Consolidated Kansas

[sunflowerparrot]

Only victims here so far have been my pallet strawberries. I'm okay with that if it's an either or thing between the chickens and strawberries. DH mowed more than half his garden. I didn't ask.

Pallet strawberries? Would love to lean more about this - I assume you are growing them in pallets? Photos too if you have them I was thinking of doing strawberries next year.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Thanks for the welcome, HEChicken! I actually joined last year but haven't been active online for while but I am back!
My flock: Right now I have 11 assorted layers, 8 more assorted pullets that are about 2 months old, 6 Cornish X (dwindling as they are sent to the freezer as they get big), and 5 ducks - pekins and cayugas. Most interesting thing for me is that I have experienced my first predator problem this past week after a year with no problems. Lost one of my favorite hens - a black Australorp, a buff cochin cockerel (Murray McMurray "mystery chick) and one of the pekins. So, no free range until I can trap this guy - happened in the middle of day in all this heat.
Whereabouts in the state are you?

sounds like fox???

My black hen still isn't laying, but she looks much better than she did a few days ago. My Marans isn't laying, or something is getting into their tractor and just taking the egg. I wouldn't doubt if she's just not laying, my other layers didn't have any eggs for me the last few days either.

I have one EE who appears fine, eating and drinking, not panting or fluffed up, good color, talkative...but then she "hee-haw"s??? What is that about? It's not like the honking that they do when they get too hot, so I'm not sure what it is. Ideas?

Praying for rain, rain, rain, rain, rain and cooler weather!

what happened? Did they get sick from the heat? No idea about your EE. If they got overly hot it could take a while to get them feeling back to normal. I have my water misters running from late morning to late evening on the birds. It is miserable out there.

on the win and on the great turnout! Ready for Coffeyville?

Only victims here so far have been my pallet strawberries. I'm okay with that if it's an either or thing between the chickens and strawberries. DH mowed more than half his garden. I didn't ask.

I talked to my Dh about Coffeyville.... he's okay with it, but not real sure about me spending 3 days in a hotel. I'd have to take the kids with me, too. Maybe I could convince my mom to come so she could visit her family. But I know they are trying to get their house ready to sell since Boeing is sending them to Seattle. Worst case, I could just come down and meet you all there on the judging day and not bring any birds. That way I don't have to spend several days down there.

Pallet strawberries? Would love to lean more about this - I assume you are growing them in pallets? Photos too if you have them I was thinking of doing strawberries next year.

I did strawberries this year. They are pitiful. They are barely surviving in this heat. I have to water them every evening and by that time, they have wilted. They keep coming back when they get watered, but it's riduculous. Mine are in a raised bed. Everything else is doing well.. but they aren't. I hope next year will be better. They will come back up next year-- you just need to pile straw all around them to protect them over the winter. So they are an investment that will come back. (or should, anyway...) ha!

 

[Hawkeye95]

I've already been out mowing and doing outdoor chores this morning. It's getting hot fast, though. I'm watering trees this morning. Well, that's something I do almost every single morning anyway. Poor things would be dying if I didn't.

Checoukan, Ivy, and anyone else that is doing show breeding--- do you line breed? I was also reading about rotational (spiral) breeding too. I've read good things and bad things about the line breeding. In the Poultry Press, there was an article written by a well known breeder and he was talking about getting your foundation birds by line breeding. BUT-- the stuff I was reading online was saying that an old amish program had been line breeding and after about 10-20 yeard their birds were suffering from twisted spines, wry tail, and other skeletal problems. Just wanting to learn more about how other people do it. Sounds like the best idea is to introduce new blood every so often.... But how often??? It wouldn't break my heart to buy someone else's eggs each year. But that seems excessive if I want to narrow down my faults. My trio that I bought last year-- I only bred two of them (the other has gold leakage and I didnt' want to take a chance on that) but, they are great birds and they have produced only ONE bird out of all those chicks with a toe fault! I think that's incredible. Obviously they are from a good background where those faults have been bred out, and it's showing by breeding forward in my own birds. But I need better wings and smaller size, and I'm going to have to use new blood to do so. But once I establish that... then what? Line breed for a few generations before I introduce new blood.... or...????? Ideas????

