Consolidated Kansas

[cubbysan]

Thanks to everyone for the thoughts re the lunch for the team. I think I'm going to take all of those ideas and use pieces of them. I had been thinking all the lunches would be the same so it would be easy to pass one out to each kid, but there's no reason we couldn't do 2-3 different lunches, mark the box with what they are, and then place them on a table where they can each grab the one that appeals most. Also, I had been thinking each lunch would contain a piece of fruit or something, but a lot of kids won't eat the fruit so maybe I'll just do a bowl of a variety of fruits and let the ones who want something take it. Same with carrot/celery sticks etc. You can offer them healthy stuff but you can't make them eat it

Okay....I have another dilemma. I have an EMPTY INCUBATOR!!! What to do? What to do?

I think you have the answer there about having a variety. Even with my three children, none of them like the same things.

 

[chicken danz]

Only one line posted from your post so I am flying blind. Thanks for the information. Dad has had at least 4 hearing aids in the past. He was talking about the amplifier thing to wear on his chest. He has trouble getting a hearing aid in his ear. He will still have very limited hearing with even the best hearing aid. His 40% hearing is with a hearing aid in. Without he can only hear some vibrations. I am just so happy to be able to talk to him any way or form. Silence was awful. I just need to learn to slow down and not talk fast.
Yes I want to put wire across the front of the yard. That is what my $5000 estimate was for. That didn't even include gates. I think we could do it all if we had someone put in the wood posts for the gates and such. Rufus was probably playing in puddles. They actually know better. If I see them and holler "ducks!" they run back toward their pen. And if they see a vehicle coming they all run but you know how slow ducks go. Rufus has fathered a ton of babies. He was hatched when my daughter in law was here and she named him. He was very distinct because of his top knot. He's was the last duck I had named. I'll probably save one of his babies if we have one with a good top knot.
So sorry for your problems. You need to keep a watch on that. I haven't heard anything from her in a couple weeks. Last time I talked to her she had hired an attorney. I'm not sure where this is going with her.

Hello all, just doing a quick post to say hi, especially to the newbies who just joined the KS thread. Life is extremely busy here this past week and I really don't have a lot of time going through all the posts, at least not right now. Tax season is winding down and obviously I'm extremely busy at work. I also have to take DD to her yearly specialist follow up appointment. It went well and we will be going back next year. A little update on my Salmon hen who has a leceration under her wing, on the ribcage. She has been isolated and living in the dog kennel inside the barn storage along with my 24 chicks (3 weeks old) who are still in their brooder. The laceration is deep and wide. DH sprays the Vetericyn during the day (twice) and I put triple antibiotic on it in the wound at night. I don't see any sign of rotting flesh/infection so far but I know it will take quite a while before she will heal up well enough to go back to the flock. She feels quite isolated and always looking out through her kennel into the brooder to see the chicks doing their things. I feel bad that she is being isolated but she needs it in order to heal. I'll be taking the spurs off of the roosters this weekend.

On a lighter note, the chicks have been growing leaps and bounds. I did have 1 chick died a few days ago and I'm not sure why. But other than this, everyone seems to be lively and active. They are eating up a storm daily and making a mess in the waterer. I still have not converted the 2nd horse stall to a coop yet and my chicks are growing like weed!!! It really didn't help that I was called in to work last weekend due to server issue. I also blame the wintry mix so I couldn't stay out there in the element to work during the week. Alas, my work schedule, the Dr's appt, and also an appt with the school this afternoon definitely don't allow me to have any time to myself, let alone converting the horse stall. I hope this weekend I will make some progress. We will see...

Hope you guys enjoy the nice"r" weather.

Kuan

Glad your chicks are doing well. Dang it you and Josie just reminded me I still have taxes to do. Nothing like pushing it aside.
I thought I'd have time to do some things today but I have to deliver eggs to town after I get them washed up.
I spent most of my morning candling eggs. I had a big hatch and still hatching today.
I made some room in the incubators by pulling out non-fertile eggs.
My first group of ducks are due to start hatching as early as 2 days. I have no place to put them. I need to call my duck buyer and let him know I have a bunch cooking.
I had good fertility on the duck eggs. About 90%. Sometimes in early spring it is kind of slow going. I also hatched my first olandsk chick from my newer pullets. It is white which I sure didn't expect. Weird. I'm going to have to find some more brooder space. I've got a ton of chicks in here.

