Consolidated Kansas

[Frizzled Pink]

Thanks he's a good boy, just not a chicken dog.

I guess there's hope for me yet as Jasmine appeared to like me, and i could have sat on Danz yard playing with her dogs very happily all day long--still dont know how i got out without a puppy that day

Hope all are having a good start to the new year.

 

[Trish44]

Thanks he's a good boy, just not a chicken dog.

I guess there's hope for me yet as Jasmine appeared to like me, and i could have sat on Danz yard playing with her dogs very happily all day long--still dont know how i got out without a puppy that day

Hope all are having a good start to the new year.

Yes she did like you & she doesn't take to just anybody, she is the most reserved of the two & it takes her awhile usually to warm up to someone. There are some people though she just won't have anything to do with no matter how hard they try. Believe it or not my son is one of those people, she wants nothing to do with him when he comes here.

 

[sharol]

I got my first Marans egg today.



The white egg is from my Campine (who is laying again, bless her). It is 59g. The Marans egg (first pullet egg) is 47 g. It photographed a little lighter than it really is.

Doing the happy dance over here near Admire!!!

 

[HEChicken]

Congratulations Sharol! I have a 3-year-old Cuckoo Marans who was taking her break to molt but laid her first egg back from molt on New Year's Day. It is so nice to see those super dark brown eggs again - they make a great contrast with the green and light brown in the egg carton.

 

[sharol]

Congratulations Sharol! I have a 3-year-old Cuckoo Marans who was taking her break to molt but laid her first egg back from molt on New Year's Day. It is so nice to see those super dark brown eggs again - they make a great contrast with the green and light brown in the egg carton.

That it is. I have a Welsumer, but she is so intermittent that I can't count on her dark speckled eggs. I think that is the 5th pullet/hen laying out of my 12. (4 are 24 weeks old, the rest 2 and 3 years old). There was a frozen, broken egg under the roost this morning, so someone just didn't want to leave the warm spot under the sweeter heater. Can't say I blame her.

 

[chicken danz]

Congrats Sharol. It doesn't seem to me like it has been that long. It looks like a nice dark egg as well. Lots of the pullet eggs come out spotty or uneven but that looks very uniform. They'll get really large in time. I do miss the dark eggs but glad I don't have another breed to care for any more.
Frizzled, maybe some day I'll have pups again. I need to find a male I can use for a stud with the right attributes. It will almost have to be an AI cause Pyrs are so territorial.
Yesterday I lost a very special hen that I have had in the house for a few months. Unfortunately the eggs she laid weren't fertile so I don't have any offspring. That bird had more will to live than any animal I have ever seen. I cried more tears over that bird than I ever have over any pet other than my precious older cats I lost the last couple of years. She was such a people bird. She would follow me around talking. My sister nicknamed her Gabby. My sister doesn't like chickens either!! I swear I won't let myself get so attached to a chicken again. This has been so heart breaking.I wonder sometimes about my sanity. Who would let themselves get so attached to a chicken?
I am proud to say I had no birds at all in the house for a short time. But then DH brought me a little pullet that isn't doing well. I was secretly hoping it would die last night but it seems to be getting better. I think it just got too chilled as it isn't a very large bird. I think I'll put it out in the trailer with the other young birds that aren't quite ready to be out in the cold.
I guess today is the day to get all prepped for the major cold coming in. I am really worried I might loose some birds to the cold. It's not ever been a concern before. I have several younger birds though that may not handle it well. I also have several that already have severe frost bite. I don't care if they loose their combs but there is always a chance of bleeding and infection there. I can't put out any heat lamps and not over load my circuits so I guess they'll just have to get by on their own.
I need to get some more straw for bedding and such.
I'd much rather honestly just stay inside.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Good morning to all...

Really like the color of the maran egg that Sharol posted. Birds that lay dark brown eggs are on my "wish list" for this year... so BCM and Welsummers are 2 breeds I'm looking into getting in Spring.

Danz... so sorry you lost your pet chicken. It is definitely hard to lose a bird you are so attached to. It is also difficult NOT to get attached to some birds...

