INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[hogster160]

...Just kidding, but I do have something I want to say here.


My birds are Anthropomorphized Domesticated Pets as well, and beloved at that. I would do anything for these birds. I know them individually, I know what each and every one of their temperaments are like, what each one of them likes and dislikes, and how each one prefers to be held (some of them, the answer is not at all, but most have their preferred method). And don't even get me started on Frou-Frou, my darling baby who comes running to mommy when the older hens pick on her and must have her nightly visit to the house ore she mopes on the perches. I don't have any human children of my own (though I have a niece and nephew--talk about the poster children for abstinence). These birds are my children. They are that important to me.

That being said, the difference between our methods of caring for our birds is that I have taken the time to research extensively, and I have made a rational decision about what my birds need. I do not coddle them to make myself feel better in a case where the disadvantages and dangers are greater than the advantages of doing something. I am absolutely sure they appreciate the heat on a cold day. I'm equally as sure that they appreciate getting treats, but this does not mean I'm going to stop feeding them their balanced diet and only give them mealworms and table scraps. As a matter of fact, it would be more rational to provide them with air conditioning in the summertime than it would be to heat a coop. Chickens do far worse in the heat of summer than they do with cold, and this goes especially for many of the breeds you have listed in your signature (Easter-eggers and Wyandottes are practically designed to take the cold with those tiny combs and fluffy bodies).

As much as I can say it, though, I know that I can't make anyone do what they don't want to do. I do my best to educate, and from there it is out of my hands. Your flock, your choices. That is all.

I was surprised by this as well. I feel very strongly as you may have guess from my previous post. And I understand to each their own. But that is just plain stupid! Yes, wild birds have it. But which strain? Does your flock have the same strain as mine or is it different? Adding a different strain will make hell break lose in your flock. I just try to do right. My birds count on me.

 

[amwchickin]

pginsber - THANK YOU for the laugh. I totally needed this!

hogster - Thanks for the info. I don't have a dead bird yet, but I talked to someone and I'm going over there with a blood test and mucous sample. The office is actually a couple miles from my farm.

Mother2Hens - I need to get that Chicken for Dummies book. You seem to get a lot of good info from it.

julie0477 and bradselig - Thanks!

Pipd - I agree with you. I mean, I don't have any heritage breeds, but I have some pretty cool chickens and turkeys that I have really become attached to. I enjoy putting the work into these birds and what I have learned about having chickens and turkeys this year has been amazing.

I wouldn't have "met" all of you wonderful people if it hadn't been for chickens. I read through the Heritage LF posts, and while informative, it upset me. It kind of seems like some of the people posting had no heart. If I would have no choice in putting down my entire flock, it would be one thing. I understand the extra work and risks I am taking in keeping them all. I may end up putting down a couple if they don't respond to treatment, like the one that had puss dripping from its eye; I almost did it the other night because I couldn't bear to watch her sit there and struggle. But I thought, no, I'll give her a chance.

I think all I can do is what I am financially and time-wise-ly capable of.

I appreciate everyone's input, whether it was hard to listen to or it caused a stir on here. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and not everyone has birds as "pets" or "children." I don't think I can see mine as children yet, but a few of them have a special place in my heart!!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Okay, y'all, brace yourselves! I got pictures of many of my girls that are in their molts and there's a whole lot of stinkeye in these pictures!

A lot of my girls are tufty and have stopped laying, but a few stand out for their molts. Wynne, one of my Easter-eggers, has kind of gone fluffy. Her sister, Mako, was like this a few weeks ago, but has already grown in her feathers for the most part. Here's Wynne:

It's funny with this bird how she sometimes has the most evil looks, but she's really one of the most gentle birds in my flock. A little bit 'silly' sometimes, though (as in seeing a wall and running into it before she can stop herself ). I didn't get a picture of Mako because she was deep, deep in the gigantic forsythia bush.


Miss Kate the Barred Plymouth Rock and She Who Sleeps Staning Up the Partridge Plymouth Rock are both just starting their molts.

Katykins is kind of shy:

She Who was not comfortable, but let me take her picture (these girls are so pretty ):

Fancy, She Who's 'twin', is not looking so fancy at the moment, but the little diva would not let me get a picture of her! She has been all over me since she started her molt, but as soon as she saw the camera, she was out of there! Wonder why?


My poor little golden Sebrights, Rosie and Amy, decided to do a simultaneous explosive molt. Talk about moody! Rosie's a spitfire as is, but add a bad molt on top of that and you'd better stand back!

