Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

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Very exciting about your new puppies coming home! Sounds like you are as ready as you can be! Yeah, the horse stall makes me nervous now that it's so dark during the day lately. Plus it's dark in the morning and dark in the early evening... ugh. I'm thinking those predators are just going to be out there sniffing things out. I suppose if it were a determined coon or opossum they could even dig under the metal barn siding and get into the stall. I think they will be in the coop tomorrow! I sure hope we can get the run up quickly-- it seems like it'll just be setting posts and putting up wire. OH yeah... I'm planning on putting on some roof, too to keep part of it dry and sun shade in the summer. Sigh. Looks like a lot more work ahead, I guess. Ah well.

Question for you-- how do you feed yogurt?? Do you just open up one of the little cups and then set it down and let them have at it? I bought some for my birds that should arrive tomorrow. But I don't know how to feed it! I know... stupid question.

 

[chicken danz]

Thanks for all the well wishes. I am still running around trying to get things finished up. I think it will be a late night. My birds all got extra attention today. I am really worrying about them. Isn't that silly? I just know how much time and energy I put into keeping them healthy and I fear something will not be done. And of course I think something could happen to me and what would happen to my birds?
Ivy I think I forgot to answer you a while back about heat on the Seramas. I think the cookie tin heater would put out enough heat for them. I would think if you could keep them above freezing they will be great. Some of my silly Seramas are still sitting outside on the ladder at night. They really don't seem to notice the cold much. Crazy! DH built a great multi hole nest box for them and many of them are using it now. I have an 85 Wt. heat lamp out there for them set at about 2 foot high. It stays fairly warm in the building. I need to stock up on heat lamps. I have several that have burnt out lately. I like using those outside spot lights because they are less wattage and put out plenty of heat.
Hawkeye best of luck finishing up and getting your chicks moved out to the new facility. You have done such an awesome job. I love the fact that you are doing every thing right the first time. Many of us just rush to get things done. I am all about saving money and using recycled stuff so many of my projects don't look nearly as nice as yours.
I will get back on here as soon as I can. I will sincerely miss talking to you all.

 

[chicken danz]

Oh and Hawkeye, I just put some yogurt on a plate or in a bowl and let them have at it. Or sprinkle some feed over it so they get interested in it. They might initially act scared of it but once they get a taste of it they'll be loving it.

 

[Trish44]

Hawkeye, I mix my yogurt with just old fashioned oatmeal & they gobble it up & fight over it, they just love it. I even fed it to my little chicks when they were still in the brooder, so they were already used to eating it. I buy the big carton of just plain yogurt & the big cartons of the generic old fashioned oats. My young chickens are not so tiny any more, they're really growing & doing very well. The Gold Laced Wyandotte is getting her pretty lacing now & she's going to be a beauty. I have had the Silver Laced ones before in the past, but this is my first gold one. The two Black Australorps I raised from chicks are getting nice greenish feathers now too on their backs. I can't wait to see them all fully grown. One of the Australorps got sick when she was just little & has been slightly smaller than the other one, but she is catching up. I just think the Silkies are the cutest things, but I already have lots of breeds going as it is. There is one more I want to get in the spring if I can afford it. I'm drooling over those Cream Legbars that lay blue eggs. Right now they're high $, but by next year there will be more people hatching them & the price should start coming down.

 

[keckels]

My luck can't seem to change these last few days. I've went from hatching my 1st Coturnix & Coturnix laying their 1st egg a little over a week ago to losing 3 of my sex links hens when their coop door blew open to today losing 2 young BCM roosters & 3 BCM pullets. I come home and buy a trail cam to set out; feed my week old Coturnix & decide to candle the sex link X BCM rooster (my own) eggs in my homemade bator & guess what . . . . I drop and egg . . . . ya, it was sure enough developing.

