Consolidated Kansas

[TheDownyChick]

I am afraid I have too many roos. I have a lovely lav orp and a nice olive egger (black copper marans/ameraucana) who are both good roos. I only have 8 hens. I thought I would be ok but the hens are showing signs of wear. None of my lav orp eggs last year were girls, and I rehomed his brothers. I was going to breed lav orps, but due to my health, I am not up to building a separate pen this year. I have black copper marans girls, and want to get some more, as well as some ameraucanas. Orps are great, but I am afraid they wouldn't tolerate our nasty summers and I would worry. I am so torn. I really do not want to part with either roo, but I am afraid my 8 ladies just aren't enough. Does anyone have any advice or experience with either breed? This is hard for me. I get so attached to my chickies!

 

[TheDownyChick]

Also, does anyone have any black copper marans, or other marans, or ameraucana eggs or chicks for sale?

 

[Trish44]

Well here we go my grandma fell and broke her hip in bartlesville for a few days

I'm sorry to hear that, I hope she recovers quickly. I'm glad you will be there with her, I'm sure she appreciates that.

I am afraid I have too many roos. I have a lovely lav orp and a nice olive egger (black copper marans/ameraucana) who are both good roos. I only have 8 hens. I thought I would be ok but the hens are showing signs of wear. None of my lav orp eggs last year were girls, and I rehomed his brothers. I was going to breed lav orps, but due to my health, I am not up to building a separate pen this year. I have black copper marans girls, and want to get some more, as well as some ameraucanas. Orps are great, but I am afraid they wouldn't tolerate our nasty summers and I would worry. I am so torn. I really do not want to part with either roo, but I am afraid my 8 ladies just aren't enough. Does anyone have any advice or experience with either breed? This is hard for me. I get so attached to my chickies!

Yeah 2 roosters for 8 hens is probably too many. The rule of thumb usually is one rooster to ten hens. The black copper marans due to their size & color don't take the summer heat well, but since yours is mixed I don't know. I lost a rooster due to heart issues & the heat one year. I think the Orpingtons do OK in the heat as long as they have some shade & plenty of water. I would just pick whichever one you like the most. Maybe since your hens are Marans you should keep the Olive Egger. It's up to you really which you would rather have but since you don't have any hens to go with the Lavender Orp guy maybe he is the one who should go.

 

[22qZoo]

Thanks guys, I'm starting to realize that since my DD and I started this chicken adventure I have to be the one that has to "end it" for the birds when it's the humane thing to do. I still love having chickens, and that's just another part of it, I'm just not naming that many of them anymore .
Danz - I don't think we'll be going to the Gardner sale , DD has some other stuff going on . My luck if there was something I wanted it wouldn't come up till the end of the sale I don't know that I have the patience.
-DE- I like to put it in the horses water tanks , keeps them fresher longer, it was the only thing that got rid of the millepede out break we had a couple of years ago (GROSS ! shudder ...) It's not to bad in smoothie either .
IMO

 

[sharol]

Well here we go my grandma fell and broke her hip in bartlesville for a few days

My thoughts will be with her. A broken hip can be devastating to an older person.

 

[sharol]

After hearing and seeing mice in the coop, I broke down and bought an electric mousetrap that zaps the mice because I loathe dealing with life mice. The first week I caught 8 of the suckers, but then the door fell off. I talked (via e-mail) with Amazon, and they are sending a new one.. In the meantime, I finally found the old one in the garage (in the DE bin???). I cleaned it up and set it. So far, that one is at 9 mice over 4 nights. I'm still hearing them in the walls. SHUDDER.

I finally figured out that I need to scrub out the manual trap after each catch for it to keep working. I'm thinking I need another manual trap.

I like the zapper one because the mouse is dead. I don't like that it only catches one at a time. I should be getting the replacement today or tomorrow, so that will add one a night to the kill rate.

My dachshund helps with the multiple catches. I dump the trap into a 5 gallon white plastic bucket, and then let Lucky at them. Yesterday there were two. He dived into the bucket and when he emerged, the one still in the bucket was dead and the he proceded to kill the one he had in his mouth. he doesn't eat them, but man is he a mouse predator. he just can't get to the ones in the walls.

15 down, who knows how many more to go.

 

[Trish44]

Also, does anyone have any black copper marans, or other marans, or ameraucana eggs or chicks for sale?

I will have wheaten Ameraucana chicks soon & lavender ones when they start laying again. I do have a waiting list for them. Send me a PM. Your Salmon Faverolle chicks are due to hatch on Friday.

Sharol, I don't know why the multi didn't work but I was going to say that I had mice really bad at my house outside of Derby all the time. We lived in the middle of fields where they planted milo & wheat & the mice were plentiful. They used to get inside the walls & just drive me crazy. I had a lot of cats outside there too, but they evidently couldn't keep up with them all.

