Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Kudos to this!


Ok, I need to vent for a minute. Why is it every time I try to sell birds I get people who can't pick them up for x number of weeks, want to know what kind of deal I will make on already very low priced birds and I have to meet them at some set location?!

When I buy birds, I don't haggle the price, I don't ask if I can show up in two weeks and I sure don't TELL someone when and where they will meet me to sell me their birds! Shipping birds is starting to look a lot better, I can just drop them off at the PO and be done with it.

Sorry, thanks for listening to my rant.

I'm sorry you're having problems with selling your birds. I have had the same kind of thing when trying to sell rabbits, they ask me to hold them for two weeks & I just have started telling them no that whoever gets here first with money gets them because I have held them & then had them back out. I also have had people want me to drive to Wichita to bring them eggs, eating eggs, that is an hour trip for me depending on which part of town. People can be so ridiculous sometimes.

I remember you giving me a link for the EcoGlow but not the Rcom? Anyway, probably not....I had been looking and looking but everyone's prices were pretty high and then yesterday I googled and came to a new site I hadn't seen before and it was lower. I didn't look to see where they are located but they indicated shipping from GQF which I thought was interesting. I've never heard of GQF being located in Wichita but it shows that it is shipping out of Wichita so IF FedEx is still running with the weather, it is scheduled for delivery this morning. That will mean I got it less than 24 hours after placing the order which is pretty phenomenal....

Oh boy, it snowed here all day yesterday, quite in the late afternoon and started up again overnight. I was woken at 4:30am by thunder - kind of freaky in winter! It thundered and lightning'ed for about two hours and I could hear sleet hitting the windows. By the time I went out to see the birds, there were drifts high enough to go over the top of my Wellies which go almost to my knees. The birds are all doing okay although they have confined themselves to the coop. I took them a warm mash since I don't keep water in the coop, so I figured if they won't venture out to drink they'll get dehydrated. Two of the ducks were outside by the time I left but I don't expect many birds to venture out today.

Yeah we also had the snow/sleet thunder & lightening thing during the night, it woke me up with the bright flashes. I don't ever remember seeing anything like that before in the winter. We had sleet this morning, so I'm sure it was real fun for my DH when he went out to get the old truck to go to work this morning. I haven't ventured out yet, I really wish I didn't have to, I can see the wind is blowing pretty hard out there, it's not going to be fun.

My sinus stuff has gone to my chest. I could hardly get to sleep last night, coughing my silly head off. Ugh. I've lost my voice too. Then, something about the way the wind was blowing, our bedroom fireplace got really smoky and that sure didn't help the cough. I had to go downstairs while John put the silly thing out. Most of the time, we really enjoy that fireplace in the bedroom but last night was a huge exception. We also had that lightning and thunder snow storm. Reggie, one of our Maltese, is afraid of lightning so he barked and tried to get under the blankets on the bed. Silly doggy. He whines at me like "Can't you do something about that?" We got a lot of snow and we're not finished yet, just in the center of the system. I'm so glad we finally got some precipitation.

With this bronchitis, Josie, I don't feel like I should be out in the weather Saturday. I'm so sorry. I was really looking forward to it and I know it would be so helpful for my kids to help with the little ones. I just can't push it because I have a specialist appointment I really have to make on Monday. I already missed that appointment once from pure Freudian slip. I don't want to go so my feeble brain obliged me, so I forgot it. I almost forgot it again, while making plans for next week it completely slipped my mind I had that appointment on Monday. It's even written down in my planner!

My ducks are determined to get out and wander around, but the chickens aren't a bit interested in getting out and about. I don't blame them!

I'm so sorry you're sick, I hope you feel better soon. I'm suffering from a bladder infection that has now gone into my kidney & I can't even get out of here to go to the Dr. My Dr. is in Wellington. I have had these infections for a lot of years & it gets old. On a brighter note, you have three chicks so far, I'll send you a pic as soon as I can get one off my phone. I tried, but it didn't upload for some reason. I may have to take my camera downstairs & get one. There are some other pips, but not too much more activity yet. Sunflowerparrot's two little eggs have now hatched also & I have some pips on the Salmon Faverolle eggs in there too, I can't wait to see those, they're my first chicks from them & there are only 3. I may keep them & see how they turn out, we'll see. The rooster I have is kind of ornery, he comes after me when I go out to feed. I've attributed it to the small pen they're in right now, we'll see is he straightens up when they get moved to the new coop & have more room.

Well I hope you all can stay warm today & don't get lost in a snow drift!

