Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[KNAndrs]

Made the rounds today and picked up more roos than I thought possible. 5 chickens and 4 ducks. Any ideas if the ducks need to be butchered a different way? I may end up cutting birds all night long.

We had a 6 egg day out of our 8 ladies. Remember one is still broody so it was an amazing day!!!

Back to church soon, we will talk to you later.

KEN

 

[jvls1942]

good early evening.. just closed all the coops for the night.. It sure was nice to turn on a light out there to see if everybody was in.. even one of the peacocks was on the roost.. the other peacock is sitting on the gate next to the coop.. I walked under him and he didn't even fly away..

this afternoon there was a contest between one of the peacocks and tommy.. they were trying to out-do each other with their strutting ..

Ken, for plucking ducks, have the water about 145F to 150F , some people put vinegar and/or Dawn dish soap into the scald water.. I don't because I use my feather plucker and then we wax them to remove any stubborn feathers and pin feathers..

I might try the vinegar some day, though..

Gaelio, maybe they are eating more scratch than layer.. try giving them just the layer for awhile.. contrary to popular belief, chickens do not need treats.. that is just a feel good thing that humans do . chickens are just willing participants.

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

 

[growanstede]

We're all in for the night over here, too. I was very very excited to find an extra sheet of plywood in the back shed, so I cut up the rest of the pieces for my green roof for the coop and laid them out, then called one of my mom's friends to borrow his drill. He always likes to come over to see the critters and I promised him a chicken dinner one of these days since my girls aren't laying yet. --otherwise I would have sent him home with eggs. We're going out to dinner and then coming back home to make the waterer and feeder and watch Sharpe's Rifles. Then I can return the drill tomorrow after I put the window on and cover for the nestboxes back on the coop. It felt good to get stuff done today! I can't wait for the girls to start laying! I need to get them some names soon!

Here are the suggestions so far for the girls I'm keeping: Hedwig, Errol, Pigwidgeon, and Hermes; Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind; Time, Relative, Dimension, and Space; or Ent, Dwarf, Hobbit, and Elf. I cannot make up my mind...

 

[bigzio]

Early Evening Everyone... thanks for the heads up on the tires. I'll prolly go to fleet tomorrow and see what they have. It will be nice to have safe rubber on the old truck again. I'm running without a spare right now....talk about easy does it.

I know what you mean about glad it's over H&R...nice deep breath and a sigh of relief!

Glad you are catching up Kee. That pic of kissin a chicken is priceless...sis says it's adorable

Gaelio... I think those of us that don't have a drop in production usually have a mixed age flock. About the time your mature hens start to molt, the young pullets of the year are starting to lay picking up where others slack off. Most hens don't lay during molt and without the young picking up their temporary slack, you end up eggless. Most of my eggs are pullets now, with just 2 or 3 hen eggs collected daily.
When the days shorten without any pullets, one needs the extra light on a timer to keep the hens laying.

It was busy here today working on deer stands and sighting in the guns. More to do yet, but the worst is over.

Glad you were able to get some of that free bedding TO. I managed to rake up a couple tarps of maple leaves for the big coop....yep, they love that!

Sure hope the Packers can beat up the lions the way the bears did today...we'll see

Later All... bigz

 

[WIChookchick]

Quote:
Welcome Gaelio!!
From what I have read on here and helpful hints from the great folks here...
To up protien in your flock/birds.. cut the scratch down to a minimum, no oats, very little corn or wheat. Give them mashed up hard boiled eggs still in their shells, black oil sunflower seeds, catfood (dry) and other high protien foods, you could add meat maker/mix to their layer mix... and give corn then, as its usually 21% protien.
crickets and meal worms are good too, some folks even give their birds suet as a treat.


I haven't been able to get on much.. and won't be on very often this week due to the internet bill being due and my inability to drive to Mcdonalds every day.. LOL
OH!! I am going to get a pic of a chick I have I call it/him/her Houdini, it is a great cross between the blue cuckoo maran rooster Mitchell (DH renamed him) and one of my
Jaerhons, woot!!! I may have another cross, but this one has the definitive blue of dad, and probably 1 purebred blue cuckoo chick too.
Have a great one folks

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

Quote:
hi doc, have you vent check your flock, you know the finger test (not in the vent remember LOL) 1 finger not laying, 2 fingers just started or restarting if molted, 3 fingers everyday lay: in full lay. depending on what you find we can go from there, email me and we'll go futher. will get your problem figured out

Paula

 

[Celtic Chick]

Looks like we're getting back to our old chattiness.

