Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Below is a pic of my first setup in prep for 6 buff orpingtons next week. Under the pool is a 2.5 inch piece of foam to keep it off the cold concrete.

I'm in Derby and this is our first attempt at chickens! We are ordering a coop/run from chickencoopcondos.com and it will be here in a few months.

Wish us luck!



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[COLOR=#0000FF]I agree with the others, you will be very surprised how fast the little critters will be able to escape that pool. Oh & welcome to Consolidated Kansas. I lived just on the east edge of Derby for 23 years till I moved where I am now, I loved it there. [/COLOR]
[QUOTE="Frizzled Pink, post: 12003661, member: 0"]

New Babies[IMG]https://www.backyardchickens.com/styles/byc-smilies/jumpy.gif bantam mille cochin

Cute babies Frizzled!

I didn't get a lot done today, we had our granddaughter over for awhile after her soccer game & I also had someone come for the last of the Swedish Flower Hen chicks. That should be my last chicks for the year I'm hatching out for anyone else other than myself. I need a break from it for a few months & then I'll be ready to start on spring chicks.

I've really been enjoying this cooler weather. I hope we actually get to have a fall this year before it gets too cold.

 

[OkieQueenBee]

I am behind in the posts again, gone all day yesterday to the fair to work the honey booth and today to Gardner. Was gonna try to comment on all the going ons but I am exhausted and devasted. We had 3 peachicks in what we thought was a very secure pen, the gate latch was hard for me to open, but when we got home we saw 1 of the peachicks out of its pen, went to investigate and the gate was open and feathers everywhere. Sad, sad, sad.... Only other missing bird is one of the mutt chicks that I had named Pistol Pete because of his orange legs. ChickenDanz I hope everything is alright at your place. Maybe my DH will want some peachicks now. It was good to meet you.
Two BCM chicks have hatched, only 50 more to go...
Bees - anytime you want to talk bees just holler.
Well, goodnight.

 

[chicken danz]

One of my 3/4 grown Narragansett turkeys hurt its leg over a month ago. It got caught between two chain link panels, and was hanging by that leg. I found him when I did my nightly check . I had to loosen the clamp that held the panels together before I could free him. The leg was swollen at the knee joint and it could not stand on either leg. I put it in my isolation shed. He can now stand and hops around on one leg, but the other leg is drying up and I am trying to decide if I need to amputate it or if it will come off on its own. He picks at the dead foot when he stands, I really did not expect him to be alive the next morning but its doing better every day. About two weeks ago one of my three month old EE pullets must have gotten over heated. I found her laying on her back with both feet in the air. I first thought it was dead but saw one leg move. I got it to drink a little water and put it in with the turkey. The next day it was fine, but I have left it with the turkey. The pullet can free range but it sleeps next to the turkey at night. A real odd couple. I might try to get a night photo and post it.

Ralph, leave the leg alone. It will safely fall off on it's on and the end will have grown shut so there is no risk of infection later. It could even take a couple more months but one day you will find it in the pen laying on the ground. If you attempt to cut it off you ruin the natural healing process and may leave an open wound. Plus dealing with the dead stump he is doing his own physical therapy and learning to walk without it. First hand experience with another animal.

Below is a pic of my first setup in prep for 6 buff orpingtons next week. Under the pool is a 2.5 inch piece of foam to keep it off the cold concrete.

I'm in Derby and this is our first attempt at chickens! We are ordering a coop/run from chickencoopcondos.com and it will be here in a few months.

Wish us luck!


I did the same thing with a brooder in my basement. I used a piece of that rigid insulation foam under a bin for my brooder. It works quite well. When you initially put the chicks in you won't need the top but will probably within a week or so. Congratulations on your first babies. You are really going all out for the coop. Those are rather pricy. Most of us have had to cobble what we can.

I have been busy all morning trying to get the house cleaned so I can have company over. I sure wish the house is smaller or I can afford to hire someone to clean the house once a month. My husband was over by the old house making sure the painters are doing their job. We are getting it rented out soon so it needs to be done.

When I had a big house I always thought I wanted a small house so I could get it cleaned. Now that I am in a small house I wish I was in the big house. I just figured out there is no place to put the clutter in a little house. At least in the big house I could spread it out.

New Babies

bantam mille cochin

Congrats on your new hatches!.

