Consolidated Kansas

[sunflowerparrot]

I get to have a colonoscopy on Monday. Not yay! LOL

My first colonoscopy was when I turned the dreaded 50 years old.. I was very anxious to say the least! I made sure my Kindle was fully charged and was planning on spending the entire night in my bathroom... it wasn't bad at all actually and I was very surprised at how simple the entire process was.. the best thing though was the drugs! seriously... wow, I caught up on a years worth of sleep that day Good luck with your procedure.. I hope everything is ok.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Thanks checoukan. It is just a foam one and there is nothing to measure the humidity. Maybe I did better in the heat of the summer too because the canner was going constantly putting lots of humidity in the house. I'm so sad, I didn't have to look inside the eggs, yet I'm sure I saved one chick by looking, I don't want to see more dead ones. My husband went to Orcheln's and brought home 4 buff orphington chicks to cheer me up. They're so sweet, a little bigger than the ones that we hatched, but they are probably a little older. The ones we hatched seem agressive compared to them. They're pecking at the new comers but I think they'll get used to each other. In a few more days I can clean up the incubator and put it away if I want, I was thinking I would quit. But, knowing me, this will just make me want to try again. It's so hard when they die, it's hard when any animals die but the babies are the hardest.

I'm with Checoukan here, I bet your humidity is low. Get a hygrometer! You can get them at Petsmart. I bought one on Amazon that can be salt-tested, but you don't really have to have one that fancy. I'm paranoid, though. I spiked my humidity up to 70% or higher. My goal was to be running right around 75% during the last couple of days and well into hatch. To spike it, I would wet down paper towels with warm water and throw them in pretty wet--- soaking wet, actually. That would boost the humidity and they started hatching better. I was having trouble with my incubator too. I'm using a Brinsea and the water channels they provide-- well, all filled up, it doesn't boost the humidity enough to hatch with. I've read a lot of people putting in wet towels and such and when I started doing it, they started popping out much easier. Just don't do that until about 3-4 days before hatch. I run a very low humidty during incubation. Right around 20%-40%. I let my machine run dry and just watch my Hygrometer closely and when it goes below 20%, then I add more water and am careful not to go above 40%.

Hey all! Had a pretty rough week here, I'm still trying to gage what I can and can't eat, and apparently white rice isn't one of them. I only ate a few teaspoons full, but suffered and was off work for 3 1/2 days because of it. grr. I made my hubby take me to the deli today just so I could eat soup somewhere else other than my kitchen. I hate being cooped up (haha) and wanted to go somewhere else other than work, walmart, or home. I had a dr's appointment last Thurs with a GI doc and he's referring me to a gastroparesis specialist at KU Med Center. Yay! It's going to be a long wait for an appointment though, i'm sure. In the meantime, though, I get to have a colonoscopy on Monday. Not yay! LOL

Sorry I've missed so many posts. I've been sleeping a lot, but have felt much better these past couple days and had tons of make-up work for school as well as housework and coop clean-up. I read just back the past few pages, so sorry if I"ve missed anything.

HECHicken, I'd love to come, but as much work as I've taken off lately, unless I can claim it as FMLA, I won't be able to come I work Mon-Fri.

Welcome to all the newcomers and Mammahen10, that's sweet that you tried to save the calf. How is it doing, or do you know?

Ya'll were speaking about puppies. I convinced my DH to get me a puppy for my 40th birthday (Oct 4th), so now i'm on the hunt for a pup. I want something short haired, larger dog. I'd love to adopt an older dog, but our American Bulldog isn't completely reliable around other adult dogs and I know that he'd be ok if we brought a young pup in though. It's amazing the prices that some people want for dogs!!

I'm taking over $1500 for a dog. I was thinking $100 or less, free is better. I don't care if it's not purebred or registered or anything like that. I'm sure the right one will come along.


Took some pictures of the flock after I cleaned up the coop, thought I'd share with ya!







