Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

My local feed store sells Purina only. The Layena and Flock Raiser are the same price, and since I have free choice on oyster shells, I feed the FR. It has a little bit higher protein. It only comes in crumbles tho. I would love to try them on Renee's mix, but I just can't afford that. I know that they would ultimately eat less. Mine get all sorts of scraps. I have even fed them chicken. I just realized I haven't done that for awhile. My chickens were in the back yard and I would feed the cats on the back porch. Here at this house, the cats are fed on the front porch....so kitties get all the chicken.

I prefer pellets and on the Purina website, saw that Flock Raiser comes in pellet form but it was never sold at any of the stores near me. I talked to my local feed store and now they order it in specially. She started just ordering what I wanted but now keeps it in stock all the time because more and more people switch to it once they realize it is available. If you are interested in getting the pellets, you can get them at the Ace Hardware store in Andover (on Andover Road just north of Central).

 

[tazcat70]

Thanks Heather!!! I had no idea! My local guy will order it for me, I once had a coupon for a free bag of feed, and he ordered a bag, just so I could use the coupon! Plus they are cheaper than ACE, I would never remember to go on discount day. I will go and talk to him about it. Oh that reminds me, I need to look at the Cackle website. The feed store does chick orders and I want to get a few EE pullets. Wholesale pricing!!!

 

[chicken danz]

My co-op will order anything they can get for me. Probably because I am an established customer and they know what I want I will end up buying all they have eventually. They just don't want to order a pallet of feed (usually about a ton) for a customer that is only going to buy 1 bag. Feed goes bad and gets grain moths if it sits so I definitely see their point. But for instance when I was looking for the medicated turkey feed they spent several hours looking for it and were willing to order in a ton because they knew I would be buying it or refer others to it.
It would be nice to be able to afford to buy pelleted feed and not have to shovel so much. I am still considering buying a hammermill and a pelletizer though and making my own. I'm still trying to figure out if I would recoup my money in the long run in feed savings.

 

[lizzyGSR]

wow, blustery day!
Lizzy -did you guys get buried by tumble weeds? They showed some pictures on the news last night of tumble weed drifts some 20ft high up against buildings !

Sorry for the slow reply. I've been gone for the last 5 days on a trip that was only supposed to take 3 days. The day before we left, we found out that my uncle had passed away unexpectedly at only 56 years of age. The morning we left (Friday), we found out that his funeral had been set for Monday, so we extended our trip by a day so we could attend the funeral. The evening before the funeral, we ended up having vehicle troubles and had to ride with my parents to the funeral. Then, when we finally got back to my parents' house after the funeral, we had to take our truck to a mechanic that could work on it. By the time we got back from doing that, it was almost bed time. We ended up staying that night at my parents borrowing a truck from my in-laws so we could get home. My in-laws have offered to bring our truck to us in a couple of weeks after the mechanic is done with it.

We did have quite a few tumbleweeds, but that report wasn't from us, though there was a report fairly close to us of country roads being closed. In Cheyenne County Colorado there were country roads that were closed because of 20 foot tall drifts of tumbleweeds. We have had fences bending quite a bit in the wind because of all the tumbleweeds on them, and we have had some tumbleweed drifts ourselves, but I have yet to see any that drifts that are more than 3 feet tall.

 

[jonathancaleb]

I was wondering if anyone around the Kansas area can help me out. I'm wanting to expand my flock a little, but don't want the chicken math, or in this case the fowl math, to be the end of me. I'm wanting to get a couple of guinea fowl, muscovy ducks, and polish chickens, but I am not able to handle getting the minimum amount for each type. If anyone, on the off chance, is ordering or has any of these breeds around the Kansas City, KS area and is willing to sell just a few let me know.

 

[HEChicken]

I was wondering if anyone around the Kansas area can help me out. I'm wanting to expand my flock a little, but don't want the chicken math, or in this case the fowl math, to be the end of me. I'm wanting to get a couple of guinea fowl, muscovy ducks, and polish chickens, but I am not able to handle getting the minimum amount for each type. If anyone, on the off chance, is ordering or has any of these breeds around the Kansas City, KS area and is willing to sell just a few let me know.

I will be hatching muscovies whenever they start laying. I am not in the KCK area but do get up to Lawrence from time to time so if you don't find any you can order, I could possible bring some up and meet you there. I have one duck who is starting to look interested in laying again so I expect to start getting eggs fairly soon. They take 5 weeks to incubate so about 6-8 weeks after I get the first eggs, I should have some hatching. How many are you looking for?

 

[jonathancaleb]

I will be hatching muscovies whenever they start laying.  I am not in the KCK area but do get up to Lawrence from time to time so if you don't find any you can order, I could possible bring some up and meet you there.  I have one duck who is starting to look interested in laying again so I expect to start getting eggs fairly soon.  They take 5 weeks to incubate so about 6-8 weeks after I get the first eggs, I should have some hatching.  How many are you looking for?

