Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

My heart goes out to you. Yes I believe you've had more than your share recently. How are you feeling these days? Are the meds helping at all?

I have feathers everywhere. The coop looks like a pillow exploded, and my Buff Orpington is looking really ragged (she is about 14 months old, so it may be a real molt), and the others are all losing feathers. My older girls also lost feathers at about this age, so I suppose it is that first molt, but I was expecting it to be a little later.

I'm going to do the annual cleaning sometime soon. It has been a year, and there isn't any smell, but the DE has pretty much settled to the bottom, so there is a dust issue going on. I'm planning to hose it out after I shovel out the used shavings. Since I pick up the worst of the poo every morning, there isn't much to compost. I plan to scrub the walls and tighten up a couple of places that mice are getting into the walls (yuck), too, so it will be an all day job. When I did it last year, the girls were in a real snit about their nest boxes being moved. Has to be done. What should I use to disinfect it if anything?

Sharol

I need to do the same thing. I plan do some moving and cleaning later this weekend. I would buy some Oxine. Initially it is pretty pricey with a bottle of the liquid and a package of activator. I ordered mine and have no idea if you can buy it any where around here. This stuff makes hundreds of gallons per gallon of solution. It is remarkable. It cleans, and totally disinfects any thing and everything. I've used it for everything from washing eggs to cleaning showers, to disinfecting incubators. The worst part about it is making US conversions from ml and grams. I'm an idiot. I make a gallon at a time and never write the exact conversion down then have to figure it all again. I convert the activator to Tsp which makes me doubt myself every time. Duh!

Scout, the Campine, is a real character. She is half the size of the other hens -- though not a bantam -- and bosses everyone around except the roo. She nags and complains if they don't get out of the run as early as she would like, and she is my DH's favorite chicken (this from the man who wasn't keen on chickens). THis picture is a little old, but she still looks about the same ;-).

Trish bought a campine at the Yates Center sale last spring. That was the first one I had ever seen. She was a talker! Very pretty bird.
Yes there is a feather explosion here. My big red cochin roo is showing almost white down under neath. He looks like crap.
I am a total advocate for getting pullets that range in age about 6 months from each other. That way everyone isn't molting all at once and you keep the eggs going. I met my orders this week but barely. I have two more orders to take to church Sunday and I hope it doesn't short me on next week's eggs. SInce I sold all those birds I am really afraid of everyone molting at the same time.

 

[HEChicken]

Tweety, for some reason when I "multi'ed" you, what you wrote didn't show up in the text box above, but what I was going to say is that yes, you have had a terrible year and I am so sorry about your lab. I don't remember the exact timing but it doesn't feel like very long since you had to make a similar decision about your cat, and I know having the two coming back to back like that is really hard. Hang in there! You know you gave them great lives and made the right decision for the right reasons at the end - something that is not always easy to do!

Scout, the Campine, is a real character. She is half the size of the other hens -- though not a bantam -- and bosses everyone around except the roo. She nags and complains if they don't get out of the run as early as she would like, and she is my DH's favorite chicken (this from the man who wasn't keen on chickens). THis picture is a little old, but she still looks about the same ;-).

Scout is beautiful! I've never had Campines. I know Trish has talked about the one she got awhile back, and said she is very flighty - is Scout like that as well?

We didn't get a drop of rain here - just some clouds which are gone now. It looks like a beautiful start to Labor Day weekend! I am so excited that we have no sports this weekend which is the only break we get for the foreseeable future!!!

 

[cherwill]

Tweety, I'm so sorry about your lab. I've been there and it's a horrible decision to have to make. Sometimes the kindest thing we can do for our pets is the most painful for us.

Scout, the Campine, is a real character. She is half the size of the other hens -- though not a bantam -- and bosses everyone around except the roo. She nags and complains if they don't get out of the run as early as she would like, and she is my DH's favorite chicken (this from the man who wasn't keen on chickens). THis picture is a little old, but she still looks about the same ;-).

She's gorgeous!

I sincerely apologize for sounding as though I was scolding or trying to hurt. I truly wasn't. I think we all have different perspectives, all equally valuable, and we usually share those and learn from each other. I've never been cursed at or asked to go away. I have now and I agree that it is the best thing to do. I've enjoyed meeting all of you and apologize for the misunderstanding. Good luck in your many adventures and endeavors and I wish you the best.

Karen S.

Please don't leave. I truly believe no one meant to be hurtful or offensive. This was a touchy situation but it's done and I wish no one felt like they had to leave because of it.

