Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

Danz, I am so sorry about your cat - you have really had a rough week - I hope the year gets better for you.

Trish, yeah, the shy ones are hard because I hate seeing them feeling so terrified. She hunkers down and looks miserable as soon as any of the chickens go near her, apart from her brooder buddies. Even the silkies are more assertive than that - I've seen the silkies peck at a lower status bird when it joined them at the water bowl, even though they are pretty low in the pecking order themselves. I hope once Millie is feeling better she will gain confidence but for now I'm taking her out a couple of times a day to eat and drink on her own so I at least know she's getting something to eat and drink.

Oh, and on your question about water - I have a heated dog water bowl and it does great outside no matter how low the temperature gets. I do empty it out at night and unplug it because I figure there's no point running it from 6pm -7am - that's 13 hours none of the birds are outside drinking from it anyway. So I empty it, then in the morning refill it with fresh water and that works for me.

LoriO, good luck on your test!

 

[michelleml]

Dans sorry about Biggy.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

So here are some pics. Pics are always good to lighten the spirits. I even enjoy looking at pictures of my birds when I can't be outside with them. Here goes.


Look at this pretty girl with her sweet little face in all that fluff. She's one of my Aloha/EE crosses and boy is she cute. She's a bit on the small size and not a program bird at all but I really like her.





Here is a group of my birds determined to hang out in the sunshine. The center bird with the pea comb is also an EE mix, he's a pretty boy but I won't keep him. I'm just enjoying him while I have him. The one poking its head up in the background is an Aloha and the others are my Swedish Flowers. I love the Swedish personality as well as looks. See the crested girl behind the EE mix? She's a cutie -- her head looks just like a flower! The glimpse of solid red in the lower left is a Swedish Flower. What a surprise to get a solid out of the group but he is the biggest and really pretty. He carries color so he's not a total loss at all.





Here he is. Big shiny boy!





This is a younger Aloha pullet -- no spots but still an interesting bird.





This duck is one of Chopper's offspring from an Ancona girl. She has an identity crisis at the moment since she was the only duck hatched with a batch of chicks. She thinks she's a chicken so she scratches the ground with her webbed feet. So I put her in with the ducks at night and she's beginning to come around. The kids saw her dabbling yesterday when they ran the hose in the pen for the ducks pool. She still heads for the chickens when we let her out in the morning. Sometimes she looks torn between the two groups but still chooses the chickens. I feel badly for her but I know she'll get it figured out in time.





This is also a more solid color Swedish. She's more of a spash than solid really. Another pretty girl.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Okay, just a few more pics of my Swedish and then I'm off for hot chocolate!

 

[maidenwolfx80]

So here are some pics. Pics are always good to lighten the spirits. I even enjoy looking at pictures of my birds when I can't be outside with them. Here goes.


Look at this pretty girl with her sweet little face in all that fluff. She's one of my Aloha/EE crosses and boy is she cute. She's a bit on the small size and not a program bird at all but I really like her.





Here is a group of my birds determined to hang out in the sunshine. The center bird with the pea comb is also an EE mix, he's a pretty boy but I won't keep him. I'm just enjoying him while I have him. The one poking its head up in the background is an Aloha and the others are my Swedish Flowers. I love the Swedish personality as well as looks. See the crested girl behind the EE mix? She's a cutie -- her head looks just like a flower! The glimpse of solid red in the lower left is a Swedish Flower. What a surprise to get a solid out of the group but he is the biggest and really pretty. He carries color so he's not a total loss at all.





Here he is. Big shiny boy!





This is a younger Aloha pullet -- no spots but still an interesting bird.





This duck is one of Chopper's offspring from an Ancona girl. She has an identity crisis at the moment since she was the only duck hatched with a batch of chicks. She thinks she's a chicken so she scratches the ground with her webbed feet. So I put her in with the ducks at night and she's beginning to come around. The kids saw her dabbling yesterday when they ran the hose in the pen for the ducks pool. She still heads for the chickens when we let her out in the morning. Sometimes she looks torn between the two groups but still chooses the chickens. I feel badly for her but I know she'll get it figured out in time.





This is also a more solid color Swedish. She's more of a spash than solid really. Another pretty girl.

Beautiful birds

Danz, I hope you get better soon. You should make your chicken and milk recipe, that would give you some good nutrients.
I LOVE the turkeys too and he is a grump about them. He would die if he knew Colt was out the other day and got on top of my van. I'd be in big trouble for sure. I love the gobble and now he's doing some weird sounds. I don't know why he doesn't like them. I'm going to lay low on getting more, but he has come around so much on the chickens and he said he didn't want guineas too as of just this past summer so I will just be quiet and see how he does. My guess is he'll find one free somewhere and bring it home to make me happy and it'll be all over.


