INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[LeahFreeman]

I always welcome roosters. Once you know, send me a PM and will work out details.

I have a pair, can holler when she is laying.

So far its only the one county thankfully. If the rooster is the only roo, thats commonly the cause for human aggression.

Mine are not laying yet, but I know @racinchickins
ducks are.
I keep Blacks and Lavenders. Some of my hens still throw chocolate chicks, but none are laying yet here.

I have a very dry house lol its old! So my humidity can drop to 10% if I don't monitor daily. We have electric heat only and that makes it worse. Incubation should be at least 40% humidity. I try to be at 70% humidity at lockdown. Everyones situation is different, I have a sportsman cabinet so I rotate eggs weekly. Auto turner is a definite help. For me, its best to have a cheap still air incubator going just for a hatcher, then my incubating eggs in the cabinet are not exposed to constant drastic humidity changes.

I've been monitoring the air sac growth and my incubator and I are just working on getting a cooperation going on lol. I'm learning as I go but it keeps trying to go high with very little water but too low with no water so I'm tweaking as I go. So far tho they seem to be progressing as all my reasons say they should. Fingers crossed!

 

[LeahFreeman]

Set 15 Muscovy eggs in the bator! Here's to a long good hatch!! Fingers crossed!

My first ever .. I'm so nervous!

DDAY is approximately 3/11 soooo .. now i wait!

I'm in the same boat - I don't have my notebook next to me but I believe we're on day 12. Fingers crossed cuz this is our first set of ducks as well.

 

[farmguy2007]

Big thanks to @jchny2000,was a pleasure to meet ya'll,your ever growing flock is awesome,and beautiful!! I got some just gorgeous lavender and buff guineas! Thank you all again,hope to see you guys at some events in the near future..FG07

 

[Indyshent]

Big thanks to @jchny2000,was a pleasure to meet ya'll,your ever growing flock is awesome,and beautiful!! I got some just gorgeous lavender and buff guineas! Thank you all again,hope to see you guys at some events in the near future..FG07

Nice to meet you, too (and your wife and Courtney!). Hope the guineas work out for you, but if you've got lots of woods at your new place, you may want some more. They're amazing watchdogs and tick-fiends.

 

[Faraday40]

I'm caught up with posts, but wanted to ask @Faraday40 about this darling photo of teacher and pupil! I know that in animal training, it's important to immediatelygive the reward (that's about all I know). What did your DD tell Bubbles to do? "Peck at the red chip." ? Is this part of a series of tasks or what? Just curious and wanting to try something like that.
I've mentioned many times before that I sing (out of tune) the lullaby, "Hush little baby" to my hens when they are ready for bed because it decreases "arguments" and settles them down. They watch for my signals of slowly closing my eyes off and on and then they close their eyes. (If any new people on the thread are reading this, I hope I am not scaring them away! Haha) Tonight, I softly sang it to my new Lacy who's in quarantine in a bedroom. She started closing her eyes and going to sleep! (She might have been closing her eyes to pretend I wasn't there!) So as far as training, I've done some unplanned training (one night I was humming which led to the lullaby, etc.), but I'd like teach my hens some tricks!
Reptiles do that. If there's something they're unsure about, they will "zone out" in defense. It's their way of hiding from the stress.

Of course, Lacy is probably more comforted by the sound of your voice, so it's a good thing.

Right now Bubbles is quite an expert & very quick to pick up on new tricks.

DD started out by tapping the red chip with her finger. When Bubbles pecked at it, DD used a clicker to make a sound & placed a cup of mealworms in front of the hen. A few seconds later, Bubbles pecked at the chip again, heard the clicker, & got another mealworm reward. What chicken wouldn't want a cup of mealworms to magically appear? Bubbles learned to associate the red chip, the click sound, & the mealworms as a very good thing. Once the hen caught on, DD added a white chip (no reward given). Oh you could see her little brain try to figure out why the white chip did not cause the mealworms to appear. She kept pecking at it then got frustrated & walked away. DD called her back & showed her the red chip next to the white one. When she hit the red one, the mealworms came back!! Oh Joy! She went to town pecking at the red chip & getting her mealworms. When it was moved, she searched for & found it.

