Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

I'm putting off going out side. This wet weather makes me ache all over. I really need to get my act in gear though. I've got to figure out what to do with these birds soon.
I wanted to start some cinnamon rolls too but haven't even dug the recipe out yet. I'm thinking getting up early just makes me lazier.

 

[chicken danz]

Just heard about my Dad. It's good news....well not good news but better than his heart. He has an inflammation of the cartilage where his ribs attach to the sternum so it hurts when he breathes or moves which in turn caused his blood pressure to rise. They are putting him on a higher dose of steroids for a few days and it should get better. The Dr said it is important that he breathes deep even though it hurts because if he doesn’t it opens up the chances of getting pneumonia. The Dr. said it is usually caused by a virus.
My Dad has polymyalgia and giant cell arteritis and has to be on steroids all the time or he becomes totally invalid.

 

[michelleml]

I just ordered a brinsea mini advance i hope its a good one. Never incubated before so now i need to find some eggs. It should be here in 2-3 days when is a good time to start eggs. Should i wait til like march or april? That is if i can hold out that long

 

[sarajoy]

Wow, lots of posts to reply to. Am trying the "multi-quote" thing which I didn't know about before. Thanks to the newbie who thought to ask!!

About the goats some folks do do the tie up/tether thing outside - but it is considered fairly dangerous. Even the best ways of doing it seem to fairly frequently lead to accidental death. Most goat breeders I have talked to won't even sell goats to someone who doesn't have solid pens/fences set up for them. And a reputable goat breeder will ask a lot of questions before selling....

Danz - so glad your dad is more okay than could have been. The inflammation doesn't sound "fun" but for sure better than a heart situation.

About the greenhouse - we're using a plan presented in a book called "Solar Greenhouses: Underground" by Daniel Geery. You can do a search on underground solar greenhouses, and you'll come up with both his system and others. We liked his approach.

Coricorndog - welcome. I have some full grown light brahma. They are heavy and docile - make great pets. They don't have as much personality as my rir's, but I do love them. I would never get a rir rooster, but my light brahma roo is both a good protector of his flock and is very calm and gentle - they call the breed "gentle giants". Both my roo and my hens (light brahma) do fly - actually more than my rir hens do. They love flying up to the top of the a-frame to roost, and saw one in a tree the other day. So I think you'd have to clip at least one wing if you wanted to keep them contained. The lady I got my adults from had had a wing clipped on each of her birds by the way, but they grew out in just a few months, which is when the flying started. Particularly as they saw the juvenile brahmas flying around - the one I've found is a light brahma roo would fly literally vertically ten feet into the air when he was first getting to know our pyr, and was startled. So despite being heavy, these birds do fly unless they are clipped, and then the clipping would need to be repeated as needed.

A question for anyone - I SO love how gorgeous my young buff brahma roosters are, and am thinking of keeping just one, even if I can't find him some young buff brahma hens to dance with. But since its partly the buff color I love (plus in the rooster the gorgeous green tail) I'm wondering about maybe getting him some buff orpington hens, which seem much more available around here than the buff brahma. Any ideas about what those genetics might bring about?

Hechicken - I bet you were absolutely relieved to finally get set at your new place! I know I can't wait. Mike is trying to talk me into cutting back on the size/design of the chicken shed, as he has been gathering materials. But if we add on later it will cost more to do so, seems smarter to get set up now for what I know I'm going to be needing and wanting, and so far his suggestions of modification to the design have NOT impressed me at all.... Hoping we can manage to build it as initially planned.

LONG rainy day today. Need the rain so I won't complain, well, not much anyways. Tomorrow taking another load out to the new home, and picking up more building materials, plus picking out the interior paint at a 20% off sale at Diebolt's.
Sara

 

[Hawkeye95]

Hi! I'm new here and live south of Wichita. I haven't bought any chickens yet, but I'm doing research and getting close! I have a small backyard and there is an ordinance that only allows 3 chickens. I has a privacy fence, but I'd prefer a breed that lays frequently, is pretty docile, and is flightless. Any suggestions?

