Consolidated Kansas

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

http://www.kvsupply.com/livestock/buckets-and-feeders

The talk about the rubber feed bowls - This is a site I have ordered from and got the pans they call "general purpose pans" a few years ago when they where still under $4 each. They have held up great - still using the same ones for water, feed whatever. None have broke yet. The prices have gone up a lot, but everything has. They ship free with a minimum purchase, bigger/heavier things have a ship price. They also have meds, etc.

 

[Trish44]

OK, I want to see if any of you can help me identify two chicks I can't figure out as to breed. I have looked at pics on different sites & just am stumped on these two. The dark brown one looks like on the wing feathers it might be going to have some lacing. I usually can figure out breeds most of the time, but these two I just haven't been able to. I got them just because they looked interesting & I was curious about what they were.

Here's the dark one with the lacing on the wings & it's probably a rooster:


Here's the lighter one, it's supposed to be a pullet & it is yellow with grey on the back & head:


What do you all think, any guesses?

 

[mrsdanamiller]

Oh my goodness.....please tell me chicken keeping isn't just a long string of multiple problems!

Both my Barnevelders used to have pretty tails, and now they're getting picked badly. I noticed today that one has a bit of blood, but because of the three quarantined chickens I have nowhere to get her away from the others. The other Barnie isn't bleeding, but her tail looks awful. Should I wrap the bleeding tail or something so they don't see the red? I heard pine tar is good as a repellent, though before reading a thread, I had never heard of pine tar...so where do you all get that? I have 3 white rocks and 2 Barnies...should I go get one more of the guy's Barnies so they won't be outnumbered? The whites have no new picking that I can tell, so I think it's them. I am going to go feed them a can of tuna to up their protein in case that's the issue.

Thanks as always for the advice!

 

[chicken danz]

I use the rubber livestock bowls in some of my pens too for the FF. Some of my pens I have made troughs with pieces of guttering for bigger groups of birds, but if there are only a small group I use the rubber bowls. I plan to make more troughs when I can get out & work outside though. I have to tell you my story about the FF. I had seen that my birds weren't eating it as well in some of the pens, so I was low on feed & just thought well I'll just go back to feeding them dry feed & see if they like it better. Well guess what, they don't, not at all! I figured since I was low on feed & didn't have really enough to make the FF it was a good time to clean out my container really well, sanitize it & start a new batch so I did that last night. So today the birds will still get the dry stuff until tomorrow. They don't seem too happy about it, at least most of them. My layer flock I think would eat anything I threw in there pretty much, but some of my other birds are rather picky, the Ameraucanas for sure are.

That's so cute about your daughter giving that lady all that chicken info, she is sure getting an education isn't she! That's so great to have kids learning about livestock & how to care for them. My son just never was interested in any of my birds or animals growing up or learning about them, he to this day thinks I'm nuts. He did name the pigs we raised for meat, which I had told him not to, but he did it anyway.
That is so cute with the chicks & the phone, what a great pic! It looks like you got a little black sex link chick in there too, is that what it is? My DH keeps going over to my stock tank brooder in the sun room & looking at the chicks because my Yorkie loves looking at them & she will jump up & down until someone lifts her up so she can see them. He has not said anything about the growing number of chicks in that brooder, I have been waiting for him to say something, but he just seems to take it in stride any more. I guess that's a good thing since he has no control over it anyway, lol.

Danz, I had read about the California Whites on one of the hatchery sites that sells them. I knew they were a cross, but they said they're such good layers I wanted to try some for my laying flock.

Oh Trish I wasn't discounting the California whites at all. They are some of the very best layers available. I was just explaining what they were. They are like other sex inks people sell on Ebay or someplace thinking they can sell them as purebred birds.These have great reputations and I think it is an excellent bird for laying. I have several rubber bowls. In fact I have a rubber bucket my daughter bought for her horses when she was in highschool. She is now 40 years old. That bucket is in as good a shape as it was back then and has always been outside.
I've been dismantling this old antique incubator. Had it been in a little better condition it could have been a museum piece. It is an old kerosine incubator and all the kerosine burner parts etc are there. I am removing all of the parts and am going to try to refinish it as close to original as far as the cabinet and use it as a coffee table. It is going to take a lot of filling and replacing because they wood isn't in great condition. These things were made after the early 1900s and actually were sold by Sears and Montgomery Wards at one time. They are redwood on the outside and said to have been awesome incubators. I have a couple of wafer thermostats and a couple of mercury thermometers that were part of the incubator. Pretty awesome piece of chicken history.
I haven't been out to feed yet. I don't feel good at all today and it's been snowing. I sure hope we don't loose power with this wet snow. It's a good thing my birds are used to me working late into the day to get them all fed and watered.

 

[sharol]

The dark one looks a lot like my gold laced wyandotte chick did when I first got her.

OK, I want to see if any of you can help me identify two chicks I can't figure out as to breed. I have looked at pics on different sites & just am stumped on these two. The dark brown one looks like on the wing feathers it might be going to have some lacing. I usually can figure out breeds most of the time, but these two I just haven't been able to. I got them just because they looked interesting & I was curious about what they were.

Here's the dark one with the lacing on the wings & it's probably a rooster:


Here's the lighter one, it's supposed to be a pullet & it is yellow with grey on the back & head:


What do you all think, any guesses?

 

[HEChicken]

Oh my goodness.....please tell me chicken keeping isn't just a long string of multiple problems!