 

[chicken danz]

Cherwill, I had the same problem when I was in Law Enforcement. I wanted to buy a house but it was outside the city limits. I tried to get them to vary the thing but they wouldn't. In my situation staying someplace on work days would not catch it. You had to live within the district. That way you could respond if you were needed. They want you close and available regardless if it is your day off or not. It stinks. Some jurisdictions say it is so you live where you pay taxes, some jurisdictions say it is for response. Who really knows why they put these requirements in place.
Then after many years out of law enforcement and working at the Nuke Plant, when I changed jobs there and was considered essential personnel, I was required to move within a closer distance. That is exactly why I ended up buying this place. I was going to be forced to move anyway so I decided to go for what I wanted. Now I am retired from there but have a nuclear plant nearly in my back yard!!

I'm sorry you are forced to make this decision. It's tough.

 

[milomac]

Hey guys finished picking up limbs and made an important discovery. The asperagus is growing like mad, this will be our first cutting this yeae. I checked it last week and there was none, the rain must have pulled it out of the ground. My lovely wife thinks asperagus is a food group not me a big part of my food pyramid is m and m's

 

[sarahswank]

speaking about gardening... Are any of you having trouble with your soil holding water this spring? I know it is drier here in southwest kansas then in most of the state, but even after I pulled out all the soil from all my pots and soaked them in water baths, just 2 days later they are dry as a bone. My raised garden is just as bad... it is dusty dry for atleast the top 4 inches. Anyone else having this problem?

 

[cherwill]

Cherwill, I had the same problem when I was in Law Enforcement. I wanted to buy a house but it was outside the city limits. I tried to get them to vary the thing but they wouldn't. In my situation staying someplace on work days would not catch it. You had to live within the district. That way you could respond if you were needed. They want you close and available regardless if it is your day off or not. It stinks. Some jurisdictions say it is so you live where you pay taxes, some jurisdictions say it is for response. Who really knows why they put these requirements in place.
Then after many years out of law enforcement and working at the Nuke Plant, when I changed jobs there and was considered essential personnel, I was required to move within a closer distance. That is exactly why I ended up buying this place. I was going to be forced to move anyway so I decided to go for what I wanted. Now I am retired from there but have a nuclear plant nearly in my back yard!!

I'm sorry you are forced to make this decision. It's tough.

The thing that makes no sense to me is that, as an active firefighter, he can live 5 miles from the station, which means 2-3 miles out of town. If he applies for the new position, which is mostly teaching and administrative, he can't live any amount of distance out of town. It's all in the same department. How is that logical?! A separate place wouldn't work because whenever he's not at work, he's on call half of the time. When he's not on call, he's still on call for a big enough problem, so we have to let the department know any time we go out of town. I get a little bitter sometimes by how much our lives are run by his job when he's not actually at work. I'm sure you had the same thing.

I know a little hobby farm in the country was probably always a pipe dream, especially with our budget and distance limitations, and our ages. But I still had the dream. If he applies for this position and gets it, the dream is gone forever!

Hey guys finished picking up limbs and made an important discovery. The asperagus is growing like mad, this will be our first cutting this yeae. I checked it last week and there was none, the rain must have pulled it out of the ground. My lovely wife thinks asperagus is a food group not me a big part of my food pyramid is m and m's

I see spears starting in 3 of the 9 plants we planted last year. I hope there's more to come. I've actually got one spear big enough to pick. I guess I could shave it into a salad. Otherwise, I'm not sure what you do with just one!

 

[michelleml]

Just wanted to share a picture of Mrs broody pants and her 4 chicks

 

[cherwill]

Just wanted to share a picture of Mrs broody pants and her 4 chicks

Major cuteness!

