Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Guess what Danz, I have Lemon Cuckoo Orps laying, wahoo! I found two pullet eggs in the nest box today. Well as much as I hate going out there again today I've got to go feed, time to go suit up.

I went out & fed & found two more eggs on the ground in that pen, so I don't know if two are laying or all four. I'm thrilled though.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

HEchicken- We have Prime on Amazon and I think there are also perks if you read books on a kindle or such. I will check with DH but I think they have a lending library that has thousands of free titles for Prime members. You can also stream TV shows and movies which we like on occasion as well because we have very basic cable and there is rarely anything on we want to watch. We are actually going to cancel the cable and just use Prime for what we want to watch. We watch so little TV as it is with the baby that it doesn't make sense to even have it.

I have Prime as well (the student one - same benefits, half the price!) - you get to borrow 1 free book a month from the Lending Library.. There is also a lot of movies and tv shows... I also get to send all my packages (prime eligible) for free to my son and other family members. It is a great deal.. especially for the $37/month I pay.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

ooops... $37/YEAR.. not month

 

[chicken danz]

Guess what Danz, I have Lemon Cuckoo Orps laying, wahoo! I found two pullet eggs in the nest box today. Well as much as I hate going out there again today I've got to go feed, time to go suit up.

I went out & fed & found two more eggs on the ground in that pen, so I don't know if two are laying or all four. I'm thrilled though.

That's great news Trish! I'm very happy for you. I sure didn't expect them this early. I have people still contacting me looking for lemons. I've given a couple of them your ID. I'll keep sending them your way.
What a day! I had multiple LONG phone calls today and it made it just nearly impossible to get my chores done. My phone battery went dead or I probably wouldn't have gotten the birds fed. It seemed so much colder today. Also water that was not frozen yesterday was frozen today. I only had one hose I could use and I had blown out the lines with air last night. So I had to end up dragging a new hose out and pulling it all over the yard hooked to the pirit hose. Of course it was rolled up and it got cold,so all it wanted to do was tie knots around itself. I was pretty much keeping myself from freezing with my anger at the whole situation. I think the birds sensed it to cause normally they are at my feet and they were all avoiding me.
It just wasn't a good day at all. I had so much I really wanted to get done and didn't get any of it completed.

 

[Trish44]

That's great news Trish! I'm very happy for you. I sure didn't expect them this early. I have people still contacting me looking for lemons. I've given a couple of them your ID. I'll keep sending them your way.
What a day! I had multiple LONG phone calls today and it made it just nearly impossible to get my chores done. My phone battery went dead or I probably wouldn't have gotten the birds fed. It seemed so much colder today. Also water that was not frozen yesterday was frozen today. I only had one hose I could use and I had blown out the lines with air last night. So I had to end up dragging a new hose out and pulling it all over the yard hooked to the pirit hose. Of course it was rolled up and it got cold,so all it wanted to do was tie knots around itself. I was pretty much keeping myself from freezing with my anger at the whole situation. I think the birds sensed it to cause normally they are at my feet and they were all avoiding me.
It just wasn't a good day at all. I had so much I really wanted to get done and didn't get any of it completed.

I'm sorry you had such a crappy day Danz, I hope tomorrow is better. It wasn't as cold today, but this evening the wind came up & I sure felt it more than earlier in the day. I didn't have as much ice on the water bowls today as I did yesterday. I have a piece of wood I carry to pens to break up the ice if it's not too solid & it wasn't bad today. I think it's not going to get much better now till Tuesday, brrrr! I have been having to talk myself into going out to do chores. I just hate going out in that cold.

The goats were let out this afternoon for a few hours & they were so happy to come out to browse around the yard. I really hate to have to feed them hay already or I will have to buy more before long, so if they can still come out & find something to eat out there all the better. They will eat leaves on the ground & they're actually good for them, so that's a plus. I have a stand of bamboo that has been getting bigger this year & they have been eating on that. They will eat things I never thought they would, even things like yucca that is sharp & tough. The chickens were happier out today than yesterday. Yesterday they were out there all fluffed out & they looked absolutely miserable. At least today they were running around more & looking better. I threw out 3 apples that were really past their prime & they just gobbled those up like candy this afternoon. I just cut them in half & they had a field day with them. They will eat most anything, they love spaghetti if I have too much left over & they will fight over it.

