Consolidated Kansas

[Ralph Moyer]

I was the one diagnosed. I do not drink or eat anything diet. I am a herbalist and very aware of the chemical nonsense they put into processed foods. Lupus is a mystery disease. Some think it to be genetic and some think it is caused by lifestyle choices and our environments. Some just dont claim to have an answer. What they all can agree on however, is that patients suffer great deals of pain and fatigue, memory loss, kidney problems(most not all) skin rashes, depression, and you are in constant danger of heart attack or stroke, kidney disease or failure, or any other organ diseases or major complication as your body attacks and destroys any and all healthy tissue. Some people are diagnosed with a slow or less complicated form others are diagnosed with the hard or severe form as I was. Lots of things will continue to effect my body and cause flare ups to arise or worsen,such as your aspartame and anything artificial or processed. There are so many lifestyle changes that are to be made. The disease is life threatening and depending upon the severity and how many changes you make after you are diagnosed there really is no telling how any particular person will react as far as organ and tissue health.

Yes, I know Lupus is a mystery disease with many suspected causes. Some male athletes have this disease. It is a disease of the immune system and does have many different symptoms. My wife has rheumatoid arthritis as a result of this disease. She had to retire early because stress seems to stir up Lupus. She gets the "butterfly rash" when she is having a Lupus attack. For those that don't know, that is a reddening of the skin of both cheeks and nose on her face. She has lived with this disease for 20 years. You have my deepest sympathy.

 

[Ralph Moyer]

Im going to the McCune small animal swap and sale at 8am on sat the 20th, If anyone is going to be there ill see you then. I talked to the guy that runs it last night. should be ducks chickens some pigs goats of all kinds, and some game birds there if anyone is interested and of course chickens!

I wish they had this on any Saturday but the third Saturday because I am only eight miles from there. But the third Saturday is when the one at Afton, OK has theirs. Last month there were buyers parked in the road ditches and across the road. I was sold out by 10AM.

 

[shell55]

I was working outside yesterday when the cool change came through. It was quite dramatic to go from 70's and shirt sleeves, to shivering in a cold wind, in under a minute! I thought this sums up our weather quite nicely:

So true! Thanks for the laugh.

 

[JosieChick]

She also always has diet sodas and again, my kids are not allowed to drink it. I joke that if we are going to eat anything sweet-- it must be "fully leaded".
Hahahaha! I am going to have to remember this! Fully leaded! It is annoying how much stuff is tinkered with. I really wanted yogurt the other day and it took me forever in the grocery store to find yogurt that wasn't reduced fat. I mean, if you are going to eat something, eat it for real and just don't eat a ton of it and the fat in it won't catch up with you right? Right now the last thing I need is reduced fat!!! All I hear is how tiny I am but I think it is just because I haven't packed on 80 pounds.

I got back & fed all my birds & animals & then moved all but one rabbit back into the garage. The one buck is in the big heavy rabbit hutch & he's more protected in there. I tried to catch him too, but he was having none of it, so since it was already dark I decided to just leave him out there, he should be OK in there. They really do better in the cold than the heat. I did at least get all the smaller rabbits moved back into the garage. I didn't get all the trays put back in there, so there will be some more cleanup after this is over, but I wasn't quite finished in there anyway. I want to move all the hutches when I finally get them all moved out & sweep underneath them. Those little critters are really messy, I have some that just love scratching their food out of the feeder & dumping it all over the floor & some that like to spill their water bowl daily then get mad at me because they don't have any water. Yes, rabbits do have personalities.
We used to have rabbits as class pets and they definitely have personalities! I keep walking by the baby bunnies at the feed store and they are sooo cute but the last thing I need is another critter with a cage to clean!

Well everyone hang on for this one, I hope everyone's birds make it through OK & you all stay warm.

I sure hope you are hanging in there and we are thinking about you! This sounds like a terrible disease but I know you are a strong young woman and will fight every step of the way.

I was the one diagnosed. I do not drink or eat anything diet. I am a herbalist and very aware of the chemical nonsense they put into processed foods. Lupus is a mystery disease. Some think it to be genetic and some think it is caused by lifestyle choices and our environments. Some just dont claim to have an answer. What they all can agree on however, is that patients suffer great deals of pain and fatigue, memory loss, kidney problems(most not all) skin rashes, depression, and you are in constant danger of heart attack or stroke, kidney disease or failure, or any other organ disesase or major complication as your body attacks and destroys any and all healthy tissue. Some people are diagnosed with a slow or less complicated form others are diagnosed with the hard or severe form as I was. Lots of things will continue to effect my body and cause flare ups to arise or worsen,such as your aspertame and anything artificial or processed. There are so many lifestyle changes that are to be made. The disease is life threatening and depending upon the severity and how many changes you make after you are diagnosed there really is no telling how any particular person will react as far as organ and tissue health.

