Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

Awww Medawinks, I'm so sorry - that is heart-breaking. I am too far from you for it to be practical for me to take any but I know there are several in your area, and hopefully you will be able to find good homes for all of them.

Well, it is cold and windy out there today. I'm glad there is more chance of rain the next few days, and that I took advantage of yesterday's lovely weather to spend almost all day outside working on chores. I asked DS to help me pound posts to put a fence around the future vegie garden. I figured while the ground was soft was a good time to get that done, and with the rabbits and deer we see here, plus our dogs and poultry, a fence will be a necessity. My thought was to spend 30 minutes pounding a dozen posts around the perimeter and we'd be done. Oh, how short-sighted I was. We pounded a couple of posts and were then joined by engineer DH, who started all kinds of fancy calculations using rope to triangulate etc., all in an effort to get it completely square. I kept pointing out it was just a chicken wire fence to keep animals OUT of the garden - it does NOT have to be perfect. He agreed but said it wouldn't look good unless it was square. Finally we got to pound another post. I turned to him and said "That's great Dear. Now just think - in another 30 minutes we might have another post pounded".

He was not amused and said I didn't have to stay if I didn't want to, and returned to the rope and measuring tape and what-not. Let's just say, by the end of the day - the DAY!!! - we had a dozen posts pounded around the garden. But they are pounded in a perfectly square rectangle. (And the irony is the first year it actually won't LOOK square because it turns out our neighbor did not till a perfectly square garden bed. Oh, the shame. But NEXT year, when we re-till, it will apparently be easier for him to till a perfect rectangle due to the outlines of the fence).

My plan is to put a hog panel at each end of the garden, so that in the future years when it is time to re-till, it will only take a few minutes to remove both hog panels, and then the tractor can easily get in and out. The rest of the fence will be chicken wire that is semi permanent. We didn't get any of the actual fencing put up but now that the posts are in, it shouldn't take long to get that finished up. Well, at least it won't take long if I can sneak out there with DS and do it the fast, easy way that doesn't involve perfection

 

[Hawkeye95]

I need to get rid of most of my birds:-(. While the city allows them, my neighborhood is enforcing a bylaw in my home owners association. Ours are "caged" pet birds, but they call them live stock.... I am just sick....

So.... I would prefer they go to homes where they will be pets. They all I've to be held and are very social. I am in the Topeka, Lawrence area. Please PM me if you would like any of the following. I would prefer they go in pairs if possible.

2 black copper Marans- lay beautiful dark eggs
3 EE Greenish blue eggs, Ginny, ReeRo, Deb
1 Buff Orpington- Molly
1 White Rock- Diva
1 Splash Rock with Curly toes
1 Salmon Favarolle- Molly

I am going to really fight to try to keep my Silkies.... But I also have three of them- white, splash and red. My daughter adores them....

I'm so sorry!! I hope you can keep your silkies, they are so quiet, I can't imagine anyone knowing about them. You could bring them into the house if you have an inspection. Do you have a back deck/porch?? I forget her BYC name on here, but she lives in Wichita and she has a back porch and has her birds under the deck fenced in. You could use privacy lattice to cover up the fencing-- it is different than regular lattice. I bought "privacy" lattice last year to cover up the fencing on the sunny side under my deck. Anyway, my deck is 6 feet in the air, but the deck I'm speaking of is only about 2.5 feet off the ground-- enough she can crawl under there, but you can't stand up under it. So she has her birds under there, and if you didn't know they were there, you wouldn't be tipped off right away. She's in an area that allows them and was creating that space for cover... but it would also work to hide them.



So I built a pen under my deck as well... and while mine is 6 ft tall and plenty of room to walk under it-- you could do the same for one that is shorter to the ground, too. You just might not be able to "walk" in it... but could crawl into it?? And since I built this pen-- I have privacy lattice up around the front side of it to cut the sun since it gets too hot. I'm going to (or I was..) grow honeysuckle on the lattice to create more of a sun block. That would also help hide-- which isn't my intention, but honeysuckle grows very fast and THICK and dense. It would be great at hiding a pen.

