Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

Lost a rooster today....by lost I mean gone and no sign of him. No feathers or sign of a fight...no pieces left behind. He was a campines rooster and one of my top picks for my girls. He crowed at four weeks and was first out and last into the coop. First one to eat from my hand too. I kinda wish I found the remains to better protect my flock. Our german shepherd was out with them all day so it must have been a large bird...we have bald and golden eagles and a few types of hawk out here...but still no feathers found. The other 14 chickens were more happy to see me than normal.

I have a 5 week old Silver Campine cockerel I can sell you. He is a really nice, early developer too, it is just that I have 3 of them. He is from Wisher1000 lines.




Where are you in Kansas?

 

[turboscooby07]

Hey thats my bird you must know where I live!! Just kidding we are in leon ks, about 50 miles east of wichita. I did like the little guy he reminded me of myself. He even bonded with our one campines hen. Send me a pm if you can

 

[sharol]

One of my Marans cross hens was dead on the coop floor this morning. She has had no symptoms, and I think she laid yesterday. She was 3-4 years old. RIP Maudie.

I know that happens -- just die for no particular reason, but it is sad nevertheless.

 

[HEChicken]

Sorry for your loss Sharol. Yep - sometimes it just happens and you never know the reason.

 

[JiltdRoyalty]

Good Morning from Wichita!

Wasn't feel 100% yesterday morning, but pushed thru it and got a lot done in the garden. Good thing, since we got more rain last night! I got the go ahead to convert a shed on my property into a coop! Probably start in a couple weeks.
Sharon, sorry for your loss. I'm new to chickens, but I've already experienced it myself. I lost one of my chicks at day three. My girlfriend cried.
Well, no rain today! Lots of work to do, since I'm on my last week of vacation.

Chad

 

[FarmerBlake]

HEChicken I am jealous of your progress in the garden. We've had so many setbacks this spring, I'm surprised we even have ours tilled up. Thought I could wait until today to plant more but it rained again last night. Do y'all can what you grow?

 

[chicken danz]

I've gotten a lot done today. I have my garden almost entirely planted. I haven't planted okra or cowpeas yet as those both like a soil temperature of closer to 70 but everything else is in the ground. Much of it was planted from seed but the things like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and artichokes, that need extra time, I planted in starter pots back in February and got them transplanted out in the last few days. So now I can kind of sit back and wait for the garden to grow and the soil temp to rise so I can plant those last few things. I wanted to get stuff out today as it was getting too big inside and there is a 90% chance of more rain later today so I figure they'll get watered in nicely.

I then fixed a gate. Well, not fixed exactly - added a latch to it so we can quit having to tie a chain to close it securely. Its been on my to-do list for weeks so I'm glad to finally have it done. And then I fixed the feed room door on the chicken coop. It had gotten to the point it wouldn't close any more and I had to wedge it with something to stop it blowing over. I was able to get it fixed so that it latches properly - and quite easily - again. I've dealt with that door for way too long so I was really glad to get that done.

I let the sheep and goats graze up front today, which is always a treat for them and the LGD pups who get a break from the monotony of being in the pasture. They've enjoyed being out and all have fat bellies from all the green grass they've consumed.

Don't you love days when you feel you accomplish things?

Lost a rooster today....by lost I mean gone and no sign of him. No feathers or sign of a fight...no pieces left behind. He was a campines rooster and one of my top picks for my girls. He crowed at four weeks and was first out and last into the coop. First one to eat from my hand too. I kinda wish I found the remains to better protect my flock. Our german shepherd was out with them all day so it must have been a large bird...we have bald and golden eagles and a few types of hawk out here...but still no feathers found. The other 14 chickens were more happy to see me than normal.

I'd almost bet it was a hawk. Especially a small rooster like a campine.
@sharol sorry for your loss. I found a turkey hen dead yesterday. She was in perfect health. Nice and fat and no injuries. She was laying right below the roost so I am guessing that maybe she got startled and broke her neck. I had to do a necropsy. Everything looked perfect. I have never seen so many eggs in a bird in my life. She literally had a packed abdomen. I don't think it was egg binding because they all had blood supply etc. She just had an abundance of eggs every where.
She was a 4 year old hen to boot. Makes me feel good that the old girls are still productive. You just never know.

