INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[leslea]

Miss Lynda's overnight stay in Broody Jail did her no good, so I let her return to the coop last night. Today I let everyone out (extracted her) and shut the coop doors so she had to hang out with her friends. She's done foraging and is trying to figure out how to get back into the coop. I feel like I'm being cruel.

One of my friends said you can't break a broody silkie. Should I stop trying?

What do you do with your broody silkies?

I read the Chicken Chick's post about it and set up a dog crate per her advice, with hardware cloth on the bottom, but Lynda still went into a trance on that.

I know silkies go broody a lot, so I don't want to torture them if this is just something she has to do.

 

[dogwoodlaine]

The most adorable sound ever? A almost 5 week old cockerel attempting his first crow. He didn't even mess it up, sounded just like a crow should only so quiet, I wasn't sure I had heard it. Then he stood straight up, stuck out his neck and did it again. This was in response to the chaos the pullets were causing when I was cleaning out their brooder.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I have a Red Star trying to sit on eggs. I thought of trying to break the broodiness but instead of the cage approach, I'm putting her in one of my breeder pens. Than at least I should end up with chicks I want. I'll just keep tossing the red star eggs and she'll be left with the blue eggs.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

The most adorable sound ever? A almost 5 week old cockerel attempting his first crow. He didn't even mess it up, sounded just like a crow should only so quiet, I wasn't sure I had heard it. Then he stood straight up, stuck out his neck and did it again. This was in response to the chaos the pullets were causing when I was cleaning out their brooder.

LOL I enjoy a roosters crow, so hearing the first attempts is so comical and adorable!

 

[Faraday40]

Yes, daylight is dropping fast. Many hens will actually stop laying. My EE, silkies and polish already have. Your littles may lay a short time but you won't see real production until spring, depending on the breeds. I keep considering but have never added light yet. Its totally your decision, and if you do, folks recommend 14-16 hours of light and a timer..Many use the rope lights, its attractive, easy and the hens like it. January, and February I may have a dozen eggs total, and that's ok. I am seeing in the hatchery lines, I am lucky if my hens make 3 years old. So My feeling on them, I better leave it as is, to give them a longer life. I won't be adding hatchery to my flock anymore unless its a bird needing a home. Frankly feel they (hatcheries) are not breeding the birds to live past the 3 year mark, and that's horribly wrong. Many members this year have had losses from hatchery birds, unexpected and just heartbreaking. Many more friends not on our forum have too. A heritage breed hen can lay well past 5 and older. WHY would a hatchery do that? For profit of course. So I will pay the breeder that cares, and not buy the "hatchery" birds that die from egg binding and inbreeding, and break my heart losing them so young.

Last year was my 1st winter with chickens & they started laying during the January polar vortex when we had the daytime high of -18'F. Because it was winter, they didn't start laying until 28 weeks old. I didn't use lighting b/c my babies weren't laying anyway. I was kind of hoping production would only slow - not stop - this winter so I wouldn't have to do more than put the plastic up. (The run turns into a greenhouse for winter.) Now we're used to eating great eggs & the neighbors are always asking to buy more. I don't know if I could go back to eating store eggs.

My hens are "mutts" but I call them EEs because of their pink & green/blue eggs. They came from a man who use to breed & show chickens but decided to get out of it. Since he was no longer breeding, he simply sold eggs from the chickens he had left. He donated some rainbow eggs to my science camp. It was the 1st time I hatched non-Leghorn chicks. I had no idea how sweet & personable chickens could be. I was always sad to send my Leghorn chicks to a farm, but it wasn't that overwhelming. The EEs were a different story, so we built a big coop with room to spare.

