Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

I think I may just use fender washers and screws to attach mine to the wall or in the case of a hoop coop I may use plumbers strapping to secure the bin in place. They seem kind of pricy but compared to other purchased nest boxes they would be very inexpensive. I like the idea of being able to clean them a little better than my wood boxes.
Ralph congrats on the turkey poults. My silly turkeys are still laying. At this rate they'll be too worn out to lay at all next spring!!! For some reason I just can't eat a turkey egg. I think I am so attached to those creatures it just seems wrong. I end up feeding them to the chickens.
BTW my turkey that hatched out the 6 chicken chicks is still an excellent mama. We lost one the first week or so when it got in one of the pens and drowned in a water bowl. We lost a second one just a few days ago that had an injured leg. She still has the other 4 and is far more attentive than any chicken mother would be. She has them in bed under her before 5:30 each evening. The only problem is they are just as wild as they can be. The only way you could catch one is if you get them cornered in a pen. She spends the entire day calling them and trying to gather them up. I'll need to get her penned with the other turkeys soon so I guess I may just have to house the babies with her.
I about froze all day yesterday. Sure made me ache. It's supposed to be a little warmer today and without that cold wind. Thank goodness.

 

[sharol]

Just for fun, these are the "orphans" as my DH says (the brooder hatchlings). They are half Marans and half something else. They will be 11 weeks old Thursday.

This is Raven. She has beautiful markings on the front half of her body. I'm hoping for olive eggs.




This is copper. I can't get a decent picture of her. She is the same colors as her brother, but much more muted. Blue/gray and coppery yellow. I'm guessing Buff Orp/Marans


This is Chickzilla. He is much larger than his sisters and his colors are much brighter. Again, he is hard to photograph because he keeps moving all the time. He is the only one of my 4 probable roos to be sleeping with the big girls on the top roost. The Marans roo is trying to sleep on the floor behind the feeder, and the 2 EE's (4 weeks older) are usually on the feeding table behind the other feeder when I check in with them at bedtime. They need to grow a pair if they plan to rule the roost later.


Copper and Chickzilla


I love the variety of colors, and I can hardly wait to see what color Copper and Raven's eggs are.

 

[HEChicken]

Danz, I wonder if you could share the link where you ordered your boxes? I can't even imagine what else they could be used for other than nest boxes but I guess that's the crazy chicken lady in me....

I am distressed this morning because my auto door didn't open. It has never once not functioned flawlessly, so I am usually not in a hurry to get down there in the mornings. Even this morning, I am so used to it working that as I approached I didn't even notice there were no birds there to greet me. I did notice through the window there was a turkey on the roost inside, peering out at me, and I thought that was unusual but it took a bit for it to dawn on me that it was only there because it had no choice. On examination it had actually tried to open and had made it about 3" - just enough for a few of the 6-week-olds to be out. When I used the magnet it closed, so it wasn't a matter of the cables becoming disconnected. I opened the people door and birds started to pile out and....it turns out I have LOT of birds. It wasn't until I waited while they all ran or flew out and it seemed to be taking a REALLY long time, that I realized for the first time just how many of them there are. Then I tried the magnet again and it opened but only about 80% of the way. That is enough for them to come and go today and I was able to close the people door but....I will have to look at it and try to figure out why it failed to fully open on its own this morning.

Ralph, that is awesome that your turkey hatched those poults. My experience with broody turkeys is they won't give up no matter the weather. Mine sat out during that period in July/August when we were having a major storm every few days. That poor birds sat through countless storms with thunder, lightning and hail, but never gave up sitting.

That reminds me - when I was out riding my horse yesterday with some friends we came around a bend and there were at least 10 and perhaps a dozen wild turkeys out standing on a log by a pond. It was an awesome sight! They ran off when they saw us and my friends were marveling that my dogs didn't chase them. Then I reminded them, they LIVE with a bunch of turkeys. Their only interest in approaching the wild turkeys would have been to introduce themselves on a personal level to birds they hadn't met before - they would never think about chasing them.