Amy:

Poor Rosie the grumpy-grump:

Scooter (otherwise known as Cuter Scooter) had her molt a few months ago and is looking so nice! She decided she didn't like me taking pictures of her molting sisters. "Nothing to see here, nothing to see." (Notice Amy in the background giving me a good stink-eye? )

Some of my other girls have already gone through their molts and are looking gorgeous now. Here's my Easter-egger Merlin, AKA 'Merl-Girl':

And the always lovely Cressida, another Easter-egger in my flock:

I had to save the best for last. Poor Diana. Try not to laugh too hard at her.

Diana's molt doesn't look too bad on the surface.

Yes, there are some pins here and there, but at least she's mostly covered, right?

Oh, the shame...

...For in fact, Diana is not covered in possibly the worst place for a hen not to be covered...

Edited because I don't know what happened to my grammar.

 

[bradselig]

Here is my last hatch I had this week. 5 little bantam Cochins of assorted colors. Silly me did write down what the colors were off the egg shells before lockdown, and of course they zipped right through the writing. I was able to piece a few together, but a couple are still a mystery
Group shots

Chick 1-black

Chick 2-mottled

Chick 3-buff columbian(pretty sure of color)

Chick 4-not sure

Chick 5-not sure

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Here is my last hatch I had this week. 5 little bantam Cochins of assorted colors. Silly me did write down what the colors were off the egg shells before lockdown, and of course they zipped right through the writing. I was able to piece a few together, but a couple are still a mystery
Group shots

Chick 1-black

Chick 2-mottled

Chick 3-buff barred (pretty sure of color)

Chick 4-not sure

Chick 5-not sure

They are really cute! hopefully once they start feathering out you will be able to tell what color the mysteries are.

 

[PeacefulWalls]

The kids and I returned home from Pennsylvania Wednesday evening. The Rabbit convention had around 27,000 rabbits (can't remember for sure how many) and over 1000 cavies (guinea pigs). The kids did well in their contests. My daughter's Indiana Intermediate rabbit judging team placed 3rd in the nation so she was pretty excited about that. Our rabbit math was quickly cured by the prices that people were asking for their rabbits for sale. A lot of prices at Nationals are double what someone would sell the same rabbit for when they returned home. We had a great trip. The fall foliage, though not at peak color yet, was beautiful. The kids got a kick out of driving through the mountain tunnels on the Pennsylvania turnpike and fell in love with the mountains in general. (personally, I was glad to be back driving in flat Indiana country after all the mountain driving!) We visited Gettysburg one day -- very moving and educational -- the kids really enjoyed it, even though it was history!! We also visited the Turkey Hill Experience where we learned about their ice cream & iced tea making processes (not the actual factory, though). We were loving the sample area where you could try all the different flavors of Turkey Hill ice cream (the Pumpkin Spice ice cream was soooo good -- only available through the end of October). We also went to Lititz in the Lancaster area and visited a small little shop -- the home of Julius Sturgis pretzels -- the founder of the pretzel that we all know today. Had a tour of the small bakery area where the first hard pretzel was ever made -- pretty amazing to see the simple origin of such a now common food. An interesting tidbit was that the pretzel was developed 150 years ago -- the same year the Civil War started. Some of our ducks started laying eggs right before we left & we've been getting 3 or 4 a day so far. My husband had stayed home while we were gone and finally got the outside duck paddock finished -- yeah!! He's wanting to finish the alpaca and chicken pasture expansions this weekend while it's still warm (or less cold!) outside. Lots to finish up outside in the next couple of days before rain/snow/cold comes again next week -- I'm not ready for this yet!!!

 

[PeacefulWalls]

Here is my last hatch I had this week. 5 little bantam Cochins of assorted colors. Silly me did write down what the colors were off the egg shells before lockdown, and of course they zipped right through the writing. I was able to piece a few together, but a couple are still a mystery
Group shots

Chick 1-black

Chick 2-mottled

Chick 3-buff barred (pretty sure of color)

Chick 4-not sure

Chick 5-not sure

sooo cute -- makes it hard to wait for next spring!!

 

[bradselig]

They are really cute! hopefully once they start feathering out you will be able to tell what color the mysteries are.

I still have the list of the colors the breeder has, just can't remember what pen they were from. The kinda have a bluish tone to them but not solid blue. So the only thing I'm seeing on her list is they could be blue silvers. Never seen them before, I'll have to google them.

