Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

Homemade compost is the best. DH had raised garden beds at the house in Wichita and the first year he put them together he bought several bags of "store" compost and was being a total snob about using my two huge barrels of homemade compost that I had been working on for eight months. We got into quite the debate because he didn't think my compost was good enough so I challenged him to use just my compost in one box and his store bought bagged stuff in the other two. Well guess which box went gang busters?

We had okra plants the size of Texas out there. So he learned an important lesson about compost!

That's awesome!!!

So neither of the other two eggs have hatched. (they were all set at the same time). She's still sitting on one of them though. The other was pushed to the other side of the house. I'm pretty sure that one isn't going to hatch, but not sure about the other. I doubt it though. I'm just surpised she's still sitting on it.

Sometimes they don't want to give up on them. When my Sultan was broody earlier this year, she had two chicks hatch but was still sitting on the third egg two days later. It was interfering with her ability to parent because she wasn't showing the chicks where the food and water were, so I took the egg from her and candled it. It wasn't internally pipped and I couldn't see any movement, so I chipped away a little at the big end where the air sac is, and confirmed that it was dead, so I disposed of it. Once the egg was gone, Mama Hen got off the nest and started actively taking care of the chicks.

 

[chicken danz]

Mustang67 I just looked closely at your avatar. Was that picture taken on the KU campus? It looks like a place we went when my son and his wife were having their wedding photos taken. Yeah it sucks to have a compromised immune system. People that are normal just don't seem to understand what a pain it is. I used to embarrass my kids when we went out to eat cause I wouldn't let them sit down until someone wiped the table and seats down with a rag with bleach or other disinfectant. If there was an ashtray on the table I would make them take it. (All that saliva left from where they'd had their mouths on the cigarettes!!!) I would ask for the rag and wipe down salt and pepper shakers as well. I know I made a lot of wait persons mad but it wasn't worth being sick. Most of my kids had asthma so I tried to protect them from sickness as well. It obviously worked because they were rarely sick. My oldest son who is my child with the very worst asthma, never missed a day of school to sickness from kindergarten until graduation.
What really ticked me off was people would come to work sick as a dog 'cause they didn't want to miss any pay. Most of them were contractors cause they didn't get sick pay. But some of the workaholic supervisor types would show up sick too. I used to carry a bottle of Lysol wipes with me whenever I attended a meeting and wipe down all around me. I'm not OCD and it is nothing like that. I am a filthy housekeeper. I just don't have any resistance to any virus.
Tweety, I didn't realize there was a whooping cough epidemic. I always watch the news but Sometimes I fall asleep when it's on, so I miss things. It still upsets me! IT just breaks my heart to think of my little granddaughter coughing like that.
Well MARK YOUR CALENDARS! This is an event! I have NO chickens in the house at this moment!!!
I spent the afternoon cleaning out and moving birds in the brooder. I moved all of the babies that were in the house out to the brooder. Granted I have at least 4 pipped Olandsk Dwarf eggs in the hatcher right now- but no chickens in here. I don't know how to act. It's been so long since I was chicken free indoors. I have to say it makes me really nervous. I like being able to monitor conditions on the young and special chicks. I just hope they do well out there. I put ACV in all their water in case the move stressed them. So now I have 5 heat lamps out there and an oil heater. I sure hope I don't overload the circuit. I separated my red star babies from the white rocks so they have a lot more room now.
I eliminated two pens today by selling birds. I don't have any more doves. Sold the last of them, the baby ducks, and the roosters. I have to say it feels good. I wonder if eventually I can actually get down to only what I need to do my breeding with. I still have a few male guineas I need to sell but I will keep them until next spring and get a lot more money out of them. I kept 30 last year and could have sold 100. But this year I only kept a half dozen or so. It just costs too much to feed them all winter.
I need to get a cookie tin heater made for the young pullets I moved outside today. They have no heat at all and tomorrow it's going to be pretty chilly out there.

 

[tweetysvoice]

I need to get a cookie tin heater made for the young pullets I moved outside today. They have no heat at all and tomorrow it's going to be pretty chilly out there.

That was my goal today, but it didn't happen. I have all the necessary equipment, but it's just finding time to make it! I'm going to really have to do it tomorrow!

 

[mstng67]

Mustang67 I just looked closely at your avatar. Was that picture taken on the KU campus? It looks like a place we went when my son and his wife were having their wedding photos taken.

Yes it was taken on the KU campus just south east of the Campanile. My wife is the university Carrilonneur.

 

[chicken danz]

Tweety I've had cookie tin stuff since this time last year. I bought some tins before Christmas. I thought I would get it done yesterday as well but I never even made it to the basement to find the stuff I bought. I don't have all my extension cords run to plug in water bowls either. Why I wait until it is miserable to get these things done I will never know. I did notice last year that my chickens enjoyed picking at ice though. They had water that was kept from freezing but would still seek out ice and peck on it. Crazy birds. It makes me feel better though knowing if it freezes they do have some resourced to get by until I can get out there to get water to them.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do about my silly geese. I am afraid they wouldn't leave a heater in their water. They normally throw everything in their water but they also chew on everything. If I leave the hose out there they will chew on it. I'm afraid if I put a heater out there they'll chew on the cord.
Josie what do you do for the goosies?

