Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

My second daughter had horses from the time she was 12 until many years after high school. I know the expense is insane. My oldest daughter has a horse now as well. She bought it for her daughters, but now it has become her responsibility. When the kids get older and move out the horse is still there. I don't think her youngest daughter has that much interest in it.
I personally prefer animals that weigh less than I do at this age. I am fast coming to the realization I'm pretty limited on what I can and can't handle. I would still love to have a cow but it's just not practical. I would have to spend a fortune on more fencing and I can't do that. Maybe in my next life I'll marry a farmer! LOL
I'll stick with my birds I think. They give me great pleasure.
Morgangirl to get the young girls to lay where you want you need something suitable for a nest box. They like something that gives them some room, is normally mounted a little off the ground and has soft bedding like straw or wood chips. They like their privacy. So the ideal situation is someplace they can crawl into and out of but still have a sense of coverage. My layers have always sought out some place in the barn where they could get under something and have a nice soft place to lay. We had a plastic bag full of blasting sand which was always their favorite place to go lay rather than the hen house. Another thing to do is when they are all starting to lay to keep them penned in the coop area for a couple weeks so they see that as their place. There's always going to be some place they think is better. High weeds, under fence rows, in a quiet corner etc.

 

[chicken danz]

HEChicken, it's the big boxes that they put on ships to haul cargo on then load onto railroad cars to deliver goods. It set south of the trailer. They are also called convex boxes or cargo shipping containers. Examples:




Mine is 40 feet long, 8 feet wide and 9 feet tall. It holds a lot of stuff. They are water tight, have a nice floor, and keep all bugs, rodents and moisture out. I seriously considered buying several and joining them together to make my poultry building but decided that they would cost as much as a building. I was wrong however. I could have done that much cheaper, but in the long run it wouldn't have looked nearly as nice.
I have mine vented which really makes it fairly decent in there unless you are up near the ceiling.
We moved the trailer further north for now. I have about 30 peachicks in there right now. Once the building is done and poultry gets moved, the peachicks will be moving elsewhere. Or those that I don't sell. Eventually I plan to probably just scrap the trailer out probably. It could still be used for storage if I fixed the roof but it's a bit of an eyesore. Or someone else could use it for poultry. It set here too long to be much good. But I have had birds in it non-stop since last fall. It's a nice place to keep chicks because it's insulated. I had put a new electrical load center in it and I'm going to take that out and use it in my building. It wasn't cheap and I don't want to buy another one. It would have made a decent chicken breeding building had I gotten it moved about 3 years ago. But this will be so much better. I'm also planning to recycle the ghetto eventually. I love the windows in it. But there isn't a lot of other value other than the trailer frame and the aluminum siding. I think once all is said and done a hundred years from now my place will look so much better. I'm also hoping other than the turkeys, peafowl, geese, ducks and pheasant I keep my chickens to a minimum in the building. I keep thinking how much better off I would be if I sold all those other birds but honestly they'd probably be the ones I chose to keep if I had to sell most of the birds.

 

[morgangirl1]

Thanks guys I will have to try that with our pullets. I'm hoping they might learn from the older birds and not going hunting in the surrounding woods for good places to lay their eggs, our older girls have decided that between the hay and a trash can that one day happened to hay some hay in it that they need to lay outside of the fence every morning.
danz thats to bad the granddaughters of yours are losing intrest in the investment. I'll bet its hard to put that much money into something like that, as on ongoing expense and never really have it put to use, When I switched from trumpet to French horn I think my parents thought I was done with trumpet, no way! Theres Jazz band and then pep band on the Mellophone!

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Yep! Raised her through her whole life, I remember the struggle of breeding her mare about 3 times before it was a go, then keeping her preg too. Tally was such a wonderful baby. I love Morgans they are such dependable horses and well growing up with them science I was two kinda helps my bias. Although I will warn anyone, Morgans live forever! Grandpa, the horse I started my western and Hunt seat carrier on is about 27 years of this year and let me tell you he looks fantastic!

You're living my dream!!!! I'm determined to own a Morgan eventually. I'm keeping my dream to that for now. Breeding a mare and raising the foal? I'm speechless; I can't imagine even, beyond amazing. Did you train her yourself? I'd love to see a pic of her. If you don't want to post one on here you'd be welcome to PM me

 

[zigzag45]

Hi All,
Long time.... Life has been super busy with a new baby, travel, work... Hope to stay caught up here on the KS thread.

The birds are doing well. I have one (I hope just one) that thinks raw egg tastes good. At least she's the only one we've caught. I've tried all the tricks (darkening laying boxes, mustard...) but she seems pretty persistent. I don't think she's eating everything she lays as it's only a once a week deal. Looking like it might be a bad career decision for her.

Just added three new pullets yesterday, two cinnamon queens and a leghorn. Hope they turn out to be laid back good layers. The leghorn is a piece of work right now - she's gotta settle down. I got them off Craigslist and was happy to find them. I don't have a good grow-out pen so I like getting birds that are mostly grown and just need a couple week quarantine before integration. What's funny is that I found out the guy I got them from works at Tractor Supply and gets his birds from them. So I now know where they come from.

