Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Gosh Danz, that is a pile of chicks & that poor tiny guinea in there just looks overwhelmed! That is so funny about your pup & the mouse trap, it sounds like something mine would do and the cat with the trap sitll attached, too funny. I can't see any mice getting anywhere near my pens around here since I have so many outside cats, but in the garage is a different story.

Josie, I did order a shock collar, so it should be here in a few days & yes I plan to turn it a bit higher because the GPs indeed are hard headed. I remember when they both were pups & Lily was the bad one then & I gave all kinds of punishment to her for doing the things she did & it hardly fazed her a bit. Now she is the good one & Jasmine is acting up, which is weird because Jasmine has been the lead LGD & the best behaved dog all along. Now at a year old she starts acting up, I don't understand it. I sure hope she settles back down & goes back to her old self again, I liked that one better.

I'm waiting on my fourth antibiotic to get here in the mail, something has to kick this stuff to the curb that my young birds have. I lost one Swedish Flower Hen chick a couple days ago, she just deteriorated pretty fast. I'm glad I hatched a few extras so hopefully I will still have enough left for breeding. I don't know if one of my Cream Legbar pullets is going to pull through though, she's doing very poorly & I only had two pullets left. I may be looking for another one in the spring for breeding because when you're trying to hatch chicks you really need more than one hen.

It's so beautiful outside today, I wish I could just spend the whole day out there, but I have to go this afternoon to the library because I volunteered to help with the annual fund raiser book sale. Then I have to go buy groceries. After those two things it will shoot my afternoon & evening. I was hoping to get my coop windows yesterday, but the gal's husband never did get home so they could come to bring them. I haven't heard from her today, so I don't know if she will bring them to work with her today or if it will be tomorrow. I want to get them so we can get the OSB put on the outside & then the siding. I finally got my roofing ordered from Lowe's after 3 phone calls. I was about ready to just drive to Derby to get it done. I kept getting routed to the wrong department & then finally got a person who didn't know how to place the order & she had to call me back again. I hope they got it ordered right.

Well I hope you all have a good day, enjoy the weather!

 

[HEChicken]

What works best to break a Silkie from being broody?

You won't like my answer....the best way is to let her hatch! Once the chicks hatch, she won't be broody any more......seriously, it can be hard to break a determined broody. Another possible option is to let her sit for about 3 weeks and then take the eggs away and replace them with a couple of day-old chicks (fortunately feed stores are selling them at the moment). With any luck she will adopt them as hers.

 

[JosieChick]

You won't like my answer....the best way is to let her hatch! Once the chicks hatch, she won't be broody any more......seriously, it can be hard to break a determined broody. Another possible option is to let her sit for about 3 weeks and then take the eggs away and replace them with a couple of day-old chicks (fortunately feed stores are selling them at the moment). With any luck she will adopt them as hers.

Take her for a dirt road car ride!! That is what I do when I don't want to deal with them. I stick a towel in the back of the jeep and plunk the broody on it and go for a 15 minute ride. That usually gets them ruffled enough to quit for a few days or a week. You can put them in a cage with a wire bottom and a fan blowing on them to "cool" their hot broody temp down and snap them out of it. Other than that not much works other than letting them hatch and as soon as they hatch the first brood mine are back to sitting as soon as their clutch is grown up!

 

[chicken danz]

Yeah I had a couple hens that were broody all summer and I never did get them broke. I sold them when I was selling hens so they are someone else's now. They said they'd be glad to have broodies so they shouldn't be unhappy. I took eggs every day and they just would never quit. I've got a couple more now.
I don't mind unless they get mean about it.

 

[Trish44]

I had three hens that were broody most of the summer, a Black Copper Marans, Australorp, & a Golden Campine. The Golden Campine I finally gave some eggs to hatch & she sat on them faithfully, but the others just moved from one nest box to the other. I tried to break them by putting one in a rabbit cage outside, but it still didn't break her. The Australorp just went on for weeks, I would take her out of the nest & throw her outside & she would run right back in & get back in the nest. Some of them are really stubborn about it.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

I finally have 3 nest boxes put up in the coop My BF is awesome and did an amazing job on the coop and now the nest boxes! So - my question is.... do I have to do anything to show/encourage/etc. the hens that the box is there? The bottom of the boxes are exactly 18" from the ground - each box is approximately 12x12x13. I am going to put dried cattails in the bottom of the boxes... I plan on using that mostly in that area of the coop. The south side of the coop has a window and roost (roost is 38" off the ground) and the north side of the coop has a window and the nest boxes. The door and food/water pallets are on the west side and nothing is on the east (I am saving that wall for a brooder box when needed and Fern has a rug I put in there at night for her in that spot until she is old/large enough to not be penned up at night.)