 

[chicken danz]

The multis aren't posting for me. Congrats to both of you on the asparagus. I had a long row here when I moved here but I didn't realize mowing it down when it started leafing out was a mistake. It was just in a grassy part of the yard so leaving it was unsightly. I should have done what I did with my asparagus bed years ago. I watered it with salt water which killed the weeds but made the asparagus thrive. I have one plant that grows under my cherry tree now. The rest is gone.
Cherwill yes it was the same for me in law enforcement. My time was really not my time. I had to be near a phone and stay sober. It is hard to have a family life that way. My husband was also an officer so there was always a chance we could both get called out and I wondered what we would do with the kids. Luckily we both never got called at the same time. He was a detective so he was called a lot more than I was.
I haven't heard anything from K-state yet. I was hoping they'd call. I guess I am hoping for things to happen too fast. I want to know what is going on with that pen of birds. I lost some more today. Looks like some of them have come full circle and appear well again while others are just starting. I've used Denagard for 5 days now. I think I will switch antibiotics tomorrow or the next day and see if something else works better.

 

[Trish44]

Has anybody reported the multi problem to BYC support? It's been messed up for quite awhile now.

Danz, I had to switch from Denagard to Tylan & that seemed to be what kicked it for me. I hope you find out something from K-State, I never sent in any of my birds, so I don't know what mine had. I just know it hit fast & hard whatever it was. My birds are all doing fine now.

I've been really busy all day, I was behind on reading on here. I've been moving birds around all afternoon & getting them settled in different places. I took the 3 little pullets that were in my pen in the run out, I decided they were old enough & big enough now to join the laying flock, so they came out & ran around the yard for the first time today, boy did they have fun. Those two blue barred hens are really growing fast now. They have been on the FF since I brought them here from Eileen's & I think it makes them grow faster. I got to see them up next to the regular Barred Rock hens today & they're really a lot different looking. The bars are kind of blurred & the color is just different. I will have to try to get some pics of them if they will stand still long enough tomorrow. Then after I got them moved out I cleaned out their pen & got if all freshened up & put the 3 little blue laced Barnevelders in there. I hope they do OK out there. I did put up some boards around the pen to kind of block the wind for awhile. They're feathered out, but I don't know where the guy was keeping them that had them before. They have some straw to cuddle down into & they can snuggle up to each other if they get cold. I got all the chicks from this hatch moved out to the brooder in the garage & got them settled in & then moved the bigger chicks in the other brooder out to the outside pen. They were getting so big & rowdy in there that they were just making a mess every day with their food & water, time to move. They seemed pretty happy out there in that pen & they have a little house to get into at night, which they discovered pretty fast, so I think they'll be fine out there. There are 3 Wheaten Ameracaunas in that group that I'm growing out to see for sure if they're rooster or pullets. I looked at them again today & I really had thought I had 3 roosters, but now I think it might be 2 roosters & a pullet. It's really hard with them because of the peacombs they have. There is also an EE in that group that I'm waiting to see if it's a pullet or rooster too. It's going to be a pretty one, I just don't need an EE rooster if that's what it ends up being. I also divided the new chicks I had gotten into a smaller group in the brooder in the sunroom & took half out to the garage so they all have more room now too. I also put my 3 new Salmon Faverolle chicks out in the pen with the big ones in the breeder coop today. I was afraid they might pick on them, but actually they pretty much ignored them. That breed just doesn't seem at all aggressive in any way. They all went about their business & the little ones found the pop door & spent the day inside the new coop. Then at the last I finally got all the male rabbits moved back out to the outdoor hutches again. I hope this is the last time I have to move them until fall, they're probably confused with all the moving back & forth. I got to look better at all of my baby rabbits today, the moms are finally starting to let me handle them & they're so darned cute. I have people waiting for babies, but there is one wanting one for 4H that needs a buck & these babies are just too tiny to tell sexes yet. It will be a couple more weeks probably before I can really tell what they are.

Cherwill, I'm sorry about your dilemma, I hope it works out in your favor somehow.

HEChicken, I just cracked up over your story about the turkey & the dogs, that was hilarious that they were afraid to go into the dog house because of the turkey. I'm glad she was OK in the morning! So you're still getting eggs then? I think only one of my hens still is laying, I don't think the other one has laid at all. I'm still just getting an egg about every other day. I went ahead & let the turkeys out for the day to free-range around the yard because they enjoy it so much. They really don't go very far at all & are ready to go in by the time I go out to feed all the birds. I only let them out on the day I don't think I will get an egg.