Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Well I have domestic ducks, not muscovies. That is probably a major difference. Mine don't fly at all. I live too close to a lake to own muscovies and chance them interbreeding with other water fowl.
I know the muscovies get huge. The pekins are my biggest ducks which is plenty of meat.
I've been trying to sweep the floors. Finally really wore out and got tired of that project. More later. I need to get out and take care of birds now. The sun is shining beautifully even though it isn't all the warm it feels so much better than yesterday. My allergies are going nuts and I'm sure it is because of all that wind yesterday.
I did manage to get leg bands on my two youngest Mandarin ducks drakes yesterday. They were getting all their adult colors and very hard to tell from their parents. I want to sell them next spring if not before. Beautiful birds but I have too many boys.

 

[Trish44]

Happy belated birthday KKB! OQB at the poultry show in Hutch did you happen to see the table for the Cream Legbar Club? I know they were there with info on the breed & club. You definitely should come join us next spring for the next butchering class. I think that will be a good outlet for anyone needing to get rid of extra roosters or old hens not laying any more. I got rid of 3 that showed no signs of having eggs any more on this round.

I just got in from cleaning out all the water pans out there in all the pens & giving them clean water. Then I went out in the garage & took all the trays from under the rabbit cages & dumped them outside & washed all the trays. Then I took them back in after they dried & put fresh pine shaivngs in them all & put them back in their places. I use the pine shavings to soak up the urine & keep the trays from rusting quite so bad. I need to own a sawmill so I could go get sawdust & shavings, I go through so much of that stuff with using it for the rabbits & the chickens both.

It's a little chilly out there today, but not bad with the sun shining, I'm sure it will be colder as soon as the sun starts to go down. I'm trying to get outside stuff done today that I wanted to do. I also worked some on dragging some stuff out of the back of the garage that I want to throw away, so I have quite a pile of that I have to drag by by the trash cans & the old truck so it can go to the dump for the next load. I'm trying to get a set of metal shelves cleaned off back there so I can move them up where I need them to store my extra chicken & rabbit stuff for the winter. There is stuff back there that hasn't been used & hasn't moved in 15 years, so it's going. I also was trying to get a space freed up to put the two stacking cages I'm getting tomorrow to put in there for my two bigger rabbits. I have to get them from a friend's place. They're a lot smaller & the trays are smaller, so I will be able to handle cleaning them out rather than what was in there. Those big cages & the trays were just too heavy for me to lift down to empty when they were full. These I'm getting are inside of a frame, so it should be pretty easy to move it.

I think I'm going to have to put a heat lamp out there in my growout pen for those young chicks at night, they were looking all fluffed up this morning & I sure don't want to lose them because they got too chilled. Some of the older ones have been out there awhile & are acclimated more, but the ones I just put out a week ago aren't.

 

[ashncarson]

Yes it probably does. I would try VetRX first. If you can separate her that might keep the other chickens from getting it. Unless they've already been exposed.

I bought and read the instructions, but am wondering what is the best way to give them this med?

 

[chicken danz]

Ashley I just rub a little on their nostrils and then put a few drops in their water.
I don't have time to write much but I gave up on DH making me some hose pieces for my peafowl water system. So I made them myself. I installed them and decided to take some pictures so you would know how I set up this system to work off a garden hose. It saves me dragging a hose 32 feet into each of the pens to water the peafowl. This is going to look like repeat cause I took pictures of all four faucets. Here we go:


This is the beginning of the system where I hook the hose. As you can see I cut a hole in the wall to get it there.


This is the first pen where I have the first faucet. On the far left you can see some light coming in. That is where the pipe goes out to Picture 1.


.This is the hook up that comes next in Pen#2.


This is the third faucet. This is the pen where my 2013 babies stay.


This is the same pen but you can see how I ran the pipe to the outside of the building for the geese.


This is the outside faucet that connects to the pipe inside. It goes to the goose pen. The whole system runs downhill toward the water hose hookup in the first picture so it just drains by itself when I unattach the hose.

And just for fun I took a picture of a moving target. My white peacock who is in his second year. Getting his first long tail in after a molt.

