Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

@sharol, I'm so glad she is doing better. Your such a good animal mamma.

 

[Gleimranch]

Thanks for all the helpful advice. We found a better place to buy food in bel plaine

Here is the link to the website for the calcium. www.carthagecrushedlimestone.com/  There is a contact number you could call and find out who carries it near you. I asked for a list of dealers in Eastern Kansas by email, but just did it so it will take a while to get an answer.
I have to disagree with HEChicken on calcium. It is necessary for all mammals to grow their skeletons as well as things like eggs. Your chickens have a larger grazing area and they can get it from the ground, in some water etc.
I have read several university studies that say Calcium carbonate is the easiest digested form of calcium for poultry. Limestone is plentiful throughout the world. Also there is a huge difference in quality egg shells and soft. I normally just toss or use eggs that aren't a good solid shell rather than incubate them because the embryos often die in the more porous eggs.
Remember me mentioning the second horn? I'd almost bet that is where she stopped in labor. So sorry but at least she is neutered now. Makes it more likely she can find a forever home.

I am so sick of this rain. My yard is a slick muddy lake. I had to turn the heater back on in the house this morning. And all the house cleaning I did this weekend is ruined from having mud tracked in. I had to put on two jackets out there as well today. The birds were all really hungry, but the poor things are wading in mud.

 

[chicken danz]

Thanks for all the helpful advice. We found a better place to buy food in bel plaine

Thats good news. I have several peachick eggs pipped. First one just hatched and it's purple pied. According to the genetics it has to be a female. Those girls will stay here unless I hatch several. I have a purple pied male who is breeding right now. Beautiful bird. But I have a yearling purple male and I hope he will be breeding next year.
One of my Mandarin hens also exited the nest box with three Mandarin babies today. I have two more egg developing that are due to hatch tomorrow in the incubator. So far I've only had that one female sit one eggs this year.

 

[turboscooby07]

got a new coop going up as weather permits. It is sitting on a pallet I got from work, it was used to ship a kenworth daycab. Its probably 300lbs of overkill. Its about 8'×6' with 6' walls. We will be building a walk in door with a pop up for the birds, and an entire wall for nesting boxes with outside access to them. A simple sloped roof with overhangs for the door and boxes.I think this will give our 15 birds enough roosting area to sleep.

 

[seachainanmadra]

Hello! I have been lurking for some time, but finally have a reason to introduce myself. I'm Sara, and I live in the Wichita area. I've got a small flock of backyard birds and am just beginning to work with purebred birds. I hatched my first Swedish Flower Hen babies a few weeks ago under a first-time broody that, unfortunately, did not keep track of her eggs well. One in particular was larger and longer than the rest and kept popping out from under her and getting cold. That baby did hatch, but without eyes and with a slight cross beak. The mom abandoned the nest after the first chick hatched, so I had to do some creative maneuvering with another hen that wasn't quite broody but was stubbornly sitting in a nest box. Three more healthy babies hatched under the surrogate before she, too, abandoned the nest. I did eggtopsies on the other two chicks, but little Murdock began peeping at me once I'd opened up his (or her) egg. I just couldn't bear to cull when he'd struggled for so long to live, so he's destined to become an indoor pet. He has a Silkie buddy (Nelson) and is getting around well and is quite happy.

I do have a question that I hope does not create too much controversy. Is there anyone in the state that does caponizing? I haven't seen any rooster signs from Murdock yet, but his/her Silkie friend sure seems like a boy. I think caponizing may be the best option in that case for a number of reasons, especially concern over possibly injury due to bullying or overbreeding since Murdock would not be able to defend him/herself well. Nelson is already quite boisterous and definitely isn't going to be the calm, gentle Silkie I had expected. I do have some interest in learning to caponize myself, but don't have the space or setup to keep spare roosters around to learn on. If there is anyone in the state or near the OK or MO border (basically within a day's drive) that does caponizing, I would love to get in touch with them.

 

[chicklover56]

Hello everybody! My chicks have all been doing well, and I now have 15.

