Consolidated Kansas

[mommahen10]

I want to say good for Sharol, it was people like her sticking to her guns that started this swing towards breastfeeding. There was only one lady I ever saw breastfeed when I was a kid and I know it was her that planted a little seed in me that it was a good thing. I feel like I got to see the change, with my first one I did hear about it even from perfect strangers in the late 80s to just 2 years ago and no one really pays too much attention anymore. 10 babies later and years and years of breastfeeding... I'm really glad there were the few who didn't listen to those not so smart doctors. I shouldn't say they're not smart, they just weren't thinking and believing what they were taught, not thinking independently.

 

[mstng67]

It would have been so easy for my wife to switch to formula when our oldest daughter was born in the mid 90s. The poor little girl could not get the hang of it and her weight dropped horribly. For the first month my wife pumped and I fed her with my finger from a syringe with a small tube attached (LLL suggested). What a wonderful day when she figured it out!

 

[chicken danz]

I had the same issue with my first child in 1970. We were poor and I wanted to breast feed. But my husband was the opposition. Ridiculous. He got jealous. What a pouty little boy he was.It was awful and my daughter became colicky after switching her to a bottle.
When my second group of children was born in the 80s ....to my second husband, breastfeeding was more acceptable. I wouldn't trade the experience. I just used my receiving blankets as coverups while nursing.
The one thing I will say about all of this is this: Josie get yourself some lanolin and use it on your nipples. It will save you some very tender and sore times. I've also heard it is recommended to toughen them up while pregnant but I never did that. They make expensive lanolin in a tube you can buy, but I just bought anhydrous lanolin from a drug store that compounded drugs. It is messy and sticky and smelly but works better than anything. I used it for diaper changes as well and never once had a baby with a diaper rash using it.
So for the guys reading this it has got to be interesting.

Those open air coops are similar to my peafowl coop. I like that concept and that is exactly what they used to do in the old days. A wooden coop with a chicken mesh large window in front. The only difference really is using metal instead of wood. I don't have the fronts covered in the peafowl coop but have a large run and covered pen in front of it.
I'd really like to build on another equally as large building next to it. I wired the back and put an outlet in each run. I have heated bowls in there now and a heat lamp in one of them for when the peafowl were young.

I have good fertility using a 9-1 ratio of hens to roosters. That is about the limit of how many hens a roo can fertilize well. Any more than that you are going to loose fertility. A lot depends on space and how many chick you want to produce.

I've got to go to town today. I need to meet with my insurance agent and then I need to help my Dad get some things ready to move to the assisted care facility.
I checked this morning and everyone raised the prices on the washer I was looking at that had been at a special price for months. They didn't change the price for Black Friday but then raised it $150-$200 today. What a rip. I guess I'll be waiting to buy one after all.

I'm not wanting to get out at all today. Burr!

 

[maidenwolfx80]

This cold weather is sure slowing me down.. I need to solve my watering issue so I dont have to thaw water every moring before I can give anyone any.
The chicks are all doing very well, the 4 younger ones are adjusting , cold, but adjusting. I need to get on my baking, we have tons of eggs and my kids have asked for baked treats so I think I will be making meringue cookies.

 

[JosieChick]

I think I saw you were going to go with a hovabator which are nice. I liked my styro hova much better than the LG but I am a hatching nightmare so I finally broke down and bought a brinsea eco and love it. I have had really good results with it. I will say that when you want to start hatching get a practice batch of eggs because there is a learning curve and if you have a poor hatch the first time it really stinks if you have a bunch of money invested in the eggs (like I did!) or if someone is planning on buying the babies you are going to hatch. Danz can probably give lots of advice on hatching ducklings. I have only hatched call ducks and it was moderately atrocious but they are hard to hatch so I am sure you will have better luck with your ducks!

got an incubator ? is a still air or a circulated air best and what brand should i go with

Temp is soooo much easier to control. Keep it in a place where the temp is really stabile in your house. I keep mine in the closet under our shelves for clothes. There are few drafts in there and the temp doesn't swing like in other places in our house. Don't make crazy temp adjustments either. Small adjustments and then wait an hour to see how it changes.

The 2363N is a good styro incubator and if you get it directly from GQF they stand behind their products very well and you will not be paying a middle man. If you have a problem with it they will take care of it with no hesitation. The temp control is much easier to use than the Little Giant control. They are taller than the LG so the chicks have more room and you can hatch goose eggs in it also. There are some tricks to using a styro, but they are used by a lot of people and hatch out a lot of chicks.

