INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Mother2Hens]

Thank you everyone for the kind words about Einstein's loss. After crying a bit and a stiff drink, I came to terms with her being gone and I told myself, I have more chicks and I can try and hatch her last egg, so I will live.

Non-chicken people just do not understand! Considering she was the lone chicken for so long, I really got attached to her. When I went up to the farm today and didn't see her pop out from under a bush and run up to me as I opened the car door, it was really sad. And then I saw Rex, the boyfriend (neighborhood Roo) walking around looking for her, I wanted to cry again. I told him, sorry big guy, your girl is gone.

M2H - I decided to try and hatch the egg myself. My dad had worked on the temp in our incubator all morning before I got up there. He said it's worth a shot. So thanks to everyone who offered! I just hope it didn't get too cold last night for it.

We'll see what happens!

Hope everyone has a great week!

amwchicken ~ That is just the saddest story!

You need a hen replacement for poor Rex!

I did PM Kiniska a little while ago to ask if she was going to be hatching.

 

[HouseKat]

Yesterday morning my husband was tending to the chickens when three teenage boys started to walk into the area where our coop is! As soon as they saw him they turned around and nonchalantly walked out of our yard and through our neighbor's back yard.

I can't wait to get my fencing up - to keep the chickens in, and the dogs and teenagers out!

Tiny says, "Hello!"

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Yesterday morning my husband was tending to the chickens when three teenage boys started to walk into the area where our coop is! As soon as they saw him they turned around and nonchalantly walked out of our yard and through our neighbor's back yard.

I can't wait to get my fencing up - to keep the chickens in, and the dogs and teenagers out!

Tiny says, "Hello!"

You should hang a no trespassing sign on your coop. I like tiny, she looks a lot like an EE I used to have.

 

[lollipopguild]

Enjoy your vacation. Where did you go?

We're leaving Friday. Heading to a Ron Jon resort in Cocoa Beach, paid for by the in-laws. It's a much needed vacation based on what the last year and this year has handed up. Some things answered prayers, some things not so much.

Thank you everyone for the kind words about Einstein's loss. After crying a bit and a stiff drink, I came to terms with her being gone and I told myself, I have more chicks and I can try and hatch her last egg, so I will live.

Non-chicken people just do not understand! Considering she was the lone chicken for so long, I really got attached to her. When I went up to the farm today and didn't see her pop out from under a bush and run up to me as I opened the car door, it was really sad. And then I saw Rex, the boyfriend (neighborhood Roo) walking around looking for her, I wanted to cry again. I told him, sorry big guy, your girl is gone.

M2H - I decided to try and hatch the egg myself. My dad had worked on the temp in our incubator all morning before I got up there. He said it's worth a shot. So thanks to everyone who offered! I just hope it didn't get too cold last night for it.

We'll see what happens!

Hope everyone has a great week!

I don't get attached to my chickens like that. If anything happens I look at it like a business cost. ''Oh man, I lost an egg layer..." etc...No emotional attachment, but a $$$ attachment. If that makes sense? BUT, I have been into showing APBTs for over a decade. Recently, my yard was stolen from me which screwed up a lot of things. 1) The thieves stole over 4.5yrs of my breeding program, including my brood female (whom I've found since), 3 of her offspring and another young male. 2) This event has thrown my own little ecosystem off. The dogs aren't there to keep predators at bay so I've had predator problems AND the chicks have been wandering into unknown pasteurs to get lost, eaten, or lay eggs in weird places.

To make a long story short, I feel ya on losing something that you have an attachment to. It sucks. Period.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I need the opinions of experienced chicken addicts

.....I have a 14x14 fenced in area for my 12 hens that is currently mud, leaves and a bit of outcast pine shavings. I was going to try to find some natural wood chips to try and reduce the mud issue, but realized I may have a solution in my own backyard. We live in a wooded area with mostly shag bark hickory and oak trees. I was wondering if it would be safe to rake up all of the fallen hickory shells and acorns to use as bedding in the run. This solution seems more bio-secure than getting wood chips from some unknown area, however I don't know if it would harm the hens in any way. Opinions???? Please and Thank you!

