INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Too Fast]

Pipd, sorry to hear about Cricket.

How's everybody's chickens doing in the snow? Ours love it...................................not!

We are still getting 30 eggs/week from our 7 girls who were so cute and tiny last March!

The leghorns won't touch the snow lol.

 

[Mother2Hens]

Thank you for your condolences, everyone. I think I'm over the initial shock of finding her now and I've gotten myself calmed down enough to think.
Cricket had no offspring, but I do still have four of her sisters at least. They're all grumpy from molting, though.

I ended up giving Margie, my Silkie from Brad, lots of hugs against her will. Boy, did she have a few things to say about it! The girls seem to always know when something's wrong and a lot of them were following me around this morning. My sweet ladies.

I understand where you're coming from in asking, but I do know that this was from the cold. Cricket was the hen I posted a few days ago after my mom crocheted her a sweater. She had almost no feathers left except on her head and wings, and I don't think she could keep warm enough on her own after falling off the perches. She was about 2 1/2 years old.



Just to be clear, the rest of my hens are perfectly healthy and fine with the cold. Under normal circumstances, Cricket likely would have been fine, too. However, since she had lost so many feathers, she was not able to keep warm and she had been struggling. I was trying to avoid getting her used to the indoor temperature of my house so that she wouldn't have issues outside once her feathers grew in. She had the sweater on, and I had also prepared for her a 'huddle box' full of pine shavings and molted feathers. I think that believing she would be fine under these conditions, especially after going from a 50 degree day to a 25 degree day so suddenly, was my mistake. If I had it to do over again, I would probably have brought Cricket in overnight and let her spend supervised time outside during the day.

This does not change my belief that chickens don't need a heated coop in the wintertime. I want to make sure everyone reading this understands that though I lost Cricket to the cold, it does not mean that all chickens need supplemental heat. This is the first hen I've lost to the cold in 8 1/2 years of them living in uninsulated and unheated coops, and as I said before, under normal circumstances it would not have happened. I know that if I had heated my coop for Cricket's sake that, though she may still be around, I would have had 37 hens intolerant of the cold instead of just the one. It was the hard molt that Cricket was going through that did her in in the end.

To reiterate, a hen that is fully feathered does not need any supplemental heat at all in order to survive the winter. If you take nothing else away from this post, at least take that.

pipd ~ I felt a little teary-eyed when I saw your post about Cricket!

Her photos of her fashionable saddles will circulate the Internet forever.

And don't worry, I didn't automatically think that you should have heated your coop. I know I am in the minority to heat mine a little with a heat emitting ceramic bulb, but I looked at the thermometer in the coop this morning at 6:30 and it was ten degrees, so my hens aren't exactly living the high life . . . except maybe their room/coop service. Today I coaxed them outside for a while by putting some towels down outside their coop where the sun was shining and serving plates of warm pasta with coconut oil and chopped peanuts and sunflower seeds. Jersey would take a piece of pasta in her mouth and walk back into the coop to eat it! Reminded me of brown cow's pics of her black chickens making a U-turn back into the coop.

I'm just worried about them being bored. If only Nene's piano would arrive!

Note to CCCHICKENS - The seller contacted me and said she is sending it. Nene is looking over some Christmas songs.

 

[Mother2Hens]

I am happy to report that Jules is back to her old self today. Before I took her back out, I tried my hand at a hen saddle. I have decided to try to make one for each of my girls. She took to it just fine.


Here she is sporting her new dress.

kabhyper ~ I hope it's lined with Alpaca fleece!
Too Fast ~ Good to see your post! I felt lucky again today to get two eggs-- one from my RIR and one from my SLW. They have to cross a few feet of snow to get to their preferred laying place in the garage (privacy issues), and then they return to the coop to escape the white stuff.
jchny ~ That is so cool about your Dad and his Tolburt roo from bradselig. Brad even produces tame roos-- what a breeding talent!
CCCHICKENS ~ That's also a great story about your mom bonding with chickens. As I grew up, it seemed to be common knowledge (ignorance, actually) that chickens were dirty and dumb. I have been pleasantly surprised since my daughter brought home chicks a year ago March!

