Consolidated Kansas

[JosieChick]

That is why I tend to feather sex. Wait until I get this group of Breda's going. They have no comb at all!!!

How do you feather sex? I was hopeful on the buckeye because it used to squat but it jumped at me the other day and now its crowing. Sigh.

Here is a lavender cuckoo orp roo. http://www.orpingtonchickens.co.uk/photos/021.jpg
Gorgeous, right? Wish I had all the time and money in the world for projects!

 

[HEChicken]

Josie, so glad you are back and had a great time at your baby shower. Unfortunately, I have to tell you I most likely will NOT be able to make it Saturday so I hope you really are planning another future date. After you announced the date I started thinking maybe I could go to EquiFest a different day, so when DD announced she is scheduled to work both Saturday and Sunday, I thought "Perfect - we'll go Friday after school and that way I'll be free on Saturday". But she went to work this weekend and talked to a co-worker, and asked to trade days so she will be off on Saturday, and having gone to all that trouble to spend the day with me, I don't feel I can now ditch her. So - give us a couple of weeks notice of the next work day, and I will make sure I don't plan anything else that day.

What beautiful weather this weekend - it was so nice to get out and get some stuff done, and even spend a little time with the ponies.

Trish, glad you were able to make so much progress. Of course, you know what WichitaKidd says "No pics, it didn't happen". I can't wait to see pics of your progress. I need to get out and get some pics of the PVC/Gutter feeder too - it is working great so far.

Dh is attempting to make a ladder style roost in the new coop i want to move my little flock over there soon. What is better to get day old chicks or laying hens to add to flock? Can someone tell me what is the best measurements for a brooder? if it's best to add day old chicks then i would like to have one i don't plan on adding very many no more than a dz

It is personal preference whether to get chicks or laying hens. Here are the pros and cons as I see them and others might chime in with their thoughts as well:

Pros of chicks:

• You can hand raise them yourself so they will be friendlier.
• No need to quarantine. The period they are in the brooder serves as the quarantine period.
• Cheaper to acquire, though you have feed costs to get them to laying age.

Cons of chicks:

• More work, to have a brooder and laying flock to maintain, clean, feed, water etc.
• 6-month waiting period to get eggs.

Pros of Laying hens:

• No wait period for eggs (other than a 2-4 week period for them to get over the stress of moving to a new place)

Cons of laying hens:

• You have to take the word of the seller regarding their age. Some unscrupulous sellers could sell you a 3 year old bird that is pretty much done laying, and you'd be none the wiser.
• More expense up front to acquire them.
• Have to have a separate place to quarantine them for 30 days before adding them to the flock.
• If they are not well socialized, they may never be very handleable.

With both chicks and laying hens, you will have a period of adjustment when they are added to the flock, so I did not add that as a con under either.

Hope this helps.

 

[michelleml]

Josie, so glad you are back and had a great time at your baby shower. Unfortunately, I have to tell you I most likely will NOT be able to make it Saturday so I hope you really are planning another future date. After you announced the date I started thinking maybe I could go to EquiFest a different day, so when DD announced she is scheduled to work both Saturday and Sunday, I thought "Perfect - we'll go Friday after school and that way I'll be free on Saturday". But she went to work this weekend and talked to a co-worker, and asked to trade days so she will be off on Saturday, and having gone to all that trouble to spend the day with me, I don't feel I can now ditch her. So - give us a couple of weeks notice of the next work day, and I will make sure I don't plan anything else that day.

What beautiful weather this weekend - it was so nice to get out and get some stuff done, and even spend a little time with the ponies.

Trish, glad you were able to make so much progress. Of course, you know what WichitaKidd says "No pics, it didn't happen". I can't wait to see pics of your progress. I need to get out and get some pics of the PVC/Gutter feeder too - it is working great so far.

It is personal preference whether to get chicks or laying hens. Here are the pros and cons as I see them and others might chime in with their thoughts as well:

Pros of chicks:

• You can hand raise them yourself so they will be friendlier.
• No need to quarantine. The period they are in the brooder serves as the quarantine period.
• Cheaper to acquire, though you have feed costs to get them to laying age.

