Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

WOW... I can't imagine killing Kangaroo! Do people eat them? That would be the only right thing to do, right? Are they gamey? Have you ever eaten kangaroo?

You all's stories of what people did to mess up the homes before you owned them-- this is why I'm so happy we did build our house! LOL We know everything was done right. They sprayed our entire basement with that thick rubber coating before they backfilled, the whole thing has a weeping tile system with sump, and our pipes, electric, water, and propane was done by tradesmen on permits. Whew!

Oh definitely - yeah. Kangaroo meat is sold at the butcher alongside the beef, pork, chicken, lamb and rabbit. I've eaten it many times and no, it doesn't taste gamey at all. It is an extremely lean meat - it is almost impossible to find any fat on it at all - so it has to be cooked in such a way as to prevent it drying out and getting tough. It tastes a lot like very lean beef.

I built my last house but it didn't prevent "errors" on the part of the builders - even getting "professionals" in to do it doesn't stop them cutting corners to save a buck or two here and there. One notable thing they got wrong on that house was covering a vent! It was in the master bathroom and the vent came up against the wall, between the toilet and the cabinet under the sink. Needless to say, that is not a place one steps terribly often. I had always thought it was weird there was no vent in the bathroom but hey, what can you do after the fact, right? Then one day, for whatever reason, I did need to step on that piece of the floor and felt it give. I traced the "hole" and realized it was the size and shape of a vent, so got out my stanley knife, cut away the vinyl flooring, bought a vent cover to put in and voila - we had a vent in the bathroom.

Someone was commenting on the cost of cloth diapers? Mommahen maybe? Anyway, I thought it was interesting how expensive disposables were. For 2 years of disposable diapers it runs about $1700! For flat or prefold cloth diapers it runs about $250 for two years and for the preformed all in one or pocket diapers it runs about $625 for two years of diapering. I am all set for diapers and I think I spent $355 which I was very happy with and now I have diapers for baby until potty training. Woo hoo!

Absolutely - diapering in cloth saves a ton over disposable, when you think about the cost over the average of two years that you will be diapering. And if you have more than one child, the cost of disposables just continues to climb with each baby, whereas once you have bought the original set, you can use them for subsequent kids as well, saving even more.

Hawkeye,
At first I thought your name Hawkeye was from M*A*S*H*, then after I ranted about hawks I feared you loved hawks.

LOL!!! NOooooooo, not a fan of hawks.

I'm a huge fan of James Finmore Cooper! He wrote "The Last of the Mohicans" and I have read that book over and over. Then the movie came out and I have watched that thing over and over!! Hawkeye is Daniel Day Lewis's character! It doesn't really say that in the MOVIE... but if you read the book, that is how he is referred to. He was adopted by the Mohicans and given the name Hawkeye for his skills. So there you go, I'm a nerd. Everyone thinks my name comes from the tv series, but I wasn't really old enough to get into M*A*S*H. I do remember my parents watching it, though.

Oooh....I'm glad to hear your explanation for why you chose your name. Sometimes it is obvious how a screen name came about - like Mommahen10 or Danz - other times it is harder to guess.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Danz- you have helped me alot and I appreciate your friendship and generosity.

Kansas Prairie-- Thank you and now I need to read on how to lure the crows in. When it gets cold we usually have tons of them around our property.

Josie-- I do have a covered run, It needs expansion badly because it was built for 17 hens and now I have 27 out there 7 are turkey.. I have always admired them for their beauty and grace. I do think they are very important to nature, every creature has a place, its just that not every creature is welcome on Maidenwolf's property

I am going to do some research on making it not a good place to stay for them and I like your idea of making the palet teepees.

 

[JosieChick]

Just a quick note Josie then I have to hit the road. Dh is building an enclosure to cut the wind on the sebbies pen using the shelter they always used. Not that the front is enclosed against the north wind they won't go in it. There is a large opening and a 3 foot wide chunnel to get in there but they refuse. What am I going to do to get them to use winter protection??
Any ideas???

Nope, you can lead a goose to shelter but you can't make it go in!! If they need it they will use it, if they don't they won't I put big piles of straw down in their pen up against the fence and several bales of straw and they sleep in the piles of straw. I would go out on terribly cold mornings and their long tendrils of feathers would be covered in balls of ice. They say they need extra protection but mine won't use it. They have it if they want it but they prefer to sleep outside in the elements on straw or up against the side of a bale of straw as a windbreak.

