Consolidated Kansas

[Bettylou]

Can you get some tarps to cover and protect them. I use them over my dog run and they work well.

 

[Trish44]

I got my first Marans egg today.



The white egg is from my Campine (who is laying again, bless her). It is 59g. The Marans egg (first pullet egg) is 47 g. It photographed a little lighter than it really is.

Doing the happy dance over here near Admire!!!

sharol, congrats on the Marans egg, I love the darker eggs to in contrast to the white & other colors. I'm getting some Marans hatching eggs next week, hopefully they will make it here OK, they are adding a heat pack to the box. I haven't had any Marans laying for awhile, although I do have one Welsummer laying, but her eggs aren't as dark any more. That's one downside to the darker layers is that they tend to run out of "spray paint" along the way & the eggs lighten up.

Congrats Sharol. It doesn't seem to me like it has been that long. It looks like a nice dark egg as well. Lots of the pullet eggs come out spotty or uneven but that looks very uniform. They'll get really large in time. I do miss the dark eggs but glad I don't have another breed to care for any more.
Frizzled, maybe some day I'll have pups again. I need to find a male I can use for a stud with the right attributes. It will almost have to be an AI cause Pyrs are so territorial.
Yesterday I lost a very special hen that I have had in the house for a few months. Unfortunately the eggs she laid weren't fertile so I don't have any offspring. That bird had more will to live than any animal I have ever seen. I cried more tears over that bird than I ever have over any pet other than my precious older cats I lost the last couple of years. She was such a people bird. She would follow me around talking. My sister nicknamed her Gabby. My sister doesn't like chickens either!! I swear I won't let myself get so attached to a chicken again. This has been so heart breaking.I wonder sometimes about my sanity. Who would let themselves get so attached to a chicken?
I am proud to say I had no birds at all in the house for a short time. But then DH brought me a little pullet that isn't doing well. I was secretly hoping it would die last night but it seems to be getting better. I think it just got too chilled as it isn't a very large bird. I think I'll put it out in the trailer with the other young birds that aren't quite ready to be out in the cold.
I guess today is the day to get all prepped for the major cold coming in. I am really worried I might loose some birds to the cold. It's not ever been a concern before. I have several younger birds though that may not handle it well. I also have several that already have severe frost bite. I don't care if they loose their combs but there is always a chance of bleeding and infection there. I can't put out any heat lamps and not over load my circuits so I guess they'll just have to get by on their own.
I need to get some more straw for bedding and such.
I'd much rather honestly just stay inside.

I'm sorry about your little pullet Danz, some of them just don't thrive for some reason. I had that one little BR pullet that kept getting sick & then rallying, she was a fighter too, but she finally just couldn't fight any more. I'm worried about this cold front too, especially for my Cream Legbar chicks in the garage brooder. I have nowhere else to keep them any more, they're just getting too big, so I hope they can hunker down under the heat lamp & survive.

Good morning to all...

Really like the color of the maran egg that Sharol posted. Birds that lay dark brown eggs are on my "wish list" for this year... so BCM and Welsummers are 2 breeds I'm looking into getting in Spring.

Danz... so sorry you lost your pet chicken. It is definitely hard to lose a bird you are so attached to. It is also difficult NOT to get attached to some birds...

With the bitter cold air coming down from Canada on Monday, I'm trying to see what I can do to help my birds so they won't get too cold and die. I heard the wind chill is expected to be -20F or more. It just gives me the chills just seeing the number. So anyone has any idea on what to do? I have an open air coop (3 sides are open and 1 side is solid). The north side is sheltered so north wind won't be blowing into the coop. I'm thinking I should put a few bags of shavings on the coop floor to help "insulate" it a bit more. I've been putting in dry leaves in the coop for them to scratch around in but i think it is time to put down a thicker layer of shavings. I have not done much to provide more warmth to the birds (no heater, bulbs, etc.). They did fine last year (which was warmer compare to this year) and so far they have been doing well this year. I just don't know how they will handle this bitter cold we will be getting next Monday (and forecast said will last quite a few days). Ahhh... the things we are willing to do for our birds...

Back to work... enjoy the day everyone. Enjoy the warmth (well... if you compare to what they forecast for next Monday, it is warm now...)

Is there a way for you to put up an extra tarp tweety? On my outdoor pens I put up tarps in the winter & leave the fronts open & of course the sides the tarps are on aren't airtight either, so there is air circulation. I worry the most about the chicks in my growout pen, they're still young enough & one of them is smaller than the others & hasn't figured out how to get up on the roost with the rest yet. She is one of my splash Barnevelders, so I especially worry about her with no other birds to snuggle with. I don't know if I could take just her into the garage & put her in with the Cream Legbars or if they would all pick on her. I hate to lose her, she is one of the two I have left.