Excellent! I have family in Lawrence so that will not be any trouble meeting you there. I'm only looking for 3-4 ducklings. PM me a price. Thanks.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

I have 5 minutes so decided to stop by to read a post or 2 before heading back to work.

Just saw a post about it being illegal to feed the chickens the leftover kitchen scraps... guess I violated the law?!?! I actually get a bucket of leftover Chinese buffet from a restaurant weekly to add to my chicken's diet. My GPs eat them too... This is not their main diet, they have their chicken feeds I bought from the co-op plus BOSS, scratch grains, corns, sprouted greens, etc. I think my chickens look mighty healthy. They have access to a huge area to eat bugs, greens, etc. too. I see nothing wrong with it. My husband started dumping a tractor bucket or 2 of the grass clippings compost into the chicken yard and they happily scratch through them. I've talked to my neighbor on getting a few buckets of horse poo for my birds as well so I think my birds have a variety of food and this is actually better for them. I can't understand why people go through great length to tell others not to do certain things when chickens have survived all these years on whatever they found out there.

I think I saw Hechicken said something about getting a whole hog from someone. I have never done it before but am thinking of doing so. I'm pm you.

It is going to be cold tonight and tomorrow. Low of 6F with wind chills below 0F and high of 19F. Yikes!

Stay warm...

 

[Trish44]

I think the reference to it being illegal to feed kitchen scraps referred to the UK, not here tweety. I'm sure most everyone who has chickens feeds theirs leftovers at some point. Mine for one love left over pasta & it barely touches the ground before the cats, dogs, & chickens are fighting over it. I feed them pretty much anything we don't eat that hasn't gone bad. My DH only likes to eat leftovers once & then he's done with it so whatever is left after the 2nd meal goes out the door to the birds & animals. I don't freeze stuff that much any more because we tend to forget it in the freezer & then when I go to clean out stuff every so often I find these containers that are past their prime in there, so I just give it to the critters instead. I figure if something eats it then it's not being wasted.

 

[chicken danz]

Sorry for the slow reply. I've been gone for the last 5 days on a trip that was only supposed to take 3 days. The day before we left, we found out that my uncle had passed away unexpectedly at only 56 years of age. The morning we left (Friday), we found out that his funeral had been set for Monday, so we extended our trip by a day so we could attend the funeral. The evening before the funeral, we ended up having vehicle troubles and had to ride with my parents to the funeral. Then, when we finally got back to my parents' house after the funeral, we had to take our truck to a mechanic that could work on it. By the time we got back from doing that, it was almost bed time. We ended up staying that night at my parents borrowing a truck from my in-laws so we could get home. My in-laws have offered to bring our truck to us in a couple of weeks after the mechanic is done with it.

We did have quite a few tumbleweeds, but that report wasn't from us, though there was a report fairly close to us of country roads being closed. In Cheyenne County Colorado there were country roads that were closed because of 20 foot tall drifts of tumbleweeds. We have had fences bending quite a bit in the wind because of all the tumbleweeds on them, and we have had some tumbleweed drifts ourselves, but I have yet to see any that drifts that are more than 3 feet tall.

I was wondering if anyone around the Kansas area can help me out. I'm wanting to expand my flock a little, but don't want the chicken math, or in this case the fowl math, to be the end of me. I'm wanting to get a couple of guinea fowl, muscovy ducks, and polish chickens, but I am not able to handle getting the minimum amount for each type. If anyone, on the off chance, is ordering or has any of these breeds around the Kansas City, KS area and is willing to sell just a few let me know.

I'll have guinea fowl. I'm about an hour from the city. I used to have polish but sold them. I'm sure you can find some muscovies near by. No need to order from a hatchery and have to meet minimums. It'll be another month to three months before you see most of these offered. It's just not their laying season. A good place to look in the meantime is Craigslist under farm and garden. I do recommend getting chicks or very young chickens and such because some people aren't honest about older birds. Another option for you if you want to spend an entire day having fun and getting inspired would be to the HOAGBA auction in Gardner in March. I don't think they've posted the sale date on the website yet but I believe it is March 15h this year. http://www.gbwf.org/hoagba/events.html
If you want adult guineas and don't want to breed I do have a couple of spare males that were hatched in 2013 I'll need to thin soon.
Originally Posted by lizzyGSR

I'm glad you got home safely. Sorry for all the mishaps. I hope baby E had a good trip. It's about time for more pictures!!!! Miss your posts. Are you ducks and geese laying? Mine have gone on total strike.
My sevin powder came and I used 2 pounds of it on the brooder house and the trailer. I had just used ivermectin yesterday in the water in both houses so these guys I hope will be bug free for awhile. It was too windy to apply it to the turkey pens. I think I may mix up some liquid and spray down the ground in those any way to make sure it doesn't just blow away.
I got 4 lousy eggs today. I'm about done with these girls are being on strike!