Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

I wanted to fly her last time and they won't let anyone under 15 fly alone. She is only 11. It would be so much nicer than making two 10-11 hour road trips!

You might want to re-check on that. I have a friend who is French and she flies her daughter to France every summer to spend the summer with her grandparents so she keeps up on her French. She was doing that when she was only 7 years old when I met her and she's only 10-11 now. If they can fly to France alone, they should be able to fly from one state to another.

Trish, I think your breeder pens are going to be fantabulous - and huge! That is a great start so far - I'll look forward to seeing more progress pics as you get more done. That is so cute about the little turkey displaying - wish I could have seen it.

 

[HEChicken]

So after having those guineas stolen a while back I was down to just one lavender hen. When I went to feed them today she was dead. I couldn't find any marks on her so I assume it was the heat. They just don't have a good way to get out of it. There's no trees right there. I guess I'll have to save some lavender keets and hope I get a couple of females.

Oh that sucks - I'm so sorry. I really like the lavender coloring. They are seasonal layers right? Perhaps when mine are old enough and the season is right to start laying, I might be able to get you some lavenders, if you don't have any luck with the keets you hold back.

 

[JosieChick]

Hey all,

Thought it might be worth just asking about this. My mom and significant other are coming to visit in July from the 21 through the 25 and we are looking for an RV to rent so they can stay at the house but have their own shower/bathroom and place to sleep. Does anyone have an RV that they would like to make some extra money on by renting out for 4 days? It will be parked at our house for the duration of the time and we are very clean/respectful. I will clean it out entirely after they leave and before it is returned. I have looked everywhere for a rental for them and nobody has anything available except pop up campers. Please send me a PM if you have something and are willing!

Thanks!!!!

 

[Trish44]

Danz, aww sorry about your guinea hen, I think the lavenders are really pretty, probably my favorite color. I'm not the most fond of guineas myself just because of the noise level, but maybe if I had been able to get mine to adult stage & let them loose it might not have been so bad.

My DH came back after going down to supposedly put the floor on & said he wanted to do something else first. I asked him if he had been moving dirt down there or what & he said that he had moved some. Gosh if I had been down there in that length of time I could have backfilled all around the thing. He spends way too much time evaluating & overthinking things, that's why it takes so l-o-o-o-n-g for him to get anything done. Just get it done already! He spent two weeks just placing the foundation blocks & now it's going to take another two weeks at his pace to get the darned floor done. Now do you see why I say this will take all summer?

I'm some better today, my throat is starting to not be quite so sore, I can swallow a little better at least. My right ear though is still stopped up & making me off balance today & I got light-headed when I was putting together some lunch. My DH thought I had laid in bed long enough, he wanted me to cook today. Well I didn't exactly cook, I pulled something out of the freezer & warmed it up in the microwave & did some of those steamer veggies in there too. I wasn't up to any more than that today. It's taking about all I have to do things today, it's all hitting me now & making me run out of steam fast. I'm headed to bed for a nap now that he's gone to work. Maybe I can rest some before I have to go out again & do evening chores.

I candled those first 3 Cream Legbar eggs that I had gotten & they were a total bust. They were due to go into lockdown in a few days, but there is no reason for them to, there was no development at all in 2 & the last one started & stopped. I'm not too hopeful about the other 4 either with one being cracked & all. I hope the ones he sends me next do better or I'm going to have to rethink what to do about this. I really want some of that breed, but maybe buying chicks would be better. I may just have to wait for awhile until the gal I got my BC Marans roo from starts getting eggs from hers & see if I can have her hatch out some chicks for me. We'll see what happens. I see all of these people on that thread hatching out chicks right & left & I haven't gotten one yet, bah.

 

[HEChicken]

Trish, what happened with your keets that they didn't make it to adulthood? At what age do they get noisy? I've always heard about how noisy guineas are but so far mine aren't any noisier than chicks so I thought maybe they get noisy as adults? But then it sounds like you didn't have any survive to adulthood so now I'm wondering.

Your coop may be slow in the making but it sounds like it will be high quality when its done. Mine went together fast because I had no choice - we were moving and I needed a safe place to move the birds to. There are definitely things I could have done better if I'd had more time.

Well, didn't get the door installed today. I had a few other "finishing up" things I needed to do and wouldn't you know those took half the day! By then it was hot and I still have so much to do in the people house that I decided to spend the afternoon working in here instead. I did measure where I will put the door though. I need to put a cut-off wheel on the circular saw to cut through the siding so I'll do that first thing tomorrow morning and go from there. I've read the instructions and it doesn't look like it will be that hard once I get the siding cut.