Cons of chicks:

• More work, to have a brooder and laying flock to maintain, clean, feed, water etc.
• 6-month waiting period to get eggs.

Pros of Laying hens:

• No wait period for eggs (other than a 2-4 week period for them to get over the stress of moving to a new place)

Cons of laying hens:

• You have to take the word of the seller regarding their age. Some unscrupulous sellers could sell you a 3 year old bird that is pretty much done laying, and you'd be none the wiser.
• More expense up front to acquire them.
• Have to have a separate place to quarantine them for 30 days before adding them to the flock.
• If they are not well socialized, they may never be very handleable.

With both chicks and laying hens, you will have a period of adjustment when they are added to the flock, so I did not add that as a con under either.

Hope this helps.

thanks for the advice.

 

[chicken danz]

Josie there are a couple ways to feather sex. I'll bet you know them both really. In some breeds when the chick is born you can look at the feathers at the end of the wing and the ones with open quills would be girls and the ones with closed quills would be boys. This is within just a couple hours of them being hatched and it doesn't work on all breeds.
The other thing I was actually referring to was looking at the feathers right below the neck and the feathers right before the tail. You can do this as soon as the birds get old enough to form real feathers. I female's feathers will be rounded or flat on the end and a male's will be more pointy.
That is one of the true beauties of these cuckoo or barred orpingtons. Since the males are double barred they will automatically be a much lighter colored chick and you can pretty well tell as soon as they are dry.
I am going to assume that that would be true in a lavender barred orpington as well.
I mess around with sexing them but never separate them...simply because I don't have the pen space to do so. I keep thinking I will get a magnifying light and start vent sexing. I'm afraid I could shoot myself in the foot for sales though if I did that cause hardly anyone would want to buy the boys at that age. I guess you could just cull all the boys, but that just isn't something I could do.
Once I start breeding my own red stars I am going to try to find a buyer for young boys. Right now both of my major cockerel chick buyers, buy them when they are old enough to be out of the brooder full time.
That means feeding them for 6 weeks or so...and I loose money that way.
Michelleml, I don't like buying older birds for the reasons that Heather mentioned along with the fact you are more likely to bring in disease. However I would highly recommend buying birds from places like K-state that do their test birds. You can buy a pullet just before point of lay with every vaccine imaginable for less than what you could feed one out. The girls I got were awesome and very tame. They started laying within a very short time....like days. I am trying to raise the same myself but if I were closer I would buy all my layers from their poultry sale. It is usually in April and the birds are about 16 weeks old at that point.
When you are dealing with higher priced SQ birds you are far ahead to buy a well started bird at 4-5 months old than a young one. Young birds die much easier and when paying premium price you don't want to loose them.
In general though I would opt to buy chicks or hatch my own. 99% of the joy in chickens is to have those sweet little babies!!!!

 

[HEChicken]

Danz, I'm making Milk Chicken tonight....have been wanting to try it for a long time but we only eat chicken when it is one of our own and most of them I either roast or crockpot because I'm not that good at cutting them up. However I decided I need to get better at it because I'm tired of having only two ways to prepare chicken. So tonight I cut up one of the birds we processed on Saturday and its in the oven now....

 

[chicken danz]

Oh yum! That sounds so good. I only have a couple birds I skinned in a hurry in the freezer right now. I like to make it with a skin on bird for more flavor. Let me know how it turns out.

 

[Trish44]

Wow, I guess we all had busy weekend.
Danz, take care of that hand and wrist, I know that had to hurt a bunch.
Josie, glad you had a good time and welcome home,
trish, you made some progess, and that is what counts.
I know others posted, but don't want to go back and re-read everything.

Well, Ivy brought me down the rest of her birds, and I took them over to the turkey creek swap and sold them for her. I also took some "spare's" that I had running around here that I did not want anymore. I took over 39 birds of different breeds, and sold 32, traded for 2, and bought 1 Not to bad

Is someone raising bantam SLW's? I need a couple of hens. I bought a cock bird, but they had no pullets. I traded for some very young s. sebrights, just for fun.

Started on cleaning out the old barn last night, and guess I had better get out there and clean some more. Get it done now, and I won't have to clean again until next year. I sure aint gonna clean in summer that is for sure. We put up 3 runs last night for the large fowl, I need to get out there and put a top on one, so I can let the birds out, I know they are ready, but, I had to wait for my DH, to drive the T- posts with the uniloader. That works so fast, and easy! No pounding post around here anymore!!!

Hope everybody gets out, and at least soak up some sun, sure helps with the winter blahs! I was starting to get them, staying in the house while I was sick, still coughing, but I may do that until summer I think.
They are working on the new barn today putting up more time and skylight. I will take a picture tonight after they leave.

How do you feather sex? I was hopeful on the buckeye because it used to squat but it jumped at me the other day and now its crowing. Sigh.

Here is a lavender cuckoo orp roo. http://www.orpingtonchickens.co.uk/photos/021.jpg
Gorgeous, right? Wish I had all the time and money in the world for projects!

Ooh, those lavender cuckoo orps look really pretty! Oh don't get me started on something else now. I already have Barnvelder chicks coming at the end of April, another new breed for me. I don't even have a pen for them yet, but hopefully by the time I need it I will. By then I will have all of my breeders in the new coop & everybody moved around where I want them. That will be nice to have them all in their proper places. Oh Josie, I won't be able to come next weekend either, we're planning to be out of town. Our trip to see my DH's family has gotten postponed three times already due to either us being sick or last weekend his sister-in-law was sick, so I figure he will want to try to get there this time for sure. After this I won't be able to go probably overnight due to chicks hatching. Hopefully you will have another work day & I can come for the next one.

Well I went & got most all of the stuff I needed for my pens today & got back just right before my DH got home from work. He came home first before going to the gym because I had asked him to put up my solar security light on the new coop for me. I guess it's a good thing I had him do it today because he's going back on 10 hour days tomorrow again. At least I got him to help me with the things I needed help with the most yesterday & today & then tomorrow I can work on getting those PVC conduit panels put together & I can put those up. I started on them this afternoon & got some of it cut & glued, but had to quit to go feed all the birds & animals. I think we're supposed to have some really nice days this week though, so hopefully I'll get a lot done. I got 1x4 treated lumber for the gates & I have scrap fencing I'm going to use to hook onto them, it's that 2x4 inch type of fence. I got just some pieces of it when I got some livestock panels & chain link fence from a gal on the local swap site for practically nothing. I also got cinder blocks & bricks from her because they were supposed to be cleaning their place up. I got a really good deal on all of it.

I can't wait to candle these eggs I have in the incubator, this will be the first time hatching for these birds, so I hope they're fertile. Josie, these are from the Wheatens I got from you, the eggs are such beautiful blue, much prettier blue than the other Ameraucanas I have. I hope they all develop, that would be great! I also have just a few Salmon Faverolle eggs in there & 3 eggs that are Sunflowerparrot's.

 

[JosieChick]

So sorry to hear Ivy is selling all her birds. I must have missed something. What does your DH use to drive posts? We have a kubota at our disposal right now and are trying to figure out if we can use that to set t posts.

Wow, I guess we all had busy weekend.
Danz, take care of that hand and wrist, I know that had to hurt a bunch.
Josie, glad you had a good time and welcome home,
trish, you made some progess, and that is what counts.
I know others posted, but don't want to go back and re-read everything.

Well, Ivy brought me down the rest of her birds, and I took them over to the turkey creek swap and sold them for her. I also took some "spare's" that I had running around here that I did not want anymore. I took over 39 birds of different breeds, and sold 32, traded for 2, and bought 1 Not to bad

Is someone raising bantam SLW's? I need a couple of hens. I bought a cock bird, but they had no pullets. I traded for some very young s. sebrights, just for fun.

Started on cleaning out the old barn last night, and guess I had better get out there and clean some more. Get it done now, and I won't have to clean again until next year. I sure aint gonna clean in summer that is for sure. We put up 3 runs last night for the large fowl, I need to get out there and put a top on one, so I can let the birds out, I know they are ready, but, I had to wait for my DH, to drive the T- posts with the uniloader. That works so fast, and easy! No pounding post around here anymore!!!

Hope everybody gets out, and at least soak up some sun, sure helps with the winter blahs! I was starting to get them, staying in the house while I was sick, still coughing, but I may do that until summer I think.
They are working on the new barn today putting up more time and skylight. I will take a picture tonight after they leave.

Duh!

I am a bonehead. I should have known that was what you mean't. I never think to look at chicks and have been wrong in the past on my cochins. I have just been in denial about the couple of pea combed birds. I looked at them a few weeks ago and thought they looked like they were all sprouting tails. The weird thing was that the buckeye used to squat when I pet him, like a pullet getting close to laying?! How strange is that? I have never had a roo squat.

Josie there are a couple ways to feather sex. I'll bet you know them both really. In some breeds when the chick is born you can look at the feathers at the end of the wing and the ones with open quills would be girls and the ones with closed quills would be boys. This is within just a couple hours of them being hatched and it doesn't work on all breeds.
The other thing I was actually referring to was looking at the feathers right below the neck and the feathers right before the tail. You can do this as soon as the birds get old enough to form real feathers. I female's feathers will be rounded or flat on the end and a male's will be more pointy.
That is one of the true beauties of these cuckoo or barred orpingtons. Since the males are double barred they will automatically be a much lighter colored chick and you can pretty well tell as soon as they are dry.
I am going to assume that that would be true in a lavender barred orpington as well.
I mess around with sexing them but never separate them...simply because I don't have the pen space to do so. I keep thinking I will get a magnifying light and start vent sexing. I'm afraid I could shoot myself in the foot for sales though if I did that cause hardly anyone would want to buy the boys at that age. I guess you could just cull all the boys, but that just isn't something I could do.
Once I start breeding my own red stars I am going to try to find a buyer for young boys. Right now both of my major cockerel chick buyers, buy them when they are old enough to be out of the brooder full time.
That means feeding them for 6 weeks or so...and I loose money that way.
Michelleml, I don't like buying older birds for the reasons that Heather mentioned along with the fact you are more likely to bring in disease. However I would highly recommend buying birds from places like K-state that do their test birds. You can buy a pullet just before point of lay with every vaccine imaginable for less than what you could feed one out. The girls I got were awesome and very tame. They started laying within a very short time....like days. I am trying to raise the same myself but if I were closer I would buy all my layers from their poultry sale. It is usually in April and the birds are about 16 weeks old at that point.
When you are dealing with higher priced SQ birds you are far ahead to buy a well started bird at 4-5 months old than a young one. Young birds die much easier and when paying premium price you don't want to loose them.
In general though I would opt to buy chicks or hatch my own. 99% of the joy in chickens is to have those sweet little babies!!!!

What is milk chicken?

Danz, I'm making Milk Chicken tonight....have been wanting to try it for a long time but we only eat chicken when it is one of our own and most of them I either roast or crockpot because I'm not that good at cutting them up. However I decided I need to get better at it because I'm tired of having only two ways to prepare chicken. So tonight I cut up one of the birds we processed on Saturday and its in the oven now....

I hope the eggs are fertile. The two hens I kept just started laying and their eggs are a beautiful blue as well so that roo should have good genetics for blue eggs as well. I have an EE that lays a bluish egg but these are a stunning blue!

Ooh, those lavender cuckoo orps look really pretty! Oh don't get me started on something else now. I already have Barnvelder chicks coming at the end of April, another new breed for me. I don't even have a pen for them yet, but hopefully by the time I need it I will. By then I will have all of my breeders in the new coop & everybody moved around where I want them. That will be nice to have them all in their proper places. Oh Josie, I won't be able to come next weekend either, we're planning to be out of town. Our trip to see my DH's family has gotten postponed three times already due to either us being sick or last weekend his sister-in-law was sick, so I figure he will want to try to get there this time for sure. After this I won't be able to go probably overnight due to chicks hatching. Hopefully you will have another work day & I can come for the next one.

Well I went & got most all of the stuff I needed for my pens today & got back just right before my DH got home from work. He came home first before going to the gym because I had asked him to put up my solar security light on the new coop for me. I guess it's a good thing I had him do it today because he's going back on 10 hour days tomorrow again. At least I got him to help me with the things I needed help with the most yesterday & today & then tomorrow I can work on getting those PVC conduit panels put together & I can put those up. I started on them this afternoon & got some of it cut & glued, but had to quit to go feed all the birds & animals. I think we're supposed to have some really nice days this week though, so hopefully I'll get a lot done. I got 1x4 treated lumber for the gates & I have scrap fencing I'm going to use to hook onto them, it's that 2x4 inch type of fence. I got just some pieces of it when I got some livestock panels & chain link fence from a gal on the local swap site for practically nothing. I also got cinder blocks & bricks from her because they were supposed to be cleaning their place up. I got a really good deal on all of it.

I can't wait to candle these eggs I have in the incubator, this will be the first time hatching for these birds, so I hope they're fertile. Josie, these are from the Wheatens I got from you, the eggs are such beautiful blue, much prettier blue than the other Ameraucanas I have. I hope they all develop, that would be great! I also have just a few Salmon Faverolle eggs in there & 3 eggs that are Sunflowerparrot's.

So I have two geese that I think are both ganders and I think they are bonded to each other.

They spent all day with each other and the white curly boy made a bluff at me!! I am going to have to break down and vent sex these birds because they both act like ganders so I don't know why they are hanging out together!

 

[chicken danz]

Trish I am glad you quoted checoukan's post cause I missed it somehow. More pictures, checoukan! Congrats on the sales. I never have that good of luck at swaps but if I can help it I never bring anything back home. So some people have gotten some awesome birds on the cheap in the past. I almost quit going to swaps cause I have to drive so darned far for any good ones and by the time I figure in gas I loose money a lot of times. Hopefully we will have at least one good one in this area this spring. When I was going regularly I was looking for a big old van so I could carry the birds with heat or air conditioning. But thank goodness word got out and I sold most of my birds locally.
If I start going again I will certainly consider that. It would be well worth it when they weather is unpredictable.
Sounds like you are really making progress Trish. I feel like I am going backwards. I just installed a couple hooks so I could lock doors open on the ghetto trailer today and couldn't even operate the darned drill with my stupid hand. It hurt worse today than it has the last couple. Not sure why.
And now I learn my birds are being shipped tomorrow so I'm in a pickle. I have no place to house them yet and my plans to build something temporary went down the tubes! This is NOT a good time to be unable to do what I normally can.
I may just have to disinfect and house the new birds in the brooder house for a few days to get by. Ugh! Not what I really want to do.
I had birds still trying to stay outside tonight at the ghetto. They all did okay last night but it's going to be colder tonight. I grabbed hand fulls of them and shoved them in the pop door this evening but of course most of them ran back out. So I hung a heat lamp right above the door and hope it attracts them in. I had put feed on the ramp today hoping to get them to walk into the trailer for more but that plan didn't work well.
Josie I am afraid I too am out for this weekend....still no car and I am having a heck of a time making this hand work right. I sure hope you schedule again because I promised you a long time ago I'd help you out.
Those silly geese! Mine have started hissing these days. It must be a hormone thing. .....like PMS for women. I think I did some hissing a few times!

I even got hissed at while I was filling their water after they gave me the wing up dance to show their excitement. I keep looking but no eggs yet. I haven't had any more turkey eggs either, darn it. I need to get these extra Toms butchered so they can breed instead of compete with each other.
Spring is coming too fast now...but behind as I am anything beats winter.

 

[sarajoy]

I did a google search on K-State hatchery and got nothing. Any pointers on where/whom one would contact to get started pullets from them? Sara

>However I would highly recommend buying birds from places like K-state that do their test birds.>