Kentucky people

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
Okay!! Did I hear PARTY? I have the charcoal...Who's bringin the chicken...hehe...Plenty of room for everyone, We'll just clear off the table in the garage. lol

I swear it thinks it is a chicken because it talks to the black Australorp constantly, making different noises and follows her everywhere like she's it's momma. Probably trying to talk chicken with her.

Well, I'm sure with all us chicken addicts here, there will be PLENTY of chicken. It is the year of the rooster isn't it?

I noticed my guinea cocks chasing the guinea hens away from them earlier today. I thought that was weird!! I wish my guineas would be more friendly to my chickens. I will go outside to feed, and be standing in the yard tossing scratch in about 10 different places. The silly guineas follow me around and chase the chickens away...then they don't even eat any of it!!

That's because Guineas are evil.

They are the spawn of satan, I'm sure of it.

Hey, Cindy

I have three boys and two girl guineas - They are convinced that one of my hens is their mama, too. It used to be Miss Celie, but she avoids them like the plague, now, so they transferred their mama love to Miss Piggy. The poor hen can't go anywhere without them following. They stand and wait outside the coop when she goes in to lay her egg. They used to follow her in and stand on top of the nest box, but since I put the lattice across the door, they won't go past it. It might be a trap!!

The lattice, however, does not stop them from standing outside every evening and chasing four of my hens away from the door (so they can't go in) until I go and throw walnuts at them to get them to leave.

I knew I should have listened to all those folks who told me I didn't want guineas

If I had no freeranging chickens, I wouldn't have a problem with them. But if they dislike a hen (or four) they are mean as heck to them.

evil, evil guineas.

Peace -
Meri

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
Okay!! Did I hear PARTY? I have the charcoal...Who's bringin the chicken...hehe...Plenty of room for everyone, We'll just clear off the table in the garage. lol

I swear it thinks it is a chicken because it talks to the black Australorp constantly, making different noises and follows her everywhere like she's it's momma. Probably trying to talk chicken with her.

No spare roos left (except banties) but I have a whole cow in the freezer....

LOL -
Meri

 

[turtleblossom]

Anyone going to Lebanon tomrrow? Sorry if this question has already been asked, but you miss a few days on this board and you really get behind! I have been in bed for 2 wks because of a sinus infection that turned into bronchitis.
So who's going, who's showing, who's got birds for sale?

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
I'd have to google map to find Lebanaon, LOL.

I don't have any bvirds for sale right now, so I'm not going - especially sicne I got a few (ok, a lot) of eggs coming next week to hatch, I'd better lay off buying birds for awhile.

Of course, that won't stop me from buying some from Shelley, but that's different

She is shameless enough to SHOW me the pretty birds so I HAVE to have them - if I don't go, I don't see, I don't have to buy.. Come to think of it, that's how Cindy got me hooked on Cochins.

You all are a bad influence on me!!

LOL -
Meri

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
LOL Hubby would kill me. I've been talking about downsizing to get ready for the babies. He caught me looking at Cayuga Ducks online yesterday - he just shook his head and said "don't get any ideas".

I did, however, tell him my idea of the brooder coop - he raised his eyebrows in that "Hmmm" look and said he'd come up with some plans.

(after his corral is done, of course, LOL)

I know he is putting off doing the garage, LOL (so am I, don't want to even think about it) so the more projects I give him, the more I am enabling him to procrastinate on that.

It needs to be done, but the thing is so tall, and we have to sink these humongous posts at the back, then build a back wall, and his shop, and then backfill inside with gravel, cause the driveway is on a slope to the side. Gonna take us months to finish that one project. I'm tempted to hire the neighbor to do it, so I don't have to.

My mom had to go back into the hospital yesterday, she had pain in her leg that wasn't getting better, so they took xrays and told her she had to stay.

She ended up (her surgery the other week) having four vertebra fused with this cement stuff. The woman just cannot understand that she is 75 years old and can't be doing crap to hurt herself anymore. She's always been accident prone, but now that she is older, she doesn't spring back so fast.

Heck, even at MY age I don't spring back so fast.

It's cold here this morning, thinking about firing up the woodstove. I got the sewing room into a reasonable facsimile of an actual work space the other day, but it still isn't done. After putting the two freezers in there, I got more furniture than I got floor space for.

The snake tank is gonna have to go into the spare bathroom tub again, LOL I got no snake in it right now, and I don't use that tub, so I just store it in there and pull the shower curtain to hide it. That way I can at least put one of the smaller bookshelves up onto something to get it off the floor. I was gonna use the snake tank as a brooder - but it heats up so fast, and the dust they make really messes with the glass, so ya can't see in. I don't think it'll work very well for that. Maybe for a week or so when they are really small, but why have it out taking up space for one week?

I'll just use one of our boxes the generators came in for that one week, then they can go into the playpen. Or maybe I can go straight to the playpen, but then I'll have banties and biggies at the same time, so I'll probably have to keep em seperated. Although, the banties will be almost a month older than the biggies, so maybe it'll work.

Heck, I'm probably overthinking it anyway, LOL.

LOL Did I tell you all about getting the chickens back into the coop last night? I was so happy, LOL. Here it was raining and cold, but they wanted out yesterday morning anyway.
Well, come evening and since it had been darkish all day, they didn't realize it was getting darker right off. So I went out and called them all to come to bed, and they all came running!! I couldn't believe it, LOL they followed me right to the coop and went inside one by one. Of course, I had to move the lattice so Spazz could go in, she hates to squeeze in where everyone else does (there is plenty of room for a chicken to get through).

Easiest time putting chickens to bed I've ever had. I left the light on for them for a couple more hours, though, so they could settle in.

