Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[chickendreams24]

Hey guys.  I haven't been around since about Christmas time.  Been a pretty busy winter.  I think our mushroom logs are already starting to produce this year!  Any bee keepers here?  We had a couple of hives a few years ago and lost them both over the winter.  I really want to get a couple more going this year.

Our local feed store is taking bee orders until 2/28/17.

That's very cool I didn't know you guys had bees. That's something we've discussed trying but haven't been able to yet because of the expenses to start. I would love to hear more about how you take care of your bees and what beekeeping entails and I'm also wondering if you know why you lost both of your hives this winter?

​Funny thing is I always have been too.  But when we got our own bees it lessened a bunch.  Plus I was always well protected.  The fresh raw honey is AMAZING!!

I have a slight fear of bees myself although not terrible what I really fear is wasps. Several of my extended family is severely allergic to bees so we would have to keep the hive(s) well away from the house and keep track of their paths but I think it would be okay. I love honey especially raw honey it really helps with my seasonal allergies.

 

[corewassen87]

Just picked up a set of locking hubs from the auto parts store. Gonna be a Wednesday morning project I'm thinking. When I put it in 4wd the front drove shaft would spin but no power at the wheels so this should take care of that. I don't wanna mess around with vacuum lines and crap so manuAl lockers it is. Only a plow truck anyways.

 

[chickendreams24]

Had an interesting weekend around here.

We planned to process birds and we were going to try for all the spare cockerals.... Well that didn't happen.

My mother showed up with my three year old nephew who has never met the chickens that he can remember. That was pretty fun but totally ruined our plans for processing on Saturday. I got him, Ryan, to hold an OEGB on his hand of course my Mom wasn't ready with her camera. Lol we sat in the middle of the driveway with a bowl of bird seed and fed the flock which Ryan loved.

It was a big step since at first he was very intimidated by the birds and their antics.
While we were feeding a couple of my favorite birds cam and sat on my knee eating out of the bowl. At first Ryan was very upset by that and wouldn't put his hands in the bowl to feed anymore. I knew these birds wouldn't do anything to him even if he put his hands in the bowl but he was nervous so I showed him how to push them away. Lol he continued feeding when one of our big SLW cockerals walked up and began eating out of the bowl. Ryan pushed the massive bird away and kept feeding. Three times he pushed the bird away. The second time the cockeral got irritated and pecked the air gently(by Ryan's hand) as he was shoved away. He did not connect and has never shown any aggression before. My Mom freaked but I reminded her if she got upset that would make Ryan upset and he would then fear the birds. Besides that I had already shoved the cockeral away quite sternly. We will watch this bird and if he needs to be processed he will be.

All in all though I would say it was quite a success. The SLW cockeral did come back and eat from the bowl again later. Ryan shoved him away and the bird left willingly. The SLW cockerals we have are mature but still young and learning the ropes.

It never failed though on Saturday Ryan always kept going back to our chocolate cuckoo English orp roosters. Lol they weigh almost as much as Ryan himself but he loved them! Of course I was there the whole time making sure the boys were okay with this tiny human they had never seen running around. None of them seemed bothered. The girls were curious about him but there again none of them bothered him in the least. I have never been more grateful we only keep calm and gentle birds and proud of my flock than I was watching my nephew surrounded by our main flock which currently includes 14 cockeral/roos(5 English Orpingtons-2 black, 3 chocolate cuckoo, a CL, 2 silkies, 1 OEGB, 1 EE, 3 SLW, 1 English orp/legbar mix) not all of these cockerals are staying though. Several are just waiting for their turn on the bus to freezer camp, unfortunately they were too docile to go into the cockeral pens to wait BC some of the other cockerals are real pieces of work and tried to kill them or wouldn't allow them to eat and drink from the multiple feeders and waterers. So the jerks are being processed first. The other boys will then be separated and processed. However our flock is relatively calm in spite of the high number of cocks.

It was just wonderful to know that even with all those boys I didn't have to worry about Ryan. I was also proud of Ryan as he's in the past had problems with chasing other animals, including my mother's dog, because his mother mostly didn't set rules for him. Yet he didn't chase the flock. Except one guinea one time for a couple feet lol I didn't think he knew what to make of such an alien creature and their funny noises.

Sunday we got two cockerals done and had planned to do more but the second one DH2B cut to bleed out moved slightly and DH2B sliced himself pretty badly. I'm sure he could have used a couple stitches. Gorilla tape and paper towel covered the slice and applied pressure to the cut while the birds were finished with three hands between the two of us. Lol then I slipped and gave myself a small cut at the base of my left thumb nail on the same bird... We've never ever cut ourselves processing birds before lol I guess today was just a bad day for it. We finished the two birds quickly. We managed to stop all the bleeding and bandaged DH2B up good. We figure somewhere in chicken heaven that cockeral is laughing saying "I gotcha both!"

