INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[RoseMcEagle]

@jchny2000 No promises of taking pictures at the Milton swap, I went to one of them last year thinking I was still years behind in getting my farm set up and was still so excited I probably would have forgotten to take pictures if someone asked. However I will try my best Flock Master! *salutes*

 

[Dish chickens]

Have a success story I wanted to share with you guys

One of my MW turkey hens had a hard time starting up laying, she is just a year old this year and first laying season. We had 2 soft shell, One oddly misshapen egg, looked like a long string of eggshell. then one HUGE egg that started the problems, she prolapsed.

As soon as I realized she looked like something was wrong, I checked her over, sure enough

.prolapsed!
So I grabbed her up, carried her in the house. We started soaking in the tub every day, used a few drops of dawn dish soap, blow drying and then applied preparation H directly on the prolapsed area. Pushed it back in. Day 3 it retracted completely! Pleased to report my little trooper was a doll throughout the whole thing. Not a peck, bite nothing. She has started to lay again, and all the extra eggshell, chopped eggs has helped her as well. I did have to bring her "sister" hen in with her, they were calling pitifully for each other. My tom was very unhappy I took his hens.
It may not have been the best choice of meds, but its saved my hen. I did follow up with tylan 50 antibiotic during her treatment. Prolapsed tissue can easily become infected and further complicate the injury. I recently lost a red star/production hen from the prolapse, wasn't as fortunate. Pretty excited this lil girl came through it ok!

Good job glad to hear she is doing okay now. Very nice to hear some good news

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

@jchny2000 No promises of taking pictures at the Milton swap, I went to one of them last year thinking I was still years behind in getting my farm set up and was still so excited I probably would have forgotten to take pictures if someone asked. However I will try my best Flock Master! *salutes*

LOL I will be like a lil kid in the candy store if I ever make one of these! I hear ya, every thing I see on BYC makes me think "hey I need that:"
DH works construction, so when the swaps are going on its better weather, he usually has to work, UGH. He works so much during the summer we go to auctions and camp when he does have time off.

 

[birdman55]

im so jealous...i want some peafowl eggs.....have three breeding pens and nothing laying yet

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

im so jealous...i want some peafowl eggs.....have three breeding pens and nothing laying yet

With you being further north, I bet you see some thing really soon! @racinchickins and I have related turkeys but his started laying earlier. He is about an hour south of me.

 

[kittydoc]

Cogbutn, my English black split Orpington roo, has found out that life is VERY VERY good for sweet mannered boys. He is now rotating time with his lav harem (which produces 100% fertile eggs and darned near 100% hatches, all season long, in my hands and with @Faraday40 , too. Now he is splitting time with the 4 lav girls and 3 English blue Orps. They just recently came out of quarantine.

One has permanent torticollis, which kinda bothers me because the kid who sold them to me outsmarted me and held her in a way that she keeps her head straight. She is not seriously impacted by it, and does just fine doing all the things that hens do. Her name is Twisty. I assume she had an infection or nutritional deficiency that was not addressed soon enough that left her with a mild but permanent case. It gives her character. She lays, she squats to be bred, and she is a sweet girl, so she stays.

The second blue girl now has a name (Ellie, after Ellie Mae Clampett and perhaps even @ellymayRans!). It took me a while to realize that she picked up some fishing line and got it entangled on one foot, and it cut the top of her foot as well as almost cut off her outside toe. I am glad I am a veterinarian in these circumstances. Hubby and I got all the fishing line off, washed it, dug all the poop and dead tissue out of it, hit it with hydrogen peroxide, then ointment, a Telfa pad, Vet Wrap, and covered it with a plastic sandwich bag and more Vet Wrap. She is also getting penicillin injections. She is more comfortable on the foot, but it is still swollen and the first bandage change smelled bad, like anaerobic bacteria. Wash, rinse, repeat, but I left some air holes in the baggie this time and used a freezer bag that is more durable than a sandwich bag. She will get a third change tomorrow. It does appear to be healing, unpleasant odor aside. There was no drainage anywhere, and the top looks quite good. This is going to be a process. However, Cogburn does not discriminate and he nailed her within 5 minutes of being moved into the Blues breeding pen.

All three girls (one still does not have a name, and I am not doing any more "color" names). Who wants to name my third blue hen? We have Ellie, Twisty, and ???. Ellie and the unnamed girl are very, very large. All three got their rears trimmed for Cogburn's benefit. They are at least as fluffy as the Jubilee hens were, if not moreso.

Photos of some chicks will follow shortly. Need to get some of the little buggers in front of a camera!

Still have four Jubilee chicks for the modest price of $25 each, with Marek's vaccination. These are the LAST I will have this season.

