Consolidated Kansas

[JosieChick]

The floozy hen!!! Give him time, those orp boys are slow on the uptake but once they get it figured out they are usually pretty good boys. Polite with people and don't tear up their ladies.

Josie, you crack me up. I wonder how long it takes those boys to figure it out. Toby is still hiding behind the pullets like he's a chicken or something. My dh said he was going to take the hen that he calls a bad name, something along the lines of a floozy and put her in there with him just to see if he would catch on. He didn't put her in there. I didn't realize how small he was until he grew. He's so big and fluffy, he's really beautiful. Looks like you have the balls rolling getting things done and in order. I'm so sorry to hear about Lucie, poor dog has gone through so much for so long now. Do you know the odds for Lucie if they redo her leg? How likely is it to be a success if they do it again? If the odds aren't in her favor it may be less of a strain to have the leg removed so she can heal and get on with her life. I'm so sorry you are having to deal with such decisions. Your kitty is precious, but my dh and I agreed to no inside pets from the beginning. More like I agreed to it, but my dd is allergic to cats anyway so it doesn't matter. I'm lucky to keep chicks inside for a little while.

This is good info about the propane. We have a 500 gallon tank and I just paid to have it filled. We also have a woods stove in the kitchen which I am super excited about! Of course we were there last weekend and DH was so excited to start a fire that he turned the heat down in the house to 55 degrees because the fire would heat the place up. Well he didn't start it until 9 PM and didn't tell me he turned the heat down so I slept in pajama pants, wool socks, a long sleeve shirt, woke up in the middle of the night freezing and put on a sweatshirt and wool sweater! Needless to say he got a good scolding about turning the heat way down before his fire was really cranking!

Michelleml I buy my propane on contract and it would have to be an awful winter to use 1000 gallons. I have maybe once in one of those super cold winters; but normally I use about 800 gallons for an average cold winter. Last winter I only used about 500 gallons. Think of the dollar amount per month and it isn't bad at all....especially compared to rural electric power costs. Of course you have to have electric to run the fan but it is far less than you would spend for electric heating. I hate the cool air from a heat pump too. When running it I just feel like I'm freezing all the time even though the room temperature reads the same.
Congrats Maidenwolf on your new incubator. You will love it.
I used to not get along with my mother. It seems unreal to think that, but that was how it was. It took some time for both of us to accept each other for who we were. Once we got to that point we developed the most loving wonderful relationship imaginable. I thought of my Mom as probably one of my very best friends. I just decided at some point I was just not going to try to defend my actions any more. That she could accept me for whom I was. It was the magical cure. She did. I wonder how many years I wasted arguing with her about what I did and how I lived. I learned much later in life that one of the reasons she was always harping at me was that she didn't want me to make the mistakes she did. I would have never thought it, but she and I were very much alike in some ways. Loosing her this year was the greatest loss I have had so far in my life. Unsolicited advice: Don't be on guard with your Mom. If she doesn't like your choices, just let it go. Treasure that she is trying now and look at her as a wonderful loving person who is trying very hard to get her daughter to love her. I know you didn't ask. I just hate the fact that I missed so many years of treasuring rather than resenting my Mom. Each year I had her was an extraordinary gift. There is nothing in this world more valuable than family.
Good advice. This is how I am with my MIL and it makes me sad. I told DH last night that I wish they would just be our family and stop trying to run our life for us. I don't know how to get that across to them without it turning into a huge argument. I am so lucky my parents are so accepting of me and love me for just the person I am. Family is a true treasure.

Michelleml, cats are so easy. All they really need is love!
I pamper mine like crazy. That I suppose is why they have lived to be so old!!! Of course you need a cat box. Although I have had cats that will only go outside; those are the rare but awesome cats. You will need some frontline to keep them free of fleas unless they never get outside at all or are exposed to other animals with fleas.
You will need to get some feed. We feed dry cat food and canned food. We give the canned stuff as treats but they have dry free choice all the time. I have a water fountain for my cats that they love but that isn't a necessity. Any small water bowl will do.
I like to brush my cats out but you certainly don't have to. They are extremely clean and groom themselves. I think it prevents some hair ball problems later on if they are brushed now and then. Mine prefer an old bristle brush if you can find one. I do have a ferminator but they don't like it as well. You can actually choose how much to pamper a cat or what to get for them.
I think you will find you love having a cat.

Love this pic! I especially love Lucy balancing on the edge of that bowl!

It is nice today, so I just went out to give my birds some water in a bucket that they could play in. It took them a whole two minutes to find the bowl and for my "top bird", Lucy, to "dive" in. Here are my geese, from left to right: Louis, Lacy, Lucy.

