Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

More disaster last night. We had a major storm. It came in from the north which I never expect this time of year so everything is open on the north for ventilation. I had a brooder house full of soaking wet chicks piled on each other. I've not been running any heat at all for a long time cause it's been so hot. I had to go shovel out wet bedding and set up heat and move the chicks to heat. I lost two of them. Of course they were supposed to be picked up today. Money down the tubes. Out of hundreds why those??? They just happened to be on the bottom of the pile. Then I found another one in the middle of a grow out pen that got caught in the storm that had also drowned. I had two other pens I had recently moved birds and of course the birds were sitting outside. One of those I had just moved birds yesterday from the brooder and they were all outside and soaked. It was dark out so it was a pretty easy move other than running into a roost in the dark and hurting my stupid nose. I guess in the long run at least I am getting them used to their new coops.
My goslings and ducks in the green house also got soaked cause I had a north vent open but they seemed to be perfectly fine with it. I just closed the vent. I had to run out and open things up this morning so the birds didn't get overheated this morning. I have no idea how muhc rain we got but there were lots of tornado warnings and lots of lightening.

 

[HEChicken]

Sorry for your losses Danz - ugh. When I was doing evening chores last night, there was non-stop lightning but it was far enough in the distance I couldn't even hear any thunder. However I woke this morning to news of a tornado hit in Eureka which is the direction I was seeing the lightning coming from. They are evacuating the town and volunteers are headed there now to aide the residents. It is not so far from us and really brings home how possible this is any time.

I had my first predator loss last night, since the fox attack 4 years ago. Since then, my two mutt dogs have slept in the chicken yard and kept the birds safe. However one of them gets freaked out by thunder/storms, gunshots and of course, fireworks. My neighbors on the other side of the hedge LOVE fireworks and for a week before and a few days after the 4th, cannon-sounds boom from over there pretty much all day and well into the evening. They put up with the sounds of roosters crowing and all kinds of other animal sounds from my side of the hedge year-round so I feel like I can't complain about 10 days of fireworks. Instead, I just allow the dogs to sleep in the garage so they don't get so stressed. So of course, with the dogs not there, something took advantage and came in last night and killed my most promising project pullet. Of course it is always the birds that matter - never the ones I wouldn't miss. Sigh. So I guess tonight the dogs will have to go back to sleeping in the chicken yard since whatever it was, I know it will be back.

We've seen opossums and skunks on a regular basis, but as discussed earlier this week, we've never had raccoons. However, with the head of this bird missing, I have to wonder......Anyway, hopefully the dogs sleeping in the chicken yard will prevent it happening again. Fingers crossed.

 

[Trish44]

Sorry for your losses Danz - ugh. When I was doing evening chores last night, there was non-stop lightning but it was far enough in the distance I couldn't even hear any thunder. However I woke this morning to news of a tornado hit in Eureka which is the direction I was seeing the lightning coming from. They are evacuating the town and volunteers are headed there now to aide the residents. It is not so far from us and really brings home how possible this is any time.

I had my first predator loss last night, since the fox attack 4 years ago. Since then, my two mutt dogs have slept in the chicken yard and kept the birds safe. However one of them gets freaked out by thunder/storms, gunshots and of course, fireworks. My neighbors on the other side of the hedge LOVE fireworks and for a week before and a few days after the 4th, cannon-sounds boom from over there pretty much all day and well into the evening. They put up with the sounds of roosters crowing and all kinds of other animal sounds from my side of the hedge year-round so I feel like I can't complain about 10 days of fireworks. Instead, I just allow the dogs to sleep in the garage so they don't get so stressed. So of course, with the dogs not there, something took advantage and came in last night and killed my most promising project pullet. Of course it is always the birds that matter - never the ones I wouldn't miss. Sigh. So I guess tonight the dogs will have to go back to sleeping in the chicken yard since whatever it was, I know it will be back.

We've seen opossums and skunks on a regular basis, but as discussed earlier this week, we've never had raccoons. However, with the head of this bird missing, I have to wonder......Anyway, hopefully the dogs sleeping in the chicken yard will prevent it happening again. Fingers crossed.

I'm so sorry HEChicken, I know you have worked hard on those project birds. It seems like it's always a special bird that gets killed, why I don't know. My GPs just hate loud noises like gunshots & fireworks. I was surprised when we came back from watching fireworks at the fairgrounds in town that they were still here because our neighbors down the hill at the other end of our property always shoot off lots & they come right over our side. Yeah the head missing sure sounds like a raccoon, that's exactly what they do, eat the head off & leave the rest. I had one pull a hen through the chainlink when I had my chickens in a pen before my main coop was done. I hope putting your dogs back out there stops it from coming back because it will now that it found food & bring it's friends & relatives too.

danz I'm sorry for your losses too, that's the pits! I hate all of this darned rain, I know we should be thankful but it sure is making a mess of things.

 

[HEChicken]

I hate all of this darned rain, I know we should be thankful but it sure is making a mess of things.