The next day, Bubbles remembered the lovely red chip & mostly ignored the white chip. More colors were added, Bubbles tested some of them, but we could see her looking for the red chip. Because the clicker is also associated with the reward, DD can immediately click when the action is done to tell Bubbles she did well. When DD tried to reward every 3rd click, Bubbles changed her behavior to peck 3xs in a row then stopped to wait for her mealworm. Since then, DD has moved on to cards in the more recent training sessions. She starts off with the card that will be connected with the treat. Once it's in the the hen's memory, she adds the distraction cards. I used the same methods to train Cuddles, but I'm very impressed with how quickly Bubbles makes connections.

We're also training our Sebright, Trouble. (Not for fun. We just need to) That bird is so fast (not to mention an expert flyer), I would never be able to catch her. I've been saying, "UP" and putting out my hand or arm for her to climb on to. When she does, I allow her to dip her beak into the cup of scratch grains I'm holding. Then I say down & put my arm near a roost or chair or coop roof, etc. so she can hop off. When I say "UP" again she jumps back onto my arm & can grab a little more scratch. Too many times, Trouble has tried to land on my head or shoulder. Although I'm glad she thinks I'm a safe place to land, it freaks me out a little. My goal is to get her to come on command - or at least when I hold the treat cup. DD also works with Trouble, but Bubbles will be her primary pupil. There are times when you need to grab a chicken, & Trouble's the only one that doesn't like to be picked up. If we can train her to come to us, that's just as good.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Picked up 8 quality black copper maran week old chicks today!!
Been wanting them for awhile now.
Chick count to date is
Brooder
4-EE's
6-Sussex
4-ISA Browns
10-light brahma's
2-cuckoo Marans
2-black australorps
3-barred rocks
8-black copper Marans
Eggs In the incubator
8-cuckoo maran
4-LF salmon favaroll
8-our own barn yard mix
I believe this is going to be a busy year and just think chick days haven't even started yet!!

Oh my, you already have a handful! I am trying to make myself wait til march, but I did set 2 test eggs last night, one chocolate orp and one AM.. And another tray of quail lol. My Midget white turkeys are laying, so I have will be setting them also! I guess I will have chicks before march, lol.

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JG are best through a breeder to get that true size. @racinchickins had some that were impressive. Leghorn can be flighty types, but wow they sure lay well! I have a trio here, I need to get them in a breeder coop.

Hi

I am looking for a member that posts here. He (I think a he) lives in North Vernon In. and has or raises polish and if I am remembering right ,tolbunts. I am looking for some hatching eggs or a few chicks . Please contact me via pm. Thanks

I wonder if thats not @pbirdhaven I know she has Tolbunt. @bradselig did but sold his flock, and he is closer to warren.

I'm caught up with posts, but wanted to ask @Faraday40 about this darling photo of teacher and pupil! I know that in animal training, it's important to immediately give the reward (that's about all I know). What did your DD tell Bubbles to do? "Peck at the red chip." ? Is this part of a series of tasks or what? Just curious and wanting to try something like that.

I love the lullaby idea, oh my I would scare them all out of the coop lol!
Thanks so much, We find out Monday if its a go. I hate car shopping with a passion. I print out NADA and Kelly Blue book specs on what we want, and look online for the models before we even leave the house. DH goes and drives what I found, then I get a parent sitter so we can both go to buy it.. what a pain. Once I get to the dealership, I drive it too, and tell them.. you make this work within these numbers and I will buy it. Period, I will not pay stupid prices for a used truck.
We keep trucks a really long time, so its something I sure will invest time in researching. I look for recalls, mechanical issues that are common for a make or year. What replacement parts cost for common issues like brakes, starters etc.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Holy moly, I'm going to spend myself blind on urban gardening this year

Hear ya! I have a nice large plot. If you need more room to plant feel free to do i here! DH will till more if needed.

