Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

OzawkieBantams. I also raise lots of game birds.
Oh Trish I forgot to mention. I put a bid on some Campine eggs yesterday for $ .99. She didn't see the bid and ended the auction early cause she wanted to extend the time for it. In doing so it caused my bid to be a winning bid. I really didn't want the campines per say other than maybe for some color breeding but thought they started at such a low price I might as well bid. But since I got them cheap I guess I will hatch them and see what happens. I can't remember if you still have that girl you bought at Yates Center. They are now on the endangered list so I guess I can't go wrong with them. They are a little hyper so I don't know how they will fit in with my group. I have read they are one of the breeds used to come up with most of these new auto sexing breeds though.

 

[lizzyGSR]

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.

I'm doing research for myself. I will likely try all the different grains you suggested just to see what my birds like.

Also, I was asking for the percents 'cuz I thought they would be easier for you to give me. The weights worked for me. Thanks again for your input. I really appreciate it!

www.lnc-online.com My computer won't open it, but that should be a chart for the nutritional value of grains. Oh, I use whole milo - the birds go crazy for it and if they didn't process it, I would not buy it. They pick it out and leave the commercial feed.

That link took me to a grain elevator's website. For the benefit of whoever is interested, here are a couple links I found that could be helpful:
Waterfowl feed specification for temperate climates: http://www.metzerfarms.com/NutritionalRequirements.cfm?CustID=1154889
Mixing your own feeds (with a calculator): http://www.metzerfarms.com/FeedConversion.cfm?CustID=1154889

 

[Trish44]

Danz, yes I still have the silly little hen. After all of this time she still won't go into the coop to roost at night, she is wild as a march hare. I have caught her in the coop eating at times because she misses out on getting fed now that the cats are fed on top of the rabbit hutch. She used to eat cat food with them, but I had to find a solution to feeding them so the dogs couldn't get in the food, I didn't want my critter sitter to have to deal with all of that. I don't know what will happen to her this winter, I have tried to get her to go into the coop in all different ways, but she is fast as lightning & very wary of anyone getting too near her. She is a pretty little thing, but yes very, very flighty. She kind of reminds me of the two Gold Lakenvelders I have, they're very flighty too, but at least they will go into the coop at night. I didn't know they were on the endangered list. Oh & you asked if the cattails would absorb moisture & yes they do to a degree, but seem to dry out pretty fast too, much faster than straw does. I have had the best luck with them in my main coop inside mixed with the pine shavings. They're hollow & get pretty light when they're dry. I just wish I had my chipper shredder dug out of the garage so I could chop it up better, but it's buried in the far corner in there & it will be long while before I can get to it. I don't know if that would chop it too fine or not, it may. Some of it is in pretty long shreds still so it's kind of hard to deal with at first. But it's a natural resource, so I think it's great we can find some use for it.

Welcome Kansas Prairie, I also love your avatar! What kind of chickens do you have & do you have other birds?

Hawkeye & Danz, thanks for the input on the roof, I can use all I can get because neither one of us knows what we're doing, we're just blindly treading along on this thing. Someone asked if the roofing is flat or ridged & the Ondura is corrugated so there are ridges, it's a composite roofing material, really durable. You have to buy special nails for it that they sell at Lowe's also. I hope we can start making some real progress after this marathon this weekend. My DH said he was going to put it as a priority to try to get it done. I sure hope so because we're working on borrowed time here. I'm worried now about getting it painted before it's too cold to paint & I sure don't want it to sit there all winter with no paint. I just figured this was going to happen since he has messed around all summer with working only an hour here & there on the thing. Of course it's not his project or his chickens, so it doesn't matter much to him. I wish I could have just hired someone to build it, but the money wasn't there for that.

maidenwolf, the vitamin E caps at Wal Mart are what I use for the chicks, they're pretty inexpensive. I just keep a bottle of those right by my incubator because I have had to use them quite a lot on chicks that were having some problems at first. I also use the chick electrolytes & keep that stocked up too.

I have to get out & shovel all of those cattails out of the truck this afternoon & try to get my plastic stapled onto the hoop coop. The guineas & peacocks seem to be doing fine so far, but I don't want them to have to deal with north wind coming in there. I don't have enough plastic for the back yet, so I'll have to get some more when I go back to the store, but at least I want to get the sides done, then I'll buy another roll for the back & use some of that roll that is left for some of the other places I need some. I have spent quite a bit on tarps lately & am trying to keep that under the radar as far as my DH goes or he will start grouching about that. The younger birds in the grow-out pen still like to all crowd into the igloo dog house in there, but the bigger ones sit up on the roost.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Thank you all for the input and wonderful caring help you have provided , now I am off to buy what i need to save my daughters chick

 

[Trish44]

I just saw this video on vent sexing baby ducks & geese if anyone is interested: http://www.metzerfarms.com/SexingVideo.cfm?CustID=1154889. It only works for water fowl, not chickens.

