Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

It's going to be fun watching them develop. I can't get hold of the gray Araucana chick. Sis is really protective of HER (think pullet), and she is very flighty. I'm going to try to get a better look at her tonight when they are asleep. Sis has her in one of the regular nest boxes at night right now, so maybe I can fish around under her and get to the baby for a little look and feel.

I have that dog playpen available, so tomorrow they will get a little outside time in the playpen in the shade if it is warm enough (LOL). They are bored in the brooder even with a couple of roosts and a ramp, so they need to be getting out. I am hoping that my mama hens will want to move their broods to the coop sometime soon so that the hoop will be available. Fingers crossed on that one. They have all integrated well into the flock, so I don't forsee any real problems.

I'm thinking you'll have to watch the weather, Sharol. You don't want those chicks getting chilled!

Is there anyone with extra chicks to sell located near Kansas City or Knob Noster, MO?A

A cousin lost 18 chickens to her neighbors dog pack while on vacation this week (they broke into the coop) and the remaining 6 are injured. They filled a sheriff report and the neighbor will pay for everything including even full grown laying hens if needed.

She is wanting a mixed flock and is looking at chicks to start over. She had they have a horrible mess to clean up from the dogs. My breaks breaks for her and I am hoping to find some local that can help her!

Thanks!

I have tons of chicks and many of all stages to point of lay. All my birds are top quality and most are imports. It's really an excellent time to buy from me because due to medical issues I have to get all the extras sold ASAP. I'm about an hour SW of Olathe by I-35. Tell them to take a trip down and I'll make them some excellent bargains.
PM me if their interested and I'll give you my contact info.

Hi, all! Haven't been on in quite a while. It's been busy here. I've gotten involved in horse rescue and have been working on raising money to get horses out of the kill pens that are bound for the brutal butcher yards in Mexico. It's an expensive sort of thing to be involved in but so rewarding.

it's heartbreaking as well.

so many talented well trained horses and so many mares with babies. The kill buyers don't care what they are beyond weight for meat.

it would be one thing as well if their deaths were swift and painless but it's too gory and brutal to go into detail on. The suffering is indescribable.

My chicks are doing good. I got a BCM sexed trio with an extra cockerel, 2 blue copper maran and 3 BCM chicks from Fitz farms in OK recently. Also got a dozen blue copper hatching eggs. I'm hoping to get improved egg color from these birds.
Danz the 4 SS I got from you are looking great! I'll try to post pics soon. I'm pretty sure I got 2 cockerels and 2 pullets. The one partridge Brahma that survived from the eggs I got from you looks like a pullet and I got a pair from Chickenhill so now I have a trio which makes be quite happy.
It looks like I may have a doe pregnant for fall kids so I'm very pleased about that after the tough luck I had with my goats this spring. Maybe she'll have all girls!

I'm so glad you have the brahmas to start with. The pheasant are molting and not laying now. I have lots of them. I've only sold three of the chicks so far but I haven't been advertising cause I have been so busy. They usually lay until about September. It's been a weird year all the way around.

 

[sharol]

I'm thinking you'll have to watch the weather, Sharol. You don't want those chicks getting chilled!

Absolutely. They won't be ready to be out at night in the hoop for at least a couple of weeks, but if the mamas move their chicks to the coop at night, I can put the babies in the hoop coop in the afternoons when it is warm, and I won't have to watch them every minute to keep the wind from blowing the playpen away. I think that 90-100 should suit them pretty well.

I gave them half a scrambled egg on thursday and you would have thought I had put a snake in the brooder. After much talking about it, they tried the egg and then spent an hour chasing each other around with pieces of egg. So today I put in a bowl with a little scrambled egg and they dived in like it was manna from Heaven. They jumped on my hand to get to the stuff. What a riot. They learned quickly.

No luck getting my hands on the gray chick yet. Maybe tomorrow. Sis is vigilant. And she bites HARD.

 

[chicken danz]

I tried putting some young chicks out day before yesterday. It was crowded but I thought it would be fine because there were other young chicks in the group. The feather picking began while I was gone yesterday and I had to bring them all back in. Everyone of them had bloody wings. So my plan was to move them out to the pen of bigger birds I had separated for possible eating roosters. Well last night that got postponed another week. So now I have a pen of about 20 birds I planned to empty that I have tied up another week. I think there may have been a misunderstanding of what I said. I told them they would need to catch them because my back was hurting and I couldn't do it. I guess they didn't understand it won't be any better next week. I shouldn't have to chase these birds down for no more than I get for them. These are all non_chicken people by the way. They just eat them and live in the city. If they were chicken people they wouldn't get into the pen to catch them. (Just clarifying in case someone thought I had changed my rules.
Anyway now I have to find someplace else to put birds. I was so wiped out last night I never got adds up to sell birds. I doubt if posting today will get me any action.
I'm going to try to get the big fan moved to the side of the building today. We have to do all the wiring etc to run it but yesterday was enough to show me we are going to need it. Up until then it wasn't that miserable in there.

 

[sharol]

I'm juggling birds too (my tiny flock is growing too fast). The almost 5 week old orps and their moms are moving to the main coop and run today (like it or not). They are spending all their time with the flock anyway, it is time for them to be somewhere more roomy. The 2 week old Araucanas and Breda Fowl are going to start spending warm days in the hoop coop/run. Once they are a little older and fully feathered, I'll leave them out at night, but it is too chilly right now. I cleaned out the hoop coop and put a different nest box in there for them to hang out in, and I'll be transferring them when the temp gets to 85 (since it is 82 right now, that isn't going to be very long).