This is Jade - "she's" the one that I think might be a roo. The wattles are a lot bigger, as well as the comb, than the others. No crowing yet though



Then, had to add one of my favorite flock member - Kaylea! She's getting so big and almost crawling!

Uh, yeah, that big 'ole BOY of yours will be crowing soon! I can see the start of streamers off the back of his crest. He is looking all-boy. His gold leakage is also typical of a boy. IF they get leakage-- it will be right around the beak on girls. For boys, it will be on the hackles and wings like him. He may not crow a whole lot. Some silkies are just quiet. But I have a boy that will crow all day long. But I have another that will crow once or twice and he's done for the day. Maybe you could keep him anyway if he ends up being quiet.

Oh no! So sorry you have been sick!! Terrible, and all over rice! Wow. I'm sorry about the upcoming procedure, but honestly, it's a very good thing. That way, they can catch polyps earlier and your risk of cancer goes way down. I LOVE your grandson's picture! He is a cutie pie!! He is getting so big!! WOW! He was just born, right??? Right??? LOL!!

I have looked at the humane society, but our biggest issue is that they want a vet reference if you already have a dog. We buy the shots and give them ourselves and only bring the dogs in when they are sick or injured, so I can't prove shot records like they want with a reference.

I got a dog from the Kansas Humane Society in Wichita last year. I think I paid right around $140?? But she was fixed, microchipped, had her vaccinations!! It is a fantastic deal!! Then I adopted a dog at Caring Hands Humane Society and they said they needed a vet reference, but they never did call my vet. I think they just want you to put a name down. But nothing ever came of it, because I asked my vet later if they got a call and he said no. But they were awesome people to adopt from!

This is Caring Hands in Newton, KS-- much closer to you! http://www.caringhandshs.org/

This is the Kansas Humane Society, in Wichita, KS-- http://www.kshumane.org/

This is a Kansas rescue: http://www.ksk9resq.org/

This is a large dog rescue in Wichita, KS: http://dognbone.rescuegroups.org/

I don't want anyone to think I am only having a one sided conversation with hawkeye, in ways I am, but the information is for everyone. She has asked questions, I will answer those questions. if you have a question, ask it, and I will answer your too, if I can.

Hechicken,~~~ where are you loacated, that will determine if I can come or not I drive school bus, and well, day events for the weekdays are out for me.

Hawkeye~~~ ABA bands are a hard plastic. They have no give what so ever to them. I don't think you could get the band on the young birds now, Anouther problem is the fifth toe, you have got to have enough room to slide the band on. So, kinda out for this year, unless you have some babies you can place them on.

Now, I also use colored spiral bands. I use several colors, each color has its own meaning to me. I can use spirals, to identify babies when they hatch, and then when they get big enough for the ABA band to stay on, I remove the spiral, and just write the number down for the chick.
I don't like the zip ties as much, you have to cut them off, and then they are unusable. Spirals you reuse over and over.

I'll have to buy next year's bands then for the new chicks. But for now, looks like I'll just buy the plastic numbered bandettes that can snap on. I am searching around for the best prices. My mom reminded me that Valley Feed here in Wichita (she thinks) sells chicken leg bands. So I'll have to call them and see! I hope so, all the poultry online stores want something like $10 to SHIP!!! I mean it costs them $2 to ship... why so much?? I have a lot to get done and do before this show! BUT-- the up side is that this will get me all prepared for the Kansas Classic Fall Poultry Show in November! I'll be all ready and will just have to wash birds and not worry about health papers or bands. Whew! If I see those spiral bands, I'll get a package of those, too.

BTW, I need to buy more show cages for our barn, where did you order yours? I need to get prices from a couple of places and turn it in at our next county meeting. Sigh. I need LF, bantam and large-- like for geese/turkey.

But Goats have such Personality !!!!

You are such a crack up!!!!

