Consolidated Kansas

[sarajoy]

>DH got her home. She was shot once in the side and once in the head. I hurt but I'm very angry!!!>

Oh Chicken Danz - this is so so hard to hear... Your heart must be broken, not to mention the effect on your homestead, your chickens, your pocketbook......

I have been worried about Danny, cuz had some dog trouble with a neighbor. One of their dogs bit my son, and things got pretty uncomfortable between us for awhile as a result. But Danny is good about staying on our property, thankfully - at least so far.
So they'd have to come onto our land to do anything. But on the other side a neighbor is selling their place, and for a time folks moved in there who were out doing target practice at midnight.... Their contract/funding fell through and they had to move on thankfully, but it is one of the reasons we're moving. Most of all, cuz my adult special needs son with PTSD began to revert to worst of his panic and had a hard time going outside on this land he loves - but also my fear for my dogs. Despite the fact that
they have moved on, the neighbors are just too close here. Other reasons too - don't want to stay in the trailer, and the cost of materials made it cheaper to buy an existing older place than to build here as we had planned. but the final straw was the gun happy neighbors.

Wonder if any of the folks you have sold to had a breeding pair, and might sell you one of the new generation girls?
Just a thought... Nothing will make up for your present loss, though..... Sara

 

[chicken danz]

Josie I understand how sex links are produced. Doing my own but I guess the way I was reading their posts it sounded like he had produced a sex link on purpose.There would be no need for him to produce sex link birds. He isn't trying to produce egg layers. And barred rocks are sexable at hatch anyway.
I am sure Frank would stand behind his birds. I honestly didn't think $5 a chick was over priced by any means especially considering the comparison to hatchery birds and the fact they were a couple weeks old when they were purchased.
DH is contacting someone who works for the sheriff's office to talk about the situation with Cloud. It's someone he knows.
I would love to get a conviction. I have confirmed she was shot on my friends property so this person was outside the law for sure. Whether our worthless little sheriff's office will pursue it or not I don't know. I need to find out so I can bury her.
My big fear is that Fluff may get it in his head that he needs to go back and find Cloud. They were very attached. I am going to put back some of the money from her pups so when I need to I can buy a new girl. Candace H has Cloud's sister that she bought from me. So at some point I might be able to buy one of her pups. Right now I am just worried about something happening to Marshmallow and Fluff. All of the neighbors know my dogs except this one young gay jerk whom I suspect, who just happens to be having a love affair with the only guy who ever has threatened to kill one of my dogs. I just know that one or both of these guys is behind this. My first impulse is to go burn his house down.

But I will let the law do what they will.

 

[123casper]

my god I hope your wrong that is a rough deal last year I had to kill my dog Bo because he killed 3 of our young kids that had just been born a week before. I still cry about that to this day, I hope your dog is ok and may have been just shot at! If so she is probably hiding some were. Note the reason Bo had to be put down and note taken to the shelter is because we were the 3rd owners to take him from the shelter and if he would have went back it was a death sentence for him anyway I figured better me than some stranger

 

[123casper]

Welcome close to parsons here! We have goats pigs chickens and cattle

 

[123casper]

It is a felony charge to kill someone's pet on there property ! I would have to police look into it

 

[ChooksChick]

OKay, so now I'm upset about my barred rocks. I went over to the Good Shephard thread where everyone is talking about their Frank birds and posted pictures of the two birds I'm not happy with-- the one with the really crappy barring and the one with the gold in the neck.


I got this response:

The ones with gold are not pure bred. The are likely sex links.
The ones with "blurry" barring are also not pure breds.

PS - all of your pictures are males.

And this one:
Someone correct me if I am wrong, I didn't make notes when my GSBRs were growing, but I believe at 6 weeks of age the GSBRs are not feathered out that completely. The good ones take forever to feather in. I concur with Kathyinmo that something must be mixed in those birds.

So now what??? Apparently, Frank didn't give me pure bred Barred Rocks!!?! They said these look nothing like the heritage rocks that they should and I'm guessing that these guys are about 6 weeks old and they said they should not be that well feathered in! So there goes all of my hopes for breeding a nice group of barred rocks! ARGH!!! Totally bummed.

I agree that that looks like a mix...and since tried to hatch some rocks from his fertile eggs sold in Wichita area stores, I'll tell you that the chicks looked like that...mixes. Probably unintentional, and I wouldn't be surprised if he let you get replacements. He should hear that this occurred, as I'm sure it was unintentional.

