Consolidated Kansas

[dwink2]

Stay safe today my feathered friends. It sounds like it could be a rough evening for everyone.

Sorry about the sickness, death losses, and bad customers that seems to be going around. Things have been going pretty good for my girls. I am a bit worried about one of my broody nests though. Last night I let my broodies out to stretch a bit and didn't get the door completely shut. I came back to let them in to find several chickens and one rooster in there and they had her poor eggs scattered all over. They are due to hatch this weekend so I hope that they are okay. No obvious damage except for my hands as the broody got nasty with me when I was trying to gather them all back up for her. Time will tell but I know the mommas aren't getting out again until they hatch. They have plenty of room, water, and food so they should be good.

 

[turboscooby07]

Ahh about that that bad luck....had a rat snake in my brooding coop, he got two chicks. Disposed of that guy to find a 5 foot garder in their too! Everybody has been burning and shifted the hunting grounds around. I showed the chicks I got him and they went back into the coop after ensuring that it was safe for themselves.

 

[Trish44]

@HEChicken the ganders & the goose are all housed together in the hoop coop in the evening & all night until my DH goes out in the morning to feed, so he is with the other geese. He was raised with geese & has been with geese since he was hatched. But all of the sudden he has decided he is a dog & where the dog goes the stupid gander goes. I just don't know how to get him to stop & even the dogs discourage him but he still does it.

I went out in preparation for the storms coming & caught all of my chicks in the growout pen & put them all in the dog houses early this evening & then put small pallets in front of the doors held with bricks to keep them in. They still haven't learned to go in at night & I have had to go out every night & put them in after dark. They make a big pile right beside the one dog igloo & beside the fence so I figured it it rained & they were still there they would get soaked. At least in the dog igloos they'll stay dry.

 

[Trish44]

@HEChicken the geese are all put in a hoop coop at night so they are all together all night. They don't get out till my DH goes out to feed in the morning. The gander was raised with geese & has always been with geese but now he has decided he is a dog. The GPs don't like him hanging around them all the time & even discourage him but it doesn't stop him. I wish I knew what to do to make him stop it & go back to hanging around with the other geese.

I went out & put the chicks in the growout pen in the dog houses early tonight. They still haven't learned to go in at night & they make a big pile right beside the one dog house & by the fence. I have to go out every night & put them in after dark so they'll stay in there. Tonight I put small pallets up to the door of the dog igloo secured with a brick so they would stay dry. I figured if they stayed where they usually lay & it rained they would all be soaked & cold.

 

[Trish44]

@HEChicken the geese are all put in a hoop coop at night so they are all together all night. They don't get out till my DH goes out to feed in the morning. The gander was raised with geese & has always been with geese but now he has decided he is a dog. The GPs don't like him hanging around them all the time & even discourage him but it doesn't stop him. I wish I knew what to do to make him stop it & go back to hanging around with the other geese.

I went out & put the chicks in the growout pen in the dog houses early tonight. They still haven't learned to go in at night & they make a big pile right beside the one dog house & by the fence. I have to go out every night & put them in after dark so they'll stay in there. Tonight I put small pallets up to the door of the dog igloo secured with a brick so they would stay dry. I figured if they stayed where they usually lay & it rained they would all be soaked & cold.

 

[Trish44]

I'm sorry about the multiples, the darned editor wasn't working & then it posted them all.

 

[HEChicken]

@HEChicken the ganders & the goose are all housed together in the hoop coop in the evening & all night until my DH goes out in the morning to feed, so he is with the other geese. He was raised with geese & has been with geese since he was hatched. But all of the sudden he has decided he is a dog & where the dog goes the stupid gander goes. I just don't know how to get him to stop & even the dogs discourage him but he still does it.

Oh yeah, by penning together, I meant leaving them penned by day as well so the gander is unable to follow Jasmine....

Well, it is storming here like crazy. Fortunately we missed out on the baseball sized hail they were predicting and all we are getting is rain, thunder and lightning. I have the younger chicks secured in our hot tub room and everyone else has access to shelter. I'm so glad of the rain even if I am tired of hearing the sump pump kick off every 90 seconds.

 

[sharol]

We got a LOT of rain in a short time last night. 3.75 inches in all, but I understand that isn't nearly as much as some of you got.

My yard is a swamp this morning. I have to go move the portable coop -- it is sitting in a smallish lake. There just isn't much of a dryer spot for it.

Gigi (was Gidget, but she aswers to Gigi) HATES getting her feet wet, but she went out this morning and ate breakfast (so I'm guessing no puppies for a little while). She likes her whelping box and is sleeping in it through the night and let me scratch her belly this morning, so we are getting there.

 

[chicklover56]

Hello everybody! Hopefully all of you stayed clear of tornadoes and the storms didn't do any damage. Here we were in a tornado warning, but now we are in the clear!

Can chicks just not grow sometimes? I had a chick that was seeming fine until I realized how much bigger the others of the same kind were. It would be about 5 weeks but was the same size as the 2 week-olds. It died a few days ago. Another one isn't growing as fast as the others, but still is growing somewhat. It seems pretty calm and that scares me because the other one that was like that was very calm as well. The others of the same type are very active.

I have not had good luck. I am now down to 14 chicks (hoping pullets). I started with 24. I have 1 cockerel and 1 of the Easter Eggers I am raising will be going to my neighbors.

 

[chicken danz]

Well I wasn't so lucky with the storm. Disaster here today. A huge part of the tree over the driveway fell on one of the pickups and destroyed the entire front end, part of the roof and smashed the windshield. It has full coverage but the insurance would total it cause it's not worth nearly as much in book value as what it is worth to us. I told DH to just let the insurance company know you have no intent of accepting it as totalled if it is still driveable at all. It smashed the hood and crumpled the fenders so it's iffy if something will be bound by metal.
Then on to more disaster. I lost 5 goslings. Not sure what happened there other than the north vent was open and I think they got rained on and then some got trampled. That was a huge monetary loss not to mention heart breaking.
I had a window cracked in the brooder house and all the chicks are okay in there but the shavings are wet so that mean I have to shovel it out again to prevent any mold. I only have one bag of shavings left so that means another trip to Topeka. Wish I had thought of that last week when I went. Then on to one of the hoop coops. I had a bunch of 2-3 month old chicks in there. I lost at least 25 to 30 of them. At $15 or more each that was a huge loss. Many of those were technically sold or needed so that is even worse. Now I have to start over to fill some orders.
They had huddled up together outside of the coop area and gotten soaked and pounded into the mud. I have no idea why they were outside unless they got scared of the noise from the hail and the thunder and ran outside.
My garden is destroyed. My tomatoes are beaten to the ground. I even had two tomatoes formed on one of them and thought for once I would be ahead of the game. I had tilled an additional area where i was going to extend the garden and it all washed out. The yard is terraced and all the garden soil washed out and ran down the terrace. I guess I can be thankful I didn't get it planted yet. I haven't checked any further to see what else is ruined or destroyed. I did have all the windows open in the new building as well so that means I probably have a wet stinking mess in there to shovel as well.
@chicklover56 Sometimes some chicks just grow really slow. If you are speaking of sussex they are often one of those breeds that tends to have really slow growers. I have some three months old that look a ton smaller than the other chicks in the same age group. But then others grow really well. I'm not sure why this happens but they eventually get to size. If it isn't acting sick it is probably just pokey.