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

[COLOR=A52A2A]pipd[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]~ I felt a little teary-eyed when I saw your post about Cricket![/COLOR]  [COLOR=8B4513]Her photos of her fashionable saddles will circulate the Internet forever. [/COLOR]

[COLOR=8B4513]And don't worry, I didn't automatically think that you should have heated your coop. I know I am in the minority to heat mine a little with a heat emitting ceramic bulb, but I looked at the thermometer in the coop this morning at 6:30 and it was ten degrees, so my hens aren't exactly living the high life . . . except maybe their room/coop service. Today I coaxed them outside for a while by putting some towels down outside their coop where the sun was shining and serving plates of warm pasta with coconut oil and chopped peanuts and sunflower seeds. Jersey would take a piece of pasta in her mouth and walk back into the coop to eat it! Reminded me of brown cow's pics of her black chickens making a U-turn back into the coop.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=8B4513]I'm just worried about them being bored. If only Nene's piano would arrive![/COLOR]

[COLOR=8B4513]Note to CCCHICKENS - The seller contacted me and said she is sending it. Nene is looking over some Christmas songs. [/COLOR]

Awesome, I will be expecting a youtube video of her playing mozart bu new years lol

[COLOR=008000]kabhyper[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]~ I hope it's lined with Alpaca fleece![/COLOR]
[rule][COLOR=000080]Too Fast[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]~ Good to see your post! I felt lucky again today to get two eggs-- one from my RIR and one from my SLW. They have to cross a few feet of snow to get to their preferred laying place in the garage (privacy issues), and then they return to the coop to escape the white stuff.[/COLOR]
[rule][COLOR=A52A2A]jchny[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]~ That is so cool about your Dad and his Tolburt roo from bradselig. Brad even produces tame roos-- what a breeding talent![/COLOR]
[rule][COLOR=800080]CCCHICKENS[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]~ That's also a great story about your mom bonding with chickens. As I grew up, it seemed to be common knowledge (ignorance, actually) that chickens were dirty and dumb. I have been pleasantly surprised since my daughter brought home chicks a year ago March![/COLOR]

Alfie is really the only one she messes with though, she will spend time wih her frequently when it get warmer. Before I got alfie in october she never messed with them i would bring one up to her and she would pet he and that was it. She went to alfie all on her own. My grandma is a stubborn lady she wont hange her mind about birds bein dirty lol. I personally love all kings of birds. Not paricularlly a fan of budgies though, it takes a lot if work to get them to ca down. I want a blue gold macaw or an all blue one. But they are really rxpensive and I dont have that much money. And unlike a majority I know what I am getting myself into. I wouldnt get one until building a huge inclised run to fly it in. But I wouldnt want to put all that money in it when I will just have to rebuild it. Realistically I wont ge one for at least a few years. On a good note I know someone who flies their macaws in the open so I would have a mentor

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

I got 1 egg today and 1 yesterday. ( I widh I could use symbols ) besides simley and froney face

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote:

Our ducks have usually all laid by 7am -- sometimes a few later. We're not usually out in the barn much earlier than that, so I'm not sure when the actual laying happens! We were getting eggs laid all over the coop until my husband got some nest boxes made for them. Now most all of the eggs are in the boxes, except for the girls who decided to lay eggs in a nest they made behind a hay bale (they saw the chickens finding hiding places for their eggs & decided they needed a hiding place of their own!) We haven't had any frozen eggs yet. Are your girls laying in the middle of the night? It would seem like eggs would take a few hours to freeze solid and crack. Maybe you should experiment with an egg in your freezer -- see how many hours is takes for it to freeze and crack & that might help determine when they were laid ?????

My freezer freezes store bought jumbo chicken eggs in about an hour. My freezer is set at -10F though making the coop warmer than my freezer. I would think I had at least an hour to get out there. Maybe they are laying in the dark.
Do you have a picture of these duck nesting boxes? I have tried a few different styles of boxes on the floor and none of them got used. At least the 2 ducks I have are laying in the same duck made nest for now. But lately it has been in a far corner under the roosting bars. I don't like walking around our roosting bar set up to get the eggs and would love to have a nesting box my ducks liked.

