Consolidated Kansas

[tweetysvoice]

My friend is wanting to know if anyone can help her identify her rooster:

 

[redsoxs]

If I had to guess I'd say he was a Black Star.

But upon closer inspection it almost looks like he has a buttercup comb. So...beats me.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Here are the 2 recently moved to the grow out area. Cute little ones, just not sure of just what they are mixed with. Brahma and ??????

 

[cherwill]

DH is dragging me to Wichita tomorrow to look at an SUV he found on Craig's List. He's finally decided to try to accommodate what I want a little bit, so he brought me a Jeep Liberty to test drive this week. I loved it. It's the closest thing we've found so far to my beloved Montero. So of course he's not completely sold on the Liberty. He decided we should look at the Mercury Mariner because it's basically the same but is supposed to get a little better mileage. That's what we're going to look at tomorrow. He'd better be right; that's a long way to go as far as I'm concerned!

Thanks for this tip. So do you put it in a spray bottle and just spray it on?

Yep, just a cheap spray bottle from Wal-mart.

I am really sore today. The pulled muscles from Tuesday took a couple of days to really start to hurt but now I am hobbling around like an old woman. I rode again yesterday though, since I figured working the muscles would probably be better for them than letting them stiffen up.

I always think it makes no sense that you're sorer two days after something like that than you are that day or a day later, but that's how it works. Hopefully you're past the worst now.

Baby Silkie Pic!! There was another in there that just hatched, so it didn't come out from under her! Two more eggs left!





I also took a couple more pics of the flock while I was out there:



My Java - Butterfly



My two GLO's - Goldie and Lacey


My EE, Bunny and my other Java - Crow




My other EE, Rabbit and Amber, my non-broody silkie

Such pretty birds, thanks for sharing.

It seems I've been on the phone all day and got absolutely nothing done. I am not feeling good at all. I was running a fever last night and fighting a 3 day headache. The headache is still here and I feel like crap. I did get the birds fed but that was about the size of it.

How miserable. I used to get something like that (still do, but rarely), I called it having a headache in my eye because that's where the pain ended up. I think they're migraines. I don't know about the fever, though. Do you have the flu? I hope not.

I still haven't done anything with my olandsk babies and I have some poo to clean up now. I did manage to sell my washer today however, so that is a plus. We will take it out and deliver it to town tomorrow. I guess i should dry the load I did in there today!
I made the deal of the century. I am trading birds for a hog. Not only that, but I get the hog as soon as I can get a pen and shelter up for him and the birds will be traded to them next spring. Makes me very very happy. What a great barter that was. I am going to be fattening up my own pork. Woot! Nothing is better than fresh hog meat. Now if I can just afford the grain to feed it out!! Best thing about it is, these people have chickens. The hogs are in a pasture and the chickens go in and eat all the grain the hogs miss. So no danger of the hog thinking a chicken is dinner!!!

What a great trade. There's nothing to compare to home-raised pork.

I had an old acquaintance contact me. I thought she had died in the Murrah building in OKC. She was on lone for the DEA when that happened and I heard all of her unit were all killed. As it was she had gone on an assignment with the Attorney general or she would have been there. She lost 9 coworkers but luckily she wasn't one of them. She was kind of a barracuda and a bit insensitive sometimes, but it was nice to touch back with the only other female police officer I worked with back in the old days.

That's neat, especially to find out she's alive and well. We visited the Murrah building when we were in Oklahoma in October. It's sobering enough to see the memorial chairs outside, but the experience inside the building is indescribable. I'm glad I did it, but I was in tears several times during the tour.

My friend is wanting to know if anyone can help her identify her rooster:

I have no clue, but he sure is beautiful.

 

[WichitaKidd]

My friend is wanting to know if anyone can help her identify her rooster:

At first glance I thought maybe Barnvelder, but the light tan feathers don't seem right. I think redsoxs is on the right track. I'm guessing it's probably a cross between a sex link (i.e. red/black star, golden buff, etc) & possibly an australorp or cornish rock. Basing that guess simply by the combination of what appear to be clean yellow legs, dark beak, green shading in the feathers & a large red comb. Nice looking roo regardless.

