INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[CRSelvey]

So I learned a hard lesson this morning. Some one suggested I place a heat lamp on my broody and her babies. I did not for many reasons. Chief among them my fear of fire in the barn. As a result I lost two of my four chicks. The other two are now in the house and appear to be doing just fine. The problem seems to be it was too cold for the chicks to move away from their momma and get food and water.

I feel horrible. In the future, if I let a broody hatch in this sort of weather, I will make sure to bring the babies inside after they have all hatched and dried. Please learn from my mistake friends.

Oh, I'm so sorry. That's such a sad loss. I hope the others continue to thrive.

Mother2Hens- I just got to the part were your daughter was in Urgent Care. I hope she's feeling better by now.

 

[bradselig]

I have one of the RIR pipping in the bater now the other 2 RIR eggs in there are slowly just calling for me to candle but it is lockdown.  I need to find an incubator that can candle the eggs while in lockdown.  Someone has to have one.  If not maybe I can get Brad to repurpose me a wine cooler as an incubator hatcher with its own candler.  After all he is getting some deep discounts at his lowes.

 

haha, I've tried buying dorm fridges cheap both clearance and defective, but haven't been lucky.

More pictures

Nosey boys!

The babies are getting close to laying!!
And I discovered someone has decided the hay in the barn is a good place to lay! I should probably add some more nest boxes soon!!

I think one of my EEs is egg bound
she hasn't layed for a while but she's been in the nest boxes quite frequently. This morning I found a yolk with no shell in the box she was in when I closed up the coop last night. Today she's standing around all fluffed up and hasn't hardly left the coop. Anything I can do for her?

For those of you that hatch: is it worth it to try to build a bator or would I be better off just buying one when they go on sale this spring? Also what do you do with all your chicks? I'd like to try my hand at hatching but I'm not sure I have room to house a bunch!


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Great pics! Love the cows! Hope your hen pulls through. I'd definitely give her some electrolytes and vitamins. Other than that, I'm not sure.

I have both store bought LIttle Giant incubators and a homemade cabinet incubator. I honestly prefer to incubate in my little giants and hatch in the cabinet. I plan to buy a sportsman cabinet incubator sometime this year for incubating and only hatch in my homemade cabinet. I have added computer fans wired to old cell phone chargers in the little giants but if I were to hatch in one, I'd rather have a still air. One issue I had hatching in the little giant is if they all starting hatching at the same time, the humidity jumped easy too high and caused issues. With the cabinet bator, there is enough room/air that it doesn't jump up anywhere like it did before.

I found a Rubbermaid box to use as a chick brooder, a heat lamp, chick feeder and waterer, and cedar shavings. Now I just have to wait till spring. Saw some jubilee orpington chicks online for $45 apiece. Really tempting!!!

Yes, jubilees are very tempting!

So I learned a hard lesson this morning. Some one suggested I place a heat lamp on my broody and her babies. I did not for many reasons. Chief among them my fear of fire in the barn. As a result I lost two of my four chicks. The other two are now in the house and appear to be doing just fine. The problem seems to be it was too cold for the chicks to move away from their momma and get food and water.
  I feel horrible. In the future, if I let a broody hatch in this sort of weather, I will make sure to bring the babies inside after they have all hatched and dried. Please learn from my mistake friends. 

Oh no! Sorry to hear that!

HEY ALL I GOT A BRAIN TEASER FOR YA

I have a Buff Op hen I got last spring she was 1 of 17 or 18 that was said to come from a chicken factory.  She had NO feathers and was really skinny. I got her fat and her feathers all came in perfect, but she is VERY MEAN. She is broody and has been for 3 mths.  now she cant or wont stand up. I have looked her all over and can  find no injuries. she is very thin AGAIN and I brought her in the house and put food right next to her. She eat it up but then she vomitted it up.4 times!!! didnt know chickens could even do that. Whats up anyone know?

im definitely not a health expert, but hopefully someone can give you some insight!

 

[kabhyper1]

My silkies went outside today for the first time in awhile. They got to stretch their wings a little. I think it needs to warm up soon. They got acclimated to our house and were sneezing when I took them outside. So in they stay for awhile.

 

[CRSelvey]

Hello All!

I was just wondering if anyone else is having normal egg production? My kids and I have been keeping track of which chickens are laying eggs each day (all lay slightly different eggs) and its been really fun. In the last two months, we've had two more chickens starting to lay and that brings us to five with three left to start (two Cochins and one Appenzeller Spitzhauben). The week before the latest one started, I had 16 eggs. Since then its been 17, 25, and 18. That seems pretty good to me. They eat organic grower with oyster available to anyone who needs it and whatever they find in the garden and we do not use any extra light in the coop.

