Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

Sounds like diabetes. I had a cat (Calvin, a pink tabby -- ok light red) a few years ago who would sleep with his head in his water dish. His urine was copious and not very smelly. In fact, I had to clean out his pan several times a day to keep ahead of it. It came to him living in a cage (big, cat show cage) while we were gone to protect my house. Insulin controlled it for a while to an extent, but it wasn't ever completely successful and finally stopped working completely. It was EXPENSIVE. He went through a bottle ($100 or so) every month, and we had to give him a shot every evening. I don't regret the year of life he had because he seemed to enjoy it, but if I had to do it again, I might not struggle with it so long.

On a side note, Calvin's diabetes was what clued me in to my DH's diabetes when he was in chemo. He was excessively fatigued, eating and urinating huge amounts -- I woke up one morning with the vision of old Calvin with his head in his water dish and the light went on. We called the doctor and my DH got in immediately -- blood sugar was over 600. Calvin may have saved his life.

Sharol

This is going to be a very sad day for me. My friend feline, has developed house issues. AKA- peeing, and pooping anywhere in the house. He is 14, and I have decided that I just cannot tolerate having to deal with that mess. So I am taking him to the vet to put down. I feel so cruel, he has been such a good house cat. I wish I had not had him declawed, but since he has no front claws, I will not put him outside. We have been keeping him in the laundry room, and now he has started peeing through the door way of the box. I think he has developed diabetes, cause I cannot keep water in front of him. I cannot see any other way out. Any ideas, I will be taking him in at 10:30

 

[Hawkeye95]

Yeah, I know-- CRAZY. I think I set this up last week and never got around to posting the pictures. The blacks are my new ones. The rooster is not in condition. I hate showing him off when I know his crest has been picked out. He also was a little freaked out and he was not showing his good type by holding his tail as high as he usually does. But these were too cute not to post! I love the black pullet-- nice type.

My best cockerel in the Splash-- LOVE this little guy!! He's so pretty and can't wait to see what his offspring look like. I was really worried about his wings earlier (a month or two ago) but they've filled in nicely and have turned out fine. (whew) The Splash pullet won 2nd Place at Nationals. The Splash cockerel won 1st Place at Nationals.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Yeah, I know-- CRAZY. I think I set this up last week and never got around to posting the pictures. The blacks are my new ones. The rooster is not in condition. I hate showing him off when I know his crest has been picked out. He also was a little freaked out and he was not showing his good type by holding his tail as high as he usually does. But these were too cute not to post! I love the black pullet-- nice type.

My best cockerel in the Splash-- LOVE this little guy!! He's so pretty and can't wait to see what his offspring look like. I was really worried about his wings earlier (a month or two ago) but they've filled in nicely and have turned out fine. (whew) The Splash pullet won 2nd Place at Nationals. The Splash cockerel won 1st Place at Nationals.

Beautiful pics, gorgeous birds

 

[Kansas Prairie]

Howdy Kansas chicks!

Busy here, hope to have time to catch up on the reading later today. Cold weather rolling into Kansas Saturday evening. I've got some projects I'm trying to get done by then.
I also need to do some extra cooking for a couple of family funeral dinners at church.

I went out early this morning to open the people door so my turkeys could come out....On the way to the barn I found a part of a chicken foot and lower leg. My heart sank, but I didn't recognize it, it was the wrong color. Did a head count in the barn and the coops and everyone is accounted for. The more I look at it the more I think it may be a guinea's foot/leg. Our neighbors have guineas she started off with 25 and is now down to 3, they won't roost in a predator safe place. We live by 108,000 acres of Cimarron National Grasslands...predator safe roosting is a must.

I'm not pleased with my May batch of TSC RIR pullets. What hatchery does TSC use for it's chicks? I've never been unhappy with laying pullets before and I've had chickens most of my life. It's my first time to use TSC for chicks.

 

[COOP Group]

Yeah, I waited and waited for a new page to open up too but it turns out it was launching an email and if all you use is a web-based email, it will never launch anything. If you use something like Outlook, it will launch a new email populated with the email address.

For anyone else having difficulty, here is the email address it launched with: [email protected]

If you open an email and put that address in the "To" field and hit send, it should go to the right place. I did get an email confirmation after I had sent it, saying they had received it.

Hawkeye, thanks for the explanation of blacks and blues - I knew you could explain better than I can.

Thanks for the help with the Planning Comission e mail! I am so grateful for the support you have all been giveng me. I really hope they will approve my application and make it easier for anyone else who wants hens. No one should have to got through all this to keep chickens so thanks again!

What breed are the super fuzzy chickens in the posts after this? Are they fuzzy like that when they are full grown?

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Howdy Kansas chicks!

Busy here, hope to have time to catch up on the reading later today. Cold weather rolling into Kansas Saturday evening. I've got some projects I'm trying to get done by then.
I also need to do some extra cooking for a couple of family funeral dinners at church.

I went out early this morning to open the people door so my turkeys could come out....On the way to the barn I found a part of a chicken foot and lower leg. My heart sank, but I didn't recognize it, it was the wrong color. Did a head count in the barn and the coops and everyone is accounted for. The more I look at it the more I think it may be a guinea's foot/leg. Our neighbors have guineas she started off with 25 and is now down to 3, they won't roost in a predator safe place. We live by 108,000 acres of Cimaroon National Grasslands...predator safe roosting is a must.

I'm not pleased with my May batch of TSC RIR pullets. What hatchery does TSC use for it's chicks? I've never been unhappy with laying pullets before and I've had chickens most of my life. It's my first time to use TSC for chicks.

