Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

Quote:
I am SOOOO looking forward to pictures. Puppies are the cutest babies.

 

[ChooksChick]

Quote:
I am SOOOO looking forward to pictures. Puppies are the cutest babies.

x2!!

 

[Trish44]

IVY, yeah you're probably right, I've just been lucky with all of these roosters until now. But bringing another one in even one from you probably would have had the same effect. I have been corresponding some with the gal that sold the eggs this guy was hatched from in NM & she says her roosters are all like that, they want the top spot. Maybe it's an Ameraucana thing, I don't know but this guy just came in here strutting around the first day like he was top dog & of course that didn't go over well with Big Red. They were bound to tangle. I just didn't know the new guy would attack every rooster here, even if they weren't challenging him. The poor BC Marans guy has always been really docile & he probably was trying to figure out what this guy's problem was, same for the Speckled Sussex rooster, he's really nice too. Right now I don't have permanent feeders in the pen with them, I'm going to try to make do until I get my other coop built. They're using the heated dog bowl the dogs had & now the dogs had frozen water this morning. I'm out of sockets to plug any more things into from the front of the garage, so I guess I'll just have to pop the ice out of the dog's bowl & refill it daily. Yeah, I'm looking forward to trying out my incubator, but now I'll have to wait for these hens to get acclimated to their situation again & start up laying again. I'm so thrilled, I got 8 eggs today so far, the most I've gotten yet. My new young hens are starting to contribute now.

 

[chicken danz]

Marshmallow is growing by leaps and bounds at this point. She sure doesn't want her picture taken. Maybe she is like me and doesn't want a picture of herself when she is feeling fat.
I had a call on my cell I missed. It was from one of the people who bought one of the pups from the last litter. They called and said they wanted another pup. I just got her called back and left a message. I hope she is willing to wait about 8 weeks or so. I'd sure like to have these pups sold ahead of time. It's always a nice sign when people who have on of your dogs call back wanting another.
One of my neighbors was her all afternoon so I managed to accomplish nothing.
Now I am cold. A cold front definitely moved in here! It makes me shiver! I was going to paint the floor in the chicken trailer today but have looked every where and can't find the stupid paint. How can you loose a few gallons of paint??

 

[tweetysvoice]

Danz.. You should try making a raised garden bed used for individuals in wheelchairs. That is if you still want to garden

I couldn't imagine myself without a garden and would definitely resort to this if I had to! Here's a pic of what I'm talking about:

 

[Trish44]

tweety, that's pretty cool, that would be good for anybody with arthritis or whatever who has problems bending over. All you would have to do is line the box with something to protect the wood & there you go. You could sit it on an old stump or table or anything really that was stable enough. Another plus would be that the chickens couldn't dig in it so easily.

Danz, you were talking about your flowers, they're my passion too & these chickens are just digging up my flower beds like crazy. I don't know between them & the puppies if I'm going to have any left for next spring or not. I love growing flowers, it's just so satisfying to put something in the ground & have it flourish & bloom. I guess I don't blame Marshmallow for not wanting to have her picture taken when she's fat, we can all remember when we were pregnant & felt so huge. I wonder how dogs know what we're doing though with the camera? I have a hard time getting pictures of Jasmine, she is so shy & hates cameras. About the only way I can get a good photo of her is when she doesn't see me doing it. Speaking of puppies, I was doing my grocery shopping this evening when my cell phone rang & it was my next door neighbor. I hadn't told them yet that I got the pups & she asked me if I had gotten some dogs & I told her yes & asked why. She said they were sitting up on the hill "eyeing" their horses. I told her if they were on my side of the fence they were doing what they were supposed to & that they're only puppies. She said, yeah BIG puppies. I then told her that these dogs are very gentle with other animals, that they were raised with goats, sheep, & chickens & they're here to guard my chickens. I asked her if they had been to visit them & she said no & I said that they have so far been very good about staying here. Geez, I had told her husband I was planning to get these pups & that they would probably help him too by protecting his chickens also from predators. Can you imagine, that they're afraid that these 3 month old pups are going to hurt their horses? That's nice that you have people coming back to get pups from you again. With the people that have spoken for them how many are already spoken for? I know the lady I got mine from most of the time has all hers sold before they're old enough to leave. It seems like there are always people looking for Great Pyrenees & there aren't many in KS who raise them. There are more in Oklahoma & Arkansas, some in TX, but not many around here.

