Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[jvls1942]

good morning, my replies are going to be hit and miss..

having my first cuppa, so might not be fully awake..
been up since 5am..

all those roosters look simply deeelicious..

Cind, guinea eggs are definately pear shaped.. Not too large.. and strong shelled when you try to crack one into the pan....

I knew of a pear tree in Wausau, where Home Depot stands now..

Funny thing happened last night.. A retired Dr called me and wanted to know if I wanted some pears from his trees.. He has 4 varieties.. I bought some from him last year..

I don't think it is the soil,, I don't baby the trees enough after I plant them.. so, only the fitist survive.. I planted 100 black walnuts,, only because the extension office told me that they wouldn't survive up Nort' here.. I still have about 80 of them.. I am getting nuts from a few of them..

I have a lot of pictures of this place and my trees.. too bad I cannot post them here..

A few years ago I helped one of my nephews tear off a cedar deck and replace it with a treated deck for a school teacher..

I saved all the 2x10 joists.. I am going to build some planting tables for Annie.. for things like onions, carrots, beets. waist high tables are easier to weed than rows in a garden.. My daughter lives in town, and her S>O> will not let her plow up the lawn for a garden, so she planted her whole garden in pots and boxes this year.. she helped herself generously to my compost pile.. I should build some planters for her also..

ETA: (thanks TO).. the lumber is stained very dark, so I am planing it down to bare wood .. It is red cedar..

i already built a two wheeled push cart for hauling feed around.. I have not used the wheelbarrow since.. I can put 200 pounds of feed on this cart and push it easily anywhere.. I have photos of this also.. I get my wheels off of old wheel chairs.. I have not figured out a use for the tiny wheels yet.. maybe some dollys for my power tools like the planer and table saws..

boy , am I ever long winded this morning.. LOL since I am typing, would the expression be "long fingered ?"

..........jiminwisc..........

 

[jvls1942]

DrH. I amazed myself by remembering the water trick..LOL

I just recently rebuilt my roosts in coop #1.. I slanted them from the wall toward the center of the coop. ie. thhe one closest to the wall is lower than the next higher one.. I made the fit all the way across the 14 foot way.. they drop into slots on the wall so I can lift them out if I want to.. I only have two built, but I am going to add at least a third one.. they are 2x6 red pine on edge reinforced with 2x4 on both sides so they don't sag.. I can shovel sh!t right up to the wall underneath them without removing them , I have pictures of this also..

I wonder if plastic baggies would work with a vaccuum sealer ?
maybe the ziplocs?

I"ll bet Deb has so many clothes on that she can't get her arms out in front of her to reach the keyboard.. LOL

 

[tiki244]

Good Morning all.

Wow what nice pictures. Love the roost and feeder.

And the roosters. Very pretty. It looks like the stripey one is part cuckoo and part blue maran. The lt buff is my favorite. That meaty must be getting old now. Poor thing. What a cutey though. Can it walk ok?


Pffffffft. I bought mash for my chickens to try it out. I am not impressed. They go through it about twice as fast as pellets. And I have to add water for them to get the powdery stuff. I am going back to pellets and scratch. Fleet farm has good scratch, lots of wheat in it.

 

[Terri O]

Good morning! Ah Jim...once again I nearly spit coffee at my computer! I dont know what it is about what you have to say...it never sounds that funny when I tell DH but I guess I can just picture you saying it with your wry smile...makes me chuckle every time! So you never really said WHY you cant post pics. I am thinking something with the internet...seeing as you saw fit to plant black wallies to spite the ext office; cant see you folding and saying, "I just dont know how!"

Cind--fine looking roosts! They look just like mine but without the sh!t! Me and DH built this roost 25 years ago and brought it with us to our present coop! It is just 2x4s cobbled together but once you lean it on the wall it is sturdy enough to hold all those birds! (Including turkeys!) Speaking of turkeys, the woman that was supposed to call me yesterday and come out and get my Royal Palm never called...and I was going to stay home...sure am glad that I decided to go and have fun with my BFF and not wait around! Big surprise hey? (and she sounded so responsible on the phone)

Well, sh!t hit the fan last night again! Checking account is overdrawn and DH looked in the on line banking and saw that I put 2 $200 payments in at the mill...in one week. Of course the insurance payment came out and credit card payment and Charter and who knows what all else...I guess I better get on the stick and get some birds out of here...sure wish my parrots would have hatched their eggs this year....I even made him a lunch so he didnt have to eat out today!

Jim, you cant use regular plastic bags in the sealer. They melt at too low a temp. You can, however, reseal chip bags and the bags with foil looking insides. I used to keep my sealer on the counter for that very reason...no more stale chips! You can also reuse the sealer bags but I wouldnt use chicken ones for anything but more chicken!

THat is where the you-cut bags work good cause you can seal them on the end and then still have a big enough bag to reuse after cutting the seal off to use the contents. Kind of a real pain in the donkey though!

FT your roos look much like mine! Your pens however look to be very nice! I sure wish I could build stuff with new materials...it turns out so much nicer looking! Oh well...mine is definitely a "make-do" kind of place!

