Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Well with a phone call today I am feeling a bit relieved but wondering if I'm up to the work involved.
Before I go into detail I want to make an offer to you guys. I have some very fine light brahma roosters and some excellent fuzzy footed large cochins in various colors that are 2011 hatch but are breeding age. All of them very docile. I may in fact have a couple of nice LF polish roos as well. I have many many Serama roosters. And several bantam polish roosters. Wish I had pictures to show all of you. I'm not trying to go against the rules but if any of you are interested in any of these birds please send me a PM.
I talked to my commercial buyer and she is going to buy everything from me on Monday. Ducks, chickens, you name it. She is also buying 20 dozen eggs which is a blessing since I got to town today and learned the people who run the restaurant had to go out of town for a few days. She tried to call me last night but kept calling me Emily so I thought she had the wrong number. DH told me this evening that she has been calling me Emily when he takes his eggs to town. Not sure why, she knows my name. I really hate to sell these good breeders to go to market but she offered to pay me more for the larger birds. I would rather take less and see them be used for breeding.
It's going to take the rest of the week to figure out how to catch and pen all of these birds. I just don't have a space and don't want to pen them in small cages.
I'm excited in the fact that I can maybe reduce my feed bill and streamline some of my breeding.
The first thing I've got to do is go out and decide which Seramas roos I intend to keep.I accidentally let some go I wanted to keep a while back so I've got to mark the keepers.I try not to think about my birds being in someone's stew pot but that is just a fact of life. I don't know why I can't just hatch 90% hens and10% roos. It would work out great.
Seriously let me know if you think you are interested in something.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Seems like conversations are getting away from me! ha! I read this earlier and thought it was funny too. I'm trying to envision the brushed nickle paint on the lights! Sheesh! Funny! Oooh, I know, I know!! You could dangle crystals off of them and transform them into chandeliers!

Should have some chicks hatching tonight or tomorrow.

Wow! I'ts cold outside!

Checoukan- Do you have company yet? Be sure to tell them Hi for me and that I'm sorry they couldn't come up this way.

Still no word on my DH's condition. He called the Dr.'s office. The secretary didn't know anything and no one else was in so we left a message for them to call us. I sure hope we hear something tomorrow. It's getting ridiculous.

Danz-Sorry Marshmallow isn't quite up to par yet. Are the puppies thriving through all this? She must be making enough milk for them if they are all doing okay. Sue hope she is back to normal soon!

Here is what I considered an "amusing" conversation between my DH and myself. Keep in mind that I was NOT serious, but he was and thought that I was serious.

Me-"I want a big chandalier for my room in the basement."
DH-"You already have two 2'x4' flourescent light fixtures to put in there."
Me- "But those aren't PRETTY."
DH- "We could paint them."

I was not serious, so it struck me really funny that he came up with this idea to "pretty up" the old light fixtures. That's and engineer for ya. Gotta love 'em.

 

[Hawkeye95]

WOW Danz, this is great! Good luck on sorting it all out and this will be wonderful to narrow down what you've got and really concentrate on the birds you want! Congrats on selling all those eggs. Funny that she is calling you Emily!

Well with a phone call today I am feeling a bit relieved but wondering if I'm up to the work involved.
Before I go into detail I want to make an offer to you guys. I have some very fine light brahma roosters and some excellent fuzzy footed large cochins in various colors that are 2011 hatch but are breeding age. All of them very docile. I may in fact have a couple of nice LF polish roos as well. I have many many Serama roosters. And several bantam polish roosters. Wish I had pictures to show all of you. I'm not trying to go against the rules but if any of you are interested in any of these birds please send me a PM.
I talked to my commercial buyer and she is going to buy everything from me on Monday. Ducks, chickens, you name it. She is also buying 20 dozen eggs which is a blessing since I got to town today and learned the people who run the restaurant had to go out of town for a few days. She tried to call me last night but kept calling me Emily so I thought she had the wrong number. DH told me this evening that she has been calling me Emily when he takes his eggs to town. Not sure why, she knows my name. I really hate to sell these good breeders to go to market but she offered to pay me more for the larger birds. I would rather take less and see them be used for breeding.
It's going to take the rest of the week to figure out how to catch and pen all of these birds. I just don't have a space and don't want to pen them in small cages.
I'm excited in the fact that I can maybe reduce my feed bill and streamline some of my breeding.
The first thing I've got to do is go out and decide which Seramas roos I intend to keep.I accidentally let some go I wanted to keep a while back so I've got to mark the keepers.I try not to think about my birds being in someone's stew pot but that is just a fact of life. I don't know why I can't just hatch 90% hens and10% roos. It would work out great.
Seriously let me know if you think you are interested in something.