Yeah, I like the second one too. I think we are going to do a long row of them and divide them with welded wire between coops. I actually like the open air top and I have one right now that is kind of like that and my large fowl girls are in it. They haven't had any issues yet with the weather, in fact it is quite warm in there on a cold morning.

Josie, I was finally able to see the coop, I actually like the 2nd one you posted better for chickens, it seems more secure & you could cover the top with plastic if you needed to for winter. The first one I like for something we could build pretty easily for the goats I want to get. We wouldn't have to get that elaborate with the front for them, but I like the design. That looks really fairly easy to build & you can find recycled galvanized sheets if you watch.

I would feel bad for molting birds. What a terrible time to lose your down coat! Good for you for breast feeding and sticking with it! My mom breast fed my sisters and I so it is pretty much the norm in my family. A lot of my friends back east though all feed or fed formula so they haven't been much support. I have one girlfriend who tried once in the hospital and it hurt (I assume due to improper latching on) and they gave her formula to feed after that. I wouldn't want to get out of bed either!! In fact, there are some fascinating studies on co sleeping and its effect on a babies growth. They actually know now that being in close contact to mom either close to or in bed during the night reduces the risk of SID due to the number of arousals during the night in response to mom's movements and also increases the effectiveness of the intestinal tract in the infant so they absorb nutrients better and gain weight quicker. There are a lot of benefits to baby being close to bed and mom during the night. The caveat is breastfeeding moms. If a mom is formula or bottle feeding the same effects are not seen and the benefits are not as high. Thank heavens my DH is on my side and very supportive. I don't know what I would do if he wasn't.

All this talk about open coops, and last night I caved in and plugged the SweeterHeaters into a 35 degree thermocube instead of the 20 degree one. Everyone in the coop (except for the roo) is in some level of molt, and those poor half naked birds were COLD. I am such a sucker for trying to keep them comfortable. When I checked in on them about 10, the heaters were on and the girls (and Butch) were cuddled together directly under the heaters on the roost.

On the breastfeeding issue, you all are lucky you are having babies now. In 1975 when my daughter was born, I had to search for a pediatrician who was supportive. No one thought it was a good idea, so I joined LeLeche League in Wichita, and dug in my heels. (I have, on occasion, been accused of being just the tiniest bit stubborn.) My DH was not supportive, so I took his farm magazines out of the bathroom and left pro-breastfeeding/pro cloth diapering propaganda where he would read it. He came around. My daughter is breastfeeding her second (month old) baby right now, and as I watched her with Benny, I realized that her support system is much more complete than mine was. Virtually all her friends breast feed (fed) their kids, and her husband and his family are all supportive (ex-hippies, all). I can't even imagine how awful it would be to have to get out of a warm bed in the middle of the night to heat up formula (I know, I wasn't supposed to bring her to bed to nurse, either, but it worked for me).

That is not to say it was intuitive or easy. I had WAAAAYYYYY too much milk from the beginning and about drowned the poor little thing. Once we (my daughter and I) figured out a way around that, it was easy. She would never take a bottle (of expressed breast milk), so we were pretty much attached at the hip for 6 months, but I wouldn't change a thing.

When I was at my daughter's when Benny was a week old, I successfully fed a baby from a bottle for the first time. She pumps milk and freezes it, and miracle of miracles, Benny will take it from a bottle. That will free my daughter to be gone for a while when she has help at home.

Life is good.

I am sure I will be a disaster for a while! I have read several books on breast feeding so I am hoping that will help but I am sure it will still be a mess! DH is already planning to cook and freeze meals so I won't have to worry about that and he should be home for at least the first week so he can take care of the crew if I am too wiped to drag myself out there. I have read time and time again, when the baby sleeps you sleep. SO that will be my mantra.

That link works great now. That sounds like me - I have to read and read and read about any new thing until I start to feel comfortable. Flexibility is good though. There were never any doubts for me that I wanted to breast-feed but it wasn't without initial difficulties. I kept thinking something so natural should be more intuitive but there was a learning curve to getting baby to latch on properly so that I didn't end up sore. And, in the beginning, as others have said, your own body doesn't quite know how to regulate production. I still remember poor DD gulping desperately trying to swallow without drowning, then giving up and letting go and watching milk spurt in all directions. The thing to remember at this time is that producing milk takes a LOT of calories and fluids. Drink water or herbal tea by the gallon - I was constantly thirsty in those first few weeks. And, as if giving birth isn't tiring enough, add in breast-feeding and you REALLY need to rest up until your body catches up and gets used to it, so don't take on any big projects at that time and allow anyone who offers help, to cook and clean for you so you can rest and feed baby. Seriously. I never was self-conscious about it but perhaps that's because my mother breast-fed all of hers and had several while I was in my teens so I was pretty used to seeing it whipped out and took it in stride when it was my own turn. I never had anyone approach and tell me to put it away like I've heard was other's experience, but I raised my little ones in Australia where pretty much everyone breast-feeds.

