Consolidated Kansas

[Grain Gypsy]

@chicken danz , thank you for the suggestions for the impacted crop. I talked to him this morning, and he said last night he gave the chicken oil and massaged her crop. He said she did poop last night, but it was just water and a little white. This morning when he left for work, the chicken was laying over on her side. He bought a 50 lb. bag of grit to give all the chickens, including the sick one. He also called the vet, who said he could do the surgery on her crop, but that unless she was some sort of prized chicken, it might not be worth the could. We talked about what they eat, and he said his kids love to feed the chickens grass shavings, which probably got wound and bound up in there.

 

[chicken danz]

Yep Grain Gypsy that is what I suspected. I hope you told him to quit letting the kids feed them grass clippings. If she was on her side she will probably die today. I wish I were closer when things like that come up. I'd love to do a crop surgery although I've never done one. It is very simple. Suggest he let the kids feed them tomatoes, cucumber, watermelon etc etc that isn't stringy.
I;m not accomplishing much today. I think I am worn out from trying to work in the heat and humidity for several days.

 

[sharol]

Is there anyone in the Emporia area (or farther if you want to travel) who would like my broodies to hatch some eggs and raise the babies for a couple of weeks? I'm out of room for chickens and my broodies are at it again. I have 2, maybe 3 hanging out in the nest box and growling at me again. I'm serious. Really. I can't make any guarantees about hatch rates or survival rates, but these girls are experienced mothers who do a great job with their babies. The only caveat is that YOU HAVE TO TAKE ALL THE BABIES.

I'm serious, really.

 

[chicken danz]

So good to see you here @sharol . For some reason I've been thinking a lot about you lately. Hope everything is okay. I've put several eggs in the incubator lately even though I say I quit hatching. I have a few I need to produce more pullets with, and I am working or a partridge project with the orpingtons. Also doing a little custom hatching for a couple of people. I have had one broody after another this year.
So I was trying to sell down but I have a couple trays of eggs going right now.
I managed to get a double pen down today . Bit by bit I am trying to get things organized around here.

 

[sharol]

So good to see you here @sharol . For some reason I've been thinking a lot about you lately. Hope everything is okay. I've put several eggs in the incubator lately even though I say I quit hatching. I have a few I need to produce more pullets with, and I am working or a partridge project with the orpingtons. Also doing a little custom hatching for a couple of people. I have had one broody after another this year.
So I was trying to sell down but I have a couple trays of eggs going right now.
I managed to get a double pen down today . Bit by bit I am trying to get things organized around here.

All's well here. I've been busy with my computer business. Everyone wants to install 10, and they all want me to tell them it is ok. That means looking at computers for existing problems. All very time consuming. The Araucanas went in their coop tonight without nagging, so that is a step in the right direction. The littlest Araucana cockerel is already wing dancing the pullets. Geeze, he's only 10 weeks old. Hormones with feet. He runs out to greet me to see what treats I have and then invites the others over for a snack. He's going to make a dandy rooster. Know anyone who needs a really nice little roo?

 

[chicken danz]

Is the little araucana tufted? What color is he? I just sold all my back up boys. I recently hatched one chick but have no idea if it's male or female and it isn't tufted. So I prefer not to use it. I love my little rooster I have right now. He is such a cute character.
I just downloaded Windows 10 last night. My problem so far is that I can't find a way to search. On Windows seven when you clicked the start button you had a "search" at the bottom. That is how I find a lot of my old files and pictures. Also need some tutorial on things like removing programs etc I didn't find yet. I've done nothing but correct little problems so far this morning. Lots of my settings, passwords etc got lost. GRRRR

 

[sharol]

Is the little araucana tufted? What color is he? I just sold all my back up boys. I recently hatched one chick but have no idea if it's male or female and it isn't tufted. So I prefer not to use it. I love my little rooster I have right now. He is such a cute character.
I just downloaded Windows 10 last night. My problem so far is that I can't find a way to search. On Windows seven when you clicked the start button you had a "search" at the bottom. That is how I find a lot of my old files and pictures. Also need some tutorial on things like removing programs etc I didn't find yet. I've done nothing but correct little problems so far this morning. Lots of my settings, passwords etc got lost. GRRRR

yes he is black and double tufted. I would love it if you would take him. He's so cute with girls.

