INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Mother2Hens]

It's so nice to be back and see everyone's posts! I love looking at everyone's "baby photos"—and it's great that everyone is labeling breeds with their photos!

@pipdzipdnreadytogo ~
Love all of them! Did you get the flock at the same time?

@Leahs Mom ~ Adorable buckeye pictures!


@kittydoc ~ So sorry for what you are going through! Please keep us posted.
Don't tempt with this photo...

 

[kittydoc]

@chick rookie Please please talk to someone in the appropriate office (zoning board, land something or another, etc.) for your county and inquire about being grandfathered in. It happens very often if you are persistent. That's why you see horse and llama farms in the middle of suburban Carmel. Sometimes the "grandfathering" lasts forever, sometimes only as long as you own the property.

You aren't subject to a Home Owner's Association, are you? That would really suck and would screw you totally is that was in effect when you bought the property. They are private contracts and can be changed by the boards at any time and with little notice. They are much less inclined to grandfather in an exception than if you are NOT subject to an HOA.

I am in a rural district of Zionsville (thank you Lord--they made that change AFTER we got chickens but we knew we weren't "in town limits" nor subject to an HOA. If they ever try to change it before we plan to move in about 5 years, we will do whatever it takes, including using an attorney, to get grandfathered in so we can stay put with our chickens. We don't have enough acreage for any other livestock under any scenario here, which is part of why I want to move eventually.

Good luck. I feel terrible, but all is not lost.

 

[kittydoc]

Does anyone on the list raise Cochins (bantam or conventional)? I've thought having just one pullet (preferably a bantam from a line that DOES lay decently) would be fun.

We've lost a few birds lately. We culled a mean roo (worst EVER, thank God not my breeding)--he also was carrying a gene for recessive white which did NOT belong there. We also had to cull a severely prolapsed Jubilee Orp hen, and my beloved Jubilee roo Placido has some kind of facial/head tumor that I reduced as much as possible, but it's growing back already. He still is holding his weight and mounting hens, but his beak also looks funky and I think we are going to cull him this week while he feels OK instead of letting him go until he gets worse. He is already blind on one side because the tumor tissue closed the eyelid (the eye itself is fine, but he can't use it). I don't want to wait for him to suffer. My remaining two Jubilee hens will go into the layer flock. Thus ends my most expensive chicken experiment ever. I love Jubilees but will never have them again. When you get breeders to talk about them privately, the stories are all the same. They are so inbred the hatch rate is low, the survival rate of hatched chicks is low, but if they make it they are really gorgeous and nice birds. The gene pool is just way too small. I toyed with the idea of making blue Jubilees, which takes three years, but now that Placido is sick, that's out. You really need a Jubilee roo (or two or three) to do it right.

Segue: Eight weeks since my SSDI hearing today. No news. DH continues to be optimistic. I continue to want them to hurry the heck up and just tell me yeah or nay.

In happier news, I'm taking two of the rescue kitties from my former bipolar neighbor's fiasco to a former employer to declaw them for my daughter. He uses the laser to do it. I don't declaw mine, but these two otherwise darling rescues were raised with no manners at all and they strop at everything. It's easy to trim their nails, but they both really put their entire bodies into scratching everything. I don't like it, and I know my daughter won't like it when she finally takes them. She's also going to need scat mats to keep them off counters and tables. I will be glad when they are living with DD, but have no idea when that will be. She has applied for 32 teaching positions and had 6 or 7 interviews so far, but no job. It's hard for new graduates to break in unless they know someone who knows the principal or superintendent. I'm proud to say she graduated with a 3.98/4 average from the University of Kentucky.

BTW, if anyone wants some Biele cockerels for meat, I have three chicks, $1 each (1-4 weeks old). I have had 100% males (7/7) so far this season. Culled a few, gave one away to some folks with a farm and he's become their son's pet (named Milton) who likes to sit on the boy's shoulder. I hate to cull them because they are so sweet and calm at this age. Very Zen. I will hang on them a little longer, but not much. You can process them at 12-16 weeks and they have a nice amount of breast meat by then. I even vaccinated them against Marek's. We just don't "do" much meat processing at all, maybe 1 or 2 a year.