That's the quick update.

 

[Trish44]

Welcome back zigzag! It seems that a lot of people have been busy this summer, some have been MIA from the thread. Hopefully they will come back when things settle down.

I have one of those egg eaters just recently myself, but I haven't figured out which bird it is as of yet. It's so aggravating to reach in a nest box & get a handful of goo & the other eggs get it on them as well. I hope that stops soon, I don't like it either.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Leghorns are just like that, flighty. I have 2 whites, 2 browns, & 2 exchequer Leghorns & they're all that way. They're excellent layers for the size of birds they are, but they just aren't calm, friendly birds. They don't settle down the longer you have them, mine never have & they still act like I'm going to kill them if I get too close. The Cinnamon Queens should be very good layers, I kept one of the ones I hatched this year & she is a very pretty pullet. She is getting close to laying age now. Be sure you quarantine them before you integrate them, a minimum of 2 weeks.

 

[morgangirl1]

You're living my dream!!!! I'm determined to own a Morgan eventually. I'm keeping my dream to that for now. Breeding a mare and raising the foal? I'm speechless; I can't imagine even, beyond amazing.

Did you train her yourself? I'd love to see a pic of her. If you don't want to post one on here you'd be welcome to PM me

Yeah, Her name is Precious Metal, after the fact that my aunt is a wonderful bronze sculptress, so it was a fitting name. But yes we had bought her mother with intentions of breeding and selling Morgans, don't know why the wasn't broke just a brood mare, and just of the age to have a baby so we pretty much went right into it. I remember the weeks coming up t to when she was due I would stay out in the little camper watching through the window with my aunt till she made me go to bed. I think its been nice to have know Tally scene she was out, I do remember wanting to see a foal born and got my wish oh at like 5 years I think? So she is about mm 6 years maybe? Oh i don't know I am off.
But I didn't train her my self though, a girl about my age trained her and Tally growing up with us she never bucked or did anything, I must admit though she picked on tally a lot and made her sides hard so I might have to experiment with some spurs...

Though another guy Bret Bartly trained her to drive and he really did her well, I think driving was a good thing for her. So I haven't trained her myself but I am working with her more and let me tell you I think she trusts me too much to not hurt her. I was trying to lunge her the other day and she kept stopping and turning towards me to eat grass. I ended up having to run with her to get her to do something. Oh well I suppose its better than her running off on me right?

Lets see if I can find a good pic.... Not sure If Ive got a good one but this is me parking her out, its not the best pic, I think I look crazy but hey we've all had that right?


Oh and I don't know if anyone has seen Jet or not but heres him

 

[chicken danz]

Jet is a beautiful horse in my opinion. By the way Morgangirl, what is your Mom doing these days. She hasn't posted in forever. I hope your brother is still doing good. He's such a happy boy.
Congrats ZigZag. I had no idea your guys were expecting again. Did you have another girl or did you get a boy this time? When was the blessed event? I guess that means you probably won't be at Gardner this fall then. Even though I haven't seen a lot of you and your family I always enjoy it.
I'm thinking it could turn out to be pretty chilly that day. Seems our weather decided to become fall all of sudden. I had to put a jacket on last night when the sun went down.
We spent the entire day trenching and running a water pipe yesterday. And no we are far from done. We have to do a bunch of hand digging closer to the house. We hit rock and the trench started collapsing because the trencher was jumping around. I spent most of the day with a shovel in my hand and shoveled sand into the bottom of the trench before laying in the water pipe. There was at least a couple hundred feet of trench and pipe we ran. This last 12 feet or so are going to be the worst cause it's going to take a lot of hand digging.
While all this was going on I found something I actually found to be good news...I think. I had thought that our sewer line was backing back up into the basement. There is a divet in the floor where the plug goes and when it backs up it tends to come out around that plug. Well water has been sitting there so I was trying to figure out how on earth I was going to afford to replace pipe to the septic tank. It's a long run from the house to the septic and at least 6 feet deep or more so it would be costly. But I happened to be in the basement looking for a part and saw the leak was getting worse and starting to spread across the floor. I happened to look up just as a drip fell from the shut off valve right above the sewer clean out.
So in between shoveling I found another valve. Shut off the water and replaced it. Piece of cake and went smoothly too. I'll check it again today. It is the valve that goes to the outside spigot so it probably gets used more than any other line in the house. The seat in the valve was just mush. It's a wonder it wasn't spraying all over down there.
I didn't get much sleep last night cause every muscle in my body was throbbing so I got up really early. I'll pay for that later.
But my attitude is so much better today. After days of putting in extra long extra hard work at least I am ready for the construction to begin. I called the concrete guy yesterday and he is going to let me know when his crew can get out here to set forms. I got my contract for the building in the mail yesterday so I'm going to sign that and get it sent back in. Yay! I can almost see light at the end of the tunnel. Well not really but a step in the right direction. Something other than working and planning.