 

[chicken danz]

Just for fun, these are the "orphans" as my DH says (the brooder hatchlings). They are half Marans and half something else. They will be 11 weeks old Thursday.

This is Raven. She has beautiful markings on the front half of her body. I'm hoping for olive eggs. Sharol I must say she is absolutely gorgeous. I doubt if I could have produced her if I tried. I do hope she is an olive egger.




This is copper. I can't get a decent picture of her. She is the same colors as her brother, but much more muted. Blue/gray and coppery yellow. I'm guessing Buff Orp/Marans She is a very interesting color for sure. I really like it. She should be an excellent layer.


This is Chickzilla. He is much larger than his sisters and his colors are much brighter. Again, he is hard to photograph because he keeps moving all the time. He is the only one of my 4 probable roos to be sleeping with the big girls on the top roost. The Marans roo is trying to sleep on the floor behind the feeder, and the 2 EE's (4 weeks older) are usually on the feeding table behind the other feeder when I check in with them at bedtime. They need to grow a pair if they plan to rule the roost later.


Copper and Chickzilla


I love the variety of colors, and I can hardly wait to see what color Copper and Raven's eggs are.

 

[cherwill]

This evening I discovered one of my hen turkeys had hatched out nine little ones. She had her nest in the middle of one of the larger open poultry lots. She had some tall weeds around her but they did not provide much cover. It had rained at least twice and one with hail, while she was setting. I herded them into a covered 6x10x6 pen for safety and took some photos.

How cute!

Just for fun, these are the "orphans" as my DH says (the brooder hatchlings). They are half Marans and half something else. They will be 11 weeks old Thursday.

This is Raven. She has beautiful markings on the front half of her body. I'm hoping for olive eggs.




This is copper. I can't get a decent picture of her. She is the same colors as her brother, but much more muted. Blue/gray and coppery yellow. I'm guessing Buff Orp/Marans


This is Chickzilla. He is much larger than his sisters and his colors are much brighter. Again, he is hard to photograph because he keeps moving all the time. He is the only one of my 4 probable roos to be sleeping with the big girls on the top roost. The Marans roo is trying to sleep on the floor behind the feeder, and the 2 EE's (4 weeks older) are usually on the feeding table behind the other feeder when I check in with them at bedtime. They need to grow a pair if they plan to rule the roost later.


Copper and Chickzilla


I love the variety of colors, and I can hardly wait to see what color Copper and Raven's eggs are.

Your birds are really pretty. I like having a mixed flock, too. They come in such colorful variety, I can't imagine choosing just one!

That reminds me - when I was out riding my horse yesterday with some friends we came around a bend and there were at least 10 and perhaps a dozen wild turkeys out standing on a log by a pond. It was an awesome sight! They ran off when they saw us and my friends were marveling that my dogs didn't chase them. Then I reminded them, they LIVE with a bunch of turkeys. Their only interest in approaching the wild turkeys would have been to introduce themselves on a personal level to birds they hadn't met before - they would never think about chasing them.

Cool!

My neighbor said he thought he saw a rooster out front, between our houses. He thought it was odd because we don't have any roos, but he got in for a closer look. It ran into the bushes, then across the street, then it outran his ability to get near it again. Anyway, when he did get closer, he saw that it was a pheasant. It must have been injured because it never flew, just ran. He said it's actually the second time he's seen a pheasant in town, though the last time was some years ago.

 

[chicken danz]

Here it is Hechicken. They also have red. I just used the link to the blue ones I purchased.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Homz-Kidz-Modular-Storage-System-Turquoise/19224757
I am also sending you a PM, HEChicken. Could use an answer soon if you have time.
Do you suppose the cooler weather made your door malfunction? Or did the mechanism get too much chick dust in it. Since I know absolutely nothing about those things I really am guessing. Maybe you need to squirt a little silicone in the area the door slides through. I'm really quite good at figuring out problems like that if I can examine them. But without any working knowledge at all I can't help much.
I need to empty the incubator again. Somehow I need to find a way to balance out chicks I put here and there.
Cherwill in my experience raising pheasants they prefer to run than fly. They will jump up and fly if started but if they can see their "predator" they will run first.

