Consolidated Kansas

[JosieChick]

I called the locker and they weren't happy but I guess what can they do? She said I could just keep it in the trunk of my car. I had to laugh. Of course I don't have a trunk.
I've got to get the other freezer defrosted so I guess I am just going to put it outside and hope I can keep the animals out of it.
Wow Josie. Unbelievable that she is doing that. It seems like she should still be a tiny baby!!!

It is cruel and unusual this weather!!

Man, I wish Spring would quit teasing us. So beautiful yesterday and today the artic blast is back. The wind came up fierce just as we came inside from enjoying the beautiful day. No damage, just some buckets blown across the pasture. Extremely cold out there today, guess I should get the heated dog bowl waterers in place now that KKB has electric in the coops. The wild birds are really hanging around the feeders today. We've started taking the one down when we see the turkeys coming.

I love olive eggers, they are such pretty eggs!

Well there is one egg pipping, but it's been the same for a few hours now, they seem slow to get started. Maybe they're feeling the same as I am today, they just want to stay in their warm cozy shells. Can you blame them? The BC Marans eggs I have incubating are due to hatch the 31st & with all of the eggs I got I'm sure I will have some extra cockerels if you want to wait a bit & see how these turn out. I only need one cockerel for my laying flock, so any other than that I will be trying to sell or if you have something I want we could maybe do a trade. I'm just wanting one to breed for olive eggers. I would love to add another egg color to my egg basket. Oh BTW, I love the bee plate!

My chickens really haven't even been thrilled about being out today in this cold, I think most of them are back in the coop earlier than usual. I think some of my breeder birds are just starting back up with laying again. I hope some more of them get busy.

Thanks! We are better, it was terrible to shake though! I haven't been sick for that long since I can remember. Poor baby, she is tougher than I am though when she is sick!

Huh. My entire quote didn't appear. I think I was just going to hope you were all cured of the sickness.

Brrrrrrrr......I need to get out and hay the horses and let the birds out....I am hating this cold. Must get up and go though while little one is sleeping. Stay warm everyone!

 

[Ralph Moyer]

I took a couple photos of two of my older Indian Blues. They haven't started to fan their tails yet, but it won't be long before they do. Their tail-feathers are about full length.

 

[Trish44]

Huh. My entire quote didn't appear. I think I was just going to hope you were all cured of the sickness.

I like this picture of your gorgeous birds checking out the goodies.


I know it's hard, by try not to be too discouraged. When I was in therapy for my shoulder and arm, there would be plateaus where I thought nothing was happening, and then one day I'd go in and there'd be a very noticeable difference. I did have nerve damage, though, which was a whole other issue. If there's any suspicion of nerve damage, an MRI won't show it. You have to go in for specific testing. If you and your therapist really think something more should be happening and isn't, it would be worth bringing it up to the doctor.

Yeah it's just hard because I can't get out & do what I want to do & check on my own birds & all. My DH is doing the best he can, but not knowing anything about chickens at all he just doesn't know what to look for to tell if one is sick & needs treatment or not. He just goes out & feeds & waters & that's the extent of it. We also have a goat trying to escape the pen, they're not happy having to be confined right now because I'm not able to get out there after my DH leaves for work to get them back in. Patches keeps getting her head stuck in the livestock panel & we got some hardware cloth to fix it but my DH hasn't had the time to get it fixed yet. I don't think nerve damage is the problem I have with the knee. I had to have surgery in 2011 when I fell & tore the meniscus. With the swelling in my knee & the pain behind it I'm just afraid I may have done further damage to it again. It's taking forever for the Dr's nurse to get approval from my Ins. company to get the darned MRI done. The MRI will show if there is a tear or anything like that in the knee. I haven't been at all impressed with this Dr. either, he didn't even set a return follow-up appt. for me to come back to check my progress or do another x-ray to see if the bone is healing properly. To me that is just not good medical practice. I would have rather seen the Dr. that did my knee surgery before, but he said he didn't treat those kinds of fractures. If I have to have knee surgery again though he will be the one I will go back to.

Ralph I guess you were posting at the same time I was, those are some pretty birds. I have only the one peacock left now & I have two peahens on hold for me when I can find a way to get them picked up. I'm still not able to drive at this point since it's my right leg that is broken.

 

[CHIKENROOKIE]

I thought I might go to that auction, found pics and it seems to me a ton o fun! I was an auctioneer back in the day of my youth, so brings back memories. Might find something there I can't live without too!

 

[chicken danz]

I thought I might go to that auction, found pics and it seems to me a ton o fun! I was an auctioneer back in the day of my youth, so brings back memories. Might find something there I can't live without too!

You would enjoy it. It's hundreds of bird crazy people all gathered in one place. I am not a very outgoing person and hate crowds but I feel very at home there. I guess I am in my element. It's just one of those things, you need to come early and stay late. Prepare to spend a full day and I mean up until evening in most cases. You will find yourself wanting hundreds of new birds.
I got the birds fed and watered. Poor things all still had some food but several were out of water. When those heated bowls run non stop it tends to evaporate a lot of the water.
I checked my fermented feed barrel and there appears to be no freezing at all so I think my heat and insulation plan worked. I didn't want to feed it today cause it is so cold out.
My lone egg I had in the incubator didn't die and it's a little lavender Orp chick. I put it in the brooder in a raised area and lowered the sweeter heater on one end for it. Last time I checked it was eating and drinking and running around. There are 3 more chicks in that brooder box that are quite a bit bigger but they didn't seem interested in bothering it. I've got a few more due to hatch on the 2nd or 3rd so it will have company then.
I had one little cochin chick that had gotten mites and then got picked on by other chicks. I've treated it a couple times now and it shouldn't have any mites at all. However the other chicks kept picking at the back of it's wings. I put blue kote on them but when I went out today they had been picking on it again mercilessly and had eaten all the meat off the backs of his wing joints. Poor thing doesn't seem sick or anything. I brought it in and put it in an isolation cage in the basement. I know it won't be happy alone but I had to get it away from those other cannibalistic birds. I wish I could figure out a way to wrap it's wings so it could stay with the other birds and still have a chance to get well.