What really bites is that I just bought the lumber Saturday to build me a couple tractors so I could bring them to town for the winter. My dad lives in a itty bitty town with about 5 acres & I built coops & runs out there, but there's no electricity. I was just enjoying how they ran to greet me as I drove up in my pickup & admiring how they seemed to be filling out - one of the roosters was just starting to crow; just figured up on my calendar this afternoon when I might expect some eggs.

I guess wasn't really living in reality; I've had birds out there since last April & couldn't understand the problems with predators, as I hadn't lost a single one from predators. As I'm ranting to my wife I stop myself and say "If they only had a brain & realized how much work I had put into that meal they had, what beautiful eggs they would have laid and . . . . . .. .

 

[Ivywoods]

Trish44-On the pullets the only ones I have laying so far are the wheaten ameraucanas and the lakenvelders. The lavenders, black and silver ameraucanas aren't laying yet, and oh, yes... I got one pullet egg out of the marans pen yesterday. Your marans and lakenvelder pullets may be a bit younger than mine. I don't know for sure because I had subsequent hatches for a couple months. The lakenvelders are already getting a little more size to their eggs, but a couple days ago I got a MINI egg out of there. It is just a little lareger than my thumbnail! I'm sure it doesn't have a yolk. Silly girls. I guess they are just getting their egg machinery working.

 

[Ivywoods]

Oh, so sorry! Yes, right now the predators are at their highest numbers for the year and you can bet those growing youngsters are hungry. Be sure all your birds are secure. Once a predator gets a taste of something like that they will keep coming back until all the birds are gone unless you do something about it.

Are you in a town that allows chickens? Chicken tractors are great during the summer, but I don't like to leave mine out in it in the winter. We just get entirely too much wind, cold and snow.
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[rittert3]

The move went ok, I'm still really busy, running here and there. We still have a few things to move around and a few boxes to unpack but we are settling. Now if I could get my neighbor to rent me the 2 acre fenced meddow right across the road from me

. Love the new and there is deffinatley more room in here for the kids to get out of our hair I love it.

 

[Trish44]

Hawkeye, I just looked on the Brinsea Facebook page & if you go there & sign up for their newsletter they will send you a 10% off coupon, so you wouldn't have to wait for the Thanksgiving thing.

IVY, yeah I'm just getting anxious for some of the other hens to start laying. I just went out this afternoon & cleaned all the nests out & put new nesting material in. I'm having trouble with some of them sleeping in the nests & pooping in them, it's aggravating. I go in every night & shoo some off of there & put them on the roosts, but I think as soon as I leave some go right back in. We have this routine every night it seems. I have plenty of roost space for all of them on both sides of the coop & the nest boxes are lower than the roosts too, but some still think they should use them for their own personal bed. I just ordered some of those Foul Stuff covers for the 5 gallon buckets & if I have enough good weather to do it I would like to get them changed out. I like the nests I have in there, but am tired of the mess in them. I thought if I can put up the buckets then with the round tops they shouldn't be able to sit on them so easily & it won't go into the nest part either. I hope they will like them all right & not stop laying in protest. I can't wait for the two Lavender Ameraucanas to start laying, those should be some pretty eggs. I think my EE hen is getting close to laying too, her comb is starting to get a little pinker. She has never laid since I brought her here this summer. I figured the move along with the heat & all & then she got bumblefoot has delayed her laying. Her foot is doing better I think since I did surgery on it. She is still limping slightly, but way less than she was. She seems to be much happier since I treated it. Now if I can get my little Partridge Rock rooster's foot better we'll be doing all right. He's walking a little bit more today, but is still limping.

 

[keckels]

Well, I'm actually thinking "tractor like"; it would have a decent coop & for those blizzards we occasionally get, it would be garage. The thing is, I seen no bodies or parts, & no sign of digging/forced entry. The guy I bought them all from lives in town and keeps the roosters about a mile out. I feel I was just a few days late, as its really been on my mind the last couple weeks.

I honestly think it raccoons - but 5 in one evening?



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