Consolidated Kansas

[KsKingBee]

Wow! You guys are celebrities! LOL

It is called advertising. Ever try to buy a spot on the news? When I owned Bullseye Indoor Shooting Range in Wichita I became good friends with a lot of the reporters. They would come to the range looking for firearms stories, mostly pending legislation or gang activities and self defense. They got my store in front of thousands of people.

Later when I got into beekeeping they would come asking about honeybees, then African honeybees coming our way, then CCD and removal of bees from buildings and swarming. At that time I was one of three people doing bee removals in Wichita, those stories brought me a lot of business and I became the premier person to call for that type of work.

So when an old friend asks if they can do a story on free ranging birds at my home what else do I say? I have a lot of peafowl to sell this year, so far I have sold around 100 chicks and have about another 150 to find homes for. Maybe it will help, maybe not, time will tell.

 

[chicken danz]

I need to sell some peachicks myself but haven't even tried yet. I didn't have a huge amount this year but have plenty. I am really hoping for a spring sale at Gardner. I'm not good at advertising. Many of my peachicks were late so I'm still trying to decide sexes on some too. My last batch isn't due until Oct 1st.
I'm not sure where spiders and free rangers come in play to be honest. Yeah I have very few bugs thanks to my birds...except spiders! Those giant ones that hang from buildings and trees are everywhere this year. And of course my one true phobia is spiders.

I spent all afternoon trying to sift through dirt and get it back in the hole where my iris bed was. I was trying to get it done cause I knew it was supposed to rain. Toward the end it was more of an effort to get it in there as quickly as I could. I am sure I introduced a lot of weeds I meant to get out. I wanted the bed to be plantable by Monday but it is so wet and muddy, there's no way on earth to work it now.
What a major storm we had last night. I haven't checked to see how much we got yet. I had plans to do more work outside that is now on hold because it is just too wet and muddy. Since it's cooler today I may get back to work on the water system for the building. It would be nice to have at least one side of it working. I'm hoping that DH can get the framework to the new peafowl pen completed this weekend. He of course does things different than I would so I just have to leave it alone. It drives me nuts when I want ot get out there and finish it. I still have to do the electrical and plumbing to it but it has to be totally stable and in place first, because I am connecting to lines from the old peacock pen.
I wonder if I'm ever going to get done with my projects.

 

[Trish44]

KSKingBee, that's nice to have reporter friends, great for your business! I get a lot of word of mouth besides the swaps on FB & have repeat customers from that. As far as the bugs we don't have ticks up here anywhere close to the house or pens with all of the guineas & probably no other ones either other than like danz said the darned spiders hanging from the trees. I've been getting spider webs in my hair lately when I'm out feeding, ugh I hate spiders too. Yesterday I was feeding & reached up to pull a spider web out of my hair & came out with a big fat spider in my hand. You can be sure that spider flew, I just don't like those critters. I get bitten quite a bit here by spiders & have had a recluse bite before too. We just have a spider playground here with all of the rocks & wooded areas.

I found out yesterday my goat does are pregnant & we'll have some goat kids in a month or two, this will be our first ones of those. I have boer goats & they're pretty large goats.

 

[chicken danz]

Another day of hitting a brick wall. It seems I could just get so far with projects and needed muscle to finish them. I was thinking DH was off tonight so I had asked him to do a couple things I wondered why he was so grouchy. Now I know. One was soldering a couple of really tiny wires. After he left for work I did it myself. However the thing I was repairing isn't working. It's got a board in it and it's nearly impossible to check to see if there's continuity in those boards without the right machinery. Which we don't have.
The other project was my watering system. I am all ready to do the final hook ups but have about 10 more crimps to be done and I ran out of strength to do them. I guess I'll either try again tomorrow or wait until he can help me.
I found a rooster who wasn't feeling good so he got a shot and went to sick bay.
I think I found someone to help me butcher in exchange for a bird or two. He has never done it before I guess there's a first time for everything. They are trying to get more self sufficient and they do have chickens so it would be a good thing to learn.
Now just to find a day we both can do it.

 

[sharol]

Quote:
I sure wish that editor would load reliably. Anyone else having problems getting the quote and reply boxes to have formatting tools? I know what you mean about brick walls. DH and I are working on getting he foundation timbers level for the coop. If you remember my place, it will be in the SW corner of the yard, and it is not very even up there. We have the timbers level now and need to fill some of the dirt back between them. They started on the building last week, and I took the windows in, so it shouldn't be long, and I really want to be ready when they want to deliver it. I have been painting some of the interior stuff (roosts, interior walls, plywood for the feeding shelf) and that is a messy business when I do it. I got smart this time and invested in better paint, though, so that is going pretty well. I'm really ready to get those girls out of the coop. There is always a fair amount of complaining and squawking at bedtime, and I really don't want anybody to get injured. 28 birds in a 48 sq foot coop is really pushing it. I've had lots of computer work recently too, so that cuts the days in half. ARRRGGGGHHH. I just have to tell these people no. Then tomorrow is the street market in Emporia, and I'm working at the "Friends of the Emporia Animal Shelter" booth from 1-4. I have 2 Jubilee Orp cockerels and a chocolate cockerel. Is there any advantage of one over the other as a keeper?

