Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

silkiechick. Yes I have day old guineas and will probably have more in a few days. I live about 50 m S of Topeka. Send me a PM.
Trish sorry you aren't feeling well.
I was on the phone with my daughter. The coons have gotten all but two of her lavender orpingtons, but the splash chick is one of the survivors. I have till about Wednesday or Thursday before my first eggs are due to hatch. I sure hope I end up with some little purple chickens!
Medawinks why don't you try feeding the dog the non medicated chick starter and see if it does equally as well or if it goes back to a bad bowel? That would answer some questions right there. Surely by Monday you would know. If he has had the labs I would think it would be more food allergy or intolerance related. (Not to discount Tim's knowledge, Josie. Just offering suggestions)
The coccidia chickens get won't infect dogs, by the way, in case you were thinking that. There are many types of coccidia but rarely do they infect cross species.
And by all means try the sweet potato for the upset tummy.

 

[Hawkeye95]

That is why the big ducks will definitely NOT be coming with us! The Littles, if they come with us, will be in a box and will preferrably be somewhere in the car that the big dog can't reach. No, I am not in the Wichita area. I'm in Northwest Kansas. My big dilemma is really whether or not to take the Littles with me. Will they be okay in an un-heated, un-cooled chicken house while I'm gone? My friend will obviously check on them when she comes in from the field, but there could be quite some time between times she checks on them.

I would leave your little ducks, too, I think after this. I think no matter how good you think your ducks are boxed up, the second you leave the car, they will be dinner for your dogs. Case in point-- we had put left overs in the car after eating, and I had my mom's chihuahua (which is TINY!!-- 4 lbs) and he was able to get the zipper unzipped on my insulated grocery bag we'd put the left overs in and drug out the food and ate it!! They find a way. We were only gone like 5 minutes going into Quick trip to get a drink and use the bathroom. You don't to hate your dog if he eats your ducks. I think they'd be fine if they have plenty of water. My chicken coop stays pretty cool during the day. It's nice and breezy-- with the windows open. So long as there are windows, and plenty of water, they should be fine at your friends house. I was leaning more on taking them-- but NOT with a dog!

Hawkeye, those doggie daycare places are pretty sweet, aren't they? The times I have traveled in the past, that is what we did - put the dogs in doggie daycare. For me the cost was worth it for the peace of mind (see above) - the dogs, at least, were something I did NOT need to worry about while I was gone

Yeah, I understand your worries. So far, I've had people that can come feed, water etc while I'm gone. We're rarely gone, though. I NEVER travel with my dogs-- too many things can go wrong and what a PITA if you want to go out to eat or go do something and you can't leave them in your hotel room, etc. Or if you have to get back to walk them. We have traveled once with our dog (pomeranian) and even though she was small, it was a mess. We just did a quick trip to KC, and drove all over and had to keep stopping to get her water and food, and then she ended up peeing on us, even though we had just let her out not long before. All the water, I guess. Anyway-- UGH! Never, ever again. Now I board my dogs at a doggie day care or have my parents watch them if they are home. It works out much better and less stress on all of us.

I have actually thought about not going. BUT, my sister invited me to go on a work trip to Wichita with her (without her kiddos). This would be incredibly rare sister-only time (haven't had that since I don't know when). Plus, I'm (somehow) the LAST person she asked and the only one that hasn't (yet) said no. I feel bad adding to her list of people who can't/won't go. Plus, my sister is going to drop me off at my parents' house, which means that this trip is a chance for me to go visit my horses, who are currently living on my parents' property until fall or until we get a lot more rain out here (having time to get the barn up would be good too). Anyway, this is our monthly trip home, and I NEED my time with my horse (my sanity time). As much as I hate to leave my ducks, my gosling, and my fish, I also hate to think about going another whole month without getting to see my horse. The part that really worries me isn't leaving my ducks and gosling with my friend. What really worries me is that it is harvest time out here, and she won't be around the house nearly as much to check up on them. She said she'd leave them in her chicken house, but it gets quite toasty in there during the day, and I"m worried that my Littles would get too hot during the day and too cold at night. I guess I'll just have to talk to her about it and see what she says.

Are you coming down into Wichita? Who has your horse or are you boarding them here at a stable? I am familiar with a lot of the stables around here, since a lot of them do clinics and fun things on occasion. Are you going to be building a horse barn? That was the first thing we did when we built our house. But we couldn't afford to board our horses when I moved out. I had 7 horses at the time--- yeah, that wasn't happening. Much cheaper to get the barn built and move them in. Anyway, hope you have a fun time!

