Congrats on new babies!!!
Yeah, it was a very slow drive through the flint hills in the down pour. Yuck. It had started to clear up by the time we got the horses down and unloaded so that was nice. I would have felt badly unloading them into their new home in pouring rain. Fortunately they were all pretty mellow about exploring their new pasture because it was a wet, muddy mess and the last thing I need was someone wiping out or sliding into a fence!
Josie, I hope you are able to get the hay and horses moved without too much trouble in the rain. Wow - we need the rain but the timing on this has been terrible. I've just come back from picking up one of our horses where he was away in training and bringing him back to our barn. Sloshing through the mud it didn't feel like the smartest choice to do it today but we had only contracted his board through today and the place he was at needed the space and really needed us to pick him today. At least my cheap Tractor Supply boots are holding up and didn't leak even though I walked through ankle deep puddles over and over this morning.
We have had some really good rain so I really can't complain. The ducks flew over the chicken yard fence and are thoroughly enjoying paddling in the puddles around our house. I set up my rain barrel under the coop gutter to try and catch some rain water so it should be filling nicely. It will be nice to have a water source right there at the coop for the next little while.
She won't lay anymore because her body has switched from egg laying mode to "setting" mode. Kind of like being pregnant, she can't do both at once! I wouldn't put anymore eggs under her unless you pull the one egg she is sitting on because she will have a really staggered hatch and the earliest chick may die because mom won't get off the nest. It is pretty common for broodies to attack anybody who gets near them or their nest. They become very bossy and mean in prep for being a mom and defending their chicks from danger. (Also, hehehehehe, kind of like pregnant women!)
Mrs broody pants is still setting on one egg. I've taken the bo eggs out and so she only has the one egg. Will she lay more? She also attacked my roo while he was trying to mate another hen is that normal?
Well here is the multi with the sick hen....hmmm. Well I sure hope she is feeling better soon! Bummer about your pens getting all wet! That is the worst.
Hope everyone is doing great, I really didn't have a chance to multi anything, so I'm sorry! Been extremely busy. The rain caused a lot of problems for me. I had to move all of my silkies into the barn into another horse stall and divide them up in there. So my oldest horse is now stall-less. But she doesn't really care, the feed bins in the stalls flip out into the breeze-way, so I turned it around so I can feed her and lock the other horses up. And now my silkies are DRY! Whew! Their pen got soaking wet! I'm going to need to dig out all of the bedding and let the pen air dry and start again. Which is fine, but I had so many other things going on, it was bad timing. I also have a very sick silkie-- the one that won at Nationals and then won Res Grand Champion Featherleg at State. I've been injecting her with Baytril-- I just do NOT want to mess around with her. So I'm hoping she pulls through! It's an upper respiratory infection. This is the first time I've ever dealt with bubbly eyes! But that is what she has-- that and a runny nose. Which reminds me, she needs her injection this morning. Sigh. I think she got really sick in the pouring rain a couple days back-- everyone else dried out and she looked like she melted. So I bathed her in warm water and blow-dried her out and then started her on the Baytril. Electrolytes in her water. I'm crossing my fingers she pulls through, I'm worried. I tell you though-- that VetRX really perked her right up! I put a drop down each nostril and she immediately came back to life-- probably because she could BREATHE well again!
What a nice boy! My kind of rooster, I can't wait to get rid of these extra boys I have that have no manners.
Josie, I observed a pleasing interaction with my Welsummer roo yesterday. A silchin rooster and a Sultan X Cockerel were duking it out - and I mean really going to town. The Wellie roo observed for a minute, I guess to see if they would work it out, but as they continued to spar, he moved towards them. I expected him to chastise one of them but instead he just calmly walked in between them, blocking their view of one another, which worked. They each ran off in different directions and that was the end of it. Funnily enough, Ned was headed over as well - I guess these big, calm guys just don't like conflict in the chicken yard.
Yeah!!!!! Those sound like very fair prices for pullets at point of lay. It cost a lot of money to feed and raise a pullet to laying age so I would expect to pay at least $15 for a hatchery production type of laying bird. I have paid $25-30 (or more!!) for some of the rarer breeds of heritage pullets.
Ok I have a question!
I am getting my chickens this week
eek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
However I'm wondering if the guy is giving them to me for a reasonable price. Just thought I'd ask since I've never raised chickens before. He wants $15 per Barnevelder 7-8 month old and $10 per White Rock 6 month old.
Any other tips on buying hens from people would be appreciated!
Welcome!!! Do you have banty or LF cochins?
I have been reading this thread for quite some time and thought I better finally introduce myself and say Hi! I live about an hour east of Wichita. We got chickens a year ago...started with 4 and now have around 35...ha...guess i'm figuring out the chicken math. I really enjoy the chickens though and love hatching chicks!! I have a 3 year old son that loves them too! I have Cochins, Barred Rocks, Gold Sex-links, Silver Laced Wyandottes and a few Silkies. I just finished helping my MIL, jeanniec, hatch some Lavender and Lemon Cuckoo Orpington eggs from Chicken Danz and had a great hatch. Now I am really wanting to hatch some chicks for myself again, just not sure what I want to hatch yet. I really enjoy following this thread and am learning so much from all of you. I look forward to continuing to learn and get new ideas from all of you!
Well we spent all day yesterday out in the freezing cold drizzle finishing chicken and goose pens but they are done enough to move everyone in! So I have a trailer and am going to load everyone up tonight and haul down in the AM. Still LOTs to do with setting up perches, nest boxes, feeders, waterers etc but will be good to have everyone in one place finally. I also have to pack up Molly and the barn cat Lily. Gonna be a full ride down.
Horses have settled in well and were all taking a nap together on the south side of the pasture this AM in the sunshine which was really cute. (All laying down)
Wish I could have taken pics this weekend, brought my camera but forgot the memory card! Geez!
