Consolidated Kansas

[tntblake]

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I will be praying for your husband Ivy. I hope the tests show it is something else that is not as serious and treatable.

 

[Hawkeye95]

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Oh Ivy, I am sorry about the worries you have right now with your DH. It does sound like congestive heart failure. My mom's friend is dealing with that right now and has been put on several meds to take care of it. She is also dealing with an aenurisym (sp??) as well in her chest. I know there are things you can do to help that condition, so I'm glad that you are seeing the Dr about it. Working closely with them will help you get a handle on it. I will be praying that he has an excellent plan put in place for him and you'll be enjoying many, many more years together.

Interesting that the marans don't hatch well. Good luck on your upcoming hatch in a few days! That is exciting. Can you just keep adding eggs as you get them?? Is that what everyone does? Do you just write the date on them and then keep track of them that way? My silkie pullets are about 7 months old-- any idea when they will start laying? I think my cockerel is about 8 or 9 months old now. I need to check. I have their hatch date, but haven't looked at it in a while now. Just wondering when i need to start worrying about putting a nest box in their pen.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Dancing, you should just start on your coop yourself! I was able to build mine mostly by myself. I did need my DH to help me hold things up, etc. But you can at least make all your cuts, and and get things started if you now what your plans are. What kind of coop are you thinking of making?

 

[Dancing]

A very LARGE coop! double sided with storage/feed shed in the middle. The whole think will be divided into thirds. Each 1/3 will be 5-6 feet wide, 16 feet long. The two sides where the chickens will be will be 2 feet above the ground so they have shade underneath. The center section will be only 8 inches off the ground. So it is simple but complicated at the same time. And I could do all the cutting and lay out all the walls but need him to help me figure the rafters and to do the heavy lifting. I also need him to find all the materials for me. He has them scattered all over the property.
Here's the photobucket link to my "plans".
http://s746.photobucket.com/albums/xx104/TAHaas/Chicken coop plans/


I was going to head into town earlier. Took a shower, got dressed and ready to go. Played musical dogs (I have two that like to chase me down the driveway/road) and headed out ONLY to find a FLAT TIRE! NOT happy about that. I'm 4 miles from the nearest anything. And have to wait for DH to get home to change the tire because he has my spare! (it needed replaced)

I can go 2 months and never leave my driveway and be just peachy happy with it. But when I WANT to go and can't, I get very anxious and clostrophobic. CAN'T wait for him to get home tonight!

 

[Trish44]

Dancing, that looks great, I would love to have something like that. I just want to get my little breeder pens & coop built & I may have to build most of it myself if I want to get it done the way things go with DH, just trying to get him motivated to do anything is excruciatingly slow. I've got to get out & start looking for cheap building materials.

IVY, I'm sorry to hear about your hubby, I hope the doctors can diagnose him & get him treated. At least he did go see the Dr., I know that you had said he didn't want to go. I'll keep you both in my prayers & let us know what you find out. I'm sorry about your computer too, they're great when they work right, but not so much when they don't.

Hawkeye, have you found out anything yet about whether your hubby will be offered a job somewhere else? I know the Eagle said they would be offering transfers to some people & then would have layoffs also in the 2nd half of the year. I know it is so hard to have the uncertainty. I think the housing is pretty high in the KC area & there is so much driving up there if you get outside it to get back into the city for a job. We go up there quite a bit just to shop & I do have my arthritis Dr. up there that I go see once a year. My DH lived up there for awhile before we met.

I was in Wichita all afternoon again today, we had to go to the dentist up there for our regular checkups & cleanings & then did some shopping. I went after we got back from there & DH went off to work & got 2 new little baby rabbits from a girl in Ark City. They're so darned cute, but then all baby animals are cute I think. I got a male & a female, so if I want to I could breed them later on. The poor girl had a really hard time with these people she bought them from. She had made a deal with them to come get some rabbits & had made one trip up there to somewhere near Marion from Ark City & had filled out cage cards to mark the rabbits she wanted. Then when she went back to get them the people had removed all the cards & lied to her that the rabbits she had picked out had died. They then tried to sell her all kinds of other things rather than what she had gone for. She ended up with a bunch of mixed rabbits, not all all what she had an agreement with these people to buy & then they tried to rip her off even further by trying to charge her more for them. At least she knew better than to pay it, but it was really a bad deal all the way around. So now she's just trying to sell them for pets & meat rabbits because she isn't even sure what breed they are. I just picked out 2 real cuties for pets, but I was disappointed too because I was going to raise some if they had been what was promised. I found a rabbit hutch in Augusta that I plan to go pick up tomorrow afternoon. I have a wire cage that I have them in inside the garage right now, but I would like to have the hutch for later when it gets warmer & they can go outside. I'll have to take some pics of them when they get settled in a little, they were pretty nervous tonight after the trip home. The little male is really sweet, he likes to be held I think, but the female is a little more skittish. They're so soft & cuddly. I don't know what my DH is going to say when he sees them, but he had seen me looking at rabbits online, so he shouldn't be that surprised.

