Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Tweety this is the time of year my GPs are the happiest. They run and play with each other and seem to love the cold weather. If the north wind is blowing they aren't quite as happy. They like to have something to lay on. A dog bed, and old blanket, a piece of carpet or even an old deer hide. Other than that they seem super happy just to lay out in the open most of the time.
I've been down in the basement trying to clean out some of the Christmas stuff. There was lots of mouse poo in there . I think one reason is it has little pipes that run out to let in fresh air and somehow they get in those. I am so sick of fighting mice. I guess the only way I could get rid of them is to move back to town. Not going to happen.
I haven't gone out yet except to let the birds out of the pens to run. Most of them are up against the south side of the house trying to stay warm. It's one of those days I wish I could just stay in and not have to feed and water them.
I may have to get some barn cats one of these days. It might be cheaper to feed them than feed all these mice!!!
Glad your lavenders are hatching Trish.

 

[Trish44]

Tweety this is the time of year my GPs are the happiest. They run and play with each other and seem to love the cold weather. If the north wind is blowing they aren't quite as happy. They like to have something to lay on. A dog bed, and old blanket, a piece of carpet or even an old deer hide. Other than that they seem super happy just to lay out in the open most of the time.
I've been down in the basement trying to clean out some of the Christmas stuff. There was lots of mouse poo in there . I think one reason is it has little pipes that run out to let in fresh air and somehow they get in those. I am so sick of fighting mice. I guess the only way I could get rid of them is to move back to town. Not going to happen.
I haven't gone out yet except to let the birds out of the pens to run. Most of them are up against the south side of the house trying to stay warm. It's one of those days I wish I could just stay in and not have to feed and water them.
I may have to get some barn cats one of these days. It might be cheaper to feed them than feed all these mice!!!
Glad your lavenders are hatching Trish.

I wish you lived closer to me, I know we say that all the time, but it's true. I have a bunch of barn cats you could have, they're all kittens yet, but they're already catching big field mice. I just have way more than I need right now. We're feeding about 20 outside cats at the moment. I have tried to find some homes for them but there are so many people trying to re-home cats & kittens right now it's impossible. I hate the thought of taking any of them to the humane society, but I may have to because we can't keep feeding all of these cats. If anybody knows of someone who needs outside cats for mousers send them my way. The last lavender Orp chick hatched & all 7 are now in the brooder. Finally with the number of them they're well matched with the Cream Legbars & with them being more active today they're leaving them alone. I was afraid I was going to have to separate them. I may move them all later this afternoon anyway to the big brooder & just take the smaller one back out to the garage now that I have all my chicks hatched. The bigger brooder has so much more room for them to run around in.

Cherwill, thanks for letting me know about the exchange deal! I am not sure if it is really the charger that is the issue or it is the KF's charging port that is giving out on me. We used to have the Cox bundle deal before we moved out to the country. It was nice and we watched a lot of WSU basketball games on it. Now that we've moved, Cox doesn't offer their service here so we have to use Dish. We've U-verse phone and Internet and it is working out ok for me. I can work from home and that's the most important since I don't want to drive into the office in the middle of the night!

I'm dead tired today. Worked from midnight to 5ish this morning and had to get back up at 9 am. I think I'm going to take a nap if possible. The weather is cold and it's cloudy. My DH is getting some straw bales to surround a 4x6 dog pen so the GP will, hopefully, go in there when it is freezing cold out there, especially when it snows or rains.

Stay warm everyone.

Don't worry about the GP that much tweety, they have layers of fur & they were made to live in the mountains by themselves tending sheep & goats. Mine have been loving this weather, wrestling & playing, it's the time of year they love the most. They will lay out in the snow when the ground is all covered & be perfectly happy. I do have places for them to get in, but they rarely unless it's just horrible out even go in anywhere. I used to have two dog igloos for them, but they preferred to lay on the ground, so I used those for chickens.

We had one of our home raised chickens roasted in the oven for lunch today & it was really good. I put several cloves of garlic inside of it & put a whole lemon cut in half in there too. I cooked an accorn squash in the microwave & we had that & some rice with the chicken for our lunch. Afterwards when I was cleaning up I took the skins of the squash outside & threw them out there & the chickens, cats, & even the goats were fighting over them. Nothing goes to waste here, all I have to do is open the front door & throw something out & it's pretty much gone before it hits the ground. The dogs didn't even have a chance to get up here before the squash disappeared.