Yes, do send people my way for the Lemon Cuckoos, I'm so glad they have started laying. I was a little surprised by the time of year they decided to do it, but that's OK with me. They even managed to get two of the eggs in the nest box, that was even more surprising. That cockerel is getting to be quite a big guy & he still doesn't have his big boy tail all in yet. He's starting to get it, but it's still short yet. He's going to be a huge guy when he's grown, I can't even imagine how much bigger he will get.

I went out & got a different cord hooked up to the outlet for the main coop heater base for their waterer this morning & hung the outlet up on the wall so maybe the chickens won't mess with it. Then I wired the excess cord at the end of the roost where they can't get to it either. Hopefully that will fix the problem. I think they were sitting on that electric outlet, silly birds. I'm almost out of straw & I used about all I had to freshen up the nest boxes in the main coop & in the Lemon Cuckoo pen since they're laying now. I sent a message to the gal who brought me straw last time that I need some more, so hopefully she will bring me some soon. This is the time of year when you really need it for bedding. I put some boards on the ground under the heat lamp in the growout pen so the chicks wouldn't have to sit on the cold ground & they were all using them when I came up from there after feeding. They seemed to appreciate being up off the ground. I have a lot of straw on the floor in that pen, but they have scratched most of it to the other side of the pen away from where I put the heat lamp. I had to hang it on the front of the pen because that's where the heated dog bowl is & I have both things plugged in now.

Yeah HEChicken I really hate hatching chicks this time of year because I'm wondering myself when & how I'm going to get them outside at some point in the cold. It will be the middle of winter before they're even big enough to go out there, so I may have half grown chickens living in my house before it's all over. I wish I just had a building to put them in, but I don't. I have that growout pen as winterized as I can get it for an outside pen & now with the heat lamp in there maybe it's not quite as bad. I wouldn't want to put young chicks in there though. Oh & that one Cream Legbar pullet that I had put in the main coop, she decided she wanted to go back into the growout pen with her friends, so she is back in there till at least her buddy gets big enough so both of them can go together to the big coop. She is the size she could go into the main coop, but it's hard for them to go by themselves without a buddy.

Danz, remember I told you that Reece Barred Rock cockerel was being ornery? Well he has still been biting me any chance he gets. He'll get behind me going out to feed them & bite the back of my leg. Today he jumped up while I was scooping out feed & bit my hand so I whacked him with the spoon I use to feed with. I sure hope he doesn't get too bad so I have to get rid of him because he's going to be a really big & pretty guy. I really want to use him to breed with in the spring.

 

[HEChicken]

Trish, that really would be a shame if you had to give up that BR cockerel because he is looking nice so far. I have one that is slightly younger than that but getting up there and I'm disappointed enough in him that I've decided I'm not going to keep him and will hope one of his younger brothers turns out better. His barring is fine but he is quite knock kneed and I'm not happy with his overall type either. Congrats on the pullet eggs today!

Danz, sorry about your day. I don't envy you all those pens to get water to this time of year. I went out and bought my sheep and goats a heated water bucket today. I Was going to get them a tank heater but in the end I decided its not worth trying to heat a whole tank of water, as little as they actually drink in a day. Instead I got a 9 quart heated water bucket and that should be plenty for them. I might have to refill it daily but I know they won't ever empty it in a day and it only costs 50w to run.

So far Mama Hen and little chick seem to be doing fine. That chick isn't going to know to what to do with warm weather. Being born into a cold snap, it will just think that's what life is.

 

[cherwill]

Cherwill, I too am the ultimate cheapskate unless I want something. Then I spoil myself rotten. Like buying very expensive chickens or something I think is really pretty. Reverts back to the overeating when you've gained weight and shopping when you feel broke thing I think!!! I have million dollar tastes on a poverty budget.

One of my friends used to joke that I could pinpoint the most expensive item in any store just by walking in and saying, "Oh, I like that one."

Speaking of Kindle Fire, I have the 1st gen one and have used it so much that the charger almost needs to be replaced. I see that they have the Kindle Fire HDX now, just not sure if it is worth the $$. I love to read so I always have the KF with me. I did try the prime for free for 1 month when I first got the KF, but I didn't renew it because I can't justify paying that much just for free shipping. I hardly stream any movies online and as you guys said, books are free (with a few exceptions where I paid for the ones I really wanted to read and can't find them for free).

We also have Netflix and pay $8 for it monthly. DS watches the movies most and we think it is worth it. Occassionally, we will go to the Red Box to get a movie but that's rare. We did not do the DVD with Netflix because we don't sit down and watch them enough to justify the cost. When I had my surgery and was on short term disability for 9 weeks, I did watch Netflix daily and that was really nice to be able to catch up on some of the series.

