Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Hi everyone! Had a busy day today. I got my Ameraucana chicks from Paul Smith today. They're super energetic and rather noisy! I also had a Partridge Brahma from Danz hatch today!

I'm in love! It has lovely fuzzy feet already!

I'm so happy for you! Aren't they adorable? Keep us posted on pictures in a few weeks and it won't be long before we can sex it. Oh you all have me antsy to get my garden planted. I have 105 plants in the greenhouse that would just love to get in the ground, but I didn't want to till when it was so stinking wet and compact the soil. Now it might be too dry! Just no winning!

12 of the 28 chicks are going to leave us on Sunday, which will be great for the others, it will give them some more room. I told my DH how many we are keeping and he tried to talk me down to a smaller number, but I informed him that if we keep 5 of each breed, knowing my luck we might get 5 hens total! I did tell the boys when we pick which ones stay, that we will choose the smaller slower feathering ones in hopes that they will be pullets. Maybe I just need to learn to vent sex. I could probably make a bunch of money going around and sexing chicks for people! (Like I need more to do!)

Uhm! you might have kept the boys instead of the girls. Smaller yes, but slower feathering usually indicates a male. Of course none of it is a given science. I have often thought of vent sexing but it would take hours and hours around here. Plus, What on earth do you do with all those boys?? I can't imagine the feed cost I could save if I vent sexed.
But then I just can't cull something because it is the wrong sex.
Sharol, white infiltrates of the intestines is usually indicative of some other disease. Mereks, newcastle, E coli etc etc. However, since your hen showed no other signs of infection like congestion, my guess is that they would be fatty tumors or tumors caused by a previous case of worms or something. Fatty tumors can occur in about every organ and they don't necessarily mean a disease or become a problem unless the block the normal function of that organ. My guess in her case is it's just an age thing. Not that I know a hill of beans.
I am moving really slow today. I need to get my rear in gear and go take care of the babies.

 

[MrsProf]

Thanks Danz! We haven't gone through them yet I'm glad you set me straight, it would have been upsetting to end up with all cockerels!

 

[tatinatimom]

These 2 hatched on March 28th. What do you think??
Are they Cindy Lou and Molly Lou Who or are they Cindy ROO and Molly ROO Who?

 

[tatinatimom]

Hello everyone. I'm in Topeka and new to the group. Have been reading a lot on here before I got my girls. Started with 2 Bantams, now 2 1/2 weeks old then received another one which passed Sun. so as my Dad stated you can't just have 2 so now have another 4 silkies which are 4 days old. Sure hope to learn a lot and make my babies have a great life.

Welcome to the group!!

You will find that there are many fantastic people on this thread that have a plethera of knowledge that they are always willing to share. You can learn more than you ever imagined here on BYC in general!!!
I will tell you now though, IT'S QUITE ADDICTIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't say you were never warned!!

 

[Anderson Lowe]

Hello everyone. I'm in Topeka and new to the group. Have been reading a lot on here before I got my girls. Started with 2 Bantams, now 2 1/2 weeks old then received another one which passed Sun. so as my Dad stated you can't just have 2 so now have another 4 silkies which are 4 days old. Sure hope to learn a lot and make my babies have a great life.

Welcome to the group...like everyone said its very addictive.

 

[Anderson Lowe]

Well the deed is done. The 2 cornish have been butchered, while i can say it wasn't on my top list of favorites it wasn't as bad as i thought i would be.
Second one went fairly easy after learning from the first one, everyone but the 3 year old left me, he hung in and helped out.

 

[chicken danz]

These 2 hatched on March 28th. What do you think??
Are they Cindy Lou and Molly Lou Who or are they Cindy ROO and Molly ROO Who?

I'm a very happy person. Had a visit from Sharol and now have a couple of plumeria. Oh gee I hope I can keep them alive. They are for sure my favorite flower/ scent. I think I need to build a shelter for them so the birds don't decide to taste them. Time to read up on caring for them. I'm still far behind on my projects but I guess tomorrow is another day.

Well the deed is done. The 2 cornish have been butchered, while i can say it wasn't on my top list of favorites it wasn't as bad as i thought i would be.
Second one went fairly easy after learning from the first one, everyone but the 3 year old left me, he hung in and helped out.

Good job. It really isn't all that bad. The worst part is the actual killing in my books. I just am not one who does that without feeling bad. The rest is a piece of cake. If things go as I want I will be doing 3 turkeys tomorrow.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Well the deed is done. The 2 cornish have been butchered, while i can say it wasn't on my top list of favorites it wasn't as bad as i thought i would be.
Second one went fairly easy after learning from the first one, everyone but the 3 year old left me, he hung in and helped out.

Good job! Glad to hear the deed is behind you.

 

[Anderson Lowe]

New issue crept up..ok, the wife spotted it tonight and checking if this is an issue or not, or if i need to do something with this?

Thanks

 

[Grain Gypsy]

@chicken danz , I never thought about feeding the foxes. Hmmm. I'll have to contemplate that one a bit. I would love to do that so that we could watch them more, but I don't know how I feel about interfering with their natural diet. Although I might strongly consider it if it will discourage them from even trying to eat my chickens! We live along the river, and the foxes' dens are along the steeper parts of the river bank. They don't play quite so well with our cats, either. One of them treed our cat, Romeo, about a month ago. I'm thankful my 8-year-old was paying attention to what was going on outside. I think if she hadn't gone berserk, screaming out the back door at the fox, Romeo would've been a gonner.

Also, I'm a little perplexed about your observation that our light brahma isn't a light brahma. We had only two feather-footed chicks in this bunch. We ordered (and supposedly got) a light brahma and a buff brahma. I thought the one I posted the picture of was the light brahma, because the other looks like the buff brahma chick we had before, AND, the My Pet Chicken website (from where we purchased the chicks) showed pictures of light brahma chicks, and those picture look like the baby pictured, as well. So, I'm going to post a few more pictures for you to look at and hopefully you can help me by explaining brahma nuances.

Here is the link to the My Pet Chicken page showing their "light brahma." If you scroll through the pictures, you'll see the light brahma chicks they have pictured.

Here is a picture of both brahmas together. I thought the one on the left was the light brahma, and the one on the right was the buff brahma.


Here's another picture of them both. This time buff on the left and light on the right?


Here's another picture of the little gal I had identified as the light brahma.


Today our family got a whole new HVAC system in our home. Our system has struggled since last April (when we moved in), and we had 4 repairmen out over the last year to deal with its issues. We had one of those 1-year home warranties that came with our home purchase, but after owning 7 houses in the history of our marriage, I am confident a home warranty is not much use. In fact, we have always found that the home warranties cover the bare minimum get-you-by-'til-the-warranty-runs-out type of repairs or replace broken appliances with the bottom-of-the-line-equipment-so-the-home-warranty-company-pockets-more-money. The first technician took refrigerant out. The second technician (same company) said it needed more refrigerant. The 3rd and 4th repairment hinted that our unit wasn't keeping up because it was not big enough. And, wouldn't you know it, that crazy heat pump when out literally one day after our home warranty expired. Probably for the better, anyway. An HVAC professional confirmed that our old unit(s) were undersized. We just decided to bite the bullet and replace everything with the correctly-sized units for our home. So, today we got a new, correctly-sized furnace and A/C. It has actually been the right kind of month to be without heat or AC, but we're glad to have the satisfaction of having climate control again!

Until tomorrow, y'all!