 

[chicken danz]

maidenwolf, I had several half cochin, half brahma hens I sold earlier. It could have been one of their offspring. I think the other one is brahma & silver laced wyandotte mixed.
Trish the hog trade was a great deal. I will make sure she ends up with the better deal money wise, but I like it because it is a commodity I would have to sell otherwise so it works beautifully.
I love home grown fresh hog meat and I've been dying for some. It could end up expenisve with grain prices as they are but it will be worth it. When everyone else is eating their $5 a pound store bought pork chops next summer, I'll be enjoying my nice lean tender home grown pork.
cherwill, I might have a touch of the flu cause I just got my flu shot. I normally do get sick after I get one. I could also have my neck messed up again. I get migraines every now and then and this is not a migraine. I tend to think it is more of a flu kind of thing. I have a compromised immune system so my body tends to react like the flu when I get a flu shot. I just never had a case with this extreme headache before. It seems a little better today. I hope it stays that way.
It stinks in here. The chicks are ready for a litter change for sure. I just changed it day before yesterday late in the evening. Maybe my duck buyer will come tomorrow and take some of those cockerels so I have room in the brooder for these.
I still have my olandsk in the house. I am afraid to put them in with the other birds until I am sure they don't get sick from shipping stress. So far they are uber healthy. My youngest cat keeps running in between them so they scatter. Dumb cat! She knows not to bother the chicks so she has her fun by making them run. She does that once in a while outside but never if there is a rooster around. I think she must have learned a lesson from a rooster at some time. But then my youngest dog likes to do the same thing to the group of ducks. I don't mind as long as they just separate them and don't chase them.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Baby Silkie Pic!! There was another in there that just hatched, so it didn't come out from under her! Two more eggs left!

Congrats on the silkie baby!!!! I can NOT wait to get started breeding my own silkies. They are all ready now, for the most part. But I don't want to have chicks over winter. One or two would be fine, though!! But I'm going to be incubating tons when I start back up! LOL I need my new pens ASAP!! I hope that botox works this time around. I'm so sorry you've been so sick and have missed so much work! I hope your work is understanding. That rooster has a Buttercup comb... but other than that, no idea. Beautiful boy! You could try looking up breeds with Buttercup combs. He might be a mix, and if that is the case, you'll just never know.

OKay, I read, but there was tons to catch up on! I'll try to get everyone, but I do apologize if I missed you.

Danz, really sorry to hear that you lost all of those baby ducks. So sad. Glad you sold your washer and then got a trade for a hog! YUM! Pork chops and bacon! Hope you will be feeling better soon. I think you are over-worked. Lots of hot tea and rest. BTW-- that picture of your PURPLE pea is amazing! I mean, that is a gorgeous bird!! WOW!

Josie (ha! I'm brain dead, I wrote out your real name and had to delete...) DUH! Eeks, I'd be worried about someone else building my out buildings unless they were a contractor. I'm okay doing it myself, then I can blame myself. But I think I did okay for never having done anything before-- but that stems from being very anal about everything and wanting it done right and lots of Googling on the internet! Definitely distract them with house stuff and anything else you can think of. We're wanting to hire our next barn built this time around. I think we may build one next year, and my DH has decided he is not building this one himself! LOL We have gotten lots of quotes and have discovered it's not really too bad. Anyway, until we met up on Wednesday, I had no idea you had already closed on the house! I'm so excited for you! I think this could easily be your dream house when you get done with all the renovations. I wuoldn't tackle it all at once, but things like the flooring and painting you can do now. What is that medium white dog you had with you? He was adorable! Sort of like part poodle??

MaidenWolf, the duck sounded really good! Loved hearing about the way you cooked it. Can you get your kids on the Angel Tree? I'm over loaded with kids!! Our preschool class "adopted" 3 kids to buy for, and our 4-H club "adopted" another 3 kids to buy x-mas gifts for! Plus the church stuff we do for the "Park Kids"... I'm not going to be able to buy for them all! (or I will try for very small/inexpensive items) But plenty of people WILL... so just saying, that by speaking up, your kids can be adopted by a firehouse, police station, church Sunday school class, 4-H club, etc, etc....

WichitaKidd--- SOOOOOOO glad to hear you will be back into chickens! Of course you already know you will love it, and you already have everything you need. Congrats, and of course, we're all supporting you on this one!

