Consolidated Kansas

[Mandilynn]

Hi all! I have been trying to keep up, but with finals things here have been insane. I love reading about all the hatches going on!! Way cool. I am so far behind I don't think I can make all the comments I would like to. Welcome to the new ones!!

I have been keeping pretty busy around here, my dad insisted on hooking up my auto watering cups, I am a girl after all and totally not allowed to touch tools. Let's just say I will be re-doing it as soon as finals are over. Not that I don't appreciate the help and effort he put into it, I really do, but I have a very specific idea in mind and as it isn't holding water. I did get my rain barrel set up with my husband successfully. We hung gutters on the shed and up-cycled a 55 gallon barrel from my FIL's work. No matter how many times I wash it it still smells like tea, but other than that it works very well. I was amazed my husband and I were able to figure it out so easily. Also, my daughters found a stray beagle a few weeks ago. She is super sweet, trained and has a collar, so I explained to them we would only take her home to find her family. I posted everywhere about her, left my info with the shelter and thought in a day or two she will be home with her family. The shelter told me after 30 days she was basically my problem, and I had to get her registered and get her shots and all that jazz, but she is obviously a family dog used to kids so I never thought we would have her that long. Right? Not so much. No one has contacted us and I am almost sure she is pregnant, unless there is another reason her milk ducts have gotten to the size of golf balls in the last week. *sigh. We never let our dogs breed; so I am hoping I am wrong about this one having pups. Looks like I have a new dog either way. She is thankfully, good with the chickens as well. The chickens are used to my little wienie dog who thinks she hatched them herself, but they do not seem to like this one. Poor dog gets attacked if she gets too close to them. LOL. It's actually pretty funny to see all 19 half grown bantams take after her like they're out for blood. My yard is not fenced yet, but I have been letting the chickens out about 30 min before sundown and keep a close eye on them. They love it and I am pleasantly surprised at how well they stay put. Even when we get the fence up I have doubts that they can be out unsupervised with all the cats around here. If they could make a peace treaty with the beagle she seems to be very effective at running cats off. (the cats just chase my wienie into the house) Any how, that's enough rambling for one day, I should go get some things done.

 

[Trish44]

I had to read for awhile to get caught up, it was a busy weekend for me. Not that I got anything done here because I didn't with all of the activities I had to attend away from here & my granddaughter being here yesterday. She originally was only going to be here for 4 hours & then about the time she was supposed to leave she decided she didn't want to go to the birthday party she had planned to go to & was going to stay with us longer. We ended up taking her home about 8 so she could get things done to get ready for bed since she had school today. While she was here she spent most of the time playing with our little kittens that are about 3 weeks old, she just loves kittens. She picked the runt of the litter & wore the poor thing totally out, then she got the dog bed & the kitty got to take a nap. She wants one so bad, but they already have two cats they got from us several years ago. They finally got them back here from Dallas because they were still at the other grandparent's house where they lived when they were down there. We get to take her with us to OKC on Weds. We're taking her down there so her daddy can get her tooth fixed by a Dentist he knows. She fell on her scooter & broke her front tooth really bad. So anyway we're taking her down there so she can get that done & see her dad. I'm kind of surprised her mom is letting us take her, but she hurt her back & can't drive that far right now, that worked out well for us.

My little turkeys are doing very well now I think, there is only one that was flipped this morning & it got up & ran off when I flipped it over. I fed them some scrambled egg this morning & they love it now. IVY, congrats on your little turkeys, I'm glad they don't have that problem. We'll see what happens when I put the other 3 eggs in the hatcher on Tues. if they hatch & what happens with them. At any rate, the vitamin E & just keeping them on their feet seems to be the trick to getting them through this if anybody has that happen to them.

I have a guy coming today to get the last 3 Easter Egger chicks I have in the brooder, so I can get it cleaned & put my turkeys out there. I know they will be glad for more room.

It sure is nice out today here, cool, it will be a good day to get some work done outside. Oh, by the way, IVY congrats on your son's accomplishment, I never got a chance to tell you that!

Danz, you need to take it easy, you don't want to end up in the hospital!

