Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

HEChicken, I wouldn't mind having a couple of those pullets myself, but it's not worth the drive up there for me to get them either. Like you say by the time you add in gas that's not such a great deal.

Well the Lily saga continues today: I went out this morning thinking well after spending a whole day & night in the pen that maybe she would have learned her lesson & just be glad to have her freedom. I guess that wasn't the case however because the first place she went was heading right to the run. I yelled at her the first time & she stopped from going in. Then I hid on the other side of the cage where the Ameraucanas are next to the run & as soon as she didn't see me she started to go in there again. I again yelled at her & she stopped. So I thought I would just act like I was going into the garage & see what she would do. I opened the side door to the garage & as soon as she thought I was in there she trotted right into the run & then into the coop. So she got put back into the run for awhile & we'll repeat & see what happens. This dog has a one-track mind as far as these eggs go. She is out in the dog run howling & barking because she doesn't want to be in there. I don't want to do the hot sauce thing with her because for one thing I think she might eat them & like them anyway & for another if I feed her eggs that is just reinforcing the behavior I'm trying to correct. That is just my opinion on that. I may be fighting a losing battle with her on this score, but she has got to realize now while she is still young who is boss here & what her boundaries are or we're in big trouble later on.

Danz, I'm so glad that Marshmallow is doing well now & the puppies are thriving, yay! We want more pics!

 

[tntblake]

HEChicken, I wouldn't mind having a couple of those pullets myself, but it's not worth the drive up there for me to get them either. Like you say by the time you add in gas that's not such a great deal.

Well the Lily saga continues today: I went out this morning thinking well after spending a whole day & night in the pen that maybe she would have learned her lesson & just be glad to have her freedom. I guess that wasn't the case however because the first place she went was heading right to the run. I yelled at her the first time & she stopped from going in. Then I hid on the other side of the cage where the Ameraucanas are next to the run & as soon as she didn't see me she started to go in there again. I again yelled at her & she stopped. So I thought I would just act like I was going into the garage & see what she would do. I opened the side door to the garage & as soon as she thought I was in there she trotted right into the run & then into the coop. So she got put back into the run for awhile & we'll repeat & see what happens. This dog has a one-track mind as far as these eggs go. She is out in the dog run howling & barking because she doesn't want to be in there. I don't want to do the hot sauce thing with her because for one thing I think she might eat them & like them anyway & for another if I feed her eggs that is just reinforcing the behavior I'm trying to correct. That is just my opinion on that. I may be fighting a losing battle with her on this score, but she has got to realize now while she is still young who is boss here & what her boundaries are or we're in big trouble later on.

Danz, I'm so glad that Marshmallow is doing well now & the puppies are thriving, yay! We want more pics!

I wouldn't mind having a couple either but I am not driving up there for just a couple or three birds. Maybe you could try a training collar for Lily. I don't usually condone the use of them but I think it would work to give her a small buzz every time she tries to go in the run. It would probably only take a couple days of watching and buzzing before she got the message and stayed away from that fence thinking that the fence was biting her when she got too close.

 

[Ivywoods]

Trish, I still think you should just put up a cattle panel that the birds can get through but she can't. I'm afraid that by scolding her and putting her in the kennel she might develop other behavioral problems. I don't think she understands that the coop is off limits. What I'm thinking is that she understands that you don't want her to go in there, but perhaps she is using it for more than just eating eggs. It might be a "den" place or "safe" place for her, especially once she has been in trouble. I've used panels like that before and it's pretty easy to cut a piece, if you've got the tools to do that, and then tack it up with a big hinge of some kind that you can make out of a number of things. Once they realize the CAN NOT get in there they give up and look for other diversions..... in her case... probably the neighbors junk pile!

On the KSU pullet sale, I was going to order 6 but my DH said get 12.

Checoukan, if you think you are going to come up here in May, I could pick some up for you and hold them till you get here. The cost of the gas for me to drive down there is not an issue because I want to drive down anyway to see the boys. The oldest will probably be giving tours of the reactor and the youngest "may" be demonstrating the generator he designed and built. Then we could all go to dinner before we came back.

