Consolidated Kansas

If anyone wants to come load up a truck with mowed (and mostly dried) cattails for free, it makes great bedding for your chickens or other animals! We have tons and tons of it! You can drive your truck right down where it is and load up. I'm right between Winfield and Oxford.. let me know and I'll give you directions. This is pretty much a year long offer :)
Email me at: sunflowerparrot at yahoo dot com
 
HE chicken, congrats on your tiny little bantam's first egg!!! She sure is cute!!!

We are eagerly awaiting our first eggs also. Finding out what color they will be is truly half the fun :) we have only one or two, supposedly, of several color varieties and hope we can guess who layed what :) In this heat.... I almost don't want them to start laying yet till fall.... It is just so hard on them :-(. Many of them are 20 weeks now though. I think we have another month or so, however since even my white rock isn't dark red yet. Oddly one of my 20 week BCM from the same breeder as the other is looking like she may be our first, while the other hasnt really reddened up at all and still has a blackish comb. It is so much fun watching them change:)

Molly talks to us every time any one passes her. Had to put her in a big dog crate last night when she decided to explore the bathroom and roost in the sink :). I am afraid to put her out again too soon. Maybe will have her be a day camper inside and let her out again at night first......

I am doing paperwork to start to do foster care right now. Sure was odd yesterday explaining the chicken in the tub :) But Molly and the others are all so friendly ( and we really do clean up after them constantly), the SW enjoyed both Molly and the other assortment of "funny looking" pet birds :)

Glad someone has tomatoes!! It has been so hot that mine dry up faster than I can get them watered.... Might be because this year, I have prioritized watering the birds :)
 
MEDAWINKS - Congrats on the foster care work :) I'm starting a similar new journey August 1st. I am opening my home to a 20 year old young lady with developmental disorder and MR. She will live with me instead of living in a group home. At the same time, this has given me the opportunity to leave my job and stay home full time :) I'm super excited about this and really enjoy her company a lot!!

I didn't do any gardening this year at all. I lived in South Wichita up until 3 weeks ago when I moved my mobile home down here to the boonies.. have so much to do just getting all this new construction in place (power, lagoon, water, well, unpacking, etc..). Next year, I hope to have a great garden :) I'm having a horseshoe driveway put in in a few weeks and am thinking my garden next year will be in the middle of the loop...

Stay nice and cool today - it's going to be another scorcher for sure and with no relief in sight :(
 
My rooster is back to not doing good today. He can't stand up and won't eat again. I had such high hopes yesterday! He is still in the house so I'm not sure why he went back down hill.
Maybe I should just cull him but I just can't.
 
sunflowerparrot, I didn't know you were so close to me, I may take you up on some of that cattail stuff later on. Right now the back of our truck is full of wood & is sitting down by the breeder coop we're in the process of building, so I have no way to get it. It's too hot right now anyway.

Danz, I'm sorry your rooster isn't doing well, it's so hard to see anything suffer.

On a positive note I have two good things happening today, the first is that my Swedish Flower Hen chick is improving. I think it probably is a roo & he was fighting me tooth & nail this morning trying to give him the electrolytes so I got him to drink it himself & he is making some noises today. I gave him some more vitamin E this morning & then put him back in the crate with some food & he was pecking away eating like crazy all by himself! I was so thrilled to see that I almost jumped up & down. I didn't have the corn syrup, so I gave him some honey in the electrolyte solution last night. I don't know if that helped, but it certainly didn't hurt him. The other good news this morning is that I have a miracle chick that hatched, a little Cream Legbar pullet. I was very pessimistic about anything hatching from these eggs at all since these were the ones that went all the way to Dodge City in the heat & back here. I had seen that it was developing, but it looked very iffy when I candled it before putting it into lockdown Weds. & I really couldn't see anything moving. Last night it started peeping in the shell & I couldn't believe it, then I got up to a very sweet little pullet walking around in the incubator today. I'm so excited, I have to go write the guy I got the eggs from because we had such a bad journey with all of the eggs from him, he will be so happy to hear I got one at least. This is a $70 chick, so you'd better believe I'm going to guard it with my life! It's really lonely in there by itself, so as soon as it gets stable enough I will put it in the crate with the Swedish Flower Hen chicks that I still have in the utility room. They're not that much older so they're still pretty little & it will have company.