I rake leaves, small sticks. grass clippings and even pine needles up and toss it in my coops and pens. Its great for them, lots of bugs, and entertainment for them also. I do not use any chemicals on the yard. My neighbor is a foster home, and is very bio conscious as well. My birds all have free range, and its the same stuff they have access to daily. That's the key, if there is no chemicals used on your lawn, etc it should be fine.

 

[lollipopguild]

I rake leaves, small sticks. grass clippings and even pine needles up and toss it in my coops and pens. Its great for them, lots of bugs, and entertainment for them also. I do not use any chemicals on the yard. My neighbor is a foster home, and is very bio conscious as well. My birds all have free range, and its the same stuff they have access to daily. That's the key, if there is no chemicals used on your lawn, etc it should be fine.

What do you mean by foster home? Children?

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

WARNING!!!!!!!!!! Pic heavy

and now ............ nap time.
THE END

Hope you enjoyed our little show, have a blessed night

Loved all your pictures!

. One more to build and I will be ready for meat birds.

Nice design! We will be ordering our CX soon too.

Bad news for the Marans! I took the divider down for a couple of hours tonight so they could start integrating with the flock. It sure is hard to see babies getting picked on! It seems like those at the bottom of the pecking order are the meanest too! It wasn't horrible....no blood and I was monitoring. After about 45 minutes I let the bigs out to free range to give the babies a break and left the run door open so the 12 week olds could explore the full run a bit. I was working by the house checking on their progress and noticed that they were out wandering around free ranging in a confused way! LOL I had to put them back in after about 30 minutes and I let them go to roost in their half of the coop away from others. I will let them all out in the run together all day tomorrow and then put the babies in the coop with the bigs tomorrow. Poor things! I am looking forward to the integration being over with though.

I have a confirmed egg eater and she wasn't stealthy (tried it right in front of me yesterday) so I know which one it is. Boo Harriet (my barred rock in my avatar). I bought fake eggs at Michaels today and I was in there putting them in and she jumped up and tried eating the fake eggs as I was putting them in! Talk about no shame! I put like 4 in each nest box so I am hoping it will fool her and at least slow her down. I really don't want her teaching it to the rest and with only 5 hens right now I don't want an egg eaten a day! My luck she will be smart enough to tell the difference between the real and the fake....but, in other news it may not be a problem for long because she figured out how to get out of the free range chicken paddock (which, by the way is about 50 yards by 30 yards.....) and was wandering around by the road asking to be eaten by one of my neighbors dogs. No one except me believes in fencing or containing their dogs...so despite my best efforts it is only a matter of time.

It is really hard to establish new babies in the flock. You are doing the right thing, little more each day.
Fake eggs often do stop an egg eater. One of my pekin hens has gobbled an egg down right in front of me!
She quit after I tossed ceramic eggs out in the run, now I am usually getting 5 duck eggs in that pen. There are 5 pekin hens.
I have a GLW named Spike that is a notorious escape chicken, same thing! she is 2 years old now, fortunately has escaped harm so far.

 

[ellymayRans]

Ok a bit heavy on pics. Just got around to taking some of my recent hatch. My aunt bought 3 so I didn't get pics of those.

First is my GCM..because she was bread to my BCM roo the chick is only carrying one barring gene therefore from what I've read if I understand correctly this should be a boy due to the dark coloring and spot on the head. I'm fine with that. Good news is my GCM hen doesn't have feathered shanks and chick does! Very excited about that!

BCM (3)

Surprised me but this little "guy" is from a pullet egg of a girl I hatched out back in August of 2013. She was a SLW/BCM that lays a beautiful dark egg. Her chick is mixed with a black AM. Fingers crossed it's a girl!

Not the egg she hatched from but mothers first egg. It's the smaller of the two here.

AM/BCM

Just a couple of the Silkies bought from Btown RK. One of the 9 died Thursday. The one that passed the RK employee had put it back in the bin with two others when I said I would take them all. So I asked why he put them back and he said because of their bottoms. .I just told him I would take them anyway. I got them cleaned up but the one didn't make it. I would just rather take them home and give them a chance than to leave the lone 3.
Most of them are the yellow/buff color fluff. There are a few that are the grayish white fluff. All adorable of course!

