Consolidated Kansas

[ppimf]

mine love watermellon and lettuce but thats all i have found. i figured they would like eggs and maybe i would get lucky for them to start having eggs again

 

[PrairieChickens]

Sometimes when I want my chickens to try something new that they are turning their beaks up at, I'll tap it with my finger to kind of simulate the action of pecking at it. Their instincts kick in and they basically think "Well, if she's going to eat it, I want some too". It's how I taught our chicks to eat the garden scraps we brought them, because believe me, at first they were like "What is this mess you are depositing in my space?" Now they can't get enough of things like watermelon, cantaloupe, and tomatoes.

 

[ppimf]

i have tried to put in on a plate, on the ground, and in their reg feeder, and most of the time they look at it and ask scared of it
maybe i'll keep trying maybe it come with time. i just have 14 ducks currently no chickens

 

[JosieChick]

Well, my old house is sold.

No, its a good thing really. I got the offer within 2 weeks of putting it on the market and the whole transaction went about as smoothly as you could hope. I don't regret our move and I'm happy to be where we are now. But....its the emotional pull of the thing that gets me. I built that house as a single mum and when I moved in, I swore that was it - I was there for life. But life has a habit of following its own path so....here we are now. I went over this morning, prior to closing, to walk around one last time and say goodbye. It was tough but its time to look ahead to the future now.

The fermented feed really is a hit but my birds have always enjoyed mash and I guess that is really what this is. They certainly all dive in and there is lots of squabbling. I need to find another bowl or two to put it in so there is room for everyone. I decided to follow Karen's advice and did not drill drain holes in my bucket. This morning I stopped by Walmart and bought a set of cheap strainers and that worked pretty well. I just dished out a couple of cups, left it in the strainer for a minute to drain out the bulk of the water and then dumped it in the bowl and served.

Sorry you are sad your house sold! I kind of know how you feel. I am going to be very sad to sell this old school house, I really love this house. It is good news that it sold so quickly though and you didn't have to wait forever for it to sell or get a whole bunch of terrible offers. We did so much work on our house in Wichita and we got the most insulting offers on it. It was so frustrating.

Do you have the fermented feed in a heated building? I just wonder if I could ferment out in the barn, I don't heat the barn. I don't want to bring anymore chicken stuff in the house. They are beginning to think I'm goofy over the chickens, maybe I am. hhahahaaha

I do sprout grains mostly wheat, during the winter months, one pound of grain usually produces about 5 or 6 pounds of sprouts and they love them.I need to weigh the grain and make sure that is correct, I've read that's how much it produces but I've never weighed before and after. I only do one pan at a time, unless there is a blizzard coming then I'll start two pans about 3 days apart, so they can get some greens while they aren't out getting bugs and stuff. I use cat litter pans with holes.. I pour grain in, water and drain daily, they grow and there's no odor so nobody complains, and the birds LOVE it. Saves $$ and it's easy.

I read how you sprout but am still confused. Do you just put the wheat in the cat pans without any kind of substrate and keep them moist and where do you get wheat from for sprouting? I would love to do this for my geese during the winter. I have started adding timothy hay pellets to their feed to get them more "green" during the winter months.

