Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

@lizzyGSR I will take my camera down & see if I can hold one of the females & get a closeup of the side of her head.

 

[dwink2]

I am watching the news and they are talking about all of the fires. I hope that all of my chicken friends are safe and smoke free. That wind is so fierce I can't imagine trying to fight a fire.

All of the chick talk makes me anxious to get some fuzzies for myself. I Have two broodies in the broody breaker. I almost gave them eggs to hatch but I really don't need any more chickens on top of what I have ordered. I am holding out for some special ones.

Lizzy do you have a tarp that you could put up on the inside of the coop to help with the draft? Are they in some type of tank or something? So sorry that you lost one of your little chicks.

 

[Ralph Moyer]

I am watching the news and they are talking about all of the fires. I hope that all of my chicken friends are safe and smoke free. That wind is so fierce I can't imagine trying to fight a fire.

All of the chick talk makes me anxious to get some fuzzies for myself. I Have two broodies in the broody breaker. I almost gave them eggs to hatch but I really don't need any more chickens on top of what I have ordered. I am holding out for some special ones.

Lizzy do you have a tarp that you could put up on the inside of the coop to help with the draft? Are they in some type of tank or something? So sorry that you lost one of your

The wind has been blowing constantly for days. I am in the southeastern corner of the state and the smell of smoke is in the air. There have been no local reports, or signs of fires. It would be strange if it was traveling in these southwest winds out of Oklahoma.

 

[lizzyGSR]

I am watching the news and they are talking about all of the fires. I hope that all of my chicken friends are safe and smoke free. That wind is so fierce I can't imagine trying to fight a fire.

All of the chick talk makes me anxious to get some fuzzies for myself. I Have two broodies in the broody breaker. I almost gave them eggs to hatch but I really don't need any more chickens on top of what I have ordered. I am holding out for some special ones.

Lizzy do you have a tarp that you could put up on the inside of the coop to help with the draft? Are they in some type of tank or something? So sorry that you lost one of your little chicks.

I keep thinking I should get a tarp, but no I don't have one yet. My chicks are in a kiddy pool (with shavings not water ). I've got cardboard in there to make the sides taller so they can't escape and to protect them from drafts as best I can. With the blizzard we had yesterday, I have a space heater, two heat lamps AND my sweeter heater going for them. The drafts sure make it hard to keep things warm! My ducks are in the other half of the coop and they are doing fine with just one heat lamp. Sure goes to show how drastically different chickens and ducks are!

 

[sharol]

Dang, it is COLD out there this morning. The thermometer says 31, but it feels like 13. Nasty north wind.

The babies are doing great. My granddaughter is handling them several times a day, and they are to the point of looking forward to her visits since she takes the scrambled egg and feeds them off her hand. LOL

I want spring back RIGHT NOW!!!

Good luck with the heat and the babies, LizzyGSR, it is so hard when it is this cold and you don't have them under a broody. I've got my littles in what we call the "inner garage" --- it used to be a extended garage, but now it is mostly a storage room with minimal heat. They have a sweeterheater and are doing fine. We live in an earth sheltered home, so it is pretty stable in there at about 65.

Some of you may remember our Solar project. We got our first complete bill that included the solar assist. Instead of the usual $200 (all electric, no gas or propane), it was $53.00 and $27 of that was the monthly fee. That was February with lots of gray days, too, so I'm encouraged that the spring will bring even lower bills. It feels good knowing that 7/8ths of the actual usage was clean energy.

 

[Trish44]

Dang, it is COLD out there this morning. The thermometer says 31, but it feels like 13. Nasty north wind.

The babies are doing great. My granddaughter is handling them several times a day, and they are to the point of looking forward to her visits since she takes the scrambled egg and feeds them off her hand. LOL

I want spring back RIGHT NOW!!!

Good luck with the heat and the babies, LizzyGSR, it is so hard when it is this cold and you don't have them under a broody. I've got my littles in what we call the "inner garage" --- it used to be a extended garage, but now it is mostly a storage room with minimal heat. They have a sweeterheater and are doing fine. We live in an earth sheltered home, so it is pretty stable in there at about 65.

Some of you may remember our Solar project. We got our first complete bill that included the solar assist. Instead of the usual $200 (all electric, no gas or propane), it was $53.00 and $27 of that was the monthly fee. That was February with lots of gray days, too, so I'm encouraged that the spring will bring even lower bills. It feels good knowing that 7/8ths of the actual usage was clean energy.

That's great on the solar sharol, I wish we could do something like that to help with our electric bill. The winter isn't so bad because we supplement with a wood stove but summers are brutal.

It's 38 here right now & still windy as it has been for days.

@Ralph Moyer the fires in the south were right close to the OK/KS border last night, I have not heard this morning about their status. They thought they had one fairly controlled but the other one they didn't. The governor of KS called a state of emergency yesterday due to the threatening fires. They said one was getting close to Medicine Lodge. I also heard last night there is one at least up close to Inman & Hutchinson areas. People were starting to make plans to evacuate animals & birds. It's just been too dry this winter so if a fire starts it's hard to get it stopped.

 

[sharol]

That's great on the solar sharol, I wish we could do something like that to help with our electric bill. The winter isn't so bad because we supplement with a wood stove but summers are brutal.

