Consolidated Kansas

[cherwill]

Ive done something stupid today. The hydraulics are gone on the car's trunk so I've to lift it up to load the feeds and pine shavings. When i got home to unload them, with only 2 hands, I used my back to hold it up and pulled a bag of pine shavings out of it. Well, I wasn't fast enough to back out of it and it slammed down on my head. I lost my balance a bit and pulled my back muscle falling backward and the pine shavings ended up on top of me.
Ouch! I had that same problem for a while. I stuck a broom handle in the trunk to use to prop the lid up, but it was still a pain. I hope your head doesn't hurt too much.

We got a lot of planting done today, but there's still a bit more to do. It was HOT. What happened to spring?

 

[Trish44]

tweetybaby, that sounds like my DH's car, I hate having to take it to get groceries or anything I have to put in the trunk because you have to either hold it open with one hand & try to get something out with one or prop it open with an ice scraper he has in there, it's the pits. He has no intention of fixing it either because it's an old car.

Wow, it was warm today. I spent some time outside today making sure all the birds had fresh water & got the kiddie pool out for my GPs to cool off in, they were really hot today. I put extra water around for all the birds. I took most all of the tarps off the pens yesterday except the ones that shade the pens from the west. I put some shade cloth I had in the garage over the breeder pens, at least until I see how much shade they will get there from the trees. They are on the edge of the wooded area & I don't know how shady it will be there. That shade cloth is nice, I like it because it provides some shade but lets the rain through so it doesn't pool there. I won't leave it on in the winter, but it is nice for summer. I would rather do that than put a tarp there.

The little goats were out all afternoon again & they sure are doing well with just browsing around in the woods & front yard & staying right where they're supposed to be. The dogs watch over them too, so I feel safe leaving them out there with them. Today my DH & I were standing outside watching them after we let them out & the dogs started barking. The goats ran over to stand by the dogs like keep us safe! The youngest goat Penny follows me around like a dog & jumps up to be petted, she is really funny. The other one, Patches will let me pet her, but she's just not quite as tame as the other one. I think if you really want them to be pets you need to get them as bottle babies & feed them, it really makes them tamer that way.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Oh my, this one is coming up on the 16th in Johnson County, perfect timing for someone trying to unload a lot of chickens: http://www.gbwf.org/hoagba/spring_sale.html

I can't make any of the swaps-- but it sounds like a lot of people will be on the look out for these birds. I hope the thief chokes on his decision to steal them and they become a HUGE problem for him. Still hoping someone knows this guy/gal and will turn them in.

I hope everyone is having a good day.
we are trying not to turn on a/c but boy is it a hot one. Mrs broody pants layed a egg today her chicks are three wks old does this mean she will not care for them anymore?

We already have our a/c on. I give up the moment my house reaches 78 degrees.

I'm thinking Saturday is when the chickens will be moving outside! Excited & nervous.

Looks like a nice big enclosure! I don't know what to tell you on the chicken wire, because you do have the chain link... I have a chain link pen for my layers, but they are locked up in the coop at night. Nothing has tried to come and get them in broad day light. And if a dog or anything comes into the yard, they all dive under the coop-- and I have attached hardware cloth under it and burried it into the ground. If they were not locked into the coop at night, I'd put a top on my pen (like you've done) and then probably go ahead and put hardware cloth around the bottom 2-3 feet and burry it.

Now-- here's my experience with chicken wire. I had made a temporary enclosure under my deck with the chicken wire and used the staples you hammer into wood to secure it. I had NO clue it would not hold up. I had birds in it and never thought twice about it. The neighbor dog came over, and she was VERY interested in my birds. She took a couple of swipes with her paw at the chicken wire and it just tore right up and she was able to create a BIG hole in just a few seconds. It all happened very quickly and had I not been RIGHT there, the whole thing could have ended much worse. As it was, I yelled at her and chased her off my property. I then had a big hole in the chicken wire... I went right out that same day and bought wood and hardware cloth. I ended up making a permanent enclosure instead and using the hardware cloth. Before, I had used t-posts and rigged up a bunch of stuff. Had I built it right the first time, I'd have safed a lot of time and money on that one. I had to build a pen TWICE... That sucked. Here is the pen the way it looks right now:


You can see the boards I put in on the bottom-- Those are actually wider and I dug them down into the ground and layed the wire down into the ground a bit too. The boards that run through the middle (bisect the pen) are there for two reasons-- to add strength to the wire in the middle, AND because I only bought 3ft height hardware cloth and needed the boards installed to hammer the fencing to secure it to. So there is 3ft top and bottom, but I matched it up so well, you can't even tell that's what I did.

