Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

I was out feeding and watering. This is what I found. My two guinea adults who had been missing were in the goose pen. Now I know why I hadn't seen them. The daddy guinea is being very protective of these and is right there with the Mom. There are 10 babies there.

 

[chicken danz]

I dunno Sharol. I have always kept my guineas penned except for a few. I had one hen come back with about 10 babies last year but the other birds attacked them and within minutes there were only eight. So I took her and the babies and penned them.
I just left these alone. I figure if the geese didn't get them nothing would. I'm not sure where they are sleeping cause they didn't bring them back to the coop. This pair has been gone for a month or so. I thought the owl had picked them off. I hope she can raise at least a few of them.
I have had a male guinea take up with a broody chicken before and protect the chicks like they were his own. They can be very attentive fathers.
Then my younger ones who used to go to the coop each night are now starting to roost in a tree with the other two adults. I may have to start all over next spring. I'm not sure their survival will be very good if they don't go in at night.

 

[OkieQueenBee]

Cherwill, do your chickens free range where maybe they got ahold of something poisonous? I think animals are usually smart enough to stay away from such things but you never know.
Danz, that is so neat about the baby guineas. A pleasant surprise I'm sure, and you didn't even have to find brooder space for them. Our guineas are doing the head butting thing and they chase the poor turkeys grabbing feathers and hanging on? The turkey that had the sinus problem is all better, can't even tell which one it was. Guess the shot in the sinuses did the trick. The ducks are liking their hoop coop, in fact they like it so much when we took them to the water they turned around and ran back to their pen. Tomorrow I will open the gate and let them explore on their own. Good seeing you the other day, next time you head that way let me know and we'll meet up again. I guess your cargo made it home safely.
I am loving this weather, we were going to get some trees planted, but we had to brush hog first, then helped the BIL load his cattle up, then more brush hogging, so at dark we got the holes drilled. Tomorrow we will plant. We got a bunch of shrubs and trees from the Kansas and Oklahoma Forestry Divisions this spring and haven't got them planted yet. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[chicken danz]

I hope the guineas are able to raise at least most of their babies. I was glad to know that the adults were still alive. I really wish my other young ones would go back to sleeping in their pen though, because in spring I'll never be able to find their eggs if they aren't confined. I don't want to feed them if I can't hatch to sell.
Guineas can be real jerks sometimes, OQB , but they sure are good watch dogs and bug eaters.
Yes my cargo arrived safe and sound. Thanks so much. The smallest one was sampled last night. Yum.
It was great to see you too. We so need to get together again and time it for dinner next time.
I checked my turkey that had the sinus swelling but she seemed over it so I haven't given her any meds. I am hoping I don't have to but that was good to know in the future.
The ducks will get used to you. I walk away when I let new ones out or they'll cower in the corner and hide. Those three I let out of the young group over a week ago are still hanging around that pen instead of joining the free range ducks. I really need to get the other excess males cornered and penned, then get the lot sold to the duck buyer. They go through a bunch of feed. I can't believe all the ducks aren't in that pond. I know if I had a pond it would be full of ducks and geese. They start squawking when the hear me running water even if they have plenty of water.
I was going to start some ACV yesterday but ran out of time. Maybe in the next day or two I'll get it done. The chipmunks snatched on to the first apple I gave them, ate off enough they could fit the halves through the hole in the nest box, and promptly stored them. They said to tell you thanks. I had my last load of feed ground smaller and they don't like it because they can't pick it up in their paws. I may have to buy some extra grains just for them. It's all the same but they can't stash it as easily.
I had a bunch of chicks hatch yesterday. I made a huge mistake though. I had taken some new bloodline buff orp eggs and put them in the incubator I was hatching red stars in. I had some of my other buff orps due to hatch the same day and didn't want to get confused. I forgot about it and promptly took them down to the basement to go with the other red star chicks. Later I realized my error and couldn't figure out which were which. So I gathered up about a dozen chicks that were all a day or less old and tried to pick them out. My current buffs all have a tell tale mark on their heads that these don't. So I had to just guess which were the buffs. There were only 5 of them and I put about 8 in with the other buffs. So I am sure I will have a bunch of mutt chicks I will have to cull later on and I might have put some buffs in for snake food. I swear I get more forgetful every day. I also can't tell the new blood line from the old ones so I will have to raise that entire group to keep myself. I don't have room to separate chicks by group so I'm not sure how I am going to accomplish that.
I need to thin out the chicks in the bin in the house cause it is overfull again.
I am officially done setting eggs until January. Only the fancy brahmas, and some of the orpingtons, the Bredas, and King's babies will be hatched. That seems in control to me.

