Consolidated Kansas

[cleansquared]

So should i pull the food from the run what do you all think?

 

[ChickieWickies]

Rooster, the kids are HUGE angry birds fans. Your pic made them laugh!

Danz, your place must seem empty now. Sorry you lost your backup roo, but at least you got to work him up in time.

Chicken math is dangerous!! I'm trying to convince myself that chicks don't "count" when keeping within the town's ordinance (only 8 ladies allowed here). We luckily only lost 3 (granted 2 were VERY friendly and well loved ladies), but now we're (the kids and I--hubby is NOT onboard yet

) thinking about adding several EE and large cochin ladies.

Zigzag, I thought about adding started pullets just to build up the flock quicker, but now I'm not so sure after what you said. We try to interact with all our birds--even the ones at Gma's that they aren't with every day. I don't know if I want to deal with unsocial birds. Gma laughed when we moved one of our black langshan ladies down there because our son thought his black roo felt embarrassed being the only black bird in a pen of white langshans. The idea never entered my mind, but it really bothered him. KIDS! Well, when we moved Belle into the new pen, my in-laws laughed at how tame she was. They joked, "We hope she doesn't expect as many treats here!"--As if she doesn't spoil them, too!!!

We have the EEs in a mixed pen with a Light Brahma hen and her two chicks. Our youngest adores these EEs. We also have 2) Ladies only 3) Cochins only 4) Langshans only.

Cleansquared, we have 2 babies being raised with their 2 mommas (long story) in the ladies' pen. We put the chick feed in its own feeder inside a nesting box the ladies didn't use. I put their water right in front of the box. The babies eat and drink easily. The older hens drink but can't get to the chick feed. The layer feed is in the elevated feeder also inside the coop. Your chicks will be led out into the pen by their momma soon, so make sure they have a water source low enough for them. Ours were hatched July 1st, and they learned how to walk back up the ramp and hop onto the roosts this weekend--they grow up so fast!!!

 

[22qZoo]

Hi, all. Whew, it's been a busy couple of weeks ,lots of good family,summer vacation stuff. ( other than a coon visit) . So we had to go to work. We had this old kids swingset tucked in some weeds at the edge of the yard that we just hadn't gotten around to getting rid of. Seemed like there was potential there, ( full disclosure , we have a lot of "stuff" around here that could have potential ) I seriously don't know that we saved any money by up-cycling but we really like how it turned out . I am SO great full to my sister (skills & tools) and DH (engineer) they were amazing!!!!! There are still some bells and whistles to finish but the security is solid . Oh, and so last night, first night the little ones were in the new digs the coons came back ! They didn't fair so well this time. Old dog got one and DH got another the mother got away tho.

Ralph , that snake in the tree with the chainsaw story combines all of my nightmares into one. EEEEW !

 

[cherwill]

More rain today! I'm happy to have it, but it was still fairly hot and humid today.

This is my litte neice who stayed with us last week with one of the ee babies..

She's adorable.

Well... what a lovely day! Rainy, cloudy and much cooler. Did I mention I love Spring, Fall, and Winter?

Summer is my least favorite season of all.

I didn't get much done over the weekend due to some health issues. The coop needed to be cleaned so I told DH to go get it cleaned. Knowing my DH, I decided to trudge over to the coop to make sure it is at least some what clean. Good thing I did. All he did was used the rake, mixed up all the crud in the sand, made some what of a pile of hays that fell off the nest box and call it good. If I wasn't there, he could have just dumped a load of the sand mixed with hays and what not.

I showed him what to do, how to sift the crud and leave the sand behind, clean the roost, the nest boxes, put hays in, put PDZ in the boxes along with DE, clean off the top of the boxes, etc. When I was there doing all the stuff, trying to show him how to do it, he just stood outside the coop, 1/2 listening.

Sigh... he wants all the fun with raising chickens and ducks but not the chores to go with it. When I asked him to dump all the dirty duck pond water out of the pool and refill it with fresh water, his response was "well, it rained all day and has fresh water already". LOL

OK. I'm done venting. LOL.

Cleansquared - welcome. Danz has all the great answers and info you are looking for. She is awesome! So is Rooster. He is the funny guy on our board.

