Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Frizzled Pink, It's hard to say what was in the background on those Swedish Flower Hens, I got my first ones from eggs I hatched & your rooster was in that batch. Those are some cute chicks! That's why I love those so much is all the color combinations you can get. I have a bunch of baby chicks here right now from mine & there are some really pretty chicks in there. I should take some pics of them before I sell them just so I have some of their first babies. I have sold about 5 before, but this hatch that finished a couple days ago had a bunch of SFH chicks in it. I have a few more eggs still in the incubator that I threw in with some lavender Ameraucana eggs I bought from Bargain on BYC. I wanted some new blood in my breeding pen so I bought a few eggs from her. I haven't candled them yet to see how they're doing. I also have been collecting all the guinea eggs in my pen, so hopefully this time I will actually have some that develop.

We started working on putting together the goat shelter today. We got most of the outside frame done, but ran out of screws & time so we had to stop for now. I'll have to go buy some more screws at Lowe's when I go to Wichita Tues. We had to shut the goats out of the pen while we were working in there because they're so curious that they kept knocking things over & getting in the way. We're building the framework out of free pallets I got from a couple of places & I think it will work out OK. Goats don't have to have a fancy shelter, just something to get in when it's raining or bad out. I also have some free 2x4s that were used that I can use for the frame for the roof. I have to pull nails out of them, but you can't complain for free. We haven't decided yet if we want to buy siding like we used on my breeder coop or what exactly yet. We're going to use some OSB for the floor to cover the pallets I put down there to keep them from having to lay on the ground. I will probably paint it so it will be easier to clean. I went out to feed all the birds & the two little goats were laying on top of the pallet floor like it was their porch, it was so cute. They are really characters those two.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Oh goodness there are a lot of posts. I have been without internet for abit hopefully it is back for awhile now. I sure have missed everyone.
I have a few birds struggling, I don't know what it is. It is only a few I have in quarinteen for a reason. I just got them last week and they are coming up with very week legs they try to stand but cant keep balanced almost like one of the feet don't work. They are weak all around but still eating and drinking and trying to maintain their normal daily routine with the rest of them. There is no other signs of sickness just this weakness. I am going to treat with vit/min what else should I do
I hope everyone is doing well.

 

[JosieChick]

Ivyrash-I am a big calico cochin fan even if they don't breed true. They are my "yard candy"

I can't get rid of chickens very well either! I have three extra cochin roos that I don't need that are still hanging around out there so don't feel bad! Post some pics if you have time, would love to see your kids, I never get tired of cochin pics.

Yep, I do know that the calico is basically a mille with too much white, but he is a pretty roo!

I ordered the silkies from ebay and I am talking about the color of the down on the baby chicks. In my experience the down color is not always the feather color so I didn't want to assume they would keep the colors of the fuzz.

I do love my cochins! They are the sweetest chickens I have ever had. I got into this all the wrong way and I have really hard time getting rid of chickens

He is ADORABLE!!!

Had to share Oz's growing up picture

 

[ivyrash]

JosieChick- Here's some pics, will those gray/blue ones keep their color? Pics are not perfect on color but one looks to be a really pretty blue, crossing my fingers that holds but then what do I do with that color and a calico roo? I don't have room for all these birds and my husband can only tolerate so much! That buff one is so tiny and has a lot of attitude! Not even the last one hatched!

 

[chicken danz]

We started working on putting together the goat shelter today. We got most of the outside frame done, but ran out of screws & time so we had to stop for now. I'll have to go buy some more screws at Lowe's when I go to Wichita Tues. We had to shut the goats out of the pen while we were working in there because they're so curious that they kept knocking things over & getting in the way. We're building the framework out of free pallets I got from a couple of places & I think it will work out OK. Goats don't have to have a fancy shelter, just something to get in when it's raining or bad out. I also have some free 2x4s that were used that I can use for the frame for the roof. I have to pull nails out of them, but you can't complain for free. We haven't decided yet if we want to buy siding like we used on my breeder coop or what exactly yet. We're going to use some OSB for the floor to cover the pallets I put down there to keep them from having to lay on the ground. I will probably paint it so it will be easier to clean. I went out to feed all the birds & the two little goats were laying on top of the pallet floor like it was their porch, it was so cute. They are really characters those two.

Trish, You may have already considered this but I figured out when I am dealing with old boards, unless the nails are someplace I need to saw them I just use a grinder and cut them off. Sure saves a lot of work and effort. Plus you don't end up with a bunch of empty holes. That's the one redeeming quality about goats over chickens is cleaning. Those little balls they produce just roll off instead of make a nasty mess.

