Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

So did Ned get a thorough worming as well? I usually worm my turkeys about once a month. I notice about that time that they get thin poo. I worm them and it firms back up. I've never found a worm in any of my birds but I am sure they get them. I just try to stay pretty proactive worming them. The hens only get wormed about twice a year but the rest get wormed more often. I haven't used a wormer on the ducks or geese yet. I am scared of hurting them. I've been meaning to get some horse paste ivermectin for that.

Most ducks start laying at about the same age as chickens. Around 5 to 6 months. I'll be the girl will be laying soon.
Your mating description is funny! Personally I am glad I am neither a duck nor a chicken. I guarantee if someone grabbed hold of the back of my head and started flapping there would be one angry woman to reckon with!

That last part literally made me spit out the sip of wine I was having....

Oh, I am SO hopeful right now that worms are Ned's problem because yes, he is getting the wormer too. A link sent me in the direction of administering Ivermectin that I really liked because it is "self-dosing". Here is the link:
http://www.heavensentranch.com/poultryhealth.htm
Basically, this woman is a big-time breeder who follows the principle that it doesn't matter how good your breeding stock is, if you don't first take care of their health. The method she uses for worming, and which she swears by, is to get the injectable Ivermectin, but put it in the water at 4cc/gallon. She advises to provide enough water for 2 days. She first started doing it for 3 days but then cut it to 2 and says that works for her. Anyway, it is self-dosing because each bird will drink the quantity they need for their body weight, so it is safe for chicks or adults, chickens or turkeys, because each bird should drink the amount of water for their body size and therefore get the amount of the drug that their body size requires. There is no withdrawal time, and for worms, no need to re-dose after the 10 day period like you have to with so many of the drugs. I'm really hoping she knows what she's talking about. Anyway, I took up all waterers except the one I had the Ivermectin in, so Ned is drinking from that fount along with the chickens. If worms are his problem, hopefully I will see some improvement in the next few days. He does have me worried tonight though. All along, Madge has urged sleeping in the coop, while Ned hasn't been convinced, and has wanted to sleep outside. Tonight I went down after dinner to let the flock out of the yard for some free-range time and found both turkeys already on the roosts (6:15pm?) I figured they might get down but they stayed there until they were joined by the chickens. Ordinarily I'd be pleased but it seems just one more indication that Ned isn't feeling well.

 

[chicken danz]

I've never heard of using injectable ivermectin like that. I may give that a try. I know Josie uses the horse paste with ivermectin and praziquante (I think). I'd have to go back and look for sure. It would be much easier to put it in drinking water.
I tore out my old roosts from the hen house. They were starting to fall down. I forgot fancy and just mounted a couple of boards up there a few inches a part. I'll bet they work just as well.
I had to take out and replace a light fixture. I figured out finally that the switch was bad. I thought I had lost all power to the houses out there and couldn't find a break in the line. I finally concluded after doing some research that all the stupid lights were burnt out except one and that is the one that had the bad switch on it. Talk about feeling dumb. Anyway I replaced the light fixture and put some bulbs out. I decided the girls had finished the most of their molt so it was time to encourage them to lay a little better. I also wanted to be prepared for cold weather in case I need to plug in poultry water heaters.

 

[mommahen10]

It's 8:20pm, the furnace guy still hasn't showed up. It's getting late now, I need to start getting kids in bed.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

HEChicken - My guess about the scovy drake is, he is just full of teen age harmones. My scovies have never layed eggs during the winter, but then with animals you never know for sure what they will do. IF she does lay eggs and she is free ranging, she will probably hide her nest. They are very good at that.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

It's 8:20pm, the furnace guy still hasn't showed up. It's getting late now, I need to start getting kids in bed.

Oh no , good thing it wont get too cold tonight, I will cross my fingers for tomorrow.

Your mating description is funny! Personally I am glad I am neither a duck nor a chicken. I guarantee if someone grabbed hold of the back of my head and started flapping there would be one angry woman to reckon with!

Too much!!!

 

[michelleml]

Does everyone use propane to heat your home? This will be our first I'm a little scared about that and the price of propane. I've been reading about pellet stoves and thinking maybe we can get a pellet insert for the fireplace but we have a two story home not sure if it will keep kids room upstair warm enough . Anyone have experence with pellet stoves?

