Consolidated Kansas

[tweetybaby2005]

Now I feel badly that I haven't paid attention to this before now. I feel badly for Lucie, I feel like she is bored and wants to run and play and this is her only outlet, chasing people going by and barking at them. Sigh. And I just thought to myself the other day how wonderful she has been with the birds and ignores the chickens entirely after we had so much trouble with her as a pup and she is finally growing up. :/

Josie, sorry to hear that Lucie was having some "chase" issue. I must not have been on the board when you were having issues with her as a pup. I was just talking to a neighbor a mile north of us today. They got 2 GP pups lately and 1 of them killed half their flock while the other is just sweet as can be. They are both littermates. She was wondering if the trouble pup needs to be rehomed. So when you brought up that as a pup, Lucie had some issues, it just reminded me of the brief conversation I had with neighbor.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Hi all,
I have been lurking for a while and was happy to find Kansas people.
I live right out side of wichita with my hubby and 2 kids, 3 shelties, 2 cats
and 3 silkies..2 cockerels and a hen.
I would like to get a few more hens..and maybe re home one of the boys.
If anyone has any silkie hens they would part with that are just about old enough to lay
I would love to talk to you
Lisa

Welcome! There are several of us around Wichita and surrounding areas. I don't have any silkies. We used to have a gal whohad great silkie birds. Wish Hawkeye is here. She has great knowledge about silkies.

Tell us about you flocks. There are a couple of dedicated breeders if you want to expand your flock and would like to venture out to some other breeds.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Trish and HeChicken, Since this is so soon I don't think I can swing a trip down there. However if you do decide to try a spring class I can demonstrate the fast way to pluck a duck and maybe also demonstrate plucking chickens. Might as well give some options on dressing birds. Besides it would be an excuse to come see you guys. I spent my afternoon putting in a water system in my peafowl pen. I still have to brace the pieces on the ends and cut a small hole in the outside wall for the pipe to sit. I also want to install one more faucet on the outside of the pen to fill the geese's water with. Hopefully this will save me a lot of pulling the hose from place to place in the cold weather. Since I have outlets in each run I can plug in my heated water bowls and fill them all at the same time. I have a pipe angled so it will drain and all I have to do is hook up the hose to the pipe to have individual faucets for each pen. If it works as planned it will be awesome. DH said he would rig up some short hoses for each faucet. It won't be perfect for sure but it's the next best thing to having regular running water out there. Maybe some day I can get some underground plumbing in for that. Of course like everything else it took me a lot longer than I intended. I had to figure out how to hang and support the pipe. I just need a couple more plumbing parts and it will be done. We were going to go to Topeka but DH had to get some more sleep so it got too late. It gave me time to get my plumbing done. Welcome cailynne. Join in and tell us some more about yourself. It seems like more and more people around the Wichita area come on this forum. You have lots of other BYC people near you. 22qZoo I remember a time when we had to have powdered milk but I don't remember why. I never drink milk but I remember my mother trying to cook with it and it ruined lots of food. It just didn't turn out the same. I went out with my camera. It's malfunctioning cause it takes pictures on a 2 second delay and won't program out of that. So my chickens were moving while I was taking pictures. I wanted to share a few of my really nice birds. So here is some picture overload for you. Click to enlarge the pics to enjoy the feathering. First one of my young exhibition orp roosters. I plan to switch roosters soon and he will then be the new breeder. This is a young bird and still will grow some more but I think he is looking really nice. He came from Zimmerman lines. Next one of my BBS English orp pullets and one of my blue/gold partridge brahma pullets. Next another one of my blue/gold partridge brahmas and my black English Orpington cockerel behind her. A couple of partridge Brahma boys with some bbs English orp girls behind them. Next the back end of one of the gold partridge brahma girls. This one is just gold partridge not gold/blue. And last, just the front view of one of the English girls and a blue/gold partridge brahma. I have tried not to brag too much about these birds but they are what I am breeding for. All of the birds I took pictures of other than the rooster aren't breeding age yet and they are huge.

Wow, just wow! Your birds are beautifullll, Danz. I cant stop looking at the pictures over and over again.

 

[Frizzled Pink]

YOU TEASE!!!!!

Sorry all but need to get cochin genetic advice from Josie (or anyone else that is better on the genetics thing than i am--although at this point being better than me would not be a difficult task) on this project


I am getting better on the "round"


but still am working on colors (if you look closely on the little girl i have white feather , black chevron and gold tip

)--way too much columbian coming thru but to make this even more exasperating these are actually mille/mottled splits(should have had gold hackles and mottled body) that were solid yellow wheaten based chick down


but pulled in some new blood from up north to see if it can help my pattern in the spring

 

[Trish44]

Danz I really like that Partrige Brahma, he's beautiful! You really do have some pretty birds. Hopefully soon I will have some nice Orps too. The lavenders from you are still growing & the lemon cuckoos are getting really big, especially that rooster. Oh & the lavender Orp rooster is trying to crow & it's hilarious. Your watering system sounds awesome, I wish I had something like that. I will have to be carrying buckets now that I have picked up the hoses for the winter.

