Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Merry Christmas everyone! It is an absolutely beautiful day out there today. I went out at 7am and the thermometer said 20 but with no wind, and the sun already out, it felt wonderful. I think the animals felt the same way and were largely out of the coop and moving around by the time I got down there. It has already passed 32 so the best Christmas present for me is not having to worry about keeping water thawed for them all day today.

I got some clothing items suited to doing chores outside. If I'm really lucky the weather will now warm up and I won't need them but I will certainly be better equipped the next time I DO need them. Yay!!!

Danz, that little chick that hatched from your eggs is a cockerel which is what I was really hoping for. The cockerel I got from Good Shepherd did not have very good type and all of his offspring are turning out somewhat disappointing. The pullets are great - but the cockerels all got his knock knees. So I was really hoping the one from you would be a cockerel and that he will turn out to be better type than the ones I've been getting. If so, he will ultimately become one of my two breeding roosters. So far I am super happy with him. Despite being broody raised, he is very outgoing towards me and will hop out of the broody coop when I bring water, chattering away to me. I will have to wait quite a bit longer to tell what his type will be like, but he is slowly feathering out and growing nicely now.

Sharol, congrats on the decision to keep the foster pups. Until about age 2, puppies can really be a handful but after age 2 they mostly seem to settle down. Our black dog was 8 months when we adopted her and though she has always been a pretty good dog, I really noticed a difference right around her second birthday, when she suddenly seemed more settled down.

Tweety, sorry about the hassles with the spay surgery. I hope the cone of shame allows her to heal from here on out without any further complications.

That's great that you got some clothes so you will be prepared anyway. I bought myself some things so with what I already had I'm pretty set now. I'm loving the Carhart gloves I bought, they're so warm & cozy that my hands don't hurt now when I go out in really cold weather. I can get them wet on the outside too & it doesn't soak through, a big plus because when I get buckets of water I always end up getting them somewhat wet before I'm done.

That's great you got a cockerel chick like you were wanting, congrats.

I made birdseed & peanut butter treats for the wild birds today & hung them on branches. Then I decided since I had peanut butter left to make a big one on a paper towel roll for the chickens. They really had fun with it, but I had to fight off the cats while they were trying to eat it. I didn't know cats were so crazy for peanut butter, I guess mine are anyway. I had to retrieve it twice from a cat who ran down the hill with it. My DH got it once from her & brought it back to me. Then when I was done with that & had peanut butter & seed left in my bowl I just mixed it in together & took it out & threw some more to the laying flock outside & then took it around to all of my pens. So my birds all had a Christmas treat today. I gave them all crab apples to eat too because I hadn't had time to do anything with them & probably won't in time for them to be any good, so I just threw some in the main run & each pen & they were working on them when I left. I don't even cut up apples for them any more, they just peck at them until they're gone, they love them. When the crab apples were falling off the tree the chickens & goats were eating them on the ground. Most of them have already fallen now, but we had a big crop of them this year for the first time.

It's so nice outside this afternoon & the ice is finally melting, so the driveway hopefully will be passable by tomorrow afternoon. It's at the road end we have problems the most because of the hill the sun doesn't melt that till the very end of all the melting if the weather stays warm enough. My DH is outside hauling wood up that he had cut & is out there splitting it now, so with all he has been cutting & splitting by the time he gets done we should have enough wood for awhile. We've been burning it every day when it's been so cold. We normally have the woodstove going if it's going to be below 35, so that's been pretty much continuously until today. On sunny days like today the sun comes in the windows in the front of the house & warms the cement walls, so it stays fairly decent downstairs till dark, one plus of this strange house.

 

[Frizzled Pink]

Wishing all the Merriest Christmas! Looking forward to a Happy 2014 with all my chicken PEEPs!

 

[chicken danz]

Hope every one had a great Christmas. My meal wasn't the very best. I just had too much going on to make it work. But the gifts were well received and I got a real kick out of my granddaughter and her excitement.
I've got to get back down to business today. I think one of my other kids and his family are coming on Saturday so I'm not quite back to normal yet. The birds got pretty ignored yesterday. I need to get out very soon and care for them today. I feel guilty that I took a day off for the most part. I am sure the biggest problem will be water. It seems like they run out fairly easily. I just had to take a little time for myself. I was up at 5:45 yesterday AM and went non -stop until about 11 PM. So I needed some time for me.
I got several chicken items as gifts. Like a chicken platter, chicken kitchen towels etc. It's not really my decorating taste but I like it just the same. At least my family has recognized that I love them. I seem to add more and more chicken items as time goes.
I can honestly say I'll be glad when things get back to normal again. I love the holidays but they are exhaustive.

 

[zigzag45]

Hello - hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Always amazes me how it's just over and done-with so fast.

We're now getting enough eggs that we need to figure out some egg care questions. I did some research, and it looks like it's best to keep the eggs unwashed in the fridge till you're ready to use them. Then, I saw a number that said to wash them before cracking them. Is that still good advice? One of us in the house was recently using a "chicken-laid egg" as one of the kids says and some of the shell dropped in. After-wards, we wondered if that was bad and if that could have contaminated the what we were making.

The nesting boxes stay pretty clean and I add hay/straw to them when they look like they are getting overly packed down.

