Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Well I just sold 8 ducks. That on top of 15 guineas made it a decent morning. Too bad I couldn't do that every day. I need to move a lot more birds. The last guy that showed up had 7 kids. I love seeing a dad do something for his kids. Only one of them was really into the ducks but the others were right in there helping. But they all loved looking at the birds and asked if they could come again some other time for a field trip. He said it was very educational and they really liked learning from it. Heck I didn't tell them anything. Just showed them what I have. I think they'll be buying more birds too. Let's hope! I brought Chopper out the only little girl was enamored with him. She kept petting him.
It's going to be quite a bit cooler today and tomorrow. It would be a good day to do some inside building, but I just have to get to town to see my parents and deliver eggs.
I started out with clean clothes but am covered in mud and poo now. Oh well! What's a little more laundry and another shower?.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Hawkeye, no the car is a Chrysler 300 Limited, it's the same model we had before only a different color & lots more bells & whistles & brand new from the factory where the other one wasn't when we got it. There are some things to get used to, but I think once we do we will really be happy with it. Everything is computer run now, so in the middle of the dash instead of the radio there is a computer touch screen where you control about everything. We can hook it up to our smart phones by bluetooth & calls come in on that so it's handsfree. We got a couple calls from Keena on Monday when we were on our way to her house to pick up my rooster & it is really easy to answer & talk on. She said there wasn't any echo or anything & we were on speaker. We got Sirius Sat. radio free for a year too & DH really likes that.

Well it's raining here today so there won't be any work outside, blah. I have things I can do inside, but I really need to get that other rabbit hutch done before it's 90 degrees again permanently. I haven't even started getting my garden ready either, I'm way behind on that, just too much going on lately. I have to get things ready for the furniture coming in two days also. It looks like I'm going to have to move a whole bookcase of books to make room for the recliners we bought. We just have a very small room that we use for the TV room because of the way the house is built. I can't put the furniture out in the sunroom part because the sun would ruin anything you put out there. I don't like to put shades or anything over the windows because I have a lot of plants in there & it's passive solar too.

Chrysler and Dodge use the same equipment and frames, etc. Don't know if you knew that. My Dodge has the same touch screen on the console too. It also works as a DVD movie player, and of course all the same stuff you mentioned too. Our phones work pretty good with ours, so I imagine you'd have similar results. I've had Sirius radio for years, I don't think I could live without it now! LOL I love that the touch screen is so easy to see what you're listening to and what you're watching. I LOVE my backup camera's on it too.. it fills up the entire screen. No chance of running over my kids with that thing.

Yeah, the rain is throwing a wrench into my plans. I was wanting to do more work on the coop. I've been such a slow poke about getting out there... although, in my defense, it's tough to get out there when I'm running the kids back and forth to lessons, appts, school... etc. Ah well. I really want to get another garden set up, but I think what is there will stay there for this year.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Well I just sold 8 ducks. That on top of 15 guineas made it a decent morning. Too bad I couldn't do that every day. I need to move a lot more birds. The last guy that showed up had 7 kids. I love seeing a dad do something for his kids. Only one of them was really into the ducks but the others were right in there helping. But they all loved looking at the birds and asked if they could come again some other time for a field trip. He said it was very educational and they really liked learning from it. Heck I didn't tell them anything. Just showed them what I have. I think they'll be buying more birds too. Let's hope! I brought Chopper out the only little girl was enamored with him. She kept petting him.
It's going to be quite a bit cooler today and tomorrow. It would be a good day to do some inside building, but I just have to get to town to see my parents and deliver eggs.
I started out with clean clothes but am covered in mud and poo now. Oh well! What's a little more laundry and another shower?.

LOL yeah, I get pretty filthy in the summer working in the barn and the yard. It is what it is! Good job on selling all of those birds!! The kids sound cute and glad they had a good time.

 

[chicken danz]

I don't mind getting dirty. It's just when I have to go somewhere I have to clean up my act. Maybe that is why I like staying home! I just got my eggs washed so I'd better get ready and go to town. The days just go way too fast!!!

 

[Trish44]

Danz, congrats on selling the birds, I feel that way when I sell several dozen eggs at a time. I don't have nearly the number you have though to sell. My new egg customer came yesterday & bought 4 dozen eggs. She has a farm In Okla. & they go back & forth between places, but they don't have any chickens any more, I think she misses them.

Hawkeye, yeah that touch screen is pretty nice, we also have the backup camera & a camera on the front also. There are a lot of nice features on this car. I especially like the one that automatically slows my DH down when he's driving & not paying attention after he gets a certain distance from a car. There are blind spot indicators & cross path indicators as well. We had a guy just drive right out in front of us coming home Monday & that alarm went wild when he came close, wow! My DH tends to gawk around a lot when he drives, so all of those alarms are nice for him, he scares me.

