know what else to do though to use the skylights. I had to pay $48 each for those two skylight panels & they were special order. I actually had to order all the Ondura roofing special because I wanted a different color than what they carry in the store. Then we had to order a minimum of 10 panels in order to get them so I will have some left over. I can use some of them probably for my rabbit hutches or maybe over the hoop coop eventually. It depends on how many we have left over.
I would frame it in between the studs myself. Is this a flat panel or raised panel. That does make a difference in how it is mounted. Mount the outsides on top of the OSB where you have cut it out and then put your other roofing on top of that to seal it off.



I went & got a truck load of cattails this afternoon, so tomorrow I will be shoveling those into my coop & pens. I really appreciate being able to get this material to use, it really helps out since even straw doesn't end up being that cheap when you have to use a lot of it for pens & in dog houses. So far just to let you all know about how the experiment is going with them, they seem to be staying dry very well in the coop & I think they will work out fine for litter in there. I do have some pine shavings in there that were there before I started using the cattails, but I'm just mixing them together.
My curiousity about the cat tails is if they absorb moisture or not?

Okay, next dumb question. How do you find a co-op? Everyone always talks about them but I've never seen one. I have access to Atwoods, Orschelns, TSC, and I used to go to a feed store in Wichita that wasn't part of a big chain, but I've never seen anything calling itself a Co-op. I tried looking in the white pages but didn't come up with anything.....

Look under Grain elevators in the yellow pages.

I thought i was at the bottom, and things could only go up... then a hawk got another one of my hens today

Sorry! It's that time of year. Unless your birds are in a covered area it is so hard to keep them from these raptors!

One of my little SLW chicks is having trouble standing up. She is still interested in eating and drinking but is wobbly when she does stand and would rather lay. She seems to twitch or shake her head alot. When she tries scooting herself along she seems unstable and uses her wings to steady herself. She was fine this morning, any suggestions?

I am going to try to incorporate all of the posts on this in one answer. The difference in the vitamin E is that the capsules are food grade and the other isn't. I personally don't know if I would use the other unless there were just no other options.
These problems can also occur from brain injuries not just genetics. Chicks peck each other and are clumsy and things can easily happen to them. The vitamin E actually reduces swelling in the brain and it will help. I never give up on a chick like that if I can help it. It isn't necessarily a death sentence. You won't see an instant cure. It may take a couple days or a couple weeks depending on the severity.
Checoukan raises show birds so of course her preference is to make sure no poor genetics are carried on. I understand that. And I personally don't want to breed bad genetics either. But if you are planning on a egg layers or a roo for dinner it shouldn't matter much. I tend to feel sorry for the birds with problems and give them the best chance on life. They often go to be dinner but assuming they thrive I don't mind taking the time to treat them.
A few of my most awesome birds were birds that had been injured and recovered with special care. I have an awesome cochin rooster who was one of those damaged birds and he had gone on to produce many perfectly normal chicks. Most of those with genetic injuries don't live to breeding age. The other birds pick on them and they just never thrive. It's the survival of the fittest sort of thing.
Originally Posted by Trish44

I can't remember who asked about mealworms, was it sapphire? Anyway, I had a ton of beetles for the longest time and I decided last week that I would pitch the bin out to the chickens and just give up on the project. Well I haven't gotten around to it and tonight I thought I best just do it and get rid of them. When I pulled the bin out it was like a horror film! The whole bin was just writhing and crawling with baby mealworms!! I mean, you could hear them all crawling around in there, it was crazy. So I chopped up some potatoes for them and put them back! maybe its not as bad as I thought!

That's so funny! Maybe the clue to success is ignoring them.

I'm so tired!!!! I've been so busy today, not anything hard but constantly running. I feel my heart rate slowing down as I read and type/write.

Danz, I like your inhaler idea. I think I'll do one for my daughter, and if I add rhinestones she'll be sure to carry it
What a cool idea. I never thought of decorating the canister.