Happy to hear from everyone, and you all sound plenty busy.

I echo Susie's sentiment: Happy belated Veterans Day to everyone who gave all for us and our freedom.

About the frozen eggs, we never had any problems with them freezing in the coop, and all we had last year was a single heat lamp running (two if it got really cold). Our coop is only 8x8, though. It kept it above freezing in there, but it was by no means balmy. You could maybe plug the heat lamp into one of those thermo cubes that everyone was talking about if you're worried about it getting too warm in there?

Sounds like a great job on the water warmer, DrH. My reds gave out on egg production at around 2 years old. When they were laying, they laid every single day and their eggs were all jumbos, with at least 1 or 2 double yolkers a week. Now, zilch. My problem started when I had switched to Layena. The shells started getting softer & softer til there were no shells, despite having plenty of oyster shell around. After I got them off the Layena, I started mixing oyster shell directly into their feed, and at least one red started laying again, but that only lasted about 6 weeks or so. Those hybrids seem to be strictly utility, I'm thinking. Bred to pump out the eggs, then into freezer camp while they're still young & tender?

In any case, I feel your pain, Doc. I don't know about your SLWs, though. How long ago were your flood & predator issues?

Gaelio, I really dislike the time change too. It just gets dark way too early in the afternoon. I know the days are getting shorter, but they don't have to make it worse by turning the clocks back. I wish they would just leave the time alone too.

FT, I think you & I might be neck & neck in winning that procrastination prize. Thanks for posting that info on the Valbazen, BTW. I saw some dewormer at TSC yesterday but I think it said it was only for roundworms. Wazine, maybe? Beautiful pea pics!

Bigz, way to score on the rims. If you run different size rims on the front & back, it is possible your speedometer might be off by a few mph, I think. No spare???????????? Bigz! I sure hope you don't use that truck much.

TO, thanks for mentioning about using the leaves for free bedding. I raked up a ton of leaves from our willows & tossed them into the carport yesterday after cleaning out the coop. They were quite the hit! I just had to keep an eye out for stray mushrooms.

And thanks for the link to the cookie tin waterer. Definitely cheaper than mine.

That chicken kissin' pic is too cute, Kee! Glad you found some spare parts for your coop after all. Not much winterizing weather left this year.

Boy, those Lions can't do anything right today. Good. Hopefully that will continue on Thanksgiving.

I sure hope we continue our streak tomorrow night. Go Pack!

I got so much done outside yesterday & today. What nice weather, albeit windy! No rain down here, and I actually saw some blue sky here & there today. My tomato plants finally froze out in the greenhouse, so I picked the salvagable fruits and packed the pots up. I also put away most of my flower pots & hanging baskets, and put away the last stragglers of the garden decor. There were still a few flowers in baskets that were still going strong, so I left those out. Then I dug out the bird feeders for winter & cleaned them up. Apart from those few baskets, all of my fall cleanup is finally done! Yippee! (And a deep sigh). Now to start tackling the badly neglected inside stuff. (Yet another deep sigh). It never ends....... Oh, well............

Sweet dreams, all!

Vegetable soup

 

[Terri O]

Good evening! We got the hay in the barn!!! DH suggested that we just back the flatbed into the barn and I could feed it right off instead of handling it again to stack. Yeah, I really know that he wanted the FB in the barn for the winter...LOL! Doesnt matter--it will be empty in a month and a half or so...then we can go and get some more! The bales are VERY loose so it is prolly a good idea to keep it where it is until it is fed...$2 a bale though, and great hay, couldnt beat the price for sure! The critters will be happy.

I am glad my chickens are laying well; I ate 7 soft boiled eggs for lunch and 3 scrambled for dinner!

