Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[Tomski]

FT - I remember you telling me about your parents murder... It'll never get easier but I pray you find some type of peace and closure.

 

[Tomski]

Just got off the phone with my local TSC and they sell the DE. It's 11.99 for a 20# bag - is that a decent deal?

I've also been using that new Purina Omega 3+ PELLET food (using coupon - it's 12 bucks a bag for for 40#) - It seems expensive BUT I'm going through only HALF of the feed I normally do... I personally think it's a winner - for me anyway.

 

[Terri O]

Good frigid morning! OMG it is CHILLY out there! On the porch the thermo says 9....BBRRRR! I think it might be a little while until I dress all up and go out for chores! I cant imagine that the birds want me to open their door anyhow! I feel a bit bad for the chickens in the barn. The big door is wide open for the horses to go in and out and I cant hang anything in front of it--tried that; it is really fun to play with and tear down! I am thinking today if maybe the chickens wouldnt tear down stuff if I hung it on their side...might shelter them a little more. They dont have a draft...they have a WIND!

THe dog woke me up this morning...I was deep into the weirdest dream...I was at a pony club function and didnt feel well. I was just laying on a chair like I was sleeping. But I was all floppy with no muscles and I kept slipping down to the ground. I could tell it was happening...like my body was asleep but not my head. So odd...glad it is finally fading!
I did it again...the cook called to see if I would work for her tomorrow and I said yes.

I am having the whole family over on Saturday....I guess the kids better keep the house respectable until then! At least I have been keeping up with the floor! Man it gets trashed fast!
So I was feeding my finches this morning and there was ANOTHER baby out of the nest with half of his body our of the cage! There was one yesterday morning too (both were dead) and a few days ago I found one still alive that I put back into the nest! So I took the whole nest out; there were 3 babies. I held them in my hand while I pulled out a TON of nesting material and a few eggs. I left only a little in the bottom and replaced the babies. Hopefully they will be down far enough not to get out now! They look so cool! Their little beady eyes are open now and they have a little fluff on their heads. Their wing feathers are in too. When they open their mouths their black tongues have two white spots on the back of it and the roof of their mouth is white polka dotted! I guess that would be a hard target to miss! I wonder after they are adults if they still have the polka dots? I wonder if Google knows?

Thinking about putting the nest box back on for the Yellow napes...I really want a tame parrot!

Tom just where do you get those awful pics you use for your Avatars? I saw it right away when you switched it...cant say I like it any better than your last one! Are they from the "Ugly People" site? My kids used to love checking that out...kinda reminds me of that. Welcome N IL person!

I have forgotten all the numbers in your name...care to share your first name? Did you say what kind of things you have? BBP--yes the torts are fun. Not fun in a "regular" pet kind of way....the female is very personable. They are worrisome though--very hard to tell if they are feeling poorly; it is also difficult to feed them properly in the winter!
DrH--I cant believe that you are nearly half way done with the incubation already! I hope you have a hatch that rivals H&R's WOW! That would be cool....remember, take notes on what the chicks look like from each egg! I have not seen another duck egg (they are Calls NOT runners BTW) so who knows what it is!
FT--that is such a terrible thing that you had to go through! I thought it was longer ago that it happened. Hugs to you and the rest of your family that are surely missing them especially at this time! (((((hugs)))))

Well I think I might have exhausted everything I had to say (and then some) Just a bit of procrastination so I dont have to go outside...Sheesh-I am thinking about baking some GF bread to heat the house up more! I am envying your ash burning for sure Cind! We always liked when we got some of that to burn! Such nice heat...Today is the weigh in for the biggest loser contest we are in at the fitness center DD25 works at...guess I see some coveralls in my near future!
Have a fantastic day--at least the sun is shining! Terri O

 

[Celtic Chick]

Tomski, that is the same price for DE down here.

Some people might tell you different, but as for me, I stay far away from Purina Layena. Last year I had a coupon for buy 3 bags, get one free, so we started using the Layena. What a mistake! We had nothing but problems in the egg department. First the shells started getting wrinlky looking, then the shells got softer & softer, then there were no shells and finally they just stopped laying. And my girls have calcium free choice always. It took a couple of weeks on their old food before they got back to laying normally again. I would compare the label info of the Layena against your usual feed. Here is a comparison between Layena and Dumor, which I believe is also made by Purina Mills. The Layena analysis below is from their regular feed, not the Omega one that you have. Oh, and my girls ate less of it too, but I thought it was because they didn't like it.

