Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

So good to see you stop in! I'll bet the weather is much nicer there than here. It's supposed to be at least 101 here today with heat indices up to over 110

I just moved my hens back out to the pen yesterday afternoon that got over heated. I am going to have to be gone this afternoon and I don't know what I can do to keep them cool. This not having power out there is killing my ability to keep birds from over heating. At least there is supposed to be some wind today thank goodness. That may be the saving grace.
I let all my geese out of their pens yesterday. It may be a huge mistake but at least they can eat some grass and stuff if they are out. I hope it is safe. With it being so hot the dogs seek out some place cool and sleep during the day. It's prime time to loose critters. I may just hook up a mister and hope the dogs decide to use it. I am sure the bird that free range will.
I need to get out early this morning and get them all fed and watered. I really hate working before many many cups of coffee and time to chill-ax into the day. Anyway with all the breeders and all the goslings out there there are probably around 45 sebbies running the yard. That's a lot of geese!!!
My ankle was really bothering me last night and still is this morning. I must have stretched it some. I guess my wrap wasn't holding it tight enough. At least I had that on it or it would be probably back to stage one. I really am tired of this already. It's only been 2 weeks and it feels like forever. I wish I could come up with something that would just support each side but let the foot bend up and down normally.
Tweety I don't think the snow peas will produce for a fall garden. I think it is too hot for them. I could be wrong but I think if you plant them late enough for it to be cool enough for them it will get too cold for them to produce. Lots of people plant a fall crop of beans. Radishes do well and lots of the leafy vegetable crops like lettuce or Kale or something. Usually those earlier spring crops do okay.
I planted a whole roll of radish earlier for a second crop and got like maybe two plants out of a huge package of seed. I think they like the cooler weather much better.
My Chinese friend brought me two more luffa yesterday. I figured out why my soup didn't turn out well last time. He had given me Chinese long cucumber rather than luffa last time. I didn't realize he grew two different things that looked similar. So I will make some more soup this week with the luffa. I am also going to try my later crop of garlic and see how it tastes. It smells so good in my basement. It's the only place I had to hang it to dry.
I have to go get feed again in the morning. Having all these young birds around here growing out is doubling my feed bill. I wish someone would find a way to split me into about 10 people so I could get caught up with all my projects. One of those would be sorting out who to keep and who to sell or butcher. I have birds every where it seems.

Keep me in mind when you get well enough to butcher. I'd like to learn on my 2 obnoxious cockerels.

 

[sharol]

I am having a hard time with the initials ... what is an LGD??

livestock guardian dog

 

[adventerousone]

OOooohhhh should have figured that lol Thank you Kawie is a Mini Australian Shepard usually used to herd animals but she has been pretty good at running cats off my yard and she doesn't chase the chickens

 

[Trish44]

Adventurousone, your dog is a herding dog, they do tend to "herd" things, including chickens. I have two Great Pyrenees who are my livestock guardian dogs & they don't let anything that doesn't belong here in. They're worth their weight in gold. There are several of us on this thread & other sites with chickens who have them. I have read several sites lately where people have lost their whole flock to a predator attack. I know I wouldn't be able to keep any birds here if I didn't have them. Before I got them I lost birds to possums & raccoons & we have bobcats, foxes, & coyotes here as well.

 

[adventerousone]

I almost got one if those a few years back.. My hubby flipped out .. they are too big for us so I settled for Kawie.. She is the best dog I have had yet.. Maybe the next one can be a great pyrenees.. Dang hard to do this from my phone lol

 

[tweetybaby2005]

BTW how many of you have LGDs? What breeds do you have and what are pros and cons? I'm considering getting one at some point but wanted to know if it was something I should do or just something I Want to do to make myself feel better.

I have 2 GPs. They are awesome! I have not lost 1 single bird to predators since they came. Other than the initial casualties, they have learned very quickly that chickens and ducks are not to touched. They leave them alone even while they were outside the chicken yard foraging. I am with Trish that my GPs are worth their weight in gold!

 

[Ralph Moyer]

I have two GP's. The do an excellent job of protecting everything here, but they don't try to keep the goats in. When the goats get out, they go with them. They will all come running home when I sound the truck or van horn. They go right to the gate for me to let them in. My two dogs are exact opposites. The male is very docile and easy going and the female is the more aggressive and stand -offish She doesn't hurt the poultry but she makes them stay about 6 feet away from her food while she eats. The male will snap at them if they try to get his food, but he usually leaves them some.
He is the only dog I have ever had that actually enjoys fireworks. There is a small community a little over a mile from here and someone had quite a large display of night fireworks the Forth. Garland, the male GP, was setting on his haunches out by the road watching the air bursts. When there was a lull between the blasts he would let out a couple of barks. Like he was saying, "more, more". Cherry, the female GP, was laying against the house foundation and was not liking it at all!

