Consolidated Kansas

[Kansas Prairie]

Sara

, Welcome!

I'm from SW Kansas. How long have you had chickens?

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Chickies-duckies, how on earth did cougars end up here???? I've never heard that. Anyone else notice that the coyotes seem bigger nowadays? This evening when I did my chick checks I found 3 cats in my little chick pen. They weren't bothering them and the chickens weren't even rattled by them being there, they didn't even seem to notice. The cats were eating their feed. When we shooed them out, one just climbed right up the chicken wire. Chicken wire isn't much protection now then is it? OMGosh!!!! That's so scary about the coyotes getting so close. I'd have been terrified. Thanks for the links Chickies-duckies, I opened them so I will be sure and check them out.

Cougars have been in Ks for a long time, but in the last couple of years the state finally admited they are here. There was a lot of talk about it then. Someone killed one and in the picture there where signs or whatever that proved WHERE the picture was taken.

The state will still not recognize that there are BLACK leopards here. When I mentioned that to the wildlife agent, who was out because of the bold coyote, he firmly said "there are no black *cougars*". I have talked to many people that have seen the black leopards in North East through East Central Ks. I was talking to a neighbor on the phone, she was watching the llamas playing and saw them go on alert, they started toward the trees in the back, she looked at the spot they had their attention on and saw a big black cat going into the trees.

Anything that people keep as pets can possibly get loose and if they can survive in the climate could establish, Interesting stories come out of areas where somone has a back yard zoo. A lady I knew in the Emporia area always made sure her horses were safely in the barn for the night because of the big cats in her area. Sorry, I ramble, so many stories. Even the alligator found in the Wolf Creek cooling lake. http://blogs.kansas.com/outdoors/2010/01/28/alligator-found-in-kansas-lake/

The links for the grain nutrition - I found info there that I have been looking for.

 

[checoukan]

sarajoy and to consolidated Kansas thread. Glad to have you aboard, Lots of wonderful people here and will help you anyway they can with knowledge, kindness and understanding.
Having trouble getting the pictures loaded. The avatar is one of the pullets, she was a little upset about the camera flash.

Yeah, Hawkeye, I am ready for hutch, and you won't be able to miss me, think I will wear my bright orange "Kickin Chicken" t-shirt, so look for the big orange pumpkin

 

[chicken danz]

Hi, to all.
Well, I made the National Rosecomb show!! My cockerel placed 5th in the first show, and 3rd in the second show.
The pullets did not place, but, I had a lot of comments on the girls. They had some very tough competion. My girls were a lot younger than a lot of the pullets there. Some were even laying. My girls have not crossed that line yet. I would say most of the pullets there were 11+ months old. Mine are only 9 months so I am not unhappy. I learned so much from the "BIG SHOW BREEDERS" They were all so nice, and we talked a lot about birds, breeding, and conditioning. I have a lot of work ahead of me but will get it done, and my birds will be better for it. I will be attending Hutchinson the 17th. They will be having sale cages there. Breeders will have birds there for sale. If you are just wanting to pick up something new for your flock, good place to look. All birds have to be tested, so they will all be pollurium clean.
I took a couple of pictures at the show, I have to get them uploaded, and then I will post them.

Congrats Rosie. I honestly thought you were a pro and knew all about your rosecombs. Are you showing anything else in Hutchinson or just concentrating on them? I think I"v decided to just breed for good genetics and let someone else do the showing. I neither have the time or the funds to do it. However it is interesting, and I am learning a lot from you guys. It has also made me spend a little more time studying bird genetics. I find it pretty interesting how they differ from mammals.

Quote:

Congrats! Sounds like it was an enjoyable time! I wish I lived closer to Hutch so I could get some better birds, not show birds but some well bred utility birds. That would be a 5 hour drive one way.

My DS got a nice deer this afternoon.

I'm not a hunter. But I certainly condone people who hunt to put meat on the table. I am thinking the bucks are starting to go in the rut. There is a nice one that is running this area right now, and quite a few other deer. One doe has a set of really young twins. She must have had them rather late in the season. They are too small to have been born early. Makes me wonder if the warm winter delayed some of the breeding.

thanks for the note Danz I was looking at this site today at work and someone asked me for ducks. Next spring i want to get some black copper murans I may have to expand my chicken space some day. thinking I have something I can turn into a chicken tractor so may help. any way lots of good family stuff on here. Kids and chicks are way cute. Keep up all the great stuff folks

I should have some black coppers up for grabs. I am trying to get a flock of blue coppers going, but in the process you still get blacks. There are mixes of black, and blue hens and roosters both so ultimately you end up with some pure blacks in the chicks.
Let me know if you are interested in some of my culls later or some chicks next spring.
I know in the past you have expressed a dislike for huge numbers of birds. I try to use mine to pay for each other. It hasn't worked real well yet but slowly I am working toward that end. I am trying to establish my laying flock, my breeding flock, and my eating flock. Let me know what size ducks your people are looking for, what you think they can comfortably pay, and I will see what I can do. I would of course rather sell them as babies but I occasionally save some to raise to keep for breeders and need to cull the males. Or I could raise some a little larger just for meat birds as long as I can pay for the feed.
Quote:

Then my guess. Was correct about chicks figured 3-4 weeks. How warm should I keep them? When I went for feed they only has starter/ grower I'm I going to need to get chick feed?

