Consolidated Kansas

[maidenwolfx80]

Trish-- UGH pushy people. I have had that happen quite a few times already, it will have noones comments at all and once someone looks interested a particular person will jump in and say they will buy it.. OOOO iratating for sure.

 

[HEChicken]

Well more news in the saga of my eggs. I wrote the guy that the lemon cuckoo eggs didn't hatch and the ones marked SF for Swedish flower did. But when they all came out yellow I was really confused so I wrote him again with pictures and the egg shells that were numbered.
Well come to find out someone had written SF on the lemon cuckoo and LO on the Swedish Flowers. The eggs were all marked with the pen number they came out of. So it was the Swedish that weren't at all fertile. He is going to send me replacement eggs for postage. He was very nice and apologetic about the error and the hatching problems. That is rare. So now looking at the chicks I can tell I have 4 cockerels and 5 pullets so far. There is one more in the hatcher that I haven't determined yet because it is still wet. That is a beautiful thing about the lemon cuckoo orpingtons. They can be color sexed because the boys are much lighter. So I am full up on the orpingtons I'll need for a good breeding program. And if I get a decent hatch from my white orpington eggs I swear I am going to be satisfied with enough orpingtons.
I told my daughter about the white Orpington eggs and explained that it was her Christmas present. So after a few emails, a lot of texts, and a long phone call she is flying high. You'd have thought I was offering her the crown jewels. She normally has a hen that is broody but no one is right now. So I figured I could hatch chicks and if no other opportunity arrived, I would ship her eggs when they matured enough to lay. Oh no! She is too excited for that. She has already made tentative plans to have chicks picked up on Thanksgiving weekend and taken back to Waco, TX where she will drive to from Austin to pick them up.
She said she was going to go out and start building her pens to separate colors. Talk about counting your chickens before they hatch!!!! I do so hope that they hatch both from a financial aspect and from the fact that it will make her one very very happy daughter. I love those rare occasions when I can tell I really made my kids happy. In the meantime I might have sold my Lady Amherst cock to another person who lives in Austin. It would be going back to Austin in the same vehicle. That would be nice. I have 3 LA cocks and want to use the yearling as my new breeder to change blood lines. I have one that was hatched this year and I will probably just sell him next spring.
So it was a busy day. I went to town and stood in line to get my new tags for the cars. Very busy place. I can see why everyone is complaining about the new system. It takes forever. If it hadn't have messed up I would have purchased tags on line like I always do. I got my eggs delivered and visited my sister etc. Then had to get back home and finish caring for the birds.

Oh, that is funny about the mix up with the eggs but sounds like it might turn out okay. That is way cool that you can make your daughter so happy.

I've had that happen where the system messed up and wouldn't let me renew online and it is such pain to wait in those long lines. I was pleasantly surprised this last time though, that not only did it let me renew online but they've stopped charging the convenience fee for putting it on your credit card AND the new tags arrived in the mail only 36 hours after I did the renewal online. I have to say, I was pretty impressed by that.

It is 23 here this morning. I didn't get the heated waterers set up yet but found that it was only a thin layer of ice on top of the water and I was able to break through it easily and let them have some water. When I first went out, I found one of the drakes standing on top of the ice in the waterer - I guess the cold wasn't bothering HIM LOL.

I guess I mixed up just about the right amount of the Ivermectin as when I went to shut everyone up last night, the waterer was empty. I brought it up to the house to clean it out thoroughly, and left them with a rubber bowl of water. I figured the ducks would be happy with that since the fount waterer doesn't let them get their nostrils in deep enough to clean out. Everyone else seems to be doing fine - I put the little chicks and the silkies out in their pen and they didn't seem to even be noticing that it is cold this morning.

 

[HEChicken]

Dangit, if the multi doesn't post, I forget to reply at all. Trish, I'm confused about your black Ameraucanas. I thought about this the other day when you got your new guy because I thought you said you had found out one of the chicks you were raising was a cockerel after all. Are you rehoming him just so you aren't breeding related birds?

