INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[SallyinIndiana]

Does anyone know how to control a hormonal younger roo? He was stressing out his brooder mates (another roo and 5 hens) so I kicked him out if the pen with the older birds. Everything was going good until I had to kick his brooder mates out of the pen and into the rest of the flock. He started singling out his brooder mates again and stressing them trying to breed. He is even going after the roo that he brooded with. Right now I have him penned up by himself, but would like to use that pen to move more chicks out to the coop. The last time I had to deal with this, the Roos became dinner. I'd rather not eat this guy lol.

You need to invent fake hens that love to be mated and are easy to hose off. Maybe something like a gumby hen that looks similar to a duck lawn decoration but chicken.

If you can make these, I would love to get one for free once you are making millions in profit.

 

[Mother2Hens]

"If you don't mind me asking being nosey, if you're pictured in your Google+ acct., then who is pictured in your avatar?

More nosey questions: When you were in library school, did you know Arrika Dedmond or Shawn Davidson?"

The avatar pic with the blonde hair is me too, but I was all made up and wearing a wig for a Halloween costume. It was the only pic I had available the the day I was creating my account.

I work with Arrika at USI and we used to work together at Ivy Tech, she's great! Shawn Davidson kind of sounds familiar, but I can't place him (or her?) I graduated from IU library school in 2005.

Arrika is great! She dated my son Max off and on for a few years. They went to the same high school and Purdue. Max is working on his second degree (engineering) at USI, so you might recognize him. http://www.linkedin.com/in/maxhaddan Shawn is a guy who also went to school with them.

How are your new baby chicks doing?? My unsolicited advice is to make sure to handle them because the books say not to because they're delicate, so I didn't. As a result, mine tolerate being held, but aren't crazy about it although when I "garden" with them, they are right next to me and walk across my hand, etc. I'm definitely their mom, but I wish they liked to sit on my lap or be held. I found this recent conversation on this thread with Tips on Interacting with New Chicks:

Originally Posted by CountryHen19
Anyone have any tips about what TO do when trying to get your chicks used to you?

I was thinking about what M2H and I were talking about how all the books say don't handle them/stress them. I know that I need to but I am kind of lost on where to start.

Originally Posted by CCCCCCCCHICKENS
Sometimes I put a radio or alarm clock with a built in radio in their brooder and let it play all the time. I make it loud enough for them to hear but too loud, because I don't want to bust their little ear drums lol. So even if I am not out their talking to them all the time, they are constantly hearing human voices. It help them get used to humans in general, at least a little.You can put their chick food in your hand and they will eat from your hand. [When they're older chicks, give them different types of treats, meal worms. earth worms, crickets, yogurt, things out of a garden if you have one.] You can also sit down with them and hold them, let them run around and fall asleep on you. You won't stress them out just holding them and trying to make friends. I have never lost a chick from stress.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

I'm curious. Still a bit new with chickens, but I plan on starting a breeding program with Cream Legbars and maybe (who am I kidding...definitely) a few other breeds.

I'd like to benefit from the wisdom and mistakes experience of others. Before I rush off to build a bunch of pens and put a lot of work into setting things up, I'm wondering if anyone on here who lives within a couple hours of Indy who has been doing this would be willing to mentor me through starting up. I'd like to see someone (or several someone's) operations before I take off in a direction and find out it is totally inappropriate for what I'm trying to do.

I have the tendency to research any of my endeavors to death, and this is one phase of that.

I've found good planning can make life so much easier, and so can listening to those with more experience than me. (Which is just about everyone on here right now.) One of the reasons I volunteered to host the upcoming Poultryfest

was for the opportunity to pick so many brains at once.

So if there are any hardy souls out there

who feel they have it in them to guide a newby breeder through the ins and outs of the art of Rooster meets Hen, and they live happily ever after, please feel free to contact me. I promise questions galore, but also the undying thanks of the chicken obsessed.

Thanks,
Patrick (otherwise known as Racinchickins)

I'm starting breeding pens too.Just starting building them not to long ago.No experience here, just wanted to wish you good luck!

 

[Mother2Hens]

swivelgal ~ Welcome to the Indiana Thread! Have fun looking at coops-- it's amazing how many styles there are.

annettemb ~ Welcome to the Indiana Thread! Love your descriptions of your chickens. ha

EmSteele ~ Nice to have you back! People who raise chickens to sell/pawn off should be reported when the birds have health problems.


jchny~ We're all hoping for the best with your incubator eggs! When will you be able to tell if the power outage affected them or all they all at different "ages"? You really have had a roller coaster of a spring with great news/tragic news. I can't imagine how frustrating it's been for you when things happen out of your control, no matter how prepared you are. Hopefully the rest of the summer will go more smoothly.

bradselig~ Your poor roo! (he can't help it if he takes after his dad! haha) I love his tail feathers~ a very artistic arrangement.

