Consolidated Kansas

[ramblinH]

'm currently researching fodder. It seems like a good idea. Does anyone have experience with it?

Fodder was mentioned recently on The Natural Chicken Keeping thread. I also am interested in this method but no experience yet. Would love if you'd share some of your research

I had a nice garden at our old house but couldn't grow here last year because of the timing of our move, so hopefully it will do okay this year

Same here - did get some herbs planted by my back door but spent most of last summer cleaning up our property. Have already planted carrot, pea, romaine lettuce & kale seeds. Will be direct-sowing a lot in the next couple months. Tried a seed starting method called winter-sowing & excited about the results I'm getting... http://www.agardenforthehouse.com/2012/11/winter-sowing-101-6/ Will be doing DLM in my coop, can't wait to incorporate that into my garden next spring

[COLOR=0000FF] I think there is a fodder link in one of the BYC forums. Here you go. I found the link.[/COLOR] https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/713334/growing-fodder-for-chickens

Thanks Tweety Baby!

 

[chicken danz]

Pikeman, that sounds like chicken math. The winter sowing is interesting. I used to do a lot of that but did it on a deck covered in plastic rather than bottles. It actually worked beautifully. I just have to plant when the season allows now. Years ago I tried planting potatoes in a barrell. They did not work at all. I just found another reference to that and I might try it again. It sure saves garden space.

 

[pikeman94]

Saffron has been transplanted to her new kennel complete with cushy nesting space. I even put a plastic egg in there to help her along. I will watch her for about a day and see if she continues her broody ways.

 

[trudigale]

I posted this on another thread - but wanted to ask on this thread also ..........


What do I do?

My blue Sebastopol girl has decided to go broody....... I had one White Chinese egg in her nest just to keep her laying in the same spot(I just got the blue pair the first of March). Once I noticed she was not getting off of her nest I tucked another Chinese egg beside her - she rolled it right under her. I have mixed feelings about her going broody - 1. I would rather she continued giving me an egg every other day (I have no intentions of hatching White Chinese) 2. It might be nice to see what kind of a Momma she is for the future.

My problem is my blue boy. He stands at the fence and hollers for the White Chinese. He is in a very very large fenced in pen with an attached very large room (this room is where my girl is). I kept them separate from the other geese for obvious reasons ....... I wanted pure breed eggs.

Do I:

Leave the pair together and let him "cry" for the other geese (a pair of Chinese)?
Let my boy out and leave my girl in by herself?
Open the area up for free flow of all the poultry?

I had planned to keep them separated until laying season was finished. And I thought if my girl went broody the boy would be "by her side". Help!

 

[HEChicken]

Heather you have your garden planted already? I'm still waiting for the weather to cooperate and DH to have the tiller on the tractor so I can get mine tilled in good. It's got all the shavings from the brooder house on it-or in it where the chickens have done some work for me. I really need to get it worked up. I also have a big area I need to till after I spray it with Treflan if I can find it, then till it. That will be my chicken garden full of pumpkins,watermelon and cucumbers.

I wish, but sadly, no. I haven't even started seeds in flats yet so I am a bit behind. I put down the mulch and then I will just plant right through it. I couldn't put off cleaning out the coop any longer.

Danz, I filled a hanging feeder with oyster shells and put it on 2 stacks of concrete bricks. It has very little litter and I haven't seen it tipped over yet, even when we had those 50 to 60 mph wind a week or so ago. I'll take a pic of it and see if it make sense to you.

Oh, I like the hanging feeder idea - I've had the same issues Danz mentioned with mine. I thought my solution was going to be to attach them to the wall of the coop, high enough bedding wasn't likely to be kicked in but the hanging feeder idea might work even better.

Handed the grant proposal in.

I so hope we get the grant, we need better facitltys for the fair, and we want to start having mini 4H work shops here, and mini 4H multi -county shows. Every one keep your fingers crossed that they are like minded too!.

Yay for getting it turned in and I'll keep my fingers crossed it will be approved for you!

checoukan, I would love to set all the crap next door on fire just to get rid of it all, but I would be afraid I would start some big grass fire or something & burn down the neighborhood. There is an old travel trailer right by our fence that has been stripped of all the siding & windows & things are just hanging out of it. Then there is an old mobile home that has been stripped of things too & is open. That's all besides all the trash all over the hill that the people dumped for years & it's spread all over the yard there now. I'm on the Rural Water district board for our district & we had to pull the water meter there because people were stealing parts off of it. It's just a royal mess & the owner isn't going to do anything unless she's made to & fined.