Oh - the latest on Cyrus....for three weeks, he behaved pretty well. The technique of staring him down until he walked away worked pretty well, though it was a little time-consuming. We got it to where I would only have to stand still for 10 seconds or so, but still, when you're trying to get around and get chores done, more than once I found myself sighing and telling him "Really, Cyrus, now?" Still, I felt it was worth it to have a rooster who is excellent for the reasons I got him AND have him not attacking me.

That ended yesterday when he ran after me and slammed into my legs. He still doesn't have spurs so its only the weight of his body against me and this time of year when I'm wearing full length pants, even that wasn't a big deal. I turned around and got a boot in his rear end and flicked him back. He hit the fence, slid down and came at me again. I repeated. Then I started to chase after him, getting my boot on him several more times. After the boot had made contact with his rear end a half dozen times, he gave up and started running from me. I literally chased him all around the yard. So you'd think he'd have learned his lesson for awhile, right? Nope. A half-hour later when I returned to the chicken yard, he had apparently forgotten all about it and came at me again. So we did it all over again. THAT time, he learned his lesson. Ever since then he has not only kept his distance from me, but runs as soon as I walk in his direction!!! I have to say, this is really a first. All of the things I've tried in the past have only backed him off to where he mutters under his breath about the intruder, but not to where he seriously doesn't want to mess with me any more. I must admit, I had to smile briefly in victory this morning when I saw him running away from me. As long as he doesn't lose confidence in his role as flock protector as a result of this, I will be one happy camper.

Oh, and speaking of spurs, I have a hen with spurs! I've heard of this but never had one before. My Aloha hen hasn't developed the actual claw part of the spur yet but has grown the spur out quite long from the back of her leg - it looks about the same stage of development as Cyrus' spurs.

 

[chicken danz]

I didn't set up my heated water bowls yet. I'll bet I have some frozen bowls and maybe some frozen hoses out there. There is definitely frost on the pumpkin this morning!
The problem with this whole mix up on eggs is that I really would have rather had the Swedish flower hens than the lemon cuckoo orpingtons. I only got the orpington eggs because he combined shipping and they were cheap. But maybe I'll get some viable SFH eggs when he replaces them.
Trish I think I have about 14-15 Swedish Flower hens now. Of course there are several roosters in those. I haven't done a count yet. The little one that died yesterday morning was a roo so that made it easier to take. The older group are fairly decent sized birds now. The younger ones are probably old enough to come out of the brooder. I just don't have housing for any of them yet. I don't think I have any crested ones which I why I ordered the crested chicks from this guy. Funny, cause Karen and my eggs came from the same place and she has several with crests. Maybe some of the younger ones will develop crests. I do love this breed as well. The olandsk are much prettier than them, but they aren't as practical.
I haven't checked my creme legbar eggs yet to see if they are developing. It will just be a few more days until they go into the hatcher. I didn't care about getting them until I saw those awesome eggs. Now I am looking forward to them. If they don't hatch I won't be getting more though. I just can't afford that price for eggs. So Trish did you separate your boys and girls when they hatched? Can you still tell them apart after they start getting feathers in?
Speaking of crests, I have this one little Breda fowl I hatched. I am loving this chick. It is so funky looking. It has a tiny crest, no comb, fuzzy feet, and huge vulture hocks. I do hope I get some more hatches out of the second batch of eggs. They are so rare and a slow growing breed so I will have to wait a while even if I do hatch more chicks for them to mature enough to lay. But I can see that people will say, "What is that?" when they see them.
DH is complaining again about all the pens. I keep telling him if the trailer was in place and finished that would be it. I haven't been working on it either but that is because if he doesn't ge tthe foundation done to set it on it won't do any good. I suggested we finish one half of the barn instead and let him use the trailer for tool storage but he didn't even comment on that which meant there is no way. It would sure help me to have everything all together like that. I know the only way that would work is if I would build him a whole new building to work in. That isn't happening. If he wants one he could build one but I'm not able to pay for it.
I'm thinking today is going to be one of those days I stay inside as much as possible. Burr!!

