INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[atrueb00]

Happy Friday everyone! Here's some pics from around the homestead last night:



















Posted this on FB last night and someone asked how many we had of what...so here's the count as of this morning. Planning a trip to Dinky's next Friday though so this may change.

• 13 isa browns
• 10 black sex links
• 10 pearl guineas
• 11 silkies
• 2 Indian blue peacocks
• 1 cameo peahen
• 3 pheasants
• 2 alpaca
• 1 horse
• 2 dogs
• 3 cats

 

[PeacefulWalls]

Quote: Thanks for posting this! I have seen other documentaries from chicken farmer and it's the same issues -- nothing made up or staged here as Perdue would have the public believe. I wish more of the general public would become aware of the chicken industry and realize that it really is a problem and choose not to purchase factory farmed meat. Too many people just say, "Eh, whatever" and don't care. I have got to figure out housing this summer to raise meat birds. I've wanted to ever since we moved to our land, but we really must make it happen and be able to raise enough so there's meat chickens available for family/friends who also want humanely raised chicken to purchase.

 

[kittydoc]

Question: I have a Jubilee chick due to hatch today or tomorrow, but no other chicks due for another four days. (Why I did this is a whole other story for another day.) I know it is going to be pitifully lonely. I DO have a broody hen or two in my mixed layer flock. Can I bring my broody in to "mother" the chick after it hatches and keep it company? What are the odds of success? I sure don't want her to kill or injure it. If I hadn't wanted it to hatch, I would have pitched the egg when I realized how big the gap was.

Stories of success and/or failure are appreciated.

TIA!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

It is funny you bring up the "Not EEs" at RK, from Townline. I wanted to get input from all of you. Here it is on their website http://townlinehatchery.com/product/araucana-ameraucana-strain/ if you scroll down to the bottom it has the "not to be confused with EEs" line. If they are a cross between Araucana and Ameraucana then they by definition are not burebred right?? And if you talk to the chick person at RK they are insistant that these are not EEs!

This is also in their description - and makes it VERY clear that they are not true bred birds:
Quote:

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I just don't understand why they go to so much trouble to try to dispute what the birds are or make them sound like something they are not when, in reality, what people are looking for is just what these birds are - something that lays "pretty eggs". ETA - the "people" I am referring to being those that are sourcing their birds from retail outlets/hatcheries and are looking for production, etc vs show quality/breeding quality stock that would meet the SOP for the breed of choice as the latter would be sourcing from reputable breeders.

 

[Indyshent]

Oooh They will be pretty! And yes, I do plan to return merchandise "Mixed-up Order" to you. lol The only reason I plan on returning the two green egg laying girls is to make more room. They are beautiful, good layers, and very personable although they've been picking each others tail-feathers. I think it's that jealous sister thing. As soon as the weather warms up and I don't need them to help keep little Monday warm, I'll let you know when I'm heading your way. And no, I don't think I need any Emu hatching eggs! haha You have so many exciting things going on!

I've picked up Rouens at RK before. We've had great luck with all of the ducks. They lay very well and are quieter than our other gals. Utterly non-aggressive but not lap ducks either. Lots of thick-shelled double yolkers.


Regarding the Ameraucana/Araucana/EE thing, I have no clue what they're breeding to come up with these birds. I have several of this 'strain' now because they were really interesting colors and some didn't look too healthy (I had pity on them). One of them looks very much like a Sicilian Buttercup. No joke. Clean face--no muffs or beard or tufts. Green shanks. Pinkish-gold background with black barring. Pinkish-gold head feathers. Light built, very active. Comb has yet to take a particular shape and is very small as yet.

Here's an update on my other bitties. Two are particularly small still, and that has me scratching my head because I'm not supposed to have any bantams. The two smallest ones are the same age as the other younger chickens (two weeks old) but they're about half the size of the others. One's supposed to be a light Brahma; the other's supposed to be an Australorp. They're teensy weensy and don't appear to be getting bigger. The little Brahma has a spunky bantam-like attitude (kinda like the mille fleur D'uccle we had last year). I'll know it's a roo if it starts crowing or doing the 'big guy chest bump' thing to everyone else, I suppose. (That's how I knew Bacon--the BB Bronze turkey--and Bully--the mille fleur--were both boys. Constant chest battles within days of hatching).










The biggest seven are all only one week older than the younger seven which is just boggling because they are so much bigger. The older Australorp likes to stand really tall--easily the tallest chick I have.

I think my BO and one of the Welsummers are roos. Everyone else might just be a girl. I'm really curious to find out what colors I have. I know the Welsummer's are partridge (the boy's darker than the girl now even though he was lighter than her when I got him). I also have a GL and SL Wyandotte. The EE's and Brahmas are weird though. The tiny one looks like the three I had last year, only it's really small. The bigger, extremely fluffy one has more brown on its noggin and has very different looking feathers--more like an owl or a nighttime moth.





Then there's the dark red/blue-gray one and the really pale one with very light brown markings. No clue what these guys are supposed to look like when they get older. The pale one is much paler than the BO. Super light brown with flecks coming in on its wing feathers. Also another 'Araucana' which has the beard and muffs. Might be silver duckwing, but I'm not particularly good at figuring colors as yet.






And her's my older chicks. The one that looks like a Buttercup and the darker one with the muffs were picked up at the same time in the "Araucana" bin at the Martinsville RK. Very similar markings even though as day-olds, the darker one was much darker and had a far fluffier face than she does now. Not sure if her muffs and beard are going to come back or if Mother Nature just decided my bird doesn't need to be a bearded lady after all. The lighter one has had green shanks since I got her, but the darker one started lighter and seems to be morphing to something even darker--black and green now.