Rooster - You sure got bit by the chicken math! But I'm glad you got Danz birds, I know they will be well cared for.

I am going to start looking into hatching some chicks come Sept so I can replace some of the ones I lost to predators. I need them for eggs. I keep dragging my feet not wanting to by a styrofoam bator and just stick to my iddy biddy Brinsea one so I don't over do it but I will re-think that in a month of 2 depends on how many chicks I want to hatch.

Enjoy the cooler weather, everyone. It won't last long. The heat will be in in a couple of days.

I hope you're feeling better. Go ahead and vent; we all have those moments when we need to.

I just had too......

LOL! I went through an Angry Birds phase about a year or so ago.

I love these dang chickens. They provide hours of entertainment.

They're so much fun, aren't they? Lots of people think I'm nuts when I say that, but it's true. Tonight I went out to lock up the coop. My girls are usually dispersed fairly evenly around the three roosts, but tonight 7 of the 10 were crammed together on one. Why, I don't know.

Rooster, it was nice meeting you yesterday & Babs you too! You had quite a load of chickens there, I hope you found places for them when you got them home.

I have not been feeling well for a few days, I got a hedge tree thorn stuck in my arm & it has been making me sick. I haven't been able to get it totally out of there yet & it's infected. I have been running a fever & just not feeling well. I read that they have tannin they give off, so it kind of is toxic. I usually have scratches all the time from those darned trees, but this time one got me really good. I was out there moving a pickup topper around trying to get it where I wanted it so I could put the new straw I got under there & got my arm too close to one of the trees beside there. I have half of the straw in the chicken run & the other half now under the topper. I had to find somewhere to put the straw because the chickens & goats were having a heyday spreading it all over the driveway. I had to block the goats from getting in there because they wanted to get under the topper & mess with the straw even after I got it in there, silly goats.

I sold a pair of rabbits today, so now I have a little more cage space to move some around that were crowded.

Trish, take care of that thorn. See a doctor if you have to. Blood poisoning is nothing to mess around with; my mother was confined to her bed for over a month because of it.

Hi, all. Whew, it's been a busy couple of weeks ,lots of good family,summer vacation stuff. ( other than a coon visit) . So we had to go to work. We had this old kids swingset tucked in some weeds at the edge of the yard that we just hadn't gotten around to getting rid of. Seemed like there was potential there, ( full disclosure , we have a lot of "stuff" around here that could have potential ) I seriously don't know that we saved any money by up-cycling but we really like how it turned out . I am SO great full to my sister (skills & tools) and DH (engineer) they were amazing!!!!! There are still some bells and whistles to finish but the security is solid . Oh, and so last night, first night the little ones were in the new digs the coons came back ! They didn't fair so well this time. Old dog got one and DH got another the mother got away tho.
Ralph , that snake in the tree with the chainsaw story combines all of my nightmares into one. EEEEW !

It looks terrific! I love when people are able to turn "trash" into something wonderful like this.

 

[Trish44]

I hope I'm posting in the right place. I have Bantam Cochin Roos that need rehoming. Lawrence KS.

One 4month old Black Cochin
One 4month old Red Frizzle Cochin
Two 3month old Red Cochins

These guys are gorgeous, friendly, hand-fed babies. The Frizzle has beautiful full feathering and all of them have spectacular coloring. They're already taking good care of their girls! (Even the big girls.)

Live In the city so they have to go. Just looking for a good home.

Come to the Kansas Poultry Swap page on FB & ask to join if you're not a member there & we'll approve you, then you can post your ad there. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/275183675880038/

Well I downsized some more while ago. Unfortunately not any I wanted to. We,unlike most of you, have had a hot humid day. But all of the sudden we got a cloudburst. Heavy rain for all of two minutes. It dropped the temp by over 20 degrees in 5 minutes. My German New Hamp rooster I held back to breed redstars had apparently jumped to rush into his pen and broken his neck. DH stepped out the back door and his heart was just beating the last few beats. I put some hot water on in a hurry, cut off his head and hung him. Brought the hot water to the back step,dipped him, plucked him (he plucked beautifully and clean with no pin feathers. LOVE fermented feed for that reason!!!) Brought him in to the kitchen sink, gutted him and bagged him in under 15 minutes. He hadn't stiffened up or even started to cool by the time I stuck him in the freezer. I was pretty proud after all that butchering yesterday that I could even do it. I did check him and he was in perfect health. Good healthy organs and nothing but a stupid broken neck. I have no spare now so I hope my Reece boy doesn't die for some reason. I either butchered or sold all the others I had.
Good to see you back Hechicken. I was wondering about you.

