Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Only seconds here. I am so far behind and was scanning. I planned to can last summer and never had a worthwhile garden. My new green beans I planted a few weeks ago are looking great with this new rain. I really really hope to have to dig out my canner for them.
You guys are missing a golden opportunity with the cucumbers. There is nothing and I mean nothing that the birds like better than cucumbers. They will literally jump in your lap to get more once they try them even if they aren't a "snuggly" chicken. If someone gave me a bunch of cucumbers I doubt I'd ever have an opportunity to make pickles. I grew tons of them last year and never ate a single one. I intended to make pickles. But I had very very happy birds. Mine were put in late so I haven't gotten any yet but there's a million blooms. I didn't plant all that many this year. I just failed to find the time.
I used to make pickles using the crocks and it took over 2 weeks of draining and putting hot water on them every night. They were really good though. Seems refrigerator pickles are never crisp. I still have my crocks and swear I will do it again some day.
My Dad wasn't doing well at all for his birthday. He didn't even hardly wake up to see us and looked awful. I honestly would not be surprised to loose him in a matter of days. He slept through most of his dinner and only managed to eat about 3 bits of food.
I am headed to town to deal with the city wide garage sale at my parents' old house today. I only brought a few things in but I sure don't want to take them home. One of them is a sectional couch. It's so heavy and takes a trailer and a couple men to move it.
At least we should generate some $$$ for my Dad's account from his things.

I'm sorry your dad isn't doing well, thoughts & prayers coming your way. I hope you do well with your sale.

I hope all fellow Kansans faired better than we did last night. Another 2 1/2 inches of rain and wind, lots of it. We went out around 1:00 am to find the chicken coop had been blown over onto its roof. Chickens, guineas, and turkeys scattered everywhere, we gathered up what we could find and put them in the shop. DH has been working so hard to get them a proper house and yard, it is just devastating to see this happen. Found all but maybe a couple of keets this morning and 1 of the turkey poults has a broken leg. I had moved the duck and geese to their new pen last night, which they hated, but I think it saved them. Now off to check on our beehives.

I'm sorry about your mishap with the birds. We didn't have all the wind, but did get more rain & a lot of lightening.

Josie, babies just take up a lot of time & energy when they're young. I didn't have my chickens & other birds until my son was a little older, maybe 3 or 4, I can't remember exactly. I'm sure she is missing grandma & auntie since she got so much extra attention while they were there. She will get back into her routine soon.

Well last night I got home a little later than I would have liked & was hurrying to get all the birds & animals fed before it got totally dark. I let the goats wait until I was done feeding all the birds & getting them in & boy was that a mistake. Evidently goats can't see well in the dark & I got Penny into the pen with some food, but Patches would come to the top of the path, look down the dark path & turn around. She kept running off with my GP Lily, she must have felt safe with her & I was getting frustrated. Finally I finished feeding everything & just had to leave her out laying with the dog by the house. When my DH got home we were able to get a leash on her & he pulled & I pushed & we managed to get her down to the pen, but she was in full panic mode yelling all the way. It was starting to rain by this point so I was glad we were able to get her in because she would have hated to be sitting out getting wet. Next time I will go back to putting the goats in first before I feed the birds. They have always gone in pretty willingly, but I have never waited so late before to get them in either.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Tweety- we love cucumbers that way! I use that Vietnamese chili garlic sauce and vinegar and sugar. We chowed down a huge bowl of that one hot afternoon after putting up hay, so refreshing .