Our house is over 100 yrs old too and we have new windows downstairs but old ones up and boy it is chilly in there!! But I love old houses, they are so charming. We have a bunch of plaster wall repair to do upstairs and everyone wants to come in and hang drywall over it so I finally found a video on this old house and we are going to repair the cracks ourselves to save money and the plaster!

Our house is 100 yrs old so windows are not good & insulation stinks. So we just bought 10 windows with alenco then when we can will do the others. To me the house is cold all the time so I keep the kids in sweaters all day

Well I blew all of yesterday driving to K State with Lucie. Luckily we have a sunny spot of hope for her!!! The surgeon palpated her legs and watched her walk. He also took another set of x rays and wants to wait four more weeks and see how she is looking. The plate in her right leg was backing out last week and one of the screws had let go but it appears that it has stopped moving which is fabulous news. So it is still stabilizing her leg and she does have some bone grafting in. She is going back on antibiotics just in case there is a low grade infection in the fracture space that is inhibiting bone healing. But altogether fabulous news!!!

Now I need to get out and start packing more stuff in the garage here so we can get the pod done and hauled down to the house in Towanda. I hate moving!

 

[lizzyGSR]

Love this pic! I especially love Lucy balancing on the edge of that bowl!

Thank you! You should've seen how many time she'd fall off the edge and into the bucket, nose first of course.

She is such a silly goose! Meanwhile the other birds wait for Lucy to look away so they can take their turn playing in the bucket.

 

[Hawkeye95]

That's not abnormal for an incubator. If you add water always add very warm or faucet hot water to the bator. It helps create more condensation and keeps the temp up.
Also without seeing it you could use a funnel with a long spout to add water. If it has plastic viewing windows that can be removed rather than removing the whole lid you could take one out and use the funnel. I used styros for quite a while and with adding the warmer water and only having the lid open long enough to add the water never had a problem. I still have to open my hatcher to add water even though I do have an auto waterer. It doesn't create enough humidity for hatching. I just bring the water to the bator and keep it open just long enough to add water.


Sunflower, That is such great news. I am so glad to hear that. I do hope the clotting disorder corrects itself.

Hawkeye you just put the fear of God in me. I have unfinished remodeling projects everywhere and my house is far far from clean. With the incubators there is chick dust everywhere. There is clutter like crazy and a basement full of excess stuff I have no place else to put. It isn't finished either. Was once years ago, but it was all torn out due to leakage issues. Now I am super stressed. I need a real cleaning crew to come in and totally wash down the entire place. This place was a rat trap when I bought it. Seriously. It was full of mice and feces and really really nasty. But it was empty. I have done a ton of remodeling but have equally as much to do. Most of the materials are stored here cause I've already bought them. The work is just not done. And I never find time to completely clean. I get started but by the time the day isb over I have a lot more to do.
If I could lock DH out for a couple of weeks I might get it semi clean. But would need to hire a team of carpenters to finish the work. I can't afford that.

If you've bought all the stuff to remodel, it sounds like you are half way there. Don't worry about having a finished basement, it will lower your property tax anyway (or it should). SO that's not a bad thing! The problem is IF it's finished, it should be in good condition. So being unfinished and full of stuff isn't going to effect the value of your home, I bet. The real value is going to come from your kitchen and bathroom(s) and main floor living. And then the over all condition of the rest of the house is factored in. Even if it's dirty -- if he can see it's well maintained, that is where you want it to be. I bet if you just concentrate on some of the biggest issues, you'd be fine and you don't have to worry about the basement. He will want to inspect the walls/foundation and that's about it.


Okay, so I hit multi and then went and did things and came back and hit refresh and then lost my multi's. So I KNOW there was a new person here! And I forgot their screen name, I'm sorry! But wanted to welcome them anyway! I'll hit a multi when I see them post again!

I lost another silkie a couple days ago. I don't remember if I said that or not already. He was that really deformed boy that I got from shipped eggs. I do not want to claim those genetics! LOL His back was so wry, he could barely walk. I never thought he would make it this long, honestly. I think he just got to the point where his heart and everything were giving out. He suddenly went into a wry neck and was tucking his head under his body. I kept him in my kitchen for a few days wrapped up in a towel to TRY to keep his head from tucking under his body. But it just didn't work. I fed him with a syringe water and yogurt. But he couldn't keep it down. He'd tuck his head and it would leak out. That and the water was choking him and brown liquid was coming out. I think he was just a goner from the get go. He hung on for about 3 days in my kitchen making me feel like an awful neglectful chicken mama, but at least he didn't freeze to death. Sigh. Anyway, so I'm down 2 birds since winter. Insane!! I'm still missing my Zelda-- probably one of the best birds I had out there.

