Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

Just wanted to introduce myself! Living out in Southwest Kansas. Currently have a "flock" of 46 chickens of various breeds.

Glad you found us and it sounds like chicken math already has you firmly in its grasp - bwahaha.

thanks hechicken and trish. My run will only be used for when im not home but most of the time my birds will be out free ranging. I hope we can get started on this very soon

. Im trying to figure cost and make a big enough run with out busting the bank.

Michelle

In that case I'll revise my size estimate. If they are only in it some of the time you can probably get away with it not being so long.

I used a metal plate at the joints because I started out thinking I was going to make mine 12 ft & then changed my mind & made it 16 ft instead, so I just added on another board to make it the right length. It worked fine to do that & seems sturdy enough. These things are very heavy duty with the livestock panels. I don't think anything could move them if they tried. You will be surprised how handy these things are to have around once you build it.

x2. I love my hoop coop - I will probably never add another dog run because the hoop coops are cheaper to build, don't collect rain on top, and are sturdier and more useful.

 

[Trish44]

I agree with you HEChicken that they sure are a lot more practical, I'm not sure by the time you buy all the supplies that they are cheaper, especially if you buy treated wood, but still they're a lot better.

 

[chicken danz]

Trying to catch up after a busy day.

Well if they are in a screened in porch-- what the heck is all the fuss about?!?! I thought under the deck was a fantastic solution for an in-town home. I thought it was genius here! LOL Although, I'm quickly running out of room! I can't believe she has a neighbor so upset about a few chickens. My gosh, people are mental. I'm so glad you are selling birds!! If you can just get down to your breeders, you'll be in great shape and you can have a lot more fun concentrating on the breeds you are interested in. Good luck on the sale for today or tomorrow-- you said you told them to wait a day, and I've lost track of time. I hope you're feeling better. I know you're run down and you need to listen to your body.
It's about a neighbor that needs a life lesson I think. There is a noise issue and something about chickens being something for profit. I offered my feed bill as true evidence there is no profit. I really upsets me cause those kids are just precious and they love their birds.

Yes, you men can be quite a bit of trouble! Big trouble makers you all are! LOL Eh, it's a good thing most of us wouldn't have it any other way. I'm so sorry about your grandson, that had to be a terrible time for him. I hope he is quickly mending!
X2
I have had a day from heck. That's the polite way to put it. And the day isn't over. This morning my car battery was dead and had to be jumped, and then one of our lovely children left the door to the fridge wide open all night long and it wasn't discovered until about 8:30am (the fridge isn't in the kitchen right now) and the motor had burned up trying to keep up with the door being left wide open. So now our fridge is shot and we need a NEW one!!! ARGH! And then from there, there are too many other little details I don't even want to get into, but a lot of run around this morning various places and I've HAD it. I just got home a bit ago and I sat down and I need to clean out the fridge and throw out all of our food and I'm just exhausted. But I opened the door and things are starting to stink in there, so I need to get at it asap. As soon as I post I guess I better get up and get out one of those huge industrial trash bags and get it all bagged up. Sigh. I'm sad about all the bacon and meat I had in there. Everything else I don't really care, but the meat is just so expensive-- especially when we're not buying grocery store meat.

Oh I am so sorry about your fridge. I had a freezer door get left open and it ruined a half of beef. Needless to say it was a major expense. It almost seems as if you are being tested these days. Have faith sister, it will all work out.

Why did you have to give up 28 birds ?
thanks.
mg

I needed to make room for new breeds and new layers.

Oh, man guess I had better chime in!!
Good news, Ive got baby rosecombs and wyandottes hatching!!

Now, I am having some serious computor problems. So If you do not see me on, its cause I can't get on. I have done just about everything I can. Says Im missing a file.

I have made sure Ive got all junk off, and got rid of any malware. Where in the "H" does that crap come from? Defraged, and something else in that category. Used system restore, then it comes up and says, something about a partition table, and no OS files on found on disk! Didn't know there were tables in the the machine down there, and I have no idea what a OS file is, and I think I need to just wipe the whole slate clean, and start again.

hop somewhere with the extension agent.

So supper for hubby is ready, I made it on here, so that takes a big load off my shoulders. But I still don't think this machine is right. If it goes to sleep, it won't wake up and run. It may be time for a new one, this machine is several years old. Put two kids thru high school, one thru college, and this is really the first time it has ever never failed to work. Running Vista hummm maybe I need to get rid of more stuff on here. I think that may be what happend, I may accidently removed a file I should not have.

