INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[DarthLayer]

[COLOR=333333]This morning my lil guy had taken a turn for the worse.  He was completely covered in maggots this morning.  I thought I was going to die.  He was in my walk out basement but apparently a fly made it in.  I bathed him in warm water and wrapped him in a towel.  Since he was wet I could get a better look at him.  He had a laceration on his under belly near his vent that I could not see before because of all his fluffiness.  It wasnt deep, but it was there and I missed it.  My vet was awesome. I went to Hillview in Franklin.  She has her own flock and I think that helps.  She took a[/COLOR][COLOR=333333] full flock history and then a history on my individual little guy that was down. After all was said and done and after looking at X-rays it did appear he had trauma to his spinal cord, probably from my other silkie roo. I had him put down. I feel horrible for it but I think I did the right thing. My vet made a call to purdue and they will do a necropsy free of charge (its normally $125 now, I don't know how she got this deal for me) to rule out other causes. I have a friend that wants one of my birds but I'm not bringing any birds in or letting them leave until tests are back. Better safe than sorry. I'm pretty sad. I never get used to losing a bird.[/COLOR]

I'm sorry for your loss. You did the best you could for him and I know that had to be a very hard decision.

 

[pginsber]

This morning my lil guy had taken a turn for the worse. .... I'm pretty sad. I never get used to losing a bird.

I'm sorry for your loss. You were an awesome mom for the lil guy!

 

[kabhyper1]

This morning my lil guy had taken a turn for the worse. He was completely covered in maggots this morning. I thought I was going to die. He was in my walk out basement but apparently a fly made it in. I bathed him in warm water and wrapped him in a towel. Since he was wet I could get a better look at him. He had a laceration on his under belly near his vent that I could not see before because of all his fluffiness. It wasnt deep, but it was there and I missed it. My vet was awesome. I went to Hillview in Franklin. She has her own flock and I think that helps. She took a full flock history and then a history on my individual little guy that was down. After all was said and done and after looking at X-rays it did appear he had trauma to his spinal cord, probably from my other silkie roo. I had him put down. I feel horrible for it but I think I did the right thing. My vet made a call to purdue and they will do a necropsy free of charge (its normally $125 now, I don't know how she got this deal for me) to rule out other causes. I have a friend that wants one of my birds but I'm not bringing any birds in or letting them leave until tests are back. Better safe than sorry. I'm pretty sad. I never get used to losing a bird.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Old Salt 1945]

Odd. So when you're married, your red sexlinks turn into Buff Orpingtons and your roosters' feathers frizzle?

I don't make the rules. I only report the facts as they're made available to me.

John

 

[PeacefulWalls]

We had a little rain and it's been cool since, but beautiful and sunny. That's perfectly alright with me! I made the mistake of falling asleep with my window open last night, though. I think I had icicles hanging from my nose by this morning.

We actually had a little bit of frost that needed to be scraped off the windshield this past Saturday morning. Way too early for that in my opinion -- I still want to get a late crop of lettuce & spinach planted yet & I'm running out of time!

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Since n one probably saw my post what to do about my broody, could I let her hatch silkie eggs in a large fowl coop? Im annoyingly desperate for advice on her. Sorry everyone. I just dont have a place to break her. Im worried for her health though being 6 months old.

Personally I think if you watch her close and make sure she gets food and water, then she could hatch the eggs. But if you are really busy or can't make it out to the coop area 3-5 times a day to check and make sure she is eating I would try and get a pair of chicks for her. Let her raise the chicks for a couple of week then rehome them if you don't have the space. Or you could get her a pair of cornish cross chicks and have meat in 2 months and if you did not want the cornish chicks you can bring them to me.

Quote: Sorry I skimmed over your question. I like john's idea of the shoes but I'm not sure others would. What we do is try to have the chickens in an isolation pen. Then most people stay in our driveway where they can see the chickens while we catch them from the pen. Some times if the chicks are still little they are in the house and the buyers don't go near the chicken back yard. That said , I can't keep people from stopping and looking at my chickens. And up until I got my heritage RIR I didn ot have anything special. Still the people were stopping and some asked others did not. We ran off a few couples that were just being noisy and walking around the yard to see the hens but for the most part people stayed on the driveway. I was thinking of getting a replacement mean roo and putting him in the front yard. People rarely left their cars when we had multiple production RIR roos crowing and flapping at them. Still I think I'll stick to my rules of no mean roosters. Those RIR boys kept hoping my fence and I would walk out into the chicken area to find a big mean rooster glaring at me.