 

[chicken danz]

I think a big thing with keets is how they are raised and how many you have. If you raise them after being brooded in the same spot where they will stay I think they remain quieter. I had some I moved a couple times while they were growing and they would put your ears out. That was the group I over wintered and sold this spring. There were several times I would have like to take a shotgun out to the pen. My old breeders are pretty quiet unless the chickens start yelling and getting distressed or there is something like a strange dog or something around. They are normally pretty quiet around me. Sometimes someone strange to them will set them off. The ones that run free in the yard are pretty quiet unless they are wanting to be fed. They just think they are chickens.
I have some lavender keets but guineas are one thing I can't sex. I have no idea if you can vent sex them like a chick or not. I also have a lot more eggs in the incubator so all is not lost yet.'
I had an unplanned busy afternoon. We were going to move the duck pens so DH brought me a stock tank to put the babies in. Then he thought they were thirsty. I just wasn't thinking and put a pan of water in there. They were pretty crowded. Well the water of course got splashed out and then the littlest ones got under the big ones and I had probably 50 baby ducks soaking wet and chilled before I noticed. Most of them weren't doing good at all and were just laying there. I rushed handfuls into the hatcher to warm up then put more in the brooder house and turned on a heat lamp for them. Glad to say they all recovered. The ones in the brooder did best. There was so much humidity in the hatcher that they didn't dry so they were still soaked when I took them out. I just put them back out under the heat lamp in the duck pen. I have to go check them again in a few minutes to make sure they are cleaning up and getting dry. I was afraid I had killed the whole bunch of them.
But at least we got the pens moved and they are out of the muck for now. I really wish I could sell them all to someone who wanted to raise a bunch. People just aren't buying birds in this heat. It's rather silly. They could save a bundle because you don't need to run those heat lamps like normal.

 

[Hawkeye95]

I've got a life time of riding behind me, so the stories don't end there. And when I was a kid, I used to do REALLY dumb things-- on purpose. Like use my horse as a ladder so I could climb up into trees. I'd take off from home, go a couple miles down to the "forest" --an area of about 10 acres that was overgrown with trees and weeds. And then we'd build little forts, camps, and tree houses. I used my poor little mare mercilessly-- had her drag limbs, tied her to a tree for hours while the rest of us kids were playing in the trees, and of course went swimming with her in the river bareback. Then we'd all pile back up on her and go home. We could fit 3 or 4 of us kids on her back. I'd get a call to come out and play-- and "bring your horse!". Sounds like everyone else has some funny stories too! Every kid should grow up like we did.

I have a feeling this is an Asian person, too. (wanting my silkie). I haven't responded back... not sure if I will. I need to think about it. Then again, my little roos have had a good life so far. And if they weren't over taxing my Polish, I'd just keep them. But they've torn out all the feathers on their necks and I was going to use one of them for the Fair, and now I think that's a long gone idea.

Josie, I'm sorry your little roo didn't come back. That is a bummer. Wish I had an RV! I am wanting to pick up a truck camper-- the kind that slides onto the bed of your truck. We used to have one and it got so old, we took it to the dump. I'd love to have another one so I can haul and have my camper at the same time. Our old truck camper was really nice-- it was longer than the bed by a good 2 or 3 feet. It had a bathroom/toilet/shower in there. You put the lid down on the toilet and start the shower. It had a mini fridge, stove top, oven, heater... but no A/C. We had so much fun in that thing. The table went down into a 2 person bed, and it had a bunk that you dropped down above the table and that was another 1 person bed and then of course the 2 person bed above the cab.

Trish, your coop looks like it has a great start! I want a breeder coop/runs/pens too! I think that would be fantastic to sort everyone out. Glad you're feeling a bit better. Crazy run away horse story! I would have been mad. Of course, now you don't need it, but the quickest way to stop a horse from running off is to pull on ONE rein and bring their nose to your boot. They can't run with their head sideways... or at least not very well. It slows them down, for sure. I've had plenty of opportunity to test that out on my friends idiot horses. The last trail ride I was on, my friend had just bought a new horse and got scared of him only about 20 mins into the ride (we were at Kanopolis) and so I switched horses with her so she could ride mine instead. I'm always doing that. Then I get the horse with a death wish. But the funny thing was, I have a knack with them-- I'm not mean and I am super easy on their mouth and all the head tossing and crow hopping ended when I got on him and made him listen. Then MY horse who is super laid back started acting up on my friend! So then she wanted her horse back after I had him straighten out. She doesn't know she is doing it,-- but she's in their mouth, and she has a hard hand and doesn't have that instinct of when to let go and when to hold on. Plus, I think she even sits her weight wrong and it makes the horse upset. Ah well.

