Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Well actually I am kind of exhausted and I am broke. I won't be able to do too much just yet. I would love to work on the plumbing but I can't run the lines to the pens until I figure out where exactly the pens will go. My first priority I think is to get my brooding and hatching room ready. I am ready to get birds and incubators out of the house. I do have a sink and stuff to plumb in I could work on though. I also need to clean off the concrete. Lots of dirt and mud in there since it decided to rain while they were building. I am feeling I need a break of sorts for a day or two while I plan.
The company installs sliding doors or they will frame for garage doors but they don't hang garage doors. I am kind of glad. I bought my own garage door and got a higher quality insulated one to help reduce utility expenses. It would be nice if they installed it for me but I figure I can use the experience in case I ever build a garage proper. I hope some day I can come up with the money to do that.
I have tons of catch up work to do today as well.
I really do plan to use the building to keep my numbers down. I hope it works. I still don't like the idea I'm going to have to handle the game birds and turkeys outside.

Well at least you won't have as many pens to deal with outside even if you have to have the pheasants, peafowl, & turkeys out there.

I got all of my rabbits moved into the garage for colder weather the other day, so now it will be back to emptying trays again. I'm thinking of cutting down on my numbers in the spring. I have a couple of really cute male Mini Rex if anyone wants a pet or show rabbit. I also have a trio of lavender Ameraucanas a year old that I need to get rid of to put my new stock in that pen.

tweety you were posting when I was, yeah my DH was just glad the supervisor was along because she had a corporate credit card & took care of getting the rooms an extra night & booking flights & in the end the rental car. He said he would have been scrambling to get hold of someone at work to approve all of it.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Zig, the shells get thinner as time goes on when incubating so it is easier to see the yolk in an egg that has been incubated for awhile, than a fresh chicken egg. It is possible there is no development and you are just seeing the yolk moving around in there but I'd definitely leave them be for awhile longer. Seeing veins is easier with experience and also depends on the strength of your flashlight. I do remember being frustrated candling in the beginning because mine never looked as clear as those photos on that link someone posted for you awhile back, but then my DH got me a really good LED flashlight and suddenly I was not only seeing veins but could make out the toes on a chick's foot as it swam around! A good flashlight makes all the difference in the world.

Well, it looks like we had a frost last night. Sigh. It seems like the first frost is earlier and earlier every year - last year it was mid-October. Then as is always the way, it warms back up and we could have had stuff growing for another 4-6 weeks if we just hadn't had that one early frost. I almost don't dare go up to see my garden this morning. I'm sure the tomatoes and zukes will be history and I'll have to do one last harvest and turn the fruit into salsa.

I have 3 mother hens with chicks 1-3 weeks of age who have been quite independent for some time now. I bet they were all quite happy to sleep under their nice warm mamas last night though! My silkie went broody a couple of days ago but she has been living in my hoop coop with a few other bantams for awhile now so she has gone broody in a great place to brood her own eggs. I gave her a few eggs last night and we'll see how they do. It will be near the end of October before they hatch so they'll be tough little chicks, growing up over the winter.

Hechicken, are chicks stronger and healthier if they are born later in the year since they have to go through the winter as soon as they are born? I am always wondering this when I see/hear people having late year chicks. So we did have a frost... I thought my husband was joking on Saturday morning when we left the house and he said they was frost on the ground. I think this is the earliest I've seen frost since I've been here. I sure hope this is not what's to come for this winter. I don't have much left in the garden except for sweet potatoes and I completely forgot about them after saying I needed to dig them up. I'll have to see if I can do it this weekend.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Tweety I've always read to wait until the first frost to dig sweetpotatoes because it makes the sugar go down into them. I don't know how cold it got here last night cause I didn't think to look when I got up. I doubt it was enough to give them a good frost though. I will have to look later. I really haven't had time to do much of anything and the garden is pretty much a weed patch at this time. I do have sweet potatoes though. I'm just not sure how they did. Last year it just wasn't hot enough for them to produce well.
If you have some neosporin you might put a little in his eyes. It is excellent and the same compounds that are used for prescription eye treatments. It could simply be the shape of his eyes or a little dust irritating them.
Everyone probably looks at these things differently . I never toss an egg before 13-14 days. Some of them are just a lot harder to see and some breeds actually develop in the egg at different rates. My guess is that they are either fertile and developing or started developing and have died. Just give it time. If you weren't candling in the dark I wouldn't assume anything at all. Patience.
I was so busy yesterday I didn't even have time to look at the posts. I had company all day. It was also so cold and wet and miserable. I need time to acclimate to this weather. I had aching joints last night and this morning woke up with my neck very stiff and sore. I kind of feel like that all winter. There wasn't a lot of progress on the building yesterday due to very high winds, rain, and cold. They did get the windows and doors in and trim up around them. This morning they are hanging insulation and I saw them moving some of the siding metal. I kind of think if the weather cooperates they might finish today. These guys are fast and efficient for sure. If I could build like that things would sure be different around here.
I had a friend come down yesterday and buy some birds so that was a help. I got him to bring me 14 bags of chick starter cause he can buy it much cheaper than I can. Even after paying for that I made a couple hundred dollars more.
I need to sell lots more.