My probable Wellie roo saying 'cheese' for the camera. The GL Wyandotte, owlie and BO are in the background.

 

[Indyshent]

This is also in their description - and makes it VERY clear that they are not true bred birds:

Exactly what I thought when I first saw the sign for 'araucana' at a RK. No wide scale hatchery exists for araucanas (blame that dominant lethal gene). Any time I see a sign for them, I want to smack someone. There's no way in hell anyone who knows anything about that breed is going to fall for that gimmick. I don't see why EEs can't just be EEs without some kind of shame attached to it. They're not going to be 'pure bred' until they can breed true on get onto the books, and that's not likely to happen so long as people insist that they lay four different colors of eggs.

Plus, there's the whole 'strain' thing. 'Strains' are industrial birds by definition (or else they're really 'lines'). Strains are showable, true breeding heritage breeds; they're commercial. They're not purebred in the sense that heritage breeds are.

 

[flyladyrocks]

I just don't understand why they go to so much trouble to try to dispute what the birds are or make them sound like something they are not when, in reality, what people are looking for is just what these birds are - something that lays "pretty eggs". ETA - the "people" I am referring to being those that are sourcing their birds from retail outlets/hatcheries and are looking for production, etc vs show quality/breeding quality stock that would meet the SOP for the breed of choice as the latter would be sourcing from reputable breeders.

This link has great article on the Ameraucana breeders website for anyone interested: http://ameraucana.org/forum/index.php?topic=957.0

under "additional notes" at the bottom it says "These people are not necessarily being deceptive, rather uneducated about the breed." I'd like to believe this is true more than they are purposefully being deceptive.

I am a chicken novice, I have only had chickens for less that a year, yet I am continually floored by people who I think should know chickens, who have them, sell them and how little they actually know! Within 2 days of getting my chicks last year I knew that the store (not one of the big feed stores) had no clue what they were talking about. They told me that I had Rhode Island red chicks, "well actually golden comet but they are the same thing" Huh???? AND they said all 4 of my black chicks were barred rock - clearly 2 could not have been b/c of their markings. Okay, did not really matter to me, I just wanted chicks and I love them regardless of what they are!

You wonderful Indiana BYCers have educated me greatly. I wish I had found this sooner but it caused me to be more choosy this year. I do not need show quality birds. Yet I still I wish I could get all my chicks from Indiana breeders, and most will be. My only dilemma is that I have gotten nervous about getting all my chicks straight run. Depending on zoning laws I am getting 18-28 chicks this year. If zoning does not change, then the full number won't happen til next year. But that is a potential of half (or God forbid more!) of them being cockerels! So, the one chick I decided to bend on, and get from RK is the EEs. DD really wants some, they are the first chickens she fell in love with, and I find it it fascinating to not have a clue what they will look like and watch them grow up and feather out. I know chicken sexing is not a sure thing, but at least it gives me a better chance! I still may be rehoming some cockerels, with my full flock I'd like to have a couple. I miss our roo and his cock-a-doo (he left out the doodle).

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

This link has great article on the Ameraucana breeders website for anyone interested: http://ameraucana.org/forum/index.php?topic=957.0

under "additional notes" at the bottom it says "These people are not necessarily being deceptive, rather uneducated about the breed." I'd like to believe this is true more than they are purposefully being deceptive.

For the consumer (and retailer), I do give the benefit of the doubt - after all, they are just going by what they have been told by their source. The hatchery, though, knows full well and I believe the whole wink and nod approach they take in how they world their descriptions of the birds proves that.

 

[Mother2Hens]

Happy Friday everyone! Here's some pics from around the homestead last night:



















Posted this on FB last night and someone asked how many we had of what...so here's the count as of this morning. Planning a trip to Dinky's next Friday though so this may change.

• 13 isa browns
• 10 black sex links
• 10 pearl guineas
• 11 silkies
• 2 Indian blue peacocks
• 1 cameo peahen
• 3 pheasants
• 2 alpaca
• 1 horse
• 2 dogs
• 3 cats

You're so lucky to be able to have such a variety of animals! Are you settled in the Terre Haute area now?
Originally Posted by @flyladyrocks
I will look closer at the Chicken Farmer documentary. I learned alot of unsettling info from the Amish"cage free" chicken farmers I know.

Please share! The documentary Cock Fight: One Man’s Battle Against The Chicken Industry shows how Big Agribusiness and Food Processing Conglomerates use their wealth to lobby and control government laws, which hurt small farmers (and chickens!).
Here are youtube links: CockFight_Fusion

Originally Posted by @flyladyrocks
It is funny you bring up the "Not EEs" at RK, from Townline. I wanted to get input from all of you. Here it is on their website http://townlinehatchery.com/product/araucana-ameraucana-strain/ if you scroll down to the bottom it has the "not to be confused with EEs" line. If they are a cross between Araucana and Ameraucana then they by definition are not burebred right?? And if you talk to the chick person at RK they are insistant that these are not EEs!

Maybe one of our members who has no self control when the see chicks at Rural King -lol- will purchase a couple of their "Araucana - Ameraucana "strains" to see what they grow up to be. OH, I just noticed the post by @Indyshent haha-- you're on the ball! I looked up photos of Sicilian Buttercup chickens, and I agree that yours looks like one. You have something to look forward to each day-- seeing the changes in your chicks. That's a fun way to get through these icy, dreary days. They are so precious!
@kittydoc Disclaimer: This is heresay. I remember reading that you can put the chick with the broody at night in the dark (the two separated from any others). You'd have to be present in the morning when they wake up to see if she accepts her new baby or not. I've read about it going either way. I guess it depends which side of the bed she wakes up on that day!