Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Maybe I should mix up some of that spray for myself! It would probably make me less attractive to more than the flies!

I've used the fly strips in several places. I think it's a surface to land on and that is what makes them work. It just grosses me out to even touch them to take them down. They are so nasty. I don't really have much of a fly problem in the coops. It's more just all around the yard and the pesky ones that somehow can get through solid walls into the house!!!

 

[chicken danz]

Kind of a sad day here today. My old rooster who was the beginning and the base for my special project blue laced brahmas was down today. He is really skinny (you couldn't tell cause he is fluffy.) and the young rooster was picking on him. I brought him in and gave him a nice bath to cool him and to make sure he had no mites or lice. I set him up in a pen in the old garage where it's shady and cooler than his pen. He is just not trying to eat or drink. He's old...probably at least 6 years old if not older. I doubt he was even fertile any more. It's just that he was a very special boy and has made me gobs of $$$ to.
I sold 10 of my hens, donated 3 half grown chicks that were still with their broody hen. And also gave them a pair of ducks. Since I got confused on people I only charged him for 8 hens, and so he ended up with 15 birds for the price of 8. I'm hoping the others will be gone Saturday and I can move some more girls into the hen house. Get them used to sleeping there and learning where the nest boxes are before they start to lay. I've got 4 green egg layers ( I think) that will be staying here. I just like the difference in eggs.
I got another gate panel set up behind the building and got two pop doors put together. I need to cut some pieces of wood for the frame work and then I can cut a hole in the building and two more pens will be ready to for outside access.
I have been taking down fence panels and moving things around. DH got the wheels back on the ghetto (the old camper I used for a chicken house) and pulled it out into the driveway. He was going to move it to the shade so I could start tearing it down to salvage the good stuff. But it's still in the driveway. I shortened the pen and am going to put the dog house in there. I'll be ready for the next heat cycle then. Bit by bit I plan to get all these extra pens moved and tidy up the place a little.
It was so hot I felt like I was going to melt more than once.

 

[HEChicken]

Sorry about your rooster Danz. I honestly don't think of 6 as old for a chicken as I've heard of them living 12-15 years. I have several 6 year old hens that are still laying on a regular basis. Hopefully yours will recover now that he's in somewhere cool. I agree, it is really hard to tell when they are losing weight. Darn feathers!

Not much going on here. I harvested my Black Aztec corn last night but my Glass Gem corn is just now forming ears so the horses will have to be locked away from that fence for awhile longer. I guess my neighbors rearranged their electric so turning on the hot wire wasn't as simple as flipping a switch like I thought it would be. However they are keeping the horses in the other lot where they don't have access for the time being.

DS and I moved the sheep and goats to a new paddock the other night. I hate that they are on this one in the heat as it doesn't have tons of shade in the morning - only one tree. However by 1pm it gets shade from the hedge so for the rest of the day they are in good shape. I watched them closely yesterday and was surprised to see them out grazing in full sun at noon, so I guess they weren't too bothered by the heat.

I finally got done brushing out Karina and she is now mat free!!! I wound up really enjoying the time with her. For about two weeks we worked for 30 minutes or so every night. She got to the point she'd see me pick up the brush and come running, then follow me around to a shady spot and flop down so I could get started. I think she really enjoyed all the attention as she would periodically reach around to give my face a little lick. Now that she is mat free (and doesn't need brushing since that removed all the undercoat), I think we're both missing it

I'll have to find something else to do with her so she still gets that time with me. Kilo has been fortunate - of perhaps it is I who has been fortunate - that his coat hasn't matted. I brush him for a few minutes every day and get tons of undercoat out but he doesn't have the patience for it that Karina does, and is much more interested in playing.

I tried to get some updated pics of them last night. Unfortunately, Karina now wants to be by my side all the time so I wasn't able to get many good pics of her. She lay down and I backed up to get a couple of shots and then she decided I was too far away, lumbered to her feet and came over to stand pressed up against my legs again. Really hard to take pics from that angle!!!

 

[Trish44]

@HEChicken your dogs are looking really good! Mine need that done as well, Lily has been shedding mats but still needs some more taken out. Jasmine is the one that doesn't tolerate me messing with her. If she sees me with a brush or anything she takes off & hides. Lily on the other hand wants all the attention she can get.

I sure will be glad when this heat wave is over, just keeping up with water is a challenge. I had to change out all the nozzles on my rabbit water system last night because the ones I originally got were leaking so bad. I changed them out & hopefully the new ones will be better. It's not a good time for the water bucket to go dry.

I'm still working on training my four RIR hens to go into the coop at night. One went in when I fed but the other 3 were still running around the pens about dark so I had to round them up. I sure hope they learn soon because it's getting old chasing them around when it's so hot. I know that chickens really don't like change much, but I had to have the pen these were in so I just figured they could lay eggs with the laying flock. Getting them in that mindset is a whole different story.

 

[zigzag45]

I might try the apple juice in the fly trap. Can't hurt! That stink bait is awful to work with.

Question - I have two birds that should be laying colored eggs and we are not getting any colored eggs. @chicken danz - one is the mutt from you (we call her Cherrio). The other is a hatchery easter egger. We have had blue eggs from both previously - but not for the past six months. I wondered if something happened and they are laying white or brown eggs now. I thought of locking them in a small coop for a few days to see if they are laying, but thought the trauma of that could make them *not* lay if they were. We haven't seen either in the nesting boxes these past months but we're not out checking all the time either so they could have slipped in/out without us noticing.

