Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

My husband got the stuff for my extra breeding pens today.  Hopefully soon (DH often takes some time on his projects, not LOL) I may have roosts, boxes, & pens rather than a lovely pile of material!! 

I can identify with that Tarabella.

 

[chicken danz]

It irritates me to no end. I held over $2000 worth of birds for 2 months for a guy last fall because he was going to make a trip down from Cincinnati to pick them up to save shipping costs. Then he dropped off the face of the earth as far as answering my messages after assuring me the whole time he was taking them. I have sold them but at way way less and I wasted 2-3 months of feed on all those birds. I am selling a lot I intended to keep around right now just to move some and make room. I'm toying with taking non-refundable deposits later this spring. I understand that things come up but when you lose real customers while you wait on one of these people who don't show in the end, it becomes costly and irritating. Also I have far more to do than sit around waiting for no shows.
I hate to be that way but I can't begin to count the thousands of dollars I've lost for no shows. I need to start doing this like a business instead of a hobby. It would be so nice to see people do what they say.
Well I'm working on plumbing and then I need to work on a new temporary breeding shelter. I'd better get back to it.

 

[friendshipstar]

Hey everyone.
Is everyone else as crazy busy as we are around here, or am I just lucky?
My husband had his right rotator cuff repaired and a ligament reattached to the bone last Friday. My grandmother who has been living in a skilled nursing home for over a year is coming here to live with me. We are moving her and her belongings on Tuesday.
I have approximately 20 quilt tops to quilt for customers and too many to mention of my own.
All of this to do, and all I want to do is hang out with my birds.
I am plugging in my first incubator for the year tonight. I am super excited about that.
Hope everyone is happy, healthy, and covered with feathers.
Many Blessings,
Tammi Jo Wilson

 

[KsKingBee]

I'm sorry KsKingBee, I wish people would just do what they say they will. It's just rude to have people hold birds & then back out. It costs to feed them & you could have sold them to someone else.

To top it off I missed a small farm seminar in Emporia so I could wait around on him. Well, at least I got the netting on the new run.

Tomorrow I will get the wire and tin on the sides and let the peas out. They will be so happy and I will be so relieved.

 

[sharol]

Quote:
Everyone else requires deposits, why not you? I certainly would on sales over a few dollars.

 

[CHIKENROOKIE]

Greetings all, have not posted much, but kept up with the thread.

Ready for spring.....wish it would come!
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@ Danz......those orpingtons you sold me? Well, one is laying finally, suspect it is the buff as it is a large brown egg. But I did have a question for you though, will the whites lay a white egg? I seem to remember you saying that, but wanted to confirm.
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I ended up rehoming the lavendar roo, found a nice setup down near Tulsa, and I was able to drop him off on a busness trip down to Little Rock, just went out of the way a bit.

Going to need/want to pick up a few chicks this spring, I may try to get to Gardner and meet some of you. Last year my wife got cold, and we did not stay long.

Sure glad it is warm this weekend, it was sure nice out today!

 

[chicken danz]

You sound very busy. It's becoming that time of year here too but 99% of it is bird related. I just can't seem to find any time to do anything like clean house or any of those other essentials. It's embarrassing. I have my incubator almost completely full and if I load what I have gathered it will be over full. I don't want to start a second one until I can do it in the building. Maybe today I will have water and can think about finishing up the insulation. Not my favorite project. I would rather delegate insulation to someone else.
Would you like to come here and build for me? I have so much to do and know I'll never get it done myself. If I could just get someone to drill and set wood posts for me the rest would be easy. Time consuming but I could do it. My auger gets stuck in this clay mud fairly easily then I waste hours trying to get it moved. Plus I'm not strong enough to attach it to the tractor if it isn't already one there.
Quote:

I actually got one last week. I didn't even know what to ask. I've tried to tell people it's first come first served, but when I have a buyer lined up that will buy several I hate to chance loosing that sell for a couple of birds. But then they back out and there you go. I'm not good at all about asking for things like that.
Maybe the next time I place an add I might say something in the add about that. I think the worst part of holding birds is the work associated with it and the money I spend on feed. That really adds up.
I think I may be moving a rooster on Tuesday I am actually getting decent money for and maybe some more chicks. I hope. I won't make any money and will probably spend some cause this person is bringing me several hundred dollars worth of feed. He can buy it so much cheaper than I can here and it's a brand my chicks do better on. I am also getting some of their layer feed for the geese as well. Of course if I don't get a pen in for them it might not make any difference. I'm want to increase their calcium intake when they are laying.
I spent the night on the heat pad last night and I think it allowed the inflammation to go down in my back. I can actually move a little this morning. I sure hope it lasts.

 

[KsKingBee]

This run may be done today with the exception of the ground wire around the bottom peremeter, too wet to dig that right now. Then on to the next run, it will be 28 x 50 and divided into two 14 x 50 for grow-out pens. I got the netting on the 28 x 24 yesterday, that was fun,

@OkieQueenBee showed up to help finish it.

I know what you mean by the post hole digger balling up in wet clay soil, that is what we have, black clay. I tell everyone that we have two kinds of dirt, sticky or hard. The post hole digger on the skid loader has down pressure that tractors don't have, that makes digging in really hard soil possible. I remember helping dad dig holes with the tractor, my brother and I would have to ride on the digger to help it go down.

Danz, you should look into getting a Square card reader for your phone. You open a separate bank account and the money from Square goes directly into that account. I think they charge around 2% for the service and well worth it.

 

[chicken danz]

Actually I had considered that. But I worry a little about using cell transmissions for money matters. It just worries me it could easily be hacked. I do have a paypal account, but the darn thing makes me spend money elsewhere on line !!! It's like "Oh, I want this and I have paypal money." End of money. It went somewhere besides to the birds. How do you say poor self control?
I've actually been looking at skid loaders trying to find one that is decent for a decent price. But then if I buy the attachments I need that means a lot more money to spend. I definitely need one. I have one here right now I can use but it is tiny and has far less power than my tractor and you really can't do much at all with it. It also has the wrong attachments that are pretty useless. and a really tiny bucket. It would be good for cleaning up old matted straw but that would be about it. I need to do my taxes to make sure I don't have to come up with money I don't have before I do much of anything.

 

[Ralph Moyer]

KsKingBee, I have about 3 inches or less of topsoil that sets on solid limestone. I carve my postholes with a sledge and rock-bar. It does bring back a memory of a friend of mine and fellow railroad worker. He also had a small farm and had the same trouble with rock, when making fence post holes. He got irritated in trying to get a hole made for a yard light in his pasture. One of our older fellow workers suggested that he use dynamite and blast a hole. This was back in the 1960's and many farmer's used a part of a stick of dynamite and some ammonium fertilizer, soaked in diesel fuel, to blast out tree stumps. As he needed a deep hole, he used a full stick of dynamite and a 50 pound sack of fertilizer. To make a long story shorter, there is a good sized pond now, where he had intended of putting a yard-light.