Consolidated Kansas

[mommahen10]

Maidenwolf, I'm assuming that your ACV has the mother in it? Also, you are keeping it inside where it's warmer?

Danz, I have a big block of yeast in my fridge and it's over a year old. I didn't think about using it to ferment. When I started using the bread starter over a year ago I just quit using yeast all together. I should try it. Also, my dh and boys filled all of the bins with feed and when they're all full we can store 1500 lbs of feed. I think it's time to get serious about looking into buying and mixing bulk feeds. It took them over an hr to get the bags mixed as they wanted to but it'll help to have it all where we use it.

 

[chicken danz]

Yep Hawkeye the last time I wormed I used the 4ccs of injectable ivermectin per gallon of water. Everyone did fine with it and I gave them that for two days in a row. No one even seemed to have any side effects either. I liked the way it worked. I have treated with pour on since then though just to be sure no one had mites.
It really wasn't as bad out there today as I thought. That cold north wind wasn't blowing so hard and I managed to get the hose thawed out and actually used it to water with. I was happy and the birds were happier.
No more losses today other than one chick that looked like it got caught at the front of the brooder. Thank heavens. I put more duramycin in the water in the Swedish flower hens house and refilled their humidifier. Actually I thought they all acted better out there today. Only had one hen was suffering much and most of the other sneezing had stopped. I'm still treating my poor sick little olandsk in the house. They seem to be sneezing quite a bit.
I had put 4 eggs in the incubator the 24th and hatched 4 olandsk and 1 d'uccle so I am a little more enthused about the rest of the eggs in the incubator that suffered the power outage. It must have been much harder on the ones that were closest to hatch. Tomorrow I have several more to go into the hatcher so I guess we'll see how that goes. Some were shipped eggs that arrived with detached air sacks. So I didn't hold a lot of hope for those. But some are from the d'uccle's and olandsk so maybe we'll have a few more babies.
Thank you Hawkeye for explaining hardiness and special breeds. There is definitely a correlation between fancy bred birds and their ability to fight off disease or withstand cold. In fact if you read about different breeds on places like wikipedia or feathersite they will often state they aren't cold hardy.
It is no different than one of us traveling to a new country where there are different germs and viruses or even allergies that make us sick but don't bother the native people. That's why they say,"Don't drink the water."

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Polish are pretty hardy! I love mine and they have the really cool crests (fluff balls) on their heads! But they don't require all the heat and special treatment! That would be my vote for a less intensive "fancy" breed. I know silkies can be integrated into flocks and do fine without all the stuff I'm doing. It just seems mine are pretty needy. They have been shivering each night and lifting legs and standing on one leg during the day-- so I had to add another heat lamp. I didn't start out with the heat lamps and figured I needed them. Only went with them when they looked like they weren't doing well with the cold. If you have areas that block the wind during the day-- silkies do just fine out and about in the winter with the other birds. The special care comes in at night. I'm wondering how well the girls are doing that HeChicken got. Hopefully they have someone to snuggle up with and have deep litter to lay in. I'm guessing she's got it all covered. For no more silkies than you are wanting, they sleep on the floor and it would be easy to just set up a heat lamp in a corner for them to sleep under in the winter! You'd probably be okay!

The problem is electricity - I don't have any out to the coop. Setting up an extension cord isn't going to work because of the dogs - they'd for sure drag it around and possibly bite into it! I'm going to do some research on pretty looking barnyard birds and give her an option of 4 or 5 to choose from - or maybe 1 of each! She is just wanting HER own chickens - something that she can say is hers. I know the novelty will wear off, but right now she is talking about her chickens, buying them feed, giving them food and water, caring for them herself, etc. I hate for her to spend a lot of money or get something *I* don't really want because in the end, I'll be the one taking care of them

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Loralee - what about frizzles? She likes how they look and I read they are easy to keep like regular chickens..

 

[chicken danz]

There are several breeds of frizzles. I've been told by breeders though that you can't breed a frizzle to a frizzle or you will end up with a basic naked chicken. I've never tried- so I don't know if that is true. Sunflower, the dogs would only bite into the extension cord once!

