Consolidated Kansas

[ivyrash]

They came marked on the up side. They are banty cochin eggs and seem like it might be hard to tell on some of them which end is up but they came from a good source so I went with what they marked. Is the air cell always on the big end or does it shift based on orientation? I have so much to learn!

 

[lizzyGSR]

sunflower - wow! Sounds like you've had quite the adventure in the last few days! Congrats on finding your birth family!

My day just keeps getting weirder. After the storms went through, I walked out to the pasture to get the horses, just like I always do. On my way out there, I noticed that there was a piece of paper in the pocket of the "jacket" I was wearing. The jacket is actually a men's flannel shirt that I bought for my husband, but it ended up being too small for him. Anyway, when I went to investigate the paper in the pocket, I discovered what appears to be a 5 euro bill. I bought this shirt brand new from Orscheln's, so I find it odd that I found ANYTHING in the pocket that I didn't put there. Usually, you think of finding money in your pocket as a good thing. I just found this to be somewhat strange. Can anyone tell me if this is an authentic 5 euro bill?

 

[Trish44]

sunflower - wow! Sounds like you've had quite the adventure in the last few days! Congrats on finding your birth family!

My day just keeps getting weirder. After the storms went through, I walked out to the pasture to get the horses, just like I always do. On my way out there, I noticed that there was a piece of paper in the pocket of the "jacket" I was wearing. The jacket is actually a men's flannel shirt that I bought for my husband, but it ended up being too small for him. Anyway, when I went to investigate the paper in the pocket, I discovered what appears to be a 5 euro bill. I bought this shirt brand new from Orscheln's, so I find it odd that I found ANYTHING in the pocket that I didn't put there. Usually, you think of finding money in your pocket as a good thing. I just found this to be somewhat strange. Can anyone tell me if this is an authentic 5 euro bill?

I looked it up & it appears to be a 2002 issue Euro bill. I would guess someone took a vacation & got that bill while there. Why they happened to leave it in the pocket is a mystery though.

 

[Trish44]

I have been really busy, so I haven't had much computer time lately. I was out cleaning out the pen where my black Ameraucanas have been living for a long time. Last night I moved the hens into the main coop with my laying flock & decided to clean the coop out completely so I could move some chicks in there to grow instead of having them in the brooder. I haven't had any heat on them for awhile anyway, so I figured they might as well have some more room to run around & enjoy themselves. Danz, some of those are the lavender Orps I got from you, they're doing great. I also have some Welsummer chicks in there that I plan to put in my layer flock. I want to pick between the 3 roosters & will keep one of them. Then I'll have to re-home the other two. I also moved my Speckled Sussex trio back to the main coop tonight. I plan to move my Barnevelders into that pen at the breeder coop tomorrow. It's musical pens around here all the time. I have two more pens I need to clean out next. There is never any lack of anything to do around here it seems like.

We didn't get any rain here other than a few sprinkles yesterday afternoon, which was a good thing since I had gone & brought home a month's worth of feed & it was still in the back of the truck when it sprinkled. I managed to get it all in the garage by myself & then I was really tired after carrying in 500 pounds of feed.

 

[jennyjane73]

Does anybody know the exact location of the yoder chicken auction?

 

[tweetybaby2005]

'My Kitty is still missing

I thought I saw him but it was only my neibors cat

Sorry your cat is still missing. He could come back later after the adventure is over.

PolishPal, I'm sorry about your cat - I hope he or she shows up.

You know you are officially hatching too much when you do your daily check on the incubator and discover a pip you weren't expecting. The floor of my incubator is slick enough that a poult from the last hatch wound up spraddled (easily fixed fortunately), so DH suggested putting a towel on the floor for the next hatch. So after seeing the pip, I quickly lifted out all the eggs so I could put the towel in, and in doing that discovered a second pip I hadn't noticed. Ooops. So I guess I am back in hatch mode.

