Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

****big snip ****
90% of the time, and has thus been labeled a "durkey". Anyway, it has been clear for awhile that Durkey is a duck, not a drake, which means that all 5 of the birds I raised in the brooder are female. That just seems so unlikely.

And it leaves me with the quandary of what to do with them. I never anticipated that many females and being so friendly and smaller than males, I'm really reluctant to butcher them, yet don't need that many females. Not to mention, in the absence of a male, I have no way to breed them pure next year. Egad.

It must be something in the water around here as I can't seem to hatch males to save myself. I know many of you would love to have that problem but it really IS a problem when it comes to breeding. I hatched a few birds for my portion of the Aloha project and every one of them is female too. I had hoped to be almost ready to move onto phase two of that program, since the ones I hatched are closing in on 6 months old, but can't proceed with phase two without males. So I have to revisit phase one and try to hatch a bunch more and get some males, which sets me back quite a few months.

And, with all the broody birds I've had this year, I haven't wanted to increase my flock size too much so I've been letting each hen raise only 1-2 chicks. I figured "Oh well, if they're hatching now, they'll be butcher size before winter so I won't have to over-winter them". Well, wouldn't you know almost every chick I've hatched is growing out to be female so knowing me, I'll end up over-wintering them so I can get the eggs come spring.

So then I thought about my over-population problem from the other end. Which hens are getting older, and could be butchered because they've outlived their usefulness. Many of the older ones have a special place in my heart and will live out their days here but I have one who is closing in on 4-years-old and I figured she probably didn't lay many this year and I've never been fond of her so I decided she'll be my first older stew hen for the year. Well, I must have licked my lips while thinking it because the next day that darn hen was in a nest box, broody as can be. This is a 4-year-old hen who has never been broody a day in her life before but just as I decide its her time, she does this to me. Because she knows I can't butcher a mama.

 

[chicken danz]

HeChicken I can't believe your luck. If I were you I would advertise to trade a female for a male. Then you could either raise them or eat him. Or maybe you could get a couple of males in exchange for a couple females. Eat one and use the other for breeding. I had a problem with the blue slate because they all looked identical and I couldn't figure out which sex they were. They were actually at least 8 months old when I finally found out I had two males and one female. What I did was pretty simple. I went out and yelled "Woot" really loud and shrill. The boys puffed up and gobbled. Before that they were all Identical. Another thing that worked with them was to have a stranger show up and be loud.
I worked hard today but didn't get my projects done. It took me a lot longer than I thought. I got the two sides of the hoop coop wired together. I tried every tool we had around here before I figured out how to get the sides to line up and get them moved together. I did get the netting on the hoop but I haven't gotten the ends done yet. I was really hoping to have it tarped and birds in before evening. I had several interruptions too so that didn't help.
I had two people that were supposed to show up this evening for birds and both were no shows. Why is it people can't call or message? I also made several phone calls trying to find some people to do some work but no one has called back. I guess no one wants to make any money.

 

[chicken danz]

Sharol I'm so happy the eggs are developing. That's great. I think I hatch all HEChicken's males. It seems I end up with an awful lot of boys around here. I have a group of probably 3 month old partridge brahmas. I have 6 girls and 15 boys in that group!! That is just wrong!!

 

[sharol]

Sharol I'm so happy the eggs are developing. That's great. I think I hatch all HEChicken's males. It seems I end up with an awful lot of boys around here. I have a group of probably 3 month old partridge brahmas. I have 6 girls and 15 boys in that group!! That is just wrong!!

 

[Trish44]

I was just catching up after coming in from chores. Gosh HEChicken I sure wish I had your problem, I need some of that water you have there. It seems like at least half of what I hatch a lof of the time turn out to be cockerels & sometimes the odds are even higher, like the 17 BCMs I hatched & 3/4 turned out to be cockerels. I had a bunch of Lemon Cuckoo cockerels as well. I'm still up in the air about a couple of breeds of young ones I have right now. The lavender Ameraucanas just take forever to tell what sexes they are. I know only one of them so far & that's the extra I got with the others. I would love to be able to choose breeders from them, but so far I'm stumped. They can fool you for months as I found out with my present rooster in the pen. I thought he was a she for months. I'm still waiting on the Buff Orps as well to tell what they are, some of them are getting huge but no real signs yet that scream rooster. HEChicken, can you get a male black spanish from that guy in your town, I know he has some, maybe he has an extra.

