Consolidated Kansas

[lizzyGSR]

Hey all! It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks and I've fallen behind on reading the forums. However, I dropped by for some advice. My hen that went broody in November and is currently raising one chick seems to be not feeling well (mama that is). She acted kinda like she was limping but I see nothing wrong with her legs. She looks overall like she isn't feeling well and kinda looks like she's breathing kinda hard. I gave her some Tylan and will continue to dose her. Anything else I can/should do for her? Of all the birds, she is the one bird my hubby doesn't want to lose (and he generally dislikes my chickens). Any help would be much appreciated! Mama and her chick are separate from everyone else but baby as well as the rest of the flock all seem to be doing well.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Ok total chicks that I have seen at this time is 10 Limpy had another crushed egg under her and I saw 3 chicks so I brought out Peep Peep and Twiggy and she went nuts to mother them so she has them Rocky hatched out 5 eggs I stuck her 6th one in the incubator and by the sounds of it Maples have started to hatch as well. So yep eggs are definitely fertile

 

[chicken danz]

Can somebody tell me when geese in this area start laying and what time of day do they lay?

If anyone needs a Pilgrim gander, please, please, contact me. So far they have eaten my dog, two screen doors, every sapling planted around the house, ate holes in the high tunnel, the wiring on the truck, central air, and trailers and crap constantly on the porch and sidewalk.

My geese have been breeding but no eggs yet. It is usually around the beginning of March when they lay. Normally about 3 weeks after they begin breeding but I've got no eggs yet. The weather has them confused. I put my saplings I want to keep in temporary wire cages. They like to eat the bark off as well as the leaves. Once they have been established a little they don't bother them.
Geese are like LGD puppies. They love to chew on things. I went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of rubber dog toys and put them in the goose pen.They end up in their water but it gives them something to chew on. I've found anything that has power to it, like a cord plugged in they won't touch. We have a few hardware cloth guards around things like the generator etc. So far they haven't bothered the vehicles.
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Hey all! It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks and I've fallen behind on reading the forums. However, I dropped by for some advice. My hen that went broody in November and is currently raising one chick seems to be not feeling well (mama that is). She acted kinda like she was limping but I see nothing wrong with her legs. She looks overall like she isn't feeling well and kinda looks like she's breathing kinda hard. I gave her some Tylan and will continue to dose her. Anything else I can/should do for her? Of all the birds, she is the one bird my hubby doesn't want to lose (and he generally dislikes my chickens). Any help would be much appreciated! Mama and her chick are separate from everyone else but baby as well as the rest of the flock all seem to be doing well.

Lizzy it could be any number of things but if she is breathing hard she certainly could have caught a cold. Are you letting her out to get sunshine during the day. Vitamin D and E, and B are essential to their health,and free ranging is the best way to get those.

Ok total chicks that I have seen at this time is 10 Limpy had another crushed egg under her and I saw 3 chicks so I brought out Peep Peep and Twiggy and she went nuts to mother them so she has them Rocky hatched out 5 eggs I stuck her 6th one in the incubator and by the sounds of it Maples have started to hatch as well. So yep eggs are definitely fertile

Crushed eggs go along with brooding. Limpy needs a couple chicks or she will continue to stay broody.
Yesterday I was checking my multiple broodies and found an egg on the floor that obviously had been sat on. It was cool so I took it outside and dropped it on the ground. No doubt it was rotten. It exploded and covered my legs with rotten egg. Without a dryer right now I am kind of stuck. So I took my jeans off outside and hosed them down. Glad no one could see me! I can't wait for my dryer to be repaired!!!

 

[Trish44]

What is it with the broody hens this time of year? I have about 3 in my laying flock that want to go broody & I'm absolutely not giving them eggs. I don't want mixed breed chicks for sure, I just don't need them.

My hens are starting to ramp up on laying but not all of them yet. My lavender Ameraucanas started laying recently & the wheaten Ameraucanas are laying like crazy, which surprises me because normally they don't lay again till March. It's this crazy weather here, it has them confused about the time of year. There are some that I really wish would get to laying because I have orders coming in now & I could start incubating earlier if they would get with it, maybe soon.

My ganders are fighting over the females now so I had to separate the two of them. The one gander seems to want all the girls so I'm going to separate the girls & put two with each one in separate pens till they get this figured out. The while gander was pulling feathers on the lavender one & chasing him totally away. Arrrrggghhhh, I don't need this right before they start laying.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Crushed eggs go along with brooding. Limpy needs  a couple chicks or she will continue to stay broody.

Danz yep no worries there Limpy had hatched 3 chicks already and I gave her Peep Peep and Twiggy that hatched in the incubator so she happily has 5 chicks that she is all about mothering as does Rockie and Maple's has started to hatch one didn't make it but more are hatching and one looks great so Im sure she will have a nice clutch too. Sorry to hear about the rotten eggs today I cleaned out the incubator and toss all the left over eggs far into my backyard just to avoid that. Hope your dryer gets fixed soon that's the pits.

 

[Plinky]

Lawrence goes chicken crazy!
To go with the library's kids read-across-Lawrence selection of "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" they are having a diorama contest using Peeps. They had a couple of examples like "Harry Peeper and the...", etc. As I mentioned, next week they have the Extension service doing Chickens 101 and they're incubating eggs in the library.
Generating interest and knowledge about chickens seems cool and fun to me!

