INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Mother2Hens]

I have your order down! But now you're going wishy washy on me! Lol jk. I do plan to purchase quite so few eggs here soon, both in LF and bantam. I'm trying not to have any eggs shipped right now (although hard yo do as I already hit Sally up for some eggs!). But are you sticking with Cochins? Or are you going to change your mind again

bradselig ~ Cochins --either bantam or LF are #! on my list. I was kidding when I asked for such a specific order as female chicks (unless that breed can be sexed early), blue-lavender-splash colors, and one of them a frizzle! Do frizzles just happen unexpectedly or do you breed using a frizzle? The beginning of March would be the optimal time to get chicks. As far as Silkies (#2 on my list), I wondered if it would be good to get two bantam Cochin chicks and two Silkies chicks at the same time to be raised together and possibly housed together. I'm still not sure about housing-- there's room in the coop with the other 7 hens where they could eventually be housed, but I wouldn't want them to be harassed. My only current temptation as far as changing my mind is Kiniska's orp hatch, but I'm going to be strong, and wait two months to get one or two new breeds I haven't had before. But you better not slip a Japanese Shamo chick into my order!

 

[Mother2Hens]

Next week is definitely going to be interesting. The silkies will be in the house. As for the big ones, we have a stall we keep the alpacas hay in, so we are going to throw the hay up above, and build a roost and put the large fowl chicken in there next week. I am hoping they stay warmer with the alpacas in 6 inces of straw in the barn, than in their coop. It was 32 degrees in the coop today with all of them in there all day. I don't have high hopes for those kind of temps next week. I haven't heard the blizzard thing yet, but at this rate it wouldn't shock me. Do any of you know if using a kerosene salamander heater, supervised, for a half hour at a time, would hurt the big chickens? We use it for the alpacas in the barn in extreme temps and they have done fine, but I'm not sure about birds. This feels like one of the winters we had in the 80's.

Brad, sorry about your snowy silkies. I'm sure they are fine. They are pretty tough. Mine haven't come out of the coop today because apparently snow will steal their souls if they step in it. It is not to be touched.

kabhyper ~ I'm not familiar with that type of heater, but remember that birds are extremely sensitive to fumes.
Sally~ Ugh--5" of snow! I looked ahead at our next week's forecast after reading discussions of impending doom. Our weather is supposed to be similar with below zero temps/winds, but I feel for everyone north of me because I'm sure it will be even worse.

 

[minmin1258]

Id

...

Strange question, but are there any hippie styled members out there near Bargersville that are good with children. We are in need of a back up sitter. Our standard sitters of my parents just won't do for every occasion. It would be great to find someone close to us willing to come to our home watch / play with children and possibly even check on chickens if needed too.

Would you care to define "hippie styled"??

For my purposes in finding a sitter willing to come to my house: Ina May would be a familiar name and not in a bad light. Homesteading and farming would not be things of the past but normal healthy choices. Animals including chickens and chicks would not be only thought of as stink makers needing to be cleared off of the property. A running chicken would not be a cause to take cover as in an alien attack. Clutter would not be a reason to freak out and start trying to get the house in perfect selling order. Of course I would have other requirements too, like good with toddlers, not scared of cotton diapers, .... But my three biggest issues right now with finding someone willing to come here is the chicks downstairs/ the chickens outside, chicken related clutter, and the cotton diapers. [/quote If I were closer id be happy t help with daycare, I had t use cloth "nappies" on all my babies (they were allergic to disposables), and since I raise chickens I'm used to the chicken stuff around. I'm kind of a kook about keeping my house clean though. Lol BY THE WAY- HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YA!!! : D

 

[Mother2Hens]

I didn't post the info below last night during the frostbite discussion because I was using a different computer since my Time Machine was doing a total back-up of my iMac-- 98,445 items -- 156 gigabytes! (mostly chicken photos -lol) Note to pipd~ Hope Santa brought you an external hard drive.

Ardizzone and Farker Farms,
Here is info I posted recently about Frostbite, which mentions not massaging ointment into combs, waddles, but applying it as a barrier.





Recipe for Aspirin Solution mentioned above:

Farker Farms ~ LOVE your Cochins! As far as keeping your flock warm, how far is your coop from an outlet? I looked at your coop on your profile and it looks like a nice building with windows! You said you didn't think it has enough ventilation-- do you crack a window for ventilation or do you have vents? Could insulation be added to keep it warmer? As far as a heated water bowl, have you just been replacing their water when it freezes?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

my yard has over 5 inches covering it right now.

Same here, plus drifting. The girls are not coming out of their coop today, and I even shoveled a path for them!

[COLOR=800080]pipd ~[/COLOR][COLOR=8B4513]I'm not sure how to say this, and I sincerely mean no disrespect, but I learned about extension cord safety years ago before you were born.  [/COLOR]    

[COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333] [/COLOR][COLOR=333333] No offense taken. I only said that because you posted almost my exact statements about extension cords from a couple months ago. [/COLOR][COLOR=333333] [/COLOR]

[COLOR=000080]pipd ~[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]Since we've debated the pros and cons of heat several times in the past, I made sure to mention all of your cons to cover my bases.  [/COLOR]
[COLOR=8B4513]P.S. Rangi needs some snow boots.[/COLOR]   
[rule]

I have your order down! But now you're going wishy washy on me! Lol jk. I do plan to purchase quite so few eggs here soon, both in LF and bantam. I'm trying not to have any eggs shipped right now (although hard yo do as I already hit Sally up for some eggs!). But are you sticking with Cochins? Or are you going to change your mind again 

I'm glad you're keeping the disadvantages in mind, anyway.

