Consolidated Kansas

[Deerfield Acres]

I'm a bit unhappy this morning. I donated mixed eggs to a person on chicken chatter who bought a large incubator. I had given her a list of breeds I had, and told her they were eggs that hens had laid here and there. Unfortunately she must have misunderstood so now the way it is posted it looks like I gave her eggs that I had claimed to be something else. I have a reputation to uphold and it really makes me feel bad. I am sorry but I had to vent. I didn't charge her a dime. Just gave them to her to see how her new incubator would work. They were all just brown egg layers with no promises.

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Send me a PM and let me know what you are interested in. I'll try to let you know when I have chicks available. Right now almost every egg I can scrounge is going to my egg customers. But when the fancier ones start laying I willl be a hatching fool. Whoops! I am already a hatching fool!

Beautiful warm fall day here. I'm thinking about taking my chicks and ducklings outside to experience grass for their first time today. Its so hard to get anything done inside on days like today. Hope all is well with you all!

Beautiful day for sure and welcome to the group!

KarenS, I'm so sorry about Tookie, you did your best, I know you will miss her. It's not going to be a good year for birds I can tell already.

Danz, I saw the post & I'm glad you replied to her & cleared that up. I know that it was aggravating though & I don't blame you for being concerned.

I'm just not having a great time with my birds right now. I'm going to have to start antibiotics back up in my grow-out pen. I noticed my Salmon Favorelle rooster now isn't feeling well. I just can't lose that guy, he's just gorgeous.

Welcome Joe Jordan!

Oh Trish44, that's just sad that you're still having to treat birds.

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Well I went out and fed and watered and took my time. I didn't focus on getting anything else at all done. I really have tons to do inside but it is such a beautiful mild day out there I took the opportunity to just enjoy my birds. I forget to do that sometimes. So I looked like some crazy old lady out there talking to the birds and laughing at them. It reminded me why I got them in the first place. Sometimes I let the idea of how many eggs I produce,what is hatching, and how much housing I need to finish, cloud just the plain ole enjoyment the birds give me. I get so wound up worrying about sickness or whatever that I haven't been taking the time to just watch them. I delivered some garden produce and had a blast. The turkeys love the peppers but are afraid of the watermelon. The geese who can be very picky went nuts over the watermelon so I ended up giving them two of them. The peacocks love the melon and the peppers. I could see if they ran loose in a garden they could eat it up pretty easily. The chickens and ducks are picking through my pile of plants I pulled up yesterday.
It's just a really great day to be alive. If fall was like this most of the time it could be one of my favorite seasons. I am usually so busy in the fall that I don't take the time to stop and enjoy it.

I'm so happy to hear you had a relaxed and enjoyable day.

Well, I am feeling pretty dumb but also relieved tonight. Last week I went and bought two bags of feed. I remembered carrying one down to the coop, opening it and putting it in the feed bin, but was pretty sure I never carried the second one down. I was getting low on feed so went to get the second and...couldn't find it anywhere. I started thinking I must have carried both bags down already and was feeling really dismayed that they had gone through TWO bags of feed in such a short time. While looking for the second bag, I tripped over a bag of dog food, so carried it around and dumped it in the dog feed bin. Duh. It was still hours after that that I remembered I didn't buy two bags of chicken feed. The two bags of feed I bought were chicken feed and dog feed. Dumbass. But at least the flock didn't go through two bags of feed in the last week....

I am also starting to be concerned that Ned Kelly's problem is something unique to his situation. If y'all recall, I wasn't happy when I got him home to find he had a trimmed beak, mainly because that is something I don't believe in doing to a bird. But it was done, and from all I have read, they can live just fine with the beak trimmed. Well, a day or two ago I noticed one side of his trimmed beak looked a little green and figured he had been hammering the greens pretty hard - he does forage a LOT and I've sometimes wondered how he nips off bits of greens with the trimmed beak. Of course, he keeps me a respectable distance away at all times so I couldn't check it out more closely. Well, the green patch is still there and now I'm concerned it is gangrene. He almost always goes to sleep on my chunnel and that is the only time I can handle him. After dark I grab him off the chunnel and carry him in to the roost. Tonight I'm will take my flashlight and examine his beak closely while I'm there. So that I can be prepared, does anyone have suggestions for what I should spray on it? I have Blu-Kote, or I could use any other household product like Peroxide to clean it. I could also put on Triple Antibiotic. Since he won't be eating overnight it has a good chance of staying on long enough to penetrate. Any suggestions for which of those options sounds best and/or others that are better?

