Consolidated Kansas

[sapphireblu76]

Wow, it makes me feel very thankful that we have a well. I just hope with the lack of rain, it doesn't dry up. Our electric bill by itself is too horrifying to believe.

I moved the chicks (that hatched while I was away on vacation) out yesterday early evening. They made it through the night and today they were all panting like the rest of the flock. They made it through today, so hopefully, they will continue to fair well.

I have nothing growing in my yard, but weeds. My garden isn't doing very well, either. I think the only thing that is really growing are the watermelons, but they're small. I think I've lost all my zucchini plants and a couple of cucumber plants. The ones that are left are hanging in there, but I don't see any promise of fruit.

I want so badly to go to the McPherson swap, Sunday, but I just have nothing to sell and can't afford to be buying anything else that requires feed. We're going through 1 40lb bag of feed a week, which I know may not be a drop in the bucket compared to some of you , but it's straining my budget. There just isn't much forage for the birds left out there. WE NEED RAAAAAIIIIIINNNN! I think I will seed the acreage with something drought tolerant this fall or spring so that there will be more for them to eat next year. Any suggestions on what to plant and when? It will be me just throwing seed out where they won't have access until i move the fences.

 

[cherwill]

My SIL has been sick with bronchitis/could be pneumonia. One of the ducks was coughing a lot tonight and she's afraid she gave him something. I don't think there's much we can pass to ducks, but I don't really know anything about duck health. What makes ducks cough?

 

[chicken danz]

The first thing that comes to mind is that it isn't getting enough of it's beak in the water to wash out food. Other than that ducks can get colds and pneumonia just like any other bird. I would certainly make sure it had plenty of water to get into and really clean out first though. If that doesn't help have her give him some vetRX. In the duck's case I would probably give it a dose then keep a little in the drinking water for a few days.
It was a short night. I woke up about a half hour early so got up anyway.I'm hoping my granddaughter is tired and wants to take a nap when we get back. I think that is a pipe dream. She is going to want to see everything and do everything the first afternoon. In only had about 75 chickens and nothing else the last time she was here. And I still had goats. How things change! I also only had Marshmallow. She is going to love Fluff and Cloud. Marshmallow was still very afraid of kids back then.
I'm not sure how much peace and quiet I will have the next couple week so I probably won't be on here as much.
Stay cool today!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Danz, I'm really sorry about your BO that died yesterday. Wow, this heat is just not good for anything at all. You've had more deaths than anyone, and I wonder if you must be a bit hotter up there. We were up to 105 yesterday and I caught my oldest mare down in the heat. I had to get her up and then watched her the rest of the day. She was struggling in the heat yesterday. I'm worried about her. She does just fine when it's cooler. I was reading back in Spring that this summer was going to be a bad year for solar flares and it was going to damage our ozone in places and possibly xray some computer equipment. I wonder if you are in a bad spot up there. Last week I was driving around Wichita and we have these new digital signs they put up along the highways a while ago. One day it said "ozone warning" and warned us to gas our vehicles in the evening out of the sun. I didn't catch anything on the news about it and wasn't sure what that meant, but figured it couldn't be good! I've not seen those signs say anything like that since. It was one of those days it was 108 degree out.

Renee-- SO GLAD to see you back on the thread!! What ever happened with those great big huge geese that you got a while back? Did you sell those or keep them? Did they both end up as boys? I'm sorry your well is dry! Wow, what is the plan now? We are on well water, too. If ours went dry, we would have no choice but to dig another one. We are too far out to get on city water, its just not an option at all.

Sharol, those misters don't use a lot of water, very little actually. I run them constantly. Although, since I'm on a well, I have no idea how much water I'm using. But I do try to be sensible about my water usage.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Wow, it makes me feel very thankful that we have a well. I just hope with the lack of rain, it doesn't dry up. Our electric bill by itself is too horrifying to believe.

I moved the chicks (that hatched while I was away on vacation) out yesterday early evening. They made it through the night and today they were all panting like the rest of the flock. They made it through today, so hopefully, they will continue to fair well.

I have nothing growing in my yard, but weeds. My garden isn't doing very well, either. I think the only thing that is really growing are the watermelons, but they're small. I think I've lost all my zucchini plants and a couple of cucumber plants. The ones that are left are hanging in there, but I don't see any promise of fruit.

I want so badly to go to the McPherson swap, Sunday, but I just have nothing to sell and can't afford to be buying anything else that requires feed. We're going through 1 40lb bag of feed a week, which I know may not be a drop in the bucket compared to some of you , but it's straining my budget. There just isn't much forage for the birds left out there. WE NEED RAAAAAIIIIIINNNN! I think I will seed the acreage with something drought tolerant this fall or spring so that there will be more for them to eat next year. Any suggestions on what to plant and when? It will be me just throwing seed out where they won't have access until i move the fences.

