Consolidated Kansas

[chicklover56]

@chicklover56 With Mereks they'll maintain an appetite, what usually kills them is their inability to get to food and even with help they can't get enough to survive. They get internal lesions on their organs as well.
Be sure to wash your hands well after dealing with him just in case, cause Mereks is spread by feather dander.
You have had such an awful time with your birds! If you can get your Dad to drive you down here I have several all but grown handsome young Araucana cockerels I would let you choose from. I don't know if any have tufts or not but they are still cute. And I would give you a couple of pullets that have some size. I want to gift them to you because I feel your whole chicken experience has been just awful.
You have experienced the worst of the worst but stuck with it so I want to help keep you feeling positive. And thank your Dad for being so supportive when things went so lousy.

We went ahead and culled him. He was just getting worse and I couldn't bear to see him suffer. I couldn't do it, dad did it for me, and its hard for him too. We are a lot alike. He has been so helpful along the way and I definitely don't thank him enough. I would love to buy some pullets and I have a two-tufted rooster here right now. I thought he was a hen but the other day he started crowing. I think I'm going to have to do some convincing to be able to keep him though. My dad is very busy with work. He has no employees right now besides a few of my sisters and I, and he has so much to do. I don't think I'll be able to come, but thank you so much for the offer. Thank you so much for all of your help and same to everybody else who has helped me. It has been a rough road this second year and I am so blessed to have all of you.

 

[HEChicken]

I'm sorry to hear it Chicklover but do believe you made the right choice. In my experience their quality of life never improves once they're at that point so culling is the right decision. Hugs.

 

[chicken danz]

Hey all haven't been on in a while very very busy.....
Had a very scary close call Saturday night, coming home with the wife and daughter in the car when we hydroplaned over a guard rail into 6 feet of overflowing creek. We had to climb onto the roof of the truck and wait for fire rescue. Everyone came out unharmed. Our Toyota gave its life for us. Also graco car seats are worth every penny as our two year old slept through the crash and only woke up when we removed her from the seat. We had a life vest in the car and were very thankful for that. Wichita fire rescue was amazing and showed up within minutes.

On a side note we picked up a McCormick new big four horse drawn mower to make hay with, anybody have any experience with these?

Our new coop is sheeted and has a steel roof on it. Pictures coming soon. Currently looking for any type of siding materials

We lost a barred rock to an owl last night. She and a few others have decided our current coop is too small and were roosting on top of it. Totally my fault for not being home to put them to bed. That won't happen again.

Our pigs are getting fatter and fatter, they grow so fast.

Hope everybody has a fun and safe holiday

So sorry about your accident. Glad you were okay.

Quote: Sorry about your rooster. I don't know if I have any more araucanas with tufts. I'll check. If I happen to be coming your way and remember I'll send you a message and see if I can drop off a couple of pullets for you of some kind. They would be a gift.
I lost one of my very best blue orp hens last night. Found her just after passing in the building last night. She had been fine earlier. I had spent a lot of time out there working yesterday and she was okay. I found her about 10 last night. Apparently she had gotten an egg stuck and literally blown her entire back end out. Never seen that happen before. Poor girl. It wasn't bloody, Just every thing was blown out and fragments of the offending egg were still in there. One of my hens from that group has always laid enormous huge oversized eggs. You'd think they'd be double yolkers but they haven't been. Makes me wonder if that hasn't been her and this one was just that much bigger. She was a huge beautiful hen. Probably near 12 pounds. A true loss.

 

[Trish44]

@chicken danz I'm sorry for your loss as well, that's a bummer. It's hard to lose a chicken period but those special ones are really hard.

I have been integrating 5 new pullets into my main coop & they're doing well. The first couple of days they kept going back to the growout pen & wanting in but I think they're getting it now & have been going to the coop at night. Yay, it always makes me happy when the new birds learn where "home" is!

We went to watch fireworks last night at the fairgrounds & the river is almost up to the buildings now. It's supposed to keep rising more till Weds. morning when it peaks so I'm sure it will be in the livestock buildings. We had a flood when I first came here in 1998 where it was so bad they had to close the road going west out of town because the water was over the bridge & about a block or so of the road was covered with water. It was such a novelty they set up bleachers in the street & people could stand on them & see how far the river reached, it was crazy. The water completely flooded the fairgrounds that year, all of the buildings had water including the grandstand. It was quite a mess to clean up afterwards.

 

[chicken danz]

Well it took about 20 minutes outside today to be totally drenched. Doing chores is going to be anything but fun today. I have people coming in an hour and a half or so for pups. I hate it when someone is coming cause I can't really jump into a project with both feet in fear I won't realize they are out there. I guess that is how I make money though.
The girls I moved yesterday are segregating themselves from the others but they don't appear to be getting picked on. I have a couple pens I just automatically put them in a cage within the pen because I know the occupants are bullies. I still need to get some others moved.
I see this morning that the duck eggs are pipping. Maybe those girls will finally vacate my empty pen so I can move chickens in there.

 

[HEChicken]

Turboscooby, sorry about the accident but glad to hear everyone is okay, especially the little one in the carseat.

Danz, sorry for your loss. I had a hen with a vent prolapse last year and it wasn't pretty. It wasn't blown out, just prolapsed but I culled her immediately as even if I could have gotten it back in, I know it would have come out again the next time she laid an egg. And it was such a poopy mess that it would have been infected even if I had tried to repair it. Its always hard though when its a bird you care about or need for a particular reason.

