Consolidated Kansas

[okjenyp]

What treats do you guys give your chickens? Their favorites? Mine love watermelon and bread and cooked rice. I have tried some other things but they didn't like it.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Here is my coop

Nice! I picked up a smaller crate a few years ago and built a little duck pen from it. My boyfriend just picked up 4 of the larger shipping containers from one of the aircraft companies in Wichita and we're going to put them together to make a large stall for goats/lambs.. They are so cheap and have many uses. (One is going to be used as a shed for tools/stuff..)

 

[lizzyGSR]

I know exactly how good it feels when the girls start laying again; I'm happy for you!

I found quite the surprise this morning:


That's right. It's an ice cream bucket 1/2 full of eggs, and I only have 3 female ducks and one goose that is currently laying. I think I found where all the missing eggs disappeared to! So, now the question is... what do I do with all of these eggs? They have been outside for 1 1/2 to 2 weeks and we've had temps around freezing at night, plus the day or two a couple days ago where the highs were barely above freezing. Are the eggs safe to eat? Should I just boil them and give them back to the birds?

 

[chicken danz]

Lizzy why don't you try to see if they float? If they don't float they are normally good. I would just crack them in a bowl rather than crack them into a skillet or something you are cooking. If the yolk is firm and doesn't smell you should be fine. I normally just feed all the eggs back to the birds or the dogs when I find nests but I have plenty to do that.
BridgetBarger, I used old storm windows on most of my coops. We had new windows put in so I just used the storm windows for coop windows. They work great. I hung them backwards though so I could open them from the outside and have chicken wire on the inside. You could do it just the opposite as well by putting chicken wire on the outside and putting the storm windows on the inside. I think screen would probably be fine as well but I wanted the strength of the heavier wire.
RamblinHacres welcome back. Don't be a stranger.
Cherwill, I checked my garden yesterday. I only had a couple of radishes up so I think our lack of moisture probably saved the crop. I did cut my potatoes last night so I could get them planted today. Now to just find the time!

 

[Trish44]

I found quite the surprise this morning:


That's right. It's an ice cream bucket 1/2 full of eggs, and I only have 3 female ducks and one goose that is currently laying. I think I found where all the missing eggs disappeared to! So, now the question is... what do I do with all of these eggs? They have been outside for 1 1/2 to 2 weeks and we've had temps around freezing at night, plus the day or two a couple days ago where the highs were barely above freezing. Are the eggs safe to eat? Should I just boil them and give them back to the birds?

lizzy I would cook them & feed them back to the birds, they aren't safe to do anything else with.

Man is the wind howling here today, it's horrible. I'm sure not looking forward to going out in it, my allergies aren't getting any better with that stuff blowing like that.

 

[cherwill]

What treats do you guys give your chickens? Their favorites? Mine love watermelon and bread and cooked rice. I have tried some other things but they didn't like it.

Mine love black oil sunflower seeds, but I don't give them too many at a time. They love anything with seeds best -- cucumbers, the insides of bell peppers, that kind of thing. They're also crazy about overripe bananas, kale, any kind of melon or berry, and yogurt, and they'll eat things like carrot peels. They also love when we find a grub and throw it in the pen for them.

Cherwill, I checked my garden yesterday. I only had a couple of radishes up so I think our lack of moisture probably saved the crop. I did cut my potatoes last night so I could get them planted today. Now to just find the time!

See, this is when it pays to have been too busy to get your garden planted early!

lizzy I would cook them & feed them back to the birds, they aren't safe to do anything else with.

Man is the wind howling here today, it's horrible. I'm sure not looking forward to going out in it, my allergies aren't getting any better with that stuff blowing like that.

I think I'd be afraid to eat those eggs. I'd cook them and give them to my dogs or birds.

As I was listening to the wind last night, I was thinking about Tweety laying awake listening to it with me!

That one night of windless peace sure was nice.

 

[Trish44]

As for treats for the birds, I give mine BOSS, cabbage, lettuce, really anything left over that we don't eat & it doesn't go to waste. If the birds don't eat it the cats or dogs do. I also cook the eggs that don't end up being fertile that I have candled & feed them back to the birds & other animals. They all love scrambled eggs!

 

[chicken danz]

The wind is insane here as well. If I figured right and I'm sure I missed counting a few I hatched 118 chicks yesterday. I still have some unhatched eggs and a couple that pipped but haven't hatched but I'm giving up on those. I hatched Partridge Brahmas, Coronation sussex, Lavender orps, Barred rocks, black orpingtons, English BBS Orpingtons, Buff orpingtons, White orpingtons, speckled sussex, and Breda fowl. The bin is so full they can't move around. I need to find someplace else to put them because there are way too many. Right now I'm just trying to get them settled and started eating and drinking. Even though I separate the breeds between incubators I still missed sorting a few and got them confused. The white, black, lavender and English orpingtons can all look like other breeds and then the coronation sussex also look like them. It's crazy. I have a few barred rocks and they only way I can tell them from black orpingtons is the dot on their head and their legs are darker.

 

[Frizzled Pink]

Popping in to say HI, glad to see everyone is getting their spring at least a little bit situated!


The new coop on wheels (recycled pop up camper frame)---yup sure sign of chicken addiction when you seem to be able to look at anything and say HEY we could make that into a coop LOL

 

[Trish44]

Popping in to say HI, glad to see everyone is getting their spring at least a little bit situated!


The new coop on wheels (recycled pop up camper frame)---yup sure sign of chicken addiction when you seem to be able to look at anything and say HEY we could make that into a coop LOL

That's cute Frizzled! I know exactly what you mean about looking at things & seeing a coop, I do the same thing. I have two old truck toppers sitting out here & if I had anywhere else to put the hay when I get it for the animals I would use one or both to make coops out of. I got both free so how can you beat that.

The wind was awful again today, I seriously thought we were just going to blow away. I'm really tired of having to fight that every day. A nice calm warm day would be great for a chance. Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler & a 70% chance of rain. We really can use some more rain, the other little thunderstorms that came through didn't produce enough to hardly even wet the ground, you couldn't tell that we had gotten any.