 

[chicken danz]

Sounds like my house Trish. Only it's the back door. The ducks, geese, chickens, and dogs all come running regardless of what I throw out. I cooked one of my chickens today as well. Right now I have rice cooking in the brooth with garlic, onions, peppers, celery and a few seasonings I dumped in. I haven't decided if I am going to make a soup or a casserole. I have the chicken all boned and cut up and the dogs' pile of skin and whatever other connective tissue that is in there ready for them. They'll get that over their dog food after while. I'll decide what I'm going to do when the rice gets done.
I'm also making some home made cinnamon rolls. I started them hours ago. I might get them done so we can have one for a late night snack.
It was just miserable cold out there feeding and watering. I had to bucket some water to the birds. I could have drug that hose out again but I didn't want to mess with it. The silly peafowl chicks had managed to unplug their heated bowl so they had no water, and two other pens had drank all their water. I watered what I could with the pirit hose and hauled the rest.
I need to go get a load of feed tomorrow already again. These birds are going to break me!! I will be getting down a couple turkeys soon so that will help, and next weekend I'll be selling some pullets.
I need to butcher but have no desire to do so in this cold weather.

 

[sharol]

Sounds like my house Trish. Only it's the back door. The ducks, geese, chickens, and dogs all come running regardless of what I throw out. I cooked one of my chickens today as well. Right now I have rice cooking in the brooth with garlic, onions, peppers, celery and a few seasonings I dumped in. I haven't decided if I am going to make a soup or a casserole. I have the chicken all boned and cut up and the dogs' pile of skin and whatever other connective tissue that is in there ready for them. They'll get that over their dog food after while. I'll decide what I'm going to do when the rice gets done.
I'm also making some home made cinnamon rolls. I started them hours ago. I might get them done so we can have one for a late night snack.
It was just miserable cold out there feeding and watering. I had to bucket some water to the birds. I could have drug that hose out again but I didn't want to mess with it. The silly peafowl chicks had managed to unplug their heated bowl so they had no water, and two other pens had drank all their water. I watered what I could with the pirit hose and hauled the rest.
I need to go get a load of feed tomorrow already again. These birds are going to break me!! I will be getting down a couple turkeys soon so that will help, and next weekend I'll be selling some pullets.
I need to butcher but have no desire to do so in this cold weather.

I finally got the heated waterer out yesterday for them (in the coop), but the water in the run was freezing almost as fast as I put it out. I do have heaters over the roosts, but they don't really keep the coop warm, just radiate heat under where they are located, so it isn't very warm in there either. If the water wasn't heated, it would freeze. I gave them their "Flock Block" today, and they are working on that when they are in out of the wind.

The freeloaders haven't laid an egg in nearly a month. Several are still molting. My poor little Delaware still looks naked (and has for 3 weeks). I don't remember her molt taking this long last time. One of the EE's is almost as bad. I'm sure it is a light thing.

 

[Trish44]

sharol, I have one white leghorn that just still looks pitiful, she is half naked poor thing. I can't help but think she is really cold with not many feathers. I have one other red sex link hen that is slowly getting her feathers back, she looked really bad too, but I looked at her today & she is about 3/4 of the way grown back now. My hens aren't laying well right now either even with a light in the coop. I think they're just reacting to these dreary cold days, you just can't blame them.

I had to break ice again on all the water bowls out there that aren't heated. I sure wish I could run more cords & get more heated dog bowls to the pens. I think I'm going to run a couple more to the 2 Orpington pens at least, that would be two fewer frozen bowls anyway. That would leave me 6 pens that have frozen water. I plan to get one of those heated buckets for the goats too, that's the pits trying to keep their big trough broken up. It would cost about the same to get a heated bucket as to buy the heater for the trough & I would be able to manage the water much easier for the bucket in the winter. Where did you get yours HEChicken & how much did you have to pay for it? I saw some at Orschelyn's but I couldn't get one the last time I was there.

I found another little pullet egg in the nest box again in the Lemon Cuckoo Orp pen today. I'm so glad they're laying now. I need to get a nest in the lavender pen, but they're younger than the Lemons, so it may be a bit yet before they lay, especially the youngest one.

I went out & loaded up two wheelbarrow loads of leaves & put them in my growout pen this evening so they would have more insulation since they sit on the ground. I had straw in there too, but the one side of the pen had more than the other because they dug it all around & pushed most of it over to one end. I asked the gal that brought me straw last time to bring me 10 more bales, but I don't know yet when she'll be able to bring it. I hope it's soon because I'm totally out now.

