Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

Danz, I'm with Trish, if you decide to come down this way, let me know and we'll all converge on Deerfield

Trish, I'm so glad for the update on Bandaid. I'm really surprised to hear he is just now starting to display though, since he was doing it in the brooder at only a couple of weeks old. And the rest of mine are displaying and gobbling regularly. I wonder if there is a "peer pressure" thing at work - that because he is the only male, he has been slower to get going with this? The dozen of Madge & Ned's babies that I have left are predominantly boys so any strange sound around here is followed by the deafening noise of 8-9 turkey toms gobbling in unison.

So cute - the eldest of them has discovered his reflection in a window and now spends all day talking to, and peering at and displaying for, the "turkey in the mirror". Periodically he will tap loudly on the window - probably in an attempt to reach out and see if the other turkey is real. I keep thinking I need to name him Narcissus.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Have you used sand before?? I am trying to decide what to use!

Yes, I switched to sand late last year and it was/is awesome! We had globs of flies last year in the coop but this year, with the sand (at least I think it's the sand that made the difference), we have less flies. The rain and moisture in the air do make the sand feel damp but it dries out quickly. I do a quick 10-min cleaning daily and then 1 major cleaning on the weekend when I clean out the nest boxes and roosts. They do need to be topped off every few months though.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Tweety I have some chicks I'd be glad to donate if I get down that way or someone gets this direction. I really want to go visit Deerfield and Josie as soon as I can afford to get away. Most are mixed that broodies hatched. I sell the peachicks but still have some I would sell. I also have more baby ducks. Had a repeat duck buyer call yesterday and want some new hatches next week. I have quite a few from a week to 5 weeks old out there already. I wish he wanted some of those. I'll be setting eggs for fall hatched purebreds soon.
I do have a bunch of eggs I have collected that I need to start in the incubator today. I just started gathering lavender orps again. I have one hen sitting on a bunch and I just started taking what the other hens lay she doesn't grab. I really need to get back to work on pens. I need to clean out one more coop and move the white rocks and the hamp roo in there to breed the red stars. I almost hate the idea of doing all that hatching again. I've never completely stopped but I've enjoyed not having hundreds every week.

Sharol!

Danz, when you do have a chance to come this way, I'm with Trish and Hechicken, we can meet up and have lunch. I did promise Deerfield that I'll cook her some curry chicken and fried rice but just never had a chance. I'm heading into the busy tax season but sure can do a quick lunch with you and others. That will be fun. I'll take some ducklings and a trio of Sebbie goslings if you have any since my son has been asking for them.

I'm trying not to get addicted to incubating eggs but the 2 times I did, I (and my son) love every minute of it. He has been asking me to incubate some more eggs since his favorite rooster is gone. But I put the eggs under the broody mama already. May be I'll incubate a few eggs if my son has a class project coming up at school.

I'm dreading tonight's (more accurately, early tomorrow morning's) deployment. I need to get up at 2:00am to get started. Hopefully it is smooth and painless and I'll be able to head back to bed no later than 6 am.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Helped my friend butchered another 180 broilers today (total count for year is up to 800!) She just placed an order for 200 more for a Fall butcher.. I think I"m going to go ahead and order myself another batch too.. she just can't keep these birds; they sell like hot cakes at the markets. I also butchered my turkeys and geese as well - I wasn't sure how I would handle that since they're so sweet and friendly - but it was ok really. Between broilers, turkeys, geese and a pig, I will have plenty of meat in the freezer!

Looks like we have 7 days of no rain the forecast... finally!

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Danz, I'm with Trish, if you decide to come down this way, let me know and we'll all converge on Deerfield

Trish, I'm so glad for the update on Bandaid. I'm really surprised to hear he is just now starting to display though, since he was doing it in the brooder at only a couple of weeks old. And the rest of mine are displaying and gobbling regularly. I wonder if there is a "peer pressure" thing at work - that because he is the only male, he has been slower to get going with this? The dozen of Madge & Ned's babies that I have left are predominantly boys so any strange sound around here is followed by the deafening noise of 8-9 turkey toms gobbling in unison.

So cute - the eldest of them has discovered his reflection in a window and now spends all day talking to, and peering at and displaying for, the "turkey in the mirror". Periodically he will tap loudly on the window - probably in an attempt to reach out and see if the other turkey is real. I keep thinking I need to name him Narcissus.