Danz, that sounds like a close call with your ducks! Poor things. Sheesh. That totally figures it turned into an emergency. That would probably happen to me, too.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Gah, I'm tired and I didn't get anything done around here. We spent the entire afternoon at the pool, and we ran errands this morning and had lunch with my DH. Then since the sun and the swimming (running after Littles) wore me out, I came home and collapsed. My youngest is going to be 4 yrs old this Saturday! I'm stoked about that! We're going to have a cook out. Going to grill.. what else? Chicken! LOL I wonder if anyone would see the humor in Black meat? teehee!! (silkie) I haven't responded back to that person. I need to sleep on it and then probably ask them for a number I can call them at. I guess they can eat my boys.

 

[Trish44]

Hawkeye, I don't know if you would feel that good about having your pretty roosters eaten. I'm pretty sure that's what this oriental person is wanting them for, they're probably a delicacy to them even with the black meat. I just wouldn't respond back if I were you, I don't if I have any kind of bad feeling, plus do you really want this person coming to your house? It may be OK & it may not be. I had a guy at my door tonight & believe me where we live we rarely have strangers knocking on our door unless they're lost. This kid had a bunch of stuff in his hand & a map thing & was wanting the neighbors next door. He said some things that kind of made me uneasy so since I was here by myself not feeling well at that I sent him on his way. The dogs were up here sniffing him out too. He was more scared of the chickens though than the dogs, go figure. You just don't know these days if someone is casing out your house to come back & clean you out or what. Oh & about the horse I was riding in my run away story, he had worked on a ranch & had a hard mouth due to being worked hard, so it didn't faze him as much as other horses to jerk on the reins. Me being an inexperienced rider anyway didn't help, he knew that.

I now have an eye infection on top of everything else. I don't know if I have what is called a "cold in the eye" or what. It started draining gunk this afternoon & I have been rinsing it out with saline. I'm hoping the antibiotic will take care of that too. What next? I'm still hoarse & it has been awful because my DH can't hear well & I have had to whisper because I lost my voice almost totally. I have at times just pointed or something to let him know what I wanted.

I went out to do chores tonight & still can't get my hands on that ornery chick that is loose in the garage. I have gone in there a few times back & forth tonight getting feed for one animal or another & saw it running away from me, but I can't find it now. I guess when it get thirsty or hungry enough it will come out hopefully. I thought maybe I would see where it was sleeping, but I haven't found it.

HeChicken, I forgot to tell you about what happened to my guineas. I had gotten some from the hatchery & none of those made it at all. Then I bought a few from a guy in Missouri when we went to see my DH's family & a few made it, but I knew guineas like to be in bigger groups, so I bought 10 more at the Mulvane Swap last year. There were some pearls & some lavenders in the bunch, mostly females I think because they were really loud. I had them in a dog run because that was what I had to confine them in at the time. I had put chicken wire along the sides & there was fencing on top of the run & some tarp over part of it for protection from the elements, but it was old. This was the dog run that I have had for years that I moved here with me. We had it down in the woods area because it's shady there & lots cooler. This was way before we got the GPs to watch over things so it was a free for all, whatever came around did. I thought they were safe in the dog run, but found out that possums can get through about anything. They got in one night to that run & killed & ate 7 of 14 guineas. I was so disgusted about it because I had lost a hen in that run before the coop was finished to a raccoon. It pulled her through the wire & ate off her head. After this attack on the guineas I just had enough of it & I knew my friend was looking for guineas because she had lost most of hers so I called her & told her to come get them before something ate the rest. They weren't old enough yet to put them out to range, so they were sitting ducks in that pen. That was when I decided we had to have a GP to protect things here & then ended up with two instead of one.