I am having sellers regret already and my buyer isn't even here to pick up birds yet. I realized l had gathered up all my brahma offspring other than my original girls to sell. I love my brahmas. Oh, that is tough. I love my brahmas. I have one light brahma hen and she will stay until she dies. I love her. I really hate letting them go. If it weren't for the owl problems I wouldn't be doing it. I just have to be able to make sure everyone can be shut up at night. I don't have many of these fancy colored chicks so I won't have much to breed with either in the future. I guess I need to find a way to separate my group from the hen house and try to get some offspring. I've got to get some work done around here soon. It can't wait until spring.
I'm certainly cutting my own throat getting rid of so many birds cause I need the eggs they lay. But in the long run it's all part of my major plan to have egg layers and breeders separate. I guess I should have started getting more egg layers earlier so they would be producing while I reduce.
I had a friend write me and ask if I wanted to buy a peacock from her. It is a purple pied. Which means his chest is purple and his train is white or mostly white. They are awesome beauties. I really don't have a place for another male but I will probably take it. It is a little over my budget but just the same I know they need the money as well. I will just have to find a way to build some more pens. For a person who didn't want peacocks in the first place I certainly have gone overboard!!
I looked for ACV with mother in it earlier in Walmart in Emporia and Ottawa and neither place had it. I haven't been able to find it either. If I get a chance I will stop somewhere in KC and if I find some I will grab you a bottle too. Maybe if I make it to Topeka soon I can find a place that has it. I hadn't thought about the sugar being used up. I don't understand beer. How come it reduces calories but is still so fattening? I don't drink it so I have no idea. My son is a brew master and I could ask him but I don't want to listen to hours of beer talk. Pikeman is also a brew master so you could step in here and explain too.
What if you actually added some sugar to the mix to increase the fermentation?
I would be leary about taking calories in winter. I usually increase the corn in my feed mix in winter to add more fat. I like the idea of the fermentation for the obvious benefits though. I'm not sure I could do it on my scale but I think it would be excellent for fighting colds and other cold weather maladies. What if you don't get all the feed removed when you scoop it out. Is the older feed going to go bad or get moldy? I wondered about this because most of the commercial feed once it gets wet molds super fast. I guess you would have to keep it well cleaned up. I am a bit concerned about this replacing feed entirely during the winter. My birds get a lot more corn and sunflower seed during the winter and they love it. I think it keeps them warm.
We got our booster a couple days ago and DH finally got it out of the box. I hope he gets it installed today. My internet and phone have just been barely functioning.
Don't get frustrated if it doesn't work right away, it took us a couple weeks to get the gain set just right on ours so it may take some tweaking.
I haven't mentioned my chipmonks for a while. I have been working with them. At first all they did was hide. I now have them both taking food from my hands. They don't trust DH yet but are slowly getting used to him being around. They are spending more and more time out playing too. I just wish I could find a way to get that back enclosed deck built so there was room for them.
I worked all afternoon again and then started cleaning. I only got one bedroom done and part of this room. Already I see chick dust in here again. I've got ducks and some other eggs due to go into the hatcher today. I shut it down yesterday when I was cleaning so have to wait for it to get warm again before I move eggs.

I have ducks as well. I really like my ducks. I have pekins, anconas, cayugas, wood ducks, and Mandarin ducks.

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I personally like whimsical.

Good to see yet another new face here. Tell us about yourself and join in the conversation. I live about an hour SW of you. There's a couple people who live over your direction.
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Kansas Prairie we have a bevy of cuckle burrs around here and a few sand burrs here. The dogs tend to pick them up but chew them out of their furr. The places they can't reach is where you have to either pull them out or cut them out.
I wish my youngest female was old enough to breed. I have been getting one call after another looking for pups. I hate telling people I will be waiting at least another year before I let her get bred. I'm sure most people don't want to wait that long. There will be more people by the time she is old enough. Better to wait until she is old enough and much more responsible of you to not breed her on her first heat. It will keep her safer and healthier and she will be a better mom for it too. People have to respect that.
I have another busy day today. I need to figure out what to cook for a church dinner tomorrow as well. I really don't want to make a trip to the grocery store today. I am going to have to go the first of the week to get the rest I need for Thanksgiving dinner. I need to get back on cleaning detail again today. I was so busy yesterday I didn't get any done. DH goes back on night shift tonight and I hate trying to clean while he is sleeping but it has to be done. I still need to set up some more pens and move some birds but I just don't know if I am going to find the time.
One of my neighbors is having an auction today and I would like to go down but I don't have time to stand around. He has some equipment I could probably use for grain storage.
I put my white orp eggs in the hatcher today. Looks like I may have around 50% good in there. A couple were questionable in those but they could be viable. I was almost afraid to look. I hadn't candled at all. I have a few more baby ducks to move outside and a couple more pipped eggs that haven't hatched yet. I shut down the second incubator yesterday and am back down to one and the hatcher. I thought I was done but got Olandsk eggs and have a few d'uccle eggs to put in there.