Your hard drive has to be partitioned to a certain percentage. If it gets too full of data it can overload that percentage and cause it to quit functioning. It has to do with memory and virtual memory. I really knew a lot about that issue but I am drawing a blank on the exact terms. My guess along with the others is that you either have a lot of malware or that you have a virus. You get the malware when you visit sites. Do you have current virus protection?

I'm home on the puter today cuz its raining/sleeting today. The Amish crew JUST finished the reshingling yesterday before this started. Glad that much is done. They were supposed to work on the siding tomorrow, but if the weather isn't better we'll have to see. I'm just waiting for them to get back to the coop!! They did the frame a couple weeks ago, but haven't been able to make it back till yesterday when a crew of five stripped off the old shingles (two layers) and put up the new - all in less than one day's work. I was astonished.... Sara

That's great. I love progress!
Quote:

Been doing ALOT of reading on FF lately, and this is how I understand it:

You do not NEED UP/ACV to ferment feed...it actually doesn't even speed it up.

However, it does do alot of other things for your FF....so it is still a good idea to add it in from time to time. But adding TOO much can actually prevent LAB fermentation.

That's my Simple Summation of FF and ACV..
SO , Am I anywhere near right?

I dunno. I just know it works and my birds are healthy and shiny and love their feed.

those of you who have hoop houses. What are the dimension when complete? Orshlens has cattle panels $20.88 and i was trying to figure out how many i needed to make a run for my new coop. Need it big enough for 20 chickens

Thanks

Mine is 8 x 20. I built it big because I wanted lots of space.

Just wanted to introduce myself! Living out in Southwest Kansas. Currently have a "flock" of 46 chickens of various breeds.

Welcome. Join in and tell us about your chickens.
Hawkeye you are dead on right about why I got rid of 28 chickens.

I sold some more today. I'll catch up later. Gotta go right now!

 

[bbsnooks]

Just wanted to introduce myself! Living out in Southwest Kansas. Currently have a "flock" of 46 chickens of various breeds.

Quote:
mee too thanks He chicken for sending all that information.. its helping.. me too .!!

 

[bbsnooks]

Any One in Wichita area with a Silkie's... hen s or chick (s) this up comming weekend..

I have a Wedding (.. if all go's well ) in Derby and I thought i would ask about availability.

It was the only one i could not order with my chicks.. and I'm hoping to get 1-3 to add to my flock..

Thanks.. if you have any informaion.. pm is ok too.

Deb

 

[sarahswank]

I am over in Garden City.

And since your looking for a silkie chick, want me to pop over to Orcheslin's here in Garden City and let you know? They usually have atleast 2-3 silkies (straight run only a day or so old) come in every wendsday, but of course they sell out within hours. Hatchery quality of course. I personally picked up two myself here last week(they are a hard to resist breed). The chicks in the store are always in good condition.

Just let me know if you want me to atleast look or if that isnt the types your looking for.

It was the only one i could not order with my chicks.. and I'm hoping to get 1-3 to add to my flock..

Thanks.. if you have any informaion.. pm is ok too.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

YAY for meat in the freezer!! And your girls are going to thank you for it! How is everyone getting along now? Have things already calmed down now with the roosters gone? Hopefully the ladies will be out and enjoying themselves.


Yep... quite a few meat in the freezer now. The one Salmon hen is still inside the coop refusing to come out. But she did jump off the nest box and onto the roost yesterday when I went to feed them so that's a good sign. May be she will come around slowly. If she didn't get up and out of the nest box, I would think she might be broody; although there were not any eggs under her.

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

I have had a day from heck. That's the polite way to put it. And the day isn't over. This morning my car battery was dead and had to be jumped, and then one of our lovely children left the door to the fridge wide open all night long and it wasn't discovered until about 8:30am (the fridge isn't in the kitchen right now) and the motor had burned up trying to keep up with the door being left wide open. So now our fridge is shot and we need a NEW one!!! ARGH! And then from there, there are too many other little details I don't even want to get into, but a lot of run around this morning various places and I've HAD it. I just got home a bit ago and I sat down and I need to clean out the fridge and throw out all of our food and I'm just exhausted. But I opened the door and things are starting to stink in there, so I need to get at it asap. As soon as I post I guess I better get up and get out one of those huge industrial trash bags and get it all bagged up. Sigh. I'm sad about all the bacon and meat I had in there. Everything else I don't really care, but the meat is just so expensive-- especially when we're not buying grocery store meat.