 

[chicken danz]

Lawrence goes chicken crazy!
To go with the library's kids read-across-Lawrence selection of "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" they are having a diorama contest using Peeps. They had a couple of examples like "Harry Peeper and the...", etc. As I mentioned, next week they have the Extension service doing Chickens 101 and they're incubating eggs in the library.
Generating interest and knowledge about chickens seems cool and fun to me!

That's good news I guess.Maybe they'll loosen up some restrictions on keeping chickens. It's time these cities excepted that people want to have their own chickens and healthy eggs to eat.

 

[TeeMom]

Welcome @TeeMom . I am a Mom of 5 as well, but they are all grown and now I am a grandma of 5, grat grandmother of 1, and another grandchild on the way.
Living in the country is great isn't it? I know someday I'll probably have to move back to town or at least closer to town because of age, but I will fight it till the end. I do have several ducks. In domestic ducks I raise Anconas, Pekin, and Cayuga. Just sold all my Ancona today. If you are interested in adult ducks I have many pekin hens, and at least one drake. They are just starting to lay for this spring. I also have some half Cayuga with half pekin or Anconas that are almost laying age. Not sure how many are males or females cause I haven't counted them. I'd like to sell as many as possible on the cheap. This year I am going to strictly Cayuga. Send me a message if you are interested.
I'm about 2 hours from you. Not really all that far and might be able to meet you part way if the time was right.

I am LOVING the country life! I never doubted that I would...I always felt like I didn't belong in the city. We are in the perfect location, just a mile and a half outside of our little town, so we hope to be here for a very long time. Our old house was built in 1902, so we have SO much work to do on this place, but my husband loves an ongoing project, so we are transforming it little by little. By the time we are too old to live here, maybe it will be like we want it. Haha. I think we will probably start with ducklings, so I will pass on your adults, but keep me posted on your duckling situation in the future if you need to part with some. I haven't settled on a breed yet...doing some research, so we will see.

Welcome, we're glad to have you! You probably bought the blue Ameraucanas I was selling then as I sold them out & got a whole new breeding group of lavenders from Smith I will be hatching from this year. I raise Ancona ducks if I'm closer to you than Danz. Send me a PM if you're interested in ducklings later on. They're not back to laying as of yet but should be soon.

Well, we love the blues we have! We got 8 from you, but ended up with only 2 pullets, so we had to cull 4 of the cockerels and then my very favorite of the quad, "Sunny", accidentally got locked out of the coop one night and I found him face down right next to the coop the next morning, completely untouched. He looked like he just fell over and died. The temps had been in the 60's that night, so I have no clue what happened, but now we are down to the 3. They are beautiful, though, and the remaining cockerel has turned out to be a really great flock leader and is completely tolerant of my crazy kids running all over the yard. As I said above, I haven't settled on a breed yet, so I may be interested in some Ancona ducklings and I will keep you posted.

 

[Plinky]

That's good news I guess.Maybe they'll loosen up some restrictions on keeping chickens. It's time these cities excepted that people want to have their own chickens and healthy eggs to eat.

Agree. Lawrence probably has one of the most progressive urban agriculture regs around. If anyone is in the area is interested they can find them at the City website. In a nutshell, it allows having one hen (or duck) per 500 sq ft of property up to 20 (!) without a special permit. No roosters though.
Also can have two sheep or two goats (not one because they are social, they say) if property is over 10,000 sq. ft. Two colonies of bees (music to my ears as a former bee keeper!). hoop houses allowed. crops allowed. selling directly from the home allowed.
We've got the area, but unfortunately yard is criss-crossed with utilities. Otherwise I would have plowed it up and planted wheat (grand daughter of wheat farmers that I am!)

.

 

[Trish44]

I am LOVING the country life! I never doubted that I would...I always felt like I didn't belong in the city. We are in the perfect location, just a mile and a half outside of our little town, so we hope to be here for a very long time. Our old house was built in 1902, so we have SO much work to do on this place, but my husband loves an ongoing project, so we are transforming it little by little. By the time we are too old to live here, maybe it will be like we want it. Haha. I think we will probably start with ducklings, so I will pass on your adults, but keep me posted on your duckling situation in the future if you need to part with some. I haven't settled on a breed yet...doing some research, so we will see.



Well, we love the blues we have! We got 8 from you, but ended up with only 2 pullets, so we had to cull 4 of the cockerels and then my very favorite of the quad, "Sunny", accidentally got locked out of the coop one night and I found him face down right next to the coop the next morning, completely untouched. He looked like he just fell over and died. The temps had been in the 60's that night, so I have no clue what happened, but now we are down to the 3. They are beautiful, though, and the remaining cockerel has turned out to be a really great flock leader and is completely tolerant of my crazy kids running all over the yard. As I said above, I haven't settled on a breed yet, so I may be interested in some Ancona ducklings and I will keep you posted.

That's good they worked out for you. I'm sorry about the rooster

. Ancona ducks are on the endangered list, that is one reason I have them. They are a non-flying duck unlike Mallards that do fly, I like that as well about them. They are easy to keep & some people have bought them just for pets but they are good layers too. They don't have to have a pond but I do put out a plastic pool in warm weather for them to play in. Mine have a modified hoop coop inside of a pen where they stay in the winter & at night in warm weather. They are easy to train to go back to the pen at night & often will go back by themselves. I have several colors of them too so that makes it fun.