 

[tweetysvoice]

Trish,
This sounds a bit like our saga with "Fritz and The Couch" when he was young. What we did was bought a shock collar that had a base that gave a 10 foot round radius, put it on the couch and that was the end of him getting near the couch. If you have electricity in your coop, maybe you could try something like this. I do have ours still, but I think you are a nice trek from Lawrence.

Edited to note that it took less than a month before he stopped trying to get on the couch while we were gone. We only turned it on while we were not home cuz that's when he'd dig and try to eat the cushions. When we were home he was fine.. grr sneak. After a month he was "cured" and never had to use it again.

 

[checoukan]

Trish, I still think you should just put up a cattle panel that the birds can get through but she can't. I'm afraid that by scolding her and putting her in the kennel she might develop other behavioral problems. I don't think she understands that the coop is off limits. What I'm thinking is that she understands that you don't want her to go in there, but perhaps she is using it for more than just eating eggs. It might be a "den" place or "safe" place for her, especially once she has been in trouble. I've used panels like that before and it's pretty easy to cut a piece, if you've got the tools to do that, and then tack it up with a big hinge of some kind that you can make out of a number of things. Once they realize the CAN NOT get in there they give up and look for other diversions..... in her case... probably the neighbors junk pile!

On the KSU pullet sale, I was going to order 6 but my DH said get 12.

Checoukan, if you think you are going to come up here in May, I could pick some up for you and hold them till you get here. The cost of the gas for me to drive down there is not an issue because I want to drive down anyway to see the boys. The oldest will probably be giving tours of the reactor and the youngest "may" be demonstrating the generator he designed and built. Then we could all go to dinner before we came back.

Trish-- you do have a problem with the dog. It is not going to correct in one day and one night penned up! How long has she been eating the eggs? She has developed a taste for them, and it is like a chicken killer, you are not going to stop her from doing it!! I agree with Ivy, you need to put up a panel, or make a different gate opening, something with a block that she cannot just slip thru.....Something like a small lean two, where the chickens can come out, but small enough and narrow enough she cannot turn her body and clear. You may have to make one on the inside, so if she does stick her head thru, she runs into the board or what ever you use. Make the turn in a U shapeor a V shape, the inside of the coop and the out side of the coop, have the same opening, the other side of the board is blocked so the dog cannot go thru on an angle. One side of the block has to remain closed, the other open. The chickens will use the gate way, and will take a little time for them to start to use it. But it will work.

 

[checoukan]

Trish, I still think you should just put up a cattle panel that the birds can get through but she can't. I'm afraid that by scolding her and putting her in the kennel she might develop other behavioral problems. I don't think she understands that the coop is off limits. What I'm thinking is that she understands that you don't want her to go in there, but perhaps she is using it for more than just eating eggs. It might be a "den" place or "safe" place for her, especially once she has been in trouble. I've used panels like that before and it's pretty easy to cut a piece, if you've got the tools to do that, and then tack it up with a big hinge of some kind that you can make out of a number of things. Once they realize the CAN NOT get in there they give up and look for other diversions..... in her case... probably the neighbors junk pile!

On the KSU pullet sale, I was going to order 6 but my DH said get 12.

Checoukan, if you think you are going to come up here in May, I could pick some up for you and hold them till you get here. The cost of the gas for me to drive down there is not an issue because I want to drive down anyway to see the boys. The oldest will probably be giving tours of the reactor and the youngest "may" be demonstrating the generator he designed and built. Then we could all go to dinner before we came back.

Ivy.....That may work, as I do not know if I will be able to get up there.

Oh and the shock of the day, as I was trying to get the doe too take the third baby, I heard a doe crying, and I thought wonder what is the matter with her?

So I called the goats in and guess what! The young doe I retained from brownie had her kid, and It was the one that I was trying to get the other doe to take!!
Oh, these new momma's!

Anyway, I drug her into the barn, and went and got her baby, so now she can bond with it. She has a cute little milk bag. I did let her baby nurse the other momma, but she is going to get put in the corner, and she is going to take her baby tonight

if she has not done so when I get back home.