Oh goodness! You lost all those meat from the freezer? That's just hard to swallow. So on top of remodelling the house, you now have to purchase a new fridge. Bummer... I did find that my fridge was ajar once and it was because I had something sticking out and when I closed the door, I didn't realize it wasn't shutting correctly. But I didn't lose anything from it.., the fridge was probably running all night long though.

Oh, man guess I had better chime in!!
Good news, Ive got baby rosecombs and wyandottes hatching!!

Now, I am having some serious computor problems. So If you do not see me on, its cause I can't get on. I have done just about everything I can. Says Im missing a file.

I have made sure Ive got all junk off, and got rid of any malware. Where in the "H" does that crap come from? Defraged, and something else in that category. Used system restore, then it comes up and says, something about a partition table, and no OS files on found on disk! Didn't know there were tables in the the machine down there, and I have no idea what a OS file is, and I think I need to just wipe the whole slate clean, and start again.

Now, I have to go and get ready to go to work, then at 4:30, have to go to a leader workshop somewhere with the extension agent.

So supper for hubby is ready, I made it on here, so that takes a big load off my shoulders. But I still don't think this machine is right. If it goes to sleep, it won't wake up and run. It may be time for a new one, this machine is several years old. Put two kids thru high school, one thru college, and this is really the first time it has ever never failed to work. Running Vista hummm maybe I need to get rid of more stuff on here. I think that may be what happend, I may accidently removed a file I should not have.

Ohhh... rosecomb babies... I have never seen one before so if you could post pics, that will be awesome!

Been doing ALOT of reading on FF lately, and this is how I understand it:

You do not NEED UP/ACV to ferment feed...it actually doesn't even speed it up.

However, it does do alot of other things for your FF....so it is still a good idea to add it in from time to time. But adding TOO much can actually prevent LAB fermentation.

That's my Simple Summation of FF and ACV..
SO , Am I anywhere near right?

I have heard Danz and a few others on here how their chickens are doing so well on FF that I am thinking of trying it as well. What you wrote above sounds about right but then again, I've never done it before so can't say for sure it is 100% correct. Danz or others may have to chime in on that.

Just wanted to introduce myself! Living out in Southwest Kansas. Currently have a "flock" of 46 chickens of various breeds.

Hi sarahswank, welcome!

Feel free to jump in. I sure did.

There are a whole bunch of us here and people on this board are very knowledgeable. We talk about anything and everything. I'm glad I joined so I can learn more about chicken keeping and what not.

*****************************************************************************************
Argh... woke up with a headache. I'm sure it is from my sinus and allergy season is definitely here. Worked 12+ hrs yesterday so by the time I got home, I was dead tired. I had just enough strength to get the feeds out but no more energy to get anything else done. Just have to remind myself that only 12 more days and Tax season will be over.

Looks pretty dark, wet, and cold outside.... AGAIN!

I need some nice warm weather. The baby chicks are almost 2 weeks old so I've to really get the 2nd horse stall converted to a chicken coop. I'll definitely get the much needed work done this weekend while the weather is supposedly spring-like. With all the hoop coop talk lately, I may need to look into that as well. I can put one on the East side of the horse barn (it is a 5-stall horse barn) and put the chickens in there. Do you guys' chickens live in the hoop coop all year long or they just get put in the hoop coop during the day? I need to look at some of the hoop coop pictures and see how to put a roost and nest boxes in there if the chickens are to stay there long term.

Gotta get back to work. It will be another long one day, I'm afraid.

Kuan

 

[chicken danz]

I am building an actual chicken house in my hoop coop and it will be used all year long. It is probably going overboard but that is the space I need for now. My next one will have a double house in the center with pens on each side.
I did sell another 6 birds yesterday for 4 H showing. I got a comment which I couldn't figure out if it made me feel good or made me panic! LOL! This girl has been here every year about this time to buy 4H birds. She said "Wow you really have downsized. There's tons less birds than I've ever seen here."
So I'm asking myself why on earth I am feeding so much more feed and not making much money!?!
I think the thing is more that I have eliminated all the mixed layers that free ranged all over the yard. Things are more confined to breeder groups and more houses now than before. I sure haven't reduced my work yet which is the main thing I really wanted to accomplish. It would be nice if I could just decide to raise one thing and leave it at that. I just don't think that could ever happen.
I did order a sweeter heater yesterday. I ordered a larger one. I am thinking about building a large wooden brooder box and putting it in my basement for now and using the sweeter heater on it. I don't like the idea of putting chicks down there because of the dust that will get in the heat system and the fact that I had mold form when I had birds down there before. Maybe I can put my dehumidifier down there to make sure it stays healthy. I really need another brooder house but I don't dare bring that up or I'll be single for sure!!!