Well said!

I like that one too and I guess its kind of what I was picturing when I suggested putting up a sheet of plywood on that first one. I must say I'm pretty happy with my sheet-metal coop. I don't have to worry about sun damage, rain, hail, or high winds. Vented properly it wasn't too hot in summer, yet last night a bowl with only 2" of water in it didn't freeze inside the coop, even though the thermometer said 17 when I woke up this morning.

Good for you for sticking with it and joining LLL. It's so sad there was a whole generation of women - the mothers of the baby boomers in particular - who were told they couldn't nurse because their milk was too thin. The stupid medical profession was comparing breast milk to cow's milk and because it looked thinner, told women it wasn't good enough. I can't believe it never occurred to any of them that we're feeding a baby, not a calf, and the milk is PERFECT for a BABY HUMAN. My former MIL was among those and when I had my kids she sadly told me many times how much she had wanted to nurse but couldn't "because her milk was too thin".

I love the part about replacing your DH's magazines with the material until he came around

Kudos to this!

I want to say good for Sharol, it was people like her sticking to her guns that started this swing towards breastfeeding. There was only one lady I ever saw breastfeed when I was a kid and I know it was her that planted a little seed in me that it was a good thing. I feel like I got to see the change, with my first one I did hear about it even from perfect strangers in the late 80s to just 2 years ago and no one really pays too much attention anymore. 10 babies later and years and years of breastfeeding... I'm really glad there were the few who didn't listen to those not so smart doctors. I shouldn't say they're not smart, they just weren't thinking and believing what they were taught, not thinking independently.

Wow! That is a lot of work, good for you guys sticking it out! I have read that sometimes babies will take milk from a syringe if they can't latch on properly. Was she born premature or early?

It would have been so easy for my wife to switch to formula when our oldest daughter was born in the mid 90s. The poor little girl could not get the hang of it and her weight dropped horribly. For the first month my wife pumped and I fed her with my finger from a syringe with a small tube attached (LLL suggested). What a wonderful day when she figured it out!

I had the same issue with my first child in 1970. We were poor and I wanted to breast feed. But my husband was the opposition. Ridiculous. He got jealous. What a pouty little boy he was.It was awful and my daughter became colicky after switching her to a bottle.
When my second group of children was born in the 80s ....to my second husband, breastfeeding was more acceptable. I wouldn't trade the experience. I just used my receiving blankets as coverups while nursing.
The one thing I will say about all of this is this: Josie get yourself some lanolin and use it on your nipples. It will save you some very tender and sore times. I've also heard it is recommended to toughen them up while pregnant but I never did that. They make expensive lanolin in a tube you can buy, but I just bought anhydrous lanolin from a drug store that compounded drugs. It is messy and sticky and smelly but works better than anything. I used it for diaper changes as well and never once had a baby with a diaper rash using it.
So for the guys reading this it has got to be interesting.

Hahaha! Yup you are the third lanolin fan so I will be sure to get some. Hawkeye told me I might feel like I was going to die for the first few weeks due to cracking but it would get better, she promised.

Those open air coops are similar to my peafowl coop. I like that concept and that is exactly what they used to do in the old days. A wooden coop with a chicken mesh large window in front. The only difference really is using metal instead of wood. I don't have the fronts covered in the peafowl coop but have a large run and covered pen in front of it. You know I have several wood coops that are pretty closed up and the one three sided metal one and the bird in the metal coop are NEVER ill. Birds in the other coops get every stinking bug that comes through. So there has to be something to the open air concept. I think I am going to try it. I do want to do a short metal front just to keep snow from blowing in but other than that I think they will be fine.
I'd really like to build on another equally as large building next to it. I wired the back and put an outlet in each run. I have heated bowls in there now and a heat lamp in one of them for when the peafowl were young.

I have good fertility using a 9-1 ratio of hens to roosters. That is about the limit of how many hens a roo can fertilize well. Any more than that you are going to loose fertility. A lot depends on space and how many chick you want to produce.