If you think GOATS have personality... you should try a silkie rooster.... you know you want one! LOL

 

[mommahen10]

Some of my eggs still have a few days so I went ahead and added more water, it's full and added a bowl of water too but it's too high for them to get into. I like your wet towel idea better. What's a Brinsea? I will likely find a hydrometer online because I'm 2 hours from any Petsmart or big city for that matter. Right now I have 3 alive that I know of in the incubator. One has the unabsorbed yolk again but is dry and active but I can't take him out because there are too many and they will surely notice it and peck, it's more obvious than the other one. It's a big chick. The other two are stil in shells and struggling I can tell but it's too soon to help. I have a few duck eggs in there incubating too, I'm not even sure if they are fertile. I've got in the habit of not candling because I can't see through the dark shells but I could with the duck eggs.

 

[Trish44]

MarcAustin, those pygmy goats are the cutest things, I want some so bad, but I've heard they're really good escape artists. They can go under things a lot easier than other types of goats. I just want a couple of goats for brush control on the part of our land we don't mow or anything, it's pretty overgrown down there. But, then we would have to put up goat proof fence & that's not cheap.

tweety, I hope the specialist can figure out your problem & help you, good luck with your test too, I hope it goes all right & everything is OK. I agree, there are a lot of places you can find a puppy, I hope you find what you're looking for. Wow, your granddaughter has really grown, my goodness it seems like yesterday you had pics of her as a newborn!

mommahen, a Brinsea is a brand of incubator & they're wonderful for starting out. I started out with one & they're almost foolproof if you watch your humidity. I still use mine sometimes for special groups of eggs or something, but I graduated to a cabinet incubator now for incubating. I still hatch in a foam incubator though because I always seem to have different ages of eggs in the incubator.

Well I managed barely to get the livestock panel up over the top of the turkey pen this afternoon by myself, boy was it a chore. The darned thing kept bending in the middle & you know if I wanted it to bend it wouldn't have, but it did & I would get one end up & the other would fall down. Then the cut end kept getting caught on the fence & getting stuck. Finally I just went ahead & hooked the front end to the front top of the pen & got under it & worked my way back towards the back of the pen lifting as I went & muscled it up there & hooked it on. I had just left one side of the chicken wire hooked on so I had to pull it back over & cable tie it all back over again. Then I had to wrestle the tarp back over the top of it all again. By the time I got that all done I was pretty done in. My back is killing me tonight, so I'm paying for it. Anyway, I don't think I will have a problem with the water standing on it any more or fear of it falling in now, it's pretty supported. Now I have to figure out how to fix the one over the grow-out pen, I'll probably have to take the whole top off of that one too & start over. After doing all of that I had to go get cleaned up because it was so muddy in that pen & I was standing in poopy mud, so I was a mess. Then I went over & helped Sunflowerparrot catch her young guineas & move them from the rabbit hutch they have been in to the little small coop where they will stay until they're big enough to let free-range. It went better than either of us expected I think, I was thinking they were going to really be hard to catch, but it wasn't too bad since they were in a small space. We even managed to get them from the crate to the coop without losing any. Wow, I couldn't believe how fast those Cornish Cross chicks are growing, like little weeds!

Well the guy still hasn't come yet for the rabbits, he didn't make it this evening & at least he sent me a text asking if he could come tomorrow & gave me a time frame, so hopefully he will show up this time. I did find out they're for a birthday gift, I hope whoever is getting them is happy with them, they're pretty good sized rabbits, Chinchillas.

Tomorrow is going to be another busy day, I have some things that I have put off that need to be done out in the coop & pens, so I need to get that stuff done. My DH is going to work some on the breeder coop too & we have some things to figure out yet. I can't wait to start getting it closed in, then it will start looking like a building instead of a skeleton.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Then I went over & helped Sunflowerparrot catch her young guineas & move them from the rabbit hutch they have been in to the little small coop where they will stay until they're big enough to let free-range. It went better than either of us expected I think, I was thinking they were going to really be hard to catch, but it wasn't too bad since they were in a small space. We even managed to get them from the crate to the coop without losing any. Wow, I couldn't believe how fast those Cornish Cross chicks are growing, like little weeds!