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Josie I know its hard to sell, we always hope that honest people want to honestly buy our birds but we run into those people all the time who promise to buy before they plan and then back out of a deal. I am sorry you are dealing with this. I have run into it too and its so frustrating.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Sunflower, I take it back. While in the shower I DID remember you giving me a link for the Rcom but when I checked it out, with shipping it was going to be almost $100 more than what you said you had paid, so I guess you must have tapped them on a sale or something. Anyway, I'm glad I waited because I wound up getting it for less in the end, and far more in the ballpark of what I was willing to pay

I got mine for $386.95 total with shipping. I didn't think that was too bad really..

 

[JosieChick]

Congrats on the new bator!!! So exciting!

Well, I did it! I ordered an Rcom incubator. I've been looking for awhile and finally found one at a decent price with free shipping.

So sorry about your hen. Such a bummer. I hate when they get sick and pass so quickly, makes me feel like I couldn't do anything to help but even when I have "time" I usually lose them so I don't know what is really worse...I hate losing birds.

Oh, how funny, I have T-Bones in the mushroom soup, and fried potatoes on the side. Have to give that recipe a try.

Well the sun was shining here a little while ago. But, the weather is coming in out of Oklahoma. Danz, you are going to get 6 to 9 inche of snow.
Lesser amounts as you move south east towards me. We are mainly supposed to get sleet, but that sleet is just as slick as freezing rain, which is going to be just south of us.

Lost my show hen, and then lost anouther one that evening, I didn't even know she was not feeling well until that morning. No coughing, sneezing, watery eyes nothing. I am just sick. I don't know what hit them. I was going to show them at Pryor, and then their show career was over, and they were going to become mothers. Well back to the drawing board. I still have 9 show hens out there, but not in condition. I wish they would hurry with my barn!!

Congrats! How fun!

we are so excited we just candled the eggs and saw movement in all 5 . This was so amazing

I couldn't sell dogs, I don't know how you do it. I bet it is far worse than selling a chicken because they are so much more work and financial investment for people.

I get very disgusted with the same thing. Try selling dogs!! It's even worse. I have hardly ever out of thousands of birds ever sold any where people don't try to jew me down. In fact I always offer discounts to those who buy a lot at a time and don't try to cut rate me.
I know I shoot myself in the foot but that has also brought me a lot of business. It's like cheap advertising. I have all kinds of people all and want me to bring birds to Topeka or even further. They want them but don't want to drive. So they want to buy 5 $2 chicks and expect me to bring them to them spending more for gas than I will get for the chicks. Another reason why I decided to go with more expensive birds. I got so I just give away any mixed chicks so I don't have to feed them. I was anyway!
Oh no, this is people who contact me to buy and then flake out or ask me to hold birds for extended periods of time. I had a guy yesterday that wanted me to hold them for two weeks then deliver them to an auction he was going to be at. I mean, come on. With people I know like you its different. We catch up with each other. Like you hauled me down with you to pick up the geese in Emporia and we make it up to each other. I just think when a perfect stranger wants to buy a bird they should meet very soon, when/where is convenient for the seller as best they can and then not ask for a deal! I have nice birds that I am not going to give away for nothing, I have a lot of money in these birds and I understand that local sales will not bring as much as shipping but if you don't know what you are looking at then don't low ball an offer. It is just offensive and I turn people away when they do that to me. I have no patience for it. Its like comparing apples and oranges. I might just keep the calls and sell/ship ducklings in the spring. A hatchery call duck and my calls (mostly the butterscotch) are two VERY different things and if people still don't see the value in that I just don't want to deal with them.
However I know you've gone out of your way for me and I really really appreciate that. I sure hope you've never felt that way about any of the things we've done.
I keep saying I am going to close the farm to outsiders but that would mean me having to get in the car, load up birds and drive. Main reason for not doing so. I have gotten very picky about people not going in my coops though. I had this guy yesterday walking around and most birds were in the coops because of the weather. I would just open the door and if he looked like he was going to walk in I just shut the door and led on.
There doesn't seem to be a decent way to sell birds unless you do ship. Then you have to have some quality birds to sell them.

Oh I hope you feel better soon! I don't know if we are going to even be able to get anything done with all this snow on the ground. Might have to wait until it melts. Sigh.

My sinus stuff has gone to my chest. I could hardly get to sleep last night, coughing my silly head off. Ugh. I've lost my voice too. Then, something about the way the wind was blowing, our bedroom fireplace got really smoky and that sure didn't help the cough. I had to go downstairs while John put the silly thing out. Most of the time, we really enjoy that fireplace in the bedroom but last night was a huge exception. We also had that lightning and thunder snow storm. Reggie, one of our Maltese, is afraid of lightning so he barked and tried to get under the blankets on the bed. Silly doggy. He whines at me like "Can't you do something about that?" We got a lot of snow and we're not finished yet, just in the center of the system. I'm so glad we finally got some precipitation.

