Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

Yes they were chicks. 1 has been laying eggs 2 weeks before all the others at 5 mos. I didn't know she was laying till guy next door 1/4 mi away thank me for 2 eggs. I would let them out early in the am. . Now I don't let them out til after 2 pm.

Just a tip…..chickens lay throughout the day. I've had hens lay eggs in the early evening even! But your instincts were good as far as locking them in for awhile. The main thing is to get them in the habit of laying in the coop rather than at your neighbor's house. Once you do that, you can start letting them out earlier again and they will most likely return to the coop to lay rather than going so far.

I don't think I have the patience to weigh my crops, but I'm interested in what you're finding out.

My mouth is watering at the thought of duck fat! I don't get to do it often (like, less than once a year), but I love potatoes roasted in duck fat.

I'll let you know my best producing varieties at the end of the season! Good tip on roasting potatoes in duck fat - now you've got MY mouth watering.

Wow it has been busy this morning. I started a reply, had to take a phone call, finished the reply and found a bunch more posts in between. Its now after 10am and I haven't even started my sauce yet and the phone call was to assign me tasks for the day as well. Looks like being another busy day.

 

[chicken danz]

sad day yesterday. After installing a new heating/air system in rental house I went by last wednesday to show house only to find my condensing unit in pieces.. I called police and he stared at unit for 20 minutes before telling me he thought it was all there but in pieces. I knew that but to my way of thinking it should be in one piece and it is not alright for somebody to come into yard and tear it up. After he told me how lucky I was he picked up a flashlight the gentleman had left and he left. I called the installing company and they came out and put the pieces together and we secured unit in garage until we get house rented. My wife the never trusting type was on my case to bring unit home until house is rented. I believing these units are not portable didn,t listen. My friend came back, broke into garage dismanteled my unit again and took condenser and compressor. Needless to say my wife is extremely angry with me. To top it off the heating/air guy said the metal would be sold as mixed metal and only worth $25 to $30, what a waste

I'm so sorry. I have a terrible hate for thieves and liars. I wonder how these people can sleep at night. I suppose it all goes to drugs too.

India is a very beautiful country. The culture is certainly different and their food is to die for! I just felt really helpless when I was approached by kids who wanted us to give them something to eat because they were starving! The security guards always shoo'd them away. When I gave one of the kids some money, her eyes lit up and a small group of kids swamped around me/us. It was something I will never forget. It was heartbreaking because those children should be at school learning and have a full tummy. Instead, they were out on the street panhandling.

My coworkers said I was a softy but how could you not? Sigh...

I couldn't resist giving the children something either. I would rather just buy them food than give them money. I know that would take more time but it would make me happy to watch them eat.

Praire Fleur, you have some beautiful birds there, especially the pure white peachick. I think mold in the straw was one of the reasons why I lost some of my birds as well. DH didn't pay attention but I noticed mold when I was cleaning out the coop and I removed them completely and put new dry straws in. I'm glad your other chicks are doing well now!

Thank you. They came from me. I have more if you want to try again!!!

My understanding is that you feed them and house them in the same spot and close to the same time every day and then you can count on them returning. I really need to sell some more peachicks because although I could triple my money next spring I really don't want to house and feed all these all winter.
I have been so insanely busy again. I was working until 12:30 last night on and electric trench. There is still work to do. I'm just feeling like an old bear because I am spending way too much time working these days and every thing else is slipping.
I haven't done any thing else with my garden and I need time to plant some flowers too. I'm very discouraged at this point. I just want to have things done and get caught up.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Good morning peeps, rise and shine!

I've had a tough weekend. Planned to deep clean the coop but didn't really do much except I removed some molding straws. My beloved Sheltie crossed the rainbow bridge on Saturday very unexpectedly. I was/am very sad. I just can't imagine he is gone. He started to not feel well last week. By Friday, he was clearly in discomfort so I called the vet after I got home from work, right before they closed. I took him in on Saturday around 11:00am and by 12:00pm, he was gone. I had to put him down because his lungs were full of cancer tumors. It was terminal and he was clearly in distress and having difficulty breathing. My vet said his cancer was aggressive and even though I took him in every 6 months to do blood test, nothing showed up in his blood work. His weight was normal till the end. I am glad that he waited until I came back from India. My best buddy is now in a better place. He would have been 11 in 2 weeks! My vet was very nice and supportive. His staff stayed late on Saturday and gave me all the time I needed to say my goodbye. I'm having him cremated and will put his ashes right in front of the pond. We will be getting a tree and plant it next to his ashes. We'll also be going to the stone yard to pick out a stone and have his name engraved.

Thanks for reading. I just needed to put it in words. I hope everyone has a good day.

 

[HEChicken]

Good morning peeps, rise and shine!