 

[zigzag45]

@ashncarson - Funny you would ask. I was just reading posts and going to ask you how you did with yours. I just threw out my second batch. First batch got moldy. At first I was going to ignore it, but it got worse. Second batch I was being very careful to thoroughly drain, rinsed last night and it stank really bad. It got thrown away. We have some sprouting trays I might use, but I wanted to use the mason jars as they sounded easier. I'll keep trying. Yours looks great. I think I'll follow these directions this time: http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2011/04/getting-started-sprouting-wheat-berries.html -- the 45 degree angle sounds good.

@22qZoo - The JakoFarm.com comes out at roughly $22 a bag I think. That's double what I'm paying for feed right now. Hard to jack prices up like that but if it were closer I'd be very interested. I don't care about organic so much as something that is non-GMO, although organic would be nice. The guys at the Feldmans in Bonner said they had some organic feed a couple years ago. It didn't sell, so they sent it to their Liberty store. Once they did that the guy said everyone comes in asking for it.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Mama and her 2 babies These 2 little fluffybutts were hatched over a week ago. She is starting to kick out some of the eggs. I didn't want to move any just yet, but will if there are any in the morning she isn't sitting on. She is a good mama and calls to her chicks to drink when I bring out fresh water and to eat when I fill their food. Today is the first I've seen her out of the box and left the babies alone for a few short time while she flapped her wings, hopped up in the nest box and jumped right back down and back with her babies.

Always a new adventure

 

[Trish44]

Well I ended up with 7 little Speckled Sussex chicks, that's 7 more than I thought I was going to get with the eggs getting lost in the mail for a week. They all seem to be doing well so far. I have the Marans & Welsummers that are due on Friday.

We got the one spot fixed that the goat has been sticking her head through, maybe that will slow her down for a bit till she finds another spot to poke it through. She had chewed on my extension cord to their heated bucket too, so we had to put some electrical tape over the spot she had chewed the plastic off of & moved the cord on the outside of the fence. They're just not that happy about being unable to come out & browse around the yard. They have plenty of hay in their pen, water, & they get fed grain every day as well, they're just used to being out of the pen all day. They're getting pretty fat from the hay, hay bellies I guess is what the goat people call it. I hope to be able to get a couple of hair sheep lambs in the spring too.

 

[cherwill]

I took a couple photos of two of my older Indian Blues. They haven't started to fan their tails yet, but it won't be long before they do. Their tail-feathers are about full length.

That's such a nice splash of color in the middle of winter.

Yeah it's just hard because I can't get out & do what I want to do & check on my own birds & all. My DH is doing the best he can, but not knowing anything about chickens at all he just doesn't know what to look for to tell if one is sick & needs treatment or not. He just goes out & feeds & waters & that's the extent of it. We also have a goat trying to escape the pen, they're not happy having to be confined right now because I'm not able to get out there after my DH leaves for work to get them back in. Patches keeps getting her head stuck in the livestock panel & we got some hardware cloth to fix it but my DH hasn't had the time to get it fixed yet. I don't think nerve damage is the problem I have with the knee. I had to have surgery in 2011 when I fell & tore the meniscus. With the swelling in my knee & the pain behind it I'm just afraid I may have done further damage to it again. It's taking forever for the Dr's nurse to get approval from my Ins. company to get the darned MRI done. The MRI will show if there is a tear or anything like that in the knee. I haven't been at all impressed with this Dr. either, he didn't even set a return follow-up appt. for me to come back to check my progress or do another x-ray to see if the bone is healing properly. To me that is just not good medical practice. I would have rather seen the Dr. that did my knee surgery before, but he said he didn't treat those kinds of fractures. If I have to have knee surgery again though he will be the one I will go back to.

Ralph I guess you were posting at the same time I was, those are some pretty birds. I have only the one peacock left now & I have two peahens on hold for me when I can find a way to get them picked up. I'm still not able to drive at this point since it's my right leg that is broken.

Yeah, I wouldn't be too impressed by a doctor who wasn't interested in whether or not I was making progress. Too bad you can't go to the other doc. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you can get that MRI soon.

Mama and her 2 babies These 2 little fluffybutts were hatched over a week ago. She is starting to kick out some of the eggs. I didn't want to move any just yet, but will if there are any in the morning she isn't sitting on. She is a good mama and calls to her chicks to drink when I bring out fresh water and to eat when I fill their food. Today is the first I've seen her out of the box and left the babies alone for a few short time while she flapped her wings, hopped up in the nest box and jumped right back down and back with her babies.

Always a new adventure

How sweet!

 

[chicken danz]

I took a couple photos of two of my older Indian Blues. They haven't started to fan their tails yet, but it won't be long before they do. Their tail-feathers are about full length.

Ralph my boys have all been fanning and flirting. I haven't heard any yelling going on yet but they're definitely getting in the mood.
I had another yearling girl not acting well yesterday. I hope she is okay. It has been the worst year for birds. As soon as it warms outside I am going to soak down the pens and treat every one of them.
It sure has been quiet on here lately.