Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Well it finally happened and I am ticked.

Someone stole some birds. I have a couple guinea missing from the guinea pen. I noticed because I had two lavender girls in there and there is only one. I wasn't sure exactly how many guineas I had but at least one or two others are missing as well. Most likely hens.
Also at least 3 of my production hens are gone. I wouldn't know unless I watched for a few days what is missing from the other groups because they free range and I just know by watching for a couple days if something is missing. Of course it is easier to take your pick from a pen.
I can't believe any one is that fricking brave. I was only gone for maybe an hour to the vet yesterday. Other than that someone has been here full time. That is it though! I have got to find someone to put my fence up. I sent a text to a guy hoping he would get back to me.
Josie, I set up a huge kennel to get Marshmallow loaded in tonight. That might be a job. I could probably coax her in with bacon but the other two dogs would be trying to beat her in there. This is not going to be fun. But I will keep reminding myself that it is better than loosing her if she gets PG again. I think I'll set up a chain link kennel in the shade near the back door so she can go out in the evening to bark. She won't go to the bathroom in the house or in a kennel so I'll have to let her out for that. I worry she will get sick and die. I've had all kinds of animals spayed before but she is special.

 

[sharol]

My thoughts will be with you. I understand special.

Sharol

Josie, I set up a huge kennel to get Marshmallow loaded in tonight. That might be a job. I could probably coax her in with bacon but the other two dogs would be trying to beat her in there. This is not going to be fun. But I will keep reminding myself that it is better than loosing her if she gets PG again. I think I'll set up a chain link kennel in the shade near the back door so she can go out in the evening to bark. She won't go to the bathroom in the house or in a kennel so I'll have to let her out for that. I worry she will get sick and die. I've had all kinds of animals spayed before but she is special.

 

[medawinks]

Danz, my kids and I will all be thinking good thoughts for you and Marshmalllow!
I too understand "special".

Thanks folks, for the Silkie input. I know that the more I learn about these addicting new hobbies the more I find out that I know very little! All I can do is keep learning! The Wikipedia site makes some sense I guess to what she tried to tell me. That info was definitely new to me, since I had seen silkies in China and they were the same size as Bloom or smaller, but they were being sold in the medicine market and maybe the smaller ones in Asia are used more for their herbal medicine?

Karen, I looked up the Sweedish flowers on the Greenfire site. Beautiful!!! I also liked the polish there.... But almost fell off my chair looking at the price of their day old chicks!! I will stick to swaps and Orschelen

 

[JosieChick]

Danz- We will be thinking about you and Marshmallow! She will do great though. Maybe you could lock the other two dogs away somewhere for a few minutes while you load her in the crate so it is just the two of you? Make sure you ask your vet for pain medication during surgery and some to send home with you. For that matter, insist on it. The vet clinic I worked at 10 years ago didn't use pain meds and it is so much harder on them. It might make her a bit loopy but loopy is better than pain! I kept Molly on antibiotics for a week and half too, partly because of her nose mess and partly because she was laying in the dirt so much.

I walked Molly on a 20 foot rope tied to my belt loop every day. We would go out 3-4 times a day and walk the fence lines and go potty. It worked pretty darn well for her. The only time the leash tugged on her was if she got too far away from me, otherwise we just went where she wanted to go. I was afraid to just let her out because I thought she might go wade in the creek and she has a selective great pyrenees hearing problem!!

I can't believe someone would steal your birds. That is such a quiet road too! I am shocked that they would come in with the dogs there too. My poor vet was here today to work on the horses and Molly did not approve!! I had to finally go tell her to lay down because she stood at his truck and barked for 20 minutes. Such a bummer...too bad you couldn't set up a camera! When we first bought this place kids broke in several times before we moved up here but we haven't had much trouble since then. That is kind of scary to think about though. Maybe we should put in a fence out front....

 

[JosieChick]

Meda- The APA standard of perfection classifies silkies as a feather legged bantam. I assume all silkies in the U.S. are considered bantam for this purpose. None of my silkies, including my big huge ones are anywhere near the size of my large fowl birds, even the smaller ones like my EE. It is nice for people to share their knowledge and experiences but in my humble opinion should do so in a polite manner.

 

[Trish44]

Danz, I'm sorry someone came in & got your birds. That's pretty darned gutsy with those big dogs there, your male would scare me off if I came there alone he is so big. My pups scared the post lady this morning, imagine that. Good luck with Marshmallow tomorrow too, she will do fine.

I have two Ameraucana chicks hatched a day early today with two more to go for this batch. These two have loud voices too!

I'm laying around this evening, this spider bite is not making me feel very well. I did soak my foot in epsom salts earlier & I'll probably do it again before I go to bed tonight. It's dry on the skin area, no drainage, but I don't know what it's doing underneath. I can't take antihistamines due to my heart condition, but I do have an allergy pill I take once a day, I don't know if that will help any or not.