My 1-year-old Black Sex Link will not stop sneezing. It's been a couple of days. I treated them (the 1 year olds) with the corid and tylan both so I don't know what's wrong with her. She's eating and drinking fine.

 

[Trish44]

I mentioned that to the vet. He said that a larger pup was blocking the birth canal keeping the last 2 from passing and that she was too old to be having pups. Her uterus didn't have adequate strength to push the large pup out. He agreed that your idea might be the reason. He was pretty disgusted with anyone who would allow a little, older dog like this to get pregnant in the first place. The animal control officer probably saved her life by picking her up.

Of course her advanced age won't improve her chances of getting adopted (if I don't end up keeping her).

I'm glad she is doing better. There are some people who just shouldn't have animals at all, kind of like some people should never have children.

Hello! I have been lurking for some time, but finally have a reason to introduce myself. I'm Sara, and I live in the Wichita area. I've got a small flock of backyard birds and am just beginning to work with purebred birds. I hatched my first Swedish Flower Hen babies a few weeks ago under a first-time broody that, unfortunately, did not keep track of her eggs well. One in particular was larger and longer than the rest and kept popping out from under her and getting cold. That baby did hatch, but without eyes and with a slight cross beak. The mom abandoned the nest after the first chick hatched, so I had to do some creative maneuvering with another hen that wasn't quite broody but was stubbornly sitting in a nest box. Three more healthy babies hatched under the surrogate before she, too, abandoned the nest. I did eggtopsies on the other two chicks, but little Murdock began peeping at me once I'd opened up his (or her) egg. I just couldn't bear to cull when he'd struggled for so long to live, so he's destined to become an indoor pet. He has a Silkie buddy (Nelson) and is getting around well and is quite happy.

I do have a question that I hope does not create too much controversy. Is there anyone in the state that does caponizing? I haven't seen any rooster signs from Murdock yet, but his/her Silkie friend sure seems like a boy. I think caponizing may be the best option in that case for a number of reasons, especially concern over possibly injury due to bullying or overbreeding since Murdock would not be able to defend him/herself well. Nelson is already quite boisterous and definitely isn't going to be the calm, gentle Silkie I had expected. I do have some interest in learning to caponize myself, but don't have the space or setup to keep spare roosters around to learn on. If there is anyone in the state or near the OK or MO border (basically within a day's drive) that does caponizing, I would love to get in touch with them.

Welcome to our KS thread! I live south of you outside Winfield. I raised the Swedish Flower Hens for awhile. They're more fragile till they get started & I found that they didn't tolerate the medicated chick starter well, so I quit feeding it to them. There is someone in the southwest part of the state that does caponizing, maybe they will jump in & reply. It sounds like you have a good start on a flock.

Hello everybody! My chicks have all been doing well, and I now have 15.

My 1-year-old Black Sex Link will not stop sneezing. It's been a couple of days. I treated them (the 1 year olds) with the corid and tylan both so I don't know what's wrong with her. She's eating and drinking fine.

How long did you give the Tylan? It sounds like a respiratory illness.

 

[chicklover56]

@Trish44 I gave it to them for 5 days.

 

[chicken danz]

got a new coop going up as weather permits. It is sitting on a pallet I got from work, it was used to ship a kenworth daycab. Its probably 300lbs of overkill. Its about 8'×6' with 6' walls. We will be building a walk in door with a pop up for the birds, and an entire wall for nesting boxes with outside access to them. A simple sloped roof with overhangs for the door and boxes.I think this will give our 15 birds enough roosting area to sleep.

Good start. A coop is only as good as what you put into it. The better built the better service it will give you!!! Congrats!

Hello! I have been lurking for some time, but finally have a reason to introduce myself. I'm Sara, and I live in the Wichita area. I've got a small flock of backyard birds and am just beginning to work with purebred birds. I hatched my first Swedish Flower Hen babies a few weeks ago under a first-time broody that, unfortunately, did not keep track of her eggs well. One in particular was larger and longer than the rest and kept popping out from under her and getting cold. That baby did hatch, but without eyes and with a slight cross beak. The mom abandoned the nest after the first chick hatched, so I had to do some creative maneuvering with another hen that wasn't quite broody but was stubbornly sitting in a nest box. Three more healthy babies hatched under the surrogate before she, too, abandoned the nest. I did eggtopsies on the other two chicks, but little Murdock began peeping at me once I'd opened up his (or her) egg. I just couldn't bear to cull when he'd struggled for so long to live, so he's destined to become an indoor pet. He has a Silkie buddy (Nelson) and is getting around well and is quite happy.