Hechicken, funny about the turkey seeing its own reflection. It brought back memory when my son was just a year old or so. He was standing in front of the mirrow with a lollipop (and till this day, I've no idea how he got it and where) in his mouth, pointing his little finger at his own reflection, looking at me with the obvious question in his eyes and face like "who is THAT baby that's staring back at me with a lollipop in his mouth?". DH took a picture of it so we can share it with family.

 

[chicken danz]

I'm sad. One of my sussex hens that has over a dozen babies she hatched is not doing well at all. I noticed her standing in the house and not leaving even when her chicks ventured out. I looked and the roos had ripped her sides open. I made her a no-sew saddle, treated her with ivermectin and was going to give her a shot. She is so emancipated though I am afraid I will over dose her. All I have that works for infection injectable is Baytril . I wish I had some penicillin G but I just tossed mine cause it was way out of date. The other things I have work more for colds. So I mixed up some sulfa drug with some pedialite and water but I can't get her to drink even with a dropper. She falls over easily. I suppose I could give her the shot but if she died I wouldn't know if I did it by overdosing or if she just died. It is so sad to see a mama hen who has been working so hard to care for her babies that she let her own health go. She's been so protective of her babies I hadn't noticed the cuts under her wings. I have another hen that might mother the babies ...not sure. Things like this make me feel like a total failure. I feel like crying.
I guess I'd better clear a date with Deerfield before I plan to head that way. It will be a while cause I can't afford it right now and I know every one is getting kids started in school. Maybe in a couple weeks I can plan a trip.
Oh and Tweety I love curry!!!

 

[ashncarson]

Yes, I switched to sand late last year and it was/is awesome! We had globs of flies last year in the coop but this year, with the sand (at least I think it's the sand that made the difference), we have less flies. The rain and moisture in the air do make the sand feel damp but it dries out quickly. I do a quick 10-min cleaning daily and then 1 major cleaning on the weekend when I clean out the nest boxes and roosts. They do need to be topped off every few months though.

are you going to do anything special for the winter? to keep them warmer?

 

[Trish44]

Danz, I'm with Trish, if you decide to come down this way, let me know and we'll all converge on Deerfield

Trish, I'm so glad for the update on Bandaid. I'm really surprised to hear he is just now starting to display though, since he was doing it in the brooder at only a couple of weeks old. And the rest of mine are displaying and gobbling regularly. I wonder if there is a "peer pressure" thing at work - that because he is the only male, he has been slower to get going with this? The dozen of Madge & Ned's babies that I have left are predominantly boys so any strange sound around here is followed by the deafening noise of 8-9 turkey toms gobbling in unison.

So cute - the eldest of them has discovered his reflection in a window and now spends all day talking to, and peering at and displaying for, the "turkey in the mirror". Periodically he will tap loudly on the window - probably in an attempt to reach out and see if the other turkey is real. I keep thinking I need to name him Narcissus.

Maybe it is because he's the only male here, I don't know. That's so cute your turkey talks to his reflection. I'm glad you have some replacements there. If my hens weren't related to your Madge I might have been able to get you some chicks for next year, but they would be related on both ends of the spectrum from Bandaid & Madge's sisters.

I'm sad. One of my sussex hens that has over a dozen babies she hatched is not doing well at all. I noticed her standing in the house and not leaving even when her chicks ventured out. I looked and the roos had ripped her sides open. I made her a no-sew saddle, treated her with ivermectin and was going to give her a shot. She is so emancipated though I am afraid I will over dose her. All I have that works for infection injectable is Baytril . I wish I had some penicillin G but I just tossed mine cause it was way out of date. The other things I have work more for colds. So I mixed up some sulfa drug with some pedialite and water but I can't get her to drink even with a dropper. She falls over easily. I suppose I could give her the shot but if she died I wouldn't know if I did it by overdosing or if she just died. It is so sad to see a mama hen who has been working so hard to care for her babies that she let her own health go. She's been so protective of her babies I hadn't noticed the cuts under her wings. I have another hen that might mother the babies ...not sure. Things like this make me feel like a total failure. I feel like crying.
I guess I'd better clear a date with Deerfield before I plan to head that way. It will be a while cause I can't afford it right now and I know every one is getting kids started in school. Maybe in a couple weeks I can plan a trip.
Oh and Tweety I love curry!!!

I'm sorry about your hen, it seems like it's always something doesn't it.