This year my daughter took up incubation as part of an animal science project. Since we had to buy shipped eggs anyway, I made sure to get some eggs from my fav breeds. The one that surprises me most is a Bantam English Orpington. She was the only bantam to hatch, and she doesn't seem to notice she's smaller. She thinks she's royalty & sleeps ABOVE the highest roost. She lays 5-6 tiny eggs per week. We only kept her for the cute factor / comic relief. I never though an Orpington would lay that many, and my kids enjoy the novelty of her tiny eggs.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

[COLOR=900000]We had a long day at the Central Indiana Poultry Show, which I'll post about in a bit, but first, I'm super excited to introduce the newest members of my feathered family, Malcolm and Trudi! [/COLOR]

[COLOR=900000]They are Butterscotch Call Ducks, which was not the color I was hoping for, but they are so pretty and adorable and sooooo, so tiny! I guess I didn't realize just how small these guys are! They're super cute and their little quacks make me giggle. They are in quarantine right now, so we've got a few more weeks to finish the duck coop before they move in. (And, of course, they pick the dirtiest section of the wall to pose next to )


Malcolm is such a handsome guy! He apparently a bit older than Trudi is, and he seems pretty mellow.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=900000]Trudi, not so much. In this picture, she's saying, "Malcolm, hide me!" [/COLOR]

[COLOR=900000]They are pretty shy, so I'm going to give them a couple days to get used to their surroundings and then try getting closer. For right now, this is a common sight for me: Run awaaay!![/COLOR]

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

[COLOR=900000]On the show, holy cow!! I saw so many birds I hadn't seen in person before! So many temptations up for sale--Chocolate Wyandotte bantams, Rosecomb bantams, and most tempting of all, Fawn Silver Duckwing OEGBs. And, of course, the birds in the show ring were amazing. I have never seen such BIG ROOSTERS!! I thought my only rooster, Toes, was a big guy, but DANG, some of those boys there were easily 3 times his size! I think the Orpingtons and Brahmas were big enough to saddle up and ride! Oh, and now that I have seen some in person, I know I have to have OEGBs in the future!! Such precious birdies!


There were two Narragansett turkey toms that were displaying the whole time we were in the barn with them, spinning in their cages and making this odd drumming sound (kind of like a chuff?). Then, they would gobble, and I just couldn't take them seriously. What a goofy sound!


The geese took themselves very seriously, of course. As we approached the waterfowl barn, we kept hearing great, loud HONKS! Then, we got inside, and there were call ducks galore! And every time one of the ducks would get started, a bunch of them would get going. They have some voices for those tiny bodies! The drakes, of course, pitched in, but not nearly as many decibels.


We walked around for an hour or two, but didn't see any other Indiana BYC'er shirts. :/ Maybe next time. Anyway, it was a lot of fun! Mom and I are already planning on going next year.


ETA: Oops, the Seramas were in the show; the Rosecombs were for sale![/COLOR]

 

[SallyinIndiana]

A shed for sale on CL that would make a perfect cute little coop almost identical to the one Leah's Mom has. The shed is not mine or anyone I knows. If It was I would be trying to talk the owner into keeping it full of chickens.
http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/grd/4720141450.html

It may not look that cheap but I have seen these sell for so much more new.

 

[PeacefulWalls]

Take a look at this...may help set you at ease:

Oh yummy! I came across all those pics of poo while I was eating a piece of pizza

NOT!!!

lol!!!

What breeds are they? Some are less adaptable to cold and dampness than others.
You have to judge by their actions, but once fully feathered they are normally fine. I would wait til after tomorrows frost tho, its going to be unseasonably cold. Temps are supposed to return to normal the next day.
LOL! Its eerie like a ghost town

have a hunch many of us are working on winterizing.

Freeze warning for our county again tonight. Definitely not ready for this weather. My daughter is having some friends spend the night next weekend and they asked if they were going to sleep in the cabin again like last year in October -- which was a big mistake -- they froze out there with the overnight temps!!

 

[dogwoodlaine]

Questions, question and more questions...

So, this is the coop. Don't mind the mess. The boxer pup is proving to be a hand-ful, tearing through a bale of straw, digging holes and dragging out everything not bolted down. The coop will need to be worked on, but it's doable for the rest of the year. Anyway, as you can tell, the run is pitched toward the coop and a little to the back. Thoughts on how to add a roof to it for winter. The angle of the pitch won't allow for me to build up the end attached to the coop and put on a corrugated plastic roofing type roof.
Are sweet gum tree leaves ok to add to the run?
Those familiar with FBCM: I have both black and blue. The chicks were easy to tell apart by the down color. Now I have a pullet (I hope) that should be black but has feathered in with a charcoal colored feather. She's not black and she's not blue. Any ideas?
Do FBCM pullets have ANY copper on the wings?