As I was coming in yesterday from chores and telling my DH how much I HATED winter--- he said that he loves winter, since I am "culling" birds. Not a really great joke for him to make. The rest of my birds better make it.

Oh I do have really good news-- the boy that injured his leg and paralysed his leg?? He's able to use it REALLY well now! He can lift it without shifting his body anymore. But his toes still have no feeling, but he's doing pretty good. He's actually a pet quality boy, so I'm not super worried about him, but he's a really nice mannered boy, so I'd hate to see him suffer. I actually don't need him, but now I don't see how I'm going to get rid of him with a messed up leg. Sigh.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Maidenwolf - how high are the sides of the bottom of the incubator? The little giant is maybe a couple of inches and the hover bator is a little higher. I saw a picture of the farm inovations (I think) and it looked like the eggs actually sat above the sides of the incubator. I am not going to look for the pic again, but, if the sides are really low, the chicks will be able to scramble out when you lift the top. All that to point out, if the sides are low, you might want to make something to sit on the outside or the bator to keep the little speed deamons from getting out when you don't want them to. 40 new hatch chicks can make for an interesting game of pick up.

Adding water and not opening the lid. Run some small tubing, like is used for an aquarium, through a vent hole and spuirt some water into that.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Maidenwolf - how high are the sides of the bottom of the incubator? The little giant is maybe a couple of inches and the hover bator is a little higher. I saw a picture of the farm inovations (I think) and it looked like the eggs actually sat above the sides of the incubator. I am not going to look for the pic again, but, if the sides are really low, the chicks will be able to scramble out when you lift the top. All that to point out, if the sides are low, you might want to make something to sit on the outside or the bator to keep the little speed deamons from getting out when you don't want them to. 40 new hatch chicks can make for an interesting game of pick up.

Adding water and not opening the lid. Run some small tubing, like is used for an aquarium, through a vent hole and spuirt some water into that.

There is a good dip in teh bottom where the grate sits. Chicks are able to climb quite well but this is down enough that I dont think it would be tooeasy for them to scale. But I am thinking that IF I ever do 40 eggs I can hook up the homemade incubator for a hatcher and put half in there. I do not see doing that many any time soon. I was thinking about runnning a tube in and cutting a small hole in the hardware cloth to hit the tube and then duct taping it in place..

 

[chicken danz]

I lost a Dan Powell bred brahma girl this morning. She had doing the topsy turvy thing, but yesterday showed real improvement, and last night she was eating on her own like she hadn't eaten in weeks. Why do I get my hopes up? She was dead this morning. I should know they have that last bit of energy before they die. She was such an awesome looking bird with the best feet and leg feathering I had ever seen on a brahma. It was a real disappointment..
I had another issue take to much time this morning. Somehow when I made a credit card payment it referred back to an old bank account I haven't used in at least 5 years. The account has been closed a long time and I had removed it as a source of payment. I looked back into my account and it shows nothing but my current account for payment. The first phone call I was told to just go in and make the payment off the right account....which I did.
Well then I got another email from my credit card company saying they had suspended all my ability to pay on line. So that meant another long phone call. I guess the emails they are sending is late coming in and I was assured again that all was well and that only referred to the old account. I get so uptight worrying that things go awry due to computer glitches. It worries me sick.
Then I tried to email a towing bill to the insurance company and the email address the adjuster gave me was incorrect. Grrrr! So now it is back on the phone again to see what I can do about that. It is no wonder I seem to get nothing done. This entire week has been like this.
Never ever refinance a home and total a car at the same time. It's a mad house!!! Then I have to worry about car shopping too. It is going to have to wait and I hope my old junk car keeps running long enough to get me by.

 

[HEChicken]

Danz, I sympathize. We have a lot going on at the moment too and it seems so hard to get anything done because each of the things relies on getting something else done first, and there are obstacles in the way to completing THOSE things. My car is still in whoop whoop KS. Monday morning they said they thought they'd be finished with it by that afternoon and they'd call me. Here it is Wed afternoon and I haven't heard a word from them. I would have called them multiple times in the past two days except I don't know how or when I can go and get it with the other things we have going on anyway. I did get one of our inop cars running this morning. It needed a new battery but I couldn't even get it started to go get the battery, but finally was able to jump start it this morning so at least we have two vehicles running.

Sorry about the loss of your brahma and Hawkeye, sorry about your silkie. It is so hard to lose these guys after we get attached to them.

My Millie (Mille Fleur Silchin) is still showing respiratory symptoms. I've been treating with VetRx but it doesn't seem to do much for her. She's had so much eye discharge that her eyes get sealed shut and I have to help her open them several times a day. She's such a timid thing that I've been feeding and watering her separately so she will settle down and eat without fear. Yesterday I segregated her into a small chick run just so she can get sun and fresh air and still eat and drink when she wants to. This morning I finally broke down and started her on Denagard. I had been hoping it would run its course like it did in a few cockerels that were snuffly awhile back but so far no sign of improvement. I was gratified to go down to see her this afternoon and find her eyes open all on her own. I wouldn't have thought the Denagard would kick in that fast but maybe....