With this bronchitis, Josie, I don't feel like I should be out in the weather Saturday. I'm so sorry. I was really looking forward to it and I know it would be so helpful for my kids to help with the little ones. I just can't push it because I have a specialist appointment I really have to make on Monday. I already missed that appointment once from pure Freudian slip. I don't want to go so my feeble brain obliged me, so I forgot it. I almost forgot it again, while making plans for next week it completely slipped my mind I had that appointment on Monday. It's even written down in my planner!

My ducks are determined to get out and wander around, but the chickens aren't a bit interested in getting out and about. I don't blame them!

It is annoying! I don't understand people who behave like that. If you don't have the money, room, time to care for an animal you probably shouldn't get it. Just seems like common sense to me. I sure hope you feel better, bladder infections are terrible. I had a couple a few years ago and it was just awful.

I'm sorry you're having problems with selling your birds. I have had the same kind of thing when trying to sell rabbits, they ask me to hold them for two weeks & I just have started telling them no that whoever gets here first with money gets them because I have held them & then had them back out. I also have had people want me to drive to Wichita to bring them eggs, eating eggs, that is an hour trip for me depending on which part of town. People can be so ridiculous sometimes.
Yeah we also had the snow/sleet thunder & lightening thing during the night, it woke me up with the bright flashes. I don't ever remember seeing anything like that before in the winter. We had sleet this morning, so I'm sure it was real fun for my DH when he went out to get the old truck to go to work this morning. I haven't ventured out yet, I really wish I didn't have to, I can see the wind is blowing pretty hard out there, it's not going to be fun.
I'm so sorry you're sick, I hope you feel better soon. I'm suffering from a bladder infection that has now gone into my kidney & I can't even get out of here to go to the Dr. My Dr. is in Wellington. I have had these infections for a lot of years & it gets old. On a brighter note, you have three chicks so far, I'll send you a pic as soon as I can get one off my phone. I tried, but it didn't upload for some reason. I may have to take my camera downstairs & get one. There are some other pips, but not too much more activity yet. Sunflowerparrot's two little eggs have now hatched also & I have some pips on the Salmon Faverolle eggs in there too, I can't wait to see those, they're my first chicks from them & there are only 3. I may keep them & see how they turn out, we'll see. The rooster I have is kind of ornery, he comes after me when I go out to feed. I've attributed it to the small pen they're in right now, we'll see is he straightens up when they get moved to the new coop & have more room.

Well I hope you all can stay warm today & don't get lost in a snow drift!

Wow! So this snow is absolutely ridiculous. I had to shovel my way into the coops and I still need to get back out there to deal with some of the birds. Miserable weather. There is well over a foot of snow out there and it is drifted much higher in places. Birds are highly unimpressed for sure. I don't blame them. Even Molly was holed up in her dog house. I had to convince her to come up to the garage for breakfast. I still need to get back out and deal with the geese and horses and get some water to one pen whose water bowl is lost in the snow.

So I guess the foot of snow has thrown a wrench in the fence building plans this weekend which is a total bummer. Does anyone want to try to reschedule for next Saturday March 2? Looks like the weather is supposed to be warmer (51!) Let me know if you are available and we will plan a day then. I was so excited to get the fencing up and get the horses moved down. DH thinks the chicken pens won't take much longer either so hoping to plan on moving the crew in two weeks.

 

[Frizzled Pink]

Everybody stay as safe and warm as possible!

 

[chicken danz]

Well I went out to try to feed the puppies and ended up outside for a long time. I couldn't get any doors open. I couldn't find my warm water proof gloves I wore all day yesterday! I usually lay them on the heat vent in the kitchen to dry. They weren't there or anywhere else I looked. The snow on the South side of the house measures a foot to 3 foot. How the heck can you tell how much snow you have when the drifts are huge?
I had to hoe out snow to get to anything. I say hoe because it was the only tool I could find that wasn't totally buried in the snow. I had this one in the shop to stir my FF feed with. I had to dig out the dog pen after trying to navigate down the back steps. It was like step, then down, then step then oops, too far, then step then down and I still missed the bottom step. I had to go back in to get water cause the spigot is frozen. Got them fed. Opened the bin that the big dogs food is in and managed to slip and fall in it!!! I swear if someone would video me out trying to feed they'd wonder how on earth I didn't break every bone in my body. Instead I usually have layers of bruises.
Then I went to the brahmas pen. The breaker had tripped. I pulled the cords out of the snow and of course thy had crap sitting on top of them that I had to shovel out to get the cord. The last insult was that the plywood I was trying to use the other day to block the wind had been laid on the cord and I couldn't get enough snow off of it to lift it up. So I dug yet another extension cord out of the snow that wasn't attached to anything and plugged it into the first one so it would reach. The dang breaker tripped again.
Then I went to the brooder house and sure enough the power was out. Another GFI tripped. Luckily that one reset.
In desperation I finally unplugged the cord that went to the brahma pen from the others. Then took the extra extension cord I had dug out of the snow, plugged it in inside the brooder , made a hole in the screen and ran the brahmas cord in through the screen. Finally had power to the brahmas and the brooder.....if it doesn't trip again.
Then I went out to check out the further out houses. I had to dig to get two gates to move but at least they have power out there to keep their water from freezing.
This is all the more reason I see to get all this stuff in a building instead of having stupid cords run everywhere. I never even attempted to make it out to the peafowl pen or the geese. Of course the geese were out running around with angel wings in the air yelling at me. At least I knew they were okay.
I did loose one little Breda fowl in the brooder since it was cold in there. I was afraid it would be a lot worse.
I've actually been trying to car shop via the internet today. I think I am going to call a dealer and see what the very best deal I can get is. They obviously don't have any body shopping today so they are being pretty accommodating.
I might end up buying a car unseen.
I have dough rising for my cinnamon rolls too. Sure hope these turn out well. It's a new recipe I found and have been dying to try.

