INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Fluffy buts may very well be it, trim away!

Yup, butt fluff happens! I'm kind of expecting this when I go to cross my silkied Cochins to my smooth Cochins. Those smooth Cochin girls have a whole lotta fluff...

 

[Faraday40]

Yup, butt fluff happens! I'm kind of expecting this when I go to cross my silkied Cochins to my smooth Cochins. Those smooth Cochin girls have a whole lotta fluff...

"Fluff" could easily be the cause of my silkie's infertility. Have you ever heard of it affecting an OEGB? As far as I know none of her eggs have ever developed. Perhaps she's holding out for another fellow. I can't understand why. Teddy thinks he's the complete package.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I missed the part about the OEGB. I doubt it's fluff, unless Teddy is super fluffy? It could just be that she's rejecting him in one way or another. I had two of my Dorking hens in with one of my Dorking fellas last year and due to a combination of his lack of grace and their lack of interest in his super impressive, manly dancing, not a single egg was even fertilized. I also saw a few years back a study about hens being able to reject a rooster's, err, 'offering' even after breeding, so if she's really not a fan of him, that could be happening as well. I couldn't even begin to speculate on the why of it, however.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

"Fluff" could easily be the cause of my silkie's infertility. Have you ever heard of it affecting an OEGB? As far as I know none of her eggs have ever developed. Perhaps she's holding out for another fellow. I can't understand why. Teddy thinks he's the complete package.

Is any of Teddy's hens showing fertility?

 

[Faraday40]

Is any of Teddy's hens showing fertility?

2 out of 4 hens have been consistently providing fertile eggs since September. We have already hatched happy, healthy chicks from some of their eggs.

The other two hens didn't start laying until Sept & have yet to give us any chicks or even developing eggs.

We have 3 new pullets that hatched Dec 2nd. I have not seen Teddy try to mate them & they won't be laying for a while anyway. They were raised by our "fertile" silkie, who has already gone broody again. Ugh! The young pullets will stay with the bantams until we move things around in spring.

In short, there have always been the same 4 females for Teddy. Currently there are 7 females, but the extras are too young to mate.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

2 out of 4 hens have been consistently providing fertile eggs since September. We have already hatched happy, healthy chicks from some of their eggs.

The other two hens didn't start laying until Sept & have yet to give us any chicks or even developing eggs.

We have 3 new pullets that hatched Dec 2nd. I have not seen Teddy try to mate them & they won't be laying for a while anyway. They were raised by our "fertile" silkie, who has already gone broody again. Ugh! The young pullets will stay with the bantams until we move things around in spring.

In short, there have always been the same 4 females for Teddy. Currently there are 7 females, but the extras are too young to mate.

Have to admit I'm baffled too. The OEG were always very good moms and roosters for us. I honestly miss keeping them, but bantams just don't do well here. I often think about adding OEG or Sebright again and then remember hawk problems. If I ever do keep a bantam breed again it will be OEG standard, not the bantams. Very fun social birds! They are still a small breed but larger eggs. There are so many color varieties available also.
Silkies didn't do well for us but we are more food based here. Also a big hawk magnet and fox, ugh. I kept them a while here. I really liked the hens, most of the roosters were awful. Very aggressive little roosters! What to do with the rooster chicks.. our issue. We didn't process them couldn't get past the black flesh, and so small. When I downsized 2 years ago we went with the heritage breeds we liked most.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Chicken wise, gotta say I am really looking at ordering Dark Cornish! Has anyone ordered from Stromberg's looking for opinions!
Sooo Belle our LGD is finally quiet at night and sleeping inside the goat house. She was afraid of the dark, we don't have a lot of light here at night. Just a streetlight at the driveway far away from the goats pasture. We put up a very low watt light and now she is fine. Her prior home was right next to a new subdivision so it was very well lit at night.

Daisy our little Jersey heifer is now weaned. She is away from Pixie her Mom, living with the goats. She turns 8 months the 29th but way too young/small to breed yet.
We've invested in a less invasive dehorner to remove the Jerseys horns, My adult girls are both horned and my steer KC, Daisy also has scurs. Hershey the Angus mix does too. I hate dehorning, but I know it does help keep the animal and us safer. I have an electric dehorner and its just horrible, I just can't do it myself. My cow neighbor usually helps us with the dehorning. He has a few horned cows also so it will help him too. It uses a banding method rather than burning the horns. Much less difficult and certainly less stress and pain for the animals.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Here is the indoor garden so far, love me some sugar snap peas 1st photo. 2nd is a deep blue cherry tomato and 3rd is Jalapeno. I've got starts going for the outdoor garden now too. I'm trying different types of grow lights, so far I'm sold on the T5 florescent bulbs. The first few starts were all under a T5 bulb and wow what an impressive difference in growth.
The red light is an LED I moved the peas to it to see if it does encourage flowering. There are several pods already forming so lets see if the red/blue/white lighting really works.

 

[Nyla]

So I have some good/bad news. Probably all of you will think "NOO!"

My husband has always wanted a pet fox. And deep down I always did too.. Well despite all the terrible shortcomings we have had, We are getting a pet FOX! Shadow Arctic pet fox. All husband's idea and not a hint of mine! My husband has had a deposit on a fox kit for almost 7 years now. Sometime in May-June we will bring her home.

 

[JanetMarie]

So I have some good/bad news. Probably all of you will think "NOO!"

My husband has always wanted a pet fox. And deep down I always did too.. Well despite all the terrible shortcomings we have had, We are getting a pet FOX! Shadow Arctic pet fox. All husband's idea and not a hint of mine! My husband has had a deposit on a fox kit for almost 7 years now. Sometime in May-June we will bring her home.

Yes you are right, my thoughts are NOOOO!!!!