Danz, it sounds like you are having another amazing hatch, you rock!!! I'm sorry about your missing eggs, it would drive me crazy too. I want to see your couch when you get it finished. I've uphostered before but I got a bit too scared when I needed to do a couch and we threw it out and it was as old as I am. It was hard to throw it out, but I was too scared to dive in to something that big. So???? When are you going to write a book about your feed mixture and hatching and everything? You could add the wiring for your coops and heaters, maybe some info on how to scope out the best deals on feed and hatching eggs, breeder sources, and all of your other talents and knowledge. I'd like to be put on your waiting list please.
I'm certainly not an expert on anything. I was a single parent through most of my adult life with 5 kids. I just developed the attitude if it could be done I could do it. Mother of necessity. Unfortunately I'm not as strong or organized as I once was so I fail to accomplish a 10th of what I used to.
Lizzy, you got so lucky on that. I wasn't looking forward to figuring it out but if they sell by the pounds you don't really need the percentages then. I was going to make it our math assignment for the day for real, it's a real life math assignment that the kids can actually see the purpose of so it makes it stick with them better. We could do it anyway, or maybe I'll go ahead and do the percentages and ask them to figure out the pounds since that's the part we will need. I need to go copy/paste that post.
Lizzy you are so funny. You asked me how to figure percentages when you are a math wiz!!!
The stuff about the guns, I held a gun for the longest time ever that night my ds and I rescued that calf. He left the gun in my hands, basically shoved it at me because I was to stand there with the calf and he went to get the truck. The coyotes were going crazy and they sounded so close so I was already very scared, but I was too scared to notice I was holding the gun the entire time. That's the longest I've ever held a gun. It took me over 10 years to get in the chicken coop so it may just take me a while to get used to guns too. I feel like it will be important that I am able to at some point, probably when the boys are grown and gone. So in the next 5 years I need to learn to shoot it, but if I just hold it sometimes, or maybe I'll just go outside and watch when they shoot next time. I won't let the boys shoot when my dh isn't home unless it's somemthing important. This summer my then 12 yo ds shot 2 5 ft long snakes 'dancing' in a very close tree. He got them one at a time but without any trouble at all.
I was a police office in Oklahoma city and I still don't enjoy shooting. I depended on my gun but I always had the highest respect for it. I hate loud noises so I guess that has something to do with it. I also don't like killing unless it is to remove a threat. I can never be a hunter as long as I can provide food otherwise.

maidenwolf, someone will surely help you with your chick but I think it was Danz that advised, on using Vitamin E and it really worked a miracle on another chick. Correct me if I'm wrong, I 'think' it was Danz. It kinda gets hard to keep everything straight.
Yep that was Medawinks chick. We all use Vitamin E around here I believe though.

It has it has di-alpha Tocopheryl Acetate which is a source of vit E activity. They have been getting that today is day 3 on that. Maybe it is not what she needs or isnt enough vit E???She is still the same no worse which is good but I just have to find a way to help her. This just suddenly hit within a 2 hour period.

Good morning from SW Kansas.

Thank you for the input. I guess it's time to do a lot more research on waterfowl nutrition.

I'm in the NW corner, by the Colorado/NE line. You're the first person in western KS I've met on here (that I know of).
ARe you talking about chickens, ducks or both?

Lizzy, Keep in mind that different birds eat different feeds. If something doesn't work for others it doesn't mean it won't work for you.

If the others of you are considering mixing your own feed, you may have to experiment on what works and what doesn't. That is why I have part crimped milo and part whole. Some birds prefer it one way and others prefer it another way. I assure you if my birds didn't eat the whole milo that it would have been eliminated all together. The mix of the two is what works best for me. If you can't get crimped milo you just have to try with what is available. Sometimes birds will hesitate to eat something that is new or different for awhile until they start eating it.
My birds wouldn't touch BOSS when I first started giving it to them but they go nuts for it now. It all works the same way.

On the subject of vitamins. I have nutridrench for birds which is great stuff. But it is pricy. On advice from people on the forum I also bought polyvisol without iron and it seems to work as well, and the birds don't mind it as much. I don't give vitamins all the time but have it for times I feel they should be added.
Many of us have an entire pharmacy for our birds and just keep adding more. Money is always a factor for some of us. I like to remind myself how many centuries birds survived without all the stuff we give them now. I strive to give the best care possible but am cautious as to over medicating. Any time a natural remedy will work as opposed to an antibiotic I will always try that first. There is so much to be said for free ranging and good nutrition.

 

[chicken danz]

Oh one other thing. I often give my chicks pedialite to help build up electrolites. Gatoraide now has these individual packets to mix up small amounts.I have started using some of those and adding it to the water for electrolites. The birds really seem to love the taste and it gives them a boost. My DH drinks it. It was here so I tried it and the results have been great. I also give pro-biotics and add apple cider vinegar to water off and on.