Consolidated Kansas

[Ivywoods]

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Did she get some more seramas?

I was just out cleaning pens and my youngest serama pullet I got from you got scared and flew out over my head before I could stop her. I don't know where she went. I have looked all over and can't find her. I am afraid she may have flown in behind the boards that form the inner wall of the barn. The space is only about 4" wide...it's the space between the inner wall and the exterior siding. I'm going to go back out with a flashlight and see if I can see down in there far enough to figure out if that is where she went.

My seramas are still a little wild. I just haven't spent hardly any time taming them down. I need to do that. My little white pair act like I'm trying to kill them when I catch them to clean their pen.

 

[chicken danz]

Yeah I hatched out a white Serama cockerel for her to give as a gift. She got a couple more young Seramas and her DH got a silver duck winged Phoenix rooster. The last time they were here I told him he couldn't have him because I had saved him back as a back up rooster, but then I thought that was dumb. I can hatch another one if I need one. As long as I do it while I still have my current rooster.
DH took my eggs to town for me so I made a little egg money today. Then the guys who bought my last pup from the my dogs last litter came out to visit and gave me money for her. We made a barter deal to trade labor for the dog but it hadn't happened yet. So they paid me and said they'd still come out when it warmed up and help. They think my ideas are great and want to work and learn. Fine with me- it's a win win for me.

 

[chicken danz]

So Ivy did you find your hen? Hope so.

 

[Ivywoods]

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Thought I better let you know... Yes, I found her, thank goodness. She was one of my favorites. She was the one that still had her "baby chick peep" voice when I got her. She sounds like a hen now, and she sure got mad when I caught her. She had squeezed in between the bottom of one of the other cages and the poop pan below it. She was crouched down there in the poop. It took me a little bit to catch her, but by golly I was determined to win, so she is safely back in her cage.

 

[Trish44]

IVY, I"m so glad you found your hen, you must be so relieved!

Well I had to run an errand today close to the time the chickens usually go into the coop, so when I came back all of them were actually all in there & I didn't even have to chase the Lakenvelder hens to get them in, yay!

 

[Hawkeye95]

My VetRX came in the mail today!! So I used it on both of the Splashes. The black pullet seems fine. Should I put it on her anyway?? It wouldn't hurt I guess. I did put it down the nostril of both splashes. I read online where it said to do that on their product information. It said two drops. But I only did one drop. I didn't want to hurt them. Then I rubbed it all over their beaks and their faces. On my cockerel, I rubbed his comb in it and throughly have him oiled up with the stuff. He seems fine today. It's actually the little splash that is still sneezing. Darned thing!! The other two are now pretty much fine. They are all done with their Baytril as of this last weekend, so I knew I couldn't do any more antibiotics on them. I think the natural remedy is exactly what I need.

It smelled wonderful!

 

[ChooksChick]

Hey, Everybody!

First, the word from Alison's guineas today is "Cold-FEET, more-HEAT!!!"

Second, there is no such thing as a good way to fix a spraddle-legged button quail. NONE. I have dental floss on it to form a hobble, and it's too big and robust for the little thing. Did I mention these are TINY animals? Danz is seriously not kidding when she says they're like spiders. TINY. Infinitesimally small. Itty bitty. I had to use tweezers to put the dental floss over the little feet. It slid right back over, so I finally resorted to using the paper medical tape from 3M that I used to order by the case of 12 rolls for my daughters (ballet, pointe shoes) and cut a tiny strip as thin as the dental floss and used it to hobble the legs back together until the muscles can tighten up a bit. I hope it holds, because I feel like I'm hurting it holding it still long enough to put the tape on. They're so quiet (tiny pipes make tiny noises!) you can't even hear their concern or fear. It's a bit frightening to have to work on them! But sooooooooo cute!

FYI, don't hatch them on an rcom floor without a paper towel. It caused spraddle so bad that the legs came straight out at the sides- a 180* spread. Poor baby!

Third, I have built a new passive solar heater for water, and I'll get pics up tomorrow. It's a frame of wood with a 2" styrofoam back. I used an old storm window for the front and have a zillion aluminum cans from Big-K water inside, spray painted black. It's not hooked up to anything yet, but I'll have a closed circuit of pipe so that it exits, coils through my rain barrel, and then goes back in the bottom of the frame to heat the air more. I'll have pipe insulation on the pipe that isn't in water. It was cloudy today and even so, the holes in the top of the frame had warm air moving out. Can't wait to see how well it does!

I'm totally wishing I could use a turbine to create power- there is a magazine called "Make" that has instructions in various issues about how to create things like that with consumer-available products. I'm going to start looking through it all, because I need to put a cistern in and have a pump that runs off-grid. I may go solar since so many solar panels are being sold cheaply right now since China decided to dump them on us cheap to screw up the trade balance. Good time to cash in on cheap!

