INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[LonelyPageTurne]

I'm pretty the dosage for powder and liquid are different due to different strengths. I will double check but I believe I use 1/2 teaspoon in a quart of water with the powder.

The powder is a half teaspoon per gallon to 1 teaspoon. You also don't need to stop eating eggs if you don't have thyroid problems.

 

[flyladyrocks]

This is the beauty of homeschooling. She used to climb a tree, but now she hangs with the chicks. Queen Elizabeth is helping her with her spelling words:

 

[Primal Momma]

So while I was outside watching the flock, I heard our first attempt at a crow!!! It sounded more like a bugle but still!!! I laughed pretty hard ad then he did it again. I think from watching them they all seem fine so maybe it was just a fluke. I'll keep watching though just on case.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

So while I was outside watching the flock, I heard our first attempt at a crow!!! It sounded more like a bugle but still!!! I laughed pretty hard ad then he did it again. I think from watching them they all seem fine so maybe it was just a fluke. I'll keep watching though just on case.

How old is he?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

This is the beauty of homeschooling. She used to climb a tree, but now she hangs with the chicks. Queen Elizabeth is helping her with her spelling words:

Too cute- my son is not homeschooled, but has done his homework with the chickens many evenings since we got them.

 

[Primal Momma]

How old is he? 

They're 12 weeks today

 

[hoosiercheetah]

This is the beauty of homeschooling. She used to climb a tree, but now she hangs with the chicks.

Our daughter is in Indiana Connections Academy, and we love it! It's so much different that what home schooling used to be, and what people's preconceived notions still are. Go you!

 

[flyladyrocks]

I had help. SallyinIndiana's husband and racinchickins and his brother helped me load it and jchny and her husband, pginsber and racinchickins helped unload.

I think I can get help loading and unloading, I just don't have anything to load it onto! We traded our trailer a few years back ad I am regretting that!

 

[goodb]

Calling broody hatching "pros";

I have a hen sitting on 11 eggs (day 12) of which I was able to finish candling today. 3 eggs (all EE) are very dark inside and have a very small air cell; Meaning that it appears the air cell has not shrunk since day one. The 3 in question are identical to each other yet different from the eggs I'm used to seeing at this stage.

Should I be concerned enough about these 3 to consider removing them? Should I leave them and let momma remove them if they are bad?

Thanks again for your help.

 

[CRSelvey]

If they use the drawings, I'd like to get a shirt - even if I can't go Those are quite beautiful!






One thing I do in the heat is put out shallow pans with water in several places. I keep an eye out at resales for the 13x 9 or larger pyrex pans that I keep filled with water that they can stand in and drink from. Standing in the pans helps cool them off. I just go out with a hose and spray them out and refill from time to time during the day since if they're standing in them there will also be a poo from time to time.

Has worked well the last 2 summers and we're doing it again now.

That's a great idea. I tried baby swimming pools last year, but they wouldn't go near them and the algae built up daily.

Her shed has a fantastic layout.
Building from new materials is costly, even brand new shed kits are cheaper. Still there tend to be plenty of sheds on craigslist. They could save you some money.

A shed would have been significantly less expensive than what we built and it would have saved time. I love our coop but having more free time last summer would have been nice

Poly-Vi-Sol is a children's vitamin - not a veterinary vitamin.

You will find it at a grocery, walmart, drug store, etc. in the baby department.

Thank you. I haven't ever been successful finding it. Now I know why.

Now that I know what it is, they're in the garage and I am almost back to my old self. They turned 3 weeks old on Monday!

She wont take anything today. I cant even pry her beek open to give her drops of vitamins. I noticed this morning that she had eaten some of her food, maybe a Tblsp or so, I dont know if she drank any of the electrolyte water or not. She isnt any better at all. There was no paralysis or any warning that she was going to become ill. I thought maybe the heat was getting to her but that wouldnt explain the weakness. she cant even hold up her head ( I dont think her feather crown is THAT heavy). I gave her some water laced with baby aspirin and Spearmint leaves, In case she is having tummy issues. shes bn in her sick cage now for three days and there isnt any poo in there. I know that nots normal! Can you give chickens laxatives?

