INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Lengerich Farms]

What's your secret?

We got 2 eggs & only about 4 chickens are laying.  The other 12 are either molting, recovering from molt, or too young to start laying.
The molting has also been a little wacky.  Some continued to lay while beginning to molt (only a light molt in a few places).  Now they're committed & stopped laying.  Another molted for 1.5 months, then started laying for 2 weeks, then her comb went pale & she stopped laying again.  I'm noticing a couple of her feathers in the coop floor, but not more than 2-3 feathers per day.  Finally, two pullets saw the hens molting & decided to join them.  I got only about a month of eggs before they stopped.  I'm happy their molt is gradual, but I miss the eggs.  Then there's the EEs who just refuse to lay in the winter.

Anyway, I'm glad your wild rooster came back.

My aunt asked me the same thing!

Of my two EE hens, one is laying. I give them 2qts pellets, table scraps throughout the day, and one of the following: suet block, oats, plain canned collars greens. Whenever I dress out a rabbit, they also get the heart, liver, kidneys, and lungs (I've gotten mixed feedback on feeding them raw organ meat, but it's working for me, and they don't pick at each and canabalize which has always been the main argument against ) Throughout the course of the day (stay at home dad so times a luxury for me, when the man cub allows it) I also hold and interact with each and every one. I also thank them when I collect the eggs. A little appreciation goes a long way apparently

. In the last two weeks I've given away 4 dozen eggs, and 2-3 days a week I have 2 homemade egg and cheese sandwiches for lunch. I'm usually getting no less than 3, up to 6, each day.

 

[Finnie]

Wow, Lengerich, you are doing well with those eggs. Out of my 22 hens and pullets who are all old enough to lay, I only get up to 4 eggs per day, and sometimes only 1!

A while back I posted a photo of my heated waterer. Well since its down in the single digits today, I thought I would post a photo of how it looks right now. The top, empty half is frosted up, there is a bridge of ice in the middle, but all the rest of the water is liquid and available for drinking.

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Unfortunately, I did see that my Langshan rooster's wattles did get all wet when he was drinking. . So I should probably remove that watere on bitter days like today. At least the heated bucket with horizontal nipples is going great.

 

[Finnie]

Well, while we are on the subject of laying eggs in the winter, I got this weird egg today:

I don't know whether to think that the one hen who's been laying this size of egg just had a malfunction in her paint sprayer, or whether it's a start up job from a pullet or hen coming off hiatus.

The one that normally lays this size is a Black Copper Marans, and I haven't gotten an egg from her for a week or more. She's the last one that hasn't gone into her molt yet, so I thought that maybe she was going to now. While this egg is big enough to be hers, I kind of don't think it is. Even the not-messed-up part of this egg is much lighter than her normal ones. So I'm a little bit excited that maybe this is a first attempt from one of my white langshan pullets. Another possibility is that one of my three other Marans pullets has decided to increase her egg size, and maybe that's what messed up the paint job. Their egg size is not bad for pullets, but I do expect it to increase eventually to the same size as my adult Marans.

Here are photos of all the eggs I've gotten in the last several days, and you can see that the last new one at the top is bigger.

 

[Faraday40]

Photo time!

I don't know what a good CCL specimen should look like, but we love ours & think she's beautiful!







Here's "Oppsie-Daisy" She's definitely not a mauve orp like she was supposed to be, but her color is so unique. At a glance she looks white, but in the light, there are some soft yellow undertones. Her dark eyes & gray legs are also uniquely pretty.




I think Oppsie-Daisy may have laid her 1st egg today. Of course it's on the big side, so maybe Hen Solo just laid an egg with less color than usual. Hen Solo has been one of my better layers - especially for a giant breed. She started at 5.5 months old & is still going strong. BTW- Here's "Hen Solo". "Darth Layer" was behind her, so it was hard to get a pic without Darthy's face in the shot.

Because of a few photo-bombing hens, I get many pics like this:
Darth Layer is trying to see if I have any treats in my camera.


Here's "Moose" also getting his big face in the way. I think he wants to eat my camera!
(Moose is related to @kittydoc 's "Cogburn.")


Shake those wattles!!!


Here's Muppet. (also related to @kittydoc 's Cogburn)


and "Spitzie"


... and of course beautiful "Brick."


Here's a rare pic of Moose next to Brick. The size diff is amazing!

 

[Leahs Mom]

A while back I posted a photo of my heated waterer. Well since its down in the single digits today, I thought I would post a photo of how it looks right now. The top, empty half is frosted up, there is a bridge of ice in the middle, but all the rest of the water is liquid and available for drinking.
[/IMG]

Unfortunately, I did see that my Langshan rooster's wattles did get all wet when he was drinking.

. So I should probably remove that watere on bitter days like today. At least the heated bucket with horizontal nipples is going great.Sam

@Finnie

This is the same way I do my waterer with ONE EXCEPTION THAT KEEPS WATTLES OUT.

I put grit in the bowl deep enough to bring the waterer rim up to bowl rim level or a little above.
Put water in the grit to conduct the heat.
Then set the waterer on that.

The reason he is getting frostbite on the wattles is that the way you have it set up he still has to put his face down into the water to get to it because it is down inside the bowl. Bring the bowl up to level (or a little above is best) and no more wattles in the water.


This isn't the best photo but you can see that the waterer is sitting high up in the bowl. It's sitting on the grit/water. I actually have mine up higher than shown in this photo as it's still a little low. Funnel keeps them from standing on top

 

[Finnie]

@Leahs Mom Thank you for the tip! I could tell that it was due to reaching way down that was making his wattles fall in the water. Lol, it never occurred to me that I could solve that by raising it up higher. I will see what I can work out with some gravel. (Btw, his wattles got wet, but not frostbitten. Hopefully we can avoid that.)

@Faraday40

Wow- those are SOME swinging wattles!
Your roosters are so beautiful. I especially like your chocolate barred orp.

 

[Faraday40]

@Leahs Mom Thank you for the tip! I could tell that it was due to reaching way down that was making his wattles fall in the water. Lol, it never occurred to me that I could solve that by raising it up higher. I will see what I can work out with some gravel. (Btw, his wattles got wet, but not frostbitten. Hopefully we can avoid that.)

@Faraday40


Wow- those are SOME swinging wattles!
Your roosters are so beautiful. I especially like your chocolate barred orp.

Thanks. The two cockerels are opposites.
Brick may be dumb, but he pretends to be dignified. He struts around very tall & proud. (Even though he's short & round - like a Brick.) The hens love him because he shares his treats & doesn't chase them 24/7.

Moose is an awkward giant. He's silly & goofy. He's curious, but slightly skittish. So he'll investigate something but if it moves slightly from the wind, he'll run away in fear. He hasn't acquired that stately walk yet. He walks around like a clumsy 13-yr-old boy. No manners yet, either. If I hand him a treat, he gobbles it up before the hens steal it away.

We use a horiz nipple drinker. Hopefully, Moose's big wattles will stay dry.

 

[MikeTodd]

Help! Are we looking at a mild case of frostbite? They were allowed access to the run today but our high was 20 with a negative windchill and winds coming in at around 10-15mph. Part of the run is shaded from the wind but not all. He is the only one with this on the back of his comb.

 

[MikeTodd]

 

[Faraday40]

Yes it does look like the 1st stages of frostbite to me. The hens look fine.