Consolidated Kansas

[CHIKENROOKIE]

Welcome Prairie Fleur !

 

[HEChicken]

But everyone comes back to the coop in the evening. Moulting?

Even if they have a hidden nest they will return to the coop to sleep at night unless they are actually broody and sitting on that nest. Most of mine return to the coop to lay but every now and then I'll find a hidden nest. Yesterday DS found an egg in the litter box we have in our 3-season room for the outside cat! (That isn't as gross as it sounds as we use pine pellet bedding for litter and since the cat has access to outdoors he hasn't used it in months, so all that was in the box was pine pellets.)

We had some excitement at 2:30 this morning. I woke to hear a dog barking frantically. For those who haven't met our dogs, we have two 40lb poultry safe mutts who are our unofficial livestock guardians. They aren't true guardian breeds but we have them sleep in the chicken yard to discourage predators from entering. During the day they are general farm dogs. One serves her purpose letting us know any time a strange vehicle dares to turn into our driveway, while the other almost never barks. However at 2:30 this morning when I heard barking, it was unmistakably the bark of the dog who almost never does so I knew something must be up, and put on my boots to go outside. DH heard and followed me with his high-powered flashlight. The dogs were pleased to have us visit them in the middle of the night but as we approached the yard there was the unmistakable odor of skunk. Moving in the direction the dogs were showing interest, I realized the skunk was actually IN the chicken yard. It was behind two of my broody pens and kept going back and forth behind them. It didn't seem fazed that people were there and certainly showed no sign it was going to run from us. There was a 20-minute stand-off before it finally decided to leave and somehow it went under the fence - since we would have seen it go over - and was gone. I cannot see any dig marks or where or how it got under the fence but its the only way it could have disappeared into the hedge - and we could hear it moving around in the hedge. Luckily the dogs avoided getting sprayed. I guess having been sprayed in the past they knew what it was capable of and didn't take that risk again, barking and darting at it instead of getting close enough to be targeted. My birds are locked in at night except for a couple of hens with chicks who are sleeping where a determined predator could get them but I checked on everyone and they were all okay. Good dogs!!!

 

[chicken danz]

Hi everyone. I'm new around here. I'm from western Ks between Dodge and Garden. Currently looking for a couple more Wyandotte and Americana or Ameraucana pullets. Also interested in finding a pair of peafowl.
I have 4 BLR Wyandottes and 3 SL. I'm hoping to find a couple more silver laced and maybe some bantam Wyandottes to put in my garden to help with the grasshoppers and other bugs that I'm over run with!

Welcome Prairie Fleur. You aren't near me but I have lots of peachicks. They are too young to sex yet. I know KSKingBee has some extra peacocks he wants to sell. I'm not sure if he has any peahens. You could send him a PM.
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It does sort of look like it's a roo, you'll be able to tell better when the saddle feathers start growing more. They point down at the ground where pullets don't have those.

Well this evening wasn't a good one for me. I went out to start doing chores & decided to move some young guineas into the pen with the adults. They acted like they were going to kill them so I went in & was going to catch them & fell again. I don't think I hurt my broken leg again, but I guess I'll find out Weds. I did kind of hurt my other knee, it was the one that twisted more, the broken one landed on the top of the 2x4 I tripped over. I was laying there thinking how awful it was going to be if I couldn't get up off that poopy ground & had to lay there till 2 a.m. & my DH came home & looked for me. I had a heck of a time getting up from there with trying to be careful of my broken leg. I couldn't put a lot of pressure on it & I can't get on that knee because the fracture is right there beside it. I finally got hold of the cattle panel with both hands & pulled myself up with my arms. Thank goodness my arms still work! I have tried to be so careful, but I'm a danger to myself, geez. Then after all of that I was running late getting the rest of my chores done & had to use my flashlight app on my phone to see to feed the GP in the pen with the lambs, just not a good night at all.

OH Trish. I hope you are okay. It sure takes a long time to heal when you get our age.
I took off my cast and slept without it last night in hopes I could sleep without hurting my self. My ankle hurt a little but I did okay. But I realized as soon as my feet hit the floor I needed to get this thing wrapped. I used some vet wrap day before yesterday in place of the cast and it isn't as supportive as the cast but it worked okay. I am really wanting to get my ankle working on it's own again.
Quote:

Hello everyone. I have been super busy lately and haven't had time to catch up on posts from the last few weeks. I sure miss reading everything. My hens have quit laying. We were getting between 8 and 11 eggs every day. Then all of a sudden we are getting one daily. I keep thinking that they have to be laying somewhere during the say when free ranging. But everyone comes back to the coop in the evening. Moulting?