I so appreciate your help! I was amazed at how smoothly the entire process went And yes, those cornish chicks are growing like super bionic chickens! They eat until they literally cannot move and then just lie in front of the food dish in a coma... 4 more weeks and we'll be harvesting. I bought a new deep freezer for all the meat and it should be here today

Stephen and I are planning on coming over early this evening sometime.. not too sure when, but will give you a heads-up He said he'll be more than happy to talk to Tom about the roof he put on my coop. I want him to see your place too.. I've talked so much about it

Enjoy your day! I just came in from letting everyone out and feeding the chickens, guineas, dog, and kitties. Now it's time for my coffee!

 

[cubbysan]

I am so happy that this is such an active thread. I am going to learn a lot here.

Sounds like chicken math eventually turns into livestock math.

 

[HEChicken]

Some of my eggs still have a few days so I went ahead and added more water, it's full and added a bowl of water too but it's too high for them to get into. I like your wet towel idea better. What's a Brinsea? I will likely find a hydrometer online because I'm 2 hours from any Petsmart or big city for that matter. Right now I have 3 alive that I know of in the incubator. One has the unabsorbed yolk again but is dry and active but I can't take him out because there are too many and they will surely notice it and peck, it's more obvious than the other one. It's a big chick. The other two are stil in shells and struggling I can tell but it's too soon to help. I have a few duck eggs in there incubating too, I'm not even sure if they are fertile. I've got in the habit of not candling because I can't see through the dark shells but I could with the duck eggs.

I hatch in a home-made styrofoam incubator.

Keep in mind that surface area is the most important factor in creating humidity. 1/2 gallon of water in a large, shallow bowl, will create far more humidity than the same quantity of water in a tall, deep bowl.

In the bottom of my styrobator, I have some vinyl coated wire racks. Sitting on those is a piece of 1/4" hardware cloth cut to the dimensions of the incubator. Sitting on that is a piece of the rubberized shelf liner stuff, also cut to the correct dimensions. This allows for humidity with no risk of newly hatched chicks falling into the water bowl. During incubation, I have two little, round bowls that I bought at the dollar store, designed to be dog/cat feeding bowls, filled with water. I have to refill them about every other day to maintain humidity in the range I want it.

At lockdown, I remove one of those bowls, and replace it with a plastic rectangular bowl that is the same height but twice as long and a little wider than one of the bowls. It has a ton more surface area so humidity increases when I use it. I wish I had two of the same size bowl and I'd replace both of my round bowls. I fill both the rectangular bowl and the remaining dog bowl to the brim with water. This increases humidity to approximately 55%. I leave it like that for the first 24 hours of lockdown. Then I take a couple of small towels, roll them up, soak them in warm water, and quickly open it to add them along two edges. This raises the humidity to between 70-75%. I leave it until the second day to add them because with trial and error, I have learned that that way they will keep the humidity where I want it throughout the hatch. If I try to add them the first day of lockdown, they dry out too soon and humidity is too low while the chicks are actually hatching. Typically I don't have any pips at this point so don't risk shrink-wrapping by opening it.

I am hatching right now. Friday morning I raised humidity the first level. Yesterday morning, none were pipped yet, so I added the towels. Since then humidity has been holding VERY steady in the range I want it. Around 5pm last night they started to pip and by this morning, all the eggs were pipped. DH and I went out to have coffee on the front porch, came back in and found one speedy little chick had fully zipped and hatched in the short time we were gone. While I was typing this, a second chick hatched.

Oh - one other tip. I cut several ventilation holes in the top of my styrobator. The fan in the bottom draws fresh air in through a large hole it sits in front of, and the stale air can then exit at the top. I bought some vinyl tubing at the TSC and can thread it through one of those top holes, and with a syringe, pump a little water in to re-wet the towels if necessary. By keeping an eye on humidity, if hatching is taking longer than it should, and they start to dry out, it is nice to know I have a way to raise humidity without having to open the incubator and risk shrink-wrapping them.

