INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[ellymayRans]

Ugh!!! Why??? I swear they just love styrofoam?!?!

Edited to add: this is the work of my lovely Peas!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quarantine isn't always about how well someone else raises their birds.

In "very simple" terms...
Your birds are acclimated to whatever is in their environment. They have (hopefully) built immunity to whatever may be in their environment.

The birds you're bringing in have a different environment. They may have been exposed - and developed good immunity to - completely different things than what's on your property.

Therefore, each group of strong healthy birds may each be introducing different issues to the other.

Most encourage about 3 weeks completely separate, then adding ONE of your birds to the new group for at least another 2 weeks. That way, if there is an issue, you've only lost 1 bird rather than your whole flock.

 

[kittydoc]

So even though it was sallyindiana who I assumed was a highly trusted member I should still seperate for 30 days? Is that because I shouldn't trust people in general I assumed she wouldn't sale me a sick bird or atleast warn me if something was up or is it something like flocks seperated by an hours drive could have completely different anti bodies that could effect each other negatively I'm just trying to figure out if the source is trusted is 30 days really necasary or should I do something like trusted source1-2 days non trusted 30-45days

Sometimes things happen even with trusted sources. Purdue and APHIS recommend 30 days. I isolate for 30 days regardless. Coccidiosis has happened twice. It was a lot easier to treat a few birds in quarantine instead of treating your whole flock. The biggest risk is respiratory diseases that can become chronic and which are incurable, then your flock is ruined if your goal is to sell or trade birds. Mycoplasma gallisepticum is one of the chronic respiratory diseases, just for example. Mite infestations in young chicks can cause fatal blood loss, and eggs may not be obvious on the day you buy them. If they are mixed with other chicks, it spreads very quickly. Just a few examples why it's better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Brat Flock]

Our flock is in a chain link enclosure. We have cats and dogs in our enclosed backyard, but they are separated from the chicken enclosure by the chain link fence.

We have 2 outdoor cats; one of which routinely walks across the top of the chicken enclosure. The chickens know our cats and make the 'OMG run for cover' sound if another neighborhood cat is around but not when ours hangs out on top of their fence watching them.

We have several dogs. Two of which are pit mix littermates we've fostered since they were Parvo-recovering 4-wk olds.
baby Charles baby Vegas

Charles, male, 60 pounds
Vegas, female, 50 pounds

We have other dogs and none of them bother the chickens. Our chickens are used to our dogs, and do not get alarmed by them.

The most annoying things the dogs do: the beagle sticks her nose through the chain link squares to try to eat chicken poop, and the pit-mix puppies sometimes charge the fence to watch the chickens fly all over the place. The chickens are wise to this game and don't respond every time.
The pit mixes stay outside the chicken run gate when we're going in and out of the run, and they also stay outside of the chicken coop people door when we go inside.

If the chickens were out, I'm absolutely certain the dogs would chase them and 'play' roughly (aka non-survivably) with the birds. Though we've always raised them together, the birds and pit mix have been separated by a fence.

Our pit mix puppies were shown the 'chicken rules' by not only us and correction, but by the other dogs that already know the rules.

I can't say enough good things about co-mingling dogs, cats, and chickens. Squirrels, however, are a totally other matter.

My 160# Great Dane is great with our flock. She is very laid back in general and does not have a high play or prey drive. I thought she would be a bit more protective but honestly I think if a fox came in the yard she would just yawn and cover her ears until the commotion was over lol. I love them all and even the horses are getting used to having the birds around!

 

[Faraday40]

My 160# Great Dane is great with our flock. She is very laid back in general and does not have a high play or prey drive. I thought she would be a bit more protective but honestly I think if a fox came in the yard she would just yawn and cover her ears until the commotion was over lol.

Yep. That's a Dane!

I thought our old Great Dane was the same way. Extremely friendly & loved everyone, so I assumed any person with a treat would be free to rob our home. One night 2 strangers began to approach our front porch while on a walk. Our dog actually growled & her back hairs stood on end. They asked for directions (from a distance) then went on their way. It was the only time I ever saw her react. I always wonder if they had other motives.