Okay so I have a sick sense of humor. I have extension cords everywhere. The dogs don't bother those big orange ones for some reason, but Cloud liked to grab anything with a plain short white cord. Not sure what the difference is. Maybe you should just string one across the yard and see if they bother it.
Mammahen I've been kind of a heap today myself. It's like I needed a day to recover and I didn't even do any cooking and stuff to speak of other than normal. I meant to get some cleaning done but instead I sat on the computer all morning then spent the after noon taking care of animals. I honestly don't know how you do it all. So where are the pictures of the kitchen??? I am dying to see!!!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Sure sorry to hear of your bird losses. That's so sad and frustrating. Today we moved the last of the birds out of the shop to a protected pen/house in the chicken yard. The group that was occupying that space is sleeping in with the big birds tonight. DH fixed up a separate electric line out to the coop so the heated waterers and electric fence won't both go out in case of a little moisture finding it's way into my hodgepodge of extension cords. The silly safety circuit would flip and leave the fence off and the water frozen. Cripes. I didn't have any casualties but it sure is miserable to think everything is taken care of only to come upon completely frozen water. I lost one of my Khaki Campbell ducks to a coyote or fox, not sure which, when the circuit got overloaded and left the fence without electricity. What do those guys do? Check the fence every night?

I've got a bunch of birds growing out and I'm really happy with their coloring. Look at this beauty! This is one of my own Aloha crosses -- no Swedish in it since they aren't quite mature enough to mate yet. This guy is looking really good, can't wait to see how he grows out. Hope I get some decent size on this guy. I have several that are very colorful and then there are several without the white spots but are more like the base color on this guy with the black flecks. Pretty, but one of those things that make you go hum.




I should have taken a pic of my Wellie roo that's growing out -- he's getting really pretty, too. I'm going to be able to breed Swedish Flowers, Welsummers, Easter Eggers, and Seramas, in addition to what I'm going to call barnyard mixes -- birds that are part Aloha but not appropriate for my program. I'll also have Ancona and Cayuga mix ducks. I'm really thankful for the ducks in this cold weather because they put off a ton of heat. I think that's why my chickens are doing so well because they have those little furnaces in the coop with them. All of the birds were out today enjoying the sunshine. They got crowded around one of the water dishes and one of the bigger birds just jumped into the middle of them, dunking several of the smaller ones in the water bowl! We took them in and blew them dry, just in case. Even though the lack of wind made it feel so much better than yesterday, it was still really cold to me.

The kids and I have been spending some time hanging out in the craftroom. The younger boys have new K'nex and Lego sets they like to build stuff with and the girls all got jewelry making kits so they were busy making earrings, bracelets and necklaces. We had a nice Christmas, my brother came over and played music for us. He's quite the musician. It's frustrating, though, because he won't write down his music. So trying to describe the music you would like to hear again is very challenging. He can play it again, if you can hum a few bars. He makes it up himself and is always working on something new.

Is everyone staying well? I have a couple kids with upper respiratory and same for DH. He's been trying to figure out what's up with our furnace. It's still working but it's being very unpredictable about how it works. One morning we woke to 53 degrees! The next morning it was 80! What the heck? I think he's about to give up and call the repairman.

Hope everyone and their birds stay warm and healthy tonight.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

There are several breeds of frizzles. I've been told by breeders though that you can't breed a frizzle to a frizzle or you will end up with a basic naked chicken. I've never tried- so I don't know if that is true. Sunflower, the dogs would only bite into the extension cord once!

Okay so I have a sick sense of humor. I have extension cords everywhere. The dogs don't bother those big orange ones for some reason, but Cloud liked to grab anything with a plain short white cord. Not sure what the difference is. Maybe you should just string one across the yard and see if they bother it.
Mammahen I've been kind of a heap today myself. It's like I needed a day to recover and I didn't even do any cooking and stuff to speak of other than normal. I meant to get some cleaning done but instead I sat on the computer all morning then spent the after noon taking care of animals. I honestly don't know how you do it all. So where are the pictures of the kitchen??? I am dying to see!!!

They would bother it because it doesn't belong there - which is why I can't keep the dog water bowl plugged in on the other side of the house where the outlet is. Today - Sam was barking up a storm and growling at the barn - the cats were over there laying in front of the doors - that isn't where they belong. So - we had to walk over there and show Sam it was ok... but then shooed the cats away so he'd not go back to the house and bark. He is so observant for a little pup! Fern of course takes everything she possibly can and hordes it in piles in the fields. These pups keep life exciting and interesting!