I'm so sorry about your rooster, gosh what a traumatic ending. I guess it's a good thing you just did that processing yesterday so it was fresh in your mind.

Hi, all. Whew, it's been a busy couple of weeks ,lots of good family,summer vacation stuff. ( other than a coon visit) . So we had to go to work. We had this old kids swingset tucked in some weeds at the edge of the yard that we just hadn't gotten around to getting rid of. Seemed like there was potential there, ( full disclosure , we have a lot of "stuff" around here that could have potential ) I seriously don't know that we saved any money by up-cycling but we really like how it turned out . I am SO great full to my sister (skills & tools) and DH (engineer) they were amazing!!!!! There are still some bells and whistles to finish but the security is solid . Oh, and so last night, first night the little ones were in the new digs the coons came back ! They didn't fair so well this time. Old dog got one and DH got another the mother got away tho.
Ralph , that snake in the tree with the chainsaw story combines all of my nightmares into one. EEEEW !

I'm glad you got most of the coons, but the other one will likely come back too. That's a nice chicken tractor, I need one of those for spare room once in awhile. You did a nice job on it.

 

[ashncarson]

I have been browsing this website for the last few days, it feels like non-stop! I am from Hutchinson and am wanting to raise chickens. We can have just 3 hens here. Right now we are looking at plans and getting ideas together! We will be making our own coop/run! We have 2 children, ages 10 1/2 and 6. We also already have 2 dogs, a cat and fish! We consume a lot of eggs, and I know that only being allowed 3 in the city probably won't produce me with extras for others, but it would supply enough for my family!

I'm hoping to learn more from you all, Thanks!

 

[Trish44]

I have been browsing this website for the last few days, it feels like non-stop! I am from Hutchinson and am wanting to raise chickens. We can have just 3 hens here. Right now we are looking at plans and getting ideas together! We will be making our own coop/run! We have 2 children, ages 10 1/2 and 6. We also already have 2 dogs, a cat and fish! We consume a lot of eggs, and I know that only being allowed 3 in the city probably won't produce me with extras for others, but it would supply enough for my family!

I'm hoping to learn more from you all, Thanks!

Welcome to BYC &
Have you thought about what breeds you want yet or researched any? Feel free to ask any questions you have & jump in any time. This thread does move pretty fast.

 

[babsaroo]

Tris.h it was very nice to meet u and your husband to. Sorry the visit was so short,rooster and i had been driving on the road for 2 days and was very very worn out and ready to get home. And we was very worried about all of the birds been in the heat..

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Wow - I have been out of action for a week or so and missed a ton of posts, it looks like. Rooster, that pic is just awful!!!

Its been a crazy time for us. We went out of town for a few days and of course everything went wrong while we were gone. The very first night the house-sitters were woken by our dogs barking like crazy at 2am. I am so glad they got up to check because two large dogs were trying to break into our sheep pen. We may not have official LGD's but our unofficial ones are doing a great job for us! The dogs were corralled in our garage overnight and next morning the owners called (per the ID tags they were wearing.) They expressed appreciation that we didn't shoot them. Egad. I'm glad they understood that was an option (though I reserve it for last resort) and hope they keep them at home in the future.

The next day my auto door which has worked flawlessly since it was installed, failed to close and I got a panicked call at bird bedtime. I suggested leave it open one night (and hope for the best) and next day called a handy neighbor who was happy to stop by to look at it. It turned out the birds had disconnected the wires leading to the battery so it was a 30 second fix to reconnect them. Why do things always go wrong when I'm not here to deal with them?

***major snip***

Hechicken - Was wondering where you were... It is murphy's law, isn't it? Nothing fails or stops working until you are gone! I'm just glad your dogs were doing their job and your chicken door is now working. ANDddd you had a short vacation to boot.

Welcome back!

I love these dang chickens. They provide hours of entertainment.

