Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

I didn't get a chance to work on my hoop coop at all today. Just too much to do in one days time. I just now got sat down.
I've had a lot of interest in the pups but until I have money in hand I don't count them as sold. I just spent another $60 today on puppy food and I had just spent $30 for food on Saturday. I was out already. They will be ready to go this weekend. I really want to get them moved out as fast as possible.
I gave my young birds a dose of corid today. More preventative medicine than anything. I noticed my Bredas already got diarrhea from it with just one day of treatment. I guess I should give them some more probiotics. I would think the FF would have plenty.
Yep the FF is a bit of a pain and it is causing me a lot of extra work but I am very pleased with the results. The chickens are doing better and seem healthier. It's hard to say they are shinier or anything because I had some awesome shiny birds to begin with. But considering the drought and the fact there just isn't anything to eat out there naturally I think they are doing great. Once I get some more of my other birds out of here I hope the feed cost will go down.
I just have too many growing birds around here right now. So I guess I'll keep messing with it until I can't. The problem is that DH doesn't know what to do with it so if I am out of it for a day or two he won't know how to feed.
I had to unload the trailer, then back it into a parking place. Then drive the truck back around and unload it. I had lumber and panels to unload. I cut my finger on a rough edge on one of the panels and bled all over DH's steering wheel cover. He won't be happy. It just wouldn't stop bleeding. DH thought I had someone come back the trailer for me cause I have always said I couldn't back one.
I got the sweeper ran, dusted, and cleaned the kitchen before my company got here. I got the dog pen shoveled out and put a half bale of straw down so it would be dry.
Then visited with company for awhile, loaded up my tarp and the tires I use to hold down the tarp and went to get feed. Made it back home an hour later and finished feeding the birds. Then I mixed the new FF for tomorrow.
Came in the house and mixed up a batch of homemade bread. It is rising now. And got dinner on.
Now I am just beat!!!
Tomorrow will be another busy day but hopefully not as bad as today.
Congrats Frizzled Pink on your new additions. I hatched a few more lemon cuckoos today.

 

[JosieChick]

Awwwwwww!! Bantam cochin babies, my favorite!!

No mille fleur huh? Was everything that hatched from the blue roo pen? She has a blue frizzle roo right?

new babies--bantam cochins

Wow! You got a lot done! That looks really nice. I must have missed what the hoop house is for? Suzette and Matilda are beautiful, are they both EEs? Love their coloring! Love your wellie roo too. I have a few hens that like to pluck my serama roosters tail. I think it is a either some kind of loving preening thing they do or else they just like to grab him when he runs off after jumping them!!!

That's as far as I've got with this project so far. Tomorrow I hope to do the end and then start on the front of it to include a gate. Meanwhile....with the camera finally out there, I took pics of my PVC/Gutter feeder. I've had the gutter part installed for over a month but only added the PVC pipe a week and a half ago. So far it is working better than I anticipated. I can fill it from the feed room side of my coop and the pipe holds enough feed for just over a day for the entire flock. Although it only feeds down to one section of the gutter, they spread it out themselves but can't bill it out over the top of the feeder, so my feed consumption has gone down since I had this installed. Also, because I now fill it only once a day, I can keep better track of the amount of feed I'm going through. In other words, I know how many scoops of feed it takes to fill it, and that makes it far easier to notice if that number goes up (or down).



Now for WichitaKidd, here are some photos of Betty. I am still learning about type, and I know she is a hatchery bird but I actually think she has nice type, if the goal is a feathered basketball (which for Wyandottes, I think it is):






And for Deerfield Acres, you remember Matilda, whom we thought would be nice paired with Suzette back when we thought Suzette was a boy?



Well, look at this:


There is Suzette at the bottom of the photo, and Matilda to the left. But wait - who is the third one that looks like them? That is Freckles, and here's the amazing thing - she isn't Suzette's daughter!!! It is possible she is Matilda's daughter but I set no green eggs in that batch so there is no way she can be Suzette's (Cyrus is the daddy). Here is another photo of her:


Isn't she pretty? DD named her Freckles when she first hatched because she had tiny little freckles all over her head. Now that she's laying, her eggs are light brown with white freckles!