I guess somebody is getting rain, but I don't know if we will get any again, we sure need some, it's dry as an old bleached bone here. If you're getting rain where you are, congrats to you, send it down our way.

 

[HEChicken]

Medawinks, there are some large fowl silkies in Europe that are quite big. On the silkie thread there is a guy called SilverSilkie who lives in, I want to say Belgium, but now I'm not sure. Anyway, he has posted some pics of some of his big birds and they are really stunning. Here in the US, there is a BYC'er who is working on developing LF Silkies. Here is a link to a thread about it: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/502606/is-there-a-interest-in-some-standard-silkie-eggs I found it pretty interesting reading.

Danz, I can't believe someone came onto your property and stole some birds - that is crazy. Would the dogs allow that? Do they only protect against four-legged predators? Hope all goes well with Marshmallow's spay.

I haven't seen Hawkeye online in forever - hope she is okay.

Trish, we have had a ton of rain here - hope some comes your way. We need it so much!

Cherwill, your garden is looking great. I first grew Tomatillos several years ago and LOVED them. I had never tasted anything quite like them. We never got enough for salsa but used to cut them up and put them in our salad raw. The following year I started some plants from seed and they did quite well (the first plants were started seedlings). I have bought tomatillos at the store several times, trying to replicate the flavor in our salads but the store-bought fruit is completely bland and tasteless compared to the ones we grew ourselves.

Today was day 4 of coop build and we got so much done. I'm exhausted but glad to have made so much progress. We started the day with the goal of getting it to the point I can move some birds out there. My silkie pen contains Mildred and June-Bug (recently renamed Milton and JB after they started crowing). Milton's crow is quite soft and we could get away with having him for awhile, but JB has the big ole rooster crow going on and I'm really afraid its only a matter of time until we get complaints. So I wanted to get the coop to the point we can move those two, along with their four "room-mates" out to it and keep the neighbors off our backs. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera today

We started the day by finishing the sheeting of the walls, and then hung the two external doors. We also cut out the OSB covering the windows, and cut the hardware cloth to fit the windows and installed it. At that point we were ready to move birds in but still had some time left in the day so we also built my internal wall, separating the storage area from the coop itself. Oh - and we discussed and designed the nest boxes. At the end of the day, I cleared out all of our paraphernalia, moved in some scrap that can be used as a roost by the four non-silkies, and called it a day. I am so, so pleased with our progress. About all that is left is the roof (we have the roofing materials all there so are ready to go), the siding, and any trim work. My plan is to move the birds there in a large dog crate so they will have a place to sleep that can't get rained on (since there is no roof).

 

[Ivywoods]

Hawkeye is fine, just busy. She promises to be back on soon.

Danz-I can't believe someone came in and took your birds! Good grief! How low will people go?

Trish-That spider bite looked pretty bad. Do you think it's getting any better?

I sold some chicks, poults and a couple adult birds today.

I'm so wiped out tonight I think I will go to bed early. I hate it when this happens because I wake up in the wee hours of the morning and can't get back to sleep. Oh, well. Later folks.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Danz, that just makes me so mad that someone would take your birds!

What is wrong with people? I vote for a game camera and nail the chicken thief. That's awful.

Our neighbor's weimeraner ran across the corner of our yard and only made a glance at the ducks in the pond, so that's good. I guess we've chased him off enough he knows better. Still, I wouldn't trust him. I want a fence too, so he can't just waltz onto our property whenever his people let him out for a run.

meda, I love greenfire's birds too, but those prices! I'm just too nervous to try to raise birds that cost that much. Sorry about the rude woman at the vet's office. Some people are just mean-spirited, I guess. It's beyond my comprehension what kind of thrill a person gets out of behaving that way.

We FINALLY are getting some rain.

Love the garden pics! I've never had tomatillos, sounds like I'm missing out!

 

[chicken danz]

I only left for about an hour yesterday and I left Marshmallow in the house. She would be the one to show aggression and then Fluff follows her lead. It had to be someone who has been here before and found out where I kept what. I have a couple of people in mind. They came here and acted suspicious to me. And they had to know I left. How else could they have timed it? I have been saying all along that this might happen and I had stopped giving out my address and directions unless someone made a specific appointment to be here. I had too many no shows before. I've done very little advertising this year and sold by word of mouth just for that reason. However before I discovered the missing birds I put an add on Craigslist today for guineas.
At any rate I have a fencer working on a quote for me. Wish I could find someone closer.
Marshmallow will be out of commission for a while so my best guardian isn't going to be available. I told DH I wish I had one of my daughters boerboels around right now. There would be no one coming on the property at all. Here's a video taken last weekend at a dog show in Austin. Be sure to have your sound on. This is my daughter and one of her dogs. Bet there would be no bird stealing if Ta ( her dog) was here.

Anyway I easily got Marshmallow in the crate with a couple pieces of bacon and then DH helped me pick it up and get it in the truck. How we will get her out and into the clinic will be another problem.