Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

The rubber bowls of ice finally melted enough today to get the chunks of it out & refill them completely, so the birds had more fresh water. It was so darned cold yesterday that when I got water for the ducks by the time I went & got their food it had a layer of ice on top of it & that wasn't even that long of a period of time. They were having fun playing in their bowl this afternoon, I heard them in there slurping the water. I think it's going to be warm enough maybe tomorrow to go ahead & move my Cream Legbar chicks out to the growout pen. They have made it through this blast of cold & they're kind of crowded in there & really growing now, so I need to get them moved out so I can move my group of lavender Orp chicks in there to acclimate them now. Since I have new chicks in the inside brooder I had to divide it up & the Orps have less room now so they need to move. It's musical brooders & pens around here all the time it seems.

I had one California White hen get stuck in the garage this afternoon. She evidently ran in the garage when my DH backed his car out to go to work & she was on top of one of my rabbit cages when I went in to feed them. It was fun trying to catch her & take her to the coop because she is one of the more flighty hens & she kept running under the car. Finally she got tired of running & the cat kind of scared her so she tried to hide by the bins for the cat food & I was able to catch her. If that hadn't happened she might still be in there.

 

[HEChicken]

I'm hoping for mostly pullets because I won't keep RIR roosters. My experience with that breed of rooster has not been good, they're usually very aggressive.

Trish, you'll probably find that the heritage RIR roosters are nothing like the Production Red roosters you've known in the past, that were passed off as RIR. My theory is that whatever they mix into them to make them high production birds is also what makes the birds flighty, unfriendly, bossy to other birds, and causes the roosters to be aggressive. Going back to heritage lines, you won't have those influences (hopefully) and I think you'll find they're as unlike the production reds, as the Reese Barred Rocks are unlike the hatchery variety.

I don't think we made it into the 40's yesterday. I was outside continuously from 10am to 5:30pm and I was a little popsicle when I came in, with feet so cold I didn't think they'd ever thaw out. It was nice to wake up this morning and see that it is 29 degrees. It bodes well for the day when the overnight low is almost up to freezing.

I found out yesterday at least one of my Wheaten Ameraucanas is laying but now I'm sort of disappointed because the eggs are green. I really thought they were more of a guarantee to finally get blue eggs, and I've been raising them almost a year, looking forward to those blue, blue eggs. They're sweet little birds and it is a pretty shade of green but even so, I can't help feeling a little disappointed. Hopefully it is only one of them and the other will lay blue eggs - when she eventually lays at all. The one who is laying the green eggs hasn't really figured out the whole process yet and the 3 eggs I've found so far have all been in different parts of the yard, as though they just fell wherever she happened to be at the time. There was more than a week between the first and second so I'm guessing there were several in between that I didn't find.

 

[chicken danz]

HEChicken we aren't supposed to break freezing today and the forecast last night said we'd be getting snow this evening. Yesterday was such an improvement I hate to think of it being colder again today. Friday is supposed to be warmer. I'm hoping to corral some roosters tomorrow and get them to town. A few less mouths out of here and a $ in my pocket.
If I had room I'd love to have some true heritage RIRs. I've seen some at Gardner and they are remarkable. Huge and almost a black red. But I am trying to keep from adding to my breeds. I have enough. Now if I could just quit adding colors I would have it under control.
Trish, reading your post I was giggling a little. I could just imagine you chasing that chicken around the garage. I've been doing too much chasing myself lately so I know what a parade that can be. I still have 2 rogue hens around here I couldn't catch when I was gathering birds for the guy in Oklahoma. I swear they sit out there and mock me. They can sit and look at me from a foot away and act perfectly calm but let me try to catch them and it's impossible. I hope I don't end up with a chicken rodeo when I try to catch these roosters later.
I hope I can get DH to help me move some shelter to the goose pen today.
And I finally plan to get the Christmas tree down. That will be the end of the holiday decorations. Back to normal... whatever that is.

 

[HEChicken]

Danz yeah, I'm with you - I'd truly love to have heritage RIR but with my set up, I really can't add any more breeds. I figure there really isn't any point having only hens since they won't lay like the production "RIR's" and if I don't have a rooster to breed with them, there isn't a lot of point having them at all. But - I've got the NH and BR that I'm focusing on and will have a rooster for each. I plan to take it in turns to segregate them in the hoop coop to get pure eggs but can't add a third breed to the mix without messing with the plan so….

Yesterday while out driving I was going past a field and you know when the geese all descend on a field and you can see their little bodies everywhere? Well, at first glance, I thought I was looking at a field of geese but something wasn't right. As I got closer I realized - they weren't geese - they were turkeys! I swear I have NEVER seen that many wild turkeys all together at the same time. There had to be several hundred of them. I wish I could have slowed down and taken a photo but there was a car right behind me and no shoulder.

Turkey sinus report. The one who was banded has now had 4 doses and she looks completely back to normal. I think I will give her one more dose today since the directions I had were to do the shot for 4 days followed by soluble Tylan in the water. This time of year I can't do the medicated water very easily so I'm going to substitute one more shot for the water. The one who is not banded has had 3 shots. Her swelling is also completely down but she still looks quite red in the face. Hopefully another couple of days will see her feeling better. And, since the Tylan seems to be so effective, I decided to go ahead and treat the Blue Slate tom as well. He had his first shot last night so this morning there isn't noticeable improvement but it took the others about 48 hours before I saw the swelling go down so I expect he will respond the same way.