So - back to my question - do I need to do anything with the hens (5 months old)/boxes now that they are ready?

 

[Deerfield Acres]

KarenS, yeah you know how it goes, we just go get what we want wherever we have to go & don't think twice about it. Had I known he had made such a mess in the car you can believe I would have cleaned it up before my DH saw it, but I didn't have a clue about it. Of course my DH would point that out first thing when he got in the car. It's totally a different story if he does something to the car, like he ran up on the curb at a restaurant in Kansas City when we were up there & made a big scratch on the bumper in front. But that was an accident he says, oh & I just had the peacock poop on the ceiling on purpose, yeah right.

LOL!!!

Danz so sorry about your kitty.

WichitaKidd I had dogs come in last year and kill about 75% of my birds, including my English Orps. I was heartsick, and I still have not gotten more Orps. Take some time away, but know you are always welcome back, and that we are more than willing to help you get started again.

Karen, I was just talking to Renee about eggs and such, I think I would love to get some for a late Dec early Jan hatch. Not sure if I will have anything worth sharing, all my keepers have white legs. I plan on getting some buff rocks in the Spring.

It really is a hard thing to go through when you lose birds, especially when so much of your flock is wiped out. I'm glad to hear you'll be starting up in Dec/Jan again. I have some yellow leg birds so we'll see how my hatches go and in December I'll let you know what I have of the Alohas.

I hope you don't mind that I am LOL'ing - gosh that sounds like me. I've never had a new car but my current car I got when it only had 13K on it and that's probably the newest car I'll ever have. Shortly after I got it, my DS (who was very young at the time), threw a rock in its direction and it will forever have a dent in the hood to show for it. I remember being so upset about my "new" car having this ding in it but since then I've hauled so much stuff in it, that little ding in the hood hardly counts. I often wish I had a pickup but my PT Cruiser tries to make up for it and does an awesome job of hauling for me. Right now it has so much straw in it, it looks like an animal LIVES in it....

x2. Well said.

My turkeys had their first time out of the pen this evening and did really well. They spent an hour out before voluntarily returning to their pen. Ned Kelly, the jake, gobbled and displayed (the first time I've seen the latter) and Madge went for a short flight down the yard. They both made lots of vocalizations, ate tons of greenery and ran around a bunch so I think they really enjoyed being out. I was so glad they went back in voluntarily as it gives me hope they will transition well to free-ranging with the rest of my flock and going into the coop with them at night.

Sounds like the turkeys are just doing beautifully! That's great.

Thanks for the condolences every one. You have no idea what this means to me. She was so precious. Definitely a heart cat.
I read through the posts but got a phone call, so now I have totally forgotten what I read.
Trish I have a streak down the back of my office chair from my peacock! Crazy. I had to laugh at the post. Peacock poop is so wet. I can imagine!!! The guy that has the peafowl is really expensive but he has a couple more whites that should hatch in a couple weeks. I might consider buying them. It's a 4 hour trip to Springfield but I did drive there once for an aquarium. I of course would like some closer to the age of my chick but white is white.
Josie I so need to buy a new car. I just hate the idea of making payments. I live in fear of being in debt of any kind. I'm also tired of driving old junk. The last 3 cars I bought I paid cash for. I just can't afford to do that right now. I used to be good at saving when I had a job. Not so much now.
I have a ton of babies in my incubator. Mostly red star eggs but a few others. They hatched yesterday and the night before. I guess I need to set up another bin in the brooder house for them. I think these came from a couple piles of eggs that DH found in the barn. Not an intentional hatch but gobs of them.
I had another 11 mice in the trap night before last. And DH said it was full last night but Cloud decided she wanted to play with it and drug it into the yard and released all but 4 of them. Dumb dog!!! DH had taken it into the old garage and of course the dog probably thought it needed to belong with her treasures. I think I am going to bite the bullet and order a case of those traps. I have one of them spoken for already. But I can use most of them myself.
It's unbelievable how many mice there actually are.
I had sat a regular mouse trap in the basement probably a week ago and there has been no activity. Last night my oldest cat came up from the basement with a mouse in his mouth...complete with the trap hanging from the mouse. I should have taken a picture. He was so proud of himself.

OMGosh! Crazy animals!

