Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

I had turkeys with my chickens with no problems. As I understand it, the blackhead organism has to be on the property for the turkeys to get it. ?? So it is not automatic that the turkeys will get it if chickens are around.

I didn't have any behavior problems with them either. They spent the nights in a 12 X 20 shed and free ranged in the days. If they were kept in closer quarters there could be problems. I had royal palms and a big brown tom, Even the toms did not fight. Funny watching them roam around the yard all flared out and gobbling in unison,

Agreed-- we have a large dairy farm down the road from us and they have Burbon Reds-- those run with their chickens on their dairy farm. They also must have around 3 or 4 Toms with their jennys, and they all seem to get along. They hang out with each other and mostly stay together (not with the chickens). I've never seen their Toms fight and I asked the owner a few months back when we were there if they fought- he said nope. Hhmm.... They had a whole pile of turkey eggs laying all around... I might be tempted to run over there later this Spring and see if he'll let me buy some and see if I could incubate them. Too bad he doesn't have Royal Palm!



About Blackhead Disease [Histomoniasis]

Blackhead disease, or more correctly, histomoniasis, is primarily a disease of young turkeys. Chickens are more resistant to the effects of the infection but may act as carriers of the disease-causing organism. Histomoniasis is caused by a microscopic protozoan called Histomonas Meleagridis. The name blackhead is a poor descriptive term because the heads of the birds infected with this parasite are not dark. The protozoan causes considerable damage to the liver and ceca of infected turkeys, and the untreated birds usually die.



Prevention and Control

The protozoa-causing blackhead may remain infective within the eggs of the cecal worms in the soil for nearly three years; therefore each flock of new turkeys should be raised on new uncontaminated ground. Young turkeys should never be reared near older turkeys or with chickens that may carry the infection. In addition to domestic chickens, various wild birds such as pheasant and grouse may serve as reservoirs of infection for domestic turkeys.

 

[chicken danz]

Hawkeye I would be so on those turkey eggs. Turkeys are pricy and if you could hatch your own It would be awesome. I have some due to hatch about the 22nd. I am so hoping for a successful hatch. My one lone baby needs some friends. She is outgrowing the chicks she is staying with. I think Seymore needs some friends even if they are a different breed. I am going to be rasing "God willing" 3 different kinds of turkey. That certainly wasn't my plan. I really only wanted one kind. So I am thinking of penning some and letting some free range with the chickens.
I think if I get around I am going to try to get in to see the doc again. I had a really bad night last night. I am so tired of being sick. I really want my sense of smell to come back. I can't even smell the cat box! Now that is major!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Have you tried calling the sheriff? That is who we call here if the dogs are getting into serious problems. But then the animal control usually gets involved also. Messing with cattle is serious and I am surprised the owner of the cattle is not getting things taken care of.

The Sheriff has been called on this guy MANY times over, in fact. He's kind of crazy, not someone you want to fight with, to be serious. He's off the grid over there, lives in a half buried cement house, metal roof, solar panels, etc. He's building a wind turbine. He's gearing up for the end of the world as we know it. I'm not kidding-- the last time I talked to him, that's what he said-- he's worried about the collapse of gov't. He is as Green as you get. He has a little vineyard going in his front yard, an orchard going in his back, gardens, and then he just lets these two mean dogs run loose-- chase cars, and terrorize the nearby neighbors. Anyway, he has disputes with whatever girlfriend is over there and the sheriff is called out a lot. I know the guy with cattle has talked to this guy-- with no results. None of us want to get into a serious fight with him-- you have to know him to understand that. I'm sure one day those dogs will just disappear.

But even for all that-- this guy really isn't the worst neighbor you could have. The thing is, if you went into a ditch or you needed help, he'd do it-- and happily, too.

If I were you, Hawkeye, I'd be sitting with a powerful pellet gun and burn those dog's butts any time they came near. I'd be more concerned about my kids than anything. Not that I advocate killing an animal but you have every right to kill an animal on your property that threatens you or your livestock. I kind of kick myself for not doing something about my neighbors dog months before he disappeared.

