Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

My DH gives me a hard time about keeping the cornstarch in the freezer, but it seemed like every time I left it out it got meal moths in it and I had to replace it. I had them a few years ago in the scratch that was being stored in the garage, too. shudder

 

[lizzyGSR]

I just realized that they could be in the scratch feed that I got to use as seed to grow sprouts for my birds. I sure hope they're not in there 'cuz the bag is still almost full. When I got pregnant, my memory went out the window and I couldn't remember to rinse the seed any more so I stopped growing sprouts. Then, spring and summer came, and I haven't needed to. Still racking my brain as to where else those little buggers could be hiding.

 

[chicken danz]

One thing about these bugs is that even if they are in the feed you can still feed it to the birds. They will eat the larvae. It's just nasty to have in the house. I store stuff like that in either metal popcorn cans or rubbermaid containers outside. Learned my lesson. Once I've frozen stuff I haven't ever had a problem with getting them in something. I think most of the eggs are already there...unless yo have a breakout from some thing else. That's why everything gets the three day treatment. Also air tight containers will help keep them from hatching.

 

[Trish44]

I do the same as Danz with any flour or anything like that I bring into the house. I have had that invasion before too with the moths & it's harder to get rid of them after you have them than preventing them in the first place.

It was really windy here earlier, but it has died down some. We are under a thunderstorm warning here though.

I just get a kick out of chickens sometimes. We have had this wooden box sitting outside the garage for awhile because I've been cleaning out the garage & we didn't need it any more for newspaper. That is what my DH had it for & it's been here for 15 years. We no longer have to use newspaper to start our woodstove since we started using fat wood. I kept looking at that thing & trying to figure out what I could do with it besides throwing it away & then the other day it came to me. It's just the right size for a nest box for the Lemon Cuckoo Orps since they're a bigger bird. So today I went out & I had found the perfect sized remnant of siding from my breeder coop I had left over & put a top on the box & then found another board to put across the front at the bottom to keep the straw in & screwed that on, voila a nest box. I filled it with straw & took it out to the pen & sat it up on some cement stepping stones I had put in there for that. The chickens in there immediately started checking it out, they would kind of get a little closer & then look like what is that thing. It was funny to watch them with their investigation. They're not laying yet, but I wanted to have one in there for when they did.

This morning I went out to find my goat Patches with her head stuck through the livestock panel fence & she couldn't get back out due to her horns, not easily anyway. I first tried & she kept fighting me so I quit for a minute & then went back & it was a little struggle to get her to cooperate in getting it back through. I guess now I'm going to have to cover the new panels I put up with some smaller fence. I had thought they were too big now to get stuck in that, but obviously not. Patches is the one that always does things like that, it has never been Penny.

 

[chicken danz]

My recent experience with creating new nest boxes was that they sit on top of them to roost but never use the darn things to lay eggs in. I have some hens that just insist on laying on the floor no matter what I provide them. I've been out rushing around putting a couple tarps on and moving some birds. If this storm comes it we could get really high winds and hail. It was late enough I just moved some birds out of one pen that doesn't really have protection from the north wind. There was a little skirmish going on amongst the turkeys and the roosters but it got dark really quick so I think they will be fine.
I added a board to two roosts in the smaller peafowl pen that isn't near the rest. So even though they aren't perfectly even (the older ones were sagging) at least they'll have a little more to sit on.
I made up my mind I am done setting eggs the 10th. That will take me up to November 1st for a hatch date. I am doing one custom hatch for the 1st but the others are just my desirable birds. I need a break. I have so many chicks to take care of.
I got the duck pen moved and put the baby ducks outside today. They have a heat lamp so they should be fine. Two of them are going to a new home tomorrow afternoon anyway. The ducks are laying like crazy right now. I think some of the young ones that hatched this spring are starting to lay cause I have some smaller duck eggs. I can sell all I don't use so I'll just keep them for eating.
Tomorrow I have to concentrate on cleaning this house.

 

[OkieQueenBee]

Well the rain blew thru here while we were on our way back from Wichita and the temp dropped 20 degrees in about 20 minutes. This Kansas mud is sticky, I've got 2 inches stuck to the bottom of my shoes and things aren't even wet.
Thanks for the input on the egg. Here is a picture of one of my hens, what do you think her age is?

This is not the hen that laid the porous egg, in fact, I don't think this hen has laid an egg since we got her in mid July.
I do put out oyster shell, but maybe not as regular as I should.
I imagine everybody was busy trying to get their birds ready for this weather. Trish, you got your coop cleaned out just in time. Reading your story about your goat getting her head stuck reminded me when my Pygmy goat did the same thing. I don't remember if I had to cut the panel or just work with her until I was able to get her head back thru. Scary nonetheless.
I'm not as good as Danz and Trish about putting stuff in the freezer so I put up moth traps in my pantry. Of course that means that they had to hatch first, yuk. Ok, the freezer is a good idea.