So far, knock on wood, I have only had one of the heated water bowls fail on me. It was one of the green ones that I have used for 2 years, so I think the heating element just quit. I was fortunate to have a couple of extras I bought when they were on sale on Black Friday to replace it with. I usually buy mine at Orschelyn's & have had good luck with them other than that one so far. I hope they keep going through this cold snap, that is the worst time to fail. The other one quit when we had another cold snap & snow on the ground.

 

[ashncarson]

So our nest box has been in place for over a month now and I still have 4 chickens sleeping in one each night, 3 of my small bantams sleep under my NH....I have 3 that should be starting to lay soon and I am getting tired of cleaning out the next boxes of poop.

If I would to cover it up at night, would that cause aniexty on there part? They have been up on the roost before, just not often...should I add another roosting bar? maybe they feel to crowded?

 

[Trish44]

So our nest box has been in place for over a month now and I still have 4 chickens sleeping in one each night, 3 of my small bantams sleep under my NH....I have 3 that should be starting to lay soon and I am getting tired of cleaning out the next boxes of poop.

If I would to cover it up at night, would that cause aniexty on there part? They have been up on the roost before, just not often...should I add another roosting bar? maybe they feel to crowded?

ash, you can make as many roosts as you want, but some birds will just sit in the nesting box at night no matter what. I have some that do that & either they sit in the box or they sit on the edge & poop in there anyway. Usually when they get to laying age they stop doing that, but some still do. I just have to keep cleaning certain boxes out about every day. Thank goodness they don't use all of them. I have a slanted cover over the top of my nest boxes & I still have goofy birds that sit up on the top of that at night & poop on there too.

 

[ashncarson]

ash, you can make as many roosts as you want, but some birds will just sit in the nesting box at night no matter what. I have some that do that & either they sit in the box or they sit on the edge & poop in there anyway. Usually when they get to laying age they stop doing that, but some still do. I just have to keep cleaning certain boxes out about every day. Thank goodness they don't use all of them. I have a slanted cover over the top of my nest boxes & I still have goofy birds that sit up on the top of that at night & poop on there too.

OK! That makes me feel a bit better! I guess I will just continue to deal with them doing it! They just seem so goofy doing it, but I guess it would probably be warmer in there!

 

[milomac]

Ash the oldtime nest boxes had a perch in front that you folded up in the evening to keep hens out, so yes I feel you can put something up that does not allow hens to enter in the evening

 

[chicken danz]

I've been out working and that wind was darned cold. I got 8 bales of straw and my farmer not only delivered them but helped me put some out in the pens. I thought that was nice. He might have wondered what I wanted that many for. If so, he certainly saw where it was going. I could have probably put out more. I put a couple of pallets in the peachick pen, then when he got here I put a bale of straw on top of them. That should help keep them off the ground a little better. All the birds seemed glad to have the straw. You know it's entertainment for them if nothing else.
Of course I had just finished watering so now a lot of the water has some straw in it. It will have to do until tomorrow. Then after that I fed them all. I got done just in time for it to start getting dark. I got my outside lighted trees down too. That didn't take too long but I managed to break one of the feet that holds them in place. Not good. I'll have to drag the boxes out and get them put away tomorrow.
I gave up keeping nest boxes clean a long time ago. I have noticed the plastic kids storage boxes seem to be slept on top of, but laid in. That is a nice change. I may be ordering more of those in the future. I do like them. It seems like no matter what I use for bedding they kick it out.
I had a bag of blasting sand in the barn. It's in a plastic bag. The chickens chose to lay in that plastic covered sand over about anything I've ever had around here. I have thought of making some cloth bags with velcro closures, filling them with construction sand and putting them in the nest boxes. Then you could dump out the sand and wash the covers. Ideally an outdoor fabric would work even better but I haven't found any at a reasonable price to get pooped and laid on. That's just one of the projects I have running through my head that hasn't come to fruition yet.