I am behind in the posts again, gone all day yesterday to the fair to work the honey booth and today to Gardner. Was gonna try to comment on all the going ons but I am exhausted and devasted. We had 3 peachicks in what we thought was a very secure pen, the gate latch was hard for me to open, but when we got home we saw 1 of the peachicks out of its pen, went to investigate and the gate was open and feathers everywhere. Sad, sad, sad.... Only other missing bird is one of the mutt chicks that I had named Pistol Pete because of his orange legs. ChickenDanz I hope everything is alright at your place. Maybe my DH will want some peachicks now. It was good to meet you.
Two BCM chicks have hatched, only 50 more to go...
Bees - anytime you want to talk bees just holler.
Well, goodnight.

So sorry about your peachicks! I'd almost guess it was a raccoon. They have very nimble fingers. I had my cockatiels outside a few years ago and they couldn't get the latch open on the cage because it was a double latch thing. So the raccoons simply spread the bars open and pulled the cockatiel through the opening. This was not a cheap flimsy cage either.
Speaking of peachicks I had two more hatch yesterday that had been started under the mama hen. I only have two more eggs in the incubator now. I haven't checked those at all. I think they have 4-6 days left.
I got the privilege of meeting Okiequeenbee & DH and ZigZag45 and family yesterday. Nice to meet all of you. ZIGZAG45 has some beautiful little girls. OkieQueenBee you guys are awesome. I felt like I'd known you forever. Things were much different yesterday because they lost the use of the building where you always check in. It worked out okay this time because it was the smallest crowd I have ever seen there. But in a larger auction there will be no place for people to park. There wasn't access to be sure every one got checked in and paid like it has always been. They reserve these buildings 2 years in advance but it got confused and they lost the main indoor building this year. Luckily the weather was mild but in cold weather I don't see this working. The cage birds and chicks have always been kept inside where it was heated and stuff. They were in an open air place yesterday. The next auction is in March and it will for sure be cold then. I hope they have things worked out for that sale.
My pheasant and peacocks did very well but I lost a fortune on my geese and my Mandarins. There were several cages of Mandarins there but none of them brought any decent money. Less than half of the normal amount. I guess I will have to overwinter all my babies from now on to get premium spring prices. I sold my ganders and had them marked as such. Well actually had to laugh at myself. I had marked them at 3:00 AM and marked them as drakes. Duh! Shows how alert I was without sleep.

I only bid on three things and got beat out. The wire vender didn't show up which was what I was planning on buying. That is the first time he wasn't there that I know of. So I guess I saved some money but I really really needed the wire. I may have to use field fence instead. I like the welded wire better though just because it looks much nicer. There was a royal palm hen with about a dozen poults that I felt so sorry for. No food or water and they were crying so much. I got them some water and that helped but they were still just miserable. I stuck around later than I intended to bid on them just because I wanted to rescue them. There was only one other bidder and she bid them up to normal selling prices so I quit. I really didn't need another breed but I sure love my turkeys. It was definitely a buyers market.
Sharol the one thing that went for a decent price was a pair of blue copper marans. They went for like $52 a bird. You could have some valuable birds there. I was also regretting selling my pheasants. They all went for the highest prices I had ever seen. But I had to cut some birds somewhere. I wish I'd had more to sell. I still have a trio of red goldens so maybe next year I'll have lots of babies.
After the auction, we went to Olathe and celebrated with my youngest granddaughter who turned 3 yesterday. But about 7:00 PM I was so tired I felt a total crash coming. 6 and half hours of sleep in the previous 60 hours had finally caught up with me. I was totally wiped out. I did manage to drive home and make it by about 8:15PM. I had planned to take care of the birds but it was dark and I just went in and got ready for bed. I hope I don't get sick. I tend to do that when I get too worn down.
Luckily the gate was still latched with the padlock and chain around it. The guy I was worried about WAS NOT at the auction. I strongly suspect he showed up here as I feared. Thank goodness for DH's smart fix for the gates. All appear to be safe and sound.

 

[Ralph Moyer]

Ralph, leave the leg alone. It will safely fall off on it's on and the end will have grown shut so there is no risk of infection later. It could even take a couple more months but one day you will find it in the pen laying on the ground. If you attempt to cut it off you ruin the natural healing process and may leave an open wound. Plus dealing with the dead stump he is doing his own physical therapy and learning to walk without it. First hand experience with another animal.








