Consolidated Kansas

[lizzyGSR]

Take it easy! Make sure you pack your laptop when the time comes for baby!

Don't worry! I most definitely won't make that mistake again! I even took my work laptop with me to my doctor's appointment yesterday, for fear that the doctor would put me back in the hospital! As it turns out, I spent more time in town than I had expected (thanks to unexpected lab work) and was really glad to have it with me! No more leaving anywhere without my laptop now - even for "just a checkup".

What Danz said. You have to take care of yourself for just a few more weeks. The mother in me wants to come and give you a time out. Yes, that is a good idea. Get bags packed and put your feet up.

Your post made me smile! I completely plan on taking it easy from here on out. I have no intentions of disobeying the doctor's orders. My hubby has even voluntarily been picking up the slack - even on things that I could do myself, like medicating the two birds that are still on antibiotics. He did that for me this morning without being asked because he felt sorry for me having to get up and down off the floor... Forcing pills down them takes both hands, so I have to hold them with my legs, which requires sitting on the floor. The duck, especially, really doesn't like to be held and will dash away the minute you let go... The last thing I need is an uncooperative duck loose in the house, so I have to get up with one hand on the bird. NOT as easy as it used to be... Anyway, he didn't want me to have to do that, so he did it for me this morning!

Lizzy I am glad you are okay. It's time to have DH and anyone else you can call on take care of the horses. The longer you can carry that baby the better it will be ready for the world. I am so sorry you had such a scare. I do hope you can go at least another 2-3 weeks without delivering. Is your husband going to be home without traveling in the next few weeks?

Yes, my DH will take over the daily walks out to get the horses. He isn't crazy about those walks, but I know he understands why I can't do it. I really enjoy my horses and was really dreading the thought of being on strict bed rest, so I am happy that I can still go out and see the horses and say 'hi' to them once he brings them down. I have also been working very hard on training my project horse recently, and I am beginning to see the results. I can move him away from me with just the smallest bit of effort - waving my finger, patting the air, lightly touching him... It is kind of hard for him to hurt me when he responds to such light pressure.

X2. We expect to hear from you Lizzy with the news as soon as you can! I can't wait to see if it is a boy or a girl.

I will do my best to let you all know as soon as I can after Baby is born. I am excited as well, but the thought of Baby coming early is a little bit daunting because there are still things that I wanted done (like cleaning up, fixing and painting the dresser so I can put Baby's clothes away) that still aren't done yet. I guess that is when I take advantage of all the offers of help that I've received recently... My poor DH can't do EVERYTHING!

Also, I realized that I hadn't updated here with a recent "bump" picture... Here I am a little more than a week ago at 34 weeks. With all the excitement this weekend, I wasn't able to get another bump picture... However, I did go for maternity photos yesterday, so I can try to post one or two of those here once I get them. The photographer was a blast to work with, and she showed me a couple of the shots on her camera (completely unedited). I am super excited to see the rest because the ones I saw looked really good with no touch-ups or editing!

 

[lizzyGSR]

I almost forgot! I think it would be fun to hear guesses on Baby's gender... Some people say that you can tell by where Mom carries her bump... What do ya'll think? Boy or Girl?

 

[zigzag45]

Today was a fun day. First, we heard alot of scratching in the nesting box (the nesting box(es) they had been ignoring lately), then a hen comes out singing the egg song. The whole crew went out to check and we had our first egg. Pretty exciting!


Also, took a picture of a few of them on their perch Saturday. I told them Danz and crew was going to be seeing the picture so they straightened up a bit....


The brahmas have continued liking to sit on the chain link fence around the yard. I hate to think of having to clip one of their wings, but I think I'm going to have to try. I really don't like the idea of having to keep them confined to a 10x10 run either - that seems worse. I'll read up on how to do it. But, for the birds and their health, are there any drawbacks? Outside of frustrating them when they try to get airborne, does it do anything to them? I feel like I'm marring or maiming them.

