INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

this is a very sad day. this is one of our silkies. she has stood on one leg for months now and refused to leave the coop. no swelling and no other symptoms. i never found any sore spots or anything with her leg. 3 weeks ago we brought her in from the coop into the small coop we have inside because she started to loose a little weight. we started her on poly-vi-sol and anti-biotics. she started to seem like she was getting better. then last week that all changed and she collapsed. she is now unable to stand at all and just lays on her side. i have been helping her eat and drink once an hour since. i feel the time has come that it would be best to end her suffering. she has no quality of life at this point. she is one of my favorite chickens. i feel like my heart is being ripped out but know this will be for the best. please don't think this is easy for me because it isn't. this is one of the hardest things i have ever had to do. she will always be in my heart.

I am so sorry, that must be hard to go through. i just lost a chick last night. It died in my hand.Made feel terrible that i didnt have time to do anything about it. but at least you gave your best effort to save her. It dosent seem like there was anything else you could do.

 

[ShawnaScott]

Funny story! It's not chicken related but I figured I'd share it anyway. I had my new rescue, Misty, out (she's an American bulldog x pit). She wanted to play but I didn't want to let her off the leash yet because I don't want to risk her running off. Anyway, we were playing a tug of war with the leash and running around having a good ole time. We were sort of wrestling, not really very much as she's so big, but it must have looked odd from the road because before I knew it, I had a stranger slamming on his brakes and running down my drive yelling at my dog. He thought I was being mauled. I'm torn between being happy that he was going to "save" me, and chagrined at what society has done to the breed. I'm sure if I had my standard poodle out and was wrestling with him, he wouldn't have stopped. Still, it made my day to see the look on his face when he realized that she was playing tug of war and not trying to hurt me in the least!

I don't know that I would say they are bad mothers. I think our weather has so much to do with it. Guinea keets are fully capable of keeping up with momma guinea's frenetic rushing around, but they are easily chilled on our cool, damp mornings and that is what usually gets them. I am sure in their native climate things are very different.

I prefer to incubate the eggs myself as personal experience in chasing guinea keets has shown me that it is much easier that way! While chicks may cheap and cry when they are separated from their mother, a guinea keet will go to ground and remain perfectly still and quiet.
Even a well-manicured lawn (not that we have one!) can make looking for a day-old keet feel like searching for a needle in a haystack.
And do I even need to mention what an angry guinea momma is like when you are trying to catch her babies?

Yep. I agree that incubating the eggs is the easy way to go.

I'm confused here. If a guinea is a good sitter, why not just let her hatch the eggs and then put the chicks in the brooder? Or is an incubator where chicks go? I thought an incubator was where eggs went to hatch...

this is a very sad day. this is one of our silkies. she has stood on one leg for months now and refused to leave the coop. no swelling and no other symptoms. i never found any sore spots or anything with her leg. 3 weeks ago we brought her in from the coop into the small coop we have inside because she started to loose a little weight. we started her on poly-vi-sol and anti-biotics. she started to seem like she was getting better. then last week that all changed and she collapsed. she is now unable to stand at all and just lays on her side. i have been helping her eat and drink once an hour since. i feel the time has come that it would be best to end her suffering. she has no quality of life at this point. she is one of my favorite chickens. i feel like my heart is being ripped out but know this will be for the best. please don't think this is easy for me because it isn't. this is one of the hardest things i have ever had to do. she will always be in my heart.

I'm very sorry about your chicken. She was very pretty

 

[pbirdhaven]

this is a very sad day. this is one of our silkies. she has stood on one leg for months now and refused to leave the coop. no swelling and no other symptoms. i never found any sore spots or anything with her leg. 3 weeks ago we brought her in from the coop into the small coop we have inside because she started to loose a little weight. we started her on poly-vi-sol and anti-biotics. she started to seem like she was getting better. then last week that all changed and she collapsed. she is now unable to stand at all and just lays on her side. i have been helping her eat and drink once an hour since. i feel the time has come that it would be best to end her suffering. she has no quality of life at this point. she is one of my favorite chickens. i feel like my heart is being ripped out but know this will be for the best. please don't think this is easy for me because it isn't. this is one of the hardest things i have ever had to do. she will always be in my heart.

