Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

Quote:
A woman: without her, man is useless. A woman without her man is useless.

 

[coleco]

I wish i had known people needing net. Tsc had 7'x100' 1" bird netting rolls for 19.99 on clearance and i called some people but nobody wanted some.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

Welcome @RooksMom
We have lots of great breeders on this thread. I learned the hard way that breeder birds are the way to go, for healthy and docile stock.

Thank you @coleco now I have proof for all those uninformed customers that my birds won't kill them LOL SMH! I hope to get certified to do the testing myself, in Sept, we shall see.

 

[chicken danz]

Tarabella I must warn you if you bring in birds from any outside flock that are not NPIP tested it voids your certification. That also includes hatching eggs you purchase. I am a tester and have been for several years. Technically any bird moved from state to state or sold publicly must again be tested within 90 days of the sale. Since there are no public sales in Kansas this year that isn't a factor right now. The NPIP tests just certifies that they are pullorum typhoid free. If the state came out and tested for AI that simply means they were free of AI when the actual test was performed. By no means does a certification mean that you can let biosecurity down or that your birds can't get sick. The NPIP test needs to be repeated once each year to remain current. You may be totally aware of all that but so many people just get the impression that once they have the test they are good. It just doesn't work that way.
I always test all the birds I take to events a day or two ahead of time. I have so many breeders I tend to test my own in certain groups at different times. It's the only way I can keep up with it. It would take me days to do them all at once.
As big a scare as AI has been if Pullorum Typhoid reared it's ugly head in the U.S. again it would wipe out the entire industry.

I normally test birds for the fair but this year I got a break. I get donations from some but the expense of testing can get insane for serum, needles and other supplies.
I just sold 88 birds this morning. That was a work out for sure since I caught them all myself. I sure didn't make much on them but that is at least 50 pounds of feed less a day I'll be putting out and three less pens to maintain. I imagine in a month or two I'll have another load of cockerels to thin once I choose some new breeders. In a perfect world I would be selling them all before that.
I still have a busy day ahead. It's really hot and steamy already. There is no wind at all.

 

[Trish44]

Well the darned multi-quote is not working right now. Congrats TaraBella on your NPIP, I got mine awhile back as well. They sure do need to do some revisions to that to make it easier to accomplish for sure.

Welcome RooksMom! I am closer to you but as I said I'm done hatching for this year other than one last broody I know is sitting on a few eggs. I'm trying to discourage any more from sitting as I don't want any more chicks now the rest of the year. I'm ready to shut down my brooders & get everything cleaned up for the year. I need all of the chicks in the house to go outside too so all but 4 will be going out today to the growout pen. Hopefully the last 4 will go soon. I do raise Heritage RIRs, Buff & Lavender Orpingtons, Jubilee & Mottled Orpingtons & a whole list of other breeds so if you want more chicks in the spring check with me. I do try to hatch by order as much as possible because I don't have a lot of extra pen & brooder space.

Yes, punctuation makes a big difference! I'm glad to know that wasn't 6 year old hens, but 6, year old hens, LOL.

I'm slowly getting strength back after my food poisoning. I'm still not 100% yet but getting there, it takes a lot out of you. I need the strength to get out there today & move some birds around & hopefully am selling a couple of rabbits this afternoon. I'm hoping to get all of the Mini Rex sold before winter so I don't have to deal with cleaning those darned cage trays out all winter again this year. They're just too fragile to be able to stay outside in the winter & hopefully my new rabbits will be able to, so that will make a huge difference in work for me.

I hope to get my new garden trug put together this weekend so I can see what I need to do for coating to protect the outside. I think it will probably need some more paint on it to make it through the winters here. I'm excited about getting it set up. I have a garden bench I got that needs put together too that I plan to put out close to my pens so I have a place to sit if I want. It's really nice & shady out there so it will be nice to have a place to sit again. The old bench I had there fell apart long ago.

 

[chicken danz]

Glad you're feeling better Trish.It sure is a humid day out there. I've been out working in the building. I had one of the young pheasant escape and am really tired of chasing him around. I left one of the outside doors open. I think he'll probably stay on that end of the building but he could fly out if he wanted. I was going to work on plumbing but loading up all those roosters today kind of did me in. I get hyper when I think of all I need to do. And then the forecast is for much hotter weather again. Not good.
I may try to mount my new fan if I can decide where I want to put it for sure. Wish they weren't so expensive. I would have bought two of them.

 

[Anderson Lowe]

W

Hi, my name is Kasey. I'm new to this site (kind of, I made a profile a while back, but never really had the time to look around) I live in Harvey county and I have been looking for somewhere to be able to talk with like-minded people, ask questions, compair notes, that kind of thing.


I recently (just over a year ago) started my little farm and am working it up one thing at a time, first chickens, then goats, and this coming year my fiance and I are putting in a large vegetable garden. Except for the last couple of years, I have always had a vegetable garden, and I am sooooo excited about putting one in for this spring.


I grew up in Michigan, so if anyone has any tips on gardening in Kansas, I would love them! In Michigan, drop a seed on the dirt, spit on it, and trust me, it WILL grow. The climate is so different here I am very nervous that I won't be able to grow anything. lots of people have gardens around here, but I know the problems I run into in Michigan (mostly, your garden flooding out, moles, and hurrying to get all your produce harvested before frost) Any advice would be more than welcome.


