Consolidated Kansas

My first setting of eggs should be hatching Monday, the second on Wednesday. I keep going in my room and staring at them as if they could hatch at any moment, lol. Humidity and temp are good, plugs open, egg turner removed, damp wash cloths under the grate...c'mon and hatch already!!!
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Sapphire-Wow! Nice picture!

Pikeman-If your hat is off to me, then I MUST be crazy because that is one crazy hat!

David-Glad you got your leaks fixed (hopefully!)

Tweety-Sounds like your are on a diabetic roller coaster right now. Sure hope they get him regulated soon.

Bama-I will pick up extras if they have any. I know of one person that cancelled, but I have no idea if those pullets have been spoken for.

Nana2KJS-Give Checoukan a PM. I'm sure she would work something out for you.
 
IVY, have fun with the drive & that many pullets in that jeep! That should be a story when you get back. Where do you find all of these cages that you find? I never find great things like that.

Did you ever check out those cages that I posted a link to you a day or so ago? They look a lot like Ivy's and are a super good deal by the looks of them. If I remember the picture right, there are 12-14 cages stacked in a set up just like the ones Ivy just bought - I thought you might be able to use them for your rabbits.

Your mowing adventures sound like mine. After that rain a few weeks ago, the grass at our new place started growing like crazy but we can only get out there on weekends, and with DS's baseball, usually only one day of each weekend. So a few weeks ago I went out to mow, but got there to find I'd left the key to the shop behind. The mower is in the shop so I couldn't get in and get the mower out. Grrr. The next weekend I made sure to take the key, but when I looked in the tanks, realized I wasn't going to get much done because it was almost out of gas and my gas can was back at the other house. Last weekend, I remembered key and gas can, but was not able to get out there until the Sunday, right after the storms and the grass was way too wet to attempt mowing. By then, it was 18" high and looked dreadful. I filled the tanks so it would be ready to go whenever the grass dried out. Wednesday I left work and decided to drive out and spend the afternoon mowing since I didn't have anything on right after work. I got there to find......it was freshly mowed. I think I have a really great neighbor there at the new place. I took them an 18-count of eggs a couple of weeks ago but this is way over the top (there's about 3-acres that they mowed so its a BIG job). Methinks I owe them a bunch more eggs!!!

Ivy - have a safe trip and hope the birds travel well!
 
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Sorry I haven't been on as much this week. Been super busy on this side.. Sorry if I missed any important stories!

Thanks for all the kind words about my DH. We've had a few more scares since that first night. His blood sugar is still way out of whack. It was over 400 again this morning and they are upping his insulin again (for the third time) so hopefully this weekend he'll start feeling better again. After they got it down to 100 in the ER he said that he'd never felt so good in his life, but now that it's still bouncing up and down he's back to feeling crappy. I guess it'll take a while for it to get fully regulated. I think the thing that he's most grumpy about is not having his orange juice in the morning. LOL


I am so glad that my DS graduates from HS next month and we don't have to deal with that anymore! Between basketball and TKD, I swear that I was just a chouffer for him before he got his drivers license! That's something that I don't miss at all! My best friend's son (who is just 9) is playing baseball and she was telling me how crazy the number of practices are. She said that they run so late that they have troubles finding time to fit in dinner and homework! What are they thinking.. these are just kids!
So sorry to hear that your DH is having more troubles. I sure hope it gets regulated soon. :( Congratulations on your son graduating from HS! Is he going to go to KU? Since it's right there...

HeChicken, well I learned something new about sexlinks I didn't know, thanks! I don't know if the guy knows anything about what he's doing or not. I don't think I'll ask him, I'll just see if any hatch & go from there. I might just confuse him if I ask, so I'll just let it be a mystery.