 

[pikeman94]

Hello everyone! I hope all had a Merry Christmas! Santa treated everyone in my family well!

I am so behind, but the glance I did get is that it sounds like this weather has been brutal on lots of folks flocks. I am sorry to hear about everyone's loses. We take a lot of time and it is frustrating when mother nature has other plans. I know this cold weather has put a stop to my integrating the Buff Braham Bantam adoptee I picked up a month ago.

My latest trial is my Amerucana, I just noticed she has a bubbly eye on the left side. No other symptoms -- no coughing or sneezing. The eye is swollen and there is dirt near/around it. I do know that she was caught outside the other night when an owl paid my yard a visit. I don't know where this bird was hiding, but I am wondering if she didn't do something to herself when this event happened. I am sure she was freaked out of her mind and tried to get under something. My guess is that is when the eye injury occurred. What can I do for her? I don't think this is respiratory, but what do I know. Any ways input is always welcome.

Karen - Good lookin bird there! Seems like you are really getting the hang of this chicken thing!

Back to cleaning up the firestorm know as Christmas as the DW is down for the count with some bug. I am playing Daddy guard to keep the kiddos away from her so she can rest.

Have a good evening everyone!

Duh! A picture of the Amerucana would be good:

 

[chicken danz]

Rob, do you have some veterycin. That would do excellent for her eye. Looks like an injury to me. Poor chicken.
Sunflower those GPs are hoarders. Mine prefer anything that they can get in their mouth and drag home. I guess that is why they don't mess with my cords. It's a lot easier to go grab a piece of trash and transfer it to the front yard pile. We could form at least 2 complete deer skeletons from the bones they have brought home.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Yep Hawkeye the last time I wormed I used the 4ccs of injectable ivermectin per gallon of water. Everyone did fine with it and I gave them that for two days in a row. No one even seemed to have any side effects either. I liked the way it worked. I have treated with pour on since then though just to be sure no one had mites.
It really wasn't as bad out there today as I thought. That cold north wind wasn't blowing so hard and I managed to get the hose thawed out and actually used it to water with. I was happy and the birds were happier.
No more losses today other than one chick that looked like it got caught at the front of the brooder. Thank heavens. I put more duramycin in the water in the Swedish flower hens house and refilled their humidifier. Actually I thought they all acted better out there today. Only had one hen was suffering much and most of the other sneezing had stopped. I'm still treating my poor sick little olandsk in the house. They seem to be sneezing quite a bit.
I had put 4 eggs in the incubator the 24th and hatched 4 olandsk and 1 d'uccle so I am a little more enthused about the rest of the eggs in the incubator that suffered the power outage. It must have been much harder on the ones that were closest to hatch. Tomorrow I have several more to go into the hatcher so I guess we'll see how that goes. Some were shipped eggs that arrived with detached air sacks. So I didn't hold a lot of hope for those. But some are from the d'uccle's and olandsk so maybe we'll have a few more babies.
Thank you Hawkeye for explaining hardiness and special breeds. There is definitely a correlation between fancy bred birds and their ability to fight off disease or withstand cold. In fact if you read about different breeds on places like wikipedia or feathersite they will often state they aren't cold hardy.
It is no different than one of us traveling to a new country where there are different germs and viruses or even allergies that make us sick but don't bother the native people. That's why they say,"Don't drink the water."

Oh, that's great to hear that you did the same with the Ivermectin and had great results! I got my waterers all set up with the wormer for both the boy pen and the girl's pen. Glad your Swedish are looking better. Did they have the humidifier on them with the Oxine? I have Oxine now, so I'm pretty impressed with everything I've read/heard about it! Glad your hoses worked for you today. I cleaned out water today, but haven't been using the hose. Just at the spigot and carrying the water. Thank goodness I only have 3 founts to clean/fill each time. I have a couple of bad boy roos in the garage under a heat lamp with their own food and water, but I'm using rabbit feeders for them. Easy to clean and refill. Yeah about the "fancy" birds, I have been really listening closely to my Silkie club page and everyone has been talking about their losses too! Their silkies are freezing to death up north. They are having to add more heat lamps and some people have had to bring them in the house when they lost power. Yikes!