Just my HO.

Layena:

Guaranteed Analysis:
Protein (min.) 16.00%, Calcium (Ca) (min.) 3.25%, Calcium (Ca) (max.) 4.25%, Lysine (min.) 0.55%, Methionine (min.) 0.25%, Fat (min.) 2.50%, Fiber (max.) 7.00%, Phosphorus (P) (min.) 0.50%, Vitamin A 3,000 IU/lb, Vitamin E 10.50 IU/lb .

Purina® Layena® Plus Omega-3 SunFresh® Recipe :

Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein (min.) 16.0%, Calcium (min.) 3.60%, Calcium (max.) 4.60%, Lysine (min.) 0.70%, Methionine (min.) 0.30%, Crude Fat (min.) 3.25%, Crude Fiber, (max.) 6.0%, Phosphorus (min.) 0.59%, Salt (NaCl), (min.) 0.20%, Salt (NaCl), (max.) 0.70%, Sodium (Na), (min.) 0.10%, Sodium (Na), (max.) 0.60%, Manganese (min.) 160 ppm, Omega-3 Fatty Acids (min.) 1.10%, Ash (max.) 14.50%

Du-Mor:

Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein (min.) 16.00%, Calcium (Ca) (min.) 3.80%, Calcium (Ca) (max.) 4.80%, Lysine (min.) .70%, Methionine (min.) .35%, Crude Fat (min.) 2.50%, Crude Fiber (max.) 7.00%, Phosphorus (P) (min.) .50%, Salt (NaCl) (min.) .25%, Salt (NaCl) (max.) .75%, Ruminant meat and bone meal free.

 

[Celtic Chick]

Sorry Tom, but I gotta agree with TO & FT. Those are some butt ugly avatars you got there.

I hear you on the fridgid morning, TO! Brrrrrrrr!!!!!! It was cold in this house. The cats were crabbing at me this morning when I was trying to climb out of bed. They were perfectly content to sleep on me all day long. At least it isn't windy here today like it was yesterday, and the sun is out. And you're all happy that it is +5, why exactly, DrH? Better than -5?

Good luck on your hatch!

BBP, I have a banty cochin roo that is the same way as yours. He was my sisters & he started fights with all her other roos. Finally they all ganged up on him & as a result he has a damaged eye. She was afraid they'd kill him, so I took him. When I got Moose, he tried taking him on. Not a bright idea, to say the least. Lets just say he doesn't bother Moose any more.

Those little banty roos got some awful big britches. I hope yours heals up quick & learns his lesson.

Cind, I know how you feel. One of my girls decided to be broody too. My first one ever. I wonder if she'll stick with it?

 

[bigzio]

Winter Day All... yep we had a balmy -4 here this morning. It's all the way up to +10 with the sun. Time to go out and give my hen (droopy) another dose. She had that name since being a chick. She has one waddle that's longer than the other.

I feel sorry for the Buckeyes in the barn TO.

Good post on the feed ingedients CC. I can't beleive how low the methionine and the lysine are in the layena. the ration I buy at the mill are Methionine (min) 0.46%, Lysine (min) 0.90% That's a huge difference.

FT Sorry it ever had to happen to your family.

I can relate to the bass wood tomski. I heated two different winters with it. No stoking and sleeping til morning, that's for sure. Gotta love the hard maple, ash, oak, beech, and hickory....elm is ok too.

The time really flys by. It seems like you set the eggs just yesterday Doc.

Later...bigz

 

[Tomski]

As for my handsome avatar... I typed "egghead" into google images and saw this handsome fella - I picture him as what the ULTIMATE Yooper Egghead would look like...

Celtic - I'll keep that in mind. I've never had any problems with eggs so far - However, I've always used the local Mill's "home-made recipe." Off the top of my head, I think it was in the 17-18% protein range. It also contained Oyster, Grit....etc. I can get it at a decent price but the texture is like a cross between crumbles and dust! LOL The chicken's absolutely LOVE it and I get some great eggs. The only problem is that they like to "dust" themselves and flick twice as much out of the feeder than they eat.... I was simply going through waaaay to much of it. I would MUCH rather support the local business' than the big retail stores TSC, Menards....etc.

