Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Awwww Danz, those puppies are so darned cute! It almost makes me want another one. My two are so jealous of each other though they would probably never go for another dog around here. After seeing Sunflowerparrot's little fluffball Sam though, it's hard for me not to want to get one.

Well I've been so busy my head is still spinning. I've been doing last minute things to get ready for Christmas & was still wrapping when my DH got home last night from work. He was mad at me that I didn't have it done already, but I had been going all day trying to get things done. I managed to get it finished shortly after he got home. Then I had to bathe the two little dogs & use the hair dryer to dry them because they were shivering. We're having Christmas with my son & grandaughter & her sister today, so it's going to be a full day.

It's cold out today, the wind was really cutting through me this morning out doing chores. I'm usually not even up that early, but I had to be today. My free-range chickens aren't going to be very happy with me today because they have to stay in. I gave them cabbage to peck at in the suet cage & some extra treats so that will keep them busy for awhile. Well everyone stay warm & have a good day!

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Chickies- I wish I was closer to you I would love bags. I am still trying to find some with no luck.

I am taking pics today of the little d'uccles from Danz and my little "Sparkplug" he is so darn cute.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

It's ironnic that your Lucy is a brown chinese. Mine is a white chinese. My Lucy was raised with Lucky, a duck. When they were big enough, I added them to my flock, which consisted of only ducks at the time (except for Lucy). Lucy will be 7 months old this next week and has only had other geese to hang out with in the last two months. She is the glue that holds the two flocks (ducks and geese) together because the ducks follow her and she follows the other geese.

That makes your Lucy the "ambasator" of your flock. When I had my sheep, one ewe was extra friendly. She also was the leader of the flock, so when she came to me, she brought the rest of the flock with her. It was interesting and helpfull.

I am glad to hear that your new geese are fitting in with the rest of your water lovin fowl.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Awwww Danz, those puppies are so darned cute! It almost makes me want another one. My two are so jealous of each other though they would probably never go for another dog around here. After seeing Sunflowerparrot's little fluffball Sam though, it's hard for me not to want to get one.

Well I've been so busy my head is still spinning. I've been doing last minute things to get ready for Christmas & was still wrapping when my DH got home last night from work. He was mad at me that I didn't have it done already, but I had been going all day trying to get things done. I managed to get it finished shortly after he got home. Then I had to bathe the two little dogs & use the hair dryer to dry them because they were shivering. We're having Christmas with my son & grandaughter & her sister today, so it's going to be a full day.

It's cold out today, the wind was really cutting through me this morning out doing chores. I'm usually not even up that early, but I had to be today. My free-range chickens aren't going to be very happy with me today because they have to stay in. I gave them cabbage to peck at in the suet cage & some extra treats so that will keep them busy for awhile. Well everyone stay warm & have a good day!

I would think if you got a male, that would fix your fighting with who gets to be alpha... I'm really lucky that Fern is so laid back and she's such an easy-going dog that Sam won't have too many issues being the Alpha since Fern doesn't care for power trips

 

[JosieChick]

I am so far behind I tried to start multis but it was going to be a mile long! Danz- So glad the babies are doing well. I am sure Cloud will get the hang of going out to go potty and eat etc. She is probably just wiped from all that hard work. They look like beautiful pups, I love how they have little dark spots when they are babies. I think it would be pretty if they stayed kind of dark around their eyes when they got older but I bet you won't be able to see that when they are grown up!

Well the grand total is 11 pups. She did beautifully for a first time Mom and especially for being so young. I am so glad she didn't have problems that Marshmallow always had. Now comes the hard part. Getting her to get up and go out and run and eat. These darn dogs just want to be too good of Mom's. Next time I see all the pups asleep I am going to coax her up and see if she will go outside and go to the bathroom. She's pretty tired today but she was done having pups by midnight.
DH just got home and is going to sleep for a while then try to get the dog house moved over. I guess we will wait on the roofing until later. That means I am going to have to get out and pry kennel panels out of the ice and snow so I can set up some kind of kennel for them. The other two dog houses filled with snow so the other two dogs didn't have a decent place to go yesterday either.
It would be really nice to have a sweeter heater for the pups.

Hope everyone is staying warm!

 

[mommahen10]

chickies-duckies, I don't know what a reasonable amount to ask for is. I'm going to sew them together and make tarps to cover the fences to break wind. I'm sure that would be a lot to ask for so whatever seems not too greedy. Maybe we can work something out and I could bring some to Maidenwolf too? We go her direction at least once per month.