 

[chicken danz]

Wow gone one day and I feel years behind.

But Goats have such Personality !!!!

Marc, I had goats. Both pygmy and Nigerian. I liked the Nigerian better for a couple reasons.#1 they are a milk goats and produce tons of milk. And although they are smaller than pygmies they tend to have more babies at a time. And then they seem just like an easier going goat. I would definitely get a baby or a very young one so you could train it to be tame and easy going.
I actually had one goat that I trained to sit up and beg for cookies like a dog would for treats. Yes, her name was Cookie. Unfortunately she died with her first kids. They were too big and the vet had to cut them out but she didn't survive the trauma. Actually that is the main reason I sold my goats. I just couldn't let myself get close to them after that.

Quote:

Some of my eggs still have a few days so I went ahead and added more water, it's full and added a bowl of water too but it's too high for them to get into. I like your wet towel idea better. What's a Brinsea? I will likely find a hydrometer online because I'm 2 hours from any Petsmart or big city for that matter. Right now I have 3 alive that I know of in the incubator. One has the unabsorbed yolk again but is dry and active but I can't take him out because there are too many and they will surely notice it and peck, it's more obvious than the other one. It's a big chick. The other two are stil in shells and struggling I can tell but it's too soon to help. I have a few duck eggs in there incubating too, I'm not even sure if they are fertile. I've got in the habit of not candling because I can't see through the dark shells but I could with the duck eggs.

I hatch in a home-made styrofoam incubator.

Keep in mind that surface area is the most important factor in creating humidity. 1/2 gallon of water in a large, shallow bowl, will create far more humidity than the same quantity of water in a tall, deep bowl.

In the bottom of my styrobator, I have some vinyl coated wire racks. Sitting on those is a piece of 1/4" hardware cloth cut to the dimensions of the incubator. Sitting on that is a piece of the rubberized shelf liner stuff, also cut to the correct dimensions. This allows for humidity with no risk of newly hatched chicks falling into the water bowl. During incubation, I have two little, round bowls that I bought at the dollar store, designed to be dog/cat feeding bowls, filled with water. I have to refill them about every other day to maintain humidity in the range I want it.

At lockdown, I remove one of those bowls, and replace it with a plastic rectangular bowl that is the same height but twice as long and a little wider than one of the bowls. It has a ton more surface area so humidity increases when I use it. I wish I had two of the same size bowl and I'd replace both of my round bowls. I fill both the rectangular bowl and the remaining dog bowl to the brim with water. This increases humidity to approximately 55%. I leave it like that for the first 24 hours of lockdown. Then I take a couple of small towels, roll them up, soak them in warm water, and quickly open it to add them along two edges. This raises the humidity to between 70-75%. I leave it until the second day to add them because with trial and error, I have learned that that way they will keep the humidity where I want it throughout the hatch. If I try to add them the first day of lockdown, they dry out too soon and humidity is too low while the chicks are actually hatching. Typically I don't have any pips at this point so don't risk shrink-wrapping by opening it.

I am hatching right now. Friday morning I raised humidity the first level. Yesterday morning, none were pipped yet, so I added the towels. Since then humidity has been holding VERY steady in the range I want it. Around 5pm last night they started to pip and by this morning, all the eggs were pipped. DH and I went out to have coffee on the front porch, came back in and found one speedy little chick had fully zipped and hatched in the short time we were gone. While I was typing this, a second chick hatched.

Oh - one other tip. I cut several ventilation holes in the top of my styrobator. The fan in the bottom draws fresh air in through a large hole it sits in front of, and the stale air can then exit at the top. I bought some vinyl tubing at the TSC and can thread it through one of those top holes, and with a syringe, pump a little water in to re-wet the towels if necessary. By keeping an eye on humidity, if hatching is taking longer than it should, and they start to dry out, it is nice to know I have a way to raise humidity without having to open the incubator and risk shrink-wrapping them.