Keep them from drafts and make sure they have a heat source they can use if it gets cold. They shouldn't need a whole lot right now. Maybe even a conventional light bulb would be enough if you don't have a heat lamp. I have used 40 wt appliance bulbs before because for their size they put out a lot of heat.

I don't think the bottle launcher would work here, I would probably get a quick visit from the sheriff. I have been hearing crows around though and have read they keep the hawks away, so I need to figure out how to ensure the crows stay here. What do crows eat?

Crows are scavengers. Around here they tend to live more on mice, small snakes, bugs and road kill. They like berries and also drink a lot of water. If you can provide some water for them and leave any kind of kitchen scraps on the ground they will show up. My understanding is that you set a time like early morning to put food out. Never put a lot out or they will take it with them and cache it some where. You need to establish a routine of about the same time to leave food. And preferably not real close to the house.
We have quite a few around here but they are never up in the yard. They drive me nuts cause they are noisy.

Mammahen, if I were going to do a simple project, which I am, I would simply cross some white rock pullets with a New Hamp or red leghorn male to produce some red stars. You will end up with some color sexed chicks that are excellent layers and you can instantly separate the males to raise as food. You can also cross red leghorns males with white leghorn females to get egg layers that are color sexed as well. I prefer the other combination simply because leghorns are a little more hyper bird.
To create specific colors you need to know something about the genetics of the birds you are working with like what is recessive and what is dominant color genes. If you have a particular breed or color you would like to breed for let us know and I'll bet we could come up with something. Color breeding takes a few generations of birds and sometimes breeding back to the original type birds to keep the barring, penciling, lacing or whatever you are trying to achieve. I can write about it but don't have any projects that have gone far enough to produce exactly what I want that will breed true.
If you want to do a certain project, decide on what breed you want and what you want as an outcome. We can try to help. I have to refer back to genetic tables to figure out what to do myself. My brain doesn't work well enough to remember it all.
Maidenwolf how are the chicks doing? The mamma hen is taking good care of her chicks she has.
Karen, Hope you are starting to feel better.

 

[chicken danz]

Howdy. I'm from SE Kansas - rural Dennis, to be specific. I have two rir's hens, two light brahma hens, and one light brahma rooster. I enjoy the rir's who were very socialized before they came to us. They are a little bossy, the alpha hen actually trying to boss around the light brahma rooster! But with us they are just friendly, and follow my special needs adult son around chattering away. They also are good layers. Definately keepers, as pets, even if they weren't great layers. But I'm in love with the light brahma's. I'm hoping to gather a larger flock of these. Hopefully the three I do have will be prolific, but I'm also interested in expanding this flock sooner rather than later. The rooster is friendly and docile with us, but is rather randy, and giving my two light brahma hens quite a work out. So far the rir's have warded him off. So an additional hen or two would be delightful. Are there any other folks here from SE Kansas? I look forward to joining the conversations here! Sara

Glad to welcome a new face. I have lots of light brahmas. They are an awesome breed. Probably one of my favorites.

Cougars have been in Ks for a long time, but in the last couple of years the state finally admited they are here. There was a lot of talk about it then. Someone killed one and in the picture there where signs or whatever that proved WHERE the picture was taken.

The state will still not recognize that there are BLACK leopards here. When I mentioned that to the wildlife agent, who was out because of the bold coyote, he firmly said "there are no black *cougars*". I have talked to many people that have seen the black leopards in North East through East Central Ks. I was talking to a neighbor on the phone, she was watching the llamas playing and saw them go on alert, they started toward the trees in the back, she looked at the spot they had their attention on and saw a big black cat going into the trees.

Anything that people keep as pets can possibly get loose and if they can survive in the climate could establish, Interesting stories come out of areas where somone has a back yard zoo. A lady I knew in the Emporia area always made sure her horses were safely in the barn for the night because of the big cats in her area. Sorry, I ramble, so many stories. Even the alligator found in the Wolf Creek cooling lake. http://blogs.kansas.com/outdoors/2010/01/28/alligator-found-in-kansas-lake/

The links for the grain nutrition - I found info there that I have been looking for.