I'm getting lots of green beans this year. Last year I got 3 beans (count them, 3) on 2 30' rows. This year I can't keep them picked. The peas are done, darnit. I love snap peas, and we only have a couple of quarts left to eat. Tomatoes are nearly there. The cherry tomatoes are producing a few ripe ones and a couple of the full sized tomatoes are turning orange. Believe it or not, I had to water the tomatoes today (with the soaker hose). I needed to week and the ground was so hard I couldn't pull them. This is a very small garden -- about 24x30 feet, so I should be able to keep up with it.

I still have a couple of things to do outside before I shower and pack it in for a while. The AC finally got sort of fixed yesterday. The distributor lost the paperwork on my fan motor, so it hadn't shipped by Tuesday when it was supposed to be here. Then they failed to order it AGAIN on Tuesday, and when my AC guy called them they said their printer had gone down. Yeah, right. The dog ate their homework!!! Pants on fire. Anyway, Jim brought out a new motor that can fill in for the right one until it arrives next week (IF they actually shipped this time). I could have WALKED to TX to get the thing in the time it is taking. We are just lucky that we live in a berm and the weather was moderate all last week.

 

[chicken danz]

I sprayed my garden with roundup day before yesterday. I just gave up. Whatever is eating the beans is keeping them down to a stalk. I'm hoping this insane heat is going to make it work really fast. I mixed it super strong as well I just hope I didn't hit my grapevines or too many of the onions and garlic I was trying to save. I am going to have my first real picking of grapes this year. I can't wait. They are concords so I'll be making jelly. I grew up with a whole row of grapes lining our garden so I've always wanted some. It took me four years to get grapes. I planted them the year before the drought and lost almost all of them; Then the ones living were very stunted. I am so happy to see them actually put on some nice big grapes this year.
I do hope I can get a fall garden in. My tomatoes in the garden were drowned out. There are still three plants but they are as tiny as the day I planted them and not looking healthy at all. I did plant some in my flower bed which are growing nicely. Blooming but no fruit yet. I have seed to plant cucumbers etc but it's getting really late. I may still be able to get a few to produce. It all depends on how early fall comes.

 

[Trish44]

I was really wondering if anybody was going to have tomatoes this year after it rained for so long. I got some plants in the ground & they're flowering now but they were planted much later than I usually would have put them in so we'll see. I planted two banana pepper plants as well & those are growing really well now too. I haven't gotten anything done with a garden spot since all of my knee surgeries so I just put the plants in a flower bed where I had them before. I have to keep fence around them or the chickens will eat them. At least the goats aren't up here by the house this year so they can eat the plants to the ground.

My hatch yesterday was rather disappointing. I had ordered in some Ameraucana eggs & only two of them hatched. I sure hope those two are pullets but we'll see. I'm needing to weed out some roosters in my growout pen. I have 3 really nice Buff Orp roos that I don't need because I kept one that is unrelated to breed with. I also have a couple of New Hamps, one or two Heritage RIRs, & one or two Speckled Sussex roos. I hate to butcher nice roosters like those but I guess that will be their fate if nobody wants them. I did end up with hopefully about 5 Buff Orp pullets this time, a change from all roosters last year, thank goodness.

I got a small watermelon yesterday at the store & gave it to my laying flock & they're really enjoying that. They love all kinds of melons & when I can get away with it I buy one just for them.

 

[milomac]

what is going on. In the last 8 days I have removed 3 snakes from my chicken coop. They were all 5 foot rat snakes, the first had eaten a golf ball and I carried it to the end of the block and released it. Two days later I have a bigger fellow in the same nest box enjoying a buffet, I was able to put him in a five gallon bucket and he got to go for I long ride. I am trying to encourage my silkies to set so I made a nest in an igloo dog house. I placed some eggs in there with golf balls as a filler. I am currently without a silkie rooster so yesterday I bought eggs to go under her, after church I went out and another large snake was in there having a feast. If these snakes are eating golf balls is it a death sentence or are they able to up chuck these golf balls? I set the eggs in the incubator as I assume she will try to set again within the next three weeks. On the same note I would like a white silkie rooster so I can set my own eggs,( I am cheap so he must be also)

 

[sharol]

My DH says it is the rain that has driven them to higher ground. We found a pygmy rattlesnake in the driveway last week and removed it to the pond area where there is more food for it. It was a massasagua (sp) and very shy. I don't like snakes, but they do eat mice, so I try to be open minded about it. We have a black snake that lives up by the garden. he and I have an understanding. I won't mess with him if he stays out of my yard. So far it is working.

I hate the idea of having to watch every step I take, but when you live in the country on the edge of the Flint Hills you have to do that.

 

[chicken danz]

Yesterday I encountered two blue racers. These suckers eat eggs like there is no tomorrow and they are extremely aggressive. The black snakes have been cleaning me out on certain pens. They could eat mice but they want an easy meal. I'm sorry but if they are in a nest they aren't after mice and if it's in my power they will die.
I placed an add for my poultry in some of the facebook poultry sites. I have been inundated with messages this afternoon so I can't get much done. As usual there's lots of talk but to see people show up with money is another thing. I did make an exception and let one person that actually showed up write a check. I just hope I don't get burned.
I really hope that some of these people seriously intend to buy. That is why I hate advertising. Lots of talk but very little real sales.
Of course one person wanted to buy a couple hundred birds and made a ridiculous low offer per bird. That's not going to happen unless it means starvation.
I'm very worried about the numbers I have around here. This spring was the worst I've ever had for sales. I just hope I have some that actually come buy some.

 

[chicken danz]

I failed to make a very important announcement. I became a great grandmother this morning! I now have 5 granddaughters and one great granddaughter. Sure makes me feel old. Maybe I should have waited another 10 years to start my own family!

Here she is. Inanna is her name.