Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

I have been quietly reading everyone's posts and thinking how difficult it is to raise animals because we let ourselves get so attached and then - disaster. Having been there myself many times it tugs at my heart to read about everyone's losses.
On a bright note (at our place) the turkey that broke its leg during the wind storm has healed with just a slight limp, and the pullet that DH had to perform surgery on is doing fine, no more eggs though. Work on the coop is progressing and with this weather should be done in a couple of days. We are already planning our next coop and want to make some breeder pens as well. And DH would love to have peafowl.
Trish44 do you have any pictures of the blue laced barnevelders. I bet they are beautiful birds. Would maybe be interested in getting some from you.
We just hatched out 8 black copper marans, will try to post a picture tomorrow. The eggs came from a friend that has BCMs. We just recently acquired some Black Copper Marans. I posted a picture of the BCM Roo and one of hens (pullet) on the Maran page but didn't get any responses. I think they are beautiful and the rooster is quite the gentleman. We have gotten a couple of eggs from one of the girls but it isn't very dark brown, maybe because she is still young? We got a kitten with the marans and she loves to stalk the guineas and they in turn stalk her and if she misbehaves too much the hen just gives her a peck.

I don't have any current pics of them, I will have to get some because the rooster is just getting gorgeous now. They're not full grown yet & the pullet hasn't started laying, I can't wait till she does. I will be getting the chicks in about another week or so, then hopefully by spring I will have some nice layers. The chicks I'm getting I guess will be a mix of the regular Barnevelders & the blue laced, I'm hoping he gives me mostly blue, but he says it's hard to tell when they're so young. The others I got were older when I got them. I loved my BCM rooster I had, he was a great flock rooster, but I lost him quite awhile ago to an illness that came through. I only have one BCM hen left & she has to be getting about 3 years old now because I got her from IVYWOODS on here & that has been quite awhile ago. I only have I think 4 of the birds left that I got from her now.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! I'll be seeing my granddaughter later this afternoon for cake & ice cream. My DH is making me homemade ice cream, so that will be nice. He's out running right now, so I need to go back out while he's gone & get the rest of the watering done for the birds. I started & then came in for coffee & a waffle. We only have waffles usually on Sundays & we have this really good mix we get at World Market that has macadamia nuts in it, it's really yummy.

I don't know about the rest of you, but my hens have considerably cut back on laying lately with all the rain & less light. I have started keeping their light on in the coop until they go in to roost & I think that has helped some. I have had to scramble for eggs, pun intended, for my egg customers & I was over-run with them for awhile. I have several young ones that I hope start laying soon. Actually one of the California Whites have started because I have been finding those cute little pullet eggs in the nest. I'm trying out the California Whites for the first time this year, they're really similar to the Leghorns & I think are a cross from them. They lay white eggs too. If they lay like the leghorns I'll be happy because those little hens lay huge eggs for their size. The white one is is full molt right now & she looks just raggedy.

Enjoy this weather all, it's beautiful out!

 

[OkieQueenBee]

Happy Birthday, Trish44! Enjoy your homemade ice cream, and cake with your granddaughter. I fixed bacon waffles for breakfast this morning.
ChickenDanz, thanks for the input I appreciate your thoughts. They were sold as " this years hatch and now laying ". Do their leg bands have a date on them?
So what does everyone do about flies in the coop? And everywhere else for that matter?
Here's a couple of pics of the BCM chicks we just hatched.

Back outside to enjoy this beautiful day. Actually, we are checking the bees this afternoon, good to see honey in some of the supers.

 

[Trish44]

Happy Birthday, Trish44! Enjoy your homemade ice cream, and cake with your granddaughter. I fixed bacon waffles for breakfast this morning.
ChickenDanz, thanks for the input I appreciate your thoughts. They were sold as " this years hatch and now laying ". Do their leg bands have a date on them?
So what does everyone do about flies in the coop? And everywhere else for that matter?
Here's a couple of pics of the BCM chicks we just hatched.


Back outside to enjoy this beautiful day. Actually, we are checking the bees this afternoon, good to see honey in some of the supers.

Cute babies! Thanks for the birthday wishes, so far it's been a pretty quiet day, got a call from my son who wished me happy birthday & have had lots of well wishes on FB.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

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

Nothing special. Some people think sand could be too cold for the birds' feet but mine didn't seem bothered.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Danz, sorry to hear that you Sussex hen was injured badly I hope she pulls through for you.

Trish, happy birth day to you. Hope you enjoy the ice cream plus don't have to run around trying to round up all the animals like last night. You deserve to have a nice day since it's your birthday!

Sharol, good to hear that your chicks integrated into the flock well.

Okiequeenbee, very cute chicks. I just can't have enough of those fuzzy butts.

Had a rough morning since I had to deploy new files. My kids just won't keep quiet for me to sleep in so I got up and did some chores. My daughter had a huge meltdown at the store, which was unusual. So we all came home frustrated but things have quieted down. I really need to get going to get the coop cleaned out. I just feel like taking a lazy day but chores still need to get done.

Enjoy the day.

 

[tntblake]

Yay! We got our first egg today! It is a good size for a pullet egg too! It has been forever since we have had fresh eggs. Hopefully, the rest will start pretty quick.

 

[cleansquared]

There was a gigantic egg in the chicken yard todaywith blood on it and none in the basket i wonder if the other legbar laid it or if the crested one just laid out of place she has been pretty consistant about the basket?? Any thoughts??

 

[Frizzled Pink]

Hope it was the happiest of B-days Trish.

 

[Trish44]

Yay! We got our first egg today! It is a good size for a pullet egg too! It has been forever since we have had fresh eggs. Hopefully, the rest will start pretty quick.

That's great, congrats on the egg! It always seems like it takes forever to get the hens to point of lay when you're waiting on them.

Thanks to everyone who wished me happy birthday, it's been a pretty good day overall. My granddaughter came over for the afternoon & evening & had supper & ice cream & cake with us & she just left. I can't hardly believe she's going to be 9 in November, how time flies.

I had a little help getting birds back in tonight with my DH & granddaughter here to help me, unlike other nights when I'm here getting them in alone, so it went well. I only let the two young turkeys out today because I wanted the two older ones to stay in & get the medication in the water for a couple days. Tomorrow I will let the two older ones out & keep the two younger ones in. That seemed to work better today than letting them all out. It may not make them happy, but it's easier to get two in than 4 at a time. The two young ones followed me with the feed cans, so they're learning home now. The guineas all even went in as a group tonight & that's unusual because they usually split up & half goes one way & the other half goes the other way. I haven't let the 4 young ones out yet, I don't figure they're old enough to know to come back yet & subject to predators. HEChicken, when I went to treat the one duck's back I found another one in the same shape, they have totally bare backs now, so I sprayed them both with the blue kote to hopefully help heal it. Tomorrow I plan on starting on some kind of night pen for them so I don't have them flying out over the fence before I get out there. That's when they get into trouble, not during the day, I think it's early morning when they do it when the predators are still out. I'm going to get another small piece of fence from someone tomorrow so I'll probably use it to make part of the pen. I'm thinking I'll just make a mini hoop coop for them & that will be fairly easy to do with some scrap wood I have & fencing. It doesn't have to be a huge pen, just big enough for them to go in at night & stay safe. I already have a dog igloo in the pen, so I'll probably just put that in there in case they want to use it too.

HEChicken, did you lose some birds in the hawk attack or did some just get injured? That's bad enough, but after just losing your turkey I'm sure it has you on edge. I know the Mississippi Kites are getting ready to migrate soon, so they will be gone & they are a predatory type of bird too. The Red Tails though stay here all year round.

 

[HEChicken]

I lost 3 chicks to the hawk, Trish. I have one hen who three days ago had 3 chicks she was raising who are about a week and a half old. Two days ago I went out and one of them was lying there dead. It had been fine a short time before so I didn't know what killed it. Then yesterday I went out and she only had one chick with absolutely no trace of the second. That was a puzzling mystery all of last night and this morning I hoped it would be there but she still just had the one.

This afternoon when I looked out and saw the hawk, my first thought was "Oh THAT'S what took that chick yesterday". I don't know that it killed the one the day before because if it did, why didn't it take it and eat it? But I'm fairly certain it took the one yesterday. That hen and chicks were still in the nursery but it has no top so the hawk must have flown right into the pen, which is scary by itself.

I also had 4 hens raising 6 chicks who are 3 weeks old, and when I went out today after seeing the hawk, I couldn't find any of them. My Aloha hen is one of the mamas and she is the smartest chicken I've ever had. She came running over to me and was talking away and it just seemed like she was saying "Can you help me? I can't find any of the babies". So she was hot on my heels the whole time I was looking and then in a patch of weeds I saw what I thought was a dead body and I went to pick it up and it squawked and the Aloha was right on top of us, scolding me for "hurting her baby", and at the same time chiding it to follow her to the main coop. It turned out there were 4 hiding in that same patch of weeds and when they heard their mama, they all emerged and followed her to the coop. After that she kept them in the main coop for the rest of the afternoon - I guess she felt like that was a safer place for them to be. She is such a great Mama - I really appreciate her.

Tonight I moved that group of hens with the 4 remaining chicks into one of my pens that I got from Deerfield, and I moved the other hen and her remaining chick to the other. I also moved a broody hen and some eggs that were in my hatcher (one pipped) into that same pen, so she can be safe with her new chicks. She heard the pipped egg peeping and joyfully tucked the eggs under her. I expect by morning she will have some chicks to raise.

I am so sorry to hear about the ducks losing their feathers - at least those will grow back. Hopefully they will be safe until you have the modified hoop coop ready for them at night. They really are very good at flying out - I've found the same with mine. I also have a sheep who figured out a way to get out and its really quite funny because she's the only one who does it, and as soon as she's out, all she does is graze in the backyard and stay just on this side of the fence from the other 5. And, as soon as I open the back door, she races over to me, kicking up her heels with glee, and when I open the gate, she obediently trots back in. Its like she gets out just because she can, and gets a lot of "fun" out of beating the system on a regular basis.