Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Chooks, I bought my BR tom from Frank Reece. He has a bunch of them but you pay for them being heritage and top line bred. Wish I'd known a little sooner. I just sold 5 BR toms for a prayer week before last. They went to Oklahoma. I will have purple pea chicks this spring. I produced several last year but only have one purple peahen left and I just can't let her go. I'd be tempted to get your RP tom since I just lost mine, but have decided to sell my two hens instead. I need the pen space. If you are interested they are already laying and HEChicken hatched them in 2013. I have some that are developing in the incubator as we speak. I thought my Tom had blackhead until I did the necropsy on him. He had a bad limp for the last couple months and I finally figured out he went septic due to infection in his leg. I have put the girls on a total regime of treatment with metronadazole just in case and they have never shown any signs of being ill. If not and you hear of anyone wanting hens let me know. I thought I might wait and just take them to Gardner but since they are laying now I don't want to waste their eggs.

 

[sharol]

For what its worth, I think you are making the right choice. Years ago, we had 2 cats when we adopted our first dog. A few weeks later we adopted a second dog as a companion for the first. After getting them settled in, time passed, time during which the dogs and cats all appeared to be getting along fine. We left them all alone together in the house for hours at a time while going out. One time we even left for 3 days, and had a gal come in twice a day to feed and let the dogs out for potty breaks. Then one night, when we had all been one big, happy family for 7 months, we went out and were gone no more than 30 minutes but returned home to find one of the cats dead. It was one of the more devastating experiences we've ever had.

We regrouped and some time later, adopted another cat as we enjoyed having two together. We decided that the cat may have instigated the original incident because she did tend to run past them hissing, and that may have stimulated their prey drive. So when we adopted the new cat, we specifically looked for one who was accustomed to being around dogs. He was very relaxed around the dogs, never hissing and running, but just to be safe, whenever we were leaving, we would crate one of the dogs, figuring that it was a "pack" mentality that had caused the incident. All was well for awhile, but one night we were running late and in the chaos of getting out the door, failed to crate the dog. We returned home to find the new cat dead. At that point we realized we could never trust the one dog around cats again, and did not try to get another cat. Strangely, the other cat who had been there before the dogs, was never targeted and lived with both dogs for several more years. Since then both dogs have passed on and our current two dogs are completely cat-safe.

But based on what you've told us, it sounds like it will only be a matter of time before you have a heart-breaking incident of your own, so I do think you are making the right decision. <<hugs>>

 

[HEChicken]

Just for fun, I finally got some photos downloaded from my camera that I took days ago. Here is my BR turkey:


And here is my RP:


And Danz, this one is for you, showing the little BR chick who hatched from your eggs. Despite being broody raised, he is quite friendly and allows me to pick him up. His mama taught him that people can be trusted, and he has had to rely on me for water most of his life so I guess I have value to him (unlike most broody raised chicks who seem suspicious of people and don't seem to think they have much value in their lives). He is showing decent type already so I'm really hoping he grows up to be my new BR rooster. In the first picture, he is facing off with my Serama hen who is about the same size he is now. He showed a lot of pluck because despite her size, she has seniority in my flock and can run off birds much larger than she is. She tried to get in and eat food I had set out for him and he challenged her for it - they dualed for several minutes, but unfortunately the sparring was so fast I couldn't get any good shots. The second photo is him with his mama. Its hard to see in the photo but he is as tall as she is, yet still sleeps under her every night. Its very cute to stick my head in to check on them and see his head pop out from under her wing to see what I want.




Last is a pic of my silly dog. Every morning she gets up and sits on top of her igloo to survey her world. Of course, as soon as she sees me coming, she jumps down so to get this pic, I had to sneak out and hold the camera around the corner without actually going around it. Thus, I got the lines of the clothesline in the pic as well. You can see that she has become aware of my presence as her head is turned towards me, and she jumped down a second later so my attempt at a better photo did not capture her up there.

 

[chicken danz]

Hechicken, that little barred rock is shaping up nicely. I can see he has those huge Reece legs on him. Hope he turns to look good. I noticed my younger cockerel breeder isn't nearly as broad bodied as my older one. I'm not sure if it's an age thing or not. He actually has what I think is slightly better barring than the older one. I hatched the younger one from Frank's eggs and bought the older one from him he hand picked. I'd so love to go back and buy some more birds from Frank but I'm trying not to take on more projects.
The bourbon red looks really nice but he doesn't have the white bar on his tail. I am going to guess he will get that as he ages. The RP tom I got from you didn't have complete markings either until about the time he started breeding and they started filling in. I only have the Reece Tom so he has excellent blood lines.
I also notice with my Bourbon Reds that once they did a full molt their colors are getting much darker. Makes them look so much nicer. The younger hens are darker than the old ones in the first place, so by next year they should really look good.
I do love those turkeys.

 

[KsKingBee]

Danz, you are welcome to my portion of the guinea, I don't like dark meat. That **** bird was relentless, turkey would get mad and hold the guinea by the back of the neck hard to the ground for a long time but when it let go the guinea would jump up and attack the turkey all over again. Then turkey got it penned down again and the other guineas would come to the rescue and run the turkey off. Tom jumped up on the trailer to get away and the guinea hopped up and attacked again. I just had enough of it and wacked that **** guinea in the head and skinned it right then and there.