However, a friend of mine gave me a few (four - $2.00 and two - $4) coupons for the Pelleted Purina Layena with added Omega The Chickens wouldn't touch it for the first three days - which is probably the time it took to eat the old feed spread throughout the coop...LOL I guess once they couldn't scrounge for anymore of the left over crumbles/dust feed - Hunger took over and the pellets didn't look so bad..

With four Purina coupons left, I'm gonna stick with it for now... Although to be totally honest, I've been looking into one of those 4-5' old fashioned strip-type feeders with a hole for each chicken to eat out of - that would probably stop the waste factor on the mill mixed feed.

Thanks for the heads up! Now I'm gonna definitely monitor egg production/quality while feeding them this mix

I did find some DE at TSC this morning! On the directions it has the dosage for HUMANS! LOL I'd like to know how many Cheese Header Threaders are "Dirt Eaters?"

Come on, be honest - who has tried it? I'm "kinda" thinkin about it... LOL

Now that all my running around is done - I think I'm gonna forgo lunch.... It such a nice day today - Sun shinning - a bit cold but very little wind. Good day to move around some firewood, get a fire going in the garage and just "PUTZ" around. Lot's of little projects going... Between misplacing my beer and various tools.. should make for a time-filled afternoon of self entertainment....

LOL

 

[Celtic Chick]

I edited my post about the guaranteed analysis of poultry feeds to include the kind of Layena feed that you purchased, Tom. (You can find that info on TSC's website). It does seem to be better than the regular Layena, but it still isn't as good as the Dumor. I don't much care for feeding my girls crumble either. Too much waste. Pellets do seem to last longer.
I hope you don't start to experience problems with your hens eggs. It is no fun, and it encourages bad chicken behavior. I'll be

for you.

No DE sampling in this house, thanks, but I've read that people do use it. Not my cup of tea.

Misplacing your beer, Tom? At 12:30????? Yeah, I'm sure it will be an entertaining afternoon.

 

[FrenchToast]

Second attempt to post. Computer is acting up real bad so will make this short and sweet. Ok well shorter then I normally post !!

First of all thank you all for the

's. It is really appreciated !!

Secondly Tomski, I can get you 2 barred rocks and 2 buffs. That's all they want to get rid of right now since their Black Australorps just started laying but not all of them yet and of course they are just pullet eggs.
So we just need to set up a time and date. Bring some DE with, I'll try it with you !! You first !!

I heard it is a staple in the UP, surprised you haven't heard of it before !!

OM called when he got to work, he said "Now don't be mad" I thought Oh Crap now what ! Did he crash the car ..... ???? He forgot to change boots and forgot his bifocals !! Is that all !!!!

So anyway he needs them by 4pm so I have to drive to town and bring them.
As long as I'm headed south I'm going to hit Menards and buy supplys to make the nipple waterers and get the 11% rebate, AND MAIL IT IN THIS TIME !!!

DrHa we just might be related !!! We do share the same sense of humor !! Trust me I hold back on BYC !!
Speaking of B!tching !!! Some of us have worked very hard at perfecting it and have put in alot of time getting it just right !!! So when I am called a "B" I hold my head up high and smile while I chuckle !!!

Ok, on that note I have to find some reciepts (to take back the stuff I'm going to rebuy with the 11% rebate) I swear those reciepts have at least two legs, they run off before you even set the bag down !!
Later

 

[Tomski]

Well, I had to come in to put some warmer boots on... Feet are freezing...LOL I lit a fire in the garage but started working out in the unheated shed where the chickens are. These slip on boat shoes don't cut the mustard on a hard concrete floor... LOL

The chicken shed needs a little bit of organizing... I'm putting up some shelves for all the chicken crap (Oyster shells, grit, scratch, feed, meds, DE...etc.) Also throwing some shelves together for all the "Wild Bird" paraphernalia - (feeders, food, perches, bath heaters...etc. ) I'm tired of stepping over bags of feed...etc. and having my work bench look like my daughters bedroom floor when she was 16...LOL I keep my ATV in that shed too - So It's nice to have the room to walk around...etc. when it comes time for a little preventive maintenance or attaching/removing the snow plow.

Decided against a beer... I had a funny feeling that ol' Rev. Jim Beam wanted to mix it up with some Diet Coke.