While I'm waiting for my computer to go to the next page I will update on my hatch this time. There were 21 eggs left in the incubator at the time of lockdown. Up until that point, there were probably about 15 eggs I had thrown out, most just didn't develop at all and a few started and just stopped. Of the 21 left in the incubator, 10 hatched spontaneously and the humidity was dropping below 40% an I added water through the holes without opening it and it went up over 70%. At this point I lost 1 chick that had completely zipped, I stuck a wire in the hole and turned the egg over and it fell open. It was a white chick. I barely cracked open the side to release some of the humidity. By barely I mean, I stuck a fuzzy pipecleaner in the side and the humidity did go down slowly. All of the 10 chicks were hatched by yesterday morning, there were 5 more pipped that made no progress by evening. All 5 of these were shrink wrapped, all 5 are alive and fine now. There were
6 more eggs in the incubator and no signs of life. I poked a hole in the air cell side, 1 was shrink wrapped and clearly died trying to get out. The other 5 had to have stopped developing just recently, there was still some liquid. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, please. What I noticed was that the first 10 that hatched the membrane looked like it was just 1 membrane and it was stuck to the shell. These chicks were very active right from the start and were playing and drinking water through the wire before i removed them from the incubator. I removed them yesterday evening and then took my time with the pipped eggs and helped them out. There was minimal bleeding, and they recovered pretty quickly but I don't think they would have made it through the night. So, of the 15 new chicks that I have I'm seeing some very different colorings than usual. Usually out of 10 chicks I will get roughly 1 white, 1 barred, and 8 black. This time there are more whites, one red/orange, and two multi-color that remind me of the EEs without the muffs. I don't know where this came from. Either a hen who hasn't been laying has begun laying again, or there was another rooster in there. I don't get it. Something had to be different. Nothing has changed in the hens other than the 2 black ones that I liked and kept I added them to our flock. They are black, and offspring of the rooster that is in there which is black. I had some roosters in there but were removed about the same times, but they are black too except for 1 that is white and they are also offspring of the same black rooster and are only 4 months old. I've never seen them acting like grown ups yet. They are now removed. I don't know what to think right now.


I need to get off my patootie and get busy. I need to make bread and do laundry, and go see the turkeys and my lavender orp, I'm going to take him for a walk with me to the clothes line. I love having chickens walking around, my dh doesn't so much. I need to go see what he's building for me today. My lavender pen is getting started for real today. We've been collecting the supplies for a while. Even though his girls aren't old enough for him yet I think I'm going to put some girls in his age so he can start getting the right idea. Josie said he's not ready yet, but I want him in the mood or at least start thinking about it. My BOs have to be getting close to the 2 month mark, I need to start writing their birthdates down.
I would definitely put him in with the BOs now so they all get used to each other before he turns into a raging, hormonal teenage boy! When the girls are closer to laying he will show interest in them but it is good for them to all get used to each other before spring and laying starts! He will learn to be a better roo too from them now.

Have a great day all!

Well, a 2 week update on Scout, my Golden Campine with the bum leg. When I left, she couldn't use it, and in fact, it was tripping her up. She had no resistance when I pressed up on her leg.

I have been gone for 2 weeks, and my DH has been taking care of her. She has been isolated (sort of) in a portable hoop coop. In the 2 weeks, she has regained some use of the leg. She can hop around now that the shock of losing some of her mobility has passed, and she is using the leg for balance. When I held her she had some strength in the leg and pressed her foot back against my palm when I pressed up toward her body. This morning I let her out with the rest of the flock, and aside from some jockying for position, so far so good. She was pretty bossy before the injury and Karma is a b*^ch. She is hanging out with my EE Lily (bottom of the pecking order), and she is still alive after a day with the others. She has kept sort of to herself except for Lily. She is able to hop/fly up to the bottom roost and the feeding table, and she is able to get up the ramp to the coop. Right now she is in the coop with her flock.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. (and checking on them every 15 minutes

Sharol

Oh so glad Scout is feeling a bit better!

so what does it take for ducks to want to eat the treats, i put out 2 hardboiled eggs chopped up and some apples choped up, but they would not even touch it. what am i doing wrong?

My ducks love peas! Ducks seem to like treats that are little bits of things that they can pick up. My geese will eat big pieces of fruits and veggies but the ducks seem to like things bite sized.