I am also looking to enlarge my flock. Right now I have a dozen hens and one rooster. Now that I have the basics of mixed breed (honestly, I don't think you could actually pin down a breed on my girls) chickens mastered, I am hoping to introduce some desired traits into my flock. That's why I got the rooster I did. Wellsummer is a breed I like. The coloring is nice, But I like the egg production and color. In a year or two, I will get a different rooster. I have a couple of breeds in mind, but have not decided.


Right now I have one hen who decided to brood her nest, so I gave her several more eggs to brood in the hopes that she sees it through. If she does, I'm keeping her until she dies of old age and letting her brood as many nests as she wants. I am hoping to be able to set up a nice rotation. I have been told by several people (including my grandfather, whose family survived the depression with their chicken farm and their apple orchard) than hens will only lay reliably for about two years. If I can get a couple of hens to brood each year, I can hatch out a couple dozen eggs each year and keep a running rotation. Once a hen is two years old and egg production will start going down, into the dinner pot she goes. (Some people would say harsh here, but I am a practical person, once and animal is no longer useful, there is not room for it here, devoted affection counts as useful)


... sorry, I'm rambling.


So... finally, does anyone know where I can get chickens? I have a long list of breeds I would like to own, but at the top of my list are


Australorp, Easter Egger, Favaucana, Rhode Island Red, Orpington, and I would love a Jersey Giant rooster.


Thanks for listening to me ramble, my family alternately wishes me good luck and leaves it at that, or thinks I'm crazy for trying to set up a sustainable farm. I'm "unambitious" and "worth so much more than that." With commercial food being the unknown entity that it is, the biggest reason I want to do this is so I know exactly what my children are eating (I have two boys ^_^). That, and I grew up doing farm-work, and it gave me a good grounding in the real world, and a strong work ethic, and I want that for my boys as well. That, and I love the life. I grew up working with animals and gardens and spending all of october preserving everything in every way, I miss it, lots of fond memories, and the work was fun because we did it together. I want those fod memories for my family.

Welcome to Harvey county

I'm fairly new myself and just getting mine to start laying.

Everyone on here is a great help with questions. They have helped me out on learning lots

 

[RooksMom]

They're just too fragile to be able to stay outside in the winter & hopefully my new rabbits will be able to, so that will make a huge difference in work for me.

I used to have a rabbit farm in Michigan. 32 rabbits in total (not incuding any current litters, just the breeders). They were all just fine out in the winter. I had New Zeland, California Giant, Lop, Dutch, and some hollands. They did just fine in 30 below zero with a nice thick layer of straw bedding.

 

[chicken danz]

Thank goodness I've learned at least some self control when it comes to other animals. I raised rabbits when I was in OKC. The plan was to provide meat.. not show them. But I found I had trouble eating them after raising them. It wasn't that I was attached. I think it was the smell that messed me up. I am the same way about chickens. I never eat chicken within a few days of butchering. I have to get the smell out of my brain to enjoy it.
I did way too much the last couple days and now my arthritis pain is flaring with a vengeance. It makes it very hard for me to get motivated to do anything at all. I still have so much on my plate to get done. If it were a little cooler out I think I could work past the pain and get more done.
I have three buildings I need to move in the near future and I need to put new floors in two of those. I should be out working on those projects.

 

[Trish44]

I used to have a rabbit farm in Michigan. 32 rabbits in total (not incuding any current litters, just the breeders). They were all just fine out in the winter. I had New Zeland, California Giant, Lop, Dutch, and some hollands. They did just fine in 30 below zero with a nice thick layer of straw bedding.

The Mini Rex are more fragile & could never be left out all winter. It was a big mess & a lot of work for me every winter to have to empty & clean out cage trays. I'm hoping to get all of those sold before winter so I don't have to deal with that.

Thank goodness I've learned at least some self control when it comes to other animals. I raised rabbits when I was in OKC. The plan was to provide meat.. not show them. But I found I had trouble eating them after raising them. It wasn't that I was attached. I think it was the smell that messed me up. I am the same way about chickens. I never eat chicken within a few days of butchering. I have to get the smell out of my brain to enjoy it.
I did way too much the last couple days and now my arthritis pain is flaring with a vengeance. It makes it very hard for me to get motivated to do anything at all. I still have so much on my plate to get done. If it were a little cooler out I think I could work past the pain and get more done.
I have three buildings I need to move in the near future and I need to put new floors in two of those. I should be out working on those projects.

I started out thinking I would raise some meat rabbits but I finally sold them because I couldn't make myself do the killing. I'm the same way with chicken too, I can't eat them right after butchering. There is something about that smell.

Yeah I'm ready for it to be a bit cooler for sure. I'm not anywhere near ready for winter but under 90 would be nice. It's hard to want to go out there & do much when it's so darned hot & sticky. I did manage to get two pens of birds switched around yesterday so the bigger group could have the bigger pen. That was something I had been wanting to get done. I need to move some others around but that hinges on selling a group I have up for sale. If anyone is interested in Barnevelders I have a Blue Laced Rooster over two Double Laced hens available. I'm needing the pen for another breed.