INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[hoosiercheetah]

I'm sure many on here will in the next month.

That's the impression I'm getting. Patience may be my best friend in this search. Thank you for your insight!

 

[ChickCrazed]

That's the impression I'm getting. Patience may be my best friend in this search. Thank you for your insight!

As far as breed personalities it would be kind of a fun discussion. My flock notes (I hope others can add to it)

Barred Rocks - Sassy and friendly to a point! They come right up for treats but don't want to be held. They are the sassiest, they explore further and are usually out later at night than anyone. Lay very well.

Cochins - Super friendly puppy dogs and their feathered legs are hilarious (they run funny because of their pants). Some people say they don't lay as well, others say theirs lay well. Do go broody so you might have the option to raise some of your own chicks. Their butt feathers can get messy.

Easter Eggers - Mine are very nosy and friendly. They will actually let me pet them (got them when they were older and they have gotten super friendly) and follow me around the farm begging for treats. Pretty blue eggs too (most, but not all lay blue/green eggs). Lay pretty well - 5 eggs a week for me.

Welsummer - Took longer to warm up to me (again, got her when she was already 3) but is SUPER friendly and VERY talkative. She just follows me around chattering to me. They lay very pretty terracotta colored eggs. Lays pretty well.

Marans - Seem to be a more timid breed but they are slowly warming up. Mine are still young. They will lay a dark brown egg.

Cinnamon Queen/Red Sex Links - were not quite as friendly but were not mean, were GREAT layers though.

Wyandotte - Got her when she was older from a breeder, I don't think she was handled much so she is still very timid. She is warming up but I don't think I will ever call her "friendly". Lays very well and laid all winter long.

 

[racinchickins]

So, I've got more questions than answers. I thought I knew what I wanted, and why, but now I'm not so sure.

I'm in the search for chickens, and there are many different opinions about how to best conduct this search, I'm sure you know. I've had some people tell me that one should only buy from a reputable local breeder, yet it seems that most of the people on BYC buy chicks from hatcheries or feed stores. I've read about both good and bad experiences from every possible source.

I thought I wanted Australorps, because of the things I've read about the breed (egg production and heat tolerance, and a friendly disposition were the primary attractors), but the more I read stories about everyone's chickens, I'm coming to realized that chicken breeds are like dog breeds, or horse breeds - there are distinguishing physical features that run true, because there are breed standards, but the personality of an individual animal is it's own. I've heard that Orps 'tend' to be broody, but I've read posts from owners who say their BO's are never broody at all. Some RIRs are friendly like lapdogs, some are downright evil. Some leghorns are flighty, some are calm.

The only thing that seems to run true in breeds is egg production. Some are bred to lay more than others. However, there seems to be a very large variety of breeds that are reputed to be great egg producers, so that doesn't really narrow it down.

I know if I just ask the question, "What's your fave?" I'll get a different answer from each individual, based on their personal experience. It's the same whether you're in a forum for cars or guns or home audio gear or video games or chickens. Those opinions are very interesting, and I love reading everyone's stories, but they can't help me choose one chicken over another.

My greatest limiting factor is that I'm in no position to raise chicks. I have to have birds that I can put straight in the coop. Beyond that, all I need is a little flock of 6 healthy, egg-laying chickens. So, in the end, I'll probably buy whatever is available from whomever happens to have birds for sale when I finally get the coop finished. I've been in touch with a few people, and I'll seek out more as I get closer.

I guess I'm not asking any questions in the post, or looking for any answers. I'm just thinking out loud. Thank you for indulging my observations! Have a great snow day!

My advice since you only have room for 6 chickens is to really think about what you want out of your chickens. Once you are clear on that, it helps narrow down the list of possibilities. Think about things like, how many eggs do you want a week? Does the size of the egg matter to you? Will you free range? How much do you plan to interact with your chickens? Do you want a variety of egg colors? Do you plan to breed chickens? What kind of predators do you think you have around? If you can throw out a few specific answers on questions like that to the group, you will get much more focused answers to help you select breeds.