I don't really know. I'm sorry!

At my dad's (where we are) there is an in-ground pool that collapsed due to neglect. I checked the price to have it re-lined and rebuilt. I can think of a lot of other things I'd rather spend that on!!! Ungodly

When we first moved to our cabin, there was a GIANT pool. I think it was 26x40x10.5 feet deep. Every time I looked at it I wondered who or what we would find stuck in the water. After two years of spending about $2000 in water and chemicals to keep it up for each summer, I decided that I would only ever spend that again to fill it in. That was the best decision we have made for this house. Now I have a great garden and chicken yard as well as being comfortable letting the kids play in the yard. I'd love to have a pool someday, but never that big again and it would definitely be a salt water pool. The filter cost is higher initially, but the chemical cost on the back end is so much less as is the damage to hair and clothing.

Meanwhile, back at the Henitentiary...

Queen Penelope the Great and Terrible was gone, and no one knew if she'd ever return.

Ariel, who still recounted her brief ordeal with the Outsiders with trembling and many quick glances over her shoulder, was certain that Penny had been overcome by them and eaten. Sadie countered this by turning her head to look at Ariel through her sunken and bloodshot right eye, silently reminding everyone that Penelope was called Great and Terrible for a reason. Elsa reminded everyone that chickens vanished from flocks all the time, and there was hardly anything unusual going on. Cathrine agreed, adding that the Outsiders like as not had nothing to do with it. Anne agreed with Cathrine, because poor, feather-brained Anne never did anything else. But they mused over these things more than they discussed them, in the lazy, unbelieving way that old bachelor professors discuss politics or economics over cigars and brandy in a pleasantly dark faculty lounge - as though these things might exist in some hypothetical outside world, but no one believed that any of it could possible impact their placid, serene existence.

For some time after her Majesty's sudden disappearance, life went on more or less as it always had. The Man brought breakfast in the morning. After that there was scratching and dust baths in the yard, and picking at the grass that was becoming more thin and meager day by day. In the afternoon the Man would come with water and more food, the Girl would come to pick clover from outside the Yard, where no one could reach it, and push it through the wire. The day in, day out routine of the Henitentiary dampened the effect of Penny's absence. But over time, the power vacuum became impossible to ignore.

When there was breakfast, everyone would stop for a moment to wait for Penny to push to the front and eat first - but she didn't. When there was clover, no one rushed in to be first, because everyone knew that Penny would go first - but she didn't. It was unsettling. As the days passed, the tension of these moments swelled and grew thick and palpable. Someone would do something, wouldn't they? And everyone waited, passively curious at first, then with growing interest and anxiety, to see who would do something, and what they would do.

And then, one hot and sunny afternoon, the doors opened.

The first thing everyone noticed that afternoon was the noise. They had grown accustomed to the noise of the occasional train in the distance, and the noise of the highway that was less distant. They knew the sounds of the Man and the Girl, and they were even starting to get used to the Boy, who was small and would bang on the walls, and rattle the wire in the Yard, and run and shout in a startling, frightening way. But the noise that day was different, and more. More small voices shouting, more feet running, more banging and rattling. The noise would rise and fall. Then the flock smelled smoke, and became more nervous. No animal likes to be anywhere near fire, or the possibility of fire. But the smoke smell subsided, and was soon forgotten.

Amid the noise, the flock heard the sound of the Man calling in the low, soft voice that meant treats. They knew that they wanted treats, but everyone was on edge, and no one wanted to find out what all the noise might mean. Gradually, the small voices became quieter, and started to imitate the call of the Man. There was still a sense of danger, but it was much decreased. After a moment it was defeated altogether by the promise of treats, and the boldest of the Flock began to follow the calls toward the open far end of the Yard. Anne, who was not necessarily the boldest but was incautious in her feather-brained innocence, ventured out first.