 

[Joe Jordan]

We heat (air and water) and cook with propane for only about $400 a year. Clean fuel.

 

[JosieChick]

Howdy all, I am like 9 million posts behind so I read but gave up on multi posting, it would have been a mile long!

Danz-I do use the ivermectin/praziquantel paste. I don't know how you would use injectable ivermectin in water because ivermectin is not water soluble. So there would be a big "glob" of ivermectin floating in the water somewhere and who knows if anyone would actually get it? I will ask DH about it. I have read that you can use safeguard for goats in their drinking water and that would be way easier than dosing individually. The problem with people "coming up with ways" to deworm their birds is that they don't know the chemical bases of the drugs. I use and abuse my husbands knowledge and access to veterinary drug handbooks to determine how to best use drugs that aren't even labeled for chickens but if there is no research how would anyone know if putting ivermectin in drinking water even works to deworm birds? Just my two cents.

I've never heard of using injectable ivermectin like that. I may give that a try. I know Josie uses the horse paste with ivermectin and praziquante (I think). I'd have to go back and look for sure. It would be much easier to put it in drinking water.
I tore out my old roosts from the hen house. They were starting to fall down. I forgot fancy and just mounted a couple of boards up there a few inches a part. I'll bet they work just as well.
I had to take out and replace a light fixture. I figured out finally that the switch was bad. I thought I had lost all power to the houses out there and couldn't find a break in the line. I finally concluded after doing some research that all the stupid lights were burnt out except one and that is the one that had the bad switch on it. Talk about feeling dumb. Anyway I replaced the light fixture and put some bulbs out. I decided the girls had finished the most of their molt so it was time to encourage them to lay a little better. I also wanted to be prepared for cold weather in case I need to plug in poultry water heaters.

My dad has a pellet stove in Maine and he runs it most of the winter and hardly uses his furnace. It is AWESOME!!! That thing is tiny and puts out more heat than you know what to do with. When we go to visit it is like 78 degrees in there with the stove turned down to low most of the time. They do require some maintenance but he loves it and he lives in my childhood home which is an old two story colonial and even the upstairs stays warm just from the ambient heat moving up the stairwell.

Does everyone use propane to heat your home? This will be our first I'm a little scared about that and the price of propane. I've been reading about pellet stoves and thinking maybe we can get a pellet insert for the fireplace but we have a two story home not sure if it will keep kids room upstair warm enough . Anyone have experence with pellet stoves?

Well I am just pooped right out. I worked Monday and today and spent all of yesterday running around like a nut. Did groceries, bought chicken feed, took the car to the dealer to have its resist all treatment to prevent future staining had a doctors appointment, cleaned the house for two hours and had to take a nap to recover! I did get to hear the baby's heartbeat on the doppler yesterday which was pretty awesome. Everything is looking good and I was shocked I hadn't put any weight on because half my jeans don't fit but the doctor said that was ok and the baby was strong and healthy.

I am kind of excited at the prospect of moving because there are more nurse midwives available down near Wichita so once we have a definite plan I am going to start making some phone calls. We have decided to have a natural child birth and DH was super duper supportive and even ok with a homebirth or birthing at a non hospital location as long as we were within driving distance of a hospital in case we need one. I was shocked and quite pleased that he was so supportive.

 

[Trish44]

I'm too tired to muli quote, but here is the link for the poultry swap: https://www.facebook.com/groups/275183675880038/, just ask to join & one of us will approve you.

Danz, yes you can put the doves on the poultry swap site, we had a big blowout yesterday on the farm animal swap, so don't post them there. I'm having trouble with people wanting to post potbelly pigs on the farm swap & I'm not allowing them or anything pet related, it's a farm swap after all. The way I feel about it is the potbelly pigs are normally used for pets & there are just so many pet swap sites on FB that they have plenty of places to post them besides my farm swap. I had to sit down & make a darned list of animals & birds, dogs & such that ARE allowed on the site, what a PITA. Some people just have to push the limits no matter whether there are written rules or not.