You're not kidding about the humidity! I normally don't feed and water chickens until early afternoon but got it done early this morning and I'm so glad I don't have to go back out there now. As it was, even finishing up milking and doing chicken chores at 9am, I came in with clothes so wet I had to peel them off. I don't like swimming because I don't like that feeling of the bathing suit being stuck to me and having to peel it off, but this morning I had that inconvenience without even the pleasure of being in the water in the first place

I just saw a heat advisory that says the heat index will be 104 today and I can believe it. It is like an oven out there already.

The rotation we have the sheep and goats on at the moment allows them into the barn and they are so happy to be able to hang out in there. It is still warm of course but at least there is total shade.

I'm having to spend about 30 minutes a day working on Karina at the moment. She blew her coat so fast that it wadded up into tiny little mats, almost like dreadlocks. She loves to go in the pond so at first I thought the brown tint to her was just pond water scum, as her outer coat doesn't look matted at all. It wasn't until I raked my fingers through her that I realized the brown tint is the wadded up hair under the top coat. So I'm brushing her out, bit by bit. I work until she indicates she's had enough. Even working multiple sites to ease the discomfort, she still reaches a point she doesn't want to do any more. But I'm gradually getting her worked to where whole patches are looking white again. Kilo doesn't have that problem. My DH's theory is that white hair is finer but thicker than the darker hairs, so his hasn't matted at all - thank goodness, because getting one dog de-matted is a big enough job without having to work on both of them. Of course, I do have to brush him every evening as well - not because he needs it but because he gets jealous of the all the attention Karina is getting

 

[chicken danz]

This wasn't really a prolapse. I have had girls with a prolapse before. Hard to describe but this was entirely different. It's like her entire back end was pushed completely out.
I have an old turkey with a huge prolapse and I've pushed it back in more than once and figured she would die of an infection but she keeps hanging on. She is a free ranger who sleeps with the chickens and is of no use because she has a chronic non infectious sinus problem so I don't breed her. She just hangs out and does her own thing. I keep threatening to make dog food of her but she isn't hurting any one and she's not a problem at all.
It got so miserable here today. The humidity was insane. Here it is 7:00 PM and the thermometer is reading 100 degrees. The birds are just totally miserable. I just finished feeding. I wasn't wanting to do it in the heat of the day.

 

[turboscooby07]

Presently battling a raccoon!!!
He has outsmarted my live trap twice and I caught him climbing down my chain link pen...I got a shot off but I don't think I got him. He killed a juvenile jersey giant rooster last night. Poor guy didn't go to bed with the others. We are just having the worst luck. These past few days.

 

[chicken danz]

The problem with coons and most of those predators is they bring their whole family including cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. I don't know what I would do without my Great Pyrs. I haven't seen a coon around here in years. Thank heavens. Even if I didn't have birds I think I'd still have an LGD just to make sure to keep those pesky animals at bay.
We got an unexpected storm this morning before daylight. I don't know if we got much moisture but wow was it ever loud. They were talking on the news earlier that they expected a lot of wind during the night but not much in the way of storms. We could still use more moisture so it's just fine. I guess I'll have to go check for damage a little later. I sure didn't have anything closed up for storms. Everything was wide open because of yesterdays heat.
They say tomorrow is going to be super hot. I am sure the humidity is going to make it unbearable.

 

[HEChicken]

We got that storm too Danz, except a few hours earlier. I woke to see it lightning and thundering like crazy and when I checked the rain gauge this morning, we got another ¾" on top of the 6" we got on Saturday night. And they are still saying it will reach 98 this afternoon so the humidity is going to be out of this world. It was nice and cool this morning though so I went out and got all my chores done and then spent an hour outside enjoying the cool air and "piddling". Now I can spend the rest of the day indoors. I thought about spending some of my outside time brushing Karina but she is too wet right now so it will have to wait until this evening.

Turboscooby, sorry about the raccoons. I have LGDs to keep my sheep and goats safe (and just realized last night that we haven't had a single coyote sighting since they arrived - yay!!!). However the LGDs are recent, having only arrived in the last year. And, because their role is to keep the coyotes out of the pasture, they don't have access to the chicken yard to keep the birds safe. However we have two poultry safe mutts who have slept in the chicken yard for the last 4 years and they do an excellent job of keeping predators out. They aren't LGD's per se, because they weren't bred for that role. And they haven't bonded to the poultry either. Their only criteria is to not be a threat to the poultry. They are alert to sounds and smells and, just like a LGD, they don't like anything that doesn't belong to climb in, so they pitched a fit when an opossum tried to steal chicken food last summer and have alerted us many times to a skunk that likes to visit (but hasn't in the last 12 months - I guess it got tired of being greeted by barking dogs). The dogs' presence in the yard acts as a deterrent so that predators stay away even during the day when the dogs aren't locked in there.

We adopted both dogs as adults, from rescue organizations that allow a home trial prior to adoption. I'd highly recommend you go this route. Adult, trained LGDs are hard to come by - especially those that are poultry safe. And, starting with a puppy, it can be a lot of work and will take a lot of time before they are good poultry guardians, whereas you need protection NOW. By starting with an adult that you've been able to trial and know is poultry safe, you can very quickly have protection for your birds. Breed isn't important, though you want dogs that are large enough to make a raccoon think twice. And I'd recommend two dogs, though it will be easier to start with one and then find a second that is compatible with both the first dog and the poultry. My pair are both in the 40-50 pound range. One is a Black Lab/Border Collie and the other is some kind of cattle dog or Aussie Shepherd mix. If you already have dogs, you might try letting them sleep with the birds and see if that makes a difference (as long as they won't be the ones to kill the birds).