Yes I need to get things moving for this colder weather, have they said how long or how bad?
Wow that would get my heart pumping as well..
The TSC near me uses local farmers, I have never bought from a TSC but they always have a sign hanging that says if you want to order a large amount or dont see what you want to call "Chicken Bob" in harrisonville an dit gives his number. When they do the chick days in raymore when they have booths set up and such I met "Chicken Bob" nice guy, never been to his farm, he will invite you down to look around lol..

 

[katoranger]

Just joined. Currently in Parsons, but hoping to close on a house in Altamont soon.

No chickens yet, but the coop and tractors are one of my first projects planned.

 

[HEChicken]

I went out early this morning to open the people door so my turkeys could come out....On the way to the barn I found a part of a chicken foot and lower leg. My heart sank, but I didn't recognize it, it was the wrong color. Did a head count in the barn and the coops and everyone is accounted for. The more I look at it the more I think it may be a guinea's foot/leg. Our neighbors have guineas she started off with 25 and is now down to 3, they won't roost in a predator safe place. We live by 108,000 acres of Cimarron National Grasslands...predator safe roosting is a must.

I'm not pleased with my May batch of TSC RIR pullets. What hatchery does TSC use for it's chicks? I've never been unhappy with laying pullets before and I've had chickens most of my life. It's my first time to use TSC for chicks.

Arrrgghhh that would be a heart-stopping moment for sure. I had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago except the remains I found were the color of one of my hens. I was so glad to go back to my coop, do a head count and find them all there.

As I understand it, each TSC orders from a different hatchery, according to distance. I guess maybe each manager has carte blanche to place the order wherever he or she sees fit.

What breed are the super fuzzy chickens in the posts after this? Are they fuzzy like that when they are full grown?

Those are silkies and the ones in the picture are already full grown!

Hawkeye - gorgeous pics!

 

[mommahen10]

What on earth is going on with this site? I tried doing multi quote and I've lost my post twice, this will be my third time. I'm sure it'll be shorter and sweeter. Sorry.

Danz, I didn't notice that the hens minded his spurs. He's a bit quick you know. My boys would probably be brave enough to pick him up for me. I just don't want to do anything to make him mean. If he gets mean he'll be out of here, I just can't have meanies by young children. Those spurs do look mean and scary, I've just never wanted to try my luck. If you have time to take more pics I love to see them and it does help in understanding.

HEChicken, I'm so glad that you got that darned mouse.

Hawkeye, I'm sorry to hear about your internet issues, that is always frustrating. I'm so glad that you were able to copy your post to rescue it. The brooder with the fridge shelves is ours. Thanks. I was a little concerned about it at first but it's working great and was very cheap so I'm happy with it. I enjoyed hearing your stories about how your family came up with meals when you were a child. I never remember food shortages when I was a child, but that's not how it is here. I think a survival recipe book would be an amazing idea. We have a couple of those meat grinders adn we use them once in a while. I want to hear how your dh responds to the Christmas light. I think my dh would really think I've lost it. I plan to leave our lights out handy after Christmas this year. Hawkeye, the pics really do help in understanding the differences. Thank you. I will look up removing the spurs on YouTube, I may still be too "chicken" to do it.
I feel reasonably comfortable with Sevin Dust. I do think that if mites are just tiny insects that I should be able to rid them by our usual natural means but that involves water and I don't want to get them damp when it's cold out. Do I need to treat all of the chickens? Kansas Priarie mentioned using wood ash. We were considering that but then thought about wood ash and water make lye so it would have to stay dry.

I hope that no one minds that I'm copying the breeding info only for future reference. I seem catch more of it everytime I read it. I don't want to make you all crazy asking questions that were already answered so I will refer to the notes first.

HEChicken, your story about your cat was beautiful.

checoukan, I'm so sorry about your kitty but I would have to do the same thing. It's that part about not knowing if anything would really help and quality of life and I don't want to make them suffer longer than they need to.

 

[mommahen10]

What don't you like about your pullets Kansas Prairie?

Welcome katoranger!!!!

Hawkeye, I love your posed pics of your Silkies! They're so pretty and cute.

maidenwolf, I always cook from scratch, I rarely touch box dinners. The kids make fun of me because the first time I did Hamburger Helper it was gross I couldn't get the cheese to be smooth. It was a clumpy mess. I don't find it more expensive to cook from scratch, I find the boxes more expensive. I do buy in bulk a lot too though. I buy a 50lb sack of bread flour every month, that's $20. This year our garden did well so I have veggies still, I'm so thankful. We watered from the pond this year, this was the first year we've done that and it helped so much. The last few years have been terrible for the garden. I rarely cook beans because beans give me a stomach ache, although everyone else here can eat them. They do eat them when we cook them. Chili seems to be what we cook most often, all of the tomatoes are from our garden. I'm buying milk from a neighbor, I pay for the whole month at the beginning of the month as my dh is paid only once per month. That way I know that no matter what I have bread and milk, until the cow goes dry that is. I'm just sort of scrounging for meat which makes it seem less of a burden to just NEED one thing. I've got 2 fresh chickens in the fridge right now, we will cook them in a few days. I never know how we will get through the month, it seems it's not a worry for 1 week out of the month then the rest of the time we just figure it out as we go. Usually by the end of the month we are having breakfast for dinner a few times per week. I also canned apples and sweet potatoes, I should have done pears. I kept forgetting about them. The kids say they are still good. That's great that you are helping out others with what you can, I'm sure it will come back to you one way or another. I do wish I were closer, I love to share.

Anyone have some milk base soup recipes? I have some canned beef that needs to be used too. Anyone have any good ideas?