 

[DAVELOVESLORI]

Hello, Y'all-- My Fellow Kansas 'peeps'--

I, too, don't live in Kansas any longer, but I come from a LONG line of Kansas (natives) on both sides of my family tree.

My grandmother kept several chickens in a little coop on her farm outside of Burden, Kansas -- and I remember her having a fairly large ceramic egg that she kept in a nesting box - presumably to get the chickens to produce bigger eggs?

Three weeks ago, we got 5 "rescue" chickens from an 'egg farm' and from what I've been told on this forum, they are traumatized, and... I have reason to suspect that they are molting. The feathers are quite dirty and rather odd-looking; they won't all go in the coop at night (except once) and all of them "projectile poop"!

I feed them Layena, some scratch corn, have some oyster shells out for them; plenty of water. It's been quite hot here lately, and I've been told that since they were "raised" in extremely cramped conditions, they really don't know how to act...

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Hello, Y'all-- My Fellow Kansas 'peeps'--

I, too, don't live in Kansas any longer, but I come from a LONG line of Kansas (natives) on both sides of my family tree.

My grandmother kept several chickens in a little coop on her farm outside of Burden, Kansas -- and I remember her having a fairly large ceramic egg that she kept in a nesting box - presumably to get the chickens to produce bigger eggs?

Three weeks ago, we got 5 "rescue" chickens from an 'egg farm' and from what I've been told on this forum, they are traumatized, and... I have reason to suspect that they are molting. The feathers are quite dirty and rather odd-looking; they won't all go in the coop at night (except once) and all of them "projectile poop"!

I feed them Layena, some scratch corn, have some oyster shells out for them; plenty of water. It's been quite hot here lately, and I've been told that since they were "raised" in extremely cramped conditions, they really don't know how to act...

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Welcome! Which state are you in now? It's starting to get warm here, but I'd not say hot...Yet! I would get them Probiotics to mix in their feed to help solidify their poop. (you can use Yogurt or buy a powder to use as 'top dressing' --sprinkled on food) And They will need at least a 15% or higher egg ration feed to get their recommended protein. The corn should just be for treats, not a meal. Back when I was showing White Crested Black Polish, the corn would actually turn the white feathers a dingy color. We learned not to feed it to them at all. BOSS (Black Oil Sun Flower Seeds) are great for getting them essential oils and fats that they need. I scoop up a big cup of that and throw it on the ground for them to eat every day. It's a "treat" not a meal. Google that here on BYC and you'll see the benifits of using BOSS on your flock. (I have a 40lb sack I buy and it lasts me a good two months or so) I would bet they might have parasites, too. I'd get some Sevin Dust and really sprinkle each one down. Be sure to get the tail, under wings, and neck really well with the dust, and that should take care of mites, etc. You can buy the Sevin Dust at Walmart in the gardening section. I'd look at their legs, too and see if they have the scaly leg mites (you won't see the mites themselves) and you can put vaseline on their legs to kill them. If you are unsure what it looks like-- google that here on BYC to see pictures. The legs will look really bumpy and scaly.

This is the probiotic powder I use: (I bought mine at TSC in the goat section) I believe the horse section also has probiotic powder.

Anyway, hope you have fun with your new flock! They'll need quite a bit of work right now, but they'll get better and should do alright. If you have any other problems, definitely ask us or ask the peeps over on the Emergencies board!

ETA (edited to add) that I'm betting your grandma used the ceramic egg to show the hens WHERE to lay. They like to lay where there are already eggs. It helps them figure out the appropriate place. Unfortunately, the size of the ceramic egg won't make them lay any larger than their breed characteristic usually lay. I just learned (at one of our 4-H meetings for my kid) that the size of the egg actually depends on the width of the pubic bones. The way to determine is to count how many fingers you can put between their legs.. the wider the space usually means the bigger the eggs. Again... if you have BIG birds, you get big eggs. It is simply in their genetic make-up. You can also tell how long they've been laying by the bleaching in their legs-- I'm betting there might be good pictures here on BYC about that too.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Hawkeye, yeah that touch screen is pretty nice, we also have the backup camera & a camera on the front also. There are a lot of nice features on this car. I especially like the one that automatically slows my DH down when he's driving & not paying attention after he gets a certain distance from a car. There are blind spot indicators & cross path indicators as well. We had a guy just drive right out in front of us coming home Monday & that alarm went wild when he came close, wow! My DH tends to gawk around a lot when he drives, so all of those alarms are nice for him, he scares me.