Is it a bantam or large fowl? It looks like an easter egger? It may be a different age than the other chicks and also LF chicks will feather in slower than bantams. Some breeds are slower to feather and roosters are slower typically to feather in than pullets.

This weather is crazy I hope it doesn't harm my apricot tree it's already bloomed.
Mrs broody pants has four chicks hatched already I think one more left.

I do have a question one of the tsc chick stopped growing its wing feathers. Everyone else wing freather and tail feathers are growing. I will try to post pictures in a bit

So true! My DH is always about ready to give up on something!!! Sometimes it just takes encouragement. When we moved into the house he didn't think we could get hte queen bed up the stairs because it was getting hung up on the door way part way up. I was NOT sleeping on a full size bed and that bed was going up the stairs one way or another!! I told him I really thought we could do it and we just needed a strategy and it worked!

Also, keep in mind that loving husbands get sick of our chicken projects and sometimes need to work on a project for themselves. I tend to forget that my DH doesn't love building pens for me as much as I love it when he builds them so make time to help or encourage him to work on things he enjoys and try to be a part of it if possible. That way you both do things for each other instead of him doing all kinds of work for you and it never going the other way. Just my two cents.

My husband says things like that all the time. Right after he built the coop and pen, a predator got in and we lost three chickens in daylight. That night he told me to sell the coop and get rid of the surviving chickens. The next morning I went to the hardware store to buy some better fencing, brought it home, and a few hours later the pen was stronger than ever.

It is very rewarding to "figure something out" on your own and make it. Now that the walls are being painted in the nursery I am kind of proud of my plaster repair skills. I was super frustrated and ugly while I was doing it because it was hard and all new to me but now that we are painting and I look around at this room that was in shambles to begin with it is kind of exciting to see it come together. I know its not perfect and someone with more skill could have done a much better job but it is done and I did it.

Michelleml, do you have some friends you can get together with to work? It can be really fun to work with someone else and sometimes two heads are better at figuring stuff out than one, even if neither of you knows what to do to begin with. Plus, if your friend has some older kids (10, 12 and up), you might offer to pay them to babysit your littles while the adults work. You don't have to go overboard - a lot of kids that age will be happy to earn a little spending money and are still young enough to actually have fun playing with toddlers.

Building doesn't have to be complicated. As 123casper said, the hardware store has knowledgeable staff. (Just avoid the teenage girls that work there!!)

Plus there are books, information online, and in the coops section (look for the link at the top of this page), there are tons of designs for everything coop related and many of them have also put up plans, material lists etc. Even if they haven't, and you really want to replicate a particular design, if you leave a comment under the article with your questions, the original poster will be notified of the comment and have an opportunity to reply. I have done that - asked questions on specifics about how people did something - and I've found that most BYC'ers are willing to help out by answering the questions.

You can also ask specific questions on here and we'll do our best to walk you through it. Pictures are useful, so if you get stuck, take a picture, post it, and ask for advice - we'll help all we can.

Building stuff yourself can wind up being fun and very, very satisfying when you look back at what you did and say "I did that!" Plus, it is a great example for your kids that women can build stuff too.

x2
I did mealworms for years. Unfortunately I killed them last summer when we were moving, by putting them in the car and stopping on the way to the new house to run errands and it got too hot and fried them. I haven't started up another colony since. I found that as a protein supplement they were kind of expensive to raise, mainly because I was unable to find wheat bran at any of the feed stores here, so I used oatmeal instead. It took a whole canister of oatmeal ($3.50) to fill a sweater sized tub to a good depth for them and that had to be replaced every few months, so in the end I figured there were cheaper ways to get the birds some protein. That doesn't even count the food they needed - a half apple or potato here and there adds up over time. Had I been able to find wheat bran I might have drawn a different conclusion. On the other hand, I actually enjoyed raising them. Watching them morph from worms to larvae to beetles, and watching the tiny little new hatched worms was strangely rewarding. I did mine all in one tub - other people report that the beetles will eat the worms but I saw no evidence of that.
I fed my mealworm colony to the flock before we moved because I was pretty sure I would kill them by accident! They are very prolific once they start reproducing!

Hope your birds and Fluff are hanging in there this morning. My DH does the same thing on projects sometimes. I just gently remind him that I would like to get it done so I can use it and the chickens aren't going to be out there with a level!! Usually that works pretty well. Sometimes you have to indulge them and just let them do their thing and it takes twice as long but it is nice to have company sometimes too!

I noticed some fruit trees blossuming yesterday when I went to pick up Fluff at the vet. I hadn't noticed mine blooming but I think some of the buds may have frozen off earlier. I noticed my forsythia had buds before we got the blizzard which froze. Now it is only putting on leaves and just a couple of flowers. I don't know if that effected the fruit trees or not. They would have normally bloomed before now.
Quote:
Great! Perfect!

