Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

I used a couple of those crawl space automatic vents in my main coop. They're supposed to be open above 40 degrees & close below that. I think they worked OK last year, but one of them is stuck open now I think. Since my main coop was once a storage shed I have had to work & work on getting enough ventilation in there. I still have one more window to install in the spring on the north side that I didn't get done this year.

I still have to haul buckets to all of my pens in the winter, but at least I have a water hydrant right down by the majority of my pens. It's actually farther for me to carry it from the one up by the house to the main coop & the pen beside it than it is from the other hydrant to the other pens. I had to have my DH use some WD40 on the handle the other day because it was getting so stiff I could hardly get it turned on, it sure helped it a lot to do that. I hope those other heated dog bowls get here soon so I can get them hooked up in a couple more pens. That will save me having to break ice at least in two more places. I was so glad to see them running those half price, I have never seen them that cheap before. Usually they're just $5 off, but this time they were $10 off.

I got all of my rabbit cages cleaned out today & fresh pine shavings put in those pans & then put another bag of new pine shavings in my main coop & stirred all of it up so the stuff that was clumping on the bottom would dry out. I'm leaving another window open too just for more air circulation on the south side. I noticed the birds aren't wanting to sleep on the roost by the windows, they've all moved to the roosts on the north side. I plan to extend those roosts in there when I can get the wood for it. I used to have PVC feeders in the corner in the front, but now that I don't have those in there any more I can use that space to make longer roosts.

 

[zigzag45]

I used a couple of those crawl space automatic vents in my main coop. They're supposed to be open above 40 degrees & close below that. I think they worked OK last year, but one of them is stuck open now I think. Since my main coop was once a storage shed I have had to work & work on getting enough ventilation in there. I still have one more window to install in the spring on the north side that I didn't get done this year.

I used one of those vents as well and mine stuck open. I used a straightened paper clip (one really cold night) to play with it and it popped closed. It's not opened since, so it sill needs some work but it did at least close and stay closed.

 

[sharol]

I had a weirdly ADHD, productive day.

I went up to the shed for the little Christmas trees for the window ledges. While I was there, I noticed the bin of Christmas lights that haven't been used for several years and a wreath. Loaded them all up and went back to the house to ponder the possibilities.

I ended up putting lights on the eves of the front and east side of the house and (shudder) cleaning the garage. The dogs have been taking a shortcut out there instead of relieving themselves in the yard sometimes, and it was NASTY. Soaked the offending areas in Natures' Miracle and then used the pressure washer on the floor. It is amazingly better out there, but I'm dying. I must have climbed that darn ladder 100 times by the time I was done, and I still have to troubleshoot a couple of sections of the lights. Still didn't get the little trees on the window ledges. Oh well, that is inside and tomorrow sounds like it will be an inside day for sure.

My foster puppies are asleep on the sofa. They had a big day supervising all the outside chores and offering suggestions, so they didn't get their usual 18 hours of sleep in the last 24. When they are awake, they really play hard, though, so I would probably need more sleep too.

Everybody stay warm tomorrow and Thursday (and Friday, I guess).

 

[22qZoo]

Sharol, you have such a way with words! Like your roos were "just hormones on feet" made me giggle, And your "productive ADHD day" . I was so missing the H part of it today, kept getting distracted watching the chickens out in the yard doing their thing. Finally I just gave up and went out and had a cup of coffee with them before going to get the kids, seemed kind of like the right thing to do on such a beautiful day.

 

[Trish44]

This has nothing to do with chickens at all, but do any of you have a SodaStream machine & buy syrup concentrate to make sodas with it? We're looking into buying some flavor syrups in bulk to make our own. We're not a big fan of the flavor syrups that the company sells so we're looking for alternatives that aren't diet junk. I really would like to avoid the corn syrup for one thing & I don't drink anything diet, I don't believe those artificial sweeteners are good for you at all. If you have any arguments about that go to Dr. Mercola's web site & read all he has to say about artificial sweeteners, it will blow you away. We bought this thing for ourselves for an early Christmas gift & we've been experimenting making Italian Sodas. Our Walmart here doesn't have much in the way of flavored syrups, so we'll have to wait till we go back to Wichita to find some more like Davinci.

