Consolidated Kansas

[tazcat70]

LOL I agree!!!  When my parents were alive they used to laugh how I fell more than them...and they fell a lot.
You aren't the only one. I've had people contacting me recently wanting to know when I'll have chicks, and I've been looking for those special ones I still covet!!! I really need a better tracking system to know who has asked. 99% of my inquiries don't result in sales though. I think a lot of people just dream and have no intent to buy anything. Not you 22qZoo. I know you are a serious buyer.
Of course everyone is looking for an ultimate bargain. Like a $200 bird for $5. I got tired of taking pictures for a guy yesterday. He was looking for a rooster for his English orps. I finally just told him I'd have to check further. My camera has a 2 second delay that won't reprogram like it should. Getting a decent picture of a chicken is time consuming. They NEVER hold still for 2 seconds. I hadn't advertised any. He just contacted me on a forum. I haven't even considered selling any of them so far.

You have $200.00 birds for $5.00? Party at Danz's!

 

[tazcat70]

I spent all afternoon outside today, I am trying to stock up on sunshine and warmth! I am not looking forward to tomorrow at all.

Fighting the hatching bug.

 

[chicken danz]

Woohoooooo !!!!!
Finally warm enough and me getting around to it. I put my aviary netting up temporarily today, and what a nice day it is before the polar plunge again. I have had this thing since before the holidays and been itching to try it out. So now the girls have the entire run of my garden area as I am not going to grow anything this year, cept for more birds!

Has me super excited to start with some chick shopping, I was on CL this morning and seeing some " we are taking orders " listings...........chicken danz, is that your post for eggs on there?
Nope that wasn't me! My girls are just slowly warming up right now. I wish they'd do a little more. I need to make some $$ on them. But if you want something let me know.
Another funny thing happened this week, for those of you that caught my post about my next door neighbor being the HOA pres and me the vp........he sticks his head over the fence while I was out watering the girls and asks " how many chickens will your coop hold?" I says, 6 or 7 easy, but dont worry I wont get that many.......he says....." You think I can get couple this spring and put them in there?

" of course" is my reply........chicks don't eat that much, and if there are any young roos.....well we can find them a good home away from here! His reply? " Great! I was hoping you would say that!"

So, looks like I am going to be in the market for about........hmmmmmmmmm 8 chicks?

Now, if my 2 girls would just start LAYING !!!!!

Great! Sounds like it going to work out perfect!!!

Taz, I wish I could afford to sell like that. Sometimes it's almost that ridiculous. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with all I have to care for and that makes me sell cheap.
It was a beautiful day which I really needed. I feel alive!!!
I even drained, cleaned and filled the Mandarin duck pond. I am sure they are praising me right now. That thing was getting pretty nasty. I got my new Sweeter heater hung in the brooder house but it's not plugged in yet. I repaired my thermostat and got the oil heater set up so it will shut off when it gets warm enough. Hopefully that will save a little electricity.
There was a hen that has been acting punk the last few days. I noticed when she walked out she was unsteady today. When I went back later with feed she was dead. Still warm and not stiff at all so I cleaned her and she is going to be puppy dinner tonight. I never found anything that indicated why she died. She hadn't eaten recently but she still had a nice layer of fat on her. She was one I was on the fence about using for breeding cause I didn't like her type so it wasn't a great loss.
I got the heat tape secured onto the 55 gallon barrel and then cut another barrel down one side and slid it over the top for a layer of insulation. I have a clamp on the thermostat so it will stay on unless I unplug it. Then I mixed up about 200 pounds of feed to start fermented feed again. I checked the barrel before I filled it and I could feel the heat from the heat tape coming through. I think this may work for fermented feed when I don't have a heated place to do it.
I know the girls will be much happier with it.

 

[cherwill]

I have a silly bird story for ya'll today. The other day, there was snow on the ground. I"m not sure if one of the birds slipped on the ramp and caused it to fall down or what, but my gander, Lucy (long story on the name) was still in the duck house and the rest of the birds were sitting underneath it where the straw was not covered in snow. Lucy was in the duck house screaming his head off. He couldn't see the other birds, and he was the only one left in the duck house. Apparently, he didn't think he could jump out, even though the floor of the duck house is only two feet off the ground. Silly bird apparently forgot he has wings.

I went out and put the ramp back up so he'd be quiet.

They can seem so smart, and then they go and do something to remind their brains are the size of a pea!

I'd really love to try. I had 5 kids of my own but I was a working single mom most of my adult life. I never had much of an opportunity to just stay home and take care of my babies. And when you get older you really miss having the kids around. My granddaughters aren't close enough I can just drop by or visa versa. I never get to babysit or anything.

Oh poor me!!!
I managed to really smash a couple fingers earlier and now they really hurt. I swear I am the biggest klutz ever. It's a wonder I don't hurt myself just getting dressed.

I hope your fingers aren't too bad. I'm another klutz. Various members of my extended family have teased me about it my whole life. I'm never without a bruise or two.

Has anyone heard how high propane has gotten. A friend from leondardville just paid 5.05 gallon. That insane

I'm going to call tomorrow in my area and find out cost. I still 40% in my tank and 200 gallon on pre buy

DH was just telling me about it this morning. And I was annoyed that the price of natural gas goes up a little every year... apparently, it could be worse. We could be using propane.