Cherwill, I hope you will love the SUV you'll be looking at. Your Dh should have just given in to begin with. Men. Sheesh. That is why it took us over a month to find my next vehicle! I was being super picky and I didn't want anything less than what I already had (before I wrecked it). My DH kept showing me CRAP! I mean, WTH was he thinking?!? He would show me listings for vehicles that were dirty on the inside, or had high mileage, etc... I'm pretty happy with what I have now, even though he had to fly to Chicago on Tuesday and then drive it home. hehe!!! If you're the one driving it, you don't want to be upset every time you look at it.

Lizzy, those were GREAT pictures of you with the quail! So neat that they keep coming back! Personally, I'd think that was pretty exciting to see them in the mornings/evenings. So funny, because if they were released to be hunted, they are VERY smart birds to hide out on your property! LOL Glad that the YO-YO game is working for your "bad" boy. It just takes time. And don't worry-- if he takes a couple of steps backwards and doesn't do as well next time, don't be discouraged, it takes time to really get it to be a habit in their brains. He'll catch on quicker and quicker after this, though. Does he pin his ears when he backs up? Mine used to. And that's still disrespectful, so keep working thru it if he is. I have a boy that needs constant reminding on his ground rules. He's great in the saddle-- better than you could hope, but he invades personal space on the ground. Sigh. He's a constant work in progress.

HeChicken, my DH ran the Memorial Marathon down in OKC and afterwards we looked at all the chairs. I didn't really feel too emotional until we got to the little tiny chairs for the kids. Then it really hits you the lives and futures of the people destroyed. SO glad that you are okay after your horse fell down! Geez, I've done that a couple of times! The worst was when I went to Kanopolis a couple years ago and my big gelding walked right into a sand trap and sunk down to his knees, but he was leaping to try to get out and he fell down onto his belly. I was about to jump off of him... but I felt him powering all his muscles under him and he made one last lunge and got out of it, me still on top. But I have been knocked off-- the person in front of me on a trail held back a large limb and it snapped back and hit me and I had no time to duck under it. I was drug off my saddle backwards and my feet were stuck in the stirrups! I took the saddle with me, too-- the saddle went under his belly. He kept walking until I hit the ground. I had my feet in the air in the stirrups and he drug me for another step until he stopped and looked back at me like "you idiot! GET UP!". I was wrapped around his back legs. THANK GOODNESS he is a calm boy and just an awesome horse. I was able to disentangle myself and put the saddle back on, etc. But I was REALLY sore after that. I had a mark on my throat where the branch swung at me and just bruises from the being drug off his back.

Checoukan-- CONGRATS on that buck!!! Good job! We are just "infested" with deer around here. They need some serious thinning out. Sigh. I hope everyone goes and uses up their tags! That is a great picture of you!

Trish, sounds like you have been hard at work on cleaning and getting the work done before winter. Your turkey sound awesome! I only had the one, but she would follow me around like a puppy dog! She was a fantastic bird. Just didn't get along with my chickens. Your rabbit works sounds exhausting. And to think, you'll have to do that in the freezing cold, too. Ugh. I feel sorry for you!

Pikeman, I've heard great things about those wood pellets. I have not used them, but seems like a lot of people do. I guess you could give it a try and see what you think. I know they're not toxic.

Karen, I've been thinking about you a lot! I sure hope you are feeling better. The colon stroke sounds really awful. I don't know what that is, but I know it isn't good.

I hope you are taking it easy.

Someone had a coop fire and lost all of their chickens. I forget who that was. Anyway, that just made me feel terrible and I'm so sorry for losing all your birds and the coop. Was the fire started by a heat lamp? I'm going to be hanging one in the silkie pen for really cold nights, but don't know what else to do. I'll be securing it with wire so it won't fall. If I don't do that, I'll be making cookie tin heaters to snuggle up next to.


Okay, I know I missed some of you-- so sorry!