Will definitely need to keep an eye craigslist and any poultry swap to see if there sre some unusual big number of similar birds up for grab. It is just unbelievable that this happened. Sigh...

Jennyjane - will your birds be living out there for good? I can't tell if you have hardware cloth over the chainlink fence or not but if you don't, the predator will be able to grab your chickens through the fence.

Summer is here!!!! Where is the spring weather? I don't think I'll have time to plant anything this year with the pending move so will just have to wait for nexy year.

Ive done something stupid today. The hydraulics are gone on the car's trunk so I've to lift it up to load the feeds and pine shavings. When i got home to unload them, with only 2 hands, I used my back to hold it up and pulled a bag of pine shavings out of it. Well, I wasn't fast enough to back out of it and it slammed down on my head. I lost my balance a bit and pulled my back muscle falling backward and the pine shavings ended up on top of me. Now I feel stupid. Without hydraulic, that thing is heavy! Oh yeah, the parts to replace them have been ordered since the shop doesn't have them in stock. $65 a piece. We need 2 of them.

Hope you guys and gals enjoy the heat. I'm sure it will linger around for months.

Yeah, I'd like to see Spring actually happen and not just dive right into summer. Sigh. Sorry about your head and back on the trunk! I'm always doing stupid stuff, so I understand how things happen!

I hope you didn't do anything too serious to your back-- pulling a muscle can really mess you up for days, weeks or longer! NO fun.

tweetybaby, that sounds like my DH's car, I hate having to take it to get groceries or anything I have to put in the trunk because you have to either hold it open with one hand & try to get something out with one or prop it open with an ice scraper he has in there, it's the pits. He has no intention of fixing it either because it's an old car.

Wow, it was warm today. I spent some time outside today making sure all the birds had fresh water & got the kiddie pool out for my GPs to cool off in, they were really hot today. I put extra water around for all the birds. I took most all of the tarps off the pens yesterday except the ones that shade the pens from the west. I put some shade cloth I had in the garage over the breeder pens, at least until I see how much shade they will get there from the trees. They are on the edge of the wooded area & I don't know how shady it will be there. That shade cloth is nice, I like it because it provides some shade but lets the rain through so it doesn't pool there. I won't leave it on in the winter, but it is nice for summer. I would rather do that than put a tarp there.

The little goats were out all afternoon again & they sure are doing well with just browsing around in the woods & front yard & staying right where they're supposed to be. The dogs watch over them too, so I feel safe leaving them out there with them. Today my DH & I were standing outside watching them after we let them out & the dogs started barking. The goats ran over to stand by the dogs like keep us safe! The youngest goat Penny follows me around like a dog & jumps up to be petted, she is really funny. The other one, Patches will let me pet her, but she's just not quite as tame as the other one. I think if you really want them to be pets you need to get them as bottle babies & feed them, it really makes them tamer that way.

Sounds like you were busy! I need to buy a really BIG waterer for the layers out there. The new barred rocks eat and drink like crazy. I used to have to fill the water every two days. Now I'm filling it every day, and even at that, they attack me! I need one of those huge ones that I can just use the hose and fill it up that way. Especially with the heat of summer that is about to be upon us! I don't want them running out. I don't know how this is all going to get done-- but I need to set up my water misters for the silkies and for the layers again this summer.... and then my DH is going to have to figure out how to get it turned on in the mornings and shut off at night. Sigh.

We will have someone staying with the kids here at the house during the day this summer, so I think I'm going to have her do my chicken chores for me... or tell her to have the kids "help" her, that way, no one is neglected all day if they run out of water or something. I'm already worried about everyone.

 

[mg15]

I have a problem, maybe someone can help me.

Dottie has been sitting on six eggs. Today is Day 23 for hatching.
she is sitting in a rubbermaid dishpan on top of the clothes tower.
I read on another forum that a lady kept her hen on the nest for 24 days and the eggs hatched.
I do not expect these eggs to hatch. BUT Dottie will not leave them, she is the perfect mother.

Question: How do I remove the eggs on the 24th Day so that it is gentle for her. She will throw a fit.
I need help.
I have posted on people with house chickens but this is a larger group.