 

[checoukan]

Danz, I don't know how you manage to do everything you do!! My goodness, I know I could not do it. Course we were not fighting the snow, we just had sleet. light snow and a little freezing rain. Shoot it was still 32 degrees in the barn this morning. No frozen water. In fact everybodys auto waterer's were still working so that takes a BIG work load off my back.

Im looking at buying a WCBP cock out of Mississippi to replace this one here. Hi is not showing any interest in the females, and well he better get to work, or......

I think have almost everything ready to go to the show. I want to go to Hutchinson again this spring, but have not heard anything from them on entries? Hawkeye have you?

Still have not heard anything from my DH.

I hope he does not have to go find a whole new squirrel cage fan. May get chilly in here tonight. Oh, how Im going to hate to have to start the fireplace!!

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Danz, I don't know how you manage to do everything you do!! My goodness, I know I could not do it. Course we were not fighting the snow, we just had sleet. light snow and a little freezing rain. Shoot it was still 32 degrees in the barn this morning. No frozen water. In fact everybodys auto waterer's were still working so that takes a BIG work load off my back.

Im looking at buying a WCBP cock out of Mississippi to replace this one here. Hi is not showing any interest in the females, and well he better get to work, or......

I think have almost everything ready to go to the show. I want to go to Hutchinson again this spring, but have not heard anything from them on entries? Hawkeye have you?

Still have not heard anything from my DH.

I hope he does not have to go find a whole new squirrel cage fan. May get chilly in here tonight. Oh, how Im going to hate to have to start the fireplace!!

I sure hope you get your heat going soon,, but at least you have the fireplace option..



It is getting to be about time to take new pics of my little bantams so I can get help identifying colors. I think most of my 33 bantams are OEG, which is perfectly fine by me because I have been wanting to add those. But I am going to need helping determining if they are OE or dutch etc,, I will post soon.

 

[chicken danz]

What a bum! You should have gotten Ivy's boy before she sold him.I didn't think about him not being a good boy. I just kept the one I thought was best looking. I guess that is one reason I try to keep a back up roo around. I wish I still had the breeders info where I got my polish. I am sure she'd have one. I tried to find it some time ago and didn't have any luck.
I've been trying to car shop via phone and internet. Someone needs to start throwing some numbers back at me if they want to make a sale. I was looking at new vehicles but found a 2012 they used in the dealership with more bells and whistles and low miles with extended warranty.
Trish what kind of car did you get? I'm not finding all I want. I want that back up camera but not finding anything with them. I might have to settle for an older vehicle and save my pennies to buy a newer one later on. I get my mind set on something and it is really hard to change it.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

checoukan, speaking of fireplaces, we had quite the little incident last night. We have a fireplace in our bedroom (nowhere else in the house, so weird) but DH started a fire last night but it must have not started very well because we woke up to a bedroom full of smoke. The fireplace wasn't hot enough for the heat to rise, so the smoke was just filling our bedroom. And me with a bad cough anyway. I can't smell anything with all this congestion, so I didn't realize there was even a problem. He sent me downstairs and then set about trying to put it out, which caused more smoke. So then we started opening windows and doors trying to get the smoke out and finally did but by then everything in there smelled like smoke anyway. Finally, we could go back to bed, smelling of campfire, but in the meantime the thunder and lightening was frightening one of our little dogs, so he barked and whined and put up a big fuss. So between us and the dogs, the poor kids didn't sleep well last night. What a mess! Hope your furnace is back in working order soon.