Consolidated Kansas

[Ralph Moyer]

I had a visiting duck yesterday and I was wondering if someone knew what kin




I had a visiting duck stop by yesterday and I was wondering if someone knew what kind it is. I'm not a duck hunter and since I only raise Muscovy ducks, I know little about ducks. It wasn't interested in the Muscovys but was checking out the silkie setting hens and my broody pen. My pond is not near my pens and my ducks and geese don't go there, because of the turtles would be my I guess.

 

[adventerousone]

Looks similar to a runner duck though I can't says exactly which one out of that family.. Gorgeous though.. Friendly?

 

[RoosterLew]

I had a visiting duck yesterday and I was wondering if someone knew what kin




I had a visiting duck stop by yesterday and I was wondering if someone knew what kind it is. I'm not a duck hunter and since I only raise Muscovy ducks, I know little about ducks. It wasn't interested in the Muscovys but was checking out the silkie setting hens and my broody pen. My pond is not near my pens and my ducks and geese don't go there, because of the turtles would be my I guess.

That is a Black Bellied Whistling Duck....and we don't have those in Ks????

 

[Ralph Moyer]

It did have a black belly, but I didn't hear it whistle. This one was definitely in Cherokee, County Kansas.

 

[cherwill]

Hey Cherwill. I used to build garden ponds in my side business. I used EDPM Rubber. It's pricy because it has to be a fish grade for fish, but you could buy rubber roofing material in place of it for gardening. It is like 45 mil thick and heavy enough it will stay in place. It will last 50 years in a pond so I am sure it's life would be very close to that in a garden. You can cut it to size so you could cut it just wide enough for between the rows. You wouldn't have to stake it down. And at the end of the season you could just roll up your pieces and store them until the next spring. I suppose if there were a really sharp rock you could penetrate it by walking on it a lot but it's not going to rip apart either. Now that I think about that I would use some of mine for the same, but mine is the fish grade kind and some day I may want to build another pond or two. I think the roofing companies also sell it in different colors if you didn't want black. Could be worth checking into. The cardboard worked well for me last year. This year I would be lucky to have the time to even put some down.

I might have to look into that next year.


Your quote didn't come through for me, either.

I think all hybrid tomato seeds revert to a red cherry tomato or something. I know every volunteer I've had, or anyone I know has had, has been a red cherry tomato.

I'm so sorry about your Sheltie. It's hard to see our beloved pets grow old. As long as he seems happy with his life and isn't in pain, you can just help him deal with the other issues of growing old. I've had number of dogs develop what the vet calls "fat lumps." They're benign and don't seem to bother the dog at all. Hopefully that's all your Sheltie is dealing with.

I had a visiting duck yesterday and I was wondering if someone knew what kin




I had a visiting duck stop by yesterday and I was wondering if someone knew what kind it is. I'm not a duck hunter and since I only raise Muscovy ducks, I know little about ducks. It wasn't interested in the Muscovys but was checking out the silkie setting hens and my broody pen. My pond is not near my pens and my ducks and geese don't go there, because of the turtles would be my I guess.

It's a beautiful duck.

 

[chicken danz]

On a sad note. My old Sheltie has been having some health issues lately. He is going on 11. His eye sight started to deteriorate a couple of years ago and now his hearing is slowly gone as well. He has been vomiting on and off these last 2 weeks and recently can't quite control his bladder. He started having non-cancerous cysts on his chest and then I found a much bigger one on his rib. His vet did a smear test and concluded that it was non-cancerous. I'm not sure if it is just him getting old or what. I'll be taking him to the vet this week to see if maybe he just has minor infection that can be fixed. He still enjoys life but he doesn't tolerate the GPs when he has to go outside to do his business. He would much rather stay inside and sleep all day. I will be keeping a close eye on him to make sure his quality of life is not compromised. I brought him home after I lost my Schnauzer over 10 years ago, right after my daughter was born. He is my baby and it will be a sad day the day he has to cross the rainbow bridge.