Last, here is my Welsummer rooster. His tail is looking really ratty - not sure why:

Phew, I am trying to paint and am getting tired. Sigh. I need about four more of myself to get this painting done.

Forgot to say earlier that our t posts are finally in at Sutherlands so we will plan on putting horse fencing in on Sat. Feb. 23 for anyone who wants to help! PM me if you need our phone number/address.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

I gave my young birds a dose of corid today. More preventative medicine than anything. I noticed my Bredas already got diarrhea from it with just one day of treatment. I guess I should give them some more probiotics. I would think the FF would have plenty.

When my chicks started getting the diarrhea and pasty butts, I gave them the Gro Gel beause it was the only thing I had here with probiotics in it. Plus it has lots of other goodies in it, and it worked so well and fast. I have more ordered to have it on hand whenever I have more chciks. There are some Ebay listings for it that are very reasonable in price.

 

[HEChicken]

Wow! You got a lot done! That looks really nice. I must have missed what the hoop house is for? Suzette and Matilda are beautiful, are they both EEs? Love their coloring! Love your wellie roo too. I have a few hens that like to pluck my serama roosters tail. I think it is a either some kind of loving preening thing they do or else they just like to grab him when he runs off after jumping them!!!
Phew, I am trying to paint and am getting tired. Sigh. I need about four more of myself to get this painting done.

I'm glad your t-posts are finally in - who knew you would have to wait so long for such a common supply? This hoop coop is actually the first of two. I am making them as breeder pens for my turkeys and my muscovy ducks. I've read that muscovies are very good at hiding their nests and turkeys also have distinct ideas about nest placement. In both cases, I doubt if their choice of nest site will be safe given the close proximity of coyotes this time of year, so I am building them each a hoop house they can be locked in for "breeding/hatching season". They won't be happy as they are used to great freedom but at least they'll be safe and have a chance of successfully raising their young.

Suzette is an EE but Matilda is an

When I built my first incubator, I wanted to do a test hatch with local, rather than shipped eggs, however living in the city, I had no rooster. So I looked on CL and there was a lady advertising eggs for eating, but I contacted her anyway and asked if the eggs were fertile. They were, so I bought some to hatch. She was a distant relative of the chicken-raiser - the chickens lived out in the country somewhere and she just took the eggs to sell in the city, so she had never even seen the parents. I asked her what breeds they are and she didn't have a clue. Matilda has black skin which would indicate perhaps a silkie heritage (I think there is another breed or two with black skin but now they're not coming to mind). However she just turned two at the end of January and has never had a broody day in her life so I truly

. Matilda does not look EE to me as she has no beard or cheek muffs. Her legs are slate grey. And she lays such a light brown egg that when DD was collecting eggs for me she thought it was a white egg. She is very people oriented, and always wants to hang out with me, chattering away non-stop. When we lived in Wichita she was convinced she was supposed to be a house chicken, and would follow me up the deck stairs and had a knack for following me into the house so close behind that I would step in, and turn around to close the door and have no clue she was in the house! More than once I didn't know she was inside and would get quite a start as she suddenly jumped up onto the dining room table or other such surface. She would walk around examining everything with great curiosity, muttering softly to herself the whole time but in all the times she came in, she never once pooped in the house. When the fox visited, the one bird I would have been the most devastated to lose, was Matilda. I was so busy watching for and dispatching it, that I wasn't able to make sure she was okay, but once I knew it was safe, I went to find the flock and they were all behind my horse shelter. I saw Matilda and called out "Matilda, you can come out now; its safe". She immediately started walking towards me and the rest of the flock followed, single-file. I try not to anthropomorphise too much and I really don't believe she understood my words, but I think she did trust me and knew I would not call her out if it was still dangerous.

 

[michelleml]

Okay, I hope this won't be picture overload, but I wanted to get my pics downloaded while I know where the camera AND its cable are.