It's been crazy busy here. Seems like as soon as it's November, everything just leaps into Fast Forward. My oldest had his NutCracker performance last night. He was the Nutcracker! He did a great job with his solo speaking parts! Seems like every single evening, we have something going on, we have basketball practices, games, piano, Choir, and I know I'm forgetting a few other things. Our 4-H meeting is this coming Monday. I need to shop-- we're supposed to have things to wrap for the families that we adopted. Also, the kids classrooms have doubled homework asking for the kids to decorate gingerbread men and bring them back, or do other holiday projects to return. I just can't keep ahead of it all right now. Today is a down day. I managed to get our Christmas tree up last night, but my DH dropped a bag that held half the lights and they all broke. So I put up the lights that were fine and did the top half and plugged them in for the kids. I need to go buy more for the bottom half. Sheesh. Because of that, we haven't put up the ornaments, either. Although, I did put up one-- I found this really pretty turkey ornament at Target the other day. They didn't have white and black Royal Palm ones..

So I figured this one was close enough to honor Seymore our well loved turkey this year.



Also, perfect timing for all the Christmas pictures we'll be taking, but my 4 yr old daughter decided to give herself a hair cut!

She cut off all the hair in front and down the sides. It looks AWFUL!!!!! My boys never did that, so I can't imagine what the heck she was thinking to go and ruin her hair like that. Also, for some reason, my back and neck have felt worse than ever, and I didn't know why. I was actually starting to feel better, and I woke up and BAM... I saw the PT, but she said it's not from sleeping on it wrong, like I guessed. She said it's like i had a "mini whiplash" all over again. She asked me if I had fallen or done anything. After thinking for a while, I realized I DID fall a few days ago, but didn't put the two together, because I didn't start hurting that day. It was totally stupid, too. I tripped over a toy that is NOT supposed to be upstairs anyway, and then that caused me to shuffle forward and stub my foot terribly on the sofa leg and because of the forward momentum I had going from the initial trip, and then the stubbing, I again tripped over the sofa arm and fell flat on my stomach! I did catch myself with my hands. I was more worried that I had broke my toes than about my back and neck! I sat on the floor rocking back and forth sucking deep breaths with the hurt from the toes. When it finally went away (just a bit of bruising) I just forgot all about it and didn't think anything else of it. Now it looks like I messed up my back and neck again. Figures.

So HEchicken-- you know how you said you are hobbling around?? Me too.

I feel like I'm too young to hurt like this.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Danz- I was thinking brahma/cochin on this red one. this is the one that looked exactly like the sussexX when they were all fluff. The other one I was thinking maybe your light brahma roo because she is starting to get a black ring around her neck and she is the one that doesnt have feathered feet that awhile ago you suspected phoenix. Boy of boy do these guys change fast. I love the mystery. Hope you all dont mind me posting for opinions so much lol.

the little black cochin looking like a pretty girl

At 7 weeks no wattles or comb. Someone said sometimes hens dont get them at all. Now, is she a straight polish like another member suggested?

this little roo has maybe 2 feathers on his feet a tiny beak and dark colors

lightly feathered fee and a flat comb, there really isnt any definition to it.

these 2 have the same comb and looked exactly the same while in fluff but she has extreme falcon hocks and heavy feathers on her feet and darker colors throughout

this one I am not sure on sex,it is tiny and active

 

[HEChicken]

I love home grown fresh hog meat and I've been dying for some. It could end up expenisve with grain prices as they are but it will be worth it. When everyone else is eating their $5 a pound store bought pork chops next summer, I'll be enjoying my nice lean tender home grown pork.

I know exactly what you mean! A few years ago I saw an ad on CL for home-grown pork. The guy had raised up two hogs for 9 months, so that he could give his family fresh pork but had more than they could use so he sold off the rest at a straight $2/lb. No tax, so it was really quite the deal. I bought 50lb and it was far and away the best pork I've ever tasted. When it was all gone, I went looking for more. That guy said it was a one-time thing and he wasn't doing it again, so I found another guy. That pork was good too but I didn't like the processing as much. The bacon and chops were not nearly as thick as the first time around. I need to contact that first guy and ask where he got his processed and if its a reasonable drive, I'll go there when we do our own.

So sorry you are feeling sick. Quite honestly, that is why I never get a flu shot. I got one about 10 years ago and that winter I was the sickest I've ever been. I literally had back-to-back colds, flu, bronchitis and finally pneumonia and after 3-4 months of being sick constantly, I was exhausted from it. So I swore I'd never get another flu shot. I never have and I've never had another winter sick all the time like that. Maybe just coincidence but I'm not willing to try it again to find out.

