Consolidated Kansas

[tlzimmerman]

Talked to my dad tonight, we have some neighbors back home that keeps a neglected free range barnyard flock. Not going to go there on how he keeps his chickens, but he did offer me as many hatching eggs as I want, just stop by and collect them from the hen house. He has more than he can eat so he gives them away.....feeds them all off waste grain from the grain piles at the elevator he works at and lets them reproduce as they see fit. So...once this set of 8 hatches or doesn't hatch I have going I am going to set a full load of 48 and see what comes of it. Keep anything I like and butcher or give away/sell for cheap the rest.

I had also forgotten about an old hen house that is on a property my dad owns. It needs the roof tinned but other than that it sits on a concrete slab, should be able to get underneath it with something and pick it up with the tractor and set it on a trailer....We think its 10x24. Going to go check it out this next week to see if its in good enough shape still to move, I haven't been in it in years but it still has the nesting boxes and roosts and stuff. It would have been built in the 40's probably. Might take it and move it to the "new" homestead we are building a house on hopefully this year.

All sorts of excitingness on the chicken front.

 

[Trish44]

Talked to my dad tonight, we have some neighbors back home that keeps a neglected free range barnyard flock. Not going to go there on how he keeps his chickens, but he did offer me as many hatching eggs as I want, just stop by and collect them from the hen house. He has more than he can eat so he gives them away.....feeds them all off waste grain from the grain piles at the elevator he works at and lets them reproduce as they see fit. So...once this set of 8 hatches or doesn't hatch I have going I am going to set a full load of 48 and see what comes of it. Keep anything I like and butcher or give away/sell for cheap the rest.

I had also forgotten about an old hen house that is on a property my dad owns. It needs the roof tinned but other than that it sits on a concrete slab, should be able to get underneath it with something and pick it up with the tractor and set it on a trailer....We think its 10x24. Going to go check it out this next week to see if its in good enough shape still to move, I haven't been in it in years but it still has the nesting boxes and roosts and stuff. It would have been built in the 40's probably. Might take it and move it to the "new" homestead we are building a house on hopefully this year.

All sorts of excitingness on the chicken front.

You might be surprised about the chicken house, those old buildings were built a lot better than things are these days. That would be a great size if you can get it moved & add a roof to it. I'm needing to find just a used small shed of some sort, even rubbermaid to store all of my out of season chicken equipment in. I use different waterers in winter than in summer so I always have the other season stuff sitting around. I had it all winter partly in the garage & partly in my duckling pen. But now I need to work on the duckling pen & get it ready so I had to move all of that stuff out of there.

@chicklover56 I raise Wheaten & Lavender (Self Blue) Ameraucanas but I'm not close to Topeka. I also don't sell eggs, just chicks. I don't know of anybody up your way that raises the true Ameraucanas.

 

[chicken danz]

Talked to my dad tonight, we have some neighbors back home that keeps a neglected free range barnyard flock. Not going to go there on how he keeps his chickens, but he did offer me as many hatching eggs as I want, just stop by and collect them from the hen house. He has more than he can eat so he gives them away.....feeds them all off waste grain from the grain piles at the elevator he works at and lets them reproduce as they see fit. So...once this set of 8 hatches or doesn't hatch I have going I am going to set a full load of 48 and see what comes of it. Keep anything I like and butcher or give away/sell for cheap the rest.

I had also forgotten about an old hen house that is on a property my dad owns. It needs the roof tinned but other than that it sits on a concrete slab, should be able to get underneath it with something and pick it up with the tractor and set it on a trailer....We think its 10x24. Going to go check it out this next week to see if its in good enough shape still to move, I haven't been in it in years but it still has the nesting boxes and roosts and stuff. It would have been built in the 40's probably. Might take it and move it to the "new" homestead we are building a house on hopefully this year.

All sorts of excitingness on the chicken front.

That'd be great if you could move a chicken house that big. When I bought this property there was one here about 30' x 10'. Would have been a great chicken house but it wasn't sitting on a foundation. The trees had grown all along the sides and the entire thing was full of pack rat nests. Clean up would have been just an awful job. I decided to distmantle it and recover the barn wood siding but it was so rotten it wasn't worth the effort. I ended up taking the whole thing down and then burning all the wood. It was really an eye sore. I saved a few things from there but there wasn't much to save. I also have a brooder house that had a floor in it. I was going to move it but once I dug the foundation out I found it too was sitting on the ground. And the floor boards were moisture rotted and termite infested. I was going to shore it up and move it but it kind of fell apart. It's still there. But it's in poor shape and in a bad location. it will probably end up getting trashed some day. I have used some parts from it though. Luckily at one point a tornado had come through here and taken out the barn. They had stored the barn wood in a big shed. I cleaned up that wood and made my first chicken house. You sure can't find quality wood like that any more.

 

[rlh1]

We are planning on getting some ducklings this spring. When they are older, how do you keep them safe at night on the pond? How different from chickens are they? I don't really know anything about keeping or raising ducks.

 

[tlzimmerman]

Progress on the coop! Since I took this picture I have the door framed out and trimmed, and am putting the last row of pallets on the wall. I have all my tin found and tore off old buildings to tin up the outside, some glass found to make some windows, and will leave ventilation in the top.