WELCOME! I would recommend Barred Rocks! They are awesome-- they never stop laying.. well, almost. Mine finally gave up for a break, but they layed right thru the insane heat, and a molt. I think they are taking a short break and will be back at it soon! They are also really heavy, so they are not great flyers. I have a 6ft fence with no top for their pen and they have never flown over it. When they are little-- young birds, they are better at flying, but once they start laying, they are pretty much grounded. They are also really friendly. BTW-- I am also down south of Wichita, too! But it sounds like you're probably in the Haysville area, and I'm further on south than that.

Hawkeye that isn't good news. Don't give up hope on a job yet. You have my prayers. If you have to move what are you going to do about 4H? Will someone take over for you?
I got the appraisal back and I did okay on the value but I really got dinged on my unfinished projects. My lights I didn't have installed in the kitchen ceiling, unfinished sheetrock and mudding in several rooms, my kitchen and dining room floor that doesn't have the hardwood down, etc. Judging from what I read I think I lost about $25,000 in value just on those things.
My one real point of disagreement was on the value of the outbuildings. I guess the city boy has no idea what it costs to build a building these days. He only valued them at about $20,000. My barn although not fancy should be worth that much. I have that big barn, the lean to building, a large loafing shed, plus all the coops and stuff and my little greenhouse. Granted it looks pretty tacky but try replacing them and see what they cost! I have read that sheds sometimes will lower property value although I have no idea why.
Karen I'm so sorry about your little hens. We have had a hawk sitting and watching around here but he is wise to me opening the door. The dogs bark if he moves from his perch. Eventually he might find an opportunity to grab a bird but I hope not.
Speaking of birds I hope I didn't have any sit outside and drown last night. It stormed all night. Not sure how much rain yet cause it is still dark, but there is water sitting in the dog pen.

I don't know what we'd do. We'll find out here pretty quick!! His end date is March 22nd. We won't be left guessing much longer. We still have Plan B and unfortunately, it's not here. So we're still hoping for something else to pan out here. Sigh. That's a bummer about your appraisal, BUT--- you can see if you finished the work you have around there, it would be instant equity. Outbuildings are expensive.. But not too bad, if you really are careful. We only paid $6,500 for our horse barn! It is a 30X50ft, one people door, two (2) 12ft sliding vehicle doors on either end, and a dirt floor. Now, that doesn't include what we spent on the steel pipe sliding horse stalls on the inside. It's enough that I'd be tempted to take them with me if we have to move! LOL I had a local guy build those for me to my dimensions to fit in that barn. They are 12X12 stalls. But even so-- I'm guessing we don't have more than $10K in that barn, and I think it's a pretty nice barn. Of course, my DH built it himself -- we bought the kit from Sutherlands. They seriously have the cheapest barns we could find! And we just built that little shed that I posted right before winter-- and we only spent $1200 on it-- that included all the labor and the guys coming out and doing it for us. Now if you have a cement floor-- add $10K to your barn price! I mean... YIKES has cement gone up! If we stay, we're building a barn with a cement floor and we have had our eyes opened on that one. Eeeks.

I have one in our workshop and one in the garage (where I saw a mouse dart across my path one day). The garage one I check every day but its never caught anything. I haven't checked the workshop in weeks - I should probably do that today. I got tired of getting down to check it where it was under my work bench since it was always empty. I caught 6-7 in a matter of days at one point, but haven't had anything in them since.


I got some photos downloaded of our new vegie garden - so excited. Its bigger than it looks in this picture because you can't see how wide it is from this angle. A little rain this morning doesn't hurt a bit either. Unfortunately I don't know how much we've had so far as my rain gauge fell over so didn't collect anything. I set it back upright so it is now collecting water but probably the rain will stop soon.