Oh goodness there are a lot of posts. I have been without internet for abit hopefully it is back for awhile now. I sure have missed everyone.
I have a few birds struggling, I don't know what it is. It is only a few I have in quarinteen for a reason. I just got them last week and they are coming up with very week legs they try to stand but cant keep balanced almost like one of the feet don't work. They are weak all around but still eating and drinking and trying to maintain their normal daily routine with the rest of them. There is no other signs of sickness just this weakness. I am going to treat with vit/min what else should I do
I hope everyone is doing well.

So glad to see you back. How old are the birds Maidenwolf? If they are like 5-6 months or older it could be Mereks. You would definitely want to cull them. You don't want that to get started in your flock. If they are chicks you might try giving them vitamin b complex as well as E. I've never had Mereks and never want to. Josiechick can tell you more about it.
I have missed you a lot.
So many of our regulars are MIA right now. i.e. Checoukan, Hechicken, Mammahen (at least I know she is okay),Deerfield (she's busy), etc etc. Didn't mean to leave many out ....I just miss hearing from so many people.
I have an incubator full of chicks of various kinds and really have no place to put them. My bins are full. I've gotten quite a few guineas to hatch although the fertility has been really poor this year. I'm not sure why unless the weather has something to do with it. But I need a place to put them for the time being because I have too many other birds to put here and there.

 

[HEChicken]

Hi everyone

I've had my nephew staying with us the past few 3 weeks and I didn't expect his visit to make that big a difference but these past 3 weeks have just been sooooooo busy! Either we've been out doing stuff with him, or home trying to catch up on chores and things that didn't get done while we were out. At the end of the day, I've managed to get online and check email and read the forum but most days have been too tired to try to catch up or reply. I just dropped my nephew off for his return home and for the first time in what feels like a long time, I have a quiet house and a chance to start feeling like I'm catching up. I have sooooo much to do so can't spend long on here though. I didn't even try to multi because for sure I'd leave someone out

Maidenwolf, I second the Mareks suggestion. I don't know for sure I've ever had it, but I had a batch of broody raised chicks a few years ago that got to be about 15 weeks old and one of them started limping. Each day it got worse until she wasn't using that one leg at all. I did cull her at that point because I suspected Marek's and knew if that was it, she would continue to get worse, not better, and I didn't want to watch her slowly die. No one else ever got it, either from that batch or future chicks, which is why I don't know for sure that's what it was, but in googling the symptoms, they did seem to match.

I have a really strange situation. Does anyone remember me telling you about the muscovy duck who started laying her eggs in a burn barrel awhile back? Well, I moved her to my hoop coop and gave her 23 eggs and she saw that nest full of eggs and bam - she was broody. I wrote down the date on my calendar, and when her five weeks sitting was up, I started checking morning and evening to see if there was anything happening. Four days after her due date, there were no ducklings, so after dark that night, DD and I pulled her off the nest and candled. We removed a dozen eggs that were either quitters or had gone bad, but saw movement in several others so put them back under her. I figured if we saw movement, they would hatch any day so continued to monitor her, but everyday there was nothing. By yesterday morning I was feeling so morose for her. At that point she was 11 days past her due date and I was trying to decide what to do for her. I don't have access to ducklings to get some and put under her, I don't want to set new eggs under her and have her start the 5 weeks all over again, yet I know she will continue to set those eggs until something happens. I was moving around doing my chicken chores, when I happened to glance in again and saw a broken shell. A moment later she moved and I could see a fluffed out duckling under her! I was amazed and stunned!!! This duckling hatched a full 11 days after she started setting those eggs. My first thought was I must have got the dates wrong, but I checked the calendar and they were right. Plus, since I knew I had talked about it on the forum, I went back to look and recheck the dates. She started setting on Apr 16th per the following post: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/248925/consolidated-kansas/22307

By this morning, there are at least 4 ducklings in the nest. I still can't get over this. My first broody muscovy hatched 1 duckling that was 6 days late and I was surprised enough about that, but 11 days seems way over the top. And its not the eggs themselves because when I did a batch in my incubator, they hatched on exactly day 35.

Whatever the reason - and I will probably never know why or what happened - I am so happy for her that she has some ducklings to raise, so she can stop sitting in that dog house and get out and start enjoying life again.