 

[JosieChick]

Tweety I've had cookie tin stuff since this time last year. I bought some tins before Christmas. I thought I would get it done yesterday as well but I never even made it to the basement to find the stuff I bought. I don't have all my extension cords run to plug in water bowls either. Why I wait until it is miserable to get these things done I will never know. I did notice last year that my chickens enjoyed picking at ice though. They had water that was kept from freezing but would still seek out ice and peck on it. Crazy birds. It makes me feel better though knowing if it freezes they do have some resourced to get by until I can get out there to get water to them.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do about my silly geese. I am afraid they wouldn't leave a heater in their water. They normally throw everything in their water but they also chew on everything. If I leave the hose out there they will chew on it. I'm afraid if I put a heater out there they'll chew on the cord.
Josie what do you do for the goosies?

I have two heated water bowls from the store that have the cord wrapped in coiled wire and we zip tie the cords to the fence so they can't drag the bowls around. We also use electric tape on all the connections between the bowl and the cord. I have a black horse tub that I bought last year that is probably 8 inches deep and about 2 feet long and a foot and a half wide that I dump at night and refill in the morning for bathing and head dunking. It doesn't freeze too bad during the winter and gives them some wash water for most of the day. They will absolutely unplug and chew on an exposed electric cord though. Everything goes into the goobies mouths!!! I find half the yard in their water buckets but I never see them carrying things which I think is funny.

I need to get another heated bowl for one of my big coops today. They are drinking a whole bowl of water in less than a day which amazes me. I listed some birds for sale this weekend on craigslist and got a really low ball offer on the pea chicks. I can't decide what to do. I am trying to thin numbers but I also want to make sure they go somewhere they will be cared for and not just let loose to roam and be eaten by things. I wish they would have emailed me some info about themselves with their offer instead of just a really low offer and nothing else. Like, we have a really nice flight pen built and feed our birds this feed etc. That is what I would do if I was going to offer someone almost half what they were asking for their birds. What do you guys think?

 

[Trish44]

Josie, I would be afraid the people won't take proper care of them. If they really knew about peafowl they would know they don't go cheap & why they don't. That's just my two cents about it.

Danz, that truly is amazing about having no chickens in the house, wow! I guess I'm fixing to have two little chicks in mine when Sunflowerparrot decides she's tired of taking care of them. I really didn't want chicks in the winter for that reason. I don't think I could keep them warm enough out in the garage in the brooder & I don't want a heat lamp in the house. But I just hated to let these two go when they're possibly full blooded Speckled Sussex, they sure are marked like them. I have two SS hens & a roo in there, so it's a possibility.

I went out & found one of my peahens dead in the pen today, I'm really upset. I had noticed one of them sneezing yesterday & started some Tylan in there. I don't know if it was just too late or she had something else wrong with her. I haven't gotten her out of there yet because she's all the way to the back of the hoop coop. So that just leaves me a pair now, I sure hope the others don't get sick.

 

[mikeksfarmer]

Oh Maidenhen please send me your duck recipe. I have looked all kinds of recipes up on line and just ended up confused.

Maybe Maidenhen would post her recipe for duck here. I would sure like to have a good recipe for duck.
on other notes; I took some of my old hens to work and the friends from Kenya loved them. In fact everyone else wants my old hens too. I also figured out how to tell if they are laying. If their heads are pecked. I only have one roo so he dosent wear down the hens backs so much. But the hens that are laying loose some feathers on the top of their heads.

 

[mstng67]

So I've got an Ancona duck that wants to go broody. I have been taking any real eggs out of the nest, but suppose I should take the two wood eggs out also. Any other hints to break the broodiness?

 

[chicken danz]

I couldn't find my tins or my light fixture to make my cookie tin so I ended dismantling a light fixture I decided not to use and used one of the sockets from it. I had one more tin that was taller that the ones I can't find and I really didn't want to use it for this project, but I did. Of course it took me a couple hours of wasted time to get that far and dig through stuff to find what I wanted.
Then I put my new grain mill on my mixer cause I am out of chick starter. I was going to make some of my own. I started grinding and the thing fell off. Come to find out they had machined the divet that holds it in place in the wrong place. This grain mill costs like $160 and it has a no hassle guarantee. Well the hassle is that it is Sunday and they don't take calls on Sunday. Also since I bought it and just opened it today I don't have the warranty card sent in. I wonder what kind of hassle that will cause. I also had purchased a good grinder and hooked it up to make sure I was doing everything right. It fit perfectly with the same type attachment. This really makes me angry. I don't have time for inconvenience, not do I have time to clean up the huge mess it made when it fell and spilt grain all over the kitchen. Argh!
Oh Trish I am so sorry about you peahen. I would certainly keep treating the others just to make sure. Do you think it was the one who was sneezing?
Josie don't sell your peas for that little. Have you ever figured out what sex they are yet? I really don't have room for any more. But if you want and could let me use that cage you bought, I could care for them for you until you get a place made to keep them. We can work out things later. My only stipulation would be that if something happened to them like if they got sick and I couldn't cure them that I wouldn't be responsible. I would just buy them from you but I really think you do want them and like I said I am just out of room.