INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[ellymayRans]

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?
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!
I'll have to check this out!
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!

I am pairing my F1 olive Egger roos back to dark Marans layer to darken the olive color. Pros and cons of keeping any roo is always going to be based on what you want out of a roo if one at all. I have several for different reasons and others I don't want at all only because they aren't in my breeding plans.

Coolerbator was physically very easy to build, it was the research, reading and decisions I had to make to come to a final parts list and layout. I really want to build a cabinet one but my purpose at the moment is for the Emu eggs which will need the floor space. I figure I will just build another one...or two or three! Lol! I will do a couple test hatches before deciding though.

 

[ellymayRans]

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!

Awesome! ! Looks like you all are in for a long night!
Congrats!

 

[SallyinIndiana]

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!

congratulations

 

[raisinemright]

Sorry bout the goat pics again but I got nothing better to do while being midwife to a couple Nubians lol
We got number two moon spotted doeling!!

 

[PeacefulWalls]

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!

Sorry bout the goat pics again but I got nothing better to do while being midwife to a couple Nubians lol
We got number two moon spotted doeling!!

Awesome! They're precious!! Last Friday I got to hold a nubian doeling that was about 1 1/2 weeks old -- fell in love with that little girl!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:
Hope you caught it in time, short term, they may recover. We lost power like 3 days last winter and it wiped both my tanks. My oscars, pleco and all my babies were lost.

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!!

Exciting times for you, get some rest in between the wait!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Sorry bout the goat pics again but I got nothing better to do while being midwife to a couple Nubians lol
We got number two moon spotted doeling!!

Goodness, feel free to post for sure, its absolutely the most wonderful thing to be a part of

They are just gorgeous babies!

 

[Mother2Hens]

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.

Haha That's funny. I named her Eliza since it's an English name. It's also funny that your sister is the one who got you started with chickens because my daughter Lauren is the one who got us started (months before she left for IU), and she hasn't been that interested in them when she visits. Every spring when Lauren saw ads for "Chick Days," she asked for chicks. After many years, DH finally caved, and I'm so glad he did! He is almost as crazy about them as I am.

Originally Posted by jchny2000
Its more common to see this is the crested breeds, my white silkie hen had an issue with some of the other birds, as did my GL polish hen. Its worse with the silkies if they have a vaulted skull too, puts them at great risk. I started to trim crests and it seem to help. Not as attractive tho.

Yes, it's scary that Silkies are so vulnerable. I did trim the feathers around their eyes shortly after that 6 mos. photo was taken. I do think they're much better off when they can see, and it opened up a whole new world for them. As far as being picked on, the Silkies shared a coop for almost a year with the LF hens --since they were raised with Eliza and thought she was their mother, but as most chicken mothers do, she turned on them!

Anyway, I think that after flock leader Nene died, the dynamics changed and led to each clique picking on each other in order to move up the pecking order. I will have the two Silkies inside for a while (in Lauren's bedroom--haha) now until temperatures outside move to the upper 40s. It's -4 degrees right now so I'm glad they aren't outside anyway since I don't have a flock of Silkies to cuddle up to each other. Ditzy's head looks much better today. I don't think she suffered any brain damage since she was a little…well, ditzy to begin with. @bradselig was the father you know! haha
Originally Posted by raisinemright

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


That looks like our garage (only yours is neater). We turned DH's parking spot into an indoor playground for the chickens, which they like during snowy weather. You know how chickens like to spread straw around!
Hope all goes well for the goat mothers. I'm sure they appreciate their nice birthing suite!

 

[ChickenLady2014]

Sorry bout the goat pics again but I got nothing better to do while being midwife to a couple Nubians lol
We got number two moon spotted doeling!!

Aww how precious, congratulations

 

[Mother2Hens]

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.

@browncow15 I have no idea what racin just said,

but I will tell you that @ellymayRans sneaky olive egger cockerel assaulted her bantam black Cochin whose hatching eggs were given to my broody Bonbon. Two of the Cochin-mix hens lay two different shades of green eggs and one (the adorable runt) lays a tiny beige egg.
Originally Posted by racinchickins
I had major problems with polish. The other chickens loved to de-crest them. I ended up re-homing them to places where they could avoid that. I hope your silkies heal up quickly.

Thank you! Oh now I remember about your Polish -- I think @Minminme adopted one of your Polish hens at Chickenfest.
@jchny2000 I just noticed your post about scraps-n-snacks for chickens. I occasionally cut up the inside of kiwi fruit for my hens and haven't had any problems. Here's a link that a BYCer posted. https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chicken-treats I'm sure you've seen different versions of what is recommended and what isn't. I don't feel comfortable giving them tomatoes or apples even though I know they're acceptable. I guess we just go with our gut instincts.
@bradselig Just read your sad post about your chicks. So sorry!

Haven't posted in awhile, but I have caught up and have a question. Does anyone have any frostbite remedies? Both my boys had to spend the night amd today inside because of it. I have home made neosporin rubbed on them, but didn't know if anyone else had any ideas. Their crowing is about to drive me crazy!!!
I went back to find your post because I've been worrying that no one addressed it. (I've been catching up after having to "take a leave of absence" from the thread). Here's some important info about frostbite. Also, you mentioned bringing your roos inside. According to my avian vet, chickens shouldn't have sudden changes in temperatures like from being taken inside to a warm house and then being put back out in freezing temps. He said that the temp difference should be no more than 20 degrees. If it's more than that, a change in temperature should be done gradually over days depending on the situation. Hope your boys are improving! This is from my book "Chicken Health for Dummies" but this information is also posted online for anyone to view.