I for one am ready for it to dry out. Not just to make the heat more tolerable, but the wet, hot conditions are ideal conditions for growing parasites. We're doing rotational grazing to try to cut down on parasite loads but this year it feels like we're just barely staying ahead of them.

Of my 5 dogs, three get anxious by the sounds of the fireworks. Dizzy comes running and begs to be picked up when he hears thunder starting up close, or loud booming fireworks. Sammie has dug out under the chicken yard gate during both fireworks and thunderstorms (though makes no attempt to get out any other time) and Kilo also acts kind of nervous. He is the least anxious of the three but nevertheless, he does run for the barn when it starts up. Only Tequila and Karina don't seem fazed by them. Fortunately, the sheep and goats are also completely unfazed. A few days ago a FB friend posted a pic of a ewe who died because she was so panicked by the neighbor's fireworks that she ran headlong into a fence and sustained brain damage that she died from the next morning

 

[chicken danz]

HEChicken sorry for your loss. I agree that was a raccoon. Stupid animals. I hate them.
That humidity is a killer for sure. I was out working in the fruit garden yesterday trying to pull weeds since we had gotten another storm. Still not able to get some of them. I finished feeding and then came in and showered. Last night I found every where my underwear had been was a mass of chigger bites. I hadn't had chiggers like that since I was a kid picking blackberries for my grandparents. I had never had a chigger here. I attributed it to the fact that the birds have kept them down. Well it is all well fenced so there have been no birds in there at all. I wish I could convince my stupid guineas to go in there without freaking out and clean the place up. I still l have a lot of weed pulling to do. I really need to get it done. My grapes are all hidden in 5 foot tall weeds.
All my puppies went to their new homes and my geese to theirs. I'm glad I have a few less things to care for.
I need to get back to working on the building and sorting birds today if I can.
It sure would be nice to have a day off.

 

[HEChicken]

Oh geez - I feel ya! Several years ago I had chiggers so bad around my mid-section it looked like I'd been hit with buckshot. They itched miserably for almost two months so I vowed never to let them get me again. Mostly now I wear jeans and boots outside no matter how hot it is. The only time I venture out with shorts and/or flip flops is if I plan on sticking to pavement. Occasionally while out collecting the mail, I will need to walk across grass and when I do, as soon as I get inside, I jump in the shower and hose down my legs. Since they have to crawl up the legs to get to the mid-section, I figure that will wash them off before they get hold of me. Meanwhile, DH can go out barefoot all day long and never gets a chigger bite. He says he never had one - ever. I read somewhere that they like females better due to pheromones or hormones or something and in our case that certainly seems to be true.

 

[sharol]

NO MORE CHICKS THIS YEAR.

I don't care who goes broody. No more. No. More.

Snowflake is going to spend a few days in broody jail. NO> MORE> CHICKS this year!!!

 

[chicklover56]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1120370/chicken-with-undereye-missing

Thanks in advance.

 

[Trish44]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1120370/chicken-with-undereye-missing

Thanks in advance.

I would just put some triple antibiotic ointment on there, not the kind with the painkiller in it, just the plain. She may have gotten an injury & then other chickens will just pick at anything like that if it's exposed. Keep her separated till it heals & she should be good to go back in with the others.

It's been so humid here that it just makes me not want to go outside at all. I go out to do chores & come in soaking wet every time & it doesn't take long to get that way. It looks like next week is going to be consistently hotter than this last one was, ugh. I know I will be ready for a bit cooler weather, I don't take this heat & humidity very well.

I just finished my last hatch for chick orders for the year, I'm glad to have that over. I have two sets of eggs for myself for breeding stock & then I'm totally done. I know what you mean @sharol I have hens in my main coop that insist on being broody but they aren't getting any eggs. I have taken the nest box away from a couple of pens just so they can't sit. It's too darned hot to be sitting in a nest box all day, silly hens.

 

[HEChicken]

I only have about 8 hens sitting right now. Honestly, I don't do anything. I haven't found taking nest boxes away makes a difference, nor does taking their eggs - they'll sit on air and some are only sitting on the floor in a corner of the coop anyway, so there isn't anything to remove to stop them. They'll give it up eventually. @sharol I have a crate like that sitting out in my chicken yard as it is occasionally used to separate new mothers with their chicks. I've had several hens go broody sitting on the wire top of the cage, so I don't know if putting them in one will really make them quit being broody.

I must admit, I just ignore broody birds once I'm done hatching for the year. I've had several give up already but a few more took their place so the number remains approximately constant at 7-8 at a time - just different birds. It will probably remain this way until late fall and then finally the last of them will decide its too late in the year to hatch anyway. At least broody birds don't eat that much. They're not laying either but I have more than enough eggs, so not really a loss.

However I have a turkey who is no longer broody as of this morning. This poor girl has been sitting for 9 weeks. None of her eggs hatched so I had to set some eggs in the incubator for her and they just hatched this weekend. I gave her the poults last night and she was thrilled. She kept looking at them like "I can't believe my eggs finally hatched" and started cooing to them right away. This morning I moved her and the babies to the hoop coop where she now has her own container of game bird crumbles so she is very pleased with her lot in life right now.