Consolidated Kansas

[RoosterLew]

It was so nice to be able to walk out and get the horses and the mail yesterday (both roughly 1/2 mile, one way, from the house) .

.Lizzy...you need a hitchin post to tie one of them horses to outside the back door...ride him to get the others & the mail! LOL


I have found what I need to buy feed....



But I guess I'd need earplugs to keep from hearing them too, lol!

See what happens when you encourage it!

 

[JosieChick]

Hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!! Where can you get these devices??

I need some too. I was at atwoods the other day and I just heard the peeping and was like "lalalalala" in my head " I don't need any chicks!" Lalalalalala..... I have a brand new baby and a bin of chicks and goslings on the porch already! Def don't need anymore. They are like a drug I think once you get hooked!

.Lizzy...you need a hitchin post to tie one of them horses to outside the back door...ride him to get the others & the mail! LOL


I have found what I need to buy feed....



But I guess I'd need earplugs to keep from hearing them too, lol!

See what happens when you encourage it!

 

[JosieChick]

Trish- SO sorry about your kitty. That is so hard.

Danz- Yikes! Glad you caught that lamp in time! And you caught your orp chicks too from under the cabinet!

HEchicken- Don't give up on your boys! It may not be hopeless. I would really try them together in a space with no hens and where they can't see the girls that is "neutral" territory. It might just work.

Sorry to everyone else, I have forgotten! Long night. Am still recovering from a long evening of fussy baby. Ended up walking around the front yard with her in the stroller. DH was late home from work too because he had an emergency. Figures. When she is lovely he gets home early but when I desperately need a break he is two hours late. Sigh. Think she is just having a growth spurt, again. She is up to almost 11 pounds and people keep commenting on how "big" she is which is starting to irritate me. I am proud of how big she is and the pediatrician says she looks great so I just tell people she is a healthy, happy baby and a good little eater. Had a nice lady the other day say she had big babies and they loved to nurse. She said she looked like a super healthy breast fed baby which made me feel good.

 

[Trish44]

Trish- SO sorry about your kitty. That is so hard.

Danz- Yikes! Glad you caught that lamp in time! And you caught your orp chicks too from under the cabinet!

HEchicken- Don't give up on your boys! It may not be hopeless. I would really try them together in a space with no hens and where they can't see the girls that is "neutral" territory. It might just work.

Sorry to everyone else, I have forgotten! Long night. Am still recovering from a long evening of fussy baby. Ended up walking around the front yard with her in the stroller. DH was late home from work too because he had an emergency. Figures. When she is lovely he gets home early but when I desperately need a break he is two hours late. Sigh. Think she is just having a growth spurt, again. She is up to almost 11 pounds and people keep commenting on how "big" she is which is starting to irritate me. I am proud of how big she is and the pediatrician says she looks great so I just tell people she is a healthy, happy baby and a good little eater. Had a nice lady the other day say she had big babies and they loved to nurse. She said she looked like a super healthy breast fed baby which made me feel good.

Don't worry about it Josie, just ignore people. I had a big kid too, he started out at 7 lbs. 11 oz & he was just a big kid & he grew fast, he was a good eater too. He's now a 6 ft 3 in tall adult. I'm sorry you're having to deal with a fussy baby, they go through these stages. I hope you both do better soon.

Well I lost another guinea last night, I found her this morning in the driveway. The darned birds are so stupid that it's hard to get them in at night because I take the food in & some run right in when the food gets in there & then there are the really dumb ones that walk back & forth along the side of the coop until you just want to club them over the head. I tried & tried to get this last one in last night & it wouldn't go in so I finally gave up & left it out. I figured that is what would happen & I was right. My guinea numbers are dwindling, maybe I should have picked up more than two babies at the swap the other day. If it wasn't for all the ticks we have here I wouldn't have the stinky dumb noisy birds but we do have ticks really bad. They have decreased since I have been letting all the guineas out. We still have some, but nothing like we did. I put some guinea eggs in the incubator to see if any would hatch this time. Maybe I will get lucky & some will be fertile this time.

We got the frame all up on the goat shelter so now we have to start on the stupports for the roof next. I think my DH finally gets what I'm trying to do with this thing, it took awhile to get him to understand what I was trying to do. I even showed him a picture of the idea I was using, but he just isn't that good at figuring things like that out. I can visualize things in my head about what I'm wanting to do & then figure out how to make it happen, but he can't.