 

[cailynne]

Hi all,
I just lost all 3 silkies to probably a dog..they free range in the back yard. It has a 6 ft fence but I havnt found any breeches. The neighbors dog was barking at 3:50..I didn't think anything about it as that is when school lets out. My Pullet and smaller cockerel were intact but with puncture wounds and my bigger cockerel was just the ends of his wings, a leg, what looks to be some organs and a bunch of feathers. I think he was trying to protect his flock.
I have put pics in the predator section. I have had problems with the neighbors dogs getting a frizzle chick that went thru the fence...but with out witnesses I just don't know.

 

[HEChicken]

Hi all,
I just lost all 3 silkies to probably a dog..they free range in the back yard. It has a 6 ft fence but I havnt found any breeches. The neighbors dog was barking at 3:50..I didn't think anything about it as that is when school lets out. My Pullet and smaller cockerel were intact but with puncture wounds and my bigger cockerel was just the ends of his wings, a leg, what looks to be some organs and a bunch of feathers. I think he was trying to protect his flock.
I have put pics in the predator section. I have had problems with the neighbors dogs getting a frizzle chick that went thru the fence...but with out witnesses I just don't know.

Where were the puncture wounds? A fox will climb a fence and get in, and will bite on either side of the spine, to immobilize the victim. You may see up to 4 distinct puncture wounds, with two being on either side of the spine. A raccoon can also climb well. If you can't see how a dog got in - and there wasn't one there when you found the birds - it may well have been a wild animal. So sorry for your losses - it is devastating to come across a scene like this.

Danz, your system is awesome and should save you a lot of time being able to refill water bowls without having to run hoses to every individual pen.

Well, this afternoon contained a huge surprise for us. When we purchased our lambs this spring, the seller told us they were 2 ewes and 4 wethers. One wether was killed by the coyotes in June and we added a ram in July, deciding to keep the two ewes, and butcher only the 3 remaining wethers. That way we can make our own lambs next year. So a very nice sheep farmer who lives nearby, offered to pick them up for me to take them to the processor, and she came with her trailer this afternoon. We backed her trailer up to the pen, and with a little encouragement, got all 6 to load onto the trailer, then "sorted" them from the back half of the trailer, putting the wethers in the front section. We got the first two wethers up front, and were left with the three who could be identical triplets - I've never been able to tell them apart. In order to find the third wether, we had to examine their nether regions and….they are all truly identical. We checked 3 times but all three are ewes. (The lambs were completely wild when we got them and we've never been able to handle them well enough to examine them this intimately). So it was a huge surprise to us to find that we actually have a ram and 3 ewes, and only have 2 going to the processor. A relief actually, as I don't have enough freezer space for 3 anyway.

We had also agreed to purchase two more little ewe lambs from the same farmer so tonight we still have the same number of lambs, but a great ratio of 1 ram to 5 ewes. The new little lambs are really small and were only pulled from their mother this morning so they are yelling now. I'm sure it is all very scary for them, but they will settle down in a few days. The older ones have accepted them into the flock fairly well, giving them a little butt now and then to put them in their place, but nothing serious.

I had a disappointment this evening too. I've had a broody hen sitting on 4 eggs - 3 barred rocks and an exchequer egg. Well, one of the exchequers thought she might take a go at being broody too. She spent the entire day in the nest box, kicking out the broody cochin (who went and sat on a different nest). She growled at me every time I tried to check on her. Finally I decided to get the eggs out from under her to give them back to the cochin, but when I reached under her, there was an icky mess. I could only hope the broken egg was one that had just been laid today but nope, it was one of the barred rock eggs. It apparently wasn't fertile, as there was no fetus - just the yolk and white. So I had to try to clean the rest of the eggs off before putting them back under the cochin, and decided I may as well candle while I was at it, and found only one to be developing. It is one of the barred rock eggs. They are due on Fri/Sat, so now I can only hope that with the confusion today, the one hasn't quit developing and will still hatch this weekend, or the poor cochin will have sat all this time for nothing.

 

[cailynne]

the punctures were on the sides of the body below the wings..as big around as a pencil.They look like they were grabbed and shook and my alpha cockerel was probably trying to defend his flock and got torn up for it.

 

[Trish44]

Hi all,
I just lost all 3 silkies to probably a dog..they free range in the back yard. It has a 6 ft fence but I havnt found any breeches. The neighbors dog was barking at 3:50..I didn't think anything about it as that is when school lets out. My Pullet and smaller cockerel were intact but with puncture wounds and my bigger cockerel was just the ends of his wings, a leg, what looks to be some organs and a bunch of feathers. I think he was trying to protect his flock.
I have put pics in the predator section. I have had problems with the neighbors dogs getting a frizzle chick that went thru the fence...but with out witnesses I just don't know.