I went out to check on all the birds this morning & the chicks out in the pen looked pretty happy. One had gotten a bug & they were chasing it all around trying to get it away from it, so fun to watch. I had finally put a fan that I had sitting in the garage, it's one on a stand, in the coop last night so the chickens could be more comfortable. It's still pretty hot in there even at night. I noticed when I went out there that the young ones had come in & were up on the roost, so they must have figured out it was cooler in there because they have been roosting on top of the grow-out pen & it has made a mess there. I've got to get that whole pen cleaned out now that there aren't any birds in there, it's a mess. I just haven't wanted to do that much out there since it's been so darned hot & I wanted it to dry out a lot first too before I attempted to rake it out. I had been using the mister in that pen, so it got pretty wet in one corner. I figure the bedding will be lighter when it's all dried.

Everyone try to stay as cool as possible today, it's just another scorcher only even more so today.
 
That dog does not look healthy. And it looks like the GP is very slight. I think it would be great if someone wanted to give it a home but I wouldn't do so without having it vetted first. I tend to be over cautious about those kind of things. It looks like it needs wormed and it is nearly starving.
Well my rooster was doing so good yesterday but he is almost dead. I can't get him to drink or eat and he only groans a little if I move him. I think he is in his last minutes. I should have known better than to get my hopes up yesterday. I've done that before. Nursed a chicken and had them suddenly show improvement right before they died. I am broken hearted because he was an outstanding very heavy feathered footed roo.
I just came in from feeding and watering. I have to leave here in an hour or so and won't be back until evening. I do worry about the birds today. I have some ice frozen so I'll drop some in the water just before we leave.
 
I made this album public on facebook, so I am thinking anyone can see it.. here is the Surplus Box turned into chick coop photos - not quite finished, but finished enough! Still need to paint the caulking, put up the fenced area, fill up the inside with mowed cattails and put the chicks in!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3476917124068.2133956.1305438222&type=1&l=e4808f8454
it looks good! Love that box!! They have the best boxes out there at Boeing/Spirit! A couple more vents on each side are in order, though. ;)

g'morning everyone. I am beat. Long night at work. I'm dreading the next week because I know it is going to be hotter 'n haides. I sure hope I don't loose any more birds. I wish I had some more shade here, but I'll have plenty of shade once we move. I just hope I don't loose any more birds between now and then. Even once we move we are going to have to do some more work to get the place ready where I want to keep my birds.

It's going to be a very busy weekend for us. We've got so much to do to get this place ready to sell. Our farm ground will sell at auction this coming Tues. Everyone pray for a favorable auction! I still have not had an opening for a new positon come up, so we haven't listed the house yet. If things drag on too long we will go ahead and sell this house and I will move and take a different position. I can always advance once I get moved. There will be opportunities, I have no doubt. (eternal optimist here!)

Have a great day folks.... stay cool. Maybe enjoy some nice cold watermelon!

g'night.
So nice that your new place will have so many more trees and shade. Totally envious of that!!! I hope your auction goes well! Hopefully your position will come up at your new location! I would want to be in that new house ASAP-- it is soooo gorgeous!

I've been considering canceling the trip to KC in two weeks for my Dr. appt. & postponing it until later in the fall when it's not so darned hot. I know that my DH is going to get upset with me when I bring it up, but I'm afraid to leave my birds for 2 days with nobody here to cool them off in this heat. My DH just doesn't understand & I know I'm going to hear a lot of cursing & going on about how my chickens dictate everything we do. His brother has a big anniversary party coming up in 3 wks too & if it's not cooler by then I don't even want to go there. They're having it at some park & if I tell him I don't want to go to that either he's really going to throw a fit. I have some expensive birds here & I hate to have to just leave them & hope they don't die while I'm gone & my rabbits too. Yes, it does restrict what we're able to do sometimes, but these things are important to me & I know he doesn't care about them, but I wish he could respect my feelings & not put me down for having these things. I don't plan to get rid of them all any time soon, so he might as well stop riding me about it.