Was the bylaw in place when you signed the HOA contract? I wouldn't think they could enforce it if not?

X2 I would think you have grandfathered in if the bylaw was not on the HOA when you bought the house. If they instated the law after you bought the house, you have room to argue.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Awww Medawinks, I'm so sorry - that is heart-breaking. I am too far from you for it to be practical for me to take any but I know there are several in your area, and hopefully you will be able to find good homes for all of them.

Well, it is cold and windy out there today. I'm glad there is more chance of rain the next few days, and that I took advantage of yesterday's lovely weather to spend almost all day outside working on chores. I asked DS to help me pound posts to put a fence around the future vegie garden. I figured while the ground was soft was a good time to get that done, and with the rabbits and deer we see here, plus our dogs and poultry, a fence will be a necessity. My thought was to spend 30 minutes pounding a dozen posts around the perimeter and we'd be done. Oh, how short-sighted I was. We pounded a couple of posts and were then joined by engineer DH, who started all kinds of fancy calculations using rope to triangulate etc., all in an effort to get it completely square. I kept pointing out it was just a chicken wire fence to keep animals OUT of the garden - it does NOT have to be perfect. He agreed but said it wouldn't look good unless it was square. Finally we got to pound another post. I turned to him and said "That's great Dear. Now just think - in another 30 minutes we might have another post pounded".

He was not amused and said I didn't have to stay if I didn't want to, and returned to the rope and measuring tape and what-not. Let's just say, by the end of the day - the DAY!!! - we had a dozen posts pounded around the garden. But they are pounded in a perfectly square rectangle. (And the irony is the first year it actually won't LOOK square because it turns out our neighbor did not till a perfectly square garden bed. Oh, the shame. But NEXT year, when we re-till, it will apparently be easier for him to till a perfect rectangle due to the outlines of the fence).

My plan is to put a hog panel at each end of the garden, so that in the future years when it is time to re-till, it will only take a few minutes to remove both hog panels, and then the tractor can easily get in and out. The rest of the fence will be chicken wire that is semi permanent. We didn't get any of the actual fencing put up but now that the posts are in, it shouldn't take long to get that finished up. Well, at least it won't take long if I can sneak out there with DS and do it the fast, easy way that doesn't involve perfection

OMG... I feel your pain!!! Our DH's are soooooo much alike!!! That would be my day. Glad you finally got it done, even though it took more time than you thought. This is why I get things done when my DH is gone! By the time he gets back, I've already painted a room, or built something or whatever it is I want done. And I don't tell him I'm going to do it prior to me doing it-- OR he'll argue with me that I need to wait until he can help... which who knows when that wil be! Which is why I built my chicken coop myself-- if I'd waited on him, it would have never happened. And I'm not sloppy or bad at anything, but I can "make do" and keep on going. Where as he will need to think and stop work if something goes wrong. Sigh.

 

[HEChicken]

Wow, I hit "reply" after Medawink's post and while I was writing there were a bunch of new posts!

Hawkeye, how are things going with the workmen at your house? I hope they are almost done so your life can get a little less crazy. Last night, at the end of day 3 of Miss Silkie refusing to brood in the hoop coop, I took pity on her and let her out. The Aloha hen is also in the hoop coop but isn't much company because she IS brooding, so I'm sure Miss Silkie was getting lonely. She of course bee-lined back to the main coop to resume being broody on the duck nest. I knew that would happen! So I'm not sure what to do with her now - she is so determined to raise ducklings instead of chicks! As for the Production Hen, she solved the problem for me by going home that night. I guess she must have flown/climbed over the chicken yard fence so its kind of funny she was able to do that when she knew it was time to return home at night, but none of my birds has ever figured out they can do it!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Wow, I hit "reply" after Medawink's post and while I was writing there were a bunch of new posts!