DrH--I HATE when my birds play that trick! They lay out so flat in the sun! You think you panicked when you saw your roo...think how I felt when all the horses were flat out like that at the beginning of the week! I guess they like to soak up that late sunshine as much as the birdies do! Man, I thought they all got into something bad in the pasture! That would be quite a few really big holes to dig! Dont even want to think of that...been too recent. Speaking in that vein...I was walking fence lines on Tuesday and felt like a real dope when I went past the Pet Cemetery in the back corner and started tearing up thinking about my stock dog...then I remembered that this was the time of year that lost him...no wonder!

RIP my dear Sarge!

Cind--no, the hen that was in the rafters I put into my new pen in the shed with her babies and another Mama and her babies. THis one is the Mama of Turk's baby! I have 2 pens left in that shed but I still need to put doors on them so I can get birds into them...so much to do and so little time to do it! Doesnt help that when I have the time to do it I just dont get to it! Something else always seems to come up that I want/need to do more!

Are anyone's quail still laying? Mine stopped last week and I was wondering if I need to give them more light to keep them laying thru the winter? Maybe they are the kind of bird that stops for a while? Thinking about taking a look at the butchering of quail on you tube! I am thinking that I might overwinter just a few in the basement? Made a nice set up in my old larder for birds...

Well, I guess I ought to get off of here and hang some laundry that I never got to yesterday...sigh, never done!
Have a wonderful day! 80s again!

Terri O

(PS) BL4--you look beautiful!!! So did you do other pics too? Rolling in the sand then running into the water perhaps? LOL! I wanna SEE!

ETA: Tiki--when I first moved here and found out that I could only get mash my chickens did that for a little while; but now that they are used to it I find that it lasts a bit longer than when I give them pellets. I never add water to mine...that would make is spoil too fast.

 

[jvls1942]

hi again, In a few minutes I am going to go buy about 20 pounds of pears.. I would like to make that pear butter that you all are talking about.. Annie went through her pear recipes, but no butter recipe.. Is it just like apple butter ?

Terri, I did try posting pics here on byc, but it won't let me.. I have no trouble with private emails, however..

I wonder if I could send myself an email, and then copy and paste to send them to byc ?

my quail are still laying, but not as many.. I have them outside, so I imagine the cold nights are affecting them..

I have 15 new ones in the tv . that makes 25% hatch so far.. Not so good..

I might butcher all of them except what hatches in the last batch next week.. I have at least 60 of them outside and in the brooder combined, plus these 15 newbies...
. I think I would like to keep just a few in the house over winter. just enough to get me started in the spring.. I have to build a pen with a slide out pan for cleaning, though.. the pens need to be cleaned every day, I think.. If so, they have to be easy to clean, or it won't get done..

My call duck lady dropped the ball, too.. I suspect she sold them to somebody else.. If I would have known that, I could have bought some right here is town.. but I had already committed my self to her.. I guess she didn't feel likewise.. sounds like a paperback love story, doesn't it ? LOL

Annie accidentally left the lean to door unlatched.. all 3 of the new peafowl walked out.. It is OK as long as they stick around.
They have already gravitated to the deck, so it looks OK.. there must be some kind of bird magnet on our deck.. You should have seen all the other birds' reaction,, everyone was on high alert.. especially when the new peacock began "talking" .LOL

.......jiminwisc........

 

[tiki244]

AWe Sarge

It takes a long time to get over the loss of a beloved pet.




Maybe I will keep getting mash and see what happens over time.

 

[jvls1942]

Annie just left for town,, so I am going to spend the next hour or so making pear butter.

I tried giving my hens Purina laying pellets.. they would not eat them.. my egg production went from 3 doz a day to none.. I switched back to the crumbles and within a few days was back into production.. I imagine that they would have eventually eaten the pellets, but I was not about to wait.. I was down for about a week..

DrH must be on the lake by now..

ETA: Annie put the kabash to my pear butter.. said I better let the pears get a little more ripe..

OK, I can wait.. so I went out and scraped together a pile of
sh!t and hauled it to the compost pile with the tractor..

put 3 more quail into the tv.. makes 18 out of 59 .. 33%

..........jiminwisc........

 

[FrenchToast]

Real quick reply here, Then gotta do chores and go back to town to get feed.

The Cuckoo looking Maran Rooster came out of Splash and Black Copper. I posted another thread and someone said it probably was a Splash with Cuckoo blood and that Mother had to be the splash.

The Meaty gets around good. Wattles but does good. Poor thing but sure loves apples like the rest of them.

All of those except the meat were hatched by the second grad class in Antigo.

Amy, didn't realize that was you from the side view. That is absoulutely Georgous !!! Wish I would have worn cowboy hat instead of my veil !!

Now I wanna drag my dress out of the box and well, never mind, it's only been 7 years but it wouldn't fit now anyhow !!!

Ok, slept in today, didn't want to, now gotta really get moving !!

Later

 

[jvls1942]

Prev Next Normal view To: [email protected]
From: Sheila
Subject: [WI_Animal_Swaps] FOR SALE: 4 young laying hens--Shawano area
Date: Thursday, October 6, 2011 1:21 PM


I have decided not to continue raising chickens at this point. I have 4 nice laying hens (not actually laying yet), approximately 4-5 months old. Variety of breeds. I am asking $5 each OBO.

 

[tiki244]

Quote:
Not that I need any but it doesnt say how to contact her.