I've got to go to town today. I need to meet with my insurance agent and then I need to help my Dad get some things ready to move to the assisted care facility.
I checked this morning and everyone raised the prices on the washer I was looking at that had been at a special price for months. They didn't change the price for Black Friday but then raised it $150-$200 today. What a rip. I guess I'll be waiting to buy one after all.

I'm not wanting to get out at all today. Burr!

Thanks everyone for all your support! You guys are the best. I am so glad I can get on here and pick every ones brains! If anyone has any good parenting book recommendations let me know too. We have started talking about that too and I thought if we could get a few good books it would be a nice place to start. I want to be sure DH and I are on the same page and agree on how to deal with different situations.

It is cold out this morning, yuck! Birds must just not feel cold like we do. I went out and one of the pea chicks was standing in its water bowl. Brrrrr. They are just as happy to come out when it is ten degrees as when it is 70. I was trying to think about cutting birds back a bit again but can't make a decision. I have some pet quality serama that I need to sell that don't belong in my breeding pen. Fortunately they are all pullets so that makes it easier to find homes for them. I would like to sell my peafowl but haven't had much interest locally so I think I may trying listing an auction and see how that goes. I hate to let them go but really only have so much time to devote to raising certain types of birds and I would really like the space for my cochins and geese. I was thinking about selling my call ducks other than the butterscotch. I have a pair of whites and one grey call duck that are pet to breeding quality. The butters are show quality so that gives me a better place to start from and I wouldn't have to build separate breeding pens for colors. And I need to butcher some boys this weekend!

 

[Trish44]

I had one waterer, in the one temporary pen I have my new Amerauacana roo & pullet in that froze last night. I just put some water in a rubber bowl for them this morning. I think the water will thaw out today & it's supposed to get warmer tomorrow. I don't think I have another plug free even if I wanted to plug in another dog bowl. The two timers I have in the coop take up about all of the power strip I have in there. At least the wind isn't blowing as hard today & it seems to be a little warmer just maybe due to that.

I have to ask just to get this off my chest I guess for one thing. Most of you know that I have a Kansas Farm Swap site on Facebook. Sunflowerparrot has been co-admin with me for awhile since Shotah has been offline due to computer issues for quite some time. Anyway, we had a big blowup yesterday & last night over someone being asked to provide a price for their goats on their ad. Do you all think it's unreasonable to ask someone to give a price & location in their ad for what they're selling? Honestly I don't think that rule is unreasonable & avoids a lot of un-necessary questions on the page. I also think if it's that big of a secret about how much their goats are that I certainly wouldn't want to buy one. All of the other swap sites that I'm on have similar rules. This person just blew up at Sunflowerparrot because she said that her goats provide a paycheck & that nobody else would like to reveal the amount of their paycheck to everyone. I just don't see it that way at all. They're selling an animal & I think they should be able to give a price for that animal. We had a friend of that person write a big inflammatory letter to all of our members last night basically flaming Sunflowerparrot, which of course was deleted & the person was removed from the site for it. What do you all think?

 

[JosieChick]

I had one waterer, in the one temporary pen I have my new Amerauacana roo & pullet in that froze last night. I just put some water in a rubber bowl for them this morning. I think the water will thaw out today & it's supposed to get warmer tomorrow. I don't think I have another plug free even if I wanted to plug in another dog bowl. The two timers I have in the coop take up about all of the power strip I have in there. At least the wind isn't blowing as hard today & it seems to be a little warmer just maybe due to that.
I have to ask just to get this off my chest I guess for one thing. Most of you know that I have a Kansas Farm Swap site on Facebook. Sunflowerparrot has been co-admin with me for awhile since Shotah has been offline due to computer issues for quite some time. Anyway, we had a big blowup yesterday & last night over someone being asked to provide a price for their goats on their ad. Do you all think it's unreasonable to ask someone to give a price & location in their ad for what they're selling? Honestly I don't think that rule is unreasonable & avoids a lot of un-necessary questions on the page. I also think if it's that big of a secret about how much their goats are that I certainly wouldn't want to buy one. All of the other swap sites that I'm on have similar rules. This person just blew up at Sunflowerparrot because she said that her goats provide a paycheck & that nobody else would like to reveal the amount of their paycheck to everyone. I just don't see it that way at all. They're selling an animal & I think they should be able to give a price for that animal. We had a friend of that person write a big inflammatory letter to all of our members last night basically flaming Sunflowerparrot, which of course was deleted & the person was removed from the site for it. What do you all think?