I'm guessing the dogs will eventually disappear. I'm not going to be the one to do it unless something crazy happens out there. But it would be a real relief not to have to worry about them coming over here growling at the kids and snooping around my chicken coop. All the nearby neighbors are always grumbling about doing them in. Most everyone down here has poultry of some kind, I'm sure it'll just be that 'one thing' that sets them off and they do it. I don't have any pellet guns-- everything I have is a little more lethal than that. I hear gun shots out here all the time with people practicing and working with clay pigeons, so no one would be the wiser if one of them went astray. heh.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Hawkeye I would be so on those turkey eggs. Turkeys are pricy and if you could hatch your own It would be awesome. I have some due to hatch about the 22nd. I am so hoping for a successful hatch. My one lone baby needs some friends. She is outgrowing the chicks she is staying with. I think Seymore needs some friends even if they are a different breed. I am going to be rasing "God willing" 3 different kinds of turkey. That certainly wasn't my plan. I really only wanted one kind. So I am thinking of penning some and letting some free range with the chickens.
I think if I get around I am going to try to get in to see the doc again. I had a really bad night last night. I am so tired of being sick. I really want my sense of smell to come back. I can't even smell the cat box! Now that is major!

LOL if you can't smell the cat box, you know you're SICK! Yeah, I hope you do go see your Dr. They should probably do a quick xray and make sure it hasn't gotten worse. These turkeys he has are really pretty! They are a reddish brown. I might be able to sweet talk him into letting me buy some eggs. Heck, I know this guy, he'd probably just try to give them to me. I bet my DH would really kill me then! LOL If we move, it's all bets off, I'm getting turkeys, for sure. I'm going to be sure we wind up in a place that either has a lot of out buildings or we'll build one nice big huge barn. I'm just a little sick over having to buy horse stalls again. Mine are awesome! There is a guy in Whitewater that makes them himself and these are far better than you can buy out of a catalog or at Atwoods or TSC. If we move, the new owners better appreciate how nice they are. Sigh. Yeah... okay, I need to stop being all sad.

 

[HEChicken]

Do you know where you might move to Hawkeye?

Danz, yeah, I agree - I wouldn't miss smelling the cat box either, but seriously, this has gone on far too long. Maybe time to head back to the doc. What 3 breeds of turkey are you hatching? I've been looking into the heritage breeds. Last year the Atwoods in Andover had poults but since I couldn't get any, I didn't look too closely. I'm guessing they were probably BBW though, and I'm not that interested in getting them - I'd need to get special equipment just to process. At the moment I'm thinking Midget White, since the pot I use to dunk my occasional accidental roo is probably big enough to accommodate one of them. Plus, I was hoping that the smaller size would mean they were better at ranging with the chooks - but I'm just guessing on that. I'd like to hold back a hen and tom for breeding if possible and process the rest but if I have to acquire them via hatching eggs, I'll just have to see what I can get to hatch out, I guess.

Thanks for the advice re the coop build. Hawkeye, that is an interesting suggestion to go bigger than the slab - I guess I never considered that. As for the type of structure, I'm not sure if its considered a pole structure. I got a book on shed construction that I've been reading and I was going to try to just build a shed, except with extra windows and of course a pop door. I'd like to do a gambrel style roof but I'm afraid of biting off more than I can chew so I'll wait until I'm actually building and see how confident I feel when the time comes. I do have a miter saw so if I can just get it set up to cut the correct angles, I don't think it will be that much harder but we'll see.

 

[shotah]

oh man, Hawkeye! Of course, except for the loose dogs, fighting, and buried house, it kinda sounds like us!

And Kansas law does state that any dog that harasses livestock can be killed on sight.

Danz, feel better soon. I know pretty much how you feel--I've had walking pneumonia twice now, and the more you have had it, the easier it is to catch again. (hey, maybe if you can't smell the catboxes it's the best time to clean them!

)

 

[chicken danz]

Just did that this morning. My one cat that is super picky about cleanliness started digging in the house plants. (I hope it was just digging....again no smell!)
I have my wilds, I have blue slate, one about a month old, and some more in the incubator. and I am getting midget whites later when they start laying. I have thought about getting rid of the wilds but they have been captive since I hatched them and wouldn't make it in the outside world. I'm not sure I want to pay for a game bird breeders license. It's about $70 a year. But then I need one to sell my wood ducks if I hatch any.
I'm kind of stubborn. I hate taking any more medicines than I already do. I hate paying doctor's for writing scripts I could write myself if it was legal. I've had pnuemonia both walking and otherwise several times. I do take the flu shot and the pneumonia shot. The pnuemonia shot is a God send. I haven't had pneumonia since I started getting it, where I used to have it a couple times a year. But it has been awhile so it cold be wearing off. No two doctors agree on how often you should take it.
I got some goose eggs last night from Patricia and those are going in the incubator today with a bunch of duck eggs. The ducks are really starting to get with the program these days.