 

[cherwill]

We took the poor bird some scratch in the afternoon. She picked out all the millet and didn't eat anything else. She wasn't drinking at all, as far as I could tell. She mostly just kept her head tucked. She wasn't eggbound, but her comb was flopped over and pale. It got more grayish over the day. Danz, does that sound like a heart problem?

She was alive this morning when DH went to work, but she's dead now. The other birds seem OK, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

OQB, they haven't been able to free range since garden season started, so I wouldn't think she could have eaten anything the rest of them didn't get. I'm hoping she's the 3rd of those three birds we got from DH's co-worker, because then it's probably a genetic problem and my other birds will be fine.

 

[KsKingBee]

Danz, how about leg bands? Tiny plastic zip straps should do to tell them apart.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

It's been awhile since I have stopped by,, busy busy busy! How is everyone?
I skimmed trough some posts, saw predators, garden goodies, new chicks, and coops being worked on. What a busy time for everyone. We are trying to do winter prep here that always takes so long. I hope everyone is doing fine and working hard.

 

[chicken danz]

Danz, how about leg bands? Tiny plastic zip straps should do to tell them apart.

How do you put an leg band on an egg?
Speaking of which I do use these tiny multi colored orthodonic elastics to mark new born chicks. They come in just the right size to put on a chicks leg, then you can get bigger ones for when they grow. They aren't really cheap but you can reuse them up to a point. I think the new chick size is a 1/4".

It's been awhile since I have stopped by,, busy busy busy! How is everyone?
I skimmed trough some posts, saw predators, garden goodies, new chicks, and coops being worked on. What a busy time for everyone. We are trying to do winter prep here that always takes so long. I hope everyone is doing fine and working hard.

Great to see you on here. Miss your posts!

Yesterday Eileen came and got a sussex roo and some barred rock chicks from me.
Then right after they left HEChicken arrived to see the mess around here. It was so great to see you HEChicken, without driving a couple hours each way! Thank you so much for taking your time. I lightened my load of a few chicks in both cases ...only a few hundred more to go!!
I did my official last fall egg setting yesterday. Woot! I really am hoping the ones I feel compelled to hatch anyway aren't super plentiful. In fact I even put the red star eggs in the fridge instead of setting them. I am proud of myself for having some self control.
I do hear some cheeping in one of the incubators this morning. I have no idea what would have hatched. I didn't think I had anything due right now.

 

[HEChicken]

Danz, I had a great time visiting with you last night - I'm just sorry to cut into your chore time so much. Its a pity I didn't get to see your guinea parents with keets!

I was gone all weekend and the visit to Danz was at the end of the trip and from there I left and drove home. I was a tired puppy by the time I arrived home, well after dark last night. I really enjoyed the weekend and the visit with Danz at the end was such a great bonus. The chicks all made it home just fine. Four of them served their intended purpose immediately on arrival, and the others are cheeping away beside me as I type. They were relieved to know there was food available to them this morning (it was so dark last night I gave them water but no food). Their little temporary home should serve them well for the next week or so.

DH did a great job taking care of the birds and livestock for me while I was gone, and even made some improvements in my coop. I've had an issue with the Exchequer Leghorns wanting to roost on the back of my nest boxes and I've tried a couple of things to stop them that didn't work. DH came up with a much simpler idea that actually worked - when we went to check on them late last night, everyone was roosting on the roosts!

Today is feeling like Fall going into winter instead of summer fading to a lovely fall. I know we can use the rain but I don't like the dreary, cloudy day and cool weather. My brooder chicks were outside during the day last week but I told DH not to worry about them while I was gone so on the relatively nice days this weekend they were inside and today is too cold to put them out so they're still inside.