To everyone with animal or human health issues (yours or a family member's), I feel for you and hope everything turns out OK.

 

[MikeTodd]

We have a few Cochin chicks that are straight run thaf I got from a fellow BYCer. They are Blue Cochins I believe. We had a Partridge Cochin Roo last year that was beautiful!!! However, he decided to become very aggressive towards people so he had to leave. I love the looks of Cochins so I am praying these chicks are female.

 

[Faraday40]

And this mess of half-grown feathers and fuzz named Umru, who I think is supposed to be a Light Brahma.

I love your Dorkings & over the last couple years you have made me put them on my "someday" wish list.

I'm of course a sucker for lav orps (or any orp for that matter), but the guy above made me smile.
Not only your funny but appropriate description, but also the name the you gave this poor guy had me laughing.

Was it something like, "Um, I think he's a roo."


This year we have a beautiful choc barred orp cockeral. Not sure what we're going to do with him, but his beauty made me hold on to him to see how he grows out. Well, the pretty boy was gifted with looks but not brains. His name became "Brick" - shortened from "Dumb as a brick", because that phrase seemed to follow him around. He often got himself trapped inside the chicken tractor because he never turned around to see the open door behind him. He's always the last to find treats & sometimes misses out because they're gone by the time he arrives on the scene. If he gets separated from his hatch-mates, he cried out for a pullet to come rescue him & escort him back to the group.

This is Brick:

His group

 

[pginsber]

Our cute Araucana 'babies' are 8-weeks old this week. They're so cute running around without tails/butts. It makes them seem like they're always moving faster because there's less of them.

It's hard to tell -- because it's REALLY hard to take a picture of--but this black one in front has a mustache. We named her Dali. We still think she's a pullet, although her comb is the reddest of all three chicks.

The Svart Hona in the background gets along with the chicks well. The Svart is a very small breed--maybe 2-3 lbs, and you can see how much difference NOT having a tail makes.



This white one has coloring I haven't got in any of my other birds. Is this considered 'Splash'? Her name is Violet, and we think she's a pullet, too.



We have one other chick that is black with a copper neck. S/he's got great coloring and is beautiful in the sun. All my pictures came out terrible, so I won't put you through it. Initially, we thought this mustache-less black one was a roo, but s/he's not crowed since we put her out in the main pen. S/he's the smallest of the three and we named her WallE.

If anybody else has Araucana's, perhaps you can share with me what their temperament is. So far, we can't really tell because they're busy integrating into the flock and establishing their place in the pecking order. They're super cute though!

We were kind of hoping that WallE was a roo, so we could have our own stock for our broody days.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

[COLOR=8B4513]@pipdzipdnreadytogo [/COLOR] ~ [COLOR=8B4513]Love all of them! Did you get the flock at the same time? [/COLOR]

Yup, from Meyer Hatchery. They have a variety of breeds and I am weak when faced with fuzzy cuteness.

[COLOR=0000FF]Does anyone on the list raise Cochins (bantam or conventional)? I've thought having just one[/COLOR] [COLOR=0000FF]pullet[/COLOR] [COLOR=0000FF](preferably a bantam from a line that DOES lay decently) would be fun. [/COLOR] We've lost a few birds lately. We culled a mean roo (worst EVER, thank God not my breeding)--he also was carrying a gene for recessive white which did NOT belong there. We also had to cull a severely prolapsed Jubilee Orp hen, and my beloved Jubilee roo Placido has some kind of facial/head tumor that I reduced as much as possible, but it's growing back already. He still is holding his weight and mounting hens, but his beak also looks funky and I think we are going to cull him this week while he feels OK instead of letting him go until he gets worse. He is already blind on one side because the tumor tissue closed the eyelid (the eye itself is fine, but he can't use it). I don't want to wait for him to suffer. My remaining two Jubilee hens will go into the layer flock. Thus ends my most expensive chicken experiment ever. I love Jubilees but will never have them again. When you get breeders to talk about them privately, the stories are all the same. They are so inbred the hatch rate is low, the survival rate of hatched chicks is low, but if they make it they are really gorgeous and nice birds. The gene pool is just way too small. I toyed with the idea of making blue Jubilees, which takes three years, but now that Placido is sick, that's out. You really need a Jubilee roo (or two or three) to do it right.