 

[rittert3]

Thats hillaious, Ivy, I love all the "redneck" engineering/ decorating ideas people come up with, they are much more original than something store bought.
Checoukan- we must have posted at the same time earlier. I had to quit the sale barn last week (do to some bad management issues) other wise that idea might work.I might try to find a cattle farmer that has a little laying around or... I don't know if people use it on horses but if so, the folks that own the property I keep my birds on have 2 horses so they might possibly have some around.

 

[tweetysvoice]

thank you! I am excited about the eggs I've been getting both from my turkey and now the silkie! I sure hope you are on the mend! No fun to be sick! I bet working in the ER is entertaining at best. One of my good friends is an RN and works in the ER in KC and she has STORIES!!! She is always working the night shift where all the fun happens. LOL!

Pot belly pigs, hu? My neighbor back when I was growing up had one. It was okay, but then it sort of got kind of mean when it got really old. I don't know why. It was house broke, though. It went in and out of the dog door. Definitely read up on them and make sure you know as much as possible before you dive in. Sounds kind of fun, though. Congrats on the new house! Doesn't sound like you've been there that long. My brother also lives in Lawrence. Over the bridge.

Oh my do I have stories and I work the early morning shift (6-3). It's kinda sad, but after working in the ER I start to wonder about the sanity of our population as a whole. LOL Yeah, I'm starting to feel better. Been on some antibiotics, but I think it'll take a week or so to catch back up to speed.

LOL RE: the pot belly pigs. I'd really like to have one, but I have done some research and it's looking like a puppy would be much less work. The biggest problem that we will run into is the fact that they don't use stairs. We have two stairs out the front door (not like I want him to go potty out front) and about 8 stairs off of the back porch into the back yard. We'd have to build a ramp or something and I don't see that happening anytime soon. Our old man dog (Fritz) currently has to go out the front because he can't navigate stairs anymore and it's a PITA. Can't just let him out back like we do with Darwin. Since everyone is sharing pics of their pups, i'll share my two


Here is Darwin now, at 3 yrs old.. and him when we got him at 9 days old.


And my old man dog, Fritz.. now 13 yrs old.

Can't wait till I can share pics of the baby chicks!!

 

[Trish44]

Wow, I leave for a day & things go nuts around here. Well we got the shopping all done, but boy do I feel like crud tonight. As soon as I get a few things done I'm hitting the bed & I don't care what DH thinks when he gets home. He had taken a half day off because of the way they ask for overtime at his job so that he didn't get asked to work the weekend. I know, it sounds crazy, but if he needs a whole weekend off he has to do that most of the time in order not to get "charged" points & get bumped to the bottom of the overtime list. I think it's ignorant the way they do that, but there are a lot of things like that. The way I'm going I'm going to feel like hell this whole weekend we're gone, I hope I don't pass this junk to his family, but if I tell him I don't want to go then he'll say he won't go either & I don't want him to miss his mom's 90th birthday. I don't know how i'm going to get everything done tomorrow that I need to do, but we'll see how I feel tomorrow. I shouldn't have been out in that cold today, but he couldn't go do the shopping by himself, he wouldn't have gotten it right.

Danz, it sounds like you're going to get your breeds pared down & concentrate on those you like the best. I hope to do that once I figure out which ones I really want to concentrate on. I will always have a flock for just layers, the best breeds that prove to be the best layers will stay & the slackers will go. Then I will pick about 4 breeds to concentrate on for breeders & hatching chicks. I'm wondering if one of my Lavender Ameraucanas was thinking of laying today, she had made this nice little straw nest in the igloo when I went out this morning to let the chickens out & feed the pups. I never had time to go back & see if she laid since we got back after dark & it was so darned cold today too. The testing things sounds great, but I can't see me hauling all my birds up your way to get them tested. Someone asked me recently if I was NPIP certified, but I haven't even gotten that far yet with any of it. I have already had people asking me for Ameraucana chicks, specifically Lavender Ameraucana chicks IVY, so I know if I can hatch some they will sell fast probably.

Hawkeye, that was a really nice setup you found for the rabbits, I wish I could build something like that. The only thing I wasn't sure of was if they had some kind of tray underneath all the cages, I couldn't really tell from the pics. You really have to have removable trays under them that you can empty often if they're inside. Those little critters really can poop a lot in a short time. I'm getting one other cage from the guy that I bought the hutch from, I didn't see at first that it had a frame & tray already on it, so I jumped on it too & he's supposed to bring it to work next week & give it to my DH. checoukan, yes I will have several cages, but right now the rabbits are in the garage & when it gets warmer they will have to go outside because it gets really hot in there & there is no real way to cool it off & not good ventilation. That's why I'm getting inside & outside cages. The one I got yesterday needs some work done to fix it up, but it's still in pretty good shape. I was surprised, DH didn't say a word about me getting it or having to help me get it out of the truck. Geez, maybe he has finally resigned himself that it does no good to gripe at me, that I'll do what I want anyway, he might as well accept it. He didn't even get mad at me when I told him we were making a side trip to pick up rabbits this weekend for my friend & I. I had been really dreading telling him that & then all he said was, well maybe we should be buying a truck instead.

