Consolidated Kansas

[cherwill]

Well I ended up venting yesterday. I really try not to do that but I was letting my irritation get in my way of getting anything done. We finally got things discussed and I went with DH to Topeka. It made it a very late and expensive evening. I got lumber to build my cages, and lumber to build my turkey pen. Ouch! That was well over $350. Then I went to Walmart and spent another $75 on a little of nothing. It was just a couple things I was out of and I didn't sway off my list. I got more canning lids and rings and should be set for the rest of my canning. There were a couple things I planned to pick up I couldn't find. We got dog food and cat food and chick starter as well. We had a nice dinner. DH said he would help me get the cages built today.
The worst part is I need to get another load of feed about tomorrow. I quit feeding the fermented feed and I am using double what I was. I may have to go back to feeding it to at least the chickens just to save money. They waste so much of the feed otherwise. I've been scrounging money but it's obvious I still need to do a lot more downsizing.

Sometimes you just gotta vent or your head will explode! Sounds like it worked out and you have some definite plans and supplies, and had a nice meal.

I can't imagine any of us on the Kansas thread having housing for our chickens that wouldn't be 10 times better than what those poor birds that live in the egg factory's have to deal with.

That's a very good point. I think my coop is a bit small for 10 hens, but they're mostly in there to sleep anyway. Their yard isn't all that big, either, but it's sufficient. Certain times of the year they get to do some free-ranging over the whole back yard. They aren't fighting, so I assume it's enough space. Mine bicker when they're getting settled on the roosts, as HEChicken mentioned hers do. They get it settled and then go to sleep. The stupid thing is that each bird pretty much roosts in the same spot each night, so I don't know what they're bickering about.

I had to go out today & take some pics for some people wanting some of birds they were interested in, so I took a few others. Here are some of my favorite birds, my Blue Laced Barnevelders:


Here is one of just the rooster:


Here are the little Peafowl chicks:


And this one is for you HEChicken, Bandaid & Essie were doing the mating dance & Bandaid was showing off for her. This is actually the first time I have really seen him displaying.


And lastly here are the last 4 Swedish Flower Hen chicks I hatched for this year. Does anybody want some, they're for sale?

Pretty birds, and a nice variety of them.

So, I started writing a couple hours ago and lost internet because of the RAIN! That's right! Northwest KS go RAIN!!! Time for a happy dance!!! Goodland's NWS office reported 0.73", which is the highest one-day total since June 16th. We got 0.59" and it is still sprinkling!

We're supposed to get some rain and cooler temps tonight. I'm glad about the rain because of the fall garden we planted, but I'm not sure how much rain I want. The top of the ground looks dry and cracked, but I only have to dig down about an inch to find damp soil. I wonder if the ground is still saturated deeper down from all that rain earlier, and only the top bit really dries out because of the heat and wind. Most of the bell peppers are beginning to rot before they turn red, which makes me think they're somehow still getting too much water.

 

[Trish44]

cherwill, those are only a sampling of what I have here, I have lots of breeds I raise to sell & a big variety of birds for laying just because I like different ones & yard eye candy. My birds do some squabbling at roosting time, but most of the problems come in when new birds are introduced & have to find a spot on the roosts. If they try to sleep where someone else considers their spot they get chastised for it. The same goes at laying time, I have a bank of 6 laying nests, but there are a couple that never get used, who knows why. I hear them out there arguing over a nest box if one is in there & the other wants in at the same time. That happened today & when I walked in there was one hen in the nest & the white leghorn was out on the roost chewing her out because she wanted that box. It happens daily like that, instead of just going & using another nest they stand there & yell at the offender until they lay their egg & get out. Silly girls!

 

[22qZoo]

Our lawn, ahem....WEEDS are getting crunchy when you walk across the yard. The grasshoppers are even starting to get a little crusty. Hope we can get some rain over here too.
CHERWILL , that is so true about them bickering about sleeping in the same spot every night. Lol.
Aliaslucyvp- I love grapefruit seed extract ! Tastes god awfull but really works, couple drops in a sinus rinse and its in my ear drops too. Duh, why didn't I ever think to use it on external stuff? Thanks for the tip, my other new favorite thing is coconut oil. The chickens like it too.
TRISH- your Barnvelders are pretty, have you had them very long ? And if I may ask , why is that turkey named bandaid ? Didn't somebody on here have a little turkey that had a poof on its head ? Is it still around?

 

[lizzyGSR]

We're supposed to get some rain and cooler temps tonight. I'm glad about the rain because of the fall garden we planted, but I'm not sure how much rain I want. The top of the ground looks dry and cracked, but I only have to dig down about an inch to find damp soil. I wonder if the ground is still saturated deeper down from all that rain earlier, and only the top bit really dries out because of the heat and wind. Most of the bell peppers are beginning to rot before they turn red, which makes me think they're somehow still getting too much water.

We didn't get the rain that a lot of the rest of KS got a month or so ago. Here in NW KS, we are on track to having the driest year on record. We've had somewhat cooler temperatures this summer than we did last summer, so we're not hurting as horribly bad as we did lst summer, but we are still hurting for rain pretty bad. The forecast has a 60+% chance of rain for today, tonight and tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll get some nice slow, soaking rains.

Our lawn, ahem....WEEDS are getting crunchy when you walk across the yard. The grasshoppers are even starting to get a little crusty. Hope we can get some rain over here too.

I totally understand on the crunchy weeds. We have very little grass in our yard, and the weeds, while still green, are pretty dry. We haven't had many grasshoppers to speak of around here. Too dry for them this year? I don't know.

 

[HEChicken]

...my other new favorite thing is coconut oil. The chickens like it too.
....And if I may ask , why is that turkey named bandaid ? Didn't somebody on here have a little turkey that had a poof on its head ? Is it still around?

I am a new coconut oil convert too!!! I haven't given it to the chickens though - how do you feed it to them?

I can answer why the turkey is called Bandaid since it was my DD who named him. When he hatched, he got splayed leg from the slick floor of the incubator (I now used a terry towel on the bottom of the incubator when hatching and haven't had that issue again since). Anyway, I asked my DD to look at him and see if she could use a bandaid as a splint to correct the splayed leg. She was able to get it on perfectly and in a couple of days he was walking normally. On day 3 or 4 we removed the bandaid and he continued to do well. By the time he was a week old, you would never have guessed that at one point he was doing the splits - literally one leg straight out in front, the other straight out behind him. We had quite a few in that hatch but because we worked with him so much in those first few days, he became a favorite and was very attached to people. When they were a few weeks old, I would take them all out of the brooder to run around our 3-season room, and while the others explored, all he wanted to do was climb on my lap and talk to me and peck at my earrings and go to sleep on my shoulder. Since I am raising the turkeys primarily for meat, it made me sad to think of him being eaten so when Trish wanted a tom to replace hers who had died, and Bandaid was old enough for me to take an educated guess the he was a HE, I was thrilled for him to go to a new home instead of being raised for meat.

I am the one with the crested turkey also and he/she is still doing well. I need to go and get some updated pictures!

 

[chicken danz]

Sorry Lizzy, I wasn't reading closely enough. Can I blame it on the heat yesterday? I saw on the news last night that you were getting rain and thought how nice it was going to be for you.
We have a fine mist in the air. Didn't look like on the forecast we were going to get rain from their computer generated maps. And we are also supposed to be the hot spot today. Still supposed to be about 90. I hope all the rain around us doesn't just raise the humidity. We really need the rain. The leaves on the bushes and trees are starting to droop really bad again. We definitely don't have moisture under the surface.
I got some quick cages done yesterday for the Mandarins. They are the ones retrofitted from the clothes baskets. DH got one cage done and started on another. I told him he was trying to over build and engineer too much. We'll never get done in time to have birds loaded up this evening. I have always loaded them the next morning but it's impossible to do in the dark and get there on time. It's going to be in the least a very very busy day.
I'm concerned. I got a call from the guy I suspect stole Rev Mammas birds. He asked what I have and then asked if I was going to be in Gardner Saturday. I am such a dummy. I should have lied to him about the birds. If I end up with birds missing I'll know he got them. I suspect him of stealing from me once before when he knew I would be at a sale. I think we need to get the electronic latch put on the gate for sure if nothing else so there is no chance it can be opened by being forced. We really don't have time for that but it needs to be done. Too bad I don't have padlocks to put on every gate too. I do wish I had a game cam so I could see what goes on while I am gone. I would even put a dummy up if I had one. Too late to worry about that right now though.
I hate feeling all stressed about getting things done. Crum. I hate being under pressure.
I have to get some chicks moved to the brooder house today. I got a separate brooder box emptied of birds and got it all pressure washed and ready to go for new chicks. But I didn't get them moved yet. After my last hatch the bin in here is way overcrowded.
So I have coconut oil. What are you guys using it for? I bought it for soap and lotion making but it is food grade.

 

[JosieChick]

Hmmmm. I hear you on wanting to get it cleared up. I would recommend trying a sulfa antibiotic either from your vet or mail order the liquid. Your vet should be able to write you a rx that you could pick up for something like trimethoprim sulfa that you could pick up at a pharmacy and it shouldn't be too pricey. Baytril would probably work really well but is super pricey. The amoxi is probably not strong enough to get it cleared up. I know it is a total pain but I would strongly encourage you to bring them both into dog kennels or something of the like and keep them on deep, clean shavings that will have to be changed often to keep dry because we all know how waterfowl are with water. I would wrap both their feet with heavy gauze under the swelling and vet wrap to keep it dry and really cushioned. I would do this for a minimum of 2 weeks. Don't put them back outside until their feet show no signs of swelling. If there is any scap or open looking area I would open it up and try to clean out the plug which is a birds version of pus. Hope this helps, sorry it is going to be a lot more work but it should be worth it to get it cleared up. I will look at the goose forum I am a member of too and see if they have any suggestions. Can you soak in epsom salts? That might help dry and draw out the swelling too...

The duck is not caged and is free ranging during the day, same as the gander, but I have taken away all the places that they can swim. Mud is a bit difficult to avoid.

The duck and the gander are both on amoxi for bumblefoot and have been for about 1 1/2 - 2 weeks (we have enough for a total of 20 days of amoxi for each of them). The amoxi started helping both of them, but I have stopped seeing improvement. The duck's swollen spot almost completely disappeared but has returned recently, and the duck was on amoxi the whole time. For the gander, the amoxi has helped enough that he is no longer refusing to use the foot, but he still seems to be gimping a bit, and there is a LOT of swelling left. The gander's bumblefoot was on the pad of the foot, right where the three toes join, so the swollen area is on the pad of the foot, as well as in the webbing close to the pad, and is at the beginning of each toe. My DH has been complaining about how much $$ we've put into these birds, but I really don't know what else to do. I'd really like to get this taken care of. I first noticed the duck's bumblefoot well over a month ago when she was sharing the kiddie pool with our 100+ lb chocolate lab. I first noticed the gander's bumblefoot when he started limping just under 2 weeks ago. The Baytril had helped the duck but was really expensive, which is why I switched. The amoxi doesn't seem to be helping as much. We have been wrapping the gander's foot once a day and have stopped wrapping the duck's foot because the scab is completely gone. When we wrap, we wash the foot with soapy water, then apply a small amount of alcohol and iodine. Then we spray some gauze with Vetericyn, put the gauze on the wound, and wrap with vet wrap. Suggestions on how I should treat them would be greatly appreciated!

Don't get too excited! I'm only planning on doing the prefolds for the newborn stage. I've gotten a few prefolds that are big enough I should be able to use them after the baby grows out of the newborn stuff, but I plan to mostly use pocket diapers once the baby is big enough for them.

Hahaha! I nested for a week before, I should have known she was coming! We got at on of carters gowns and I barely used them because the elastic band along the bottom was so tight I could barely get it up around her to change a diaper. Will have to look at Kmart sometime!

