INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[danand]

It would have to be one mighty special Roo for me to spend that much!!

 

[Old Salt 1945]

this would last a VERY long time though.
i saw that too, and laughed. I'm lucky to be able to give a rooster away let alone get $30 for one. I wish them the best though.

But it's an easter egger. It will lay pretty colored eggs. I heard that roosters lay double-yolked eggs.

John

 

[Old Salt 1945]

I have been battling mites big time this year--never had that problem before. Crest mites in the Polish are a given, and have had an occasional chicken with mites, but they have been awful lately. They're easy to overlook even though you handle the bird if you're not looking for them in the right places--generally don't crawl out onto you until the infestation is really heavy.
My breeding and show stock gets a dose of Frontline spray applied with a syringe every 5-6 weeks with extra dusting if I see a problem. Everybody else gets dusted as needed. What is weird is that one bird in a pen can been infested and the others in the same pen are clear. Some chickens must taste better than others.

How many CC's do you apply to the average size hen?

John

 

[Birdylady3]

Hi all! I'm back on here again. I just got done reading 1,000 or so pages! I will have to post pics of my ducks and my friend's chickens and ducks. I know I will forget what I read so what's new with everyone?

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

With currently working dusk til dawn, or close too it. I have been a little neglectful of my wee birds. I am still watering, feeding and egg collecting but have not been enjoying chicken tv. It makes me feel bad about not being so sociable with them. Can I rent someone out to come and interact with them? I will pay them in eggs

Anyhoo, my sister is still in town and she informed me last night she heard a 'crowing' sound coming from my Cochin pen. As I have not been out there to hear I can not confirm that she really heard crowing, or if she heard a rather enthusiastic egg song.
If there really was crowing I have no idea who it could be. I am getting two eggs from the coop, one on an almost daily schedule, the second is a recent addition so no egg schedule for that. The first egg is from Momma, the second I think may be from my d'Uccle owing to the fact she is the same age as Momma, recently red combed and the eggs was about an inch long. This leaves my three other Cochins for crowing culprits. Going to yet again post pictures and ask for a yes, no or whatever else you can offer.

Looking at the pics, i really don't see any roos either. Hope you get a few days rest in too!

I had several guinea leave today, and met a very nice family! While we talked on the phone, I could hear a guinea hen calling just pitiful. They had a pair of guinea, and lost one to a hawk. Now the lonely guinea hen will have 14 new friends to join her!

They are keeping the Guinea in the barn now until spring. We talked about guinea a lot, and I explained about the different sounds the hen and cock make. The boys waddles look terribly over-sized for their tiny heads. Bug control, love to eat grasshoppers, ticks, spiders, bees and really love ants. I did invite them to our thread also.

They took home a (free) Lavender orp roo

The wife was very impressed with one roo and snatched him right up. (my LOs are very social, perch and climb all over you) The boys are so handsome and sweet I just can't face the thought of processing them.

Quoting myself since its just fate, seems like these things always happen. Jeckel, my guinea cock and Quaseys mate, was taken sometime very early this morning, my guess is the fox. Some feathers spread out and lots of blood. a corner of their housing it actually pulled apart and drug him out of about a 2 inch gap, a few inches high.The wood was old but this was no raccoon. A dog or coon normally leaves remains. The guinea just go crazy around that fox and would taunt it. It saw the chance to get even. Other thought is coyote, they get very bold if hungry. and was my initial thought. My other pair Prissy and Hyde, and Quasey appear to be ok, but they are mourning him terribly. The boys are fearless and very protective of the hens, so i just know he marched right over and attacked the animal! RIP Jeckel.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Okay, I needed a good laugh this morning, and I got it. Over at the Facebook BYC, there's someone who posted a picture of a very obvious Easter-egger rooster claiming that it was a hen. Then, they posted a picture of another rooster to prove that this bird was a hen, but the picture of the rooster they posted looks like an older version of the rooster they're claiming to be a hen!

And they still don't believe it even though they have about 15 different people saying this is a rooster! They just flat out said they'll tell us when they start getting eggs! Some people!

Here is their 'Americana hen', by the way.

OH my, I don't think I could have helped myself. Looks like most every one of my EE roos!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: John, you are the best! He said to thank you also. (I haven't got him to sign up yet)

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

the EE in the first pic is the one in question. The EE in the second pic is my new layer (unless i have them completely confused). What do you guys think? Lady? Or another DUDE on the farm??

Lovely hens!

Quote: X2!

The Farmer's Almanac is predicting an unusually cold and snowy winter for the midwest. Time to start knitting coats, caps, and scarves for your chickens! Do you insulate your coops?

NOOOO! I hate cold

thats me frozen under my desk chair!
I don't heat or insulate, but with my OEGB, Sebrights and silkies I am worried for them. What does everyone do for the bantams?

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Julie- your EE girls look exactly like a couple of my girls.

