Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Those dogs as big as they are, can squeeze through a 12 X 12 chicken door. Seriously! I've had egg eating problems as well but I've learned that if I cook them left over or broken eggs they actually like them better. So they have come to prefer those. Once in a while I will give the dogs an egg after making them sit for it. They will carry it in their mouth and go lay down with it to eat it. With mine it seems if you make it available to them once in a while as a treat it decreases the urge to go steal them. If I catch them with one they always put their head down and act like they are in trouble. They have learned it is a treat not an open snack. This might not work for everyone if you don't have lots of eggs but it sure has helped my situation.
I doubt that hot sauce would work. My dogs eat stuff with hot sauce like there is no tomorrow.

 

[chicken danz]

As far as incubating eggs go, you can have them without heat for up to 30 minutes without harming the embryo. Like Hawkeye says a broody gets out to eat and drink. One small clarification. I just use hot tap water not HOT water to put in the incubator. You don't want the temp to raise too much. Until I got used to water temp I used to watch my digital thermometer closely to assure it never got over 102. The few times it was getting overly warm I simply lifted the lid for a minute to let the excess heat out.
Speaking of hatching I've got lots of new chicks. So what on earth am I going to do with them? Sell some, feed some, it never ends!
I should have gone back out and caught some more roos last night but I was hurting a lot. Darn old arthritis just doesn't handle all that bending and moving well. Then during the evening I got a pain in one of my eyes all of a sudden. It immediately began swelling up and oozing. It was stuck shut this morning. Feels better but still oozing and now itching. I suppose I am going to have to go to the doc for an antibiotic. I'm not even sure there are any of those eye meds I'm not allergic to now. I think I probably got something in my eye catching birds and it scratched my eyeball or something.
My buyer isn't going to get here until mid afternoon. I'm kind of glad. That gives me time to chill and get things done before I start moving chickens again. I also need to get a few dozen eggs ready for her yet.

 

[Ivywoods]

Strangest thing. My DH and I were coming home from the hospital a little while ago. He had more tests done this morning. As we came over the hill on the old highway, 2 1/2 miles south of our place I saw two white dogs in the road. I thought DA**! There's our two dogs! As we got closer we could see it was definitely two GP's. Even closer yet we could see they were NOT our dogs! I don't know anyone else around here that has two GP's. As we went past them one of them went off the road into the cornfield, but the other one stayed in the middle of the road like a dog sometimes does when they have been dumped off. We turned around and went back. When we stopped one of the dogs ran off to the south, but the other stayed a few yards off the road, looking at us very warily like most GP's look at strangers. It would not come to us when we called, and eventually ran off after the other dog.

I called our vet hospital, which is also where our county keeps stray dogs and cats. I asked them if they knew of anyone who had reported their GP's missing. They didn't know of anyone right off the bat, and that is where people around here call to find their missing pets.

I don't know what to think. I don't know if these dogs ran off or if someone dumped them off. They were two very large, beautiful GP's.

Back to my DH... more tests. So far all the tests have been negative. We should find out about the tests this morning in a day or two. Unfortunately it is looking more and more like he has a pretty significant case of pulmonary arterial hypertenstion. We don't know for sure that is what is wrong, but it is what he is getting tested for now. If it is severe it doesn't have a very good prognosis and there is no cure. They are medications that can lessen symptoms to a degree. At this point I just don't know what else it could be. He will probably end up going through more tests no matter what the outcome of these tests this morning show.

 

[Trish44]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, I probably will end up using some of them. The saga continues today, I went out this morning & fed the pups & let them out then went out & let the chickens out & gathered eggs. As soon as I walked back into the house & I had not even shut the front door yet Lily was in that coop. I went right back out there & as soon as she saw me she lowered her head just like yours IVY, she knew she was in trouble & ran out the pop door. She wouldn't come to me because she knew punishment was coming, so I had to chase her down & take her to the dog run, where she currently is residing very unhappily. When I got Lily in the pen Jasmine was sitting there looking at me like what did she do now. I told DH not to go near that dog pen today or give her any attention whatever, she is being punished. I just hope she associates what she did with the punishment. So we'll try this today & see what tomorrow brings, I'll let you know. I told DH your suggestions & he wants me to try the training first & then if all else fails we'll put up the livestock panel. We do have some out by the horse shed, but I was planning to use them if we get goats for a pen. I really don't know if the hot sauce would work for Lily, I'm just afraid she might like it & then that wouldn't help things. She is a very food oriented dog & I'm afraid to offer her anything that is food even if it's hot for fear of making matters worse. IVY, if your dogs full-grown can get through a pop door then I don't think there is hope of them getting too big to get in there, that was what I was hoping would be the case eventually. In my situation I have to keep the run door open during the day so the chickens can come & go because some lay early in the morning & then some lay in the afternoon, so they have to be able to go in & out where their nests are, food, & water. The people door to the coop is closed in cold weather, but I do leave it open in hot weather just to let more air through. So we'll just see how it goes & I'll let you all know what works & what doesn't.

On another note, my new rabbits arrived late last night, DH managed to get them home in good shape. They're quite a bit bigger than I was expecting, about 16 weeks old instead of the younger ones, but they are very nice ones. I went out & sexed them today & we did get what we were supposed to, so that was a relief to know they were honest, they could have sent all bucks & DH wouldn't have known the difference. Candace does your black NZ buck have some brown ticking? I was just wondering if that's normal or not. I hope Jessica can come get her rabbits soon because mine are pretty crowded until I get my other cages here. I will be getting one this afternoon, but the other one hasn't shipped yet & then I will have to put it all together, that will be fun. With the age of these rabbits I will need to separate out the does from the bucks too or they will be breeding & they're too young yet to have kits. I'm hoping they're not already bred.