It's supposed to be 72 here today but get cooler after that back to the 60s, I can handle that.

 

[lizzyGSR]

Woohoo! We got our first egg of the season this year! I was beginning to think that my birds were getting old enough not to lay.

 

[chicken danz]

Well here we go my grandma fell and broke her hip in bartlesville for a few days

So sorry about your grandma.

I am afraid I have too many roos. I have a lovely lav orp and a nice olive egger (black copper marans/ameraucana) who are both good roos. I only have 8 hens. I thought I would be ok but the hens are showing signs of wear. None of my lav orp eggs last year were girls, and I rehomed his brothers. I was going to breed lav orps, but due to my health, I am not up to building a separate pen this year. I have black copper marans girls, and want to get some more, as well as some ameraucanas. Orps are great, but I am afraid they wouldn't tolerate our nasty summers and I would worry. I am so torn. I really do not want to part with either roo, but I am afraid my 8 ladies just aren't enough. Does anyone have any advice or experience with either breed? This is hard for me. I get so attached to my chickies!

If you don't want to get rid of either roo, order or buy saddles for your girls. You can usually buy at least 8 at a time on the cheap from Ebay. I made a few but next time I may just order some. Time is money around here.

After hearing and seeing mice in the coop, I broke down and bought an electric mousetrap that zaps the mice because I loathe dealing with life mice. The first week I caught 8 of the suckers, but then the door fell off. I talked (via e-mail) with Amazon, and they are sending a new one.. In the meantime, I finally found the old one in the garage (in the DE bin???). I cleaned it up and set it. So far, that one is at 9 mice over 4 nights. I'm still hearing them in the walls. SHUDDER.

I finally figured out that I need to scrub out the manual trap after each catch for it to keep working. I'm thinking I need another manual trap.

I like the zapper one because the mouse is dead. I don't like that it only catches one at a time. I should be getting the replacement today or tomorrow, so that will add one a night to the kill rate.

My dachshund helps with the multiple catches. I dump the trap into a 5 gallon white plastic bucket, and then let Lucky at them. Yesterday there were two. He dived into the bucket and when he emerged, the one still in the bucket was dead and the he proceded to kill the one he had in his mouth. he doesn't eat them, but man is he a mouse predator. he just can't get to the ones in the walls.

15 down, who knows how many more to go.

I probably have 15,000 mice let alone 15. They are immune to the rat bate. I need to gather up my traps and service them and get them put out. It just gets old doing it night after night. I have 11 traps I think. I've been trying to come up with something that would kill them in mass without harming the birds or the dogs. I've come to the conclusion that moving may be my best option!!

Woohoo! We got our first egg of the season this year! I was beginning to think that my birds were getting old enough not to lay.

Congrats on the egg. My geese and ducks are laying pretty well right now. I can't complain. I'm not ready to incubate ducks yet. I have a group of drakes I need to sell first. Hopefully they'll be gone tomorrow.
22qZoo, sorry you won't be at Gardner. Maybe if you are going through you can come down soon some day and bring K with you.
MY DH is going to be home all day while I am gone Saturday so I'm hoping he will feed and water for me so I can stay all day.

I started off my morning kind of upset. I had spent a huge chunk of money on English Orpington eggs. First they were shipped very poorly and arrived partially broken with poor quality egg shells. Then I read a post this person made about the breeders they came from. She sold them as 100% English and the breeders she listed are the same lines I already have and are not pure English. I am just so tired of people pretending to have something they don't and not being truthful about it. This same person was criticizing other breeders just recently on a forum for selling stuff that wasn't as advertised. I work very hard for my money for my birds and I don't have a lot. It really upsets me. Sorry just had to rant.
I guess I'll hatch what I can and cull what doesn't meet my standards.

 

[cherwill]

Well here we go my grandma fell and broke her hip in bartlesville for a few days

How miserable for her; it's good you can go help her.

Woohoo! We got our first egg of the season this year! I was beginning to think that my birds were getting old enough not to lay.

I started off my morning kind of upset. I had spent a huge chunk of money on English Orpington eggs. First they were shipped very poorly and arrived partially broken with poor quality egg shells. Then I read a post this person made about the breeders they came from. She sold them as 100% English and the breeders she listed are the same lines I already have and are not pure English. I am just so tired of people pretending to have something they don't and not being truthful about it. This same person was criticizing other breeders just recently on a forum for selling stuff that wasn't as advertised. I work very hard for my money for my birds and I don't have a lot. It really upsets me. Sorry just had to rant.
I guess I'll hatch what I can and cull what doesn't meet my standards.

I don't know why people do that. Eventually it's going to catch up to them as people pass the word around, and they get no return business.