Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

The newest addition to the world:


This little guy hatched from under my broody sultan just within the last hour. If you recall, my sultan chose to brood in a straw bale up under my deck, between two rafters. I had to lift a deck board just to be able to check on her, but as she is right outside our back door, I could hear her clucking softly to the chick the second I stepped outside. I poked the camera down into the gap where the deckboard normally sits and snapped, sight unseen a few times, hoping to get one shot that actually showed the chick. Now the hard part - waiting until the other two have either hatched or been determined duds, and then get her and the chick safely to ground level.

Pikeman - my hat is off to you - sounds like you've been super productive.

Hawkeye - I haven't heard anything lately about your brother's coop - it must be about finished by now? Also, what happened with those sash windows you bought awhile back and were going to be cleaning up?

Danz - the guineas are growing like crazy - I am so glad to have them. I need to get them moved out to my outdoor brooder soon. I had a batch of chicks in that but moved them to the garden area yesterday, to open up the brooder for the guineas and muscovies. But now I'm thinking I'd like to put the broody and her chicks there for a couple of days after I've moved them from the straw bale nest. The sultan is low on the pecking order and I'm afraid her status will prevent her keeping the chicks safe from the rest of the flock. My last broody was close to the head of the flock and none of them dared to mess with her chicks.

At what age can you start to tell gender in guineas? Isn't it funny how poults, keets and chicks all start out looking like chicks and then grow up to look so different from one another? I've noticed the keets stand a lot more vertical than chicks ever do, and I love their two-toned peep - so different from a chicken peep.

 

[chicken danz]

Rob, Looks like you are getting there. I divided my Serama house this weekend but never got a door done for it. I need to make a pop door and a man door then I could house another small breed in there.
I should divide my Bantam Polish house and pen as well. They have tons of room they really don't need now.

I just had a mille fleur D'uccle hatch. Wish me luck I have some more!

 

[HEChicken]

My work load is huge right now.

This I totally get. When I had a small flock of adult hens, it seemed I barely needed to spend any time on them - just refill feeders and waterers every few days and collect eggs and voila, I was done. Right now I have my laying flock, then my silkies and 15-week-old chicks in a small makeshift pen in the front, a set of 9-week chicks in my vegie garden, and a brooder of keets and muscovies. Just getting around and making sure all have feed and water takes awhile. Then, I have to clean out the brooder daily because, let's face it, gamebirds STINK. Plus, I run a shallow bath every day to give the muscovies a chance to get wet and dunk their heads for awhile. At the moment it seems like just caring for them all is a semi-full-time job. I don't know how you have any spare time at all with all the birds you have!

 

[Ivywoods]

Trying to catch up here.

Guinea gender-I really can't remember what age, but the difference is first noticeable in their voices. The female has a two syllable call, while the male does not. Some folks say the female say, "Buck WHEAT"

I think it sounds more like, "coo CRACK"

Whatever they are saying it probably means, 'more FOOD more FOOD more FOOD"

Ducks-I have never raised ducks, so take this with a grain of salt. I have witnessed as well as hearing reports of male ducks drowning or killing the female by having too many males in with a female. When the breeding season starts they all want at her, and they can really hurt or kill the female. I'd be sure to limit the males with the females at that time.

Well, I did it. I scrambled a bunch of fertile eggs. I am only going to hatch a few more of the ones I want to keep. It's really hard to convince yourself to do that rather than stick them in the incubator, but with the hot weather coming, me going back to work soon and having too many hatched already I figured I better cool it at least for now.

In the meantime I've still got some hatching that were already in the incubator. Turkeys are hatching right now.

 

[chicken danz]

The guineas have to get their adult voice and stop their cheeping before you can voice sex them. I'd say at maybe 2 months old you could do it. Just as guess. I have purchased some fairly young guineas by voice when I was buying to set up my breeders.
Male ducks can drown female ducks regardless of how many boys there are. The trick there is for them not to have too deep of water so they can get their head back up to get a breath. I've not had that happen but I have worried a couple times. Just be sure the water isn't so deep that a bird can't get her head above water if she is sitting down. I think if you had 4 males to one female you could have a problem. But I've run as many as 100 ducks together at about a 50/50% ratio and never had them drown a female. It believe breed makes a huge difference as well. Males of some breeds are much more aggressive breeders. I think most domestics are pretty tame and but things like Call ducks, Mallards etc tend to be more aggressive. If given a pond or something ducks tend to mate on the shore line which makes it safe for the hens.
Well I just got the juice and pulp from the cherries. I ended up using cheese cloth to separate it. Sure seemed like a waste of a lot of cherry parts. I did take the seeds and the parts that I skimmed out and gave them to the chickens. They don't care for raw cherries but they are out there cleaning up everything and just leaving the seed. Major treat they think. That is good for me!
I will have to go to town to buy enough sugar and pectin to do anything with this so I just put it in the fridge for now. I don't even know where my jelly jars are. I was thinking I might use the juice from the top for jelly and the juice with the pulp that settles for the cherry sauce. I guess I'll see when I start cooking.

 

[lizzyGSR]

danz - I know it's kinda late to suggest this now, but you could have made cherry jam. That way, you'd use the whole cherry, sans the pit. Also, you can make your own homemade cherry pie filling, using the whole cherry minus the pit.