Another funny thing happened this week, for those of you that caught my post about my next door neighbor being the HOA pres and me the vp........he sticks his head over the fence while I was out watering the girls and asks " how many chickens will your coop hold?" I says, 6 or 7 easy, but dont worry I wont get that many.......he says....." You think I can get couple this spring and put them in there?

" of course" is my reply........chicks don't eat that much, and if there are any young roos.....well we can find them a good home away from here! His reply? " Great! I was hoping you would say that!"

So, looks like I am going to be in the market for about........hmmmmmmmmm 8 chicks?

Now, if my 2 girls would just start LAYING !!!!!

You have more self-control than I do. If I had room for more chickens than I had, I would be buying more! It's nice that it's working out well between you and your neighbor, though.

It does seem spring-like today. We got all excited and took the dogs for a walk. The lilacs are starting to bud out, so of course they'll most likely freeze before they bloom.

Old Sophia seems not to have any trouble at all today with her breathing. We dosed her up with more VetRx anyway. Another hen was breathing with her beak open, so we dosed her, too, then went ahead and put some in their water so everyone would get a dose.

 

[Mypeeps2013]

Anyone near or just-off of I-70? Looking for pure Ameracuanas and will be driving through there in April

 

[ashncarson]

oh man... has the wind hit you guys yet??? CRAZY WINDY all of a sudden and freezing!

I cleaned the coop out today for the first time! Lots of wagons full of bedding, but otherwise just took a hour. I went out tonight and I saw that all 8 girls are on the roost, but they are pretty much side to side....when do you know if there is not enough room for them all?

 

[HEChicken]

You weren't kidding Ash - when that gust front hit, it was pretty amazing. I went out to batton down the hatches and while I was out, two big tubs blew out of a sheltered area, and the last I saw of them (in the dark), they were airborne and looked like they weren't coming down for awhile. I tried to go after them but gave up on finding them in the dark and turned to run back to the house and the wind was so strong I was practically running in place. I finally made it back in and this morning found the tubs - a LONG way from the house but fortunately they came down against fences and weren't able to be blown any further away so I was able to retrieve them.

I hope no one had any major damage from the wind. My coop held firm and the hoop house currently has no tarp on it so it was fine too. I have a handful of birds in the hoop house right now but they were in a dog kennel inside so were out of the wind.

The wind blew the gate to the pasture open but all the goats and sheep stayed in - probably they stayed under their shelter and never even noticed the gate was open. Whew. DH and I were out looking at them last night and two of the ewes are starting to look very round so we are hopeful that lambs are in our future. The ram is with them all the time so due dates are complete guesswork but I think they probably still have a couple of months to go.

So now we just have to get through two more days of not-fun arctic weather and then we are back to the 40's. Stay warm everyone!

 

[Trish44]

You weren't kidding Ash - when that gust front hit, it was pretty amazing. I went out to batton down the hatches and while I was out, two big tubs blew out of a sheltered area, and the last I saw of them (in the dark), they were airborne and looked like they weren't coming down for awhile. I tried to go after them but gave up on finding them in the dark and turned to run back to the house and the wind was so strong I was practically running in place. I finally made it back in and this morning found the tubs - a LONG way from the house but fortunately they came down against fences and weren't able to be blown any further away so I was able to retrieve them.

I hope no one had any major damage from the wind. My coop held firm and the hoop house currently has no tarp on it so it was fine too. I have a handful of birds in the hoop house right now but they were in a dog kennel inside so were out of the wind.

The wind blew the gate to the pasture open but all the goats and sheep stayed in - probably they stayed under their shelter and never even noticed the gate was open. Whew. DH and I were out looking at them last night and two of the ewes are starting to look very round so we are hopeful that lambs are in our future. The ram is with them all the time so due dates are complete guesswork but I think they probably still have a couple of months to go.

So now we just have to get through two more days of not-fun arctic weather and then we are back to the 40's. Stay warm everyone!

We have this big hill here behind the house, so we're kind of sheltered from the wind but we did know when it came in. Wow HEChicken I'm glad you made it back to the house OK. I hope nobody had damage from that. My DH hasn't been out to do chores yet, but just looking out the windows I didn't see anything missing anyway. At least we do have all of the trees down where my pens & breeder coop are to absorb the wind as well.

What a contrast from yesterday to today with the temperature. It was so nice yesterday that when we went to Wichita we didn't even wear a jacket. It's back to coats today for sure.

 

[chicken danz]

We were getting up to 50mph winds last night. It is still kicking some butt today. It was 8 degrees this morning when I checked last. It blew our electric gate open and was holding it open at about 5 feet. I had to go out and use a chain to secure it this morning. I sure hope it didn't ruin the mechanism. I had just asked DH when he was going to get the electric latch installed yesterday. He decided to wash his vehicles instead of starting that project. Grrrr!
I was going to go get my pork today and one of my freezers decided to quit last night!!! I just can't win!!! So we're in a rush to buy a new freezer. Hardly anyone has them in stock and you have to wait 3-7 days to get them shipped to a store. We finally found one at Sears in Overland Park we could live with. I had planned to defrost the other one but can't now because I need it to store the food from the one that quit. This is the newer freezer of the two uprights. The one that just keeps working is 36 years old.
I guess I need to get the locker called and let them know what is going on.
Things just aren't made to last anymore.
I haven't been out to check on the birds this morning. But they should be good for a while.

 

[HEChicken]

Hopefully the locker won't mind storing it a few extra days for you. I've used a couple of different meat lockers and both were very flexible about pick up times, as long as they knew I hadn't abandoned it.