Tweety, my parents both have Kindle Fires. I don't know which generation, but they've had them a couple of years. Dad's connection where the charger plugs into the Kindle got loose and it wouldn't charge. When he checked into having it fixed, they offered him a deal where he could trade it in for the new HD version and it cost him a lot less than just buying the new one without the trade-in. You might check into that.

I have the Kindle app on my iPod Touch and have downloaded free books to it. I used to read on it when we were out mowing and I was waiting on DH to finish edging or whatever.

We've been trying to find something cheaper than Cox for TV, but we never come up with a better option for the way we watch. Netflix and Hulu/HuluPlus are cheaper, but you can't get most recent shows through them. Most things are a season behind. We watch a fair amount of regular TV series, but very rarely watch movies. We would also have to invest in a device to show it on our TV instead of on the computer monitor. DirectTV and Dish have a habit of going out in storms. So we always end up sticking with Cox.

We don't go out much, not even to eat, and we don't go to movies or rent movies. TV is pretty much all we do together for entertainment, so I guess even cable is pretty cheap when we consider it almost our entire monthly entertainment budget.

 

[chicken danz]

Cherwill, my parents had a cox bundle while they were alive that included tv, internet, and phone. It was cheaper than just my dish bill monthly. If I lived in town I would be all over that. I never was a TV watcher until the last few years. I used to watch the weather channel to get the forecast and that was about it. But now I just have no energy and I hurt by early evening so I prop myself up and watch tv until bed time. I never seem to have the time to watch an entire movie so I don't watch them. I have a blue ray player in the front room and a big TV that we don't have hooked to dish or anything. I planned to use it for watching movies but we've watched so few of them. Maybe during a blizzard or something if DH is home we might watch one every couple years!!!
It must have been substantially nicer down toward Wichita than it was here. Yesterday was just miserable and we had about 15 MPH north winds. We were supposed to reach a record low of 8 degrees last night but it was in the teens when I got up so I don't know if it reached that or not. It's still only 14 degrees right now.
I swear this weather is making me wish I didn't have birds to care for.
Trish it is so hard to imagine that barred rock being like that. All of the ones I have and have hatched are very sweet and not at all aggressive. I could certainly give you a back up if you were closer. I have a couple I am going to have to butcher soon or sell for butchering cause they are getting pretty big. I have two boys for breeders so I can't keep all the rest.
I put just a handful of eggs in the incubator yesterday. Sure is nice not to have a ton of eggs in there. It won't be long before it'll be time to start spring hatching though. As long as winter seems it seems that if you don't start hatching by February or so you miss out on sales.
My next batch of eggs is due to hatch Thanksgiving and there aren't many in that bunch either. This is probably the least hatching I've ever done.

 

[Trish44]

Trish, that really would be a shame if you had to give up that BR cockerel because he is looking nice so far. I have one that is slightly younger than that but getting up there and I'm disappointed enough in him that I've decided I'm not going to keep him and will hope one of his younger brothers turns out better. His barring is fine but he is quite knock kneed and I'm not happy with his overall type either. Congrats on the pullet eggs today!

Danz, sorry about your day. I don't envy you all those pens to get water to this time of year. I went out and bought my sheep and goats a heated water bucket today. I Was going to get them a tank heater but in the end I decided its not worth trying to heat a whole tank of water, as little as they actually drink in a day. Instead I got a 9 quart heated water bucket and that should be plenty for them. I might have to refill it daily but I know they won't ever empty it in a day and it only costs 50w to run.

So far Mama Hen and little chick seem to be doing fine. That chick isn't going to know to what to do with warm weather. Being born into a cold snap, it will just think that's what life is.

Yeah I know, he's such a nice looking bird, but if he keeps acting like that he'll have to be dinner or find another home. I just won't tolerate roosters coming after me. I've had a couple before that had to go for that reason. I wish I had a pen already to put him & the pullet in & maybe he would settle down, but that's not going to happen till spring now. I'm glad the little chick is doing well.