Oh, BTW, my new Ameraucana rooster got banished to the dog run today. He beat the crap out of my BC Marans rooster this morning & all my roosters are terrified of him now. He's a big guy & just doesn't want to play nice with any other rooster, so I'm not going to be able to have him in with the others at all. He stood out there before I left this morning & crowed & crowed, he was so mad that I had put him in there. I let the others out then to range & my Big Red stood out in the front yard & they had a crowing match. They are so terrified of him though that tonight when it was time to go in to roost my Big Red didn't even want to go in the run or coop for fear of being beat up again & he was the top rooster here. I had to convince him that Blackie wasn't in there & finally just before dark he went in. The Speckled Sussex rooster held out almost as long to go in too. He has not gotten as beat up as the other two, but he's afraid. IVY, you know how big that BC Marans rooster was & this guy just bloodied him today before I could get in there this morning to grab Blackie out of there. I figured they would work it out eventually like the others all have, but no this guy wants nothing to do with any of the others, he just wants to kill them all so he can have all the hens to himself. I put the two Lavender hens in with him in the dog run & we'll see how that goes. Now my pups are displaced & I don't have a run to put them in until I get the bigger one put back together, so they're out running around tonight. They have a doghouse they can get into, but I don't know if they will if they're not confined to the run. What a mess one rooster can cause!

 

[ChooksChick]

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Aw Dancing, I know you didn't mean anything by it! It's okay!

I'm certainly feeling a bit grouchy! ha! I'm feeling like this is a personal affront (the company closing and leaving us with no other options), and really, I'm in this deal with 2,100 other people facing the same issues this morning that I am. Sounds like you and I have done a lot of moving. It doesn't get any easier, and I thought we'd found the "place" we were going to live it out here. Never counted on having to move.

Danz, right, that is what I was worried about too. I can't see anyone wanting to pay my DH what he is making now here in Wichita where that kind of salary is not really supported by the economy here. Not unless we moved where his line of work would be more appreciated and valued for what it's worth. Another area might even be Kansas City.. I have no clue what the housing market is up there. I don't know what trying to find property up there might bring us for the money, either. That might be something to check into, as well. But I wonder how far out we'd have to live to get what we wanted. bleah.

Anyway-- I'm LOVING this weather!!!! It is beautiful today! I ran around this morning and did some shopping-- used up most of my gift cards and made me feel better knowing I have a couple of nice outfits to wear to church now.

Ooh, ooh! Go to Kansas City! I'm only 20 mins away!

There are some lovely places far enough away from town to have anything you like but still make it to all kinds of civilization in 15 minutes or less. There are all kinds of prices on homes and property depending on what your needs are, but you can find some awesome places around me outside city limits and still be in KC in a 20-30 minute commute depending on where you need to go.

I know of a fabulous farm for sale, but you'd have to spend 300K unless you wanted to split off some of the 400 acres. HUGE victorian, re-furbed enormous barn, milking house, silo, 2 other outbuildings and grape arbors...plus a pond and whatnot...can you tell I'm in love with the place? I'm stalking...


It's not alone, that place. The price of property around here has tanked for the season, and I expect it will go back up soon, because in the last 38 years, this is the first decline. The university really keeps the property prices up, here in Lawrence. Great soil in this region, too, and can't complain about the poultry enthusiasts!! Now, if you went in any other direction from KC, you'd find excellent choices a bit cheaper, and I encourage you to look. Places in the city are far more expensive than in most of the state, but the stuff outside of the city is far more reasonable, and I'm sure you'll find something if you look. What side of KC will you be located on if you go in that direction- do you know what company?

I'd love to see you around here. Feel free to PM me with any info you have about your ranges and locations may be- I have a bunch of friends in real estate and sometimes you can score stuff without ever hitting the market if you pass word around- saves you time and money.