YAY! That is going to be a big garden!! I would be planning out your soaker hoses or watering system now! I saw a really cool deal at the Extension office this morning-- they had rigged up pvc pipe with soaker hoses in the middle (pvc on the ends) and it was neat. I should have snapped a picture. I was thinking I should do that for my gardens!

I just went and picked up my birds. All appear well . The worst thing is the brahmas were big enough two boxes had to be put together to hold them and they wore the feathers off their backs where they rubbed against the center part. Still beautiful. Pictures later. They are busy eating, drinking and pooping in the kitchen right now.

Congrats on healthy babies! You really needed that success!

Got out and did my morning chores early in case it did rain, and I could get my goats, and my two cows here fed.

I decided not to do a garden this year, I have one raised bed just outside the house that I am going to put peppers, and tomatoes in, and that is it! I am afraid we are going to have anouther dry summer, and I am not going to fight that! So Im going to wait to plant a big garden. I have enough tomatoe juice to last anouther year, unless the plants i have this summer really produce, and then I will make some.

Not much going on around here, kinda boring.

I'm worried about it being another miserable summer, too. I don't know what to think yet. I'm going to go ahead and build another garden, but I'm planning on rigging up a watering system this time!

I talked to Bruce this morning( the guy from Hambrick farms I bought the brahmas from.) He said he had a long conversation with greenfire farms yesterday. They haven't been able to offer the blue gold partridge brahmas because they are having trouble maintaining their breeding. They are getting some birds from Bruce and visa versa so some of my birds brothers and sisters will become some of Greenfire's stock. I think that says a ton for the quality of these birds. He also said later on he could hook me up with a few of the lines he traded Greenfire for so I could have some more diversity in the blood lines. We even discussed hatching some eggs later this spring. He doesn't sell hatching eggs but said he would fix me up later.
My new little Bredas are great. They have huge vulture hocks and seem to be more typey than the earlier ones I got.
I'm still letting the brahmas stay in the house. When I am convince the rain is over I'll move them out to the tractor. I sure wish DH was around to get it moved for me.
Oh man Trish, ticks already? That stinks. BTW have you seen anything on the web cam yet?

Very cool! Sounds like you've got some great stock to work with there! Do they have an American Standard for these birds or are these more European imports? BTW, I'm really sorry that you had that scare with your dad. I'm glad it sounds like he'll be okay, so that is certainly better news than more heart trouble.

I was reading that and started wondering "Do goats get ticks?" Do you put a frontline collar on them like you would for a dog?

I was thinking the SAME THING when Trish said that her dogs got ticks already and then started talking about the goats... I was thinking, they are ALL going to have to wear the tick collars! LOL

Welcome to the newcomers! Just join right in!

We got a little rain this a.m. -- so happy to see it. Still raining just a bit and boy, is it chilly. Today, I'm painting reinforcement boards and repainting the two pens we're working on and DH is structurally reinforcing the pens and putting the plastic on. I'm going to have to hustle to get all the painting done.

I've been planning what to do about a garden this year also. I think I'm going to confine it to the orchard area since it is well mulched and ready to go and a much smaller area to keep up with than the garden. Between watering the birds, garden, orchard and keeping water in the pond last summer, it's a wonder our pump didn't burn out. We've heavily mulched the garden area and will be letting the chickens have the run of it this year, so it ought to be nicely improved for next year. Surely, by then the drought will have let up?

I better get back to it.

Hope to see you tonight!! I'm excited about it! I LOVE your orchard, I want to plant more fruit trees here. I should have thought ahead like you did and mapped out a "real" orchard like you did. Right now, my apple trees are just scattered about. I'm hoping we have a better summer this year. I lost trees that I normally would not have lost last summer due to the drought. Even though I watered them!!! That is nuts, because I water my trees nearly every single day! I lost a Maple-- they are hard to kill, and a couple others. The fruit trees came out okay.