Yep, that's how we eat our cucumbers most of the time or we just stir fry them with shrimp (dried or freshly minced). When I was a kid, my grandma would cut out the middle seedy part and let me eat it. She said it helped cool me down in the summer heat.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Only seconds here. I am so far behind and was scanning. I planned to can last summer and never had a worthwhile garden. My new green beans I planted a few weeks ago are looking great with this new rain. I really really hope to have to dig out my canner for them. You guys are missing a golden opportunity with the cucumbers. There is nothing and I mean nothing that the birds like better than cucumbers. They will literally jump in your lap to get more once they try them even if they aren't a "snuggly" chicken. If someone gave me a bunch of cucumbers I doubt I'd ever have an opportunity to make pickles. I grew tons of them last year and never ate a single one. I intended to make pickles. But I had very very happy birds. Mine were put in late so I haven't gotten any yet but there's a million blooms. I didn't plant all that many this year. I just failed to find the time. I used to make pickles using the crocks and it took over 2 weeks of draining and putting hot water on them every night. They were really good though. Seems refrigerator pickles are never crisp. I still have my crocks and swear I will do it again some day. My Dad wasn't doing well at all for his birthday. He didn't even hardly wake up to see us and looked awful. I honestly would not be surprised to loose him in a matter of days. He slept through most of his dinner and only managed to eat about 3 bits of food. I am headed to town to deal with the city wide garage sale at my parents' old house today. I only brought a few things in but I sure don't want to take them home. One of them is a sectional couch. It's so heavy and takes a trailer and a couple men to move it. At least we should generate some $$$ for my Dad's account from his things.

Danz, so sorry to hear that your dad is not doing well. Keeping you and family in my thoughts and prayers.

Maybe you guys can help me figure this out. About half of my birds seem really thin to me, they are the younger ones( 6 mo.or so)and was wondering if its normal. They have food in front of them 24/7 infact they seem to waste a lot of it, they have about 900sq ft to roam around in during the day and then I let them out for a couple of hours at night to free range, I do give them some scraps from the house but nothing sugary only vegis or meat scraps and sometimes yogurt, I have been doing ff for about 2 weeks, I wormed them with ivermectin . The older girls ( 16 mos.)are better but even some of them seem a little thin. This is bugging me cuz I'm kind of a foodie and like to cook, everything else around here I've managed to fatten- up pretty good. Thoughts?

My birds are not super big in the summer. They tend to puff up in the winter with fuller feathers and give then corn to help them a bit, energy wise. Mine are moulting right now and some look down right pathetic.

I hope all fellow Kansans faired better than we did last night. Another 2 1/2 inches of rain and wind, lots of it. We went out around 1:00 am to find the chicken coop had been blown over onto its roof. Chickens, guineas, and turkeys scattered everywhere, we gathered up what we could find and put them in the shop. DH has been working so hard to get them a proper house and yard, it is just devastating to see this happen. Found all but maybe a couple of keets this morning and 1 of the turkey poults has a broken leg. I had moved the duck and geese to their new pen last night, which they hated, but I think it saved them. Now off to check on our beehives.

So sorry to hear of your injured turkey poult and missing meets. We had plenty of lighting and about 1/2" of rain but no damaging wind.

What a great idea! I will have to try this. Our stock tank is always so filthy and I hate dumping and scrubbing it constantly. How much do you add? Sorry to hear your dad isn't doing well. How thin are they? Chickens really shouldn't be "fat" unless you are going to butcher them. It is really hard on them to carry extra weight. If their keel is really sticking out you might be concerned but lean birds are healthy birds. What percentage of protein do you feed and have you dewormed them at all? There is a new dewormer out now that is specifically for chickens and approved for laying hens! I am getting some so I don't have to deal with chasing birds around to dose them. Its a pellet you mix with their feed. http://www.jefferspet.com/campaign_product.asp?camid=LIV&pn=16800 So I am terribly far behind. Tried to catch up on everyone but sorry I couldn't reply more! My mom and sister had a great visit and I am pretty lonely without them. Amelia is missing all the company too. She has been hard to get to sleep at night and kinda fussy during the day. I think she gets used to being held a lot while they are here and I can't hold her all day and the fussing to be held is overwhelming sometimes. I feel like I can't do enough for her. Will be very glad to get moved back near my family in a few years. It is hard to get out and take care of animals too when there is nobody to watch her and most days she is happy to come along in the carrier but not always. I am really going to thin the chickens back. I am going to sell a large handful of pullets, the seramas, the lavender orps, a bunch of cochin chicks and some of the goslings. I think that will really help. They are a lot of work and I feel like I can't take good care of them if I can barely get out there to feed and water.

