INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

Thanks everyone, exhausted after the long night.
This week isn't starting off well. Went out this morning for first round of egg collection. Got to the Chocolate orp pen, and just started to cry. Nest box ripped apart. All my hens are gone, and my rooster left dead. Has to be at least fox, more likely dog or coyote to rip wood apart. All that's left of my hens are feathers. I do have chicks to rebuild the chocolate flock, but honestly asking myself if I even want to. The only positive note is the chicks are housed either in brooders or a separate pen.
So, anyone I have that planned for chocolate orpington from my flock, you can contact @kittydoc or a FB only member, David Bradley. PM me if you want Davids contact info. If I do start over its 6 months away fro eggs.
Positive note, I have a beautiful Angus heifer as a "teaser cow" visiting our pasture for a while. She is our neighbors baby girl, and she is helping Fanny remember she is a cow.. not a goat, lol. This is to encourage her to regain her regular cycles and allow her to be bred. They have bonded quite well, and will help Fanny settle in for her visit to the bull coming up. Both girls will be going to the bull pasture to be bred at the same time.

 

[iamfivewire]

;-(

 

[Greenthumb83]

Thanks everyone, exhausted after the long night.
This week isn't starting off well. Went out this morning for first round of egg collection. Got to the Chocolate orp pen, and just started to cry. Nest box ripped apart. All my hens are gone, and my rooster left dead. Has to be at least fox, more likely dog or coyote to rip wood apart. All that's left of my hens are feathers. I do have chicks to rebuild the chocolate flock, but honestly asking myself if I even want to. The only positive note is the chicks are housed either in brooders or a separate pen.
So, anyone I have that planned for chocolate orpington from my flock, you can contact @kittydoc
or a FB only member, David Bradley. PM me if you want Davids contact info. If I do start over its 6 months away fro eggs.
Positive note, I have a beautiful Angus heifer as a "teaser cow" visiting our pasture for a while. She is our neighbors baby girl, and she is helping Fanny remember she is a cow.. not a goat, lol. This is to encourage her to regain her regular cycles and allow her to be bred. They have bonded quite well, and will help Fanny settle in for her visit to the bull coming up. Both girls will be going to the bull pasture to be bred at the same time.

When it rains, it pours.

 

[ellymayRans]

@jchny2000 what a horrible thing to have happen! I'm so sorry.

My "big girl" well I don't think is a girl after all.
So I now believe I have the lavender barred male and a Chocolate male, 1 lavender female, 1 chocolate barred female and another chocolate female.
The chocolate in question was never near as big as the lavender male but becoming bigger than the females and that long tail is giving him away.

 

[ellymayRans]

Look at the difference in the lavenders "tree trunks" for legs vs the chocolate there. ?? Just feel like that tail doesn't lie!!??

 

[Leahs Mom]

Definitely get calcium into her, and a daily warm soak to prevent her egg binding or other issues.

@jchny2000

I first noticed the soft eggs after a stress about 2 weeks ago. By mistake one day I had shut the kennel door leading into the barn - which means they can't get inside to the nest boxes, food, water. When I came home I was fit to be tied when I saw what I had done. They had been locked outside all day long. Some laid their normal eggs along the kennel on the floor just inside the barn.

Then the next morning there were 2 soft eggs under the roosts. One of these was below this girl.
Day after that, another one. Then skip a day or 2 and another.

Then it was yesterday that I noticed she was tail drooping and just laying by herself.


More stress on Monday when I removed one of the birds from the flock. She was re-homed (as you know), but was one of 3 that brooded together that includes the sick one. Not sure if that is adding to things or not.

One of the EEs (Charlie) is mean when this girl and her sister try to get on roosts at night adding to the stress. I penned the EE yesterday evening so that the sick girl can get on and off the roosts without trauma and it really calmed things down.

Yesterday evening she eagerly ate some kefir grains and I got a little extra calcium down her in a crushed pill form that she ate out of the kefir. She also ate a good amount of raw ground meat so at least she had an appetite late in the day.

Keeping the EE penned today so there is no stress from her and letting the sick girl be free with the others. Will see how it's going when I get home from work. Tail was a little higher this morning but she didn't want to take much of what I offered her...perhaps because I had put the vitamin in it and it was probably bad tasting

​

 

[Leahs Mom]

@jchny2000

How are the buckeye "chicken nuggets" doing?

 

[Indyshent]

Change in flock dynamics is the biggest cause of illness I've seen yet. Each will take the stress out differently, with some becoming ill eventually. Wyandottes and turkeys seem to take loss especially hard, but any bird can be visibly stressed by the loss of a flock mate (esp if they had been brooded together). Ones most likely to become grievously ill, however, are birds at the bottom of the pecking order, which can be kept from normal functions by higher ranking members (particularly in the wake of a change in flock dynamics, such as the removal of dominant birds).

 

[Leahs Mom]

@Indyshent

And what I didn't mention....
We "remodeled" their indoor pens on Sunday. Roosts moved to a different location (left 6 ft.) and the addition of a new chick-safe 6x6 brooding pen. Added Six 4.5 - 6 week old chicks on one side of that on Sunday, then 6 "chicken nuggets" (3 day old) babies on the other side of it on Monday afternoon.

Lots of changes out there. It was Monday when I noticed she was in the nest for a long time which isn't unusual for her. Then Tuesday morning was when she just began to lay by herself and tail drooping.

 

[Leahs Mom]

OH... and yes, bottom of order.

I'm hoping the penning of the mean EE will help settle things down for this girl and give her time to adjust.