Only thing I have bought so far is screws, hinges, latches, and plywood for the floor and nest boxes. Total bill so far is right at $100. Not bad!

Kids sandbox is being moved soon.

 

[tlzimmerman]

We are planning on getting some ducklings this spring. When they are older, how do you keep them safe at night on the pond? How different from chickens are they? I don't really know anything about keeping or raising ducks.

We want ducks too but I think that is more of a next year project. I'll be listening to the answers!

 

[chicken danz]

We are planning on getting some ducklings this spring. When they are older, how do you keep them safe at night on the pond? How different from chickens are they? I don't really know anything about keeping or raising ducks.

Ducks are super easy to raise. They only need heat about 3 weeks instead of 6. The worst thing is while they are small, they of course need to be penned and they are so messy. Give them a drop of water and they'll make a ton of mud. With ducks they absolutely have to have water deep enough they can get their beaks down in it. A normal gallon waterer will work for a couple of weeks. They need water to wash feed out of their beaks or they will suffocate. Other than that its a no brainer. I just start mine on regular chicken starter but the proper way is to start them on game bird starter. That is hard to find. Basically the only difference is game bird starter has a higher protein content.
People will try to tell you you can't give medicated chick starter to ducks. That is NOT true. Back in the day they used to use another antibiotic in medicated food and it would poison ducks. Now they use Amprolium and it's perfectly safe for them.
When they are older if you plan to put them on a pond I would get them in the habit of being herded back to their shelter every night. That really is the only way they can be safe. My ducks free range but do have a pen. They need a shelter that will protect them from a cold north wind and ice. Maybe only a couple times a year they need it, but if they know that is home they will most likely lay there as well, especially if they have a nice bed of straw.

Originally Posted by tlzimmerman
Great progress,It looks like it will be a fortress.
I sold some ducks today. I haven't really advertised them but have sold several. I am going to strictly Cayuga ducks this year so all my other ducks are up for sale. I've been selling cheap when people want some. I've got a pretty big group of pekins, probably 11 or there abouts and I think there are only 2 drakes in there. Then I have some mixed ducks that were hatched from Cayuga eggs this fall that are full sized and should start laying soon. I haven't sexed them to see how many boys and girls there are. They turned out really pretty. My customer today bought three extra just because they were so pretty. Anyone want a ready made breeding group let me know.
I also sold a rooster today on the cheap. He was a really nice young black orpington but he broke a toe. The end of the toe fell off and he had an infected foot. I was just going to put him in the butcher pen but this gal said she would treat his foot and get him well. One less bird to go to freezer camp.
I am so sick of everything around here breaking. In the last two weeks it's been my dryer, my freezer, my Bobcat, etc. So last night my farmer was going into the field to disk and when he touched the gate it shocked him good. I spent a few hours out walking the fence line and testing everything and I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I have a three wire system with two hot wires and a central ground wire. The ground wire was hot which was why the gate was hot. We have an underground wire that takes power from one side of the gate to the other. But it's a metal pipe gate covered with welded wire and even the hanging post were reading hot. So when I found nothing else to explain it I went to the charger. I had just had the entire board replaced in this charger when it had only been used a couple weeks and failed. It was a very expensive high impedance 75 mile charger. So I took my cheap little 10 miles charger out and hooked it up in place of it. Sure enough the ground wire was normal. I checked the fence line and also checked the gate. It was back to normal. By the time I got that all done though it was too late to call anyone. I sure hope this thing is still in warranty. I think I got a real lemon. I wish they'd just send me a replacement charger cause this one is a jinx.

 

[tlzimmerman]

I hate getting shocked by the fencers. What brand is it? Hopefully your luck will turn around.

 

[Trish44]

Progress on the coop! Since I took this picture I have the door framed out and trimmed, and am putting the last row of pallets on the wall. I have all my tin found and tore off old buildings to tin up the outside, some glass found to make some windows, and will leave ventilation in the top.

Only thing I have bought so far is screws, hinges, latches, and plywood for the floor and nest boxes. Total bill so far is right at $100. Not bad!

Kids sandbox is being moved soon.

That's looking great so far, good job. We would love to see it when it's done.

I have ducks too & I think they're very easy to keep. I don't have a pond & they don't need one, I just use a plastic pool for mine that can be cleaned out easily. Ducks are pretty easy to train to go into a pen at night if you feed them when they get in there, they will learn the routine. I have mine in a pen at night & they have a hoop coop they can get in for shelter as well. They are messy with water for sure, I just use rubber bowls for them to feed them & for drinking water. They do play in the water bowl so it has to be cleaned out daily.

 

[chicken danz]

I hate getting shocked by the fencers. What brand is it? Hopefully your luck will turn around.

It's a Zeraba and had excellent ratings. I have two other Zeraba chargers I bought for short runs and they have worked perfectly. I got them on the cheap when they were on sale but this one has been a total lemon. The worst part is the nearest repair center is an hour and a half away. Many more trips up there and it would have cost me double the price. I've got to call them today and see what I can do with this thing.