Josie, baby seems to be quite needy at this age. My mom told me when I had my first kid to not hold her much or she would keep wanting to be held. Easier said than done. I'm sure your baby is used to having grandma and aunt being around. Hopefully she will be back to her routine soon. If you are selling your sebbie goslings, please let me know. My son has been asking for a pair for the last month or so.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Oh my Okiequeen sorry about the disaster. I always get so nervous when high winds come through.

Danz I am sorry to hear about your dad. My thoughts are with you and your dad in this time.

Well today is moving day for the 5 week old guinea. Their shelter is ready and waiting. I have held off because it seems as though they have some weird sinus infection. They are all doing great now and only sneezing, no more puffy sinuses. I am moving them anyway they are strong and act normal just have sneezes. I just hope I am not rushing it

 

[cherwill]

I don't know what my thing is with cucumbers. I just don't use them quickly. We like them. I make cucumber salads, and lately I've been making a lot of cucumber and radish salads, but I still end up with unused cucumbers. Tweety, I've heard of using cucumber slices on the eyes to reduce puffiness. I never think to do it, though when my sinuses are bad, it would probably help a lot. HEchicken, I'd love to have the cuke salsa recipe if you don't mind sharing.

One of our neighbors took a plot at the community garden, then let it go to weed. He's given it to two people over the summer who never got around to doing anything with it. DH mowed it earlier this week just to keep it from getting completely out of hand. Now he wants us to take it. I have wax bush beans, carrots, and beets I want to plant in it. I'm not sure when I can, though, because it's soaking wet and there's no way to till it until it dries out. That will give me an idea if I'm really going to want another plot next year so I can put up more produce.

I used to can a bunch when I was younger & had a bigger garden. One year I made gifts for family when we had gotten laid off, each household got 3 kinds of pickles & an assortment of jam. I thought it was a pretty nice gift, I'm not sure they thought it was though.

I would think that was a fabulous gift, but I guess I'm odd. I have given food gifts to my various family members, and so has my aunt. Except for me and my aunt, I doubt anyone ever used any of it. My mom would sometimes get it out when we all got together so it would get used up without her having to use it.

No one in my family will use our eggs, either, because they're not uniform in size and some have blood spots. My MIL and FIL can't get enough of them, though.

You guys are missing a golden opportunity with the cucumbers. There is nothing and I mean nothing that the birds like better than cucumbers. They will literally jump in your lap to get more once they try them even if they aren't a "snuggly" chicken. If someone gave me a bunch of cucumbers I doubt I'd ever have an opportunity to make pickles. I grew tons of them last year and never ate a single one. I intended to make pickles. But I had very very happy birds. Mine were put in late so I haven't gotten any yet but there's a million blooms. I didn't plant all that many this year. I just failed to find the time.

My chickens got lots of cucumbers last year because they were all bitter. They didn't seem to notice.


My Dad wasn't doing well at all for his birthday. He didn't even hardly wake up to see us and looked awful. I honestly would not be surprised to loose him in a matter of days. He slept through most of his dinner and only managed to eat about 3 bits of food.
I am headed to town to deal with the city wide garage sale at my parents' old house today. I only brought a few things in but I sure don't want to take them home. One of them is a sectional couch. It's so heavy and takes a trailer and a couple men to move it.
At least we should generate some $$$ for my Dad's account from his things.

I'm sorry your dad isn't doing well.

Maybe you guys can help me figure this out. About half of my birds seem really thin to me, they are the younger ones( 6 mo.or so)and was wondering if its normal. They have food in front of them 24/7 infact they seem to waste a lot of it, they have about 900sq ft to roam around in during the day and then I let them out for a couple of hours at night to free range, I do give them some scraps from the house but nothing sugary only vegis or meat scraps and sometimes yogurt, I have been doing ff for about 2 weeks, I wormed them with ivermectin . The older girls ( 16 mos.)are better but even some of them seem a little thin.
This is bugging me cuz I'm kind of a foodie and like to cook, everything else around here I've managed to fatten- up pretty good. Thoughts?