Hawkeye, how are things going with the workmen at your house? I hope they are almost done so your life can get a little less crazy. Last night, at the end of day 3 of Miss Silkie refusing to brood in the hoop coop, I took pity on her and let her out. The Aloha hen is also in the hoop coop but isn't much company because she IS brooding, so I'm sure Miss Silkie was getting lonely. She of course bee-lined back to the main coop to resume being broody on the duck nest. I knew that would happen! So I'm not sure what to do with her now - she is so determined to raise ducklings instead of chicks! As for the Production Hen, she solved the problem for me by going home that night. I guess she must have flown/climbed over the chicken yard fence so its kind of funny she was able to do that when she knew it was time to return home at night, but none of my birds has ever figured out they can do it!

Well, I thought the guys were supposed to come this morning, so I called my Dh to see why they weren't here. My DH said that the wood floors have not come in yet and the last of the tile hasn't come in yet either! So the laundry room and the hall bath arent finished yet. And I don't think the materials come in until Wednesday-- but no idea on what time. So they might not be back until Thursday of this week! Ack!! I hate to draw this out any longer. On the up side, since my stove and fridge have been pulled out and in my living room, I need to paint the kitchen and behind the appliances while I can before they get back and put it all back. There are no doors on the rooms and the base board needs to be put back on when they get the floors on. I know it's going to look great, but I'm OVER this nonsense! I'm tired of living in a mess. We keep having people ask us if we are moving because there is a POD in our driveway. And it's just there so we can circulate out the furniture so they can work in rooms, remove floors, etc... without having to deal with our stuff. I am looking at all of our boxes and I just want to throw away half of it. I see stuff we don't need, but I need to ask my DH if we can donate it before I go packing it up into my car. I'm ready to really minimize the "stuff" we have around here.

How funny that the hen fly right out and went home and yours have never done that! I'm glad they haven't! That would be a real pain if you suddenly had chickens everywhere. But your birds know they are home and belong there. The neighbors hen knew she didn't belong, so that is just really interesting! Glad the problem resolved itself.

 

[Trish44]

Awww Medawinks, I'm so sorry - that is heart-breaking. I am too far from you for it to be practical for me to take any but I know there are several in your area, and hopefully you will be able to find good homes for all of them.

Well, it is cold and windy out there today. I'm glad there is more chance of rain the next few days, and that I took advantage of yesterday's lovely weather to spend almost all day outside working on chores. I asked DS to help me pound posts to put a fence around the future vegie garden. I figured while the ground was soft was a good time to get that done, and with the rabbits and deer we see here, plus our dogs and poultry, a fence will be a necessity. My thought was to spend 30 minutes pounding a dozen posts around the perimeter and we'd be done. Oh, how short-sighted I was. We pounded a couple of posts and were then joined by engineer DH, who started all kinds of fancy calculations using rope to triangulate etc., all in an effort to get it completely square. I kept pointing out it was just a chicken wire fence to keep animals OUT of the garden - it does NOT have to be perfect. He agreed but said it wouldn't look good unless it was square. Finally we got to pound another post. I turned to him and said "That's great Dear. Now just think - in another 30 minutes we might have another post pounded".

He was not amused and said I didn't have to stay if I didn't want to, and returned to the rope and measuring tape and what-not. Let's just say, by the end of the day - the DAY!!! - we had a dozen posts pounded around the garden. But they are pounded in a perfectly square rectangle. (And the irony is the first year it actually won't LOOK square because it turns out our neighbor did not till a perfectly square garden bed. Oh, the shame. But NEXT year, when we re-till, it will apparently be easier for him to till a perfect rectangle due to the outlines of the fence).