Well I'm feeling some better today, I just wish I could get my lungs cleared out, that would make me really happy. I'm so tired of coughing. Maybe I'm over the hill with it now at least I hope.

 

[Trish44]

IVY, just saw your post you must have been typing at the same time I was. That's strange about the GPs, I sure hope someone didn't dump them, that makes me so angry that people do that. Why can't they at least take them to a shelter if they can't keep them, that way someone can find them a new home or even a rescue, there are GP rescues all over the country & they will even come & pick up the dogs a lot of the time. We have a pet site on FB associated with our buy, sell, trade site & there are rescue people trying to find homes for dogs & foster homes all the time. At least they're giving the dogs a chance at a new & better life. What chance do they have when they're dumped, lost, & scared? If nothing else they can put them up on Craigslist, I do see them on there sometimes too. I sure hope you get some answers soon about your DH so he can get treatment & it's something with a better prognosis. We'll keep you in our prayers.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Strangest thing. My DH and I were coming home from the hospital a little while ago. He had more tests done this morning. As we came over the hill on the old highway, 2 1/2 miles south of our place I saw two white dogs in the road. I thought DA**! There's our two dogs! As we got closer we could see it was definitely two GP's. Even closer yet we could see they were NOT our dogs! I don't know anyone else around here that has two GP's. As we went past them one of them went off the road into the cornfield, but the other one stayed in the middle of the road like a dog sometimes does when they have been dumped off. We turned around and went back. When we stopped one of the dogs ran off to the south, but the other stayed a few yards off the road, looking at us very warily like most GP's look at strangers. It would not come to us when we called, and eventually ran off after the other dog.

I called our vet hospital, which is also where our county keeps stray dogs and cats. I asked them if they knew of anyone who had reported their GP's missing. They didn't know of anyone right off the bat, and that is where people around here call to find their missing pets.

I don't know what to think. I don't know if these dogs ran off or if someone dumped them off. They were two very large, beautiful GP's.

Back to my DH... more tests. So far all the tests have been negative. We should find out about the tests this morning in a day or two. Unfortunately it is looking more and more like he has a pretty significant case of pulmonary arterial hypertenstion. We don't know for sure that is what is wrong, but it is what he is getting tested for now. If it is severe it doesn't have a very good prognosis and there is no cure. They are medications that can lessen symptoms to a degree. At this point I just don't know what else it could be. He will probably end up going through more tests no matter what the outcome of these tests this morning show.

I don't know if you can get a referral-- but we have the "Kansas Heart Hospital" here and it is so good, that we even get people from KC and all over the state coming in to be treated and tested there. I went there too-- and they know their stuff. They also do major heart surgeries there. I would NEVER get heart surgery done in a hospital!! I have a good friend that had his mitral valve replaced there, and when they got in, the damage was too severe to use the standard valve sizes they have on hand. In most cases (like in a hospital where they are not set up for this) he would have been closed and tried again, or worse, told that he was out of luck. BUT-- they are extremely on trend and had alternative valves they can use that are out of the norm. He then had a 2 week stay in their hospital. He said it was great-- they checked on him constantly, fed him great gourmet food... etc. Kansas Heart Hospital accepts most insurances, too. It's nothing too special as far as the insurance goes. I hope your DH isn't too serious whatever is going on. Or whatever it is, I hope there is a good program for getting him back to feeling well.

Crazy about the dogs! I sure hope no one dumped them!

 

[Ivywoods]

http://www.asi.ksu.edu/p.aspx?tabid=1227

Hope this link works. For anyone interested here is a link to the KSU pullet sale. It sounds like a pretty good deal for anyone wanting to get a few good layers near point of lay. These have also been vaccinated for just about everything under the sun. I don't think you could raise them and vaccinate them all for this price. I'm going to get my reservation for some. I need to figure out how I can get them back here since I will be working that day. With two sons attending KSU right now I think I can figure out something.

Checoukan thanks for alerting me to this. If you are intereted, maybe I could get the day off and we could meet in Manhattan and spend the day at the open house and with the boys. Michael is really good about showing people around and he can give you a tour of the nuclear reactor. He is one of the very few that is allowed to run the thing.

 

[rittert3]

Ivy, you do know that these are battery raised pullets right? The gal that owns the farm I'm keeping my birds at had bought/ "rescued" (her words) them in the past and said they had to take a deep breath to get them out of the pens because the ammonia stench was so bad. Just making sure you know what your getting before you go through to much trouble.

 

[Ivywoods]

I assume so. If you are raising the numbers they raise and are studying them for production qualities I would assume they would be raised in a heavy production type atmosphere. As far as the smell, I don't know. There's always a pretty bad smell when you are raising those kinds of numbers. I've never been past any poultry production facility that doesn't have a smell. I've heard a lot of good things about the pullets they sell.

Ivy, you do know that these are battery raised pullets right? The gal that owns the farm I'm keeping my birds at had bought/ "rescued" (her words) them in the past and said they had to take a deep breath to get them out of the pens because the ammonia stench was so bad. Just making sure you know what your getting before you go through to much trouble.

 

[rittert3]

Ok, just making sure you knew they were commercial and might look a little rough. I should go to get a couple of those Leghorn hen for my daughter, I'll have to see how many other birds I have when it gets closer to that time.