My heart is broken. DH looked for two hours and found Cloud's body. He is out picking her up right now. She is too heavy to lift and carry so he came home to get a sled.
Do you know how you just know something? I hear gun shots all the time out here and never think about them. But somehow I just knew when I heard those something had happened to one of my dogs. The word is out and if I find out who did this they will have hell to pay. She was found on my friend's property so no one was just in shooting her.
I am just very very sad and feel ill. Later the anger will set in.
That is the end of my dogs. I can't breed any more because she was the one I saved for that purpose. Had this happened and I'd known a couple hours earlier the last pup wouldn't have left. I would refunded her money and kept the dog.
How can anyone be so heartless. I am sorry but I just can't comment on other posts right now.

Dear God, I'm sooooooo very sorry. Praying for you all, and praying for the schmuck who did it, because I'm sure you're wrath is going to be hard to handle. Mine would be, too. He has singed his soul by doing this, and needs to get a bit of Karma.

I have lurked for many months and am now saying Hello! I live in south eastern Kansas and have several chickens and other poultry and hogs. I share my life with 2 great children and a wonderful husband. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law lives with us. I have many cats and 3 great pyrenees dogs.

Hi to you and all of the new folks!!

Quote:
That sounds like what they found under our roof...nothing. Not even decking! 3 layers of asphalt shingles on 3 layers of cedar shingles on 1x4" strips 3" apart. Breezy much?

I wouldn't be surprised for a second if there wasn't a gaping lack of anything in our walls, too...the house is 100 years old.




Still reeling for you, Verna. I'm sooooooo sorry.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Danz, I'm just so heartbroken over Cloud. People can be unbelievably cruel. I hope they catch that guy.

Hey guys. I finally caught up on my reading, because I have the stomach flu!.

Yesterday I couldn't even do that much. Now, I'm missing out on all kinds of fun with the family. We had stuff planned all day and I'm home on the couch and they are out "living large"! Heavy sigh.

Hawkeye, I won't be able to get a good look at my BR's today, but I think I would have noticed if there was any gold leakage on them. I need to check again, but I will be interested to find out what he recommends doing about it. You will need to take that bird back, so let's round up however many people want to go up and I'll drive the big van so we'll have plenty of room for people and cages. Of course, you'll have to wait till I get over this flu. If you can't personally make the trip, I could take the bird back for you. (I have a friend who would like to go see his place and this would be as good an excuse as any.)

That's a bunch of negative Nellies over on that site and you are freaking out (understandable) but take a breath and let's not let this become another stressor for you. It's going to be okay, really it is. Frank will make this right for you.

I think your expectations for a breeder chick may have been a little high. If you are truly wanting to breed for top quality, it is best to have the breeder handpick a trio for you, rather than take a chance on chicks. I seriously considered this but I wanted to raise my own from chicks so that they would be tamer.

Keep in mind that the Standard of Perfection bird does not actually exist. A good breeder is one who is able to produce a higher percentage of "good birds" than the norm, not that all of them pop out at that high standard. When you purchase chicks you are taking a risk, thus the lower cost. The breeder pen birds are those that were hand picked as "good enough" to possibly put out more high quality birds for him. Remember, even if you take a group of show quality birds, mate them, grow out the chicks, chances are in that batch of chicks you are going to end up with lots of inferior quality. That's because you must continue to cull, cull, cull just to maintain your current level of quality. Otherwise, you are letting your flock degenerate.

You have obviously gotten a sex-linked bird in what was purported to be pure bred and that is hugely disappointing, but it's not inconceivable that one of those New Hamp roos on a mission got into the Barred Rock pen and there you go. I would be very unhappy about it too, since it's such a drive and expense to exchange it but with all those who would really like to get up there and see his place, it will be fun. Donations for gasoline will be accepted but not mandatory. So give Frank a call, I will PM you with his phone number, and let's go from there.

Danz, the birds with broader white bars are pullets? There's quite a difference between one group and the other but it's incredibly difficult to figure out pullets from cockerels because they are all so bulky looking and the combs aren't that much different.

I bought a New Hamp hen from Frank's breeder pen and she was $25. I really needed one already laying and I like the girl I got even though Frank said the New Hamps were pretty well picked over. She's incredibly sweet and is a very nice type complement to my German NH roo. I think I'm going to get some really nice chicks out of those two. My German's wing is a bit downward compared to her completely SOP horizontal wing and her comb has the right number of points, whereas, his does not. The German hens do not have the right "necklace", whereas hers is just right. A judge over at the Heritage Poulty board gave my German roo the thumbs up, so I'm ready to go. I am going to have some beautiful New Hamps. With the Barred Rocks I can make Delawares or sex-linked chicks. Oh the possibilities!!!