My fourth duck went broody, but chose my dogs igloo to brood in. I didn't want to leave them without a place to sleep (and they won't go in it while any of the birds is there) so last night I moved her to the broody coop and this morning it looks like she has accepted the new nest. I have to say, I am getting pretty darn good at nest-making these days. When I built that nest, I used fresh straw and was even able to get the indentation looking good before filling it with eggs. Apparently she found it acceptable.

I can get addicted to incubating/hatching easily so I think I'll stick to my Brinsea mini for now. Incubating 7 at a time is a lot better than 24 or more at a time. I don't think my husband can deal with that.

HeChicken, I used towels in the bottom of my incubators for a long time but have now switched to that rubber perforated shelf liner. It is perfect. No more spraddles. I also put it in the bottoms of my brooder bins for a few days until I add shavings.
Yesterday I got up early and went to a breakfast. Then spent a couple hours moving egg shells from the hatcher and disinfecting it, and doing maintenance on the incubators, and moving some eggs from the incubators to the hatcher.
I moved some young ducks outside to the baby duck pen and some newly hatched ducks to the duck brooder bin in the basement. Spent my normal hours feeding and watering. Then I had a card class to go to last night. I had forgotten about it. I accidentally sold 4 pullets after I got back home and got back in the house after 9:00 PM. I need to get those ready to be picked up this morning. My reasoning was that I need to downsize so I can get along without them.
I had no time at all to do any work on the hoop coop.
I had a couple broody hens hatch out some chicks in the barn. There were four chicks partially out of the eggs which didn't make it. I think the hens left with the chicks and weren't there for them to finish. There was quite a pile of eggs that hadn't been sat on for 2 days. I candled all of them and found one baby still alive. It's in the incubator. If it hatched the next day or two I'll let it join the mothers.
I candled all the duck eggs in one nest and they were all dead so removed that nest. I have 3 other ducks sitting on nests I need to take care of. I feel guilty disturbing them but their hatch rates are terrible. I need to get some of these broodies to stopped so I can resume my own hatching and egg gathering. I have no idea where all the rest of those silly ducks are laying all their eggs! I normally can find their hiding places but I am really having trouble this year.

Danz...so sorry you are losing duckies and chicks... when do you find time to go to a card class???

I also use the shelf liner to line the bottom of the incubator as soon as I take the turning disk out. Very convenient and easy to use.

Gosh, this thread has been pretty quiet recently! Today has been quite the day. First, I started the day off by having a case of baby brain, where I completely forgot the farrier was coming today and I let the horses out of the lot and then had to go get them. Then, I was on the phone with a coworker and looked out my office window to see a good-sized snake stretched out under the tree outside my window. Thankfully, it turned out to be a bull snake and NOT a rattlesnake, but it scared me nonetheless. And, finally, it has finally decided to rain here! We got caught by the edge of a severe thunderstorm and it is currently raining! Gosh, I hope it lasts, we REALLY need this rain! I got the birds put in their house, just in time apparently, as I got kinda wet trying to put the truck in the shed, where it doesn't really fit, but I stuck it in there catty-whompous as best I could. Hopefully, it'll be good enough if it hails.

Lizzy... snakes scare me. I don't do snakes or anything more than 4 legs like spiders. Sorry you have to gather up your horses after you let them out. I found a snake in my pond skimmer after I lifted up the lid to check on the filter basket. Needless to say I screamed like a girl and ran like the fastest woman in the world! Thankgoodness DH was there and he took care of it for me. Snakes just give me the hibby jibbies.

The first batch of storms has passed us and left us with .42" of rain!!!!!!!!!!

That's WAY more rain than we've gotten at one time in at least a year. Yay for some much needed moisture!!!! We've even got a few puddles! Haven't seen those in a LONG time!

Glad you had some rain. We only had a few sprinkles and that was it.

Can one of my fellow Kansanites help me please? I am incubating chicken eggs and today is day 10 and I found three that have the air sack at the bottom, can I turn them over at this point? They were shipped and I am new and didn't notice till today when I was checking them again. What is the best thing to do at this point?