There is a really interesting turbine on top of a local gas station that seems like the best design ever, and I'm wondering if it could be built by a DIYer. I''m going to research it, as I've only got a few months to spring, when I'll need power out on a 90 acre lot with NOTHING.

Okay, Danz, that story had me in tears- you'd better hatch me a pup!!!

Trish, those Lakenvelders are very much a Mediterranean breed temperament, even though they are technically a European breed. If you spend a lot of time holding them and carrying them around, they'll get used to you- just force them to let you hold them a bit as often as you can. I would scoop them off the roost, if possible and hold them for 15 minutes daily.

Regarding the bank crap, I'm soooooo done with these big entities taking our money, charging us to use it, and they make tons of interest off of the investments they make with it. It's nuts when you really think about it, and they ought to have us all fire them immediately. First State Bank is a little local Kansas bank, and I like them a lot. I keep my money at...hahahahahaha!!! Nevermind. I haven't any. No, I use Capitol Federal Savings Bank. They aren't a true Bank and have a great rating and offer reasonable and conscientious service. They were rated one of the strongest 10 savings and loans when everything started to fail a few years back, and I haven't really been unhappy with them yet.

No snow here yet. I'm hoping if I keep making preparation, I'll win. No winter.

If anyone hears of someone upgrading their wood stove, let me know- I need one and have little funding. A used one is what I'll get!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Ivy- so glad you found your errant hen and showed her who's boss.

So funny!

Trish, YAY on everyone going in to bed without any run arounds. I'm worried about that too. I haven't let my chicks out yet, I want them to be very sure they know the coop is home. Sigh. I'm letting them out tomorrow-- wish me luck that they go right back in at night and up that ramp!! (eekks)

 

[Trish44]

Hawkeye, it may take a few days for your chicks to learn where home is, but they will get it. It has taken the new ones I've brought in a few days each time to learn, but once they do, it's great. I entice them even more to come in at night by giving them their bedtime treat right before they go to roost. Most all of them with the exception of the Lakenvelders will come running if I call them & rattle the can I usually have their BOSS in. If you condition them that way doing the same thing every day they get used to it, it's kind of like the Pavlov & the dogs type of thing. They look forward to their treat, so they want to come in to get it.

ChooksChick, yeah if only I could catch those Lakenvelders to hold them, that would be great, those buggers are fast & they don't want to be caught! I have only been lucky enough to catch one once I think. They will actually fly right out of the coop & if the run door is open all the way out of that to get away from me, then run as fast as they can to hide somewhere I can't reach them. None of my other chickens act like I'm going to kill them like that. They may not be crazy about me catching them or holding them either, but they certainly don't go flying around like that. I've never had such flighty chickens before, I sure hope you're right IVY & they settle down as they get older.

 

[Hawkeye95]

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Oh my! Those quail must be super tiny!! Can you post a pic of one in your hand so we can see how small?? Spiders?! Just a little bit creepy. I think I'll stick with chickens. LOL Is that turbine on the gas station-- is it sort of just a turbine head? On Planet Green, they have a small turbine that you can mount to your rooftop and supplement or even use entirely for your electric-- depending on how much of a charge you can accumulate. The actor Ed Begley had one put on his house and Jay Leno was really harassing him about it-- but when they went over to Leno's house-- he had managed to out-power Ed Begley with turbines. Kind of funny antics going on between them, but these little roof top turbines are really affordable compared to the mini size that you can put in your lawn and rise up to about 40-50 feet. I would still love to have one of the mini's!

We put a solar panel fan on our roof last summer. It runs when the temperature hits a certain degree and switches on the fan. The solar panel is pretty large-- so you can definitely see it on our roof. But it's on the back side, and we dropped our electric bill by keeping our attic cooler in the summer with it. My DH came across this contraption-- I think it only cost like $500. So not bad for the solar panel and a fan and the digital therm switch. We were really excited.

We also put in a Renai system in our house. We got rid of our Hot water tank and went with the tankless Renai. It is hooked up to our propane tank, but you can buy an electric one too. It is the unlimited hot water you dream of! Run your washing machine... run your dishwasher and take a shower at the same time! NO problems! In fact-- take a long shower while you're at it. We bought it about 2 years ago-- and have never regretted it. Saves energy if you aren't running every single faucet. And I was only drawing an illustration-- I don't really do that.

The other cool thing is that this system is TINY! It is a little box with a digital front that you can easily change the water temp instantly. You can even hook up a remote to it and program it to run diff temps at whatever time of day you want. Anyway, we put in a bunch of shelving where the old hot water tank was and we were amazed with how much extra room we had.