Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

@TaraBellaBirds I don't recommend giving the younger one antibiotics unless they become sick. The danger of using antibiotics without obvious need is that you can create super bugs and then you are left with no resource if they do get sick. If you still have sick birds don't move the young ones in there. Find another alternative. Or remove the sick ones and wait and make sure no one else gets sick for a while..

I've been super busy with no time to write and also very sick with sinus problems and allergies. It usually doesn't knock me down and put me out like it has. It's probably because I have burnt the candle at both ends for a couple of weeks and I am physically exhausted to begin with.
It's so extremely hot I've been having to feed in water in segments or I sweat so bad I can't see any more.

 

[dwink2]

Hello everyone! I hope that this heat is not taking its toll on everyone and their flocks. I got my wonderful husband to help me put a 16 inch exhaust fan in my chicken house. I am hoping that with all of my other fans I can keep them alive. They all go find their shady spots during the day mostly but it should help. I have 2 broody hens who won't give it up. I feel bad having them in the broody breaker but they have more air blowing on them there than they do if I let them sit where they want.

I have one sick little chick that I am worried about because he has something going on with his eyes. They have gunk in them and keep sticking shut. I have been treating him but he doesn't seem to be getting much better. This has been a terrible year for me with chicks.

Please don't anyone over heat in this awful weather. We just started wheat harvest and I worry about the harvest crew and all of the other farmers.

 

[chicken danz]

Another very busy day for me yesterday. I got a new freezer and the old one went to the basement. Not an easy task. They are both 20 cu ft freezers. Maybe now I have enough freezer space for my garden produce and the birds I butcher along with my normal beef and pork. My friend who delivered it did the heavy moving but of course I moved all the contents.
Together we butchered 14 roosters yesterday as well. Not exactly great weather to be out butchering but we got it done. I don't think I could have done another one though. My hands were giving out. At least it emptied one pen and gave me a place to move the next group of growing boys to. I sell some every now and then for breeders but it's nice to have them all together. Maybe later this fall I'll cook a few up and just bag the meat and broth so it's ready for recipes this winter. It takes less space that way.
I am so sore that I couldn't get out of bed this morning or bend at all. I'm hoping the longer I am up the more I can move. I should be out watering and feeding before it gets much hotter but I had to take some time to get my own act together.
I sold some ducklings yesterday as well. Not a lot of money there but it was a few less mouths to feed.

 

[Trish44]

I had too exciting an evening last night. Was walking around my veggie garden, about to take the next step when I realized if I did, I'd be coming down on a snapping turtle. I have no idea where it came from as I had just walked that path about 60 seconds before and it wasn't there then. Right as I was dropping it over the fence, I heard Kilo start barking his "I found a turtle" bark. In the past when he cornered a snapper, I praised him out the wazoo. Consequently he now knows it pleases me if he lets me know about them so I ran down there. Sure enough, he had a turtle and after praising him, I picked that one up and it too got dropped over the fence. I turned around to find both Kilo and Karina investigating something about 10' away. Good lord - another snapping turtle (making 3 in 3 minutes) and this one was twice the size of the previous two and twice as nasty as well. It had a cut on its leg which may have contributed to its foul temper but I had quite a job lifting it over the fence while keeping its nasty snapping mouth away from my face.

Breathing heavily from the exertion, I walked to the chicken coop to collect eggs and after emptying the first nest box, realized there was a chick collapsed in a corner. I went to investigate and found it was no chick - it was a black rat snake coiled up in the corner. So I went to get my broom, slid it under and lifted it out. I carried it across the road to release it but all the way there it kept trying to escape and would slither off the broom handle, so I had to pick it up about a dozen times.

Whew - that was plenty of exertion removing predatory animals from harm's way for one night.

This morning I woke to a surprise of the less stressful kind. A ewe whose due date I had calculated to be today had given birth overnight - to twins!!! I never guessed she was carrying twins as she just wasn't that large. They are both ewe lambs, one is a natural bob-tail and they are surprisingly good weights considering the ewe just didn't look that big. One is 8 and the other 7 ½ pounds, making 15 ½ pounds of baby in there. I have no idea where she was storing them! I wish I'd taken a picture last night so you can see what I mean, but this is all I have:

Geez HEChicken that too much excitement in one day! I would have a heart attack if I found a big snake like that in my coop, ugh.