 

[chicken danz]

Oh Hawkeye I forgot. Yeah I talked to DH about the deck project. He was thinking about it at least cause we were discussing how to connect it to the house without actually connecting it. Our other decks we built both here and the other house have been free floating so as not to pull on the house structure itself, which isn't the normal way. He has to work all weekend through Monday so maybe next week I will remind him to think about it. He can be a bit of a crab when he is working. He works 12 hour shifts and that doesn't leave a lot of time for discussions. He processes everything and I've learned I can't rush that. Personally I am ready to go buy more materials and get started. But there are also several other projects we need done here like pen building and foundation work for the chicken trailer. If he would set the posts for me I could do the rest. I think I could set the posts as well but he doesn't trust me to get everything just totally perfect square and level.

 

[sharol]

She was quite flighty as a chick. If she didn't go in the pen with the others, I had to let the others back out to corral her. When she started squatting at about 15 weeks, she changed completely. She started hopping up in my lap if I was sitting down and really seemed to enjoy the attention. She is a great hen. She was also the first to lay at about 17 weeks.

Sharol

Scout is beautiful! I've never had Campines. I know Trish has talked about the one she got awhile back, and said she is very flighty - is Scout like that as well?

We didn't get a drop of rain here - just some clouds which are gone now. It looks like a beautiful start to Labor Day weekend! I am so excited that we have no sports this weekend which is the only break we get for the foreseeable future!!!

 

[HEChicken]

Hawkeye, how is your mare doing this morning?

 

[Hawkeye95]

Oh Hawkeye I forgot. Yeah I talked to DH about the deck project. He was thinking about it at least cause we were discussing how to connect it to the house without actually connecting it. Our other decks we built both here and the other house have been free floating so as not to pull on the house structure itself, which isn't the normal way. He has to work all weekend through Monday so maybe next week I will remind him to think about it. He can be a bit of a crab when he is working. He works 12 hour shifts and that doesn't leave a lot of time for discussions. He processes everything and I've learned I can't rush that. Personally I am ready to go buy more materials and get started. But there are also several other projects we need done here like pen building and foundation work for the chicken trailer. If he would set the posts for me I could do the rest. I think I could set the posts as well but he doesn't trust me to get everything just totally perfect square and level.

But if you don't attach it, can you still use the side of the house as your 4th wall? How will that work? I would want the roof coming out of the house. I guess I can't picture what you're saying. Although-- we did do that with our pergola-- it's a free-standing shade structure. But it didn't really need to be water proof and keep water from leaking between it and the house. I guess I'd have to see a drawing of it to get it. Either way-- it would be nice to get something put up! That would be really exciting! I'm all for having my DH set posts for me-- I know I would mess them up. I want to work on the pen now, and he wants to get other things done first. I totally understand, we have a lot of things left undone that needs to get done first.

Hawkeye, how is your mare doing this morning?

Thank you for asking! I've been medicating her to try to keep her as pain free as possible. I'm so glad I bought all of that Bute in bulk! She isn't walking around like she typically would and she is laying down for most of the day now. About every time I look out there, she is laying down again. I've gone out a few times this week to check she isn't colicking and get her up and check her belly over. So far, so good. She's just sore. I feel terrible for her. I hope she can get pulled out of it quickly-- the heat is already gone out of her feet. So we're not dealing with any lingering infection or illness at this point. Just the hoof needs time to grow out of it. Sigh. I bet it will take all winter and even into Spring to get the new growth to replace the separation. But she's healthy! I've spent this summer concentrating on feeding her up for Winter and getting some weight put on her and getting her supplements, I have high hopes she won't fall ill again during the treatment. (crossing fingers!!)

 

[cherwill]

I haven't sprung this idea on DH yet and I don't know if it would really work or not. We have a room upstairs, on the east side, that is windows on three sides (the west side is our bedroom wall.) It is open to the back stairway but we almost never use that stairway. It has no vents at all. I wonder if I could use it as kind of a greenhouse in winter, if we could find some way to heat it? It's a small room that we use as a library, but the staircase could be a problem for keeping the room heated.

 

[chicken danz]

I'm so glad your horse is doing better. I was afraid you were going to loose her this summer.
As far as the deck goes the roof part would set under the eaves of the house. I wondered about having a gap there myself. I think I could probably use some flexible caulking or something to fill the gap. My preference would be to attach the whole structure but he has these ideas of how it might pull the house from the foundation. My late husband and I built a deck with a roof and it was attached with lag bolts. I guess DH has a valid point though unless we get more rain before we build,the earth will shift a great deal which could put strain on the house. Our front deck sits about an inch from the house.
I personally would rather just have someone come in and frame it out including the roof and then I could finish it myself. But that isn't in the budget.

 

[MarcAustin]

Don't know if anyone posted this yet, but just an FYI from Craigslist http://wichita.craigslist.org/grd/3243278567.html
Someone i thought mentioned a need for one of these not so long ago