Consolidated Kansas

[Prairie Fleur]

I spoiled my today with some apples that had gone soft and some tomatoes that were too small or slightly bad. They Loved it!!! I put up apple sauce this evening and I'll give them the extras from that tomorrow.
It's starting to snow here. I'm not sure if we'll get to go to my nephews Christmas program or not now. My SIL came down with the flu and it's supposed to be sleeting and snowing tomorrow. Not exactly great driving conditions. The last time we drove in weather like that was awfully stressful and I don't care to repeat the experience!!!
I think I've lost my kitten that I posted pics of a while back. Not totally sure why. I was planning to deworm him soon and hadn't gotten it done and there'd been sniffles going around the cats. I'm very sad. He was such a sweetie. DH found him in the shed this evening. He wasn't stiff but no sign of life so DH put him I under a heat lamp just in case he's still alive.

 

[chicken danz]

So sorry about your kitten. I still havent' been able to get close to the kittens that my adoptive cat had. She brought them up to the shop a couple of different days where she eats and they run and hide if you walk in. I haven't seen them in a long time but DH has several times. We have only seen three of the four at one time. Not sure if we lost one along the way or not.
My birds got applesauce today as well. I was cleaning out the pantry and had some out of date stuff which included two jars of applesauce. Not sure if they ate it or not. I was too busy to check back.
Trish Winston, the new dog is becoming more at home. He loves attention, and I learned today he does know the command sit. I took dog biscuits out and was going to work on teaching him to sit and he already knew how.

 

[Trish44]

Prairie, I'm sorry about your kitten. That was most likely a virus & it kind of goes through all the cats, especially young kittens.

This weather is the pits. I heard it sleeting earlier & ran out to get the sheep & goats up to their pens. By the time I got them in & did a few other things I was wet & ready to go in.

Danz I'm glad the new GP is getting settled in. Mine sure have been busy at night lately, the predators must really be on the move.

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Thanks!!! I was pretty disappointed and I'm rather frustrated that my matriarch insists upon 2 litters of kittens every year. The last litter is born so late that they run a huge risk at not being it enough to deal with the viruses and the cold at the same time. At least this wasn't a female kitten. I want a female out of this mama to continue the line on. I have plenty of males but the girls either haven't survived kittenhood or else they disappear later.
We got a light covering of snow last night but it's all gone all ready. It's definitely winter. I feel sorry for all the outdoor animals but they can cuddle with the others so I'm sure they're warm enough. I got another egg today. I'm amazed at how good they look and they're not typical pullet eggs. They're big and perfectly formed and gorgeous! Shells are strong and everything.

Sending warm thoughts to everyone!!!

 

[chicken danz]

Very busy day ahead today. I am selling 16 peafowl today. I am loosing literally hundreds of dollars but it's time to reduce numbers. I will have sellers remorse for sure later on.
I went through 1500 pounds of feed in a week. That is an all time record.
Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be able to sell several of these birds I've been feeding out.
It's nearly time for spring hatching to begin. I hope to make some profit on these older ones before I start selling the new chicks.
My black brahmas which are the biggest most magnificent birds are laying equally as big eggs. I hadn't really planned on raising blacks but bought the chicks at a good price and had them shipped. I am so pleased with these birds. The chicks I've hatched are huge as well. They are going to be excellent dependable layers like most brahmas. Since my old light brahmas are done laying I am really glad to have them. I may eventually move some extras into my laying flock. But right now I am raising them because of their quality for show or special pets.

 

[Trish44]

Yesterday was a crazy busy day for me, we had to go to Wichita for shopping & had a lot of places to go. My knee was killing me all day, partly because of the weather I think but I had to do a lot of walking too. It sure lets me know when it's not happy, that's for sure.

I can't even imagine going through that amount of feed danz, that's crazy. I had to up mine from 500 to 750 pounds a month for winter & that's a lot for me. I had to have DH go get it the last time since my leg was bothering me so bad & there are a bunch of steps just to get into the COOP to buy it. He has really gotten into the groove of feeding my birds & animals, grudgingly, but he does it. He gets up early so he can get his breakfast & do the feeding before he goes to run. He is training for a marathon right now so he has increased his running days & amount of time.

Brahmas are a breed I have never tried to raise. I have tried out a lot of different breeds for laying but I guess I never considered those as good layers. They are a big breed & I don't think I want any more big breeds. I have the English Orpingtons & those are huge, especially the roosters. I'm thinking of trying out some Bresse this next year, I've been reading they're really good layers.

 

[Ralph Moyer]

Trish, I keep thing about your falling accident as I have been doing my chores in about an acre of 2 inch deep, liquefied duck, geese, and everything else, liquefied droppings on top of limestone rock! This lot was about knee high in grass when I moved most of the poultry here in July. They can and do free-range elsewhere, but this is where I feed because the goats would get most of it if I didn't keep them from it.


As for feed, I go through 1500 pounds in about two weeks. I also need to move more out. I'm just too far off of the paved roads for people to come buy birds.

 

[Trish44]

Ugh Ralph, that sounds like an accident waiting to happen, let's hope not. Yeah my duck & geese pen is really awful right now too, wet & goopy. I almost slipped in there a couple of days ago trying to get a goose into the inner pen for night. We have had coyotes prowling the perimeter of of property every night lately trying to find a way past my GPs, it has kept them busy. Do you take birds to swap meets? That might be an outlet for you as well as the swaps online.

 

[chicken danz]

Trish, I keep thing about your falling accident as I have been doing my chores in about an acre of 2 inch deep, liquefied duck, geese, and everything else, liquefied droppings on top of limestone rock! This lot was about knee high in grass when I moved most of the poultry here in July. They can and do free-range elsewhere, but this is where I feed because the goats would get most of it if I didn't keep them from it.


As for feed, I go through 1500 pounds in about two weeks. I also need to move more out. I'm just too far off of the paved roads for people to come buy birds.

Ralph that was my average too until just the last few weeks. When the weather went bad and cold the feed consumption went insane. I am glad there is someone out that that goes through feed similar to me. No one can believe all the feed I even go through in one days time. A good deal of it is the game type birds right now. They would rather have the grass and the critters that go along with it but there just isn't any. It's so muddy and nasty out there. We got between 2-3 inches of snow this week and now it is melting and really making it nasty here. This clay is just like ice when it gets wet.
I just hope somehow I can recover some of this expense with sales soon. If every day was like today I'd be doing okay. Of course I'd run out of birds in a period of time though.

 

[Ralph Moyer]

Trish, I do go to swap meets, but the weather on Saturdays has been against me. I do great at the Afton swap, but it closes from October to April. The Turkey Creek swap east of Joplin MO is one of my closer swaps, but the weather has been a problem this year. I have listed on Craigslist and some of the Facebook sites, but haven't had many sales through them. Most people think twice about driving down 6 miles of mud roads for a few birds.