My big mower is on the fritz so I can't mow at a time of year when the grass is growing like crazy. A repairman picked it up last week and I already know I won't get it back until at least Thursday. They are calling for more storms this week so a) the grass may be too wet to mow when I do finally get it back and b) the additional rain will make it grow even more. I'm sure my neighbors are cussing out the people with the long grass right about now - if I see them I will have to explain so they don't think too poorly of us. It doesn't help they mowed theirs yesterday so it looks beautiful and makes ours look even worse.

Well, I need to get out and get moving. I will try to check in again later. Have a good day everyone!

 

[ivyrash]

I was looking at buying a brinsea spot check thermometer but they are charging $10 for shipping it to me. I called to ask them about it and they said that is their minimum shipping and there are no other options. That seems crazy to me. What thermometers are good for incubating? I think that is one problem I had with my first hatch, I don't think the thermometer was reacting fast enough to temp changes. I think over the past month I have bought about $50 in thermometers that don't work very good for a variety of reasons.

 

[JosieChick]

Cuties!!! I assume you are talking about the darkest chicks as being blue? If so you appear to be spot on, they should be blues. The lighter chicks I am not sure on because they appear to have markings by their eyes? I don't remember lavender chicks having that marking. Bet your little buff is a roo! They get super bossy real fast. I don't know what you would do with all those colors other than have a mixed bunch of birds? If you want to work on a specific color I would decide on one color project and stick to that. Or you could build a few small breeding pens and run them all together during the winter like I do.

JosieChick- Here's some pics, will those gray/blue ones keep their color? Pics are not perfect on color but one looks to be a really pretty blue, crossing my fingers that holds but then what do I do with that color and a calico roo? I don't have room for all these birds and my husband can only tolerate so much! That buff one is so tiny and has a lot of attitude! Not even the last one hatched! How is your foot feathering on these chicks? They should be well feathered to the middle toe, it is hard to see on the photos. I will be curious to see what color the silver chicks become....

I was just thinking the same thing the other day! I miss Hawkeye too! It is sad that they haven't been on.

So many of our regulars are MIA right now. i.e. Checoukan, Hechicken, Mammahen (at least I know she is okay),Deerfield (she's busy), etc etc. Didn't mean to leave many out ....I just miss hearing from so many people.
I have an incubator full of chicks of various kinds and really have no place to put them. My bins are full. I've gotten quite a few guineas to hatch although the fertility has been really poor this year. I'm not sure why unless the weather has something to do with it. But I need a place to put them for the time being because I have too many other birds to put here and there.

Weird!!! I wish this would happen for my one grey goose that is still sitting, I am sure she is just sitting on rotten eggs that I need to pull but she is going to be heartbroken.
I feel you on the mowing! Our zero turn broke (again!) and I dropped it off last week but who knows how long it will take. I was going to take it to the place in Augusta but they had a five week wait!

I have a really strange situation. Does anyone remember me telling you about the muscovy duck who started laying her eggs in a burn barrel awhile back? Well, I moved her to my hoop coop and gave her 23 eggs and she saw that nest full of eggs and bam - she was broody. I wrote down the date on my calendar, and when her five weeks sitting was up, I started checking morning and evening to see if there was anything happening. Four days after her due date, there were no ducklings, so after dark that night, DD and I pulled her off the nest and candled. We removed a dozen eggs that were either quitters or had gone bad, but saw movement in several others so put them back under her. I figured if we saw movement, they would hatch any day so continued to monitor her, but everyday there was nothing. By yesterday morning I was feeling so morose for her. At that point she was 11 days past her due date and I was trying to decide what to do for her. I don't have access to ducklings to get some and put under her, I don't want to set new eggs under her and have her start the 5 weeks all over again, yet I know she will continue to set those eggs until something happens. I was moving around doing my chicken chores, when I happened to glance in again and saw a broken shell. A moment later she moved and I could see a fluffed out duckling under her! I was amazed and stunned!!! This duckling hatched a full 11 days after she started setting those eggs. My first thought was I must have got the dates wrong, but I checked the calendar and they were right. Plus, since I knew I had talked about it on the forum, I went back to look and recheck the dates. She started setting on Apr 16th per the following post: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/248925/consolidated-kansas/22307

By this morning, there are at least 4 ducklings in the nest. I still can't get over this. My first broody muscovy hatched 1 duckling that was 6 days late and I was surprised enough about that, but 11 days seems way over the top. And its not the eggs themselves because when I did a batch in my incubator, they hatched on exactly day 35.

Whatever the reason - and I will probably never know why or what happened - I am so happy for her that she has some ducklings to raise, so she can stop sitting in that dog house and get out and start enjoying life again.