IVY, you gave me a chuckle about the lights, that was funny! That's just ridiculous that they're making you wait so long to find out the results of these tests. I would be calling them every day until they gave me the results.

Tweety, you have some cute dogs too. It's so hard when they get older & you have to watch them decline. I had two that had to be put down just months from each other, it was just the humane thing to do since they both were so old & suffering so much. The little terrier was 17 & the blue heeler/australian shepherd mix was 15. DH didn't want me to get any more dogs again after that, but I've had dogs all my life, I don't know how to live without dogs in my life. So I didn't listen to him & after a few months I went out & got the Yorkie & then about 3 months after that I went out & got the Mal-Shi & he really threw a fit, but you know now they're both his little babies & he wouldn't trade them for anything. He actually spoils them worse than me sometimes if you can believe that. He teaches them bad habits too & then wonders why they do what they do, tsk, tsk.

Well now that I caught up on the reading finally I need to go do what I need to do & go to bed. I'll see you all tomorrow.

 

[ChooksChick]

Danz, I'd be up for a test-date. When he did the AI, he just used a long cotton swab and swabbed their throats, then put it in a little snap-vial to send off. I think you'd have to talk to Grosdidier's office to find out about it. I'm not concerned about the AI testing, but it did make my testing free, so I was all for it at the time! He only swabs 5, then calls the rest good, due to contamination transmission being a rampant thing with that pathogen.

I'm dying when I say this: I think I should forego the GP pup *facepalm*facepalm*facepalm*

I just don't think the gal whose property my facility is on is good with having a part-time LGD out there, and thinks it would be horrible for me to have one out there overnight without me, even though I'm there several hours every day. I fear the dog wouldn't be happy splitting time between the farm and my house- on all of 1/3 acre here at home.

Do you think if I raised the puppy here with my 1/3 acre yard and my home chickens...would she like to go out to the farm during the day and come home with me at night? Does anyone ever have their GP in the house at night? I've never had an outside dog. I suppose she could sleep in the big coop...and I'd almost hate to just get one...seems like you'd need 2...because my other dogs are slugs.

Also, Danz, I'm having guy out here tomorrow to take away and process 20 extra roos. They are all overage from various breeding programs, and I'm SO DONE feeding them all. I also don't want to just let them go, since I paid to feed them all this whole time...it's just hard to come to terms with the decision. I wish I wasn't so very heavy on breeds and roos, or I'd be all over your Brahmas.

 

[rittert3]

Chooks generally GPs are happier outside but it is possible for them to be inside outside dogs. I havn't seen very many but an old neighbor had one and there is a local man who is in a wheel chair and has one as an assistance dog, this dog is very well manored and isn't crazy from lack of work. As long as you can keep you pup busy doing a job of some sort it should be fine. If you have a fenced yard he may just be happy gaurding that at night.

 

[Ivywoods]

You have to remember, GP's bark at night. If you had them outside at night in a small yard your neighbors would not like you at all. Some people do keep their GP's indoors. One of our pups went to be a human search and rescue dog. That dog is with her handler 24/7. She is indoors at night. In general, if you want one to guard the livestock they should live with the livestock. They bond to them. I just really don't know how it would work to split them between being livestock guardians part of the time and indoor pets the rest of the time. They are most active at night and that is when they do the most predator work Neither of our GP's like being in the house for very long at all. They will come in the house, but it is for a brief time and then they are ready to go back outside.

I checked the incubator when I got home. One lavender ameraucana had just hatched. Hopefully more chicks will hatch tomorrow.

G'night folks. I'm really tired and that warm soft bed is calling my name.

 

[ChooksChick]

Well, Phooey. I really wanted a pair, and wanted to raise them initially with the birds here during the day, then out at the farm with me when I went, then when old enough, out at the farm all the time. The owner of the farm feels that that would be unfair to the dogs, but I can't convince her that they aren't pets in the same sense...Plus she has two lap dogs and a pair of cats, so I'm not sure it would work...The idea is that they would move out to the remote 90 acres when the facility moves out there, and that's far from any human life at all, but just a treeline separates the edge of the property from I-70. at one area...it borders another highway on the opposite edge...how do they do with highways? Those boundaries would be FAR from the livestock.

Clearly I need protection over on that side when I move, as there are coyotes and foxes and whatnot. I can't rely on solar electric fencing for all of my defenses. It would be a lovely place for them, too- really beautiful virgin prairie and woods.