 

[zigzag45]

@chicken danz - Little boy! We are happy but it's not like we cared what he/she was. He came four weeks early and spent a week and a half in the NICU. He's 8 weeks old now and doing well. And yes, I got the postcard on Gardner and don't think we'll make it. I'm really happy with the white orp I got from you and the black australorps I got at the auction have now started laying. They are all pretty birds. I'll prob try to make the spring one again and see what they have for chicks. That all worked out so well last year.

@Trish44 - Thanks for the feedback on our little leghorn pullet. She is small compared with the cinnamon queens. I was surprised. She got loose in the shed yesterday and was flying circles around my wife. I guess I will hope against hope that she settles down. I have a low fence on one side of my yard so she's getting her wings clipped pretty soon, once she's out of quarantine and before she has access to the yard. The other problem with broken eggs, beyond the gooey yucky stuff, is that it then attracts flies. I open the nesting box and peek in to be greeted by a half dozen flies flying out, right towards my face.

Has anyone tried rollout nesting box bottoms? They are of interest to me, but I'm concerned that in the winter it will contribute to eggs freezing faster. It will also deal with egg eaters. http://www.cornerstone-farm.com/equipment/roll-out-nest-bottom/ Legit or farce?

I'm going to take my first attempt at moving some of my older hens out to the freezer this weekend. I've not found anyone to train me so I'm going to watch a ton of YouTubes and just go for it. Cone and some other stuff are on order (including a drill based de-feather, not sure how that will work). Everyone says it's pretty easy, just don't know that I have the heart/guts to actually do it. Might take three birds to the farm and come home with two or three live ones. My brother's going to help me so I think we can pull it off. Biggest challenge is figuring out what kind of tub/pan I can use for the scald process. Don't want to take anything from the kitchen. We'll see how it goes, it will be an amazing learning process!

 

[Trish44]

zigzag, When we open up the run to let the laying chickens out to free range each day the two white leghorns are the ones that fly over the gate we have there. I have a piece of livestock panel I hook to keep the dogs out but the chickens can walk through the squares to get in & out, but those two white leghorns just fly out over the gate instead of making the mad dash through the gate like the others. They are the first ones to run into the garage every time the door opens so they have to be shooed out & it's aggravating when you're trying to go somewhere & have to get back out of the car & go shoo them out so you can shut the garage door. They're kind of trouble makers, but they are very good layers of white eggs.

Oh & congrats on the new baby boy!

I have never had the rollout type of nest boxes, they're expensive & my coop isn't set up for that kind of box either. I do however like the nest boxes some of us got recently that have removable bottoms in them that you just take out & clean.

You will need a big enough & deep enough pot to dunk the chickens in to get the feathers soaked in the hot water. I guess you have ordered the equipment for plucking so you're kind of committed now to that, but I really think skinning is easier than plucking & you don't have to mess with all of the feathers sticking all over & trying to get all of the tiny pin feathers out. Some people just use a propane torch after plucking to singe off the pin feathers & that works OK too. I have done both plucking & skinning & I think skinning is my choice any more. Oh & make sure you have very sharp knives as well, it will make things a lot easier. I use a killing cone & cut the jugular like HEChicken does. I have read if you cut off their head like they used to do that it makes the meat tougher & you can have headless chickens literally running around the yard.

We had a mishap two days ago while out working on the fence. We had taken the metal tube gate down so we could put up the fence at the corner there. The goats always follow us everywhere we go so they were messing around eating leaves off the tree over by the gate & Lily one of our GPs & my cat Buddy were laying by the fence close to where the gate was leaning. Well you might have guessed already that the goat knocked the gate over & the poor kitty somehow got hit by it. He took off running & I didn't see him any more till the next afternoon when he came up to eat & I found out he had a broken leg. He is my little helper that goes around with me to feed the chickens, he follows me all the way around to every pen. He is the sweetest little boy kitty, he's about 6 months old & is very loving. I got the two metal dog crates I have & put them together last night & fixed Buddy all up in there with a bed, food & water, & a litter box in the garage. We had to do this for another cat with a broken leg previously so I knew how to set it up. This morning we took Buddy to the Vet & got his leg x-rayed & it's a clean break between his elbow & shoulder on the front right leg. After talking to the Vet we opted to just keep him confined for however long is needed & as long as he is kept fairly quiet & keeps from walking on the leg he thinks it will heal OK on it's own. He didn't recommend pinning a cat's bone due to the smaller bones & he said cats don't tolerate that well & can have more complications. He didn't want to splint it either due to where the fracture is because he said it would cause sores under his armpit area & he wouldn't leave it alone. He feels that as long as the cat keeps the leg up & next to his body the way he is right now it will heal OK. So we just agreed to play it by ear & see how it goes. He said the bone should start calcifying in about 10 days & he is young too so it will heal faster than an older cat. We were at least glad to know what we were dealing with because we couldn't tell for sure where the fracture was with the way he was holding his leg. I was relieved after we took him to know that he will be OK & should be able to get around all right when he's healed. His leg may not be perfect again, but he will be able to function. We were glad that he didn't have any other injuries either, his ribs & lungs were fine. Boy life is never dull it seems like around here.

It's really cool here today, it's about 64 degrees out & cloudy. I had to pull out the long pants to put on today. The chickens couldn't wait to get out & enjoy the weather today.