 

[cherwill]

I hope everyone is fairing OK with this heat and humidity! I envy those of you who got rain because we didn't get 1 drop here near Wichita. The cracks in the ground are huge! My veggie garden is full of weed because DH didn't think putting a thick layer of grass clipping would do any good so when I left for 3 weeks overseas, he didn't do anything. By the time I came back, it was overrun by them weed.

I'm planning to take the next 2 weeks off because my kids are out of camp and school doesn't start till the 12th. I sure have plenty of projects on my to-do list but more than likely, I will be laying tiles in the front entrance. That was the project I was supposed to complete over Memorial Day weekend but didn't get to do. I also need to heave the 12' trampoline over into the chicken yard and put hardware cloth around it to make a chick house. Then last but not least, I need to process a few roosters. These 3 are the top priority projects I had in mind until this morning when my boss asked me if I could work 1/2 day in the mornings from home next week. I supposed the tile laying project will have to be put on hold for now.

I saw in the forecast that next week, we have another strong "cold" front coming through and drop the temperatures down to the 80s. Perfect timing to do some outdoor projects which I have on my to-do list. I just don't know how to pare down the list because it just keeps on growing.

I should take some pictures of some of the product we got out of the veggie garden despite how awful it looks (full of weed). I tasted my first Hawaiian Pineapple tomato of the year a couple of days ago and it was awesome! Been eating lots of squash too! I saw 1 tiny eggplant so maybe come next week, it will be ready for harvest.

Does anyone plan to do a Fall garden? What's good to plant for Fall? I haven't a clue because I never had a Fall garden. Because my snow peas didn't come up, I am wondering if I can do snow peas for Fall. I know for sure I will be planting some garlic later this year for next year. I would love to hear what I should plant now for a Fall crop.

Take care everyone. Keep cool!

It's so hard to get caught up once you've gotten very far behind with weeding. I don't envy you that little chore, especially when you've already got a rather long list of things to do.

I've never heard of a Hawaiian Pineapple tomato, but I'm sure DH would love it. He's only gotten one ripe Cherokee Purple so far, and that's his favorite tomato. He just discovered some orange cherry tomato that he really likes, but I don't remember the name of it. I'll try to remember to look at the tag tomorrow.

We just planted green beans a week ago. I'm going to plant some radishes for a fall garden, but I won't plant anything else. I still have the last planting of carrots and beets in the ground; they probably won't be ready for another couple of weeks. Those are all what I plant for a fall garden, if I'm going to plant one. Also, once it's more reliably cooler, you can plant the tender greens like lettuce again.

These are my egg layers right now Andy and Clucks.. they are also the easiest handled I can feed them from my hands and have taken them over to my moms and let them eat the bug from her Garden ) They LOVED it was like an all you can eat buffet with lots to choose from...

This is Thorn ..Black East Indie.. Told he is a drake but he doesn't have the curled tail feather... so not entirely sure...


These are our newest editions.. they are White Crested Saxons/Black Swedish mix only 6 days old.. kinda in the dark with little ones and trying to get them used to us is taking a bit..


My youngest holding one of the babies

My Daughter holding a baby in a poop towel after one of them pooped down her front this morning lol

This is Kawie chicken and duck protector she is a year and a half Mini Aussie The smartest and best dog I have ever owned.. and I have had a few

That's a beautiful family you have there -- both kids and critters.

Howdy all!! Just popping in real quick to say hi. I breezed through the last several days of posts and can't remember much of anything now! Hope everyone is well!

We had a great bantam cochin hatch today, locked down 14 eggs and 14 chicks hatched out of shipped eggies from North Dakota! I was thrilled! Best hatch I have ever had on shipped eggs.

Our hay is FINALLY getting cut, yayyyy!! So we can put the dog fence in starting next week which is awesome cause the Pyrs are losing their minds being locked up!

Stay cool all!!

Sounds like things are going well for you.

I sure hope we get a chance to really stay cool; I hadn't seen that there was going to be another cold front headed our way. It makes me happy to think about it!

 

[adventerousone]

Thank you Cherwell They keep me pretty busy

 

[HEChicken]

Cherwill, I am growing about a dozen different heirloom tomatoes this year and Cherokee Purple is one of them. They were my first to ripen and probably the most flavorful tomato I've ever tasted. I don't care for the big size and irregular shapes but its worth it for the flavor. Since then we've had two other varieties ripen as well. They are both smaller and consistently round and quite good - but not as full-on flavor as the Cherokee Purple.