Just heard about my Dad. It's good news....well not good news but better than his heart. He has an inflammation of the cartilage where his ribs attach to the sternum so it hurts when he breathes or moves which in turn caused his blood pressure to rise. They are putting him on a higher dose of steroids for a few days and it should get better. The Dr said it is important that he breathes deep even though it hurts because if he doesn’t it opens up the chances of getting pneumonia. The Dr. said it is usually caused by a virus.
My Dad has polymyalgia and giant cell arteritis and has to be on steroids all the time or he becomes totally invalid.

Thank goodness about your dad!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So today was at the Extension Office making copies for the Poultry Workshop and picking up keys and I walked back out to my van to see I had a flat tire-- literally on the rim!! I thought I heard something happen on the way over, but was in a hurry to get there, I didn't notice much, but I did notice my chime kicked in (low tire chime). There is a Quick Trip directly across and I drove over (I know-- cringe, on the rim) and filled up the tire with air. Unfortunately, the tire would not stay up! It was wooshing out pretty fast. I hauled booty to the nearest Walmart-- not too far away and got there with the tire only half deflated. They said that I had a huge gash in the sidewall and my tire was destroyed. Not by me driving on the rim, but by the huge metal piece that ripped thru the tire and was still in there half sticking out. How that happened, I don't know?! I never drove over anything that I saw?! There was nothing in the road way-- no boxes, no wood, no nothing. I called my DH to tell him I needed a brand new tire and he just sighed and said oh why not!? I mean, we're going from bad to worse around here! LOL

I have to laugh at this point.... Or I'm going to start drinking margaritas and never stop! hehehe!

And sleep is becoming highly overrated at this point, anyway.

 

[HEChicken]

WELCOME! I would recommend Barred Rocks! They are awesome-- they never stop laying.. well, almost. Mine finally gave up for a break, but they layed right thru the insane heat, and a molt. I think they are taking a short break and will be back at it soon! They are also really heavy, so they are not great flyers. I have a 6ft fence with no top for their pen and they have never flown over it. When they are little-- young birds, they are better at flying, but once they start laying, they are pretty much grounded. They are also really friendly. BTW-- I am also down south of Wichita, too! But it sounds like you're probably in the Haysville area, and I'm further on south than that.


I don't know what we'd do. We'll find out here pretty quick!! His end date is March 22nd. We won't be left guessing much longer. We still have Plan B and unfortunately, it's not here. So we're still hoping for something else to pan out here. Sigh. That's a bummer about your appraisal, BUT--- you can see if you finished the work you have around there, it would be instant equity. Outbuildings are expensive.. But not too bad, if you really are careful. We only paid $6,500 for our horse barn! It is a 30X50ft, one people door, two (2) 12ft sliding vehicle doors on either end, and a dirt floor. Now, that doesn't include what we spent on the steel pipe sliding horse stalls on the inside. It's enough that I'd be tempted to take them with me if we have to move! LOL I had a local guy build those for me to my dimensions to fit in that barn. They are 12X12 stalls. But even so-- I'm guessing we don't have more than $10K in that barn, and I think it's a pretty nice barn. Of course, my DH built it himself -- we bought the kit from Sutherlands. They seriously have the cheapest barns we could find! And we just built that little shed that I posted right before winter-- and we only spent $1200 on it-- that included all the labor and the guys coming out and doing it for us. Now if you have a cement floor-- add $10K to your barn price! I mean... YIKES has cement gone up! If we stay, we're building a barn with a cement floor and we have had our eyes opened on that one. Eeeks.


YAY! That is going to be a big garden!! I would be planning out your soaker hoses or watering system now! I saw a really cool deal at the Extension office this morning-- they had rigged up pvc pipe with soaker hoses in the middle (pvc on the ends) and it was neat. I should have snapped a picture. I was thinking I should do that for my gardens!