 

[HEChicken]

I'm still not sold on it being a coyote and I posted on the pests and predators page and others suggested fox as well. It's jsut that I see maybe one fox a year but I see coyotes regularly. What to you think it might have been based on this: found 2 carcasses about 7:00 p.m. - had checked and all was well a couple hours earlier. Whatever it was came right up to the coop - everyone was hanging out in the shade - and snatched them - and carcasses were in the open grassland about 40 yards away weith wings torn off and breast meat eaten. Not sure if there were two or more critters or it it made two trips. Thoughts? I have to think it grabbed the dinky little cochin and it didn't fill him up and then came back for the duck (about an 8 pounder).

I'm no expert. When my fox attacked the first day, he killed 14 birds - a duck & 13 chickens. I thought it was dogs because none of them had been eaten - just killed. But I couldn't find any holes in the chicken yard fence and nowhere it had been dug under so it was a mystery how they got in. The next day, I saw the fox and watched as he climbed the fence like it was a ladder, so at least the mystery of how he got in was solved.

I then read that foxes will sometimes kill multiple birds - way more than they can eat - and bury the rest to stash for future meals. I suspect his plan was to carry them out one by one and bury them, but I foiled him by interrupting the attack that first day. As it was, two of the smaller ones were missing and I've never found their bodies so I think he either ate them or carried them off.

The following day he got another duck and a 5-week-old chick. The chick I never found a trace of. The duck was injured but still alive. Unfortunately, she only lived about 10 more minutes before she died. A third was attacked that day and I call her my miracle. After the attack she looked fine but there was something in her eyes - she just looked shell-shocked. So I picked her up and sat her on my knee and started going through her feathers and that's when I found the four puncture wounds. It looked like the fox got in two good bites to her spine and the puncture wounds were tooth marks from top and bottom jaw, on either side of her spine. I got Neosporin and squeezed a good quantity into each of the four wounds, but really thought she was not going to make it. For three days she acted like someone with PTSD. I had to lift her on and off the roost, place her in front of feed and water and even move her around to shady spots of the yard because left to her own devices she just stood and looked inward. She hadn't eaten or drunk anything in that time but on the third day I offered her a raw egg and she showed the first spark of interest and slowly ate a little of it. From that moment on, she never looked back and started taking care of herself again. She just started laying again this week

One thing that has changed is that she is now very chatty with me where before I was just the person who refilled feeders and waterers. There aren't very many chickens who can say "I was attacked by a fox and survived".

On re-reading your post, it does sound like it *could* be the work of a fox. Mine was very bold also. Many of the dead birds were within feet of my coop. I am back and forth all day but what I observed of him was he was watching our house very carefully. After the attack DH was going back and forth a lot, gathering the materials required to neutralize him, and the fox kept a really close eye on him. Luckily for me, I was downwind of him and sitting in the shadow of the coop in my lawnchair and I don't think he even knew I was there, but I watched him watch DH come in and out of the house. He would move back into the shadows of the trees and DH never actually saw him - he just knew he was there because I told him. The phrase "cunning as a fox" comes to mind because that fox really was very cunning and stealthy. So I can believe a fox would come up close to your coop in broad daylight, when you were there not long before - because that is the exact same thing we saw.

 

[pikeman94]

Hawkeye so glad to hear your horse is better today. I loved that picture! You should frame it.
Sorry about your cat Trish. Loosing one of my cats would be like loosing a family member. Mine are so old that I know it will happen sooner than later. Thank goodness they tend to stay in during the day. This heat would get them for sure.
So has anyone been to buy chick starter recently? I have gone to three different Orshlem's and there is no chick starter. As a matter of fact they didn't have any Purina chicken products at all at those stores any more. There was none of their brand of chick starter and I was told that the truck came in but there was none on it. The only starter I could find is that overpriced Nutra brand that comes in the smaller bags. I'm not paying that price.
I'm just wondering if other stores have a shortage on starter?

I think TSC in Olathe had some. I bought it about two weeks ago. I think there were 10 lbs bags and 50 lbs bags. I plan on running to Lawrence today because Orchslen's is having a sale on layer feed -- $9.99 a bag. I can't pass that deal up.

 

[sharol]

My girls and Butch (my amazing EE roo) are up by the house in the flower garden. A few minutes ago they were sounding the alarm that something was around. I went out and didn't see anything until a HUGE redtail flew out of a tree near the run on the other side of the coop (maybe 100 feet from the patio) and took off over the pasture south of the house with several Martins in full pursuit. All the chickens are fine, and the hawk has left for now. I'm glad the girls prefer the area in the flower garden for their morning naps. There are 10-15 huge sunflowers that have volunteered from leftover BOSS that the girls didn't eat last winter, so they have pretty good cover there.