On the duck thing, my DH's grandmother had a total of 20 ducks, with 3/4 of them being male. She didn't have any pools for them (which proves you can have healthy ducks and not have water), and she never had a problem with the males killing the females. She's getting rid of her ducks. She's already given away the males (one of which COULD have been a female). I'm taking the females. Since she gave the males away, the females have hatched several ducklings, all but one of which have died. I am taking the lone duckling as well as any that hatch (and survive) between now and Tuesday. Any tips on raising a lone duckling? I've heard of putting a stuffed animal and/or a mirror in with it. Any other ideas? I don't know if the local farm store still has ducklings for sale, and I don't know that my DH would let me buy one if they did. It was hard enough to convince him to let me have the free ones from his grandmother...


EDIT: I should have said that my DH's grandmother had mostly swedish ducks with a couple pekins and a rouen thrown in there.

 

[Silkie Chick]

I hate it when a chick hatches that you aren't sure if it is going to make it. We had one chick whose egg got stepped on right after it had made the pip hole, crushing the entire shell. We had no choice but to pull the shell off. Then one of the two mothers rejected it and began pecking at it, making a gash in the side of its head and tearing the beak. Needless to say, we brought it inside. We cleaned the wound and pulled out dirt with tweezers, and gently superglued the skin together on its head (as best as we could). We tried with the beak, but it is right now kind of lopsided (like someone in a cartoon with a broken jaw). It is starting to fluff out in the temporary brooder, but it still hasn't opened its eyes or lifted its head. Thankfully, it is still breathing. I am worried that the stress might not be good for its recovery, and concerned that there is possible brain damage.

 

[chicken danz]

Lizzy my cherries were so small this year it would have useless to pit them. Normally I pit them and freeze them then make cherry pie or cherry cobbler out of them. I decided to do something different this time so I still could get use from them. I could still make jam. It's not much different than jelly other than the pulp.
Where are you Lizzy? I'd be glad to donate a duck to go with the other one if you are near. Other than that if you raise a lone duck it is going to imprint on you. It will be kind of noisy when it is alone. Be sure to have a heat lamp on it even if it is in the house since it won't have other ducklings to help keep it warm. Ducks only need brooding till they are about 3 weeks old.
Sorry about your chick. I normally try to save injured chicks but my DH prefers to just put them out of their misery. Most don't make it but I just have to try.

 

[Trish44]

Well we worked for 8 hours yesterday getting the foundation set for my breeder coop & my DH is going to go out when he gets back from the gym & finish the last side. I'll take pics of that maybe later on when it's not so darned hot out. In the process of killing ourselves out there yesterday with all of that I managed to somehow get a spider in my shoe & it bit me on my foot. I think from the looks of the bite that it was a recluse, it's a perfect place out there in the wooded area for them, so it wouldn't surprise me. Here is what my foot looks like today & I can't get a shoe on over it because it hurts too bad:



Ugly isn't it. I just hope to not lose a big chunk of my foot. There is no anti-venin for brown recluse, so I'm just watching it to see what it does. There isn't much a Dr. can do either other than debride it, which I wouldn't like at all, so I'm just going to keep it clean & see what happens. I put ice on it yesterday, that's what I read online I needed to do, ice & elevate above your heart, so I was camped in the recliner last night with my leg in the air while my DH went for supper for us & brought it to me.

Here are the 4 little Swedish Flower Hen chicks I hatched yesterday:


Aren't they cuties! I just took them out to the brooder awhile ago. I have one Ameraucana chick that hatched today that is still in the hatcher & it's down there yelling it's head off because I took it's buddies out, it will go out later. I just put 4 more Ameraucana eggs in the hatcher.

Here are my Royal Palm turkeys, they're outgrowing the brooder. I hope this foot gets better soon so I can work on their pen or I'm going to be in trouble.


And finally here is a pic of my pen I built for my young chicks I'm keeping:


They're very happy in there & they have lots of room for now to run around. I figure it won't be long before they outgrow this pen too, but hopefully by then they can go out with the big chickens. They will be used to each other by then since their pen is right in the run.

Well have a good afternoon all!

 

[lizzyGSR]

Lizzy my cherries were so small this year it would have useless to pit them. Normally I pit them and freeze them then make cherry pie or cherry cobbler out of them. I decided to do something different this time so I still could get use from them. I could still make jam. It's not much different than jelly other than the pulp.
Where are you Lizzy? I'd be glad to donate a duck to go with the other one if you are near. Other than that if you raise a lone duck it is going to imprint on you. It will be kind of noisy when it is alone. Be sure to have a heat lamp on it even if it is in the house since it won't have other ducklings to help keep it warm. Ducks only need brooding till they are about 3 weeks old.
Sorry about your chick. I normally try to save injured chicks but my DH prefers to just put them out of their misery. Most don't make it but I just have to try.

I'm in northwest KS, in the Colby, Goodland, Atwood area. I really appreciate the offer, but I think you're probably too far away.

Thank you for the suggestions about the lone duck. I honestly don't mind if it imprints on me. I would actually like one that is more friendly and likes to be petted. I didn't get as much time to play with mine when they were young as I would've liked. Plus, I work from home, so I can hold him/her on my lap while I work, with breaks for it to eat and drink.

The ducks I have now are 11 weeks old, yesterday. I didn't have any problems with them, but then again I also have two of them. This time, I'll be getting the adult ducks as well as the lone duckling, which we guess will be about 10 days old by the time I pick them up. This duckling and the ones that didn't survive were a bit of a surprise, though, as my DH's grandma didn't think that the eggs were any good, as she'd recently broken a couple of the others, and they were rotten. Thankfully, I still have all of the supplies from raising my current ducks, though I'll need to get a different box. The one I've got now has gotten wet a few too many times.