 

[Trish44]

Hello - hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Always amazes me how it's just over and done-with so fast.

We're now getting enough eggs that we need to figure out some egg care questions. I did some research, and it looks like it's best to keep the eggs unwashed in the fridge till you're ready to use them. Then, I saw a number that said to wash them before cracking them. Is that still good advice? One of us in the house was recently using a "chicken-laid egg" as one of the kids says and some of the shell dropped in. After-wards, we wondered if that was bad and if that could have contaminated the what we were making.

The nesting boxes stay pretty clean and I add hay/straw to them when they look like they are getting overly packed down.

I don't wash my eggs any more than I have to. I also try to keep my nest boxes as clean as possible with fresh straw. I wash the parts of the egg that has dirt on it, but other than that if it looks clean I don't wash it. The integrity of the egg is protected if you don't wash it since there is a protective layer on there. I do wash the eggs I sell to other people a little more than I do the ones we use, just because I wouldn't want anyone to get upset about dirty eggs or be turned off about it. People in Europe leave their eggs out on the counter & use them from there, but maybe they only have a few at a time. I have read that they don't have problems with Salmonella over there & they refuse to buy our commercial eggs because of the way they're treated. They don't have battery hens there for one thing & the eggs aren't washed with bleach. I think the more natural you can treat them the better.

Everybody enjoy the day, I hope you all had a good Christmas.

 

[zigzag45]

Thanks @Trish44

 

[cherwill]

I do wash my eggs if they're dirty. I use them quickly enough that I'm not worried about losing the coating on the shell. If I had a tendency to end up with dozens of eggs stockpiled, I wouldn't wash them until I used them. If you're worried at all about what may be on the shell, I'd wash them before cracking them. In cracking the shell, you can easily get whatever's on the outside into the egg itself.

With frozen eggs, it depends on whether or not the shell is cracked and how much. If I'm sure the membrane wasn't broken, I have no problem using the egg. If the crack is large or I think the membrane may have been broken, the raw egg usually goes in the dog bowls.

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

 

[HEChicken]

Hope every one had a great Christmas. My meal wasn't the very best. I just had too much going on to make it work. But the gifts were well received and I got a real kick out of my granddaughter and her excitement.
I've got to get back down to business today. I think one of my other kids and his family are coming on Saturday so I'm not quite back to normal yet. The birds got pretty ignored yesterday. I need to get out very soon and care for them today. I feel guilty that I took a day off for the most part. I am sure the biggest problem will be water. It seems like they run out fairly easily. I just had to take a little time for myself. I was up at 5:45 yesterday AM and went non -stop until about 11 PM. So I needed some time for me.
I got several chicken items as gifts. Like a chicken platter, chicken kitchen towels etc. It's not really my decorating taste but I like it just the same. At least my family has recognized that I love them. I seem to add more and more chicken items as time goes.
I can honestly say I'll be glad when things get back to normal again. I love the holidays but they are exhaustive.

I hope you are able to get some rest. I got some chicken items too - love it! I should take some pictures and post them and so should you

Hello - hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Always amazes me how it's just over and done-with so fast.

We're now getting enough eggs that we need to figure out some egg care questions. I did some research, and it looks like it's best to keep the eggs unwashed in the fridge till you're ready to use them. Then, I saw a number that said to wash them before cracking them. Is that still good advice? One of us in the house was recently using a "chicken-laid egg" as one of the kids says and some of the shell dropped in. After-wards, we wondered if that was bad and if that could have contaminated the what we were making.

The nesting boxes stay pretty clean and I add hay/straw to them when they look like they are getting overly packed down.

Eggs don't need to be refrigerated. I think people get that idea because grocery stores keep them in the dairy section but they are good for a long time if left at room temperature, and personally I don't have room in my fridge for too many cartons of eggs. I also don't wash my eggs unless they are dirty. I do try to keep the nest boxes clean and keep birds from sleeping in them and that way the eggs are clean for the most part. Occasionally one of the juveniles will sleep in a box at night and poop in it and then the next day some of the eggs might have some visible poop on them. I wash those but don't wash any that look clean. I wouldn't worry about shell falling into whatever you are cooking - by the time whatever it is has baked or fried at cooking temperatures, it will have killed anything that might have been on the shell anyway.

 

[chicken danz]

I don't refrigerate eggs unless I wash them usually. And I only wash the ones that are visibly dirty. Mother nature has the best plan in my opinion.
I just got all the animals fed and watered. It was nice not to freeze although the wind was chilly.
My plans got changed again so I am going to have company tomorrow rather than Saturday. That means I need to come up with something to cook for another holiday meal. They had ham at their celebration yesterday and we had turkey and duck yesterday. Maybe I can come up with something unique without having to do a lot of shopping. I don't really want to go anywhere.
HeChicken I was going to take some pictures but my camera battery just wore down. Gotta charge it first.

 

[lizzyGSR]

So, I demonstrated my natural "grace" today.

I went to crawl through the barbed wire fence and ended up falling into it instead. Thankfully, it wasn't electric.

I also only ended up with one scratch. Could've been a lot worse. It was a beautiful day today, and I got to sit out and enjoy it for a while. Tomorrow is supposed to be gorgeous here as well!