Be careful not to plant any GMO grass, or research it before you do. There was an article a while back of a grass called Tifton 85 which is a bermuda and it is a GMO. Unfortunately, it has been widely planted down in Texas because it's drought tollerant. It's been used for years, but the temperatures got high enough down there finally, that the grass started producing cyanide and killed off a herd of cattle. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57459357/grass-linked-to-texas-cattle-deaths/ There have been many more complaints about deaths since then. Just do your homework on what grass you will be planting and research it first. I'm glad I don't have that many birds! I'm going thru a bag of feed every 2 weeks or so. I'm down to just the 9 layers and 17 silkies. The silkies eat next to nothing! I'm sure by next year, their numbers will grow, but they are small.

It was a short night. I woke up about a half hour early so got up anyway.I'm hoping my granddaughter is tired and wants to take a nap when we get back. I think that is a pipe dream. She is going to want to see everything and do everything the first afternoon. In only had about 75 chickens and nothing else the last time she was here. And I still had goats. How things change! I also only had Marshmallow. She is going to love Fluff and Cloud. Marshmallow was still very afraid of kids back then.
I'm not sure how much peace and quiet I will have the next couple week so I probably won't be on here as much.
Stay cool today!

So exciting about your granddaughter coming today!! Have a great time with her! I think she'll find plenty to do with all of the birds you have now and the dogs. You were up pretty early this morning! I'm still feeling like I can barely get up in the mornings lately. I'm just run down.



OH!!! BTW-- did I tell you guys I FINALLY got rid of my two white silkie roosters??! On July 4th, that person that wasn't being very sensible with her emails called me and said they would come out to get them that morning. I said, sure, come on out. It was the 4th, I knew we'd be home anyway and figured if they didn't show up, no skin off my nose since we had no other plans than getting the place set up for the party. But sure enough, they DID come... AND I finally figured out why the emails didn't make sense. It was a hispanic dad with 3 of his kids and the one who was emailing me was a 9 year old girl!! Well, no wonder!! LOL He said that they used to have 20 of the white silkies and they were glad to get these. I don't know what happened to them... maybe a dog or something got them. No matter, I got $5 a piece! Better than giving them away, which I was sure prepared to do. The kids held the boys and were petting them. So I doubt they are going to be dinner. Probably they wanted them to breed. Which is just as well, because those boys sure can breed! Which is why I got rid of them. They totally tore up my girls.

 

[Hawkeye95]

you know, there is something different about this BYC site-- because this blinkie looks smaller and sharper in my photobucket! huh.

I tried pasting in the IMG code, and that doesn't work? I wonder why not?? I think if I could paste it in directly from my photobucket rather than copy/paste the picture from there, it might stay the same size and keep it's sharpness. ARGH... more thinking...

 

[mikeksfarmer]

July 7, 2012

Friends this is amazing! I have a homing chicken. Really! I have a Welsumer roo and hatched two sisters from an Americana. When they grew up I thought one was eating her eggs and that she was laying them on the ground just inside the door of the pen. Catching her with a recent broken egg I went into the pen and clipped her tail back and one of her wings. This I thought would make her easy to pick out. Thinking that I needed to stop this egg eating I offered her to my brother who lives more than 20 miles away in Shawnee Kansas. When he came to get her we discovered she was not an egg eater but laying her eggs up on a plat form just above the pen door. Some of the eggs were being kicked off and they would break and get eaten. So gave her to him anyway. I was sad to hear three days later she was gone. He living in the city I figured a dog or my brother says he sees some foxes in the neighborhood. Last week I started getting two olive eggs a day and one was speckled. I only have 15 hens but figured this hen was really going at it. I have been working so much I hadn’t really done a head count. Last night I noticed I had two hens that looked like Welsumers but had ear muffs like the American. Today I confirmed it, its her! I have not done exact mileage but I am sure its at least 20 miles, the Kansas River, three highways and who knows what else. Has anyone ever seen this before? I am dumbfounded!
Mike

 

[Hawkeye95]

July 7, 2012

Friends this is amazing! I have a homing chicken. Really! I have a Welsumer roo and hatched two sisters from an Americana. When they grew up I thought one was eating her eggs and that she was laying them on the ground just inside the door of the pen. Catching her with a recent broken egg I went into the pen and clipped her tail back and one of her wings. This I thought would make her easy to pick out. Thinking that I needed to stop this egg eating I offered her to my brother who lives more than 20 miles away in Shawnee Kansas. When he came to get her we discovered she was not an egg eater but laying her eggs up on a plat form just above the pen door. Some of the eggs were being kicked off and they would break and get eaten. So gave her to him anyway. I was sad to hear three days later she was gone. He living in the city I figured a dog or my brother says he sees some foxes in the neighborhood. Last week I started getting two olive eggs a day and one was speckled. I only have 15 hens but figured this hen was really going at it. I have been working so much I hadn’t really done a head count. Last night I noticed I had two hens that looked like Welsumers but had ear muffs like the American. Today I confirmed it, its her! I have not done exact mileage but I am sure its at least 20 miles, the Kansas River, three highways and who knows what else. Has anyone ever seen this before? I am dumbfounded!
Mike

