Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

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What is this BOSS? Perhaps I need to pick it up and give it a shot. I hope all goes smoothly tomorrow!

Checked on my silkies.. they don't seem any worse for the wear after their rub down with the VetRX. My cockerel I think is pretty much all better, along with the black hen. It's the darned little Splash that is persistent. Sigh. I hope this stuff works!

 

[Ivywoods]

BOSS=Black Oil Sunflower Seeds.

Feel silly? I sure did when I finally figured out what the heck it was.

I don't know how long I pondered over that one!

 

[Hawkeye95]

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oh WOW!! It was that simple!? haha!! Good grief. I had no idea, and here people are talking about this stuff left and right on all the threads all over this board like it's crack for chickens. I thought it must be something really exotic and really expensive. Sigh.

Thanks! My next question was going to be "where can I find it" but I think I can find that myself! hehee!!

 

[Ivywoods]

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oh WOW!! It was that simple!? haha!! Good grief. I had no idea, and here people are talking about this stuff left and right on all the threads all over this board like it's crack for chickens. I thought it must be something really exotic and really expensive. Sigh.

Thanks! My next question was going to be "where can I find it" but I think I can find that myself! hehee!!

I thought the same thing when I first started reading on here. I thought BOSS must be some kind of "Chicken Magic." I was afraid it was going to be something super expensive and hard to find.

It was kind of the same for me when I was trying to figure out where "Larry" Kansas was!

 

[Trish44]

Hawkeye, don't feel bad I didn't know when I first came here what it was either! My birds just love them, they will come running from all over the place to get that for their bedtime snack. I found a good price on it at Atwoods last weekend if you have one close by. It's a good source of extra protein for them & since I only give them a little each day it lasts quite awhile. I really feel like it's much better for them than corn. I know a lot of people on here give their birds corn, but I would rather give mine BOSS. I have something funny to tell about corn too. I had some things I wanted to get rid of out of the freezer & fridge, so I took out a container or sauerkraut, which I really didn't think they would like & a package of frozen corn I just needed out of the way that I had thawed out. I just threw the sauerkraut on the ground in the run & dumped the whole package of corn in the bowl they have for treats. Well they jumped on that sauerkraut like it was something special & it was gobbled up in no time. Some of the hens went over to the bowl where the corn was & just stood & eyed it like it was some weird stuff. I figured that would go way before the sauerkraut. It took awhile & some looking it over before any of them ate the corn. They eventually did eat it, but not before every morsel of the sauerkraut was gone.

 

[chicken danz]

I have a couple old pics I took of some of my first button quail. Here they are:

Renee I use that open weave rubbery shelf liner under the eggs when I hatch buttons. I often put it in their bin for the first couple of days as well to give them some extra footing. As much as I've tried I don't have much luck fixing spraddle leg on anything but ducks. Sorry about your chick.
Hawkeye buttons do remind me of spiders in their bin cause they are so tiny and run all over the place and they are major fast. But at he same time you've never seen a smaller little fuzzy chick. They are so sweet and make this tiny little peep you can barely hear.
I have noticed the last few days I have a few chickens with a cold. First time ever I've seen that here. I can't catch them right now because I'm not moving fast enough, so I dropped some vet RX in their water. Problem is I have so many places that they drink while they are free ranging that I am going to empty my bottle in no time. I went on line and looked up all the ingredients and priced them. Initially it would be kind of costly but I think I could make a huge amount of it and treat water with it. Just not being able to go out and run down a chicken and catch it right now is driving me nuts. I wanna get well fast.
So all, I am thinking my female must be pregnant. No outward signs yet but she is being a "baby" of sorts and my male has taken over the roll of patrolling the outer area. It's like they switched rolls. Waiting is driving me nuts.
The guys that brought the pup (now weighing over 60 pounds) by yesterday said they plan to breed her once before they spay her. They have 13 people wanting pups from her and they plan to keep one themselves. They could send some of those people my way cause I don't think they'll have that many pups when the time comes. Besides if they are wise they will wait a couple years to breed her and let her get mature. They ran into one of the other people who have a pair of my pups awhile back. So they are going to take all the dogs to meet each other soon. That should be interesting. Do you think they'll know each other?
You guys keep talking about BOSS for treats. I use peanuts. I swear they make their feathers so shiny. I am about out and can't find more at a decent price so I may have to switch to sunflower. I've spent so much lately on things to get through the winter that I feel guilty buying something else right now.