Upon her emergence into the sunlight, she was immediately overwhelmed by a cacophony of sounds and smells. There was tantalizing clover, but it was held in the shaking, thrusting hands of small, loud Boys and Girls. The Boys and Girls made the Treat call, but in a shrill, piercing was that was intolerable to Anne's sensitive ears. There was sunlight and movement in all directions. Anne squawked and flapped back under the safety of the Canopy, which covered the half of the Yard closest to the Henitentiary.

Anne breathlessly related all she had seen and heard to Cathrine. Cathrine took it all in and, feeling very conflicted, consulted with Elsa and Sadie. Sadie, who had always been the least fearful of the Man and the Girl, argued that the People, even the small ones, were most often kind and gentle in the end. Elsa pointed out that Anne hadn't seen anything move on the inside of the Yard, only on the outside, beyond the wire. The flock all nodded in considered agreement, remembering all of the times they had tried to reach grass and clover beyond the wire, with no success. The wire, they knew, was an impenetrable boundary. Having thus consolidated their group will, and steeled their collective nerves, they began to walk out in to the sun, together.

With many fits and starts, much walking cautiously out and darting back in, gradually the flock made their way out into the end of the Yard. The clover and tall grass offered by the Small People was worth tolerating the loud noise and sudden movement. The flock's faith in the impassibility of the wire grew as well, and they began to feel more at ease with the whole situation.

But still, there were those moments. One of the People brought a dandelion flower and shoved it through the wire with several fresh, delicious smelling leaves, and everyone stopped for a moment to give Penelope the first grab - but she wasn't there. Cathrine stepped up and pulled the flower in, and there was a not unusual amount of pecking and grabbing and running until the flower was gone. Another Person threw a handful of carefully gather pill bugs into the Yard, and the flock waited to see Penny, who was by far the best hunter, pick them out of the grass and reveal their location - but she wasn't there. Elsa eventually found one, and Ariel found a few more, but everyone knew that many of the little insects had simply crawled away in the grass, escaping the fate they deserved. The anxious tension in the absence of leadership was more keenly felt than ever. Everyone in the flock knew that someone had to do something, and very soon.

The noise of the many Small People subsided. There was a sound of a car going away. The Yard was quiet again, and things were beginning to settle down to the normal activities of a day. Anne scratched at one of the wallows and started working on a bath. Sadie slowly picked over the ground where the People had been dropping treats, to see if the others had left anything. She was growing accustomed to being the last and the least, with her sight in the bad eye only just beginning to return.

And then, quite suddenly, the big wall of the Henitentiary opened wide, as it did when the Man was bringing food and water in the mornings or afternoons. But it wasn't time for food and water, and the Man stood with empty hands, and called softly to them. Then just as suddenly the Woman, who spent little time around the Flock, was standing at the far end of the Yard, out in the sun - but the wire there was gone! The far end of the Yard had been opened wide! The anticipation of freedom rippled through the flock, making them all giddy and slightly reckless. All at once, the whole flock stumbled out to the world beyond confinement, the world unrestricted and full of clover and grass going to seed and dandelions and weeds that had no names, the world of bugs and worms waiting to be scratched up from the dirt and devoured. It was unexpected and glorious!

But after all of the day's oddness and tension and treats and frights, it didn't take long for the excitement of liberation to boil over the minds of several of the Flock. The anxious stress created by Queen Penelope's absence had finally built to the breaking point. The floodgates opened.

(to be continued...)



ETA This account of my Memorial Day chicken activity has be Highly Absurdly dramatized for your enjoyment, and because I was bored. I hate to post a chapter half-finished, but it turned out much longer than I intended when I started writing. I'll try to do the rest this afternoon.

Also, in case you were curious, this post recieved a record number of edits. I know you wanted to know.

Ciao!

As an avid reader, I really appreciate the hard work that went in to our entertainment! Thank you.