Cromwell Environmental and Solar in Lawrence has a lease program, too. You pay a given amount every month on the lease and what is left of your electric bill. After 15 years, it is yours. There is no upfront cost, and you are using clean energy. It is pretty expensive if you pay for it upfront. We decided it would be a good use for some of my retirement money. Until 2021 (I think) there is a 30% tax credit, too, and you don't get that benefit if you lease it.

I think they work all over the state, but I'm not sure. They are really nice people to work with. I think there is someone on one of the poultry facebook sites that does that too but I'm not sure.

We supplement with wood, too, but the winter wasn't cold enough to make that worthwhile for much of this winter. The stove will run us out on warmer days.

 

[chicken danz]

@lizzyGSR I still can't find my camera. Heaven knows where I put it. It should be right here cause I have the card in my computer. But on the flipside I did find a picture of some sussex babies which clearly shows the diffence between male and female sussex. Unfortunately I can't see the difference on their backs like Trish can. There's too many variations for me.
The chick on the the left is clearly a male and the chick on the right a female. See the "eye makeup" on the female chick? This can also ring true with a few other breeds but no all.

The fires have burnt over 600 acres and are still going. Medicine Lodge was evacuated because there were about a 1000 homes in danger. They expect the fires to continue through today and Friday. With this wind there is just no way to control it. I had hoped that the wind switching to the North would put a stop to it but apparently that didn't happen. It's a true shame. They showed pictures of thick smoke and ash in areas over 100 miles NE of the fires that were so thick you couldn't see.
Along with the fires there was the blizzard out NW and a tornado warning NE. Crazy weather.
Thank heavens it didn't get as cold as they were predicting. I haven't been out yet to check on the chicks and see if they made it okay through the night.
DH got back from Oklahoma with the feed bin and it's huge. I'm not going to feel real comfortable pulling that thing for a while. It holds 3 tons but I doubt we'd ever haul that much. I want to see if it is waterproof and everything first or if we need to find a protected area to park it. I sure hope it does well so we don't have to worry about grain getting wet after all that expense.
He's going to go get a load of feed for me today so I guess we'll see how it does with a load on.
I'm not anxious at all to get out and do much of anything in this cold. I am so done with cold weather and wind etc etc.

 

[lizzyGSR]

@lizzyGSR I still can't find my camera. Heaven knows where I put it. It should be right here cause I have the card in my computer. But on the flipside I did find a picture of some sussex babies which clearly shows the diffence between male and female sussex. Unfortunately I can't see the difference on their backs like Trish can. There's too many variations for me.
The chick on the the left is clearly a male and the chick on the right a female. See the "eye makeup" on the female chick? This can also ring true with a few other breeds but no all.

The fires have burnt over 600 acres and are still going. Medicine Lodge was evacuated because there were about a 1000 homes in danger. They expect the fires to continue through today and Friday. With this wind there is just no way to control it. I had hoped that the wind switching to the North would put a stop to it but apparently that didn't happen. It's a true shame. They showed pictures of thick smoke and ash in areas over 100 miles NE of the fires that were so thick you couldn't see.
Along with the fires there was the blizzard out NW and a tornado warning NE. Crazy weather.
Thank heavens it didn't get as cold as they were predicting. I haven't been out yet to check on the chicks and see if they made it okay through the night.
DH got back from Oklahoma with the feed bin and it's huge. I'm not going to feel real comfortable pulling that thing for a while. It holds 3 tons but I doubt we'd ever haul that much. I want to see if it is waterproof and everything first or if we need to find a protected area to park it. I sure hope it does well so we don't have to worry about grain getting wet after all that expense.
He's going to go get a load of feed for me today so I guess we'll see how it does with a load on.
I'm not anxious at all to get out and do much of anything in this cold. I am so done with cold weather and wind etc etc.

Thanks for the picture! That's what I was looking for! I'm fairly sure my other SS is a female then. I've got some smaller chipmunk looking birds that also have the "eye makeup". females also?? I wish I knew what breed they were. Danz said they might be Phoenix. I'll have to take some more recent pictures and see if that still seems to be a possibility.

Crazy weather indeed! I had no idea about the fires until someone posted on FB about them. We're North of them. Today, we've got very little breeze while the snow melts. I wonder if other areas south of us have less wind as well. I sure hope so! It's warmer today than yesterday and its sunny, thank goodness! Yesterday was quite an interesting day! The blizzard was no fun atall!

 

[lizzyGSR]

I'm fairly sure my other SS is a female then. I've got some smaller chipmunk looking birds that also have the "eye makeup". females also?? I wish I knew what breed they were. Danz said they might be Phoenix. I'll have to take some more recent pictures and see if that still seems to be a possibility.

Ok, so I got to looking at the "other" chipmunk chicks and discovered that one has eye makeup and one doesn't. Hmmm! Very interesting! Thanks again for pointing that out and taking pictures. Thanks also to @Trish44 .

My birds have been using the sweeter heater a lot more. I'm tempted to turn the heat lamp off at night so I can use the space heater instead. Last night, I doubled up and did both. That worked well. I might try the space heater/sweeter heater combo tonight and see what happens.

I ordered some horizontal chicken nipples last night. I really hope they work! my birds have been making a huge mess of their water!