 

[RoosterLew]

http://seks.craigslist.org/grd/3788649182.html

This hit SEK Craigslist yesterday..
Doesn't quite match the list of stolen birds, but some match and some could be sold "AS" ...
maybe worth checking out?
Biggest list I have seen on there in awhile.

 

[Hawkeye95]

I have a problem, maybe someone can help me.

Dottie has been sitting on six eggs. Today is Day 23 for hatching.
she is sitting in a rubbermaid dishpan on top of the clothes tower.
I read on another forum that a lady kept her hen on the nest for 24 days and the eggs hatched.
I do not expect these eggs to hatch. BUT Dottie will not leave them, she is the perfect mother.

Question: How do I remove the eggs on the 24th Day so that it is gentle for her. She will throw a fit.
I need help.
I have posted on people with house chickens but this is a larger group.

I wouldn't toss them until you candle them. They could be delayed in hatch and it would really be terrible if you threw away eggs that were only hours away from hatching. Grab and egg, go to a dark room and hold a STRONG flash light under it. I use a small flash light and cup my hand around it so I can see in the egg better. If the egg is looking near black inside-- then there's a chick in it. If there is just an organge glow and no dark blobs, etc... no babies.

This is a normal egg--- the darker center is the yolk-- no baby in there, no veins, no blood.

BELOW: This one is farther along.... You can see the veins and the air sac at the top clearly. The baby is the "black" on the bottom

BELOW: This one is nearly all filled up with chick-- hence the black except the little bit of air sac

 

[Hawkeye95]

I have a problem, maybe someone can help me.

Dottie has been sitting on six eggs. Today is Day 23 for hatching.
she is sitting in a rubbermaid dishpan on top of the clothes tower.
I read on another forum that a lady kept her hen on the nest for 24 days and the eggs hatched.
I do not expect these eggs to hatch. BUT Dottie will not leave them, she is the perfect mother.

Question: How do I remove the eggs on the 24th Day so that it is gentle for her. She will throw a fit.
I need help.
I have posted on people with house chickens but this is a larger group.

one more thing-- if they are not fertile and will not be hatching... handle them with CARE! If they are rotten or close to exploding, etc. you don't want that mess on you. I'd try to take a sniff of them before you go gathering them up.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

I'm, again, having problem with multi quotes. Don't know what's the deal. Oh well...

Trish - you were busy yesterday. It was so hot yesterday I actually turned on the A/C. I'm with Hawkeye, anything above 78F is too hot for me.
Cherwill - glad you got most of your planting done. Hope the heat will turn down a bit before actual summer is here. Really, we jumped from Winter to Summer all within 2 weeks' time. Geeezzz....
Hawkeye - really like the pen you got there. Looks really solid!

Jenny - I'm with Hechicken and Hawkeye ... chicken wire has its place (I use it inside the coop to section off an area for the ducks right now) but anything outside will need to have hardware cloth so predators can't rip it or reach into the pen to grab your precious chickens. It is just better safe than sorry. That said, I have chicken wire on the 1/2 wall of my coop which I'm replacing very soon. I had that up before I knew any better.
mg15 - I have no experience with hen sitting on eggs. I did see someone mentioned to remove eggs at night while the hen is in a zone. I'm sure someone with experience will chime in and give you good advise soon.
Rooster - That is a long list of chickens and ducks! You are right that they are not exactly like the list but someone could have just put generic chicken names on it just to avoid being tracked. Just never know...

***************************************
My back is definitely out. It hurts just to get up and walk but I managed. The lump on my head is a reminder of how stupid I was but I like Trish's idea of having something prop the trunk up while loading. Now why didn't I think of that?

The ducklings are sooo cute. The bigger ones (Pekins) love to dive right into the water pan. Just watching them makes me laugh. I think I'll keep them in the pen for another week or so then slowly let them out to get used to the area. With this hot weather, I may even let the bigger ones take a short 10-minute swim today. My son has been begging me to let them go to the pond.

He also wanted me to assure him they won't take off flying away once they are grown. I sure hope not. We are quite attached to them already.

I'm taking this afternoon off for an appt. I hope to be able to get some more stuff done on the farm. Those never ending chores... I heard it on the radio that we may have some storms coming this evening so I really need to get things done before the storm is here.

Enjoy the day everyone!

 

[lizzyGSR]

I'm, again, having problem with multi quotes. Don't know what's the deal. Oh well...

