INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

Muscovy are hatching! 4 broody mamas! !
Taking the ducklings that are away from the mothers. One mother is perfect but the other 3 don't seem as attentive as miss Physco. She's a few years old, the rest are last years hatch ducks. Physco is trying to fly into the windows of my Brood building so I've left them open until tonight. She will brood them in the building but she has to enter "on her own" lol. She's earned her name because she will starve herself, fight anything and raise every baby that hatches. We have black and lavender pied and atipico Scovys.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Gardening question. Any tomato/pepper experts please shout out! I usually have good germination, start plenty early on a heat mat. This year my 1st planting early march FAILED . I use good led lights and set the mat at 75 degrees. So I replanted same seed packets and they did fine. Same with my pepper plants... thoughts?
Baby chicks and ducklings are going strong. Even as chicks I really adore the Barred Rocks. As soon as they see my hand in the brooder they all come running. Most of the Ameraucana will also. Maran seem more timid.
They are 10 days old now, next week I'll introduce chick grit and start them with a few meal worms every day. I restarted my meal worm farm in January when DH bought me a Bearded Dragon, Lizzy for Christmas. She isn't a fan of them, or Dubia roaches either. She does like crickets, and wax worms are her favorite! So the excess bug farms are for the chickens too.

 

[Faraday40]

Here's my Lonely Only serama. SHE is 2 weeks old today. Still a very tiny thing. Silkied feathering. I felt the orp chicks were simply too big for her, so she hangs out with her quail siblings..... but they're now also bigger than she is.

 

[man_of_fishers]

Hey, all! So I’ve got 15 broilers that are a couple weeks away from hitting their target weight. Does anyone know of a butcher in the north Indy/Fishers area? If not, anywhere in the area would work. I’m not even sure what to search for online. I’ve not yet found anything. If I have to do it myself, I will, but was hoping to not have to.
Thanks!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Hey, all! So I’ve got 15 broilers that are a couple weeks away from hitting their target weight. Does anyone know of a butcher in the north Indy/Fishers area? If not, anywhere in the area would work. I’m not even sure what to search for online. I’ve not yet found anything. If I have to do it myself, I will, but was hoping to not have to.
Thanks!

There is a butcher in Cambridge city. Think this is it https://www.facebook.com/rihmfoods/ They require all to be over 5 lbs. IF YOU HAVE TO DO YOURSELF and need a hand, holler. I won't do it for you but I certainly will help you learn. I always have a few birds I'm not keeping that are due for the "bad day". I follow Joel Salatains method and frankly it sure makes the process easier. Right now we are facing too many drakes, and its mostly the same process.

 

[man_of_fishers]

There is a butcher in Cambridge city. Think this is it https://www.facebook.com/rihmfoods/ They require all to be over 5 lbs. IF YOU HAVE TO DO YOURSELF and need a hand, holler. I won't do it for you but I certainly will help you learn. I always have a few birds I'm not keeping that are due for the "bad day". I follow Joel Salatains method and frankly it sure makes the process easier. Right now we are facing too many drakes, and its mostly the same process.

Thank you! I am going to call them in the morning. I’m not so opposed to doing it myself, but after doing a couple last year, I feel like 15 would be a lot.

thanks again!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

12 Muscovy ducklings so far! Most are lavender pied. I'm taking the ducklings this year, mothers are fighting over them. One rouge hen chose a nest under a shed and I'm very worried for her.

Thank you! I am going to call them in the morning. I’m not so opposed to doing it myself, but after doing a couple last year, I feel like 15 would be a lot.

thanks again!

It is a lot. I have a plucker so that sure speeds thing up. Holler if you need help.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

We probably won't hatch anymore this year. Have one friend that might want a few chicks. I've learned to only hatch what you can keep. Often folks may change their mind. I've been left with a whole lot of extra chickens I didn't plan to have.

 

[Finnie]

There is a butcher in Cambridge city. Think this is it https://www.facebook.com/rihmfoods/ They require all to be over 5 lbs. IF YOU HAVE TO DO YOURSELF and

Interesting that this is in Cambridge City. I have a screen shot I took of another place, and it turns out they are in Cambridge City too. Just a coincidence?

 

[Finnie]

Anybody know of any white geese or goslings for sale? I have 3 Brown Chinese, and they are not really doing it for me. I keep thinking they would make better lawn ornaments if they were white. I got them in January, and at this point I’m not enamored with them enough to keep them over another winter.

In the mean time, one of them was broody and sat on a clutch of goose and duck eggs for 33 days. One hatched out during all the rain we had this week and didn’t survive. I’m not sure whether it was a problem with the baby or the mother.

I think I gave her too many pine shavings. Because she kept shifting her nest from one area within the pile of shavings to another. Before I had replenished her shavings, she only had a small pile of mostly pine needles. And she just stayed put in one spot and pulled what she had close in to herself. So I think refreshing her bedding was a mistake.

Well so I candled on Monday and she had 4 good eggs, and 4 bad which I threw out. One good egg was pipped. By Thursday evening, that gosling had hatched and died. I candled yesterday, and all of the other 3 were alive and kicking, two of them internally pipped. But Agnes seemed to be getting restless and not staying on the nest much. There are also huge cracks across the front of one of the eggs that must have gotten there from her mishandling of them. So I put all 3 in my incubator in lockdown, and soon after, two of them pipped. (Including the cracked one)

But I don’t really want to brood goslings myself, so I tried to keep Agnes broody by putting golf balls and a ceramic egg in her nest. She did go back to sitting on those, but not real tight. I thought if I could get her some baby goslings, she could mother them, and then I could hopefully add these incubator ones, if they managed to hatch. But Craigslist is slim pickings for goslings right now, so I decided to try ducklings.

I found Khaki Campbells at TSC and bought 10 of them. I‘ve been giving them to her by twos, and she’s got 6 so far. I’m stopping there because I don’t want to lose my whole investment if she starves or tramples them. She does keep them close to her, and will lay down for them to cuddle up to her, but she doesn’t seem to get them actually under her. She is more intent on pacing back and forth and calling to the other two geese. I’m a little worried whether she will pay attention to the babies and make sure they eat and stay warm.

Wow, did not mean for this to be so long! Just wanted to tell my goose story, lol