We got the tin roof on the growout pen today. It's not perfect because the tin I had left wasn't perfect, but it's better than what was on there that kept falling in every time it rained.

 

[22qZoo]

Danz- that blue gold partridge brahma girl is really nice, they're all beautiful .
Hechicken - I'd love to come to the processing class, but I've got so much going on between now and Thanksgiving I wouldn't be able to spare the time. Plus I just got rid of the three roos that would have been
Freezer camp attendees . ( woo hoo!) I do need to take that step tho.

 

[chicken danz]

Josie, sorry to hear that Lucie was having some "chase" issue. I must not have been on the board when you were having issues with her as a pup. I was just talking to a neighbor a mile north of us today. They got 2 GP pups lately and 1 of them killed half their flock while the other is just sweet as can be. They are both littermates. She was wondering if the trouble pup needs to be rehomed. So when you brought up that as a pup, Lucie had some issues, it just reminded me of the brief conversation I had with neighbor.

A purebred GP will usually only attack birds if it is penned with them and bored. Usually if they "play" with a chicken a good firm "No!" will make them stop and know it is bad behavior. If I were them I would work with the dog that killed the chicks by putting a chicken or chick in front of the dog and giving a firm "No!" if it tried to get it. It may take a few times to get it through their head if the dog has already killed chicks but GPs are very smart and usually learn fast. Let it know it isn't supposed to chase chickens. A puppy has to learn by experience and correction. That is why I always raised my pups exposed to chickens from day 1. My pups all started their first weeks of life eating out of the same bowl that chickens were. The chickens all love the dog food!!
Quote:

Wow, just wow! Your birds are beautifullll, Danz. I cant stop looking at the pictures over and over again.

Thank you so much. I didn't get pictures all of the different colored ones, but am always talking about them so I figured I'd run out a take a few pictures. I actually was taking them to show Trish but decided to post them for every one. They are all very sweet and docile birds as well. Maybe some day I'll get a picture of holding one or something so you can see how big they are.
Trish, the water system was really simple once I figured out how to mount it. I just tilted the pipe to drain toward the end that hooks to the water hose so it will drain after I use it, and installed the faucets where I thought I needed them. I guess when it is done I'll see if it works as well as I hope. I'll try to get some pictures then as well. I plan to open the faucets after use so they are empty as well. I am thinking if I get the hoses set right I can empty water bowls, put the hoses in the bowls, turn on the water and turn it off when they are full. Wouldn't that be great to get them all filled at once? Of course that would be the best possible case but I can dream anyway.
I'm hoping to get to Topeka and get the rest of what I need for it. I'd like to be able to use it this week when the cold front moves in. They changed the forecast again and now one night it is supposed to only be 19 degrees. I have way too much to do to get ready for that cold weather. I need to get out today and get heated water bowls and stuff set up. I sure hope I have enough extension cords.

 

[KsKingBee]

Nice pictures Danz! We all should post more pics of our birds, I'll get OQB right on that

We have a new addition to our flock, for the second day now a wild turkey has decided that our four turkeys are her new flock. She might be an older hen as she is larger than our toms, OQB will post some pics of them later. It was funny yesterday watching the guineas trying to run her off, but no, she wants to hang out with our turks... Its probably not the best thing having a wild bird mixing with our birds but still it is entertaining.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Some extraordinary bantam cochins have fallen into my lap. I want to keep some and breed. These 2 girls and the white hen who's butt you can see lol, she kept running out of the shot, along with a white roo are the breeding group. If I were to keep these 4 and breed them, what are my color possibilities? More blue mottled, maybe black mottled too? I also have a few younger ones and there is a nice black mottled pullet in that group, should I keep her and a blue mottled to breed with the white roo? I don't know much about genetics and knew I could get straight answers from this group, opinions?

 

[chicken danz]

Bring on the pictures King Bee. I want to see how those orps have grown.
Maidenwolf those are very nice cochins. White is usually a dominant color. If you have another cockerel with color I would use him instead.
I spent my afternoon trying to run extension cords and hook up heated bowls and waterers. Wow! Hours doing it and I'm still not done. Ihvae a few more cords to run and a few more water things to figure out. I keep thinking how a nice heated building would be so much nicer and probably cheaper to operate in the long run. Too bad I'm not wealthy.
When I do things like this, it makes me realize how out of hand my little hobby has gotten. So I only have a few breeds but I have too many colors. Then I have too many other birds like the geese, peafowl, pheasants, and ducks. How does one ever make choices? I'm thinking of adding a few more to the mix as well.