For some reason, it didn't quote your entire post, but I wanted to answer about frizzles and such. The gene for frizzle is dominant, and so any bird that carries it will appear as a frizzle. It should not pop up out of nowhere. Like with blues, the gene is partially dominant. Breeding a frizzle to a frizzle will give you about 25% smooth feathered offspring (and 25% curlies, but I won't get into that here) and you can't tell with them until they grow out some feathers whether they will frizzle or not. (Oh, and you're thinking either Black/Blue/Splash or Lavender. Lavender is recessive and breeds true, but Blue is partially dominant and does not.)

My Silkie, Marge, seems fine in the flock with the LF girls, but then there are 36 other birds to distract them from her. Every situation is different, of course, but if I were you, I'd have a separate area to keep them just in case your current girls don't like them. Even just tacking up some fence to create a barrier in the coop would work, and then the other hens could get used to them being there without being able to harass them.



So... Is everyone getting chicks from Brad this year? I've already PM'd him about Legbars, myself.

 

[Mother2Hens]

minmin ~ I've been meaning to check back in with you to see if your phone is working with byc.com. Having to use desktop mode instead of mobile mode on a mobile phone is a mess!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

[COLOR=8B4513] Note to pipd~ Hope Santa brought you an external hard drive. [/COLOR] Recipe for Aspirin Solution mentioned above:

Nah, all I got was a gift card for Lowe's and some chicks ordered and pre-paid from Meyer Hatchery (okay, that was more a gift to myself, but whatever ). My laptop is backed up on a flash drive now, though, so no worries there! Do you mind if I add this image about Aspirin to my first aid kit page? I think I have that information on there, but I think this conveys the info a bit more clearly.

 

[Mother2Hens]

Same here, plus drifting. The girls are not coming out of their coop today, and I even shoveled a path for them!
I'm glad you're keeping the disadvantages in mind, anyway.

For some reason, it didn't quote your entire post, but I wanted to answer about frizzles and such. The gene for frizzle is dominant, and so any bird that carries it will appear as a frizzle. It should not pop up out of nowhere. Like with blues, the gene is partially dominant. Breeding a frizzle to a frizzle will give you about 25% smooth feathered offspring (and 25% curlies, but I won't get into that here) and you can't tell with them until they grow out some feathers whether they will frizzle or not. (Oh, and you're thinking either Black/Blue/Splash or Lavender. Lavender is recessive and breeds true, but BBS is partially dominant and does not.)

My Silkie, Marge, seems fine in the flock with the LF girls, but then there are 36 other birds to distract them from her. Every situation is different, of course, but if I were you, I'd have a separate area to keep them just in case your current girls don't like them. Even just tacking up some fence to create a barrier in the coop would work, and then the other hens could get used to them being there without being able to harass them.

So... Is everyone getting chicks from Brad this year?

I've already PM'd him about Legbars, myself.

pipd ~ Yes, that's the thread's new year resolution! We all want to own at least one of brad's birds. Otherwise we feel left out.
bradselig~ I hope you made notes about the frizzle gene so you can produce one for me. A female of course.

When I introduced my orps to the five mean hens, I did what you're referring to. At night I sectioned off the small run part of the coop, which has a perch. They could see each other. During the day they were all out together free-ranging. After a couple of weeks, I left the partition open a little so they could come out if they wanted. I just took it slowly and now they roost in the box part with the others. It's just hard to picture Silkies in there with the others. I guess it's one of those things where you just have to take into consideration their personalities and figure it out as you go along.

I have got to get to work! It's so temping when you do your work on the computer to keep checking in with the thread.

 

[PeacefulWalls]

Next week is definitely going to be interesting. The silkies will be in the house. As for the big ones, we have a stall we keep the alpacas hay in, so we are going to throw the hay up above, and build a roost and put the large fowl chicken in there next week. I am hoping they stay warmer with the alpacas in 6 inces of straw in the barn, than in their coop. It was 32 degrees in the coop today with all of them in there all day. I don't have high hopes for those kind of temps next week. I haven't heard the blizzard thing yet, but at this rate it wouldn't shock me. Do any of you know if using a kerosene salamander heater, supervised, for a half hour at a time, would hurt the big chickens? We use it for the alpacas in the barn in extreme temps and they have done fine, but I'm not sure about birds. This feels like one of the winters we had in the 80's.

Brad, sorry about your snowy silkies. I'm sure they are fine. They are pretty tough. Mine haven't come out of the coop today because apparently snow will steal their souls if they step in it. It is not to be touched.

If your chickens end up being like ours you won't need to build a roost. Ours ignore the roost and perch on the top of all the stall walls instead!

 

[Mother2Hens]

pipd~ Sure, just save the aspirin chart image. It's from my "Chicken Health for Dummies" book that the owner of byc co-wrote. A lot of excerpts from the book can be found online, so I don't feel out of line posting some things from it. Plus, I am constantly mentioning the name of the book, which is free marketing/PR!

You're lucky you can fit everything on a flash drive! My graphic design files take up tons of space.