Consolidated Kansas

[ByN8ureHomstead]

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Here is the link to my video about water nipple.

 

[sdelee]

I got a couple hens from Ivywoods this weekend (you have beautiful chickens!) and they are getting adapted to their new environment well. I got home to find that something had drug off 3 of my favorite hens (of course I love them all), 2 buff orps and a barred rock.

Just found some piles of feathers leading to some trees and a bean field! I let my chickens free range all day since I don't have a pen and have seen them venturing pretty far away from the barn where their coop is. I may have to build a pen this fall sometime. It is very disheartening. Anyone have any other ideas other than building a pen? When I mentioned getting a Great Perenese to guard them my husband said "We are NOT getting a dog that BIG!.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Sdelee, I'm very sorry about your hens.

You could just put in T posts and some hog wire to put them in and keep them closer to the barn, and not worry about a top? That might be the cheapest route.

Thank you guys for the encouragement! I'm a little disheartened today anyway. Took my middle child to the eye Dr and found out he is so severe that it will take us 3 month increments to get up to the eye correction he needs. So every 3 months, we'll get new lenses and hopefully by 9 months we'll be at the final correction. Anyway, I had NO idea he was that bad!! I just noticed from time to time he was getting thing wrong or falling off of stuff. I figured maybe he might need glasses... but I sure hoped not. Then THIS. What a shock this morning. Dr said he is so severe, he is near the legally blind limit. Dr gave me a lens to look thru to see what my child is seeing-- it's all blurry shapes and colors, I couldn't hardly see a thing.

I'm still a little sick to my stomach. Up side is that Dr said that we caught it early- before his eyes would have started crossing and that in some cases, it will take a turn and get a lot better during the correction process over the next several months.

Okay, and on to the picture of my coop that is soooo close to being done... and yet... so freakishly far off from being done!! LOL!!

 

[tntblake]

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I'm sorry about your little boys sight. At least you caught it before it was too late. Just think how amazed he will be about the way things look with his glasses. My brother has terrible eyes and the first time he got glasses when he was 5 was like he was seeing things for the first time. He kept remarking how beautiful the trees and flowers were out the car window on the way home after picking up his glasses. It took that moment for us to realize that he had never seen the tree leaves or blooming flowers with any clarity. It took about 2 weeks for him to stop commenting about how pretty things were. His sight got a little worse for a couple years and then all the sudden around that third year of glasses mark his vision started to improve a little. His eyesight is better now than when he first got glasses. He still very far from good vision but his prescription isn't as bad as it was when he was 5-7 years old.

 

[rittert3]

Looking great hawkeye, it looks like a chicken coop to me!

 

[Ivywoods]

Oh, yes. How little we appreciate our gift of sight... until we don't have it. My youngest son needed glasses. I think perhaps he needed them for a while before we actually realized it. I still remember the first time we stepped out of the Dr.'s office with his new glasses. He stopped, looked around and said, "WOW! I can see all the way to Colorado!" I remember him looking out the car window at the sky as sunset approached, saying, "MOM! LOOK! The sky is changing colors!" I remember how awestruck he was.

Those are some good memories for me.

P.S. Hawkeye, the coop is looking great. Just keep plugging a little at a time, and it will be done before you know it.

I've been working on building a set of cages for some of my smaller bantams. I'm using old, salvaged wood. It is definitely a challenge. First I have to be sure I have all the old nails out, then cutting it with my hubby's skill saw is a challenge because he is left handed, and my little circular saw is great for 1" material but won't quite do a 2x4. THEN getting everything screwed together and square is a real challenge when the wood is a little warped. BUT....I'm getting there slowly.

 

[Ivywoods]

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OH! I'm so sorry about your chickens. Keep those girls safe. I forgot to tell you but one of the girls laid an agg right before you got there. It was in the medium range of the eggs that I get as far as color goes.

It was nice to meet you, and your kids seem really sweet. Maybe we can fix them up with some really nice old english in the spring!

 

[Katy]

I bet he'll adjust just fine.....my 8 month old granddaughter has had hearing aids since she was a little over 3 weeks old....she still gets this look on her face when you put them in and all of sudden she's hearing clear sounds not just muffled noise.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Every one of you is just awesome, and I appreciate you all so much.

Thank you all so much for all the great uplifting. I'm starting to feel a little better now, and your stories just made me sniffle, tear up a little and realize the blessing in being able to correct his vision at all. He's 4 years old, so this is going to be a big deal for him, I think. He had 3 concussions last year from falling off things- like he was playing on our front porch and just stepped right off of it and hit his head. The list goes on and on like that. I took him to see our family Dr each time, and he never mentioned anything, not that it is his duty to think of eyesight associated with falls. It never occurred to me it would be his EYES... for some reason, I chalked him up to just being really clumsy and no one else ever noticed anything either. At least, not until recently when he mistook a big rock in the yard for our DOG. He didn't know it wasn't our dog until he was right up on it and knelt down next to it. (maybe later that story will be funny...

)That is why I took him to the Dr. Plus, a lot of other things started to fall into place... you know how it goes.

I'm so looking forward to getting these chicks! Ivy- did you say you have Old English??? Those are just the cutest things EVER! That might make a really fun 4H project. I am signing my oldest up for 4H here this week. I found out that there is a meeting only 3 miles from my house! In the old community center in Peck. So excited about that!

 

[Ivywoods]

Hawkeye-Yes, I have old english, and I think they make some of the nicest pets and show birds. These are from some of my sister's show stock. I don't know much about the old english because they are new to me. I didn't think I would like them because when I thought of old english, I thought of cock fighting. These are the sweetest things, though. I just love them. I would recommend them for kids getting started with poultry in 4-H... AND they don't eat a lot!

For bantams, I will be raising old english, black rosecombs and HOPEFULLY some bantam black cochins. I'm still waiting for my cochin pullets to be shipped, then I hope my old roo can get the job done. I'm going to get a good cockerell, too, just in case my old guy can't.
He's an awesome little show bird, but he is 8 or 9 years old now!