INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Indyshent]

Well, we had some *surprise* hatchings today. I hadn't expected them for another week! Four are out and at least one more is on the way!

One looks like a black-laced red Wyandotte!

It's about the prettiest chick I've ever seen. It has super-duper clear black markings with a beautiful dark red color throughout (and a little red beak!). After all the babies we've had this time around, I was kind of wondering if the BLRW ad gotten busy with any of the girls, or if he'd been all talk and no action.

Pretty much all of the babies are dead ringers for the Black Cochin or the Dark Brahmas as their daddies, and only two chicks have had clean shanks! I think the other clean-legged chick has an Australorp mommy (though some of the feather-legged ones might too, given the last two dominant roos were DBs) and a Sumatra or BLRW as the daddy.

 

[siemilt18]

I have a pair of ring neck pheasants for sale in Terre haute Indiana,
765,505,9703
$65. 6 months old

 

[amwchickin]

I have 2 roosters I would like to re-home. They can be separated or kept together. I don't mind if they are kept with a flock or sent to a pot.

I just have too many and I am having too much fighting. These two are lower on the totem pole and are pretty good boys. Neither has ever attacked a human.


I am not sure what this guy actually is. He was supposed to be a meat bird, but definitely didn't turn into a meal within 8 weeks!


This guy is an Olive Egger. I ended up with 4 OE roosters...out of 4 OE eggs...go figure!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Thank you everyone for the condolences re Screech! I am crushed.

However, it's been so helpful to have a project to focus on—my new Bantam Birchen Cochin named Lacy from @chick rookie . I fell in love with Lacy immediately — she is so sweet. She eats daintily like Bonbon. lol She especially loved sunflower kernels and breaks them into smaller pieces to eat them. I had to cut up grapes smaller than I usually do, and I don't think she's used to pellet food (she's used to better grade feed mill food!) I had to break up the pellets into crumbles.

Originally Posted by kittydoc
Its still so very sudden and sad. This winter has been really tough on the animals.
I forgot to add, I think its fine for your new addition to be out as long as she is away from your flock normally travels. Quarantines a real pain. I do it 99% of the time now, learned the hard way you will regret it if you dont.

Here's short video of my new Lacy from @chick rookie
Bantam Birchin Cochin Hen

Oh my, she is so lovely! What a doll!

I think there are a few here who have built and use "coolerbators" so I'll as this question here....

If I build one coolerbator and have my Styrofoam incubator as well, would you use the cooler to incubate and the Styrofoam to hatch or Styrofoam to incubate and cooler to hatch? I feel like my Styrofoam does fine for the incubation process but when it comes to lock down I have a hard time keeping the humidity up high enough (shooting for 70%). I don't think my auto turner will fit into the cooler so it would be nice to keep incubating the eggs in the Styrofoam and switch them to cooler to hatch. my humidity typically runs around 25-30% for the first 18 days naturally, I don't add water/sponges until lockdown. Do I need my humidity higher during the first 18 days?

I just got done with a hatch, started with 18 silkie eggs and 8 LF barnyard mixes. The lady I got the silkie eggs from had a problem with fertility, she's already offered more eggs, and only 5 of the 18 were fertile at lockdown. Most of the barnyard mixes were fertile and growing at lockdown but a couple had dark shells that I couldn't see through. 6 of 8 mixes hatched, 2 seemed to get somewhat shrink wrapped and I had to help a little with tweezers and wet paper towel. Only 2 of the 5 silkies hatched. When I broke the others open they were fully formed and appeared to be shrink wrapped inside the shell. I have to assume this happened during lockdown since they were fully developed. This all makes me think that the first 18 days is going ok for the eggs and then I have problems during lockdown. I understand that the Styrofoam incubators are tough to use but I feel like the temp and humidity stay constant until hatching starts.

In your opinion, is a Styrofoam decent enough to incubate for the first 18 days and then switch to cooler for lockdown?

Thanks!

Thats what I would do. I hatched my first year in the styro bators, was really up and down on hatch rates. I will say hatches do better with at least 40% humidity, during incubation. Less shrink wrapped chicks for sure.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

More pics today... These are Large Frame! Chocolate Cuckoo English Orpington roo over Chocolate English Orpington hens...

Lovely fluffy chocolate ladies!





This is one sweet handsome fella. Adore him! Working towards a better comb.



Egg to the left is our first pullet egg! To the right is our first Ameraucana egg.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Guineas.. here is the colors I keep. I will add Royal purple this year! Pearl, Lavender and Dundotte, is the off white center bird.