Fiona checking the nesting box with me. She loves the snow.

That was a lot of snow!

My DS helped me dig paths out to the car, the coop, and the nesting box.

It was so pretty until the power went out. Then it just got very real and very cold.

We went to town to warm up. What a great view.

One of our neighbors has a great barn.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

HEY ALL I GOT A BRAIN TEASER FOR YA

I have a Buff Op hen I got last spring she was 1 of 17 or 18 that was said to come from a chicken factory. She had NO feathers and was really skinny. I got her fat and her feathers all came in perfect, but she is VERY MEAN. She is broody and has been for 3 mths. now she cant or wont stand up. I have looked her all over and can find no injuries. she is very thin AGAIN and I brought her in the house and put food right next to her. She eat it up but then she vomitted it up.4 times!!! didnt know chickens could even do that. Whats up anyone know?

She is over eating on a belly that is in starvation mode. She needs some fast digesting food in small quantities until it stays down. Then gradually up the protein to get her on a high protein diet. When this happens to people; crackers, breads, simple carbs are the first things recommended to eat. None of these are great health wise for a person or a chicken but it can get the belly used to the feeling of food again. then sneak in a tiny tiny bite of raw meat for the chicken and see what happens. Frequent but tiny amounts of food is called for on a belly not used to holding food.
I understand chickens have crops more than bellies but for me it is easier to think belly.

Over eating on a belly that is used to being empty is easy to do. Overeating in general will cause vomiting for chickens as can be seen in the broilers.

 

[chick rookie]

She is over eating on a belly that is in starvation mode. She needs some fast digesting food in small quantities until it stays down. Then gradually up the protein to get her on a high protein diet. When this happens to people; crackers, breads, simple carbs are the first things recommended to eat. None of these are great health wise for a person or a chicken but it can get the belly used to the feeling of food again. then sneak in a tiny tiny bite of raw meat for the chicken and see what happens. Frequent but tiny amounts of food is called for on a belly not used to holding food.
I understand chickens have crops more than bellies but for me it is easier to think belly.

Over eating on a belly that is used to being empty is easy to do. Overeating in general will cause vomiting for chickens as can be seen in the broilers.

ok will give a choice of wet or dry bread and I have some butter biscites left from breakfast will let her eat that to. Cold some oatmeal help or would that be too much too soon

 

[Too Fast]

Hello All!

I was just wondering if anyone else is having normal egg production? My kids and I have been keeping track of which chickens are laying eggs each day (all lay slightly different eggs) and its been really fun. In the last two months, we've had two more chickens starting to lay and that brings us to five with three left to start (two Cochins and one Appenzeller Spitzhauben). The week before the latest one started, I had 16 eggs. Since then its been 17, 25, and 18. That seems pretty good to me. They eat organic grower with oyster available to anyone who needs it and whatever they find in the garden and we do not use any extra light in the coop.

Fiona checking the nesting box with me. She loves the snow.

That was a lot of snow!

My DS helped me dig paths out to the car, the coop, and the nesting box.

It was so pretty until the power went out. Then it just got very real and very cold.

We went to town to warm up. What a great view.

One of our neighbors has a great barn.

Nice pictures.

About the egg production, we have been getting 35 eggs/week since mid July. It has hardly let up! Our 7 girls are still giving us 30-35 eggs/week, but I've heard that may change as they get older. This March they will be 1 year old. Love those fresh eggs, nothing like the store eggs.

I'd like to bring my own eggs in to the restaurant where we sometimes go for breakfast (Charlie Browns, in Speedway) when they make an omelet
for me, but don't want to insult them lol. Now I usually skip the omelets and get pancakes. We love that place.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote: from personally going through this from having hyperemesis gravidarum multiple times, I would recommend a few pecks no more than 10-15 range and wait at least 20 minutes before repeating. I would wait at least 1.5 hours before offering a second type of food. Also wet is better if you keep the amount of food tiny as she will need fluids.

 

[bradselig]

My egg numbers are way down. I got 2 eggs today total! I'm blaming it on the stresses of moving them all around due to the weather and the weather it's self. They were actually laying pretty good when it was colder. Now it's warming up, they stop! Lol

 

[SallyinIndiana]

My egg numbers are way down. I got 2 eggs today total! I'm blaming it on the stresses of moving them all around due to the weather and the weather it's self. They were actually laying pretty good when it was colder. Now it's warming up, they stop! Lol

I have a mixed hen that refuses to even start laying eggs. If I don't get an egg by March, she is going into the crockpot. But yes moving pens slows down my egg gathering for a couple of days.