Too Fast~ I remember when my hens first laid eggs, which was so exciting, but the thought of eating them seemed creepy. However, it didn't take long to get over that!

kabhyper~ Beautiful photos!

CRSelvey~ I like sand, too-- and you can hose it down to cool it off. As I've said before, I like to use fans, and when it gets really hot, misters. Old Salt is saving up to buy central air for my coop! And I loved Quinstar's suggested of cable TV. I guess that isn't too unusual since my cat enjoys cat apps on my iPad!

Here's a photo I took this morning of two of my girls. I need to take some photos of my little orps.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Ok,I have a question or maybe a few, to all the people who have sand in their run or coop.In my pens use saw dust and was going to in the pens I am building now too, but you have to clean it quite frequently.With sand I would scoop out it out at least every few days..but how often do you have to change the sand.Or can you just add to it over time?Thanks

 

[pbirdhaven]

jchnny, I live in the woods and lose power almost on a regular basis; it has never affected my hatches. I just don't open the incubator at all until it's been back up to temp for a few hours, and then just replenish the water quickly or do any turning that needs to be done.

 

[BackyardBitten]

So we've gotten 4 eggs. 1 on the 19th, 1 on the 20th (it was broken) 1 on the 22nd and 1 today. We are really happy to be getting them already, we were not eggspecting any until August 1st. Our chickens were all 16 weeks old 3 days ago. The eggs are from the white leghorns. Not sure which one, we have 2 leghorns. Our other layers will give us brown eggs.

Have not eaten any yet! Too scared. There is no tinfoil wrapped around the eggs, the space station was overhead the other night, the biggest moon until August '14 is showing right now. Expecting zombies any hour now.

Very happy, we won't have to buy eggs anymore this summer!

toofast--you are lucky to eggs so early!

Congratulations to everyone on the first eggs. Haven't gotten any here yet, but am anxiously waiting. The girls combs and wattles are starting to color up, and one of them started squatting whenever I go near her yesterday. She even lets me pick her up now. Should only be a matter of time, either that or they have found a spot besides the nest boxes that I haven't discovered yet.

jchny--sorry about ur power loss. hope ur eggs hatch out ok.

I am still on heightened egg watch like racinchickins. I also have two leghorns--just waiting to see who will start laying first.
Don't know how hot it got here in Indy, but man was it humid! uuugghhh can't stand the humidity, can;t imagine what it would be like if i had feathers! Made a run to the grocery to pick up some watermelon for my older girls since it was so hot! I keep them off the backside of the house,which is kinda secluded and their coop is surrounded by some trees which makes it really nice and cool. But I was still concerned for their comfort. So watermelon and greens were on the menu today. Big Red (as always in her effort to be first for everything) tried the watermelon first and liked it a lot. Hope everyone else was ok, and sorry to the one person who did lose a chicken today.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Thank you everyone for the encouragement, I had another hatch out late this morning, hopefully its going to be ok. The poults are coming out just beautiful, I have 3 hatched so far. I waited until tonight to remove them, topped off the water, and closed up. told myself I won't candle for a few days, as badly as I want to! Will try to get some pictures tomorrow my DD is off, and promised to help me. If anyone is looking for hatching eggs for Bourbon Reds I HIGHLY recommend Arielle on BYC. She packaged the eggs better than I have ever seen, double boxed. Not 1 single crack! The eggs were clean, no detached air cells. Like I picked them up in person!
Wanted to welcome new members:

swivelgal & annettemb

Glad you have joined us!

 

[Mother2Hens]

Ok,I have a question or maybe a few, to all the people who have sand in their run or coop.In my pens use saw dust and was going to in the pens I am building now too, but you have to clean it quite frequently.With sand I would scoop out it out at least every few days..but how often do you have to change the sand.Or can you just add to it over time?Thanks

I ran across this article about the benefits of sand, and I had to laugh when I saw that same stock photo of a woman holding a chicken that is used by so many sites.

Chicken Coop Bedding: Sand, the Litter Superstar


http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/09/chicken-coop-bedding-sand-litter.html

 

[itsjustme]

Do hens display and strut?  I have one little guy that is about 6 weeks that puffs up and displays just like a big 'ol tom.  He even gives this little chirpy sort of gobble.  It's really cute, since even all puffed up, he isn't much bigger than a volleyball.  At least I assume it's a he.  None of the other eight do that, not even the ones that are about a week or two older.

I have 6 poults that are about a month old, and I sure do hope hens strut! The first time I put them in the day pen and the peafowl went to check them out all 6 displayed with either full struts or fanned tail feathers. I definatly do not want the luck I had last year and everyone of them be toms.