 

[chicken danz]

Congrats ZigZag on the egg. That is exciting. Nope clipping a wing doesn't hurt and it won't bother them a bit. It certainly is better than being eaten by a dog or something. I think by the time they grow the wing feathers back out they'll probably have enough weight on them to keep them off the fence. My brahmas are all so heavy about 2 feet is their limit to getting up on something.

 

[chicken danz]

Okay I had a long post just totally disappear. I hope I don't repeat myself if this shows up later.
First Cherwill, My trip and time in the garden certainly wasn't worth the effort in work load. The squash bugs have taken their toll for sure. At least the birds got plenty to eat.
I took some young guineas and put them in the garden yesterday but they were so freaked out they could have been sitting in a pile of bugs and never noticed. So next year I am thinking of just setting up a small pen in the garden for the young ones and then letting them out once they are used to the area. They could fly out if they wanted but they should go back to roost in the same spot. These darned bugs are killing everything.
I do think I may need to plant tomatoes elsewhere though. I have so much foliage you can't find the tomatoes. I may have to make green tomato salsa or something if it freezes soon.
Lizzy I am pretty proud of my ability after having 5 kids of my own to look at someone and tell what they are going to have. You are kind of confusing. My first impulse is that you are carrying low so it would be a boy. But then I look at you again and think it is more all over so then it would be a girl. Would you say you have more pressure on your lungs and stomach or on your bladder?
Queenbee looks like you are going to have a nice group of marans in your future. I sent you a PM by the way and need an answer soon if possible.
Those fuzz butts were just what hatched over three days. My brooder house is also full ....at least another 150 - 200 chicks in there.
I need to get a couple more grow out pens figured out. I already have two of them that are overcrowded and no place to put the birds yet.
I have to make a trip to town this afternoon. I would rather stay home and get some work done here. I have so much more to do before the weather turns cold.
Sounds like this weekend is going to be downright chilly.

 

[HEChicken]

Lizzy, I'm glad it didn't turn out to be something serious enough to result in a premature birth, and that you are back home and able to do your normal stuff for a little longer. I don't know your set up, but is there any reason the horses can't stay turned out 24/7? If you grain morning and/or evening, they will learn to come in for grain without anyone having to walk out and get them.

Danz, I learned the hard way that too much nitrogen in the soil will cause tomato plants to grow big and bushy with lots of greenery but they won't set much fruit. Guess what has a lot of nitrogen in it? Yup - fresh chicken poop. I used to just empty my coop onto my garden but after a year where my plants were 7' tall and each produced only a handful of tomatoes, I learned to restrict the coop contents to one end of the garden where I am growing greens like chard, kale, collards (that I don't mind growing lots of greenery) and the other end I just mulch with hay that has NOT been in the chicken coop. That worked really well for me this year and my tomato plants are a reasonable size but not 7' tall and more importantly, they are LOADED with fruit. I can barely keep up with them.

Now, if you compost the chicken coop bedding for a year or preferably two, then it should be fine to use it where you are growing tomatoes.

Okay everyone, I'd like some input if you will. We have two medium sized dogs right now who fit really well into our family and lifestyle but they are outside dogs and just lately I've been kind of hankering for an inside pet dog. I have never had a small dog - mine have always been 40lb or bigger - so I don't know a lot about the different breeds. Ultimately if I decide to adopt, I'll probably get a mutt from a rescue like I always do but....I'd like some input into what breeds might be compatible with my lifestyle. Here's what I know I don't want:

* A dog that requires grooming. When I look at little dogs on rescue sites, it seems like most of them need to be taken to the groomers on a regular basis (not something I thought about, but just an observation). Dogs like maltese, pekinese, poodles etc., all seem to have beautiful coats that would require maintenance and that is just not my thing.