I started by laying out the three panels along the 12' lumber that is the side wall. Here is where I ran into the first "snag". I had assumed the panels are 4' tall but they are actually 52", so I had to overlap them in order to get them to fit onto the 12' side.



The next step you can't really see, but I used wire to tie the panels together along the length of the panels. I was going to use zip ties and just replace them every couple of years as the sun wore through them but DH suggested I use the wire and now I'm glad I did. It will last as long as the rest of the materials and it wasn't as hard to thread it through and get it tight as I thought it would be, using a pair of pliers in each hand to pull it really tight and tie it off. Then I used a combination of fencing staples and the metal strapping (thanks Danz for that idea!) to affix the panels to the wood sides. I used the metal strapping where the panels overlap and on each of the corners.



Next I had DH come out to help. We tied a nylon tie-down in the center of one side board, and then I pulled it towards me while he stabilized it on the other side. Once we had it hooped, I tied off my end to the other side panel. As it turned out, we actually bent it to where we could have used 8' end boards at this point and I briefly considered leaving it tied there and running to the lumber yard to buy some, to save my 10' boards. But then I realized they would have more square footage if I stuck with the original plan. If I made the end boards 8' long, they would have 12x8=96 square feet. By using the 10' lumber, they will have 120 square feet, which makes quite a difference. I can walk under it without my head touching the top of the hoop and wish there had been someone else there to take a picture. Once DH had helped me to pull the panels over into the hoop, he went back to work and I added the end boards, using 3 screws apiece, since the panels put them under quite a bit of pressure and I wanted to be sure they will hold.


looks awesome great job
That's as far as I've got with this project so far. Tomorrow I hope to do the end and then start on the front of it to include a gate. Meanwhile....with the camera finally out there, I took pics of my PVC/Gutter feeder. I've had the gutter part installed for over a month but only added the PVC pipe a week and a half ago. So far it is working better than I anticipated. I can fill it from the feed room side of my coop and the pipe holds enough feed for just over a day for the entire flock. Although it only feeds down to one section of the gutter, they spread it out themselves but can't bill it out over the top of the feeder, so my feed consumption has gone down since I had this installed. Also, because I now fill it only once a day, I can keep better track of the amount of feed I'm going through. In other words, I know how many scoops of feed it takes to fill it, and that makes it far easier to notice if that number goes up (or down).



Now for WichitaKidd, here are some photos of Betty. I am still learning about type, and I know she is a hatchery bird but I actually think she has nice type, if the goal is a feathered basketball (which for Wyandottes, I think it is):





she is beautiful
And for Deerfield Acres, you remember Matilda, whom we thought would be nice paired with Suzette back when we thought Suzette was a boy?



Well, look at this:


There is Suzette at the bottom of the photo, and Matilda to the left. But wait - who is the third one that looks like them? That is Freckles, and here's the amazing thing - she isn't Suzette's daughter!!! It is possible she is Matilda's daughter but I set no green eggs in that batch so there is no way she can be Suzette's (Cyrus is the daddy). Here is another photo of her:


Isn't she pretty? DD named her Freckles when she first hatched because she had tiny little freckles all over her head. Now that she's laying, her eggs are light brown with white freckles!

Here is her sister, Cookie, who I believe is Sussex/Cyrus. She lays green eggs, and she and Freckles are the most personable chickens I've ever had. Neither ever misses an opportunity to jump up into my lap, and Cookie pecks my knee frequently. I think it is an attention seeking behavior, kind of like a 2-year-old tugging at mom's pants trying to get picked up.




Last, here is my Welsummer rooster. His tail is looking really ratty - not sure why:

new babies--bantam cochins

cute little chicks

 

[sharol]

What a great story. She sounds like a great pet.

