Consolidated Kansas

[Deerfield Acres]

DH decided pouring a foundation for the new coop sounded like it was going to be better than trying to reset the blocks we laid. He also agreed that it would be easier to clean and maintain with a concrete floor as opposed to the dirt. At least I know the blocks won't go to waste. I'm going to use them to make a walk from the driveway to the sidewalk in front of the house (yet another project I hadn't had the materials to get done). IT'S ALL COMING TOGETHER! Now....if I could just get that dang fence up!!! Anyone know where I can get the electrified portable poultry fence and about how much it runs (per foot, or however they sell it)?

I got mine online at Premier1 as they were recommended in one of the books I read. I just googled them. They have different heights, spacing for posts. You can buy extra posts to keep the fence from sagging or for corner posts. I got the semi-permanent one since my main coop is stationary but the others are just a bit lighter weight. Prices vary for what type you want and lengths. The temporary electric poultry fence comes in 164', 50' and 25' lengths, if I remember correctly, and it's supposed to be a bit easier to move. The semi-permanent comes in 100' and 50', as I recall. They also sell the chargers: solar, AC or DC. Order the kits for fencing and charger and you will have everything you need to set it up and turn it on. You do not have to run the fence in a complete circle. You can start and stop wherever, say off the corner of your coop and you will still have a charge on the fence. I'm sorry I don't know how much $ per square feet. I really like mine and feel like it was worth every penny.

 

[Ivywoods]

WOW! Congratulations to EVERYONE on your new coop projects, run projects, newly aquired chickens, new hatches and other projects. What an active bunch! Spring is so much fun in the chicken world.

Hawkeye-Was that chick you hatched the result of your A.I. efforts? If so, congratulations on your success. I've got a bantam cochin I will probably have to start that on soon. She hadn't been laying, but has started, and so far it looks like all of her eggs are sterile. I'm going to have to re arrange some pens to make my efforts more successful.

I just came up from the basement. It looks like I had a pretty good hatch on my lavender and silver ameraucanas, and some are still pipping. Of my two sticky chicks, one is doing fine, and the other one is still alive, but I don't hold much hope for it. I was going to euthanize it yesterday. I felt so sorry for it. As I was taking it out it was struggling so hard I just decided to give it another try. I have held it trying to get it's legs to bend. Poor thing. It's neck is still pretty stiff and I just can't seem to get it's feet under it. I'm going to work on it another day. It sure is a little fighter.

My silver ameraucana chicks are so pretty. They seem rather stubborn, though. I dip their little beaks in the water, and they keep their mouths shut tight like there's no way they are going to drink that stuff. It takes a few dips in the water before they get the idea. My lavender ameraucanas, however, almost dip their beaks in by them selves and take a drink the first time almost every time. My little BBRed old english fight and fight like I'm trying to drown them, then when their beak gets wet they shake it off like it's burning them. After a few dips they get the idea though. It seems pretty consistent for each variety to react a little differnt.

We worked on projects last night, too. FINALLY got all the sheet rock up in the two rooms we are working on in the basement. One room will be my craft/sewing room. We got it all taped, and with any luck will get the first coat of mud up and sanded later today. I'm so excited! I'll have to go to physical therapy first and do chores and all, so I hope I'm not too wiped out to work on it later. Oh.... and I need to work on my pens a little more in order to get them ready for their new residents.

 

[HEChicken]

Giggle.. the nerd in me

has to correct you - It's from Star Wars

Thanks. They are still young enough that they just sit where you put them.

Oops

do I feel silly. I used to watch Star Trek but have never seen a single second of a Star Wars movie so you wouldn't think I'd get them confused but.....when DS started playing X-Box, one of his games was Lego Star Wars and watching him one day it actually looked like fun so I started my own game. So my only experience with Star Wars is those little Lego figures running around.

Just had to share... my DH is recovering from a pretty bad running injury, so he hasn't been able to do any marathons yet this year. He did the Half this morning (13.2 miles) instead since he's still recovering. But as you all know, it POURED and rained hard and thundered, etc, etc.... Miserable weather to run in. One of his friends snapped this hysterical picture of him running full out, at top speed this morning. Shows you how insane... er, dedicated I mean, that these runners are! BTW-- Trish, how did your DH do in the OKC marathon? Did he PR?? My DH came home with some horrible blisters from where his wet feet rubbed on his socks against the shoes. Poor guy. BTW-- even at that, he still managed to do mid 7 minute miles.

Sounds like he did pretty well under the circumstances - hope the blisters heal up quickly.

HEChicken, the original EEs we got March 1, so they were probably less than a week old at that time. The new ones in the picture are from a January hatch.

Laying out your building is a bigger accomplishment than you might think. I think the design part is always much harder than the execution. Also, we have a method for estimating time and cost in our house. I ask DH what he thinks it will cost and how long it will take. He tells me. I double the cost and triple the time; that's the REAL estimate!

Yeah - those EE's aren't too far away from laying age then - what a bonus!

I laughed out loud at your method of estimating and DH asked what I was laughing about. So I read out your post to him and he didn't laugh but said "Yeah, that's the best way to estimate writing a software program too" (he's a software engineer).

I just came up from the basement. It looks like I had a pretty good hatch on my lavender and silver ameraucanas, and some are still pipping. Of my two sticky chicks, one is doing fine, and the other one is still alive, but I don't hold much hope for it. I was going to euthanize it yesterday. I felt so sorry for it. As I was taking it out it was struggling so hard I just decided to give it another try. I have held it trying to get it's legs to bend. Poor thing. It's neck is still pretty stiff and I just can't seem to get it's feet under it. I'm going to work on it another day. It sure is a little fighter.