 

[sharol]

sharol, I have one white leghorn that just still looks pitiful, she is half naked poor thing. I can't help but think she is really cold with not many feathers. I have one other red sex link hen that is slowly getting her feathers back, she looked really bad too, but I looked at her today & she is about 3/4 of the way grown back now. My hens aren't laying well right now either even with a light in the coop. I think they're just reacting to these dreary cold days, you just can't blame them.

*** big snip***

I have a light in the coop, but it comes on about 6 and off by 7 p.m. Some of my birds (hatched this summer) are still not fully integrated into the flock (getting closer every day), and I don't like to have the light on too long before or after the door opens/closes. After new years, I'll boost the light a couple of more hours, but it would be nice to get SOME eggs at least. Of course my 5 original girls are 3 years old and their production is down, and 4 of the pullets are only about 18 weeks old, so that leaves my 3 EE's and 1 BO that are right at 2 years old to carry all the responsibility for a while. I have 7 eggs in the refrigerator and one still on the rack on the counter, and I'll be having to (horror!!!) buy eggs.

 

[HEChicken]

One of my friends used to joke that I could pinpoint the most expensive item in any store just by walking in and saying, "Oh, I like that one."

Yeah I know, he's such a nice looking bird, but if he keeps acting like that he'll have to be dinner or find another home. I just won't tolerate roosters coming after me. I've had a couple before that had to go for that reason. I wish I had a pen already to put him & the pullet in & maybe he would settle down, but that's not going to happen till spring now.

I have 6 pretty little lavender Orpington chicks so far & one still not out yet. I thought all the eggs were done & started checking the eggs to see if the rest were bad & found one peeping, so I put it back in the hatcher. The other 3 had died earlier, two of which were totally formed. These were shipped eggs though so it's hard to tell what they had happen to them. I'm going to be pretty happy if I end up with 7 chicks out of 10 eggs.

Congratulations - that is a great hatch on shipped eggs!

I agree with you on the cockerel if he doesn't settle down. There are way too many nice Reese BR's to put up with a mean one.

We had one of our home raised chickens roasted in the oven for lunch today & it was really good. I put several cloves of garlic inside of it & put a whole lemon cut in half in there too. I cooked an accorn squash in the microwave & we had that & some rice with the chicken for our lunch. Afterwards when I was cleaning up I took the skins of the squash outside & threw them out there & the chickens, cats, & even the goats were fighting over them. Nothing goes to waste here, all I have to do is open the front door & throw something out & it's pretty much gone before it hits the ground. The dogs didn't even have a chance to get up here before the squash disappeared.

I'm glad you enjoyed your home-raised bird. It must have been the day for it because I see that Danz had one of hers today too, and our meal was also chicken from one that I butchered a couple of weeks ago.

We have no food going out in our trash either. Most scraps go to the birds, but sometimes the dogs will get something that I think they'll appreciate more than the birds do.

I cooked one of my chickens today as well. Right now I have rice cooking in the brooth with garlic, onions, peppers, celery and a few seasonings I dumped in. I haven't decided if I am going to make a soup or a casserole.

That sounds delicious!

I had to break ice again on all the water bowls out there that aren't heated. I sure wish I could run more cords & get more heated dog bowls to the pens. I think I'm going to run a couple more to the 2 Orpington pens at least, that would be two fewer frozen bowls anyway. That would leave me 6 pens that have frozen water. I plan to get one of those heated buckets for the goats too, that's the pits trying to keep their big trough broken up. It would cost about the same to get a heated bucket as to buy the heater for the trough & I would be able to manage the water much easier for the bucket in the winter.Where did you get yours HEChicken & how much did you have to pay for it? I saw some at Orschelyn's but I couldn't get one the last time I was there.

The TSC that was closest to us closed down because they had built a brand new building and relocated it much CLOSER to us! I'm excited to have one so close. As part of their grand reopening they were offering 10% off everything in their store this weekend so I went and loaded up on feed and go the bucket while I was there. They had 2 sizes and after looking at both, I got the smaller one. I can't remember how much water the larger one held, but the small one is 9 quarts, which is plenty of water for my small flock. And, the difference in the electric usage was from 50w to 115w so I figured if I'm going to have it plugged in all winter, I may as well go with the one that uses less. I think it was $27 before the 10% savings.

Ever since this cold snap started, I've had the heated water bowl out at the coop and have been taking out a 1-gallon milk jug of water every couple of hours. The ducks splash water out so there is usually only a small amount of water left at the bottom, so I refill it. Most nights I dump it out, unplug it, and next morning plug it back in and fill it with fresh water. With the nights so long, I just can't see having it plugged in from 5:30pm until 7:30am when for those 14 hours, they're in the coop not drinking from it anyway. One night I forgot to unplug it and was a little surprised to find it solid ice the next morning. I thought the heating element would keep the water unfrozen but figured it was so cold it just couldn't keep up.