I've had a tough weekend. Planned to deep clean the coop but didn't really do much except I removed some molding straws. My beloved Sheltie crossed the rainbow bridge on Saturday very unexpectedly. I was/am very sad. I just can't imagine he is gone. He started to not feel well last week. By Friday, he was clearly in discomfort so I called the vet after I got home from work, right before they closed. I took him in on Saturday around 11:00am and by 12:00pm, he was gone. I had to put him down because his lungs were full of cancer tumors. It was terminal and he was clearly in distress and having difficulty breathing. My vet said his cancer was aggressive and even though I took him in every 6 months to do blood test, nothing showed up in his blood work. His weight was normal till the end. I am glad that he waited until I came back from India. My best buddy is now in a better place. He would have been 11 in 2 weeks! My vet was very nice and supportive. His staff stayed late on Saturday and gave me all the time I needed to say my goodbye. I'm having him cremated and will put his ashes right in front of the pond. We will be getting a tree and plant it next to his ashes. We'll also be going to the stone yard to pick out a stone and have his name engraved.

Thanks for reading. I just needed to put it in words. I hope everyone has a good day.

Nothing I can say except <<HUGS>>. We've all been there at some point and it never gets easier to lose a part of your life and your heart. It sounds like you did the right thing and I know you gave him a wonderful life.

 

[sharol]

Good morning peeps, rise and shine!

I've had a tough weekend. Planned to deep clean the coop but didn't really do much except I removed some molding straws. My beloved Sheltie crossed the rainbow bridge on Saturday very unexpectedly. I was/am very sad. I just can't imagine he is gone. He started to not feel well last week. By Friday, he was clearly in discomfort so I called the vet after I got home from work, right before they closed. I took him in on Saturday around 11:00am and by 12:00pm, he was gone. I had to put him down because his lungs were full of cancer tumors. It was terminal and he was clearly in distress and having difficulty breathing. My vet said his cancer was aggressive and even though I took him in every 6 months to do blood test, nothing showed up in his blood work. His weight was normal till the end. I am glad that he waited until I came back from India. My best buddy is now in a better place. He would have been 11 in 2 weeks! My vet was very nice and supportive. His staff stayed late on Saturday and gave me all the time I needed to say my goodbye. I'm having him cremated and will put his ashes right in front of the pond. We will be getting a tree and plant it next to his ashes. We'll also be going to the stone yard to pick out a stone and have his name engraved.

Thanks for reading. I just needed to put it in words. I hope everyone has a good day.

I'm so sorry for your loss. We do love our pets. I'm glad he waited for you to come home too. My Golden did that last fall. She waited until I got back from my daughter's house to say goodbye. Dang, I'm crying for her again. Hang in there.

 

[zigzag45]

Good morning peeps, rise and shine!

I've had a tough weekend. Planned to deep clean the coop but didn't really do much except I removed some molding straws. My beloved Sheltie crossed the rainbow bridge on Saturday very unexpectedly. I was/am very sad. I just can't imagine he is gone. He started to not feel well last week. By Friday, he was clearly in discomfort so I called the vet after I got home from work, right before they closed. I took him in on Saturday around 11:00am and by 12:00pm, he was gone. I had to put him down because his lungs were full of cancer tumors. It was terminal and he was clearly in distress and having difficulty breathing. My vet said his cancer was aggressive and even though I took him in every 6 months to do blood test, nothing showed up in his blood work. His weight was normal till the end. I am glad that he waited until I came back from India. My best buddy is now in a better place. He would have been 11 in 2 weeks! My vet was very nice and supportive. His staff stayed late on Saturday and gave me all the time I needed to say my goodbye. I'm having him cremated and will put his ashes right in front of the pond. We will be getting a tree and plant it next to his ashes. We'll also be going to the stone yard to pick out a stone and have his name engraved.

Thanks for reading. I just needed to put it in words. I hope everyone has a good day.

Sorry Tweety! Tough stuff.

 

[Trish44]

sad day yesterday. After installing a new heating/air system in rental house I went by last wednesday to show house only to find my condensing unit in pieces.. I called police and he stared at unit for 20 minutes before telling me he thought it was all there but in pieces. I knew that but to my way of thinking it should be in one piece and it is not alright for somebody to come into yard and tear it up. After he told me how lucky I was he picked up a flashlight the gentleman had left and he left. I called the installing company and they came out and put the pieces together and we secured unit in garage until we get house rented. My wife the never trusting type was on my case to bring unit home until house is rented. I believing these units are not portable didn,t listen. My friend came back, broke into garage dismanteled my unit again and took condenser and compressor. Needless to say my wife is extremely angry with me. To top it off the heating/air guy said the metal would be sold as mixed metal and only worth $25 to $30, what a waste

I'm sorry you're having to deal with that, people just have no scruples these days at all. I'm on the water district board here & we had an empty property nobody was living on. The place is next to mine & is a trash dump, it's really a mess from the last renters. They left in the middle of the night a couple of years ago & just left the old trailer & travel trailer along with trash everywhere. At any rate, there was still a water meter there for the rural water & people starting coming in there & taking anything they thought they could sell & they took parts off the meter. Needless to say we had to remove the meter since those things aren't cheap. There is supposedly a new owner of the property now & when he wants water there eventually he will have to pay for a new meter to be put in if he wants water there. He has lots of work to do before he could even think of living there though. At any rate, I hope your insurance pays for a new unit. I can't believe the police acted so strange about an intruder.