I'm going to be getting some more blue laced Barnevelder chicks in a week or so from the same guy I got the pair from that I have. I need a few more for breeding stock for next year & he just started hatching some more chicks. The pair I got from him are just beautiful now, especially the rooster, he's getting a lot of his blue lacing in. I can't wait to see how he looks when he's fully grown. That will give me the barnevelders & hopefully when these eggs hatch I have in the incubator I will have my lavender Ameraucanas back for next year's breeding stock too. I candled them & all but one were developing so far. These eggs are from some different stock than she sent me last time, so I hope they're just a nice as those were. I just hated it that I lost them all in that flash flood. I hope we're done with the rain for awhile. I think we've had enough to last us. It would be nice to get all the pens dried out & the poor birds not to have to stand in mud.

If anybody needs a nice Barred Rock rooster I have 3 of them from Frank Reece that came from the eggs he gave me on our field trip up there to his ranch. These are not hatchery Barred Rocks, they're really big birds. I did lose some of the chicks in that flood, but I have I think 3 roosters & 2 pullets left from them. One of the pullets got kind of sick after being so wet, but she is recovering, she is just stunted some in growth but I think she will catch up. I don't think I'm going to raise them, but I haven't decided yet really. I saw the ones HEChicken has that she got from him & they're really nice birds. nothing like the ones from the hatcheries. I don't know, I will decide when the roosters are bigger whether I want to keep a trio or not. They would be good all purpose birds for eggs & meat.

 

[HEChicken]

Trish, I'm really happy with my Reese Barred Rocks! I have only hatched two so far and have a pair, for sure, which I'm happy with for summer hatching, since I expected mostly cockerels. The pullet will be added to my flock and the cockerel will be processed when he is older. I also just put another batch of eggs in the hatcher that unfortunately contains only one BR, and the rest NH eggs, but next week the batch going into the hatcher will contain quite a few BR's. The chicks I am growing out now are 5-6 weeks old and already have really nice zebra barring going on.

Tweety, I love curry too!!! Love, love, love it, actually! That is so cute about your son and the mirror. At our last house, the master bedroom shared a wall with DD's bedroom, and on the shared wall on our side, was a dresser with mirror. One day our black dog caught sight of another dog in the house so she got her forepaws up on the dresser, and peered into the mirror, cocking her head in that cute way they do, to check out the other dog. Then she suddenly jumped down and went racing into DD's room, presumably to go and find the other dog. When there was no dog there, she came running back, jumped up again for another look, decided she must have missed it because there is definitely another dog there, so ran around to look a second time. It was hilarious! I'm sure she was so confused where the dog was hiding since she knew what she saw!!!

 

[Trish44]

Trish, I'm really happy with my Reese Barred Rocks! I have only hatched two so far and have a pair, for sure, which I'm happy with for summer hatching, since I expected mostly cockerels. The pullet will be added to my flock and the cockerel will be processed when he is older. I also just put another batch of eggs in the hatcher that unfortunately contains only one BR, and the rest NH eggs, but next week the batch going into the hatcher will contain quite a few BR's. The chicks I am growing out now are 5-6 weeks old and already have really nice zebra barring going on.

Tweety, I love curry too!!! Love, love, love it, actually! That is so cute about your son and the mirror. At our last house, the master bedroom shared a wall with DD's bedroom, and on the shared wall on our side, was a dresser with mirror. One day our black dog caught sight of another dog in the house so she got her forepaws up on the dresser, and peered into the mirror, cocking her head in that cute way they do, to check out the other dog. Then she suddenly jumped down and went racing into DD's room, presumably to go and find the other dog. When there was no dog there, she came running back, jumped up again for another look, decided she must have missed it because there is definitely another dog there, so ran around to look a second time. It was hilarious! I'm sure she was so confused where the dog was hiding since she knew what she saw!!!

Yeah those Frank's Barred Rocks sure are a lot nicer looking than the hatchery ones. I only have one hatchery bird left in my laying flock & then I have the one I got from Eileen & even between the two of those you can see quite a difference in the barring, but these from Frank definitely have a lot clearer, crisper barring. They're going to be big birds too because these are still pretty young & the roosters are already getting some size. After reading about coloring I can now pick out the two pullets from the three roosters.

Aren't dogs hilarious when they do things like that? We always have our two little ones sitting on the recliners with us watching TV at night & if they hear dogs on the speakers in the room they will often bark at them & run from the room looking for them.