Homemade bread, broccoli(store bought since ours died last year), and pulled home grown BBQ chicken for dinner last night in the slow cooker.

Last night we also began making chicken and homemade noodle soup for dinner tonight. Yum!

 

[bigzio]

Nice day but the rain is gonna be moving in here shortly. Yep, keep in mind cd that this nice weather gets the roo's and cockerels in a different mind set. Gentle cockerels will even get their spirit going in the springtime...prolly deciding if a male bird is a keeper or not depending on the critera of whether it's mean or not should be decided after the excited spring breeding season...even the nicest birds in the world get anxious in the longer spring days...just sayin. Nasty male birds are always nasty.

Tell your son to watch out for moving up a weight class bl4...then the big boys that were always big and strong will convince him to back off, and go on a diet.....LOL....but ya, great start and congrats to him!

bigz

 

[Daethen]

CD, we had bees about 4 years ago. It is quite common to lose hives over the winter. One never did thrive from day one and the other just didn't make it through the cold. We made our own supers and frames so it wasn't too expensive to set up. It is the package of bees that is most expensive. Also, the EE roo we got from you is the boss, but he is the biggest sweetheart in the world.

 

[chickendreams24]

Had an interesting weekend around here.

We planned to process birds and we were going to try for all the spare cockerals.... Well that didn't happen.

My mother showed up with my three year old nephew who has never met the chickens that he can remember. That was pretty fun but totally ruined our plans for processing on Saturday. I got him, Ryan, to hold an OEGB on his hand of course my Mom wasn't ready with her camera. Lol we sat in the middle of the driveway with a bowl of bird seed and fed the flock which Ryan loved.

It was a big step since at first he was very intimidated by the birds and their antics.
While we were feeding a couple of my favorite birds cam and sat on my knee eating out of the bowl. At first Ryan was very upset by that and wouldn't put his hands in the bowl to feed anymore. I knew these birds wouldn't do anything to him even if he put his hands in the bowl but he was nervous so I showed him how to push them away. Lol he continued feeding when one of our big SLW cockerals walked up and began eating out of the bowl. Ryan pushed the massive bird away and kept feeding. Three times he pushed the bird away. The second time the cockeral got irritated and pecked the air gently(by Ryan's hand) as he was shoved away. He did not connect and has never shown any aggression before. My Mom freaked but I reminded her if she got upset that would make Ryan upset and he would then fear the birds. Besides that I had already shoved the cockeral away quite sternly. We will watch this bird and if he needs to be processed he will be.

All in all though I would say it was quite a success. The SLW cockeral did come back and eat from the bowl again later. Ryan shoved him away and the bird left willingly. The SLW cockerals we have are mature but still young and learning the ropes.

It never failed though on Saturday Ryan always kept going back to our chocolate cuckoo English orp roosters. Lol they weigh almost as much as Ryan himself but he loved them! Of course I was there the whole time making sure the boys were okay with this tiny human they had never seen running around. None of them seemed bothered. The girls were curious about him but there again none of them bothered him in the least. I have never been more grateful we only keep calm and gentle birds and proud of my flock than I was watching my nephew surrounded by our main flock which currently includes 14 cockeral/roos(5 English Orpingtons-2 black, 3 chocolate cuckoo, a CL, 2 silkies, 1 OEGB, 1 EE, 3 SLW, 1 English orp/legbar mix) not all of these cockerals are staying though. Several are just waiting for their turn on the bus to freezer camp, unfortunately they were too docile to go into the cockeral pens to wait BC some of the other cockerals are real pieces of work and tried to kill them or wouldn't allow them to eat and drink from the multiple feeders and waterers. So the jerks are being processed first. The other boys will then be separated and processed. However our flock is relatively calm in spite of the high number of cocks.

It was just wonderful to know that even with all those boys I didn't have to worry about Ryan. I was also proud of Ryan as he's in the past had problems with chasing other animals, including my mother's dog, because his mother mostly didn't set rules for him. Yet he didn't chase the flock. Except one guinea one time for a couple feet lol I didn't think he knew what to make of such an alien creature and their funny noises.