Wow, I'm tired. I went out & worked out in the garage some. I decided that since my momma Chinchilla rabbit wasn't so happy with her cardboard nest I would build her a wood one. I have quite a bit of scrap wood out in the garage just the right size for small projects, so I slapped together a box for her. I got it done after doing all of my other chores & transferred all the nesting material & the 6 little babies & moved them down a cage where I can work with them easier. All of the rest of the big rabbits are outside in hutches, so I had extra big cages empty. Anyway I got the babies moved with momma watching me the whole time & then I went & got her. She went & checked out the nest, hopping in to check on the babies & then back out again. She started eating after that & looked really happy with the whole thing, so maybe she's pleased to have a better nest box. She seemed perkier than she has been since having the babies, so if that's what it took then the work was worth it. So far all 6 have made it, there is one that is smaller than the rest, so I want to keep an eye on it. It sounds kind of gross, but if they have any babies die they eat them. That's what my other momma rabbit did when she lost those 3 tiny ones she had that were about a third the size of the other two. The two that made it are fat little things, they got fed well. Now that I have the babies where I can get to them easier maybe I can get some pics tomorrow. They're pretty active little things & they don't look anything like they will when they get their hair.

I was planning to mow for two days now & for some reason I don't think I'm supposed to. The first day I started & then ran out of gas after mowing only the front yard. Then I went out today to mow some more & the mower wouldn't start. I tried everything & it just wouldn't start. My DH went into work early today naturally & I texted him & he had me check all of these things & nothing worked, so I guess he'll be out there working on that before he goes to work tomorrow. We just got this mower brand new at the end of the summer last year.

I sure wouldn't want to try to incubate in the hovabator 1588 incubator all the time. I love it for hatching, but it's so hard to get the humidity where I want it for incubating, not like the Brinsea at all, it's really easy to control the humidity in it. Let's hope that cabinet incubator doesn't take as much time as they say it could to process my order.
Hey, I learned something about sexlinks, too. Had no idea that is how it worked! Sounds like your mama bunny is happy with her new box. That stinks that you can't get your new mower to work! I would say maybe vapor lock, but it's not been hot enough. Then I'd say maybe you flooded it ... but it should have started an hour later or so if that were the case. Very furstrated, I hope you can get it figured out! Our mower is now getting older, it still seems new to me, though. I think we got it about 4 years ago now-- I love it. It cuts my mowing time in half. I used to use one of those lawn tractors that took forever to mow with. Interesting about the Hovabator not holding the humidity as well as the Brinsea, I'm sure glad I have this Brinsea. Now that I got it adjusted-- there isn't much to go wrong with it.


Hawk: Thanks for the link & photos. I made a few modifications to the nest boxes to try & address my leak problem. Found 2 sources of leaks & have "fixed" both of them (I hope). I need to take/post some pics of my solution. I've been waiting for the boxes to dry out well before giving it another test. Nice weather has helped that over the past week. Since it looks like rain isn't in the forecast for another week I may have to get the sprinkler out to create some rain myself to see if what I did actually worked.
Glad that you got it figured out! That's great! Post some pics and see what you did!


The class has been full, but we finally set it up for May 3rd.. couple weeks, not too bad. They told him to bring the "cook of the house", which is me, so I'll be attending as well. I'm glad I'm going so I can be aware of what to do in case it starts going the other way while they are adjusting the meds and it drops too low. He was doing so good with the pills and diet, we've already eliminated all sugars and watch the carbs, but lately (and girls.. you can close your ears to his cuz it ticks me off as well) but he has been losing weight like crazy and needs to gain 40lbs. They said it was a symptom of the diabetes. Who knew. I never knew that Type 2 could affect anyone, especially someone like him that religiously works out every day and weighs only 155lbs. (yes.. he does have to gain weight - kinda wish that were MY problem. LOL) We'll get it figured out. It's interesting at how something like this doesn't just affect the single person with the disease, but instead affects the whole household. I did loose some weight just by having to switch to diet pop. I didn't want to tempt him with the regular in the house. Now, i don't even drink pop hardly at all. I think it was the sugar that my body had craved before. I get my morning coffee caffeine and I'm good for the day. I've been drinking those Mio shots with water - and I love them!! If you haven't tried them, they are great. One of those little things has lasted me 2 weeks and that's filling my big hospital mug twice a day!
Yeah, that is crazy he needs to gain weight now, WOW. We rarely drink soda here, and we never order it when we eat out. We do have soda in the house from time to time, but we mainly try to eat as healthy as possible. I won't drink the diet drinks at all, I still don't like the idea of some of the more popular sugar substitutes and how damaging they can potentially be. We are careful about what milk we drink and always buy organic meat (hormone free). I rarely cook with red meats and we eat a lot of chicken and turkey-- and never with their skins. No potato chips, cookies, sweets.. The kids love their veggies and I try my best to make sure we eat low fat and healthy. Maybe you could pick up a diabetic cook book at Barnes and Noble or find one online that might help you think of different ways to cook that will make it easier to keep his sugar levels more stable. We have a "Food For Thought" (natural and whole foods grocery) here in Wichita, and i buy a lot of stuff that my grocery store doesn't have there.
 