Hmmm... I think mine have always been on the fat side so I think you should continue to incubate them to see if they will hatch. I have seen a few people say they may need some help hatching out but not always. Good luck!

sunflower - wow! Sounds like you've had quite the adventure in the last few days! Congrats on finding your birth family!

My day just keeps getting weirder. After the storms went through, I walked out to the pasture to get the horses, just like I always do. On my way out there, I noticed that there was a piece of paper in the pocket of the "jacket" I was wearing. The jacket is actually a men's flannel shirt that I bought for my husband, but it ended up being too small for him. Anyway, when I went to investigate the paper in the pocket, I discovered what appears to be a 5 euro bill. I bought this shirt brand new from Orscheln's, so I find it odd that I found ANYTHING in the pocket that I didn't put there. Usually, you think of finding money in your pocket as a good thing. I just found this to be somewhat strange. Can anyone tell me if this is an authentic 5 euro bill?

Hmmm... money in the new shirt's pocket... did you go get a powerball?

The jackpot is huge according to the DJ on the radio station. Since you are lucky (got the rain and found the $$$ AND pg), may be go get a powerball ticket. You may just be our next powerball winner!

I have been really busy, so I haven't had much computer time lately. I was out cleaning out the pen where my black Ameraucanas have been living for a long time. Last night I moved the hens into the main coop with my laying flock & decided to clean the coop out completely so I could move some chicks in there to grow instead of having them in the brooder. I haven't had any heat on them for awhile anyway, so I figured they might as well have some more room to run around & enjoy themselves. Danz, some of those are the lavender Orps I got from you, they're doing great. I also have some Welsummer chicks in there that I plan to put in my layer flock. I want to pick between the 3 roosters & will keep one of them. Then I'll have to re-home the other two. I also moved my Speckled Sussex trio back to the main coop tonight. I plan to move my Barnevelders into that pen at the breeder coop tomorrow. It's musical pens around here all the time. I have two more pens I need to clean out next. There is never any lack of anything to do around here it seems like.

We didn't get any rain here other than a few sprinkles yesterday afternoon, which was a good thing since I had gone & brought home a month's worth of feed & it was still in the back of the truck when it sprinkled. I managed to get it all in the garage by myself & then I was really tired after carrying in 500 pounds of feed.

Trish... 500 lbs of feed.... that's a lot. Do you get from the the feed mills? I was complaining having to carry 150 lbs into the barn room the other day... oooi... I thought for sure you have had some rain because when I looked at the radar, it was down south by your area...

**********************************************************
We got nada in terms of rain. But the fog sure is pretty this morning. It got thicker by the time I got to work. I normally do my morning walk before I step foot inside the office but not this morning. The fog was quite thick and I don't want to run into a skunk or snake around the pond. I have seen the skunk trying to get into the drain hole back by the pond once and I ran fast to avoid being sprayed!!!! With the rain lately, I did see 2 snakes slithering in the ditch where the water overflows into. I'm convinced that swampy wooded area has tons of snakes. Sure give me the hibby jibie... I don't like snakes.

Well, I only have 1 side of the wall left to put the hardware cloth on and the duck house will be done. I also replaced that 1/2 wall of chicken wire on the original coop. I think I can get it all done this weekend. The ducklings are enjoying the Brinsea ecoglow I had in their coop. All 6 of them fit underneath there just fine. Yesterday, the bigger chicks (9 weeks old) got into the ducklings sectioned off area and ate all the food. I put more food in there and they were hungry! Changed the water pan and milk jug waterers out so they have some fresh water to play with. The pekins love to wade into the shallow water pan. The fresh water turns murky real quick!

I am going to move the chicks out of the barn storage room this weekend. After that, I'll clean out the brooder and organize the storage area better. Right now feeds are piled up along 1 wall while the brooder is on the other wall. I need the room back and can't really stand it being so messy right now.

The fog actually clears out as I type. Guess I better get back to work.

Have a nice day, everyone!