Sunday we got two cockerals done and had planned to do more but the second one DH2B cut to bleed out moved slightly and DH2B sliced himself pretty badly. I'm sure he could have used a couple stitches. Gorilla tape and paper towel covered the slice and applied pressure to the cut while the birds were finished with three hands between the two of us. Lol then I slipped and gave myself a small cut at the base of my left thumb nail on the same bird... We've never ever cut ourselves processing birds before lol I guess today was just a bad day for it. We finished the two birds quickly. We managed to stop all the bleeding and bandaged DH2B up good. We figure somewhere in chicken heaven that cockeral is laughing saying "I gotcha both!"

Homemade bread, broccoli(store bought since ours died last year), and pulled home grown BBQ chicken for dinner last night in the slow cooker.

Last night we also began making chicken and homemade noodle soup for dinner tonight. Yum!

Nice day but the rain is gonna be moving in here shortly. Yep, keep in mind cd that this nice weather gets the roo's and cockerels in a different mind set. Gentle cockerels will even get their spirit going in the springtime...prolly deciding if a male bird is a keeper or not depending on the critera of whether  it's mean or not should be decided after the excited spring breeding season...even the nicest birds in the world get anxious in the longer spring days...just sayin. Nasty male birds are always nasty.

Tell your son to watch out for moving up a weight class bl4...then the big boys that were always big and strong will convince him to back off, and go on a diet.....LOL....but ya, great start and congrats to him!

  bigz

Lol yeah thank you.

We know that's another reason we haven't made final culls yet. We have some more boys to do and then we will be separating out some of the girls for breeding and giving them a break before adding the boys for breeding. We will also be adding more girls this year too.

I will let you all know as we get into spring and after of any of the cockerals temperaments change.

 

[jvls1942]

good rainy afternoon,
this should take care of some of the ice in the yard.
then it looks like on Friday we will start a new winter..

Nice story about Ryan. another chicken farmer in the making.

Corey, I didn't know you could add lockouts.
My Blazer's 4WD does not work. I seldom need it.
My SIL had this Blazer for a few years before he died.
He lived in town and never used it. I think It would be easy to fix,
there is a short cable that pushes and pulls. I am guessing that it is just rusted tight. but I figure if I start fixing siht like that the thing will just up and quit on me..

today my main project was to make all 8 gears in the tractor work. I did it..
I stood on the ground next to Ollie and shifted with the motor off. over and over. then I thought,, maybe I am already in high range.. so I tried putting it into low range. it went !!!

I started Ollie up and took a ride down the driveway.
when it was in low range , man oh man, was it slow ..

I pulled some snow away from the house that slid off the metal roof. I tried it in low range. a guy could read a book while plowing at that speed..

One of the new roosters was dead under the roost this morning. No, the pint sized warier did not kill it. He was outside the coop all night. I suspect the other new rooster might have done it. He is a huge handsome black thing. IDK the breed.
I asked Emily when she dropped it off. she didn't know.
it is a hatchery bird, so I imagine it is a pure breed.

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

 

[CherMoz]

GOOD MORNING! IT IS NICE TO SEE THE SUN AGAIN. THE CARROTS I PLANTED IN THE GREENHOUSE HAVE SPROUTED. I HAD THE ROW COVERED WITH A SMALL BOARD. I WILL SURROUND THE ROW WITH LEAVES AND A LIGHTWEIGHT ROW COVER BEFORE THE COLD WEATHER RETURNS. FEBRUARY ELECTRICAL PRODUCTION SURPASSED JANUARY PRODUCTION BY THE MIDDLE OF THE MONTH. HAVE A GREAT DAY EVERYONE!

 

[jvls1942]

GOOD MORNING! IT IS NICE TO SEE THE SUN AGAIN. THE CARROTS I PLANTED IN THE GREENHOUSE HAVE SPROUTED. I HAD THE ROW COVERED WITH A SMALL BOARD. I WILL SURROUND THE ROW WITH LEAVES AND A LIGHTWEIGHT ROW COVER BEFORE THE COLD WEATHER RETURNS. FEBRUARY ELECTRICAL PRODUCTION SURPASSED JANUARY PRODUCTION BY THE MIDDLE OF THE MONTH. HAVE A GREAT DAY EVERYONE!

 

[jvls1942]

good morning,
no sun here yet, wet out in the yard. the rain couldn't soak into the frozen ground. but it did melt a lot of ice. but if all those puddles freeze, it will be worse than before.

I got the transmission figured out. I can quite easily shift from high range to low range. the main problem was that I was trying to get into high range, but it was already in high range. just for a lark I decided to try for low range and it worked..

today I think I will take the carb off and see if I can do something with the choke cable so that it doesn't freeze up when it gets cold.
I have to put the hair dryer to it to thaw it out before I can start the motor.

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