My first setting of eggs should be hatching Monday, the second on Wednesday. I keep going in my room and staring at them as if they could hatch at any moment, lol. Humidity and temp are good, plugs open, egg turner removed, damp wash cloths under the grate...c'mon and hatch already!!!
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YAY!! Post pics when they hatch! Oooh, so exciting!!!


Favorite photo for today :)
WOW, this is an incredible picture!! Great capture!


Did you ever check out those cages that I posted a link to you a day or so ago? They look a lot like Ivy's and are a super good deal by the looks of them. If I remember the picture right, there are 12-14 cages stacked in a set up just like the ones Ivy just bought - I thought you might be able to use them for your rabbits.

Your mowing adventures sound like mine. After that rain a few weeks ago, the grass at our new place started growing like crazy but we can only get out there on weekends, and with DS's baseball, usually only one day of each weekend. So a few weeks ago I went out to mow, but got there to find I'd left the key to the shop behind. The mower is in the shop so I couldn't get in and get the mower out. Grrr. The next weekend I made sure to take the key, but when I looked in the tanks, realized I wasn't going to get much done because it was almost out of gas and my gas can was back at the other house. Last weekend, I remembered key and gas can, but was not able to get out there until the Sunday, right after the storms and the grass was way too wet to attempt mowing. By then, it was 18" high and looked dreadful. I filled the tanks so it would be ready to go whenever the grass dried out. Wednesday I left work and decided to drive out and spend the afternoon mowing since I didn't have anything on right after work. I got there to find......it was freshly mowed. I think I have a really great neighbor there at the new place. I took them an 18-count of eggs a couple of weeks ago but this is way over the top (there's about 3-acres that they mowed so its a BIG job). Methinks I owe them a bunch more eggs!!!

Ivy - have a safe trip and hope the birds travel well!
That was sooo nice of your new neighbors to do that. Looks like you all should be getting along if they are thoughtful enough to do that. That was sweet of you all to bring out eggs for them, too. Crazy about your mower debacles before that, though. LOL!
 
Bama-I have 6 pullets coming that will be yours if you want. They are the white KSU pullets. Let me know. I believe they were $6 each, but I don't know if they are going to charge tax or what, so I will let you know when I get back.
 
It's official. I am certified and lisensed chicken/crazy/psyco.

We picked up my cages. I found these on craigslist. I didn't need them but thought, "oh, wouldn't it be nice...." Talked to Checoukan on the phone and showed them to her on craislist. I couldn't justify getting them with a move coming up sometime in the next year. Checoukan said, "Just think of how much stuff you could pack in there to move..." It's your fault, Rosie. You are an enabler!

Anyway, they are big... 8feet long and 6 feet high and there are two units of 6 cages each for a total of 12 pens. Nice large size. I knew they were big. Okay... we took a trailer to haul them. I did NOT think about how HEAVY they would be! The only people there to load them were me, the seller's daughter, who had recently had a C-section about the same time I had my bones replaced with titanium, and my DH, who not that long ago had some magic slinky thing put in his main coronary artery to keep it from plugging up with sewage.

So if we had just taken a few minutes to study the situation we could have made it a lot easier on ourselves. I love my DH to pieces. He goes along with my crazy, impulsive, whimsical ideas without complaint, but he IS a bull in a china closet some times. He immediately starts muscling this thing around to get the first one on the trailer. We managed to get it tipped up on its end on the trailer. A second or two after the thing is up on the trailer (I have no idea how many hundred pounds!) one of the steel gates came crashing down and hit me right on the head and then banged into my back. I was seeing stars and my ears were ringing. It's a wonder it didn't knock me right down on the ground. I politly excused myself from the activities for a few minutes. You know, I almost never hurt myself. I take time to look things over and am pretty careful with a good deal of common sense. Trouble is, some of that common sense just doesn't come to the front when you are on pain medicine. Drugs put common sense in the compost pile of the cranium.