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Wow there was a lot of posts while I have been away lol. I am not going to be able to get thru them. I hope everyone had a great easter. Mine was a full day as usual and lots of yummy food and colorful eggs.
I have been busy hatching and selling and trying to spend more time with my family. I am so happy that the weather is starting to warm. The sunshine just makes you feel good and it does a number for the animals too.

 

[HEChicken]

Do you guys' chickens live in the hoop coop all year long or they just get put in the hoop coop during the day? I need to look at some of the hoop coop pictures and see how to put a roost and nest boxes in there if the chickens are to stay there long term.

Mstng67 who is on here built a hoop coop that is in use year-round. Trish44 also uses hers year round, and Danz will too. I built mine primarily as a breeder coop. My plan is to have two but so far I've only built the one. I'm hoping to get started on the next one next week. My original plan was to put the breeding pair of turkeys in one and the 6 ducks in the other. My turkeys did go in the coop for a week when I was out of town as I wanted to ensure their safety. My hen goes into the coop every night to roost but the tom jumps up on the fence of the chicken yard to roost there and every night I have to go and make him get down and go in the coop. With being out of town, I didn't want to come home and find something got him while he slept on the fence, so I locked them both in the hoop coop while I was gone. I let them out when I got back. Meanwhile, I've had several hens go broody so right now the hoop coop is in use as a broody pen. That is a lot of space for a hen to sit under a dog house, on a nest! But, once her chicks hatch, it will be nice they have a place to be safe until they are ready to be let out with the rest of the flock. But that is why I need to get busy building the next hoop coop. I still haven't segregated the ducks and I'm concerned they have a hidden nest somewhere they are laying in, as I don't think I'm getting as many eggs as I should - even with one of them being broody right now. I'd love to get them into a hoop coop where they have no choice but to lay in there and then I can finally figure out how many of them are laying.

I did order a sweeter heater yesterday. I ordered a larger one. I am thinking about building a large wooden brooder box and putting it in my basement for now and using the sweeter heater on it. I don't like the idea of putting chicks down there because of the dust that will get in the heat system and the fact that I had mold form when I had birds down there before. Maybe I can put my dehumidifier down there to make sure it stays healthy. I really need another brooder house but I don't dare bring that up or I'll be single for sure!!!

I'll be interested to hear how you like the Sweeter heater. I was going to suggest a dehumidifier in the basement but then kept reading and saw that you already had that thought yourself.

That is interesting that the 4H girl noticed you have fewer birds. Do you track your expenditures? I have an Excel Spreadsheet that is awesome (downloaded it - I didn't create it) at tracking everything. You can enter how many birds you have and each day update it with how many eggs you collect. You also add in every time you buy feed, entering both the number of pounds and how much it cost. There is a tab for each month of the year and a summary tab that collates all the data. It tells you your egg laying % - i.e. if you have 20 hens and get 15 eggs, your rate is 75% but it adds it up over the course of each month, and also gives you a yearly average so at the end of the year you can see what the overall was. It also tells you how many pounds of feed you use per egg. While raising chicks, that number can seem high because you have to go through quite a few pounds of feed for the 5 months it takes to grow them out, without getting a single egg. By the time you get that first egg, you might have used 20lb of feed per egg, but it goes down over time as that hen lays 4-5 eggs a week. The spreadsheet also has places to enter other supplies you might purchase, flock purchases, sales of eggs or live birds or hatching eggs, and it gives you a bottom line, of how much money you are making losing.

I've been using the spreadsheet since the get-go, and the first year I actually came out with a monthly income of $2.97. The only thing that doesn't factor in is the eggs we ate, so I suppose it would be fair to say I had a monthly income of $2.97 PLUS free eggs. After that, I did allow it to become a hobby vs. being adamant that the birds pay for themselves, and it has been a monthly loss ever since. I am about to take delivery of a shipment of chicks next week, so the loss will only increase over the next few months. Oh - and I didn't add in the cost of building the coop or my recent Rcom incubator purchase because if I did, it would just be depressing. I justify that by saying that in the event we move, the coop can stay and be used as an outbuilding by the next owner so it increases the value of our property just by being built, and the incubator was a gift because I used my Christmas money to purchase it. Those are my stories and I'm sticking to them