Welcome to everyone new!!! Sorry I am so far behind!!

We have been super busy working on the landscaping out front of the house for when it gets listed and getting boxes sorted and packed into our pod. The pod is very handy, I wish we could pack the whole house this way instead of having to rent a moving truck.

I have been in a much less cranky mood, thank heavens!!! My poor belly is starting to feel stretched out these days, it is so funny. I woke up the other morning and felt like it had grown overnight!!

Well Sweet Home Alabama is on TV and I love that movie so I can't miss it!

 

[ppimf]

u just open a can of peas and give them some on a plate?

 

[tweetysvoice]

u just open a can of peas and give them some on a plate?

I just got rid of my ducks, but peas were their absolute favorite!! I would give mine thawed frozen peas and they would gorge themselves on it if I let them. It's also a great source of niacin that they need to survive!


Good News!! We caught the possum! I walked into the coop tonight to lock them up and there was the possum at the feeder eating the chicken feed. It froze and I froze. I screamed at hubby and he grabbed the cat carrier. I picked it up by the tail as it "played possum" and just dumped it in the carrier. We took it out to the lake and let it go in the woods, about 10 miles from the house. I don't have the heart to kill it, but didn't want it near my birds. I'm so happy we finally got it!

And in other good news, the botox injection is still working! I've not felt this good in months.

I've got my mamma silkie sitting on 4 eggs, so I'm just counting down the days till they hatch! I'll be sure to take pics. She said that the father is a buff rooster, but the mommas are all blues and blacks. I'm pretty sure the buff is a recessive gene, so i'll most likely get blues or black. That's okay. I'm just happy to have mamma get to raise her own. We created a door and have her locked in the duckhouse now because the other birds kept going in there and laying eggs for her to also sit on. LOL.. either that or she was stealing their eggs. LOL

Hope this finds everyone well!

 

[HEChicken]

Well, a 2 week update on Scout, my Golden Campine with the bum leg. When I left, she couldn't use it, and in fact, it was tripping her up. She had no resistance when I pressed up on her leg.

I have been gone for 2 weeks, and my DH has been taking care of her. She has been isolated (sort of) in a portable hoop coop. In the 2 weeks, she has regained some use of the leg. She can hop around now that the shock of losing some of her mobility has passed, and she is using the leg for balance. When I held her she had some strength in the leg and pressed her foot back against my palm when I pressed up toward her body. This morning I let her out with the rest of the flock, and aside from some jockying for position, so far so good. She was pretty bossy before the injury and Karma is a b*^ch. She is hanging out with my EE Lily (bottom of the pecking order), and she is still alive after a day with the others. She has kept sort of to herself except for Lily. She is able to hop/fly up to the bottom roost and the feeding table, and she is able to get up the ramp to the coop. Right now she is in the coop with her flock.

Glad to hear that Scout has some use of her leg back and hope that continues. I'm curious about this feeding table you mentioned. Do you have any pics?

so what does it take for ducks to want to eat the treats, i put out 2 hardboiled eggs chopped up and some apples choped up, but they would not even touch it. what am i doing wrong?

FWIW....I started with chicks and at 9 weeks old, offered them scratch for the first time. They acted like I was trying to poison them. As they got older, they were more willing to try it and eventually realized it was a TREAT. Subsequent batches of chicks, once integrated into the flock, had no such reservations. They picked up on the older birds eagerness to dive in, and dove in themselves.

I can't remember how old your ducks are. I only have muscovies which are different from mallard based ducks, but my flock consists of chickens, turkeys and ducks, who all reside in the same coop and eat out of the same feeder and waterer. So, basically, whatever the chickens want, the turkeys and ducks want too, so it is one big free-for-all when I throw out treats. So I guess what I'm saying is, don't be discouraged if they don't want to try it at first. Eventually one will be willing to try, and the others will follow suit. Later, if you add new birds, they will learn from the older ones, what is good to eat.

And in other good news, the botox injection is still working! I've not felt this good in months.

