Consolidated Kansas

[Polishpal]

   Hope everyone had a nice weekend . Danz sorry you had to find your hen that way, eew and so many snakes . Our girls are funny that way too,they recognize when I've got a scrap bowl from the kitchen. If I come outside empty handed maybe one or two of the more social ones will come and say hi,but if there's food involved they all come running!
    Lizzy, that's sure nice of your neighbors for the mower loan . I can't stand all the safety features on mowers , first thing we do whenever we've gotten a mower new or used is disable all of them. (must have been gone the day they talked about running with scissors)
    About cleaning ... when I was a kid if we came home from school and mom was cleaning house we would ask "who's coming over?" wonder where I get it.

22qzoo my chickens actually climb our stairs and walk inside if the door is open and they know where the feed is so I have to put a baby gate up but that dousnt always work so my mom shews the chickens out and closes the door but they peck it! Silly birds

 

[shell55]

Danz, I was looking at the little lavender Orps just a bit ago & it looks like at least one probably is a rooster, it's getting a bigger comb already. I was hoping for only one rooster, but we'll see. I just really liked the other one I had, he was so nice & they're so pretty. Lavender anything is really my favorite color.

We had the company come back today that did our roof two years ago & wanted to do it again, my DH didn't fall for it. They do insurance work only, which means they turn in a report to the insurance company & get paid by them. My son used to work for them when they did the work for us, but they did him really wrong in the end, they owed him a bunch of money that he never got paid for his work. He did the estimating & contracts for them & got them work. He wasn't pleased they came back here. Did you all know that those guys will go up on your roof & actually cause damage so they can do your roof? It's not something most people know, so if someone wants to look at your roof you should have someone go up with them to look.

It's really cloudy here today, we haven't had any rain, it's just dreary looking.

I just put a big bunch of eggs in the hatcher yesterday that are due on Tues. Most of them are Swedish Flower Hen eggs, but there are some Ameraucanas in there too. I just ordered my new hatcher last night, so I can't wait to get it. Even if I don't use it that much more this year I will have it for next spring. I'm excited about getting it.

I really like the lavenders too!

shell55, you were posting when I was writing. I love the little light colored chick, is it lavender?

No, it isn't lavender, they are all mixed colors. I don't have the Cochins separated by color (I have 1 splash, 2 black, 1 black/White hen and 2 black/white roosters)...I wasn't planning on hatching any of their eggs but then they all went broody on me.

Shell55 - nice picture of your mama and chicks. Those fuzzy butts sure are cute! Sometimes I wish they will stay at that age but alas, they have to grow up and grow up fast!

Sometimes I wish they could stay that little too! They do grow fast!


I do have 2 lavender bantam cochin chicks that I hatched a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Yesterday I checked one of the muscovy nests that I knew was going to be a staggered hatch. One duckling was hatching, so I took it to make sure that duck continued to sit on the rest of the eggs. I went to check the other nest. The duck flared a bit and gave a warning. She had a duckling peeking out from under her. I stood for a bit, showed her the duckling and asked her if she wanted it. She calmed, and moved back a little so I could set the duckling down next to the other one.

This morning, I found a new hatched in the first nest and again, I took it. When I got to the second nest, there were ducklings everywhere. Mom duck was a little more agitated, but allowed me to put the duckling down and check what was under her. One more egg was pipping and crumbling, and one had not pipped - I will check it later. So, without counting ducklings, there should be 13 ducklings in that nest now and the one egg that is unknown and a goose egg that is behind the schedule of those eggs. Guess the duck in the second nest wil get the goose egg. If that egg that was not pipping is just behind schedule and goes on to hatch, that will make a 100% hatch, if not - I am not going to figure percentage.

