Consolidated Kansas

Tweety- I love the ducks in the mister so much I went out today and bought 3!! You should send that pic to the company! I had 3 guys at home depot on a man hunt to find me cobra misters. They were up in the storage bins above the aisles! So far the gang seems to appreciate it, the turkey is hanging out in front of it!

Karen- Love your story with the kids and the coyotes. You crack me up! I hope I am that good of a mom to teach my kids to be so responsible.

Trish- This might sound awful but could you take a piece of duct tape and roll it into a long strip that is doubled over on itself and stick it to a wall or narrow place that the chick runs past when you go to catch it and make the area narrow enough that it might stick to the tape? I only thought of this because I have cardboard up on the sides of a dog kennel as a brooder and the edges are duct taped to the kennel and one of my serama chicks got her poor flight feathers caught in a sticky edge that they must have pecked loose and she was stuck! I had to loosen each feather but it came off pretty clean. Even if it didn't come off real clean you can use crisco or a little vegetable oil to cut through the stickiness and at least you would have the bugger caught. I know when my chick got loose in the garage I had to wait for it to move over by the brooders then unrolled a section of hardware cloth as a temporary "gate" to prevent it from running willy nilly all over the garage. I never would have caught it! Maybe you could make a little "chute" with two boxes and tape at the end that it would run down and get stuck and you could grab it? I feel like this sounds cruel but in my garage you either get your butt back in the brooder or risk being a snack for the cat so I would do it!
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Well my first batch of babies came today!!! I was so worried about them but they are doing great. I will get some pics this evening. Has anyone used just a regular bulb in their brooder so the babies can eat? They are in the garage and it is plenty hot in there without a heat bulb running! I have a rheostat on the outlet so I could turn it down low at night so they weren't getting blasted with light but it is kinda dark in the garage and I also don't want them piling on each other and smothering someone in the dark!

I bought the dogs a kiddie pool the other day and tried in vain to show them how much fun it was too jump in and cool off. They looked like I was trying to dip them in hot lava! This morning I look up and Lucie, the GP pup, is tearing across the yard full tilt and I wonder to myself what she is after. She goes barreling up and bombs into that pool runs in 15 circles with her face in the water and jumps out and tears off! So I guess at least she will use it to cool off! I think Molly is too dignified to be caught in a wading pool.
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I am so glad I shaved her down for the summer though. She has grown back a remarkable nap of coat but it is still much shorter than her normal length and I think at least keeps her moderately comfortable!
 
Babies! Lavender orps, wheaten/blue wheaten ameraucanas, gold laced/buff laced brahmas, black jersey giants and white leghorns. (Jerseys and leghorns were extra surprise hatch day chicks to make the order 15 chicks, thought a surprise might be fun!)




Does anyone ever tire of baby chicks? They are so stinkin cute!!
 
Haha, I think i figured out how do do a post! Thanks hechicken! I am near rose hill,KS and have had horrible luck with ebay eggs under my broody game hens. We have a small 80 acre homestead and are looking for a good layer and meat bird and have settled on Sussex or blue laced red wyandotte. I have 18 eggs under a hen now that are bad, they are 2 days over due, but the chicken keeps setting. Does anyone close have any new chicks to put under her? we had our other hen hatch out 3 ducks and 2 chicks from ebay and I'm worried this mother will get discouraged if I don't give her some babies to raise. can I put new eggs under her for another 21 days or should I just put any chicks under her. I am typing from my phone so i hope I'm clear on what I'm trying to say. Thanks guys and gals

Ed
 
Welcome Ozark flyer. I think I would just take the eggs from the hen. She will eventually get up if there are no eggs under her. You could put new eggs under her but they don't care well for themselves when they are broodie so she could probably use a break.
It's been another scorching day and I didn't get anything done. I guess I needed some rest. I had another bad night with leg cramps last night. It would be so awesome to have rain for a couple of days. My water bill is going to be like the national debt.
So Josie, what is the little chick with the black legs? I thought it looked like maybe a lavender Orp but mine don't have black legs. So much for thinking I know my chicks!
 
Danz-I believe that is a blue wheaten ameraucana. Apparently the wheaten color can hatch with a lighter leg and it turns darker over time but the blue wheaten often hatches with a dark leg!? Beats me, it is funny how many of the older chicks are in the picture of the "new" chicks! The lavender orps all have a darker leg and kinda pink toes at this age. Not nearly as dark as that ameraucana though!