If the hen house is covered with feathers and they are starting to get bare they could be molting.How old are the birds? If they are under 18 months old I doubt it. I barely got a handful of eggs yesterday but I know it's the heat that is killing my egg production. Make sure they have plenty of water this time of year and keep them as cool as possible to help their laying. I have always kept fans in my coops until this year and I sure can tell the difference in the egg production. My sussex are in full molt but they are laying like champs. Earlier this spring when all the others were laying I wasn't getting hardly anything from them. Typically the birds molt in the fall but this year several of mine have already molted.

Yesterday I smelled something dead in my little pen I had the younger guineas in. I went in to investigate and found four of them that had gotten stuck between the house and the wire in the back of the pen. I moved the house to get their remains out and every last one of the guineas flew out. I managed to catch a small group of them but at last look I still had at least 6 of them sitting on the very top of my house. I had no idea where all the others went. I closed the door thinking that the others would come down to roost on their pen but that didn't happen. So I'm down to a very small handful of guineas. All of my hens and their nests disappeared earlier because the girls laid out in the field. I only had 4 older males around here that have always free ranged. So I sure hope out of the few I have that I have a few females. It's not that I like the guineas but they are great bug eaters and in the past I've made decent money from them. This year I didn't sell a single keet. I had someone ask me about guineas last week but told her I wanted to find out how many females I had now before I sold any more. Looks like I will have nothing but a few boys to get rid of later. I'd prefer to just let them all free range all the time but they get up so high and then the owls pick them off like candy.
It was so miserable hot out yesterday especially late in the day. I can't imagine how trecherous today is going to be. The humidity is so high I am sure that is the killer. I was just totally drenched while I was feeding birds and that was at 7:00 PM. I watered them early but held off their feed so they wouldn't try to digest in the heat of the day.

 

[chicken danz]

HEChicken your dogs are awesome. Skunks are a huge problem this year. I've heard several people say they've had skunk attacks on their chickens. Normally skunks eat eggs but this year there's been several acquaintances that lost chickens to them. I don't know if there is a shortage of grubs this year or why the change. I smell them now and then but they tend to travel down the ditch in front of the house. I think the dogs run the fence line and bark at them. Of course they've all been sprayed enough times they keep their distance as well.

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Thanks

Welcome Prairie Fleur !

! Thanks!

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Hi Chicken Danz! Thanks for the info! Where are you from if you don't mind me asking? I'll see if I can find KS King Bee and see what he has. When would your peachicks be old enough to sex?

 

[chicken danz]

It actually depends on the color. India blues are the youngest to be able to sex. You can start sexing them at around 3 months. I also have whites and lavenders as well as a couple others that need to be at least 6 months old before they can be sexed. KSKingBee is near Marion and I am near Burlington and Waverly.
I went out to open things up for the birds and found the escape guineas up against the door of their pen. So I opened the door and after a couple tries got them to walk into the pen. The old guineas are about to be dead guineas though. They decided to turn bully. I let the bourbon reds out to free range today and the guineas were chasing and biting on them. They did that yesterday with the midget whites but there are more of them so they finally gave up. I won't tolerate them being overly mean if they continue. I hate that cause these birds have been here 4-5 years now and I don't have to worry about them. But if every time I let a bird out of the pen they pick on it that won't work.
I put a mister in the midgets pen too. It is just so hot and they needed something to keep them cool.

 

[cherwill]

Well this evening wasn't a good one for me. I went out to start doing chores & decided to move some young guineas into the pen with the adults. They acted like they were going to kill them so I went in & was going to catch them & fell again. I don't think I hurt my broken leg again, but I guess I'll find out Weds. I did kind of hurt my other knee, it was the one that twisted more, the broken one landed on the top of the 2x4 I tripped over. I was laying there thinking how awful it was going to be if I couldn't get up off that poopy ground & had to lay there till 2 a.m. & my DH came home & looked for me. I had a heck of a time getting up from there with trying to be careful of my broken leg. I couldn't put a lot of pressure on it & I can't get on that knee because the fracture is right there beside it. I finally got hold of the cattle panel with both hands & pulled myself up with my arms. Thank goodness my arms still work! I have tried to be so careful, but I'm a danger to myself, geez. Then after all of that I was running late getting the rest of my chores done & had to use my flashlight app on my phone to see to feed the GP in the pen with the lambs, just not a good night at all.