That started another project. We had a huge pile of brush and stuff that is sitting in the middle of an open area and been there a couple years. DH never thought it was safe to burn because it has either been too wet or too dry. It sprinkled all day yesterday in spite of the fact that we weren't supposed to get any rain until evening. So I took the turkey and all her parts to that pile of lumber and lit a fire. Then I started cleaning out the fence line that is full of dead limbs and stuff. I need it done to put in the electric fence. DH came home and walked out there and I said "I need a man with a chain saw." I don't have a cord long enough for my electric one to get out there. Surprisingly he came out and got busy cutting the bigger limbs. I was hauling a bunch of them to the pile and decided to load up a big pile of moisture rotted lumber. I hauled all that over there bit by bit and added it to the pile. Then added more branches. Of course he decided he needed to cut up a bunch of wood to offer to our farmer for his shop stove. I had just piled a ton of cut wood in the pile that no one ever used. I'm guessing I'll have to clean all this up as well. Of course it didn't get stacked. I have a wood burning fireplace in the basement but we don't spend time down there and it is the furtherest from being efficient at producing any kind of heat. Does a great job of putting hot air up the chimney though.

It was so muddy out there. Then of course last night it rained some more. The yard is a lake but at least the geese and ducks are enjoying it.
I sure wish we didn't have all this clay so I could plant some more garden. I also wish I had a fenced yard so I could plant some grass seed without worrying about the birds eating it. Maybe some day.

 

[chicken danz]

HEChicken I am jealous of your progress in the garden. We've had so many setbacks this spring, I'm surprised we even have ours tilled up. Thought I could wait until today to plant more but it rained again last night. Do y'all can what you grow?

I do some canning but tend to do more freezing these days. Most of the food tastes fresher if it's frozen. I do can green beans though. There's nothing better than home canned green beans. If I had a better place to store canned goods I'd probably can more. Especially since my freezers are packed full.

 

[HEChicken]

HEChicken I am jealous of your progress in the garden. We've had so many setbacks this spring, I'm surprised we even have ours tilled up. Thought I could wait until today to plant more but it rained again last night. Do y'all can what you grow?

I do a bit of everything. I can tomatoes, salsa, pasta sauce mostly. I grow a lot of dry beans so all it takes for them is to shell them, leave them spread on a cookie sheet for 24 hours to dry and then put them in sealed jars. I freeze okra and grated zucchini. And I also have a dehydrator that we use to dehydrate certain things which means they can then be stored in sealed jars on the pantry shelves as well. Unlike Danz, I don't care for green beans. I usually grow a small number as DH does like them, but its a small enough number that he can just eat them fresh.

I haven't grown corn in about 8 years but this year I have several patches of different varieties planted and once they're 4" tall, I'll be planting climbing peas and beans at their base so they can use the corn stalks for support as they grow. These are all varieties of peas and beans I've never grown before so we'll see how they are preserved later in the year, depending on what kind of yields we get.

 

[lizzyGSR]

Does anyone make their own homemade dried egg noodles? My grandma gave me a recipe for the noodles, but I don't think i've ever seen her dry them. It seems wrong to leave something made with egg on the counter for hours on end to dry, but apparently that's how it's done and there's no problems??? Any input there?

Also, I have a friend here who raises ~200 chickens every year (that she buys from a hatchery) for meat and eggs. She butchers roughly that many every year as well. She butchers the cockerels once they're old enough to determine they are indeed cockerels. She lets the pullets lay for a year and then butchers them the following fall when she butchers that year's cockerels. I know that she will scramble excess eggs and give them back to the birds to save on feed. Anyone else do that? How does that compare price-wise to selling the eggs? Is one way better than the other? Has anyone run those numbers? Does it encourage bad habits to feed chickens scrambled eggs?

I was able to make a couple 9x13 pans of casserole with lots of eggs in them yesterday and then sold a dozen as well. I'm down to only like 2.5 dozen in the fridge plus several goose eggs, but for as few as we use weekly, that is still a lot for us. Getting 2-3 more every day plus the goose eggs.