My plan is to put a hog panel at each end of the garden, so that in the future years when it is time to re-till, it will only take a few minutes to remove both hog panels, and then the tractor can easily get in and out. The rest of the fence will be chicken wire that is semi permanent. We didn't get any of the actual fencing put up but now that the posts are in, it shouldn't take long to get that finished up. Well, at least it won't take long if I can sneak out there with DS and do it the fast, easy way that doesn't involve perfection

HEChicken I just had to laugh to myself when I read your post about your DH & the measuring tape & all, that is my DH also. I'm so glad I got my goat pen done without him, he would have drawn it out all day too & us "girls" had it done in two hours. I'm sorry but men just have such linear minds & things have to be so precise for them when the job doesn't always require such precision. That sounds like a great idea with the hog panels being removable to get the tractor in there. If it's newly tilled ground you will have weeds coming up this year probably that you will have to deal with, so I hope you have easy access. We have a little tiny tiller that you can use inbetween rows, it's pretty handy. We can do the whole garden with it since we have tilled it up before. I'm debating on what I'm going to do this year. My garden just went to pot & I haven't used that space for a couple years. I had knee surgery & couldn't get up the hill that year & it got overgrown there & it's just a mess. I'm debating on what to do. My friend has just very small raised beds she gardens in, she doesn't even have to till them. I would love to do that she has. They're all fenced around & you can just reach in & do what you need to do in there. Of course she doesn't have chickens either.

Hawkeye, my granddaughter is seeing a Pediatric Cardiologist in Wichita. He is monitoring her with this monitor she has & lifewatch calls her mother when there is a problem. He had told them he wanted to have the monitor on for another two more weeks to collect data. According to the Dr. she doesn't have a valve problem at all, the valves are fine. From what he is describing & what Amber & I have read it sounds like she may have Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome. I know, that's a mouth full, & if it's that they probably will have to go in with a catheter & do an ablation procedure to get rid of extra electrical pathways. This is an electrical conductivity problem, it's kind of complicated. She has tachycardia & an irregular heartbeat. Her heart rate gets really high at times even when she is at rest. My guess is that this Dr. wants to make sure he has enough data to make a decision from. I'm sure he will take action if he feels the situation warrants it. It's just hard for everyone to wait & it's nerve wracking for sure. She is a child who wants to run & play & do all the things kids do & dealing with all of this is hard for her.

Medawinks, I agree with the others, I don't see how the HOA can change your agreement if you had something in writing when you moved there. I would be fighting that if it were me.

It's cold & raining here today. I went out this morning to let birds out & wow that wind was chilly, brrrr! We have a couple of days in the 40s again & it's supposed to rain for the next 3 days. I think the drought may be over, I hope so anyway. We don't need all the rain at once though, it would be nice if it could be spread out some. The ground hadn't completely dried out here from the last two rains we had.

Hawkeye, I hope you get your work done soon on your house so you can get things put back in, that's hard when you have construction to have to deal with. It will be nice I'm sure when you get it all done though.

My little Mini Rex rabbits are having babies. I have 3 litters so far & am still waiting on one more. My little Netherland Dwarf rabbit had her first litter of babies & didn't know what to do with them so they died. That was heartbreaking to see 3 perfect little rabbits die because their mom didn't feed them or keep them warm. I hope she does better the next time. The rabbit breeders I know have told me that's pretty common for a first litter & she will probably do fine the next time. I hope so because otherwise I will have to sell those for pets & not breeders.

 

[HEChicken]

If it's newly tilled ground you will have weeds coming up this year probably that you will have to deal with, so I hope you have easy access.

Yeah, that is my fear too. I wish now that after it was tilled, I had raked it over and got out all the clumps at that time. Now that I've let it sit, they're trying to take root and grow. In the past 3 days I've spent hours out there digging through it, pulling out any clump I can find. Its amazing sometimes I will see a single blade of grass growing, but when I start digging down to its root, I find a huge clump of shoots just waiting to break through to the open air themselves. It is very satisfying to get rid of those! I will keep at it while the ground is soft from the rain and get as many as I can but I know there will be some I miss. I figure every year we will re-till and over time, I will eventually get rid of them all - if I keep at it.

