Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

Yeah, I tried the short fence thing, too, in my flower garden (my vegetable garden is outside the big fence). My chickens flew right over it and helped themselves to the bugs and dirt baths. Oh well, I like the chickens lots better than the plants anyway. My DH pointed out that chickens are BIRDS afterall, and they do fly.

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[ChooksChick]

I make little columns with chicken wire, a bit wider than the base of the plant I'm trying to grow, and these are sprinkled throughout their run. The plant can grow up and through the wire once established (if it dares!) and the roots stay protected from the ravenous maws and raptor claws. This works well for plants one intends the birds to be able to graze upon, and some do really well with it. For a normal garden, I've resorted to avian netting to protect the garden beds.

 

[Trish44]

I looked at the new site yesterday, at least as much as they allowed & it does look pretty nice. I'm sure there will be some things we all have to get used to & some things that won't be there for awhile until they figure out how to work them out, such as the auction as it has been. But as I understand it we all will have unlimited storage for messages & photos & such, which will be nice. It's also a lot more colorful. For those of you on dial-up some parts may be a problem I can see due to scrolling things on the home page that could cause some issues if you have a really slow internet connection. But overall I think we all will really like it once we get used to some new things.

Yeah, I'm going to have to figure out how to have a small garden & chickens at the same time. I didn't have one last year due to my surgeries & recovery from those & the darned heat, but I want to have one this year. There has to be a way to have one & keep chickens. I'm worried about bugs this year, specifically the ticks because it has not been cold enough to kill them off. My GP pups keep getting them on them, I have to check them every day. Usually we don't have a problem after the first frost, but it's just not been cold enough to this point & that worries me because we have them so bad here with all the trees we have in the front. There are days in the summer when I go outside & come in with 5 or 6 ticks on me. The deer ticks are especially bad here & so hard to see. My chickens have been really hitting my herb garden lately due to there not being that much growing elsewhere right now. I have some herbs in big pots on the patio & they jump up into them & eat the herbs. They have left the rosemary alone mostly, I think it's too strong for them, but they really liked the French Taragon. I'm really surprised they haven't eaten my pot of Thyme all up. They did eat the garlic chives down, but I haven't noticed any weird flavor in the eggs from it.

Well DH has been battling the respiratory junk going around here & I have been trying to keep from getting it. I get a lot sicker when I do get sick due to my poor immune system. I have had a little of the sore throat, but nothing like he has & he has been coughing & sounds really gruff when he talks, he has almost lost his voice. I heard it was going around both Winfield & Ark City really bad right now. I keep wipes in my car & wash my hands after touching shopping carts all year round, but especially in this season. I hope you all are staying well.

 

[Ivywoods]

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I love to garden but this last year I had trouble keeping up with the weeds for several reasons. One thing was my schedule and the other was the weather. The only time I was around that I could have worked in the flowers or garden whas during the hottest part of the day, and frankly, I just didn't feel like it many of those beastly hot days.

Chooks, if I am picturing your chicken wire tube in my head correctly, I can see my fat ole bittys getting on top of it and smashing it right down, then they would feast on whatever it was I didn't want them to have.

I read a book years ago. It was called "Gardening with Goonies" opps... I mean guineas. It was kind of interesting. They do get in there and eat lots of bugs but do not tend to scratch things up and bother the plants as much as chickens. I have about 10 guineas. They are obnoxious little birds, but I just love them. They make me laugh all the time when I watch them. They really are goofy goonies.

Good morning Sharol and Rittert. Good to see you back. It's always great to have input from a few more people.

Rittert-Any luck with the trapping? Someone told me last night raccoon pelts were selling for $14 each. I don't know if that is true or not, and I am not a trapper (I love to hunt, though) but I take everything this guy says with a grain of salt. I had thought about doing some trapping here. We have coyotes, bobcats raccoons as well as other varmints. Since we got our great pyrenees dogs there's been no need, plus I would not want to catch one of the dogs in the trap.

 

[justhatchin]

Hello I haven't looked into this very well buttt..

In the near future I want to put a web cam? in our goat barn to see when the girlies are birthing ( if in trouble or not) and save me a few frozen trips to the barn. We have only lost a few to troubles but have quit a few first timers this year. It needs to be cheeeep! If I have to rig it thats ok just can not spend a lot of money to get the image to my computor in the house. Any and all Ideas would be greatly appr. I have looked into this just enough to know if bought it could cost me around 500 +-. Can not afford this will do the frozen run. Thanks for your input.

this girl is due any time- well in the next 2 weeks I'ld say if not sooner.

 

[rittert3]

I wouldn't doubt that 'coons are bringing $14 this year. I havn't sold any as I'm getting a late start but from what I've seen of the canadian auction reports fur is making a big comeback. Muskrats are bringing 9.50 ea. on average, back in the late 80's/early 90's my dad was getting 3.50 ea. on average. I've have seen that some of the furs that used to sell high (like beaver and bobcat) arn't bringing as much and it seems like the buyers only want to buy the best. Just put out my first foothold set a couple hours ago so we'll see what I have tomarrow, I may move them to a differnt spot if I don't catch anything.

 

[Ivywoods]

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I wish I could be of help. We raise some goats, but we end up making quite a few trips to the barn to check. Actually, my husband makes the trips. He's out there several times a day anyway and he loves it. We put in surveillance cameras around our house when we were having some trouble with some of the locals. Our sheriff who lives 2 miles from us suggested it. We haven't had any problems since. Unfortunately ours was a pretty expensive system. I think all together it cost a couple thousand dollar.

Don't they have some of those webcams pretty cheap on some of the online auction sites such as ebay? I really am not very "electronically savvy" so I don't even know what all it would require to get it hooked into your house. It sure would be nice, though!

Rittert- I hope you are able to catch some of those raccoons!

 

[chicken danz]

Well I must have thrown lots of dollars away down by the creek. Any of those critters that gets close enough and gets shot goes there so the other predators will eat away from here. I guess they get the fur too.
I just had to butcher another one of my giant hens. She was fine last night but dead this morning. She was egg bound. I didn't catch her in time to bleed her or anything so I skinned her and gutted her and she is soaking in cold salt water. I'll cook her after while and the dogs will be VERY Happy about their dinner tonight. What a waste of good meat. I only have one of those 13 pound monsters left. I really should butcher her before she gets down but I just can't do it. I've thought of raising my own CRX but can't compete with the price some of the hatcheries sell them for. I really hate butchering any way. I might just buy some chicks when they are on sale this spring to put in the freezer.
On the subject of gardening I have had at least one surgery a year for the last 12 years or so. Every one of them makes me a little less able to take care of a garden.
Horticulture has always been my passion and it gets harder and harder to do. If I could just work out a system where I could do it all by machine then I'd be thrilled. This soil here is hard pan clay and you can't grow much of anything in it anyway, but it sure would be nice if I could.
I used to have goats too but they got too much to handle with my lousy back. I lost my favorite one in childbirth and that kind of took the thrill of it away. Her name was Cookie. I had her trained to sit on her back end and beg for cookies like a dog. DH was tired of them so it was time to get out.
I am wanting to buy a feeder or weening pig soon to raise. I've done that before and got so attached to the pig that I couldn't eat her and cried when I had to take her to the sale barn. I also raised hogs back in the 70's and didn't get attached to those. but I'm afraid a single pig might be too much temptation.
I still don't know why I have to keep collecting animals!

 

[LN2008]

I just wanted to quickly pop by and say... I GOT MY FIRST EGG!!!!!!

Click the link to see the photo I posted on my tiny blog.

 

[tweetysvoice]

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Yay!!!! Congrats!