With the bitter cold air coming down from Canada on Monday, I'm trying to see what I can do to help my birds so they won't get too cold and die. I heard the wind chill is expected to be -20F or more. It just gives me the chills just seeing the number. So anyone has any idea on what to do? I have an open air coop (3 sides are open and 1 side is solid). The north side is sheltered so north wind won't be blowing into the coop. I'm thinking I should put a few bags of shavings on the coop floor to help "insulate" it a bit more. I've been putting in dry leaves in the coop for them to scratch around in but i think it is time to put down a thicker layer of shavings. I have not done much to provide more warmth to the birds (no heater, bulbs, etc.). They did fine last year (which was warmer compare to this year) and so far they have been doing well this year. I just don't know how they will handle this bitter cold we will be getting next Monday (and forecast said will last quite a few days). Ahhh... the things we are willing to do for our birds...

Back to work... enjoy the day everyone. Enjoy the warmth (well... if you compare to what they forecast for next Monday, it is warm now...)

 

[HEChicken]

Danz, I am so sorry about your loss. It is hard NOT to get attached but it is always the special ones that break our hearts.

Tweety, I would love to see pics of your coop if you ever get to take a break from work. When I think of open air coops, I usually picture them with 3 solid sides and the front open - I did not realize yours only has one solid wall. What keeps the bedding from spilling out? Is there any way you can get some bales of straw to stack up on the east and west sides? My understanding is that 3 solid walls are the best way to keep the chill out, if the side walls are high/deep enough, that in the back they are out of air "flow", if that makes sense. I think JosieChick worked it out to be 10' when she was building her open air coops/pens. That seems to be about right for my sheep/goat shelter too. There is only a back (north) solid wall, so I built two side walls of hay bales, each of which is 12'. When I go into the shelter, the wind stops blowing and it is noticeably warmer in there, even though it is still open to the air.

I am also really concerned about Monday. I've lived places where it got to -40 (before wind chill) on a regular basis, and -20 was the forecast high for the day periodically throughout winter. But that was when my only pets were dogs and cats. They would go out to potty but come straight back in again at those temperatures! Now I have a bunch of animals that live outside full time and I'm concerned about their ability to survive such low temps. Inside my coop is completely sheltered from wind, but when they are all in there at the same time, it can get pretty crowded. I think I will give them a new bale of straw to work through on Monday morning. That will keep a lot of them too busy to get grouchy with each other. The DLM method is supposed to provide heat as the bedding layer composts, but I've never found it to work that way. Instead, when the temps get too low, the bedding layer tends to freeze. So adding fresh straw on top should help to keep them on bedding that is not yet frozen. I throw BOSS in every day around lunch time to encourage them to turn over the bedding and that works great up to a point, but at some point there is enough poop that although they are turning it over, all they are turning over is more poop saturated bedding. A fresh bale of straw should help in that regard.

Danz, the cord to my waterer was on the ground and it was fine while it was dry but when it defrosted a few days ago, the frozen ground turned to mud and I suspect that got in and shorted it out. I realized it right away and moved the cord to where it is held up off the ground. It is now completely dried out and DH cleaned it thoroughly too but in spite of that, it continues to short out every time it is plugged in. He even tried plugging it in a kitchen socket and we heard the GFCI trip as soon as he did. So I dunno….I would have thought even if it got wet initially, that drying and cleaning it would stop it shorting all the time.

 

[22qZoo]

Oh Danz,so sorry. Was that the little white Orp that sat in the house plant?
Sharrol- congrats on the dark egg, I want together more colored egg layers too. Not sure why it matters but it does feel like you're getting something extra special when you get colored eggs out of the coop.
I wouldn't know what to suggest Tweety, I'm thinking I might put the two geese and the duck all in the coop together with the chickens for the really cold nights , they free range together and get along well, couple more bodies putting out BTU's can't hurt.

 

[chicken danz]

Yep that was my white orp. I feel so guilty. She smelled so bad I gave her a bath yesterday morning. I dried her with the hair dryer and then put a little space heater on her to be sure she was warm enough. I moved it a couple hours later. She didn't want to eat but then she hasn't been eating any way. I went in late yesterday afternoon and she was dead. It was a blessing because I know she was going down hill but it still hurts. She had started eating a little again the last couple of days so I thought she might pick back up again like she did the first time around. I am afraid I killed her by bathing her but DH said she just was ready to go. He has threatened several times to put her out of her misery. I had asked him a couple months ago to cull her and he didn't. Then she came around and became the special bird she was and laid her first eggs. So deep inside I still hoped she'd rally again.
I swear that chicken communicated with me.
The wind is blowing hard and it's miserable outside. I was hoping for at least one more decent day. Drat!
I am getting a half dozen bales of straw this evening so hopefully tomorrow I'll get more bedding for every one. In the meantime I'm going to work on a few more windbreaks out there.