I haven't commented much because I have no experience with heart issues but just wanted to chime in and say how sorry I am your GD is dealing with this and I hope the Dr. is able to make a determination soon, and there is a relatively simple "fix" to the problem.

 

[chicken danz]

As promised, here are my 2 Salmon Faverolle hens. The one in the nest box is being "tortured" by the roosters. She is absolutely afraid to even get out of the nest box. When I walked into the coop, she literally hid her head, burrowed down to the hays. You can see how her back feathers are almost gone. Poor hen. The other one is still out and about but she, too, is being chased around hard. With that said, we do have a few roosters which DH is ready to process and he promised me he would do so today. Hopefully it will help. I'm sure 4 out of the 7 I hatched in Noverber are roosters so that added to the toll. I have put 4 chicken saddles/aprons on the hens and she is one of them.
I have some girls that look just like that. I think they go broody just so they can get away from the roosters for awhile!

My salmon rooster isn't the culprit. He spends most of his time sitting by the feed barrel.
I worked my own taxes yesterday but quit when I realized I needed to dig out some more information.
Originally Posted by HEChicken

Awww Medawinks, I'm so sorry - that is heart-breaking. I am too far from you for it to be practical for me to take any but I know there are several in your area, and hopefully you will be able to find good homes for all of them.

Well, it is cold and windy out there today. I'm glad there is more chance of rain the next few days, and that I took advantage of yesterday's lovely weather to spend almost all day outside working on chores. I asked DS to help me pound posts to put a fence around the future vegie garden. I figured while the ground was soft was a good time to get that done, and with the rabbits and deer we see here, plus our dogs and poultry, a fence will be a necessity. My thought was to spend 30 minutes pounding a dozen posts around the perimeter and we'd be done. Oh, how short-sighted I was. We pounded a couple of posts and were then joined by engineer DH, who started all kinds of fancy calculations using rope to triangulate etc., all in an effort to get it completely square. I kept pointing out it was just a chicken wire fence to keep animals OUT of the garden - it does NOT have to be perfect. He agreed but said it wouldn't look good unless it was square. Finally we got to pound another post. I turned to him and said "That's great Dear. Now just think - in another 30 minutes we might have another post pounded".

He was not amused and said I didn't have to stay if I didn't want to, and returned to the rope and measuring tape and what-not. Let's just say, by the end of the day - the DAY!!! - we had a dozen posts pounded around the garden. But they are pounded in a perfectly square rectangle. (And the irony is the first year it actually won't LOOK square because it turns out our neighbor did not till a perfectly square garden bed. Oh, the shame. But NEXT year, when we re-till, it will apparently be easier for him to till a perfect rectangle due to the outlines of the fence).

My plan is to put a hog panel at each end of the garden, so that in the future years when it is time to re-till, it will only take a few minutes to remove both hog panels, and then the tractor can easily get in and out. The rest of the fence will be chicken wire that is semi permanent. We didn't get any of the actual fencing put up but now that the posts are in, it shouldn't take long to get that finished up. Well, at least it won't take long if I can sneak out there with DS and do it the fast, easy way that doesn't involve perfection

I laughed out loud when I read this!!! I can so relate. That is what happens to 90% of my projects. I try not to work on them at all when DH is here or I know he'll jump in and try to do things different. I have seen the exact thing from him. Measuring at an angle from corner to corner and getting out the level and making sure the ground is perfect (It never is which always causes another delay.) At least you got posts in. My DH would still be out there staring at it making sure it was perfect.
Quote:

I need to get rid of most of my birds:-(. While the city allows them, my neighborhood is enforcing a bylaw in my home owners association. Ours are "caged" pet birds, but they call them live stock.... I am just sick....

So.... I would prefer they go to homes where they will be pets. They all I've to be held and are very social. I am in the Topeka, Lawrence area. Please PM me if you would like any of the following. I would prefer they go in pairs if possible.