That is totally bizarre! Are you sure it's her? Does she still have the clipped tail and wings to identify her with? If that really happened, that would make a cute interest story on the news! LOL I can hardly believe she traveled all of that mileage and didn't get eaten. Amazing! Ad no, never heard of that happening before.

 

[HEChicken]

The first thing that comes to mind is that it isn't getting enough of it's beak in the water to wash out food. Other than that ducks can get colds and pneumonia just like any other bird. I would certainly make sure it had plenty of water to get into and really clean out first though. If that doesn't help have her give him some vetRX. In the duck's case I would probably give it a dose then keep a little in the drinking water for a few days.
It was a short night. I woke up about a half hour early so got up anyway.I'm hoping my granddaughter is tired and wants to take a nap when we get back. I think that is a pipe dream. She is going to want to see everything and do everything the first afternoon. In only had about 75 chickens and nothing else the last time she was here. And I still had goats. How things change! I also only had Marshmallow. She is going to love Fluff and Cloud. Marshmallow was still very afraid of kids back then.
I'm not sure how much peace and quiet I will have the next couple week so I probably won't be on here as much.
Stay cool today!

Have a great time with your granddaughter - its so nice that she will have some one-on-one time with her Grandma!!!

Last week I was driving around Wichita and we have these new digital signs they put up along the highways a while ago. One day it said "ozone warning" and warned us to gas our vehicles in the evening out of the sun. I didn't catch anything on the news about it and wasn't sure what that meant, but figured it couldn't be good! I've not seen those signs say anything like that since. It was one of those days it was 108 degree out.

Wow, that is something - I hadn't heard about that. I've seen those signs but didn't see them that day.

you know, there is something different about this BYC site-- because this blinkie looks smaller and sharper in my photobucket! huh.

I tried pasting in the IMG code, and that doesn't work? I wonder why not?? I think if I could paste it in directly from my photobucket rather than copy/paste the picture from there, it might stay the same size and keep it's sharpness. ARGH... more thinking...

It looks great to me. I don't have the Photobucket one to compare to but this is coming out looking pretty sharp to me.

July 7, 2012

Friends this is amazing! I have a homing chicken. Really! I have a Welsumer roo and hatched two sisters from an Americana. When they grew up I thought one was eating her eggs and that she was laying them on the ground just inside the door of the pen. Catching her with a recent broken egg I went into the pen and clipped her tail back and one of her wings. This I thought would make her easy to pick out. Thinking that I needed to stop this egg eating I offered her to my brother who lives more than 20 miles away in Shawnee Kansas. When he came to get her we discovered she was not an egg eater but laying her eggs up on a plat form just above the pen door. Some of the eggs were being kicked off and they would break and get eaten. So gave her to him anyway. I was sad to hear three days later she was gone. He living in the city I figured a dog or my brother says he sees some foxes in the neighborhood. Last week I started getting two olive eggs a day and one was speckled. I only have 15 hens but figured this hen was really going at it. I have been working so much I hadn’t really done a head count. Last night I noticed I had two hens that looked like Welsumers but had ear muffs like the American. Today I confirmed it, its her! I have not done exact mileage but I am sure its at least 20 miles, the Kansas River, three highways and who knows what else. Has anyone ever seen this before? I am dumbfounded!
Mike

That is amazing. How long ago did she go to live with your brother? She must be pretty savvy to have survived on her own for any length of time at all.

 

[mikeksfarmer]

I sent her June 10 as my brother was bringing back a hen and chicks from Vacation Bible school I lent them. She has to have been back at least a week as I have been getting 2 olive eggs each day for that long. So as she was there 3 days that makes the 13th (when she left) She has been here a week That means she arived here 6/30. Ok I guess I have a correction Map Quest says 17.8 miles and thats by the road. But even looking at the road map that is still about 15 miles three highways and one Kansas river.
Other conditions: I let my broody hens hatch a few each year. One was mothered by a white rock one by a silky hen. And to think that her wing and tail were compromised because I cut the feathers back enought to tell who she was is still a way amazing story. I really gave my brother a hard time, this is so unreal I cant beleive he would not be playing a joke. He is just not that way. I believe that he did not sneak the hen back I believe that she made it back. She like so many others have earned her place for life and deserves a special name.
Any Ideas??