INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Leahs Mom]

Sally - I purposely observed for hawks today on my way home from work. In a very short space I saw 3 hawks. All very actively hunting.

Guess the migration isn't over yet! Unless these guys decide to stay here.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Forgot to say - one thing I noticed when mamma was just bringing the little ones out...she kept those kiddos really close to the hen house even when the gate was open and all the others were long-gone. She did that for at least the first 4 weeks so she was exhibiting some common sense in being close to the cover of the hen house.

I still didn't let the gate open after they were going out until I was at home to check on them frequently, though.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

FF will freeze, I keep it in the laundry room in the winter,
I watch their intake, and increase what I feed until theres only a tiny bit left when feeding out.
In very cold weather I do feed meatbird crumble also, FF. They need the protein and carbs to help keep warm.
Not sure how thats going to work this year, but I dont have any barn cats left so thats 2 less buckets.
My oldest DD took the small female in, and my old guy has been missing for weeks. I am sure around Christmas more will show up tho .

ok. If i put it in my under ground celler, itshouldnt freeze, right? I am sureyou will get a ton if kittens right around new years.all the little kids will lose intrest in their christmas present by then.

awe your rooster sounds amazing

thanks he is a sweet heart

 

[kabhyper1]

Here are all the little ones. We lost the littlest partridge today. I think it didn't develop right. It was way smaller than the others.

This is the partridge I have left. I named it Henley. Partridges look like a sunrise to me, and the Eagles sang Tequila Sunrise so It got the name Henley.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Here are all the little ones. We lost the littlest partridge today. I think it didn't develop right. It was way smaller than the others. This is the partridge I have left. I named it Henley. Partridges look like a sunrise to me, and the Eagles sang Tequila Sunrise so It got the name Henley.

sorry about your loss but the others look adorable.

 

[pbirdhaven]

Temps in the 30's and the chicks are fine. THey are out in the coop unseperated from the flock of 33 adults being raised by two Jersey Giants. All goes well and HappyHappyHappy, Here is a videoI took this morning of them.. I caught them getting piggyback rides on the mommas..

Love the "Easy Riders"!

I had marked other quotes to reply to, but this is the only one that showed up. So welcome, newbies, condolences on losses, and the pics are all great.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Sally - I purposely observed for hawks today on my way home from work. In a very short space I saw 3 hawks. All very actively hunting.

Guess the migration isn't over yet! Unless these guys decide to stay here.

I'm thinking your area is bound to clear up at least a day or two before mine. I'm hoping the cold nights will send them south real fast. I saw one today over my yard maybe 150 feet up and it was swooping down. My chickens were not even out really, they were all huddled under the hawk cover trying to stay warm. The puppies were out though. I did not even bother telling the hawk to go away like I typically would. I just can't see the hawk attacking a puppy.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Well we did not get very far on the new coop walls tonight but we did get the chicken door 95% installed. Took a touch longer since we choose to do a recessed install to hopefully keep the ice and snow off of it.
Patrick, did you do anything to prevent a draft from coming in all of those gear holes in the door?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
Depends on how big the puppies are. They do take cats and small dogs.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

[COLOR=FF0000]Pipd - [/COLOR]Symptoms are: white discharge from eyes, and then skin around eyes is full of crusties (great medical term!). Runny noses, rasping and gurgling. Roosters not crowing. All have kind of extend their necks and open their mouths to breath. A little lethargic. I think there is a smell coming from them, but not sure if it's the eyes or their breath. I do see a lot of light colored diarrhea. It seems as if their wattles have all shrunk too.

Some chickens have no symptoms and seem fine. The turkeys seem fine as well; they always kind of hack, but I suspect they do that because they forget to take a drink once in awhile when they eat and get a little choked up.

I have been getting no more than 3 eggs a day from 11 laying birds. (I do throw them out).

[COLOR=0000CD]Webechickens - [/COLOR]I think that is exactly what happened here. I brought home a couple new birds, one had lice or mites and I quickly got that nipped. After the month long quarantine period I let them out and then everyone started getting sick. 


Thanks for the help guys!

I am so sorry, I really am. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think one of your newcomers has brought in something nasty. The awful, horrible thing about quarantine is that if you follow it as written, there is no way of knowing if a bird is a carrier of a disease it may have had treated before it came into your care. The only way to know for sure is sacrificing one of your birds by putting it into quarantine alongside the newcomers. If there is something carried by the new birds that they are not showing symptoms of, then the sacrificed bird will show symptoms and you know you're dealing with something.

From the symptoms described, if there is a smell from either the mouth or the eyes, it sounds like Infectious Coryza. If not, it could be a number of other things. Mycoplasma gallisepticum is the one most similar to Coryza from what I'm reading, and often if there are symptoms of Coryza but no bad smell, most people say it is MG. I would lean toward Coryza as MG affects turkeys and your turkeys don't seem ill. There is no way to confirm it without testing, and I'm not sure how one would go about testing their flock. In either case, though, it leaves the birds as asymptomatic carriers for the rest of their lives, sometimes with intermittent times of shedding the disease and occasional outbreaks of it even if it has been treated and passed. With MG, the disease passes through the eggs to any offspring.


It is up to you what you do now. Many, many people say to cull the flock, thoroughly clean the coop and yard, and start new. This does not have to be the case, though, if you're willing to keep a closed flock and be biosecure. Erythromycin treats both Coryza and MG, if you can find it. It might be under brand name Gallimycin. If you can't find it, Sulfadimethoxine, Sulfamethazine, or Tetracycline are recommended for Coryza and tylosin, spectinomycin, and lincomycin are recommended for MG. I don't know the dosages off hand, but I can try to find them for you if you need me to. Keep in mind that even if you treat them, they will still be carriers of the disease and infect any new chickens that come onto your property.


As a final word, I would like to mention that I have no medical or veterinary training and as such, I can't definitively say that I'm 100% right with my diagnosis. I came to this conclusion after a lot of searching and I didn't come to this conclusion lightly. If you have a vet that checks your birds, you should always trust their recommendations over mine.

Wishing you the best of luck with your birds.