INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

Is it normal for a silkie roo to have like five and a half toes on each foot?

they usually have 5 toes, but some will have more or less.

Quote: Will post info in a few minutes, we picked them up tonight.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

She is gone D: :C

I was in the middle of trying to look up thing and respond to all of you and nurse Cordelia when my daughter (She is ChickieFreak - I wrote at least one post under her name!) told me she opened her eyes and looked at her and then she wasn't breathing. She was completely listless, could not stand at all - could not eat or drink on her own I had to give her liquids by syringe.

Being a fairly new chicken mom, who has only had one minor issue with one of my chickens, I am at a total loss. I don't even know how to tell if she might have parasites or be eggbound. I know I have read about both but I just don't remember. She was not laying much. She just started laying when it got really cold so she was only laying about once a week. I will so miss her and her pretty blue eggs.

So if any of you could give me a quick summary of what to look for -I am overwhelmed with so much to do with my FIL dying and we are in charge of hosting a HUGE robotics tournament at our church this Saturday (several hundred people) and I just don't have time to look this all up now.

I am feeling guilty and second guessing myself. She was acting a little different - less skiddish than normal, wanted to snuggle with us which was something she never wanted to do - until a week and a half ago when we brought her inside to remove caked on poop we saw on her butt. I thought she was just finally over being scared of us, and trusted us to help her after her time inside and getting special treats for her trouble- but was it that she wasn't feeling well? She seemed fine yesterday - hopping up on the window sill to visit us. Not sure how her best friend will handle this, Yikes. Depressed chicken? Although personality-wise it would have been harder for our little deceased birdy to lose her best friend, she was more dependent on her buddy than the other way around.

I really appreciate all you jumping in and trying to help us and letting me ramble here- I have not had the time to get on here very much, just overwhelmed with life and lots of challenges over the past several months since school started. But I love all you Indiana BYCers! You are the best!

Now what on earth do I do with a chicken body? She is wrapped in a towel in a box and I put her in my car b/c I figured it is cold out there.

Originally Posted by ellymayRans
I am so terribly sorry for your loss of Grampa and now your pet, both of you

.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I said to mom (flyladyrocks) now that we lost one we have to get 1 more but if we get one more chick then she will be lonly so we have to gst 2 but what if something happens to one of them so get 3 but 3 + 8 = 11 uneven!!!!!! that can't happen? can it? so get 4 but just to make sure that they fit in get 2 more so if they don't fit in they can have their own flock but thats only 16 chickens all together and in to years they can drive!!!(1 chicken is a year) so what can hurt to get 2 more chickens? am I right?

OH my, chicken math disease has certainly got you!

I'd like a little advice from those of you who garden. I've been planting a small garden for the last several years, usually the basics, tomatoes, jalapeños, bell peppers, green beans (teepee), broccoli.

This year I'm going to be getting some seeds from Bakers, I've been browsing the website all morning. Wow, what a huge selection. I had no clue there were so many choices.

I'm looking for recommendations your favorite tomato varieties. Red, purple, yellows. Cherry/grape tomatoes?

What about peppers?

Quote:
Yum, Roma are my favorite!

Quote: Interesting you mention this, my one very young CCL is looking super thin. I am taking him inside tomorrow after thinking about this, he is a timid low ranking cockerel. Super sweet, too. I am wondering if this is common for the breed to be bullied by other more dominant breeds. I have had a few others, and it seems I wind up losing them. Any thoughts? If I do try them again this year, they may need to separated permanently from the main flock.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Well, we went over and picked up the "homeless birds" tonight. The EEs were taken already by another family friend, but were older anyways, at least 4 years old. There was an older BO girl I will keep myself, she is our friends oldest girl, around 4 yrs old also and very sweet. Yep, you guessed it, her name is Buffy. I have a splash orp roo and a few blue hens she will stay with. The remaining 20 hens (If i counted right) are whats called red stars, red sexlink, cinnamon queens, red rangers, etc.. they are a production red hen. It was too dark to take pictures, so I will get a few tomorrow. I do know he got these as chicks around April of last year, so they are about 8-9 months old. One thing I do want to mention up front, these birds are known to prolapse and have shorter life spans. Hatcheries designed them for high production, short lives. They lay a nice jumbo brown egg, I saw at least a dozen in the nest boxes when we plucked the girls off the roosts. We got them after dark to make it easy to collect them. They are technically still pullet age, and will need time to mature. 2 of the girls were really feisty! Glad I wore gloves

So anyone interested I will post pics tomorrow evening.