YAY!! That is fantastic! You will love the Bumgenius! Those are great. My go-to diaper was my own brand or FuzziBunz. Bumgenius is good (but hated the velcro) however they perform great, and I loved the BlueBerry brand, but they are expensive. I have only kept one Thristies cover, and it's pink. I'll hang on to it and if you have a girl, it's yours. Or if you don't mind putting pink on a boy, you can have it.

I thought you might make covers but maybe I misunderstood. I do remember you saying you like the thirsties covers so I will have to order some of those. I don't care if we put pink on a boy. One of the batches of diapers I ordered has four pink in there and I said I guess if we have a boy he is gonna be wearing pink diapers! I need to get down and get those maternity pants from you this week, my jeans are getting very snug and not comfy at all!!

Hawkeye, I thought maybe you were an Iowa Hawkeye. I like the Last of the Mohicans explanation much better!

Well, yesterday the dr. said he wasn't sure it was a spider bite on dd's leg. It really didn't hurt much, and it's not ulcerating. She has a sore on her achilles tendon area, and her leg just swelled up from her foot to halfway up her calf. At any rate, the swelling is down, so we'll keep up with the antibiotics, and keep her off it when we can. She's 11, so she understands how serious it was & is good about taking her meds.

Dh rigged up a large traffic cone for butchering. He bolts it to a tree, and uses his leatherman tool to slit their throats. I think he just ends up cutting off their heads, most of the time. Then we do the hot water, plucking, etc. If I was going to do a lot of meaties, I would want to find somewhere to take them to be processed, or get one of those plucking machines.

I forgot one chicken on my list yesterday. We have an Australorp we got with our very first batch of chicks in July 2010. A lady at the Topeka farmers market hatched out a dozen eggs, and gave us 8. 5 of them were roosters, we gave 4 of those back. One of those hens died the first year, one died this summer, and we culled the rooster last summer. So that makes 31 chickens!

Danz, I'm glad you got the sewer problem straightened out. We have two septic tanks with this house, I was totally geeked when I found that out! LOL

I used cloth diapers with my last two, mostly with my youngest who is 11 now. I used fuzzibunz with prefolds, or prowraps, and then I had a few fancy fitted ones, but can't remember what kind. I did have a wool cover that I loved! I could put all kinds of diapers under that thing, no leaks, and great for night time.

I better get moving, I have lots of projects today. I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather!

Forgot to say welcome LoriO! I have looked at the wool covers and really love the idea of wool. How often did you wash your wool cover and do you need to retreat it with lanolin every time you wash?

Danz- you have helped me alot and I appreciate your friendship and generosity.

Kansas Prairie-- Thank you and now I need to read on how to lure the crows in. When it gets cold we usually have tons of them around our property.

Josie-- I do have a covered run, It needs expansion badly because it was built for 17 hens and now I have 27 out there 7 are turkey.. I have always admired them for their beauty and grace. I do think they are very important to nature, every creature has a place, its just that not every creature is welcome on Maidenwolf's property

I am going to do some research on making it not a good place to stay for them and I like your idea of making the palet teepees.

I know how that goes. I had way too many birds at one point this summer and if I didn't let them out they picked on each other. I don't like them here on our property either. I think the more unfriendly and hard to hunt your property gets the less they come around. The pallet tepees are a big hit with the birds too, some people just set them up on a rocks flat too so the birds can go under them. I have found that the few bird I have lost were out free ranging and the hawk was so stealthy that they didn't have time to run for cover before someone was being carried off. It is the bantams that are most at risk here. The big girls are a bit much for the smaller hawks. They seem to like my cochin cockerels which is awful. I have lost a couple really nice boys this fall. Hope you can get your place all hawk proofed. My chicken yard looks like a junk yard but it seems to be working to keep the hawks at bay. If you can attract crows I have heard they will chase hawks out of their territory. Some people put out whole peanuts and play crow calls and the crows will come and establish in your area. I never got around to that what with all my other hawk prevention mess. Plus the birds are out there jammin to the oldies because that is all that comes in on the radio in the coop! I don't know if it really helps or not but it makes me feel better. I have also read you can put out shiny mylar helium balloons tied to fencing but I didn't get to that either because I didn't think they would last very long.


Well we have gotten lots done and still have lots to do. Trying to get some fall cleaning done. I pulled my brooders out of the garage and we gave them a much needed scrubbing and disinfecting. Now I have to go out and clean up around the pens from all the things I throw out next to them like dirty feeders and nest boxes that need washed etc. At least the sun is shining!

 

[LoriO]

Josie, it's been so long since I used diapers! I don't remember actually washing the wool cover much, I think I rinsed it out more often than an actual wash. I also only lanolized it a couple times. Now, I had it when dd was older, like 18 months - 2 years, so maybe that made a difference. Hopefully someone with more recent experience will help you out with that question!