Tweety I had a sheltie years ago. She was the only house dog I have ever owned. She was also the smartest and cleanest dog I ever had. I do hope he is okay and maybe has a bladder infection or something.
Ralph, There are whistling ducks South of Kansas. They are very prevalent in Texas. They usually travel in pairs or in small breeding groups. I wonder if this one lost it's mate or something. I had considered buying a pair a while back but they were $125 plus shipping. I decided that was too much. Plus they are tree dwellers so I would have had to build a special aviary for them. Plus you have to have a migratory bird license to keep them.
I got my days confused and have my doctors appointment on Wednesday instead of yesterday. So after I got chores done I went to town and worked until 10:30pm helping to remove stuff from my Mom and Dad's house. When Ieft there was still tons left. I had managed to move everything to the front room though and then we loaded up a couple of truck loads and moved it to my sisters rental. So the only day I had this week without something going on I have to go to the doctor! I should be in town this morning helping to get the rest of the stuff out but I am totally exhausted. I only had a few hours of sleep the last couple of nights and I don't want my immune system to get too worn down.
It's times like these I want to liquidate a lot of things including birds and junk.
I found it really interesting the different ways that my sisters and I clean. We are all totally different. My oldest sister won't touch anything twice. She picks up one item at a time and puts it away. Then she cleans really deep,even dusting the ceiling. I have never been that thorough. My middle sister dawdles and just seems to move things around and not accomplish much of anything. I tend to move everything to a pile. Normally when I clean every thing goes to the center of the room and then I put it all away from there then clean the room. While the other two were doing their thing, I moved every single item out of every room except the kitchen where my middle sister was dawdling and into the front room so we could move it out of there. I don't think that house would have ever gotten empty the way they were working. I guess we all have our way of working. To me it was much easier to have stuff near the door so we could move it. I wonder how we all ended up so different.
Someday I'll get my house cleaned as well. LOL

 

[RoosterLew]

It did have a black belly, but I didn't hear it whistle. This one was definitely in Cherokee, County Kansas.

I wasn't doubting you ...LOL...kinda hard to do with a picture!

What I meant is this is not where you'd typically find them...like a whole state. Their "range" barely gets into southern Oklahoma and Arkansas...
After you posted I went and did some research just to check myself, and none of the "water fowl" experts sites show them ever reported here, but I did find sosme photos of a well known ks Bird photographer whose name I can never remember... LOL...he took some pictures of some around Wichita.

I'd let the KDWP know about it, they might be interested to know.
It is also strange that you saw him out there in the daylight, they are usually a somewhat nocturnal duck...if I remember right.

Whats funny is that I did a report on those in High school....LOL...so when you posted that picture I was quite shocked!

 

[HEChicken]

I actually have one of those buried boundry things...used it when I lived in town. I have not had luck with it? My border collie would run then when it was abou to get her she jumped high enough to clear it...funny as all get out, watching a dog Jump an invisible fence. Then our Pit would just tolerate the shock, yelp a it and go on.

That was my experience as well. We had buried invisible fence already on the property when we arrived and I don't care for them. We tried a LGD so turned on the fence and trained her to it over a period of about two weeks. For another couple of weeks she stayed within the boundaries. Then, probably while chasing something, she discovered that if she runs through it fast enough the shock is only momentary - and worth it to be free. So from then on, any time she felt like it, she'd run through it and roam to her heart's content. Coming back was apparently NOT worth the shock so when she was ready to return, she'd sit on the other side of the fence until we turned it off and led her back through. The problem is, once they've learned that, its almost impossible to get them to respect an invisible fence. We tried turning it up to no avail. And we know she was feeling it because she'd let out a little yelp every time she crossed. We ultimately had to rehome her because we couldn't keep her home and we were running the risk of alienating our neighbors who were getting really tired of her running through their properties, eating the cantelopes out of their veggie gardens and so on.

The other downside to invisible fence is while it might keep your dogs in, it won't keep other dogs and critters out. I think these reasons are why rescue organizations require a physical fence rather than an invisible fence before they'll let you adopt a dog from them.

Hey Cherwill. I used to build garden ponds in my side business. I used EDPM Rubber. It's pricy because it has to be a fish grade for fish, but you could buy rubber roofing material in place of it for gardening. It is like 45 mil thick and heavy enough it will stay in place. It will last 50 years in a pond so I am sure it's life would be very close to that in a garden. You can cut it to size so you could cut it just wide enough for between the rows. You wouldn't have to stake it down. And at the end of the season you could just roll up your pieces and store them until the next spring. I suppose if there were a really sharp rock you could penetrate it by walking on it a lot but it's not going to rip apart either. Now that I think about that I would use some of mine for the same, but mine is the fish grade kind and some day I may want to build another pond or two. I think the roofing companies also sell it in different colors if you didn't want black. Could be worth checking into. The cardboard worked well for me last year. This year I would be lucky to have the time to even put some down.

