INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[birdman55]

is there a step by step for this one. We have an old fridge that doesn't work anymore and was wanting DH to do this to it, but he needs some instructions and what we need to buy, such as heating and thermostats and stuff.

you can get the basic understanding on how to build and what to get for the fix....in the forum below on pages 17,22,23,25,28,29,31,32,44
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/940456/building-paradise-for-the-birds

i just started the fridgebator so you can just keep up and when i post you can follow along and see...bottom will be the incubator and top will be brooder....i would recommend the stc 1000 for the top unit and also the bottom unit so two separate stc 1000s' however the bottom one you can find the one that has the humidity gauge on it...so it controls the temp and humidity...as long as there is enough air flow it should be as good as an expensive unit...i have four 120mm computer fans that all light up going into the bottom unit...
well hope to see you post...
a fridge is going to require between 250-400 watts.....to be efficient ...as the cabinet incubators i believe use 250-325...many ways of heating the unit...they have rollout strips, ceramic, lights, and so on....and everything will do the same for heat...so up to you ....but depending on what heat source you get obviously it will be wired differently as well

 

[browncow15]

Whew! Gone a week and I finally caught up!
Anyone want to convince me why or why not to keep an olive egger roo? I haven't had achance to look into the genetics much. Will they pass the olive egg gene onto their offspring?

Thanks. It's a 120 qt cooler. I realize the pics don't really allow a true visual of its size but there's quite a bit of space from the floor to the lights and fans. I could stand the quart jars up but I figure it would be about the same height as the emu eggs for placing a thermometer on them. I do need to move the thermometer around it more but I do have 3 different ones placed around it. Calibrated "check", Vent holes "check".. Oh small water container and stable humidity "Check, check!"

Emu eggs are different than chicken eggs though, Temps and humidity.

What do you think I should do about the smell then? Will they be ok? I had the top cut out of it and no plexiglass put in for 4 days at least cuz I had gotten ill... I don't like waiting any longer but I also don't like the thought of ruining incubation! Sigh...

How challenging was your coolerbator to put together? I bought a styrofoam incubator from jchnny that worked for the few I hatched last year but it's a nightmare to clean up!

on my forum below
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/940456/building-paradise-for-the-birds
there is a step by step on how to make a coolerbator...on pages 17, 22, 23, 25, 28, 29, 31, 32 and 44....

I'll have to check this out!

Agreed.  The standard is still being worked on. Lack of crests will be considered a fault, especially in the females.  However, crest size is still quite a bit up in the air.  Nobody wants a full on crest like the polish, but preferences are all over the map on the smaller crests (and many other things, as Sally mentioned).  I'm personally a fan of smaller, but still noticeable swept back crests, but nothing that even comes close to a polish or silkie.  And the crests haven't been locked in.  You can still get no crests from parents that have them. That being said, I've seen Sally's birds (some actually came from me) and if someone isn't interested in showing them, then her non-crested birds would be great for them. Any non-crested that I get this year will be sold as blue egg layers, not as CCLs.

I have two I got from Sally that came from you I think. One has no crest the other has a small one but they both lay pretty blue eggs!

 

[racinchickins]

Whew! Gone a week and I finally caught up!
Anyone want to convince me why or why not to keep an olive egger roo? I haven't had achance to look into the genetics much. Will they pass the olive egg gene onto their offspring?

There isn't really an olive egg gene. It is actually a combination of two genes. An Olive Egger has genes to lay eggs with blue shells and a gene to put a dark brown coating on said shell. The combo gives you olive colored eggs.

If you have an olive egger roo, that means that one parent had the blue egg gene and the other the dark brown gene, but most likely neither parent had both. That means he is likely heterozygous (only one gene for each instead of a pair of each) for both. He could pass both to offspring to make them olive eggers, but also have a chance to end up with just one, or none. You also have to factor in what color egg genes the hen will be passing on also.

Long story short - most likely more babies will not be olive eggers than will be.