I just ordered the case of traps. They are only about $10 each by the case which is about half price. I may have to tether them down to keep the pup from dragging them to her treasure pile! Of course it won't totally irradicate them but by golly I am moving some out of here. I figure this one trap has paid for itself in 4 days time. I was using buckets of bar bait without results. That trap sounds interesting, Heather.
Josie I forgot to thank you for the chuckle. Men are like that!!! I do hope your DH gets better.

Where did you order them from? Sounds like the best way to go.

Danz.... You wouldn't believe what happened here today!! A certain little boy, who waits to be told every one of his chores several times before deciding to go ahead and do them( that Mom won't forget or might do it for him) - went out and changed the chick shavings, got fresh water, fresh food and was hand feeding them mealworms when I got up and checked in him!!!!!!
I am in shock!!! Total shock! . There is hope!!
I guess he will be getting a special smoothie after his soccer game today
I hope you are able to get out today and enjoy the day! (((( hugs )))) from all of our crew!
Our splash must just be broody. She huddles up in any nest box. She will walk around and eat when I pull her out though, after growling at me she is so cute!! My daughter is really worried about her though. What works best to break a Silkie from being broody?
We have an EE checking out the new nest boxes now.... It is so much fun going out to see what we might find!!

Nice pic!

Made me smile. I do hope he is enjoying his chicks. Wouldn't that be great if he could do that every day?
I just emptied my hatcher. There are a couple more pipped eggs in there that haven't hatched just yet. One lavender guinea in there I didn't even realize was in the group of eggs. The official count so far is 40 chicks and one guinea in this group.

So cute! There's just nothing cuter than chicks.

I had three hens that were broody most of the summer, a Black Copper Marans, Australorp, & a Golden Campine. The Golden Campine I finally gave some eggs to hatch & she sat on them faithfully, but the others just moved from one nest box to the other. I tried to break them by putting one in a rabbit cage outside, but it still didn't break her. The Australorp just went on for weeks, I would take her out of the nest & throw her outside & she would run right back in & get back in the nest. Some of them are really stubborn about it.

I haven't experienced a broody hen, yet. Shades of things to come -- oh dear.


I've been out shopping all day and now I'm ready to go commune with my chickens. My Swedish Flowers are at that awkward stage where their feathers are coming in but they look really scruffy. Poor things. They sure are good flyers!

I'm Danzcizing again. I'm after some cream legbar chicks that should be shipped tomorrow. So exciting!

 

[ChicknBaron]

I finally have 3 nest boxes put up in the coop My BF is awesome and did an amazing job on the coop and now the nest boxes! So - my question is.... do I have to do anything to show/encourage/etc. the hens that the box is there? The bottom of the boxes are exactly 18" from the ground - each box is approximately 12x12x13. I am going to put dried cattails in the bottom of the boxes... I plan on using that mostly in that area of the coop. The south side of the coop has a window and roost (roost is 38" off the ground) and the north side of the coop has a window and the nest boxes. The door and food/water pallets are on the west side and nothing is on the east (I am saving that wall for a brooder box when needed and Fern has a rug I put in there at night for her in that spot until she is old/large enough to not be penned up at night.)

So - back to my question - do I need to do anything with the hens (5 months old)/boxes now that they are ready?

YOU COULD PUT SOME SYNTHETIC EGGS IN THE NEST BOXES SO THEY KNOW TO LAY IN THERE, I've had some unique experiences with trying to get my Chickens to lay where i want them to but they eventually found there way, good luck with your's!

 

[sunflowerparrot]

YOU COULD PUT SOME SYNTHETIC EGGS IN THE NEST BOXES SO THEY KNOW TO LAY IN THERE, I've had some unique experiences with trying to get my Chickens to lay where i want them to but they eventually found there way, good luck with your's!

I have some plastic easter eggs - would a few of them do? My 2 hens haven't laid yet... I'm so excited and anxious for them to start! I want eggs - I go through 5 on a normal day. Today, I used 8 (made fried rice for dinner.. yummy)

 

[ChicknBaron]

I have some plastic easter eggs - would a few of them do? My 2 hens haven't laid yet... I'm so excited and anxious for them to start! I want eggs - I go through 5 on a normal day. Today, I used 8 (made fried rice for dinner.. yummy)

They might... Are they the ones that are brightly colored and break open in the middle for candy??? if so i wouldn't recomend it because they might not like brightly colored eggs or they could come apart if they step on them, i use 3 or so golf balls when i want them to use a specific box and that works for me... some say you can use smooth rounded stones but its your call. I'd say as long as there is something in the box that resembles an egg, that they will be more likely to use it because it looks like another hen has used it. Good luck!