And last, but not least, there's more cases of AI but not in any new states today, just new locations in MN, SD, and maybe WI?? I will be so happy when I can stop reporting this stuff, but I feel a duty to keep all of us informed. This is a tight group and no one wants to see anyone lose their birds.

 

[Mother2Hens]

Just got some awful news tonight. A friend of mine in Wisconsin has avian flu in her flock. She has about 30 or 40 birds including some gorgeous frizzles. She also has some turkeys and ducks. The vet told her that all the birds must be euthanized. She does not have a pond. She had a dairy goat farm. The birds stayed dying a few days ago but she says they almost quit laying a couple days before that and are thought that to be strange since she gets a couple dozen a day. Then when they started dying she called the vet. I haven't been there since last summer. I definitely won't be visiting this summer.

Please send our condolences to your friend from our Indiana Thread!

I know we all would be devastated if we heard that terrible news. How sad and scary, too.

@chickiefreak ~ Glad to see you posting! Your chicks' photo shoot reminds me of vintage and reproduction styled Victorian Easter cards

(no, I'm not that old, but they're still popular).


Originally Posted by flyladyrocks

I also fell in love with this girl. She was sitting on my DD, chickiefreak's lap on the ride home. A total sweetheart! We named her Princess Belle:


flyladyrocks ~ She is darling. jchny/Janet has beautiful Lavender Orps! They are sweet. I miss my Violet girl (leg injury), but my Blue Splash, Eliza, is in the same color range.
Speaking of Eliza!!! Today I was working in the flowerbed and looked up to see my largest chicken, Eliza, standing right in the middle of a large hosta plant eating the leaves. I shouted, "Eliza!" and she stopped and looked at me with a leaf hanging from her beak! haha I wished I had my phone with me so I could've taken a photo at that moment. All of my chickens have eaten the hosta leaves off of all the plants (except one?) I remember reading that "chickens don't like hosta plants." Well, mine do-- and they like Japanese Maple tree leaves, too.

 

[flyladyrocks]

This was just posted on FB,



Round Lake IL Area - Chicago Land Urban Chicken Keepers (CLUCK)
8 mins ·

Relevant to the previous post, we're passing on some information from Lauren Draper Fleming:
"ATTENTION ALL CHICKEN OWNERS: I found three dead birds on my property within 2 days (a starling, a sparrow, and a robin). After several calls trying to get them tested for Avian Bird Flu I talked to Tim White, US Dept of Agriculture, in Springfield,
217-241-5732. He was very helpful and informative.
He told me the following: Tim White said to keep the dead birds in a ziplock in my freezer. They are not picking them up yet. If there are 5 dead birds in my area to pick up within a week or two they will pick them up. He thanked me for "being on top of things" and told me to spread the word --- IF YOU FIND A DEAD BIRD (any kind) CALL HIM.
They are watching this closely due to the quick spread of Avian Bird Flu. Tim White also said ABF (Avian Bird Flu) is usually not found in Robins, sparrows, and the like. They have found it in waterfowl, hawks, etc. so far. But, in the last few weeks they are getting reports of Robins, Sparrows, etc coming up positive. They think it is spread by droppings AND airborne particles ("on the wind"). If anyone finds 5 or more dead birds in an area the Dept of Agriculture will pick up those birds immediately."

Thanks for sharing. We do need success stories and this info goes into my arsenal so I can pull it out if needed!

Have a success story I wanted to share with you guys

One of my MW turkey hens had a hard time starting up laying, she is just a year old this year and first laying season. We had 2 soft shell, One oddly misshapen egg, looked like a long string of eggshell. then one HUGE egg that started the problems, she prolapsed.

As soon as I realized she looked like something was wrong, I checked her over, sure enough

.prolapsed!
So I grabbed her up, carried her in the house. We started soaking in the tub every day, used a few drops of dawn dish soap, blow drying and then applied preparation H directly on the prolapsed area. Pushed it back in. Day 3 it retracted completely! Pleased to report my little trooper was a doll throughout the whole thing. Not a peck, bite nothing. She has started to lay again, and all the extra eggshell, chopped eggs has helped her as well. I did have to bring her "sister" hen in with her, they were calling pitifully for each other. My tom was very unhappy I took his hens.
It may not have been the best choice of meds, but its saved my hen. I did follow up with tylan 50 antibiotic during her treatment. Prolapsed tissue can easily become infected and further complicate the injury. I recently lost a red star/production hen from the prolapse, wasn't as fortunate. Pretty excited this lil girl came through it ok!

Cogburn is one happy boy! Poor Ellie. Hoping she continues to improve.

We all will be very glad when you can stop giving the AI reports, but are very glad you are doing it!

Cogbutn, my English black split Orpington roo, has found out that life is VERY VERY good for sweet mannered boys. He is now rotating time with his lav harem (which produces 100% fertile eggs and darned near 100% hatches, all season long, in my hands and with @Faraday40 , too. Now he is splitting time with the 4 lav girls and 3 English blue Orps. They just recently came out of quarantine.

