Consolidated Kansas

[JosieChick]

Hi everyone!

Would anyone be interested in sharing what they are bringing to HEchicken's party? I don't want to bring fruit salad for example if four other people are going to do that.

 

[chicken danz]

A major word of caution ....... whatever you do while doing wood work, focus on what you are doing and where you hands are. EYES ON TASK! It is way too easy to cut off a finger. I preach this all the time because I lost the use of my right hand for about 3 years due to an accident. It will never be normal but at least it works now. Yet just last summer I hit my finger with a table saw because I turned for a second to look elsewhere. They are awesome and no reason to fear them as long as you pay total attention to where they are and your body parts are.

I went to town today to do some bank business and stopped to do a little shopping. I found a mouse trap thing that catches up to 30 mice at a time and doesn't have to be reset. It was like $16. If it works I am going to go buy 2-3 more of them. I've been paying about $30 a bucket for mouse bait that no longer kills them. So it wouldn't take long for these things to pay for themselves. I have my hopes up it really works. I'll report back after my first trial run tonight.
I ran into a couple of past coworkers when I was in town. It makes me really appreciate how very much life has improved since I am no longer in the corporate world. Reminds me to be thankful.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Wish I had the video camera during feeding time this evening. Chickens were eating scratch on the steps while the cats were eating (this keeps the chickens away from the cats' food) - Fern finished her food and then went up to the chickens and sniffed each of their little feathered butts and looked back at me after sniffing each - rofl.. I wish I could have read her warped little mind!

 

[lizzyGSR]

Bummer, I can't believe ALL those geese are male! Could you give me an idea of where you are located so I can keep an eye out for you. We are just East of Ottawa, so about 40 minutes north of Danz. If I see something local I can give you a hollar.

I highly doubt all of them were male. The odds of that are incredibly slim... I'm betting that my brief description wasn't enough for her to know what she was looking for, and she just didn't think about how incredibly unlikely it was for ALL of her white chinese to be male.

I live in Northwest KS - in the Goodland/Colby area.

I would agree about the netting. http://www.amazon.com/Netting-Bird-...&qid=1348006209&sr=8-12&keywords=bird+netting This is what I bought 2 years ago and it has been up 2 full years. It is still sound (even though the cording I used to tie it down fell apart recently). It is UV resistant and very nice. It is a bit of a deal to work with, but 2 people can handle it quite well. I needed 50 ft both ways for my basically triangular 30x40x50 run.

I'm going to be using chicken wire. It's free, and you can't beat that. We've got some bird netting as well, but it is the cheap plastic stuff. It was free as well, probably because it had been in the sun too long and had fallen apart. The chicken wire might rust, but that will probably be a long time from now.

 

[sharol]

I highly doubt all of them were male. The odds of that are incredibly slim... I'm betting that my brief description wasn't enough for her to know what she was looking for, and she just didn't think about how incredibly unlikely it was for ALL of her white chinese to be male.

I live in Northwest KS - in the Goodland/Colby area.

I'm going to be using chicken wire. It's free, and you can't beat that. We've got some bird netting as well, but it is the cheap plastic stuff. It was free as well, probably because it had been in the sun too long and had fallen apart. The chicken wire might rust, but that will probably be a long time from now.

Yup. Free is better

 

[lizzyGSR]

My birds (including the new ducks, but except for my goose who was out with me) put themselves to bed in the duck house tonight!!! This is the first time since I got the khakis a week and a half ago!

 

[chicken danz]

Woot! The birds have officially declared that home! I don't blame you. I am all for free. I wish I could score a few more deals like that myself.

 

[Trish44]

Well I had to make a run to Arkansas City this evening to pick up a big metal feeder, 5 gallon waterer, & a heater base that I got off the Farm Swap for $30 for all of it. They had only been used about 3 months & everything looked like new, so it was a great deal. Those heater bases alone are about $50, let alone the huge waterer & feeder. With all of the pens I have & now I will have 4 more when I get this new breeder coop done I'm always needing more feeders & waterers. I have been using plastic buckets for summer, but will switch to metal when it gets cold so the plastic doesn't freeze & crack. I put my waterer inside the coop in the winter & now that I'm getting all of these nifty small pallets courtesy of Sunflowerparrot's boyfriend I will have something really great to sit my water on in there this year & have it be level. That will be great! I told her the other day that who knew pallets could be so handy to have. I'm using them in all of my pens to sit the waterers on & they're up off the ground so the water stays cleaner & it's more level too. One thing I need to get done before long is to make some of those cookie tin heaters because I only have two base heaters & I'm going to need more to keep water from freezing. I do have a couple of heated dog bowls I also use in some places, just not where there are small birds. I used one in the Ameraucana pen last year & it worked fine for the adult birds. They put them on sale every once in awhile at Orschelyn's so I try to watch & pick up another one when they're on sale. Last winter wasn't bad, but who knows what this one will bring for weather.

Josie, it looks like you're getting rid of some birds on the Poultry Swap, that's great! I'm sorry I didn't get the pics taken of my turkeys today, it was just a busy day. I'm trying to get things done to make the trip to OKC to take my granddaughter back down for her dentist appt to get the permanent crown on her tooth this time. Hopefully this is the last trip for that for awhile. The dentist said she will probably have to have it done again later on because her teeth are still growing.

Oh wow, I just looked at Greenfire Farms, I need to stay off their website! They're going to have blue laced Barnvelders, but not until 2014. They're just gorgeous, I must have some of those.

 

[tazcat70]

tazcat, those are some interesting Wyandottes in your photos, is that one of your projects? They're really pretty!


The usual common birds like the Ameraucanas, Welsummers, & Orpingtons as well as the Salmon Favorelles seem to be fine,

Yes, they are my project, not that I have done much with them this year.

Well that is not true, this spring I hatched out lots, but I had to hat something like 60 chicks for one that I wanted to keep.

Sorry to hear that you are having problems. That is always rough. BTW where did you get your Wellies? I am always on the lookout for good Wellies.

 

[ChicknBaron]

Who was it that said that the poo was always thicker under there chicken roosts? because just recently i've heard of people altering the whole "poop board" under the roost idea, into raising the edges and filling it with "sweet PDZ". sweet PDZ is a sort of crushed mineral commonly used in horse stalls, i think, to absorb odor and release a fresher non-poopy smell. well anyway, they fill these boxes under the roosts with a thin layer of this PDZ stuff and then when they poop at night it falls in the PDZ it dries out and its odor is eliminated and then you just take a strainer and strain it out. now i don't actually have this setup but i've read alot of good things about it and how it freshens the whole coop, if you search about it i'm sure you'll find a thread about it, and i hear the stuff lasts a LONG time. I think they said it was like 10 bucks for a 50 pd bag. Some people use it in other methods by mixing it with sand or just sprinkling it on the poop but... yah, you'd be better off just looking it up because I don't want you to quote me on any of this haha!

If you've already heard of it then just disregard this post.