***snip***
Suzette is an EE but Matilda is an

When I built my first incubator, I wanted to do a test hatch with local, rather than shipped eggs, however living in the city, I had no rooster. So I looked on CL and there was a lady advertising eggs for eating, but I contacted her anyway and asked if the eggs were fertile. They were, so I bought some to hatch. She was a distant relative of the chicken-raiser - the chickens lived out in the country somewhere and she just took the eggs to sell in the city, so she had never even seen the parents. I asked her what breeds they are and she didn't have a clue. Matilda has black skin which would indicate perhaps a silkie heritage (I think there is another breed or two with black skin but now they're not coming to mind). However she just turned two at the end of January and has never had a broody day in her life so I truly

. Matilda does not look EE to me as she has no beard or cheek muffs. Her legs are slate grey. And she lays such a light brown egg that when DD was collecting eggs for me she thought it was a white egg. She is very people oriented, and always wants to hang out with me, chattering away non-stop. When we lived in Wichita she was convinced she was supposed to be a house chicken, and would follow me up the deck stairs and had a knack for following me into the house so close behind that I would step in, and turn around to close the door and have no clue she was in the house! More than once I didn't know she was inside and would get quite a start as she suddenly jumped up onto the dining room table or other such surface. She would walk around examining everything with great curiosity, muttering softly to herself the whole time but in all the times she came in, she never once pooped in the house. When the fox visited, the one bird I would have been the most devastated to lose, was Matilda. I was so busy watching for and dispatching it, that I wasn't able to make sure she was okay, but once I knew it was safe, I went to find the flock and they were all behind my horse shelter. I saw Matilda and called out "Matilda, you can come out now; its safe". She immediately started walking towards me and the rest of the flock followed, single-file. I try not to anthropomorphise too much and I really don't believe she understood my words, but I think she did trust me and knew I would not call her out if it was still dangerous.

 

[Frizzled Pink]

@Josiechick-no mille's from this hatch so i have some bigger siblings covered, her blue roo Hot Steel is smooth but in with frizzled hens

 

[Hawkeye95]

Hawkeye, I hate winter too! If I could move somewhere where it's 70 something all the time I think I would do it, I would love it, but usually those places are also humid & I don't do so well with that. Sigh! The weather forecast is still saying 54 tomorrow & 57 Thurs. so I hope they're right & this snow goes away fast. As I'm sitting here though it's still snowing like crazy out there, it's smaller stuff now, but it's definitely sticking. I went out to take care of all of my birds & it wasn't that cold really, just super wet. I had a stocking cap on my head & it's soaked along with my hair.

As far as the FF goes, I have not seen the drop in feed consumption that others have reported either. That seemed to be more about the broilers though rather than layers. Danz, I finally had to just cut back on what I feed the layer flock because I figured out they would just eat all of what I put out there, no matter how much it is, they're pigs when it comes to that stuff. As long as I don't see any birds losing a lot of weight or they quit laying altogether or something I really think they're getting enough. I feed them their sunflower seed snack in the morning now since I feed them the FF at night. What I have noticed though is the hens are getting nicer, sleeker feathers than they had before & the one Red Star hen that has had a bare back forever is finally growing some feathers back in. My BC Marans rooster who had gotten sick with a cough & was having a hard time getting over it got well almost immediately following starting to feed the FF. I can't wait for the weather to warm up enough for me to be able to get out there & clean out my main coop completely & then see if it seems to stay somewhat cleaner. That is what some people have said is that the chicken's droppings are more formed & make less of a mess. This stuff is a mess to deal with, my entry looks & smells kind of like some kind of brewery right now, but as soon as it's not freezing at night any more I will move it out of here. All of my birds go so nuts for this stuff that I have to fight them off to get it into the trough feeders, they're just crazy for it.

I was going to do some worming with my birds, but here came the snow, so I think I'll wait till that is out of here. I'm sure it's time for me to do that again & I want to get the pens & coop all cleaned out, treat for mites & start fresh.

Hawkeye, I will take some pics of the pens & coop when the weather improves again. I have been wanting to get some new ones anyway, but I have just been spending all my extra time & energy on steaming on with those pens. I was so exhausted last night that I barely could manage to fix anything for us for supper when my DH came home. He hasn't seen what I did yet, so he has no idea. Of course he informed me today that he's working 10 hours the rest of the week, of course when I could use his help he would be.