 

[chicken danz]

Trish I'd like you to send me that list on hatching peafowl eggs if you will. I can always compare what I do to what he says. Mine have started fine and are developing. I haven't checked the ones I bought yet. Last year I just let my peahen hatch them but I want to try to get them to lay a second hatch so I can let them sit then.
It stormed here earlier so I went out and decided to pull some weeds in one of the ignored flower beds. Now I itch from head to toe and my back and hands hurt. I didn't get that far either!!!
I think I'll haul the weeds out and put them in some of the bare chicken pens for the birds to play with. Those poor birds that don't get to free range miss all the fun.
I was drenched in sweat and had to come back in to cool off. I absolutely would not stand not having an air conditioner. Humidity really bothers me and it makes it hard to breath when you have asthma.
I have two broodie hens that hatched chicks. One has 3 chicks and they are doing fine at a couple weeks old. The other is a sussex and just hatched 8 chicks. Instead of leaving them in the barn where she nested she brought them back to the coop where she always slept. Well four of the 8 chicks were drowned in the water pan this morning. Poor things.

 

[lizzyGSR]

I think I'll haul the weeds out and put them in some of the bare chicken pens for the birds to play with. Those poor birds that don't get to free range miss all the fun.
I was drenched in sweat and had to come back in to cool off. I absolutely would not stand not having an air conditioner. Humidity really bothers me and it makes it hard to breath when you have asthma.

So far, I have not turned the A/C on. Our house has a double layer of stucco on the outside, which means that it takes a long time to warm up and cool off. I don't think we'll have to turn the A/C on as long as it continues cooling off nicely at night.

 

[Polishpal]

Hope everyone is safe because there is some bad weather

 

[Trish44]

Trish I'd like you to send me that list on hatching peafowl eggs if you will. I can always compare what I do to what he says. Mine have started fine and are developing. I haven't checked the ones I bought yet. Last year I just let my peahen hatch them but I want to try to get them to lay a second hatch so I can let them sit then.
It stormed here earlier so I went out and decided to pull some weeds in one of the ignored flower beds. Now I itch from head to toe and my back and hands hurt. I didn't get that far either!!!
I think I'll haul the weeds out and put them in some of the bare chicken pens for the birds to play with. Those poor birds that don't get to free range miss all the fun.
I was drenched in sweat and had to come back in to cool off. I absolutely would not stand not having an air conditioner. Humidity really bothers me and it makes it hard to breath when you have asthma.
I have two broodie hens that hatched chicks. One has 3 chicks and they are doing fine at a couple weeks old. The other is a sussex and just hatched 8 chicks. Instead of leaving them in the barn where she nested she brought them back to the coop where she always slept. Well four of the 8 chicks were drowned in the water pan this morning. Poor things.

Sure, I'll send you that list, I thought it was nice of him to send it to me since I have not been successful at hatching any peafowl eggs yet. The ones I got last year weren't fertile eggs, they were a bust. I have 7 eggs coming altogether with the two different batches. The first set of 3 is already on it's way here, so I have to get ready for those. I need to read that list over again. I would love to be able to hatch some of these because they're black shoulders & I don't have any of those.

Kuan, I have lost a couple guineas lately because they were stupid & wouldn't go in at night. I think a lot of times they get picked off by owls in the trees, we do have owls here I hear them at night. I try to get them all to go in every night, but now that almost all of them are coming out it's getting harder to get them back in. At first only the males were coming out, but now the females have decided to come out too during the day. They split off into groups & sometimes they go off away from the house aways. I have heard the dogs barking a lot at something over behind the garage the last couple days. There are a lot of trees back there so there is pretty good cover for anything wanting to hide in there. I have lost a few chickens over time when they went back there. I wish they wouldn't go there or back into the tree rows, but I can't stop them from doing it.

I got two little Royal Palm turkey poults & 4 little muscovy ducklings this evening from HEChicken. They're all so cute! I got the little turkeys into their pen & settled in & they were exploring around & were very curious about everything in there. Then I got the 4 little ducklings put in the 2nd hoop coop with the chicks in there because I thought they would have lots of room to run around in there. I fed them all & then went on to start feeding all the other birds. I was over trying to get the guineas all in when I looked up & there were all 4 ducklings outside of the coop trooping towards me. I have no idea how they escaped, but they did it & they figured it out in less than 10 minutes. So I had to go put them in with the little turkeys for tonight until I can get another pen cleaned out that I have empty now. The little escape artists! I wish I could have had a camcorder about that time to capture them just filing in a group over towards me. HEChicken, I'm very glad you have them tamed down & they came looking for a human instead of running away!