Layers and dual purpose birds don't get as fat as those meant only for meat. Also, my birds tend to be thinner when they're molting, which they are right now.

I hope all fellow Kansans faired better than we did last night. Another 2 1/2 inches of rain and wind, lots of it. We went out around 1:00 am to find the chicken coop had been blown over onto its roof. Chickens, guineas, and turkeys scattered everywhere, we gathered up what we could find and put them in the shop. DH has been working so hard to get them a proper house and yard, it is just devastating to see this happen. Found all but maybe a couple of keets this morning and 1 of the turkey poults has a broken leg. I had moved the duck and geese to their new pen last night, which they hated, but I think it saved them. Now off to check on our beehives.

What a mess; I'm so sorry for the damage the wounded turkey poult.

The tree trimmer we hired with our neighbor, waaaaay back after that major wind storm, finally came yesterday. Just in time, I guess!

My mom and sister had a great visit and I am pretty lonely without them. Amelia is missing all the company too. She has been hard to get to sleep at night and kinda fussy during the day. I think she gets used to being held a lot while they are here and I can't hold her all day and the fussing to be held is overwhelming sometimes. I feel like I can't do enough for her. Will be very glad to get moved back near my family in a few years. It is hard to get out and take care of animals too when there is nobody to watch her and most days she is happy to come along in the carrier but not always. I am really going to thin the chickens back. I am going to sell a large handful of pullets, the seramas, the lavender orps, a bunch of cochin chicks and some of the goslings. I think that will really help. They are a lot of work and I feel like I can't take good care of them if I can barely get out there to feed and water.

I'm glad you had such a great time with your family. Sometimes I think I see way too much of mine, but I'm often reminded that's better than not enough.

 

[ChickieWickies]

Trish, we were getting ready to judge in the poultry barn when that storm hit yesterday. The chickens were NOT happy, but I think I saw some ducks smiling! They even postponed the arena for more than an hour because they didn't want kids moving animals in the lightning and rain.

Danz, hopefully your dad starts feeling better soon and the sale goes well.

Josie, we've all been there, but it still doesn't make it any easier. My 15-yr-old "baby" still functions better on her baby schedule (she was a 2nd shift baby--stay up late at night and sleep late in the morning like daddy). She can't wait until college when she can have all afternoon classes. Josie, if you want to sell some of your cochins, let me know. We'll come up.

OkieQueenBee, you are so lucky you didn't lose all your birds. I bet they were frantic!

 

[Frizzled Pink]

Darn lost my multi's

Hechicken could you send me the cucumber salsa recipe. That sound right up my alley!

My sister and i are keeping our dad busy, last week we gave him 50 lbs of apples off the garden tree and got homemade applesauce back, today we picked/stemmed/juiced 2 bushels of grapes and he will make jelly tomorrow. I think it was Trish that said she made homemade gifts one year--that is my favorite kind!!! My SIL has a military husband so i havent really had the chance to form the bond that i want, and one year she made me a quilt--it was beautiful and i actually broke down in tears because that meant so much to me! More exciting on that homefront we found out just a week ago that they will be stationed in FT Leavenworth come September. Yippee!

OH NO about the coop blowing over. I think it would take weeks for my heart to slow down to regular speed for something like that. Hope everything turns out okay for you.

Josie-if you have milles that came from Lynnes line for sale, i would be interested in seeing pics

Danz--sorry about your Dad, sending you thoughts and prayers.

 

[chicken danz]

Maybe you guys can help me figure this out. About half of my birds seem really thin to me, they are the younger ones( 6 mo.or so)and was wondering if its normal. They have food in front of them 24/7 infact they seem to waste a lot of it, they have about 900sq ft to roam around in during the day and then I let them out for a couple of hours at night to free range, I do give them some scraps from the house but nothing sugary only vegis or meat scraps and sometimes yogurt, I have been doing ff for about 2 weeks, I wormed them with ivermectin . The older girls ( 16 mos.)are better but even some of them seem a little thin.
This is bugging me cuz I'm kind of a foodie and like to cook, everything else around here I've managed to fatten- up pretty good. Thoughts?