Update on my "Tilapia farm" its going great!!! I got 1/4 inch fingerlings shipped to me On December 11th, all 30 are thriving and are 3-4 inches already. Had them in a 30 gallon tank, moving into a 75 gallon tank, 2 large filters and 25% water changes 2x a week. I am adding minimal salt to the water as well. Using 50% protein feed, supplementing with mealworms. Pretty cool how they all rush up to the tank front when I feed them, We are doing feeding 5-6 times a day in small amounts. Next step will be splitting up a breeding group in the 2 big tanks, and once weather breaks, the rest go outdoors to a large kids swimming pool, around 300 gallons or so. (probably inside the barn to prevent predators). Winter months, the fry will be used to supplement my birds protein and not waste the fingerlings. Adults will eat them if not separated, not a habit I want them to follow.
Goodnite everyone!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

One last post, shared on a goose thread on BYC, had to share it here too!

FYI these are embden, but most geese pretty much follow the same actions.

 

[pginsber]

I'd like a little advice from those of you who garden. I've been planting a small garden for the last several years, usually the basics, tomatoes, jalapeños, bell peppers, green beans (teepee), broccoli.

This year I'm going to be getting some seeds from Bakers, I've been browsing the website all morning. Wow, what a huge selection. I had no clue there were so many choices.

I'm looking for recommendations your favorite tomato varieties. Red, purple, yellows. Cherry/grape tomatoes?

What about peppers?

We ordered our seeds for the year from several places, Baker's included, and we've received all but one. Looking forward to this spring because we're trying several new varieties of tomato.
Usually, for early red tomatoes, we like Sioux, for cherry tomatoes, we like Riesentraube, for black/purple tomatoes, we like Raul Robeson, for yellows, we like Gold Medal, and for paste tomatoes we're still trying to find our favorite.
We're trying several new varieties this year. Hope it works out well!

 

[ChickCrazed]

I had a really great talk with First State Vet Supply last night. I had some questions about some of their vaccines and he was a wealth of information. I thought I would try to share some of what I learned with you all!

I wanted to offer some vaccines on the chicks I sell (to those that are interested in vaccinations). I had been able to find a lot about the Marek's vaccine, but with all the talk of MG being so prevalent in the environment, I had a lot of questions on that particular vaccine. The vaccine they sell is called CRD-MG. Since it was so expensive I wanted to make sure it wasn't like the Marek's vaccine where you had to use it all in one shot once it was mixed. It is not. Here are some notes from our discussion of this vaccine:

*It can be given to both chicks and turkey poults (although turkeys are not listed on the bottle)
*Even if you suspect you have MG on your property, giving the vaccine to your adult birds (yes you can treat adults!) will help lessen symptoms and flare ups even if they already have it! Although I didn't think to ask this particular question, I would think that would make it more difficult to spread as well. He said by giving the vaccination even to an infected flock you don't have to medicate them as often and they live much better lives.
*Turkeys are extremely susceptible to MG and have a much higher mortality rate from it, so vaccination is an even better idea for them
*It is known to cause swelling (sometimes a lot of swelling) at the injection site 7-10 days after injection, it is part of how the immune system spreads the vaccine throughout the body and is totally normal
*It can not be given to day olds (darn because that was what I wanted to do). A day old chick's immune system is not up and running fully yet and this vaccine is too much for them at that age. He recommended giving it to them at 6-8 weeks of age at the youngest, and then any bird given the vaccine (even adults) needs a booster within 6 weeks after the first injection.
*Because it is not a live vaccine like the Marek's vaccine, it can be stored and re-used for quite some time.

Anyway, the guy was super knowledgeable and was more than happy to talk my ear off on the subject! I wanted to share a bit about our discussion in the hopes that it could help some of you!

 

[ellymayRans]

My boy is a displaying fool!! Lol! I just hope my hen appreciates him as much as I do! I'm really hoping she hatches a clutch this year!

Went out to the coop and had 4 girls in next boxes! The wait for spring is killing me! I've honestly been considering adding light to get them started. Pulling all the Roos out and not putting them back together until breeding pens are built! I was surprised to see my spring hatch Blue Copper Marans girl has layed her second egg. I was wondering who layed the first one. Caught her today. Small pullet egg but love the speckles. It's the 2 eggs on the far left. Nice dark color. Pics are a little lighter than true color.

This is the young girl. Far left.

 

[iamfivewire]

she's a beauty ellymayRans . . . . & pretty eggs too

 

[ellymayRans]

she's a beauty ellymayRans . . . . & pretty eggs too

Thanks! Her mama lays a monster of an egg and beautifully dark too. I'm breeding her back to her father and a Blue Copper Marans from a different line. I want to add Splash Marans to my collection of Marans here. I just hope the Blue male doesn't hurt her egg color. That's why I'm breeding back to her father just in case.

So many plans for them this year. I'm super pumped!! Lol!