INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Indyshent]

Wow, I have heard of that too. Never seen it tho! That's the exact reason I decided against the breed for an LGD though. The name is derived from how they nip at the cattle's heels, and do have some prey drive. My sweet donkey is showing good promise as a guardian so I have decided against a dog for now. She races at the owl whenever it swoops at my ducks! I love giant dog breeds but they just aren't safe around my parents.

We had a Rottweiler, and she was fantastic with children and other animals--just a very maternal dog. I have had no luck at all with boy dogs so far of any breed, though. If this puppy hadn't been free and kind of foisted, I wouldn't have taken him. Pitbulls aren't exactly known for being great LGDs. He savaged the hen far more than I'd given him credit for being able to do, but she weighed as much as he does (big CX, small but growing terrier). Don't think the tying thing would have worked (plus, I don't have other dogs to work on shaming him or keep him warm outside during this "shaming").

 

[Faraday40]

Kittydoc-

Here's our "Orp-acauna" Love that name BTW.

She's fairly big & a solid color like her lav orp daddy but has the comb, muffs, & beard like her EE mama.

 

[Leahs Mom]

. My sweet donkey is showing good promise as a guardian so I have decided against a dog for now. She races at the owl whenever it swoops at my ducks! I love giant dog breeds but they just aren't safe around my parents.

That's wonderful about the donkey! I've always wondered if they'd be any good for chickens. I know they'll stomp a coyote or fox but an owl!

 

[chick rookie]

Sad news on the urban homestead today. Our 10-12-week-old puppy killed a hen this afternoon. He'd never given any indication of that sort of behavior with them and, particularly considering his small stature and young age, I'm still a bit shocked.

Sorry about your hen, that's awful, but puppy may be young enough to break the kind of behavior good luck.

I am happy to report that "Oliver," our Orpacauna cockerel, is on his way to @chick rookie for her olive egger program! DH is very happy the bird was not processed (which was my solution to him tricking us into thinking he was a pullet for 4 months). We are 0 for 2 on attempts to get an olive egger pullet from breeding an Orp roo to our Ameracauna hen. Maybe by next year, we'll forget about that and try one more time. Here's a photo. Check out his funky comb!

He made it home without a problem. DH and Oliver had many conversations on the way. DH said he liked traveling with Oliver more than me cause he wasn't telling him he was lost at every turn... lol I don't do that... He is a beautiful boy and we are happy to have him thank you. I put him in his pen to let him stretch his legs and get a drink and maybe a bite to eat before I put him to bed, but the work light we had on for him was making threatening larger roo's and he was going to beat himself bloody so I just put him to bed. ( he was seeing his shadow as another roo and would attack himself )
You called him small on the phone, I would like to see what you call big... lol He is bigger then anything I have on the place, well except Waddles... lol and he and Blackbeard are about the same size I think.
When I picked him up out of his box he hid his head under my arm, good thing I had just got out of the shower... lol

I once went to the farm to pick up my milk. They have blue healers and often are training a new puppy/teenager. In addition to the cattle, they have free ranging chickens.

Anyhow, one day when I arrived, there was one of the "teenagers" leashed up near the milk house. On a collar tied to her neck was a dead chicken. Strange, I thought, as I had no education on such matters, but I did figure it out pretty quick.

When I asked the farmer to be sure I had interpreted correctly, he said, yes...that's how we teach them not to do that again. If they are aggressive toward the chickens, they get a thorough shaming, and then the chicken hung from their collar somehow. Not sure for how long, but they stay tied to a relatively traveled area and I think they get the "shaming" a few times.

He thought that it worked for his dogs but I'm skeptical..... It was definitely an education for me to see that!!!


Though I have no experience of my own.

I have also heard of farmers doing that, but have never seen it done, and I just don't believe it would work, but hey what do I know???

Kittydoc-

Here's our "Orp-acauna" Love that name BTW.

She's fairly big & a solid color like her lav orp daddy but has the comb, muffs, & beard like her EE mama.

She is beautiful.

