Consolidated Kansas

[Dani4Hedgies]

Trish44,
Ok great thank you !!!!

 

[chicken danz]

As Trish said he's a silver laced polish. Even without the saddle feathers which are very apparent, you can tell a polish but the shape of the crest. He's definitely a boy.
Your other birds will probably pick at his crest.
Trish you have a perfect opportunity right now to work with that pup. Getting him used to a leash right now will make it so much easier to have him vetted. And you can take him around the birds while he is on the leash and watch his reaction. Correct him if he starts to play.
Speaking of pups, Precious is half way into her gestation period if she is pregnant. I'm still not sure if she is or not. She's filled out a lot and is getting a winter coat but I still can't tell if we have puppies or not. Two more weeks it should be evident.
I bought a little horse trailer yesterday. I have to wait until mid week to pick it up when DH is off. I'm getting excited about having a new project....like I need more projects. It's in pretty good shape for being older. I have a couple of minor repairs to make on it then I want to work on giving it a nice paint job. It's just a dull light gray right now and not very pretty. But compared to others I looked at it's in good shape.
I also hatched my first Icelandic chick yesterday. Hard to say what it will look like cause right now it's predominantly black with some white. Since I have no black and white ones I'm sure it's going to change colors somewhat.
I've got another appointment this morning. I'll be so glad to get home. I just can't handle being on the road two days in a row.

 

[Trish44]

I agree Danz, it will be easier if I can train this pup to a collar & leash. With the other two I didn't keep them in the dog run all the time & they really did not take to a leash at all. It would have been a circus with two of them at once anyway. They're impossible now to get into a car because they just don't want to get in & picking them up isn't in the cards with how big they are. He will probably be even bigger than they are when he is grown. He's already heavy at 10 weeks, not fat at all, just bulky. I did take him by pens of chickens yesterday & also by birds that were out & didn't get any reaction then, but on the other hand it was his first outing & he had a lot to take in. I definitely won't trust him out with them without supervision. I didn't know that Precious was bred, if she is. I would have waited for one of her puppies but I was thinking that I needed to get a pup now so he's ready to work next spring/summer. Those coyotes will have their new litters by then & we will have even more to deal with here than we do now. Oh & congrats on your Icelandic chick! I got my first Isbar chick yesterday, just one so I had to buy a couple chicks to give it company, I don't like for them to be alone. All the gal had right now were Ohiki Long Tails, so I got two of those. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them when this chick has other company. I have more Isbar eggs that are due to hatch the 29th. I haven't candled them yet so I don't know how many might be developing. I sure hope I get some more, at least enough for a nice little breeding group. The one I got is blue.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Trish44,
Congrats on the new pup I'm sure he will grow into a great guard dog and keep those coyotes far away from your animals.

 

[chicken danz]

I agree Danz, it will be easier if I can train this pup to a collar & leash. With the other two I didn't keep them in the dog run all the time & they really did not take to a leash at all. It would have been a circus with two of them at once anyway. They're impossible now to get into a car because they just don't want to get in & picking them up isn't in the cards with how big they are. He will probably be even bigger than they are when he is grown. He's already heavy at 10 weeks, not fat at all, just bulky. I did take him by pens of chickens yesterday & also by birds that were out & didn't get any reaction then, but on the other hand it was his first outing & he had a lot to take in. I definitely won't trust him out with them without supervision. I didn't know that Precious was bred, if she is. I would have waited for one of her puppies but I was thinking that I needed to get a pup now so he's ready to work next spring/summer. Those coyotes will have their new litters by then & we will have even more to deal with here than we do now. Oh & congrats on your Icelandic chick! I got my first Isbar chick yesterday, just one so I had to buy a couple chicks to give it company, I don't like for them to be alone. All the gal had right now were Ohiki Long Tails, so I got two of those. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them when this chick has other company. I have more Isbar eggs that are due to hatch the 29th. I haven't candled them yet so I don't know how many might be developing. I sure hope I get some more, at least enough for a nice little breeding group. The one I got is blue.

I'm thinking Precious was in heat when you were on vacation. Yeti was very interested but a little confused until her last few days in heat. He finally got the right position a couple days before the end of her cycle, but the only time I personally saw them tie he fell off. That doesn't mean it was the only time for sure. At a little over 10 months old at the time I'm quite frankly surprised he got that much figured out. I have so much on my plate right now I really hate to add a litter of pups but I do have buyers in line so it won't be a bad thing is she is. Fluff was about 14 months old before he bred Marshmallow and they were inseparable so if it didn't happen I wouldn't be shocked. She has become a bigger food hog than ever though. With these dogs you don't know if that is due to predator load and the calories they are burning or if she happens to be PG.
I haven't had chicks in the house for probably a month which hasn't happened often. But because I have this little Icelandic I sure want to keep a watchful eye on them. So I have a bin back in here. I need to clean my brooder house again but my hand still isn't doing well enough to handle that heavy work.
I have no idea what was going on yesterday. I got to feeling really crummy and had a temperature. My pain level all over was tremendous including my arthritis and muscles etc. I've got some
unexplained problems going on as well so I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. I'm so sick of not staying well.
Hopefully I'll be able to get my heifer home today and tomorrow DH will be going to get the trailer. Then I can take her to the vet to get all checked out.

