Consolidated Kansas

[checoukan]

Checoukan - was that you I saw flying down the road in that school bus today? We started moving the kids out to Lawton Rd today - wish the weather would hold but looks like we'll be finishing in the cold tomorrow. I saw the bus as I was getting stuff out of my truck - kinda neat thinking what a small world it might be.

How funny, I seen a person in the back of the truck, wondered if that was you!!

 

[checoukan]

Nana2-I'll bet that was my sister, Checoukan, in the school bus, but I'll let her chime in for sure.

Brahma Boy-

I looks like you have a nice roomy area for your brahmas. Altoona is in a very pretty part of Kansas, in my opinion. Be sure to visit our thread often. We have a pretty friendly bunch here. Some communicate more than others, but it's just because some have been here longer. Feel free to join in on any subject or ask any questions you might have. BYC is a great website and there is a vast amount of information here.

The wind was INSANE today. We didn't get too much snow, thank goodness, but it is really cold out. I think I got spoiled by this mild winter before now.

Well, so far just the 4 chicks have hatched. Last night when it was dark and I checked on them I thought the last one to hatch was a lavender ameraucana. It is black. I guess it just had a funny flourescence to its fuzz when I looked in with the flashlight. I have two black ameraucanas and two black copper marans. Hopefully more to come.

'g night all.

When do I get my blacks? Hmmmm, better turn up the heat on the black ameraucanas, I need some of those babies!!!!

 

[LN2008]

BrahmaBoy! Glad you are here and hope to hear more from you! LOVE the picture of your flock. They are beautiful! Looks like a really secure yard they have there. Lucky birds!

Trish, Very cute picture of the dog with the coca cola bottle. I hope your pups can sort out their igloo issues while it's cold. I'm sure at these temperatures, they are better off sleeping together than apart. If you do drive to Ark City tonight, I hope you are safe and all goes well. I'd be nervous. At least it didn't dump snow on us so far. We have a good thick dusting, but that's about it at the moment. Hopefully we get nothing more. I am not a fan of snow. Thank you for your compliments on my cockerel. I really love him and he's a great lap-chicken. He loves being held. He's a great boy. Talk about getting attached!! I hope he stays healthy for many more years to come!

Tweety, I have named a handful of my birds. Not that i have so many I cant keep track, but the Polish at this point really all do look similar. They are a little different and I can tell the difference, but not enough that I would want to name them and try to sort it all out each day. I did name the Polish that is living in my garage that nearly died from the turkey attack. Her name is Cocoa, and my son named her. My garage silkies are Zorro, Yoda and Zelda. (Zelda is from the Nintendo game when I was a kid) I have a couple of other silkies but we can't tell them apart-- they are the white ones and they honestly are so darned ugly and look so similar-- we call them BOTH Rosebud! LOL!! I can't even tell yet if they are boy or girl. Ah well, they are really sweet. Then we named the Barred Rocks- one is Olive and the other is Blackie. (again, my son named her-- I named Olive). The others aren't named as we can't tell them apart. If I name another bird, I'm thinking something old fashioned like Alma, Doris, Virginia, etc...

So WOW it's windy and cold out there! Mainly windy!! I wonder if OKC has the kind of wind storms we get here??? ha! I put everyone up early today. I got the horses all tucked into their stalls and fed them and looked them over before around 5pm. It was just getting dark fast and getting cold. Chickens never did come out today!? Isn't that crazy? I checked on them and some of them were huddled around the opening like-- "no way, not me! You first! Nope-- you go!" Others were already on the roost. I just shut the door on them and called it a night around 5.

OMG the wind!!! I was so scared for my girls. I know the coop is pretty well sealed and insulated, but it was brutal. Though, today I got out there and one of the girls had laid TWO eggs!!!! I think she's a beast.

If I were her I would have refused in that weather. It's too cold and I'm sure the wind was howling in there.

 

[averytds]

Haven't had time to be on for awhile and still don't, but with the weather being what it is....needing to warm up my fingers. For anyone who remembers my indoor poultry cup/cookie tin heater, whatever the temps are it's fine. Which is good since those girls have decided to stay in today.



I made an outdoor version with nipples instead of cups. The reservoir water is ice free, but the nipples are frozen.



In another pen we tried a tin with a nightlight bulb within another tin with sand insulation. On top is only a 1gal reservoir with a nipple. It did fine until this morning, but we haven't had all that many bad nights.

I had a Thermocube to maximize cost while minimizing labor, but I fired it this morning because it shut off the heater I'm trying to use to thaw out the one little waterer. I don't know the exact temps right now, but I know it's cold enough I want my heated waterers running.


Hope everyone is fairing well despite the weather.