It is so addicting sunflower. It's so hard to stop.

 

[chicken danz]

Oh, I have a little experiment. If the temps in the homemade incubator fluctuate 5 degrees with it on the thermostat then how much will the temp of the actual egg fluctuate? I weighed a few eggs, my eggs weigh from 1.9 oz to 2.3 oz. I measured 2 oz of water by weight and added to a glass. I put the sensor of the thermometer into the water, then sealed it with saran wrap to keep the water form evaporating. Then I thought that since it's clear I didn't want it to heat more like a greenhouse so I cut a piece of cardstock into a little box to cover and shade it. Now I can monitor the temp range from within my fake egg. I'm going to try moving this around inside of the incubator to see if there are spots with a better temp than others. I'm also going to get another thermometer to measure the temp range on the outside of my fake egg as well. When the running real incubator is empty, I may try adding water bottles to it to see if it'll maintain heat better too although it's been pretty steady this time around, much more so than any other time I've hatched. This should be my last hatch for the year, although I could change my mind. Maybe the experiments will pacify me while I wait to hatch again.
Why don't you crack and actual egg and do the same thing by keeping it moist. Of course you'd have to change it out now and then to keep it from getting rotten. Water takes on heat and looses heat at a different rate than an egg would but the idea is good.
Many people use heat sinks in homemade incubators. They take pint jars, jelly jars, or old glass baby food jars and put rocks in them, fill them with water and seal them. The water and the rocks take on the heat and help hold the temp steady. It also decreases the amount of power you need to keep your incubator to temp as well. I have seen home made cabinet incubators where they used an entire case (12) of pint jars as their heat sink.
Danz, I think I did something kind of dumb. I put those 2 chicks in with chicks of like size. What I didn't think was there is one little barred rock chick in there already and I'm scared i won't be able to tell them apart. My chick in there is likely half barred rock and half Australorp/Jersey Giant. I get one that looks like a barred rock 1:10. So far, they've all ended up with a few black/green feathers so I'm hoping I will always be able to tell them apart by that so I can separate them later when I'm ready to set up for breeding. Sometimes they even get a few red feathers and I'm not sure where that comes from. Do you think I should go back and try to mark them now? I'm pretty sure I could tell them apart by them hanging out together if I can't tell them apart by looking. I know that one was lighter than the other in the ones I got from you yesterday too that may help me figure it out for sure. Speaking of barring. I have one white chick, it's probably 3 mos old, he's a roo and he's extremely friendly and social. Anyway, at a distance he looks white but when I pick him up he looks barred but barred with white and the lightest beige color. He's cool, but where did he come from? I thought the white chicks we have came from the white chickens. But if he was from white hen/black roo then where did the barring come from? If he were from barred rock hen/black roo then where did the white come from? I'd like to get the white rocks as chicks in March, will you be ordering more? I wondered if maybe we could get a discount for ordering more? I will also keep a look out for more barred rock pullets. My barred rock hen is old and I don't think she is any sort of quality not that I would know but I think she's beautiful. She's so super fluffy and HUGE. She's very quiet and to herself. Also, do you notice roosters to be more attached to one hen? Daniel has one girl that they seem to be unseparable, not that it matters. Our white chickens that lost their feathers on their heads, they are finally getting feathers back now. I don't know what changed that they are getting feathers back.

Mammahen you could put small plastic ties on the barred rocks' legs so you can tell them apart. Put them on loosely but not so much it will bother their feet. You might have to switch them out later on as they grow. That barred white bird sounds awesome. Not sure what the lineage is unless I knew what all you had and what was bred to what. Anyway it sounds awesome. I have a white cochin hen with barring genes in her background. When she is bred to a black cochin she produces black and white cochin chicks. She is a beautiful bird but the only white cochin I have. I lost my white roo about 18 months ago. I would love to have more of them but I just can't come up with enough pens for individual colors.
Hopefully, I will have some white rocks a little later than that if I end up with at least one roo. Since I had such a great survival rate I am going to have too many hens for the one hamp rooster to breed for red stars.( Assuming my luck holds out.) I am really hoping someone made a sexing mistake or two. I would really like to raise the white rocks as well. I used to hate white chickens cause in the past that is all I raised. Now I think they are pretty. I need to find another hamp cockerel at some point anyway. I need a backup in case something happens.
If you do order, most hatcheries give you a price break for ordering more chicks. I always order at least 25 because that is where they usually start a discount.
Yes I have a couple of rooster/ hen pairs around. And then there are groups that hang around one rooster as well. My oldest olandsk roo and his hen are always together. She sticks to him like glue.
Originally Posted by Trish44
Well Trish I am sure I could sell you one! I imagine Candace will probably be having some pups from Zena soon as well. Ivy's dog Britt, who is also a sister is pregnant now too. Little hussies!
I haven't wrapped a thing and still have more shopping to get done. Thank goodness some of the people I need to buy for are gone until after Christmas. It gives me a few more days to shop. And of course still no tree or decorations up. I just can't get in the spirit.