I've got my mamma silkie sitting on 4 eggs, so I'm just counting down the days till they hatch! I'll be sure to take pics. She said that the father is a buff rooster, but the mommas are all blues and blacks. I'm pretty sure the buff is a recessive gene, so i'll most likely get blues or black. That's okay. I'm just happy to have mamma get to raise her own. We created a door and have her locked in the duckhouse now because the other birds kept going in there and laying eggs for her to also sit on. LOL.. either that or she was stealing their eggs. LOL

Hope this finds everyone well!

Yay - glad to hear the botox is working!!! And congrats on the eggs - I hope she hatches all of them for you.

 

[sharol]

It isn't very elaborate. I built a sort of shelf along one side of the coop supported by the wall and end of the coop along with a 2x4 at the outside corner. It is maybe 20 inches wide. I put the waterer on some pavers below it to protect it from poop, and ont of the feeders hangs just a little above it near the corner of the coop. It allows them just a bit more space if they have to stay in during bad weather. I also keep egg shells in a dish in the corner of it.




This picture was taken as I was getting it set up at first. I now have shavings up to the bottom of the waterer (and a bigger waterer), and less stuff on the table. To put it in perspective, the roost in the background is 2 1/2 feet above the floor and in this picture about 6" on shavings on the floor. I now have more shavings, so her jump wasn't really high.

When I checked in after the light went out in the coop, she was on the TOP roost in the corner near the top of the ramp by where the fan is in this picture. In the following picture taken last winter, she (in better days) is on the other top roost next to the white chicken. The end near the fan is considered lower "class" by the girls. Poor baby. How far she has dropped in rank.



Both pictures are taken from the north end of the coop standing in the people door.

Glad to hear that Scout has some use of her leg back and hope that continues. I'm curious about this feeding table you mentioned. Do you have any pics?

 

[mommahen10]

Danz, so why did the owls pick on them if they're big? You'd think they'd go for the smaller birds. A chicken condo, that's a great idea. My 17yo dd works at the little store in town and she said that people were coming in only to buy the bakery goods. There were people asking for more when they ran out. Modine and Didde too???? OMGosh! I worked at Didde for a short time. I worked at IBP for a short time too. Yeah, what's left in Emporia? Not much. I didn't hear about Wolf Creek either. I heard the little Wonder Bread Outlet store in Humboldt already closed, but I didn't verify that information. The way my dh is stressing over the turkeys getting out I can't imagine how he would act if we had peacocks too. He just doesn't want them pooping in the barn.

The turkeys seemed unhappy penned up, maybe they weren't, I don't really know why I thought that. This afternoon when my dh left for work I let them out to play with them and they were really anxious so we backed off and let them have some time to stretch. They were hanging out around the other pens so we went inside to eat and while we were eating I saw them walking down the road in front of the house. Of course I got scared, and I didn't want to scare them farther so I watched and waited and pretty soon they started walking back but then walked right past the drive way and then across the street and into our neighbors pasture. We have permission to be over there, and on the corner is another neighbor who just owns the corner and he's always practicing shooting targets and I was scared he'd shoot them or something. I got really worried when they walked that way. My 15yo and I walked out there strategically thinking we would walk way around and herd them back home. We couldn't find them anywhere and we walked out over a half a mile from home and headed back. It was wide open, we should have been able to see them. Well, when we got home there they were. How did they do that? They spent the afternoon in the roosters' pen and they were behaving, all of them so that was fine with me. Evening came and they went on top of the barn roof. No my dh isn't so happy with me, not because they're on the barn roof but because they're out. We will see what morning brings. I'm totally enjoying the turkeys, they're so entertaining. We were trying to get them to display today but didn't get too much of that. I think it was just a hard day of adjustment for them.