One has permanent torticollis, which kinda bothers me because the kid who sold them to me outsmarted me and held her in a way that she keeps her head straight. She is not seriously impacted by it, and does just fine doing all the things that hens do. Her name is Twisty. I assume she had an infection or nutritional deficiency that was not addressed soon enough that left her with a mild but permanent case. It gives her character. She lays, she squats to be bred, and she is a sweet girl, so she stays.

The second blue girl now has a name (Ellie, after Ellie Mae Clampett and perhaps even @ellymayRans!). It took me a while to realize that she picked up some fishing line and got it entangled on one foot, and it cut the top of her foot as well as almost cut off her outside toe. I am glad I am a veterinarian in these circumstances. Hubby and I got all the fishing line off, washed it, dug all the poop and dead tissue out of it, hit it with hydrogen peroxide, then ointment, a Telfa pad, Vet Wrap, and covered it with a plastic sandwich bag and more Vet Wrap. She is also getting penicillin injections. She is more comfortable on the foot, but it is still swollen and the first bandage change smelled bad, like anaerobic bacteria. Wash, rinse, repeat, but I left some air holes in the baggie this time and used a freezer bag that is more durable than a sandwich bag. She will get a third change tomorrow. It does appear to be healing, unpleasant odor aside. There was no drainage anywhere, and the top looks quite good. This is going to be a process. However, Cogburn does not discriminate and he nailed her within 5 minutes of being moved into the Blues breeding pen.

All three girls (one still does not have a name, and I am not doing any more "color" names). Who wants to name my third blue hen? We have Ellie, Twisty, and ???. Ellie and the unnamed girl are very, very large. All three got their rears trimmed for Cogburn's benefit. They are at least as fluffy as the Jubilee hens were, if not moreso.

Photos of some chicks will follow shortly. Need to get some of the little buggers in front of a camera!

Still have four Jubilee chicks for the modest price of $25 each, with Marek's vaccination. These are the LAST I will have this season.

And last, but not least, there's more cases of AI but not in any new states today, just new locations in MN, SD, and maybe WI?? I will be so happy when I can stop reporting this stuff, but I feel a duty to keep all of us informed. This is a tight group and no one wants to see anyone lose their birds.

My DD will love the postcards! Chickens won't eat hosts? Mine did not hear that news either!

Please send our condolences to your friend from our Indiana Thread!

I know we all would be devastated if we heard that terrible news. How sad and scary, too.

@chickiefreak ~ Glad to see you posting! Your chicks' photo shoot reminds me of vintage and reproduction styled Victorian Easter cards

(no, I'm not that old, but they're still popular).


Originally Posted by flyladyrocks

I also fell in love with this girl. She was sitting on my DD, chickiefreak's lap on the ride home. A total sweetheart! We named her Princess Belle:


flyladyrocks ~ She is darling. jchny/Janet has beautiful Lavender Orps! They are sweet. I miss my Violet girl (leg injury), but my Blue Splash, Eliza, is in the same color range.
Speaking of Eliza!!! Today I was working in the flowerbed and looked up to see my largest chicken, Eliza, standing right in the middle of a large hosta plant eating the leaves. I shouted, "Eliza!" and she stopped and looked at me with a leaf hanging from her beak! haha I wished I had my phone with me so I could've taken a photo at that moment. All of my chickens have eaten the hosta leaves off of all the plants (except one?) I remember reading that "chickens don't like hosta plants." Well, mine do-- and they like Japanese Maple tree leaves, too.

 

[flyladyrocks]

Had to share how one little pullet caused anarchy and the battle of the sexes in my house! Our sweet Lav Orp seen above in my last post (with lovely editing by Mother2Hens) is the cause of all the trouble!

We got her home, and DH loved her, was mesmerized by her feathers having a purple tink. He and DS decided her name should be Princess Purple. But this was after DD and I had become very attached on the way home and named her Princess Belle. Boys against girls. Whose bird is it? Who gets to name it? Why do the girls get to name all the birds? My biggest surprise was that my 14 year old DS actually cared! Last year he did not really care about the chicks at all. But as they grew up and got personalities he is enjoying them. AHHH so now he cares.

So of course the only solution is to get a couple more Lav orps right! Belle is kinda lonely right now, although seems perfectly content to hang out with people as her companions. She is so darn sweet! After close to 24 hours of negotiations the boys conceded, this one can be Princess Belle IF we can name one of the other ones Princess Purple.

Who knew how one little pullet could cause such an uproar!

 

[atrueb00]

In case anyone is interested in the Feathered Friends Poultry Club Show 2015 on May 2nd at Bartholomew County Fairgrounds in Columbus, Indiana, please let me know. I have entry and show catalog info I can email.