It seems like I have been running around lately a LOT. Today I had to meet someone to deliver stuff I sold, buy groceries, then meet someone I bought something from. By the time I got back it was dark & I had to feed the pups & put them up & tend to my bunnies. I got them some timothy hay at the store & put it in a little holder & boy did they chow down on that as soon as I put it in there. It's supposed to help keep them from getting hairballs like cats I guess. I can't wait to hear the griping when I tell DH we have to drive to Augusta tomorrow afternoon to pick up this rabbit hutch. He hates me getting him into these things, but I can't do it alone, it's a big heavy hutch. It looks really well made, I hope we can manage to get it up into the truck & then get it out when we get home. I have trouble with the lifting any more due to my back being bad & I had rotator cuff surgery a couple years ago & my shoulder is just not as strong now as it was before that injury & surgery. DH gets aggravated at me when we're trying to move things because I can't lift as much weight on that side, but I can't help it. That was a really difficult surgery & recovery, probably the hardest one I've ever had to go through & I've had quite a few surgeries. You don't realize how much you miss something until you can't use it.

 

[Trish44]

Oh BTW everyone, be prepared to not be able to get on this site Tues. for the big change to the new servers & site. I hope it will be worth it when the dust settles & we all can figure out how to use everything.

 

[rittert3]

Sorry I havn't been on as much.. my wife has been on the computer most of the time and I've been trying to keep busy outside. My flyers (wanting to rent land/out buildings for livestock and poultry) didn't pan out great I got one reply with no fallow up. But today I stopped by a house try see about getting permission to trap 'coons and got alot more. I may be able to trap there once I get some differnt types but they raise snowy mallards and have a few horses dogs and cats and are looking for someone to look after the animals so they can get away once in a while, the man seemed really interested in letting me keep some birds there in exchange for being their animal sitter

. Thats alot better deal than the $110 a month I was offering for an outbuilding and an acre. Now maybe I can start trapping and selling some shooter pigeons and raising some coturnix quail.

 

[tweetysvoice]

Trish - I hadn't thought about the raised beds keeping the vege away from the chickens! Great point!

Your bunnies are too adorable! I've raised rabbits most of my life and this is the first time that I don't have any. Lost my Boo about 6 months ago (she was 8 years old) and I haven't been able to replace her. Wanted to mention this about the hay - basically you can look at it like the grit for the chicks. They need it for digestion (guinea pigs do as well), so try to keep timothy hay in there at all times. You can use alfalfa hay in a pinch, but timothy is the best.

I'm actually looking forward to the new changes on the forums. I've been on a few in my lifetime and this one seems almost archaic in comparison to a few out there. I went ahead and signed up to be a golden feather member to help support the site. I know these changes and server upgrades can't be cheep!

 

[chicken danz]

If I could do the high rise garden on a grand scale I would certainly like to try it. My problem is when I want, I want big. I'd like a garden I can grow enough to get back into canning and put some stores up for winter. Also would like to have fresh produce to give the chickens as a treat. I was hoping to score some other people's excess last summer, but since we were in the driest 2 counties of the state here, no one had any excess to give away.
I keep wanting to choke up the money to buy a 4 foot tiller for the back of my tractor so I can get a garden spot ready without running the regular tiller. I think the ideal situation would be if I could figure out a way to fence off the rows and let the chickens weed between them for me. OK so I am a dreamer! They actually did a fairly good job in my flower beds last year, but then they were also very hard on the flowers. I have a lot of perennials so hopefully the root systems survived.
The chickens didn't bother the herbs much and the ducks didn't bother the flowers. But my ducks loved eating the lavender, oregano, and sage leaves. I have some short fencing I may put around the garden to help keep them out this summer.
Chickens and dogs do not get along with flowers! I have several tropical plants in pots I out on the porch in the summer. The chickens loved getting up in those plants and scraping in the dirt, thus digging up the plants.