Consolidated Kansas

[KsKingBee]

Shucks, and here I was visualizing queen bees with tiny little zip ties on their legs until I got to the part about the paint.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Hawkeye, it's so nice so see you back here, we have really missed you! We have lots of new people here & some of the old ones aren't on here any more. That is such a nice barn, I'm envious, I wish I could have something like that built just to get all of my birds in one place. You'll have to post a pic when your other building is up so we can see it. I've never had sour crop either that I know of. What are the symptoms? I'm glad you're settling in down there & like it. You might not have seen it on my FB page, but we're going to have a new grandson in February down there in OKC, so we'll be coming down there more probably to see him. I would love to come see your new place some time when we're down there.

Well I have been having a surprise hatch today. I had told Danz that I put Cream Legbar eggs in the hatcher but I really wasn't expecting any to hatch because I candled them & saw no movement before I put them in there. But those blue eggs just are really hard to see in, pretty much like the darker brown eggs like the Marans are. Well today they were due & I went to take a peek at them & there was a chick hatched, oh wow I was so surprised. I had to run to Ark City this evening & when I came back I now have 4 chicks & one more trying to hatch. There are still 3 eggs left that haven't pipped yet. I'm so excited that they're hatching! These are shipped eggs, so I'm just happy to get some to hatch. I still have lavender Orp eggs in the incubator that aren't due till the 23rd. I hate to hatch chicks this time of year because then you're dealing with having to keep them warm longer & then they get thrown out in the cold at some point. I just moved that older group out of the brooder to the growout pen yesterday.

Trish, just let me know you're coming down and you're welcome anytime! But you know that! Congratulations on your new soon to be grandson! Sounds like you are getting a good hatch out of your shipped eggs! I got in 10 eggs about a week and half ago from a breeder in california and I candled them last night and looks like 6 out of 10 are growing!!! I consider THAT pretty darned good odds! I just hope they all hatch now. Seems like shipped eggs can still die about midway through, they just have a lot of trouble. And yeah, I agree this isn't the greatest time to be hatching because of having to keep them under lamps all winter long. But in my case-- I didn't hatch at all this summer because we knew we were worried about possibly moving and it turned out to be valid. I'm making up for lost time here! I'm staggering my hatching already and have chicks in my laundry room, chicks due on the 22nd and another batch due a week after that.

I think we got the sour crop because it rained on the silkies when I was at work one day. They seemed okay when I got home, but as I've learned, they just do not do well in the rain. It took me quite a bit of wasted time trying things on them, because it never occured to me that these two had sour crop! They were fluffed up and not feeling well. They were sluggish. I tried antibiotics on them first. Then I figured maybe they had asult cocci (yeah, I know, unlikely..) But I tried everything. I finally post help on my silkie site and they diagnosed me immediately. Kicking myself for not going to them first. They had symptoms I over looked, because I didn't know to LOOK for them! Squishy crop-- and when I massaged it and opened their beak, it stunk like horrible sour fermented food. But BAD. I started tubing them down the throat with the meds, but unfortunately, by the time I started, I lost my boy the very next day, because he was too far along. My hen, I got her to hang in there another week with tubing down the throat with her meds, but she finally gave up, too. The rooster was my nice black boy I got a year and half ago. My hen was a girl that won second place Featherleg (RV and RB) at the Fall Classic last year. *cry* *cry* Here's the terrible part-- I never bred her because I was conditioning her for my show next month. Sigh.

Hi Hawkeye

. I am a transplanted Okie from the Stillwater area, moved up here to the middle of nowhere to be with my beekeeper. Beekeepers use a color marking system to know the age of the queen in each hive. This year's color is red, last year was yellow and next year green, then blue, then white. The queen gets a little dot of paint on her thorax. For our chickens and peafowl we are just using zip ties, they are the easiest, I think, but will check into the ones you mentioned. We want to keep track of age and where the bird came from. That is the plan, anyway.