 

[HEChicken]

Zigzag, just keep in mind that with those traps - whether it is apple juice or the stink bait - you are attracting flies for miles around to come to your traps, while not reducing your population of annoying, biting flies one iota since the biting flies are not attracted to either the stink bait or the apple juice.

Egg color never changes during the life cycle of a hen - probably they are just taking a break. I have found with my green egg layers that adding that color seems to take more nutrition/effort than white or brown eggs. So - the green egg layers are never "laying machines" like you will get with some of the others. Instead they will lay for a few weeks/months and then take a lengthy break and then start up again. For that reason they will lay a lot longer than some of the other breeds. I have 4-year-old hens that are still laying regularly. Right now mine are in an "on" cycle so I am consistently getting 3 most days out of 4 hens that lay the colored eggs (and one is broody so not laying currently). But in a few weeks I anticipate they all will stop laying for awhile and then probably do one more cycle before winter.

 

[chicken danz]

I might try the apple juice in the fly trap. Can't hurt! That stink bait is awful to work with.

Question - I have two birds that should be laying colored eggs and we are not getting any colored eggs. @chicken danz - one is the mutt from you (we call her Cherrio). The other is a hatchery easter egger. We have had blue eggs from both previously - but not for the past six months. I wondered if something happened and they are laying white or brown eggs now. I thought of locking them in a small coop for a few days to see if they are laying, but thought the trauma of that could make them *not* lay if they were. We haven't seen either in the nesting boxes these past months but we're not out checking all the time either so they could have slipped in/out without us noticing.

The colored egg layers do take longer breaks and then crank out the eggs like crazy. Not sure it would be for 6 months though. Be patient and maybe they'll start back up again. I suspect they took a break and then the weather got so hot they postponed laying until it gets a little cooler. I have several birds that are in that mind set right now. Some pullets that should be laying but I suspect are holding off due to the heat.

 

[Trish44]

Zigzag, just keep in mind that with those traps - whether it is apple juice or the stink bait - you are attracting flies for miles around to come to your traps, while not reducing your population of annoying, biting flies one iota since the biting flies are not attracted to either the stink bait or the apple juice.

Egg color never changes during the life cycle of a hen - probably they are just taking a break. I have found with my green egg layers that adding that color seems to take more nutrition/effort than white or brown eggs. So - the green egg layers are never "laying machines" like you will get with some of the others. Instead they will lay for a few weeks/months and then take a lengthy break and then start up again. For that reason they will lay a lot longer than some of the other breeds. I have 4-year-old hens that are still laying regularly. Right now mine are in an "on" cycle so I am consistently getting 3 most days out of 4 hens that lay the colored eggs (and one is broody so not laying currently). But in a few weeks I anticipate they all will stop laying for awhile and then probably do one more cycle before winter.

My Ameraucanas lay like crazy in the warm weather & don't lay at all in the winter. That is their break time I guess because I just don't get eggs from them then. That's why I like to have a variety of hens of different breeds in my laying flock since I sell eggs because some are better summer layers & some do great in the winter. I think my Welsummers may be taking a break right now & the few Leghorns I have left in there. I have some birds starting to molt already, it seems kind of early but they're doing it. I guess it's good to get some done so I have them laying in the cooler weather & all aren't molting at once. That has happened to me before when I have so many birds in molt I'm hardly getting any eggs.

 

[chicken danz]

I've been busy since it got light this morning. I really put in a full days work. I did get the two pop doors installed in the building I put together yesterday but DH is using the grinder so I haven't gotten the holes cut in the wall. I got some netting around the new pens I have set up. Once I get birds moved into those pens I can put together one more pop door and take a gate from a pen I will empty to make another outside pen.
He got the new panels up and made a gate for the goose pen. It took him forever and he still doesn't have the panels secured yet.
I got the big dog house moved to a pen I had emptied and will get a gate panel on it soon.
I've got some chicks hatching today. Not a lot but some I needed a few more of.

 

[Trish44]

Danz it sounds like you're making some progress, maybe not as fast as you would like but anything is good right? I'm not building any pens but am trying to get some chicks grown out for my breeding stock for next year & selling what I don't need. I still have way too many chicks yet in my growout pen but I'm trying to get them old enough to sex so I know what I have out there. I sold my last two older roosters yesterday, Cream Legbars. I'm always glad to get rid of roosters, yay!

I had put a young Speckled Sussex pullet into the pen with the others & I guess she was a bit too young yet. I found her wounded & bleeding sitting by the nest box when I went to feed yesterday evening so I grabbed her & treated the wounds & put her in a rabbit cage till she heals, geez I felt so bad. The other one I had put in there is doing fine so I guess this one just wasn't yet old enough or big enough to fight back. The Speckled Sussex hens can be kind of ornery at times. I have one that every time I come in to feed them she grabs the scoop with the feed in it with her beak & hangs on. I culled the ornery rooster from in that pen, he came after me every time I went in there so I replaced him with another one that hopefully will be better behaved. I only have one rooster now so far that is ornery that is left & that is my beautiful Partridge Orpington rooster. We kind of came to an understanding recently after he came after me one day & got me with his spur on my hand. I took my long handled scoop that I use to gather eggs with & beat him on the head. Since then when I go in the pen to feed I just show him the scoop & he backs off thankfully. That wasn't the first time he spurred me but hopefully it was the last. He is very protective of his hens so I don't know if he thought I was coming after them or what.