 

[Trish44]

I've been out working and that wind was darned cold. I got 8 bales of straw and my farmer not only delivered them but helped me put some out in the pens. I thought that was nice. He might have wondered what I wanted that many for. If so, he certainly saw where it was going. I could have probably put out more. I put a couple of pallets in the peachick pen, then when he got here I put a bale of straw on top of them. That should help keep them off the ground a little better. All the birds seemed glad to have the straw. You know it's entertainment for them if nothing else.
Of course I had just finished watering so now a lot of the water has some straw in it. It will have to do until tomorrow. Then after that I fed them all. I got done just in time for it to start getting dark. I got my outside lighted trees down too. That didn't take too long but I managed to break one of the feet that holds them in place. Not good. I'll have to drag the boxes out and get them put away tomorrow.
I gave up keeping nest boxes clean a long time ago. I have noticed the plastic kids storage boxes seem to be slept on top of, but laid in. That is a nice change. I may be ordering more of those in the future. I do like them. It seems like no matter what I use for bedding they kick it out.
I had a bag of blasting sand in the barn. It's in a plastic bag. The chickens chose to lay in that plastic covered sand over about anything I've ever had around here. I have thought of making some cloth bags with velcro closures, filling them with construction sand and putting them in the nest boxes. Then you could dump out the sand and wash the covers. Ideally an outdoor fabric would work even better but I haven't found any at a reasonable price to get pooped and laid on. That's just one of the projects I have running through my head that hasn't come to fruition yet.

Yeah I haven't found a good way to keep the hens out of the nest boxes either. It always seems like there are 2 or 3 that like sleeping in there or like I said before I have one that sits on the front rim with her tail inside & poops in there about nightly. I have a 6 hole nest box in my main coop & I don't have folding bars on those, they're fixed, so I can't do much about it. I just make it part of the daily chores to clean out the boxes when I collect eggs & replace what straw I need to. Danz, I do like those plastic storage boxes as well for my outside pens. I have them in all of the single pens other than the Lemon Cuckoo pen because I happened to have a wood box with a top that was bigger since those hens are bigger anyway. I want to get a few more of those because they are handy. My birds also sit on top of those, especially the roosters, but at least since they're plastic you can hose them off fairly easily. Usually I catch my roosters kicking out the nesting material, but the hens sometimes do it as well. They like to dig through the straw & find seeds so I have to keep putting fresh straw in for them. I'm afraid the bags you're talking about would get awfully nasty fast especially when you have hens that like to sleep in the nest boxes. I would rather put something in there that can just be thrown out with the other litter & then used for compost. You would still have to buy the sand, so I'm not sure that would be any cheaper than buying pine shavings or straw. Usually a bale of straw goes pretty far if it's baled tight. I was aggravated because I had stashed some straw that was loose up on top of the highest bale in my run thinking i could use it for the nest boxes & while I was gone to OKC the hens got up there somehow & knocked all of it down on the floor so it's now part of the stuff they're digging through on the ground in the run. So much for saving it.

 

[Trish44]

I want this to put on top of my woodstove for a humidifier. I have one, but it has gotten rusty & I need a new one, I love this one.

 

[OkieQueenBee]

Thanks to everyone on the input on the puppy. I'm not sure what we are going to do. I miss having a dog, but I enjoy watching the deer and turkeys play in the field. But the guineas seem to be doing a great job of keeping them chased off. But, I do have a chicken cat.

Sharol, so jealous of the beautiful Marans egg. The "Marans" that we bought earlier this summer have never laid that dark of an egg. One hen laid a couple of nice darkish eggs, but then she died, another hen is laying a medium dark egg, and the other hen has yet to lay an egg. I wonder now if the one hen isn't actually a Cochin. How to know what breed I have?
I've got a lot of chickens that roost in the nest boxes, such a mess. A couple of the Zimmerman BOs can now get up on the roosts and one of them cackles as if to say, "look at me, I made it!"
We've got some of the brooder babies with swollen eyes. No runny noses, just puffy eyes and lethargic. Any ideas?
The wild turkey came into the shop, where we keep the feed, and ate some scratch out of my hand. Then she proceeded to just eat her fill out of the grain tub. How is the easiest way to tell the sex of a turkey? We're looking at the feathers (mohawk, kinda) on top of the head to be female.
Danz, getting attached to animals is just your nature, I know . Losing a bird is hard, especially one that you have put extra effort into, and she obviously enjoyed your company.
I hope that we have the chicken houses snug enough. I've left the heat lamps in the brooder pen and we don't chase the guineas out of the chicken house so they can add some body heat. The peafowl have a warm house if they choose to stay inside. We have one male turkey that sleeps on top of the peafowl pen and the wild turkey still goes to the trees. The ducks are on the creek and they seem content. Keeping water to them is the biggest problem. We have an extension cord for the heat lamps so can't use the heated dog bowls. One of the frost free hydrants we just put in is broke and the other one is bent, but hopefully will hang in there until we can replace the other one. Always something.
Sounds like everyone has their birds ready for this cold. I'm not. Have I told you all that I hate cold?