I hope that little chick makes it - it is so hard to watch them struggling for life.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Ivy, cute stories about how each type of chick reacts to the water dipping. I took my silkie out of the incubator this morning and put him in the brooder and dipped his beak a few times. He's got it now and is drinking on his own. He's still weak and having some trouble staying up. He collapses and sleeps for a bit and then gets up again. But he's pecking at the food on the paper towels and eating a bit. I have the electrolytes in the water, so he should be stronger and steadier here in a while. And YES!! He is the result of my AI!! In fact-- ALL of the eggs that are getting ready to hatch are because of AI. Otherwise, I'd have no babies to speak of around here.

Good luck with your AI! I kept my hen and cockerel in pens stacked on top of each other. That way he couldn't see her during the day, so when I got him out, I'd show him his girlfriend and then do the AI and it was easy to switch birds really quick. As soon as he saw her-- it was easy to do! That is SO exciting that your basement is coming along!! I remember when my DH and I were working on ours. Wow, I felt it would never end and I kept dreaming what we were going to do with it. I also have a sewing room, too!! It's so nice that I can have my sewing machine and serger sitting out together now and I can just slide over which one I want to use. I work back and forth between them constantly, because I often serge after I cut patterns, and then I always serge before I put in a seam that will have stress on it (like arm holes!).

Where do you all buy feather dusters? I'm going to make a quick run up to Walmart for some stuff and figured I'd get one for him. BUT, then I got to thinking, who uses those anymore? And I haven't seen one at Walmart in a long time... even though I haven't actually looked for one, so maybe they could have them.

 

[sunshinegirl620]

I just ordered some chicks!!

Thanks to you, Danz, for clueing me in! Now, I ordered 7 silkies...pullets... My question to you all is, is that enough? (I have 2 roos already) and these I'm crossing my fingers will mostly be hens! Should I go more to get more hens out of the deal or will it be my luck I'll land up with 9 roos

 

[Hawkeye95]

I just ordered some chicks!!

Thanks to you, Danz, for clueing me in! Now, I ordered 7 silkies...pullets... My question to you all is, is that enough? (I have 2 roos already) and these I'm crossing my fingers will mostly be hens! Should I go more to get more hens out of the deal or will it be my luck I'll land up with 9 roos

Who did you order them from? As far as I know, My Pet Chicken is the only places that says they can sex silkies, even though they are wrong about half the time-- when you read the reviews here on BYC. I don't think you'll wind up with 9 roosters. I bet it will be pretty evenly divided. If you REALLY want just pullets, Amber Waves does some kind of testing on each bird and they guarantee pullets if that is what you want.

ETA--- oh and CONGRATS on ordering chicks! Welcome to the obsession.

 

[rvroman]

OK, so really quick question. I checked on the chickens in their big girl house today and the rain made most of the shavings moist if not wet. But not like soaked. Is this going to make my babies sick and what can I do to resolve this situation???


Also, no one wants Leroy...HE ROCKS MY SOCKS OFF and I want to keep him but I can't and now I don't know what to do with him. I am going to wait a few more weeks and put him on craigslist I suppose

 

[chicken danz]

Sunshine if you ordered silkie pullets you should count on all but one being a pullet so you should be fine. If you plan to keep at least that many pullets I would add a couple more to your order to account for any losses and missed sexing. Keeping chicks alive isn't always as easy as it seems. If you ordered straight run chicks they should be about 50%.
As far as I know, silkies can be sexed if you find a place that still vent sexes. That is a bit of a rare art any more and not 100% accurate,but at least it improves the chances. Hawkeye knows a lot more about silkies than I do though. If they say they are sexed they should turn out at least 80% correct however. Some places do DNA testing but that makes them very expensive chicks.

 

[sunshinegirl620]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hawkeye, Amber Waves is the place I ordered the first set of silkies from last spring and they just started offering that soon after I received mine last June. But the price of the chick plus the shipping made these birds a bit pricey, I thought, anyway. But they are nice looking birds and if I would have been willing to spend $5 more per bird I could have had their guarantee of hens that I wanted. Oh, and the coop your working, I really like it[/FONT]

... may I copy your plan?? I have a chicken tractor now, but I'd like to put these new babes in a more permanent pen over by my garden spot so in the fall I can turn them out into my fenced in garden.

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Thanks, Danz, that's what I wanted to know...[/FONT]

 

[Trish44]

Wow, you're all a busy bunch of people on all of your projects, now I hope we can start on mine soon, but it looks like rain for the next several days. My DH is trying to recover today too from his run in the rain yesterday, he's not moving too fast.

I tried to take both little chicks out to the brooder this morning & the black Ameraucana is doing fine out there, but the wheaten chick I had to bring back in & put back in the hatcher by itself. It still is having a lot of problems standing & walking. I felt so sorry for it out there I just couldn't leave it to be picked on, it would fall over on it's back & then the other chicks would pick it's feet & walk all over it. I put the vet wrap back on it's legs to see if another day would make a difference. I sure hope this poor little thing can make it, it's a cute little thing & it's trying so hard. It's not happy to have the wrap on it's legs, but maybe it will help. Danz, I'm also giving it electroytes & vitamins from a syringe because it has not seemed to want to drink yet & also the Vit E because it has a balance problem too. I hope all of this helps the poor thing. IVY, how long should I give this wrap on it's legs before I give up on it & take it off? This is the first chick I've had hatch with any kind of problem like this.