Speaking of turkeys, the RP and BR turkey toms are so funny. They are absolutely inseparable but I don't get the sense its because they are best buds but more because they are competitors. Kind of a "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" sort of thing. And, they both keep close to me any time I'm out there. I think again that is because they see me as a competitor for the hens' affections, and need to keep between me and them to "protect" them. Or something. The BR only gobbles occasionally and I've only seen him try to display once or twice, whereas the RP, being more mature, is almost never NOT displaying and gobbles at the slightest sound. Nevertheless, when it comes breeding time I expect it to get quite interesting around here. For some reason the Blue Slate has never joined them. He is something of a loner, hanging by himself in the coop a lot of the time and I don't know how much to attribute that to the sinus infection, since he was like that before he started feeling bad anyway.

I wish I knew why your RP's are laying and Trish's and mine aren't. Mine sleep in the coop at night where it is probably darker than your set up Danz, so that might have something to do with it, but Trish's are more outside too so I dunno?

 

[chicken danz]

My blue slates took a long long time to start displaying so I think they may just mature later. This RP is always displaying as well and he could almost be scary if I weren't a bird person. He always stomps and gets between me and the hens like he thinks I am going to take his girlfriends. My DIL was scared of him and he had her backed up along the fence. Of course I was laughing at her. I didn't get an egg yesterday from the RPs. They have to be confused by this weather for sure. I have gotten two eggs in one day and occasionally get one or none. My BRs and the midgets aren't laying though. And I honestly don't expect them to before about April based on last year.
Actually it would be helpful to raise some RPs before the midgets start laying because I don't know if I can tell the chicks apart. I hate to stagger hatchings just to keep the breeds separate. I guess I'll do what I need to though.
Glad to hear the turkeys are getting better. I kind of wonder if the warmer winter didn't allow some viruses to survive her last winter that normally wouldn't. That would explain why last year was such a terrible year for sickness.
I found a young orpington yesterday who is sneezing and not doing well in the trailer. I thought these birds were all over that. This one seemed very sick so I don't expect it to make it. I want to get those birds moved to an outside pen soon but want to make sure they are all well and feathered in good enough before I make the move. I don't trust the weather to stay decent for another couple months. I had thought of moving just the larger birds to the pen but that would make me have to provide feed and water to yet another pen. It's just easier to leave them where they are for now until they are all ready.

 

[Trish44]

If I had room & a pen for the heritage RIRs I would keep a cockerel, but I just don't. I'm already short a pen for the BRs that I'm going to have to come up with soon. I have decided to go ahead & keep the peafowl, I have found two peahens to go with my peacock I have left that are about 6 months old. I know it will be awhile before they lay, but at least they're not babies. Peafowl are so much more fragile than other birds it seems. I think they will be much happier when the turkeys are gone & they have their own pen. They don't compete with other birds well, they're kind of shy birds. HEChicken you could always build another hoop coop for the RIRs, you have plenty of room for it.

I haven't seen any eggs from my RPs yet at all, of course they may be upset too about losing their tom, so I don't know if that is the reason or if they just haven't had enough light yet. HEChicken I'm glad your turkeys are doing better, I'm glad the Tylan worked.

I ended up with 10 heritage RIR chicks our of 12 eggs, but one has some neurological problems & I'm having to treat it with vitamin E. So far it can't stand & it keeps rolling onto it's back & then the other chicks pick on it. I have nowhere else to keep a lone chick & keep it warm so I just have to hope the vitamin E helps. I have had chicks like that before & the vitamin E took care of it. This one got stuck in it's shell for awhile & that may be why it has these problems. I had to help it out & clean it off. All of the others are doing very well, running around & acting like normal chicks. I'll try to get a pic of them in a bit after I finish my coffee. I really need that coffee today, this cold is really getting me down. Yesterday I coughed my head off all day & finally last night had to take Nyquil so I could get some sleep. I'm not coughing so much today but now my right ear is bothering me & my sinuses, so now I supposed I'm going to get an ear & sinus infection. I have a Dr. appt tomorrow that was scheduled, so she can check it out then. I sure would love to get rid of this junk & feel better that's for sure.

Danz, I don't know how you would tell the RP babies from the Midgets unless they are bigger babies.

HEChicken, the wild turkeys always flock like that in the winter, I guess it's safety in numbers. We have seen them like that around here out in a field. In the spring they will break up into smaller groups & breed & hatch babies. We used to have a family of them that would walk through & go down to roost at night on the front 5 acres because there is a lot of cover there. With the GPs here now though they don't come through as much. I do hear them outside of the fences gobbling once in awhile, but the dogs won't let them come in.

 

[KsKingBee]

. Back to normal... whatever that is.

It is a setting on the washing machine.

 

[Trish44]

It is a setting on the washing machine.

LOL KKB!

 

[chicken danz]

KKB you are so right!!

That's as close as it gets around here.
I need to get busy but I'm moving slow today.
Trish you did much better than I did. I only have 3 chicks out of 6 eggs. I had one that didn't develop and two that never hatched. I haven't even looked yet to see what kind the three are. I didn't have the eggs marked.
Yesterday I only got 2 eggs that weren't frozen. That is ridiculous for the amount of birds I have around here. I still haven't put a new bulb in the hen house though. I am sure it would help a lot to have that light come on about 4AM. The other's I put out haven't affected the laying yet but it's only been a week, and a bad week weather wise at that. I do need these birds to start producing more egg though.

 

[mrsdanamiller]

Hi everyone! I just wanted to let anyone near Wichita know that you can get free straw for animals at Keiter Nursery right now. Someone donated money for the company to give away 100 bales so animals can stay warm. Mighty nice of that person. I think only twenty were taken so far. I didn't know until I went by and was surprised with a bunch of free straw ^_^ It's on the South side of Broadway and 63rd intersection.

Also...is it worth it to buy antibiotics and dressings to do bumblefoot surgery?

And I think it was a dog that mauled one of my chickens yesterday. Should I coop up my chickens in case it comes back or will they be ok to range?