I don't think it is unreasonable at all to ask for a price for an animal for sale. You can be flagged on craigslist if you don't list a price in the ad somewhere. I would just make it a rule on the list if its not already and if people don't list a price remind them and if they still don't remove the ad. I know I have had trouble with people posting on a pic that was part of an album and all the info, price, loc. was all listed in the album but then they post on the pic and info is no longer with it.

I will say that I think it is very inconsiderate of people to ask routinely on the post publicly for lower prices. If you want to negotiate on a price I think you should send a private message. I think it devalues what people are trying to sell and I know for me that is personally frustrating. I have also seen several people post things like "That is too expensive" under peoples ads which I would never, ever write. I think there is a wide range of quality and care that goes into animals and there should be a difference in price for animals that are of higher breeding quality, have valuable papers, are vaccinated, dewormed, received routine vet care etc.

SO perhaps this individual doesn't want to get slammed on the post when she puts a price that is deemed too high by other members? I guess I would say there are probably two sides to every story but I would expect to post a sale price on a bird I was selling. I don't like not knowing what the price is because I don't want to waste someones time if I don't have the amount they want for the animal for sale. I also don't think it is appropriate to blow up over such things and all of it could have been resolved in a civil manner. Hope that helps some.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

I had one waterer, in the one temporary pen I have my new Amerauacana roo & pullet in that froze last night. I just put some water in a rubber bowl for them this morning. I think the water will thaw out today & it's supposed to get warmer tomorrow. I don't think I have another plug free even if I wanted to plug in another dog bowl. The two timers I have in the coop take up about all of the power strip I have in there. At least the wind isn't blowing as hard today & it seems to be a little warmer just maybe due to that.
I have to ask just to get this off my chest I guess for one thing. Most of you know that I have a Kansas Farm Swap site on Facebook. Sunflowerparrot has been co-admin with me for awhile since Shotah has been offline due to computer issues for quite some time. Anyway, we had a big blowup yesterday & last night over someone being asked to provide a price for their goats on their ad. Do you all think it's unreasonable to ask someone to give a price & location in their ad for what they're selling? Honestly I don't think that rule is unreasonable & avoids a lot of un-necessary questions on the page. I also think if it's that big of a secret about how much their goats are that I certainly wouldn't want to buy one. All of the other swap sites that I'm on have similar rules. This person just blew up at Sunflowerparrot because she said that her goats provide a paycheck & that nobody else would like to reveal the amount of their paycheck to everyone. I just don't see it that way at all. They're selling an animal & I think they should be able to give a price for that animal. We had a friend of that person write a big inflammatory letter to all of our members last night basically flaming Sunflowerparrot, which of course was deleted & the person was removed from the site for it. What do you all think?

I dont think it is unreasonable. How is someone going to buy the animal without knowing the price? If you dont want to list a price that badly you are probably selling them way to high and are wanting to catch a person who is not experienced and haggle away from prying eyes where someone will be able to correct teh situation. That is how I see it and would not buy from such a person at all.

 

[mommahen10]

I'm gonna agree with Danz, anhydrous lanolin is the right stuff anyway. In my opinion, and experience, oooo, it's fun to say that, anyway, seriously I think that the biggest things that cause soreness is baby not latching correctly. The next thing that I think is really significant right now is that they administer antibiotics during labor a lot now and that causes yeast later. Yeast can tear up nipples like you wouldn't believe and the doctors just think they're dry and cracked. If they're dry and cracked it's a smart idea to treat for yeast and see how it responds because if it's yeast you can treat forever for dryness and it won't do a bit of good. My NICU baby had such a hard time getting the hang of nursing, I had never experienced that in the previous 9 babies. The NICU was such a pain and didn't let his even try to really nurse until the day before we were leaving and he was a week old. I basically locked us in my room and I did NOTHING but work with him. I seriously did not leave my room other than to go to the bathroom. I wanted him to spend his energy on nothing else than figuring it out. It was hard, and scary. UGH, still makes me cry.

All this talk about hen/roo ratio, my rooster is definitely overworked. Do I just put another roo in there or do I have to divide up the hens.

Good luck getting out today Danz. We're going out to work in just a bit.