I run my bantams and LF together during the winter and have never had a problem. The roosters I have are nice and often my bantam roos "protect" their little girls from advances by the LF roos, they kinda keep to their kind.

I only had that "nesting" feeling with one of my four kids--thankfully!! I had pulled EVERYTHING out of the kids' room so I could steam clean the carpet before the baby came. He was born the next day--almost 2 weeks early. My husband hurried home to put the toddler bed back in the room, but our poor daughter thought we'd given away all her toys and clothes! He had to show her that all her stuff was safe in the laundry room, but she still wasn't convinced until we got everything back in the room (ahh, the mind of a four-year-old!)

Co-sleeping is great, especially if you're nursing. And Danz is right, those gowns were our FAVORITE!! I give them at every baby shower. My husband didn't like to change the diapers when they were in the sleepers, but he was always game when they were in the gowns--he was always afraid he'd bend their legs too much. Also, our kids had such long legs that they didn't fit in footed jammies anyway. We used Spencer gowns from Kmart because they were a little baggier and they could wear them longer.

If you aren't using an infant carrier, you might want to get one of those head-neck rolls that go from ear to top of head to other ear. Otherwise you'll have to roll up ALOT of blankets to hold baby's head up. They used to be about $10.

Josie, I wish you had LF. My daughter wants some of your bantams, but I'm afraid if they interbred it could kill the little ladies. I'd NEVER forgive myself if something happened to one of them!

I really like my turkeys. If they laid throughout the year like chickens do, I'd be tempted to have more turkeys than chickens.

I haven't had allergies since we moved here last summer but they're hitting me just a little at the moment - it must just be a bad year for them.

I also wore my babies, but in Australia I think perhaps that is more common as I don't remember thinking twice about it or ever having anyone even comment on it. I mowed the lawn and cooked dinner and walked to the store and did just about everything with a baby strapped either to the front of me while they were little or on my back when they were bigger. The babies were calmer and less bored that way, as they could look around and see what I was doing. Though my son was a little twit when he was about 10 months old and I tried to decorate DD's birthday cake and he discovered that his arms were *just* long enough to reach over my shoulder (he was on my back) and scoop up little bits of frosting *just* as I got it perfect.....

I know what you mean about the grasshoppers getting crusty! I may have to get some grapeseed extract!

Our lawn, ahem....WEEDS are getting crunchy when you walk across the yard. The grasshoppers are even starting to get a little crusty. Hope we can get some rain over here too.
CHERWILL , that is so true about them bickering about sleeping in the same spot every night. Lol.
Aliaslucyvp- I love grapefruit seed extract ! Tastes god awfull but really works, couple drops in a sinus rinse and its in my ear drops too. Duh, why didn't I ever think to use it on external stuff? Thanks for the tip, my other new favorite thing is coconut oil. The chickens like it too.
TRISH- your Barnvelders are pretty, have you had them very long ? And if I may ask , why is that turkey named bandaid ? Didn't somebody on here have a little turkey that had a poof on its head ? Is it still around?

Alrighty, I need to go get some stuff done! Everyone enjoy the cooler weather!

 

[chicken danz]

The gowns I always used for my kids actually had a draw string thing. Maybe they quit making them that way because of possible dangers. I think I also had some with plastic snaps. I don't think elastic would work well either....unless it was loose. Mostly my gowns were left open except when they were really itty bitty babies.

 

[HEChicken]

Danz, I'm worried for you about being gone to Gardner. Can your husband stay home while you're away?

 

[JosieChick]

The gowns I always used for my kids actually had a draw string thing. Maybe they quit making them that way because of possible dangers. I think I also had some with plastic snaps. I don't think elastic would work well either....unless it was loose. Mostly my gowns were left open except when they were really itty bitty babies.

Yeah no more strings, babies were getting hung up and apparently choked by them. The elastic works ok it is just really tight on the carters ones and I felt like it was squeezing the daylights out of her poor tummy when I hiked it up to change a diaper. She lived in soft footed pjs for a long time when we were at home.

Maybe you have a neighbor that can watch your place while you are gone?