Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

@Dani4Hedgies I tried sand in my run at one point & it just didn't work out that well for me in the long run. The chickens would dig in it & it ended up outside of the run more than in. Even scooping it daily it got a hard shell & it was hard to deal with. I finally gave up on it & just left it mostly dirt. Some straw & shavings from inside the coop end up out there & eventually I have to take the pitchfork & shovel out some at times. Watch out for moisture in the coop if you're using it inside as well. Sand holds a lot of moisture.

 

[HEChicken]

Danz, I'm really sorry about how hurtful people can be. To air their grievances publicly instead of contacting you privately is cowardly and not something most people will respect. I didn't see the posts you are talking about but if I had, my reaction would have been "COWARD". I'm sure many of those who saw it felt the same way.

Well, it is a lovely day here - a little breezy but sunny and warm. We have the sheep, goats and LGDs turned out in the front yard since the fescue is the only green grass we have. We haven't had a drop of all the rain that everyone else in the state has been getting - it always goes around us. So our pasture grasses are still brown and dormant, which is really concerning for this time of year.

As long as we have the rest of the animals out grazing we let the cows in with them - they are also really enjoying the lovely green fescue.

I was fortunate to be able to pick up a livestock trailer this week. I'd been looking for awhile to find one but in my price range they are generally not usable. With Trish44's help I found one that is ugly but serviceable and snapped it right up. Of course the goat kids think we brought in a new piece of playground equipment and are hopping all over it - up on the wheel wells and down again.

After several years with sheep, where I've paid a shearer each year to come in and shear the woollies, I finally broke down and bought a set of clippers. I figure if I'm going to be in this long-term, I may as well learn how to do it and save having to coordinate with a shearer each year. I did a couple of them yesterday and it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be and they actually looked pretty decent when finished as well. Best of all, I didn't cut either one of them, which had been my main fear.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Trish,
We only have sand in the coop which is in a garage and yep we plan to watch the moisture.

 

[sharol]

Danz, I'm really sorry about how hurtful people can be. To air their grievances publicly instead of contacting you privately is cowardly and not something most people will respect. I didn't see the posts you are talking about but if I had, my reaction would have been "COWARD". I'm sure many of those who saw it felt the same way.

Well, it is a lovely day here - a little breezy but sunny and warm. We have the sheep, goats and LGDs turned out in the front yard since the fescue is the only green grass we have. We haven't had a drop of all the rain that everyone else in the state has been getting - it always goes around us. So our pasture grasses are still brown and dormant, which is really concerning for this time of year.

As long as we have the rest of the animals out grazing we let the cows in with them - they are also really enjoying the lovely green fescue.

I was fortunate to be able to pick up a livestock trailer this week. I'd been looking for awhile to find one but in my price range they are generally not usable. With Trish44's help I found one that is ugly but serviceable and snapped it right up. Of course the goat kids think we brought in a new piece of playground equipment and are hopping all over it - up on the wheel wells and down again.

After several years with sheep, where I've paid a shearer each year to come in and shear the woollies, I finally broke down and bought a set of clippers. I figure if I'm going to be in this long-term, I may as well learn how to do it and save having to coordinate with a shearer each year. I did a couple of them yesterday and it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be and they actually looked pretty decent when finished as well. Best of all, I didn't cut either one of them, which had been my main fear.

Nice work on the shearing. That makes sense. That way you don't have to depend on someone elses schedule.

 

[chicken danz]

HEChicken thanks for understanding my upset. The biggest problem was I identified the person who made up a false facebook page and who later commented from her phone. I had never sold her birds. I had sold her cousin birds. There is a family feud there about who has the best birds. What a nice way to settle a fued by dragging someone else through the dirt. I also identified who said the original stuff at Yoder. I checked my archived messages and not once did they contact me with concerns. I think they knew their loss wasn't my problem. Well upon further investigation the disease was hinted at as Mereks, (which any one who has ever studied poultry health knows that if a chicken has breathed air, it's been exposed to Mereks.) But it turned out the crooked feet they had experienced were from a Vitamin B deficiency. Vitamin B is often not even listed on poultry feed bags because the mcgs are so minute. There are several B vitamins which are all important to skeletal issues. The bulk of these are normally obtained by eating bugs and greens. Poultry that is confined to a pen without greens etc are more likely to suffer shortages of these. I will never know if the deficiency occurred before or after the birds left here. To be on the safe side I am beefing up supplements to my growing birds ... the ones between chicks and adults. These are the age groups the chickens in question were all from. I checked Purina on their grower formula for intermediate birds and there is none of the B vitamin group even mentioned. I still find it really strange that none of the birds I kept from either group has ever had the symptoms described. You would think if my feed were inefficient I would have had some of the same things happen.
I'm still feeling upset. Gotta put my big girl panties on and keep on going. I am still thinking about downsizing a lot and restricting who I sell to.
Today has been a gorgeous day...aside from the wind. Nothing makes me feel better than good weather and clear skies.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Omg look what I found this afternoon when scooping the coop...it was either laid from the roost and fell into the bucket of water next to the roost or in the 15 mins I was scooping the roost.... since I found the remains of one *possible* two no shelled egg im thinking the water bucket...

