Consolidated Kansas

[michelleml]

walmart for 6.97 or you can get 6 of them for like 69.00

 

[chicken danz]

Dang it I just lost a really long post. First was to you Josie. I know you ended up with at least one wry tail boy from the offspring I hadn't culled through. I hope you don't think I was just breeding hilly nilly. I also know the white roo didn't have great traits but he threw excellent babies... so he got to stay. My breeders came from two well known rare bird breeders. One in Texas and one in Missouri. I spend a few hundred dollars on hatching eggs with lousy hatches. The Texas birds were great. The Missouri birds had a lot more faults and were larger birds.
Maidenwolf mites are just something that happens. All we can do is do as much as we can to treat them and prevent them, but at some point everyone gets them.
Michelleml that does look like a great option for a nest box. You win the prize for great discovery today for sure.

 

[HEChicken]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_choke

Does anyone grow Jerusalem Artichokes? They are great for people and animals. I found out that geese LOVE them. I just got my replacement start to plant when the weather warms up some. The fence to protect them is waiting to be put up.

I highly recommend them for a variety of reasons. Just be sure to plant them where they can grow and spread over the years.

I never have - I will have to go and read that article. It sounds like you have grown them before - are they an easy plant to keep going and harvest?

So I went out and took some pics of the Seramas. Here is the little hen (Josie, I think this is one of yours?):


And this is the cockerel, who came from Danz if I'm understanding it correctly. Excuse the dirt on his beak - he had just been dustbathing and I kept willing him to go over and get a drink to wash it off but he didn't cooperate:




Here is one of the two of them together as they scurried across the open space:


And here is the other little unknown hen. I actually think she's very pretty - love the mottled lavender - but don't have a clue what she is. For size comparison, I wish I could have got all three of them in the pic at the same time - she is exactly the same size they are:



And last, this is a terrible pic because she saw me coming and was in a hurry to turn around and get down before I could get too close but.....this is the gutter feeder I installed in the coop. The LF can stand on the ground to eat comfortably. The cochins and silkies stand on their tippy toes and can reach in to eat. These 3 little guys just jump up and stand ON the gutter to eat.

 

[chicken danz]

Jerusalem artichokes look identical to Kansas wild sunflowers. The only way to tell them apart is by digging the roots.
Hechicken I don't know what she is either but she is a cute little thing.

 

[Trish44]

thanks for the link I'm going to read up on thins thanks for sharing.

The young girls have been out in the coop/ run with the older flock and things are starting to settle down. But i still notice that when the free range the older stay together and the younger two go off and do their own thing will that change?

I've found two eggs outside of nesting box yesterday and both were cracked. So i bought this



modular storage container and she is in it this morning

I've tried the egg grate and i found a old pepsi wooden crate but they wouldn't lay in them so i saw this and figured i give a try.

These are the same things I use in my outdoor pens, they work wonderfully. Put a fake egg or just an egg you have marked in there so they know where they're supposed to lay. The ones I have are black, but I love them, you can just take them & hose them off. I have had to drill a couple of holes in the back & wire them to the fence because otherwise they get on top & knock them over. The Walmart here in Winfield doesn't carry them, so I had to go elsewhere to find them. They started out at $9.97 apiece & then they lowered them awhile back to $6.97. I first got them in my Ameraucana pen & then added them to the two other outside pens & they're in use now. I got enough for my new coop too so they all will be using them in there as well. I found them because I was in search of something good to use outside in my pens & didn't really like the milk crates & the hens wouldn't use them.

 

[ChooksChick]

It's been a really rough year already, but I'm really getting Spring Fever and hope to be able to get out and do some good work soon. Lots to do on gates and roofs, and putting up fences...

My projects are coming along, with the Chocolate Ameraucana, Chocolate Marans, Chocolate d'Uccle, and Chocolate Bantam Cochin Projects nearly ready to lay. I'm just hoping I live long enough to see it, because I feel like I'm working myself to death! I did get to see Tweety'sVoice at the hospital for a few minutes a couple of weeks ago when I was putting my grandmother in for pneumonia. I'd really like to get back into the thread and catch up with you all a bit.

Danz, I'm desperate for a puppy, but it would have to come with divorce papers. We've now taken in one of my sisters, too, so hubby would implode.

It sounds like everyone else has been on a roll, too! So much going on!

I'm going to be getting rid of a few Cochins soon, since I'm focused on the Chocolates, Chocolate Mottled and Mauve/Mauve Mottled. I have a couple frizzled Birchen cockerels and a black hen or two...I'll double check.