Old salt- you know better!! That's a lot of work for 1 day!! I've been VERY happy since my boy numbers were decreased!! Now I have 2 sebright Roos, 5 Millie Roos and 5 Bo Roos that will leave next Friday and it'll be even more quiet. It has taken 2 months for my older girls to finally get some back feathers. I now have room for 1 roo so I would have 2/15 .

So I finally wanted to work on a EE girl that has a crossbeak. I pick her up all the time and give her more and special food since she has a hard time eating. She's a bit smaller than her sisters but is always busy and friendly and seems happy enough . I didn't see her crossbeak until she was several months old and didnt have the heart to cull her. So I wanted to start trimming her beak every couple of days to see if I could shape it better and guess what .....she has mites!!! Started crawling up my arms!! So now I've dusted everybody( including myself) and checked most, and dusted the coups. What a pain!! I'd been checking any that I would pick up and now it's hit!! Pain in the }>€\!!!

Ugh, that stinks. They are pretty hard to get rid of without a lot of hands on treatment I guess. I cannot believe I haven't had them yet since the birds are out most of the afternoon.
In the main coop, I have an old truck cap. Under it, the ground is well broken up like powder. I rake it out often and sprinkle sevin dust in there.
I love to watch my turkey hen, she is so comical dust bathing! The tom, I have been calling Buddy, wont fit! I need to get straw bales and raise it up so he can join the fun too.

Yesterday, I changed my ratio of roo to pullet from 14-21 to 3-21.

The freezer is full and the chicken yard much quieter and nearly conflict-free. It had gotten to the point that most of the pullets and a couple of lesser roos spent the entire day in the coop rather than expose themselves to the bullying from the roos.

I will never again take on the processing of that many birds in one sitting. My back should be healed up by Thursday, Friday at the latest.

John

Aw, John, get some rest and mending time in.
I am doing several Tuesday hopefully. Youngest DD will be at school and everyone else will be gone. 1 turkey and at least 6 roos.
One pullet is if she pecks me one more time, she is flat out hateful.Very mean to the new chicks coming out to the main coop too.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: I want to get the frontline spray, very good idea, and I like their products. Ivermec pour on is supposed to help, will try to find the info on the post.
Verbazen is another drop on medication, and a more broad spectrum than Ivermec but more pricy.
No kidding, I am very curious to see that bird!

most people do not want a roo.

I'm not sure if I have ever talked about how I brood my chicks on here or not, so here it goes. It seems like I always have chicks around here and quite honestly, I look for the easy way to do things. All chicks are brooded in the house in a spare bedroom for the first couple weeks and can handle the temps outside with out heat (or when mostly feathered out and heat when it's still cold outside). For these I use totes. But when they et moved out to the garage u til they are big enough to mix with the existing flock, I have found that large cardboard boxes work great! Of course working at Lowes, I have access to these pretty easily with the number of appliances getting sold and delivered daily. I typically use a washer/dryer box or small refrigerator. I lay these so they have the most floor space and cut the top off. Prior to them learning how to fly out, I attach bird netting over the top.

I have found this the easiest, cheapest, and most sanitary way to brood chicks. Once they move out, I shovel out the bedding and throw it on the bedding pile. Then I simply burn the old boxes. I don't have to worry about any diseases or parasites that may be transferred to the chicks. No extra cleaning and scrubbing old brooders, getting it ready for new chicks. I will work on getting pictures tomorrow.

But anyone constantly brooding chicks, I high,y recommend this method as it has worked great for me!

I follow a similar method. Everything rotates once a week to the next step.
I use the average size tote for newly hatched chicks or 2 if its a big hatch. I have a large long tote that I use for 1 and 2 week olds.
These are in my den, so I can watch them closely in case there's issues.
At 3 weeks, I have a porch/breezeway that used be where my english mastiff would be crated, if need be, concrete floors. All that is in there is my chest freezers.
I use cardboard boxes for a barrier and line the floor with feed sacks, then put the box on it, toss deep shavings in there .
I usually only need to change the bedding 2-3 times depending on whats in there. ( last goslings and ducklings for the year right now, been a mess everyday

)
also cover with netting so the birds are not exploring and leaving me gifts
Once they are getting feathers they stay in the attached dog run daytime, and to the brooder at night. I watch them close depending on temps and the weather.
Fermented Food and water is also out there, cuts way down on the mess. At dusk they go back to the breezeway brooder with their dry food and water.
I start "free range" at 5 weeks, but only allow a 25 ft area that i contain with hardware cloth, netting over it..
All my birds learn the WeeWee call from the beginning and they know to come right away. They get an hour at most in the beginning.
Its always around the main coop at 6 weeks so they merge with the flocks well.
7-8 weeks depending on what they are, they join their flocks. I am being very cautious with my peachicks, they are still in the breezeway at 8 weeks.