My big mower is on the fritz so I can't mow at a time of year when the grass is growing like crazy. A repairman picked it up last week and I already know I won't get it back until at least Thursday. They are calling for more storms this week so a) the grass may be too wet to mow when I do finally get it back and b) the additional rain will make it grow even more. I'm sure my neighbors are cussing out the people with the long grass right about now - if I see them I will have to explain so they don't think too poorly of us. It doesn't help they mowed theirs yesterday so it looks beautiful and makes ours look even worse.

Well, I need to get out and get moving. I will try to check in again later. Have a good day everyone!

The spot check is awesome. I think I bought my on ebay or amazon and don't remember paying much for shipping. Buy some water wigglers too, then stick your thermometer probe inside the water wiggler, will give you the "inside the egg" temp instead of the air temp which fluctuates a lot more and makes people panic! Oh, and buy extra batteries!! The spot check will probably burn through at least one if you run it all the time like I did. I would just leave it on even though it can be turned on and off, then I could check it without waiting.

I was looking at buying a brinsea spot check thermometer but they are charging $10 for shipping it to me. I called to ask them about it and they said that is their minimum shipping and there are no other options. That seems crazy to me. What thermometers are good for incubating? I think that is one problem I had with my first hatch, I don't think the thermometer was reacting fast enough to temp changes. I think over the past month I have bought about $50 in thermometers that don't work very good for a variety of reasons.

Alrighty, need to get up and get stuff done! DH is working on shelves for the summer kitchen so we can store stuff out there and I need to go get laundry wrapped up. I can't believe how much laundry we make these days with just one little tiny baby!

 

[sharol]

I'm just starting my first incubation. Chooks Chick says to use 3 of the thermometers from Walmart that are used with aquariums (they are about 1.68 a piece, and Chicken Danz suggested the hygrometer from the same source. I'm going to use both.

This is probably a one time experiment for me, so I don't want to invest a lot of money. My loved rooster, Butch, is not doing well with an infection, and I'm trying to hatch some of his girls' eggs in hopes of producing an offspring with his personality (Lil' Butch). I don't even know for sure that the eggs are viable, and I have no place to put more than 4 or 5 chicks once they reach maturity. Oh well, I'll jump off that bridge when I get to it.

I was looking at buying a brinsea spot check thermometer but they are charging $10 for shipping it to me. I called to ask them about it and they said that is their minimum shipping and there are no other options. That seems crazy to me. What thermometers are good for incubating? I think that is one problem I had with my first hatch, I don't think the thermometer was reacting fast enough to temp changes. I think over the past month I have bought about $50 in thermometers that don't work very good for a variety of reasons.

 

[HEChicken]

I was looking at buying a brinsea spot check thermometer but they are charging $10 for shipping it to me. I called to ask them about it and they said that is their minimum shipping and there are no other options. That seems crazy to me. What thermometers are good for incubating? I think that is one problem I had with my first hatch, I don't think the thermometer was reacting fast enough to temp changes. I think over the past month I have bought about $50 in thermometers that don't work very good for a variety of reasons.

I went to Walmart and looked in their thermometer section. They had a little white thermometer (analog, not digital so I could see the reading through the package) that sells for $1. They had around 20 of them and 75% had the same reading so I figured those were most likely to be reading accurately and purchased one of them. Then I put away the other 5 thermometers I had been using and relied solely on that one. The problem with having multiples is that if they have different readings, you don't know which one to trust. What worked for me to was to have one that I completely trust and rely only on it. It is so small and lightweight that I just set it on top of the eggs lying on their side in my circulated air home-built, and I've had excellent hatches with that.

I feel you on the mowing! Our zero turn broke (again!) and I dropped it off last week but who knows how long it will take. I was going to take it to the place in Augusta but they had a five week wait!

Oh my goodness, that's insane. I didn't even know there was a place in Augusta

What I had wanted was to have a service tech come out and service it on the spot because I don't have a way to haul it anywhere. I called around to a couple of places. The first place charges $125 just to come and pick it up and then anything they do on top of that will be extra. So I kept calling phone numbers and found a place that charges $75 to send someone out. I guess there is routine stuff they can do on the spot, but if there is something wrong they can't fix, they'll load it up and take it back to their shop, and it all falls within that same $75 for them to take it back to the shop. It will still be more if there are parts they have to order to fix it but the service fee covers the basics like sharpening blades etc. So I went with that guy and hoped he could fix it on the spot but he had to load it up and take it.