I think they were happy to be told to get their stoopid butts out of the cold and rain.

Well, gonna see how much wood I've got inside the house to start that stove....

Be back in a bit.

Meri

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Ok, I think I'll wait a little bit ont he woodstove. LOL I like to sit by it when it's running, and I want to be on here, too.

I need a laptop with a modem, I guess, LOL. I've been looking at laptops, haven't found one I like yet. I need one so I can do my homework while hubby is online, and so I can take it anywhere with me (like out on the porch in the summer - so I can watch chickens and talk to you all, too

).

So, Hubby has this friend... Jake, who grew up on a 300+ acre farm. Jake and I have had our moments, and sometimes the guy drives me absolutely NUTS, but, he is good for something - Hubby is talking about how I need to get meat chickens in the spring,

.

Now, I like Jake, don't get me wrong, he's just one of those people who after awhile you think it'd be better if ya had some time away from them for a bit.

He has gotten better over the years, though.

So, anyway, meat chickens,

Jake has convinced hubby that we need meat chickens. (yay Jake!!) when I said it, hubby was hesitant, said it would be a lot of work, expense and mess. But since it is Jake's idea (and Jake will go on at you - and on and on - until you see his point of view, LOL. ) then it is suddenly the best thing to do.

So, it looks like I won't have any trouble at all getting my meat babies in the spring. Hubby said 25 or so, LOL I am thinking more like 50. Between Jake and I we'll have him convinced that "if you're gonna do it, just DO IT".

Of course, the cow was a help. Hubby found out how much cheaper it is to raise your own meat with that cow, so he is thinking chickens will be cheap too. Well - maybe not as cheap as the cow, LOL I hear they eat a lot, but I ain't telling him that.

btw - we had our first roast from Stella last night - it was delicious!! However, my crockpot is kaput. I need to buy a new one. The poor girl has part of her coil that doesn't heat anymore. I've had her for 20+ years, though, so I guess it's time for a newer model.

She does heat enough to do herbal infusions, so I'll keep her for that. Just not good enough to cook a roast. I ended up putting the roast into the oven after it sat on High for 6 hours and wasn't doing much of anything in the crockpot.

It was probably that crockpot apple butter that did her in - I had it going for a LONG time (like 10 hours or more) and she probably just couldn't take it. RIP Trusty old Crockpot.

So, hubby is really getting into the self sufficency thing

.
Before I know it I'll have me a little banty sized survivalist. tee hee

It's about time, though. I mean, he's always been frugal (to the point where I grind my teeth sometimes) but now he is getting into the "do it yourself" with all the fervor of a new mother with her first baby. It was fine, through the years, for me to do the self sufficiency thing - he thought it was cute. Now he sees the benefits (since we moved to the farm and have no income but what we have in the bank) of providing more for ourselves and not counting on the store or other people to do it for us.

I'll convert that city boy if it kills him

Spazz is working her magic on him, too.

Since she seems to adore him so much, he's taking more interest in the chickens. Way to flatter the old man, Spazz!!

Instead of my rival, perhaps she can be my partner in crime.

Well, I'm hungry, so I'm gonna go grab some frosted flakes

Back later -
Meri

 

[cthrash1]

Hey Meri...Since my kids won't let me slaughter anything we raise, I'll buy some packaged chickens off of you when they're dressed out...Either that or I'll work it off at slaughtering time...I don't have a weak stomache so I don't mind helping and when I was little I used to help dress out the deer and pheasant that we killed.

One time I hit a deer with my car(or I should say she hit me). We lived in the north Ga mountains and Cortni was a baby and we were heading home from dinner at our friends. Well, there was this herd of deer on the side of the road in a corn field so I slowed to look at them, had just enough time to tell DH to look and it ran right in front of me...I wasn't going more than 20mph cause I was looking at them. It hit her right on her spleen and she died almost instantly. It so happened that another friend(hunting buddy too) lived less than a mile where it happened so we went there called the police to file the incident and he let us have the deer. So at around midnight we were all outside processing the deer...She was the tenderest and largest we got that year(hehe, still pick on DH about that). Anyway, she had a baby in her...Of course it died too but it was only about a foot long... Our friend gave it to his dog. I was kind of sad about that, but after cooking my first loin from the hit and getting my car repaired from it, I got over it.

But anyway, I can go in on purchasing them with you maybe order about 15-20 extra for me, then buy them dressed out from you(to cover your feed and packaging for mine), or work the feed/pkging amount off by helping to dress them out. Let me know. This way I can have fresh chicken and the kids won't have a clue, since we won't be missing any.

ETA: After we left MN my cousins processed their chickens. With about 5-6 folks helping they got 100 done in about 5-6 hours.

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
Yeah, we can do this. Hubby is saying we don't have room (in the freezer) for more than 20 or so - but it won't be processing time til late May or early June - so I'll have room by then.

I have room to raise more than that, definately, so yeah, I'll get with ya when I do the order in the spring.

Peace -
Meri

 

[estpr13]

Just a heads up everyone in Kentucky. I was transfering my 9 week old NH from the coop to the yard tractor when a huge hawk with about a 4 foot wing span flew below house level about 20 feet away.
Probably the one that I ended up feeding last winter. . .
I don't like hawks. They are bad from November through March around here.

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Ok, took some pics today ---

We've determined that Maggie has indeed got a cold - check the snot blowing on this pic!!

Nibbler (tan) and Maggie (black)

Spooky (baby) and Michelle (mama)

Had to include this one, because at the bottom left is Mojo sticking her tongue out at the camera,

Camera shy Spazz -

The new coach lights on the coop - now all I need is a doorbell