Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

I moved all the birds from the brooder house today to different pens. As I moved them I treated them all with ivermectin. It took forever to move a couple at a time across the yard. I set up another pen up next to the house and put the young araucanas in it. There are only 4 of them so I hope they do okay. It won't be a permanent home but it should work for the time being. I had planned to clean out the brooder and build a new screen door but didn't have time after moving birds here and there.
I trimmed my big orp's behind and put her out in the pen with the other English. I thought she was doing fine but found her later unable to walk and her comb bloody. Those roosters must have gang raped her. So she is back in the house again and not feeling well. I will feel awful if anything happens to her.
I'm worried about all those babies being outside. They acted kind of lost when it got dark so I know they'll be sleeping outside rather than inside where it's warmer. I meant to rig up a light for them but it got dark before I could even get back in the house.
I may have to venture out in the dark and see what I can do.
I had 4 poults hatch yesterday. I put them in the brooder bin today before I went out, came back in and they were all wet. I guess they did the follow the leader thing and all tried to drown themselves in the waterer. I hope they all live. Sometimes I have to agree that turkeys are really dumb.

 

[KsKingBee]

KKB - how did you do that? (It is a heart covered in live bees, right?)


The little lamb - Snowball - is doing great.

SNOWBALL! That was my suggestion! Did I win a prize?

Yeah, I was holding my heart out for her.

 

[Trish44]

I was really busy today getting my new pen set up. I got another dog run for now to use until I can get the materials & be able to build another hoop coop. It will be another double hoop coop so it will house both the BRs & the RIRs. Anyway I got the pen all hooked together & then I just used the big shade cloth I have right now for the top just to have something to cover it with till I figure out something else. I put an igloo dog house in there for shelter & got all the essentials put in & then put the two BR pullets from HEChicken in there first. I had to wait till roost time to catch Big Boy & his pullet. He is kind of an ornery dude, he pecked me on the hand when I was carrying him down there to the pen so I had to hold onto his neck so he couldn't do it again. He made a blood blister on my hand. The older pullet was picking on the two younger ones, so I hope they get the pecking order figured out quickly before anybody gets hurt. I didn't really have much to use for a roost so I used just what I had on hand for now till I figure out something else. I may just use a big branch like I did in the turkey pen, I have plenty of those laying around here. Anyway, it was a big relief to get that set up & get those birds moved. Then I moved all of the remaining lavender Orp chicks to the pen with the other 3 lavenders. I'm trying to get birds moved where they belong so that when I need to move more chicks out to the growout pen I will have more room. I have been paying dearly for doing all of that again this evening. I had to ice my leg & it's really sore again. I've got so much I need to be doing out there & I just can't move like I did before I fell & don't have the stamina right now either. I just have to build back up to it & try to be patient with this leg, but it's hard.

 

[Polishpal]

Oh my gosh, wow I have been neglecting BYC. Well sorry for my absence but I'm goo g to try to keep up with the posting and all that. Okay so now for what's been going on with my lovely birds ^_^ well the chick I had that had the crook neck passed away :c, it was very unexpected because it had been doing perfectly fine for the past month but it just died suddenly. So that happened, on some other news just this evening me and my mom went to bring somebody the silkie babies I had hatched (4 baby's and 1 adult roo) that was fun and I hope they will enjoy their new fluff balls. I also need to know how to cull a guinea fowl, because I have a very aggressive male guinea (I don't know what a gut guinea is called) and he picks on my poor egg hens so he might need a chop. On some completely unrelated news I get to be a turkey in my school musical XD fitting because I live birds so much. Well that is all and sorry for my jumping around on topics, I'm very bad at typing and writing and keeping my mind to one thing X3

 

[chicken danz]