HEChicken you will sure have lots of good stuff to eat this winter, I envy your energy getting that all done.

I went out this evening & put more cinder blocks under the goat's "shelter" to try to keep it from sliding off. They play on the top of it & keep knocking it off of the block foundation. Does anyone have an ideas of how I can secure it so it won't slide off so easy? It's just a pickup topper sitting on top of a foundation of cinder blocks to give them room to walk in there when it rains or snows. They don't go in there when the weather is nice & usually sit on top of it instead. The problem comes in when they get to playing with each other & jumping on & off of there.

 

[cherwill]

Hey everyone - just stopping by real quick while taking a break from preserving. Everything seems to be happening at once and I'm spending all day everyday washing and chopping and sautéing and pureeing and canning and……wondering why on earth I planted so much.

I wonder the same thing every summer, but in winter, I sure am glad I did. I know you will be too.

This is a 4-year-old hen who has never been broody a day in her life before but just as I decide its her time, she does this to me. Because she knows I can't butcher a mama.

She knew. Somehow she knew. She's too smart to butcher.

 

[HEChicken]

My silly hen is spending way too much time off of the nest (a couple of times 2 hours during the early afternoon), but it is so hot, that it doesn't seem to be hurting them.

I wouldn't worry about it in these temperatures. Hens seem to "know" that in summer being off the nest is not nearly as critical as in the cooler months. I've had broodies from mid-winter (rare) to mid-summer and I've noticed the same. The hen brooding in winter would only get off once a day and would be so anxious the entire time, running from nest to food to water to poop back to nest as fast as she could, gulping down the food and water, while in summer they'll take their time, stop to dust bathe and leisurely make their way back to their nest.

HEChicken, can you get a male black spanish from that guy in your town, I know he has some, maybe he has an extra.

HEChicken you will sure have lots of good stuff to eat this winter, I envy your energy getting that all done.

I went out this evening & put more cinder blocks under the goat's "shelter" to try to keep it from sliding off. They play on the top of it & keep knocking it off of the block foundation. Does anyone have an ideas of how I can secure it so it won't slide off so easy? It's just a pickup topper sitting on top of a foundation of cinder blocks to give them room to walk in there when it rains or snows. They don't go in there when the weather is nice & usually sit on top of it instead. The problem comes in when they get to playing with each other & jumping on & off of there.

No, unfortunately he sold out of Black Spanish a few months ago. He had a sign out front of his place advertising them for sale but at the time mine were only a few weeks old and I had no idea what genders I had. And I kind of assumed out of 4 of them there'd be at least one of each gender anyway.

I don't know about energy - I'm exhausted all the time LOL. At least I sleep well when I go to bed.

I'm trying to picture the set up you're talking about on the goats. Can you drive a t-post at the corners so that when it moves that direction its stopped from sliding all the way by the post?

Danz, I did think about trading and I might still do that. I'm on the fence about whether I even want a BS tom now. If I had raised one it would be different but with my set up where they all free-range together, I'm not sure I want to try to add a mature tom. I already was unsure how I was going to handle it in spring when they started fighting. I really hate to pen birds so perhaps this is a blessing in disguise to still only have my Bourbon Red tom. I'll butcher the mixed breed jake before winter and I might see about selling a couple of the BS hens, and next year I'll see what BR over BS look like. I still have 5 more turkeys growing out that are too young to tell gender. 4 are mixes while the 5th is a pure BR. I'm hoping most of them are jakes as it will make decision time a lot easier.

Sorry about your no-shows - one of the main reasons I don't want to get more into breeding is having to deal with people. Did you look on Craigslist to see if there are any handyman types in your area that might need some work?