Kuan

 

[chicken danz]

Lizzy maybe the person had been on a trip and gotten home and was shopping. Found the Euro in their own pocket and didn't know what to do with it so stuck it in the shirt pocket. Maybe they did it for fun imagining the surprise of someone buying a new shirt and finding it. That is so strange.
Okay I'm curious. Anyone hatch Frank's eggs and how did the hatch go? I have some hatching today. I didn't set mine right away so I know yours should be due as well. Of course I have more of my own eggs hatching at the same time and it could become a nightmare keeping them separated now. Who knows what came out of those mixed ones. I need to separate them as soon as they are dry if I can so I don't create mass confusion. I should have put a cover on that tray.
I've got another busy day ahead of me. I am so far behind on projects. And I have my normal Friday running to take care of today.
I changed the design on the door ends of my hoop coop some and I am not happy with it. It doesn't seem nearly as strong and secure. "If it isn't broke, don't fix it!" I was trying to reduce cutting and work and keep it strong. I guess it will just have to be that way because I'm not changing it. After running that tiller the other day I just can't seem to handle any heavy work right now. It kind of took it out of me. It's kind of like juggling a bear. This thing is a monster. It has almost double horse power of a normal tiller and it's huge. It does good work but you have to really strong arm it. Too bad DH has no interest in gardening. It would be a lot nicer if he did it. I still have my big area to get tilled too but I'll do that with the tractor. I need to spray roundup on it and let it kill out the weeds first but it is getting late and I don't have a big jug of roundup. I have a lot I need to get sprayed. It looks like a jungle out there.

 

[jhammett]

ok i have decided to go ahead and free range my birds. They have n=been out in the pasture during the day all week and closed in the coop at dusk. I was told by my neighbor who has about 30 chickens freee ranging onhis place that he hasnt bought feed for his chickens in over a year that free ranging provides all they need. Thoughts? my birds were hatched February 24 th

 

[jhammett]

can i just throw some corn/milo scrathc in the evenings in their coop for evening snacks?

 

[chicken danz]

Well, I only have 1 side of the wall left to put the hardware cloth on and the duck house will be done. I also replaced that 1/2 wall of chicken wire on the original coop. I think I can get it all done this weekend. The ducklings are enjoying the Brinsea ecoglow I had in their coop. All 6 of them fit underneath there just fine. Yesterday, the bigger chicks (9 weeks old) got into the ducklings sectioned off area and ate all the food. I put more food in there and they were hungry! Changed the water pan and milk jug waterers out so they have some fresh water to play with. The pekins love to wade into the shallow water pan. The fresh water turns murky real quick!

I am going to move the chicks out of the barn storage room this weekend. After that, I'll clean out the brooder and organize the storage area better. Right now feeds are piled up along 1 wall while the brooder is on the other wall. I need the room back and can't really stand it being so messy right now.

The fog actually clears out as I type. Guess I better get back to work.

Have a nice day, everyone!

Kuan

Sounds like you are pretty busy yourself! Actually I don't have time to do things like a card class. I've only been to two classes of any kind so far because a new neighbor invited me to them. It is so easy for me to say I don't have time. But it's been a couple hours in the early evening when I'd normally still be outside working. The first class was okay but not anything I'd use. ( A wreath made out of doilies), but the card class was more down my line. They are now only going to have 1 class a month and it will be in the afternoon sometime. It will be much much harder for me to make it to those. I really loved the cards and even did a search on line for more patterns yesterday. Of course you have to pay for them.
I am trying to teach myself that I don't have to work 24/7. I've realized lately I have no time for a life and I need to make myself get out and do more things. Unfortunately any time I do, I find myself so far behind I feel more frustrated. Maybe some day I'll get it all balanced.

Jhammett, I don't agree with that at all. It's great that they can free range but you still need to feed them a balanced diet formulated for their needs. Maybe just not as much. And what in the world does this person do in the winter time for feed for their chickens? Especially in view of the drought we've had I can't imagine them having enough to eat. I let most of my birds free range but they still eat tons.