INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[atrueb00]

Guess I am not the only one with fly issues this year! The chicks were little last year at this time, they weren't outside until fall so I thought the mass amount of flies was normal. We've put out fly paper and fly traps that just use sugar water to attract the flies and trap them into a glass jar-can't really use pesticides b/c of the honeybees and our yard is all organic. Those glass jars were filled within 3 weeks. So gross!

How do u do the jar? I would like to reduce our flies in a safe way. Can u post a pic? Sorry this is late just got home from Chicago and catching up before leaving to take my last 3 boys to camp. It's been a busy summer![/QUOTE]
We got two of these from Ace Hardware and used zip ties to attach them to the roof of the run which is made of hardware cloth. The additive you put in there looks just like sugar water, going to empty ours out and try using that instead of buying the powder stuff.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

We found a persimmon tree at the edge of our woods. They are not quite ripe yet but when they are will i be able to feed them to my chickens?

I'm lazy; I'd let them fall off and pick them up to give to the chickens. Then you know they're ripe.

I'd also put up a tree stand 25 yards from that persimmon tree, and have a very merry deer season!

 

[atrueb00]

this is only a repeat post cause I know this thread move fast and things can be missed so I'm hoping that is what happened and not that noone knows...lol

the question was, are these Full Silkies ( the comb and waddles look wrong to me ) and do you think they are Boys or girls? they have the feather legs and the extra toes, just combs and waddles are big. they are 17 weeks old.

I got a few from RK that are very similar to this. They probably are full silkie, just have some recessive traits showing up if you are seeing the straight comb instead of walnut. Can you get a close up of their faces? Stance is pullet but the bottom pic's wattles are larger than what I've seen on pullets. Thing with silkies is sometimes you won't know until they crow or lay an egg unfortunately. Mine started laying right at 24 weeks.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

So, I'm contemplating adding a herd of rabbit some time down the road. They'll be for feeding my family, and donating to extended family and such.

I know I can feed some parts to my chickens - liver and kidneys and heart. My question is, what else is okay for the chickens to eat? Can I just throw everything I don't want in the run, and rake up the skulls later? Should the chickens not be fed the bowel or intestines?

Along the same lines, if I shoot a squirrel in my back yard, can I throw its carcass to the chickens? Should I skin and gut it first?

Thanks in advance for answering gross questions.

 

[chickiefreak]

So, I'm contemplating adding a herd of rabbit some time down the road. They'll be for feeding my family, and donating to extended family and such.

I know I can feed some parts to my chickens - liver and kidneys and heart. My question is, what else is okay for the chickens to eat? Can I just throw everything I don't want in the run, and rake up the skulls later? Should the chickens not be fed the bowel or intestines?

Along the same lines, if I shoot a squirrel in my back yard, can I throw its carcass to the chickens? Should I skin and gut it first?

Thanks in advance for answering gross questions.

gross? why gross? this does not seem gross to me. XD

 

[barb s]

I'm lazy; I'd let them fall off and pick them up to give to the chickens. Then you know they're ripe.

I'd also put up a tree stand 25 yards from that persimmon tree, and have a very merry deer season!

I'd be making persimmon pudding out of them and canning them.

 

[Quinstar]

I've been asked for them, so here you guys go. These are some of my non-chicken pets:

Lilly. She's a red kangaroo that's coming up on 2 years old.



Oliver the kinkajou.



Jack and Jill. They're zedonks (zonkeys, zedonkeys, etc)




Zeus and Zoey. They're patagonian cavies aka patagonian maras.


I also have camels, micro pigs, horses, llamas, and some other things, but I don't want to take up too much space, lol.

If anybody is ever in my area and you'd like to stop by for a meet and greet just let me know. All the animals LOVE visitors. Kids like to pet and feed them all.

I'm officially coming to live with you. I want a zedonk in the WORST way!!! I've always wanted to go to the exotic auction and just haven't gotten there yet.