Yeah, no rush on the pictures when it's this cold and miserable out. But I am really interested to see what you've been doing! You really got a ton of that snow!! We got nothing! I was actually hoping it would go ahead and come up this way! We just need the moisture! I sure hope Spring will turn around for us here. I already need to dig up about 3 trees that died and re-plant new ones in their place. So sad. I had two Gold Glob arbortivae die on me. I don't know if I want to replace them with the same species or go for another type that might be more drought tolerant. I think I'll try to find something that will hold up better. These lasted 12 years, though. I planted them when we first moved in. But the last two years of severe drought ended up killing them. So I'd say they "were" pretty tolerant.... just not in extreme cases like our last summers. I did water them, but it didn't matter. I'm with you on the cleaning out-- as soon as we hit nice weather, I need to get everyone all cleaned out with fresh bedding put down. Yuck.

no soaker hoses, the black you see is the weed barrier showing, the one hose running out to drive is a runoff hose from above ground pool needed to keep chlorine water from draining into the tropicals, she has worked on the soil there for several years composting and such, we do use a lot of mulch however, she has a good size creek too and seems to have less issue with things drying out than i do on my smaller suburban lot

Ahhh, well then she has a nice piece of property, it sounds like! So how does she store the banana plants during the winter? Does she have a large barn she puts them in... or?? I'd love to know how she does that! I hear you about the composting. I mulch my trees with the old horse poop that has broken down. It's nice and loose and fluffy by that point. Seems like everything takes off after I do that. And I have that by the ton out there! LOL I have had friends come over and scoop some up for their gardens. Which I think is so funny-- they are all excited and thank me.. and I'm thinking, I should be thanking THEM! LOL

I am so over today. I feel like all I did was make phone calls and run errands and chase my tail! Our insurance changed in November and the old insurance didn't cover my first sonogram because it wasn't expensive enough! So now we have a $500 sonogram bill. I have contacted two midwives, the first is not available and the second is going to be out of the country for two weeks right before I am due so we would have to have a back up midwife in case I go into labor early. That kind of stresses me out. So now I am meeting with a nurse midwife who delivers at the two birth centers in Wichita because I don't know what else to do. Our insurance also doesn't cover a home birth so the entire expense would be out of pocket. Sigh. It just never ends. Wish it could be like the good old days and I could just pay someone to deliver the baby in chickens or something!

Oh UGH about the insurance!! No fun!! Right now, we have fantastic insurance-- it's so wonderful it's just insane how happy we are with it. We pay for hardly anything at all, and even our co-pays are really, really low. Our deductible is very low, too. Like REALLY low. We have a Traditional plan because of my health issues (it's a bit more to pay for, but the trade off is perfect for me). Anyway, that is another thing I'm going to miss about my DH working at Boeing.

I know we're going to get some crappy insurance that we have to spend a fortune on and have high deductible and high co-pays. Seesh, I hate this whole thing. If I wind up in the hospital again, who knows what that could do to us financially. Agreed on the good 'ole days... I'd love to trade for services! I hope you don't go early for labor so that you can do your home birth with the other lady. Even so, if you have to go to the labor centers, I'm sure you can still meet most of your birth plan-- with the drug free, and be free of most intervention! So it might work out just as well, anyway, with less clean up for you.

Okay, I hope this won't be picture overload, but I wanted to get my pics downloaded while I know where the camera AND its cable are.

I started by laying out the three panels along the 12' lumber that is the side wall. Here is where I ran into the first "snag". I had assumed the panels are 4' tall but they are actually 52", so I had to overlap them in order to get them to fit onto the 12' side.



The next step you can't really see, but I used wire to tie the panels together along the length of the panels. I was going to use zip ties and just replace them every couple of years as the sun wore through them but DH suggested I use the wire and now I'm glad I did. It will last as long as the rest of the materials and it wasn't as hard to thread it through and get it tight as I thought it would be, using a pair of pliers in each hand to pull it really tight and tie it off. Then I used a combination of fencing staples and the metal strapping (thanks Danz for that idea!) to affix the panels to the wood sides. I used the metal strapping where the panels overlap and on each of the corners.