Also, don't worry about it overly much. Your views and how you answer the above questions and others will evolve as you own chickens. I just started my 2nd year of chicken ownership, and I know mine have evolved a lot. I'm already starting to try work out how I want to change my flock to meet my changing goals.

 

[browncow15]

I know most people aren't thrilled about the snow this morning but I think it's really pretty!

Though my chickens defiantly thought "*** mate?"



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[raisinemright]

Nope sorry don't agree lol nothing pretty but the chickens! The snow needs to stop for good, this year!

 

[atrueb00]

We got our garden trays started this afternoon. This year our garden is hopefully (weather permitted) going to be HUGE!! Over 30 varieties of plants. Cant wait for some fresh BLT's. Lots of canning this fall.

This is so exciting! Since we are planning on moving this summer/fall, we aren't planting a garden for the first time in years and I will be living vicariously through people like you! Please post pics!

My poor Gus Gus, he is staying in the house tonight. As I was drying my hair this evening, I heaar DH calling me out to the kitchen. I went out and saw him holding Gus, he was covered in blood. Gus' head hackles shoulders and back were soaked in blood. I checked him over and the only injury he had was his comb had been hit. We think he may have been attacked though. No blood in the barn and Blueberry is my girly boy who just now found out he liked hens. They don't fight. EVER. So .... nothing like giving a 15 ish pound rooster a bath. Last minute. Before leaving in dress clothes. LOL. He seems content in his doggie kennel. I also have LIly in here. My white silkie with the messed up sinus'. My living room is an infirmary.

Can you tell I'm used to rehabbing chickens. It no longer phases me.

I hope he pulls through!

Folks, I collected 27 eggs today.

27 eggs from 26 for sure laying hens, 5 hit-and-miss banties, and 3 retirees. I was shocked to see so many in the boxes! And there would have even been 28, but miss Frou-Frou squashed hers.

But anyway, I do know for sure that Cubby laid an egg today! 9 years old and still laying!

You go, girl!


In less super news, we've got a light layer of snow on the ground.

That is a lot of eggs! Woohoo!

Quote:
I've always heard that ISA Browns are the best egg layers. I've known people with them and the more you interact with them, the friendlier they will be.

I know most people aren't thrilled about the snow this morning but I think it's really pretty!

Though my chickens defiantly thought "*** mate?"

Your pics make the snow this morning so much more bearable-these are beautiful!!

 

[chick rookie]

One of my chicks

very cute!!!

So, incase people are getting stressed out a out the price of coops, remember that anything that will keep them dry and out from the wind will likely work great as a coop. Example: my 3 clearance $15 or $20 dog houses!


Obviously they aren't going to work for a lot of birds, but I have a trio of tolbunts in one, 5 bantam Cochins in another and,y pair of LF in the other.

Love your chicken camp

Wow, I have been missing all the fun. I just found this thread.

I am lookin for some silkie hens to go with my newly acquired silkie too... Anyone want to part with two or some hatching eggs?

Welcome

Regarding coccidiosis, this is one of those things that make getting chicks later in the year more of an advantage. The thing with coccidiosis is that it comes from an overload of cocci in the gut, and cocci are inactive in dry soil. With how wet it's been, it's not a surprise that coccidiosis would be occurring. Cocci are everywhere and each area will have its own unique combination of strains, and so chicks that have been exposed to the outside on one property may still come down with coccidiosis if moved to another property.

I disagree with medicating preemptively, though I won't go into that. What I personally do every year is I get some dry sod (making sure that the soil is totally dry!) or dry dirt for a dustbath and put it in the brooder for the chicks to be exposed to it. That first exposure with inactive cocci will allow them to start building up immunity naturally. I am not an all-natural type of gal and I will medicate them if I see signs of coccidiosis. However, using this method, I have yet to have an outbreak of coccidiosis, nor have I had a single chick fall ill with coccidiosis as a result.


