Consolidated Kansas

[erinszoo]

Thought I'd jump over here and say howdy neighbors!! We live about 8 miles south of the Kansas line so we're up there all the time.

 

[Trish44]

tweety, here are the misters I got on eBay, the guy still has them: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Misty-Mate-...676?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d341c49dc. I thought it was just a nice amount of mist for the young chicks. They sure were enjoying it when I left them, they were crowding around trying to get into the spray. I hate that I have had to make a muddy mess of that corner of their pen, but I guess it will eventually dry out. I would rather it would be muddy than they all die from the heat. The young ones outside of the pen in the run were trying to get in on the mist too, the breeze was blowing it outside every once in awhile & they were enjoying that. My turkeys sure figured out what to do with the pan of water pretty fast. As soon as I take it out to fill it up for them they start jumping in there. The only bad thing is they poop in there too so by the time I go out at night to feed them it's pretty nasty & stinky.

I had several Welsummers hatch this afternoon & some are having some issues. I have given them vitamin E & some chick electrolytes so far. Danz, what is the poly-vi-sol for & how much do you give chicks? I was thinking of getting some when I buy groceries this weekend to have on hand with all of my other chick stuff. I'm afraid that several of these Welsummers are roos & I sure don't need any more roos here, so I don't know what I'll do with those. I still have the white Welsummer & still have no clue yet what sex it is because it isn't marked like the rest.

erinszoo, welcome, I just live in Winfield, so I'm probably not far from you. I go to Ark City for feed all the time too. I used to go to Ponca City quite a bit, but haven't for awhile.

Well I never heard from the post office today so I guess the eggs still aren't here, unbelievable.

 

[erinszoo]

Thanks for the welcome Trish44. My husband used to work in Winfield so we know it pretty well. We're not too far from Ponca City and have family in Ark City, Wellington, Wichita, and Hayes. Wow, until I wrote that I didn't realize how much of Kansas I have relatives in.

 

[chicken danz]

Trish the vitamins are just to give them the nutrients they need. I normally give new chicks sugar water, electolites, and soft cooked egg smashed up with a little water or milk cooked in it to help keep it moist. I save the vitamins for a couple days in.
There goes my theory again. Summer heat makes more cockerel chicks than pullets. I just try not to hatch much in the summer for that reason,
Well I am supposed to meet a guy in Lyndon tomorrow with 20 hens. That should clean out my excess hens. Now DH is afraid I won't have enough eggs since laying has slowed down so much. I just want to get my feed bills down to a reasonable level. I'll have to sell some of these excess roosters I've kept too now. At least they are pure bred. I almost hate to sell any back up roosters in this heat though for fear of loosing the one I need for breeding.
The rest of the turkeys are doing ok today. Wish me luck it stays that way. I have someone from Emporia coming to pick up 6 of them in a little bit.
I need to clean and fumigate my hatcher and load some eggs in today. I'm actually starting to get space in the incubators since I've not been trying to hatch chicks or ducks the last couple of weeks.Even the ducks have slowed down to a crawl on egg production.
We went to the creek and pumped some water into a 55 gallon barrel last night. I am going to put it on my garden today. If I can get DH to go pump some more I might actually put some on my burnt up flower bed. It is crispy. It may be too late for it because I haven't watered it at all.

 

[lizzyGSR]

Even the ducks have slowed down to a crawl on egg production.

I have a question about ducks and egg production. I got 4 ducks (all females, approximately 1 year old) from my DH's grandma in early June and added them to my flock, which consisted of two pekins (They're still young, but I believe them to be one male and one female). Since adding them to my flock about a month ago, I have only gotten one egg. I expected that they wouldn't lay anything for a couple of weeks due to the stress of the move, but it has been a month now and I still haven't gotten any eggs. During the day, I keep them in a temporary pen, which I move around the yard at least once a week. I keep this pen in the shade and have a kiddie pool in with them to keep them cool. I have to carry them between their pen and the duck house I keep them in at night because I haven't gotten a step/ramp rigged up for the ducks to get into their duck house by themselves. I should probably mention that the 4 newest ducks were laying before I got them (I know because they hatched out a duckling, which I now have as well). I should also mention that the 4 ducks weren't handled much before I got them and still seem to be scared of me.

