Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

We had a discussion a while back about chickens in Olathe. I believe it was made a regular ordinance then. I would call City Hall to be sure, or you could send a PM to pikeman94 who posts here now and then. He lives at Olathe. I do know there are some HOAs that don't allow chickens there.


Funny thing bout HOA, my next door neighbor is the pres, and I am the vice pres...... if others approached me? I would not have a problem with it!!

That's funny that you & your neighbor are the president & vice president of your HOA, gosh you should be able to set your own rules then! I hope your neighbor is on board with the chickens too. I don't live inside of town, but my neighbors on either side of me buy eggs at intervals from me. I know that's how some people who live in town get by with having chickens, they bribe the neighbors with fresh eggs.

Oh boy is it miserable outside today. I went out & did chores & having a cold just made it that much worse too. I had to keep taking my gloves off to open pens because I can't seem to work the latches well with the gloves on. I have the kind of hooks that slide & lock & that's hard to manage with big gloves on. My chickens in the breeder coop weren't thrilled about coming out so I ended up putting their food inside for them. I had to bring one little lavender Orp pullet in to the garage because she's not feeling well. I need to go back out after while & give her a shot of Tylan & take some Tylan soluble to the chicks in the brooder out there. That one little Barnevelder chick I took out there is sneezing & all of them will have it soon, so I might as well treat them all.

My GPs are running around & playing in the snow like it's a big party to them. I did open up one of the truck toppers on the end so they could get in there if they want, but I doubt they do. They usually just sleep out in the snow, silly dogs. The cats will go into one of the smaller dog houses I have & cuddle together & some get under the toppers & snuggle into the hay in there. Some of the cats however will sleep on top of one of the GPs, that's where about 3 or 4 were when I got up today. The dogs don't seem to mind, so all the more power to the cats, a big fluffy warm bed for them.

 

[KsKingBee]

How did they do the desensitizing, Kind Bee. I've never heard of that.

Ear, nose and throat doctors do it. First they make a series of test injections, very tiny pin pricks of different allergens in a grid pattern. The grid is usually lain out on the back or arms, then they measure the amount of reaction you have to each allergen. After determining what you are allergic to they develop an antidote that is administered on a weekly schedule.

The idea is that they give you small amounts of the allergens over a period of time that allows your body to develop its own defenses.

 

[Trish44]

I forgot to say congrats ash on the first egg! That's always so exciting, even when you're already getting eggs & have a new pullet lay it's pretty darned exciting. My girls are picking up on laying again, but with this darned arctic blast we'll see if that continues. It's supposed to warm up for a few days back to the 50s here so I can handle that.

 

[chicken danz]

Oh Kingbee I had never heard that referred to as desensitizing. Yeah I checked with my insurance and it would cost me a fortune to have that testing done. I think I'm doing a lot better just using my saline water and a couple of meds. If I ever lost my prescription though I'd be in trouble. I had severe asthma and was put on singulair to help control it and found it worked wonderful for my allergies. If I forget it believe me I know it.
Congrats on the egg, Ashley. Isn't it just the most exciting thing?
I cooked some soup bones and made beef and rice for the dogs. It's cooling in the kitchen right now before I take it out. I just mix it with dog food and it all disappears. Normally I throw some veggies in but I didn't have any spare I wanted to use.
Then I ground some sirloin and I'm making some veggie soup for dinner. DH will be happy. He loves that soup. It's more a beef and barley with veggies than just veggie.
Trish my dogs have been running around all afternoon. They were barking at the wind I swear. I saw nothing out there. It's unusual for them to bark unless there is something around. Of course they might have seen something I couldn't. Britt went in pursuit of something, went through the barbed wire fence in the pasture and came back to the gate to be let back in. Dumb dog! Thank goodness my gate remote works from the house.

 

[HEChicken]

I made the mistake of reading on my phone last night when I couldn't multi and now I don't remember everything I read. Danz, the stew you made for the dogs sounds great - I bet they really enjoyed it. Mine are stuck with plain old kibble I'm afraid, but it is a high quality kibble with no corn, wheat or soy. I did let them spend the night in the garage where their water bucket doesn't freeze so I know it stays above 32, although I almost wonder if they wouldn't be warmer in their igloo where their combined body heat and the shape of the igloo probably make it toasty warm. They have a bed in the garage but it is a big open space so the heat would rise away from them quickly.

Ok, so an update on the turkeys. I had given one injection Saturday and then banded one that night and gave each turkey an injection yesterday morning. When I went out this morning, the banded hen was out drinking and the swelling is noticeably DOWN - yay! She must be the one who has had two doses. I had a syringe with me with one dose, so I went into the coop and grabbed the non-banded and gave her the shot. Her face is still quite swollen so I figure she needs the first shot today and next time I go down I'll take a syringe to dose the banded hen - if I can catch her. While they were feeling so bad they were staying in the coop but apparently they are both feeling better because a short time later both were outside wandering around and I may have trouble catching the one when I need to. If so, I'll just wait until she is roosting tonight to give her her shot. But I am now cautiously optimistic that this regimen will take care of this for them. KKB and OQB, I am glad to have the info on the direct sinus injections though. The systemic Tylan was a better choice for me this go around because I already had it on hand, but I might try to obtain a bottle of the penicillin to keep around for the future.