Of course, this won't work if there is already coccidiosis present. If there is, the only thing you can do is dose them. I'm not sure if anyone has already posted the doses, but here they are:

For Corid (Amprolium 20%) soluble powder, dose 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of water for no less than 5 days.
For Corid (Amprolium 9.6%) liquid, dose 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons per gallon for 5 to 7 days.

If you can't find Amprolium, or if it fails to cure the coccidiosis, you can use Sulmet liquid at the rate of 2 tablespoons per gallon for two days, and then one tablespoon per gallon for an additional 4 days. Sulmet is harsher on the gut and only recommended as a last resort after Amprolium.




I know, blah, blah, blah...

My brain is burnt out from chemistry lecture and lab this morning, so sorry if I'm rambling.

Great info thanks for posting I have it copied and pasted in my notes.

Just messing around trying to figure out some spots for roost. The "big girls" are digging the new set up lol oh yeah the kids still playing monopoly!

looks great and the kids look like they might try and take over... lol

Oh...and so far all my littles go right into the coop with the old deep litter from everyone else with no problems w/cocci so far. And no medicated feed. Exposure builds immunity.

But my litter is dry.

And if I was brooding in the house, I'd take some of the litter right from the hen shed and mix it into the shavings I give the littles to expose them as soon as possible.






Thought I'd edit to say that a bit of ammonia in the litter has actually been found to deter cocci. I know everyone is afraid of ammonia and for good reason if it is in EXCESS with not enough ventilation. But a little is a good thing to deter cocci and if there is a litter build-up there will always be a bit of ammonia present.

that's the way I do it too not had any problems. So far knock on wood.

Update on my eggs in the 'bator.

I actually intended to just do one setting in my cabinet incubator so that I could hatch them in the incubator, but.....Jchny2000 gave me 3 BR turkey eggs, THEN my turkey eggs turned out to be fertile, THEN I saw an auction for Blue/Gold Partridge Brahmas that I just HAD to have. THEN a fellow BYCer on here asked if she could rent space in my incubator to hatch eggs for her......suddenly the addiction had been just a bit overfed. So i'll have to break out the hatcher too.

Candled all the eggs tonight, and (break for product endorsement.) I used a Brinsea Ovascope. It is amazing! You can even candle the eggs in a lit room during the day. It magnifies too, so you can see so much detail. I could spend hours watching the chick moving around in there if I didn't have to get them back into the incubator. (end product endorsement).

Day 17 (lockdown tomorrow!)
I started with 28 Bresse eggs. I'm down to 26. I had two early quitters and one that on day 7 looked iffy, but looks great now.

Out of 10 Cream Legbar eggs, 7 left. 1 quitter at 7 days, 2 more between day 7-15.

Day 16
All 3 BR turkey eggs from Jchny2000 are going strong,,,,Yay! I think the Bourbon Reds are soooo gorgeous.

Day 11
All 7 Brahma eggs are a loss. no development and thoroughly scrambled air cells. No kudos to the post office on this shipment.

Day 7
7/10 of my turkey eggs showing veins and development. 3 clears. These will be either pure Royal Palm or a Palm/Narraganset cross.

Day 0
Just set 18 more of my turkey eggs and 12 'rental' chicken eggs.


If anyone is interested, I'll have the Bresse chicks, and all RP and RP cross poults for sale/trade/barter upon hatching. Possibly legbars depending on boy/girl ratio.

Hope all hatch

great selections of breeds. Couple I had to look up... lol

Looks like a chicken camp -- do they get to sign up for recreational activities & have meals in the dining hall?!

Hope the chickens don't add their own "playing pieces" to the gameboard

Congrats on the coop!

I mentioned that in a previous post, but thank you for reiterating. After an exposure on your own property, it can be assumed the chicks have had a chance to build up an immunity, and my own experience as well as Leahs Mom's kind of indicates that. Just because birds are outside on your property without seeing coccidiosis, though, doesn't mean that on someone else's property they will be immune.