Rooster, I think we all need some of those sometimes, maybe you should patent some for people use. I'm glad I don't go in Orschelyn's that much.

 

[Polishpal]

Anyone know if a guinea can survive with a leg that turns to the left so that she hobbles?

 

[HEChicken]

Well my day yesterday continued to go South even late in the evening. I had the turkey poults back under the sweeter heater and all was well. It was 11:30 at night and DH came in and told me they were all dead. The stupid little things got in their waterer again and got chilled. I spent the next 45 minutes relocating them again and drying them with a hair dryer. They are back under a heat lamp. I figured out that they were used to having their waterer sit up on a half inch board and were getting their back ends in the water and it just wicks up. I put a board under it and got them back under a heat lamp and they are okay. I lost two last night and two more that weren't doing well during the night. The rest seem okay now... I hope.
Then I went in this morning to find 6 ducks had hatched in one of the incubators. It was some I took from a broody. One of them had gotten smashed and killed by the turner. I have no place to put the darned ducks right now. I had just moved the last batch outside. Still no word from my duck buyer or my back up duck buyer. Grrr! These guys are eating me out of house and home. I may have to start butchering some myself if something doesn't happen soon.
I have to get the hatcher cleared out today and get some more eggs in there. I had a bunch that didn't hatch. I had jacked the humidity up to hatch peafowl and of course it hurt my other hatches. I don't know how on earth I can manage this humidity issue when I hatch so many different birds.
I moved a dozen lemon cuckoo orpington eggs under the two exhibition orp hens that insist on being broody. I got pecked in the process too. But maybe they will leave the other hens eggs alone now and just concentrate on hatching what is under them. It am sure it will be a staggered hatch cause they had been sitting on some of those eggs for a while but if I can catch the chicks early and remove them I think they'll go ahead and hatch what is under them.

I'm sorry you're having such a lousy time of it lately. What kind of waterer do you use for the turkeys? I use one of those quart chick waterers and then move up to the same style as that but in the gallon size, as they get bigger. They only have about an inch to drink the water, so they aren't able to actually get in it.

For the peafowl, have you considered getting a separate incubator just for them? Doesn't have to be a $700 machine that hatches 300 eggs since I'm guessing you are only doing a few at a time. That way you can have the humidity set just for them without affecting other eggs in there. Just a thought.....I love my R-Coms as they are so easy - you just dial up the electronic dial to whatever temp and humidity you want, and it does the rest. They are pricey, but worth it to me to not have to stress over it. I was even able to go away for a few days and leave my eggs in the trusty care of the R-Com

Josie, it seems everyone has an opinion and sometimes you just have to smile sweetly and then continue doing things your own way. I had the opposite problem - my DD was born small and stayed that way. She was never even ON the growth charts and I had everyone telling me it was all wrong and she needed to gain weight. The nurse at the well baby clinic even gave me a list of tips for getting weight on her to get her up on the charts and pretty much everything on the list consisted of adding sugar or cream to everything she eats. I threw away the list and never went back after that. She was a super healthy baby - never even had so much as a cold until she was 2 years old. She was happy, and slept so well you could practically set your watch by her sleep/wake times at night and for naps. So I decided I was not going to contribute to her having unhealthy eating habits, just to get her on the chart that was formed using formula fed babies back in the 30's - not a breast-fed baby, in the 90's. Those of you who have met her know she is still a small girl now - it is just who she is. Who is to say what is the "perfect" weight when there are so many factors - genetics, health, diet etc? So - keep doing things your way and A will grow up just fine

Thanks for the advice on the roosters. I don't currently have a way to segregate them from the flock but I may see what I can come up with.

Well, birds are continuing to drop here in broody haven. I have confirmed my latest two hens are, in fact, broody, and not just uncharacteristically sleeping in the nest box last night. This is a really odd pair. One is my oldest hen, who has never been broody a day in her life. And the other is my youngest layer - one of the Reese NH hens I got in March. She is at best 7 months old. What is strange is they both decided on the exact same day that they are broody, so they are sitting side by side in the favorite nest box, which is a tight squeeze as they are both large hens. My Mille Fleur Silchin was already brooding in that nest box so they kicked her to the curb (well, actually the next nest box along) and she is too small to argue so she is just sitting looking grumpy in the box one over. That is 3 of the 6 boxes taken up with broody hens, and the other 3 are boxes no one ever lays in. I need to get some of these birds moved and then give them an egg or two each to hatch, without ending up with a bunch of 5-toed, crested, feathered legged, EE, BR crosses.