 

[Faraday40]

Just found out that all my fish in the 80gal died. Someone unplugged the heaters. The only one that survived was Bentley, the deformed perpetually ill and falling apart plecostomus. You know, the really cheap fish compared to all the pretty old senegalis bichirs. I've had the pleco and bichirs each for multiple years. We've daily expected Bentley to die because of his progressively more grievous bone deformities, but alas, he's the lone survivor. Even the convicts died--and they're concentrated meanness. Poor bichirs

Sorry to hear of your fish genocide. We had a "Bently"-like fish. It was part of a gag gift given to my hubby. We were told the dozen feeder fish would die off in a few days to a few months, and the kids could enjoy them in the meantime. Well, it was true for 11/12. "Fish" lived for 4 years. I can't say I did anything special besides feeding & cleaning. We never even named it.


In double-edged good news, I woke up yesterday and the chickies all had they're eyes open. Went into the RK in Bloomington because they didn't have a minimum and my youngest had finally found his "money" (e a couple pounds of loose change enough to buy two chicks), and I fell in love with a few oddly colored babies while I was there, and picked up a few babes who didn't look particularly well off. All the EE chicks had one eye closed with some scabbing on one or both eyelids. Since so many looked unhealthy (esp poorly watered) in the bimns, I picked up more than I'd intended and left with seven altogether (three of which were technically purchased by my proud son, in part because I gave him some change, and in part because nice people saw us counting our pennies and threw in their change too

) Lots of very sweet people in the store--employees and customers alike. So yeah, I'd expected some of the babies to die off, but they're all doing spectacularly and have their eyes open.

That is nice to hear how others helped your son. Much better than all the negative that we see on the news.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I saw a trailer that has been gutted and would make a perfect coop.. I'm just not sure if I'm allowed to do that since I am in the city. I love all the creative uses for things in one coop building book I got from the library. It's not in the cards for me right now to get any chicks from them either, but I might in a couple months so maybe there will be another round of purchasing from them and we can jump in. Those two things happen to be related at the moment. The reality is I may completely be able to get a trailer now or "alternative" coop now. And right now there is not a limit on how many chickens I can have. But the city of Indianapolis is still trying to rezone things. Apparently it is still in the works but is like the city has gone underground with their efforts and noone can officially give any info about what is happening. Once/if it gets passed there would probably be 6 mos or so before it takes effect. So any strange coop would need to happen before the law takes effect and we may need to increase our flock to our desired size earlier than planned. We were going to get up to 20 -25 this year and 30-35 next year. (hubby is great at chicken math. Last year he said 4-6 total. Within a couple months he'd set our ultimate goal to be 30-35!) So, I pretty much have my initial wave of chicks decided (from Indiana BYCers of course!). If I find out I need to get more this year, I really like the idea of supporting Sand Hill if I can't find what I want close to home. They have several breeds that I am drooling over. Of course as I discover more new-to-me breeds that list keeps getting longer. Dorkings are on there! I had no idea there were so many different kinds of Dorkings!

It's as I said to mom, it'll either be a coop or storage space for the stuff in the garage so the coop can be built in there! She didn't seem as enthusiastic as me about that second part, though. :/ Unfortunately, unless we strike money somewhere so that I can have another coop built, I simply can't get any more birds. :/ There's just no room in my coop, at least not enough for as many as I would want to add. Hopefully there's enough interested later that you can get in on an order as well, though.

Wanted to share some current photos of the SFH. Now I just need to get a not-too-closely-related boy The younger kiddos @ 40 weeks. This girl still isn't showing a lot of flowers. I call this girl "Shay". She has tan on the neck. (FYI - the girl in the background is a BA/SFH mix; the roo was crested. She's a spunky little thing. This girl (Emma) is 2 yo.

Gorgeous girls! You might be interested to know, our Tilde got an impromptu hair styling in the dark last night because she managed to get water frozen in her crest. She can see, but I need to trim it back more, I think. I just wanted to get the ice out of her crest for now. She has this magic way of regrowing feathers whenever I commit to giving her a trim around her eyes. I guess I need to just bite the bullet and give her a buzz cut or something.