 

[checoukan]

9

Trish, I still think you should just put up a cattle panel that the birds can get through but she can't. I'm afraid that by scolding her and putting her in the kennel she might develop other behavioral problems. I don't think she understands that the coop is off limits. What I'm thinking is that she understands that you don't want her to go in there, but perhaps she is using it for more than just eating eggs. It might be a "den" place or "safe" place for her, especially once she has been in trouble. I've used panels like that before and it's pretty easy to cut a piece, if you've got the tools to do that, and then tack it up with a big hinge of some kind that you can make out of a number of things. Once they realize the CAN NOT get in there they give up and look for other diversions..... in her case... probably the neighbors junk pile!

On the KSU pullet sale, I was going to order 6 but my DH said get 12.

Checoukan, if you think you are going to come up here in May, I could pick some up for you and hold them till you get here. The cost of the gas for me to drive down there is not an issue because I want to drive down anyway to see the boys. The oldest will probably be giving tours of the reactor and the youngest "may" be demonstrating the generator he designed and built. Then we could all go to dinner before we came back.

I will have to let you know, but I may get 9 white's and 9 reds.

 

[Ivywoods]

Checoukan-Just let me know what you decide, and then you can make your reservation for that number with KSU. I'm going to make sure I can get that day off (I will do that tonight) then I will put my reservation in tomorrow. I'm only going to get white leghorns. I like them. If they lay eggs anything like the ones I've got now I will be happy.

DH and friend pulled the bookcase and the other thing out that I am going to make brooders out of. I will take measurements tomorrow when I get up and then head up to Falls City to get the welded wire that I need for it. I should have everything else I would need. I wanted to start on it today but won't have time, and if I go to Falls City I won't have time to do much else tomorrow. That leaves Thursday and Saturday morning for me to work on it. Friday I am going up to Omaha to get my new set of stacking cages. I'm kind of excited about that.

They will be big enough for pairs of large fowl or trios or more of bantams. If I want to use them for show conditioning pens, all I have to do is line the wire with something smooth and it will work for that too. It will free up some barn space, that's for sure.

 

[Trish44]

Ok, well it got worse this afternoon because when I let Lily out I had gone into the garage to put up a divider in one of my rabbit pens because there evidently had been a fight between the little does. One of the little babies I just got recently had a cut by her eye, they almost got her eye. So I had to deal with that right then, so I was out there making a divider for the pen when I hear the two pups fighting over something, you guessed it IN THE COOP. So I take off out of the garage & into the coop & both of them, not just Lily, but both of them are in there & are fighting over the chicken feed. OK, I give, I decided that I was not going to win this so I went out by the horse shed & dragged one of those huge livestock panels up by the garage. Lily presently is sitting in the yard on the tie-out chain. That seems to keep Jasmine away from things too because they tend to stay together. I think I have some huge bolt cutters out in the garage that will cut the livestock panel, so I probably will have DH help me with that in the morning, he is already gone to work today. We will have to figure out what to use for hinges for it & something to hook the other side so they can't push through it. The holes are big enough in the panel I think for the chickens to squeeze through to get into the run. OK IVY, what can I use for hinges for this thing? You're better at building things than I am, I need some help & ideas. Just to give you an idea, there is a 2x4 on both sides on the inside of the door that is the frame for the door if that makes any sense so I have those to hook things to. I am so frustrated with these pups right now. They know they're not supposed to be in the coop at all, but yet they go in there every chance they get. And no, it's not a safe place for Lily, it's just her hard headedness because she wants the eggs & the chicken feed & that's where they are even though she gets in trouble for it.

 

[Ivywoods]

Oh, Checoukan-I'm confused now. Did the first momma have triplets? Was one of those you thought were triplets actually from the other doe? Hope she takes it back. I've heard you can smear some of the momma's poop on the baby to help them take it.

We have some that are getting close to kidding but probably at least a week away.

Danz-I am so excited to see new pics of the puppies. I'm sure they have grown a lot. They grow so fast. I remember when Sophie had her pups my stepson thought she was taking care of some baby kittens! They made such a cute little noise just like a kitten, and the one he saw was Runt, who was maybe 1/3 the size of the other pups. Runt is a big dog now! I'm so glad Marshmallow is doing better now! I'm sure that's good for the puppies, too.