 

[sharol]

re, aches and pains. Everyone I know was complaining about arthritis yesterday. Including me. I don't know what was going on, but we were all more achy than usual. I sure hope that hand gets to healing @chicken danz

 

[Trish44]

I way overdid it yesterday & am paying today with my knees & hands hurting. I'm trying to get some more things done before it gets cold. I got everything all picked up around here that needed to go to the dump & my DH just left with a truckload that has been building for awhile. It will be nice to have it out of here. I burned a pile of brush yesterday that was in my way, it was a perfect day to burn with no wind. There were some old wood benches that were here when I came & they had deteriorated over time so they went on the burn pile as well. I got quite a big area cleaned out of small limbs that had fallen down too. I have some more things to do today but I'm going to have to take it easier because my knee I had surgery on it really hurting today. I just spent way too much time on my feet yesterday & it's telling me about it.

 

[mama23grlz1boy]

I've been super excited about eggs lately. Mrs. Wilbur laid her first egg over the weekend, so now at least 5 of my 6 hens are laying. I really enot reading about all of your farming exploits with goats and cows, etc. I'm over here like, hey check out my hens...I feel so "country". The hens will have to do until I can actually get myself to the country. I greatly neglected my garden this year and I'm hoping to get that word back into shape this spring. I hope that all of your aches and pains lesson. Looking forward to watching Zander grow and hearing about his puppy exploits as well as discovering if Precious is indeed pregnant.

 

[HEChicken]

I've been super excited about eggs lately. Mrs. Wilbur laid her first egg over the weekend, so now at least 5 of my 6 hens are laying. I really enot reading about all of your farming exploits with goats and cows, etc. I'm over here like, hey check out my hens...I feel so "country". The hens will have to do until I can actually get myself to the country. I greatly neglected my garden this year and I'm hoping to get that word back into shape this spring. I hope that all of your aches and pains lesson. Looking forward to watching Zander grow and hearing about his puppy exploits as well as discovering if Precious is indeed pregnant.

Congrats on the eggs! We started in the city. Literally - not even the 'burbs - we were practically downtown

We were fortunate not to live in a housing sub-division with all the covenants associated with that, and its amazing how much you can do on a small city lot. We started with 5 chickens but then discovered that by paying a $25 fee per year, we could actually legally keep up to 12. We had 12 adults and when a hen went broody and hatched 7.....I just decided that the chicks didn't count in my numbers any more than a litter of puppies counts against the 2 dogs that city dwellers are allowed to keep.

We learned to butcher and did that right in our backyard, once those chicks grew up and started crowing. We had a veggie garden and a compost bin. Instead of flower beds in the front, we turned the front beds into an herb garden. We even grew strawberries and potatoes in a planter on the front porch! Then, looking to expand, we ordered quail hatching eggs and raised quail for meat and eggs for awhile as well. The nice thing about quail is the rooster's crow sounds more like a bird trilling than a rooster, so we got no complaints from neighbors as they didn't realize we even had them - they assumed they were just hearing wild birds calling if they ever heard them at all. We considered rabbits, since they are so quiet no one would know they were even there, but around that time was when we had to move for DH's work and that's when we decided as long as we were moving, we may as well look for properties with acreage.

Had we stayed there, we likely would have added rabbits and planted a fruit tree or two.

 

[chicken danz]

I've been super excited about eggs lately. Mrs. Wilbur laid her first egg over the weekend, so now at least 5 of my 6 hens are laying. I really enot reading about all of your farming exploits with goats and cows, etc. I'm over here like, hey check out my hens...I feel so "country". The hens will have to do until I can actually get myself to the country. I greatly neglected my garden this year and I'm hoping to get that word back into shape this spring. I hope that all of your aches and pains lesson. Looking forward to watching Zander grow and hearing about his puppy exploits as well as discovering if Precious is indeed pregnant.

Congrats on your layers. It took me a great deal of years to get in the country. Had to get my kids grown and on their own before that could happen. I had actually married into a farm family very young and got my first taste of rural life back in the early 70s. At the time I could have cared less about it. I was still young and wanted to experience a lot more things. That was a short marriage, although I do value a few things I learned during that time that are helping me a little now.
I figure the ultimate outcome will be the day when I have to move back to town because I'm too old to function out here any more. So I'm living my farm life now. My preference of course would be to be able to stay out here forever. I love the peace and quiet and the privacy. I'm also a person that just has to stay busy and this life is definitely the answer to that. Even though I often wish I had a lot less to take care of.
I got Enya the heifer moved home yesterday. Now to get her to like me!!! I know she loved her range cubes and that prairie hay I gave her. I've got to go get some corn from the coop to mix her feed with.
DH is supposed to go get my trailer this afternoon. I'm anxious to get it and start planning how to paint it out. I have a little repair work to do on it before it's ready for road trips but not that much.