Sometimes I think I am starving some of my birds so I know what you mean. Tons of feed and freeranging and many are boney feeling. I obsess about keeping them wormed but then I just finally figured out some birds just aren't meaty. When I butchered some roosters that seems skinny a while back and saw all that fat I decided I was just being obsessive as usual.
Posted by OkieQueenBee

What a great idea! I will have to try this. Our stock tank is always so filthy and I hate dumping and scrubbing it constantly. How much do you add?
Sorry to hear your dad isn't doing well.
How thin are they? Chickens really shouldn't be "fat" unless you are going to butcher them. It is really hard on them to carry extra weight. If their keel is really sticking out you might be concerned but lean birds are healthy birds. What percentage of protein do you feed and have you dewormed them at all? There is a new dewormer out now that is specifically for chickens and approved for laying hens! I am getting some so I don't have to deal with chasing birds around to dose them. Its a pellet you mix with their feed. http://www.jefferspet.com/campaign_product.asp?camid=LIV&pn=16800
So I am terribly far behind. Tried to catch up on everyone but sorry I couldn't reply more! My mom and sister had a great visit and I am pretty lonely without them. Amelia is missing all the company too. She has been hard to get to sleep at night and kinda fussy during the day. I think she gets used to being held a lot while they are here and I can't hold her all day and the fussing to be held is overwhelming sometimes. I feel like I can't do enough for her. Will be very glad to get moved back near my family in a few years. It is hard to get out and take care of animals too when there is nobody to watch her and most days she is happy to come along in the carrier but not always. I am really going to thin the chickens back. I am going to sell a large handful of pullets, the seramas, the lavender orps, a bunch of cochin chicks and some of the goslings. I think that will really help. They are a lot of work and I feel like I can't take good care of them if I can barely get out there to feed and water.

Thanks for the link Josie. I've been looking for something new to worm with due to the cost of ivermectin. This sounds awesome and like it covers several bases.
I wish I was there to spoil Amelia! I had to walk outside and let my oldest daughter just cry for an hour or so once to break her being spoiled. It is so hard to do. I sat outside and cried instead. But it did work.
Quote:

I'm sorry your dad isn't doing well, thoughts & prayers coming your way. I hope you do well with your sale.
I'm sorry about your mishap with the birds. We didn't have all the wind, but did get more rain & a lot of lightening.

Josie, babies just take up a lot of time & energy when they're young. I didn't have my chickens & other birds until my son was a little older, maybe 3 or 4, I can't remember exactly. I'm sure she is missing grandma & auntie since she got so much extra attention while they were there. She will get back into her routine soon.

Well last night I got home a little later than I would have liked & was hurrying to get all the birds & animals fed before it got totally dark. I let the goats wait until I was done feeding all the birds & getting them in & boy was that a mistake. Evidently goats can't see well in the dark & I got Penny into the pen with some food, but Patches would come to the top of the path, look down the dark path & turn around. She kept running off with my GP Lily, she must have felt safe with her & I was getting frustrated. Finally I finished feeding everything & just had to leave her out laying with the dog by the house. When my DH got home we were able to get a leash on her & he pulled & I pushed & we managed to get her down to the pen, but she was in full panic mode yelling all the way. It was starting to rain by this point so I was glad we were able to get her in because she would have hated to be sitting out getting wet. Next time I will go back to putting the goats in first before I feed the birds. They have always gone in pretty willingly, but I have never waited so late before to get them in either.

LOL Trish, that is why I finally decided to sell all my goats. I played too much tug of war from one end or another with a goat. I finally decided I couldn't physically handle it.

Thanks all of you for your prayers and sentiments. My Dad is being stepped up on care which is going to cost us more a month as of Monday. I couldn't believe how much worse he had gotten in one week. Yesterday was his 90th birthday. I honestly had to go back outside to wipe my eyes after I saw him. Everytime the phone rings and it's a family member I panic for fear he has passed away.

