Consolidated Kansas

[cherwill]

Danz, it sucks that you have to deal with losing Dirty Girl after everything else you've been dealing with.

Sapphire, what a great experience on the trampoline. We often get so busy with everyday life that we forget to take time for things like that, and they're really the most important parts of life.

Nana, what a sweet picture!

Avery, learn from my mistakes.

I definitely want to hear how you did it better and please post pictures if you can.

Justhatchin' did us a huge favor (again!) and traded our two new roos for hens she had. She said we could probably put them in with our bigger birds, but they're pretty close in size to Blanche and Rose, so we went ahead and put them in with the young 'uns. Hers are 2-3 months older than ours but they seem to be working things out so far. They ignored each other for a bit, then Blanche walked over to them and made herself as tall as she could. She had a stare-down with the black one; it made a few lunges her way and she didn't even flinch. Then she made a move towards it and it ran away. They've had a truce going on since then.

 

[Nana2KJS]

OK. Thanks to Avery and her friend, Miss Nellie has something to look forward to. Put a couple started easter eggers under her last night. Now for another question.

We nearly had a chicken riot in the back yard this morning! Nellie left the community box long enough to get a drink and eat a bit. In the meantime one of the other girls climbed in to deposit her daily gift and Nellie came unglued! I really hadn't thought about the fact that she is usurping everyone's nesting spot!

Can I move Nellie and her eggs to another protected place and let the girls have their box back? I have a very sheltered box in the greenhouse, along with food and water, and can leave the doors open so she gets fresh air.

What think, all ye experts?

 

[chicken danz]

Moving a broody is risky unless you have an incubator ready as a back up. Often times they will not sit on moved eggs. It might be easier to make another spot for the other chickens to lay.

 

[Hawkeye95]

There is/was a discussion of gold vs silver leakage in older BBS males either on Silkie or Ameraucana forum or maybe a bit on both. Don't have time at the moment to double check, but something about gold being preferable for better black lines and silver being for the blues. Discussion surrounded underlying genetics, making better blacks and not running blacks with blue/splash. Don't know what specific issues you are having, but worth reading when you get a chance. Neither forum moves as fast as here.

On the faking issue, don't do it, no matter what the poultry leader says she does. Our poultry super for multiple years was shocked when she heard we actually bathe our birds for show. Almost show prep step 1. Some people can't be bothered to educate themselves and some just don't care. Start your kids right and you never have to worry about it. Personally, I'd have the kids show the birds. Use it for showmanship and impress the judge with their knowledge.

Thanks Avery! I've definitely decided that using hair dye or anything else is just wrong. I never wanted to misrepresent my birds in the first place or be dishonest in any way, but when this lady was talking to me about it, it did seem like a good idea. (at the time) I just needed to hear feed back on it, and basically LEARN what the heck we're doing! (as well as get a reality check on what is right and wrong to do at shows!) Yeah, I've decided I will let my son show our Polish. I may bring 3 or so of the best ones and see what happens. They have a bit of white in the tail, but worst case, we learn what SOP is for them and just have fun showing them.

I so wish I could relocate my dogs to your place for a few days, Hawkeye. Those coyotes would be history. But maybe if you are able to shoot them that will be good for the soul. Who owns the land behind you? Would they mind if someone hunted back there. There are lots of people who coyote hunt for the pelts. If the owner would let you hunt you might put an add in CL looking for coyote hunters who'd want to take advantage of having a place to go. Around here people are always looking for places to hunt.
It's funny you should mention Praise songs. I have had church songs going through my head since my mother passed. Funny, it is something I just never did before. In the Garden is the one that has been there the most because it sounded just like my mother. She loved her garden.
I've got to get my act together today. I have someone coming about noon to get a few ducks. When DH gets up he wants to go to Topeka and buy some more lumber for the pens and the building. Hopefully that will get him back to work on it. He has 3 days off so it would be really nice to see some progress. Those poor peafowl are still closed up in that horse trailer. I'll never get eggs if I don't get them out of there.
I haven't mentioned my Sabastopol geese or Chopper recently. Chopper decided he is a goose and has moved in with the geese. That makes me happy because they can wander around the yard together some day. I really love the geese. They are so endearing. And I noticed their poo smells like grass not like duck poo. That is a blessing for sure! I still want to fence the front part of the yard so I don't have to worry about the birds or dogs getting on the road. My puppy is growing like a weed. I haven't officially named her yet either. It's about time. She's getting huge.

Yeah, I would love to see your dogs take care of these coyotes! I saw 2 of them with my own eyes. However, I heard a few more in the back pasture-- so I'm guessing there are 4 of them living in my tree line waiting on another poultry dinner.

I think it's wonderful when a song can remind you of someone or bring back a feeling you had associated with good memories of someone or a place. I'm so glad that Chopper is happy with the geese. The Sabastopol are probably the most gorgeous geese ever, in my opinion! I didn't realize you have those, too! I still liked Cotton or Cloud or something fluffy like that for your puppy.