I'm also going to be getting rid of a couple of Blue Silkie roos, but might sell a pair.

I'll have several Blue Ameraucanas that carry the Silkied gene if anyone is looking to get into that project.

I should have been more ruthless when taking my last cull down to Garnett, but now I'll have to wait until April to cull all the extra roos...that's going to be a full freezer!!

Anyone know of a Bourbon Red tom out there? I've lost mine and I'm needing another.

 

[chicken danz]

I was trying to buy a Tom I saw on craigslist but wrote them twice and never got a reply. They had a couple for sale on the KC list. I have no idea why these people place these adds and never answer their mail when that is the only option to contact them.
If I could find a bourbon Tom I would sell my Wild Easterns and raise them instead. Let me know if you find one and and extra one.
I just love the turkeys.
BTW it's great to see you back on here. I see you have been selling some hatching eggs on ebay. I hadn't looked to see how they sold, just noticed your adds.
I really love the puppies but it is just so much work when I am already over loaded. I hope I can catch the next heat Cloud has and lock her butt up for a few weeks. I wanted her to breed but on my terms not hers!!!

 

[JosieChick]

Oh dear!! Open my big fat mouth and stick in my big fat foot!!! Not talking about your birds at all! Sorry!!!! I have had some bitterly bad transactions with folks that misrepresented birds that were sold site unseen or I received photos and then received a different bird than in the photo. Or was told by a "reputable" breeder that I was paying good money for breeding quality birds all to have other serama breeders tear them apart on a forum. SO, I have learned to read my standards and look for type, type, type in my seramas. Table top exhibition is color blind and only judges overall type and personality. Cage showing is much more critical of faults, like leg color etc.

I know you still had that little extra cockerel that you said had slipped through the cracks when you were catching extra boys. I knew what I was buying from you too and that I was taking the whole lot. In fact I have kept a couple hens from you who have very nice type and personality. I did keep the silkie boy too but I don't have enough pens to get them all separated out so the guy in Topeka may buy him because he has more space to play with breeding pens. I am going to stick to smooth and frizzled just so I don't get overwhelmed.

Dang it I just lost a really long post. First was to you Josie. I know you ended up with at least one wry tail boy from the offspring I hadn't culled through. I hope you don't think I was just breeding hilly nilly. I also know the white roo didn't have great traits but he threw excellent babies... so he got to stay. My breeders came from two well known rare bird breeders. One in Texas and one in Missouri. I spend a few hundred dollars on hatching eggs with lousy hatches. The Texas birds were great. The Missouri birds had a lot more faults and were larger birds.
Maidenwolf mites are just something that happens. All we can do is do as much as we can to treat them and prevent them, but at some point everyone gets them.
Michelleml that does look like a great option for a nest box. You win the prize for great discovery today for sure.

Well shucks. I am going to say that I think that little hen is probably from Danz too but I imagine they aren't too closely related. She had a black hen that had dark pigment around her face. Is her comb kind of a ruddy color, not pink or red? If so I imagine she is from that hen that I sold. She doesn't look like one of my girls. They are both very cute but their type is poor. They are both very long in the back. The darkness on the pullets face concerns me, while her tail is nice it is low and her wings are set on the horizontal. The cockerel has a decent expression, but his type is poor as well. His wing carriage is even more horizontal than the pullet and he appears to have a feather quality issue. You see the difference between the pullets smooth broad feathers and how the cockerel's feathers appear almost shredded? It is most likely just genetics that have created that appearance to his feathers. They are cute but I wouldn't personally hatch from them. If you do be sure to tell folks they are pet quality and I think that is fair as long as you disclose that.

Where did you get that other sweet little pullet from???? She is the most darling thing and I LOVE her color. What an adorable pet, I would just love to have her around just to look at!!

I am going to take some pics today for a guy so I will snap some pics of my seramas and get those posted for you to look at too. This link is a good outline drawing of a serama cockerel. When breeding serama the goal is to achieve birds that "fit" into this frame. The drawing of this bird is in "pose." This frame is seen in a serama that is on attention so to speak. When they are wandering around in their pen you won't see such an extreme shape but the overall idea should still be there. http://seramaclubofamerica.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=15985364

I never have - I will have to go and read that article. It sounds like you have grown them before - are they an easy plant to keep going and harvest?

