Quail_Antwerp: Words from the Barnyard...

[Quail_Antwerp]

Thanks everyone.

I had five chicks total hatch out of my own eggs. 1 Mille fleur, 1 Buff Orp, and 3 Phoenix Crosses, but only the 3 crosses will make it. Both the mille fleur and the Buff Orp both have leg deformities and neither can walk. I'll be putting them both down tonight.

The three Phoenix Crosses are doing marvelous, though!

ETA: I haven't taken time to get pics yet, I will do that tomorrow after the 238 RIR's I've been holding all week LEAVE. Supposed to leave by noon tomorrow!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Today is a beautiful day!!

I don't have much time, but just wanted to pop in between projects to post about the chicks.

The people who wanted 238 chicks changed their minds! I've been holding chicks for them all week!! There were 4 people going in together to get chicks, 2 of the people paid for theirs, but since all 4 were going in together, and they were buying ALL that I had, they asked me to give them a discount. I knocked a good chunk of change off the top of their total, and they said OK we'll bring xx amount tonight, please hold them until Saturday.

This morning the one lady calls me and she's livid. Said that 2 people backed out on them, didn't tell them until today, and she's so upset because she knows I could have had the chicks sold. She kept apologising, says she feels really bad about it, and asked if she could still come pick up hers. I said sure.

I tell you, she gets here and she's breathing flames! She told me that the guy who was supposed to come with her can't come to pick up his chicks, so she's picking up his, too. So she and I agreed that the discount was now void, and we figured how many chicks she could get for the money she had paid. I offered to let her take the chicks she originally wanted at the discounted price, but she refused, insisted it wasn't fair to me since I had to feed them the extra week, etc. She then called the other guy and said, "You paid x amount so you're only getting x amount of chicks." I was ROTFL because she really was more upset than I was. I did tell her on the phone before she came out that I was not going to refund any money that was paid down on the chicks, especially since I had held them all week. She agreed with me and said you shouldn't refund them anything! She was worried that this was going to reflect on her and she didn't want a bad deal between us, as she wants to purchase from me again later.

I told her no worries, I sell the chicks left over to someone else, and that I hoped she enjoyed her chicks. She left here muttering a few expletives aimed at her "Friends" who didn't follow through. I couldn't help but laugh. Really, I couldn't be upset, as she was upset enough for 10 people!

In other news, I got my first goose egg yesteray!! I am hoping to get another one today. I have been working on pens, and I hope to have my Quail Anterps in their own small coop and run by the end of today. we'll see how the rest of the day goes!

 

[Beekissed]

So entertaining...the life and times of Mrs. Doolittle!!!

Never a dull moment at your house, is there?

 

[Farmfresh]

Temperature fluctuations in your incubator are responsible for your leg problems with the chicks. You should think about placing a water weasel in the incubator with the eggs. It helps to maintain heat at a more consistent rate.

 

[PamsPride]

So how many chicks do you have left now?
We stopped into TSC today and they said it would be another month before they got chicks in.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

I still have well over 100 chicks.

I'm putting up a flyer in the local groceries and at the end of my driveway.

And I've still got them running on Craigslist.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Sundays are normally our kick back and relax day, but not today.

Today we started clean up along side the duck shed. When we lived in TN people dumped and dumped and dumped here. Four years later, we are still cleaning. The WHOLE property was trashed when we moved here. Each year we clean a new spot, each year our yard gets bigger, and I get at least ONE new coop!

One of these years, I'll have coops ALL the way down the logging road, lining both sides!

Ok not all the way down, but half way LOL

So here are the before pics:

You are looking at the future sight of my BLRW coop!!

I know it doesn't look great right now.

So far today we already have a good bit of that junk picked up and the trees immediately down by the duck shed cut out and picked up. Yes, the kids are helping They helped pick up some of the junk and trash littering the ground, but once we got the ax out to hack out some roots and stuff, I told the kids they could go play.

Since I only have 5 BLRW I am not going to make this coop huge or the run excessively large.

The run is probably only going to be 4-5 foot wide and go the length of the duck run
The coop will be about the same size as the duck shed I think and the run will be covered so they cannot fly out.

I am so tired of birds flying out.

I am putting aviary netting over all my runs and their free ranging days are over, because it's coming time to plant!

I plan to take daily pics of our progress..Ok well not daily like Mon-Fri, but I plan to take pics on the days we work on it and log our progress. We only stopped and came in today because it started raining. The rain has passed over now, so we'll be back out there in a few minutes working on it more.

The goal is to have it cleaned up and ready for ground breaking by the end of this week.

 

[Tallman]

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I am so tired of birds flying out.

Quail, I remember my father clipping one wing of our hens so they couldn't fly straight. This stopped the flying.

Looks like you have some good help with your clean up project.

 

[Farmfresh]

The farm my sissy bought several years ago was COVERED with trash. Three old mobile homes - one trapped leaning at a wild angle by two trees growing up on either side and filled with junk, one painted a flat gray (ceiling, walls, cabinets) ENTIRELY inside, and a third trailer that the last residents lived in that smelled of human urine and filth from about 100 yards away.

She got a bargin.

It has taken many years and a miracle of a salvage company that came out and removed most of the metal AND all of the trailers and car carcasses, but she is finally starting to come out on the up side of it all. I have spent a lot of time myself picking up the trash, cutting bush and burning messes out there helping her as well, so I truly understand your clean up pain.

I never have understood the amount of laziness involved in creating a farm like that. It amazes me how many of them there are around.

 

[PamsPride]

.

I am so tired of birds flying out.

Quail, I remember my father clipping one wing of our hens so they couldn't fly straight. This stopped the flying.

Looks like you have some good help with your clean up project.

Haha! My birds are to fat/big to fly!! LOL!