Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

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!

yay!!

Free but with a price tag - sweat. The chicken wire I'm gonna use for my duck run was on a pen that had previously housed pheasants and had belonged to my neighbor. The original pen was ~30 feet wide by 140 feet long. My neighbor said we could have whatever we wanted off of it (except for the tin around the base). All we had to do was take it down. We put in probably 20 hours of work and got between 300 and 350 feet of chicken wire that stands 8 feet tall. We also got a 10 foot wide chain link gate that's covered in chicken wire, some old poultry netting that needs some TLC, and some wooden posts. So, out of these supplies, we're making a 16 foot wide by 35 foot long by 6 1/2 foot tall duck run with chicken wire on all four sides plus the top, and the only thing we'll have to pay for is some 2"X4" welded wire to reinforce the sides and keep predators from tearing through it. So, in total, we'll get the duck run for about $100 plus time. I'd say that's a pretty good deal!!!

sounds like a heck of a deal!

Has anyone up in the Marion area heard from Shana lately? She has been out of touch on the Farm Swap, on FB, & by phone. I tried to get in touch with her regarding the pot luck at HEChicken's the 28th, but have had no luck. I'm hoping everything is OK.

has she not written on her blog either? I haven't checked her blog in a while. I hope everything is well up there. I would sure hope she can meet up with us.

I'm sitting here waiting for a vet clinic to open. My very best cat, the one I consider a child more than the others is very sick. I think she has a blockage of some kind. I'm going to try to get her into a vet in Emporia where they have better equipment to deal with her. I am so worried and of course crying. She is 13 years old and the most loveable cat on earth. I am so scared.
I was supposed to go to a retirement breakfast this morning but this is far more important. My normal vet doesn't really have the equipment to deal with this, so I am going to call blindly and hope for the best.

oh no, Danz!! I sure hope your kitty will be okay! I'm soooooo sorry! Definitely she's more important. We had to do that a couple years ago-- something similar. We were all getting ready for a HUGE Superbowl party at a friend's house. I had my crockpot going with the food we were bringing and we were all excited. It was a big affair-- lots of people were going. But about an hour before we had to leave, I looked out the window and saw Cassie my oldest down on the ground and she was flopping her head. I ran out there and she was having severe colic. I told my DH to go on without me and I loaded up Cassie and called the surgeon off-hours (it was a Sunday) and drove her way up north to get her the best care. I just didn't believe that my local vet could have handled it. It cost an arm and a leg, because he has a facility that is all on monitors-- he can see the stalls and horses from home when they aren't there and he has a surgery center that is top notch. But he got her on IV, tubed her, the whole nine. Lots of drugs to relax her muscles. She stayed for 2 days, poor thing. Now I salt her food in the winter! Crazy horse.

All this talk about incubators, I have the first link, it's styrofoam. I wouldn't have purchased it but it was the only one available in our area, we only have Orcheln's. I just don't like the idea of not being able to clean something well. I have hatched enough chicks to pay for itself just this summer and I may just keep using it until we have another, just becuase I feel better about where I went wrong this time. We plan on building our own very soon, we are on the look out for components now.

Yesterday evening we went to Orcheln's and of course I stand there staring at chicks I don't need. They're just so precious I can't take it, I'm worse than the kids. Well, maybe not worse, I'm fine to just watch them and they want to put their fingers in there. Anyway, the lady came up and asked if we needed help. I told her no, but that little orphington has a problem, her bottom was terribly caked with poo. She said, I know, we get in trouble for cleaning it off. The manager told them not to clean it off because it pulls out their feathers and then no one wants to buy them. DUH!!!! I told her I would take just that one, thinking I could put it with the other 4 my DH bought a few days ago when I was so sad with my hatch not going well. She said, she would ring it up as non-sellable. She just gave me a chick. I brought her home and cleaned her up of course, she's doing fine now. I will keep checking. So far, I have 10 that hatched from ours, I'm ashamed to say because this is my worst hatch rate ever. I'm anxious to check the incubator this morning but I don't dare leave my room or else I will wake up the little one(child). I am ready to get the stinky incubator washed up, bleh.