[COLOR=006400]kittydoc [/COLOR][COLOR=8B4513]~ Flock Art! I can relate. I also think it applies to cats. I've always thought of cats as art objects.[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]Btw, re bananas-- My chickens like them, but hate having ripe banana goo on their beaks! Same goes with yogurt.[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]Did you hatch your Dorkings or purchase them? Just wondering about their friendly nature-- if they're super friendly because they were hatched. If you purchased them, were they raised with others? I've found that friendly breeds can be affected by being raised with skittish breeds.[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]The picture of your Splash Marans, Frou-Frou, reminds me of my Splash English Orpington, Eliza. Big splashy girls![/COLOR]

Your posts always quote weird! Anyway, the Dorking twins came from Meyer Hatchery over in Ohio, so they were day olds when I got them. They grew up with two Black Copper Marans, Welsummer, a Legbar, and a Bielefelder. All of these chicks have been very friendly this year, which is odd because it seems like there's always one that's overly cautious of me! Maybe the Dorkings calmed the others down. There's something so attractive about a big, fluffy, splashy hen, isn't there? Especially when they call back to you when you say their name and come to you when you call them and generally act like big babies that need their mama's protection! I mentioned to my sister that someone had an English Orpington named Eliza (which also happens to be her name), and she rolled her eyes. She likes chickens--she's actually who brought our first chickens home when we were kids, even though our parents said no!--but she's not into them as deep as you or I. I don't think she appreciated sharing her name with a chicken as much as I would.

 

[Indyshent]

Cross your fingers people, my bichirs may have just needed to thaw out. Bentley thawed out a lot faster (he went into stasis right next to the heaters). The convict I can see is really, really dead, but I don't know about the second one. Not sure how the bichirs are doing, but I saw one move a little, so I've got some hope. Their Southeast Asian tropical fish, so if they die because of the cold or too-rapid heating, it's not going to be a huge surprise. That said, they're super prehistoric looking and nearly indestructible otherwise. I recommend them for anyone wanting fish not too picky about water quality (they can breathe air and live indefinitely outside of water so long as they're kept moist). And they look like God crossed a lizard with a fish.

 

[raisinemright]

This is what my garage has turned into, a birthing pin for our goats!!

These twins are softened up and udders ready to explode! Should drop kids any min!! We moved them into the garage because it's just way to cold in the barn!!

 

[ChickenLady2014]

lol...thats funny....we have ten acres and there is alot of trees and vines growning..apples, grapes... and then the chickens that seem to find there way into the trees and vines when its just about picking time...lol..no money trees here...just living the day to day and investing in the future...my mom is so telling me to slow down..especially that cemanis and honas are coming in late march to early april...that one is not cheap...thats for sure...but coming straight from the importers with papers so i can wait...i would have them already but there is a lady in the keys in florida that is ahead of me and a couple more people...so gotta wait and be patient...thats for sure....and i cant even keep up with my business its driving me crazy...yesterday was up until 2am doing work...just now getting out to the birds...and then gotta drag wood into the house...never ending for sure...and soon a dump truck with sand for all the pens...and to top it off..i was moving wood and the wheelbarrow snapped one of the handles...maybe im just to tough...lol....hahaha...well see you guys in a bit...have a great day everyone

Don't know how I missed this post birdman, dont work too hard

 

[Leahs Mom]

You might be interested to know, our Tilde got an impromptu hair styling in the dark last night because she managed to get water frozen in her crest. She can see, but I need to trim it back more, I think. I just wanted to get the ice out of her crest for now. She has this magic way of regrowing feathers whenever I commit to giving her a trim around her eyes. I guess I need to just bite the bullet and give her a buzz cut or something.

@pipdzipdnreadytogo Buzz. Yes. It's the only way to make her life easier. But the others may think she's a new bird.

(Amazing this kiddo has a face in there...)

This is what my garage has turned into, a birthing pin for our goats!!


These twins are softened up and udders ready to explode! Should drop kids any min!! We moved them into the garage because it's just way to cold in the barn!!

@raisinemright Where did you get your pen components?

 

[raisinemright]

Boy I'm glad we moved them in tonight!!!
We already have a baby doeling out!!

She has at least one more to go but I kinda looks like two more in there!!
And we just picked up some gates at TSC tonight in a scramble to move them in the garage!