I've read that about SIDS too, but there are some saying that there is too much of a risk of mom rolling on baby. Was it last year that something came out about a state actually outlawing co-sleeping? Was it Michigan? They can't even let moms have their babies in bed while in the hospital. You do kinda learn to sleep on demand when that's what you have to do. I always do freezer meals, I start cooking them the few months before the babies are born. If your dh can just make sure your cup is full before he goes to work that would be awesome. Get your a special cup so you can make it a goal to drink a certain number of those each day. Always keep your cup with you. My dh wasn't supportive of bfing at first but it didn't take long for him to realize he was off the hook. There wasn't much for him to do that way and then he saw the benefits for baby. He had a child before he and I were together and wanted to be able to feed the baby a bottle. No stinky formula, healthier baby, their poop doesn't even stink like formula fed baby poop does. My youngest was born early, by my dates he was 3 1/2 weeks early but by gestational age or development he was 5 weeks early. So he acted like he was 5 weeks early and he just couldn't breathe. He struggled at our local hospital for 2 days and I finally demanded that they transport him because he just wasn't okay and they kept taking the thing that reads his oxygen off to go check other babies because they didn't have another. He was on and of of CPAP and he couldn't breathe to nurse. It was traumatic experience to say the least, I know he would have died had I not demanded he be transported. As soon as he got the surfactant in his lungs at the NICU he was able to breathe on his own and off of oxygen that night but we still had to stay there. That cracking is terrible, but that doesn't normally happen. I swear when it does it's caused from yeast. It shouldn't ever hurt that bad. I only had it happen after 1 baby. I'm going to follow along with the open air coop concept.

I have one parenting tip but just this one tip will affect every incident of parenting that happens. Everyone (or nearly everyone) loves their children/babies, but in the day to day work and hassles that come sometimes it's hard to act like it. I mean, you love your kids and you cherish them so why not treat them like they are an important treasure. You're happy to serve, you have nothing better or more important to do than get up at all hours of the night, you have nothing better to do than stop doing what you're doing to attend to baby every time and right away. Yes, sometimes they have to wait a sec. You want them to know that they are the most important thing to you. Someone is gonna fuss at me about spoiling I'm sure. It's just so obvious to me that if you act like they are number 1 then they also think you're number 1 and want to please you. They don't want you to be unhappy with them and that is motivating to them to do the right thing and to do what you expect. I always get compliments on how well behaved our kids are and I promise I don't work at it nearly as hard as it seems. I'm not saying you won't every have a lose it moment, we all do, but it pays to try not to. I don't have any good books, just my own little saying... I know you love them so act like it. I taught parenting for the state for several years, I wrote my own proposal and held a contract for too many years (I didn't like leaving my own) and I couldn't quit. I was actually relieved when funding got low and I didn't have to say no.

Trish, I think it's right to have the rule to post the amount and location. You still can't tell how much that person is making, it's not like you know how many they are selling. Besides, the person who buys the goat will know how much eventually anyway. It makes the transactions run more efficiently if everyone knows up front what the costs are. Also, the seller may get more potential buyers knowing up front what they are asking. I may not be in the market for a goat but if I saw one and thought, oh, I can afford that I may just buy one. Or suppose someone wanted to buy one and went through all of the stuff to contact the seller and get things set up to buy them only to find out they are more than what they can afford. That's a huge waste of time and energy. I think it's perfectly fine to have the rule, and everyone knows the rules upfront too. I agree with Josie, negotiations for price should be private. I don't usually even look at ads that don't have the price listed unless it's something I desperately need. I'm totally agreeing with Josie, there should be no comments regarding the price posted publicly such as, "I can't afford that", "that's so expensive", "is price negotiable?" nothing. Posts/comments about the animals themselves would be okay, location would be okay, possible availability to meet would be okay. You've got your work cut out for you keeping up with these groups, I don't think I could do it. Someone going off like that would ruin my day and make me want to quit all together.

 

[Trish44]

mommahen, well it is disgusting sometimes to deal with some people who are difficult, but it just goes with the territory. You're always going to have people that you can't make happy so matter what. I just have to vent & go on. I think the sites online provide a valuable service for people trying to buy & sell animals & birds & people who couldn't otherwise find what they're looking for do find more things with these sites than if they weren't there. That alone keeps me wanting to continue what we're doing both with the farm swap & the poultry swap. I have found things that I never would have otherwise & I know lots of others have. Josie, I know people are really frustrating sometimes & I wish people wouldn't start whole discussions on the ads that aren't relevant or argue prices there. I can't control everything people do, I wish they all would be courteous & kind, but unfortunately they all aren't. We have some know it alls on there that really aggravate me & we do have some drama at times. I think I will put a reminder on about not having unrelated discussions on the ads.