2 black copper Marans- lay beautiful dark eggs
3 EE Greenish blue eggs, Ginny, ReeRo, Deb
1 Buff Orpington- Molly
1 White Rock- Diva
1 Splash Rock with Curly toes
1 Salmon Favarolle- Molly

I am going to really fight to try to keep my Silkies.... But I also have three of them- white, splash and red. My daughter adores them....

Medawinks I hope the kids are doing well with this. It really breaks my heart. Maybe some day you'll get that country home and can have your chickens and your Great Pyrenees too. Makes me really sad!!

I'm so sorry!! I hope you can keep your silkies, they are so quiet, I can't imagine anyone knowing about them. You could bring them into the house if you have an inspection. Do you have a back deck/porch?? I forget her BYC name on here, but she lives in Wichita and she has a back porch and has her birds under the deck fenced in. You could use privacy lattice to cover up the fencing-- it is different than regular lattice. I bought "privacy" lattice last year to cover up the fencing on the sunny side under my deck. Anyway, my deck is 6 feet in the air, but the deck I'm speaking of is only about 2.5 feet off the ground-- enough she can crawl under there, but you can't stand up under it. So she has her birds under there, and if you didn't know they were there, you wouldn't be tipped off right away. She's in an area that allows them and was creating that space for cover... but it would also work to hide them.

.
So I built a pen under my deck as well... and while mine is 6 ft tall and plenty of room to walk under it-- you could do the same for one that is shorter to the ground, too. You just might not be able to "walk" in it... but could crawl into it?? And since I built this pen-- I have privacy lattice up around the front side of it to cut the sun since it gets too hot. I'm going to (or I was..) grow honeysuckle on the lattice to create more of a sun block. That would also help hide-- which isn't my intention, but honeysuckle grows very fast and THICK and dense. It would be great at hiding a pen.



X2 I would think you have grandfathered in if the bylaw was not on the HOA when you bought the house. If they instated the law after you bought the house, you have room to argue.

Medawinks already has her birds in a screened in porch to keep her neighbor from complaining! I think I'd be having some really negative thoughts about that neighbor. It is hurting those kids.

Hawkeye you'll be back in soon and then chaos can return to normal chaos. I just hope you get to stay!

Well on the news front here, I am down about 28 birds as of today. I made some really good deals and the guy took a lot of what I have. I am going to be really low on eggs for awhile though. I sold all my cuckoo marans, dominiques, an EE, a sussex, all my polish, and a Swedish Flower hen roo. Maybe the feed bill will go down just a little. I need to do some more pen dividing and moving and get some girls moved out of the ghetto trailer.
There were a couple of birds I was really attached to and it made me sad to let them go. Like my silver laced polish named Pretty. I have a few eggs in the bator from them but I have no idea if they are fertile or not. I really don't need them.
I only have some nice roosters to sell and a handful of mixed hens that need to go now.
I need to get some separate pens for my brahmas and my cochins then I could move my red stars in one hen house and the white rocks and new Hamp rooster for making new red stars in the other hen house. I guess I'd better get busy building more stuff.
It was really cold out there today. I've been coughing a lot since I spilled all that oxine yesterday. I think I must have breathed in a bunch of it. The cold air really got me wheezing bad.
I did some sewing while I was waiting for the guy to get here. I need to get back to that and get this mess finished. I have spent more time ripping out than actually sewing. Now I know why I quit sewing all the time! It must be my adult ADD that I can't remember to do things right!

 

[michelleml]

medawinks I sent you a pm

My 4 wk old bo chicks are growing like crazy they are so fun to watch. The younger bantam chicks are doing good getting wing feathers. One in that bunch is very tiny I have no idea what it is.
My two broody hens are in a small coop I found for them and are setting on three eggs each those should be hatching in a week. I also have 6 eggs in incubator due to hatch same as time. I think Dh is going to have to make another brooder

Its cold and windy here I've been loving the weather the past few days

 

[chicken danz]

X2 Trish. I would be so worried if I had a granddaughter with those issues. I hope it is something they can fix and she can lead a normal life soon.