I feed them 16-18% all purpose poultry crumbles and they are allowed to free range in their pen during the day.

I got these ducks for bug control and for eggs. They're expensive to keep just for controlling bugs, and I could really use the eggs. Is there something I can do to encourage egg laying? Is there something I should be doing differently?

 

[Trish44]

Danz, it sounds like you're doing pretty well cleaning out excess chickens. I felt relieved when those 11 chicks left yesterday & then I hatched out the Welsummers. I have 2 more Ameraucana eggs in the hatcher due in a couple of days & those are the last of them except for the 7 the broody hens is sitting on. I have no idea if they will hatch in this heat, that remains to be seen. They aren't due until next week yet. The Welsummers were from shipped eggs so I don't know if that counts in your theory or not. I haven't got a clear count yet of pullets & roos that I ended up with.

Well my eggs arrived this morning & the darned post office didn't call me, they just sent them out with the carrier & she put them on my porch without letting me know. I found them when I went out to feed & water this morning. Both the guy that sent the eggs & I am both just livid over this whole thing. What is wrong with the postal service these days? They can't even get a package to where it's supposed to be & that box was marked "fragile eggs" all over it. If these don't develop I'm giving up on having any more shipped & just am going to buy chicks. We'll see if the postal service can get chicks here without losing them.

My son called me this morning from OKC & he says they haven't even had the heat as bad as we have. I was out there taking care of birds when he called. By the time I got in the house I just felt sick again to my stomach, that's what the heat does to me. Danz, I agree with you, I don't know how I grew up without air conditioning either. We didn't have anything at all until I was older & I remember we got one of those water cooler things in our house. We thought that was heaven on earth! It just doesn't bother you so much though when you're young, but boy does it now. We sure could use some more rain, we just have dead grass & dirt mostly. I have kept a few flowers, the ones the chickens haven't dug up that is, watered, but it's hard. You water & it doesn't even do that much good.

 

[JosieChick]

Trish- Sorry about your legbar eggs, that is such a bummer. I wonder what the deal is? Our po up here is pretty darn good about stuff, my boxes get beaten up at the distribution center if they are marked fragile but they always get here and our mail lady is super nice and would never leave a box on our porch if she thought it was important. She has called me on her cell phone when she has something and isn't sure what she should do with it!
There is a lady up in KC that has legbar chicks from greenfire farms that is selling the on here under the chicks section, if you were interested I could pick them up from her next time I am in KC and send them down to Andover with my DH for you to pick up.

Danz- You are a chicken selling machine! Where do people find you to buy from? I have listed birds before but never had very good luck selling them, I get a lot of tire kickers and in shows. I don't let folks come to my house so it is really annoying to pack up birds and get to town all to have someone not show up!
You know my DH grumbles about all the birds but then when the eggs slow down he says well maybe we should keep all the pullets so we always have plenty of eggs to sell!!

Must be a common theme!

Erinszoo- Welcome!!!

So my second batch of babies arrived today mostly unscathed. I orderd 4 magpie ducks and one magpie drake. After I got off the phone with the lady I thought to myself maybe I should have ordered two drakes, just in case. Well I must have jinxed the poor fellow because he was dead on arrival.

Poor little thing. I was so sad, it is weird that the rest were totally fine and he was just dead, not crushed or anything. He was in the compartment with the meat chicks and the two australorp cockerels. Such a bummer, now I have 4 ducks and no drake to go with them. Figures, right? Danz- I am starting to see the value in having back up boys!!!