 

[chicken danz]

I sure wish that editor would load reliably. Anyone else having problems getting the quote and reply boxes to have formatting tools?
I haven't had any problems with mine. It seems to be working fine.
I know what you mean about brick walls. DH and I are working on getting he foundation timbers level for the coop. If you remember my place, it will be in the SW corner of the yard, and it is not very even up there. We have the timbers level now and need to fill some of the dirt back between them. They started on the building last week, and I took the windows in, so it shouldn't be long, and I really want to be ready when they want to deliver it.

I have been painting some of the interior stuff (roosts, interior walls, plywood for the feeding shelf) and that is a messy business when I do it. I got smart this time and invested in better paint, though, so that is going pretty well.
At least you're getting something done! I had primed the floor for this building that we are moving and I rebuilt the floor for. It's still sitting there up on blocks waiting to be moved where it goes. It's one of those things I can't do alone and there's been no effort on 'his' part to try to move it. It wouldn't take that long to get it in place. If I hadn't torn shingles off the roof that would still not be started either. There's one row at the top I can't get to because of where the building is sitting. It's going to have to be moved before I can get those off.
I wanted to pressure wash the outside and get primer on it as well but he vetoed that idea as well. I just wait when he does that so I can keep the peace.
I'm really ready to get those girls out of the coop. There is always a fair amount of complaining and squawking at bedtime, and I really don't want anybody to get injured. 28 birds in a 48 sq foot coop is really pushing it.

I've had lots of computer work recently too, so that cuts the days in half. ARRRGGGGHHH. I just have to tell these people no. Then tomorrow is the street market in Emporia, and I'm working at the "Friends of the Emporia Animal Shelter" booth from 1-4.

I have 2 Jubilee Orp cockerels and a chocolate cockerel. Is there any advantage of one over the other as a keeper?

I'd personally keep the jubilee. You can probably sell the chocolate for someone to breed to blacks for splits. Choose the jubilee with the darkest mahogany color and the most spots for the best babies.

Most of my business comes from word of mouth. I have many repeat customers and it saves me answering a million messages or phone calls from people who obviously just want to chat. I sell eventually I guess. Right now if everyone shows that is supposed to, I think I am down to just a few birds, Other than a handful of leftover cockerels. I may pull a few of those for backup breeders. The rest will be for sale or be sold for meat if that doesn't come through. I'd rather not raise them that long though. I'd rather have them down to just a few before it gets cold.

 

[KsKingBee]

I've never been able to use the multi quote.

I think I have tried everything so I don't know if it is the site or my computer or me...

 

[chicken danz]

Just checking with you KingBee. When you use multi quote do you hit reply when you are ready to reply to it? Otherwise it doesn't show up.

 

[KsKingBee]

I'd personally keep the jubilee. You can probably sell the chocolate for someone to breed to blacks for splits. Choose the jubilee with the darkest mahogany color and the most spots for the best babies.

Most of my business comes from word of mouth. I have many repeat customers and it saves me answering a million messages or phone calls from people who obviously just want to chat. I sell eventually I guess. Right now if everyone shows that is supposed to, I think I am down to just a few birds, Other than a handful of leftover cockerels. I may pull a few of those for backup breeders. The rest will be for sale or be sold for meat if that doesn't come through. I'd rather not raise them that long though. I'd rather have them down to just a few before it gets cold.

Just checking with you KingBee. When you use multi quote do you hit reply when you are ready to reply to it? Otherwise it doesn't show up.

I should have complained earlier, for the very first time it has worked!

 

[Trish44]

There are times when the multi-quote doesn't work well & even posting doesn't go well either. I have encountered an error before after writing some big post & it just disappears into cyber space, it's so aggravating.

Wow this weather has been wonderful the last couple days. It's supposed to get hot again darnit, I was enjoying the cooler weather myself. I've been working on getting coops cleaned out & it was perfect for that. I got both coops cleaned & today have a few more things out there to do. I hate to see the heat coming back, but it's that time of year where it goes back & forth for awhile. The leaves have been falling for awhile on our big sycamore trees, those things are huge. I'm going to try to rake up some of them & put them in some outside pens for the chickens to scratch through.