Dancing, I know what you mean about the final move- I keep saying I'll be moving out of here in a box, but I'm still in town...honestly, when we can move to the country, THEN it will be my final move, and it will be the last before we need to think about 'coffin corners!'

Ivy, I pray that your hubby's docs have pure clarity and see exactly what he needs- with God's guidance, I pray they get him back in working order lickity-split!!

With the Marans, I have a few tricks. The extra pigment on the shell makes them a bit less porous and less capable of evaporating away the moisture. If you take the eggs and use an emery board or fine grit sandpaper and remove a bit of the pigment prior to incubation, it will allow them to evaporate just as well as any other egg.

Now: the problem with this is that you're removing the bloom and allowing bacteria a better entry into the eggshell, so what I do is mist the egg all over with a betadine/water solution, mixed to look like dark iced tea. When this is dry, the egg is ready to set!

Give it a whirl, and if that doesn't work for you, try doing them alone, without any other eggs, as dry as your incubator will go.

Good luck!

 

[chickmama1662]

Chickschook, the other day you mentioned you had some project orphington chicks available so I looked up Larry, KS and it looked way west of Wichita ... but in your entry today, you said you're only 20 minutes from KC. I'm each of KC about 45 minutes and work in Overland Park. Can you post some more details on the chicks you have available. I'm not interested in bantams. Thanks!

 

[ChooksChick]

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Ohmygoodness, there IS a Larry, Kansas?? It's just the townie way of saying Lawrence! How very odd!!

Right now I have French Black Copper Marans chicks available, and I have Lavender/Porcelain/Mottled/Lavender Mottled/Confetti/Gold-Laced Orps- and more hatching, but I will want to wait to see how they look prior to letting go of any of them, since it's for color development. I'll have more available as the season progresses and more of my breeds pick up laying.

I sell all of my chicks as straight-run, but some of the older birds I choose not to keep on the color projects are much older and so I'll have sexed pullets available at times, though none right now. I also have some random mixed South American birds, which are a lighter-bodied bird more like a leghorn, and tend to be less social but lay a large almost white egg often. They are a multi-colored, inconsistent bird with variable combs, often crests, sometimes feathered legs- almost like a South American version of the Icelandics.

Like I said, I'll have more later, but they're all just starting up laying again.

 

[chicken danz]

Ivy, do your husband's ankles and or feet swell? Both of my parents have congestive heart failure and that is the first thing they see. The good news is there is medication that will help. I am so sorry he is not doing well. Could it possibly be a lung issue instead? At any rate the doctors need to get proactive and treat him.
I've had really good luck hatching my marans. I keep humidity about 36-40% during incubation and raise it to about 60% during hatching. Are you checking their air space as they develop? I understand that is the key. If it is getting too small during incubation then you need to lower the humidity.
Hawkeye during hatching season I add eggs to the incubator every day. I mark them with a pencil for the day they are to quit turning. With you using just one incubator I would just put the hatching date on them. Having just one bator would be the only problem with adding each day. When I am hatching just a few like I am now, I put eggs in once a week. My hatches may be a percent or two less than each day but they still do well. I'm not familiar with the Brinsea enough to know what if any kind of turner they have. The only thing you would need to worry about is chicks hatching and getting caught in the turner.
You'd better get started on those nest boxes. The only thing keeping those silkies from laying now is the short days. The days are slowly getting longer now so I'd expect some eggs soon.
Speaking of silkies, my little partridge hen has disappeared. I assume she got out too far and a hawk got her or something. So now I only have black silkies- one hen and two roos. I would give up on them at all if it weren't that the little hen lays so well. I've finally managed to keep a couple babies alive for awhile. I have one partridge baby that my roo and hen developed before they both disappeared. It has it's dad's crooked toes on one foot. It certainly won't be a show bird but I'm glad we got at least one chick from them. Once I get the breeds divided I guess I'll see what kind of space I have. I may consider getting some more silkies but they certainly will come from a different place than these others did. They have been inferior quality for sure.

 

[Trish44]

Well I have my big black Ameraucana rooster & his two hens in the dog run & he's just really upset about it. He's used to being able to run around & he's not happy in there & the hens aren't either. We'll just have to wait & see if they acclimate or not. Well I've got to get out there & try to put together that other dog run for the pups, so I'll see you all later.

IVY, I hope the docs can give your DH some medication that will help him & he'll feel better.