 

[racinchickins]

I'll do my best. Maybe be using my broody cochin instead of the incubator lol. Apparently she thinks her calling is brooding and not laying at 6 months old.

I saw you said you have aquariums. I don't suppose you have any use for Kenyi cichlids or an 10 in or 13 inch pleco? We have a 50 gallon I am thinking of getting rid of, but I would like to find homes for the fish.

A 50g aquarium can make a nice brooder for just hatched chicks....... I used a spare tank of mine, and it worked really well until they needed more room.

I was wondering about the olive egger thing. So EE's and Olive eggers are one in the same? Just depends on their linage?

This is true. EE's are not a true breed at all. They are mostly mixes with Aracauna/Ameracauna ancestry. This gives them the blue egg laying gene (usually). If you then mate them with a chicken that lays dark brown eggs (Marans, Welsummer, etc...) then you can/may (depending on genetics of the parents) get a pullet with both the blue egg and brown egg genes that in combination give you an Olive Egg layer.

Thankyou all!!!!! Update on the broody ......... After I put her in the run with the others last night before bedtime,I went out to the coop at 9ish and she was sleeping in the nesting box, I figured for sure broody. SO I went out there this morning, a little late, so they were all up and around in the coop, and the little stinker was on the roost with the other chickens. When I let them out she went out with them, got a drink out of the alpaca pool (their preferred watering hole, even though they have 2 waterers in the coop

) and went to get the morning scratch I give them. I will go out and check on her in a bit, but I'm not going to put eggs under her if she only wants to be broody during the day and part of the night. LOL ditzy Cochins and Silkies , gotta love 'em.

Are you sure she's broody? At 6 mths has she even laid eggs yet? Although I wouldn't say it won't happen, I've never heard of broody before egg laying. Although I have two broodies that started within a month of two after laying for the first time. I also have another one that I find in the nest boxes a lot, but it is because that is her hiding place of choice if she is getting picked on. She'll happily sleep in there for hours during the day if she is feeling a bit beat up.

 

[Mother2Hens]

This photo is presented for documentary purposes and is not intended to depict any persons, real or imagined. Nor should this presentation be construed to represent any comment for or against any situations encountered in life or imagined life situations for the purpose of any and all or even somewhat real or proposed comfort of situations of relevance to other situations or places of interest in any manner.

John

Pipd posted ~ Odd. So when you're married, your red sexlinks turn into Buff Orpingtons and your roosters' feathers frizzle?

Haha, good catch Pipd. And the rooster didn't frizzle, he was poorly Photoshopped!
racinchickins posted ~
A 50g aquarium can make a nice brooder for just hatched chicks....... I used a spare tank of mine, and it worked really well until they needed more room.
That's what we used -- we luckily had kept the one our bearded dragon used before he died of old age. Using an aquarium for a brooder was handy since it made an excellent Chicken TV.
julie0477~ My condolences on your roo. It is sad, but you did the right thing in caring for him and also taking him in to be checked. So did the vet think that all of his problems were due to injuries? It's easy not to notice problems because of all the feathers. I have overlooked questionable issues because I don't sort through all of their feathers every day. As much as my EE gets pecked in the coop at bedtime, I should probably check her skin more often.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Got the rest of my shipped eggs today. They are now sitting in our basement. And either tomorrow night or Thursday morning I will be setting 28 eggs 10 CL and 18 Sumatras. I'm hoping for stripped chicks and blue chicks. Not that my black sumatra is ugly, he actually has some nice coloring when I get up close but I want a blue hen.

 

[julie0477]

M2h - she thought it looked as though one of the larger Roos pounced on him. She did an X-ray and there was a part of his spine that looked fractured and had swelling. She didn't know if he would recover and said if it were hers she'd put it down for quality of life issues, etc. (sigh). She did understand my concern for disease and worked out the necropsy with purdue. I am so torn up. I need to toughen up. I know the chances of things going awry go way up when you acquire as many birds as I did this year. It's just hard!

Thanks everyone for the condolences and for letting me vent my concerns about disease etc. I appreciate it