Few funny sleeping pics! Lol

The Silkies have the black on their eyelids and it makes them look like they're sleeping with their eyes open. .kinda creepy! !

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Ok this batch of chicks has just had so many issues ( I will admit a few were my fault). Sorry if it sounds like I am complaining, but I need some advice from you guys. One of my chicks will scratch his head like crazy on both sides and freak out so much sometimes he flips himself over. Then he will lay there kicking and chirping and I have to help him back up. I noticed him do it once or twice yesterday and once this morning. Now this is happening like every 1-5 minutes. I though lice, since scratching. Nope nothing. Some of the others will scratch every now and then but every one is clean, as in bedding, and none are doing it excessivly but the one. My moms very good friend was over and I showed her the chicks. We were explaining to her what the chick was doing, just talking. And she had a good assumption. She thought it be having sezziures? Didn't seem unreasonable to me and I was able to find one youtube video of another chick having a sezziure. The chick in the video would also fall on its back and chirp and kick, just no scratching. I have never dealt with this problem in chicks. I have had a few adults with neurological disorders or epilepsy, but they all had triggers so it was pretty easy to prevent. This chick doesn't have a trigger. As I am sitting here the poor chick just keeps freaking out. Anybody have any suggestions on what I can do to help it, if anything?

I have seen that in one or 2 chicks that hatched from shipped eggs. Turkey poults have that issue a lot!
I can't help but think its some sort of vitamin/mineral issue.
Keep up with the vitamin/electrolytes etc. I bet that will help the problems with the chicks.
I really feel being chilled has caused your chicks issues also, you caught it in time to correct it for the stronger chicks.
Its very frustrating, sometimes things beyond our control really affect our littles and we have to solve the puzzle with missing pieces!

So went and got my 2 weeks of feed (200# worth) and noticed TSC had their bantams 1/2 off! So of course I had to go back after work and I got 6 more porcelain d'uccle and a single silkie. I was curious as to what color it would turn out to be. I'm thinking buff, but not sure. I'll try to get pictures later of them as well as my most recent hatch. I'm excited with this last hatch as I got some of my tolbunt/legbar eggs to hatch! One looks like it could be pure tolbunt they other 2 are mixes. Also got one of my legbar/Marans to hatch as well as another pullet legbar.

Congrats on the new babies and hatches!

Im indiana too! my grampa had over 200 chickens when i was a kid and now im starting my own small flock!

If I didn't say it yet,

and our thread

Your reasons are much the same as mine. I loved visiting my grandparents and learning about farming, poultry and livestock.
My parents and I even kept chickens several years ago until ordinances prevented it.
We moved my parents here, and now they live with DH and I. Now our lives are full and we are enjoying our critters.

Well I got an e-mail today that said I was getting 16 laying hens. NO MORE STORE EGGS!!!!!!!! SO i WENT AND PICKED THEM UP AND TO MY SURPRISE (sorry forgot caps ) 2 were Americana's ( I think) I have never had them before and have only seen Pic's, but have always wanted them. So am going to get pic's tomorrow and see what you all think . anyway most all are mixes, I think. but very fat and healthy. am keeping them in the garage at night and dog yard to free range in (sort of, still fenced ) till the coop and run are safe. Gertrude is going to have friends!!!

One of them is white and BEAUTIFUL I love her beard and ear muffs, cant wait to get pic's.

Congrats to you and the new additions!

Quote: I know you are doing everything you can to help them. Holler if you need any ideas, thoughts.. we are all here for one another.
DH is actually grabbing up the books at all the farm stores now looking at them. He likes to see if I know what breed the picture is LOL!
He also is starting to recognize them and is learning the most common problems in chicks.
The author "Story" guides seem to have a lot of good info too.

 

[kabhyper1]

I was asked today about how I package eggs for shipping. So if anyone ever gets eggs from me, this is how I do it for the most part. They got a little extra padding this time since they are going to Oklahoma tomorrow.
I go a bit nutz with the sharpie.







They better get there in one piece!