 

[KsKingBee]

I know Hechicken does not have the Adore like ours but when I talked to Ron about a sticking problem he advised not using any kind of petroleum lubricant that would collect dust and gum up the mechanism. A dry type lube only then wiping off any excess was his recommendation. If Heathers door uses a battery that would be the first thing to check. If that is good then a call to the manufacturer would be in order.

BTW, once I added a small washer to our door it has worked flawlessly. Ron said that all new doors now have that washer I added.

 

[Trish44]

Just for fun, these are the "orphans" as my DH says (the brooder hatchlings). They are half Marans and half something else. They will be 11 weeks old Thursday.

This is Raven. She has beautiful markings on the front half of her body. I'm hoping for olive eggs.




This is copper. I can't get a decent picture of her. She is the same colors as her brother, but much more muted. Blue/gray and coppery yellow. I'm guessing Buff Orp/Marans


This is Chickzilla. He is much larger than his sisters and his colors are much brighter. Again, he is hard to photograph because he keeps moving all the time. He is the only one of my 4 probable roos to be sleeping with the big girls on the top roost. The Marans roo is trying to sleep on the floor behind the feeder, and the 2 EE's (4 weeks older) are usually on the feeding table behind the other feeder when I check in with them at bedtime. They need to grow a pair if they plan to rule the roost later.


Copper and Chickzilla


I love the variety of colors, and I can hardly wait to see what color Copper and Raven's eggs are.

Those are some pretty birds sharol, I love the penciling on the top ones,

I went out & put the rest of the fencing I had left from various things over the livestock panels to keep the goats from sticking their head through & getting stuck. I just had barely enough to do the two new panels I had put up recently for an addition to their pen. Hopefully that will keep them out of trouble. Most of the rest of the pen has chicken wire covering it because when I got the goats they were babies & I was afraid they could get right through the panels. I was glad to get that project done so I don't have to worry about them getting strangled now.

Danz I just hooked my bins on the breeder coop inside to a 2x4 so they're not going anywhere. For the others that are outside I drilled two holes through the back & used a longer cable tie to hook it to the chainlink fence. That works pretty good too.

It's so much nicer here today, no wind & it's just a bit warmer, really pretty outside. I was thankful I didn't have to be out in the wind today working on that fence.

 

[chicken danz]

Wow! It's been really quiet on here the last couple of days.
I had to make a trip to Topeka today to get some stuff I was out of. Like usual it cost me a bunch. I realized I hadn't gone out shopping by myself for like months. It was kind of nice to go look at what I wanted without thinking about some one else.
Of course I got out of here late and then I got home late. Some of my birds are going to be super hungry in the morning. I just shut up the pens tonight when I got home.
I also did something I have done only one other time in my life. I stopped and ate dinner by myself. I just don't ever do that because I feel uncomfortable. But my option was to come home and scrounge for something here and/or cook for myself. To heck with being uncomfortable!

 

[OkieQueenBee]

I've noticed how quiet it has been, too, but I figured everyone was outside getting as much done as possible while we have this nice weather. KKB has the new house ready enough to house the chickens because we have to do some rearranging for some new additions. (Go ahead Danz, and ask how that duck coop is coming along!) Danz glad you took some time for yourself today, gotta give yourself a break every now and again.
We saw something yesterday that I have never seen before - a flock of at least 50 hawks (don't know what kind) soaring over our farm. They were just circling and meandering northward following the little creek. Didn't see them today, just the one pesky one that swoops by every so often. Last winter I thought it was really neat to see a couple of bald eagles soaring overhead, now I'm thinking I don't need to see them that close again. We have owls that are really close, that is bad enough.
Sharol, those are really pretty birds. Isn't it just amazing all the different colors and patterns that birds can have?
Has anyone heard from LizzyGSR? I think we are do an update.
Think we will candle the Maran eggs tonight. And gotta get some honey bottled.