I never knew that about bees! So do the queens only live one year, or do they live longer? We're south of Stillwater in Edmond (just north of OKC).

Trish, I'm so stealing your dry leaves in the coop idea! We have a forest full of leaves here from all the cottonwoods, oak trees and maple trees. I'm sure the chickens will loves them. I hope the ducks like them too. My birds seem to like hanging inside the coop more nowadays so I hope the leaves will keep them
entertained.

So glad to see Hawkeye checking in. That barn looks awesome. I'm green with envy. Sorry that uoj lost your birds to sour crop. I hope I don't have to deal with sour crop in the future. I may not recognize it till it's too late.

I definally need to boot the last batch if chicks out of the house. The ammonia smell is horrendous. Plus they are feisty! My net can't even keep them contained. Then they have to empty their waterer just so I have to clean it up thengive them fresh water ... again.

It's getting late. Gotta head to bed since I'll be having a busy day tomorrow.

Thanks Tweety! I'm in barn heaven here! ha! Yeah, the sour crop-- like I told Trish, it's not something you go looking for or checking when your bird is sick. Unfortunately I missed it.

Hi All..
I found the Kansas group a little while ago.

I have 3 Silkies and finally got to getting some pics of them.
They are great little birds.
My kids have decided to name them after my parents and brother.
That could get embarrassing!
Kathy is the black pullet and the two partridge cockerels are Rick and Eric( he has the black head). I got them at a the Mulvane Swap meet back in May as straight run chicks.
Now I Have to find a couple more girls and maybe get rid of one of the guys.
Figured out how to post pics...i must be tired.

Eric




Kathy




Rick

You've got a couple of partridge. One kind of looks black with some partridge coloring-- hard to see, the pictures are kind of dark. Silkies are the sweetest birds EVER. I'm a little biased, though. If you really like partridge, they are a very tough color to work with, but very rewarding. Very beautiful color. The last boy looks like he has a good comb and crest on him.

Cailynne- welcome, we love pictures.
Hawkeye- welcome back, that's a nice looking barn.

We finished the run re-do a week or so ago, so nice to have that done. We used metal Tposts instead of lumber (had a bunch laying around) in fact most of it is re-used pieces of this and that, I wouldn't trust it to be predator proof at night but that's what the coop is for.


The old run wasn't tall enough to stand up straight in , this time we can walk straight thru no problem. It is so nice now, the two geese and the duck are together in the other pen,and the chickens are all getting along in their new digs (minus the three extra roos ,yippee!) chores are so much easier now.

A hoop run! Those are just awesome! I love hoop coops and pens and runs! I saw HEChicken's pens and they are to die for! Turned me into a hoop believer! haha! For that matter, Danz has some really awesome hoops, too!! I think Danz went really fancy, though. Danz has some crazy mad wood working skills.

SO I'm hoping to get to the ReStore today. I searched Craisglist already for screendoors and came up with nothing. I also need to move out the chicks I have in the laundry room to the "big bird" pen outside. It's the temporary pen. My DH is driving up to Wichita today for a WSU game and I'm going to hunt down supplies so we can start building tomorrow on the new pens! I'm excited, because I think we will make good progress tomorrow... I hope! I want to get it framed up anyway.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Okay-- finally uploaded my barn pictures! The horse stalls are done, and the barns are mostly done. The door company is coming out on Monday to install all the doors. We have yet to trench the electric. We'll wait until Spring to trench the water lines.. I think we have our hands full for now. We don't want to risk a freeze, and we're going to have to uncover lateral lines in the back to trench the water lines and it's going to be a big deal and take a lot of time. Sigh. I wish we could do it now, but I can wait. My DH and I will be doing the chicken pens ourself. The chicken pens will be on the opposite side of the horse stalls.

 

[chicken danz]

A hoop run! Those are just awesome! I love hoop coops and pens and runs! I saw HEChicken's pens and they are to die for! Turned me into a hoop believer! haha! For that matter, Danz has some really awesome hoops, too!! I think Danz went really fancy, though. Danz has some crazy mad wood working skills.