HEChicken, it was just the opposite. The first 10 hatched fine and quite easily at 40%. I liked how the inside of their shells looked actually, they looked cleaner and the membrane was stuck to the shell and not them at all. When I increased the humidity that inner membrane was attached to them. I don't understand why, but I felt like I messed it up when I increased the humidity. They were doing just fine and NO ONE opened the incubator, we actually taped it shut so no one would even do it accidentally. So I would have had 7 shrink wrapped chicks, including the 2 that died. There is no way of knowing at what point they became shrink wrapped. One was completely zipped when it died, one died and when I opened it to see the inner membrane was against it but it tore it a little, there was no way he could have even pipped because he couldn't move. The 5 that made it pipped and that's it. All 5 are fine, but 1 is still in a pen by his/herself but clearly gaining strength. I'm just going to do it again and see if I can get a better result. I'm sorry Madge is getting to you, I was just kidding about her feeling jealous but maybe she just knows she doesn't have his attention and that bothers her. Can turkeys smell? I suppose they can. Today we had a hen (chicken) wandering around and when she walked over to the rooster area where the turkeys were I noticed Casper getting that darker red color. I thought, no way! How did he even know she was there? Then we removed her, and watched the color go away, brought her back and both turkey were looking over there like they knew she was coming back. They're so smart.

It sure was beautiful out today Kansas Prairie. I didn't get to spend as much time outside as I wanted to but I enjoyed what I did get.

Chickies-duckies, yes, that was some of the info we were looking for. It says on post 168 that the 'energy' is increased which means calories. I think it's just because the sugars are partially broken down so their bodies can use more of it without burning as many calories breaking down into a useable form.

Wow Sharol, that's great news. It's actually amazing. How does it feel to be home? 2 weeks is a long time, I'm sure you were having fun though.

Wow Danz, I sure do hope they hatch. I'll bet you are walking on eggshells waiting to see too.

I don't know ppimf, our lone duck doesn't eat snacks either but I never paid too much attention. The chickens come running but he just watches.

It's funny that you suggested that Josie. We did bring him over to meet his girls today. I think he would be just fine to stay with them. He's very polite, you must have taught him well. My BOs are with a hatch we had of the same age, the BO's just a few days older. They were all doing fine, and out of no where one very tiny rooster cornered him and backed him down. He got really scared and flew out back to the other little pen and actually got back in. We will rearrange and try again tomorrow. This little rooster, he's way tiny. The chicks we hatch grow so much slower than the ones we've bought. The BOs are way bigger than he is, probably twice his size. What I can't decide right now is if I'm going to keep the other pullets the same age in there too. I mean, the other ones are black so I would think that any offspring not from the BO's would be black. That would give him more girls. Maybe I should just look for more BOs. That may be a better idea. I have to giggle about your growing baby belly. I know you probably feel big but you look so tiny. Really though, you probably did grow overnight. After while you'll feel bigger every day, it's so amazing how fast they grow. I'm glad you are feeling less cranky, it's no fun to feel cranky.

Tweety! Yay for catching the opossum. I can't believe that thing was still on the loose for so long. OMGosh! I can't believe you just picked it up. I'd have been so scared.

HEChicken, I agree totally with what you are saying about the birds learning what feed is and what is good and all of that. Kids are that way too. It's hardest to teach the first one, after that they all follow along. I guess that means that we should be sure to teach the first one well.
Sharol, it looks beautiful to me. You have everything set up nicely.

 

[sharol]

It's good to be home and back in the routine. I'm still adjusting to the 2 hour time change, though.

When I woke up this morning (at 7!!!), the chickens, including Scout, were all out in the run. She was back in the group and clucking for breakfast along with the others, so maybe we are over the hump with her. She is still hopping mostly on one foot, but her feathers are smoother, and she seems to have had a good night.. I honestly thought she wouldn't survive this long.

We cleaned out the stove (wood) yesterday, and the shop-vac filter exploded. The house was foggy with ash. Ick. We exhausted it with the whole house fan, though, and it wasn't too bad. We have a 7 year old Earth Stove, catalytic, that uses oddly shaped fire-bricks inside. I ordered replacements (at great expense) and half of them came right away. So while I was in there, I replaced the ones that were cracked and broken. The last four will have to be replaced when I get the new stones -- hopefully. last year, I couldn't find them anywhere, but according to a place in California, now they are available from lennox (who bought out Earth Stove).

Today we will clean out the chimney, put the hoop back in the shed, trade out the straw bales in the run, and plant asparagus. That sounds like a lot on a football Sunday. I guess I'll have to prioritize -- straw, asparagus, hoop, chimney. That should work.

It is a beautiful day, though. Everyone enjoy it while it lasts.