Next I had DH come out to help. We tied a nylon tie-down in the center of one side board, and then I pulled it towards me while he stabilized it on the other side. Once we had it hooped, I tied off my end to the other side panel. As it turned out, we actually bent it to where we could have used 8' end boards at this point and I briefly considered leaving it tied there and running to the lumber yard to buy some, to save my 10' boards. But then I realized they would have more square footage if I stuck with the original plan. If I made the end boards 8' long, they would have 12x8=96 square feet. By using the 10' lumber, they will have 120 square feet, which makes quite a difference. I can walk under it without my head touching the top of the hoop and wish there had been someone else there to take a picture. Once DH had helped me to pull the panels over into the hoop, he went back to work and I added the end boards, using 3 screws apiece, since the panels put them under quite a bit of pressure and I wanted to be sure they will hold.



That's as far as I've got with this project so far. Tomorrow I hope to do the end and then start on the front of it to include a gate. Meanwhile....with the camera finally out there, I took pics of my PVC/Gutter feeder. I've had the gutter part installed for over a month but only added the PVC pipe a week and a half ago. So far it is working better than I anticipated. I can fill it from the feed room side of my coop and the pipe holds enough feed for just over a day for the entire flock. Although it only feeds down to one section of the gutter, they spread it out themselves but can't bill it out over the top of the feeder, so my feed consumption has gone down since I had this installed. Also, because I now fill it only once a day, I can keep better track of the amount of feed I'm going through. In other words, I know how many scoops of feed it takes to fill it, and that makes it far easier to notice if that number goes up (or down).



Now for WichitaKidd, here are some photos of Betty. I am still learning about type, and I know she is a hatchery bird but I actually think she has nice type, if the goal is a feathered basketball (which for Wyandottes, I think it is):








Last, here is my Welsummer rooster. His tail is looking really ratty - not sure why:

LOVED the picture overload!!! I just love pictures, so I'm not complaining! AWESOME hoop house! I might be trying to build one of those this summer so that I can have something up fast and move it easier if need be. I'm paying attention to your "how-to"! LOVE WichitaKidd's bird!! She is a lot prettier than my Wynadottes. They obviously did not come from the same hatchery! Mine do not have that shape or look to them. Mine are now molting, so I don't know what's up with that. I should take a picture of them, it's insane how bad they look right now. I was hoping to list them and get them sold, but they look like mongrels and no one is going to want to buy them with half their feathers gone. Sheesh!!!

If anyone wants a couple of laying Silver Laced Wyandotte girls-- let me know! They were hatched in October 2011. They started laying in March or April of 2012. So they haven't been laying an entire year... yet. It's coming up soon!

That rooster is gorgeous! Even with his plucked out tail! hehee

Love that feeder!! I really should try to work something out like that, but I don't have a good place to put it in their coop. I might have to do this for the silkie pens when I build them. (WHEN.... not "if", right??)

new babies--bantam cochins

Adorable!!!

It has been several days since I have been able to be on here. I apologize for not responding to posts... I haven't had time to read through the pages of stuff I've missed...

This past Saturday was the Valentine's banquet for my church, and I was in charge of organizing the banquet. I was so relieved when it was over! Then, on Monday, my husband and I made a trip to Denver to look at a pickup. We ended up spending all day in Denver and brought the pickup home. Yesterday, I also got my first two eggs from my ducks! I've had them since this past June and have only gotten 2 eggs (total) from the 8 ducks (and 1 drake). My geese should start laying soon as well, so it shouldn't be too long before I have eggs running out my ears! It is so nice to finally get eggs! I got 2 more eggs this morning, and I am so excited!

AS for the dog situation... I haven't been home much for the last several days so the birds have stayed locked up. I let the birds out today and had the shock collar on the dog. He never even attempted to chase them. I will continue to keep a close eye on him, but I really think he was doing it to get attention as my husband has been very busy recently. When I went to get the mail today, I rode my horse and took the dog with me. He got a short, fast run out of the deal. We need to work with him on "healing" next to the horse, though. He does it well on foot and on a bike, but he obviously needs some work on horse back.