So funny about the feed mix-up. That's something I would do!

That's just the craziest thing about poor NK. I'm really sorry to hear this. Hope everything turns out okay.

Many Old Timers say to set eggs, castrate animals, fish, ween young, plant garden etc. by the moon, they use the farmers almanac. My grandfather used the farmers almanac, weather predictions and experience to do most everything on the farm. Do any of you use the farmers almanac?

My mom used to but I'm too disorganized.

We go back to the city council meeting tonight to see if the commitee has come to a decision! I hope it turns out well!

Good luck!

I agree. I took time today to play with my chicks and the little ones were out from 9 am to 6pm they loved it. I gave treats out too and got lots of thank you's for it too.

Wonderful!



My ducklings dumped all their water and managed to get out of their pen this morning. Fortunately, I rounded them up, plucked them out of the fence, and got them settled back in with a waterer they can't dump over. Silly things.

I was met at the fence by Lucy, our little Serama hen Danz gave me. She made me smile even though my heart was broken over losing Tookie. She followed me on her tiny little legs while I scooped up ducks and replaced their water. Once I got them all settled in I scooped her up and carried her with me while I checked over feed and water levels for the others. When I raked the hen house, I put her in one of the nesting boxes and she just stayed there and watched until I was done. Then she hopped down and followed me back to the fence when I left. She was such a comfort on such an awful day.

Later when I went back out to check on the birds again, Tom the turkey started displaying all over the place for me. I've never seen him do it before and it was just hilarious.

 

[HEChicken]

Okay, I'm back. NK is fine, I think. It was so nice to be able to cuddle him. He fought being picked up but once I sat down he just snuggled right into me - I wish I could have stayed there longer. I was able to examine his beak closely with the flashlight and there is now no sign of green, no discharge and no odor. He even let me touch it and it feels hard like a beak should. They did a terrible job trimming it so it is cracked and will be forever but it doesn't appear to be infected so I am greatly relieved about that.

ChicknBaron, hope all goes well for you at the town meeting tonight.

for a good result for you.

Danz, glad you took time to enjoy them today. I really feel I am more or less at capacity for exactly the reasons you stated - that the more you get, the more chores you have and the less time you spend actually enjoying them. I am blessed to be able to spend some time out with them almost every day and really just feel the blood pressure ease, watching them and listening to them. When I sit in my lawn chair to read my Kindle, they wend their way over to me and my knees are usually covered with birds preening - I love the feel of their warm feet on my legs.

 

[HEChicken]

My ducklings dumped all their water and managed to get out of their pen this morning. Fortunately, I rounded them up, plucked them out of the fence, and got them settled back in with a waterer they can't dump over. Silly things.

I was met at the fence by Lucy, our little Serama hen Danz gave me. She made me smile even though my heart was broken over losing Tookie. She followed me on her tiny little legs while I scooped up ducks and replaced their water. Once I got them all settled in I scooped her up and carried her with me while I checked over feed and water levels for the others. When I raked the hen house, I put her in one of the nesting boxes and she just stayed there and watched until I was done. Then she hopped down and followed me back to the fence when I left. She was such a comfort on such an awful day.

Later when I went back out to check on the birds again, Tom the turkey started displaying all over the place for me. I've never seen him do it before and it was just hilarious.

That is wild about Lucy - she sounds like quite the little character and a great companion. I'm so glad she was able to help cheer you on a dismal day.

Your mention of the ducklings reminded me I was going to ask you what is the magical 6-week mark? You had mentioned only having to raise them from 2 weeks to 6 weeks but I wasn't sure - is that because you can tell male from female at that point, or because by 6 weeks they are already old enough to be sold as meat, or something I haven't even considered?

