INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[toodlesmom]

Browncow - What beautiful little chicks! I see that they have the chipmunk stripes like legbars and rhodebars. What breed are they?

 

[Old Salt 1945]

I don't suppose there is any way to "train" them to return to the nesting boxes to lay? What if I placed a few around the property? Do you think they might use those instead of random spots? At least then I'd know where to look.

Yes, no problem. What you do is to place a nest box over the top of where each hen is laying her eggs. Each day, move it 1 inch closer to the coop. In 2 or 3 years, you should have them trained to lay their eggs in the coop.

Pipped and a couple of the others had some good ideas some time back, but the particulars fell out of my head. If it doesn't relate to my particular situation, it doesn't stick. Just left with a bit of knowledge residue.

John

 

[Old Salt 1945]

I'm starting to look at mine too. I have 7 now, and I have noticed that about half of them look like yours (two of them should, they came from the same place.

I'm also thinking they are closer to 12 weeks than 8) and the others have the same barring on their necks varying from grey to gold, but the bodies seem to be mostly a dark grey color. All of the grey ones seem to have some sort of crest, but so does one that look like yours. The males at this point look similar to barred rocks, with some bits of brown starting to show on their wings. I'm going to join the Cream Legbar club and see if I can get a standard from them, as well of pictures of 'This is good' and 'This is not good'.

Shoot me a link when you get joined.

John

 

[Old Salt 1945]

Quote:
From my reading, Marek's vaccine is 90% effective, so 1 out of 10 will get it anyhow.

John

 

[Old Salt 1945]

I don't know if it's because I'm looking at the picture on a tiny cell phone screen or what, but those birds look more like cream legbar cockerels to me, especially with combs like that at two months old...

That has been a worrying niggle in the back of my mind. Especially when I see them doing neck feather ruffled face off with one another. I don't have a for-sure pullet to compare them to.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Okay, I am on a big computer now, and those are 100% cockerels, but they don't really look like Cream Legbar cockerels do at that age. :/ This article has lots of pictures of Cream Legbars growing up - notice how the pullets have less barring and more of a partridge type of pattern: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/cream-legbars-from-chick-to-adult

 

[Old Salt 1945]

I gave the location in Evansville a call and told them I had 23/24 sand and they said it was the same as State Sand. Its a little bit of everything. When I was trying to figure it out, I just went over for a quick look before getting someone to deliver it to me. They said its about $8-$9 per ton picked up at the site. I was going for a 4" layer in the 6x8 coop and 8*14 run. I had five tons delivered but I have walkways and other uses for it if I don't use it all in the coop (it can help my clay garden drain better ;-) ). I really like it but I need to get the right sized mesh for cleaning faster. The mesh I put on my pitch fork was just too small and caught all the bigger rocks. I'm still using a giant kitty litter scoop. Its been the most effective so far. You could probably get 2-3 in a truck, but I'm guessing.

Also, I was going to send you a message this morning but I got sidetracked with a tetanus shot. My Cochins from John are the buff...he couldn't part with any of his lovely blues, lol. They are full sized and so sweet. I was lucky enough to bring home one of his GLWs too. They don't all appear to be friends on closer inspection, but they still won't hang out with my Ameraucana. I was waiting for you to steal some of his blues while he's out at the poultry shows. I'll show you where they are

. It will just make room for him to get even more pretty birds for his future in showing.
Little Ameraucana Mom- I'm just curious, is Bella supposed to lay blue eggs or could they be something else?

The thumb is much better and gloves are a great idea! I just never think of them until after the fact. Instead, I drove to Plainfield to get a tetanus shot and antibiotics Rx. The doctor said I punctured the tendon and it will start bending again soon. YEA!!!

ALWAYS wear leather cloves when working with fencing/wire. Not only does it protect your hands, it allows you to more confidently control it. You don't want a cut end to flip up and hit you in your face. You could go from pretty to pretty messed up in an instant.

It is harder to do, but when you unroll fence wire, do it backwards of the natural tendency so that the curl is DOWN. That way, when you cut it, the ends won't pop up at you and re-coil.

It's easy to do. Grab the end and walk away from the coil, letting it roll along behind you.

John

 

[Old Salt 1945]

Okay, I am on a big computer now, and those are 100% cockerels, but they don't really look like Cream Legbar cockerels do at that age.

This article has lots of pictures of Cream Legbars growing up - notice how the pullets have less barring and more of a partridge type of pattern: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/cream-legbars-from-chick-to-adult

Oh, goody. More roosters. The "lady" from Illinois managed to put one over on a couple of Indiana rubes!

Oh, well. Everything I have ever learned was done the hard way. Why stop now.

Thanks, Pip.

John

 

[racinchickins]

That has been a worrying niggle in the back of my mind. Especially when I see them doing neck feather ruffled face off with one another. I don't have a for-sure pullet to compare them to.

I've seen the face off happening too, but from both the barred and the partridge types. And they were facing off with one of my Leghorns that is definitely laying eggs.

Okay, I am on a big computer now, and those are 100% cockerels, but they don't really look like Cream Legbar cockerels do at that age.

This article has lots of pictures of Cream Legbars growing up - notice how the pullets have less barring and more of a partridge type of pattern: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/cream-legbars-from-chick-to-adult

Ugh. I went through the pics you linked to. The two males I have definitely look like the males in the pics. Of the 6 3mth old pullets? 2 look like the ones in the pics, and the other 4 look like John's birds (two of those have even bigger combs). But those don't look like any of the birds in the photoset. I have another that I hatched out that is about 7 weeks now, and from looking at her, I think she may be the partridge type, fingers crossed there.

 

[racinchickins]

Quote:

Fingers crossed that JLo gets better. Also have a question on your birds. John (Old Salt) and I are trying to figure out what we have for legbars. Several of our birds look like the bird that is in the front before your video starts. It also comes into the screen at :13 seconds. Is that a legbar? If so, is it a boy or girl?