If Chooks doesn't step up to the plate on the RP hens I'm interested, I have a friend that has an extra tom. I am a bit confused on how you make the nest boxes from the 55 gal drums. Do you use the six inches that you cut off or the long part and turned on its side? If you use the six inch part do you drill drain holes in it too?

Our silly ducks really like the creek, they barely come back to eat, they must find a lot to their liking there. It seems that the wild mallards lead them off, they will travel upstream about three hundred yards to play with them. OQB will have to go up there and lead them back to eat. I think that they might me looking for mates as we don't see any curly feathers on ours. If you still have those two pair left we will take them too.

Dad always said that one dog will be good, two will get into trouble.

We will be looking to trade off some 2013 hatch IB peacocks for peahens if anybody is interested. Looking for something other than India Blues.

 

[Trish44]

Oh my goodness that cold front hit with a vengeance. It was 47 when I last looked last night, but dropped 40 degrees overnight to just 7 degrees right now. I had NO idea we were going to get down to single digits and didn't even have my heated water bowl plugged in since it has been so nice lately. I bet there are a bunch of birds down there who want water and I'm at the house trying to put off going outside in the cold for as long as possible.

I didn't think the cold front was coming in so soon, I wasn't ready for it. My DH is out right now feeding because I have to go to therapy later on. He's finding out what it's like to go out in the cold like that & care for birds & animals. I still have 5 lavender guineas on the loose out there, I hope they go in when he feeds that coop, keep your fingers crossed.

WHO THE HECK ORDERED THIS WEATHER???!!?!?



Take it back, now. Completely unnecessary.

UGH.


In other news, I'm finally getting eggs from most of my breeds, so Chocolate everything will abound this year. I need to find another peahen, because I don't want to take the one hen from Alison though I've taken my boy... her hen got killed last year and her cock would be alone if I took my hen, but the facility we housed them in for 6 months to get them to set GPS internally as 'Home' is gone, so if I helped her get a new hen, there would be a strong chance of it leaving.

I'll be keeping my fellow penned for at least 6 mos, so I may as well get him a new girl. I'd love to have another Blackshoulder, and it's probably too much to ask to look for a Purple to match him...but I'll probably be up for anything...if anyone has a hen or knows of one, I'd be interested. We're setting up a barn as aviary. It should be wonderful, with a huge outdoor run.

Also, if anyone knows of a Bourbon Red tom available for trade or purchase, I need another. I have a Black tom and a Royal Palm if anyone wants one of those. Sweet & huggable, not delicious.

Chooks on the Kansas Poultry Swap I believe it was there is a lady up in Dighton that had peahens for sale but i don't know if she has any left. She's supposed to be holding two for me because I lost all my peahens & have a lonely peacock here. I agree on the cold, we need to send that back where it came from, brrrrr!

Danz, you are welcome to my portion of the guinea, I don't like dark meat. That **** bird was relentless, turkey would get mad and hold the guinea by the back of the neck hard to the ground for a long time but when it let go the guinea would jump up and attack the turkey all over again. Then turkey got it penned down again and the other guineas would come to the rescue and run the turkey off. Tom jumped up on the trailer to get away and the guinea hopped up and attacked again. I just had enough of it and wacked that **** guinea in the head and skinned it right then and there.

If Chooks doesn't step up to the plate on the RP hens I'm interested, I have a friend that has an extra tom. I am a bit confused on how you make the nest boxes from the 55 gal drums. Do you use the six inches that you cut off or the long part and turned on its side? If you use the six inch part do you drill drain holes in it too?

Our silly ducks really like the creek, they barely come back to eat, they must find a lot to their liking there. It seems that the wild mallards lead them off, they will travel upstream about three hundred yards to play with them. OQB will have to go up there and lead them back to eat. I think that they might me looking for mates as we don't see any curly feathers on ours. If you still have those two pair left we will take them too.

Dad always said that one dog will be good, two will get into trouble.

We will be looking to trade off some 2013 hatch IB peacocks for peahens if anybody is interested. Looking for something other than India Blues.

Those darned guineas are mean, that's why I had to move my peafowl out of that coop. They don't care how big the other bird is, they're just bullies. KKB I also have 3 RP turkey hens I'm going to sell as well since I lost my tom if you don't find some elsewhere. If you're interested send me a PM.

 

[chicken danz]

Danz, you are welcome to my portion of the guinea, I don't like dark meat. That **** bird was relentless, turkey would get mad and hold the guinea by the back of the neck hard to the ground for a long time but when it let go the guinea would jump up and attack the turkey all over again. Then turkey got it penned down again and the other guineas would come to the rescue and run the turkey off. Tom jumped up on the trailer to get away and the guinea hopped up and attacked again. I just had enough of it and wacked that **** guinea in the head and skinned it right then and there.

If Chooks doesn't step up to the plate on the RP hens I'm interested, I have a friend that has an extra tom. I am a bit confused on how you make the nest boxes from the 55 gal drums. Do you use the six inches that you cut off or the long part and turned on its side? If you use the six inch part do you drill drain holes in it too?