 

[Trish44]

Josie, thanks for the offer, we'll see what happens. I have the people on the Cream Legbar thread trying to help me get some, so we'll see what comes of that. I just found some in Enid, OK & if they can meet me half way that wouldn't be too bad of a drive. I would drive down there just to avoid sending anything in the mail again. They sure aren't doing a very good job getting things here in decent shape.

This must be a bad week for cats. My favorite calico cat, Chloe came home with what we think was a gunshot wound. She managed to make it home somehow from where ever it happened, but she was in bad shape & died this afternoon. I had to go out & bury her in our pet cemetery in that heat. I'm so sad, this cat was the nicest, gentlest cat you could ever have, she would never have hurt a flea & didn't usually go very far from the house. We have a neighbor next door to us that hates cats & my DH thinks she did it. I have no proof of that other than the fact she has said repeatedly that she hates them & accused them of eating their chickens. I have tried to tell this woman that I have had cats for years & years in the past & recently & never had one eat a chicken ever. They go out & lay right by them in the yard or even go into the run & drink alongside them or eat treats with them. I'm just so sad about it.

 

[HEChicken]

Trish, I'm so sorry - what an awful thing to have happen.

 

[Hawkeye95]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/gallery/album/view/id/6215133/user_id/66378

The coop is looking great!!! Let's see the outside!

Ta Da!!!! My little black Cornish broody hatched her first guinea keet just a little while ago -- there are 4 more eggs. The keets were not suppose to hatch until July 6 - 7 so this little one is really early. I don't hear anything more from any of the eggs so I am praying they will hatch in a few days!!

Adorable!

HeChicken,
Here are some photos of my automatic door with the Chunnel attached. Took us longer to get the tunnel made than it took to put the door on. I still don't have it working because I had to have some surgery yesterday so moving a little slower. Will set tonights setting and then watch tomorrow and see if I have it right.

In these temps we have been having I still keep the people door open because of 2 broodies inside the chicken house.

WOW-- Sure wish my chicken yard was this nice and shady!! I need some TREEEEES!! Sheesh. Anyway, the chute looks great! You have a nice big chicken house there,,, very envious! I'd fill it with silkies in no time flat. hehe!!

Someone posted that he/she had bought a mister like this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938811&pf_rd_i=507846 from Amazon. For those of you near Emporia, they have a couple of them at Bluestem for a little less than Amazon's price. I picked one up today, and it seems to be working well.

That is fantastic! I love this mister idea!

Well my luck just stinks! I guess the turkeys made a bit of a mess of the water and one of my lemon cuckoo chicks got wet and died while I was in town today.

So sorry about your lemon. And it figures you had to rush back home and then no one shows. People!

Well I'm officially really PO'd at the Postal Service.

That is CRAZY they took a trip out to Dodge. Geez. What the heck was that about?? Sounds like you have a really messed up mail carrier. I love my local PO here in the sticks. I call them up and they are on top of anything I want done. And sometimes without me even telling them-- they will call me and ask if I want to come pick it up since they are worried about the package being left in the cold or heat. They are fantastic!

So, if ya'll will remember my sadness about my kitty - We had her put to sleep this afternoon. She got better for a couple weeks, but the past couple days went down hill really fast. She could no longer control her bladder or bowels and was just deficating in her bed. It kills me to have a pet put to sleep, but I know it was the right thing to do and she's in a much better place over the rainbow bridge. 14 years of a great life and many adventures. She'll be missed, that's for sure.

Oh no, Tweety. I'm so sorry about your kitty. But she had a great life with you, and it's obvious you love your animals. You gave her a wonderful life.

I just talked to a guy who is going to sell me two peaflowl chicks, yay! Now my little baby will have company. They're about a month old, so they'll be ahead of this one I have for awhile, but he or she will catch up. I'm so thrilled to find some & for a price I can afford. Now all I have to do is get transport for them to get them to me or close by anyway. Then I can surprise my DH with his peafowl. He has no idea I have been trying to hatch any, none. He doesn't know one egg from another. Those little peafowl chicks are just adorable. Josie, if you hatch some you'll see what I mean. The one I have is so cuddly, I just want to pick it up all the time.