The kids and I returned home from Pennsylvania Wednesday evening.  The Rabbit convention had around 27,000 rabbits (can't remember for sure how many) and over 1000 cavies (guinea pigs).  The kids did well in their contests.  My daughter's Indiana Intermediate rabbit judging team placed 3rd in the nation so she was pretty excited about that.  Our rabbit math was quickly cured by the prices that people were asking for their rabbits for sale.  A lot of prices at Nationals are double what someone would sell the same rabbit for when they returned home.  We had a great trip.  The fall foliage, though not at peak color yet, was beautiful.  The kids got a kick out of driving through the mountain tunnels on the Pennsylvania turnpike and fell in love with the mountains in general.  (personally, I was glad to be back driving in flat Indiana country after all the mountain driving!)  We visited Gettysburg one day -- very moving and educational -- the kids really enjoyed it, even though it was history!!  We also visited the Turkey Hill Experience where we learned about their ice cream & iced tea making processes (not the actual factory, though).  We were loving the sample area where you could try all the different flavors of Turkey Hill ice cream (the Pumpkin Spice ice cream was soooo good -- only available through the end of October).  We also went to Lititz in the Lancaster area and visited a small little shop -- the home of Julius Sturgis pretzels -- the founder of the pretzel that we all know today.  Had a tour of the small bakery area where the first hard pretzel was ever made -- pretty amazing to see the simple origin of such a now common food.  An interesting tidbit was that the pretzel was developed 150 years ago -- the same year the Civil War started.  Some of our ducks started laying eggs right before we left & we've been getting 3 or 4 a day so far.  My husband had stayed home while we were gone and finally got the outside duck paddock finished -- yeah!!  He's wanting to finish the alpaca and chicken pasture expansions this weekend while it's still warm (or less cold!) outside.  Lots to finish up outside in the next couple of days before rain/snow/cold comes again next week -- I'm not ready for this yet!!!

sounds like you guys had a blast! Congrats on your daughters great win!

sooo cute -- makes it hard to wait for next spring!!

ohh come on! No need to wait till spring! Thanks!

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

I still have the list of the colors the breeder has, just can't remember what pen they were from. The kinda have a bluish tone to them but not solid blue. So the only thing I'm seeing on her list is they could be blue silvers. Never seen them before, I'll have to google them.
sounds like you guys had a blast! Congrats on your daughters great win!
ohh come on! No need to wait till spring! Thanks!

I have never heard of blue silvers, i am going to google it too.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

The kids and I returned home from Pennsylvania Wednesday evening. The Rabbit convention had around 27,000 rabbits (can't remember for sure how many) and over 1000 cavies (guinea pigs). The kids did well in their contests. My daughter's Indiana Intermediate rabbit judging team placed 3rd in the nation so she was pretty excited about that. Our rabbit math was quickly cured by the prices that people were asking for their rabbits for sale. A lot of prices at Nationals are double what someone would sell the same rabbit for when they returned home. We had a great trip. The fall foliage, though not at peak color yet, was beautiful. The kids got a kick out of driving through the mountain tunnels on the Pennsylvania turnpike and fell in love with the mountains in general. (personally, I was glad to be back driving in flat Indiana country after all the mountain driving!) We visited Gettysburg one day -- very moving and educational -- the kids really enjoyed it, even though it was history!! We also visited the Turkey Hill Experience where we learned about their ice cream & iced tea making processes (not the actual factory, though). We were loving the sample area where you could try all the different flavors of Turkey Hill ice cream (the Pumpkin Spice ice cream was soooo good -- only available through the end of October). We also went to Lititz in the Lancaster area and visited a small little shop -- the home of Julius Sturgis pretzels -- the founder of the pretzel that we all know today. Had a tour of the small bakery area where the first hard pretzel was ever made -- pretty amazing to see the simple origin of such a now common food. An interesting tidbit was that the pretzel was developed 150 years ago -- the same year the Civil War started. Some of our ducks started laying eggs right before we left & we've been getting 3 or 4 a day so far. My husband had stayed home while we were gone and finally got the outside duck paddock finished -- yeah!! He's wanting to finish the alpaca and chicken pasture expansions this weekend while it's still warm (or less cold!) outside. Lots to finish up outside in the next couple of days before rain/snow/cold comes again next week -- I'm not ready for this yet!!!

The turnpike does have some great tunnels. I drove on it a few times to visit the east coast. Lots of lovely mountain views too.

I would like it very much if you post a picture of two of your duck area. This will be my first winter with ducks and I'm curious to see how others do things and handle the water.

As for the snow, I would prefer it to stay away till at least Thanksgiving but I'm thinking that won't happen this year. I'm wishing for a January like 2006. That was a very nice January but February did get us that year. That was the year I drove a box truck through the roads in PA and OH only 2 days after a huge blizzard and in the start of a standard snow storm. Fun times when PA closes the major highways and bypasses. I did not even attempt the turnpike that trip, lovely as it would have been all snow covered with iced up trees.

If you go out there again and have time there are maple farms in Vermont that have histories of how different maple products are made and the candy wow almost worth the trip. Very addicting stuff though. There are maple farms in Indiana too though. But the history behind Maple groves in VT is quite interesting and appeals to children as it started out as a candy place.