I am trying this thread only because I don't want to have to try to have people from too far away be possible buyers so hopefully this is okay.

I live around the Salina area and recently hatched 21 guinea keets. I had no idea that THAT many would hatch and also thought I had a buyer but evidently this person really didn't want any guineas. Is anyone out there interested??

Welcome!! I'm sure if you post on the facebook poultry swap site, you'll have them gone in a couple of days.

Well I'm really not feeling much better today, my throat is killing me & my right ear is hurting, so I'm just kind of shot. I went out to do my chores awhile ago & just had to drag myself around & sweat was pouring off me by the time I got in. My DH is going to have to take our granddaughter to buy her a new bike by himself & buy the lumber for just the floor of the coop. I made him a list before he left so he wouldn't get there & not know what he came for. I hate it that I couldn't go, but I'm just out of steam & feeling pretty awful, so as soon as I finish reading on here I'm going back to bed. I guess whatever I planned to do today will have to wait until tomorrow, hopefully I'll feel better then. I don't know what this stuff is, but it's kicking my butt right now.

Sorry you aren't feeling well. This has lasted a lot longer than I was thinking it would. Hope your granddaughter can hold on to this new bike!

Hi,
Our baby chick order got shipped Yesterday, so I was wondering if anyone has a day-old guineas (we need two) that we can raise with the chicks when they arrive. We are located just South of Topeka (Kansas).
Sincerely,
S.C.

Cackler just posted like 3 posts above you and they have guinea babies-- and are close to you in Salina! Check with them!

 

[Hawkeye95]

I was on the phone with my daughter. The coons have gotten all but two of her lavender orpingtons, but the splash chick is one of the survivors. I have till about Wednesday or Thursday before my first eggs are due to hatch. I sure hope I end up with some little purple chickens!

Oh no, that is sad!! Did the coon come back and get more? Or is this from the original attack?

 

[medawinks]

Our 2 egg day!!!


And this is our big monster who thinks he is a chicken. He has a bandage on his neck because he is ALWAYS visiting our vet to have a sebaceous cyst drained and removed, but it keeps coming back. Believe me.... he may be a big chicken because he has been to the vet so darn often.... But he is my big goof ball and we love him! I stuck all the medicated food in a tub with a tighter lid and gave him access to some of the non medicated. It will be a good trial this weekend to see if that causes the "stinky" to come back or if maybe it is a really weird food intolerance. Thanks for all the advice!

Has anyone ever had a Silkie lay to eggs so close together? Both are very hard and perfect in every way. She is just strutting around as proud of herself as can be!!

If she decides to go broody, my kids will be thrilled, but I will need to find a few fertile eggs for her to sit on. Danz,, would you have a few Favarolle eggs sitting around? I would love to buy a few, but not to eat this time

 

[JosieChick]

Josie, thanks!!! That does make sense! I have fed him Prostera for the past 6 months though and he has had many many fecal floats... I use Panacur on him every two months because of the worm the fox left with us. The vet was really shocked to find that. It truly almost killed him..... Was really tough on him. We had to treat the entire yard many times and use wire mesh on the fences into the ground to try to keep them out. Maybe in their search for the exotic, they missed something. I have other dogs who always test worm free too. After that scare I panic over them, but my chicks initially had a bout with cociddia.....
I will be spending more money on labs, I foresee!!!
Today is just crazy, odd! I fed the chickens early this morning and always check to see if Bloom has resumed laying or if the others might start- wishful thinking. Later, about noon, I went out to give them some stew prep squash left overs- tops. Bloom was in the nesting box and came out singing! Andy was so excited!!! We picked some more squash, took a photo of the egg and I let him cut the squash up. I took the tops out again and voila!!!! Repeat performance!!! If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have never believed it! 2 eggs within 30 min!!! Huh??? How does that happen?
I feel pretty dumb today, but all the wacky is at least good stuff

Sounds like you are on top of it!! Guess no new advice huh?

I had a doberman that had soft stool and upset bowels for the five years I had him so I feel your pain! It is tough to have a dog that you can't ever seem to get right. You can also try canned pumpkin to bulk up his stool too if he doesn't like sweet potatoes.

It is frustrating though, love the pics later on! He looks like a lovely poodle, I really have a soft spot for the standards, they are fabulous dogs.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Medawinks-- your poodle is GORGEOUS!! I love him!! So pretty! I love the standards, too.