Wow HEChicken you really should have a lot of food for winter! I'm getting ready this week to butcher that awful BR rooster I have. I got my DH to sharpen my knife last night so it should be ready for him. I know that poor hen will be so relieved when he is gone. I hope she can get over the trauma.

tweety I guess you were posting when I was, I'm sorry about your dog, that's so hard, hugs to you.

 

[lizzyGSR]

Tweety - I"m so sorry to hear about your dog! I know how that feels! I had to put my pomeranian down this past July. He was old and had developed incontinence among other problems age-related problems. With a brand new baby in the house, I just couldn't handle the incontinence. It was an incredibly difficult decision to have him put down, and your story brought back lots of tears! Just know that there are LOTS of shoulders to cry on here on Consolidated Kansas. HUGS!

Milo - I"m so sorry to hear that you've had troubles with thieves!

An update on my birds:
I've had birds now for a couple of years, and they have always stopped laying by late summer. This year, the laying slowed down while I had individual birds molting, but it has picked back up again. I have been getting 3 eggs/day out of 3 duck hens for nearly a week now. I finally had to break down and sell a bunch of eggs because we simply weren't using them fast enough. I gave the lady who bought them a good deal - $2 for the first dozen and $1/dozen thereafter just so I could clean out my fridge!

I am honestly surprised that my birds have been laying so well this late in the year. The last couple of years have been pretty rough with the drought and all, so I"m wondering if the cooler temps and increased rainfall this year have affected the birds THAT much! I've also been seeing grasshoppers and other bugs in the yard, so I wonder if their diet has improved with the increase in the bug population this year over previous years. Either way it is a pleasant surprise!

On a different topic, I am excited to be looking at the possibility of upgrading my internet! I have been limited by download speeds of UP TO 1 mbps for 3 years now. I finally looked into alternatives and wish I'd done so MUCH sooner! I'm waiting on the dealer to call me to set up an appointment for an install, but I'm looking at getting 5-10 mbps download speeds with the new provider. Plus, I'd be getting a larger download limit and faster upload speeds as well. I am thoroughly excited to move OUT of the ICE AGES!

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

Good morning peeps, rise and shine!

I've had a tough weekend. Planned to deep clean the coop but didn't really do much except I removed some molding straws. My beloved Sheltie crossed the rainbow bridge on Saturday very unexpectedly. I was/am very sad. I just can't imagine he is gone. He started to not feel well last week. By Friday, he was clearly in discomfort so I called the vet after I got home from work, right before they closed. I took him in on Saturday around 11:00am and by 12:00pm, he was gone. I had to put him down because his lungs were full of cancer tumors. It was terminal and he was clearly in distress and having difficulty breathing. My vet said his cancer was aggressive and even though I took him in every 6 months to do blood test, nothing showed up in his blood work. His weight was normal till the end. I am glad that he waited until I came back from India. My best buddy is now in a better place. He would have been 11 in 2 weeks! My vet was very nice and supportive. His staff stayed late on Saturday and gave me all the time I needed to say my goodbye. I'm having him cremated and will put his ashes right in front of the pond. We will be getting a tree and plant it next to his ashes. We'll also be going to the stone yard to pick out a stone and have his name engraved.

Thanks for reading. I just needed to put it in words. I hope everyone has a good day.

So sorry. What a gift for you to be able to spend his last days with him! Funny how your animals become more a part of you than even family members sometimes! When we form that kind of connection it is true blessing!

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

Well I couldn't keep from candling my Lav Orp eggs. I usually try not to be a candling maniac (although I think we all start out that way

). Technically they are only day 6, but development is pretty obvious even with just a bright flashlight and TP roll technique. I am fairly certain that 5 of 9 is developing

, although + 1 I am unsure of. So 3 of nine I am certain were not fertile, which I am told is common with Orpingtons (fluffy butts and all). Fingers crossed that the 5 develop into fluff balls!

Of course 8 of 10 of my mix breeds are well on their way. I really didn't need them but couldn't have just 9 Lav Orp eggs in a 41 capacity now could I?