* A terrier. This is only because of the chickens. Right now I have two extremely poultry safe dogs and I love that they can be out roaming among the birds and it is not a stress factor for me worrying about what might happen when I turn my back. The last thing I want is to bring in another dog that if it tries to follow me out to see the birds - or if someone just lets it out the door to go potty - I wind up losing birds. My sense about terriers is that because they were bred as hunting dogs, most would not be good around poultry but if I am wrong about that, please let me know.

That's actually my total list of requirements, but I realize they narrow it down quite a bit I've never really cared for chihuahuas, dachshunds or pugs (well, pugs are cute but the snuffly, snuffly noises they make aren't). So far the only breed that is on my "yes" list is Corgis but I know there must be others out there that are neither fluffy nor a terrier. When I say "small", I am thinking 10-20lb but that is a flexible criteria. Too small and I would worry about hurting it if I step on it accidentally, and too big and it may as well go and live outside with the other dogs.

So - what do you have for me? Any suggestions?

 

[lizzyGSR]

Lizzy I am pretty proud of my ability after having 5 kids of my own to look at someone and tell what they are going to have. You are kind of confusing. My first impulse is that you are carrying low so it would be a boy. But then I look at you again and think it is more all over so then it would be a girl. Would you say you have more pressure on your lungs and stomach or on your bladder?

Ok, definitely the bladder! I notice that I get short of breath easier than usual if I try to do too much, but that usually only happens when I'm doing more than I should! The bladder is definitely the bigger problem! However, you should know that most people who see me say that they think I"m having a boy. Those who go by other old wives tales (like baby's heart rate) say 'girl'. Baby's heart rate has been bouncing between 130 and 150 recently. They say anything over 140 is a girl... At the baby shower that my home church held for me, they had a list of old wives tales and they asked guests to fill in the blanks as to whether the given wives tale suggested that Baby would be a boy or girl. then, they looked at me and asked me which was it was going for me. EVERY SINGLE one of the old wives tales that I could answer said "girl". However, EVERYONE who goes just off of sight says "boy", just like you just did, Danz.

Lizzy, I'm glad it didn't turn out to be something serious enough to result in a premature birth, and that you are back home and able to do your normal stuff for a little longer. I don't know your set up, but is there any reason the horses can't stay turned out 24/7? If you grain morning and/or evening, they will learn to come in for grain without anyone having to walk out and get them.

We are still in the clenches of a bad drought out here. We don't feel comfortable leaving the horses out to pasture 24/7 because we are afraid that there won't be any pasture left for them by the time January comes if we let them have all they want now. And, the grain thing doesn't work because they would much rather have their fill of grass than get some grain and then be locked up for a while. We've been giving them grain every evening for almost a year now, and they still don't come down to the house for it unless it is in the middle of winter.

 

[blavis]

When can I switch from a waterer that sits on the ground to a homemade one that has the nipples and stays off the ground and STAYS CLEAN!!!!!

They are 13 days old and growing fast!!!!

 

[HEChicken]

Quote:
Any time! Lizzy, I meant to say also that I predict a girl. In my experience and that of my girlfriends when we were all pregnant at the same time, with girls, we were exhausted in the first trimester but with our boys it was "business as usual". I seem to remember you talking about being tired in the beginning. I remember with my DD, it felt like I was wading through honey to get anything done (i.e., the amount of effort it took to do everything compared to walking through air normally). That ended around 12-14 weeks, but with my boys I didn't have that at all.

 

[zigzag45]

When can I switch from a waterer that sits on the ground to a homemade one that has the nipples and stays off the ground and STAYS CLEAN!!!!!

They are 13 days old and growing fast!!!!

I have some nipples I haven't started using yet as most people say they drip. My main drinker is inside the coop and I use poultry drinking cups rigged into PVC. It's done great. No leaks, no water spilled out, it stays clean... I love it. What's funny is I've never seen the birds use it, but it's their only source of water, if it wasn't working they'd have died months ago.

I got mine from Cackle. Item number 4085 on this page:
http://www.cacklehatchery.com/page11.html#supplies