None of this means anything to someone not following basic biosecurity measures, as you mentioned. If you're wearing the same clothes and shoes around your birds after visiting another farm, a show, a swap meet, even the feed store, then all of your efforts in trying to keep your birds healthy might as well be washed down the drain! Not only are you risking cocci contamination, but many, many other ugly things that aren't as simple as coccidiosis to fix.


I also wanted to note that the 'exposure' stuff I recommend for coccidiosis does not apply to most other diseases, especially respiratory ones! The vast majority of respiratory diseases in chickens leave them as asymptomatic carriers of the disease--and they will spread it! You do not want your birds exposed to respiratory disease!

(And one last note--technically, coccidiosis is a parasite infection, not a disease, but I'm sure y'all know what I mean in my last paragraph.)




I need to get more sleep before typing out posts--this has literally taken me an hour just to type with how slow my brain is processing right now.

G'night, everyone!

I am so sorry to hear about the babies

Hopefully we can have our event at a good time and you can come! If not, we try to gather at other events too. Last year OldSalt had a table for us at an event near mooresville. And theres swap meets throughout the year too!

Hope the lil doeling gets stronger. Buddy is doing great and growing fast!

Very nice possibilities with that one!

My little one is eating on her own and starting to jump and play, so great..

I put an old truck cap in the run of the egg coop for younger birds to have an escape if they need it. The muscovy love it. I keep it dry as possible. and they also dust bathe under there.

Sounds like my DH, he has 3 sheds and an office trailer. Still says he needs more room!
It would not work for us to be in the city for sure, I would be nuts. We lived in Anderson a while, ugh.
I like being in the "sticks" and having my critters, bonfires and quiet starry nights.

Good ideal with the truck cap. I am in the county but not far enough I can have the bonfires..

miss them.

So I had this big long rant typed out because we have had no power since 930 last night! Of course I am on day 19 of my hatch. I was literally sitting in my truck with an extension cord ran to the bator inside! As I was typing it poof came back on! At 1030 REMC website said power to be restored by 11:15..when that didn't happen and I'd exhausted power from a portable charger and a ups battery backup I had to think! !! I didn't want to physically move the bator as it had already gotten down to 93 degrees! Yes these of course are the pricey shipped eggs. ..first time ever and I lose power...no storms..no preparation expecting it to happen! Ugh! 26% of Morgan County was reported to have no power! Have no idea why!

Thank goodness it's back on!

Funny note...the brooder is in my office with the bator but I didn't want to use energy from my only power sources to power the heat lamp. Most are almost 3 weeks. Then I have the new bantys (6) of them in the same tub but in a tiny box..because they are tiny. Lol. Well if you remember one of babes from the last hatch has a crossed beak. Well so she isn't fighting for food I put her with the bantys. So power comes on I rush in to plug the bator back in and that cross beaked babe is wings spread out covering all 6 of those bantys! Talk about precious! Pic is blurry because I zoomed in so not to disturb them.



So any input on my temps fluctuating so much for almost 4 hours! ?!??!! I would really hope with how close to hatch they are they will be okay

Sucks about the power outage but the mothering chick is cool,

Been busy this week already. Glad springs here! Clearing all the scrubby brush out from the creek before it gets green. Lots of yard work ahead of us!
Have my sportsman cabinet chock full! All my species all laying finally, even scovies and guinea. So much to do!

I know the feeling. I am trying to catch up with the thread... not working out so well, I'm only on pg. 2540

Ok...so I bought the plans for the coop I linked. I'm going to make it 4x8 and a slant roof (dunno the correct term for it) that opens, though instead of the whole thing opening I'm going to cut it in half I think so I open 2 pieces instead of the one she has. Hope that will help stabilize it. I'm going to make on side of the roof over hang out 3 or 4 feet so the chickens have a semi protected area in the winter and spring. I'm still undecided on the egg box...I am thinking I will just do one inside the coop. I'm going to make one side with large double doors for cleaning the coop. I don't think I'm going to do the deep litter method but I don't know...it's going to need a lot of litter with how large it is.

Mine is a 8x6 and it only took me 2 bags of shavings at 4.49 each to get my little started.