HeChicken, my DH ran the Memorial Marathon down in OKC and afterwards we looked at all the chairs. I didn't really feel too emotional until we got to the little tiny chairs for the kids. Then it really hits you the lives and futures of the people destroyed. SO glad that you are okay after your horse fell down! Geez, I've done that a couple of times! The worst was when I went to Kanopolis a couple years ago and my big gelding walked right into a sand trap and sunk down to his knees, but he was leaping to try to get out and he fell down onto his belly. I was about to jump off of him... but I felt him powering all his muscles under him and he made one last lunge and got out of it, me still on top. But I have been knocked off-- the person in front of me on a trail held back a large limb and it snapped back and hit me and I had no time to duck under it. I was drug off my saddle backwards and my feet were stuck in the stirrups! I took the saddle with me, too-- the saddle went under his belly. He kept walking until I hit the ground. I had my feet in the air in the stirrups and he drug me for another step until he stopped and looked back at me like "you idiot! GET UP!". I was wrapped around his back legs. THANK GOODNESS he is a calm boy and just an awesome horse. I was able to disentangle myself and put the saddle back on, etc. But I was REALLY sore after that. I had a mark on my throat where the branch swung at me and just bruises from the being drug off his back.

It's been crazy busy here. Seems like as soon as it's November, everything just leaps into Fast Forward. My oldest had his NutCracker performance last night. He was the Nutcracker! He did a great job with his solo speaking parts! Seems like every single evening, we have something going on, we have basketball practices, games, piano, Choir, and I know I'm forgetting a few other things. Our 4-H meeting is this coming Monday. I need to shop-- we're supposed to have things to wrap for the families that we adopted. Also, the kids classrooms have doubled homework asking for the kids to decorate gingerbread men and bring them back, or do other holiday projects to return. I just can't keep ahead of it all right now. Today is a down day. I managed to get our Christmas tree up last night, but my DH dropped a bag that held half the lights and they all broke. So I put up the lights that were fine and did the top half and plugged them in for the kids. I need to go buy more for the bottom half. Sheesh. Because of that, we haven't put up the ornaments, either. Although, I did put up one-- I found this really pretty turkey ornament at Target the other day. They didn't have white and black Royal Palm ones..

So I figured this one was close enough to honor Seymore our well loved turkey this year.


Also, perfect timing for all the Christmas pictures we'll be taking, but my 4 yr old daughter decided to give herself a hair cut!

She cut off all the hair in front and down the sides. It looks AWFUL!!!!! My boys never did that, so I can't imagine what the heck she was thinking to go and ruin her hair like that. Also, for some reason, my back and neck have felt worse than ever, and I didn't know why. I was actually starting to feel better, and I woke up and BAM... I saw the PT, but she said it's not from sleeping on it wrong, like I guessed. She said it's like i had a "mini whiplash" all over again. She asked me if I had fallen or done anything. After thinking for a while, I realized I DID fall a few days ago, but didn't put the two together, because I didn't start hurting that day. It was totally stupid, too. I tripped over a toy that is NOT supposed to be upstairs anyway, and then that caused me to shuffle forward and stub my foot terribly on the sofa leg and because of the forward momentum I had going from the initial trip, and then the stubbing, I again tripped over the sofa arm and fell flat on my stomach! I did catch myself with my hands. I was more worried that I had broke my toes than about my back and neck! I sat on the floor rocking back and forth sucking deep breaths with the hurt from the toes. When it finally went away (just a bit of bruising) I just forgot all about it and didn't think anything else of it. Now it looks like I messed up my back and neck again. Figures.

So HEchicken-- you know how you said you are hobbling around?? Me too.

I feel like I'm too young to hurt like this.

Oh no - so sorry you are hurting again too. It was actually Danz who reconnected with the friend from OKC

. Okay, that horse fall does sound like a classic - certainly sounds like something that would happen to me. I didn't really think about it at the time but the next day a friend asked if my horse had run off, because she said if that happened to her, her horse would be halfway back to the barn before she could pick herself off the ground. I was really fortunate in retrospect that although my horse did scramble to his feet faster than I did, he just stood there and waited for me to get up, check him over, and get back on him.