I'm sorry about your birds, that's really hard finding them like that.

Where were the puncture wounds? A fox will climb a fence and get in, and will bite on either side of the spine, to immobilize the victim. You may see up to 4 distinct puncture wounds, with two being on either side of the spine. A raccoon can also climb well. If you can't see how a dog got in - and there wasn't one there when you found the birds - it may well have been a wild animal. So sorry for your losses - it is devastating to come across a scene like this.

Danz, your system is awesome and should save you a lot of time being able to refill water bowls without having to run hoses to every individual pen.

Well, this afternoon contained a huge surprise for us. When we purchased our lambs this spring, the seller told us they were 2 ewes and 4 wethers. One wether was killed by the coyotes in June and we added a ram in July, deciding to keep the two ewes, and butcher only the 3 remaining wethers. That way we can make our own lambs next year. So a very nice sheep farmer who lives nearby, offered to pick them up for me to take them to the processor, and she came with her trailer this afternoon. We backed her trailer up to the pen, and with a little encouragement, got all 6 to load onto the trailer, then "sorted" them from the back half of the trailer, putting the wethers in the front section. We got the first two wethers up front, and were left with the three who could be identical triplets - I've never been able to tell them apart. In order to find the third wether, we had to examine their nether regions and….they are all truly identical. We checked 3 times but all three are ewes. (The lambs were completely wild when we got them and we've never been able to handle them well enough to examine them this intimately). So it was a huge surprise to us to find that we actually have a ram and 3 ewes, and only have 2 going to the processor. A relief actually, as I don't have enough freezer space for 3 anyway.

We had also agreed to purchase two more little ewe lambs from the same farmer so tonight we still have the same number of lambs, but a great ratio of 1 ram to 5 ewes. The new little lambs are really small and were only pulled from their mother this morning so they are yelling now. I'm sure it is all very scary for them, but they will settle down in a few days. The older ones have accepted them into the flock fairly well, giving them a little butt now and then to put them in their place, but nothing serious.

I had a disappointment this evening too. I've had a broody hen sitting on 4 eggs - 3 barred rocks and an exchequer egg. Well, one of the exchequers thought she might take a go at being broody too. She spent the entire day in the nest box, kicking out the broody cochin (who went and sat on a different nest). She growled at me every time I tried to check on her. Finally I decided to get the eggs out from under her to give them back to the cochin, but when I reached under her, there was an icky mess. I could only hope the broken egg was one that had just been laid today but nope, it was one of the barred rock eggs. It apparently wasn't fertile, as there was no fetus - just the yolk and white. So I had to try to clean the rest of the eggs off before putting them back under the cochin, and decided I may as well candle while I was at it, and found only one to be developing. It is one of the barred rock eggs. They are due on Fri/Sat, so now I can only hope that with the confusion today, the one hasn't quit developing and will still hatch this weekend, or the poor cochin will have sat all this time for nothing.

Wow, that really was a surprise, but I guess a pleasant one about the ewes. At least you will have some meat in the freezer. We probably will get some lambs from that same person in the spring, I asked her to put me on the list. My DH sounds like he would be onboard with getting them, so we'll see. What a great deal to have the ones hauled off for you to have them processed & have your new lambs delivered as well.

I'm sorry about your eggs, I hope that other one hatches for you.

the punctures were on the sides of the body below the wings..as big around as a pencil.They look like they were grabbed and shook and my alpha cockerel was probably trying to defend his flock and got torn up for it.

That really sounds more like a dog to me then anything else, but it also could have been a fox if you found no way for the dogs to get in. Raccoons normally will just bite off the head & leave the rest of the body & possums will eat out the guts & leave the carcass. I have had attacks on my birds from both of those things before I got my GPs to keep the predators out. My dogs have been really busy at night lately, so the predators must be on the move a lot. I have heard coyotes before it's even dark lately. They have mostly moved to the southeast of us to our neighbor's place because he has a pond there & has lots of animals come for water. He sees bobcats there as well.

