INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[pginsber]

What a wonderfully warm couple of days! My flock actually walked around OUTSIDE the coop/run this weekend. There's still a lot of snow but also a lot of MUD. This is new to me because last year's flock stayed inside the run area until late March.
Questions:
Why were my chickens eating the snow? For weeks they've been afraid of it. Never set a foot into it. All of a sudden on Sat, they started eating it like cracked corn.
Is there any way to prevent chickens from drinking muddy puddles? Should I even worry about it?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Muddy puddles are like crack to chickens!
I have no idea why they enjoy drinking and playing in puddles of muddy water, but mine like to too.

 

[pginsber]

I should've publicly shamed my hens earlier! The past two days, the nine of them have provided us 5 eggs each day! Hooray!!!
I could swear that my bantam orpington is considering being broody. She seems to be spending a little too much time on the nest, being a little too concerned how meticulous the wood chips are arranged.
Eventually, I know I'll be finding some hatching eggs to bust her. I was thinking about unusual chickens like the Bielies, so I did an internet search to see what other atypical breeds are around.
I still like the laughing chicken, in the event I get a rooster, but I came across this:

Yikes!
Cool looking, but I think they'd get sunburn in the summer, and freeze to death in the Indiana winters. I'll keep looking.

 

[ChickCrazed]

I should've publicly shamed my hens earlier! The past two days, the nine of them have provided us 5 eggs each day! Hooray!!!
I could swear that my bantam orpington is considering being broody. She seems to be spending a little too much time on the nest, being a little too concerned how meticulous the wood chips are arranged.
Eventually, I know I'll be finding some hatching eggs to bust her. I was thinking about unusual chickens like the Bielies, so I did an internet search to see what other atypical breeds are around.
I still like the laughing chicken, in the event I get a rooster, but I came across this:

Yikes!
Cool looking, but I think they'd get sunburn in the summer, and freeze to death in the Indiana winters. I'll keep looking.

Bwahahahahah my Bielies are much prettier!

 

[birdman55]

morning everyone have a wonderful day...on to the coops I go

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I think I have an egg eater or two. I'm splitting up some breeding hens and giving them some other hens' eggs to see if the eggs stay of disappear. 7 hens are now in two pens instead of 1. I'm hoping none of them eat an egg but the worst would be if both pens still had an egg eater. And so begins the fun combinations of narrowing down the egg eating chicken. There is the possibility it is the rooster too. That would be more problematic.

 

[ChickCrazed]

I think I have an egg eater or two. I'm splitting up some breeding hens and giving them some other hens' eggs to see if the eggs stay of disappear. 7 hens are now in two pens instead of 1. I'm hoping none of them eat an egg but the worst would be if both pens still had an egg eater. And so begins the fun combinations of narrowing down the egg eating chicken. There is the possibility it is the rooster too. That would be more problematic.

Eeeeek. I got kind of lucky in that my only egg eater committed suicide by dog a week or so after she started the bad habit. I was of course devastated to lose her as she was a favorite, but glad I didn't have to figure out what to do about the problem.

So the only really good thing about having my flock locked up in jail for trough drinking is that I didn't have to have a panic attack when the neighborhood hawk swooped through this evening. It flew real low right through the area they used to hang out in. I have seen it swoop through the area at least twice but it has never gotten a bird or made contact. I guess it keeps trying though. Hopefully it will have given up and forgotten about them by the time I start letting them out again.

Day 3 of lights and no uptick in eggs. I'm lighting only the pen with the breeders. I know it will probably take a couple of weeks but I am anxiously checking each day to see if I get a new layer!

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I know just what to do once I confirm which chicken is eating the eggs. My DH will be skinning us a meal. I have backup roos and enough hens that 1 can go. Where the issue is if all of the breeding pen is egg eaters. I can't lose an entire breeding pen and maintain my breeding goals.

 

[kabhyper1]

Taste the Rainbow! Our stash from the last few days. It's going to be really pretty when all 37 are laying!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I love all the colors! I got 4 eggs out of 41 hens today, so we're not doing as well as you are in the egg department... Fortunately, we don't use many eggs, so we're still overflowing with them.




Speaking of, now's probably a good time to start gathering egg recipes for when they get back in the groove. Anyone have some good ones? I have an abundance of dessert recipes, so more savory dishes would be preferred if anyone has them. I have a notebook of egg recipes that I can share as well, if anyone wants. There's a pretty awesome brownie recipe that takes a lot of eggs, courtesy of another BYC user.

 

[Faraday40]

Taste the Rainbow! Our stash from the last few days. It's going to be really pretty when all 37 are laying!

OOOOOOO! So pretty.