So sorry about your peachicks! I'd almost guess it was a raccoon. They have very nimble fingers. I had my cockatiels outside a few years ago and they couldn't get the latch open on the cage because it was a double latch thing. So the raccoons simply spread the bars open and pulled the cockatiel through the opening. This was not a cheap flimsy cage either.
Speaking of peachicks I had two more hatch yesterday that had been started under the mama hen. I only have two more eggs in the incubator now. I haven't checked those at all. I think they have 4-6 days left.
I got the privilege of meeting Okiequeenbee & DH and ZigZag45 and family yesterday. Nice to meet all of you. ZIGZAG45 has some beautiful little girls. OkieQueenBee you guys are awesome. I felt like I'd known you forever. Things were much different yesterday because they lost the use of the building where you always check in. It worked out okay this time because it was the smallest crowd I have ever seen there. But in a larger auction there will be no place for people to park. There wasn't access to be sure every one got checked in and paid like it has always been. They reserve these buildings 2 years in advance but it got confused and they lost the main indoor building this year. Luckily the weather was mild but in cold weather I don't see this working. The cage birds and chicks have always been kept inside where it was heated and stuff. They were in an open air place yesterday. The next auction is in March and it will for sure be cold then. I hope they have things worked out for that sale.
My pheasant and peacocks did very well but I lost a fortune on my geese and my Mandarins. There were several cages of Mandarins there but none of them brought any decent money. Less than half of the normal amount. I guess I will have to overwinter all my babies from now on to get premium spring prices. I sold my ganders and had them marked as such. Well actually had to laugh at myself. I had marked them at 3:00 AM and marked them as drakes. Duh! Shows how alert I was without sleep.

I only bid on three things and got beat out. The wire vender didn't show up which was what I was planning on buying. That is the first time he wasn't there that I know of. So I guess I saved some money but I really really needed the wire. I may have to use field fence instead. I like the welded wire better though just because it looks much nicer. There was a royal palm hen with about a dozen poults that I felt so sorry for. No food or water and they were crying so much. I got them some water and that helped but they were still just miserable. I stuck around later than I intended to bid on them just because I wanted to rescue them. There was only one other bidder and she bid them up to normal selling prices so I quit. I really didn't need another breed but I sure love my turkeys. It was definitely a buyers market.
Sharol the one thing that went for a decent price was a pair of blue copper marans. They went for like $52 a bird. You could have some valuable birds there. I was also regretting selling my pheasants. They all went for the highest prices I had ever seen. But I had to cut some birds somewhere. I wish I'd had more to sell. I still have a trio of red goldens so maybe next year I'll have lots of babies.
After the auction, we went to Olathe and celebrated with my youngest granddaughter who turned 3 yesterday. But about 7:00 PM I was so tired I felt a total crash coming. 6 and half hours of sleep in the previous 60 hours had finally caught up with me. I was totally wiped out. I did manage to drive home and make it by about 8:15PM. I had planned to take care of the birds but it was dark and I just went in and got ready for bed. I hope I don't get sick. I tend to do that when I get too worn down.
Luckily the gate was still latched with the padlock and chain around it. The guy I was worried about WAS NOT at the auction. I strongly suspect he showed up here as I feared. Thank goodness for DH's smart fix for the gates. All appear to be safe and sound.

Thanks Danz. I thought I should let nature take its course, but I wanted a second opinion. As for the issue of rocks, my place is named Rocky Hill Farm. I tell people that there is only one rock, but the farm sets on it. I should have known before I bought it in 1967, because there was a limestone quarry on the corner across from me. I don't dig postholes , I chisel them.

 

[Trish44]

Danz, I'm so glad your gate was secure, thank goodness. I wish the auction could have gone better for you, but you just never know. Congrats on the peachicks hatching!

Ralph, I know what you mean exactly. When we tried to plant a tree in the backyard years ago here my DH had to dig out boulders just to plant it. When I wanted a water garden dug my son had to get some friends & they actually had to break rock after they got down a few feet. He was really cursing me by the time that pond was done. It was my Mother's Day gift that year. He tells everyone how he had to break rock to dig it for me. I used to have a waterfall going into there, but my DH kept complaining about the electricity to run the pump & I had leaks along there too so I just gave up on that. It's mostly overgrown with water plants now.

 

[chicken danz]

I still made money yesterday. It wasn't a total loss by any means. It was just less than I expected on the ducks and geese. I am actually thankful my DNA test didn't come back in time because I would have lost even more money. But at the same time tiffed that I paid extra for expedited shipping and over two weeks later it still hasn't arrive at the lab. I'm moving slow today. I need to get out and get busy. I'm battling fatigue for sure.

 

[Trish44]

Take it easy Danz, you need to rest after so little sleep, you don't want to get sick.

