INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[flyladyrocks]

Questions for everyone, but first just had to tell you all how wonderful my husband is (it is all related!). Unfortunately I thought I had finally found a type of Math I am better at than him, but not so sure anymore! We had a guy come give us an estimate on painting our house. We start talking chicken, find out he can build coops. He asks, "how many chickens do you ultimately want to have" and DH says "40". A month ago it was 30, then 35 now 40! Looks like he may have trumped me in the chicken math department! Then the guy leaves and DH tells me to start designing my coop. How could I NOT love this man? So that brings me to my questions:

What do you like about your coop - what don't you like. What features do you wish you had? What do you wish you could get rid of?

We are looking at 2 options - first, the guy building from the ground up, second, getting a shed and him transforming the shed.

So brag about your coops everyone and help me design mine! I have learned so much the past year and am glad we did not build the coop we thought we wanted last year b/c I now see all it's flaws!

 

[flyladyrocks]

Hey everyone! Spring has sprung! BUT I have some "indoor" chickens. Their coop door is open 10 hours a day for them to free range. But they won't come out side for more than 5 minutes at a time! How do I get them more interested in being out!?

 

[3arrowfarm]

Lol that

Throw scratch out for them! Works every time

that's what I've been doing! Lol they eat and go back in so I make a point to throw scratch farther and farther from the coop lol

 

[pbirdhaven]

Haven't been on for awhile, I have been reading a few post now and then. Been pretty busy around here. Trying to cut back on birds , since my only daughter still at home only has 2 more 4-H fairs left, but keeping some as she does want to continue showing at the open shows.

We are adding polled nigerian goats to the farm. Been going to alot of open rabbit shows and will be going to goat shows as soon as we found out where and when they are.

Had a few minutes just want to jump in and say HI !!! to everyone.

Hey, LAMom! Good to know you're still out there and thawing out from the winter. Hope to be seeing you at Bloomington!

 

[bradselig]

Riddle me this Batman:  How do you get a frizzled chick out of two non-frizzled parents when frizzle is an incomplete dominant gene?

A lady to whom I sold a very young (still downy) lavender Orpington chick (half English, half Hinkjc line) sent me photos tonight of the little thing, and it appears to be....frizzling!

She is stoked (if she's happy, I'm happy).  Of course, the chick is just starting to feather in, but those feathers are most definitely not laying flat.

Does anyone have a explanation for something that genetically is impossible?  Two normal birds cannot make a frizzle.  At least one parent has to be frizzled.  There is actually a scientific paper which specifically identifies the mutation in the F gene in chickens which alters their alpha-keratin molecule so that the feathers spiral along the rachis (the "spine" of the feather).  I even have the citation for the more scientifically inclined.  It is very technical.  http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1002748

Have any of you ever seen something that looked like frizzling, but technically wasn't?  I haven't decided whether I am pleased or disturbed by this, but it is what it is!  It will be interesting (gulp!) to see if any more pop up.  It shouldn't be happening, at least not the normal way through the F gene.  Daddy is my avatar, an English black/lav split.  My four lav hens came from Chicken Scratch Poultry, who got hers (directly or indirectly) from Hinkjc.  Lavender birds from her line have won at shows even though the color is AOV.

The photos she sent me were thumbnails of very low resolution, so they won't look good on here.  I'll try to get her to send me some that are higher resolution.   This lady also has lavender Ameracaunas the same age, but this chick doesn't have a beard and she swears it has to be one of the Orp chicks she got from me.  However, I don't recall Ameracaunas having a beard that early, but I only have raised one from a chick.  Our Ameracauna took a while to get her muff/beard, which expanded greatly when she reached point of lay.  Could she be mistaken about the breed?  Are many Ameracaunas frizzled?

BTW, this does not look like just regular lavender fraying (from breeding Lav x Lav too many generations in a row), which shouldn't have happened since I bred my lavs to a black/lav split anyway.  The chick's feathers are growing the wrong direction, and in lots of directions.

So this is my fun curiosity du jour and a welcome break!

Thoughts?  Well reasoned or frivolous?

My first thought was breeding lav to lav and just bad feathering. Since that is not the case, the guy I got my modern game bantams from did hatch out some moderns that had frizzled backs. To my knowledge there aren't any frizzled moderns out there. This was just a weird mutation that showed up in his breeding. I'll look for pictures of them.

 

[bradselig]

@kittydoc here are the frizzled moderns that just showed up in his breeding.

 

[bradselig]

These guys arrived today! Can't wait to add them to my buff barred pen!

 

[ellymayRans]

These guys arrived today! Can't wait to add them to my buff barred pen!

So pretty! Congrats!

 

[ellymayRans]

Here's my silkie babies that hatched yesterday! They are sooo tiny! Correct toes comb and skin with what appear to be nice starts of top knots!

 

[Too Fast]

A am new to chickens, and at the moment, I have none. I am however expecting delivery of some Barred Plymouth Rock chicks at the end of the month from efowl.com, this will be a new adventure for me. I've got my brooder setup and still currently working on my coop, but should have it completed shortly.

Yes get the coop built quickly!!