I really feel like I have been slacking a bit with my blog.  It is not that I have lost interest but it is fall time and I am a bit busier these days.  Also work has picked up and finding time to write has been a challenge.

Weather has been the buzzword for the last week or so.  Temperatures have been much cooler but rain has been the real newsmaker.  Thursday afternoon the National Weather Service began issuing flood warnings all around our area.  Thursday night it began raining and by Friday morning there was standing water everywhere and rivers were already beginning to swell.  By 11:00 am Friday it was evident that we were heading for major problems in the Wichita area.  By 2:00 pm we were sending everyone home for the day to take care of protecting our property.  One person in our office, Randy, was already taking water on in his basement.  It turns out it was sewage backup from the city.  The system just could not handle all the water.  On my way home a normally slow creek had overflowed its banks and flooded an entire neighborhood with about 3 feet of water.  I decided to stop by the church and make sure it was okay.  We have had major work done to parts of the roof recently and I know this was a major test.  The new roof was holding fine but some of the older flat sections were pouring water into the building.  We also had a drainage issue in one section that was allowing water to seep in under the walls.  The damage is minimal but needs to be addressed to avoid future issues.

My house is situated quite high so we did not experience any damage.  The yard was flooded but the house stayed dry inside.  The vinyl roof on the turkey pen collapsed under the weight of the water but I was able to rectify that on Saturday morning.  The layers faired very well and once I moved the pen on Saturday they were happily foraging on the damp grass.

My layers have been eating more but the laying efficiency has been getting better.  For the last 5 days I am getting over 87% efficiency.  Not too bad in my opinion.  For the entire month of September it has been 58%.  Feed consumption has been right at .3 lbs per hen per day for the last 5 days.  For the month of September it has been .31.  In August it was .22.  I am figuring that the increase is due to the cooler weather and will only get worse as winter arrives.

As I mentioned in a previous entry my dog destroyed the nest box on the chicken tractor in an effort to collect some eggs for himself.  I have not sealed off the opening and encouraged the hens to begin laying in the buckets system I had set up a couple months ago.  I filled the buckets with hay and placed 3 fake eggs in them.  My hope was that in a few days they would learn to use the buckets to make collecting eggs easier.  I was pleased to learn that within 10 minutes one of the birds took the clue and laid right away.  The other 2 hens followed suit within hours.  I am going to leave the fake eggs in there for a couple more days until I am confident that the chickens know what they are doing.

I made contact with a guy that lives in the next town over through the Homesteading Today website (link is on the side).  Clint is really nice and has a great setup for chickens, ducks and turkeys.  He is also developing a game bird operation to raise quail and pheasants for local farm sales.  He was nice enough to give me 14 fertile eggs so I can start to hatch out some replacements.  I am stopping by tomorrow night to get some more.  I am hoping to have a total of 24 eggs in the incubator.  Anticipating an 80% hatch rate should yield around 9-10 hens.  I know, never count your chickens before they hatch but I am shooting for 8-10 replacements in the brooder next month. The timing is not the best since I will be out of town on a business trip in Florida when they are due to hatch.  Hopefully I can get the Geiman’s to take care of the last couple days for me.  When I get back I should be back in the brooding business.

The yard needs cut at some point this week if things dry out enough.  Sarah is loving school.  Our local high school football game got canceled on Friday but was played Saturday afternoon in Hutchinson.  Sarah got to be a cheerleader for about 20 minutes.  She was so excited and happy about that opportunity.  The weather is supposed to improve this week and should be sunny and in the mid 80’s this week.  As long as it does not rain we should be fine.