I was over 5 pages behind again tonight

Thats ok tho, lot of good posts!! Today was pretty quiet and took mom to see dad, and gave them time alone for their anniversary. Bought Dad some new shirts since he is so dang skinny now

and got Mom the house slippers she liked so well, and took her out to Penn station for lunch!

I still have that BBW hen (Puppy, she follows you everywhere) from a year ago march. She is a bit bow legged, but actually went broody on me! She has given me some fat lil poults already, fathered by my younger BR tom snoodles. Those poults are all being reserved as food birds only. they look identical to a regular BR poult but FAT and darker than my BRs. She may be all of 15 pounds now, but still very small. I really wonder if she wasn't a midget white, if it wasn't for her height. She is as tall as my year old tom.

Good deal on visiting grandparents! Thank you. And, the guinea is doing great! He is not in with the flock yet, but caged in their coop. Did you name him? I have to tell you, this is the calmest, quietest quinea I have ever seen. He is also a bit larger than my yearling boys. Oh I do follow chicken chick too!

I about hit the floor when you I read that you think he's calm and quiet! Make me wonder what a normal guinea must be like because he was psycho here! So glad he's adjusting well. I never did name him. We always just called the "The Guineas", then when we lost the other 2 he became "The Guinea".

bradselig ~ So sad! I bet she was beautiful. I wonder why several members have had hens with the same problem this past week. How are the other members' hens w/possible prolapse doing?
@Quinstar Re: Egg Production. We were in peak production until about a week ago and numbers suddenly dropped. The only cause I can think of is the sudden drop in temperatures. It's been unusually cool like other parts of the state have been. Right now it's 65 degrees and Saturday afternoon it's supposed to be 95.
Another topic-- I had forgotten that you had a baby! Details please.
jchny~ Glad to hear that your Dad is being well taken care of and is progressing! So sorry to hear about your Pekin!

I feel a lot better knowing I'm not the only one with a lack of eggs! Between the weather and stress I can't really blame them. My lil man is awesome. I don't know what we did before him. Granted, my spare time is pretty much non-existant now, but I have been able to cut down my work schedule to 4 days a week and still manage everything, so that has been nice.


My newest love! His name is Emmett and he's pretty much the coolest thing ever.

So 65,000 chickens died today in a fire in warsaw. Soooo sad. The fact that there were that many chickens in one barn, makes think the poor hens are better off. People are so cruel sometimes.http://www.staceypageonline.com/2014/07/28/65000-chickens-lost-in-morning-fire/

Wow! I had no idea. I know exactly where that is. May have to drive by tonight and check it out. That makes me so sad for the chickens and so glad that we don't support commercial egg production anymore!

 

[atrueb00]

I have another question for the group, while I'm here. Right now 1/2 of my kinda small (108sqft) run is covered by a tarp. My thought was they'd like to have some shade outdoors. However, I never see the chickens in that part of the run - they're always in the coop or in the sun. The coop is 144sqft, so there's plenty of room in there for everyone to hang out. The question is, should I just ditch the tarp, so they have more sun? Does anyone else here have a totally unsheltered run?

My run doesn't have a tarp on it. I only put one on there if we are going to have rain for days, as then it takes forever to dry out and the silkies look pitiful. I'm not showing my birds (as the sun does burn their white feathers) and they seem to love the sunshine so much, I just prefer to keep it off. They can go into the coops for shade and the run isn't in full sun all day either.

 

[atrueb00]

And my lavender silkie hen

One day I'd love to have a building like this to work with. Lots of possibilities. And I love your lavender silkie so much! Very adorable.

 

[atrueb00]

So 65,000 chickens died today in a fire in warsaw. Soooo sad. The fact that there were that many chickens in one barn, makes think the poor hens are better off. People are so cruel sometimes.http://www.staceypageonline.com/2014/07/28/65000-chickens-lost-in-morning-fire/

This is just so sad. Big business ruins the essence of farming. The two just can't seem to co-exist without animals getting exploited in interest of profits.