Well I had better get out there & take care of things. I hope you all are surviving along with your birds. My little Swedish Flower Hen chick still is not good, it can't stand & just flops around in the crate. I keep giving it electrolytes & it started fighting me to use the syringe, so I got it to drink it by dipping it's beak in there. I did get a tiny bit of yogurt down earlier, but not much. I have given it two doses of vitamin E today too. It has improved a tiny bit from this morning when it's head was almost upside down, it can hold it's head up now. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
I couldn't leave right now, that's for sure. Yesterday AGAIN my mare layed down and wouldn't get up. I am so worried! I just don't know if she's going to make it through this summer. I'm trying my best to keep her cool. But I'm spending so much time dealing with overly hot and stressed animals, that there is NO way I would leave mine during this heat. If it got cooler, then perhaps you could go. Could you set up more tarps and misters? Knock on wood-- I'm not having any issues with my birds. I have that privacy lattice on their runs (it's not the regular lattice) and that gives more shade and then a mister in each pen. It's really helping and so far they are faring okay. It's my darned horses that are giving me fits! The two girls are just acting like they give up in this heat. Laying down and not listening to me when I yell at them and clap their rears and pull on their halters to get them up. I think I'm going to set up a water barrel for them in the barn and put a mister in there too later. I bought a great big water barrel for them a few years ago for when they get sick and have to be stalled. But that bucket is sooooo big-- you could take a bath in it. I can easily sit down in it. Anyway, going to set that up today. Maybe having cool water inside the barn will convince them to stay in with the misters set up above the breeze way.

Trish, did you try a bit of corn syrup? Josie told me to try that and it really did perk Molly up. She still couldn't hold her head up this morning, but after a bit more ... She started eating yogurt on her own, while lying down and look what she is doing tonight :).
a6934818-fb94-bd76.jpg

I hope it works for your hen too!!!
I understand your apprehension to leave in this heat. 100%
Cute!! Glad she is doing better!

Yesterday I mentioned my little game hen. Hawkeye, you had asked what breed she is and I always assumed she was an English Game Hen but she was out of the mixed bantam bin and all I had was a list of breeds to go by so if someone thinks she looks like something else, I'll be interested to hear it.

I went out and took some pictures of her yesterday. Here she is in the nest box (which is 14x14). She started "practicing" a few days ago:


And here is Cyrus, my beautiful, wonderful EE rooster:

I tried to get a picture of the two of them side-by-side. I've seen the little hen walk under his legs. Alas, they wouldn't cooperate. However Cyrus went to stand on the other side of the feed bucket and another hen joined them. Just then the game hen jumped down from her nest box practice session and walked over to the feed bucket so I was able to get a photo with all three of them in it. Hopefully you can get an idea of the difference in size from this:

Isn't it scary to think about HIM mounting HER???? He was so gentle though and she didn't seem at all put out afterward.

And this evening I went to check on them and found this in the nest box:

That is her egg next to a penny and one of my medium eggs. I'm actually kind of surprised how big it is considering this is her first egg, and being a pullet egg, is probably smaller than they will eventually be. If you look at the egg next to her, it really seems kind of big in comparison to the size of the hen who laid the medium egg above. I also didn't know the little game hen's eggs would be white so that was a fun surprise too.
Congrats on your first egg from her!! SOOO adorable, she is! She is just tiny!! I want one!! LOL!

Any thoughts on this? Seems like a pretty cool concept - the price isn't bad either.

I'm wondering if I'd need one for each direction around the coop or just one that points out to the main part of the field..

http://www.flemingoutdoors.com/solar-nite-eyes-predator-protection.html
I've seen these. I don't have any, but it looks like a great idea.
HE chicken, congrats on your tiny little bantam's first egg!!! She sure is cute!!!
We are eagerly awaiting our first eggs also. Finding out what color they will be is truly half the fun :) we have only one or two, supposedly, of several color varieties and hope we can guess who layed what :) In this heat.... I almost don't want them to start laying yet till fall.... It is just so hard on them :-(. Many of them are 20 weeks now though. I think we have another month or so, however since even my white rock isn't dark red yet. Oddly one of my 20 week BCM from the same breeder as the other is looking like she may be our first, while the other hasnt really reddened up at all and still has a blackish comb. It is so much fun watching them change:)
Molly talks to us every time any one passes her. Had to put her in a big dog crate last night when she decided to explore the bathroom and roost in the sink :). I am afraid to put her out again too soon. Maybe will have her be a day camper inside and let her out again at night first......
I am doing paperwork to start to do foster care right now. Sure was odd yesterday explaining the chicken in the tub :) But Molly and the others are all so friendly ( and we really do clean up after them constantly), the SW enjoyed both Molly and the other assortment of "funny looking" pet birds :)
Glad someone has tomatoes!! It has been so hot that mine dry up faster than I can get them watered.... Might be because this year, I have prioritized watering the birds :)
So neat about the foster care! Did you have someone there to inspect your home while the bird was inside??