Pipd, sorry to hear about Cricket.

How's everybody's chickens doing in the snow? Ours love it...................................not!

We are still getting 30 eggs/week from our 7 girls who were so cute and tiny last March!

The leghorns won't touch the snow lol.

I made my RIR breeder rooster very very mad today when I put him on the gravel under the exterior nesting boxes of our smaller coop. He had to take about 3 steps in the snow shoveled path to get back in the coop but he crowed and squawked for over 20 minutes. I did not want to upset the hens so they did not get tossed out. My two non breeding roos got tossed out of the larger coop but just spend the day under it. They would not even get on the steps to go back in when I tossed corn on the steps. These are the steps I use so not the tunnel steps typically used by the hens.

Leah's Mom, the snow is harder to get off of the hen stairs than we planned, at least someone saw that coming. I have some hinges, so as soon as it warms up DH will be modifying the chicken stairs to have either the top or side hinge open for me to brush off the snow. Hoping for a warm up during the winter. Otherwise cabin fever will get really high as the chickens won't go down their tunnel to get to the run if they see snow on those stairs. I even thought of dumping hot water on the stairs but feared it would turn to ice.

Old Salt, we had to add a grid to the feeder, our chickens did fine for two days but something happened last night. They just decided to try and empty the feeder of a week's worth of food by scratching it out onto the coop floor. For now we are using the netting scraps from the 2" netting on ebay I got over a yr a go. We did not have any cattle panel scraps.

 

[danand]

Pip- I'm so sorry to hear about your girl. I had several girls doing a heavy molt and was worried about them getting feathers in time for cold.

 

[PeacefulWalls]

PW - what kind of feed to you give your girls?

I think this was for me (?) Our feed mill carries ADM so we use Pen Pals egg maker for the chicken and their duck pellets. I just get everything there since we also feed Pen Pals for the rabbits. I'd love to go organic feed, but our monthly feed bill with all the animals is really high already without doubling the cost for organic

.

I'm just worried about them being bored. If only Nene's piano would arrive!

Note to CCCHICKENS - The seller contacted me and said she is sending it. Nene is looking over some Christmas songs.

So we shouldn't be surprised if a flock of chickens wearing crocheted shawls come caroling at our doors accompanied on the piano by Nene for Christmas?!!

My freezer freezes store bought jumbo chicken eggs in about an hour. My freezer is set at -10F though making the coop warmer than my freezer. I would think I had at least an hour to get out there. Maybe they are laying in the dark.
Do you have a picture of these duck nesting boxes? I have tried a few different styles of boxes on the floor and none of them got used. At least the 2 ducks I have are laying in the same duck made nest for now. But lately it has been in a far corner under the roosting bars. I don't like walking around our roosting bar set up to get the eggs and would love to have a nesting box my ducks liked.

I asked my husband what size he made the boxes. He used 1x6 boards cut 12" -- so a 12"x12" box. Since he was using scrap wood I think one had a higher back & one had slightly higher sides. We wanted to see if they liked more "privacy", but it doesn't really seem to have made a difference. He also left them bottomless and we just put them on the coop floor & filled with straw. They seemed to know what the boxes were for and started using them right away. I asked him if he wanted to go out & take a picture -- hopefully tomorrow! He was working in the barn all afternoon and was tired of the cold. Plus, he & my son just put in his new The Hobbit DVD. Wanted to watch it again before Part 2 comes out in the theaters next week. Middle Earth takes top priority around here sometimes!!

 

[CluckAcres]

Hello how has everyone been? It's been awhile since i have been on here. I still have my flock and always looking for more. Its been a very busy year for me and can't wait for it to warm up already.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Hello how has everyone been? It's been awhile since i have been on here. I still have my flock and always looking for more. Its been a very busy year for me and can't wait for it to warm up already.

Hi, good to see you on again. I know Pretty much veryones chickens arent liking the snow. My white rocks are the only ones thy enjou the snow