 

[ChickCrazed]

I would if I had more than one Ameracauna hen! 0 for 2 isn't horrible odds--yet--1 in 4 chance of that happening (same as getting two pullets). There's only a 1 in 8 chance of it happening with cockerels a third time in a row, so we'll see what happens. I am going to try to start keeping track of what combinations seem to produce more pullets than cockerels next year, though, when I can. I love it that my Bielefelder line from Megan produces predominantly pullets (both for her and for me, when I hatched her eggs). I hope it continues that way with own little flock now that they are grown!

I hope that my pullet skewing genetics passed on to you as well! I hatched about 150 chicks this year and had around 10% male to 90% female. It was beautiful! I also will not be hatching this year, so I will be referring people to you if they contact me! They sold REALLY well last year, so get ready!

 

[pginsber]

I am sooooo far behind! Keep trying to catch up and wind up falling asleep. Cooked and cleaned 4 days in a row. I love the holidays and seeing family but UGH I am wupped!

Off to try to catch up again tonight.

Of course you cooked and cleaned 4 days in a row...you cooked over 70 pounds of turkey and cleaned over 70 pounds of turkey grease! I cooked and cleaned for 2 days when I cooked 24 pound birds! I swear--I have never in my life heard of such big birds. I will NEVER forget such humongous birds as long as I live.

Hi fellow Indiana BYCers, I need some opinions. I built a coop and a fully enclosed run for winter for my chickens. I don't close the front door (which doubles as a ramp) at the moment. The coop and run are stuffed with straw, and the run is covered with a tarp. My question is, is there a temperature where I should close them in, and if so what temp?

As long as snow/rain doesn't blow in and the bitter cold wind doesn't blow straight in, you can probably safely get away with keeping it open into the single digits.

I once went to the farm to pick up my milk. They have blue healers and often are training a new puppy/teenager. In addition to the cattle, they have free ranging chickens.

Anyhow, one day when I arrived, there was one of the "teenagers" leashed up near the milk house. On a collar tied to her neck was a dead chicken. Strange, I thought, as I had no education on such matters, but I did figure it out pretty quick.

When I asked the farmer to be sure I had interpreted correctly, he said, yes...that's how we teach them not to do that again. If they are aggressive toward the chickens, they get a thorough shaming, and then the chicken hung from their collar somehow. Not sure for how long, but they stay tied to a relatively traveled area and I think they get the "shaming" a few times.

He thought that it worked for his dogs but I'm skeptical..... It was definitely an education for me to see that!!!


Though I have no experience of my own.

I'm skeptical too. Like pushing a puppy's nose into their poo when they have an accident in the house. I don't believe they are capable of making the connection that THEY did THAT thing.

 

[Hilfox84]

I'm looking to trade one of my male pekin ducks for a female. This summer I bought three little ducklings thinking I would get at least one female...well turns out my luck I got three males. They have done fine together for the most up until recently. All of them have been "picking" on each other relentlessly. One was born with a lame leg (he gets along just fine) but he is smaller and weaker than the other two so he gets it the worse. They will end up killing him if something doesn't change. I'm not against other breeds but would kind of like to have another pekin if I can find one. Thanks!

I'm located in near Plainfield, Indiana

 

[Faraday40]

I hope that my pullet skewing genetics passed on to you as well! I hatched about 150 chicks this year and had around 10% male to 90% female. It was beautiful! I also will not be hatching this year, so I will be referring people to you if they contact me! They sold REALLY well last year, so get ready!

I agree about your hens producing more females. From your eggs, I got 2 males & 6 females. That's 75% females when it should have been 50%.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

@Indyshent

I don't have a dog but yours is so cute. Here are a couple of posts by a lady that does have wonderful lgd for her chickens and other animals. These posts are in this thread but there are some more older posts in the natural chicken thread as well.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/730582/indiana-bycers-here/33140#post_14073715

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/730582/indiana-bycers-here/33180#post_14076970


Notice that for her, training a dog does not mean putting the young puppy in with the animals it is to protect right away. And in the shorter of the two posts above also notice that she says that the young dogs still need monitoring around poultry.

imo which is that of a non dog owner, your pup is too young to be with the chickens. now on the other side of a fence maybe but he is still at that playful stage and chickens look like fun playmates to him.

 

[kittydoc]

I agree about your hens producing more females. From your eggs, I got 2 males & 6 females. That's 75% females when it should have been 50%.

I hatched 4 males, 7 females--64% female preponderance.