Consolidated Kansas

[Ivywoods]

Gee whiz. NONE of my chickens in my different breeder pens are using their nests!

They are all laying eggs in the shavings. You know what that means... poopy eggs.

The only one using the nest I built is my little rosecomb hen. She throws out every bit of the hay and shavings in it and lays her eggs on the bare plastic.

Her nest is a pair of ice cream buckets zip locked together at the opening with a big hole cut in the side and the whole thing lays on its side. I have that zip locked to the side of her pen by the handles on the ice cream buckets.

I guess I'm going to have to make some nest modifications, get some fake eggs in there or something to teach them to lay in their nests. Crazy birds.

Anyway, I set about a dozen eggs this morning. I'm not too hopeful for some of them because many of them were pretty dirty.

I don't believe you should wash them, so I brushed them off as best I could and put them in. Time will tell what happens.

Hawkeye-Yes, I like Pittsburg. I like college towns, but I also like the Joplin area. I was of course so sorry to hear about the tornado. Checoukan took my big sis and me on a fairly extensive tour of the damage. It was pretty unimaginable and it will take a long time to totally recover. However, I'm an eternal optimist and the thing that I picked up on was how the community has pulled together as a result of this, and some of the incredible stories that have come out of it. Yes, there were a lot of tragedies, but the community has picked itself up by the bootstraps and is moving forward. I commend them for this. It certainly was a monstrous tragedy, but it is from tragedies like this that you learn just exactly what people are made of... and where their strength comes from.

 

[Trish44]

IVY, about half of my hens are laying in the nests & half are laying elsewhere, on top of the straw or as in today on the floor of the coop. The best layers I have though use the nests I put in for them, good girls! This morning though there weren't any out in the run on top of the straw, weird because there usually are some there. They all actually used the nests but the two. The little pullet eggs are starting to get bigger, I'm glad about that because they were so small it took two to make anything to eat. It seems like the Ameraucana that is laying never laid small eggs to start with, they were good sized right from the beginning. They're not blue, more a greenish color, not olive dark, but darker than turquoise, hard to explain. My EE hen lays a lighter color egg than the Ameraucana, go figure. I just ordered another incubator, a Hovabator to go with the Brinsea I have, that should give me more than enough room for what I plan to do right now. I can always expand later on if I really get into it like some of you & want to hatch more. I can't get too carried away right off though because I'm not set up for it yet. I can't wait for warmer weather to get started on some things. I'm already tired of winter & it's not really even been that cold yet. In fact this last few days were really pretty decent. I need to get out to the coop & get some things done today because we're supposed to have two more really nice days & then it's supposed to turn a little colder.

Danz, gosh you go through a lot of feed, I can't afford that much feed. I'm already going through more than I would like to. I don't know how you do it.

 

[Nana2KJS]

Quote:
My daughter lives in Pittsburg - she likes it there, but housing is outrageous! Perhaps it wouldn't seem so bad if you're coming from the city anyway, but to a young family without a cent to their name, rent by the bedroom is sky high! There seems to be a bit of unscrupulousness going on in the landlord trade in Pittsburg.

That said we are moving her and her 3 little boys south of town in two weeks. Her husband is in Afghanistan - not thrilled about her being that far out, but she and the boys are excited to finally have a bit more room. They are elbows to you-know-whats right now.

 

[chicken danz]

Just got home from Emporia. Had a great time with my granddaughter and of course suckered into buying her a couple more toys in Walmart. I scored a couple of the big cookie tins at 50% off so I can make some more heaters. That one I made in the popcorn tin is the best thing I've got around here and uses less wattage than my other heaters.
I ordered some more thermal cubes so those that aren't thermostaticly regulated can be. My electric bill is worse than my feed bill. Got 50 lbs of BOSS and another 50 of regular bird seed. I like to fill the feeders and the chickens clean up whatever the wild birds drop. I keep hoping the wild birds will prefer the feeders and stay out of the chicken and pheasant pens.
I am exhausted. One more Christmas celebration to go then I can get back to normal whatever that is. I'll be glad when it's over.

 

[checoukan]

Quote:
My daughter lives in Pittsburg - she likes it there, but housing is outrageous! Perhaps it wouldn't seem so bad if you're coming from the city anyway, but to a young family without a cent to their name, rent by the bedroom is sky high! There seems to be a bit of unscrupulousness going on in the landlord trade in Pittsburg.

That said we are moving her and her 3 little boys south of town in two weeks. Her husband is in Afghanistan - not thrilled about her being that far out, but she and the boys are excited to finally have a bit more room. They are elbows to you-know-whats right now.

So where are you moving them too, the trailer park out by the truck stop?

 

[checoukan]

Quote:
Been a long day, and I only got about 6 miles from home. Ugh, don't like being away from home much any more. Always afraid that we could get broke into.
on the lighter side I have got one of my rosecomb trio's sold, now if I can just get the other trio sold I will be so happy, and I will have to inside pens opened up for new babies when they start hatching.

 

[chicken danz]

I don't like going any more either. When you get our age isn't everyone supposed to come visit you instead of the reverse?

 

[Nana2KJS]

Quote:
My daughter lives in Pittsburg - she likes it there, but housing is outrageous! Perhaps it wouldn't seem so bad if you're coming from the city anyway, but to a young family without a cent to their name, rent by the bedroom is sky high! There seems to be a bit of unscrupulousness going on in the landlord trade in Pittsburg.

That said we are moving her and her 3 little boys south of town in two weeks. Her husband is in Afghanistan - not thrilled about her being that far out, but she and the boys are excited to finally have a bit more room. They are elbows to you-know-whats right now.

So where are you moving them too, the trailer park out by the truck stop?

No - 1/4 mile east of the TV station. Even the trailer park would be closer to town! I hope she learns to make fewer trips to town = she's used to being within 6 blocks of Walmart!

 

[checoukan]

Quote:
So where are you moving them too, the trailer park out by the truck stop?

No - 1/4 mile east of the TV station. Even the trailer park would be closer to town! I hope she learns to make fewer trips to town = she's used to being within 6 blocks of Walmart!

That is very interesting, that is right on my school bus route!

 

[Ivywoods]

Quote:
No - 1/4 mile east of the TV station. Even the trailer park would be closer to town! I hope she learns to make fewer trips to town = she's used to being within 6 blocks of Walmart!

That is very interesting, that is right on my school bus route!

Maybe you will be hauling those kids next year, Sis!