Maidenwolf, usually you remove the turner at lockdown since the eggs no longer need to be turned at that point. So that will open up a little room for you in the incubator.

 

[michelleml]

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.

I wonder also if you could you pine needles? We have a few trees on our property does anyone know if you can?

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Danz, I sympathize. We have a lot going on at the moment too and it seems so hard to get anything done because each of the things relies on getting something else done first, and there are obstacles in the way to completing THOSE things. My car is still in whoop whoop KS. Monday morning they said they thought they'd be finished with it by that afternoon and they'd call me. Here it is Wed afternoon and I haven't heard a word from them. I would have called them multiple times in the past two days except I don't know how or when I can go and get it with the other things we have going on anyway. I did get one of our inop cars running this morning. It needed a new battery but I couldn't even get it started to go get the battery, but finally was able to jump start it this morning so at least we have two vehicles running.

Sorry about the loss of your brahma and Hawkeye, sorry about your silkie. It is so hard to lose these guys after we get attached to them.

My Millie (Mille Fleur Silchin) is still showing respiratory symptoms. I've been treating with VetRx but it doesn't seem to do much for her. She's had so much eye discharge that her eyes get sealed shut and I have to help her open them several times a day. She's such a timid thing that I've been feeding and watering her separately so she will settle down and eat without fear. Yesterday I segregated her into a small chick run just so she can get sun and fresh air and still eat and drink when she wants to. This morning I finally broke down and started her on Denagard. I had been hoping it would run its course like it did in a few cockerels that were snuffly awhile back but so far no sign of improvement. I was gratified to go down to see her this afternoon and find her eyes open all on her own. I wouldn't have thought the Denagard would kick in that fast but maybe....

Maidenwolf, usually you remove the turner at lockdown since the eggs no longer need to be turned at that point. So that will open up a little room for you in the incubator.

Yes I would remove the turner at lockdown. I just figured that since the chicks take up alot more space than eggs have 2 hatchers couldnt hurt,, that is IF I hatch that many any time soon, I am starting to get orders so I may be doing it sooner than imagined.

 

[Trish44]

I wonder also if you could you pine needles? We have a few trees on our property does anyone know if you can?

Yes, you can use pine needles in the coop, I have some I plan to add to my DLM pile too in there as soon as I have the time to go rake some up.

I can sympathize with all of you with things going on with cars & such. My DH's car is still in the shop & they just looked at it today & told him it would be about $500 to fix it. This car is starting to become a money pit. He's going to have to make a decision at some point about how much money he wants to put into it or if he wants to go buy another car. We still have payments of course on our new car, so it wouldn't be fun making two, but it just seems like when you're putting so much money into an old car you have to look at whether it's worth it or not. He has been babying this one alone for quite awhile now.

We went out this morning & put up the rest of the doors for the new coop & found out he had cut one wrong, nothing new. So we went ahead & put them up & will have to jerry-rig that one to make it work. He told me today he's not building me any more coops after this one. That's OK, I think it wouldn't be that hard if I wanted to later to add onto this one since the main building is up, maybe I could do the addition mostly myself. I just want to get this one done though so I can move all my birds where they need to be. We got the two end windows put on, they're aluminum crank-out windows like Sunflowerparrot has in her coop & they're wonderful. I have one in my main coop too like that & am putting another in when it's warmer, I just love those windows. You can have them open even when it's raining & it won't come in, of course unless the wind is also blowing 50 miles an hour. We have trim work now to do around the doors inside & I need to get the plexiglass for the front windows. We're about ready to start building the walls for dividing the rooms in there. It's just a painstaking process to get my DH in gear to get things done. If I complain too much he just gets mad at me & then he won't work on it, but sometimes like this week while the weather was warmer I was just determined I was going to get him out there & get a few things accomplished. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I knew nothing would get done if that happens.

I'm sorry about the lost birds, it's just not turning out to be a great winter for some of them.

I got another pretty blue egg from my Wheaten Ameraucana today, so that made me happy. Some of my Swedish Flower Hens are starting to lay also now. I'm glad I put the nest boxes in. My Cream Legbars haven't started laying yet, but they should soon I think. I've got some organizing & cleanup to do on my brooders & incubators before I start hatching, so I have to get on that before too long. I also have people contacting me for chicks already. I was thinking I will have to start incubating probably the middle of February or around there to have chicks hatching in March. That's when people start wanting chicks I think. Wow, time is just flying by it seems like!