I'm worried about it being another miserable summer, too. I don't know what to think yet. I'm going to go ahead and build another garden, but I'm planning on rigging up a watering system this time!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So today was at the Extension Office making copies for the Poultry Workshop and picking up keys and I walked back out to my van to see I had a flat tire-- literally on the rim!! I thought I heard something happen on the way over, but was in a hurry to get there, I didn't notice much, but I did notice my chime kicked in (low tire chime). There is a Quick Trip directly across and I drove over (I know-- cringe, on the rim) and filled up the tire with air. Unfortunately, the tire would not stay up! It was wooshing out pretty fast. I hauled booty to the nearest Walmart-- not too far away and got there with the tire only half deflated. They said that I had a huge gash in the sidewall and my tire was destroyed. Not by me driving on the rim, but by the huge metal piece that ripped thru the tire and was still in there half sticking out. How that happened, I don't know?! I never drove over anything that I saw?! There was nothing in the road way-- no boxes, no wood, no nothing. I called my DH to tell him I needed a brand new tire and he just sighed and said oh why not!? I mean, we're going from bad to worse around here! LOL

I have to laugh at this point.... Or I'm going to start drinking margaritas and never stop! hehehe!

And sleep is becoming highly overrated at this point, anyway.

That is a really good point to start planning a watering system. One of the reasons I picked the location I did for them to till, is that there is a well spigot about 10' away so I won't have to drag hoses around. I have a couple of soaker hoses, but I do still need to figure out how to set them up to do the most efficient job. Thanks for reminding me! If you are back at the Extension office and happen to snap a pic of their set up, I'd be interested to see it.

That sucks about the tire. I had one not too long ago, in the Dillons parking lot, and I got out the donut and put it on, only to find that as it hadn't been used in the 8 years I've had the car, it was flat too. I was lucky that there is a Dillons gas station at the other end of the parking lot so I was able to just walk the donut over and put air in, and then it was good to go again.

 

[bbsnooks]

Test test 1. 2. 3. how' m I doin?? looks good from here.. i think the " " thing is goin to work..

that same thing happened to me after purchas a new (to me) car.. parked it at mother's house.. and got in the next day.. and was driving on brick road and thought the "strange rattle wasnt there yesterday?" was it due to the road? .. 8 blocks later at post office.. its not the road.. ooops.

but its gotta B - 5:30 some where?? cheers !

 

[checoukan]

Hawkeye, I'm so excited for you tonight!! Been there done that!! I wish I could be there too help you, but, I'm too far away. Dang the crapolies on the roadways, no telling where that metal came from. Glad you were able to get somewhere to get a tire!!

Well, think the rain is moving out, boy sure got more than they said we would, we need run off bad to fill the ponds here, most, well a lot of the ponds around here are dry, to allmost dry. Our ponds are in ok condition, but need more water.

Danz glad your dad is ok. I worry about mine all the time, but, his condition is stable, but he has only 30% working from 2 heart attacks.

Sent my entry into Pryor this afternoon, Taking 7. 2 cockerels, and 5 pullets. We will see what happens. I think these cockerels should knock there socks off!!!

 

[Trish44]

Hechicken - I bet you were absolutely relieved to finally get set at your new place! I know I can't wait. Mike is trying to talk me into cutting back on the size/design of the chicken shed, as he has been gathering materials. But if we add on later it will cost more to do so, seems smarter to get set up now for what I know I'm going to be needing and wanting, and so far his suggestions of modification to the design have NOT impressed me at all.... Hoping we can manage to build it as initially planned.

WELCOME! I would recommend Barred Rocks! They are awesome-- they never stop laying.. well, almost. Mine finally gave up for a break, but they layed right thru the insane heat, and a molt. I think they are taking a short break and will be back at it soon! They are also really heavy, so they are not great flyers. I have a 6ft fence with no top for their pen and they have never flown over it. When they are little-- young birds, they are better at flying, but once they start laying, they are pretty much grounded. They are also really friendly. BTW-- I am also down south of Wichita, too! But it sounds like you're probably in the Haysville area, and I'm further on south than that.