 

[Trish44]

Well I messed up royally with a bunch of eggs I had in the GQF. I got so tied up with all I had going on this weekend that I totally forgot to put this whole tray of eggs in the hatcher. So I'm sure they're not going to hatch now, but I cleaned up the hatcher after I took the little turkeys out to the brooder & put them in there anyway. Thank goodness it wasn't expensive eggs that I messed up, but it makes me sad anyway that I did that, probably killed a bunch of chicks. Arrrggghhh!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Danz, glad that it worked out well for your brooder and everyone was okay in there over night. It sounds like you NEED sleep!! I hope you are going to take it easy today.

Ivy, did you decide where to put those amazing cages??

Lizzy, that duck house is really coming along! Looks nearly done! Good job to you both!

I had another chick hatch while I was out running errands!!!

I *think* it might be a Blue!!! We'll see.... but it looks kind of Blue!!!!!!! That would be my first Blue if it is!!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Mandilynn, do you think you could post a pic of what your water system looks like? I'm starting to grow more interested in this idea! Good luck with your new Beagle, I sure hope she's not pregnant, but it sounds like that is a possibility. A lot of vets offer really cheap and reduced fees for spay and neuter. Once this is done, I'd check into that. I think my vet used to do it for like $35!

Trish, thats too bad that your grand daughter broke her tooth! Glad she's going to get it fixed up, though. That is a BIG deal. I'm glad your turkeys are doing better, too! So sorry about your egg mishap. I hope they will hatch anyway!

My shipped eggs seem to be looking okay. I haven't candled but three of them, but the cracked one and the two in front seem okay. When I get this chick out, I'm going to check the others and toss out any bad ones. My incubator is looking a MESS!! There is little fur and yuckie stuff all over in there!! Eeewwww!!! I'm glad that after these shipped eggs hatch, that I'll be done and can take it apart and clean it out good. I can't believe this chick got out so fast. It had barely pipped this morning! I'll have to get a picture of it when it dries to see if it really is a Blue or another Splash. It's kind of hard to tell while it's wet.

 

[Hawkeye95]

OKay.... thinking this is Blue?? It's not really fully fluffed up yet.

 

[Trish44]

Hawkeye, what a cutie, congrats again! Yeah, I don't hold out a lot of hope for the eggs in the hatcher, they're overdue, but we'll see.

Yeah, I'm glad my granddaughter is going to get her tooth fixed, it really is broken bad. She really needs braces, but I don't think either her mom or dad can afford them. Anybody got any ideas on keeping a 7 year old happy in the car for over 2 hours, she doesn't do very well riding very far, she gets bored.

Well I have someone coming to get these chicks, so I had better get ready for them. I have to work on my original brooder after the chicks are gone, it needs some revising.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Hawkeye, what a cutie, congrats again! Yeah, I don't hold out a lot of hope for the eggs in the hatcher, they're overdue, but we'll see.

Yeah, I'm glad my granddaughter is going to get her tooth fixed, it really is broken bad. She really needs braces, but I don't think either her mom or dad can afford them. Anybody got any ideas on keeping a 7 year old happy in the car for over 2 hours, she doesn't do very well riding very far, she gets bored.

Well I have someone coming to get these chicks, so I had better get ready for them. I have to work on my original brooder after the chicks are gone, it needs some revising.

Car Bingo, a super neat coloring book that is her favorite-- like Strawberry Shortcake or something she loves, a book or two, a CD of fun songs to sing to, and a hand held game (we have a Leapster).

I bought car Bingo game boards a couple years ago. I don't use them yet with the kids-- they are too young and I don't want them tearing off the little red plastic "sliding doors". But she is old enough at 7 if you have those. But they can be hard to find, so when I saw them, I got about 6 boards and put them aside. They'll be fun to switch around and play with when the little ones get more responsible! (or trustworthy....) Well, I'm sorry about your eggs. Have you candled them to see if they are moving in there or have internally pipped??

 

[pikeman94]

Good news! Looks like enough angry emails and the like were sent that this is going to "fix itself": http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/may/07/town-talk-national-food-magazine-highlights-wheatf/

Good news! I am glad this is getting resolved.

 

[Mandilynn]

Hawkeye, I already took what we had rigged together down, as it was basically just creating a mud hole from all the leaking. I think the problem was that it needs to be more stable and when the chickens try to stand on the cups they lean forward and just poor the water out. I will be sure to put up pics when I get it back together in a better way. And yes, the beagle will be getting fixed ASAP!! Next week I will be taking her to the vet anyhow to get registered and looked over. Hopefully they can tell me she isn't going to have pups. LOL Also, your new chicks are amazingly cute, congrats! You're making me want silkies pretty bad.