The problem is electricity - I don't have any out to the coop. Setting up an extension cord isn't going to work because of the dogs - they'd for sure drag it around and possibly bite into it! I'm going to do some research on pretty looking barnyard birds and give her an option of 4 or 5 to choose from - or maybe 1 of each! She is just wanting HER own chickens - something that she can say is hers. I know the novelty will wear off, but right now she is talking about her chickens, buying them feed, giving them food and water, caring for them herself, etc. I hate for her to spend a lot of money or get something *I* don't really want because in the end, I'll be the one taking care of them

What about digging a very shallow trench a couple of inches down? We've done that before. If you get a shovel and just put the tip down and sort of move it over and separate the ground, you can lay the extension cord INTO the ground. Then you can get it up under the coop or something?? Frizzles-- I have no idea if they are cold tolerant or not You'd have to read up on them. It would seem that they might not be because their feathers don't lay flat-- and end up being like the silkie where the wind cuts right thru them, but i have no idea!!! They may be just fine!

There are several breeds of frizzles. I've been told by breeders though that you can't breed a frizzle to a frizzle or you will end up with a basic naked chicken. I've never tried- so I don't know if that is true. Sunflower, the dogs would only bite into the extension cord once!

Okay so I have a sick sense of humor. I have extension cords everywhere. The dogs don't bother those big orange ones for some reason, but Cloud liked to grab anything with a plain short white cord. Not sure what the difference is. Maybe you should just string one across the yard and see if they bother it.
Mammahen I've been kind of a heap today myself. It's like I needed a day to recover and I didn't even do any cooking and stuff to speak of other than normal. I meant to get some cleaning done but instead I sat on the computer all morning then spent the after noon taking care of animals. I honestly don't know how you do it all. So where are the pictures of the kitchen??? I am dying to see!!!

That is TRUE. Frizzle X frizze= bare chicken. And that means an indoor pet chicken for life. The silkie group just had that conversation because a couple of them were working on a silkie/frizzle project and someone accidentally bred a bird that had frizzle in the genetic make up and ended up with a BALD bird! She didn't know the non-displaying bird had frizzle in the background. It was kind of sad, because she didn't know what to do with it and talked about putting it down. But I don't think she did-- someone else on the group wanted it (for who knows what) and they had the bird shipped to them. (this was earlier when it was still somewhat warmer)

Sure sorry to hear of your bird losses. That's so sad and frustrating. Today we moved the last of the birds out of the shop to a protected pen/house in the chicken yard. The group that was occupying that space is sleeping in with the big birds tonight. DH fixed up a separate electric line out to the coop so the heated waterers and electric fence won't both go out in case of a little moisture finding it's way into my hodgepodge of extension cords. The silly safety circuit would flip and leave the fence off and the water frozen. Cripes. I didn't have any casualties but it sure is miserable to think everything is taken care of only to come upon completely frozen water. I lost one of my Khaki Campbell ducks to a coyote or fox, not sure which, when the circuit got overloaded and left the fence without electricity. What do those guys do? Check the fence every night?

I've got a bunch of birds growing out and I'm really happy with their coloring. Look at this beauty! This is one of my own Aloha crosses -- no Swedish in it since they aren't quite mature enough to mate yet. This guy is looking really good, can't wait to see how he grows out. Hope I get some decent size on this guy. I have several that are very colorful and then there are several without the white spots but are more like the base color on this guy with the black flecks. Pretty, but one of those things that make you go hum.




I should have taken a pic of my Wellie roo that's growing out -- he's getting really pretty, too. I'm going to be able to breed Swedish Flowers, Welsummers, Easter Eggers, and Seramas, in addition to what I'm going to call barnyard mixes -- birds that are part Aloha but not appropriate for my program. I'll also have Ancona and Cayuga mix ducks. I'm really thankful for the ducks in this cold weather because they put off a ton of heat. I think that's why my chickens are doing so well because they have those little furnaces in the coop with them. All of the birds were out today enjoying the sunshine. They got crowded around one of the water dishes and one of the bigger birds just jumped into the middle of them, dunking several of the smaller ones in the water bowl! We took them in and blew them dry, just in case. Even though the lack of wind made it feel so much better than yesterday, it was still really cold to me.