The only thing I would really like to do is find a way to put a small Christmas tree at my Mom's grave. She was born in the depression and they never had a Christmas tree until she and my Dad got married. It was a very important thing to her. I think it would only be fitting that she could still have one. I thought of using battery operated lights but the batteries would only last a day or two. It's a shame I couldn't find some solar operated lights. I have some garland that has them but they never put out enough light to see.

I'm hoping to get the pups moved out of the house soon. I love my dogs but I don't like having them indoors. I am still worried that Cloud isn't getting up enough or eating and drinking enough. I was going to take her temperature last night but she had her butt up against my dryer so I couldn't get to it. These darned dogs worry me sick.
I've noticed my oldest cat isn't doing very well. After loosing Tyggy I am pretty worried. He is loosing weight and is drinking tons. I am afraid he is going into renal failure. I just don't think I can handle another loss right now. He would be 17 years old in May. He of course is my second favorite cat. If I were going to loose one I would prefer it be the youngest one. Not the ones I raised with my kids. I have the female a year younger than him that has a tumor on her side and has to have shots for allergies but otherwise is in great health.

Looks like my eggs are a bust from the power outage. That was an expensive lack of electricity. Those were directly from Hinksjc and were anything but cheap. $%^&*()
We are experiencing freezing fog this morning. Ugh! I really wish it would warm up before I have to go do chores. It was supposed to be sunny but cold today. There isn't a bit of sun yet.

 

[chicken danz]

I am so far behind I tried to start multis but it was going to be a mile long! Danz- So glad the babies are doing well. I am sure Cloud will get the hang of going out to go potty and eat etc. She is probably just wiped from all that hard work. They look like beautiful pups, I love how they have little dark spots when they are babies. I think it would be pretty if they stayed kind of dark around their eyes when they got older but I bet you won't be able to see that when they are grown up!

Josie I am still very worried. Silly Marshmallow would just lie there and not get up. Cloud isn't getting up like I want her to. Last night she got up and went out the back door and immediately started pawing to get back in. She didn't even go pee before she wanted back in. If I could just get her temp I would know whether to call the vet or not for a shot. I just can't loose her or her puppies. I was super impressed that her pups are all really even sized. Marshmallow always had a couple runts that were way smaller. I think maybe the fact that Cloud has always eaten a lot more has helped. She also free whelped really easily instead of the long periods in between that Marshmallow had. I am so thankful I got Marshmallow spayed. She is my special girl and I fear I would have lost her if she'd had another litter. I wanted to ask you. Do I need to minimize her calcium intake now that she has whelped? Or can I give her supplemental milk or something?

 

[tweetysvoice]

Hi All! Wanted to stop in and wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

My chickies are doing fine. I have several in molt and the baby silkies are getting big. They are so cute to watch with mama, but they are scared to death of me, oh well.

Not doing too good health wise. I was in the hospital again all last week, but I really hope this finds everyone well. (Can't even begin to go back through all 300 posts I've missed, sorry)

Hugs to everyone!

 

[chicken danz]

Hi All! Wanted to stop in and wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

My chickies are doing fine. I have several in molt and the baby silkies are getting big. They are so cute to watch with mama, but they are scared to death of me, oh well.

Not doing too good health wise. I was in the hospital again all last week, but I really hope this finds everyone well. (Can't even begin to go back through all 300 posts I've missed, sorry)

Hugs to everyone!

Tweety I am so sorry things aren't getting better for you. You'll be in my prayers for a recovery. Merry Christmas to you and yours with special hopes that you'll be able to eat Christmas dinner.