 

[mommahen10]

HEChicken, it's too bad that it had to go that far with Cyrus but I don't blame you a single bit. You have truly tried every other means with him very diligently. I sure hope this works because once those spurs come in he could tear you up. Maybe we need shock collars for chickens too. I'd be freaked out if a rooster came after me, I've never had it happen. Our rooster is so calm I don't even think about him when I'm out there, boy would I be surprised if he changed his demeanor. We never touch him either. Even my young roosters, I've only heard 2 of them crow and they're big. They do battle a little amongst themselves though.

 

[chicken danz]

Wow Heather, that is weird! I've never even thought about a hen having spurs. Maybe too many male hormones in her body????? I know some women that look like that anyway!

Speaking of mean roosters my daughter just sold one of her lemon cuckoo roosters cause she had tried everything and said he was just an AH! He even attacked the guy that bought him. But the guy has emus and he just clocked him good. I guess even the meanest of roosters can't begin to hold a candle to Emus. Everyone I know that has had emus has been injured by them at least once.
I do have one little lemon cuckoo who is already foot aggressive. He runs for my shoes every time I open the gate. Since I've not had a mean rooster I don't know what to look for, but this little guy just seems very aggressive compared to other birds I've had. I figured if he turns out mean I will just let him out to breed and then back in a cage. But now that I have a few other potential roosters hatched, if he turns mean I may have to make soup out of him or sell him to someone that wants him regardless of his attitude. I hate killing a beautiful bird but I just won't tolerate it. I may want to keep the other older one and one from this new group just so I have different bloodlines. Time will tell.

 

[lizzyGSR]

I don't remember who posted a picture of the duck in a halloween costume, but that is just a fantastic picture!!! Thanks for posting!

At 7 o'clock this morning, the weather service website said it was 25. However, we are in a deep valley and regularly get cooler than the weather office does, so I"m betting we were lower than that. I had a nice, thick layer of ice o n everything this morning, including my duck pool. This is the first time the duck pool has frozen. I guess it's time to get a move-on on getting things ready for winter... I still need to buy the supplies to make a couple cookie-tin heaters... I ruined a water bucket (ice cream bucket) this morning trying to get the ice out of it... GRRR! I g uess it's time to go to dollar general and get some nicer buckets too...

I am pretty sore this morning. Thursday was my birthday, and I spent the evening out trying to clear debris out of the pasture (to be fair, my DH took me out the evening before because he had to work the graveyard shift on my b-day). One of the things I moved was a radiator that came out of an old vehicle - back when they made vehicles/radiators STOUT! That radiator probably weighed as much as I do. I tried dragging it across the pasture, but that didn't work very well. So, I ended up rolling it instead. We've been trying to avoid driving in the pasture because we have VERY little grass and don't want to flatten what we do have. So, I moved the radiator all the way across our pasture (the short way - probably 200-300 yards). My husband had been sleeping in preparation for his shift at work, but got up and came to help just as I was dragging the radiator underneath the fence - only feet from the truck.



Then, after that, we worked together on rolling this old water tank thing across the pasture. The problem was that it was bigger on one side than the other so, of course, it wouldn't roll straight. We had to roll it a ways, twist it to straighten it up, and go again. That thing was heavy enough that my husband and I together couldn't even stand it upright. We got it to within 20 or 30 yards of the fence before we couldn't budge it any more. We'd worn ourselves out moving it and decided to just come back later to try again. The guy from the local metal recycling place is supposed to come tomorrow to pick it up, so let's hope we can get it out of the pasture by then.