I've been shopping! I was reading in our county fair hand book that we are supposed to provide our own kennel water and food each day. So I was thinking what if I don't get out there right in the morning? It's an hour + drive every day. So I was remembering that I've seen those "cups" that screw onto pop or water bottles and I bought a 4 pack of those. It even comes with a wire spring to hook it on the outside of the cage with the water sticking in. So I have that problem solved. Then we're moving beds around. The Littles are still in cribs, and we're moving them into big beds. So my oldest has a nice bunkbed we bought him a while back, so we're moving that upstairs for the Littles and my oldest gets a new bed. I just bought him the bedding for the bed -- he picked it out. We'll paint his room to match and I think it should look neat. He picked out an urban punk rock guitar print with lots of silver, grey and black with a splash of purple. I think we'll do the walls in a silver grey and do some silver stripes-- but more of a star burst instead of stripes.

I am trying to get thru the 4-H handbook (rules and guidelines) and make sure I meet all the dead lines. ALSO--- they changed the rules for the baked goods since I was a kid. They don't allow any alcohol in breads anymore!! Bummer! My sourdough-like beer bread won a blue, and I was going to pass that recipe on to my oldest to use. Anyway, I have a really neat yeast bread that has a cinnamon center- you roll out the bread into a rectangle after it rises the first time, and then brush on the cinnamon/butter, etc and then roll it up and give it a bit of a twist and it turns out really neat. We'll have to work on it a couple times before the fair, though. Mmmmmm... They do have Poultry Showmanship at the County level, so I'll have to make sure he's signed up for that. We're in rocketry too, but we're not going to enter anything for it.

 

[prairie]

Sharol,
Thanks for the info. Hubby doesn't want to run electricity and really doesn't want an extension cord laying in the yard so my best option is buying the solar powered one. Will let you know what I figure out.

thanks

I got the Fleming door last fall (the one on a timer). I love it. I put it on a UPS (Uninteruptable power supply) because I got to worrying one morning that the electricity would flicker while the timer was engaged and when it came back on the door would close and shut the girls out all day in the rain. The timer it shipped with was a piece of c&^% that didn't work from the start. They were supposed to send me a replacement, but it never came. The door works flawlessly though and was easy to install. It was a real "peace of mind" thing with me when I had to leave before sunrise in the morning to go to school in the dead of winter.

Love the door, replaced the timer with a good one.

 

[prairie]

Thanks everyone for all the info on the automatic doors! Gotta make a decision this week so that I can get it ordered on Monday. Has anyone tried the solar ones?

I finally took time to clean out and rearrange the chicken house this afternoon and it sure looks better. Next I headed to the garden and picked 2 huge cucumbers-- my first big ones! Then hubby called to me to come look at the apple trees. I hadn't walked down there for a couple of weeks but the apples sure had grown and it was time to thin them -- way past time. We spent 30 minutes hitting the trees and only got 3 trees thinned -- we have about 15 trees so I will be busy next week!

Next I picked 4 ice cream buckets full of apples!! Couldn't believe they were ready! It is a June apple- an heirloom variety and the tree is about 24 yrs old. It's called Summer Pippin and they are a smallish apple with creamy white flesh and so delicious. So happy to have fresh apples!

But now I am bushed! Sweat running off me so I quit for the day! Back to hitting the trees again another day!

 

[HEChicken]

That's sort of where I was at too, Prairie. I have power almost to my coop - it is at the shelter right next door. For coop-building, I ran an extension cord next door and had no problem with enough power. But on a semi-permanent basis, I didn't really want the door plugged into an extension cord. So I got that solar option and that way I don't need it plugged in. The way I understand it, the solar panel charges a battery so that even if the sun doesn't come out for a week, the battery will still have enough juice to power the door.

 

[HEChicken]

Medawinks, congrats on Bloom's eggs! Earlier this year my Cuckoo Marans laid four eggs in one day. I could scarcely believe it and expected anyone I told to scoff and tell me it was impossible but the thing was, I only have one CM and her eggs are distinctly different from any other egg I get. And, I didn't believe I had overlooked any from the day(s) before. It seemed like every time I went outside that day, there was another of her eggs. I finally got up the courage to mention it here on this thread and Ivy said it sometimes happens in the Spring or with new layers. I don't know how old Bloom is, but maybe if she hasn't been laying for awhile, this is a "catch up" kind of thing. The day it happened with my CM, she had been on a laying hiatus over the winter and was just getting re-started for the spring. After that she mostly settled into a 3-egg-per-week routine although just here a couple of weeks ago I got two eggs in one day from her again. Anyway, enjoy those eggs and I hope she goes broody for you soon.