Well I found the missing duck it's alive yeah!!!! No dog hunting for me but now all my new ducks are running loose around the barns! I'm having one hell of a day!
P

I'm glad you found your missing duck! I rescued 6 ducklings yesterday & moved them to a different pen. The duck hens are starting to hatch ducklings & the pen they're in isn't safe for the ducklings, they can walk right through the fence. There is one of my cats that has figured out there are ducklings in there & has already gotten at least two of them before I could get them moved.

My co-broodies have 9 babies. We went to the Symphony in the Flint Hills on Saturday, and when we got home about 10:30, 5 of them weren't in the coop. The ramp is a little steep, and apparently they couldn't get in before the door closed. I searched for them and finally found them UNDER the coop. It is on skids and sits about 5" off the ground. My DH and I worked to get them to come out, and we finally got all of them back under their mothers. They are only a little over a week old, so they really needed to be IN the coop, not under it.

Then Sunday night (after blockading the area under the coop) I ended up having to chase down 4 of them after everyone else was in. Last night I only had to catch 2 of them. The rest scrambled up the ramp when they saw me coming.

I have great hopes for tonight. Once they figure out the process, they will be fine, but they are driving me nuts in the meantime.

This is the first time I've had this many chicks (9 + 2) under broodies in the main coop, and it is a blast watching everyone look out for them. My rooster is absolutely wonderful (Jubilee English Orpington Roo from eggs I got from @Chicken Danz). He protected them from the other hens until everyone got the memo about taking a "chicken run to raise a chick," and he helps the moms herd them back in the run when it is time to go in. He also is the dad of most of the chicks (3 are Breda Fowl).

Anyone need any Jubilee English Orpington chicks? Right now I have 6 that are too young to sex and 2 that are clearly a pair (@ about 6 weeks), and one that is POL at 18 weeks. I want the ones under broodies (the little babies) to stay with their moms for a couple more weeks, but they will be ready to go then. The POL pullet's best friend is her hatchmate, a blue Breda that I think is a cockerel and he would be free if someone would take them together.

I have to get serious about moving some of these guys to new home. ASAP. In the 6 week olds, there are at least 2 cockerels (orpington, Jubilee dad, they look black with some white on them). I'm thinking they will be ready to butcher late this fall after it cools off unless someone wants a great roo and doesn't care about color. (They would be free to a good home, not free to be butchered).

It sounds like your hens have been busy this year hatching chicks. I also have a bunch of Jubilee chicks right now but want to grow some out first to see what sexes I have. I'm needing a couple more hens for my breeding stock. My two Jubilee hens laid their little hearts out this year, it was crazy. I will have a bunch of chicks to get rid of later on.

Another very busy day for me yesterday. I got a new freezer and the old one went to the basement. Not an easy task. They are both 20 cu ft freezers. Maybe now I have enough freezer space for my garden produce and the birds I butcher along with my normal beef and pork. My friend who delivered it did the heavy moving but of course I moved all the contents.
Together we butchered 14 roosters yesterday as well. Not exactly great weather to be out butchering but we got it done. I don't think I could have done another one though. My hands were giving out. At least it emptied one pen and gave me a place to move the next group of growing boys to. I sell some every now and then for breeders but it's nice to have them all together. Maybe later this fall I'll cook a few up and just bag the meat and broth so it's ready for recipes this winter. It takes less space that way.
I am so sore that I couldn't get out of bed this morning or bend at all. I'm hoping the longer I am up the more I can move. I should be out watering and feeding before it gets much hotter but I had to take some time to get my own act together.
I sold some ducklings yesterday as well. Not a lot of money there but it was a few less mouths to feed.

It must be appliance replacement time, we had to order a new stove & fridge here & are waiting for them both to be in. My appliances are so darned old it wasn't a surprise to me they're starting to fail but my DH seems to think they should work for all eternity, ha. Mine have lasted a really long time though.

I've been really sick this week is why I haven't been on. I had a doozy of a kidney infection & it literally knocked me on my butt. I'm feeling better now but am still kind of trying to get my strength back, it took a lot out of me.