Meanwhile, I had borrowed a tank heater for the sheep/goat stock tank, until I could buy the heated bucket. It was an old heater so when it didn't seem to be keeping up either, I wasn't that surprised and just figured it isn't up to the task.

You can see where this is going right?

So I bought the heated water bucket, filled it, plugged it in, and felt good that at least the sheep and goats would have water next morning. Since they are out grazing all night, I will be leaving it plugged in night and day so they can always drink. So I was a little dismayed this morning to find it....solid ice. For the first time it occurred to me that maybe its not that all of these individual items are failing, but that the OUTLET isn't working. Geez. You'd think I'd have thought of that a little sooner.

. It is a GFCI outlet, so the first thing I did was push the test button. I couldn't feel it click. So I picked up a stick and used that, thinking my fingers weren't getting it all the way in. Nothing. The little light is on indicating there is power to it - it just isn't working. So I guess the GFCI went bad. Grrr. All this time I blamed a stock tank heater not working and a heated water bowl "not keeping up" and it was the outlet all along. So DH and I went and bought a new one today but couldn't get it installed because the other project we were working on - you'll never guess this - took about 8 times longer than it should have. One of those projects where you either can't put your hands on the tool you need or you find it only to discover it needs a new blade or what-have-you. DH assures me he'll get it replaced tomorrow though, so I don't have to keep carrying water out to all these animals every couple of hours.

 

[cleansquared]

Hi every one I've returned to the land of working internet thanks to verizion also I have a new number so if any one wants it pm me its been a crazy few months and moving is still not over but sll my furniture is here just boxes and clothes and toys left to get

 

[Trish44]

Congratulations - that is a great hatch on shipped eggs!

I agree with you on the cockerel if he doesn't settle down. There are way too many nice Reese BR's to put up with a mean one.

I'm glad you enjoyed your home-raised bird. It must have been the day for it because I see that Danz had one of hers today too, and our meal was also chicken from one that I butchered a couple of weeks ago.

We have no food going out in our trash either. Most scraps go to the birds, but sometimes the dogs will get something that I think they'll appreciate more than the birds do.

That sounds delicious!

The TSC that was closest to us closed down because they had built a brand new building and relocated it much CLOSER to us! I'm excited to have one so close. As part of their grand reopening they were offering 10% off everything in their store this weekend so I went and loaded up on feed and go the bucket while I was there. They had 2 sizes and after looking at both, I got the smaller one. I can't remember how much water the larger one held, but the small one is 9 quarts, which is plenty of water for my small flock. And, the difference in the electric usage was from 50w to 115w so I figured if I'm going to have it plugged in all winter, I may as well go with the one that uses less. I think it was $27 before the 10% savings.

Ever since this cold snap started, I've had the heated water bowl out at the coop and have been taking out a 1-gallon milk jug of water every couple of hours. The ducks splash water out so there is usually only a small amount of water left at the bottom, so I refill it. Most nights I dump it out, unplug it, and next morning plug it back in and fill it with fresh water. With the nights so long, I just can't see having it plugged in from 5:30pm until 7:30am when for those 14 hours, they're in the coop not drinking from it anyway. One night I forgot to unplug it and was a little surprised to find it solid ice the next morning. I thought the heating element would keep the water unfrozen but figured it was so cold it just couldn't keep up.

Meanwhile, I had borrowed a tank heater for the sheep/goat stock tank, until I could buy the heated bucket. It was an old heater so when it didn't seem to be keeping up either, I wasn't that surprised and just figured it isn't up to the task.

You can see where this is going right?

So I bought the heated water bucket, filled it, plugged it in, and felt good that at least the sheep and goats would have water next morning. Since they are out grazing all night, I will be leaving it plugged in night and day so they can always drink. So I was a little dismayed this morning to find it....solid ice. For the first time it occurred to me that maybe its not that all of these individual items are failing, but that the OUTLET isn't working. Geez. You'd think I'd have thought of that a little sooner.

. It is a GFCI outlet, so the first thing I did was push the test button. I couldn't feel it click. So I picked up a stick and used that, thinking my fingers weren't getting it all the way in. Nothing. The little light is on indicating there is power to it - it just isn't working. So I guess the GFCI went bad. Grrr. All this time I blamed a stock tank heater not working and a heated water bowl "not keeping up" and it was the outlet all along. So DH and I went and bought a new one today but couldn't get it installed because the other project we were working on - you'll never guess this - took about 8 times longer than it should have. One of those projects where you either can't put your hands on the tool you need or you find it only to discover it needs a new blade or what-have-you. DH assures me he'll get it replaced tomorrow though, so I don't have to keep carrying water out to all these animals every couple of hours.

