Consolidated Kansas

[cherwill]

Tweety, cute blog!

Ivy, the goat babies are darling.

Danz, I'm so sorry about your cochin; I hope the brahma pulls through.

The wind has kicked up my Weim's allergies. She was scratching and sneezing this afternoon, looked like she was having a siezure!

 

[MarcAustin]

Hello all, I finally got my flock started today. I decided to go with 2 Plymouth Barred, 2 Speckled Sussex, 1 Red Sex Link and 1 Black Sex Link. So far, everyone's happy but the larger sussex pecks the side of the brooder loudly every 15 minutes. Perhaps he has some woodpecker mixed in ?

 

[sapphireblu76]

Well, I think I'm finally caught up on reading posts!

First off, prayers to everyone with sick family. I hope everyone recovers soon!

Danz, so sad to hear about your chickens This wind is really doing a number on a lot of us this year.

Congrats to everyone with new kids, chicks, ducklings, eggs, and incubators! The babies are all so cute, I can't wait until mine get here in the next few days and weeks.

Danz, I was able to get some pictures of Sarge today. I think hubby has a new best friend He spent most of the afternoon in the garage with him while he was tuning up the riding lawn mower. He would occasionally go back to his pen and check on the chickens, get a drink and come back to lay on the garage floor.

 

[chicken danz]

Morning all! I sure love being able to see pictures of my (your) puppies! I think they are all going to have a really great life. Sapphireblu and Bamaproud it was great to meet you this week.
No fair complaining though while they go through that crazy puppy stage and chew up everything they can find or decide a chicken looks like play toy cause there is nothing else to do. (They do respond very well to being scolded though.)
Oh Ivy I forgot to ask if that was the right colored rooster? I need to do a color study of chickens I guess so I don't sound dumb. My mind thinks better in primary colors!

Congrats on all the new chicks, everyone.
My day has been crazy already. I had about 10 things to take care of before I even had a chance to pour my first cup of coffee. Top on the list was a demanding duck that thought he was starving and just had to jump out of his crate and run to the kitchen and yell loudly until I gave him some canned catfood! At least he is back in the crate in a food coma now.
I woke up to heavy sleet during the wee hours of the night and the ground is white this morning. The temp when I got up was right at 32 degrees and they had said on the weather last night the low would be about 34. I sure hope it stayed warm enough for the younger chickens and ducks out there.
The chickens are out in the yard pecking at the balls of sleet like they are a treat.
Tweety your blog is adorable.

 

[Ivywoods]

Danz here is a picture of some wheatens. Picture is from the chickhatchery.com website. Not the best picture, but it shows the colors, and the little roo and pullet were pretty close to this. They look young. Do you know how old they are? Wheaten chicks start out yellow, but quickly begin to show darker colors, especially the little cockerells. Thank you for doing that.

I guess I can join join the ranks of the sick on here. I came down with the flu last night. It's not been fun. I'm hoping I get to feeling better soon. I want to finish cleaning up my new "used" incubator and get it set up. I've got a few chicks to move out of the hatcher this morning, too.

OH! QUESTION: Danz, maybe you can help me. What do you use in your little brooders before you move your chicks onto shavings? I don't like to put them on newspaper (too slick) and I don't like to put them on shavings right away. I had been using some rough textured thick napkins that had been given to me. They worked well, but now I'm out of those.

Whatever I use I want it to be FREE! LOL. I like chicks cheep cheep cheep.... I mean cheap.

 

[tweetysvoice]

I'm not Danz, but I used paper towels the first day. The little buggers kept getting under them and into the shavings anyways (picking the corners till they pulled it up) - so I just took the paper towels away and they are on pine shavings. They are doing just fine. Actually snuggling down into the shavings as if they are making small individual nests. I have heard of people using towels too - although that will add to the laundry bill.

 

[HEChicken]

OH! QUESTION: Danz, maybe you can help me. What do you use in your little brooders before you move your chicks onto shavings? I don't like to put them on newspaper (too slick) and I don't like to put them on shavings right away. I had been using some rough textured thick napkins that had been given to me. They worked well, but now I'm out of those.

Whatever I use I want it to be FREE! LOL. I like chicks cheep cheep cheep.... I mean cheap.