Aw! Thanks. I remember you did some great work yourself!


SO I'm hoping to get to the ReStore today. I searched Craisglist already for screendoors and came up with nothing. I also need to move out the chicks I have in the laundry room to the "big bird" pen outside. It's the temporary pen. My DH is driving up to Wichita today for a WSU game and I'm going to hunt down supplies so we can start building tomorrow on the new pens! I'm excited, because I think we will make good progress tomorrow... I hope! I want to get it framed up anyway.

It was a slow day on the board. Everyone was probably out getting stuff done while there is some decent weather. We went to Wichita to get another load of stuff out of KKB's house, he is supposed to sign the contract on it next week. Yay! One more load and then find someplace to put it all. And then maybe someday we can get to Okieland and get my stuff.
The latest chick to come down with the mysterious illness is now walking and eating, should be ready to join his buddies tomorrow. Sure wish we could figure out the problem. We will put a band on his leg to identify him for future reference. We're gonna have to mix them with the flock soon, the swimming pool babies are out growing their pool. But first to get the oxine and do a thorough cleaning. Think there will be vendors at the bird show tomorrow?
We plan on building an open front pea house, so that is some good info to know. Our pea's spend time inside the house during the day but roost outside at night. Danz, we moved the three we got from you in with the others today and after just a little picking they all settled down. Gave them a pumpkin for a treat. We have too many peafowl to name right now. Have some that should be old enough to lay next year. Right now it is looking like we have as many females as males.
Danz, glad you got to spend some time away from the farm today. Good to get out every once in awhile, although you were probably thinking of everything that wasn't getting done.
Anybody going to the Hutch show tomorrow?

I have a heat lamp in my peahouse for my chicks. Starting the first of the week you might want to provide one for those you got from me or any others that are small. Mine sit up on roosts but the littler ones sit on the ground under the heat lamp at night. It is a couple feet off the ground so it's not going to get bumped.
Originally Posted by HEChicken

OKay, I had to think about what my user name was on here! LOL Good thing I remembered my password! Whew! So we're mostly settled in down here in OK. So far, we're liking it. For those that don't know, we've been building a couple of barns to get set back up with the horses and chickens. They are not done yet-- eekks! I'm concerned. We're going to start working on the chicken pens this weekend. I need to build lots of doors. Lots of doors. I'm thinking of going to Habitat ReStore and seeing if I can find some used screen doors.

I took a picture of the inside (we have the horse stalls in there) but I haven't uploaded the pictures yet. I'll be really glad when we're done. We still have the barred rocks, my layers and of course the silkies. I have less silkies though... I lost two of them a couple weeks ago to sour crop. I've never had that before, so I didn't know what I had until it killed one of my roosters. I tried to save a hen that had it, but no dice. Sigh. I think it's because they aren't in "real" coops/pens and it's just really hard to take good care of them when I'm using temporary kennels. OH! I do have a couple of silkie chicks I hatched a while back. I have more due on the 22nd and another batch of eggs a week after that. Slowly starting to build back up. I need to get ready for the show season next year. I don't think I'll be ready until next Fall though.

I've missed everyone! Hope everyone is doing great!