After the head banging we realized it would be VERY simple to just remove all of the doors and a good deal of the plywood. Heck, it wouldn't have been very difficult at all to just disassemble the whole thing. A few bolts was all that held the thing together. We got the second one loaded with much less "headache" and then realized the whole thing was probably too tall to make it back out the barn door. We managed to squeak it out with 1/2 inch clearance.

The trip home wasn't the most comfortable. The thing was wobbling with every gust of wind and bump in the road. We ended up stopping at Orscheln's in Louisburg, KS (Nice place!) to get some extra bolts that were missing and some extra rope to secure it. It was pretty solid then and we were able to sail home with a tailwind most of the way.

After beaning my noodle with a steel gate my ears were ringing the whole way home. I guess there's more than one way to make yourself "dingy."

Here's the monsters, still on the trailer and probably NOT going to be unloaded tonight.

In this picture they are sitting on their ends. All the gates are removed and most of the plywood flooring is off and staked in between the two units. When they stand up on their wheels they are just over 6 feet high and 8 feet long each. There are two levels of pens, so when upright the floor level of the top one is just over 3 feet high, which is a really nice height to work.


Ivy, I just got caught up on all my reading and those are awesome cages, sure sorry you got beaned, but gosh you made it sound so funny I couldn't help laughing.
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At least you made it home with the goods. Just so you know, I would have easily taken a concussion for those 2 calf hutches for $225, but all I wound up with was a pain in the butt!
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It's tough being certifiable chicken ladies.


Pikeman, put your hat back on, we won't recognize you without it!
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Hawkeye, your poor parents. To find you unconscious and then off you go to participate in a rodeo, I bet your parents were going "Oh NO she didn't"!


Trish44, now I get it! These types of dry runs are just part of the whole OWC, Obsessed With Chickens, syndrome!

HEChicken, your mowing fiasco sounds like something that I thought only happened to me. My sympathies but what a wonderful neighbor. I hate to mention this but that black and white EE looks more "pullet" all the time. I thought the black and white ones were always cockerels but there's just no way that bird is a cockerel. Your other cockerel is doing great and such a pretty bird. I'll take a pic today so you can admire him!

Sapphireblu, that photo is just stunning. Thanks for sharing the pics. More, more!
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Tweety, glad you and DH are hanging in there. Hope it all smooths out soon, that's just scary.
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Praying for Verna today, for those of us who've lost our Moms, I know you're reliving your "day" just like I am. My sympathies for us all.
 
SusanS, yeah now you got it! You know you're obsessed with chickens when everything you look at you're thinking of what you could use it for with the chickens! I'm not the only one that uses dog houses for their chickens either.

IVY, well if you're crazy that makes all of the rest of us right up there with you. Have a good trip picking up the pullets.

tweety, it's too bad you can't get into the Diabetic class sooner, but it will be helpful when you do. It's pretty comprehensive I understand from what I've heard.

Sapphire, let us know how your hatch goes, it's so exciting for the first one, it's truly amazing how those little things even get out of their shells. After you see how they're all curled up in there you wonder how they manage to get arranged so they can peck their way out. Be sure to post pics after some hatch, we always like to see new chick photos! I love your duck photo by the way.

Hawkeye, Well I felt really stupid after my DH got home last night & went out to check on the mower. We haven't had this mower long enough & used it enough since we got it since it was the end of the summer last year for me to get used to how everything works. Apparently I had the mower blades engaged & it won't run with that lever pulled, geez, I'll get used to this thing eventually. It's totally different than the lawn tractor we had before. I'm going out to mow now.
 
Thanks for all the compliments, I love that picture. It was such a lucky shot.

I swear I hear cheeps coming from the eggs and thought I saw one wiggle a little. It's so hard to tell with all the background noise (kids, dog, tv, chicks in the other room). I don't see any pips yet, but maybe some have pipped the air sac.

I must admit, I am envious of your cage find, Ivy! Even if I did find something that awesome, I wouldn't have a way to get it home...I need to invest in a trailer, I guess. I rarely find anything neat in a price range I can afford anyway, lol.

Verna, big hug to you, lady.

Off to work on the pen and coop some more today...geeze, will these things EVER get done *sigh*
My little white Cochin. What do you think? Is she a Cleo, Daphne, Priscilla?
 

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