I think nearly every one of us has had to deal at one time or another with a spouse saying they were done with our projects. It's normally just a bad day thing or temporary disgust with what is going on. I suspect if you don't do anything and don't blow up too bad that he will come around. Just tell us where you are and what you need and I'll bet between us we can help you do it yourself. You don't have to be a carpenter to build. Also I learned a long time ago if a guy sees a woman is capable of doing things he will often jump in there to "take over". It may feel a bit demeaning but swallow your pride and let it happen if you need to.
I am sure enough of what I am doing it upsets me when my DH tries to take over my projects. He doesn't see things the way I do so it really slows me down sometimes. So those kind of projects I just work on when he isn't around.
Honestly just ask what you want and we will make you a builder of all things!!!

I can't believe how yucky it is out right now. The trees are all iced over and its raining. I need to look up the weather and see when this misery is going to end. We need rain but it doesn't have to be so darn cold!!!

I need to get outside and take care of everyone, I am sure they are all grumpy as anything out there. Lots to do today, we got the first coat of wall paint on the nursery last night so I just have to touch up some trim and then put another coat on! I was so tired this morning from running around yesterday. I am eager to get the nursery set up to see what else we need to buy. My dad sent a huge box of goodies, thermometers, nasal aspirators, saline nasal drops, all kinds of stuff so I returned a few things to Wal mart yesterday that I had bought previously to get some other little things we needed instead. We have several thermometers and things so I thought I could use the money to buy some other necessities. I need to get baby gates too at some point. I would like to do it soon before we have a crawling baby and just get used to having them and using them.

If anyone in the Wichita/Andover/Eldorado area knows of someone who would take free roosters for butchering please let me know! I have several that need to go and I don't have the time and energy to process them right now. I will probably put them on craigslist this weekend but first I thought I would ask in case someone has a source for their extra roos that will handle them kindly.

 

[shell55]

Hechivken- I needed the laugh

My Dh informed me this morning he will not be building anything else. Yesterday he built a poop board/ roost for me. So I told him I guess I will have to hire someone. Not sure what to do I still need to do things to get my new coop ready to move everyone into it. I have no idea how to build anything plus trying to watch a 2 and 4 year old and trying to build something.
I'm thinking I should just sell all my chicks and just keep my older birds

Don't give up, you can do it! There are tons of ideas, Plans and videos online for just about anything you would want to build. Like hechicken said, it is rewarding to be able to look at something and say "I did that"!

 

[ChooksChick]

Quote:
The naturopath many folks see here and the doctor at the clinic I used to run said that same thing- it's criminal that we're still being told that's a safe product. Same thing with teflon. It lines all of our cans, wrappers, pans, etc., and the FDAs own site says it's poisonous if it's heated to 280*...but we cook in it, Campbell's actually cooks the soups IN THE CAN lined with it...criminal. No wonder Autism is so prevalent. Glad to see you here, Ralph...I'll go put my soapbox away...

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!

I want to go!! I should make an appt. What other breeds has he got besides Barred Rocks?

FromKansas, I know you meant well but I own a 20 acres in the country. My dogs are Pyrenees and they have a certain amount of property they patrol. I AM a very responsible pet owner!!! They DO NOT run all over the country side and never have. But land backs up to land and there are fences the direction the dogs went, but I really can't fence in all of my property in a fence that would be dog proof. It would cost more than the value of the land itself. The land they were on when she got shot backs up directly to my property and is all crop land. There are no livestock on that land and my friend that owns it, also farms my land so it should never have been a problem. But if some worthless SOB chooses to drive on someone else's land and shoot them from a vehicle that is a different matter all together. And that is the situation here.
The sheriff's office was going to talk to the guy I think but that was it. I am sick... literally because of this. If anyone knows any state agency that will help me get a conviction Please let me know.
I am taking Fluff to be neutered on Monday just as one added precaution. Plus I don't need a daddy dog now. I still have to get Cloud buried. I went out and wrapped her body while ago and it just broke my heart all over again. My poor baby!

On other projects I added a vent to the back wall of the hoopcoop and doubled the worthless tarp I bought. It has been up one day and is already falling apart. I paid a good chunk of change for it as well. Anyway I got the exhibition orps moved in so the coop is now occupied. I haven't gotten a roost or nest boxes in there but none of them had a roost before. They are so heavy bodied I don't know if they could get up very high anyway. The girls have been laying in a big flower pot turned on it's side.
I plan to order a custom tarp for the coop. It will cost quite a bit but be much nicer.