I have seen cougars around here for years. They used to frequent the Wolf Creek area because of course, no one was allowed to hunt within any of the area. I saw many of them on security cameras and watched one walking up to a building I was in one night and came within 5 feet of me. Let me tell you they are HUGE animals. I've not seen any here at my place "thank goodness" but I am sure they are all around here. I've not seen any black ones but I know from history they lived around here. Regardless of the threat they could potentially be, they are gorgeous animals.
I still worked at Wolf Creek when the environmentalist recovered that alligator. I remember it had gotten bitter cold and they assumed that it had been there for a few years but the extreme cold finally killed it.

 

[lizzyGSR]

Cougars have been in Ks for a long time, but in the last couple of years the state finally admited they are here. There was a lot of talk about it then. Someone killed one and in the picture there where signs or whatever that proved WHERE the picture was taken.

The state will still not recognize that there are BLACK leopards here. When I mentioned that to the wildlife agent, who was out because of the bold coyote, he firmly said "there are no black *cougars*". I have talked to many people that have seen the black leopards in North East through East Central Ks. I was talking to a neighbor on the phone, she was watching the llamas playing and saw them go on alert, they started toward the trees in the back, she looked at the spot they had their attention on and saw a big black cat going into the trees.

Anything that people keep as pets can possibly get loose and if they can survive in the climate could establish, Interesting stories come out of areas where somone has a back yard zoo. A lady I knew in the Emporia area always made sure her horses were safely in the barn for the night because of the big cats in her area. Sorry, I ramble, so many stories. Even the alligator found in the Wolf Creek cooling lake. http://blogs.kansas.com/outdoors/2010/01/28/alligator-found-in-kansas-lake/

Speaking of wildlife that doesn't belong... Back in high school, my sister went out for long distance running (track and cross country). During the summer, she'd go out in the early mornings to run (my dad always followed her in the car). There was one morning that my sister saw a MONKEY while she was running. Needless to say, she rode with my dad in the car 'till she was a safe distance from where they spotted the monkey. My sister wasn't the only one that saw it, either. The neighbor's daughter saw it (she went out for a morning run as well, heard a rustle in the ditch and thought it was a dog, so she called to it. It came out of the grass on TWO LEGS - definitely NOT a dog. She cancelled the rest of her run). Another neighbor heard a scream and had an expensive horse run through a barbed wire fence. The horse was injured badly enough that it had to be put down. WE think it saw the monkey, freaked out, and ran through the fence. We think there was a travelling zoo going through the area and that they lost the monkey. We also think the monkey was either caught or that it didn't last very long. There were several sightings in a 2 or 3 week time period and then nothing after that. Maybe a coyote got it??? Oh, and I should probably mention that all the sightings I mentioned above were 10 miles from the closest town.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Welcome Sarajoy!

I got a shelter built yesterday, one of the 3 I plan on building. I have been dealing with my 4 tom turkeys fighting like crazy. It is ruthless. I have to direct them away from the coop so they dont step on anyone. I hope this passes soon, I dont want to have to get rid of one.

Lots of predator talk today..

makes me nervous.....
It ia dreary and cold, but there is still much to do.. Stay warm everyone...
Oh and here's to a better week then last..

 

[chicken danz]

I am sick of predators! Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to worry about them?
I had to sell all of my excess tom turkeys. I haven't sold the midget whites yet. They pick on each other but seem to be doing okay so far. Seems like they like to bite each other's necks but so far no one has been hurt. If that happens I will have to do some butchering. Not something I want to do with those guys.

 

[sarajoy]

Thanks "MaidenWolf" from Missouri. Yes, I am new to chickens. Well, mostly. I helped my grandma with hers when I was a kid and spent summers with her. But as an adult with my own coop, yup, new. About two months new! So I'm on a learning journey for sure. But I love my chickens! What part of Missouri are you from? Sara

 

[sarajoy]

Hi Kansas Prairie - thanks for the welcome. I'm pretty brand new to caring for my own chickens, so can use all kinds of tips from you all. I already lost one of my original three rir's to a hawk. They are usually pretty smart, go under the low outlying branches of a pine tree when the hawks start to circle. But "Grover" (named by the previous owner's preschooler) was a little slower.... Since then I've got my three light brahma's, one of which is a rooster, and doesn't let the hens wander off. He pays attention to the skies and warns when they need to get under cover. I would HATE to keep them in the run all day. Even on cold damp days they want out and about, though tend to hang out clumped under the trees on those days. But, if I continue to let them out to freely forage I know there is likely to be some loss. The coyotes gather at a creek half a mile south of us, and sometimes we'll hear them on our northern treeline as well. So far we've not seen them during daylight hours. Sure hope that continues!! Sara