(And nope it a very light cream not the yellow my pic makes it and it had a ton of clear liquid and just a smidge of yolk ....that's right we no longer have freeloaders we now have egg laying chickens!!!!

 

[chicken danz]

Congrats Dani. I found an egg in one of my grow out pens yesterday. I was really surprised. I didn't think anyone was old enough to lay out there yet. It was small but very intact. Time to move a girl or two into the breeder pens. Someone needs to lay for me for sure. I still get thrilled when a new birds starts laying.
I'm finding eggs every where except in the hen houses these days. I really hate shutting them up cause I like them to free range. But this is getting a bit ridiculous. I don't have time for easter egg hunts on a daily basis. I have some huge piles of duck eggs that I thought someone would sit on but it hasn't happened yet.
Busy day and week ahead. I sure hope I can manage to just take it in stride and not get overly stressed. It's so hard to not let time pressure get to me.
I'm shipping out some goslings today and have ordered shipping boxes for chicks. I'm very nervous about them all making it in good shape.

 

[Trish44]

Congrats on the eggs Dani4Hedgies! It's always exciting to get your first eggs.

My DH finally got my guttering up on my breeder coop yesterday & I got my rain barrel set up too. Then he helped me with getting the rest of my growout pen up. I still have a lot to do to it before I can put chicks in there but at least it's up. Those were two good accomplishments for the day.

I have so many chicks right now it's not funny. I'm trying to figure out orders, but a lot of them are waiting on something that hasn't hatched yet. I do have one going out this evening so 10 chicks & 5 ducklings will be leaving.

danz I have been finding eggs from my free ranging flock as well. I emptied the hay out of one dog house yesterday so it wouldn't be a cushy nest for the Welsummer who has been using it. I also found a big pile of EE eggs under a sled that is leaning up against a pen so I will have to deal with that one today. I would be getting more eggs in the main coop if they would use the nest boxes, silly girls. It's not like I don't have enough, I have a bank of 10 nests in there.

 

[HEChicken]

You are going to love the rain barrel set up! I've had mine several years now and it has saved me a ton of work hauling water in buckets. The nearest spigot is not that far away but I have to go through two gates to get to it, so the rain barrel saves me a lot of time and hassle.

I had the same issue with hens not laying where I wanted them to. Their favorite place was under our front porch which is low enough I have to wiggle on my stomach to get under there at all. The dogs can get under more easily so of course I was losing all of those eggs to the dogs. Due to the slope around the house, it isn't easy to fence off access to the front porch, so my solution was to stop allowing them to free-range. They have a chicken yard that is about ¼ acre so now they are confined to it for most of each day and that has forced them to resume laying in the nest boxes. Most days I go out around mid afternoon and open the chicken yard gate so they can come out and free-range the rest of the property. By then most of the eggs for the day are laid so I don't think I'm losing too many and it allows them to still hunt for bugs and forage that they can't find in the chicken yard, for the last 3-4 hours of the day. I was thinking I would "re-train" them to laying where I want them to and then resume letting them out all day but I'm afraid if I start letting them out all day again, they'll quickly go back to their old tricks.

Well, there is a little less testosterone at my place today. I had a couple of fall-hatched cockerels I'd been letting grow out, but I've been busy lately and they weren't on my mind so I've fed them far longer than I ever intended to. However I recently noticed there seems to be a lot more fighting over hens and it hit me that the young cockerels are now trying to have their turn with the hens and the bickering is the mature roosters attempting to stop them. An easy problem to solve. I did one of them this morning and will do the other later this week and that should bring some peace to the chicken yard.

Trish44 recently shared a graphic showing testicle size at different times of the year. While eviscerating this one, I could really tell that it is spring! His testes were the size of eggs - no kidding!!! I've butchered birds in the winter whose testes were so small it was hard to even find them - I certainly did NOT have that problem this morning.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Does anyone breed Silkies/frizzles? Not for me lol I have enough but my best friend will be moving to a farm in July and she wants a house chicken silkie/frizzle. Thanks