YUMMY! I do love eggs. I guess I might get rid of all my chickens except a few roos if I had a problem with eggs...good thing I dont grow wheat for my livelihood!
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys...remember when I posted that pick on the huge blue egg and the huge pink one? They BOTH were double yolkers! What are the chances of that? I ate them....

BCC--I did that same test on all my coop girls and penned the non-layers...then the turkey knocked the pen over so I had to redo it...then the guy said he needed YOUNG hens not the older ones! *sigh* I sold 9 not yet laying pullets...hated to do it but there will be more...I just have to keep saying that to myself!

So I got my client a new phone and her sister calls me today and says she cant get in touch with her....so I drive over there (25 miles) only to find that she had her TV on so loud that she couldnt hear the phone! She kept insisting that it wasnt ringing...until I turned the TV off! Man, I sure there is someone like me to take care of ME when I get old and forgetful...wait, maybe I should start looking now....

I am having a glass of sherry. Sometimes we use it in a shotglass to catch fruitflies. I havent seen any fruitflies in the house lately...I have pulled 3 out of my glass already! I dont think we catch them that fast when I put it out for that purpose!

OK--tired of listening to this football nonsense--I am heading to bed to read! YEah, my favorite part of the day!
Sweet dreams all! Terri O

 

[babylady4]

Totally shocked FM did not post pics of the snow here..... we ended up with quite a bit, a lot of yards are still white!

to all the newbies!

Been busy getting ready for the Winter (still not ready though), working, and prepping for the Holiday Season...... running non-stop once again!

Nice to see everyone else is keeping busy as well.


Stay safe, keep warm, and good luck to all the Hunters this weekend!

 

[FrenchToast]

Good Morning all !!!

Well, spent a good part of the day with the farrier and DH. Got all 11 creatures trimmed !!! $275 later !!!

I can't wait to get my donkey training videos from Giddupflix. I'll tell you those donkeys are something else !!! I love them dearly but boy oh boy are they stubborn. Chuck and the farrier were pulling, pushing whatever to get them in to the paddock we were working in. Then when we were done with them we couldn't get them to leave !!!
They knew where the cookies were and they weren't going to budge !!! They aren't dumb. Actually they are alot smarter then horses. I kept telling the guys to quit pulling, it makes things worse !!!

Spice and Giovani the new pony did good once we caught them. First of all they got out before the farrier ever got there. DH didn't close the gate when he went in to scrap the area !! So had to round them up!!! Boy can those little buggers run !!! It was hilarious !!!

Then to try to catch them, in the mud as well !! Thank Goodness my farrier is a very patient young man !!!
Now they have decided they don't want to come back in with the goats for the night. Spice wants to hang with the big horses and Giovani won't leave Spice. Sure hope I don't find any bruises in the morning !!! Spice likes to start things with the big horses and Chief the Spotted Draft Gelding does not like the ponies !!! They'll learn !! So the farrier got here about 10:45 am and I got in the house at 3:30pm. Little Butt dog sat on the ATV the whole day with a few dismounts for potty breaks. Good girl, she would rather be out there just watching then be in the house alone !!! She had her pink sweater on so she was warm and toasty !!

Put my game cam out behind the coop facing an apple tree where I saw several tracks. Hopefully I'll see something on it tomorrow.

Gotta go to the dentist for a cleaning

Monday (today). Hope I don't forget. I have to call in the morning as it is. Don't remember what time. So I better get to bed. Have to call and get out propane tank refilled too. I kept telling DH to check it and he of course never did (there I go mothering, I mean nagging again !!!

) sure enough it is at 10% in the red. So I turned the heat off. I have to take a shower so I will have to turn it on or I will freeze. And it's not raining so can't do it outside, besides the ATV is almost out of gas !!!

So tomorrow is another road trip to Lakewood to the dentist

!!!! I am tired of driving !!!!

No rest for the wicked I guess.
Oh and Jim I don't know what color those peahens are. I am going to put some pictures on the peafowl thread and find out. I only have the two India Blue Peacocks and one Black Shoulder Peacock.

Ok, time for a shower and bed !! Catch you all tomorrow.

Sleep tight !!

Tomato Soup