 

[cherwill]

Cherwill, your DH works really long hours-- wow! But he does sound like a good guy. I think my DH shows his love by cleaning all the toilets around here if you are going to translate love into clean floors! LOL!! I get it, though. They are not all touchy-feely, have to say what we are thinking type of people. They do have their own language. I'm doing a LOT of talking with my boys and teaching them to clean and cook. I sure hope my boys don't end up like our DH's! hehehee!! Even though we all have great men, it would be nice to have someone who can understand and at least speak female.

Quote:

Would you all hate me if I told you I got the one that speaks female? Oh man, does he ever! In our relationship HE is the one who is better at discussing feelings and that sort of thing than I am. He has a great vocabulary and ability to, what was the term someone used a few posts ago? Be "emotionally literate". He can describe exactly how he is feeling at any given time and seems to even enjoy analyzing the feeling and why he is feeling it. I am the one to say "I'm just grouchy. I don't know why. Now leave me alone". Hahaha. Sometimes it isn't good because he is SO good at picking up on body language and facial expressions and tone of voice that I can't hide any emotion from him. If he calls me from work, he can pick up in my first few words that something is wrong, so even when I don't yet feel like talking about it, I find him slowly getting it out of me because I can't fool him for a second by putting on what I think is a cheery tone of voice and telling him "nothing is wrong". And, as far as helping around the house, he is pretty darn good at it. He's also pretty darn good at making messes so he's not completely perfect

but sometimes by the end of the day when I am tired and have reached the point that any more cleaning or straightening up can wait until the next day, he makes me feel guilty because while I'm trying to sit and catch up on forum stuff, he is bustling around straightening up and I wind up feeling I can't relax until I just get up and join him and we'll get it done that much sooner. He is the king of romantic gestures (I had to nip it in the bud a little by telling him "DON'T buy me flowers or jewelry - I just wouldn't know what to do with them") and so good at coming up with the perfect gift that he puts me to shame.

Quote:

Cherwill I am sure your husband is a jewel. Anytime I get disgusted which is sometimes on a daily basis, I look around and think how much worse it could have been. I might have more stuff done around here and I might live in a nicer home but I don't think I could find another man who puts up with my obsessions and my faults the way mine does. I'm still like a little girl living in a fantasy world some times thinking about having the perfect man sweep me off my feet, but when it gets down to it I doubt I could stand any one else!

I love all these variations on our men! Hawkeye, your sons' future wives will be eternally grateful to you for teaching them a second (female) language. HEChicken, yep, I hate you a little bit (not really!). Danz, I have that fantasy too, sometimes, but you're right -- who else could we live with, and who else would live with us?

Has anyone other than me done the proverbial "jump on the horse and fall off the other side" thing?

Or am I the only one?

I never did that one, but there was plenty of other stupidity when I had horses. The first time I rode my pony, she tried to scrape me off in the trees. I grabbed a low-hanging limb and hung on while she walked out from under me. I've also had to step off two horses who were trying to roll over while I was on their backs. On a trail ride, DH was riding someone else's horse who was only green-broke. She stopped very suddenly and he catapulted forward off her, did a flip and landed on his feet. You couldn't do that if you tried!

So after having those guineas stolen a while back I was down to just one lavender hen. When I went to feed them today she was dead. I couldn't find any marks on her so I assume it was the heat. They just don't have a good way to get out of it. There's no trees right there. I guess I'll have to save some lavender keets and hope I get a couple of females.

I'm sorry.

Got a text from my oldest daughter. My granddaughter is wanting to come stay with me. Puts me in panic mode. I've got a lot of moving and cleaning to do before she comes. I think we are going to meet on the 7th of July. It is a 5 to 6 hour drive each way for both of us to meet half way. So that puts me driving out into northwestern Kansas to pick her up. Then I'll have to do the same when she goes back. I wanted to fly her last time and they won't let anyone under 15 fly alone. She is only 11. It would be so much nicer than making two 10-11 hour road trips!

When my 11 yo niece came out here from California, she could fly by herself but her Mom had to pay $100 extra for a flight attendant to keep an eye on her and stay with her while getting on and off the planes.

I now have an eye infection on top of everything else. I don't know if I have what is called a "cold in the eye" or what. It started draining gunk this afternoon & I have been rinsing it out with saline. I'm hoping the antibiotic will take care of that too. What next? I'm still hoarse & it has been awful because my DH can't hear well & I have had to whisper because I lost my voice almost totally. I have at times just pointed or something to let him know what I wanted.

Strep can infect various parts of your body, so the eye infection may be part of the overall sickness. Hopefully the antibiotic will work on it.