You might give any sign companies in your area a call. I get SUPER THICK vinyl banners, signs, billboards, etc., from a sign company for free. They usually have grommets in them and everything. They're treated to be UV resistant and last a long time. I have gotten wind-barrier mesh, too, and that's priceless...of course it has cell-phone ads with pics of folks playing sand volleyball on one side, but it's white on the other and makes great shade.

 

[ChooksChick]

That was weird... the multi button disappeared so I had to do a second batch... are they trying to tell me something??!

Quote:
Have you looked into eating a raw diet? GoMacro and TwoMoms in the Raw are some of my faves.

This weather is crazy I hope it doesn't harm my apricot tree it's already bloomed.
Mrs broody pants has four chicks hatched already I think one more left.

I do have a question one of the tsc chick stopped growing its wing feathers. Everyone else wing freather and tail feathers are growing. I will try to post pictures in a bit

It may have the slow-feathering gene...I have a line that has that and they're practically grown before they feather well...big naked birds.

Hechivken-

I needed the laugh

My Dh informed me this morning he will not be building anything else.

Yesterday he built a poop board/ roost for me. So I told him I guess I will have to hire someone. Not sure what to do I still need to do things to get my new coop ready to move everyone into it. I have no idea how to build anything plus trying to watch a 2 and 4 year old and trying to build something.
I'm thinking I should just sell all my chicks and just keep my older birds

You can do it! There are a ton of us on here to help, and if you look back last summer and the year before in this thread, we all started with few skills and got much stronger as a result of our tenacity. Give the kids a piece of plywood, paint it with chalkboard paint, and they can keep themselves busy for hours with watercolors, brushes, water and sidewalk chalk right near you. Teach them how to press flowers and give them a couple of big books...set them to looking for four-leaf clovers!

 

[Trish44]

michelleml, My DH says the same thing every time we embark on another "chicken project". He says the chickens aren't his hobby & why should he have to spend his time on it. He got very burned out building my breeder coop for one thing because he dragged it out for so many months. If he had put his mind to just working until it was done it might have been a different experience, but he was determined he was not going to change his schedule or give up anything for my project, so that's how it went. He told me after that that he was not ever going to build anything else. Yet now he is getting ready to help me build another hoop coop. It's not the same thing, but still building something. I also have learned to do a bit of building on simple things myself, something I had never done & didn't think I could do. I was a bit intimidated by the power tools & had to get over that. I have made a couple of small pens for chicks to hang out in until they grow some & I have built a small brooder & recently a much bigger one. After seeing what the awesome chicken ladies on here can do it gave me more confidence to learn to build something. I don't embark on complicated things by myself & am somewhat limited with my arthritis for doing some things. I don't know how you do it Danz with your physical limitations because I can't keep up with you or do half of what you do.

The weather here today is just miserable. I went out & let the little goats out of their shelter & gave them some food & it was still raining a bit & so cold that my hands hurt when I came back in. I opened the door of the run to let the chickens out & they came outside the door & kind of went OK it's not so great out here. They're always crowding at the door to get out every day, so when it's like this they're not very happy. The goats aren't thrilled with it either, they don't like being wet. I noticed my guinea/peafowl coop had water standing in there, so it must have run underneath, it hasn't done that before. When it's drier I may have to haul some dirt over & build up around it some because I don't want them standing in water, especially when it's cold. I think with all the moisture we've had lately we must be breaking the drought. I know we're still behind on moisture, but it sure has been wet lately here. We have green grass for the first time in two years, at least what is left of the grass, we lost a lot due to the heat & drought. This fall I'm going to have to see what I can do with this hill by my driveway because it's all mud now & it's washing away, there are ruts going down it now & the water just runs down & into my pens. I'm trying to build a kind of berm to route it away, but haven't had the weather or time to really work on it yet.

My blue laced Barnevelders are on their way here, I'm so excited to get these birds, I can't wait to see them! I hope they make the trip OK in this weather.

 

[chicken danz]

Congrats on your birds, Trish. Maybe they'll be here tomorrow!!!
Chooks, Frank has New Hampshires, Barred rocks, and some of the only existing pure white leghorns in the U.S. Let's see. What else am I forgetting. There is another big white chicken that I'm drawing a blank on.
Then he has the most magnificent heritage turkeys. Bourbon Red, White Holland, and bronze. I'm sure there is much more but I'm brain dead. I so envy his setup.I would never want that many birds. (Can you believe that even came from my mouth???)
I just got an email from Marc Sacre which I've waited on for months telling me he had a juvenile pair of english white orps availble. I had to decline them because of my sick birds. Dang it! Makes me very very disappointed.

 

[cubbysan]

For those of you that need something built, contact some local Boy Scouts. My neighbor has fulfilled some of his badges by pet sitting my ducks, dogs, cats and bunny. He has also asked my husband if he can help with certain things requiring power tools or even putting in a new screen.