Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Isn't that exciting!!! congrats!

 

[cherwill]

Susan, I have probably seen you a hundred times at the recycle center! I'll send you a message about the roo; I would really appreciate it if you can take him. I guess I understand why people in town might object to hearing roos crow, but I'm annoyed anyway. There are lots of noises in town I don't appreciate, but I suck it up and live with it! Goat barn?! My husband grew up with goats and thinks there's nothing more fun than watching the little ones. We'd love to find a small place in the country and have more chickens and some goats.

Tweety, that's a fabulous raised bed. I could have used it this summer. We got into a community garden this year, but it was disappointing. About half our seeds never germinated and keeping up with the weeds was a nightmare, not to mention the insane heat. We plan to stick with it, though, because each year as we work it, the ground should be better. No one else in the garden had any better luck than we did. I hope they stick with it, too.

LN, congratulations on the egg. We've only had chickens for about a year and a half, and I remember how exciting that first egg was. It still gives me a thrill to go out and find an egg or two from my very own chickens.

 

[tweetysvoice]

So I started preparing the ground for building the coop. It's a small step that took way too long. I gave up about 2 1/2 hours into it, but at least it's a start. I'm going to be journaling my progress on my page, so feel free to check it out

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=114851-day-one-of-coop-building

 

[Hawkeye95]

LN2008-- big congrats on your first egg!!! Okay-- so how old are your hens??? I am wondering when mine will start. I have my 7 month old silkies and 15 week old pullets. They have a ways yet.

OKay, I read thru the last 3 or 4 pages and I'm lost on who said what now. About the raised garden-- I used rail road ties and made a raised bed that way. It's not very high, but it is enough to sit on the edge and have a seat. My mom stacked her rail road ties 2 high-- so her's is much taller. That would be less bending over (and cheap, too!) I put about $60 of topsoil and mulch into my raised bed, and it was totally worth it. I went out each morning early to beat the heat and pulled weeds. I only had to pull a few every day. Not many at all. It got to be where it was just so easy, because I kept at it so well, there just wasn't hardly any weeds at all the next morning. I watered in the morning or at night.

Ivy, the pictures of the snow geese are AMAZING! Wow!! There are soooo many of them! Beautiful birds.

Danz, good luck with Marshmallow, I hope everything goes according to plan and she has an easy time of birthing. Sorry about your egg bound hen. That's too bad, and also too bad you weren't able to have the meat for yourself. At least it won't go to waste.

Just Hatchin', have you thought about the baby cameras?? Those aren't too expensive. My friend uses one of them in her barn when her horses are getting close to foaling. It's just a long range baby monitor with a camera. Works pretty good for her. Have you thought about just setting up a webcam? Some of those will receive a long distance to your computer monitor. My parents have a cheap all-weather camera they bought at Walmart (in the security section by the tools) that they wired up to the garage and then bought a little tv monitor and mounted it under their kitchen cabinet and that was a fairly inexpensive set up. Now they can see anyone coming down their drive since they live back off the road. ANyway, good luck! I'd say worse case you can just get one of those two-way radio baby monitors to put in the barn so you could hear anything going on.

I've been once again purging. I've stuffed 6 more bags to go to Goodwill. More clothes, etc. I'm determined to get our closets looking clean and tidy and not overly stuffed or cluttered for if or when we sell. Makes me feel better, and less to move. Chickens are out happy today, they are spending a lot of the day out in their run now. I bought them one of those Scratch Blocks, but they havent' realy touched it. Does anyone else use those?? Do you like them? Or are they a waste of money?

 

[Trish44]

Congrats LN on the first egg, I remember not so long ago I was so thrilled about my first one too. Today I got 9 of them, the most so far in a day, we're getting there.

Hawkeye, that sounds like what I need to do, stacking two railroad ties high, it would be easier on my poor back, but then it would take so much more dirt to fill it, ugh. I'm going to cut my garden down into smaller sections this year so they're easier for me to keep up with. DH doesn't want to help me with the weeding at all, so it's on me. All he will do is till up the area & then says there you go. He sure is willing to help eat anything I grow though. Kind of like the chickens, I take care of them, clean up after them, & collect the eggs & he eats them.

Danz, sorry about your hen, I've read about others having egg bound hens, but never have experienced it. How do you know when they get egg bound? I raised 3 hogs one year when I lived in Derby & we had all the various animals. The nice thing about hogs is that you get a pig in the spring & in 6 months they are ready for market & some good eating. They do have personalities though & I had told my son, who was young at the time not to name them or get attached & he did it anyway. I had a hard time living that down with my family. But that was the best pork I've ever eaten. Check Craigslist, that's where I usually see them & there should be some coming up soon. I saw some on the Wichita Craigslist, but I don't recall where they were located.