 

[Ivywoods]

Isn't that interesting how your two dogs have switched roles. I swear. These GP's never cease to amaze me. Last night DH was out by the water hydrant and Runt was laying upside down at his feet wanting his belly scratched. Buddy barked 3 times and Runt spun over and was off like a rocket after whatever Buddy sounded the alarm about. They worked all night long.

That button quail is the tiniest chick I have ever seen!

I'm in the process of trying to make some little nests for some of my seramas and old english. Some of the seramas have started laying. I also have lakenvelders, ameraucanas and BC marans that are laying. I think I may want to start hatchin in January, so I better get this nest situation improved.

I've got some gallon jugs I'm going to use for the seramas. I don't want to build anything right now, nor do I want to buy anything, so I am scrounging around for stuff I can do a little creative "adaptive reuse" with. Anyone got any other ideas?

 

[Hawkeye95]

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Danz, that picture of the button in your hand is AMAZING!!! OMGosh!!! I can hardly believe that thing is alive and thrives with it being soooo tiny!! It's so darned cute!! I can't imagine something that tiny being so fast, it seems pretty at odds with it's size. Thank you for that picture! I love chick pictures, so darned cute! Funny that quarter is bigger than the bird. How small are they when they are full grown? They'd have to be really small adults, right? Are those eggs like, super teeny tiny?? The whole thing kind of blows my mind. Yeah, I've spent a lot lately on the chickens, too. All the medicines and now the VetRX... I need to make one more cookie tin, I have all the stuff, and the other one is working great. Do they work outside on the ground?? I'm hoping to put it under Seymore's water. Even if it doesn't work outside, I may just move her to the barn and put her water and feed in there and put the cookie tin out there. The water has been frozen every single morning (hers). I have to go out with hot water and pour it over the water and melt all the ice and get it broke up. Then I pour hot water into the fount to melt down the ice inside and get it going again. Not something I want to do everyday. The chick water has stayed 'open'.

 

[Hawkeye95]

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Shoe boxes? We tend to have a couple of those laying around. (you could even cut them in half and refold the side to make them smaller??) Do they like to be totally enclosed, or are they okay with an open top? If they don't mind, any kind of small box might work-- lots of people are getting stuff shipped. Also, I was just at the liquor store asking for boxes for a friend to move stuff out of her kitchen cabinets-- they are usually pretty glad to hand over boxes, and they have some small ones, too. I really like the milk jug idea-- they must be really small if they can fit into it. I'm assuming you cut a big hole it in...do you cut out a top too.. or do they crawl into the jug? Anyway, if you don't have shoe boxes, the Dollar Store usually sells those plastic ones for just a dollar. I buy them every year for 'Operation Christmas Child' and send all the goodies in the plastic shoeboxes since the kids can reuse them and they will last and can hold water if needed.

 

[chicken danz]

The gallon jugs seem like a really good idea as long as they are strong enough to support the weight. I gave Seramaslovers 18 eggs yesterday so she could try hatching. She has one female that is laying but not broody. I've already got about 80 eggs in the incubator right now. Of course the numbers never end out that high since they have that stinking lethal gene. But then I don't need any more birds right now. I think I have 7 or 8 hens that are broody now. It's crazy. Seems like the cold weather has made them go nuts.
I need all of my hens to lay like that. I have some extra large egg orders next week because of the holidays.