I do have a pure white hen also. I am pretty sure she produces the dundotte color.

This lavender hen is lighter in color, bottom left. Most of our flock has a stronger "lavender" color.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

We are sure getting somewhere with flock plans this year. My tiny snow mallards are the funniest thing to watch! Bossy little girls, they tell off the muscovy drakes in a second. Fly off as soon as a scovy drake thinks he can catch one! Scovy drakes can't fly once they mature, too much weight. My little mallard drakes think they are a hundred pounds LOL! I am not getting eggs yet, but I am really excited to raise them. They're about the size of call ducks. I am keeping them mainly for eggs. Too small to be a meat type bird.

 

[kittydoc]

More HPAI info for ALL of us. This link takes you to the USDA web page about how they're going to do indemnity payments (for killing your flocks if they have to)--besides the low flat rate of pay (OK if your chickens were free mixed breeds maybe), you have to have a written biosecurity plan in place and be following it. Here's the link. There is info on the USDA website and the ISPA website on biosecurity.

Here you go: http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDAAPHIS/bulletins/134bd28

 

[Mother2Hens]

Welcome to the Indiana Thread!
@James Beller I don't know of anyone on our thread who breeds Jubilee Orps, but I bought mine from @chickenscratchpoultry.com. Not sure where you live, but it's in Southern Illinois only an hour or so from me so I drove there.

Welcome to the Indiana Thread! @flyin-lowe and @siemilt18
Here is info about our great group: Indiana BYC'ers Members, Events, & Links
Originally posted by ChickCrazed Last night two of the mottled Breda and a brave silkied Ameraucana even roosted with the big girls in the big girl coop! It is so much fun seeing them start to get more comfortable with life!
All of my June babies held off on laying before Winter hit, but one of the Breda is now giving me cute little cream pullet eggs! They are gorgeous! Several other girls have started back up, it is nice having eggs to go collect again!

@ChickCrazed Please refresh our memories about the Breda breed! I just looked up some photos and they look interesting. How did you decide upon them and what are their personalities like?
And thanks for posting your beautiful Bielefelders! I am hoping to purchase two from @kittydoc who is breeding them.


Originally posted by jchny2000
I forgot to add, I think its fine for your new addition to be out as long as she is away from your flock normally travels. Quarantines a real pain. I do it 99% of the time now, learned the hard way you will regret it if you dont.

@jchny2000 I am happy to quarantine my new Lacy from @chick rookie . I am so grateful that she is so sweet, easygoing, and used to being a loner. Thanks for the response because I wasn't sure about taking her outside for a little bit. I took Lacy over to the neighbor's yard where no chickens have ever been. It was warm and sunny and she enjoyed pecking around underneath some bushes. I found a couple of small worms, but she wasn't interested. (My chickens will be pleased that she doesn't care for worms!) She has been trying lots of foods and likes blueberries a lot. Haha This evening, I moved Lacy's kennel into my youngest DD's former bedroom which has a lot of windows, areas to walk around, and a door to keep nosey cats out. I keep Lacy entertained much of the time, and she keeps me up from dwelling on Screech's death. I was thinking today that a new chicken could have been really stressful at this time, but Lacy is just perfect.

Since she's a bantam, I made her a perch using a bamboo planter. I covered the large edges with pipe insulation like I use in the big coop. The metal curved things inside are bookends to weight the planter down. Lacy likes it! Once again, she looks sad in this photo, but she's just sleepy!


DH brought refrigerated Screech to the veterinarian today, so I will let everyone know when I find out the results.
@jchny2000 ~ Your rescued peafowl from @ellymayRans are spectacular —I think they're the ones that I caught—Haha

But seriously, it's so gratifying to see and hear about their new homes.

@amwchickin Love your chickens at the door photo! Such a lovely variety...


That's what my (smaller) flock does—I'll walk by and if one chicken spots me, the next thing I know they're all at the door! They used to have us trained to give them treats when they did that, but they became too loud and demanding. Like rioters! lol Then we implemented a plan where we do not reward loud rioters at the door. We only give them seeds, etc. if they act polite and don't beg. They learned quickly!

 

[Mother2Hens]

More pics today... These are Large Frame! Chocolate Cuckoo English Orpington roo over Chocolate English Orpington hens...

Lovely fluffy chocolate ladies!





This is one sweet handsome fella. Adore him! Working towards a better comb.

Gorgeous! Gorgeous! Gorgeous!