Our silly ducks really like the creek, they barely come back to eat, they must find a lot to their liking there. It seems that the wild mallards lead them off, they will travel upstream about three hundred yards to play with them. OQB will have to go up there and lead them back to eat. I think that they might me looking for mates as we don't see any curly feathers on ours. If you still have those two pair left we will take them too.

Dad always said that one dog will be good, two will get into trouble.

We will be looking to trade off some 2013 hatch IB peacocks for peahens if anybody is interested. Looking for something other than India Blues.

Well if it's all dark meat I wouldn't like it either. The only dark meat I like is duck and it's not all that dark. I still have the ducks and you are more than welcome to the turkeys. I keep trying to confirm what are what in that duck pen but they are crowded and keep going in circles so it's hard to tell. Earlier I pulled out two females but there could possibly be even a third one in there. I'm just not sure. If you want boys there's about 18 of them. Maybe if you have a couple of domestic boys the ducks will stay with them. I know Deerfield had mallards stay on her pond, but the infamous Chopper (once my house duck) is the head duck and the girls all follow him. of Of course I'd rather see the boys breed than be eaten. Even though I do need to do some butchering and fill my freezer a little, I certainly don't need that many.
I was just trying to put more feelers out there with the turkeys since I haven't gotten any response to an add. I NEED the pen space bad. I doubt that Chooks wants them. These RP hens are laying now and I am sure we are about to run out of eggs the boy fertilized. I just keep gathering them and putting them in the incubator but of course can't tell yet if the newer ones are fertile. I know the Tom was breeding them up to the day before he died. I don't know if of course those last few days were good for him or not.
My free range guineas have been raised with chickens and they have been pretty decent. Once in awhile they'll chase another bird but they haven't really picked on them. I did have one male guinea who adopted a broody chicken. He was the best daddy to those chicks. He wouldn't let anything get near the hen or the chicks and stood guard while they ate. I noticed when I had a broody guinea the males acted the same way with the guinea chicks. They were just as attentive as the mothers were. I just haven't had good luck with the parents free ranging and raising guinea chicks though.
Sometimes I could do without the noise from the penned guineas. But I really do like them in general. They're funny creatures.
I cut the bottom off the barrels at about 6- 10 inches up. If you have the barrels with the spout on top you can use both the top and bottom. I Just set them in the back of the building and fill them with straw. The hens do the rest of the nest building for me. I also use the same thing for water in the summer for the peafowl to stand in. They like having their feet wet when it's hot. Word of warning though. They don't like white barrels. They will nest in a white barrel bottom if they have no other choice, but they won't stand in it for water. This applies also to several of the other breeds of birds. Something about the white scares them. Blue is perfect. Black will work but I don't recommend them for summer time due to the heat factor. Remember when you are cutting the barrels off to consider the size the chicks will be. My first attempt I cut it too high. The peachicks could get out but couldn't get back in. The mother will get out with the babies but then returns to her unhatched eggs for a while. So I finally decided 6 inches was probably about the right height for them. I'm never exact. I always just hatched the turkey eggs myself but they consistently used the cut barrels for laying.
One thing I learned about turkeys is they will continue laying well into fall if they don't get to go broody. If you want to produce lots of babies you just hatch the eggs yourself. If you are just raising for yourself and don't care about quantity you can let them hatch them. Like most birds though mortality is a lot higher with a broody.

 

[tazcat70]

You guys are killing me with this turkey talk!!!! *idontneedturkeysidontneedturkeysidontneedturkeys*

Susan up around McPherson has peas, but I don't know colors or if she has any available. She is justhatchin on here.

 

[KsKingBee]

Guinea is now deboned.

Not all dark meat but the breast is a little darker than chicken. And it tastes like...... guinea, I guess.

I really haven't decided what it tastes like, maybe dark meat from a turkey...

It yielded a full pound of meat, not as much as I would have expected from a bird that size.

 

[zigzag45]

Wow - I should get an award. I was 10 days behind, that's about 90 pages (or so at the way you guys post. I'm all caught up now.

Reading the posts about turkeys and guineas is reminding me why I only have chickens. The guineas particularly make me go, "Why would anyone want mean, loud, dumb birds?" That's tongue-in-cheek, I'm sure your guineas are much loved, but for me it's a great way to not want another type of bird. Keep those comments coming!

Feed question.... I'm really toying with trying fermented feed, but that's for another day. I did start some wheat sprouts to see if they will eat those. Right now I'm buying 16% layer ration from a local feed mill. My birds are going through a 50 lb bag in 10 days now (I think it will slow down when it warms up some). Does the type of feed dictate how much they eat? In other words, would a Purina last longer? Is all bird feed about the same, so it doesn't matter where it comes from? The feed mill stuff has animal proteins in it, the Purina stuff doesn't. Do I care?

I pursued getting some organic stuff for awhile but it didn't work out and I think would be pretty expensive. One place makes deliveries to a few places around KC but I'd have to pick up at a certain time and date - that wouldn't work.