So glad Tom displayed for you. NK still only displays rarely. There was one morning he displayed constantly the whole time I was doing my morning chores and I thought that was the beginning of his maturation but since then I've only seen him display once - very briefly.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

I forgot to say how much I appreciated everyone's expressions of sympathy. Thanks a bunch guys.

 

[chickmama1662]

Danz, thanks for the tour on Saturday. It was great seeing all the different varieties you have. We got the guineas and chicks all settled in their new space and they are doing great! Thanks again.

 

[mommahen10]

Joe, we have 1 duck in with our chickens and I feel sorry for him becuase he can't live like a duck.

The crooked beak chicken is doing amazingly well. It will not be bred and I'm going to take all of the white chickens out of my big coop and just use them for laying. If this chick makes it, it won't get to reproduce. Now I feel bad like I'm playing God. I'm concerned that it won't be able to eat enough to sustain itself but it is right in there with the rest of them. I thought about putting a rubberband on it's beak for periods of time to try to push it together. I will get pics.

We don't use the Farmer's Almanac Kansas Prairie but my dh's parents do.

Best of luck ChickNBaron, can't wait to hear your GREAT update!!!

 

[chicken danz]

Chickmama I never saw that little guinea that escaped again. Usually they stick around and want to get back where they have been staying. So I have no idea where it went. I hope the chicks all do well for you. All of them should be old enough you shouldn't have to worry about them much. I really do enjoy showing people my birds. And by the way nice to meet you and your DH.
Karen I am so happy Lucy turned out to be sweet. I think it has more to do with the fact that you and your family are chicken whisperers!!!

DH went shopping so I spent my evening catching up on a few things in the house. I will never get caught up but at least I got bird seed from the diamond doves and my olandsk cleaned up. Of course it will be back in the morning.

 

[mommahen10]

I thought I was going to go get an amazing pic of this deformed chick up and playing with the rest of them but that's not what happened. I went to the brooder with my camera and there was a massive mess of blood and yolk. This chick barely had a yolk sac sticking out, but I thought maybe it was pooling with blood in it's bottom. It's like the yolk sac got drawn into it's body but not absorbed, it's sticking way out now. I don't know how the yolk absorbs, but it's soaked through layers of paper towels twice now. This little chick can't possibly have any fluid left in it's little body. I'm going to get ready for bed and see how it's doing, but it won't be left to suffer all night.

 

[Trish44]

Well I went this evening & picked up a RIR hen down in Arkansas City to help out my friend who is having a baby any time now. This was her last chicken to find a new home for, so I took pity on her & brought her home. She was really angry to have to be put in a cage until I got there, she was not a happy hen at all. Then I had to bring her home & put her in another pen for quarantine for awhile, so she wasn't happy with me either. She was freaking out throwing herself at the wire until she finally found the shelter box door & went in there, then she settled in for the night. Hopefully she won't be so freaked out tomorrow.

I also got a new rooster for my lavender Ameraucana breeding program tonight from a friend I had sold chicks to this spring, so one of my chicks came back home. I was needing one of my roosters from this year to breed back to my lavender hens next spring & this guy is just gorgeous & I'm so happy to be able to use him next year. He's just a sweetie & compared to his dad's disposition, an angel. I was able to pick him up tonight & pet him & he just snuggled up to me. Now I have to re-arrange birds & figure out where to put everyone for now until I can get another pen.

Here is a pic Maggie took of him:

The pic doesn't really do him justice, he's so much better looking than he looks here, he's a very handsome guy!

Now all I have to do is find another Wheaten Ameraucana rooster & I will be back in business again. That may prove not to be as easy as it sounds though to find a nice one with good blood lines for breeding. If anyone knows of someone who might have an extra rooster they would sell me, let me know. I already have people wanting chicks for spring, so I have to find one before then.

mommahen, I'm sorry about your chick, sometimes they just have too many problems to make it.

I just saw this on Craigslist: http://wichita.craigslist.org/grd/3357647150.html If anyone is needing a RP turkey jake.

 

[Joe Jordan]

Only got down to the mid 60s last night. The ducklings made it through alright. A little cranky this morning but alright overall. The Orpingtons let the little ones snuggle up to 'em for warmth. We'll see how they're all doing tonight.

Sorry about your chick, momma.