Welcome back PolishPal. It has been awhile.
Trish sounds like you and I are on the same page. I have so many more birds to move and house etc. I am ready to get the groups down to a reasonable size. I've got to get on the road early today to go get my tooth worked on. If I'm feeling okay when I get back I have a ton more work to do today. Maybe I'll get that brooder house cleaned out and set up for the new babies coming this week.
Speaking of that our stupid forecast changed again and now it's supposed to be cold and even possibly snow on Thursday. That's the day I expect the chicks to be here.
I had to laugh last night. My DH apparently decided to do some reading on English Orpingtons. He was pretty amazed at what he read but was all excited because the cheapest ones he found were $25 a day old chick. I had to laugh at him. He has no idea what I spend on birds. I just told him then that I have about 36 of them coming this week and that the most I spent was $30 a chick plus $65 shipping per box. And that there were four different boxes coming. Then I explained that I have bought them over time...and just waiting for the weather to warm. I wonder if later he adds that all up! He doesn't have a clue what these birds I have go for.

 

[HEChicken]

Danz, I hope you are able to get your tooth fixed up easily and painlessly - such a deal. I've never heard of a tooth just breaking in half like that either.

Welcome back, PolishPal.

Yep - KKB - that was your suggestion and thank you. I wish I could think of a worthy prize - open to suggestions

I spent yesterday cleaning out my coop. The deep littler layer was about 8" deep so it was a LOT of work. I hauled 11 loads out of there in my garden cart, which holds about twice as much as a wheelbarrow, so 23-25 wheelbarrow loads easy. I decided not to enlist the help of the kids this time since soon enough they'll be gone and I'll have to do it myself so I wanted to make sure I can. Turns out I can but I have lots of sore muscles today.

In between loads, I did other things, like take the glass out of the windows (better ventilation and as mild as it is they don't need the windows in), fill up water bowls, move sheep around, etc., so all told it took me about 6 hours to complete. I even swept it out this time, and then put in a bale of hay for them to spread around. I haven't used hay before but have lots of that so I decided to try it and see if I like it more or less than the straw I've been using the past two years.

While forking one load, a mouse ran out and disappeared, but shortly after that, a second one streaked past and this time a chicken saw it, went in pursuit and got it. She killed it thoroughly then stood back to see what it would do next - kind of like a cat waiting for it to get up and play. I decided if she wasn't going to eat it, I'd give it to a snake. I'm just glad to have one less eating my chicken feed, but after that I saw several more, so I set the traps after the coop was clean and hopefully will have a few more snake meals when I go down there this morning.

The bedding I pulled out had started to decompose in places. It all went onto my veggie garden bed and in a few weeks will be tilled in. Its been 3 months since I last cleaned the coop so most of the bedding is aged and the freshest stuff will still have awhile to age before I plant, so I don't think it will be too hot. I hope.

I have another ewe that is getting closer to delivery. I put her in a separate area last night as a precaution although I don't really expect that she delivered last night. I'll find out soon when I go down there.

 

[HEChicken]

I just looked out the window and I can see another new little lamb! This one is mostly chocolate brown, with a little white!!! I haven't even been down to see it yet - my coffee is still hot and it doesn't look like she needs any help - but I'll take my camera when I go and get some pictures.

 

[sharol]

I just looked out the window and I can see another new little lamb! This one is mostly chocolate brown, with a little white!!! I haven't even been down to see it yet - my coffee is still hot and it doesn't look like she needs any help - but I'll take my camera when I and get some pictures.

Congrats. Yes, do post a picture. Your first lamb made me want to have sheep (not gonna happen.)

 

[HEChicken]

Its a little lambchop buckling! I am actually a little disappointed about that because he is SO pretty and different from any of my other sheep so I was kinda hoping it was a girl. Ah well….I get to play with him and watch him grow for a few months at least. Here he is:

 

[cherwill]

Danz, what an odd thing with your tooth! I hope you can get it fixed quickly.

Lambchop (

) is adorable!

We've been enjoying the nice weather, and so have the chickens. They're still only laying an egg a day, or occasionally two, but they're having a great time scratching around in the yard.

We've never seen that fox again, and haven't caught anything in the trap. Of course, the trap was nearly buried in snow half the time, so that might be a factor, but we never saw tracks in the snow, either. Maybe we'll send the trap over to my SIL's and see if she can catch the fox they've been seeing around their neighborhood.