Glad your banquet is over and went off well. YAY on the eggs! Congrats! Yep, they'll be laying like crazy soon enough. I'd still be careful about the dog. My dogs would never do anything while I was close by watching. But it's a different story when I'm not there, or they don't think I'm around and watching them. They are smart animals! Hopefully yours will be just fine, though. Nice you got to go riding! I haven't been riding in forever now. Its not an easy thing to do when I have a little kid at home and can't leave her. I could probably take her along, but I need warmer days for that. I have a mare I could dally up to my gelding.

I didn't get a chance to work on my hoop coop at all today. Just too much to do in one days time. I just now got sat down.
I've had a lot of interest in the pups but until I have money in hand I don't count them as sold. I just spent another $60 today on puppy food and I had just spent $30 for food on Saturday. I was out already. They will be ready to go this weekend. I really want to get them moved out as fast as possible.
I gave my young birds a dose of corid today. More preventative medicine than anything. I noticed my Bredas already got diarrhea from it with just one day of treatment. I guess I should give them some more probiotics. I would think the FF would have plenty.
Yep the FF is a bit of a pain and it is causing me a lot of extra work but I am very pleased with the results. The chickens are doing better and seem healthier. It's hard to say they are shinier or anything because I had some awesome shiny birds to begin with. But considering the drought and the fact there just isn't anything to eat out there naturally I think they are doing great. Once I get some more of my other birds out of here I hope the feed cost will go down.
I just have too many growing birds around here right now. So I guess I'll keep messing with it until I can't. The problem is that DH doesn't know what to do with it so if I am out of it for a day or two he won't know how to feed.
I had to unload the trailer, then back it into a parking place. Then drive the truck back around and unload it. I had lumber and panels to unload. I cut my finger on a rough edge on one of the panels and bled all over DH's steering wheel cover. He won't be happy. It just wouldn't stop bleeding. DH thought I had someone come back the trailer for me cause I have always said I couldn't back one.
I got the sweeper ran, dusted, and cleaned the kitchen before my company got here. I got the dog pen shoveled out and put a half bale of straw down so it would be dry.
Then visited with company for awhile, loaded up my tarp and the tires I use to hold down the tarp and went to get feed. Made it back home an hour later and finished feeding the birds. Then I mixed the new FF for tomorrow.
Came in the house and mixed up a batch of homemade bread. It is rising now. And got dinner on.
Now I am just beat!!!
Tomorrow will be another busy day but hopefully not as bad as today.
Congrats Frizzled Pink on your new additions. I hatched a few more lemon cuckoos today.

Seriously... I can't think of another single person that works harder than you do. You did ALL of that and THEN came back in and made home made bread? Are you nuts?!?!?

I'm glad you had a great time with your company and got all of those chores taken care of! Good luck on the puppy sales this weekend and I sure hope they are all picked up and paid in full for!! I need just half of your motivation and I'd get so much done around here!

Phew, I am trying to paint and am getting tired. Sigh. I need about four more of myself to get this painting done.

Forgot to say earlier that our t posts are finally in at Sutherlands so we will plan on putting horse fencing in on Sat. Feb. 23 for anyone who wants to help! PM me if you need our phone number/address.

Still painting your cabinets?? Id love to see a picture when you get them done! I forgot to ask DH if we still have the fence stretcher! It was my parents, and if they took it back, it's buried in a storage shed while they are out of state for a couple of years. If we don't have it, you HAVE to have one-- I bet they aren't that expensive. But it would be nice if we had ours (for free)! But it comes in handy later on down the road if you ever have a line get droopy. You should unhook all your t-post clamp and unwind at your wood post point and start ratcheting it up nice and tight again, re-wind and re-clamp. It really doesn't take that long to fix fence. But I have to say-- we did our fence nearly 13 years ago, and it is STILL tight! We did a great job on it. But my neighbors fence is a mess. She didn't buy the barbed wire-- but bought the straight twisted wire and it doesn't hold up like barbed wire does. Her's is falling all over and they used the fence stretcher too.