I don't know what we'd do. We'll find out here pretty quick!! His end date is March 22nd. We won't be left guessing much longer. We still have Plan B and unfortunately, it's not here. So we're still hoping for something else to pan out here. Sigh. That's a bummer about your appraisal, BUT--- you can see if you finished the work you have around there, it would be instant equity. Outbuildings are expensive.. But not too bad, if you really are careful. We only paid $6,500 for our horse barn! It is a 30X50ft, one people door, two (2) 12ft sliding vehicle doors on either end, and a dirt floor. Now, that doesn't include what we spent on the steel pipe sliding horse stalls on the inside. It's enough that I'd be tempted to take them with me if we have to move! LOL I had a local guy build those for me to my dimensions to fit in that barn. They are 12X12 stalls. But even so-- I'm guessing we don't have more than $10K in that barn, and I think it's a pretty nice barn. Of course, my DH built it himself -- we bought the kit from Sutherlands. They seriously have the cheapest barns we could find! And we just built that little shed that I posted right before winter-- and we only spent $1200 on it-- that included all the labor and the guys coming out and doing it for us. Now if you have a cement floor-- add $10K to your barn price! I mean... YIKES has cement gone up! If we stay, we're building a barn with a cement floor and we have had our eyes opened on that one. Eeeks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So today was at the Extension Office making copies for the Poultry Workshop and picking up keys and I walked back out to my van to see I had a flat tire-- literally on the rim!! I thought I heard something happen on the way over, but was in a hurry to get there, I didn't notice much, but I did notice my chime kicked in (low tire chime). There is a Quick Trip directly across and I drove over (I know-- cringe, on the rim) and filled up the tire with air. Unfortunately, the tire would not stay up! It was wooshing out pretty fast. I hauled booty to the nearest Walmart-- not too far away and got there with the tire only half deflated. They said that I had a huge gash in the sidewall and my tire was destroyed. Not by me driving on the rim, but by the huge metal piece that ripped thru the tire and was still in there half sticking out. How that happened, I don't know?! I never drove over anything that I saw?! There was nothing in the road way-- no boxes, no wood, no nothing. I called my DH to tell him I needed a brand new tire and he just sighed and said oh why not!? I mean, we're going from bad to worse around here! LOL

I have to laugh at this point.... Or I'm going to start drinking margaritas and never stop! hehehe!

And sleep is becoming highly overrated at this point, anyway.

Hawkeye, I hope you get some good news soon, I know that has to be really stressful just in limbo like that. We all hope you get to stay too! That's a bummer about the tire, it seems like that stuff always happens at the worst time, but then when is a good time to have a flat tire that's destroyed. I hope the rest of your day goes better.

Well I got nothing done on the coop today other than figure out how big to cut my pieces for holding the gate together. I will cut those tomorrow & then I can start putting gates together. I'm hoping my DH comes home right after work tomorrow & maybe he can start putting in t-posts, we'll see. It was raining off & on earlier today & I didn't feel like being out in the rain & cold so I didn't go out. It actually warmed up a little this afternoon, but it was at almost time for me to feed everybody, so I just went out & did that. I've got so much to do tomorrow it's not funny, it will be a very busy day.

 

[JosieChick]

Hi everyone! I am so far behind so I didn't multi any posts. Hope everyone is well.

We are going to try to plan another work weekend Saturday, Feb 23 and are hoping the horse fence posts will be in by then. Let me know if you want to come so I can plan some food!

Hawkeye- Good luck with your 4-H demo! Sounds like fun, I hope my kids will be in 4-H.

Danz- Glad your birds made it ok and hope your hand is feeling better.

Trish- Glad you are getting your pens put together. Hope the weather cooperates.

Hechicken- Congrats on the garden patch! What an awesome deal from your neighbor!

Sorry to everyone else, my brain is fried tonight. I am getting sick. Ugh! I was an emotional disaster last night and now I know why. I must have caught a cold on the plane ride last weekend. Was very much hoping I would make it through pregnancy without illness but I guess my luck has run out!