All birds were treating this morning (thermometer read -5) as just like any other morning. Actually, more of them are out of the coop wandering around in the snow today than were yesterday. So far it is not windy and with the sun out I guess it feels better to them. It is supposed to be windy today though, so in preparation I carried a bale of straw to them this morning, cut the wires and distributed the flakes around the coop. When I left they were busily scratching at the flakes and I'm sure next time I visit they will have it spread in an even layer around the coop. At least it keeps them busy so they don't get grouchy with one another.

I had a call from a friend yesterday who has a broody BR hen! She has no rooster so she wanted some fertile eggs. I gave her some eggs and now I'll keep my fingers crossed at least one develops. I've seen my cock bird mating hens lately but fertility has been down so I don't think he's been keeping up with all of them in the past few weeks. I'm already seeing a slight increase in laying even with the days only marginally longer than they were, and hope the cock bird is also seeing the longer days as a sign it is time to get busy.

 

[chicken danz]

I just had another post disappear. Darn it that irritates me. I'll try to remember what I wrote.
It was -8 when I got up this morning. It's now up to -5. On the weather last night they said the chill index could be -30 today. It also said this is the coldest it has been in 20 years. Maybe I should take HEChicken's clue and get out this morning before the wind picks up more. I haven't seen any birds out yet today. I really really want to get some water around but am so afraid it will freeze on me.
My DH brought me a 6-8 week old chick a few days ago that had obviously suffered a brain injury. I've never seen one quite as bad as she is. She would scream and start flipping around and of course when she wasn't flipping her head would be upside down. I am sure she was having multiple seizures.
Anyway after several days of dropper feeding and vitamin E she just wasn't improving. He picked up a jar of mixed veggie baby food to try. Yesterday she was so bad I about decided to just stop feeding her. But I gave in and gave her as much baby food as I could force down her until she quit swallowing it all together. Last night she got wedged up against the waterer and was actually picking at some feed. Today she is nearly upright and has been eating on her own. I haven't seen her drink yet but it sure is encouraging. I think I really needed a save after my luck lately. I hope she pulls through. She was in the worst shape of any chick I've had to date with brain injury symptoms. I hope she does recover now....although quickly so I don't have birds in the house.
I do have a few eggs due to hatch tomorrow. Maybe 6 or so. I put a few more in the incubator last night although I don't hold out hope cause some of them might have been frozen. I hadn't tried to incubate any of the RP eggs yet HEChicken, but I put two of them in there. One was probably frozen but I think I caught the second one fairly fresh.
Maybe in a month I'll feel ready to deal with chicks and or poults again. Right now I'm just concerned about everything surviving this cold.
HEChicken, glad to hear the turkeys are starting to improve. I hope they get cleared up.

 

[sharol]

It was -14 when we got up at 6 this morning. With the two sweeter heaters, the coop was at 1 degree, but it was warmer under the heaters. The heated waterer had a little ice in it, but was still accessible. This is just ridiculous.

I've been getting more eggs (sometimes 3 a day) lately, so I'm checking the nests every hour or so. Don't want any of them to freeze. My little Marans pullet has laid 4 of the 5 past days, so I'm getting some nice little dark brown eggs, 2 or 3 of the EE's are laying, my Delaware has laid a couple, and I think the BO is also laying (the eggs look like hers). We were due.

Everybody keep warm, at least the next few days look a little better temp wise.

 

[zigzag45]

I'm behind on posts.... I wonder if there are other state threads that are this active? Amazing.

Anyways, I just posted a review of my Ador Store auto chicken pop door. I know there are discussions every now and then on who uses what. I've been very happy with my purchase.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/products/adorstore-ador1/reviews/8387

 

[HEChicken]

Great review Zigzag. I agree it is disappointing to have the battery fail that quickly. I have the Pullet Shut door and it has been in continuous use for 18-19 months with 2 opens and 2 closes every day due to its "second chance" feature, and the battery is still going strong - I wonder if you just got a bad battery? They should last longer than 6 months even in extreme temperatures. Is the battery on yours rechargeable? Mine is trickle charged by a solar panel that is mounted on the roof. I did have to replace the solar panel in November as it failed after 15 months of use, and I was upset about that but in the meantime the company had changed out solar panels and the new one is light years better than the original so I expect it to last a lot longer too.

Who knows why sometimes a bird will get locked out? I also have the light sensor and it is set so it is really pretty dark before the door closes. I don't recall ever having a chicken locked out but occasionally a duck will fail to go in in time. I've been down there a few times when that happens and usually there is a duck or two waiting "in line" to go in, but taking their time, preening while they wait. The door will start to close and the duck will get a look of astonishment on its face like it never knew that might happen LOL. The "second chance" opening means it will close and then 60 seconds later reopen to allow a bird who missed out to go on in. Unfortunately, the few times I've been there when the second chance was needed, they didn't take it. After their astonishment at the door closing, they walked up to the closed door, muttered a few curses and walked away. By the time it reopened they were far enough away they either didn't notice it reopen or didn't bother trying to get in.

Lately its been so cold I've been doing my last check around 4pm and not worrying about who made it in and who didn't. I suspect they are all going in at the moment though, since even the ducks don't really want to be outside in these temperatures.

 

[KsKingBee]

KKB and OQB, I am glad to have the info on the direct sinus injections though. The systemic Tylan was a better choice for me this go around because I already had it on hand, but I might try to obtain a bottle of the penicillin to keep around for the future.

We were not using penicillin, we used agrimycin 200 which is the same as terramycin, both are technically oxytetracycline. I should have remembered that, they guy at Mitchell Veterinary Supply told us so but I just read that in a bee book I am reviewing.

Minus fourteen here this morning at 7:30am, but it was a balmy +3 when we did the chores...