 

[HEChicken]

Well I woke to another surprise this morning. My last pregnant ewe delivered a lamb overnight. She wasn't due until the 22nd so the lamb is 5 days early and the smallest lamb I've ever had here, weighing only 6 ½ pounds. She is a healthy little ewe lamb though and I'm actually very relieved that she is a single. This ewe really shouldn't have been pregnant again so soon. She had twins in November and I wasn't expecting her to cycle again so soon after they were born, as normally lactation suppresses the heat cycle. It wasn't until I saw the ram mounting her that I realized what was going on and by then it was too late. I was concerned about her health, having pregnancies so close, so I'm glad for her it is a single this time, so it won't be so hard on her raising it in the heat.

I'm very pleased with the ratio of boys to girls this year. It used to be I wanted ram lambs as our main purpose of raising them was to go to butcher. However, we now have plenty of butcher lambs so at this point, I'd rather get ewe lambs as I can sell them, rather than raise them for meat. Of the lambs out of this ram, I've had 3 rams and 5 ewe lambs so I'm really happy. The girls will be able to go to their new homes as soon as they are weaned so I won't have to raise them as long either.

Our last open cow is in heat so will be AI'd this evening. It seems quite fitting as it is a year today since she gave birth to her first calf, so she has been open precisely one year between pregnancies

It will be nice to not have to deal with hormones for the next few months. A cow in heat is not that fun to be around.

The fact she is in heat is also giving me a little break in the milk surplus as she produced substantially less than usual due to her heat cycle. It is nice and relaxing to know I can go a couple of days before excess milk becomes an issue again.

No new appliances for us - I hope. I'd love to replace my dishwasher and stove but both are more or less working so I can't quite justify it yet.

 

[chicken danz]

My freezer didn't need replaced. I just needed a lot more space. I freeze more and more all the time because it keeps the nutrients and flavor better than canning. Speaking of which I have green beans ready to be picked but I'm not going to go out and pick them in this heat. And I'm certainly not going to run a pressure canner on these super hot days.
I've been out three times so far to water. I am getting so hot that I start feeling really sick and have to come back in. It doesn't help I'm n two weeks now of this sinus thing that makes me feel kind of sick in the first place. I only fed the birds in the building. It's too hot for the others to be trying to eat. I'll just have to go out later in the evening to finish chores. I think I need some more big barn fans for weather like this. We have one on the puppies cause they were having a terrible time. I moved them to a pen with more shade and added more shade cloth to it to try to cool them down. I wish I could stand to stay out there. I'd be installing more pop doors in the building just so more air could flow. l'd have to cover them with hardware cloth or something to secure them cause there isn't any more pens out there than I already have doors installed for.
It's just going to have to wait for awhile though.

 

[Momma2bellas]

I've read to give them corn at night when it's cold to help them stay warmer because it takes longer to digest, so would I not want to feed frozen corn in the summer?

 

[lizzyGSR]

This is my first year with chickens, so take this advice with a grain of salt, but I've read that you should put ice in their drinking water. If you want to give treats, maybe consider small pieces of cold/frozen watermelon, cantaloupe, etc.

I've never tried the frozen/cold treats thing, so again, please take my advice with a grain of salt.

 

[sharol]

The second (or maybe third) year I had chickens was the year of the awful summer. From the beginning of July into August, it was over 100 nearly every day and for about 2 weeks it was 110 or more almost every day. I bought extra waterers and froze about 3" of water in the waterer over night. Then during the day I would fill them with water to the top and change them out every few hours. I also froze water and Sobe 0 bottles of water and put them in the coop for the girls to snuggle up to. I also froze watermelon and canteloupe rind. It was awful. I had misters and a trickle of water running into a mud puddle all day. I don't even want to think about the water bill that year. BUT -- I didn't lose a single bird to the heat.

Their coop was way too hot even with lots of windows so I got a fan that would fit in the window (reversible blades) and ran it from dusk until the temperature got up to 90 or so. I left the walk through door open and sat a floor fan in the door to exchange some of the stifling air for them at bedtime.

Shudder. I don't want to even think about having to do all that again for 4x the number of chickens.

 

[sharol]

I need some advice.

At what age is it safe to worm chickens with safeguard?

I couldn't do it earlier, first because of the rain (too many puddles for them to drink from) and then because there were new hatchlings. I have 3 week old chicks with the broodies. Are they too young for the wormer?

I need to worm the adults, but I don't want to harm the babies since it isn't a case of losing chickens at this point. I found worms in poo on the roost about a month ago, but with new hatchlings and tons of rain it just didn't get done then.