 

[chicken danz]

Polish Pal she can survive if she doesn't get picked on, but if she is young you can probably fix it.
I had a busy day with phone calls, visits, etc and didn't get much done. Trudigale came and got her goslings and I sexed them for her.
Josie she was very impressed with the colors I got out of that boy of yours. She had thought she was going to sell him but decided she would keep him if he throws pretty colors like that. I need to sex my own goslings. They are getting huge!!! I still have that one goose sitting on the nest of eggs but it seems like it has been too long so I suspect none of the eggs are good.
I have about all the geese I can handle as it is. But of course I would love to have more!
Then my guy came by to get chicken poop and cleaned out one hut for me. He was thrilled to have the poop. I told him he could always get poop cause the chickens keep making it.
I've got several broodies right now too. I normally keep taking the eggs but I am letting some sit right now hoping they'll get it out of their system for a while. I wish I was brave enough to let them incubate some of the other eggs like turkey or peafowl.
And the saga goes on with me. We had our power off today for quite a while. The chicks got chilled and the turkeys are shivering. Those poor things just can't catch a break. Hechicken I use the quart waterers with marbles in them and graduate to the gallon size just like them. They just seem to be drawn to the water for some reason. And when one gets wet the rest follow. Anything smaller they wouldn't be able to get a drink. I used to use quail waterers for my Seramas. Maybe I should try those instead.

 

[HEChicken]

That's really strange - none of my turkeys has ever gotten wet in one of those little waterers. Hopefully they will survive this latest chill from the power outage - those poor little things.

For what its worth, I had a chicken hen incubate and raise turkey poults and she did just great. They separated from her before their chickie siblings, and its been interesting as, with Madge broody in the hoop coop, those two little turkey poults now hang out with Ned, my tom, even diving under him occasionally if they want the comfort of warming under a parent's wing. I've watched him when they do that and he just looks kind of confused and very slowly steps backward to get them out from under him. They sleep next to him on the roost - one on each side of him, and follow him everywhere, doing whatever he does. Its really cute. Last night I watched and one of my bully hens went after a poult for no particular reason and pulled a feather out. The little poult squawked and ran away. I watched Ned and it was fascinating. He didn't overtly attack the hen, but he started stalking her, sidling up to her and making her move away. He just kept at it, until he forced her to go to the coop to retire. The whole time I was just thinking "Yeah Ned, for defending your offspring".

I now have a chicken hen co-parenting ducklings and she also is doing a great job. She doesn't even seem to mind when they jump in the water bowl. The ducklings also have a duckie Mama, but seem to prefer the chicken hen when they want to dive under a Mama to warm up.

I did however have a Silchin who sat on 3 turkey eggs and when they hatched, rejected them like they were aliens. The first two to hatch were 10' away from her, prone and shivering, but recovered quickly when I put them in the incubator to warm up. The third was zipping so I put it in the incubator and it hatched just fine. I couldn't even tell you now which three those were so no harm done, but only because I discovered the situation quickly.

So, it doesn't always go well and is a risk. I gave that Silchin one pure BR egg to sit on and it is due to hatch this weekend so we'll see how she does with a real chick. If she treats it the same, I won't let her sit any more eggs.

 

[Polishpal]

Thanks chicken danz! But um do you know how to fix it? Also she isn't picked on at least yet because they are only 1 week today

 

[HEChicken]

I gave that Silchin one pure BR egg to sit on and it is due to hatch this weekend so we'll see how she does with a real chick. If she treats it the same, I won't let her sit any more eggs.

How ironic. Immediately after writing this, I put the computer away to go out and do evening chores. After not checking on the Silchin for 3 weeks and seeing her off the nest only occasionally, I decided to see how things were going with her, and when I lifted her up, I immediately heard peeping! Her one egg has hatched and the chick was so newly hatched it was still wet but so far she seems very protective of it and not rejecting it at all like she did those alien turkey poults.