The good news in all of this is that we are one step closer to being ready to bring my horses out here. We've got less than 2 weeks before we leave! I am so excited! I've been waiting for this for YEARS!!! The only things we have left to do are to 1) line the inside wall of the barn with plywood so the horses are less likely to be able to kick through the metal siding 2) finish the fence around the barn and create a "corral" to lock the horses in that first night. 3) Fill in LOTS of holes. My in-laws are considering coming to help us finish this stuff up next weekend. That would be really nice! As weird as it sounds, I hope it stays cool while we finish this... I REALLY don't want to have to worry about snakes while I'm spending lots of quality time in the pasture filling holes.. AS it is, I was picking wire up yesterday and found some 1"x2" welded wire that was folded multiple times like a piece of paper. I picked it up, and there was a snake skin woven in the bottom layer of wire. It freaked me out and made me really glad it was only about 30 degrees at the time.

 

[Trish44]

HEChicken, well the reason I'm going to sell this young black Ameraucana is that the other one from an earlier hatch that I got from my friend is nicer for breeding purposes. This one I have is still young yet & hasn't really gotten his tail feathers in, but as far as color & feather quality the one I got for breeding trumps the younger one, that's why I'm selling him. Yay on kicking Cyrus's butt! I had to do that with my RIR rooster I ended up rehoming, but he still came after my granddaughter, not me, but he found someone else to pick on so he had to go. I just had the perfect opportunity come up at the right time for him to go. I have had to do that with my Speckled Sussex rooster too, not to the extent of Big Red, but he has gotten me a couple times & I had to do just what you did to Cyrus. He has been pretty good for awhile now, hopefully it will stay that way because I need him for breeding next year.

Danz, I don't know how old your SFH chicks are, but sometimes you see a crest right off & other times they develop later. I have both non-crested & crested birds, but the roosters aren't crested. I have read you shouldn't breed crested to crested because you can get a dangerously large crest & it makes the bird vulnerable to attacks by predators because they can't see, kind of like some other breeds if they get too large of a crest. If you breed crested to non-crested you're supposed to get I think 50% crested & 50% non-crested chicks from them. That's what I plan to do since I have two roos so far that aren't crested. That's as far as I can tell anyway that I know I have two roosters in the bunch. I hope you get some crested ones with the eggs you're getting & some grays too, they're so pretty. I have one pullet that I just love, she is red, gray, & white & is crested & then I have one smaller one that is gray & white but she doesn't look to have a crest. I probably will only use the crested pullets for breeding. I will just keep the extras for now for layers. I really haven't read much about what kind of layers they are, have you? Well I just googled it & they lay an average amount of eggs/year, 220 or so, that's not bad. I guess they start out pretty small like other breeds & then the eggs get bigger as they go.

Well I have been putting off going outside, but I'm going to have to go check on everyone, BRRRR! Everyone stay warm today, it's supposed to warm up a little this coming week back to the 60s I think.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Even being cold it is a good day. I have a great feeling for this coming up week and I hope it lives up to my expectations for everyone. And maybe a few extra warmer days to get our winter prep done

 

[chicken danz]

I'm totally procrastinating. I don't want to go out into the cold. At least the sun is shining. I ran out long enough to check on a broody hen but that's been it. I'm not feeling very good today. Just all around feeling lousy. Could be this weather too.
I was ONE very unhappy old g-ma while ago. I went out to dump the dust out of my vacuum and found two boxes on my front porch which we NEVER use . Both of them clearly marked DO NOT FREEZE in bright red letters. Apparently the Fed Ex guy was here yesterday and was too darned lazy to knock on the door. There was someone here all day so it really irritates the crap out of me. It was $115 worth of Oxine I ordered. It didn't appear to be frozen but I don't know if it was earlier. That just irritates me so bad. You pay a fortune for delivery and they can't take the time to knock. It wasn't like he didn't know what the forecast is!!! All of the delivery people are the same ones that come here all the time. They all know to use the back door, not the front. It just put me in a bad mood right off the batt. He might have had to walk 10 feet further by going to the back. Grrrr!
Lizzy you worked really hard. I'm so glad you are looking forward to your horses. It will be great!