I do have a question that I hope does not create too much controversy. Is there anyone in the state that does caponizing? I haven't seen any rooster signs from Murdock yet, but his/her Silkie friend sure seems like a boy. I think caponizing may be the best option in that case for a number of reasons, especially concern over possibly injury due to bullying or overbreeding since Murdock would not be able to defend him/herself well. Nelson is already quite boisterous and definitely isn't going to be the calm, gentle Silkie I had expected. I do have some interest in learning to caponize myself, but don't have the space or setup to keep spare roosters around to learn on. If there is anyone in the state or near the OK or MO border (basically within a day's drive) that does caponizing, I would love to get in touch with them.

There's a gal @TaraBellaBirds that used to post on this forum a lot. She does caponizing. You might send here a message.

Hello everybody! My chicks have all been doing well, and I now have 15.

My 1-year-old Black Sex Link will not stop sneezing. It's been a couple of days. I treated them (the 1 year olds) with the corid and tylan both so I don't know what's wrong with her. She's eating and drinking fine.

I'm glad that the chicks are doing well now. What a ride you had with them. Giving one year olds Corid isn't going to do anything for them. The tylan might. I'd give the tylan a couple more days. If it doesn't work you can always let it ride out and see what happens or try a different antibiotic. This changing weather is so hard on birds.
I had some more peachicks hatch. Two whites, and an india blue. I had one white that didn't make it out of the shell. Sad.

 

[HEChicken]

I had one white that didn't make it out of the shell. Sad.

Yeah, I always hate that they made it that far but didn't hatch. I had a turkey from my last hatch that pipped and had its beak out of the shell but never progressed any further and was dead when I checked on it.

I am carrying a turkey around in my shirt right now. I don't expect it will make it but I had to at least try. It seemed to be struggling yesterday and was cold even though it had access to the same Eco-Glow as all the others who are doing fine. This morning it was laying on its side, chilled and not even under the Eco-Glow. I put it in my shirt to warm up with my body heat and I feel it moving around now and then but I think whatever the reason was that it went downhill in the first place will most likely take it eventually.

TurboScooby, that looks like a great start for a coop - those sturdy pallets are good for all sorts of things. You'll have to keep us posted on your build progress.

Well, I got my Leghorn group of chicks transitioned to the main coop last night - yay. That was a big one that I hadn't been looking forward to because those leghorns are kind of flighty and with all the rain, the pen they were in was muddy. I had to crawl in multiple times to grab 3-4 chicks at a time, then carry them to the coop and put them on the roosts. Of course, I had to block all entrances to be sure they didn't try to run out and go back to their pen. Then they got scared about being on the roosts because the older hens were being mean to them so they decided to sleep on the floor, even though they were accustomed to roosting in their little pen. So I had to pick them up one at a time and put them back on the roost and then stay with them until it was too dark for them to want to risk jumping off again. Its a lot of work on the first night of transition - that's why I don't look forward to it - but once I have them in and sleeping on the roost the first night, they generally don't need a lot of help to do it themselves the second night. These guys are from 4-7 weeks old so I'm glad to have them transitioned before they got any older. Now I only have a couple of broody hens with younger chicks sleeping in pens at night - everyone else is in the main coop.

My next batch of cheese goes in the mold soon and then I can finally get outside and get some work done in the veggie garden - I haven't been up there for days due to the rain.

I'm thinking about downsizing my flock so if anyone in my area is interested in some good quality, healthy laying hens, send me a PM. I have a variety of breeds and ages and also some barnyard mutts. I'm just getting more eggs than I need or can sell and I decided it is silly to keep buying so much feed to produce more eggs than I need. I'd rather get back to a smaller flock (she says while raising 50 or so new chicks

)