I hope you don't mind that I'm laughing about the haircut. My DD did that not once, but TWICE. First time she was only two, and I had left her coloring in the living room while I went to put her little brother down for a nap in his crib. When I came back, she looked up at me, with both hands near her head (I later realized one was holding a pair of scissors) and said "Mummy, it okay dat I do dis?" and as she said it, I heard a "snip" sound. As I told her "NO!!!" I looked down and realized that wasn't the first snip - there was hair everywhere. It was all from the same side of her head so she looked pretty funny until it grew out. The second time was when she was in kindergarten. Fortunately, hair does grow back so its not the worst thing they can do, but so sorry this happened right before Christmas. One day you'll look back on photos from this year and laugh about that being the year she cut her hair.

Love that turkey ornament. We got our tree up on Dec 1st but didn't get it decorated until last night. Its our first Christmas in the new house and we love how well it came out this year.

Josie, that must be the fastest house closing in history - it seems like you just had the inspection done!

Cherwill, I hope the trip to Wichita proves to be worth it.

Question for everyone: I read yesterday on a blog, where this woman takes her household compost and dumps it in her chicken coop for the chickens to pick through. She does DLM so it all ends up composting. I've been keeping two small bins in the kitchen - one for chicken scraps and one for compost, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't just combine them. The compost "bin" gets things like coffee grounds, tea leaves, citrus, avocado and banana peels - things I wouldn't have thought the chickens would be interested in. But I do cut everything up into 1/2" or so size pieces before putting it in the compost as I have found it composts faster if I do that. So I'm thinking if I dump all of that in the chicken coop, maybe they would scratch through it and find some nuggets they like and the rest would get mixed in with their bedding and hasten the compost action of the DLM. Has anyone tried this? I certainly don't want my coop to end up trashy or draw more flies than chicken poop already attracts, but I was intrigued by the idea.

 

[lizzyGSR]

Lizzy, those were GREAT pictures of you with the quail! So neat that they keep coming back! Personally, I'd think that was pretty exciting to see them in the mornings/evenings. So funny, because if they were released to be hunted, they are VERY smart birds to hide out on your property! LOL Glad that the YO-YO game is working for your "bad" boy. It just takes time. And don't worry-- if he takes a couple of steps backwards and doesn't do as well next time, don't be discouraged, it takes time to really get it to be a habit in their brains. He'll catch on quicker and quicker after this, though. Does he pin his ears when he backs up? Mine used to. And that's still disrespectful, so keep working thru it if he is. I have a boy that needs constant reminding on his ground rules. He's great in the saddle-- better than you could hope, but he invades personal space on the ground. Sigh. He's a constant work in progress.

No, he doesn't usually put his ears back while backing up. The last couple sessions with him have gone really well, which surprised me because three sessions ago went REALLY poorly. He was chewing on me, the rope, everything he could possibly get his lips on. He is a Left-brain extrovert and is very mouthy. I think he also starts mouthing things when he gets bored so it is my job to keep throwing new and interesting things at him. Speaking of which, Pat Parelli uses plastic barrels as toys for the horses. Does anyone know of anywhere I could go to get a few of them?

Some of you may remember a while back that I was looking for another goose. I was REALLY picky on what I wanted, mainly I didn't want a large bird, and I wanted one that would be friendly. I finally resigned myself to the fact that I would have to raise a gosling or two. Then, yesterday, I get an e-mail from one neighbor saying that she saw that another neighbor had two geese advertised on facebook to give away. Well, when I went to look at the post, it looked like the birds had already been claimed, pending pickup. Well, apparently the first neighbor talked to the second neighbor last night, and I got a call from the neighbor with the geese this morning offering me the geese. I did end up having to compromise on the breed of goose I got, but they are friendly and will tolerate me handling them once I catch them, which isn't an easy feat though they don't run from me until I start trying to catch them. Laurie, the lady who owned the geese, thinks that one is a gander and one is a goose. Her husband thinks that they are both geese. They didn't know what breed they were, but I think they're Embdens. What do you think? Goose? Gander? One of each? Do you agree with me on the breed? They are both pure white with blue eyes and orange beak/legs. The bird to the right in the photo is just dirty.