INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

Spending time with my Dark Cornish this evening, very calm, interesting birds. They seem small, but super bulky, heavy compact bird. Adore my roosters, the younger fella actually likes his neck rubbed and talks to me. They do NOT like one another, so may do 2 pens eventually. Cockerel is separated from the rest, but he sits outside the coop all day. Youngest hen is laying now, the older girls are probably still settling in after moving here. Have several new layers starting from the birds I hatched early this spring, lots of cute lil pullet eggs.
My Mallards are settling in well also, and joined the main duck flock today. Soooo tiny, almost like a call duck! Forgot how little they are. Lil drake is a feisty fella, and actually took on the dominant pekin drake, and won! He backed off on my big Muscovy drake, he is older and around 15 pounds. Darkwing the scovy is pretty aggressive so Mr Mallard decided it was a bad idea. Sometimes its like a soap opera around here!

Should see my final hatch of muscovy very soon, both girls are mashed down tight on the nests. This brood I will leave with the mothers, both ladies have earned it, its #3 for both. They will be confined until the teenies are bigger and can move around well tho.
Turkeys are still laying, so I am still incubating until they are done. And I have another goose sitting on a clutch of eggs!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

It has been a while since I have been on here. I plan on having around 6 hens. Also, I would like to have room for a few hens and a rooster to maybe do some breeding and hatching.

......and that's how it starts..........and then you 6 becomes 12, becomes 20, becomes "who's counting"

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:

SO VERY TRUE!

 

[CharlemagneRoost]

......and that's how it starts..........and then you 6 becomes 12, becomes 20, becomes "who's counting"

 

[Bill1234]

I know I am already thinking of having more than that because of the different breeds and opportunities with chickens.

 

[Candy442]

......and that's how it starts..........and then you 6 becomes 12, becomes 20, becomes "who's counting"

LOL....I absolutely dislike when someone asks me "how many chickens do you have"?

I always tell them it started with 8...now I THINK I have about...um...48? wait...I have three that just hatched under a broody but we sold six hens last week....um...

They usually then interrupt and say "that's a lot of chickens"

 

[pginsber]

LOL....I absolutely dislike when someone asks me "how many chickens do you have"?

I always tell them it started with 8...now I THINK I have about...um...48? wait...I have three that just hatched under a broody but we sold six hens last week....um...

They usually then interrupt and say "that's a lot of chickens"

DW & I discussed it for a year before we built a coop and bought chickens. We knew going into it that we can have 8 birds for optimal floor sq ft/nest box/perch space per bird. We agreed that was perfect for our family.

When we bought our chicks, they came with a packing peanut that survived. That already screwed up our plan.

She's a bantam Orpington and goes broody 1-2 times a year. Every time she goes broody and hatches the purchased eggs, we ask ourselves if we should expand the coop wall so we can keep the chicks.

 

[pginsber]

Faraday40: I am reluctant to ask, but very curious--any update on Cuddles?

 

[PeacefulWalls]

Like so many others with a busy summer I've been reading posts every day but haven't posted anything myself. A big accomplishment this summer was getting a coop made for our meatie birds. We repurposed our former swingset. It's not the greatest for being predator proof with various gaps, etc, but we're taking our chances since it is only used a couple months each year. The run area was the A-frame which held 3 swings -- cut to make it shorter -- less area to cover with hardware cloth! The coop area had a sandbox underneath with slide, monkeybars, etc attached to the play area. DH used leftover barn siding to enclose the walls.


Here are the first round of meaties. They went to processing a couple weeks ago and we are now growing out batch #2. They'll be ready towards the end of October. This was our first experience with meaties -- went with the Freedom Rangers. Unlike what I've heard about Cornish Rock cross meaties, these did not sit at the feeder and eat all day. In the morning while it was still cool enough they would graze on their grassy area. When it got hot they would spend the afternoon lounging in the run area. There were 2 birds that were determined to fly out everyday and spend the day roaming the back yard and pond area, but would come back in at night!


Some of our flock grazing with a couple alpacas.


Last week we had 3 litters of rabbits born. This is the litter of Polish kits. Also had 3 Thrianta kits and 4 Silver Fox/New Zealand cross kits. This weekend is the big ISRBA (Indiana State Rabbit Breeders Association) convention in Indy at the state fairgrounds. It's a double rabbit show -- begins Saturday morning and finishes Sunday morning. The kids will be competing again in the Royalty contests -- like Rabbit Ambassador for county fair. They'll be doing Breed ID, knowledge tests and rabbit judging (the younger ages stil do showmanship). Anyone can come to watch the show -- doesn't cost anything to get in -- just parking fee for the fairgrounds. There will probably be a lot of people with rabbits to sell there, too, if anyone is looking to buy some.

 

[Faraday40]

Faraday40: I am reluctant to ask, but very curious--any update on Cuddles?

Thanks for asking. Cuddles Update:

She was slowly declining & stopped eating/drinking.
I had to do something & tube fed some liquids Tues night.
On Wed, I bought baby bird powder mix & gave 20-30cc twice. (Not how I planned to spend my B-day.)
On Thurs, I tube fed 30ccs 3xs. Boy, is she feisty & fighting me! On the plus side, she pooped solid about 4xs. Perhaps the Corid is doing something.
I even took out my microscope & tried my luck at a fecal float. (Unfortunately my 15+ yr old light bulb burned out, so I had to borrow my daughter's.) I found some oval eggs & thin worms. Couldn't see details through the scratched up toy lenses, but I decided to buy a good wormer as soon as I finish the Corid treatment. Instead of "Strike III" I'm thinking liquid Safeguard for goats (Fenbendazole). I'll be near a feed store this weekend.

This morning:
She pooped solid 2x overnight
She's walking around, preening herself, turns her head to me when I say her name, & even pecks at crud on the floor. What she's NOT doing is eating.

My sweet, docile Cuddles is normally very pushy when it comes to treats. (I think its an orp thing!) She's very big & uses her size advantage to get more than her fair share. (That's how I knew something was wrong last Fri. She quietly ate rather than devoured.) Her fav is usually bread & scratch grains.

I tried scrambled eggs, wet crumbles, baby bird food, bread & yogurt. I tried warm, cooked oatmeal this morning- nope. I had a little luck with a grape. She ate about 1/2 - as long as I held it. As soon as I put it down, she walked away.Likewise with a leftover Brown's Chicken biscuit.

I've been letting her out when I'm in the basement on my computer. She's been walking over to the sliding door & staring outside. She also pecks around at the floor. I really wish she'd eat some of the food I offered rather than mystery dirt-crumbs from the floor. The area by the sliding door is where we store our backyard shoes. It's ALWAYS dirty.


She still does occasional head shakes & beak yawns. It's mostly when eating Does anyone have an idea for an irresistible chicken treat? I feel if I can get her to eat, she might pull through the other treatments.

Meanwhile, my son's school called. He caught pink eye. Gotta love Kindergarten!

And guess who decided to go broody again? Yes, little Cookie turned back into "Cookie Monster."

It's not my fault that some orpington & EE eggs ended up in her nest and are being incubated. I kept my promise about not using the incubators until 2016. Cookie never made such a promise. Honestly, I think she has an incubation addiction. BONUS- I wanted to find out if my roos were doing their job, so I guess I'll have an answer in a few weeks.