MEDAWINKS - Congrats on the foster care work :) I'm starting a similar new journey August 1st. I am opening my home to a 20 year old young lady with developmental disorder and MR. She will live with me instead of living in a group home. At the same time, this has given me the opportunity to leave my job and stay home full time :) I'm super excited about this and really enjoy her company a lot!!

I didn't do any gardening this year at all. I lived in South Wichita up until 3 weeks ago when I moved my mobile home down here to the boonies.. have so much to do just getting all this new construction in place (power, lagoon, water, well, unpacking, etc..). Next year, I hope to have a great garden :) I'm having a horseshoe driveway put in in a few weeks and am thinking my garden next year will be in the middle of the loop...

Stay nice and cool today - it's going to be another scorcher for sure and with no relief in sight :(
Congrats on your move into the country! :)

My rooster is back to not doing good today. He can't stand up and won't eat again. I had such high hopes yesterday! He is still in the house so I'm not sure why he went back down hill.
Maybe I should just cull him but I just can't.
uh oh, poor thing! No idea why he would do that. Maybe he did loose brain cells or something crazy like that. :(


SO--- I started responding this morning and then we had to leave to take the kids to swimming and then run an errand... so I'm sure by the time I hit Submit-- there will be more posts to catch up with! ha!
 
Danz, I am so sorry about your roo!!! Maybe something will change....

Trish, maybe the honey helped:) whatever reason, I am glad your chick is acting better. We will hope both our birds don't do what Danz's has done. I am not going to pretend that it can't happen. Molly is not happy at all being by herself.... Wants us for company now!

So glad your chick hatched!!!!! 70 bucks!!!! Wow. I understand your excitement!

Sunflower, congrats on your new house mate:). I won't be quitting my job, this is simply an extension of my job.

And yes, Hawkeye, it was for a home visit:) Not the state form filling one but from the social worker who makes the placements. Better to see us as we are:) She was a bit afraid of it at first but when she saw how snuggly she was and felt how soft she was .... She did not think it was an dangerous undomesticated wild animal at all :) Simply a well loved sociable pet.
 
medawinks, how funny that you had a social worker visit when you had your hen in the house, I wonder what she thought? Yeah, I don't know if the honey was what perked the chick up or what, but he is doing lots better, sitting up now in the crate & starting to peep & make noises. I'm going to have to bring in a larger crate, he's in a really small one, but when he was just lying down it didn't matter. I don't want to put him back outside until I'm sure he is totally recovered. I agree with Danz that they probably are a lot more prone to the heat after going through that experience. I know he's not very happy in here & will be less so when he gets on his feet better, but at least he's alive. Yes, I had bought Cream Legbar eggs from this guy on BYC, they're rare & just were imported from England only last year, so even the eggs are expensive. I had gotten 8 eggs from him & all of those were messed up from shipping, so the guy sent me 4 more free & paid the shipping himself & then those went all the way to Dodge City by mistake in the heat, so I figured it was a total loss. I wrote a letter to the postal service complaining & actually did get an apology from the postmaster in Winfield along with him saying that he would instruct his carriers on the treatment of fragile & perishable packages. That was way more of a response than I figured I would get, so I was pleased. I think more people need to complain to them so they realize these are living things that need special care. I just think like my DH said that they figured oh these are $2 eggs, no big deal, but I told them I paid $70 for these eggs & how disgusting it was for both myself & the seller to go through this experience. I think that probably was an eye opener for them about shipped eggs. Here is a pic I just took of my new baby:




Danz, I don't blame you for being worried about leaving today. I decided yesterday not to go to Wichita for feed & instead just went to Arkansas City so I wouldn't be gone so long. Today is a scorcher out there & I need to get out there now & check on my birds. My DH left for work 2 hours early today, so I can go ahead & turn on the mister.
 
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