Maidenwolf, I'm letting go of all of the stress cracking up about the chicken giving me the willies.

Hi Lori, good luck with your test.

I'm going to go make some sugar cookies, hopefully I get them done before the kids come back in.

LOL I am glad my crazy hair do chickens are making you laugh. You need it. I just may breed some just for you

... Then everytime you look at it you can think of me and laugh.
It sad that your dh doesnt like the turkey. I love to hear their gobble and all the other noised they make. I guess everyone is different huh? Not everyone can be a turkey nut like us. My dh is SLOWLY coming around on the birds. He isnt an animal person and I am a HUGE animal nut. He doesnt have to be as crazy as me just understand. Slowly I find him talking to the birds and holding chicks and giving them treats. Maybe he will come around.

 

[mommahen10]

Karen, I enjoyed seeing your chickens and reading about them. Thanks for sharing.

 

[chicken danz]

So are I haven't done anything but sleep. I'm not sneezing as much as earlier but still feel like crap. I just told DH yesterday, I needed a day off. He probably thinks I am faking this to get him to feed the birds. I'll have to go out and take care of the SFHs cause I am feeding them the FF and medicating their water. And I'll probably have to do the brooder cause he hates messing with it. But I'm about ready to take a nap again.
I had the body shop call and they totaled my car. He said I could buy it back from the insurance company because it still had a lot of value and just do the minimum to get it fixed. The frame is in tact. It just needs all the front end and the hood and radiator replaced. But that would cost me between $3000 to $4000 out of pocket after they settled with me to take it. I can't see putting that much of my own money back in that car if I can figure out how on earth to buy another one. I've got a couple days before all the papers go through the insurance company to decide. I guess the worst part would be giving up my luxuries like heated leather seats and such I won't be able to afford if I buy a new car.
Karen your birds are beautiful. I am loving my SFHs. We have several that are about the same colors. I'd like to get a few from someone else later to introduce some more blood lines in there. I have a white girl too with just a few little spots here and there.
My olandsk are doing good today. Knock on wood. I noticed they had some diarrhea so I added some probiotics to their food. But that probably also means the antibiotics are working. I've lost two of the olandsk chicks I hatched a couple days ago. I just couldn't get them to eat. I tried everything.But there are a few others. I guess I am going to convince myself they were pullet chicks so I am lucky I hatched them in the first place.
I just want a few from my pullet that died to carry on. She was just beautiful.
Mammahen your DH said HE wanted the lavender guineas so I am pretty sure he'll let you get some. He just fell in love with the color. He kept saying they were beautiful and he wanted some next spring for the garden. He did express that the other birds had to be in pens cause he didn't want them pooping on things. I never worry about that. I have wild birds poop on my vehicles but my chickens don't get up there. They do love sitting on the old lawn tractor and my front porch though.
Thanks all for your sympathies. It's been a tough day.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

I think I have everything ready for the arrival of my new birds tomorrow. I am so excited.
My mother is buying my a pro series farm innovators incubator for my birthday. Yay,, what a nice gift. I will get it early so it will be here next week. It will be hard to resist throwing a test batch in there.

 

[mommahen10]

I really enjoy seeing the chickens make their way around the property. They always go around the back to the front and by evening they're back at their coop. My dh just doesn't like them out so there are only times when we can do it. Of course it's never when the garden is in it's full glory, usually it's when we're done with the garden that he will tolerate them being on the loose. The roosters let themselves out now, they fly right over. He clipped their wings but it doesn't seem to be stopping all of them. So we are in for lavender guineas then, that's progress. I will PM you on that one.

Maidenwolf, yay for early birthday presents!!! That's an awesome gift.

 

[WichitaKidd]

I use straw. I am going to try opening up some more vents and see if that helps. Should I take out all the bedding or try drying it out? I dont have any DE but want some, maybe I can get some this weekend. How about stall dry can that work the same way? Any tips for me?

I know I'm a little late into this topic, but I stumbled across a video over the holiday that's kind of along this topic line. It was interesting to me simply because I live about 6 blocks away from a tree-cycle location here in Wichita. Not completely sure about the "science" behind it, but it seems to work for her. Could be an excellent source of free winter time bedding for my coop next winter. Here is a link to the video.