Hawkeye-Oh, man! I'm ready to come down and get those freaking coyotes for you. Generally, if I can see them, I can hit them. What kind of gun do you have? I'd be willing to help with any advice regarding hunting coyotes if you want. The other option is to put an add on craigslist or somewhere asking people to come hunt them. ONLY let hunters come in that hunt by calling them in. You do not want a coyote runner... one that runs them with dogs to get them. And, of course, I know I've said this before, be very careful about any information you give out or who you let on your place. You might know someone who could find a hunter for you, and that might be better.

I wish you could experience what we do with our great pyrenese. When we first got our boer goats we couldn't sleep at night because of the coyotes. We got these dogs and we have never lost one goat or bird, to a predator (other than my own dog, Digger, who has since found a new home) and one guinea that was killed by an owl or hawk.

Well, you are welcome to come shoot all my coyotes! There is nothing behind me-- no houses or anything. There is a corn field to the south of me where the line of trees are where the coyotes live and then right behind me, there is another smaller field with rail road tracks on the other side of that. With a short range bullet, I don't think it would go far. I have a .22 with a scope. It's nothing special, and I'm not the best with it. What I really want is one with a laser. How do you call in coyotes?? Like with injured bird sounds? These coyotes are REALLY bold, I bet they'd come right up to whoever is calling them. I caught them in my front yard a few weeks ago-- my little bitty dog took out after one and I chased it across the lawn and kept screaming and yelling at it to stop. It got pretty close to the coyotes before it realized how much danger it was in and turned around and headed back to me. They just stood there on the berm of my lagoon looking at me. They didn't run even after I stood out there yelling at them. If I cant' get them myself, I'll definitely put in an ad on CraigsList to come get them.

We've had my daughter's lab since the day the new baby was born. Had the baby (now 1 month old) for an hour this morning. Looks to me like Lexi thinks the baby is ok. Maybe it's time for the dog to go home.

Beautiful baby!! Looks like that dog is pretty happy about the baby too! I think Labs are great family dogs.

Hawkeye- Sooooo sorry to hear about Seymore!!

She was such a special turkey. It is so hard to lose them, they become such beloved pets.

Thank you, Josie. I'm still surprised she's gone when I walk out there. It was so second nature for her to come running when I stepped out the door.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Moving a broody is risky unless you have an incubator ready as a back up. Often times they will not sit on moved eggs. It might be easier to make another spot for the other chickens to lay.

I had heard that too. I ended up having to move my broody silkie twice while she was sitting on eggs. But I had a low wood nest box that is easy to move. I simply moved her AND the box together. I lifted it all up and she just flattened down in the box while I moved her. It worked out fine. But it doesn't sound like you can do that.

 

[Trish44]

Danz, I'm sorry about your hen, she went through a lot.

Hawkeye, I know you're missing Seymore, but when you're ready I will have some little turkeys here if you decide to get some more. I just looked at the first batch again & they're growing really well so far.

Well I'm really proud of myself, I managed to build another brooder box all by myself last night. I need to go out after while & put the hinges on the door & the latch, but other than that it's done. I wasn't able to figure out how to do it like I was wanting to using that tub thing, but it will work OK. The main thing is that it is a place for the little chicks I have coming to hang out till they grow some to keep them safe & warm. I've been using up some scrap lumber I got for several projects & it's really come in handy. Anyway, for a non-builder I don't think I did too bad of a job making this thing. I will have to take come pics later on. The fun comes in now re-arranging the garage to figure out a place for it. I have to figure out where to put the tank for the turkeys too when those hatch, so I'm going to have to totally move a bunch of stuff to find room for all of those brooders. I still haven't gotten rid of the monster TV that is my son's, I'm trying to sell it, but it's not a flat screen, so I'm having a hard time even selling it cheap. I sure would like to get it out of my way, it weighs a ton too, I had to move it twice now, ugh.

We had to make a trip to Wichita today to take my new car in to the shop for an oil change & there was a tiny speck on the front left bumper that we noticed when we took delivery of it that seemed to not have gotten any paint, so we had to get it approved for them to re-paint the bumper & today was our appt. for that. I had to leave the car for two days, so I'm kind of stranded here with only our old truck in case I need to go somewhere. I couldn't really believe they had to take the whole bumper off the car & paint that whole thing just for one tiny speck, but that's what they told us. At least nothing we were having done today was costing us anything. All of the maintenance on the car is free for the first year & of course the paint job is free because it's a factory flaw, so that was all good news.

