INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Faraday40]

Oh; One other weird symptom = she frequently makes a weird eating noise with her mouth. The best way I can describe it is like when a hen eats something soft & sloppy - like yogurt. I never saw that in any list of symptoms. It happens almost everytime I offer food. She makes a mouthy tongue noise while quickly open/closing her beak.

 

[Leahs Mom]

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Does anyone have an idea for an irresistible chicken treat?

Mealworms

 

[Bawk]

I am just getting started with some of these. If they asked a year later ;-(

If anyone is interested, The Livestock Conservancy is doing a Poultry census of breeders that they use to help determine the criticality of breeds that need saving.  There is a very limited amount of time and money that can be put forward for this type of work, so knowing where the efforts are most needed is very helpful. 

If you are a breeder and would like to fill this out, here is the link:

http://www.123contactform.com/form-1517654/2015-Poultry-Census

Let me know if it doesn't work and I can forward you the email that I got for this.

 

[ellymayRans]

Well been busy as usual here but I did finally wrap up my transaction with a nice lady that was referred to me for silkies. I managed to gather 11 eggs as one of my girls decided to start brooding them over the weekend she had 3 so I had to start incubating them all at that point.

She wanted to experience hatching so I built her an incubator cuz I love mine! Much better than the styrofoam and cheaper.

I can't wait to see how it goes for her.

 

[Bawk]

Hey chicken people,

I am back!

Giving some updates. Soon is time for our sweet legbar roosters to go to their new home with @racinchickins We are going to miss them, they are so tame and friendly at 2 months and a week old.

That leaves us with the following:

Two cream legbar hens, 1 Gold Brabanter rooster, and 2 TP both are roosters, one smooth and one frizzle. Everyone told me the frizzle was a hen but last week I decided it has to be a rooster, the feathers near the neck are more pointy even though they are weird and "her" feet are getting big. He's not hen acting at all and the other rooster we had a short time which ws older didn't challenge him as it did the other little roosters. He acts more hen like, slow and not wild like the others. Low energy acting. First experience with polish.

Okay the chickens are now going outside by themselves and back in too but the polish have to be put and let in. Ugh not fun.

We are thinking of naming the Gold Brabanter "Road Runner" because he is so flighty acting, he runs and flies and it's hard to get him but if we do catch him, he will settle down on my lap and usually takes a nap, doesn't try to get away ...stretches out his neck alongside my arm or draps it over my arm and goes to sleep. It's like he realizes, "Oh they're not trying to eat me, okay, I'll have a nap."

The cream legbars are so soft and sweet and calm, the roosters are the first to come up to us and hop on our laps and they like to eat dried mealy worms from our hands. The Legbars are the only ones which don't have to be caught to hold, they come right up. We don't chase any of our chickens just try to reach under and get them when they are close.

Here's some pictures, some are from a few weeks ago, some more recent in last week or so.

 

[Hholly]

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.

Mine go gaga for silken tofu. Hope she recovers.

 

[Hholly]

@Bawk, your chickens are all sooo cute!

 

[ellymayRans]

Check out the difference in litter mates! Ok in the center we have a bantam Cochin with blue, black and fayoumi mix chicks! Yes they are the same age.

Huddled on the front porch out of the rain! Lol

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

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

And sooo it begins lol! I started with 6 chickens.. I have, ummm.. I do not have a clue right now how many! This is known as chicken math, just wait...

Quote:

i usually get eye rolls into the second sentence..

Quote: Its hard not to! Every time I sell a chick I wonder what it will turn out like. Then, there's the babies that turn up with a mom, or worse just wandering around without a mom. (usually a hen snuck eggs into a duck nest) The lil barnyard mutts are always the most interesting!

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.

Loved your pictures, awesome repurposing! Looks like it turned out very well! Cornish cross are really not so bad if allowed free range and with hold feed as recommended. I had 1 or 2 spraddle out of the last batch I did, aside from that they did great. They are very social too. The other thing that really helped is Fermented Feed. Since I process my own, it reduced the odors tremendously for that.. and they were very healthy and vigorous birds. Too funny watching 25 lil sumo wrestler looking chickens running to greet you!
We are still on the fence about rabbits here. Loved the babies, just so tiny!

 

[Bawk]

@Bawk, your chickens are all sooo cute! 

Thanks Hholly.