Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

As many birds as I have I still have to go look then tear myself away from the chick bins. It's a sickness I think! I want! I want!
Daren amazing information about tapping. Wish I still had some big mature maples here. I'd give it a try. How was the walnut syrup? That would be an easy one to do around here.

 

[Marty1876]

Happy Heart Day, friends!

MzFrizzle - very cute poem. I work in a school too, but not as a teacher! Now rememeber. I think you should start a "chick addiction thread". sounds promising....

OzBantums- I had no idea so many trees could be tapped. My folks have hundreds of black walnuts, but is it as strongly flavored as the nuts? I think them a bit bitter.....

Hawkeye - Oh Yeah, Id definately go for that trimming bit first! We don't want to have to start an A.I. thread, now do we....

Hows it going Pikeman and Trish??

Glad to see everyones here, glad I'm off work, glad I've got eggs baking, but not pipping yet...I'm T I R E D!!!

 

[Ivywoods]

NEAR DISASTER!
I just about CAUSED a major disaster! I am still freaked out.

I went out to feed the chickens and chicks. I fed and watered the chicks in the new brooder. Then I went to the barn. The bigger chicks in the stock tank had tipped their feeder over, so I started by feeding and watering them.

As I was feeding the other birds in the barn I thought I could smell something smokey. I thought perhaps the chicks had stirred up some dust or shavings that had landed on the heat bulb. I looked at the tank, but didn't look in it, as it was covered and everything "externally" looked fine. I went on about feeding the other birds.

The next time I turned around I saw smoke BARRELING out of the brooder!

I dropped everything, ran over and threw the lid off. The lamp had fallen down and was sitting on the clippings. There was a small area that was acually on fire with a flame, and the whole area that had been touched by the 250 watt bulb was black and smoldering. I smashed the small open flame with my hand and then ran back, grabbed my water can and poured some on the fire. It was quickly extinguished. I fetched one of my empty feed pails and scooped the black, now gooey mess up and threw it all out on the snow.

Poor chicks. They were all huddled at one end of the tank... not making a sound. I'm sure they were scared to death.

Thankfully, smoke rises and I don't think I have pine-smoked chicks at this point. Thank God I had started in the barn by feeding those chicks. If I had taken care of them last I might have been out of the barn by the time I noticed the fire.

As it turns out, the chain that I had the lamp secured with had come unhooked when I replaced the lid on the brooder after feeding them. It had worked well up to this point and made it easy to raise and lower the bulb. I couldn't squeeze the hook hard enough with my fingers, and I didn't want to run up to the shop for pliars, so I got a nearby hammer and pounded that hook SHUT so it couldn't slip off again.

From the time I had replaced the lid to the time I noticed the fire was only a matter of a very few minutes. I don't know exactly how long, but I'm sure it was not over 15 at the most.

I don't know if there is a lesson to be learned by this or not, but I know I will from now on make absolutely sure there is no way anything can come apart and let that heat lamp fall again!

 

[chicken danz]

Sounds like my experience in the brooder house except mine even burnt a hole in the floor! I guess no matter what we do things are going to happen like that. I found the heater in the big dog house where the puppies are tipped over this afternoon. Thank God it shuts off when tipped over. Marshmallow keeps taking two or three of her pups and moving them to her igloo. Dumb dog. I am getting tired of moving pups back and forth.
I got a bin emptied but not cleared out in the brooder. I had some chicks hatched in the incubator today I had marked for the 20th. I must have missed a week on the calendar. I've got to get some of these chicks out of the house.

 

[Trish44]

IVY, thank goodness you were out there when that happened! That's what scared me about these lamps, I will have to figure out some better way to secure mine when I get my new brooder box. I may build a frame for it out of PVC & hook it on there so I can raise & lower it. That sounds like it would work doesn't it? Those of you who build things all the time feel free to chime in. I usually just end up rigging things because I'm not that good a building, but I want this lamp to be secure since it will be in the garage.

The snow has been melting here today, but now it's a big slushy mess. I'm sure it's going to re-freeze tonight so it will be a mess tomorrow too. I agree with my granddaughter, she said the other day when she was here, "Stupid Groundhog!"

 

[tazcat70]

Tazcat, I bet heatstroke probably did do him in for being fertile. At least for that summer. But Wyandottes-- especially the nicer ones have LOTS of fluff. So that really could have been a problem, too. Where has Katie been? She sure has really nice Wyandottes-- I wonder if she's ever had that problem with hers? Interesting!

No she hasn't had a problem with it. She doesn't get on BYC anymore.

YIKES!! IVY! I am glad you caught it.

 

[Trish44]

Well I went out to feed & shut up the chicken run for the night & found my little pet rooster Rudy dead lying in there on the ground. My DH had told me he had picked him up from out in the snow & put him in there & he wasn't doing well. I raised him from a day old chick last year & he got injured somehow & has been crippled every since. He has made a very valiant effort to keep going. He only had use of one leg, so he hopped everywhere on that one leg, but he sure seemed to get where he wanted to go. I knew it was only a matter of time for him, but I thought maybe he would live a little longer. He was a friendly little guy, he was a partridge rock.

 

[Marty1876]

Oh Ivy, What a frightening experience for you!!!!

What a timely reminder, with springtime and more hatching going on than usual. We all need to be mindful that we work with compustable bedding, hot lights and brooders, and live things that need us. I think, personally, that the universe (or God) was watchig over you, hon. And I'm so glad thats how the story ended. I almost caught my ducks on fire once.

THANKS for the timely reminder of caution.

 

[Marty1876]

Well I went out to feed & shut up the chicken run for the night & found my little pet rooster Rudy dead lying in there on the ground. My DH had told me he had picked him up from out in the snow & put him in there & he wasn't doing well. I raised him from a day old chick last year & he got injured somehow & has been crippled every since. He has made a very valiant effort to keep going. He only had use of one leg, so he hopped everywhere on that one leg, but he sure seemed to get where he wanted to go. I knew it was only a matter of time for him, but I thought maybe he would live a little longer. He was a friendly little guy, he was a partridge rock.

Big hug.

 

[chicken danz]

So sorry Trish. Those special birds that live beyond expectation and then pass are the hardest ones to take. You have my sympathies. Yep I still cry sometimes when I loose a bird. So sad! You just have to take comfort in the fact that you helped him live a good life and if he had been hatched into some big operation they would have just let him die. Just remember you made him happy while he was here. That's what it is all about.