How sad to lose a beautiful little friend!
If you can, I would send her to the Purdue diagnostic lab for a necropsy. You can get an overnight shipping box with a cold pack from Fed Ex--just don't tell them what you're putting in it. Her symptoms could be those of Marek's, and if so, your flock has been exposed to the virus and could be carriers even if they never develop the deadly and highly contagious disease. If it is Marek's, you'll need either to keep a closed flock or vaccinate every new bird that you bring in, and not rehome any that have been exposed. Been there, done that, no fun!

 

[ldymelissande]

Too Fast: oh the old salt shaker to get a pet bird trick. I always used to get in trouble for sneaking the saltshaker out side to catch a bird. Of course my Grandfather who told me that never had to share the blame.

Vickichiki: I may have an EE rooster if you are really looking for one. At this point I am unsure if he is a EE or an old english, but in the 4 way fight to stay he isn't my favorite. Nice enough but he just can't compete with my seabright. He is a bantam. Oh and are the leghorns LF or Bantam? if they are bantam maybe we could trade?

 

[ldymelissande]

Here he is, got him on April 5th so about 7 weeks old.
Not aggressive just not as outgoing as the others.

 

[CountryHen19]

this is a very sad day. this is one of our silkies. she has stood on one leg for months now and refused to leave the coop. no swelling and no other symptoms. i never found any sore spots or anything with her leg. 3 weeks ago we brought her in from the coop into the small coop we have inside because she started to loose a little weight. we started her on poly-vi-sol and anti-biotics. she started to seem like she was getting better. then last week that all changed and she collapsed. she is now unable to stand at all and just lays on her side. i have been helping her eat and drink once an hour since. i feel the time has come that it would be best to end her suffering. she has no quality of life at this point. she is one of my favorite chickens. i feel like my heart is being ripped out but know this will be for the best. please don't think this is easy for me because it isn't. this is one of the hardest things i have ever had to do. she will always be in my heart.

You are in my thoughts! No matter what kind of animal they are, pets are still part of our family and are just as hard to make the decision, go through with it and mourn/grieve. Its been a little over three months since we had to put our 9yr old miniature dachshund down but it feels like only a week or two.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Need some opinions! Husband swears we need to wait until our chickens are a year old to butcher....that the chicken wouldn't be 8 pounds before then. I think we can butcher a lot earlier and have more tender meat that way, especially since we have dual purpose breeds... what are the pros and cons of both sides?

It depends on the specific breed. What breed are you planning on butchering?

 

[Chic-n-farmer]

Quote: The point I was trying to make is that guineas are excellent at hatching their own eggs, but extremely reluctant to give up the babies once they are hatched.

So, if you want to let the guineas hatch the eggs and plan to take the keets.... good luck, have fun, and wear protective clothing

Once you have caught the babies, you can put them in a BROODER.

If you aren't up to the equivalent of an Iron Man Race to get the day-old keets, take the eggs away from the guineas and stick them in an INCUBATOR where you won't have near as much trouble catching them when they hatch!

 

[CluckAcres]

Sorry I was gone camping all weekend. I just took some pics of some of my flock. The first 4 pics are Cochin Roos I got off Kabhyper1.







My Silkie Roos and rear end of one of my hens in bottom corner. LOL


Indian Runner Ducks.


Indian Runner Duck, OEG Bantam Roo and EE Roo (maybe) in back.


Pekin Duck relaxing in Pool



Pekin Drake and Grey Tolouse Goose


Face Shot!!


This is Floppy. She is a flop eared

 

[danand]

Skin n fluff- I'm so sorry for your loss.