Well we went & got the rabbit hutch this afternoon & it is a really nice, heavy duty one. They made it from pieces of crates, so yeah it was heavy. Fortunately we had help getting it loaded into the truck on their end & it was fairly easy to get it out at home. I will do some work on it when it gets warmer such as putting shingles on the top to protect it & painting it. I think I also want to cut out some windows on the ends & put wire there to let more air circulation in. But I'm very pleased with my purchase & feel like I got a good deal. The people were getting ready to move so they just wanted to sell it & came down on the price. They even included the water bottles & some food bowls. My little bunnies will be pleased with their house I think when it gets warmer. I may leave them in the garage for now since they're so young & move them when it's warmer. I also am getting a small cage on legs free from a gal that just wants to get rid of it, so I will have a better cage in the garage. I will also be able to use that later on for chicks when I need it, so for free it's a great deal.

 

[rittert3]

Justhatchin- It wouldn't be a web cam but harbor freight has a couple different security camera setups and I know alot of people use them for the same purpose for Horses. I think you would probably have to run cable no matter what. From what I know of them they just hook up to a small tube TV which are plentiful at thrift stores right now for a pretty low price.

 

[ChooksChick]

Quote:
Heya!!

It almost has to be Blanche, since it would be blue or dark brown if it was one of the other girls. How exciting!!

 

[justhatchin]

Thanks for the great ideas!! Will have to look to see what I can find on ebay. I know there is a way with the web cam and wireless to the house so may just need to read more. Not sure a cord would survive. Like Ivy said -not electronicly savy- here either.

I'm almost sure all I needed came into our "reuse it shed" at work..

I was just not smart enough to get it cuz I didn't know what it was.

I happen to work at a trash/recycle center and we have a shed-small 3 sided car port- where a person can leave items to give away they no longer want/need -in good to fair condition. It is the place to be on a sat. after the garage sales are over.

People just load up what ever they want.

Cherwill- I work the next 4 days. anytime. I've had chickens at work before.

 

[chicken danz]

This is the second one that I've had that died from it. One of them actually had it stuck in her vent. This one it had broken in her vent and was running out. I have so many chickens I'm lucky there haven't been others cause unless they are acting unhealthy I don't notice a slow one. Both of these had oversized eggs they couldn't pass through the vent. My dogs sure enjoyed their dinner last night, and I have enough chicken and broth to give them another big meal this evening. Marshmallow is eating like a horse right now so I'm sure she really appreciated it.
I think normally an egg bound hen gets listless and just sits. My daughter has had a couple and gave them a long warm soaking bath and they passed the egg. I don't think it is normal for them to get them stuck in their vent half out likethe two I have had. Anyone else know more about that?
I'm hatching some fuzzy butts from a nest I found out under some yard clutter. I'm getting a selection of different birds. I guess time will tell what all I have. I of course had some bantam polish and some Seramas in there as well. There's not a lot of eggs so hopefully I won't be overrun.
I've got to get around shortly and go for a checkup with my surgeon. I've got a couple of internal stitches that are sticking out of my incision and keeping it irritated. I sure hope he can pull those or whatever he needs to do. They are keeping my neck sore and irritated. I am allergic to any kind of stitches so it is an extra irritant. I have to have glue or staples on my incisions or they won't heal. I'm actually doing quite well other than that. It's probably too early for any bone fusion to have begun but the pains are gone.
Yesterday I went to my basement and worked for a while trying to clear it out. I got maybe 6 feet. It's going to be a project that takes many days but it needs to be done. Everything got piled down there and there's chick dust on everything. I already have a huge pile of trash. I think I'm going to set up some more metal shelving and try to get some more stuff of the floor. I'd really like to finish it down there some day. I could use the extra living space.

 

[LN2008]

Chooks: I love that you remember my girl's names! haha

P.S- I'm trying to talk my DH into two more. Do you have anything coming soon?

hawkeye: I believe they're around 27 weeks or so. Chooks would know for sure since I got them from her.

You guys should have seen me. I ran through my back yard yelling "OMG OMG OMG!!" and then I got in the house and started screaming DH's name. I'm sure he thought I had hurt myself or something. I've never been so excited. This has been by far the most rewarding hobby I've ever had. I love it.