 

[cherwill]

Well yesteday was a day of disaster. DH was very very slow and didn't have cages done. The ones I rigged up with the clothes baskets would have worked fine but because they were so cheap, when I put the Mandarins in them they were cutting their bills on the little strips of plastic on the sides of the basket. So this is 7:30 PM or so. I started scrounging and ended up making four new cages starting from zero. I scrounged around until I found the lumber to do it and worked on them while DH worked the other cages. We were sharing the staple gun and the drills etc and it seemed like one of us kept waiting on the other to get done. Well when we finally got done it was about 2:30 AM. I decided to take a flashlight and go load birds in the dark. So I caught birds and DH fastened the cages with cable ties. I had to fill their feed and water bowls up and get them settled back down. The pheasant and the Mandarins were going insane. So finally all the cages were full and loaded on the truck. It was 3:45 AM. I had to get up at 4:30 AM. I did lay down but about the time I started getting settled down the alarm went off. No sleep whatsoever. I got in the shower, got the rest of the stuff I needed loaded up and headed on the road. I did make it in time for the drawing which decides who goes in what order for sales. It was so totally worth staying up all night for. It will never happen again ...but I got drawn for number one. My birds sell first as soon as the consignment birds are sold. If I didn't want to stick around I could be out of there bright and early tomorrow. Last fall my birds didn't sell until after 6:30 PM. I was so far down on the number list.
So I talked to some friends, fed and watered my birds in the cages, stopped at Walmart and the gas station on the way home. I was home and laying down by 10:30 AM. I expected not to be home until late afternoon. I woke up about 12:15 with leg cramps. Too much work yesterday and not enough water drinking I guess. I couldn't get back to sleep so I went out and took care of birds. DH left to pick up my feed and run some errands and was back home about 4:00 PM just as I was finishing chores. We ate a little ( we never did have dinner last night!) and we laid back down to nap again but I couldn't sleep. So here I am trying to play catch up.
I still have the load of feed to get shoveled off the truck but all that bending and building yesterday is killing my back.
Lizzy so great to hear you got the rain. I saw how there was even some flooding going on in places. We went without unfortunately. Just a tiny bit of mist yesterday morning. It is much cooler though.
I had another pretty good sized group of chicks hatch this morning and there are more in there to hatch. I also gathered eggs and it looks like some who have been on strike picked back up and some who had been laying, have quit. I only gathered hatching eggs. I only had 2 eating eggs from the girls who aren't used for breeding. That's an all time low for them. I need to get these eggs set cause there is probably a tray full of them. I don't want to hold them and end up with a huge hatch.
I can't remember who mentioned hatching more cockerels. I have noted that for years. In hot weather the balance of cockerels to pullets increases astronomically. It's beginning to show around here as some of these chicks start maturing too. Looks like I am either going to have to feed them out or find someone looking for some birds to raise for meat.
I guess I'd better go remind DH about the chains and locks before it gets much later. I don't want to be looking for them tomorrow morning in the dark. It's going to be another very early morning. I was supposed to go celebrate my youngest granddaughters birthday tomorrow evening but I sure don't know if I'll still have any energy to do so.
ZigZag forgive me because I never think in terms of easy or simple. If I were you I would buy some small clear rigid tubing. Cut a narrow wedge down the side of the water pipe to fit the rigid tubing. Glue the clear tubing in with PVC glue so that it is waterproof. Then you could simply look at the tubing and see the water level through it. The other way I might consider doing it is again using clear tubing. Drill a hole just large enough to insert and glue the tubing in the original PVC pipe down towards the lower end, again using PVC glue to prevent leakage. Make an upright 90 degree turn in the tubing so it is shaped like an L. Use a length going vertically upwards in the L shape along side of the PVC pipe and nearly as tall. Leave the top opening of the L shaped tubing open to prevent a vacuum from forming. Through osmosis this will show you exactly how high your water level is. If you didn't want to leave the top of the clear pipe open you could L it again and insert it back into the top of your pvc pipe so it forms a [ shape.

At least TRY to take it easy for a day or two, OK?!

Seriously, don't make yourself sick.

When I finished catching and caging my mix of poultry I am taking to the Afton, OK swap tomorrow, I took some photos of my turkey with the bad leg.












Also I took a picture of a silky rooster taking care of six chicks. Thursday night I moved a hen and eight chicks from a hutch they were in with a rooster and another silky hen with a nest of eggs, that were starting to hatch. The hutch I moved them to wasn't baby chick-tight. And nether was the other hutch, because 6 of the chicks went home to Daddy rooster.

Nice pictures. It's nice that the turkey has a buddy, and your roo is beautiful.

Below is a pic of my first setup in prep for 6 buff orpingtons next week. Under the pool is a 2.5 inch piece of foam to keep it off the cold concrete.

I'm in Derby and this is our first attempt at chickens! We are ordering a coop/run from chickencoopcondos.com and it will be here in a few months.

Wish us luck!