I just put my blue wheaten Ameraucana eggs into lockdown, so we'll see if any of those end up hatching. I'm actually not too hopeful about those since they're the ones that came all the way from California. I have my hovabator stuff to the max with eggs, it couldn't hold one more if I wanted to put it in there & there has been no news so far as to when my GQF is going to ship. They said it could be 7-10 days just for order processing, so who knows when they will ship it.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Avery, BTW, I was just reading about the Silver vs Gold background on Blacks. Here's the thing, Silver isn't very common anyway in BBS, so I'm wondering who is even trying to breed silver into the Blue and Splash? I think that is a really smart thing, personally. Because if you had silver leakage, you almost wouldn't even know about it! And basing your black on Gold I read gives a better base for deeper/darker blacks. I've been keeping up with it, for sure. So far, I haven't bred anything that I know of that has gold leakage. However, my splash broody has a bit of gold leakage under her beak to the left side. I'd decided not to breed her because I didn't want to risk bringing in worse gold leakage into my chicks. But I was told by a couple of really great breeders here lately that from the pictures I've posted of her, they think it's worth a shot. This broody has a super nice crest, good feet, good separation, no split wing... and really typey-- with a nice S shape to her. So I think I've reconsidered breeding her and I'll give it a shot. She's still broody right now, though, so it'll be a while before she lays again. And in the mean time I'm going to buy some eggs from another breeder that does really well in shows and hope I get a couple of nice chicks to breed back. My chick that I just hatched has Brachydactyly (missing the toenail on the outside toes) which I've since learned is really common AND is only a 1 or 2 point deduction on the whole of 100 points. So in all, not a big deal. But it is genetic, and it is supposed to come from in-breeding. So I really don't know how many more chicks I should produce off of my trio I have here. Sounds like I need new blood to reduce the chances of getting toes with missing nails. Although, a few of the silkie experts have told me that regardless of new blood, that gene that causes it is an autosomal incomplete dominate trait-- which means only ONE parent with that gene is needed to pass it on. With inbreeding (which I am possible doing, because I bought these birds from the same breeder-- although she said they were from different pens, and now I'm wondering if that is indeed the case) it raises the chances of having a chick born with Brachydactyly to 50% and with normal breeding (no in-breeding) you only have about a 20-25% chance of it happening. This gene is supposedly linked to the "feather leg" gene. Anyway.... that is the breeding problem I was referring to! LOL Sorry that was crazy long.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Danz, I'm sorry about your hen, she went through a lot.

Hawkeye, I know you're missing Seymore, but when you're ready I will have some little turkeys here if you decide to get some more. I just looked at the first batch again & they're growing really well so far.

Well I'm really proud of myself, I managed to build another brooder box all by myself last night. I need to go out after while & put the hinges on the door & the latch, but other than that it's done. I wasn't able to figure out how to do it like I was wanting to using that tub thing, but it will work OK. The main thing is that it is a place for the little chicks I have coming to hang out till they grow some to keep them safe & warm. I've been using up some scrap lumber I got for several projects & it's really come in handy. Anyway, for a non-builder I don't think I did too bad of a job making this thing. I will have to take come pics later on. The fun comes in now re-arranging the garage to figure out a place for it. I have to figure out where to put the tank for the turkeys too when those hatch, so I'm going to have to totally move a bunch of stuff to find room for all of those brooders. I still haven't gotten rid of the monster TV that is my son's, I'm trying to sell it, but it's not a flat screen, so I'm having a hard time even selling it cheap. I sure would like to get it out of my way, it weighs a ton too, I had to move it twice now, ugh.

We had to make a trip to Wichita today to take my new car in to the shop for an oil change & there was a tiny speck on the front left bumper that we noticed when we took delivery of it that seemed to not have gotten any paint, so we had to get it approved for them to re-paint the bumper & today was our appt. for that. I had to leave the car for two days, so I'm kind of stranded here with only our old truck in case I need to go somewhere. I couldn't really believe they had to take the whole bumper off the car & paint that whole thing just for one tiny speck, but that's what they told us. At least nothing we were having done today was costing us anything. All of the maintenance on the car is free for the first year & of course the paint job is free because it's a factory flaw, so that was all good news.

I just put my blue wheaten Ameraucana eggs into lockdown, so we'll see if any of those end up hatching. I'm actually not too hopeful about those since they're the ones that came all the way from California. I have my hovabator stuff to the max with eggs, it couldn't hold one more if I wanted to put it in there & there has been no news so far as to when my GQF is going to ship. They said it could be 7-10 days just for order processing, so who knows when they will ship it.

Thank you so much Trish, and I know that Ivy has said the same thing about her Royal Palms, too. You both are so sweet to offer that. I just don't think I am ready right now. Definitely too soon and maybe I'll feel differently later on. At least I know you both have RP's because I've definitely fallen in love with that particular breed. I hope your car comes back looking fabulous! Bummer you are out of a vehicle, but nice to have it taken care of! I hope those new eggs will surprise you, even though they've come a long ways! Good luck! OH-- and bravo on building that brooder by yourself!

 

[Nana2KJS]

Moving a broody is risky unless you have an incubator ready as a back up. Often times they will not sit on moved eggs. It might be easier to make another spot for the other chickens to lay.

Well - you're right. I tried it while I was away from the computer. Shoulda just stayed put, cause that's what Nellie did. She just went back to the empty box. So ... she can have it. The other girls can just use the test nests! We'll see what happens.

Maybe we'll get a couple new babies right before I get my new knees - 20 days! Counting down!!!!!

 

[Ivywoods]

My DH's new quail project. These are bobwhite. They are SO cute and SO tiny! The little noise they make is cute, too. They remind me of a teeny tiny little squeaky toy!