 

[tweetysvoice]

I keep on saying I'll post pictures of my coop, here it is right before move in day. Since these pictures, he has added railings to the ramp, so it looks like a ship plank, and is making flower pots and a mailbox.

Also, the cute ladybug baby in the graveyard cracked me up. I have an odd sense of humor.

LOL.... so do we That's why I thought it would be hilarious to put her in there.. you think that one's funny... While we were setting up our halloween decorations, I gave Kaylea a severed hand to play with, she decided to chew on the "appropriate" end.. hence.. Zombie Baby!

The hawk just killed again, a bigger hen this time. She was in a thin mass of trees under a thicket of blackberry vines. I was outside maybe 1000 ft away, and 5 mins before this I was shooting my 20 gauge to let off steam. He is not scared. I ran back there when I saw him swoop down ( I had been watching him in the tree) I was able to get within 2 feet of him before he back off of her. I could have touched him,he was letting out this low hiss at me, it was creepy. I hit him with a big tree branch and he looked stunned and I was able to grab my hen and he flew away. It angers me so that I cant do anything. If this were a fox or coyote or other dog anything, I could kill it because it was killing my livestock, but the one biggest threat which happens to be WAY over populated is protected? They should open hunting seasons on them like they do deer. Their numbers need to be lowered, and dont get me wrong I love animals and nature that is a huge religious thing for me but something needs to be done.

That would absolutely freak me and and piss me off at the same time. I'm not sure I would have been able to hold myself back in not killing that bird!


So, I made it through my procedure just fine. I apparently woke up screaming in pain after the surgery, but I don't remember that. Also, according to DH, I said some pretty **** funny thing too. Don't remember any of that either. LOL I ate a bite of chicken a couple hours ago and can tell it's still sitting like a rock in my stomach. Not sure how soon this is supposed to take effect. I guess I won't know if it works until I keep trying. Thanks for all the well wishes!

 

[HEChicken]

Tweety, I'm glad to hear you made it through the procedure fine. Now I just hope you are able to start eating normally again....

 

[sapphireblu76]

Aww, adorable grandson you got there!

Chickens are still sneezing, not getting worse, no more deaths. Never got any more advice on what to do, vet never called back, can't find anything else to use from the feed stores, can't afford the stuff they sell on-line. Irritated, but nothing I can do.
Got another pen and got my SLW's separated. BLCM chicks still in the house and doing well. Incubator full of red mix, barnyard mix, and bantam cochin eggs.
Dog keeps pulling the hose out of the duck pen, won't use his dog house.
Rabbits bred, hoping for babies this time.

Nothing exciting going on.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Nothing exciting going on here, either. I got the blasted flu and felt like I would rather die than put up with the body aches any longer. I had a fierce headache also and lots of upper respiratory congestion. My fever kept breaking and spiking over and over. I had the most miserable night of my life and spent most of today in bed. My eyes wouldn't even focus! Ridiculous! Finally I'm feeling some better this evening and I'm hoping it doesn't go into my lunges like it usually does. I have high hopes for tomorrow!

Tweety, I'm so glad you got the procedure behind you. Now, we can hope things will start to work like they are supposed to.

Danz, Congrats on the peafowl and getting the line unstopped. What a mess, for sure. Our line stopped up so everything came up the clean out into the yard. Gross, but better than in the basement. DH was not pleased but he got it taken care of.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

A couple of sites with grain nutrition information.

http://www.lionsgrip.com/protein.html


http://www.lionsgrip.com/nutrition.html

 

[michelleml]

Hawkeye- Forgot to tell you! I scored two sets of bumgenius pocket diapers on ebay for about $12-13 a diaper depending on the auction so I have 32 diapers plus the motherease diapers so I am in pretty good shape! I think I still need some waterproof wraps in different sizes for the motherease diapers if you have some of those? I was so excited though. 

Someone was commenting on the cost of cloth diapers? Mommahen maybe? Anyway, I thought it was interesting how expensive disposables were. For 2 years of disposable diapers it runs about $1700! For flat or prefold cloth diapers it runs about $250 for two years and for the preformed all in one or pocket diapers it runs about $625 for two years of diapering. I am all set for diapers and I think I spent $355 which I was very happy with and now I have diapers for baby until potty training. Woo hoo!

josie will you be using any flats? I think I have about 2 dz flats that are too small. The other place you can check out is diaperswappers.com or spots on hyena cart. If you like bgs on the bumgenius site they sell gently used one