Have a great day.

I'm so glad you got that chick. Poor thing, they are supposed to just pull off the plug of poop. It doesn't take off that much fluff! No one would even notice. I never clean their bottoms now, I just pull it off. Yeah, it does take off a bit of fluff, but really, that is best, because then there isn't the fluff there to hang on to MORE poop. Poor thing, what a nice thing you did! oh-- and that fluff does grow back! --if it didn't, my silkies would have bare bottoms! LOL

Good for you. I hate seeing them in bad shape and too many times the employees could care less.

Since you have the LG incubator, I'd recommend taking a look at Renee's Incubation cheat sheet (she is the thread starter - just go to the first post and look in her signature for the link). She has really honed hatching in an LG and is pretty successful at it. I've never had an LG but I read through the whole article and it is easy to follow and might give you some tips for how to get it to work better for you on your next hatch.

Oh GREAT idea! I forgot that Renee set up that article for the LG! Good memory!

 

[mommahen10]

Thanks HEChicken, that is a great cheat sheet. Lots of good information.

 

[Hawkeye95]

I'm kind of curious too. I have a couple of the humane traps that are supposed to catch them live. The main reason I was interested in that kind is because I also keep snakes so I figured it was a win-win if I could catch them live - fewer mice eating my chicken feed and free food for the snakes. Unfortunately, apparently chicken feed is far more alluring than anything I tried as bait in the trap. According to the directions, a dab of peanut butter will attract them but the strain of mice I breed likes chicken feed more than peanut butter. I set and reset that thing over and over and didn't catch anything. One morning I picked it up and finally it felt heavier - I could hear something in it - yay - finally caught a mouse. I took it in to give to one of my snakes, opened it and oops, I see two heads. Oh well, they're small, two is a better meal for the snake. Dumped the two in the snake cage and set the trap down next to me. Turns out there were FOUR in the trap (small trap and four is the max it would hold according to the manufacturer). The remaining two mice were now at large in the house. This was at the old house where the pets were indoors but it took the cat two weeks to catch those two mice and meanwhile I had to listen to them gnawing on stuff at night. That trap never did catch another mouse. I can't figure out what was different that night. It was baited the same but it went from catching none, to four back to none. The only thing I can think is once the first went in, it called to the others, until the trap was full.

A few days ago I happened to look over the side of the (plastic) garbage can I store my layer feed in and saw a huge pile of feed between the garbage can and the wall. I guess mice chewed a hole right through the plastic and I have been, for who knows how long, feeding them all they can eat. Last night I went out and bought a metal garbage can and today I have the fun job of hauling everything out of the storage area of my coop, so I can sweep it out thoroughly of all the remaining feed, transfer the feed to the metal can and hopefully limit how much I feed the mice from now on. Grrrrr.

OH WOW. That is quite the story from the mice running at large to feeding your mini army of mice with the gnawed through can! Yikes! I would have been going crazy with the mice running in the house! I have glue traps set out all over my house for the brown recluse spiders. We never used to have them when we first built. But about 4 years ago, we suddenly saw an explosion of them in the house. Mainly in the basement. ARGH. So i set out sticky bait traps and it catches them-- LOTS of them. I'm always throwing them away and buying more. YUCK! I have them under our beds, too. We don't catch as much there, but a few do find their way to them. I HATE spiders. But that would have been a good way to catch a mouse, too!

 

[michelleml]

Danz sorry to hear about your cat i hope all is well.