Today has been quite a day & I'm feeling the effects of it now. This morning my DH & I got up really early for us & went to Oxford to a friend of Sunflowerparrot's house to help process chickens. They have quite a setup there & have a system going. I love the automatic chicken plucker, it's wonderful! They put two chickens in it at a time & they were both de-feathered in seconds, sure beats plucking by hand. We processed 47 birds in about 3 hours this morning from start to finish. We weren't doing any for us, we were just there to help & see the system & the plucker so we can do it in the spring next year. After leaving there I went back home, did all my chores, fixed lunch, & then went back in the afternoon to Sunflowerparrot's house to load up a truckload of cattails. I'm trying to stockpile some for winter & she also has been loading up some to take up closer to the coops. I'm just done in after this day, I'm so tired! I plan to go back tomorrow if it's not raining & get one more load, that's about all I have time right now to get. The dogs love the stuff for sleeping in, they're going to be mad at me when I put a tarp over it.

I wanted to post about my experience here so you all could learn from it. I have never had this happen before & I hope I don't again. As you know I lost my Wheaten Ameraucana rooster recently & I really didn't know why he died. Then yesterday I noticed my Salmon Favorelle rooster was not doing well at all. I started giving them vitamins in their water & him some directly. It dawned on me last night what was going on & unfortunately it was too late for my beautiful rooster. Now I am down two breeders that I need for next spring & I have to find replacements. Anyway, I have always treated my main coop with D.E. & sevin when I clean it out & at intervals, so I have never had a problem with mites at all, ever. Well as you may recall I have had moisture problems in my grow-out pen due to it flooding when it rains a lot. I have been working on the issue & cleaned all the bedding out of it that was wet & it is dry now, but it caused the birds in there to get mites from the wet bedding. It just never occurred to me that mites could be the issue I was dealing with until I saw my big rooster picking at his legs last night. Then all of the sudden it hit me like a brick & I knew what was wrong with him. I had not seen any mites crawling on him, they were evidently really hidden under his feathers. So today I went out after getting back & dusted the whole pen with D.E. & sevin & the birds too, but it was too late for my rooster, he died this afternoon. I went out & treated all the pens so far except the peacock/guinea pen & I plan to do that one tomorrow & the birds in there. Of all the things that can go wrong with chickens I just didn't even think of that one happening to me. My other birds seem to be doing well now after treating their respiratory stuff, so I'll watch that & I know to watch for that problem, but now I know to watch for mites. I also know what they look like now after this experience. I had been using straw in that pen & I don't know if that contributed to the problem or not, but I'm using the cattails in there now. I'm just sick about my big beautiful rooster & so sad that I didn't realize sooner what was going on & maybe I could have saved him.

Hawkeye, I'm so sorry you're still not feeling well, I have been thinking about you also & hope you feel better soon. It can take awhile for that kind of injury to resolve, just be careful. That's the pits that guy is such a liar, Why do they believe him over you & your BIL? I would think two people with the same story would trump the one guy telling another one. I hope it all gets resolved soon for you, I know that doesn't help your recovery any

I'll try to get out & take some pics tomorrow of the breeder coop so you all can see the progress. My DH has all of the siding up now & we have to go in the next few days & get more lumber to put the supports up for the roof so we can put the roofing on. I want to get that roof on as soon as possible before the weather gets really ugly.

Josie, I'm so glad things are going well with you & the baby & am excited for you that you're going to get to move closer to Wichita. That will be so much more convenient for your DH & closer for you to family & doctors.

 

[Kansas Prairie]

Does everyone use propane to heat your home? This will be our first I'm a little scared about that and the price of propane. I've been reading about pellet stoves and thinking maybe we can get a pellet insert for the fireplace but we have a two story home not sure if it will keep kids room upstair warm enough . Anyone have experence with pellet stoves?

Yes we use propane to heat our home. It's dangerous to have propane water heaters in the basement so they are electric. We pay more than $400 per year like Joe Jordan does, lucky Joe!

Michelleml,
Most companies ( if you request) will put you on their route and will come by and fill your tank occasionally.
Be sure the propane tank doesn't get low or empty. If it empties it can be a mess & you can get air in the lines & some companies will charge you extra to prime it.