So glad to see you back. Can't wait to see the inside of the barn. Of course I am envious.
I lost a lavender hen just a while back to sour crop. I hadn't noticed her being ill at all. But when I did the necropsy it was one of the very first things I found. Nasty smell. Of course these are birds that never get to free range so that is my excuse. I made a point to give the birds some veggie oil and increase their grit. I found one more bird with sour crop when I was checking them out. I just used a dropper on her and squirted a few drops of veggie oil down her throat and made sure she found the grit. Next day she was fit as a fiddle. The important thing is to allow them to get that stuff moving. The hen that passed had lots of undigested whole milo packed in there. I started having the coop crimp all my milo then instead of just half of it.
So my multis aren't showing up just right .....again.
Sharol you're so funny!
22Qzoo, great job on the coop pen. I love re-purposing things. I have to love it on my budget!!! DH is building another A frame coop for the RP turkeys like the one we built for the bourbons. He has to go to work tonight though so he won't be getting anything done on it for a few days. They still have use of a BIG dog house and I put tarps on their pen as well.
It rained here during the night and is sprinkling some now. I guess it is sprinkles. We have such a driving wind going on it feels like rain. I couldn't get my load of feed yesterday so it's order for in about an hour. Not going to be fun shoveling it off if the rain doesn't stop.
I also want to clean out the brooder house which I really really need decent weather for. I hatched probably another 20 chicks yesterday. I am so glad I'm not hatching!!

You would have all been proud of me yesterday. I either threw out or put all my eggs in the eating eggs yesterday. I only threw out the ones I knew might not be fresh cause I hadn't decided to hatch or not. The only eggs I saved were a white orpington and a Coronation sussex. Two I really need to build up stock on.
I really don't enjoy selling eggs any more. I have so many customers that are waiting patiently for more eggs but it just entails so much time to get them ready and then make a trip to town. If the chickens would just lay them and keep them pristine clean it would be great. That doesn't happen. Even if the nest box is super clean they end up with shavings or something stuck to them. I guess this time of year that is about the only money return I am going to get though.

 

[chicken danz]

Great pics, Hawkeye. What are you going to keep in the big barn? Are you going to make run outside for your chickens. If I ever build a chicken building I hope to do that.
Oh and I forgot the ABA are the ones that have the colored bands.

 

[HEChicken]

Hawkeye, the barns look great. Me, I'd have a hard time putting anything in them though, knowing as soon as you move animals in, they'll never look that pristine ever again LOL.

I'm not OQB, but if I'm understanding it correctly, queen bees can live for many years - I wanna say 15 or so? OQB will hopefully chime in and correct this if I'm wrong.

Danz, whew - so glad you didn't say you use a totally different size band because I ordered them last night off eBay. I got a pack of multi-colored ones. Unfortunately I had to pick either a size or a color - they didn't have a "lot" of multi-colors AND multi-sizes. So I ordered a large quantity of multi colored size 11. I will sort them into the various colors, then pick a color to put on this year's hatches, and another for next year and so on. I don't think I'm going to try and get as technical as spring and fall hatching but divide them just by year - that will get me close enough to knowing how old they are 3 years from now when I have a yard full of similar looking birds.

Oh - Hawkeye, thanks also for the description of the sour crop. Next time I have a bird feeling poorly and don't know why, it is one extra thing to check for.

I had 3 ducks stay out last night. Last time I saw them they were headed for the pond, so when they didn't show up at bedtime, I figured they must still be down there. It would be impossible in the dark to get them back up and locked in the coop so I had to just hope they had the sense to stay out on the water out of reach of the fox we know resides around here. I even considered putting the dogs in the pasture for the night, rather than the chicken yard, just in case the fox came a-visiting, but it would be a complete change-up for them with no warning and that didn't seem fair. Fortunately they all seem to be back at the coop this morning so I guess it worked out. I hope they don't make a habit of it though. One of them was my favorite little duck who is all grey and SO pretty and I would hate to lose her.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Great pics, Hawkeye. What are you going to keep in the big barn? Are you going to make run outside for your chickens. If I ever build a chicken building I hope to do that.
Oh and I forgot the ABA are the ones that have the colored bands.

Awww, sorry about the sour crop! Mine had the squishy crop and undigested food. But mine had been sick for too long and were too far gone. There are covered "sheds" off each side of the horse barn-- one side is for the horses and the other is for the chickens. So the pens will be inside, but they will have pop doors in the barn and they can go outside into the covered runs out there. You are right about the ABA bands-- I had to go look again. It's been a while since I've needed bands and I'm still not out of bands yet either. I use zip ties anyway until they get old enough to band. I just zip tie all in one color from my breeding pairs so I can keep track of what their chicks look like.