 

[chicken danz]

Sharol you have way too much energy! I always think I'll get lots of decorating done but I never quite get there. I guess it is because birds change life. I always used to decorate to the hilt. I just don't get there any more.
Trish there is an institutional supply or at least I think there still is in Emporia. I am sure they have to have a couple in Wichita. They sell all kinds of products like restaurant machines and such but they also sell the stuff to use in them. Also any restaurant supply store probably would do the same. If you like name brand soft drinks you can probably buy the syrups for them. They would be large quantities but not huge. I remember volunteering at football games and such and you just poor the syrup in to the machine by like gallon jugs. You could surely use the same syrup in your soda stream. I'd call around the different supply places and see if they will sell to you.
The other option would be if you know any one who has a business like a restaurant with a soda fountain that they could order you a jug of syrup when they are making their own order. I do doubt you'll find any without corn syrup though.
I like your style Zig Zag. That is what it is all about. Just sitting and enjoying all the crazy things these birds do.
I had a conversation with a guy yesterday who was wanting to buy lots of birds. He talked and and talked about all he had and all he wanted etc etc. The worst part was his language. I used to cuss with the best but since I'm no longer working I don't hear that language all the time. I was actually insulted at his use of four letter words. He kept throwing the F bomb out. Well I was really wanting to get birds sold so I was putting out some low prices. My focus was to get the feed bill down and if I could do it all at once that would help. So I put up with his non stop talking and cussing for what seemed an eternity. Then he said as he was getting ready to finally hang up. Figure up what you want for all of the birds and I'll send you a check and I'll pay for your gas to get here. He expected me to drive to God knows where in Oklahoma and deliver the birds to him. There was no discussion about that up to that point. He talked like he would come get them prior to that. He said he needed to buy a new car. If you can't buy a car how are you going to buy a bunch of birds? What an ultimate waste in time. Do people seriously think I have time to drive to Oklahoma and back with a load of birds. He said he feeds a ton of feed every 10 days so he should know that I don't have time for that stuff. He had got me to lower the price on turkeys saying he couldn't travel unless they were cheaper. Makes no sense to me.
He also talked about showing birds but didn't know the true names of some of the breeds he was talking about. Just weird.
I'd really like to move some birds, but really?
I worked my bazooka off yesterday. I got two vents installed in the brooder house. Of course I decided to frame them out which took longer. They look pretty crappy because they need painted to match. I thought my problems were solved cause I could feel a lot of hot air coming out while I was working on them. However later when I went back in the brooder house to water the humidity was still really high. I ended up opening one of the windows a crack. Too bad the dehumidifier has a fan on it. I could run it out there and keep the level a lot lower.
I also got plastic put back on the old dove house where I have the two youngest peachicks now. There were some holes mice chewed through the wood I have on there for winter so I patched those with a piece of OSB. Not pretty but it serves the purpose. I should have closed in the west eve cause it's open for ventilation but I think there'll be enough heat in there for them. If their water freezes I'll do something different.
When DH got home we moved his tunnel addition to the grow out house. That meant taking down a section of fence for a little while to get it through but I got it done really quickly. I just have to keep pushing and working around him to finish things up or he takes forever. I did some experimenting trying to figure out some roofing over one of the other grow out pens to add some more coop space but nothing was working on short notice. So I moved a fiberglass tank into that pen to add a little more shelter. I put straw in it but off course by evening most of it was scratched out into the pen. I also got straw in the RPs new house which hadn't gotten done earlier. I tried to make sure everyone had plenty of fresh water and feed.
Earlier in the day I managed some how to move a 200 gallon aquarium in the basement and get the little freezer moved and plugged in. I need to get that aquarium out of there. I don't need it any more and it is taking up valuable space. I have a taller shorter one to take it's place if I ever decide to get them going again.
I failed to get the Christmas tree brought in like I planned. That means doing it in the cold. Speaking of cold they now lowered the forecast Friday morning to 6 degrees here. It just keeps getting worse!!

