INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

Been crazy around here, still! Fighting with issues on the furnace, and some of the water lines. Found a crawlspace cover off, but not until a couple water lines broke. Glad we have kerosene heaters! Furnace will be fixed tomorrow, had to wait for a part. We plan to work on the crawlspace this spring so its easier to get under the older part of the house, UGH. I am the only one that fits under it. I hate spiders, and I didn't see any but lots of cobwebs, YUK.
Barn is coming along and the floor is almost completely cleared out. Have started getting the garage set up for Dad to tinker, exercise equipment, and a little room for his music, piano etc. He says he probably won't use it, but its there if he wants to.
Finding tools we forgot we had too! Pretty happy to be pulling stuff out of storage sheds. One of the sheds will be used as a turkey coop later this year. Cant wait to start on breeding coops, DH is pulling all of his saws, routers, etc out and putting them in the barn too. I'm getting excited! Once the coops are done, next project is our bass boat. Plan to do some refurbishing and new wiring, put a bigger motor on it. Want to ready to hit the water April 1st when the campground opens

My tilapia are growing so fast, lil buggers are over 3 inches already! All 30 are still thriving and I have only noticed 1 lil runt that isn't growing as fast. Highly recommend the breeder they came from, good healthy stock.

 

[number9]

Great news! I am still getting some eggs daily, mostly the younger pullets laying right now.

Her behavior makes me think she is looking for a nesting spot. Some hens want the roo to stand guard over them.

I don't know she has been laying in the nesting box (4 or 5 a week she is an EE) so I don't think she is looking for a place to lay but you never know. My other EE is in a heavy molt and stays pretty much in the coop. They usually hang out together so she may be just missing her.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:
You will be really glad you have them. Its a great boost for the birds during the winter, especially! I don't sort anymore, I just add a new bin when I feed one out. I keep them on 24% chick feed to optimize them. I also feed them to my tilapia. My mealie farms are about 2 years or so old now, and I have zillions of them lol. Going to switch to the underbed type storage bins, they need lots of flat open space. (no, I don't keep them in the house!) Be careful breathing too much of the dust off them, it will cause respiratory issues. I always wear a mask now and work outdoors with them if I can.
I plan to start on wax worms again next spring, they are pretty easy to raise too, and good for fishing bait

FYI the mealies are fantastic for fishing too.

 

[pginsber]

I just learned recently that chickens are snow blind, so if you make a path with straw of leaves or something they will go out. if they don't have a landmark of some kind I guess they can't see the ground.

This is an interesting tidbit to know. Sounds like others' experience would support it. How did you learn this information?

 

[racinchickins]

Quote:
You will be really glad you have them. Its a great boost for the birds during the winter, especially! I don't sort anymore, I just add a new bin when I feed one out. I keep them on 24% chick feed to optimize them. I also feed them to my tilapia. My mealie farms are about 2 years or so old now, and I have zillions of them lol. Going to switch to the underbed type storage bins, they need lots of flat open space. (no, I don't keep them in the house!) Be careful breathing too much of the dust off them, it will cause respiratory issues. I always wear a mask now and work outdoors with them if I can.
I plan to start on wax worms again next spring, they are pretty easy to raise too, and good for fishing bait

FYI the mealies are fantastic for fishing too.
I really need to get up to your place again to see your mealworm setup. I'm all for easy protein for the birdies.

 

[chickiebaby1]

Didn't get any snow, thank goodness. But keeping the birdies in their coops anyway because of this awful cold. How did others fair with the snow?

 

[minmin1258]

Can you believe my ducks are out in this!! They are acting like its summer or something! Lol

 

[birdman55]

I was told to separate them into the three categories because the beetles are actually cannibalistic and will eat the pupa that are helpless....so right now I have two bins for the mealworms and one for the pupa and one for the beetles...they are so slow...I think it will take a good year before mine become really productive....

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hey, all, I thought I'd finally make a return to the thread. Sorry I've been gone so long! The end of the year was pretty rocky for me, but I think I'm at peace with everything now and I know how to proceed.

I've been trying to decide how to post this for the sake of sharing learning experiences--and psyching myself out of posting in the process--so I think I'll just say it. Last month, my beloved girls tested positive for Mycoplasma Gallisepticum. The truly scary part about the whole thing is that they have not shown any symptoms to indicate they are even carrying MG. As a matter of fact, save for one hen that has periodic sinus issues, none of my birds have shown respiratory symptoms for as far back as I can remember. I only found out that they are carriers because the rooster in quarantine with the ducks had a slight runny nose and afterward they tested positive for it. I'm fairly confident that nothing has gotten through quarantine, so I'm not sure at this point if my sacrifice bird gave the ducks MG or if they already had it upon arriving. Either way, it's already here, so I figure they might as well stay.

I am not depopulating my flock. I can't. I love these girls too much. For those in my area that may be concerned about it spreading, I have put in my fair share of research to be sure that I know when my birds are most at risk of spreading it and how, and I will be taking precautions to prevent it from happening. I think this should be a welcome reminder to everyone, though, to quarantine new birds and to avoid wearing the same shoes and clothing around your birds as you wear off of the property. I don't know how or when MG arrived, but it almost had to be in the era I call 'Before I Knew Better', when I would go sit with the girls after being at swap meets and things, and my idea of quarantining was keeping the new birds in rabbit hutches... in the chicken yard. Please, everyone, learn from my mistakes!

As far as what this means for me in the future, well, whatever happens will have to wait a while. For now, my flock is closed. I have decided to take the route of breeding for resistance in the future. MG is out there, all over the place, and it seems so insidious that it's frightening! I would much rather put effort into breeding resistant birds than worry myself to death trying to avoid disease altogether. I'm still reading into the idea, but it sounds ideal thus far.


I have missed roughly 60 pages of posts, I think, so I'm not going to read everything. Sorry if I missed anything! Hope everyone had happy holidays and had fun on New Year's! I still have a lot of plans for this year, even with the above mentioned diagnosis putting some plans on hold. Lots of building to improve my birdies' homes! I'm not getting chicks this year (for obvious reasons), but I'm looking forward to spending the year just appreciating the birds that are already here.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I have a weird situation. One of my EE hens is sneaking off from the others in the flock and then she will crow. Sounds just like a young cockerel learning how. Some times she will squawk like she just laid an egg. I don't know if she gets separated from the others and does this so that the rooster will come find her instead of her having to go look for him. Maybe she is just weird. She is an older hen 4 maybe 5 years old but she still lays 4 to 5 eggs a week year round. I don't know what to think.

I have a hen that crows after every egg she lays. Not sure if the situation is comparable, but we have always had roosters, just that the majority of the time they have been separated by fence from the girls. Embeded videos always kill my browser, but here's a link to a video of my girl crowing right after laying.

I have a silkie chick that is very unusual. She is half silkied and half smooth. Her mother is full chocolate silkie with smooth feathering, her father is a black silkie roo with silkie feathering. I can't wait to see how she grows out. She is full blood silkie. She just has silly feathers.

Adorable bird! There's nothing unusual going on here, though. Silkied feathers are recessive, so if her mother was smooth feathered, it makes sense that she is as well. Depending on the mother's genetics, either all or half of her offspring should be smooth feathered and carrying a silkie gene when crossed to a silkied bird. Okay, I'd better go and get the birds in now! Edited for wording.