With Windows 10 the start button has a space right above it that is the search area it probably says Cortana on it. The search works even better than it did in Windows 7

 

[chicken danz]

Oh okay. I saw the Cortana but didn't know it worked like that. Thanks.
I really wouldn't mind having that boy other than being black. I sold a beautiful black boy just recently to a guy that shows them. I have three black hens and I keep producing more black chicks although with the BBS thing I should be getting more blues. I may take him off your hands anyway, if you don't find another person who wants him. At least I would have something if my cute little rooster would die for some reason.
That also reminds me I have been getting blue eggs in my grow out pen. I am wondering if I possibly got an araucana with a tail like you did. All the birds in there are small but I have gotten three blue eggs the last three days. There are no tailless wonders in there. I was going to sort the bramas from the orpingtons soon and I imagine I'll figure it out then. I have one slender pullet in there that doesn't look right so maybe she is the layer. I guess a blue egg is a blue egg but there are no cross bred birds in there so it almost has to be a tailed araucana I missed.
I sure don't know how that can happen. I had read that some occasionally have tails but figured that was bunk. Maybe not, after you getting one and it looking like I did.
I guess that means integrating another bird to the free rangers for layers.
I still have a ton of young birds I can't sex for sure. It's driving me crazy. I need to sell down some more but it seems everyone wants pullets or sexed birds.

 

[Trish44]

danz, yeah it's hard this time of year selling birds because most people only want grown out ones usually, not chicks & I just don't have any at the moment I want to part with other than the Barnevelder trio I've got for sale. I'm growing out some pullets for replacements for myself for my laying flock. Some are getting close to being big enough to join the flock soon. I do need to do some culling in the laying flock of old hens that I don't think lay much any more. I just can't afford to keep feeding them if they're not productive. I hope my new ones I'm putting out there start laying before too long because I have so many hens right now either molting or just taking a break. I'm not getting that many eggs right now for the number of hens I have out there. Even my breeding birds are for the most part taking a break as well. I still have I think 3 broody hens out there in my breeder coop & I really don't want any more chicks. I'm moving my last 4 chicks out of the brooder to the growout pen today so now more chicks in the house till next hatching season, yay!

I started priming the pieces for my Veg Trug yesterday & only got the bigger pieces done so far. I have to get back out there today & work on it some more. It has a lot more pieces than I figured on it having. I have paint to put on after the primer so this project is going to take awhile.

 

[chicken danz]

The egg production is starting to pick back up around here. In fact I have a big supply right now. I didn't add cayenne because they started back up on their own.
I have enough extra eggs stored that I am thinking of separating them and freezing them. I could also do some mixing and freeze those as well. I think although I am never really out of eggs it would be nice to have extras this winter for cooking with. I just haven't decided how much room they might take. It seems like baking for the holidays I am always short on eggs. I make things like pecan pies which take several eggs. I just haven't found the right storage containers that won't take much room or use most of my tupperware stuff up. I thought about using plastic freezer bags but they really hold too much and would be a waste of resources for most things. Most recipes take three eggs so it would be nice to package eggs in threes for baking. As far as egg whites and egg yolks I could always put a lot more in a package. Like for angelfood cake it takes about 10 egg whites.
I am going to get a load of feed today from the coop. It certainly saves me a lot of money. I put 100 pounds of distillers grain in my ton of feed because it is higher protein. I think I could add more. I am told if you get the mix too high the chickens will lay like mad but they will burn themselves out and it will eventually kill them because they are laying so heavily. I see no difference in my birds using this amount. It did give them diarrhea the first couple days as their system adjusted but no other signs since then. I've used it for about a month now. I figure the extra protein helps the girls with molt.