Oh Trish, I hope it's just sore muscles and you didn't hurt yourself even worse. Surely today will be a better day.

Hi everyone. I'm new around here. I'm from western Ks between Dodge and Garden. Currently looking for a couple more Wyandotte and Americana or Ameraucana pullets. Also interested in finding a pair of peafowl.
I have 4 BLR Wyandottes and 3 SL. I'm hoping to find a couple more silver laced and maybe some bantam Wyandottes to put in my garden to help with the grasshoppers and other bugs that I'm over run with!

Hello everyone. I have been super busy lately and haven't had time to catch up on posts from the last few weeks. I sure miss reading everything. My hens have quit laying. We were getting between 8 and 11 eggs every day. Then all of a sudden we are getting one daily. I keep thinking that they have to be laying somewhere during the say when free ranging. But everyone comes back to the coop in the evening. Moulting?

I got no eggs yesterday; I'm assuming it's the heat. Hoping, anyway. I am seeing more and more feathers in the pen, so a molt might be starting. That's worse, because it lasts much longer than just adjusting to the heat.

We had some excitement at 2:30 this morning. I woke to hear a dog barking frantically. For those who haven't met our dogs, we have two 40lb poultry safe mutts who are our unofficial livestock guardians. They aren't true guardian breeds but we have them sleep in the chicken yard to discourage predators from entering. During the day they are general farm dogs. One serves her purpose letting us know any time a strange vehicle dares to turn into our driveway, while the other almost never barks. However at 2:30 this morning when I heard barking, it was unmistakably the bark of the dog who almost never does so I knew something must be up, and put on my boots to go outside. DH heard and followed me with his high-powered flashlight. The dogs were pleased to have us visit them in the middle of the night but as we approached the yard there was the unmistakable odor of skunk. Moving in the direction the dogs were showing interest, I realized the skunk was actually IN the chicken yard. It was behind two of my broody pens and kept going back and forth behind them. It didn't seem fazed that people were there and certainly showed no sign it was going to run from us. There was a 20-minute stand-off before it finally decided to leave and somehow it went under the fence - since we would have seen it go over - and was gone. I cannot see any dig marks or where or how it got under the fence but its the only way it could have disappeared into the hedge - and we could hear it moving around in the hedge. Luckily the dogs avoided getting sprayed. I guess having been sprayed in the past they knew what it was capable of and didn't take that risk again, barking and darting at it instead of getting close enough to be targeted. My birds are locked in at night except for a couple of hens with chicks who are sleeping where a determined predator could get them but I checked on everyone and they were all okay. Good dogs!!!

Very good dogs! I'm glad no one got sprayed. My neighbor's old dog never did learn and she would chase every skunk she saw. She got sprayed 3 or 4 times, I think.

I took off my cast and slept without it last night in hopes I could sleep without hurting my self. My ankle hurt a little but I did okay. But I realized as soon as my feet hit the floor I needed to get this thing wrapped. I used some vet wrap day before yesterday in place of the cast and it isn't as supportive as the cast but it worked okay. I am really wanting to get my ankle working on it's own again.

You're right, the cast and wrap are allowing your muscles to weaken. BUT, sometimes it's necessary in order to allow the bigger healing to take place first. Just try not to overdo it and take care of yourself!

 

[Trish44]

Hi everyone. I'm new around here. I'm from western Ks between Dodge and Garden. Currently looking for a couple more Wyandotte and Americana or Ameraucana pullets. Also interested in finding a pair of peafowl.
I have 4 BLR Wyandottes and 3 SL. I'm hoping to find a couple more silver laced and maybe some bantam Wyandottes to put in my garden to help with the grasshoppers and other bugs that I'm over run with!

