Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

I'm new to BYC and new to chickens. I'm so excited and trying to learn all I can.

Welcome Wellsville, I'm near Baldwin. Guess that makes use neighbors!

You are in the right place. We have a lot of accumulated knowledge here -- some of it very near you LOL. Welcome.

 

[chicken danz]

I'm new to BYC and new to chickens. I'm so excited and trying to learn all I can.

Welcome Wellsville, I'm near Baldwin. Guess that makes use neighbors!

Welcome to our group. Feel free to talk about, post pictures or ask questions about birds here. We are very informal and talk about a lot of other things as well.

 

[Trish44]

I'm new to BYC and new to chickens. I'm so excited and trying to learn all I can.

Welcome Wellsville, I'm near Baldwin. Guess that makes use neighbors!

Welcome to our thread! We all share our knowledge here & try to help each other out, so feel free to ask any questions you have. We may not always agree on everything, but we try to let everyone have their own opinions. We have lots of people all around the state but not all post all the time.

I spent some time yesterday while it was still decent securing the plastic better on my pens so they hopefully won't get blown off. My extension cord going from the garage to the main coop quit working so I had to replace that yesterday & put a new power center in the coop to accommodate the things I need plugged in. I also had to make another hole in the front wall to run my cords through from the pen beside & my heated water base so I will get some spray foam or something to fill around that. I've been working for quite awhile to get things winterized & then had to go back & fix some things. I have one door I need to reinforce today where the corner is coming loose on the corner on one of my breeder coop pens. Those doors suffered until I could get my DH to put in the posts for me this year so I could get hinges put on & get the gates off the ground. I'm so thankful to have gotten that done before the weather gets nasty. I sure am not looking forward to this weather coming in, ugh.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Welcome to our group we are a fun chicken loving group who have great discussions on everything chicken and everyday life. Feel free to ask any questions or Pm anyone directly if you don't feel comfortable asking the whole group. Spent Sat starting my winterizing and just finished this morning and love how everything looks. And WOW you weren't kiddie Danz Old English Game Roosters are frisky little things thought maybe my Polish Rooster, Sikies and Bantams could share a pen/coop Nope nope nope Emo my Rooster wouldn't even let David Bowie my full grown Polish Rooster away from the door. Sooo yea realized I need to build a separate Polish/Silkie pen so will start watching for a deal on that. Made a terrific crock pot chicken noodle soup yesterday from Foxbait a mean rooster who went to the great chicken yard in the sky on Fri DH helped by making home made noodles then I made home made bread before going to work. Made a great dinner when we got home from work. Definitely not ready for the snow they say is coming our way on Wed but hey figured we have gotten all the way to Dec 6th without any so guess we are due.

 

[chicken danz]

I've been really too busy to write or even read much. I had planned to do a lot more winterizing today but had some customers coming who took the whole afternoon. They were old, even by my standards and really had no idea that these nice quality birds even existed. I gave them a few hundred live meal worms to treat their new chickens with to get them super friendly as well. One Wing loves meal worms but she acts kind of afraid of the live ones so I have a bounty of them. I haven't figured out how to kill them and keep them tasty for her yet. So once in a while I just take some out to spoil the outside birds.
I still have two pens without heated water bowls but they go through such a volume of water I'm not sure how to keep it from freezing without using lots of electricity. I have some tank heaters but they are like 250 wt.
@Dani4Hedgies , how did your chicken taste?
One of my sisters asked to buy one of my turkeys (dressed) because she had tasted my turkey compared to a store bought turkey,last year at a family get together. She said they were just so much better she really wanted one. I just happen to have some I need to get out of the freezer so I'm just going to give her one. The boys I saved for this year need to grow some more before I butcher them.
I cooked up 4 roosters day before yesterday and bagged the meat and broth so I can use it for soup or noodles or whatever. It saves freezer room and its a lot easier to use in a hurry that way. I have several more I need to do that with but haven't had the time yet. I'm trying to make room for the hog in the freezers.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

@Dani4Hedgies
, how did your chicken taste?

it tasted very much like a wild Pheasant only bigger the wonderful gaming flavor was out of this world. While DH and I agree we don't want to raise meat birds we definitely know the for sure plan on any roosters/extra toms we hope to eventually no longer have to buy chicken at the store.

 

[Cathy FW]

We got our first egg today. It's so cute and surprisingly heavy. It had a couple of spots of blood on it but I have read that can happen at first. Is that true?

 

[chicken danz]

We got our first egg today. It's so cute and surprisingly heavy. It had a couple of spots of blood on it but I have read that can happen at first. Is that true?

Yep you will see blood on eggs from time to time. It is really of no concern. It doesn't indicate an injury at all. It occurs in older birds as well for that matter.
I'm surprised it really isn't that cold out today. The radar is showing snow here but there is none. They did mention it would be high enough it could dissipate before it hit the ground. I need to be outside most of the day so I hope it's not that unpleasant out.

 

[lizzyGSR]

It sure is cold here today! WE got about 1/2 inch of snow last night, and it is still snowing. The temperatures sure dropped from what they were a couple days ago. It's hard to believe I was outside without a jacket just a couple days ago! It sure is cold out there now! I sure layered up to do chores this morning! We are supposed to have wind chills in the negative teens tonight. BRRR! I sure hope my little chicks will be okay!

This year, I am trying the horizontal water nipples for the first time. So far, I've not had any issue with them freezing, despite the very cold temps!

 

[Trish44]

It sure is cold here today! WE got about 1/2 inch of snow last night, and it is still snowing. The temperatures sure dropped from what they were a couple days ago. It's hard to believe I was outside without a jacket just a couple days ago! It sure is cold out there now! I sure layered up to do chores this morning! We are supposed to have wind chills in the negative teens tonight. BRRR! I sure hope my little chicks will be okay!

This year, I am trying the horizontal water nipples for the first time. So far, I've not had any issue with them freezing, despite the very cold temps!

lizzy I know you get the worst of the weather out your way, but I'm thankful we didn't get what they first had predicted for here. It was colder out yesterday than it had been but today is supposed to be colder yet. I had to layer up on clothes & wear my winter coat yesterday to feed. Let us know how those horizontal nipples do, if they freeze or not. I just have heated dog bowls in almost every pen & a couple of heated bases for waterers. I use one base at the main coop where I have to use a 5 gallon waterer since there are so many birds.

I brought up some more straw yesterday & put some in some dog houses & in the dog run Zander is in. I put more in his dog house but he tends to drag it all out playing. He thought it was great fun to bounce around in the fresh straw after I put it in. I also put more in some pens that needed more & the chickens were having a blast digging through it. It gives them something to do for awhile at least. I'm glad I got extra straw this year, so far I have used quite a bit of it. The gal I get it from is now out so there is no chance to get any more from her. I learned the hard way last year when I ran out in the winter so I bought twice as much this year. Hopefully it will last till spring.

Congrats on the egg Cathy FW! It's always fun to see the first eggs appearing.