DH and I took my mother to dinner at our favorite Mexican place last night, She loves it when we take her there, the waiter kept calling her honey.. lol momma don't like it much when KIDS s she says, calls her honey dear or ?? but I had to laugh just couldn't help it, she would tell herself " be good, I got to be good"... lol
Then DH and I went to big lots and walked off the great food both of us ate too much of!!
Then we went home.................. to find baby goats greeting us at the door with the dogs, ( not supposed to be free ranging the house), trash lined the floors from 1 end of the house to the other and 2 bloody heads!! Our GP had got into a fight!!!
Buddy ( the bigger 1 ) got the worst of it, his eye looks real bad ( could be me just being a worry wort ) so I call our vets ER number and get a RECORDING telling us to call this other number to the ER animal clinic in TH!!! WTH!!!! Sooo I call the number and in talking to the woman that answered the phone I got that in this clinic they keep a vet in house until midnight and then the vets got on call.. And it is $90.00 just to walk in the door!!! My vet ER charge is $45.00. I ask who the vet was that was on duty because is was only 9 pm and it is Well I'm not going to name him I don't like him 1 little bit!!! He don't care about the pet he only cares about the money he can get from it!!! They are 2 that are a husband wife team and they both are the same way!!
Anyway I get off the phone and tell DH I will take care of Buddy myself until Monday and then I can take him in to see OUR vet, and you can bet I will let him know I am not happy about being redirected to that slaughter house!!
And what if I had a large animal ER was I just supposed to watch them die? My vet is the only large animal vet in town, the next closest is 40 minutes away in 0 traffic!!
Anyway I cleaned Buddy up the best I could and started him on antibiotics and am keeping my fingers crossed he will not lose the eye.

I am so sorry hope his eye is ok. Thats the thing, I hate lo leave the house, even when I have a parent sitter.. Every time I do something seems to happen to my critters!

I spent last night sitting up with my sweet Layla dog as she passed away.

Rest in peace loyal protector.

If anyone here has a dog that needs Proin for incontinence, I have a big bottle of it available that was recently opened. PM if you need it.

I am so sorry, She looks like she was so precious. I lost my Rommel, a rottie to cancer at 9 and my Bear a german shepherd to kidney failure at 4 years old. Its terribly hard,painful to lose them. Makes it difficult to keep a dog again.

How many here put hatching eggs into an old egg carton or some kind of tray for hatching? I've been just laying them on their side in the incubator. Considering using an old egg carton this time to cut down on the mess and eggs rolling all over the place.

I tried it. My chicks got caught up in the trays and had some splay. May go better with the paper type carton, my trays are the GQF type made of plastic.

 

[Faraday40]

How many here put hatching eggs into an old egg carton or some kind of tray for hatching? I've been just laying them on their side in the incubator. Considering using an old egg carton this time to cut down on the mess and eggs rolling all over the place.

I tried it once thinking I'd get a better hatch. (The early hatchers can't rock & roll the unhatched eggs.) I had 1/2 in paper egg carton (bottoms cut out) & 1/2 on their side. There was no difference. Both hatched equal %. The ones upright in the carton may have taken a little longer.

 

[kittydoc]

Off topic, CONGRATULATIONS to the Denver Broncos and to our beloved Peyton Manning on his second Superbowl Ring and probably his last professional football game. I don't have a thing against the Panthers, just rooting for Peyton. He didn't play very well, but their defense and special teams were great. Poor Cam Newton just fell apart (had to be nerves). I'm sure he'll be back and some day wear a Superbowl Ring of his own.

With that, we resume our normal chicken programming. Thank you, and goodnight!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:
Sounds awesome, I bet you have a good hatch!

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Exciting I just love my mallard and the scovys. They are harder to hatch then mallard types.

Big thanks to @jchny2000,was a pleasure to meet ya'll,your ever growing flock is awesome,and beautiful!! I got some just gorgeous lavender and buff guineas! Thank you all again,hope to see you guys at some events in the near future..FG07

It was so awesome to meet you all, and I hope the guinea settle in well for you. We have a lot of birds as you have seen lol. Many are free range and my specific breeds are cooped for breeding. My goal is to not buy meats at the grocery, DH still bargain shops;

Quote: They sure love trees!