The garage sale went much better than I expected. We will have to have a much larger one soon to get more items sold from my parents' house. I did sell my sectional couch almost immediately with no price haggle, plus a couple of other things I wondered if it were worthwhile to take to town. We made a little over $300 on just small things, a lot of it was Avon stuff my mother had. She had sold Avon since the late 70's up until about 6 months before she passed away so there was a huge collection of it. And we also had some excess kitchen items that went pretty fast. My Dad went on a buying spree after my Mom's death buying all kinds of kitchen stuff. I think he was trying to keep his mind occupied.
Later in the afternoon my sister and I left her husband in charge for a little while and I picked up a piece of linoleum for $6 to use in one of the chicken coops. I don't necessarily need it right now but I paid a lot more for a scrap when I did earlier.
I had had an Aquarium advertised on Craigslist for some time and had just renewed the add a week or so ago. I got a call about that and it sold while I was gone. DH took care of that for me.
Then when I was on my way home I had a lady call me about peachicks. She showed up and bought 4 of them. I was so happy. So I had a decent day myself as well.
I sold all my other chicken chicks except two lavenders I held back for a gal who is driving all the way from Andover tomorrow. I figured if she was willing to drive that far for two chicks I would hold them for her. I made a point to pull out two pullets (I think) for her. Since I sold all the chicks I've had several calls. I've told them all mid September I'd have more chicks so I guess I should start setting eggs soon.
All in all it was a pretty good day but I am dead tired.
Can't wait to get to bed tonight!!!

 

[Trish44]

It has been raining here off & on all day & at one point it was raining & the sun was shining. I was out in it all day working on my hoop coop. I had just decided I was going to get the darned thing done weather or no weather, so I worked out there for 5 hours today & now I'm just pooped out. I got all the hardware cloth on & got the door covered with it too & the tarp on. All I have left now is to put the door up & I'm done, yay! I hope to get that done tomorrow, but we have rain forecast again. Tomorrow it's an 80% chance of rain, so I may not get the door hung, we'll see. I would love to move the turkeys in there tomorrow, but it may have to wait till Monday.

I let the turkeys out today & as soon as I opened the door & that hen came out off she went, calling as she walked. I'm wondering now after seeing that if she has a wild boyfriend out there somewhere. We have wild turkeys all over the place here. She didn't come back tonight either & she's going to be one wet bird again. Only one guinea returned tonight too out of 10, so I have no idea where they all went to either. They're going to be wet birds too.

I was trying to get all the hardware cloth on everything to have that task done for the hoop coop so I was a little bit later getting started feeding tonight. I thought well this time I'm going to get the goats in first before I feed any of the birds. I got the youngest goat in with no problem, turned around & the other hadn't followed. Darnit! I went back up to try to get her to follow & she was having none of it again, grrrr I was so mad because I had nobody to help me tonight since my DH is gone to see his family. So I chased her around the yard for awhile & she just wasn't cooperating at all, so I thought OK we'll try the cookie trick. I went in the house & got some doggie cookies that we had tried the night before & she likes them. She smelled one & immediately wanted it, so I let her have a bite & then made her come farther & farther giving her a little at a time until I got her into the pen. She looked around & the look on her face was like, hey you fooled me. I hurried up & locked the gate before she decided she was coming back out. I don't know what has suddenly gotten into her. She has been so good about going in at night up until last night.

 

[22qZoo]

Okiequeenbee-how are you doing? So sorry about the storm damage, how are the bees?
The weather man just said that Witchita and Hutch. have had 14 in. of rain while up here in KC area we've had 3.
Josiechick - I would guess it's probably about a half a cup in one of those oval black stock tanks
Thanks all for the info on my "skinny" chickens , they seem pretty healthy otherwise,shiny feathers,lots of energy. It must just be the younger ones are growing so much they haven't slowed down enough to bulk-up.