Jennyjane - Beautiful birds there!!! love that they get on the tree stump all together like they are trying to see far away on top of it.

Rooster, it was nice meeting you yesterday & Babs you too! You had quite a load of chickens there, I hope you found places for them when you got them home.

I have not been feeling well for a few days, I got a hedge tree thorn stuck in my arm & it has been making me sick. I haven't been able to get it totally out of there yet & it's infected. I have been running a fever & just not feeling well. I read that they have tannin they give off, so it kind of is toxic. I usually have scratches all the time from those darned trees, but this time one got me really good. I was out there moving a pickup topper around trying to get it where I wanted it so I could put the new straw I got under there & got my arm too close to one of the trees beside there. I have half of the straw in the chicken run & the other half now under the topper. I had to find somewhere to put the straw because the chickens & goats were having a heyday spreading it all over the driveway. I had to block the goats from getting in there because they wanted to get under the topper & mess with the straw even after I got it in there, silly goats.

I sold a pair of rabbits today, so now I have a little more cage space to move some around that were crowded.

Oh Trish - So sorry you got sick from the thorn. May be a trip to the Dr to get it all out and have the infection looked at? I had an infection from a spider bite (which I wasn't aware of) and it was at my tail bone. No fun at all and I had to be on Augmentin (sp?) for 14 days to get rid of it.

Well I downsized some more while ago. Unfortunately not any I wanted to. We,unlike most of you, have had a hot humid day. But all of the sudden we got a cloudburst. Heavy rain for all of two minutes. It dropped the temp by over 20 degrees in 5 minutes. My German New Hamp rooster I held back to breed redstars had apparently jumped to rush into his pen and broken his neck. DH stepped out the back door and his heart was just beating the last few beats. I put some hot water on in a hurry, cut off his head and hung him. Brought the hot water to the back step,dipped him, plucked him (he plucked beautifully and clean with no pin feathers. LOVE fermented feed for that reason!!!) Brought him in to the kitchen sink, gutted him and bagged him in under 15 minutes. He hadn't stiffened up or even started to cool by the time I stuck him in the freezer. I was pretty proud after all that butchering yesterday that I could even do it. I did check him and he was in perfect health. Good healthy organs and nothing but a stupid broken neck. I have no spare now so I hope my Reece boy doesn't die for some reason. I either butchered or sold all the others I had.
Good to see you back Hechicken. I was wondering about you.

Danz - Good thing you and your husband saw the rooster and got to it fast. Still feel bad that you lost the rooster you intended to breed. That happened to me twice this year. First the salmon faverolle rooster (just disappeared without a trace) and then lost my RIR rooster to the heat. I want to replace the RIR rooster with a younger chick so it is easier to integrate it into the flock. It is also good to hear that the fermented feeds did its job in keeping the bird healthy.

I hope I'm posting in the right place. I have Bantam Cochin Roos that need rehoming. Lawrence KS.

One 4month old Black Cochin
One 4month old Red Frizzle Cochin
Two 3month old Red Cochins

These guys are gorgeous, friendly, hand-fed babies. The Frizzle has beautiful full feathering and all of them have spectacular coloring. They're already taking good care of their girls! (Even the big girls.)

Live In the city so they have to go. Just looking for a good home.

jisele - Try the Kansas Poultry swap on FB like Trish said. You get lots of exposure there and I'm sure there are people who are looking for some of them birds you listed here.

Hi, all. Whew, it's been a busy couple of weeks ,lots of good family,summer vacation stuff. ( other than a coon visit) . So we had to go to work. We had this old kids swingset tucked in some weeds at the edge of the yard that we just hadn't gotten around to getting rid of. Seemed like there was potential there, ( full disclosure , we have a lot of "stuff" around here that could have potential ) I seriously don't know that we saved any money by up-cycling but we really like how it turned out . I am SO great full to my sister (skills & tools) and DH (engineer) they were amazing!!!!! There are still some bells and whistles to finish but the security is solid . Oh, and so last night, first night the little ones were in the new digs the coons came back ! They didn't fair so well this time. Old dog got one and DH got another the mother got away tho.
Ralph , that snake in the tree with the chainsaw story combines all of my nightmares into one. EEEEW !