 

[chicken danz]

I agree with HEChicken. My broodies have abandoned their nests for hours recently. They know when it's hot enough I'm sure. Gives me a chance to do some quick candling. I only have a couple right now anyway.
HEChicken I did check. The problem is location. The closest one is an hour and half away. I still didn't get any return calls last night. I need to leave one more message and see if I can get a guys' father's number that might do some work. Another one of those cell phone situations.
Trish we have our camper coop on a framework. We just c-clamped it to the top board with the lip on the inside. The only way I can think of to make that work for you is to set the blocks toward the outside so the camper sits on about a 3 -4 inch lip on the inside. Make sure that a few of the top concrete blocks are sitting with the holes facing side to side and not up and down. Then you could clamp the bottom rim of the camper to the blocks. It would probably only take 2 clamps per side. The downside for winter on that would be that you'd have air flow through those four blocks. Maybe you could figure out a way to do it without taking the whole thing down. Like if your blocks are oriented sideways now you could break or cut the blocks in half so you could face them the other direction. Does that make sense. Too bad I can't draw pictures with my mind.
Yeah I don't like dealing with people either. I'm pretty much a hermit and people take so much time and are inconsiderate. On the same note though I've made a few awesome friends with chicken dealings as well. I have at least 3 people that are supposed to come today for birds. One of those isn't going to pay. It's a gal who is unemployed and her son wants some more of my Bredas to show for 4 H. I am giving them a pair. I just told her as long as she could still feed them and care for them it was okay. I have given her a ton of birds in the past that I never got paid for. At that time it wasn't my intention. This time she admitted she couldn't pay. But I think as long as her son is the one that is benefiting it's okay. One day maybe she'll get on her feet and repay me some way. Her son was one of the ones that won at the fair this year with one of my birds. Besides, it's two less birds to feed.
I need to get out and get busy on the hoop coop this morning. My first customer will be here at 10 and is bringing a friend so I expect that to take a couple hours. Sure eats into my day but it will be some money. I sure hope they don't need to use the bathroom or anything because I haven't cleaned in here at all. It's a mess. Just not enough hours in the day.
HEChicken you do have a point about the turkeys. Boys will be boys. I have the two midget white toms together and they bicker but don't kill each other during early breeding season. The rest of the time they are buddies. That wasn't the case when they were in their first year. But they and my Bourbon Tom fight through the fence depending on which breed I let out to free range. After today that shouldn't be a problem since the bourbons are supposed to be picked up. They are beautiful birds but I need to cut some breeds.

 

[chicken danz]

Well Yay! My first customers showed up, I sold several birds I hadn't expected and have another $380 to put toward my building. Most people take about two hours when they come here but when I end up selling that much it's worth the time. I did sell some birds really cheap that I paid more for as chicks but they were culls for the most part or ones I really don't need.
Now if my other buyer shows up this evening for these turkey poults it will be a nice profitable day.

 

[Trish44]

Yay danz on the sales! I hope the other person shows up for the turkeys this time. I don't have any clamps I don't think big enough to clamp the topper to the cinder blocks. Yeah I saw your wood frame, but I don't have any wood & I do have cinder blocks so that's what I'm using. I may have to see what I can find cheap to clamp it with. I just put cinder blocks all the way around on the bottom so the wind & snow would be blocked for winter, so if I can find a way to keep it from sliding that will be great. It's just an old rickety topper we found abandoned next door when the people moved out & left a bunch of crap behind. My DH just happened to be snooping around over there awhile back & found the topper & asked me if I wanted it & I said sure it will work for something & it has worked great for the animals since I had to separate the goats & sheep into separate pens since they can't be nice together. They really do all right out grazing together but at time to get fed the goats get territorial & start butting the sheep if they get in front of them, it's a real shoving contest so I try to get the goats going down toward the pens first to keep them out of trouble.

Today was shopping day in Wichita so my day was pretty shot by the time we got back. I had an egg customer coming so I had to get back so I could get her eggs together & run my DH back into town to pick up his car & go to work. I had a little time to rest a bit before I had to go out & do chores. By the time I get that done it's dark out. I did get a couple of dog igloos I had bought used into two pens where I wanted them when I went out. That was about the extent of anything extra I did tonight. I use dog houses in some of my outside pens so at least the birds have some extra shelter in there when it's extra cold. I always put straw in there for them too. I do put tarps & plastic on the outside of the pens in winter, but the dog houses just give them a place to cuddle up when it's really bad. Most of my pens that aren't hoop coops have tin on the top of them now with the exception of the last one I put up & it just has shade cloth on it. I have a lot of things to get done before winter comes, but hopefully it will cool off a bit so we can have some fall first.