INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

After a lot of discussion with DH, I am going to sell my adult cows. We get plenty of milk from my goats, and our priorities have shifted more to a beef breed, rather than dairy. I honestly do prefer goat milk. I still adore my Jerseys, but we don't have the land to support 2 herds of cows. Best case, I would only keep a beef breed of bull going forward. Or possibly, even go ahead with an AI program through my vet. We are allowed 4 adult cows under our county's ordinance with the land we own. One acre is devoted to other animals we keep, including my chickens.

 

[saraiquimby1]

Any silkies available in Indiana? I am wanting to get into them but having trouble finding some!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Here are the two choices:

One of the great grandsons is the lav roo with the leakage. He's nice in many ways (impressive size, nice comb, good feather quality, decent shape, gentle temperament, quiet crow, and nearing maturity ...... but has a lot of gold leakage. I seriously have never seen so much gold! He looks like an Isabel Orp. This guy is nicknamed: "Dinner"

OR
Another one of the great grandsons is a blk/lav split, who does not show any gold leakage. He's nice in many of the same ways (except younger, so I don't know about the crow and it will be a while before mating), but his mama is a mauve (aka Oopsie). If I breed him to my lav hens, 50% would be lav. Also, it would likely improve feather quality, and he was a very early-blooming rooster. It's a very nice trait to keep. However a strike against him is that his beak has a splotch of white on the left side. Because he's 9 weeks, I believe it is there to stay. Also I'm not sure how much those mauve genes will muddy things up. This guy is nicknamed: "Hope."


Any advice on which one would be genetically better?

Hey, I see I was tagged about this. I'm not well versed in selecting breeders, so I don't know how much help I'll be. I know that leakage is VERY difficult to get rid of later on the line, so he probably wouldn't be a great choice unless you want to go for a project type of thing. No idea on the beak color, whether it's as difficult or not to breed away from? Sorry, that's all I've got.









Since I'm here, howdy everyone! Been super busy this semester, so posting hasn't been much of a priority, unfortunately! I'm in senior seminar this semester with a project comparing the subtle effects of invasive plants to the more obvious effects of invasive animals on native bird species, which I'm pretty excited about! I also have a presentation to plan in another class about chickens as an invasive species, because I had to get them in there somehow. On top of that, I'm planning some hatches this spring, including setting some eggs from my Black Copper Marans pair this weekend so that they hatch over spring break. I'm hoping to find out a little bit more behind the color of my rooster, Murph, who came out of BCMs but is more of a golden color. So, odds are pretty high I'll have a ton of pictures by then.

Here are the prospective parents, Murphy and Nadine (clearly not recent pictures because everything is snowy and blah around here right now...) :




I'm also planning on hatching some more Dorkings, because I just need more Dorks in my life. And more munchkins, of course, because who could resist faces like this one? So, I have lots of chickies in my future!

 

[Indyshent]

Keep all three. One's a pet anyway, one's too young to tell (and therefore too young to gamble on--besides, gold leakage can take a long time to show up), and one might just be a good candidate for an Isabel project. Isabel isn't done thing I've seen in Orps before, and it's a lovely color to strive for. It might not be gold leakage (probably is to at least some extent) but it might also so be due in part to some other modifiers at work , but you're jot going to know without more test crossing.

I've seen gold leakage not show up til a rooster was 8 months old before. Optimus took forever for it to show up on him--and it almost looked more like dun or chocolate leaking through because it was more brown than red leaking through his dark blue saddles.

 

[Faraday40]

Keep all three. One's a pet anyway, one's too young to tell (and therefore too young to gamble on--besides, gold leakage can take a long time to show up), and one might just be a good candidate for an Isabel project.

Enabler! LOL

Well, I technically have 4 males and am trying to get it down to 3.
Mr Wonderful (Who's a laced orp & "wonderful", so he's a no-brainer.)

 

[Faraday40]

@pipdzipdnreadytogo

Those silkied cochins!
Please post lots of pics once they'r hatched.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

@pipdzipdnreadytogo

Those silkied cochins!
Please post lots of pics once they'r hatched.

Can do! They are the cutest things when they're teeny-tiny! I just pulled this picture up in January because my younger munchkins turned a year old then. Can't believe my little Abie-baby was ever this tiny!

I really wanted to hatch some of them for spring break, too, but none of them were laying when I was getting things set up. The only one I know for sure is laying now is Donna, who has been spending a little too much quality time with my Silkie boy, Reuben, for me to be sure I'd get pure munchkins out of hatching them. Of course, Nadine also flew a fence and was in the flock with Reuby for a couple hours two weeks ago, so here's hoping Murph, who has had the most recent contact with her, actually fertilized all (most?) of the eggs I'm setting tomorrow.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Ok, so looking to add to my flock this spring. I am thinking mid april or early May. That would give me time to get a new coop situation around too.
I have been looking at certain breeds of chickens, but what are your favorites? I currently have 3 Isa Browns and one EE. These were given to me as I did not choose them. I am only wanting to add 2 maybe 3 chickens at this time. Because, I also want to get a couple of ducks (or 3).

Suggestions are welcome.

 

[Nyla]

I can always help with the ducks! I'm willing for a car ride!

@kanina just recently got ducks too!
Maybe she will chime in on her outlook on being a duck owner lol!

Ok, so looking to add to my flock this spring. I am thinking mid april or early May. That would give me time to get a new coop situation around too.
I have been looking at certain breeds of chickens, but what are your favorites? I currently have 3 Isa Browns and one EE. These were given to me as I did not choose them. I am only wanting to add 2 maybe 3 chickens at this time. Because, I also want to get a couple of ducks (or 3).

Suggestions are welcome.

 

[Indyshent]

Ok, so looking to add to my flock this spring. I am thinking mid april or early May. That would give me time to get a new coop situation around too.
I have been looking at certain breeds of chickens, but what are your favorites? I currently have 3 Isa Browns and one EE. These were given to me as I did not choose them. I am only wanting to add 2 maybe 3 chickens at this time. Because, I also want to get a couple of ducks (or 3).

Suggestions are welcome.

All depends on what you're going for. What are your priorities? Lots of eggs? Huge eggs? Colored eggs? Meat? Conversation piece? Cute? Pets? Money?