I have a couple of Little Giant styros that I use when all the GQFs are full. The first thing I did was use hot glue and plug the holes in the bottom of it so it would hold more water. Then at lock down I raised the water level up to the screen and throw either a wet hand towel or a couple of drenched sponges in to raise the humidity.

I am proud to say that I didn't buy a thing yesterday. I had money in my pocket but anything I wanted went way too high.
I did bring home a blue copper Maran rooster. He is gorgeous. He was actually given to me by an acquaintance who lives in Missouri.
When I checked him later I realize he has a terrible cold and congestion. I think I am going to quarantine him in my greenhouse and give him denagard for a few days to see if he gets cleared. I have eggs in the incubator but nothing to go with him right now. But he is just gorgeous.
There was one set of giant gold laced Brahmas there I was going to bid on but got busy transferring birds and missed the sale. As it was Jen (Revolution Mama) bought them and her man friend told me she just put her card up and never put her arm down. That pair went for $160. Sure glad I have Dan Powell eggs in my incubator. If they produce those giant birds I will be thrilled.

 

[chicken danz]

Oh and I forgot, Hawkeye You just use the same federal form for all testing. The only difference is whether it gets sent into the state for a flock number. I'll send you a PM about the testing.

 

[Trish44]

HEChicken, what kind of chicks are you hatching? I guess I didn't remember that you had a home-made foam incubator, I know lots of people have made them.

I'm waiting on the guy to get here to get the pair of Chinchilla rabbits, he texted & said he was coming soon, so yay they're going to leave today! So now I only have one more male Mini Rex to sell & I'm done selling rabbits probably until next spring. That will just leave me with the small rabbits with the exception of one pair of Chinchillas for breeding. I probably won't breed any until I breed for early spring rabbits, I want to have some ready for Easter next year, so I will breed them probably at the first of the year. I will have a busy, busy spring next year with all of the incubating & hatching eggs & baby rabbits being born. Nobody better expect me to go anywhere because I won't be leaving for awhile.

My DH left to go run awhile ago, so when he gets back I have to get him to get the chicken in the smoker. I love doing whole chickens in there & then picking the meat off & having packages of already cooked chicken to add to dishes I make, it makes it really nice. Sometimes I have him do 3 chickens at once & we eat one & I freeze meat from the other two, but today he wants me to cut up one to BBQ & then smoke the other one.

We're kind of at a point with the coop now we're getting almost stuck until I can find out if I can get the windows like Sunflowerparrot has for the sides of my coop. I would love to have some of those crank out windows, that would be wonderful. I wouldn't mind having them all the way around the front too, but I don't know how many she has or what she wants for them. The gal that has them is on vacation, so I have to wait until she gets back to call her. I would be so happy if that would all work out, it would be so much better than what I had planned for windows. I need to call Lowe's too today to see if I have to order the roofing in person or can do it on the phone. I hope I don't have to drive up there just for that, but we'll see.

I went out this morning & just stayed out there to get some things done that I had been needing to do. I raked out the run & the Ameraucana pen & I will need to put some fresh stuff in there for them. I usually use straw in my outside pens & then when it gets really nasty I can just rake it out. I had thought maybe some of the pens would start to dry out after all of that rain, but it's just been too humid for much drying to happen. The turkey pen is still really gooey mud. I plan to go out & work a little work on my nest boxes after this guy leaves too. I had put a small lip on the front of the boxes when I built them, but they still seem to kick a lot of the shavings out of there, so I think on the bottom one at least I'm going to add a small piece to the front to see if it helps. I hate having dirty eggs & that's what happens when they kick all the shavings out & lay eggs on the wood. They also sometimes break eggs if there aren't enough shavings in there. I'm loving this cooler weather though, it's wonderful!