Seconding M2H re: the stress of building something (that part of the quote didn't show up!). We are only building a run to attach to an existing coop and it has given my husband a lot of stress. He's smart and able-bodied, but when it comes to building things that is not his area of expertise. If I were starting from scratch I think I would buy a shed large enough to walk into, too. I like the little coops I see at TSC and RK and the like, but they're too small.

There are some good YouTube vids that show handy people's coops being built, if you decide to go that way. It will def. give you some ideas. I pinned a few to my Backyard Chickens pinboard: http://www.pinterest.com/lesleatash/backyard-chickens/

I try to remember no matter what route I go, I can have 2 of the 3: cheap, fast, or good. In my experience, no matter what I bought/hired/did, it's rare to get all 3!

link wouldn't load for me.

Well took some pictures of the silkie flock. I out half a dozen or so younger birds in with them. The older ones are still picking on them, but they are still eating or drinking. THey just spend majority if the day in the coop while the older ones are out in the run. Hopefully they start accepting them. Of the 6 younger chicks, at this time I'm only seeing one cockerel! Let's see if I'm right lol.

The older silkies

love the cuties...

The younger silkies

and more cuties...

Why not the Cochins too? I love the color of the splash roo, but hate his "type".





And the big guys. I thought LF Cochins didn't lay very well? I've gotten 5 eggs from the past 6 days!

DH is still buggin me for a LF Blk Cochin Roo

 

[hoosiercheetah]

Also, don't worry about it overly much. Your views and how you answer the above questions and others will evolve as you own chickens.

This is what I've been trying to focus on. I have probably been over-thinking it; such is the way of my people. What I've come around to is the view that most people have really good things to say about most breeds of chickens, and I'll probably be happy with any of the egg-layer varieties.

I do have a specific question for the group - I made contact with this person in Indianapolis:

http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/grd/4389561072.html

The ad says Australorps, but when I called him the aussies were gone, and he said he had several colors of Orpingtons. The impression I got was that he primarily breeds Orps and the aussies were an exception. My question is, do any of you know this fellow, does anyone have experience in dealing with him?

Oh, and thanks again to everyone in the community - having everyone's experience to draw on is an invaluable resource that I really, really appreciate!

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote: How sure are you about the temps for the entire 21 days. Even just a tad on the low side can delay hatching for 24 hours sometimes even 48 hours. Unless there is a strong smell coming from the bator, I would let it run and maintain the humidity till 12 hours after day 22 ends. Then I would candle in a dark humid area if possible. setting a few pots of boiling water in a closed room will increase the humidity quite fast. Running a shower works too. tossing in a warm wet towel helps the humidity in the bator stay high.

 

[Mother2Hens]

This is what I've been trying to focus on. I have probably been over-thinking it; such is the way of my people. What I've come around to is the view that most people have really good things to say about most breeds of chickens, and I'll probably be happy with any of the egg-layer varieties.

I do have a specific question for the group - I made contact with this person in Indianapolis:

http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/grd/4389561072.html

The ad says Australorps, but when I called him the aussies were gone, and he said he had several colors of Orpingtons. The impression I got was that he primarily breeds Orps and the aussies were an exception. My question is, do any of you know this fellow, does anyone have experience in dealing with him?

Oh, and thanks again to everyone in the community - having everyone's experience to draw on is an invaluable resource that I really, really appreciate!

hoosiercheetah ~ We have so many members in the Indy area that surely we can come up with six pullets for you. As ChickCrazed said, there should be offers soon since so many members picked up a few chicks each time they went to buy feed!

In the meantime, go to a bookstore or library and look at "The Chicken Encylopedia" by Gail Damerow, a book that I recommended the other day. Pages 303-311 have a Table of Breed Traits at a Glance, which lists: Breed, Use(s), Comb Type, Climate, Foraging Ability, Egg size, Egg Color, Rate of Lay, Broody?, Temperment, and Place of Origin. As I mentioned before, having six different breeds is much more interesting than six that look alike - IMO.

In honor of Tax Deadline Day: