Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Gee whiz~~this thread has been busy this morning!!
Welcome to the newbies!!

DANZ!!
Good heavens, that wrist looks bad, and those screws, I know they hurt, that one looks like it could be puncturing the skin on the underside of the wrist!!

I guess once Ivy gets a job down here and moved, and we can both get a day off, we are just going to have to come up there, and help you on your pen needs. Maybe do an "All Call". and everyone converge on you for the afternoon and help out!

Hawkeye,
take that cock bird with you to the meeting, and put a price tag on him there, you just may get a taker. Good luck with the meeting. As you go over showmanship, make sure when you cover a new area, to stop and ask questions then, don't do the whole thing, and then ask for questions, kids will forget. Encourage the parents to ask questions too, they are the ones hopefully, will work with the kids at home. Do you have a diagram of a chicken pointing out different parts of the chicken? Do you have a pin the feather on a chicken board yet? OH I have some much stuff, but it works.

maidenwolf, incubating is easy, but sometimes, we do things to make it hard. Relax, and it will happen, Chooks gave some good pointers, danz has too, you might just have to combine what they are saying to find the best way for it to work for you.

I wish I was not so far away, I would come to lunch or what ever, but I can't!!

Ok, newest barn photo's
This is the south side looking to the northwest.



Above photo is on the east looking southwest thru barn.

Above photo on the north side looking southwest.


Above photo is the west side looking southeast.
It does not look they they are moving very fast, but with the cold, rain, mud, ice, kinda slowed them down. They are working on the east side of my work room putting up that wall and door today. I hope it does not rain too much, as they will not be working if it does. It is taking a lot of time to put the extra skylight, windows, and doors in. It is going to be so nice Its all I can do to wait to finish.

Wow checoukan, that barn is looking great! I'll bet you'll be thrilled when it's done, I know I would be.

I wish I was going to be around Sat. I would so come to eat with you all. I love HuHot, they have so many choices of sauces & you can just mix them to your taste. Ghengis grill has more choices of meat, so I guess it's kind of a trade off. I don't go in much for sushi, so I really don't know much about those places any more. The one place I liked for oriental food closed down on Rock & 13th.

Well I just came in for a break, two panels down & one to go & then I have to start building gates. I will get pics when I get further along. I just ordered netting for the top of the pens, that seemed like the easiest thing to do with this situation.

 

[checoukan]

Hey trish, let me know how the netting works, I have been thinking about trying it, but not sure.

 

[checoukan]

I can hear the builders banging around out there, so better see what they are doing, I will have more pictures later, I know my door for my work room will be up on the east side.

Catch you guys later.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Hawkeye, we can't make the meeting tonight but I'm going to talk to the kids about showing and see what they think. If they want to commit to showing, we'll attend the next meeting. I have some German New Hamps and Black Ameraucanas that would probably work out. I'll let you know.

Danz, Danz, Danz. My stars. You're a tough cookie getting all that done in spite of the pain. Nobody can tell me to slow down when I should ,either. When things just have to be done they just do, but you and I sure pay a high price for it. I hope your poor hand begins to heal in spite of not getting any rest. I'm worried about you.

Chooks, I'm going to be running with kids, too but should also be free for dinner -- I'll check with the fam. You guys just decide when and where and let me know. I would be tempted to get some eggs from you but I'm all tapped out this year. If the Black Ameraucanas were laying yet, I would bring you some eggs. They haven't started laying but should any day.

So, dry hatching in a Sportsman would just be leaving out the humidity pan during incubation?

maidenwolf, I wish I had suggestions to offer but I'm learning right along with you on the styro bators. I have two of them that I'm going to use for hatching.

checoukan, that barn is looking great!

So. I've been helping DH modify the breeder pens to add a door, add plastic and add a little slope so the rain will run off the top. My job today was filling all the knot holes, cracks and nail holes in all of the new pallet boards he will be using. So now we know why the pallet boards don't look like pallet boards on my pens.

First, he planes them and then he fills every crevice with painter's putty and then they are sanded smooth. I recognize that with the holes filled and everything painted (again), the pens will last longer and I do appreciate his attention to detail. However, I would never, not in a million years, be filling all these little imperfections in every board. I would slap that sucker together and it would be real lucky if I even threw a coat of paint on it. On the other hand, when I look at those breeder pens, they look so nice and there really isn't any thing annoying about them. So there you go. I decided to just go with it and we had a really good time. I just tried not to obsess about all the time it was taking to fill those stinkin' holes. I felt like I was painting with painter's putty.

I hope those chickens appreciate the smoothness of their boards.

On the upside, I think we'll have two more finished tomorrow. Let's see. Only 2 more to go! Yay! I think we'll make it by Sunday, if he doesn't get called into work. Woot!

During lunch today, I saw a wretched hawk approach from the east. I jumped up from the table and said "Hawk"! To DH in the other room and scrambled out the door with no shoes. That dirty hawk had made it almost to my fenced in area about the time I did. The chickens and ducks were already scrambling to get into the hen house. I yelled "HAWK!" To the birds, just to let them know I was on the case. The hawk dipped down toward my chicken yard but when I yelled he casually veered off. Then, the sneaking thing flew about a quarter mile to the west and landed in a tree. I wasn't positive that was the bird, it was so far away, but just in case I ran into the house for my shoes and the bird's sprouts. I got back out there and hung out with the birds for awhile, just to make sure everything was okay. Still that spot was on the branch and it was too upright to be a nest. So I decided I would just walk back to the field behind us and then walk west to make sure that wasn't the hawk, so I could get back to work. As I got about halfway there, I could tell for sure that the spot was a bird and then it took off and it was the stupid hawk for sure.

I suspect it's the cause of a couple dead Aloha crosses yesterday. They had wounds on their backs and wings but that's about all I could see. I have most of the roos penned now so I didn't think it was just a bully rooster. They hadn't been eaten but, my rooster is a huge roo and may have chased the hawk off. They were crowded into a corner in the big coop just inside the door. So sad. There was no sign of mites, discharge around their faces or vents, no sign of diarrhea and their crops were full. Both were hens.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Oh, duh. Hawkeye, the 4H meeting is tomorrow. I'll see if we can make it tomorrow.

 

[HEChicken]

Deerfield, sorry about the losses of your Aloha hens. Unfortunately you do make me laugh with your descriptions of things though - funny girl!

I am good with any of the choices mentioned. I personally would prefer to stay on the east side of town rather than go back to Old Town, but I'll join you wherever most people prefer to go. I've been to Hu Hot but never been to Genghis Grill. Is it Kwan Court you were talking about Trish, at 13th & Rock? I didn't realize they closed down. DH and I used to go there all the time.

 

[Trish44]

Hey trish, let me know how the netting works, I have been thinking about trying it, but not sure.

checoukan, I used the netting on the turkey pen when I put it up, of course I put tarp over that one as well, but I don't think I will on this one since they pens are under a lot of trees & they will have plenty of shade. I may change my mind later, but I have quite a bit of money tied up in all of the darned tarps I have bought. I do winterize the pens with them though & that works out pretty well. The netting I got for the turkey pen is UV protected & is 1 inch squares. This netting I just ordered is a bit different, but it should be OK, it's nylon & is 1 inch squares as well. I get mine off eBay, it seems to be quite a bit cheaper there, there are dealers on there that sell all different sizes.

Deerfield, sorry about the losses of your Aloha hens. Unfortunately you do make me laugh with your descriptions of things though - funny girl!

I am good with any of the choices mentioned. I personally would prefer to stay on the east side of town rather than go back to Old Town, but I'll join you wherever most people prefer to go. I've been to Hu Hot but never been to Genghis Grill. Is it Kwan Court you were talking about Trish, at 13th & Rock? I didn't realize they closed down. DH and I used to go there all the time.

I wish I was going to be around to go eat with you guys, but unfortunately I don't think I will be. HEChicken, yes, it was Kwan Court I was talking about that closed down. We also liked eating there quite a bit.

Karen, sorry for your losses of the Alohas, darned hawks. I have been working outside the last two days down at the new breeder coop & the lagoon isn't very far from there. I kept hearing a hawk out there both days, so there must be a nest nearby.

I feel like I got quite a bit accomplished today, I got all three panels covered with the chicken wire. That took a lot longer than I had thought it would, but having to put so darned many cable ties on takes quite awhile. Then going back & cutting off the tails takes a bit too. On the last panel I decided to use up a smaller roll of chicken wire I had & just pieced in pieces across one half of it. It may not be so neat, but it works. It doesn't bother me that much as long as it's functional. Those panels aren't perfect, they may not be perfectly uniform, but the chickens won't know the difference. As long as they keep the breeds separated that's the important thing. I started cutting the wood pieces for the gates & got all of the frames cut before I quit this evening & then drew out my triangles for putting them together. I didn't get them cut yet, but if it's not raining tomorrow I will do that then & start putting them together. Danz, thanks for the idea of how to hook the gates together, that should work out pretty easy for me to do. Then I will cut pieces of the fence I have sitting out there to hook on to the frames. We need the rain, I just hate for it to do it right now when I'm trying to work outside on my pens.

I got to thinking today that probably why some of my birds aren't laying is that they aren't getting enough light. I really have tarps all over the tops & sides of the pens just to keep the weather out. I hope I can take some of them off soon so they can get more daylight in there.

My Black Copper Marans rooster is getting a little too full of himself lately. I was walking up to the house to get their food & start feeding everybody when he grabbed the back of my sweat pants & was hanging on. I turned around & gave him a good boot & he jumped out of the way after that. I have had to give him a boot a couple of times lately. I sure hope he doesn't start doing that because he is just a gorgeous boy.

 

[sharol]

We have a marsh hawk living around here somewhere this winter. Yesterday I looked out to see the girls being shuffled over toward the run (in a big hurry) by my great roo, Butch. I looked up and the Marsh Hawk (they call them Hen Harriers in England, I understand) was swooping over the yard. I yelled HAWK! at the top of my lungs and ran out in my socks waving my arms. He/she veered off and went out a few hundred yards and set up his operations in a tree. I went ahead and shut the girls and Butch in the run just to be on the safe side.

Way too much excitement for me.

 

[chicken danz]

Been on the go all day and no time to post right now. But my adorable DIL sent me this card today. I LMAO.

 

[Frizzled Pink]

Been on the go all day and no time to post right now. But my adorable DIL sent me this card today. I LMAO.

LOL TOO FUNNY-especially since I am sitting here watching eggs pip.CMON babies!

to whomever was looking to find out how to can tomatoes, SpooncreekJen does that and also does salsa, spaghetti sauce and tomato juice, you'll have to ask her about her process--