All this talk on chicks and incubators i would love to try this one day. But need a brooder and a grow out pen and a incubator maybe one day

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Oh I am excited to hatch next season. I need to buy an incubator still and get all that set up so next spring I may be hollaring at you kansas missouri people on eggs lol I have spring fever in fall

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Oh I am excited to hatch next season. I need to buy an incubator still and get all that set up so next spring I may be hollaring at you kansas missouri people on eggs lol I have spring fever in fall

 

[JosieChick]

Oh no! Oh, I hope she is ok. Thinking about you and your girl.

I'm sitting here waiting for a vet clinic to open. My very best cat, the one I consider a child more than the others is very sick. I think she has a blockage of some kind. I'm going to try to get her into a vet in Emporia where they have better equipment to deal with her. I am so worried and of course crying. She is 13 years old and the most loveable cat on earth. I am so scared.
I was supposed to go to a retirement breakfast this morning but this is far more important. My normal vet doesn't really have the equipment to deal with this, so I am going to call blindly and hope for the best.

Good for you saving that poor chick! Geez, people don't want to buy dead chicks either, why wouldn't they just clean it off. I had to tell the kids up here at Orschelns how to clean the chicks with pasty butt and I talked to the manager because they were cooking them with their heat lamps. I told them I bought feed and fencing supplies there every week and I would take my business elsewhere if they didn't fix the problems with their chick brooders. Must have had enough people complain because they changed out their heat lamps and they clean their babies bums off now!

Yesterday evening we went to Orcheln's and of course I stand there staring at chicks I don't need. They're just so precious I can't take it, I'm worse than the kids. Well, maybe not worse, I'm fine to just watch them and they want to put their fingers in there. Anyway, the lady came up and asked if we needed help. I told her no, but that little orphington has a problem, her bottom was terribly caked with poo. She said, I know, we get in trouble for cleaning it off. The manager told them not to clean it off because it pulls out their feathers and then no one wants to buy them. DUH!!!! I told her I would take just that one, thinking I could put it with the other 4 my DH bought a few days ago when I was so sad with my hatch not going well. She said, she would ring it up as non-sellable. She just gave me a chick. I brought her home and cleaned her up of course, she's doing fine now. I will keep checking. So far, I have 10 that hatched from ours, I'm ashamed to say because this is my worst hatch rate ever. I'm anxious to check the incubator this morning but I don't dare leave my room or else I will wake up the little one(child). I am ready to get the stinky incubator washed up, bleh.

Have a great day.

Oh, it is a lot of fun to hatch! You can do it pretty cheap too. I didn't have a grow out pen for the longest time, just a wire dog kennel that I would brood them in and then move it out to the coop to transition them in with the bigger birds.

Danz sorry to hear about your cat i hope all is well.

All this talk on chicks and incubators i would love to try this one day. But need a brooder and a grow out pen and a incubator maybe one day

 

[cherwill]

I'm sitting here waiting for a vet clinic to open. My very best cat, the one I consider a child more than the others is very sick. I think she has a blockage of some kind. I'm going to try to get her into a vet in Emporia where they have better equipment to deal with her. I am so worried and of course crying. She is 13 years old and the most loveable cat on earth. I am so scared.
I was supposed to go to a retirement breakfast this morning but this is far more important. My normal vet doesn't really have the equipment to deal with this, so I am going to call blindly and hope for the best.

I hope your cat is OK.

I told her no, but that little orphington has a problem, her bottom was terribly caked with poo. She said, I know, we get in trouble for cleaning it off. The manager told them not to clean it off because it pulls out their feathers and then no one wants to buy them. DUH!!!! I told her I would take just that one, thinking I could put it with the other 4 my DH bought a few days ago when I was so sad with my hatch not going well. She said, she would ring it up as non-sellable. She just gave me a chick. I brought her home and cleaned her up of course, she's doing fine now.