Just curious, but has anyone considered adding Speckled Sussex blood into the mix to help with inbreeding? I believe, genetically, Speckled Sussex have the same feather color as Jubilee Orps (though I'm not 100% sure on that), as well as the same skin color and similar egg color. You'd have to cull for type, obviously, but it might help with a lot of the inbreeding issues in the long run. I don't know, just a thought on that front. I'm sorry for all the issues you've been having with them! I've had a breed (well, hybrid) that I've had to cut from my life, too, because they just have too many issues. Awesome birds, but I just couldn't take the heartbreak anymore. P.S. bantam Cochins are amazing, but production is going to be the real catch there. I adored mine for his pet qualities, though, and really want to get some more eventually! I ended up with the two LF Cochin girls this year because I wanted some assurance they would be pullets, but they're not quite the same as the bantams. They're friendly and all, but a bit more standoffish and kind of back away when I reach in to pick them up. They do still like lap time, though, as long as I haven't offended them too much by boxing them up to take them outside in the morning.

And this mess of half-grown feathers and fuzz named Umru, who I think is supposed to be a Light Brahma.

I love your Dorkings & over the last couple years you have made me put them on my "someday" wish list. I'm of course a sucker for lav orps (or any orp for that matter), but the guy above made me smile. Not only your funny but appropriate description, but also the name the you gave this poor guy had me laughing. Was it something like, "Um, I think he's a roo." This year we have a beautiful choc barred orp cockeral. Not sure what we're going to do with him, but his beauty made me hold on to him to see how he grows out. Well, the pretty boy was gifted with looks but not brains. His name became "Brick" - shortened from "Dumb as a brick", because that phrase seemed to follow him around. He often got himself trapped inside the chicken tractor because he never turned around to see the open door behind him. He's always the last to find treats & sometimes misses out because they're gone by the time he arrives on the scene. If he gets separated from his hatch-mates, he cried out for a pullet to come rescue him & escort him back to the group. This is Brick:

Ha, no, Umru's had that name from the start. I actually pronounce it more like OOM-roo than UM-roo, but I guess the other way is fitting as well. SIGH. I keep calling her a her with the hopes that she'll listen and stop being so manly, but I don't think it's working. I was just saying to my mom the other day that I think I got what I deserved for giving her a name with 'ROO' in its pronunciation. Still, that's so far the only mess up I've had from Meyer Hatchery in four orders from them, so I guess I can't complain too much. She's a cutie, though, and so much fun to mess with. If you mess with that little fuzz tail, she wags it around like she's so offended. She somehow finds a way to take herself very seriously. Kind of like roosters do. Brick is so adorable! I have a thing for chocolate, though, both in chickens and in candy. I kept thinking that I had read about a bird similar to him somewhere else on BYC, but then I realized that I'm still subscribed to the Bielefelder thread from when I posted there to see if they could positively ID my Violet way back when, and you posted about Brick over there not too long ago. P.S. Come to the Dork side. You know you want to!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Taking a survey of folks with SMALL FLOCKS:

At What age do you let your "chicks" out to free range without supervision? (As in being at work all day...and considering they'd likely be "easy pickins" for arial predators should they pass though.)

I'd like to hear everyone's practice and experience on this.

 

[Finnie]

This is Brick:

His group

Oh my gosh, Faraday! I had no idea there was even such a thing as a chocolate barred Orp! Now I'm going to have to add on to my chicken wish list, which I had finally gotten under control. That is beyond beautiful.

 

[MikeTodd]

We had some chick holding time tonight with out mixed chicks!