 

[mikeksfarmer]

A report on my new baby chicks: I have never seen so calm of chick. The last time I did chicks in a box in my kitchen they were skitzo! You walk by and they scramble and squeek, nocking over water bottles etc. These chicks just look up at me and seem to say Mamma? Well the cute thing is I work with the developmentaly disabled and then with those who have dementia. I took chicks to work. Oh my goodness they loved them. These chicks brought the past back to them. They were little mothers again, they were so gentel and so loving, and they were friends again. It was a very rewarding experience to help these people grab again what has been eluding them for some time. One lady who spends most of here time in her bedroom spent the whole evening holding feeding and just watching chicks. If any of you ever get a chance to visit a nursing home or center for developmentally disabled consider doing it just for a few hours.
Any way in regard to hawks I have never really had a problem but do have them around. I have had foxes coons and dogs. When a hawk or fox gets too close I have a bottle rocket launcher attached to a deck rail where it will launch a rocket just above the chicken pen. On the 4th I buy some and keep them in the closet. Should I think there is a preditor near I set two off. They explode in the trees above the pen. The launcher is a bent peice of conduit/ pipe nailed to the deck rail at the correct angle to deliver the rocket just above the birds. It really does work. I know you cant really do this in the city but you sure can in the country. Some cities you can get a permit to use fireworks to scare away birds. Why not hawks?

 

[Kansas Prairie]

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?

Hello Lizzy,
It's interesting the different weather Goodland and up north receive compared to our weather. We prepared for a hard
freeze they predicted for last Saturday night, but so far no freeze.
If you are asking me, I have chickens, turkeys and my neighbors guineas hang out here, no ducks.

 

[Kansas Prairie]

So Kansas Prairie. What kind of birds do you have? Love the Prairie chicken picture!

Thank you! We live near the Cimarron National Grasslands. We love to watch the Prairie Chickens boom. We've been in drought for 2 years now, most all wild bird numbers are down, including the Prairie Chicken.
I love your avator, beautiful dog!
I have RIRs, Black Australorps, Barred Rocks & Burbon Reds. I raised Bob White quail, and hope to again.

 

[sharol]

That is really cool. Our Campine is our favorite chicken (besides the roo). She fits in fine with the other girls even though she is 2/3 their size, and she is one of my most dependable layers. My DH has suggested that we need a couple more Campines because he likes her sassiness. If I were breeding birds, I would get Campines. I had no idea they were endangered.

OzawkieBantams. I also raise lots of game birds.
Oh Trish I forgot to mention. I put a bid on some Campine eggs yesterday for $ .99. She didn't see the bid and ended the auction early cause she wanted to extend the time for it. In doing so it caused my bid to be a winning bid. I really didn't want the campines per say other than maybe for some color breeding but thought they started at such a low price I might as well bid. But since I got them cheap I guess I will hatch them and see what happens. I can't remember if you still have that girl you bought at Yates Center. They are now on the endangered list so I guess I can't go wrong with them. They are a little hyper so I don't know how they will fit in with my group. I have read they are one of the breeds used to come up with most of these new auto sexing breeds though.

 

[chicken danz]

Similar to some research I did. I tried alfalfa pellets but my birds wouldn't touch them I even chopped them up and they still wouldn't eat them. That is why I gave them alfalfa hay and they still weren't interested.
chickies duckies there is one point I read on that site you sent. Your self mixed feed has no fillers so it is much higher in actual protein and supplements than a processed bag feed. And I must say my birds like it so much better. I was feeding layer feed in a feeder in the hen house but it was getting old because they like my feed mix better.
I was looking for some pics of previous upholstery projects I did, without much luck. I need to start putting pictures in files better so I can find them. They are much more impressive when you can see the work I put into them. So here are a few projects:
Antique love seat: This was vinyl on top and the wood was awful and black. It is a gorgeous cherry wood that was hidden under years of filth. Total redo including retying springs. In the background you can also see a pink couch. This was also a total redo that took forever. The springs, the woodwork and the cushions all had to be redone. I wish I could find a full picture of it so you could see how awful it was. Below the loveseat pictures is a picture of it today.







The finished previously pictured pink couch below: Much better!!!

And a chair that was previously pink flowered cotton. It didn't have the button tufting before. I added that to class it up a little.

And a current project. This one has been waiting for me to fix a leg on it. It is half finished. There is still a lot of woodwork to go back on it. There is too much light in this picture. This is actually a dark burgundy color.

I will take pictures of the current project later. It is loaded on the truck right now until we can get it moved to the basement.