The covered 'shed' facing us is the side the horse stalls are on. The other side of the barn-- there is another covered 'shed' there-- and the bird's indoor/outdoor pens will go in/out on that side of the barn. So each pen will be an indoor coop and outdoor covered pen. I'm making them fairly small runs, because I'm just sticking with pairs or trios for breeding the silkies. I'll make a big one for grow-outs and another big one for the barred rocks. I had a skunk get into my temporary set up a few weeks ago and kill two of my Polish girls, so I don't have many "layers" left that I just use for eggs and are nothing more than pretties. I only have 2 wyandottes, 1 hatchery barred rock and 2 polish left of my original hatchery layers. I still have all of my Frank Reese barred rocks, though-- they are just gorgeous and will have their own separate pen. Right now all the LF birds are thrown together in my back yard! Same with the silkies-- they are all thrown together too. I've been hatching shipped eggs and blue/splash silkies.

I need to get a picture of my Frank Reese boys-- one still has no tail-- but it's because they are in tight quarters now and the girls pick him. The other one is more dominant and his tail is really coming in.

 

[chicken danz]

I've got several Reece boys now. I sold a ton of chicks and did too good of a job sexing them I guess. I have two boys I am using for breeders. One I bought from Frank and one I hatched from him. Every darned chick I hatched from his eggs were male though! I sold most of the chicks and did too good of a job sexing them to sell, so I have a load of boys that will be someone's dinner soon. I have a nice pile of eggs in their coop but I quit hatching them until spring. I was hoping one of them was going broody, but she wasn't. I'd much rather they do the work.
I've been trying to figure out how to do pop doors and a post frame building. One of these days I am just going to bite the bullet and order a building and hope I can figure out how to pay for it. I'm getting too old to maintain all of these pens. I cut down so many breeds but now I am dividing by color. At least almost all of my birds should be show stock lines now.
Yesterday I went to get my flu shot at the county health nurse. The head nurse is one of my repeat bird customers for 4H. She said she had to tell her oldest child they were going to make a trip to my house and bring back his birds if he didn't take better care of them, and said that made him do better. I told her about my new stock and now she says she is going to bring him by to tempt him so he'll want to do even better.
I got some long sought after araucana eggs after I got sent the worst eggs ever by a well known breeder a while back. The eggs were junk-totally porous and had hair line cracks when you shined a light on them. So I get these awaited eggs from another breeder and the guy has them wrapped air tight. I have no idea how well known breeders never figure out how to ship eggs for viability.
I decided to go with the true araucanas because they are almost impossible to find any more. A truly rare bird. They are really easy to tell from Americaunas and Easter eggers. I do hope even though the wrapping was all wrong that maybe I'll get some hatches anyway. I really hate complaining cause this person sold me eggs when he has people waiting on them. I guess in about 20 days or so I'll know if any made it or not.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

These are 2 of the month old cochin chicks. Can someone help me with sex?
And some other views of the youngsters for better analysis.

Blue mottled roo--white legs-- with the nosey little black mottled pullet

Blue mottled pullet--yellow legs--

Black mottled pullet--yellow legs-- (she doesn't like to sit still)

Black mottled roo --yellow legs--

Nosey little black mottled pullet--white legs--

Now I know that yellow is standard, and am trying to keep it that way, but I also need shape and style which I can improve upon and do not expect these guys to be perfect. I have gotten a lot of great feedback so far and appreciate all the help. I know that I was asked for better pics and hope these are what you needed. These little juveniles are friendly and responsive the older group not so much. The 2 little chicks of course being inside and brooder raised are very friendly an like to snuggle. both little chicks have yellow legs I am just not sure on sex for those 2, they have another hatch mate which is white and all boy, he crowed the other day. Any help is totally appreciated.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

sorry double post!!!!