OH WOW. That is quite the story from the mice running at large to feeding your mini army of mice with the gnawed through can! Yikes! I would have been going crazy with the mice running in the house! I have glue traps set out all over my house for the brown recluse spiders. We never used to have them when we first built. But about 4 years ago, we suddenly saw an explosion of them in the house. Mainly in the basement. ARGH. So i set out sticky bait traps and it catches them-- LOTS of them. I'm always throwing them away and buying more. YUCK! I have them under our beds, too. We don't catch as much there, but a few do find their way to them. I HATE spiders. But that would have been a good way to catch a mouse, too!

We bought some of the sticky traps this year. We knew there was a mouse in the garage; DH had seen it, but it just kept eating the peanut butter off the snap traps without setting them off. Then we put out the sticky traps here and there. One day DH noticed some fur on one of the sticky traps, so it had managed to get free. So then he came in and said he'd put all four of the sticky traps together with a nice bit of peanut butter in the middle. Sure enough, he finally trapped the little sucker; it had 3 traps stuck to it!

 

[chicken danz]

Well I am back home obviously. with swollen eyes and a broken heart. I just can't stop crying. I got there right after they opened. Luckily I tried calling early and got hold of someone,and got permission to bring her in. Tyggy has renal failure. Her levels were extremely elevated. They are forcing fluids through her which he said is the equivalent of doing dialysis. As long as she survives, he will do this for 2-3 days until the levels decrease. Then she will have to be on medication and a special diet the rest of her life. He did indicate with levels that high that it wasn't looking good for her. I just can't give up yet, although in my heart I know her chances are very slim. She was fine until last night when I noticed she wasn't her normal frisky self and felt cooler than normal when she cuddled up next to me in bed. This morning I tried to give her a drink and she tried but gagged on it.
This cat is one I rescused when it was too young to eat, when her mother got killed. She has never been even remotely like a cat. She is extremely smart and very loving to everyone. I swear she understands what I say. I ask her for a kiss she comes up and puts her forehead on my lips. She is 13+ years old so we've been together a long long time. I have two other cats who are 14 and 15 years old. Now I wonder how much longer they will be around too. They are special as well but Tyggy is the queen of the house.
The vet is supposed to call me if there is any change and said he will call each morning to give me an update on her levels.
Please pray that she survives. This is like loosing a child.

This trap is the Victor Tin mouse with the see through window. I'm going back and buying every single one they have. There were 12 mice in that thing when I got back home this morning. I just set it in the shop late last night. It is made to be a live release trap but I released them into a bucket of water where they quickly drowned. I put some dry edges cut off of cheese topped with peanut butter inside and it did the trick. All the PB was gone and only a few bites were gone out of the cheese. I am going to set one of these under each of my buildings. I'll have to move them around after I eliminate the greatest population to cover all of them but I see this working 100 times better than the bait was.

 

[JosieChick]

Well I am back home obviously. with swollen eyes and a broken heart. I just can't stop crying. I got there right after they opened. Luckily I tried calling early and got hold of someone,and got permission to bring her in. Tyggy has renal failure. Her levels were extremely elevated. They are forcing fluids through her which he said is the equivalent of doing dialysis. As long as she survives, he will do this for 2-3 days until the levels decrease. Then she will have to be on medication and a special diet the rest of her life. He did indicate with levels that high that it wasn't looking good for her. I just can't give up yet, although in my heart I know her chances are very slim. She was fine until last night when I noticed she wasn't her normal frisky self and felt cooler than normal when she cuddled up next to me in bed. This morning I tried to give her a drink and she tried but gagged on it.
This cat is one I rescused when it was too young to eat, when her mother got killed. She has never been even remotely like a cat. She is extremely smart and very loving to everyone. I swear she understands what I say. I ask her for a kiss she comes up and puts her forehead on my lips. She is 13+ years old so we've been together a long long time. I have two other cats who are 14 and 15 years old. Now I wonder how much longer they will be around too. They are special as well but Tyggy is the queen of the house.
The vet is supposed to call me if there is any change and said he will call each morning to give me an update on her levels.
Please pray that she survives. This is like loosing a child.