I was just wandering around this morning muttering to myself about my water bill!! I must have run the hose for 2 hours and now I have to go water the landscaping....
 
I only have one Americana and she is 2.5 years old. I have no idea what color her legs were. Stupid chicken has never laid a colored egg either unless it happened to be pink.
I just went out and gathered eggs. Production has gone down by 2/3rds I'll bet. I guess it was a good time to worm them so I'm not wasting a lot of eggs. I should take some pictures of my little lavender orps and my lemon cuckoo orps. I love their fluffy little bodies.
 
Okay excuse my dirty brooder bin. Haven't changed the paper towels today. I did change the waterer twice already though! Messy little chicks! The one odd chick in there is a chick one of my hens hatched that got picked on by other fowl. He is missing the top of his beak and blind in one eye but thriving well.
 
I have been trying for days to catch that darned little Ameraucana in the garage & so far to no avail. He is just too smart & he knows as soon as I get the net he should run & hide. Today I went in there & he was in the live trap, but he's too light to trip it. I tried to get over there fast enough to get the net over the end, but he saw me & ran out really fast. I don't know how I'm ever going to get him. Do any of you have any ideas? I didn't see the other one that got loose yesterday yet today. I hope it turns up because this guy wanting these chicks will buy it if I can find it. I still have all of the rest of the chicks in the crates in the house. I covered up the crates last night so it would be totally dark & they would be quiet & that worked until it got light this morning. My DH didn't know they were in here until they started peeping this morning. He didn't say much, I just told him it was too hot in the garage for them & he said, oh I know. I think he's starting to get used to it all. He might as well I guess, huh.

I don't know if you've said before or not, but how high can the little dude fly? The only thing that comes to mind is the way that we caught some mice in our garage one year - put in a really tall bucket, a ramp to the bucket, peanut butter in the bucket - they fell in, but couldn't get back out. Don't know if that would work or not if dude can fly. Maybe rig something so it trips a "lid" when he lands in it?? just trying to think outside the box.. lol

Tweety- I love the ducks in the mister so much I went out today and bought 3!! You should send that pic to the company! I had 3 guys at home depot on a man hunt to find me cobra misters. They were up in the storage bins above the aisles! So far the gang seems to appreciate it, the turkey is hanging out in front of it!
Thanks! Yeah - They do love it alot, huh? It's hilarious how much my silkies love it. Hawkeye asked me if I'd ever seen one drinched, and now I have! LOL. The other silly birds are panting and avoiding the ice and the mister, but the ducks and silkies had a whole day of laying under the misters and feeling really chill.

We've been having a HUGE problem keeping the pool clean enough for the ducks (OMG they are dirty - and it keeps burning out any pump we put in there) that DH and I came up with a change of plans for the run. We are going to pull up the pond and fill it back with dirt. Then we are going to lay brick so we have a "patio", put in a trough for the ducks to clean bills in, and add a mister hose - with several misters going - from above so there will be more "misting space" for them and it doesn't get as muddy with the patio. We'll then just get a small kiddie pool that we can fill on the weekends and dump to let the ducks play. The water gets so hot in that black pool (and icky dirty) that they don't even get in there until we've added new water now. I think they like the misters much better since it's always cool. I guess chicken coops and runs are a constant project until you find something that works for everyone involved. LOL


Haha, I think i figured out how do do a post! Thanks hechicken! I am near rose hill,KS
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Glad to have you on board!!
 
I guess chicken coops and runs are a constant project until you find something that works for everyone involved. LOL
You just completely nailed it in that one sentence! I am constantly tweaking this or that. I got our four times a day to change out the waterers because as you say, the water gets so hot that they stop using them. As soon as they hear me pouring in the fresh cold water, they all come running.

I had my mister set up for the first time today and it seemed to be a fairly popular item. However today was the also first day I've seen a hen in some distress. It was my Mama Sultan and while she wasn't exactly droopy, she looked a little listless, so I picked her up and put her feet over the misters to get cool. She didn't seem to mind that at all and started looking around her with more interest than she had moments before. So then I set her in the waterer, which I had just filled with cold water. I have several that like to stand in water but she is not one of them. But I guess it felt good enough that in a minute she bent down and started drinking and then she stood there for about 10 minutes before getting out. When she did get out, she looked like she was feeling a LOT better. I hate that despite shade and digging into the cool earth and cold waterers and misters, I still feel like I have to keep a close eye on them in this heat.
 

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