Those misters sound really neat! I love my Cobras-- they are going strong. But I can see that I would love the curly kind too. I think all misters are pretty much boss! Love them! Congrats on hunting down peachicks! Can't wait to hear how your DH finds out! LOL This will be fun!

SO here is a weird one for you guys! My pea eggs came this morning and they were in shredded paper and wrapped in bubble wrap like most shipped eggies arrive but, wait for it, they were also wrapped in tin foil!

Is that to protect them from the x ray machine???? They looked like baked potatoes!

But Josie... didn't you know?? The solar flares are supposed to be terrible this week. I'm sure they were protecting them from BECOMING baked potatoes.

Thought I'd jump over here and say howdy neighbors!! We live about 8 miles south of the Kansas line so we're up there all the time.

Howdy right back at you!! LOVE seeing new people here! Join right in!! 8 miles?? Well you practically ARE a Kansan, then. We're down your way too. I'm further, though... right about 30 minutes from the OK border.

Well-- that is if you take the toll road. Further if I drive thru Wellington.

Well I am supposed to meet a guy in Lyndon tomorrow with 20 hens. That should clean out my excess hens

We went to the creek and pumped some water into a 55 gallon barrel last night. I am going to put it on my garden today. If I can get DH to go pump some more I might actually put some on my burnt up flower bed. It is crispy. It may be too late for it because I haven't watered it at all.

YAY on selling your birds! How do you do it?? I can't find anyone who wants my two white silkie roos! That person who said they wanted them never got back with me. Crazy people. Sigh. Lucky you for pumping out that water! That is really a great deal. Hope it goes a long way! I've been a watering fool this summer. But I have brand new trees and shrubs and I don't want to lose my investment. It's pretty much the first thing I do-- set the water and then start taking care of birds and horses.

Well my eggs arrived this morning & the darned post office didn't call me, they just sent them out with the carrier & she put them on my porch without letting me know.

My son called me this morning from OKC & he says they haven't even had the heat as bad as we have.

OMGosh. Really. Your carrier is out to get you! hehehehe!! But seriously, that's insane! After you've talked and talked to them about this! Sheesh! Tell your son he's next on the heat wave. Why are WE having such insane heat? I mean, honestly! We're hotter than they are out in Arizona? How is that right??

So my second batch of babies arrived today mostly unscathed. I orderd 4 magpie ducks and one magpie drake. After I got off the phone with the lady I thought to myself maybe I should have ordered two drakes, just in case. Well I must have jinxed the poor fellow because he was dead on arrival.

Poor little thing. I was so sad, it is weird that the rest were totally fine and he was just dead, not crushed or anything. He was in the compartment with the meat chicks and the two australorp cockerels. Such a bummer, now I have 4 ducks and no drake to go with them. Figures, right? Danz- I am starting to see the value in having back up boys!!!

OH my that figures!! I'm probably going to try to keep two really nice roos of my own out of this years silkie hatch. I don't need but one more. But you never know! And I don't want to go plunking down a ton of cash to invest back into a nice boy again. This just confirms my line of thinking. So sorry about your little drake, that is just sad.

This must be a bad week for cats. My favorite calico cat, Chloe came home with what we think was a gunshot wound. She managed to make it home somehow from where ever it happened, but she was in bad shape & died this afternoon.

That is downright mean. I'm really sorry about your cat. I asked you earlier on FB what happened, but I didn't mean to come off as insensitive about it. I was just wondering who the heck would break out a gun on a cat in the middle of the day. But I guess if she was over at the mean people's house... sounds like that's probably what happened.

Our neighbor has a calico cat and that thing NEVER messes with our birds. And she's a hunter, too. Brings up mice, etc. But she has no interest in my birds.