Good to know that I need to wait till first frost to dig up sweet potatoes because I completely forgot about them this weekend. I think we did have frost on Saturday morning so I'll need to venture out to dig up what's in the ground.

Glad you sold some birds. That always helps. I'm getting excited to see your new building and it's building progress.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Sorry about your garden we work so hard and Mother Nature comes in with an attitude and is over it in 24 hours LOL. We did our harvest yesterday, but I don't think it even froze last night here. We have plenty of zucchini if you live close enough, I am having trouble finding homes for it all!

My boys were already reaping the benefits of Harvest. My youngest was quite proud of his tiny eggplant.


I have a late broody too, she is due for hatch in a week. I don't plan to fuss with any chicks over the winter (so I say now), so that and what is in the incubator due a week later will be the last of 2014!

Tara, you have got quite the fruits/veggies there! Wish I'm closer. I can never have enough zucchini and squash and pumpkins, etc. Your little one is so cute. I think I even have the same metal mixing bowl you have in the pic. LOL.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

My building is done. I love it. Now for the hard work...Finishing the inside.

Goodness gracious, Danz!!!! It is done already??? It looks awesome!

 

[tweetybaby2005]

In case there was any doubt about whether broody is catching…..on Thursday my Silkie went broody in the hoop coop where she has been living with 3 other bantams. On Friday I gave her eggs. Yesterday two of the three other bantams in the hoop coop went broody. Fortunately I had given the Silkie 6 eggs and they distributed those fairly evenly between the three of them, all three sitting on one big extended nest in a dog house in the hoop coop. I'm going to just let them sit together and - hopefully - co-parent the chicks together. I'll be around to supervise on hatch day in case they start fighting over the chicks but I've had hens co-parent well together in the past so hopefully they will this time too.

I had wondered before if broody was contagious because I had SO many broody hens at any given time both last year and this year and some of the hens who brooded were the ones least likely to do it. For example, right now I have a hatchery Ancona raising 4 chicks (one of the best mother hens I've ever seen too!) But who ever heard of an Ancona going broody and especially one from a hatchery?

So I'm wondering if I can use this information next year. Maybe if I separate out any broody hens that go broody in the coop where the others can see them and put them in the hoop coop (even if it breaks their broody to do it) I won't have so many hens doing it next year. I'm going to experiment and see if that works.

Danz, I know we won't see much of you today - you'll be too busy doing plumbing or internal walls or installing garage doors. It will be so nice this winter to not have to deal with the frozen hoses and multiple pens. Just don't use it as an excuse to super-danz-size. We all want fewer birds going into winter, not more!

Speaking of which….I have a cockerel waiting to be butchered this morning so I guess I'd better get cracking and get him done.

I was also wondering if broodiness is contagious. The co-parenting is an excellent idea. I had done it only once; the one forgetful broody who also killed newborn chicks did much better if I've another broody mama with her. I guess she "learned" to parent the chicks instead of killing them. This is also the one who is sitting on a nest. Luck would have it, I have another one going broody next to her (the nest box next to her) so I hope I can move them out to the huge dog kennel together and they can co-parent the chicks.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Well at least you won't have as many pens to deal with outside even if you have to have the pheasants, peafowl, & turkeys out there.

I got all of my rabbits moved into the garage for colder weather the other day, so now it will be back to emptying trays again. I'm thinking of cutting down on my numbers in the spring. I have a couple of really cute male Mini Rex if anyone wants a pet or show rabbit. I also have a trio of lavender Ameraucanas a year old that I need to get rid of to put my new stock in that pen.

tweety you were posting when I was, yeah my DH was just glad the supervisor was along because she had a corporate credit card & took care of getting the rooms an extra night & booking flights & in the end the rental car. He said he would have been scrambling to get hold of someone at work to approve all of it.