I'm not Danz, but I used paper towels the first day. The little buggers kept getting under them and into the shavings anyways (picking the corners till they pulled it up) - so I just took the paper towels away and they are on pine shavings. They are doing just fine. Actually snuggling down into the shavings as if they are making small individual nests. I have heard of people using towels too - although that will add to the laundry bill.

I'm not Danz either but it might have been me that Tweety heard of using towels. In efforts to be more environmentally aware, I stopped keeping paper towels in my house a year or so ago, and now use cloth for everything. When I brooded chicks, I didn't want to end up buying paper towels just for them so....I looked out some old towels that I didn't mind using for pets and spread those over the shavings instead. They worked wonderfully! So great that I never gave them up. Every day I would just gather up the towel, put a fresh one down and by the time I moved the chicks outside, the shavings were still clean. (Subsequently I stopped even putting the shavings in the brooder and brood entirely on towels now). When I remove an old towel, I take it outside and give it a good shake. I find that this gets MOST of the poop off, since it is dry by then. There is the added benefit if I shake it in the backyard, that any food morsels that were on the towel, end up being eaten by the free-ranging chickens in the backyard so it doesn't go to waste. I then add that towel to a pile of "animal bedding" and when there is enough for a load, I run just those items. Tweety is correct that it adds to the laundry bill but as I hang my laundry out to dry and wash in cold water, the expense is pretty minimal - and probably less than it would cost me to have them on paper towels and shavings.

 

[chicken danz]

I used to use the shelf liner I mentioned earlier but that turns into a lot of laundry. Most of the time for bins in the house I prefer to use cheap rough textured paper towels until they get the hang of using the feeders, then switch to shavings. In the brooder house I just use shavings. I really like to give them some time in here first at least until the weather stays warm outside. Besides it's fun to watch them.
The Seramas are out of my group of juveniles that are 3-4 months old. The boys were crowing and I've been getting eggs. As I breed more and more toward smaller chicks it seems they lay earlier and earlier.
I was sitting here once again working on taxes and forgot I had an appointment this morning with a building guy. He showed up and I hadn't gotten dressed yet. I forgot to write that one down. Fro the price they wanted for a lean to I could put in an entire garage. It ain't gonna happen. It was hard to show interest after he quoted me the price. I was just wanting a quick cheap building for game birds.
My taxes are still giving me fits. The tax people are saying I can contribute X amount into my Roth but the program is saying I can't. It sucks. I don't have an accountant so I can't just pickup the phone and ask questions. I've been writing back and forth to a rep from HR Block and their program and their rep are both saying something different. It's driving me nuts!
Ivy sorry you are sick! It looks like I did pretty good on the colors. I think I'm going to pat myself on the back!

 

[Ivywoods]

Danz-Did you ever get a quote from Rusty Barn Co? They were WAY cheaper than anyone. They are super FAST and if they are anywhere in your area they can get to you fairly quickly. I'm sure they could have it done before you could build something.

Well, I put some terrycloth rags in that brooder. I''ve used them before and they worked pretty good, but they were so dirty when I took them out I didn't want to put them in my washing machine, even after trying to shake them out. I don't have too many of those left, so I will have to go to paper towels before long or something else. I probably keep them off the shavings longer than I have to, so maybe I will set up a brooder inside with shaving so they can move onto them quicker.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Tweety: Really enjoyed your blog!

Brrrrrr! So messy outside. Glad the chicks are in their basement where the temp changes aren't so drastic.

Yesterday, we found one of only two Buff Cochin bantams dead inside the light box. It looked like it was trampled but I can't figure that one out. They don't normally stampede inside the light box, they stampede to the exterior of the light box. Maybe one of the Dales just sat on it.

I have the smallest bantams in a box with their own light to protect them a bit longer, but this one wasn't that small so it was having a great time in the big room. Guess I'll never know what really happened. The larger bantams fly in and out of the bantam box now. When they want a little peace they go take a nap with the littles, then eat and drink without competition and out they go. Some of the Sussex have started to drop in to check on them. It's really cute.

I have 2 NHR that I couldn't resist from Atwoods and they are in the box as well. They are feathering out much faster than all of my other birds, I noticed.

I sure wish this weather would cooperate a little. I have things I really need to do outside and my husband needs to build the run for the layers' coop. I would really like to get the coop painted too, instead, here I sit. Oh well. We still need the moisture so at least it's for a good cause.