Yeah I may have to get a BR cockerel from you if this one doesn't behave himself. I can't believe everyone else says theirs are so sweet & I got the one who likes to bite me on the back of the leg & jump at me when I'm feeding. He actually likes to try to jump up & eat out of the bucket I'm serving the feed from, ornery booger. I'm hoping that he's just being a teenager & doesn't get worse as he gets older. When he gets spurs I'm definitely not going to tolerate any bad behavior from him.

I had seen the ad that TSC was opening their new store, so really it's even more convenient for me when I come up that way. It was kind of a hassle to get into the old one where it was at. I don't shop there that often, but sometimes they have things that are a better price than other places or something I can't find somewhere else.

That's a bummer about your outlet, I hope you get it fixed soon. I couldn't believe right after I had gotten one extension cord replaced that had shorted out & i actually shocked myself on it not realizing it was missing the covering & then the other one going to the other waterer in the main coop right next to that went bad so I had to replace that one too. I put the plugin up on the wall to get it away from the hens, so hopefully I'll be good for the winter now. You're lucky you don't have to carry water out to as many pens as I have out there. I sure don't take it out every couple of hours. The ducks are the worst about playing in their water. They really make a mess of it. I'm glad I only have 4 of them now instead of 7. I think it will be more manageable if I can get two more heated dog bowls & get the heated bucket for the goats. Then it won't be so overwhelming I think to keep up with the water. Right now it just seems like I could spend all day doing that, but I just can't go out there in the cold that many times.

I got all 7 little lavender Orps & the 6 Cream Legbar chicks all settled into the bigger brooder this evening & cleaned out the smaller one so it can be taken back to the garage tomorrow. I'll try to get some pics taken of the little guys tomorrow. I had one little lavender Orp chick that had splayed legs after hatching, but I put some vet wrap around his little legs overnight & took it off today & he's walking fine now. I don't know if it would have corrected itself or not, but that sure did the trick. They're all integrated together now & nobody seems to be picking on anybody else now, so that's good.

Welcome back cleansquared! I'm glad you got all moved & are settling in. It's so much work to move, I just hate it & it gets harder the older you get. Anyway I'm glad you were able to join us again.

 

[cherwill]

I'm glad you enjoyed your home-raised bird. It must have been the day for it because I see that Danz had one of hers today too, and our meal was also chicken from one that I butchered a couple of weeks ago.

I wish I had a home-raised bird to roast! You all made my mouth water.

We have no food going out in our trash either. Most scraps go to the birds, but sometimes the dogs will get something that I think they'll appreciate more than the birds do.

Between the dogs, hens, and compost, we don't ever have to throw away food. I like that.

You can see where this is going right?

So I bought the heated water bucket, filled it, plugged it in, and felt good that at least the sheep and goats would have water next morning. Since they are out grazing all night, I will be leaving it plugged in night and day so they can always drink. So I was a little dismayed this morning to find it....solid ice. For the first time it occurred to me that maybe its not that all of these individual items are failing, but that the OUTLET isn't working. Geez. You'd think I'd have thought of that a little sooner.

. It is a GFCI outlet, so the first thing I did was push the test button. I couldn't feel it click. So I picked up a stick and used that, thinking my fingers weren't getting it all the way in. Nothing. The little light is on indicating there is power to it - it just isn't working. So I guess the GFCI went bad. Grrr. All this time I blamed a stock tank heater not working and a heated water bowl "not keeping up" and it was the outlet all along. So DH and I went and bought a new one today but couldn't get it installed because the other project we were working on - you'll never guess this - took about 8 times longer than it should have. One of those projects where you either can't put your hands on the tool you need or you find it only to discover it needs a new blade or what-have-you. DH assures me he'll get it replaced tomorrow though, so I don't have to keep carrying water out to all these animals every couple of hours.

Hi every one I've returned to the land of working internet thanks to verizion also I have a new number so if any one wants it pm me its been a crazy few months and moving is still not over but sll my furniture is here just boxes and clothes and toys left to get

I'm glad you're settled in with working internet. Moving is total chaos!

We got the rest of the yard cleaned up today; picked a nice cold day to do it. Then we went shopping for Thanksgiving ingredients, then I did a load of laundry, then we piddled around on the computers. DH is researching cable alternatives and I played The Sims 2.

I think I was more successful than he was.