When I got home, DH followed me downstairs to visit my snakes and said he had bad news. One of my brooder chicks was missing. We figured it had to be in the house and since the cat isn't, I wasn't immediately worried. But as we turned the place upside down looking for it and it didn't show up, I started to get worried. Finally I had to give up looking and went to get a "pet towel" for the new chicks and as I came out of my office/brooder room, almost tripped over the missing chick. I had not looked downstairs figuring it wouldn't have navigated the stairs, but it not only went down the stairs, it sat down in the middle of the brooder room, figuring that was a good place to spend the night. It didn't seem the least distressed to be on its own in unfamiliar territory, but didn't complain when I picked it up and had a long drink of water when I placed it back in the brooder.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Well... so much for resting over the weekend. I didn't get much done except cleaning and more cleaning! Had company over yesterday and the long overdue cleaning was needed.

I tried to read a few pages of posts but just couldn't keep up. I saw that Cherwill lost some birds? So sorry to hear that. I hate losing birds especially after they have been raised a while and I always feel attached to them.

I think Hechicken got a fox visit. I hope you didn't lose any birds to it. I've been hearing some howling here and there lately but so far so good.... fingers crossed. Our neighbor's 2 dogs patrol their properties very well and will sound off alert if they see anything. But that doesn't mean it will help protect our birds though...

Danz... you are as busy as always.

The 2 peachicks I got from you are doing really well. I've kept them and 3 chicks inside the house in the brooder still...the rest of them have been moved out to the barn storage area joining my other chicks. They are pretty feisty and active so I'm very happy. The ducks are enjoying the kiddie pool but I think it is getting a bit too small for all those ducks! I love your guineas... the one with the little guinea babies... my DS wants to have a few of them but I can't get over how loud they will get. May be when the ticks get thick here I'll get a few of them to help thin them out.

Cherwill... watermelon radishes? I've never heard of them but from the sound of your description, I think I'll like them for the simple fact that they are spicier than regular radish! I love spicy stuff... can't get enough of it.

OkieQueenbee - DH's raw honey ran out over the weekend and was asking if I can get some from you. I told him I'm not driving 2 hours round trip just to get a jar of honey for him!

Ever since I told him you guys may be having a beginner's class in Spring, he has been getting impatient trying to see if anyone will sell him some honey bees with the boxes and what not. I told him this is not the right time and the weather is getting cold... He is just being his silly old self... He thinks the raw honey is helping his allergy though so that's good. His allergy has been bad in recent years and it just about kills him in the Spring when his work starts getting busy. He ended up getting a jar of raw honey from the farmer's market this weekend.

Sharol - how are your birds doing? Marlena still babying her babies? She is such a good mother. I did lose all 5 of my chicks that were born in the coop. Not sure what got them but one day, they just disappeared. My husband was just upset.

Here is some good news. One of the GPs came back. She now roams the property. She has not gone running off or anything at all after she came back and she is super friendly. She is such a big sweetheart now. I saw her trying to poke her nose through the fence getting into the chicken pen. I scolded her and she hasn't done it since. She now patiently waits outside the gate for me with her tail wagging. I'm sad that her sister hasn't come back but I'm just glad that she made it home and decided to stay here permanently.

A question for Danz and/or Trish44 - Skylar (the GP) will not go to the barn to take shelter when it is raining and I am unable to drag her to the barn or get her to understand that she needs to stay out of the rain. It is an open barn, not enclosed so she can come and go freely. I just want to know if she will get sick from the rain since it is cold out as well and the wind is blowing (strong at times). I hope she figures out where to go when it rains hard or snows bad outside. Another question is if GP tends to bark all night long. She loves to bark at night and sleeps during the day. I know her barking will (hopefully) scare the predators away but she barks A LOT during the night. She has gotten a tad bit better last night, only barked half the night but I'm wondering if that's what GPs do at night.

OK. I better get back to work. It is 10/15 tomorrow and I'll breath easier after tomorrow's deadline.

Stay dry and warm. I love Fall weather.