LOL! I need one of those desperately! My DH is a test pilot but he drives a car like he flies a plane -- you know how a plane kind of wanders around? Scares me silly. I try to tell him it's not enough to just keep it between the ditches, lanes matter!

So here's a little story about one of our "drives". It was just after dusk and we were coming back from my brothers in Udall. I told my husband to keep an eye out for deer. He just bobbed his head like he does when he's not interested in hearing from Mrs. Safety. All of a sudden I saw a huge buck on a dead run through the field headed right into our pathway. "DEER"! I yelled. He heard "DEAR"! and responded in an irritable tone of voice "What"? I responded "IN THE DITCH"! just as the thing turned on a dime and went the other way. DH says mildly "Dead"? I cracked up so relieved that we weren't (we had all our kids, plus my nephew in the van with us) and couldn't stop laughing. Finally, all I could spit out was "You crazy old man"! Then I told him what had happened. He cracked up and said "Why weren't you more specific"? I tried to explain I hadn't felt there was time for a lengthy discourse on the matter. Test pilots just don't ruffle easily. I don't know what it would take to actually alert the man to danger. But I'm thinking that with his training to respond to bells and buzzers, a car like yours would be just the ticket!

Now, how to pack all 8 kids into one.

I'm meeting Danz tomorrow, so everyone pray for me that I survive the trip. I know for a fact it won't be boring.

 

[chicken danz]

Daveloveslori, Those battery hens have spent their whole life in a cage. It's just going to take them a while to get used to sunshine and green grass and bugs and normal things. Right now I would concentrate on giving them a higher protein feed than normal. If it were me I'd give them layer crumbles and mix in some game bird feed just to raise the protein level. It might take few months for the feathers to come back in but they will look great when they do. Also they will probably stop laying for a few weeks while they acclimate to their new surroundings. I agree with Hawkeye give them some probiotics or mix a little plain yogurt with their feed. They may not like it to begin with. If you have any salad greens in your fridge you might through some of those out for them to pick at. Don't expect them to love them right off but let them have them free choice. If you aren't using a metal waterer I would also add a little apple cider vinegar to their drinking water. I would use about 3 tsp to a gallon of water. It is best to use the kind that you buy for horses, not what you find on the grocery shelf. If you can't find that buy a package of pumpkin seed and feed them those. These both act as natural wormers where as you can't eat the eggs if you give commercial wormers.
I had some battery hens once that fell off a truck. They were going to be butchered. They were the best laying hens I ever had.

Another day gone and I didn't get anything done I wanted to. I was going to try to build a temporary brooder cage but time and energy ran out. I never made it out to the trailer to work either. The stupid wet weather makes my arthritis go nuts to boot.
I did pretty good on my eggs today too and I have more to gather.
My Mom seemed to be doing fairly well today and my Dad was at the nursing home so I saw them both at the same time.
The midget white turkeys I've been waiting for are finally starting to lay, so in a week or two I'll have eggs to hatch. I am really excited about them. I have these blue slate but they weren't what I was really wanting to raise. If I end up with more males and less females in the blue slate I have someone wanting to buy a female, and I'll just butcher the males. But if I would luck out with 3 females and one male I will probably keep them to breed with. It just depends on the outcome. I really am trying to be sensible about what I Keep to raise. I really do want to down size and concentrate on keeping my favorites and producing pure bred chicks.
Driving HUA must be a guy thing. I swear my DH makes me nervous too. Seems whichever way he looks he kind of steers that way. I used to want to drive all the time but now I let him. If I drive he just sits and snores with his mouth hanging open.

 

[JosieChick]

Found her!!!!!!

Phew, right? I put up posters this morning on my way to class at all the intersections I thought she may have traveled past and while I was in class this afternoon I a guy called to say he had seen her up the road inside a cattle pen next to a vacant house. I called him back he said he and his buddy were driving by and saw my poster and they were talking about it, then they saw another poster and were probably talking about how crazy I was with my bright green posters about my lost dog when his buddy said "hey, that looks like a pyrenees right there in that cattle pen!!" So they turned around and drove up the driveway and saw her purple collar and knew it must be the right dog. So he turned around and called my number on the poster. So I got home tonight and stopped by and nobody was home at the house next door. I couldn't find a way into that **** pen to save my life! I don't know how she got in there but it took me twenty minutes of walking around to find a place where there wasn't thirty pieces of fencing or hotwire. Finally found a functional gate and released her. Must admit she looked very happy to see me and kind of sheepishly embarassed. Boy was she hungry!! Back in the pen with the goats and Bendy is driving her nuts now, guess he thinks he can pick on her now that he has decided she is no longer scary!