Have you made a report to the local compliance officer? I bet she is in violation of some law and reporting might be the first step to get it cleaned up.

Saffron has been transplanted to her new kennel complete with cushy nesting space. I even put a plastic egg in there to help her along. I will watch her for about a day and see if she continues her broody ways.

I bet she will - she sounds very determined if she's been sitting for a month already. I usually only give them a couple of days to determine they're serious and then give them some eggs as I don't like them sitting for too long. They don't eat well while they're sitting so they can lose condition pretty quickly if they stay broody.

Well, here's a turn up for the books. Silkies are notoriously broody, right? So my silkie went broody and after a few days I moved her to her own nest and ever since she has been pacing the front of the hoop coop looking for a way out (but I'm sure if I let her out, she'd rush straight back to join Miss Broody Duck on her nest), so I'm letting her chill in the hoop coop for now. Meanwhile, my Aloha hen, who is far less likely to go broody, also decided to sit on the broody nest. So last night I moved her into the hoop coop and figured if she gave up too, then at least the two of them would keep each other company. Nope - the Aloha hen is apparently far more serious about it and is sitting on the nest. She has 3 Olive Egger eggs to hatch, if she goes the full 3 weeks.

I started the day down a bird. Josie and I had agreed she would take my Welsummer cock bird, since although he is a GREAT flock protector, respectful of me and good to the hens, I don't have a place for him in the direction I want to go. So this morning I ran him up to her place and we had a nice visit. It was fun to see all her new pens now that the work is complete and the birds are moved in. What a great design and great job they did on them!

I was feeling quite pleased that the Welsummer gets a good home, and now I can focus on the birds I have. One less mouth to feed and all that. After returning home I ran down to the coop to check on the birds and found that my Production Red was out. No idea how she got out, but figured she somehow flew over the fence. So I herded her back in. Then I looked over and saw my Production Red - not out after all! Darn - this is that neighbor's hen that has been hanging out in my hedgerow, conversing with my birds through the fence. Normally she is on the far side of the chicken yard, in the hedgerow, but this time she was on my side of the fence, hanging around the gate like she was looking for the way "back in". She sure had me fooled. But now that she is in there, I can't get her out without letting everyone else out since she won't let me near her. So I guess for today at least, I am back up a bird. I'm not quite sure what to do at this point. On the one hand, if someone is looking for her, I want to return her to them but on the other hand, she has been consistently hanging out in my hedgerow, by herself, for quite awhile now. I suspect that her owners don't have a secure place to keep their birds and that any flock mates have been picked off by predators, and that is why she is alone and seeking out the company of others. So - perhaps she is better off staying with my flock? What would you do? The only way I can possibly get her is to pluck her off the roost at night and drop her back over the fence but if I do that at night when she can't see, she will really be vulnerable to being picked off, since she may not be able to return "home" in the dark. Egad - what a mistake to make, but in my defense, when I look back and forth between her and my Production Red, they are so alike, its really uncanny.

 

[ramblinH]

I have a Delaware...

SHAROL ~

Where did you get your Delaware? This was the 1st breed I took interest in but the hatchery our local feed store ordered from said they wouldn't be available this year. Wasn't sure I wanted to order this breed through a hatchery anyway? My goal is to have true Heritage birds bred to Standard...

 

[checoukan]

Trish~~ these are birds I got from Ivy, and I only have a pair. The hen lays a very pretty blue egg. She is a two year old, and the cock is 1. I just don't need 3 colors of ameraucana.

 

[sharol]

They (I have 2 of them, about 3 years old) came from My Pet Chicken, so they are hatchery quality. I know they are a bit hard to find. This is Angel. She has more black in her tail and around her neck than it appears in the picture. The second picture is my stepdaughter when Angel decided to join her in her car when she was trying to leave a few weeks ago. They are very calm and friendly.

On the down side, the other Del (Lucy -- from "Lucy gets chickens" Lucille Ball) is the one that laid the weird, half developed, soft shelled egg this week, and her eggs have been odd since her first molt. She also has a perpetually dirty bottom that I have to wash off periodically. Just not a healthy bird, I suspect.







If you look under my DSD's foot, you may see a little part of my Campine (Scout) who was also in the car at the time.

SHAROL ~

Where did you get your Delaware? This was the 1st breed I took interest in but the hatchery our local feed store ordered from said they wouldn't be available this year. Wasn't sure I wanted to order this breed through a hatchery anyway? My goal is to have true Heritage birds bred to Standard...

 

[chicken danz]

I posted this on another thread - but wanted to ask on this thread also ..........