Trish - you were busy yesterday. It was so hot yesterday I actually turned on the A/C. I'm with Hawkeye, anything above 78F is too hot for me.
Cherwill - glad you got most of your planting done. Hope the heat will turn down a bit before actual summer is here. Really, we jumped from Winter to Summer all within 2 weeks' time. Geeezzz....
Hawkeye - really like the pen you got there. Looks really solid!

Jenny - I'm with Hechicken and Hawkeye ... chicken wire has its place (I use it inside the coop to section off an area for the ducks right now) but anything outside will need to have hardware cloth so predators can't rip it or reach into the pen to grab your precious chickens. It is just better safe than sorry. That said, I have chicken wire on the 1/2 wall of my coop which I'm replacing very soon. I had that up before I knew any better.
mg15 - I have no experience with hen sitting on eggs. I did see someone mentioned to remove eggs at night while the hen is in a zone. I'm sure someone with experience will chime in and give you good advise soon.
Rooster - That is a long list of chickens and ducks! You are right that they are not exactly like the list but someone could have just put generic chicken names on it just to avoid being tracked. Just never know...

***************************************
My back is definitely out. It hurts just to get up and walk but I managed. The lump on my head is a reminder of how stupid I was but I like Trish's idea of having something prop the trunk up while loading. Now why didn't I think of that?

The ducklings are sooo cute. The bigger ones (Pekins) love to dive right into the water pan. Just watching them makes me laugh. I think I'll keep them in the pen for another week or so then slowly let them out to get used to the area. With this hot weather, I may even let the bigger ones take a short 10-minute swim today. My son has been begging me to let them go to the pond.

He also wanted me to assure him they won't take off flying away once they are grown. I sure hope not. We are quite attached to them already.

I'm taking this afternoon off for an appt. I hope to be able to get some more stuff done on the farm. Those never ending chores... I heard it on the radio that we may have some storms coming this evening so I really need to get things done before the storm is here.

Enjoy the day everyone!

It has been abnormally hot here as well. Thankfully, I haven't had to turn the A/C on yet. Our house is pretty well insulated (TWO layers of stucco). So far, it's only gotten into the low 70's inside the house during the day. I can handle that. However, I've already asked my husband to install a window A/C unit in my office so I have it just in case. The other day, I went out to get the horses from the pasture (normal daily chores - they get locked in the barn lot at night). It was hot that day, and it was the first day of the heat wave. On the way back, when we were getting close to the house/barn, I started having to blink a lot to keep my vision from getting blurry and such. Just about that time, my DH and I both heard a distinct HISS sound coming from some weeds. Definitely NOT a good spot to faint, especially since we are in rattlesnake country! After that, I adjusted my schedule so I'm going out to get the horses later in the day after it's had more of a chance to cool down. I've also started arming myself when I go out walking in the pasture, just in case I see something slithery. I really dislike rattlesnake season and this drought has only increased their numbers! We keep having rain chances in the forecast, but anything that does develop seems to go around us. We need the rain so desperately out here! If we don't get rain, we won't have any grass for the livestock. So far, the grass has started growing, but without some rain, it won't be green for very long. This abnormally early heat wave hasn't helped that much either.

 

[chicken danz]

Kuan these are non flying ducks. They won't fly off. I wouldn't put the babies in a pond for a swim just yet. When they are with their mother she preens them and it coats them with a substance that helps them stay afloat. Try giving them a pan with something they can crawl in and out of it with. Or fill the bathtub up with enough water that you leave an almost dry end and let them learn to swim there first. If you put them in the pond you would have to be prepared to swim out and get them if you needed to. Let them get really used to being with you first and knowing where "home" is then let them go to the pond.
I've spent hours sitting by the tub watching babies swim! One thing I've read to try to is get a paint roller pan and use that so they can run up and down it like a ramp when they are really little.
I'm really glad you like them.
I was so busy yesterday. I moved the goose fence so they could get some new fresh grass but in doing so it took the tree they stay under out of their pen. They were very unhappy with me and go further than their old fence line! I hope at some point to give them a much bigger area to roam.
Then I worked on the hoop coop. I got the panels all fastened down and wired together. I need to start on the wooden part next.
I decided to till the garden. Of course the fence side I left so I could take it down and use the mower on the tiller. is now part of the goose fence. So I had to use the other tiller. I wore a blister on my hand and then tore it up trying to Manhandle that monster. I also was trying to avoid a grape vine I planted last year and ended up accidentally catching the fence wire with the tiller so I ended up having to cut a section of wire out anyway!!!
I've been on the go since early this morning and just got to sit down here. Now I have to get running again. Sure wish I could clone myself.