Another pro (& con) of a Dane is how they stubbornly resist change. They know what should & should not be on your property. Great when you want to keep critters out. Not so good if you want to change your landscaping. We attempted planting a few young trees. Our Dane thought they didn't belong, so she dug them out & used them as 6' chew toys.

 

[Indyshent]

Just to let ya'll know just in case... I have a friend that has an Uncle that has 100 MFD + chicks for sale. He wants 2.00 for the adults of all ages, and .50 for the chicks. I normally wouldn't do this without pic's but the man has cancer and cant get outside anymore. So If anyone is interested let me know and I will go get pic's and try for more info. Also I am going to look at a bunch of Silkies tomorrow, or should I say today.. lol. I will get pic's, he is selling all of them and going to stick with the bigger birds, he says just lose too many to wildlife.



On another subject, I have 19 hens and pullets, in one winter coop. Do you think that would be enough to keep 3 roosters from killing each other. None of the Roo's are mean. and I try to have at lest 6 hens per. so that would work, but I never have them all in the same coop, but this year I have less chicken then normal but more breeds ( hope that made sense ) next spring I want to separate them into breeding pens, but for this winter I want most in one coop to save on heated water electric and supplemental lighting, but if I do it, that will put all the Roo's in the same coop. It's an 8x10 coop, with a porch and my snow free zone I make every year so they can get out and stretch.

Also has anyone ever put insulation of any kind on the OUTSIDE of a Plastic shed? If so what did you use and how did you attach it? We bought a shed off E-bay and turns out it is plastic!! never said anything about being plastic and the pic's of it didn't look plastic and I'm worried it just wont keep the birds warm. There will only be 8 birds in it.


Thanks for letting me pick your brains, again...

I think all your boys should get along. You may want to reintegrate them gradually though because each has had time to get used to being top cock in his walk for a few months now. They were all best buddies here, but a lot can happen in a couple months.

For the insulation, I'd say use the foam boards and spray-in between cracks and gaps. Fiberglass seems like something other than what it is, so birds are unhappily surprised when it makes very poor nesting material. Mice and other uninvited guests also like the loose, fluffy fiberglass.

 

[ellymayRans]

Well I shared my story with @jchnny2000 but on Monday while at work something got one of our turkey Tom's. I found the feather trail/pile which was small at that. But according to my neighbor it sounded like it was around noon. I set up a game cam yesterday at that same path and only had about 20 pics of a squirrel a few of my dog and then a coon at about 630 this morning.
Now these guys aren't small...

 

[ellymayRans]

On another type of sad side note..my baby is growing up! Rocky is no longer coming to the door of an evening to sleep inside. He has chosen to sleep on the deck railing with the turkeys these last few nights. He sleeps right at the foot of the big plastic owl I have slipped onto a tiki torch. Lol. Probably the best place for him. He's not quite 5 mos. old. Such a stinker!!

 

[ellymayRans]

Can you believe these guys have eaten our habenaro plants almost bare!

 

[hanakimi]

I've used Craigslist for years. Once in a while I get a bad vibe just from an email. If I do, I don't further respond. Meet in a public place. Lots of police stations allow transactions there, Zionsville in town does not allow roos (10 hens). I believe Carmel allows 3 or 4 hens, Rural Zionsville, where I live, has no limits. Fishers allows them, but I'm not sure of the details. I sold straight run chicks to a lady with acreage in Fishers and she had checked. I sold most of my roos either in Indy or outlying small towns in rural areas. They will come to you, esp for a fairly rare bird like a Jubilee Orp.

Carmel allows 6 hens only. Fishers allows no chickens perhaps your lady had like 5 acres and can be considered a farm. i have friends that live in fishers and would like chickens but aren't allowed to yet their council board isn't being cooperative on creating/changing the ordinance. it looks like unless the council members change in a election nothing will happen.