I've had chicks hatching all day today & there are still quite a few eggs in there left to go yet. This is a fairly big group of eggs that I had put in to incubate. I'm trying to wind down on the hatching for this year so I can take a break from it other than the peafowl eggs that are yet to come. I really like hatching, it's fun & you can never get tired of looking at little fuzzy butts, but I am getting tired. It's so labor intensive to hatch chicks & take care of them, especially big groups of them. I really prefer older birds, they're much easier to take care of. Danz, I don't know how you do it all year round, I just need a break for awhile. I have chicks of my own that I will have to raise after I get done hatching for other people, but that is different. At least they will grow up & not be so much trouble. I'm still trying to get the garage cleaned out & rearranged so I can get the other brooder in there. I already have 3 of them out there & I will have 4 when I get a place for this one I have in the house at present. I built this one specifically to house the chicks for just that one customer who bought 35 chicks & then it has been really handy since then to put newly hatched chicks in so I can watch them closer. I would like to get all the chicks finally out of the house though. I think my DH would really like to not have to go to bed hearing cheeping & wake up hearing it. He has been really good about it though.

 

[cherwill]

Cherwill - How do I get K-state to give me a bunch of different veggies to plant?

It's nice, huh? The guy who manages the community garden got his Master Gardener certificate, and I guess he keeps in contact with the people at K-State.

Alright. My lunch break is over. Need to head back to work now. Hope everyone stays cool. I don't like this heat and humidity at all.

I didn't used to mind the humidity, but now my various joints and anywhere I've ever had a bone injury sure mind!

So far, I have not turned the A/C on. Our house has a double layer of stucco on the outside, which means that it takes a long time to warm up and cool off. I don't think we'll have to turn the A/C on as long as it continues cooling off nicely at night.

We turned ours on yesterday since the whole family was coming over tonight for dinner. I'd been hoping I'd make it through the end of May before we had to turn it on. We'd been opening the windows at night, then closing them in the morning, and the house stayed cool enough to be comfortable during the day.

No rain here yet, but apparently it's all around us.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Hmmm... owls... I forgot that owls do kill little animals... I even bought a fake owl and put it by the fish pond after seeing the white egret (at least I thought it was an egret) trying to fish out of my pond. Not sure it works or not because we have been letting the dogs out in the backyard so they may have scared the predators away.

No rain here yet... I saw it on the radar that we are supposed to have some but haven't seen a drop so far. But the humidity continues. Just absolutely miserable if you ask me.

Yesterday, the new broody mama took a long break again (so DH said). She then went back to sit in the wrong box. No eggs. Nada. She left her eggs in the next box over. By the time I noticed it (after work) the eggs were cool to the touch. Apparently she doesn't understand how to sit and hatch eggs so I moved her into the barn storage room next to the other broody hen who is a fabulous sitting mama. May be this new broody will learn a thing or 2 from her instead of abandoning her eggs for hours! I hope those eggs are OK. I didn't plan on candling any of them till a few days before they "supposedly" hatch but now I think I will do that sooner, just in case.

So we got the pool all setup and started to fill it. We find lots of june bugs swimming in there the next day. DH has been scooping them up with the net and let the chickens have a feast on them. Just too bad the weather is not hot enough for swimming yet. DS is going to summer day camp and he came home yesterday telling me they are going swimming today! I was like "hmmm... you might want to stay outside of the pool because the weather is too cold for swimming". I think it is just crazy that they let the kids go swimming in this weather.

Kuan

 

[sharol]

My girls won't touch june bugs. They just ignore them. They love the grubs, but once they turn into june bugs, it is no go.

******

So we got the pool all setup and started to fill it. We find lots of june bugs swimming in there the next day. DH has been scooping them up with the net and let the chickens have a feast on them. Just too bad the weather is not hot enough for swimming yet. DS is going to summer day camp and he came home yesterday telling me they are going swimming today! I was like "hmmm... you might want to stay outside of the pool because the weather is too cold for swimming". I think it is just crazy that they let the kids go swimming in this weather.

Kuan