22qZoo - Very nice coop and apparently you guys are quite talented to get it converted to good use! I was just looking at the playground set we have and thinking to myself, one of these days, when the kids are grown, I can convert it to a chicken coop!

I just had too......

Rooster - Did you pass that level of angry birds?

I could never get into the angry bird game but my kid sure loves it.

I have been browsing this website for the last few days, it feels like non-stop! I am from Hutchinson and am wanting to raise chickens. We can have just 3 hens here. Right now we are looking at plans and getting ideas together! We will be making our own coop/run! We have 2 children, ages 10 1/2 and 6. We also already have 2 dogs, a cat and fish! We consume a lot of eggs, and I know that only being allowed 3 in the city probably won't produce me with extras for others, but it would supply enough for my family!

I'm hoping to learn more from you all, Thanks!

ashncarson - welcome to the Kansas group. There are quite a few breeds that are good for egg production. RIR, BR, just to name a couple. Ask all the questions you want here. We have an awesome group and lots of people have birds for showing, egg production, or just as pets. Like Trish said, our threads do move pretty fast.

***************************************************************************************
That darn pinched nerve is still bothering me. It is worse first thing in the morning since the muscle got stiff over night. I may need to make an appt with the chiropractor to get an adjustment to see if it helps any. Normally taking Naproxin a few days will help but I've been taking it for at least 5 days now and no change. Plus the meds is doing a number to my stomach causing ulcer-like pain so I need to stop taking it to let the stomach recover.

My birds never ceased to amaze me. I was walking towards the coop and had the feed bowl in my hand. I also had a bowl of watermelon rind with me. This little (well, not so little any more but he is about 2 to 2.5 months old) salmon faverolle rooster bee lined towards me and trying to jump up to grab a hold of the bowl so he could chow down on the food. I was startled by him and dropped the watermelon rinds on the ground. Talking about being swamped by a flock of birds! I couldn't even move my legs to walk out of their way so they could eat the food and not make a mess on my feet (I was wearing flip flop - Danz... figure if it was good enough for you to wear flip flops around the birds, it was good enough for me too

).

Have a great day!

 

[HEChicken]

22qzoo, that recycled A-Frame coop is wonderful - I love it. Can you post more pics with details on how you did it (i.e., pics from all sides?)

Danz, so sorry about your rooster but congrats on the fast processing. I've done the same when I knew exactly WHEN a bird died - I figure I'd rather not let it go to waste at that point.

Ashncarson - welcome to Consolidated Kansas and BYC! This thread does move fast, as you've probably found if you've been reading for a few days. Feel free to jump in with any questions.

Well, I'm disappointed this morning. The first of my NH chicks hatched overnight and....it isn't a NH. It was definitely laid by the NH hen (I have her sequestered in the hoop coop and am only incubating eggs collected from there so I know she laid them all). It was one of the first collected but must still have been fertilized by my Barred Rock. The earliest it was laid was 2 days after I put her in the hoop coop (depending on which of the 6 eggs this was) and the NH cock had mated her multiple times by the time I started collecting her eggs, but I guess this answers the question of whether the freshest sperm ALWAYS is used to fertilize the egg. This one for sure was not. Now I'm just hoping some of the remaining 5 to hatch will turn out to be New Hamps. I really don't need any mixed breed birds so I'm afraid I may have to feed this one to one of my pet snakes (Hey - snakes have to eat too).

Last night I decided to do something I've been putting off for days, and that is to dig under all the broody hens and gather the eggs they're sitting on. I ended up with a huge basket of half-cooked eggs. Ick. Anyway, I pulled one duck egg out from under a duck and saw a big area of it at one end that was broken. I was disappointed, and held it in my hand ready to put it in the basket. I ran my thumb over the hole, trying to figure out what made it and.....something moved. Then it hit me - (you can all slap me about now) that it wasn't a broken egg - it was a PIPPED egg. LOL. It simply wasn't on my radar that there was anything due to hatch so it didn't occur to me. I hastily put it under another duck who has been sitting already for 10-12 weeks (none of the eggs she was sitting on hatched so she just kept sitting). I observed her for awhile after, and she kept looking under her and then getting straw to build up her nest better. She seemed really pleased to finally have something hatching under her. I didn't check on it yet this morning but I'm really hoping she finally has a duckling to raise.