Trish, Tazcat, HEChicken, You guys interested in going up to Frank's? I have a friend who doesn't even have chickens who will probably be interested in coming as well. My friend has a 4 year old boy and Hawkeye has a very sweet little girl. Won't they have fun instead of being stuck with just adults? Taz, don't you have a little? I may take my 11 year old out of school for the day, since he's the biggest chicken lover of all the kids. Anybody else? PM me and let's shoot for the end of next week. I have a 15 passenger van so there is room for everyone and the littles who may be coming along, too. Hopefully, I'll be ready to roll by then, because I am feeling much better than I did yesterday. Oh. And I won't blow by the exit this time! I've been up with Danz and there are plenty of signs alerting to the exit! LOL!

 

[HEChicken]

I am trying to gather my thoughts this morning and be realistic about what I can do. DH said there were tracks and that someone had literally chased cloud down in a vehicle to shoot her. That makes me even more upset. So it also probably answers some questions of one or two people who might have done it. The prime suspect is a new neighbor across the way who has just gotten a few goats. My dogs would never bother goats. Fluff has been with goats and Cloud would never hurt one or bother one. I can't imagine why they were there but it was warm and they like to go to the creek. If they followed the creek it would take them to his place. But the fact is that she was run down and shot on my friend's property which means the person would have had to get in his vehicle and chase her some distance to kill her. I was going to contact the vet to see if I could get the bullets removed from her. There are no exit wounds. So I could prove who shot her but I don't know if the sheriff's office would even take the time to mess with it. I am hoping DH will call someone today and find out. My other resource is to take pictures of the tire tracks and measure the wheel base to match it to this guys' vehicle.

Danz, my heart has been aching for you every since I heard the news last night. I never met Cloud but I know how I would be feeling in your shoes, and it is enough to have kept me awake, and the first thing on my mind when I woke this morning. You have a right to be very, very angry right now and I hope you will use that anger to make sure the guilty party or parties never do something like this again.

On another subject Hawkeye I think the people on that thread are talking out of turn. The one chick with the gold on it's face does look like a mix. That can easily happen to anyone. I have no idea why they are talking sex link though?? I am sure that someone sneaked into the wrong house or one of the hens was out. It is bound to happen to anyone with an operation that size. The other chicks look absolutely pure bred to me. I have seen lots of barred rock chicks and I have no idea why they are saying they aren't. The chicks with the really finer lines are males and the ones with the broader looking lines are females. I saw both in your pictures. The one you say has crappy barring would be female and only looks that way because she is young. The lines become more distinct with age. People sure are quick to criticize and make judgements without thinking about things as a whole. They are trying to judge those chicks like they are fully feathered older birds.
The only fault I have found with the adults I bought and the younger chicks is that they aren't concave. I wouldn't call it a hump by any means on mine because it is a tuft of feathers. This could be something that develops out as they get their mature adult feathers as well. When I find time I would like to look at some examples of some show quality barred rocks to compare. Hechicken mine have tail feathers; my older cockerel is just now forming his. He is young but should have a nicely pronounced tail when they all come in. My cuckoo Marans rooster for instance I just sold was 2 and he just got his full tail in example. I have some nice barred rock pullets from another source and I think breeding the two together will produce an even better bird.

Oh how tragically sad. People are just terrible, I can't imagine chasing a dog down like that and wouldn't it be completely illegal to shoot a dog on someone elses property? I mean you can't hunt from a vehicle legally why could you drive onto someone else's property and shoot a dog?! I would be calling the Sheriff ASAP and making darn sure someone gets out and looks into it. That is dangerous behavior who ever is up to it and completely inappropriate.

I agree that it is likely illegal. If Cloud had been shot on the neighbor's property by the neighbor, there probably wouldn't be any legal issues. The law gives a property owner the right to protect their livestock from predation with lethal force if necessary. We all know that Cloud was not a predator but without witnesses, the law would go in favor of the property owner. However that is NOT what happened here! This is someone else, going onto the neighbor's property and firing a weapon. Danz, your best bet may be to have the neighbor (property owner where she was found) go to the Sheriff and made a complaint. If someone came on MY property and fired a weapon, you can bet I'd be down there making a complaint. That is just too dangerous to my family and my livestock, to have someone discharging a firearm on my property. So - while the law may not be sympathetic to your dog being shot since she wasn't on your property, the law may be sympathetic to that property owner that a firearm was discharged without his permission on his property.