 

[HEChicken]

Trish, I did a google search for "soda stream with no corn syrup" and found this article that sounds like it might be exactly what would work for you. The woman who wrote it also didn't want to use artificial sweeteners so she made up her own recipe from simple ingredients. That would also be much cheaper than anything you can order online. Here is a link to the article:

http://geekmom.com/2013/07/homemade-soda-stream-syrup/

I got my broody silkie moved up to the 3-season room. I decided to put her in a little A-Frame rabbit cage I bought last year for broody bantams. It has the powder coated bars spaced about ¾" apart, and I discovered the first time I used it that a newly hatched chick can easily run out between the bars. Since our predatory cat resides in the 3-season room, I had to first wrap the entire thing in chicken wire, then cut the wire to allow the door to open so I can get food and water to her. Once I had it all set up, I moved her and gave her 5 exchequer eggs. I've been down to only my NH rooster for over a month now, so if they are fertile, the only possible daddy is my NH roo, which is perfect. She accepted the change fairly readily, although she moved the eggs from the nest I made for her to a new one where she won't even have to get up to eat and drink. I'm going to try to get her back on the original nest so she at least has to walk that far every day. I looked at the calendar and these will be due the day after Christmas, so I can hope for an early hatch and Christmas babies!!!

Zig, I love your solution to distraction - that is exactly the kind of thing I would do. Ever since my kids were babies I've followed the philosophy that you have to take the moments that present themselves - the housework can always wait until later. I love to go and sit out with my birds and yesterday was certainly the perfect day for that.

Sharol, wanna send some of that energy my way?

I'm afraid we've already hit our high for the day. It was 32 when I got up this morning but has since dropped to 29. Brrr.

 

[chicken danz]

Yep! The temp is dropping here too, darn it!!! I went out to finish up some changes I wanted to make to my hose configuration for water...hopefully to reduce freezing and to let the birds out. I had to come back in as soon as I could because my hands were frozen. Didn't wear gloves....duh! It's already miserable out there and the real cold isn't here yet. I was going to try to bring in the Christmas tree but decided I'd bundle up more before I lugged that across the yard.
My little white orp settled in the flower pot again this morning and laid another egg. This one "might" be fertile. I don't hold hope but I'll try it just the same. I'm just so happy she is well enough to lay.

 

[sharol]

Sharol you have way too much energy! I always think I'll get lots of decorating done but I never quite get there.

 

[Trish44]

Yuk I hate to see this stuff coming so early. I want to move somewhere where I don't have to wear a heavy coat ever. Of course you have trade offs with that, you put up with humidity & things like hurricanes. I guess you can't win with weather, it's one extreme or another.

Thanks for the link HEChicken, yeah I may look into making something along the way, but for now I'm looking for something we can just buy. We're having fun with the Italian Sodas trying different flavors & today I just ordered some syrup online from Sam's Club that is supposed to be like Pepsi. They have Coke & Dr. Pepper, but not the true Pepsi, so I found one that is supposed to be similar. One gallon of syrup makes 6 gallons approx. of soda. My DH drinks Dr. Pepper, so he can find his readily. Of course these do still have the corn syrup, but eventually maybe we'll find something without it. I would rather use cane sugar than corn syrup any day. On our travels out of the country we have found that all of the places we have been use cane sugar in their soda pop. This is the only place that uses corn syrup in everything, I guess because we have to subsidize the corn farmers, I don't know. I actually prefer the sodas made with sugar, but I know a lot of people think it tastes funky. They have a special once a year usually where they put out the old fashioned kind for a short limited time in the stores.

I haven't been out yet, I'm procrastinating, but I'm going to have to get out there soon, brrrrr. We had to start up the woodstove & it will probably be running non-stop now as long as it's this cold. My DH has been working on splitting more wood & he filled up the wood shed by the garage so the wood would stay dry. We still have some we bought a couple years ago so we're using that up first.