The afternoon shade and misters are in the run, so they are safer there in the afternoon.

I really hate the predators, but I have to admit, that hawk was majestic!!

 

[averytds]

I have to leave town, but will try and remember pics, though not much to look at now. Most of the strawberries have died. Mine are upright. Friend of mine who did everything in pallets, but on the ground, her stuff looks fantastic. Only thing I had going good were my peaches, then they all disappeared one afternoon.

 

[chicken danz]

Redsocks, I don't think that was a fox. I would venture either possum or coyote. A possum will eat the meat out of a bird and leave the skeleton and the wings. A coyote might do that if they were in a hurry. A fox will carry their birds back to the den to feed their babies so I wouldn't think that would be the case.
Another new predator around here are turkey vultures. They have always eaten off carcasses but I've observed them hunting live food this year. I think like everything else they have gotten really hungry. Young coyotes just learning to hunt will come out in brood daylight.
I just had a previous customer come by trying to buy some cochins. He had two hens and a roo in cages to take to the fair today and they all died from the heat. They were in a building with a breeze but it was too hot for them. I unfortunately didn't have anything of the right age or color for him. He said he'd buy chicks this fall and start over. He was just trying to replace them because his kids didn't know yet. He bought the birds from me last fall for the fair this spring. It's so sad when this happens to kids.
I guess I need to get my organized boots on and be sure to get ready for fall breeding.
Sunflower, guineas will be fine with other birds if they have been raised with them. I forgot what age your chickens are but if I remember right they are young. The guineas might be okay with them but watch them as they might pick on the chickens if they are older. Mine all co-inhabit so the guineas just think they are no different than the chickens or the ducks. However the breeders which I keep in a pen will attack any other birds that go in there. Try it ...and it should be fine if they aren't too old.
I must have had a predatory skunk last night. My dogs know better than to corner one but all three of them smell like skunk today. The only reason they would get that close is if the skunk was after the birds. I sure hope the smell wears off soon!
My Serama hen died last night. Her organs must have been scrambled. She left two long streams of blood tinged fluid behind her right before she died. It just breaks my heart to see the destruction this heat is causing.
I've got to try to get DH help me get the electric fence up today. My geese keep chewing holes in their temp fence and running around the yard. They were out again this morning.

 

[Trish44]

danz, I'm sorry about your little Serama. Naughty geese, I didn't think about them chewing through a fence. Where are you putting up the electric fence? Oh I had seen on the Poultry swap that Jason Kramer had a white peachick for sale, but it sold pretty fast. I really wouldn't have minded having it, but didn't look forward to driving to Parsons to get it either.

I just went out a little while ago & the one little kitty had I guess climbed the fence & gotten in with my chicks in the pen then couldn't get out. The other one was kind of wedged inbetween the turkey pen & the chick pen, but fortunately it could just walk out of there. There is a small space inbetween the pens, not big enough for anything much to get in there except tiny kittens. I raked straw out of my chicken run this morning, the chickens had just spread it all over the run from the corner where it's stacked & I never intended for them to have straw over the floor. I got most of it out of there, but of course some has sunk into the sand, so I guess it will eventually break down. I went in the coop also this morning & one of the silly hens who is broody was stealing pine shavings from the nest next to it, so I went & put more in all of the boxes since I had taken out the nest pads yesterday. Maybe the one who didn't like them will like them better now, who knows. I found one of my Barred Rock hens inside the plastic crate I had sat in the corner in the floor upside down to keep them from laying in that corner. There is a hole in the side, but I had it turned to the back & somehow she squeezed back there & got in, so I got her out & turned the hole to the other wall. I can barely reach those eggs when they lay there, so I don't want them making a nest back there. I'm hoping eventually they all will get the idea & use the darned nest boxes, that would be nice.

Well try to stay cool everyone & be careful out there!

 

[chicken danz]

I have a double kennel set up for the geese and a temp pen made of orange safety netting. I just plan to run the electric netting in place of the orange nettting and hopefully extend it far enough to go under the apple trees for them. It comes off the north side of the barn. It's probably not their permanent home but it's what I have right now.