I have lurked for many months and am now saying Hello! I live in south eastern Kansas and have several chickens and other poultry and hogs. I share my life with 2 great children and a wonderful husband. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law lives with us. I have many cats and 3 great pyrenees dogs.

There are quite a few of us in the Wichita area and several more a little more SE of Wichita, so join right in with the conversation. What kind of poultry do you keep?

Thanks Hawkeye - well, they started the siding on Wednesday, and we had a nasty surprise. Under the old composite siding there was absolutely nothing!!! It was attached to the framing. Noah chuckled and said maybe he should do the same thing - then if we ever had a fire all we'd have to do would be punch through the drywall and out we go. He said that he's seen a few houses built in the 70's (like this one) that had only plywood on the corners - but never one with nothing but the framing. So we've got a much bigger job than we thought, more time, more expense, more materials... sigh. We are hoping to be moving in on May 1st, so we're on the countdown on having things ready. Went over with a load of nonessential (here) furniture yesterday. Essential stuff (beds, appliances) will go on "moving day" in a uhaul. But doing most everything else in the pickup.
Taking another load of trees today - assuming the wind doesn't blow the truck off the road!! Sara

Ohhh...so sorry about the setback. I hope you are able to get it done in time for moving. Good luck moving those trees!

 

[HEChicken]

Hey guys. I finally caught up on my reading, because I have the stomach flu!.

Yesterday I couldn't even do that much. Now, I'm missing out on all kinds of fun with the family. We had stuff planned all day and I'm home on the couch and they are out "living large"! Heavy sigh.

That totally sucks - I'm really sorry.

Keep in mind that the Standard of Perfection bird does not actually exist. A good breeder is one who is able to produce a higher percentage of "good birds" than the norm, not that all of them pop out at that high standard. When you purchase chicks you are taking a risk, thus the lower cost. The breeder pen birds are those that were hand picked as "good enough" to possibly put out more high quality birds for him. Remember, even if you take a group of show quality birds, mate them, grow out the chicks, chances are in that batch of chicks you are going to end up with lots of inferior quality. That's because you must continue to cull, cull, cull just to maintain your current level of quality. Otherwise, you are letting your flock degenerate.

Thank you! This is exactly what I was trying to say yesterday but you said it in fewer words but far more succinctly and precisely.

Trish, Tazcat, HEChicken, You guys interested in going up to Frank's? I have a friend who doesn't even have chickens who will probably be interested in coming as well. My friend has a 4 year old boy and Hawkeye has a very sweet little girl. Won't they have fun instead of being stuck with just adults? Taz, don't you have a little? I may take my 11 year old out of school for the day, since he's the biggest chicken lover of all the kids. Anybody else? PM me and let's shoot for the end of next week. I have a 15 passenger van so there is room for everyone and the littles who may be coming along, too. Hopefully, I'll be ready to roll by then, because I am feeling much better than I did yesterday. Oh. And I won't blow by the exit this time! I've been up with Danz and there are plenty of signs alerting to the exit! LOL!

Ummm....let me think about.....YES!!! Tee-hee. Chicken road trips are so much fun!

I'm so glad you are happy with your NH hen. I am pretty happy with mine too, even though they also came from his cull barn. They seem to have pretty good type, nice necklaces, very yellow legs. They don't have perfect combs but that is a pretty small deal in my book. Plus, if they aren't laying, they are really close. I keep seeing them in and around the nest boxes and they've started singing the egg song, and making that bawk, bawk, bawk sound that they make when they are ready to lay.

My cockerel is big but was so immature when I got him. The last month he has really grown up quite a bit. I was a little concerned he was too shy to become an authoritative flock leader, and with my Welsummer cock bird in that position, the BR really stayed in the background. The Wellie has been gone a week now though, and already the BR is coming out of his shell. Last night I saw him mate a hen for the first time. DH and I were out there with them and I gasped so loudly that he spun around asking what was the matter. I told him what happened (he was completely underwhelmed of course but didn't understand how excited I was to see my boy growing up). Anyway, he didn't mate just any hen - he mated one of my oldest (and therefore higher status) hens! That seemed to have given him a boost of confidence so this morning he was cluck, cluck, clucking to call the hens over to enjoy a treat he had just found. I haven't heard him crow yet, but all the signs are there that he is maturing and will at some point assume the role of head bird around here, so I couldn't be more pleased.

 

[chicken danz]

I see what you are talking about with the hump I thought you were talking about the area near the tail. My boy and my girls all have a big ball of fluff right before the tail and I thought that is what you were talking about.
The sheriff's officer has been here to make a report but he doesn't think we can get a conviction because it would be all hearsay.