Yup... we were posting at the same time.

I sure was glad I have the corporate credit card and traveled with it. It was so convenient. The only thing I needed to do after I got back here was scanned and submitted the receipts.

Do you plan to over-winter your rabbits? I have never had rabbits so I'm not familiar with them at all. Always wonder if they have to be kept in the cage and not able to just roam in the yard.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Sorry about having to quote every single post. I think my laptop is having a fit this morning. I had to boot into safe mode to get it going then after I rolled back whatever update I had last week, it was finally working. Then I can't seem to multi-quote. Go figure.

I had a pretty busy weekend. Got the coop cleaned... Not the deep clean I had wanted but it was cleaned nonetheless. Then my son picked up 2 kittens from the KHS and we got them settled in the barn room for now. They are 2 months old. I had wanted the older cats but he insisted on getting kittens. Maude and Jackie are their names. Jackie is more leery of strangers but Maude is quite inquisitive little kitten. She loves to be held while Jackie hides. They seem to be doing well so far. My plan is to get them used to the environment first then slowly introduce them to the birds and then the GPs. It will be a while, I'm sure, before they are ready to get out of the room. I'm hoping with just the mere presence of the kittens/cats that the mice will go some where else instead of wanting to chew up everything in the barn room.

I have a hen that has problem walking. She was limping. I looked at her foot and I don't see anything wrong with it. So I'm hoping you guys can give me suggestion on what to look for. She is in a small dog kennel with food and water. She doesn't look bad at all but is definitely having difficulty walking.

Broody mama is still broody. I found another hen sitting on her eggs and she was sitting in a different nest box. Then when the other bird took off, she jumped right back in and sitting contently brooding her eggs.

Have a great day!

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

Tara, you have got quite the fruits/veggies there! Wish I'm closer. I can never have enough zucchini and squash and pumpkins, etc. Your little one is so cute. I think I even have the same metal mixing bowl you have in the pic. LOL.

Thank you. We always have extra veggies, our neighbors and friends have come to expect it LOL! Thank you, the boys both had watermelon juice all over their faces in the pic, from a melon that 'accidentally' got dropped

. They had a blast harvesting. I love that bowl, it gets used for EVERYTHING!

 

[HEChicken]

Hechicken, are chicks stronger and healthier if they are born later in the year since they have to go through the winter as soon as they are born? I am always wondering this when I see/hear people having late year chicks. So we did have a frost... I thought my husband was joking on Saturday morning when we left the house and he said they was frost on the ground. I think this is the earliest I've seen frost since I've been here. I sure hope this is not what's to come for this winter. I don't have much left in the garden except for sweet potatoes and I completely forgot about them after saying I needed to dig them up. I'll have to see if I can do it this weekend.

That is the theory - that birds raised over the winter are hardier than those raised other times of the year. Personally I can't really tell a difference as my chicks that hatch in spring survive winter and summer and learn to forage about the same. I have one rooster who is coming up on a year old now. He hatched December of last year and his hatch day, the high was only 24. When he was 12 days old, it got down to 3 degrees. He never even seemed to feel the cold and if anything spent LESS time staying warm under his mama than chicks I've raised in warmer times of the year. I remember the morning it was 3 degrees, and I was so nervous to check on him and see how he was but he was just bustling around, glad to see me arriving with unfrozen water for him and though I stayed and watched him for awhile, he never did go back under his mama. In the end *I* got cold and went inside. Now that he is a year old he is a really fine looking Barred Rock rooster who is filling out nicely. I couldn't say he is healthier than the others because they're all healthy, but he didn't seem to have any issues with the heat this summer, despite being a winter baby.

@TaraBellaBirds your pumpkins look gorgeous. Are they a pie variety or for jack-o-lanterns?

My garden actually fared far better than I had feared. When I went up there that morning the leaves looked wet like they had frost melting on them and I was sure by the next day they'd be dead but yesterday they were mostly looking pretty good. We lost a few leaves on the zucchini plants and that seems to be about it. DH's theory is that the grass, being on the ground did not catch any breeze, so the frost was able to settle on it, but the veggies being just that little bit taller, caught enough breeze to prevent actual frost settling on the leaves. However it happened that we escaped losing it all, I'm thrilled, since the forecast will allow for quite a bit more to ripen and harvest before the next weather danger. I have a lot of red tomatoes out there today that I need to go and pick.