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[COLOR=#008000]The setup looks great, and I'll agree with everyone else about getting some kind of cover on it. As soon as they can hop decently, they'll be on top of the feeder and the waterer, and before you know it, out of the pool. They're wily little critters. I can't wait to see pictures of the chicks. [/COLOR]

[QUOTE="Frizzled Pink, post: 12003661, member: 0"]

New Babies[IMG]https://www.backyardchickens.com/styles/byc-smilies/jumpy.gif bantam mille cochin

Cuties!

I am behind in the posts again, gone all day yesterday to the fair to work the honey booth and today to Gardner. Was gonna try to comment on all the going ons but I am exhausted and devasted. We had 3 peachicks in what we thought was a very secure pen, the gate latch was hard for me to open, but when we got home we saw 1 of the peachicks out of its pen, went to investigate and the gate was open and feathers everywhere. Sad, sad, sad.... Only other missing bird is one of the mutt chicks that I had named Pistol Pete because of his orange legs. ChickenDanz I hope everything is alright at your place. Maybe my DH will want some peachicks now. It was good to meet you.
Two BCM chicks have hatched, only 50 more to go...
Bees - anytime you want to talk bees just holler.
Well, goodnight.

Sorry about the peachicks.

Luckily the gate was still latched with the padlock and chain around it. The guy I was worried about WAS NOT at the auction. I strongly suspect he showed up here as I feared. Thank goodness for DH's smart fix for the gates. All appear to be safe and sound.

I'm glad to hear it. I agree with you. The phone call and all was suspicious, and it's doubly suspicious that he wasn't at the auction.

We ended up at the fair for a bit yesterday, but never made it to the poultry barn. I really wanted to, but things were a mess with some of the people we were there with and we didn't see a lot of things DH and I would have liked to see.

 

[sharol]

Went to the fair today. DH had to man a booth with a couple of other surveyors, so I wandered pretty much at leisure. It was hot until the sky opened about 3. There was a deluge that drowned out almost everything. Thunder and lightening are scary when you are in a tent. All's well now, though.

When we got back about 8, I thought the babies (Marlena's marans babies) hadn't gotten back in the coop. Then I heard a pathetic little peep, and there was one of them completely behind the hanging feeder. I picked her up and put her on the roost (much complaining and chirping), and saw another one under a ramp that goes over the nest boxes. Put him on the roost with his sister. The third was hanging out on the back of the roost ramp behind a couple of the girls, so I corralled her and put her with her siblings. (more complaining) About that time the coop door closed and they calmed down. They are really cute little babies. That two tone gray feathering is lovely. I will need to rehome the cockerel to a 4H kid for showing, though, since I really can't keep another roo besides Butch's boys. He is really a pretty boy, though. He is starting to develop some copper tints on his chest that show promise of really beauty at maturity. This picture is at 7 1/2 weeks.



This is his sisters at the same time. Actually all 3 of them, the boy is the one on the left at the rear. The other one at the rear is really hard to photograph. She moves REALLY fast and all her photos are blurry.

 

[zigzag45]

Danz - It was really nice meeting you at the auction. Thanks for all your help along the way.

Blavis - welcome. I had an almost identical setup. I used 4, 1x2's, made into a bit of a teepee on the inside of the pool. I then draped bird netting over it. I used clothes pins to keep the net taunt at the edges of the pool. It worked almost perfectly. I say almost as I raised a handful of brahma chicks in it and did great. Then, I purchased three buff orp pullets, about 12 weeks old. I quarantined them in the pool. They were alot more skittish as they'd not been handled like the brahmas. One night, I was turning lights off and decided to check on the buffs one last time. One was hanging by her foot from the netting. I thought she was dead but she recovered just fine. I ended their quarantine early and dumped them in with the brahmas in the main coop. YMMV.

Question - 2 hours after telling Danz that amazingly, "I haven't had any birds die yet" I got home and had a dead brahma in the coop. No signs of trauma, egg issues, anything. I admit, it was the first time I was handling a large dead bird, so I didn't give it a real thorough examination. Is that just life with chickens, shrug and move on? All the other birds seem fine. My three buffs are now pushing 22 weeks and haven't started laying, but I'm hopeful that they're just not ready and it's not a health issue.

I have had issues with a couple of the birds having runny poo. They love yogurt and that helps, not sure if it comes and goes or if they never quite get over it.

Also, I'm being asked to replace the dead bird. Not sure how I'll do that. Anyone know of any breeders in the KC area (or within an hour) that have pullets hatched this spring? I know a guy in Nob Noster that might have some, need to check. I can't say I'm excited about trying to figure out a quarantine process again and all...