I have just been running my tail off today trying to get things done outside this week before the weather turns bad. Today I got all of my rabbit trays cleaned out & put back in with fresh shavings & after my DH left I was working in the garage before & after chores. I'm going through stuff in the back of the garage & throwing out quite a bit of stuff. I hauled out a lot of the spiral hose I had for my pond when I ran a pump for the water fall that I don't need any more & a bunch of oak trim we had kept when they put up new trim after replacing our windows. I decided we aren't ever going to do anything with it, so it might as well go, it's just in the way & taking up space in there. I got all of the stuff cleaned off the shelving unit I want to move over to put my stuff on, but found out after I got it empty that it's screwed to the studs, so I'm going to have to take tools out tomorrow to get it loose. I burned a bunch of old newspaper evidently my DH had put on the shelf 13 years ago according to the date on the papers in the box & that took quite awhile to get it all burned. Tomorrow I have to move things out that are in the place I want to put the shelving so I can get it in there. I have one cabinet that has some extra rabbit & chicken equipment in it, but it's full, so I thought I would just use these shelves to put the overflow on. I have a couple of boxes to go through yet to see if there is anything I want to keep out of them that were on the shelf. My DH has stuff that was there that hasn't moved in 15 years, but if I throw it away he will have a fit. While I was working in there this evening I let my kitty Coco out to run around & she took a dirt bath on the floor in a particularly dusty spot. She was having a good old time running all around in there. She did come to me in the end though & let me put her back in her crate. I would think she would be having those kittens soon, but since I don't know for sure when they're due it's just a waiting game.

I also put a heat lamp out in my growout pen for the night, but the chicks in there hadn't really caught on about it when I left them. Hopefully when it gets colder they will use it.

I'm having some problems with my remaining ducks since we butchered the older ones the other day. The older ducks were the leaders & the young ones followed. Now that they don't have a leader any more they're kind of freaked out & last night I had to have help from my DH to get them in the pen. They went a little easier tonight, so I'm hoping they will start going in like they did before when the others were there.

 

[HEChicken]

Wow, Trish, you really have been busy. Hopefully the ducks will figure out a new "pecking order" soon.

Tweety and Trish - so glad you enjoyed the meals you made with your birds.

Cailynne, I tend to agree with Trish now that I know where the puncture wounds were. I did look at the photos on your other thread but couldn't really tell much from them. The confusing thing is that you couldn't find a breech where the dog could have got in. And a lot of times it seems like even if they get in, they can't figure out how to get back out, so the culprit (if its a dog), is right there to be caught red-handed. What's weird about this situation is that it got in and back out again, without leaving any evidence of how it gained entry. A dog sounds most likely though, because a wild animal would have been interested in eating them, where a dog plays with them until they're dead. Another possibility is a cat. I wouldn't normally suggest a cat because in my experience, cats aren't a threat to adult chickens. However since these are silkies and don't have the feathers of other breeds, that may make them more vulnerable to a particularly predatory cat. And, a cat would be able to easily get in and out of a yard over the fence.

 

[Trish44]

Wow, Trish, you really have been busy. Hopefully the ducks will figure out a new "pecking order" soon.

Tweety and Trish - so glad you enjoyed the meals you made with your birds.

Cailynne, I tend to agree with Trish now that I know where the puncture wounds were. I did look at the photos on your other thread but couldn't really tell much from them. The confusing thing is that you couldn't find a breech where the dog could have got in. And a lot of times it seems like even if they get in, they can't figure out how to get back out, so the culprit (if its a dog), is right there to be caught red-handed. What's weird about this situation is that it got in and back out again, without leaving any evidence of how it gained entry. A dog sounds most likely though, because a wild animal would have been interested in eating them, where a dog plays with them until they're dead. Another possibility is a cat. I wouldn't normally suggest a cat because in my experience, cats aren't a threat to adult chickens. However since these are silkies and don't have the feathers of other breeds, that may make them more vulnerable to a particularly predatory cat. And, a cat would be able to easily get in and out of a yard over the fence.

I also looked at the pics, but couldn't tell anything from them either. I know cats get blamed for a lot of things, but HEChicken you saw how many we have here & in all the years I have had chickens, both here & at my other house I have never had a loss from a cat. My grown chickens put the kittens in their place by pecking them on the head, so I can't imagine them getting the better of a grown hen. The only ones my cats even show any interest in is the chicks & that is just I think because they still peep & that causes them to pay attention. They have not tried to get in the pen however, they will look in there, but mostly they just want their food. The kittens will get into my FF when I'm trying to feed all the chickens in the evening, they obviously like it too.