Welcome, I'm not close to you but I don't really have any extras to sell right now. I do raise two colors of Ameraucanas but I'm waiting on some young ones to grow out so I can see what sexes they are before I pick breeders. They are really hard till they start getting the saddle feathers on the cockerels or crowing because of the pea combs. I had one last year fool me for months thinking it was a pullet & then it got the saddle feathers & started crowing. They grow pretty slow too compared to other breeds.

Hello everyone. I have been super busy lately and haven't had time to catch up on posts from the last few weeks. I sure miss reading everything. My hens have quit laying. We were getting between 8 and 11 eggs every day. Then all of a sudden we are getting one daily. I keep thinking that they have to be laying somewhere during the say when free ranging. But everyone comes back to the coop in the evening. Moulting?

It could be the heat right now & I don't blame them a bit, it's so hot right now. I had to douse myself with water a couple times yesterday to even get my feeding done, it was miserable & it's not going to be any better today.

Even if they have a hidden nest they will return to the coop to sleep at night unless they are actually broody and sitting on that nest. Most of mine return to the coop to lay but every now and then I'll find a hidden nest. Yesterday DS found an egg in the litter box we have in our 3-season room for the outside cat! (That isn't as gross as it sounds as we use pine pellet bedding for litter and since the cat has access to outdoors he hasn't used it in months, so all that was in the box was pine pellets.)

We had some excitement at 2:30 this morning. I woke to hear a dog barking frantically. For those who haven't met our dogs, we have two 40lb poultry safe mutts who are our unofficial livestock guardians. They aren't true guardian breeds but we have them sleep in the chicken yard to discourage predators from entering. During the day they are general farm dogs. One serves her purpose letting us know any time a strange vehicle dares to turn into our driveway, while the other almost never barks. However at 2:30 this morning when I heard barking, it was unmistakably the bark of the dog who almost never does so I knew something must be up, and put on my boots to go outside. DH heard and followed me with his high-powered flashlight. The dogs were pleased to have us visit them in the middle of the night but as we approached the yard there was the unmistakable odor of skunk. Moving in the direction the dogs were showing interest, I realized the skunk was actually IN the chicken yard. It was behind two of my broody pens and kept going back and forth behind them. It didn't seem fazed that people were there and certainly showed no sign it was going to run from us. There was a 20-minute stand-off before it finally decided to leave and somehow it went under the fence - since we would have seen it go over - and was gone. I cannot see any dig marks or where or how it got under the fence but its the only way it could have disappeared into the hedge - and we could hear it moving around in the hedge. Luckily the dogs avoided getting sprayed. I guess having been sprayed in the past they knew what it was capable of and didn't take that risk again, barking and darting at it instead of getting close enough to be targeted. My birds are locked in at night except for a couple of hens with chicks who are sleeping where a determined predator could get them but I checked on everyone and they were all okay. Good dogs!!!

I'm glad your dogs kept the skunk at bay & didn't get sprayed in the process. I've had one of my GPs in the pen with the lambs at night trying to get her "bonded" to them so I'm down one dog to patrol right now. The one in the pen realizes what I want her to do I think but she is not happy at all about being confined, she would rather be out there working.

Yeah my leg is kind of sore today, but not overly so. I'm hoping I just irritated it some & didn't injure it further. I'm sure I will have another x-ray at this new Dr's office so they will check it out. I was kind of dizzy after I fell so I don't know if that was the result of the fall or what made me fall. I know I tripped over the 2x4 support in the hoop coop & fell over it.

I put some BR eggs in my hatcher that are due Thurs. I hope to get some more pullets & a replacement rooster in there so I can send the nasty one to freezer camp. Even his pullet that was left in there got out when I was feeding two days ago & refuses to go back in there, he's mean to her too. She has a poor bare back to prove it. I wanted to get these chicks hatched & see what I have & then go ahead & dispatch this rooster soon & give the poor hen some peace but she took it into her own hands. I really can't blame her after seeing how he has treated her. I hope I get a nicer rooster this time.

 

[chicken danz]

It's so much worse here today than yesterday. I am totally drenched in sweat and I wasn't working. I was out selling some turkey poults and just chatting. I also gave away my lone duckling and she was thrilled to get her. I did sex it and it was a girl. I wasn't doing the poor thing any favors cause it was alone and I didn't have time to carry it around. I am told she will be a house duck so I think I offered it to the right person.
Yay! Victory!