Both my Barnevelders used to have pretty tails, and now they're getting picked badly. I noticed today that one has a bit of blood, but because of the three quarantined chickens I have nowhere to get her away from the others. The other Barnie isn't bleeding, but her tail looks awful. Should I wrap the bleeding tail or something so they don't see the red? I heard pine tar is good as a repellent, though before reading a thread, I had never heard of pine tar...so where do you all get that? I have 3 white rocks and 2 Barnies...should I go get one more of the guy's Barnies so they won't be outnumbered? The whites have no new picking that I can tell, so I think it's them. I am going to go feed them a can of tuna to up their protein in case that's the issue.

Thanks as always for the advice!

Oh dear, sometimes it does seem that way, doesn't it? Your instincts on adding protein are good as lack of protein can be one reason they feather pick. Other reasons are stress or crowded conditions, and in weather like this, sometimes they do it out of boredom if they can't get out as much as on nice days. Adding another Barnie probably won't make a difference as chickens have a "pecking order" and it has more to do with some breeds being more aggressive/dominant than others. At this point, if you had twice as many Barnevelders as Rocks, you might still find that the Rocks dominate the coop.

Pinless Peepers are what some people use to stop persistent pickers. Hawkeye on here had to put them on her Barred Rocks to prevent them doing the same thing you are describing to her Polish. When she gets on, she can post a picture of what they look like, or if you google image it, you will find some examples. They are cheap and from what Hawkeye says, easy to install, and they seemed to instantly cure her problem.

 

[chicken danz]

Oh my goodness.....please tell me chicken keeping isn't just a long string of multiple problems!

Both my Barnevelders used to have pretty tails, and now they're getting picked badly. I noticed today that one has a bit of blood, but because of the three quarantined chickens I have nowhere to get her away from the others. The other Barnie isn't bleeding, but her tail looks awful. Should I wrap the bleeding tail or something so they don't see the red? I heard pine tar is good as a repellent, though before reading a thread, I had never heard of pine tar...so where do you all get that? I have 3 white rocks and 2 Barnies...should I go get one more of the guy's Barnies so they won't be outnumbered? The whites have no new picking that I can tell, so I think it's them. I am going to go feed them a can of tuna to up their protein in case that's the issue.

Thanks as always for the advice!

There can be problems but a lot of it is just a learning curve. I used to keep chickens and we never treated anything. Of course that was 40 years ago too. My guess is that your girls have mites. Go get a container of Sevin powder in the garden section and give the girls and their coop a good powdering. You may have to repeat it in a couple weeks. I use pine tar for wounds but I think you'll be fine without it if you treat them for mites. Pine tar can be found where horse products are found normally. It comes in a can. It is sticky and gets all over everything but works quite well. You can also get Blue Kote which sprays on and works well. But again it stays where it sprays. Expect some blue fingers. I'd try the Sevin first though.
I have lots of problems it seems because I have so many birds. I am the oddball in this group I think .. the true chicken/ other bird hoarder. And it is a lot easier to keep an eye on a handfull of birds rather than hundreds.
I got my new hatching tray delivered. It's time to fire up yet another incubator. Holy smokes I'm setting a lot of eggs.

 

[Trish44]

sharol, it could be a gold laced wyandotte I guess, I had some before & they didn't exactly look like this one, but as I said I think this is a rooster, so that may be the difference too. We'll see I guess what it turns out to be. I know I have about 4 little roosters in this bunch that probably will get eaten or sold because I'm not wanting that breed of rooster & I don't need that many either. They were in the panfry bin for a little over a dollar apiece. I think the other 3 are Silver Laced Wyandottes.

Danz, I don't understand why you're getting over-run with eggs & my silly girls aren't laying here. I know I moved some of them around recently, but gosh they should be getting used to their new quarters. I saw this morning that my lavender Ameraucana hens are finally getting more red combs again, so crossing my fingers that they start laying soon. I have a list of people waiting on those chicks. Next week is supposed to warm up to the 60s again & I hope this time it stays that way. We need some warmth & sun here for these birds! It is so dark & dreary here today that I don't even want to move out of my chair, it's making me just want to go get in bed & pull up the covers.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

I need deeper pockets. I have only been getting a few assorted eggs so have always just put them in my jacket pocket. I went out earlier and found 2 duck eggs in the chicken house, in the pocket they went. Found a goose egg in the goose pen outside the barn in the icky, sloppy muck the wet snow was making, yuck, it did not go in the pocket, it went on top of a cage outside. Saw a duck egg in a sheltered place, in the pocket. Went to the goose nest in the barn - oh my - 5 goose eggs and 1 pretty welsummer egg. No way would all those fit in that pocket. Two goose eggs went in on top of the duck eggs and the rest I managed to carry in my hands. Now to find a bucket that will carry eggs.

 

[chicken danz]

Chickies every time I do that I end up with a pocket of egg goo. I have a bunch of colorful buckets that I use to gather eggs in. Thanks to Mammahen's suggestion I put pencils in a couple coops so I can mark pure bred hatching eggs and not have to go back for another bucket. It was cold and wet out there and I honestly didn't enjoy it a bit today.
All I could think was how nice it would be to have a great set up like Frank does.
My boys all seem okay today although not happy with their quarters. I sure hope the weather warms and dries soon so I can get back to building.
Trish it seems like my dumb birds are working one week and take the next off. I never know what to expect out there. I didn't even gather eggs today. I just picked up turkey eggs and the rest can wait. Most won't freeze in the buildings so they should be okay.