 

[chicken danz]

There isn't a chicken outside today. Glad to see they finally have some sense. The ducks however refuse to go inside! Duh! We went to Ottawa to eat last night and made a quick stop at Orshlen's. It started snowing while we were eating. We got gas and started back. We hadn't gone but a couple miles and all the sudden we were sliding all over the road. I thought DH was going to flip the truck. Scary ride. We start3ed moving very slow after that and lots of people were driving normal speed. Every bridge and uphill incline was glare ice. A semi had traveled from the northbound lane through the medium up hill across the southbound lane down in incline and overturned landing going the opposite direction laying on the drivers side. The truck was burning. underneath. The driver was obviously trapped in the wreckage. There was a sheriff's deputy there and we met an ambulance, a HWY patrol and a rescue truck later. We went a bit further and one of the people who had passed us was slammed along side a guard rail. I guess he figured out his 4-wheel drive didn't help much on ice. It was a long and scary ride back even at 30 mph. We met several more response vehicles on the way with lights and sirens going ever so slow. I would hate to think how many wrecks there were out there on I-35.
Once we got past Waverly the snow seemed to lessen and there is just a white covering on the ground here. What a night!
Marshmallow seems to be enjoying the big dog house so that is a bit of a relief. Maybe she'll decide it is a good place to have her pups.
One thing I noticed about the last litter of pups is that they had really dark markings on their mask when they were born and short fur. As they aged the fur got longer and the markings all lightened up. They didn't look at all like they did the first week or two. Marshmallow won't let anyone but me around the pups the first couple weeks. Poor Fluff just didn't understand why she was chasing him off last time.
I have just a few of my birds named. Most of them were named because of something unique involving them. The first one I named is Pretty. She is a beautiful silver laced polish. I have maybe 3 others that look similar but there is something about her I can tell. I have Crip who is a gold laced polish roo who had an injured leg and was in pretty bad shape. He is fine now. I have a light brahma who had a brain injury and I nursed her back to health. She had a rough time for a while. Her name is Chelsea. We had Chucky which was my DH's partridge silkie roo that I believe a hawk recently took. We have Up who is a gold laced cochin who also had a hard time and got nursed back to health. We have Dinner who is a salmon faverolle hen my daughter in law named. She watched her hatch and bonded. I have so many faverolles now it is hard to pick her out.
BTW I've got tons of light Brahmas. If any of you are interested I have many ginormous roos and cockerels I would like to sell for breeders this spring. They are too nice to become someones lunch. Cheap! They are definitely my favorite breed. They tend to stick more to their own breed. Are huge weather resistant birds, and lay enormous eggs. I'll have some chicks later.

 

[chicken danz]

Another new face to consolidated Kansas?

 

[averytds]

Another new face to consolidated Kansas?

Who me? No, just absent for spells.

Can anyone tell me how to see my post in the thread? I just get a blank box. It's very odd.

Never mind, this one is showing up. Not sure why the other is blank. I had pics in it....could that have been it?

Was giving a cookie tin water update.

 

[LN2008]

I kind of think that this new editor is a little wonky. I had problems with it earlier. Could you post links to the photos?? I usually do that and load the photos to flickr or my blog.

Who me? No, just absent for spells.

Can anyone tell me how to see my post in the thread? I just get a blank box. It's very odd.

Never mind, this one is showing up. Not sure why the other is blank. I had pics in it....could that have been it?

Was giving a cookie tin water update.

 

[chicken danz]

Did you go to your page and upload the photos? It's a bit more complicated than it had been and is loading really slow. I've got three more cookie tin waterers to build myself but haven't sat down to do it yet. I could probably use them today.

 

[Trish44]

avery, I'm not sure why your post would be blank, but I did notice on the pic I posted yesterday that it won't post if the pic is too big. Could that have been the problem? You have to use a photo editor & reduce the size of the photos before posting. At any rate welcome back.

IVY, Do the Lakenvelder eggs get any bigger as they lay for awhile or are they just smaller eggs anyway? I have at least one of them laying now, they both could be laying & just taking turns & I wouldn't know unless I see them. That's exciting about your chicks, I hope they do all right. How many eggs did you set in the incubator to begin with? I got another incubator so I would have two, one Brinsea & one Hovabator, so I guess we'll see which one I like the best.

Danz, what a scary trip last night! I would have been freaking out, I hate going anywhere on ice. I totaled my car on the ice years ago & every since then I'm just terrified of driving on it. I got a whiplash injury in that accident & my neck & upper back have never been the same. your chickens have more sense than mine today, they're out picking around in the snow. I don't think there is much that keeps them from coming out, they hate staying inside. They don't care for the wind much, but they will come out in it anyway. Oh BTW, I was talking to Candace last night & she was asking if the Faveroles were a more fragile type of chicken. She said only one of the ones she had gotten made it, that they seemed like they were just more fragile than other breeds. Oh she also said she is still planning to work on the page she said she is going to do for us, but has just been extremely busy lately. I'm glad Marshmallow likes her dog house, maybe she'll just have the pups in there & you won't have to move them later.