What do I do?

My blue Sebastopol girl has decided to go broody....... I had one White Chinese egg in her nest just to keep her laying in the same spot(I just got the blue pair the first of March). Once I noticed she was not getting off of her nest I tucked another Chinese egg beside her - she rolled it right under her. I have mixed feelings about her going broody - 1. I would rather she continued giving me an egg every other day (I have no intentions of hatching White Chinese) 2. It might be nice to see what kind of a Momma she is for the future.

My problem is my blue boy. He stands at the fence and hollers for the White Chinese. He is in a very very large fenced in pen with an attached very large room (this room is where my girl is). I kept them separate from the other geese for obvious reasons ....... I wanted pure breed eggs.

Do I:

Leave the pair together and let him "cry" for the other geese (a pair of Chinese)?
Let my boy out and leave my girl in by herself?
Open the area up for free flow of all the poultry?

I had planned to keep them separated until laying season was finished. And I thought if my girl went broody the boy would be "by her side". Help!

Trudi you are in the same boat as I was more or less. If it were me and you don't have another goose with the Chinese I would let them run together. Maybe if Mr. Blue gets what he wants he'll give the other blue goose attention too. But if you have a male Chinese I'd keep them like they are.
My turkeys did the same thing. When I put the bourbon red hens in with the bourbon red Tom. She stood at the fence and still is, and yelled and yelled for my blue slate Tom. And of course the Blue Slate Tom is ignoring his girls to flirt with the red one. I decided to leave them separate in hopes the Tom's would just get to the point they would breed the right girls anyway.
Quote:

SHAROL ~

Where did you get your Delaware? This was the 1st breed I took interest in but the hatchery our local feed store ordered from said they wouldn't be available this year. Wasn't sure I wanted to order this breed through a hatchery anyway? My goal is to have true Heritage birds bred to Standard...

You aren't going to get true heritage birds to standard getting them through a hatchery. I'm sure you know that but just making sure.

 

[Hawkeye95]

I'm not going to remember much, and I didn't read through all the pages I missed. It's been crazy lately.

HeChicken-- funny that your silkie is no longer wanting to be broody. Typically, it doesn't matter where you move them, it won't break them. She must have decided she really liked that first nest. It's she's truely broody, she'll pick a nest and get with it.

Josie, cute babies! I would love to see a pic of your new pens! I hope your baby room gets all pulled together quickly! Our house is coming together, but it's going to be another week I think. We got everything moved back in downstairs after having all the new carpeting put in. We painted all the walls and ceilings down there and it looks so fresh and brand new down there! I will get to enjoy it for a while, at least! We also got rid of our huge projection screen tv that was down there. It was a beast-- 65 inches and just heavy. We are waffling on the idea of buying another tv or waiting to see if we move so we don't have to move another huge tv! ha!

Don't remember who mentioned the horse manure for mulch--- but I know HeChicken said that it sprouted. And that was the BIGGEST mistake I made years ago when we first moved out here! LOL I put dry manure-- it was my own horse manure that had been sitting out for nearly a year-- BUT-- I spread it all around my trees and into my garden and then I had milo, wheat, corn and who knows what all else sprouting up in that!! It was a mess and it was terrible. I'll never do that again. Now I make a big pile of the manure with the tractor and I don't use it for a good two years. After it's been sitting out there, then I use it around my trees. They love it-- they really perk up and grow, but don't ever use fresh manure!

I've no idea what all else was said, I'm sorry. I'm really, really drug down and tired. Just barely been keeping my eyes open the last few days. Been busy at church-- been there almost all day long for the last few days and then working on the house here-- and it's just been over whelming. We had guys here this morning helping us unload the POD and dragging all our stuff back down to the downstairs. Then we started to move stuff from up here. All the flooring is being ripped out and having new brought in. The bathrooms and kitchen are now tiled and look amazing. We even had them re-do the front entry way-- so there is new tile there too. It's just gorgeous. We've been painting walls and getting everything all nice and clean/fresh and looking great. It sure helps when you have a team of 4 guys working on the house all day long for weeks. I think we have one more week left and they will be all done. I'm sooooo ready, because my stove and fridge are in the living room right now! LOL When we get those back in, I think I'm going to start hunting down some granite for the counter tops. I'm not sure what colors I'm going for, but whatever is most popular and will appeal to the widest selection of buyers. I think I could sleep for a week after this is all done.

I have more chores to do. I only got the layers and the birds in the garage done. I need to run out and feed horses and replensih Mr Meat and the silkies in the barn. Sigh.