 

[Trish44]

Danz, I agree with everybody else, you need to go back to the Dr., you're going to end up in the hospital if you don't get treatment. You probably need a different antibiotic to get this cleared. With your asthma it's not something to mess around with, it just makes you more prone to serious infections in your lungs.

Hawkeye, if you can get turkey eggs from your neighbor I would get them if I were you, I think Seymour needs a friend. If you hatch more than one you could always sell them. People are always looking for turkeys it seems like. I don't really blame you about being sad for leaving the things you worked so hard to do there, I would feel the same way if I had just built a beautiful chicken coop & liked my house & other buildings as much as you do. I hope you find a place when you move that has lots of buildings for you, that would be great.

Well the snow is getting close to being melted off here, it's just a muddy mess now. It had been so dry here that now it's totally saturated all at once. I went out to the dog run yesterday to feed the pups in the evening & just about busted my butt sliding in the mud. Our yard isn't level much of anywhere & it slopes so I just kind of slid downwards. Thankfully I didn't fall since I was here by myself. I had a heck of a time getting all the snow & water off the dog run tarp too. I'm going to have to get a 2x4 or something to run across there to give it some support. I just kind of threw some chicken wire over the top of the pen & then a tarp on top of that quickly because I wanted some cover for the pups when I moved them. I really didn't think it out too well & now it's kind of a pain. When it gets warmer I'll have to fix it better. I plan to use that dog run for my chickens after the pups are through with it anyway.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Hawkeye - If those dogs are growling at your kids, TAKE IT SERIOUSLY!!!!! I saw what a doberman can do to a grown man, don't let it happen to the kids.

I am on a forum that promotes "The end of the world as we know it" and self sufficiency among other topics. There are some great ideas for being prepared for both large and small emergencies, but there are some of the people on there do seem a bit reactive and perhaps a bit paranoid. Would not want to openly step on their toes. That said, I do think being ready for any emergency is a good thing. Even a power outage can be made easier if prepared for.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Do you know where you might move to Hawkeye?

Thanks for the advice re the coop build. Hawkeye, that is an interesting suggestion to go bigger than the slab - I guess I never considered that. As for the type of structure, I'm not sure if its considered a pole structure. I got a book on shed construction that I've been reading and I was going to try to just build a shed, except with extra windows and of course a pop door. I'd like to do a gambrel style roof but I'm afraid of biting off more than I can chew so I'll wait until I'm actually building and see how confident I feel when the time comes. I do have a miter saw so if I can just get it set up to cut the correct angles, I don't think it will be that much harder but we'll see.

We don't know for sure where we're moving. We're hoping Boeing will transfer us, and if not, we'll be job hunting. Ideally, we'd hope to be transferred to OKC with the main military Mods.

If you are doing a stick structure, you would probably just build right onto the pad. But I'd still set your end posts into the cement-- which means cutting into it. You'll build your walls traditionally --but the bottom board will need to be pressure treated and then use the cement nail gun to shoot it into the cement. We have one of those-- it really operates like a firearm. The gambrel roof is gorgeous and has a lot of character. But if you aren't going to be building a loft into it-- you'd be best to stick with a regular truss structure-- like a King Post-- unless you're going over 16 feet, in which you'd switch up to the Queen Post. I was going a bit crazy over my 5:1 pitch ratio and getting my angle cuts right for the span. Not saying you can't do a gambrel, but it might be a lot more cost in material for you, too. (because of all the cuts) If you're trying to save some money, that probably isn't the route. But if you do it-- post lots of pictures! I'm sure it will be beautiful. And if you have lots of help, it could be a really fun thing to add.

oh man, Hawkeye! Of course, except for the loose dogs, fighting, and buried house, it kinda sounds like us!

And Kansas law does state that any dog that harasses livestock can be killed on sight.

HA!! Well I'm sure your neighbors appreciate the fact that you don't have loose dogs that come over and try to kill their birds.

Do you have solar panels? We've been talking about it for years. The price has finally come down enough that they are getting a lot more affordable. The neighbor I was telling you about-- his batteries are taller than I am! They are HUGE! I don't know where he got those things.