Cherwill, my parents had a cox bundle while they were alive that included tv, internet, and phone. It was cheaper than just my dish bill monthly. If I lived in town I would be all over that. I never was a TV watcher until the last few years. I used to watch the weather channel to get the forecast and that was about it. But now I just have no energy and I hurt by early evening so I prop myself up and watch tv until bed time. I never seem to have the time to watch an entire movie so I don't watch them. I have a blue ray player in the front room and a big TV that we don't have hooked to dish or anything. I planned to use it for watching movies but we've watched so few of them. Maybe during a blizzard or something if DH is home we might watch one every couple years!!!
It must have been substantially nicer down toward Wichita than it was here. Yesterday was just miserable and we had about 15 MPH north winds. We were supposed to reach a record low of 8 degrees last night but it was in the teens when I got up so I don't know if it reached that or not. It's still only 14 degrees right now.
I swear this weather is making me wish I didn't have birds to care for.
Trish it is so hard to imagine that barred rock being like that. All of the ones I have and have hatched are very sweet and not at all aggressive. I could certainly give you a back up if you were closer. I have a couple I am going to have to butcher soon or sell for butchering cause they are getting pretty big. I have two boys for breeders so I can't keep all the rest.
I put just a handful of eggs in the incubator yesterday. Sure is nice not to have a ton of eggs in there. It won't be long before it'll be time to start spring hatching though. As long as winter seems it seems that if you don't start hatching by February or so you miss out on sales.
My next batch of eggs is due to hatch Thanksgiving and there aren't many in that bunch either. This is probably the least hatching I've ever done.

I know the feeling Danz, I've been questioning myself lately about having all of these chickens & pens to have to go take care of in the cold. I have to talk myself into going out there every day. Once I'm out there I get what I need to done, but it's just the thought of going out in that cold that makes me pause. I sure hope this is not the start of a horribly long & awful winter. I agree with you HEChicken I'm hoping this is just a cold snap & we have some more decent weather coming up. I can remember having years where it wasn't all that cold until January. It's a lot colder here today than yesterday & it's not going to get very warm today. I wish all the time you were closer down here Danz, I could get birds from you easier. My problem with hatching earlier is like last year I had to wait for some of the to start laying again & without light in the pens it can be later than I would like, so it puts me behind.

I have 6 pretty little lavender Orpington chicks so far & one still not out yet. I thought all the eggs were done & started checking the eggs to see if the rest were bad & found one peeping, so I put it back in the hatcher. The other 3 had died earlier, two of which were totally formed. These were shipped eggs though so it's hard to tell what they had happen to them. I'm going to be pretty happy if I end up with 7 chicks out of 10 eggs.

My GPs were just going crazy all night, so I don't know what they were after, but they were really after it. I think they're passed out in the yard now.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

One of my friends used to joke that I could pinpoint the most expensive item in any store just by walking in and saying, "Oh, I like that one." 


Tweety, my parents both have Kindle Fires. I don't know which generation, but they've had them a couple of years. Dad's connection where the charger plugs into the Kindle got loose and it wouldn't charge. When he checked into having it fixed, they offered him a deal where he could trade it in for the new HD version and it cost him a lot less than just buying the new one without the trade-in. You might check into that.

I have the Kindle app on my iPod Touch and have downloaded free books to it. I used to read on it when we were out mowing and I was waiting on DH to finish edging or whatever. 

We've been trying to find something cheaper than Cox for TV, but we never come up with a better option for the way we watch. Netflix and Hulu/HuluPlus are cheaper, but you can't get most recent shows through them. Most things are a season behind. We watch a fair amount of regular TV series, but very rarely watch movies. We would also have to invest in a device to show it on our TV instead of on the computer monitor. DirectTV and Dish have a habit of going out in storms. So we always end up sticking with Cox. 

We don't go out much, not even to eat, and we don't go to movies or rent movies. TV is pretty much all we do together for entertainment, so I guess even cable is pretty cheap when we consider it almost our entire monthly entertainment budget. 

Cherwill, thanks for letting me know about the exchange deal! I am not sure if it is really the charger that is the issue or it is the KF's charging port that is giving out on me. We used to have the Cox bundle deal before we moved out to the country. It was nice and we watched a lot of WSU basketball games on it. Now that we've moved, Cox doesn't offer their service here so we have to use Dish. We've U-verse phone and Internet and it is working out ok for me. I can work from home and that's the most important since I don't want to drive into the office in the middle of the night!

I'm dead tired today. Worked from midnight to 5ish this morning and had to get back up at 9 am. I think I'm going to take a nap if possible. The weather is cold and it's cloudy. My DH is getting some straw bales to surround a 4x6 dog pen so the GP will, hopefully, go in there when it is freezing cold out there, especially when it snows or rains.

Stay warm everyone.