When the fox visited, the one bird I would have been the most devastated to lose, was Matilda. I was so busy watching for and dispatching it, that I wasn't able to make sure she was okay, but once I knew it was safe, I went to find the flock and they were all behind my horse shelter. I saw Matilda and called out "Matilda, you can come out now; its safe". She immediately started walking towards me and the rest of the flock followed, single-file. I try not to anthropomorphise too much and I really don't believe she understood my words, but I think she did trust me and knew I would not call her out if it was still dangerous.

Awwwww... that is so sweet. What a great bird!


Not much going on here. Same 'ole same 'ole. I like Wednesdays, it's a late start for school, so I get an hour of sleeping in, and then we don't have preschool, so I get to stay home. Now... if it were only nicer out, I'd be outside playing! (digging most likely as I have trees that need to come out...) It is 26 degrees out right now and the ground is white from the frost. It's beautiful... but in the "I'm standing at the window with my hot cup of cocoa" sort of way-- not the "I'm going to work in this" kind of way.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Danz- the silver laced polish that I got from you layed her first egg on monday. that is so amazing she is 4 months old and still so small. No one else from her group acts ready but sure enough. And the week before that, the black phoenix cross mated her.
I have gotten 2 fart eggs so far in my girls laying career, they are so tiny and my daughter needs me to cook them over easy for her lol

 

[HEChicken]

Maidenwolf, congrats on the first eggs from the SLW! Love those little fart eggs. I've only had one fart egg that had a yolk - the rest were all white. I had one recently and it turned out great because I was making meringue so I added the fart egg to the egg whites I needed for it and it just made a little more meringue.

Josie, sorry about the stress related to midwives. For what its worth, I had one of mine in a birth center and it was a great experience. It was a very home-like room - not like a hospital room at all. They followed my birth plan to the letter and I didn't have any clean up to do afterward.

Lizzy, I'm so envious you're getting duck eggs. I've had my muscovies since mid-May but haven't had a single egg yet. Glad your dog is behaving himself.

Danz, what a day you had - made me tired just reading it!

Hawkeye, thanks for the compliments on the birds. I have never seen a fence stretcher in action - I will have to YouTube that. My neighbor put in the twisted wire (non-barbed) fencing 17 years ago when they moved here and it is still really tight. I don't know if they've had to retighten it over the years though. Yes, we'll think positive that it will be WHEN you build your silkie pens. I really would highly recommend the gutter feeder. I've tried about everything over the years and had every issue under the sun with various types - mice getting into them, billing the feed out, you name it. This is the first feeder I've tried that I'm truly happy with. It was dirt cheap since I had the section of gutter left over from when I put the gutters on my coop, and the PVC pipe was one I've had laying around for years. I was glad to get it out of the shop where it was just taking up space. All I had to buy was an end cap (one end is in the corner so didn't need a cap), the gutter brackets, and the metal strapping (only used a small piece so had most of the roll left over). With a mixed flock it was hard to know what height to install it so I did it at the height of a large fowl back. As you can see in the pics, the seramas, and even my bantam silchin just jump up into the feeder, but everyone else, including the silkies, can reach into it fairly easily. However due to the depth of the gutter, they can't bill the feed out. I am going through feed more slowly since I installed it and quit using my other feeders. And the best part is that I am now in a routine of filling it just once a day. I used to go back and forth to the coop and refill feeders whenever I noticed them low throughout the day, so I never really knew how much feed I was going through. Now I just fill the PVC pipe in the morning and it lasts them all day, and there is still some left to eat the following morning. So far they have never completely emptied it, but I figure if I just fill it each morning, it is easier to keep track of how much they are eating.

We never got any snow or rain yesterday. We seem to be in a dry pocket and don't get the moisture that some of the rest of you report. That rain a couple of weeks ago where people reported getting an inch or more, we didn't get enough to even register in the rain gauge. It is going to be another tough summer, I think. Now it looks like being a nice day today - a good day for working outdoors. Unfortunately I'm somewhat committed today so I don't know if I'll get to make any more progress on my hoop coop.