So I went out and took some pics of the Seramas. Here is the little hen (Josie, I think this is one of yours?):


And this is the cockerel, who came from Danz if I'm understanding it correctly. Excuse the dirt on his beak - he had just been dustbathing and I kept willing him to go over and get a drink to wash it off but he didn't cooperate:




Here is one of the two of them together as they scurried across the open space:


And here is the other little unknown hen. I actually think she's very pretty - love the mottled lavender - but don't have a clue what she is. For size comparison, I wish I could have got all three of them in the pic at the same time - she is exactly the same size they are:



And last, this is a terrible pic because she saw me coming and was in a hurry to turn around and get down before I could get too close but.....this is the gutter feeder I installed in the coop. The LF can stand on the ground to eat comfortably. The cochins and silkies stand on their tippy toes and can reach in to eat. These 3 little guys just jump up and stand ON the gutter to eat.

Michelle- I love those bins. I will have to get some, they look like awesome nest boxes.

 

[HEChicken]

Oh my, looking at that sketch I totally see what you mean about the difference. WOW!!! Thank you for the feedback - that is really fine by me as I would prefer to focus on LF anyway. I might put the pair on FB and see if I get any takers who just want them as pets - otherwise they are so cheap to feed, I'll keep them around. They get along great with the LF - I really don't have any issues with them being picked on due to their size.

That other little hen came out of a bin of mixed bantam chicks at Atwoods in Andover last spring. I can't remember the entire list of possible breeds in the bin but they included silkies, cochins and gamebirds. All the possible breeds were either feather legged or crested, except the gamebirds, so for a long time I assumed she was a gamebird and called her "my little game hen". But as she grew up, she really didn't look gamey so I have no clue what she is! Although she only hatched the last week of February, she already went broody this Fall. I had her sitting on 3 Aloha eggs and she did great for 2 weeks but then lost interest. It was late enough in the year I really didn't want to brood chicks myself but I didn't want to just let them die so I started up the incubator however candling them a few days later it was clear they had been cold too long and it was already too late. I figure she was probably too immature at that stage to be a good broody and mum so it was probably just as well. If she goes broody again this year, perhaps she'll do better.

 

[JosieChick]

Glad they get along well with everyone, they are spunky little birds so usually they hold their own! I love that little mottled hen, I bet she is a game bird. Super sweet.

Oh my, looking at that sketch I totally see what you mean about the difference. WOW!!! Thank you for the feedback - that is really fine by me as I would prefer to focus on LF anyway. I might put the pair on FB and see if I get any takers who just want them as pets - otherwise they are so cheap to feed, I'll keep them around. They get along great with the LF - I really don't have any issues with them being picked on due to their size.

That other little hen came out of a bin of mixed bantam chicks at Atwoods in Andover last spring. I can't remember the entire list of possible breeds in the bin but they included silkies, cochins and gamebirds. All the possible breeds were either feather legged or crested, except the gamebirds, so for a long time I assumed she was a gamebird and called her "my little game hen". But as she grew up, she really didn't look gamey so I have no clue what she is! Although she only hatched the last week of February, she already went broody this Fall. I had her sitting on 3 Aloha eggs and she did great for 2 weeks but then lost interest. It was late enough in the year I really didn't want to brood chicks myself but I didn't want to just let them die so I started up the incubator however candling them a few days later it was clear they had been cold too long and it was already too late. I figure she was probably too immature at that stage to be a good broody and mum so it was probably just as well. If she goes broody again this year, perhaps she'll do better.

I apologize for all the birds randomly in pics. These guys are a tight knit group and move like a school of fish. It is hard to get one of them away from the others!
Here is probably on one of my best hens, deep chests, vertical wing carriage and short backs are harder to get in hens.

My frizzled cockerel hatched this year. I love his type, his wings could be more on the vertical but he isn't bad. His comb isn't perfect but I can let it slide, this is just him loafing around in the pen while I threw scratch for them. This is his normal carriage.


This pic shows him more in "pose." He was startled and you can see his wings are more on the vertical and his chest is more puffed out.



His papa, Archie. I apologize for his tail. He molted this fall and is just starting to get some tail feathers back in. Usually that huge gap isn't present. He has a bit of scissor wing that I am hoping to breed out with hens with proper wing set. He is a bit posed as I leaned over and stepped on a stick by accident which startled them. I like the little chocolate and white frizzled girl beside him but she needs some wing work as her wings are too horizontal. I may purchase another roo this summer if I can find one reasonably priced.



And one more of this rascal because I am partial to him. I love his silly mane of frizzled feathers. He looks like a dinosaur when he is getting into with the boys through the fence and that mane is all raised up!



Breeders who exhibit their serama actually use conditioning boxes to build the muscles that create a really nice "pose" for the show ring. I haven't gotten that involved yet!

Maidenwolf-I will send you a PM with pics and prices on the couple pullets I have for sale.