I love that idea. Where do you get hold of this stuff?

On a sad note. My old Sheltie has been having some health issues lately. He is going on 11. His eye sight started to deteriorate a couple of years ago and now his hearing is slowly gone as well. He has been vomiting on and off these last 2 weeks and recently can't quite control his bladder. He started having non-cancerous cysts on his chest and then I found a much bigger one on his rib. His vet did a smear test and concluded that it was non-cancerous. I'm not sure if it is just him getting old or what. I'll be taking him to the vet this week to see if maybe he just has minor infection that can be fixed. He still enjoys life but he doesn't tolerate the GPs when he has to go outside to do his business. He would much rather stay inside and sleep all day. I will be keeping a close eye on him to make sure his quality of life is not compromised. I brought him home after I lost my Schnauzer over 10 years ago, right after my daughter was born. He is my baby and it will be a sad day the day he has to cross the rainbow bridge.

So sorry to hear about your Sheltie. It is never easy when these family members we love, grow old and leave us. <<HUGS>>

I've had a couple of noteworthy things happen with my birds in the last day or so. My crested turkey has been "so-so" about being a mother all year now. She went broody but when, after 4 weeks sitting, I tried to give her poults, wanted nothing to do with them. And then decided she wasn't broody any more anyway. So for a couple of months she went back to just being a turkey. Then, four weeks ago, she decided to have another stab at it. Since she was sitting on the floor of the coop, I figured the eggs would get contaminated so I put them in the incubator. A week later she said "Nah, this sitting thing is not for me, not in the middle of summer" and off her nest she got. By then the eggs were developing and I didn't want to throw them out so I let them develop and they hatched yesterday.

I didn't want to set up a brooder - not with at least half a dozen broody chickens - so I slipped the poults under a proven mother cochin and held my breath. I've had chickens react to poults like they are aliens and worried that when they emerged making whoot-whoot instead of cheep-cheep sounds, that she would peck them to death. To my delight and gratitude, she swooned over them and is now being an excellent mother to them, in a broody pen by herself.

While checking on the new family frequently yesterday, I saw something in a corner of the chicken yard that looked like part of a dead bird. I walked over to investigate to find it part of a very-much-alive bird. My crested turkey. Who has apparently been laying a secret clutch. I knew she slept on the roosts in the coop the night before so figured she was fixing to go broody and sure enough, yesterday was apparently the egg that made the magic number and she slept on her "hidden" nest last night. I guess this time I'll let her be to do her thing. She has picked a great location that is in shade most of the time and is within the chicken yard so she'll benefit from the protection of the dogs at night. And, since its not the coop floor, the eggs stand a good chance of not getting contaminated.

And, in yet more turkey news, while doing my chores last night, DS came out to give me some good news. Last year I sold a trio of Royal Palms to a lady who turned out to be the mother of one of his school chums. He just heard yesterday, via said school chum, that her mother took one of "my" turkeys to a show and won champion!!! I am so stoked!!! DS asked me if I'd ever considered showing and I really have not - I'm just not interested in that side of things. But I'm thrilled to know that the birds have that potential.

 

[Ralph Moyer]

I thought it may be a young duck, as its beak and legs showed no signs of age. It did not show any signs of being afraid of humans or anything else. It must have moved on, because I did not see it yesterday when I did my chores. Maybe it is headed to Coffeyville. LOL

 

[Trish44]

I thought it may be a young duck, as its beak and legs showed no signs of age. It did not show any signs of being afraid of humans or anything else. It must have moved on, because I did not see it yesterday when I did my chores. Maybe it is headed to Coffeyville. LOL

That's interesting about the duck & kind of strange it was by itself, maybe it lost it mate or got separated somehow from the group.

HEChicken you sure have a lot of broody birds, that would drive me crazy dealing with all of those. I hope the turkey takes her job seriously now that she has a nest & keeps sitting.

Danz, be careful & don't hurt yourself working so hard. I guess it's good to get the house sold, but not so good to have to move all of that stuff.

I started my PT again yesterday & my leg is kind of sore today, back to exercises again.