 

[Trish44]

Well Danz I have some of those plastic storage things I use for my outside pens usually & you can just hose those off. I only thought I would try using this box since I had it, but I can always take it out & give them a plastic one if they get it too nasty. I have had good luck with the plastic storage containers, they're really perfect for nest boxes, they're the stacking ones someone showed awhile back only mine are black instead of red because that's what they had around here.

It's getting ready to rain here & I barely got in from feeding because I was late getting back from running to Orschelyn's for pine shavings to use in my breeder coop tomorrow & to clean out the biggest brooder where my lavender Ameraucana chicks are. They really are getting pretty good sized, but I don't want to put them outside yet. My smallest wheaten Ameraucana chick died this afternoon, I had kind of expected it. It just wasn't thriving, you can kind of tell those chicks. The other two are looking good & getting wing feathers now so it looks like both are pullets, I sure hope so because I can use a couple more for breeding next year. That was nice of that hen to hatch out those chicks for me. I just had a really hard time with keeping any of those breed alive this year for some reason, they just didn't make it & the one I did manage to keep to a month old drowned, so I'm thrilled to have these two babies.

Danz, I'm glad you set yourself a deadline, you need a break for awhile & then you can start fresh for spring hatching & not be so burned out. I know it helps me a lot to take a few months off. I will still have chicks for myself, but am just not hatching any for anyone else. I'm still trying to replace my breeding stock for next year that I lost in the flood. I will get some more Cream Legbar eggs later on in October providing the hens are still laying then.

I'm not getting very many eggs from all the hens I have in my laying flock right now & my yard looks like a cyclone came through & blew off feathers. Some of the hens just look as pitiful as they can be. I hope they get through all of this feather shedding soon & start laying again. Even my turkeys are molting too, their pen looks like it snowed feathers in there since they're white. Speaking of turkeys since I got home late the two young ones are roosting outside on top of the pen where they have picked to roost when they don't go in. They missed getting fed & going in tonight, so I'm sure they will be looking for food in the morning when I go out. The ducks were all waiting for me to take them in & feed them & the chickens all went right in, even the newer hen who I had been having to catch & bring in made it in there tonight, yay. That always makes me happy when they figure out where they're supposed to get fed & roost. It only took her a couple of days to get it, so she is a smart hen. She is a cuckoo Marans & she is kind of flighty, she doesn't like for me to get near her really. I hope she settles down some over time, I have enough flighty ones as it is with the Leghorns I have.

 

[Trish44]

Well the rain blew thru here while we were on our way back from Wichita and the temp dropped 20 degrees in about 20 minutes. This Kansas mud is sticky, I've got 2 inches stuck to the bottom of my shoes and things aren't even wet.
Thanks for the input on the egg. Here is a picture of one of my hens, what do you think her age is?

This is not the hen that laid the porous egg, in fact, I don't think this hen has laid an egg since we got her in mid July.
I do put out oyster shell, but maybe not as regular as I should.
I imagine everybody was busy trying to get their birds ready for this weather. Trish, you got your coop cleaned out just in time. Reading your story about your goat getting her head stuck reminded me when my Pygmy goat did the same thing. I don't remember if I had to cut the panel or just work with her until I was able to get her head back thru. Scary nonetheless.
I'm not as good as Danz and Trish about putting stuff in the freezer so I put up moth traps in my pantry. Of course that means that they had to hatch first, yuk. Ok, the freezer is a good idea.

You must have been writing at the same time that I was. Look at the hen's legs & see if they're rough or smooth, that kind of is one indicator of age. If they're really rough & scaly & more pale she might be older. The younger ones will have smooth legs & be a brighter color. I think their combs also get rougher with age.

Yeah that is the 2nd time Patches has gotten her head stuck. At least this time it wasn't as bad as the first time. I had them in a temporary calf shelter till I got something built for them. The top had a hole & I had covered it with a piece of plastic, but one day Patches decided she wanted out of there before I came out to let them out, so she stuck her head up through that hole & then got stuck. She was hanging like that bleating like crazy when I went out the door. I ran down to the pen & she really was stuck bad & it was choking her with her struggling. I thought I was going to have to cut her out of there, but I finally managed to get her head back down through there. She never did that again, but it looks like she is going to have to learn about livestock panels too. She is the most skittish of the two goats too, so she fights me harder when I have to get her out of somewhere.

 

[chicken danz]

When I had goats the dumb things were always getting their heads stuck and then they'd fight me when I tried to release them. I got injured and they didn't!!
Some of my peachicks broke out the heat lamp so the two oldest ones flew out of the bin and are roosting above it. The little ones are nonstop yelling.
It's raining really hard right now. Sure hope all the birds are smart enough that they got some shelter. Some prefer to sleep on top of their houses rather than in them.
Yeah QueenBee I tend to look at legs to tell age. Well on second thought I kind of look all over them.
Trish I remember someone posting about those plastic storage things from Walmart. Is that what you use? I had forgotten all about them. Lots of my nest boxes are made from other discards...like old drawers or something.

 

[sharol]

***snip***
I'm not as good as Danz and Trish about putting stuff in the freezer so I put up moth traps in my pantry. Of course that means that they had to hatch first, yuk. Ok, the freezer is a good idea.