The kids and I have been spending some time hanging out in the craftroom. The younger boys have new K'nex and Lego sets they like to build stuff with and the girls all got jewelry making kits so they were busy making earrings, bracelets and necklaces. We had a nice Christmas, my brother came over and played music for us. He's quite the musician. It's frustrating, though, because he won't write down his music. So trying to describe the music you would like to hear again is very challenging. He can play it again, if you can hum a few bars. He makes it up himself and is always working on something new.

Is everyone staying well? I have a couple kids with upper respiratory and same for DH. He's been trying to figure out what's up with our furnace. It's still working but it's being very unpredictable about how it works. One morning we woke to 53 degrees! The next morning it was 80! What the heck? I think he's about to give up and call the repairman.

Hope everyone and their birds stay warm and healthy tonight.

Karen-- WOW that boy has amazing color!!! Do you just cull all the ones that are lacking the white spots? If it's anything like what I'm doing-- any undesirable color gets "cut" and never bred. He is gorgeous, though! Sounds like you all have been having so much fun out there in the craft room! So neat!! Very neat that your brother is a great musician. I hope your furnace gets worked out. That does not sound fun at all. We're getting closer and closer to our lay-off date!! EEKS! Making me nervous and my DH is now in full swing of trying to find another job. Cross your fingers! How is your DH doing? I hope he is okay out there. My DH has strep throat right now, and he's running a fever and not feeling well.

Hello everyone! I hope all had a Merry Christmas! Santa treated everyone in my family well!

I am so behind, but the glance I did get is that it sounds like this weather has been brutal on lots of folks flocks. I am sorry to hear about everyone's loses. We take a lot of time and it is frustrating when mother nature has other plans. I know this cold weather has put a stop to my integrating the Buff Braham Bantam adoptee I picked up a month ago.

My latest trial is my Amerucana, I just noticed she has a bubbly eye on the left side. No other symptoms -- no coughing or sneezing. The eye is swollen and there is dirt near/around it. I do know that she was caught outside the other night when an owl paid my yard a visit. I don't know where this bird was hiding, but I am wondering if she didn't do something to herself when this event happened. I am sure she was freaked out of her mind and tried to get under something. My guess is that is when the eye injury occurred. What can I do for her? I don't think this is respiratory, but what do I know. Any ways input is always welcome.

Karen - Good lookin bird there! Seems like you are really getting the hang of this chicken thing!

Back to cleaning up the firestorm know as Christmas as the DW is down for the count with some bug. I am playing Daddy guard to keep the kiddos away from her so she can rest.

Have a good evening everyone!

Duh! A picture of the Amerucana would be good:

Poor girl! She is a beauty though! WOW is she pretty!!!! I'd put her on antibiotics just so that her bubbly eye doesn't turn into some really bad infection. The bubbles are obviously telling you something is going on, which isn't good. I'd run her on some Duramycin first or something along those lines and see if it clears up in 3 days or so. Watch her closely and watch her nose and put your ear on her back and listen to her breathing and check and make sure you don't hear "clicking" or bubbles/catching in the lungs. Usually you can hear it by listening in a quiet spot. If you hear nothing-- she's still okay and I'd keep her on the antibiotics until that eye clears. I'm guessing you've caught it really early before things really kick into gear. Now is the time to nip it in the bud!



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, so I'm practicing an effort in futility tonight, I'm sure. I put all of Zelda's (my hen that died) eggs that I've collected in the last couple of weeks into the incubator. I'm like 99.9% sure that NONE of them are fertile. She has been in the girl pen with no boys for a while. But my new black boy did jump the fence a few times and he was in there for the last week. But I didn't collect any eggs from her this last week.... which also makes me go hmmm.... wonder if she was egg-bound or had periontitis.. Anyway, I have had my incubator put up for months now, but got it out, got it leveled out on temp and put in the eggs. The eggs have been sitting on my counter, so they were never in the fridge. I'm sure it'll be a BIG waste and that I'll be tossing out all those eggs, but figured I'd give it a shot in her honor to see if there was some chance I could get one last chick from her.

Poor thing. I'm going to candle in 3 days and see if there is anything. I'll let you all know, but I'm sure I'll be trashing them. I'll give them until Day 5-6 before I toss just in case. Sigh.