INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: My birds will eat them, talk about chicken football! game on if they rustle one up! They seem to be finding a lot right now, may be due to all the clearing of brush we are doing.

Ccccc- M2H had those really cute tags for us to print. But I don't have a way to do that.

M2H- milk snake!!! I had one here this spring when we plowed a field for alfalfa. It's a good snake, goes after barn mice. Speaking of mice.....saw a rat in one of my coups last night!!!!eeeeeewwwwwhhhh!!!! New warfare to begin!!

I agree, I kept a few as pets, very good snake to have around. Very docile and made great pets! That appeared to be a young one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_snake

Yikes! Rats are terrible to get rid of, Dad had some in his barn up north, we had a hard time getting them gone. Didn't help with the cats food out there either.
He couldn't feed them outside because of the raccoons and skunks.
He had issues with muskrats too, and they are pretty aggressive!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: Both are very pretty birds, love the color! And love the eggs, what a variety!

Quote: Its incredibly sad. I saw more sick, injured and abused animals in those 5 years than I care to even think about. And whats worse is the lack of interest to make it better!
Horrible. I won't go into it but it really tears your heart out.

I guess that I should have worn a nametag. I was at the show and loved it (Including changing a couple of breeds I thought I would like with a couple Breeds I DO like!) but all the people I talked with had no idea there was an Indiana chicken thread on backyard chickens. Some didn't know what backyard chickens was!!!

Although I still want more and better Delawares (the two pullets at the show seemed huge to me however and if they are suppose to be that big I DON'T want any more) and some Dominiques, my new list of wants is short:

Wheaten or Birchen Marans

Birchen, Brown Red or Red Pyle Modern Game (how convenient that I met a man named Chris that has Brown Reds now and Birchen possibly in a while!!!)

Belgian D'Anvers of any color!!!

My brother is in love with Snowy and Butterscotch Call ducks. I like them too!

And we both liked the African Geese!!

So now I go in search of breeders and start talking!!!!

Can't wait for the Boone County show as someone said it is much bigger!!

I have a red pyle OEGB and she is a sweetheart, I love her color.
I have africans, and plan to start breeding next spring. They are very sweet geese, much calmer/quieter than my Chinese, and smaller than my Embden.
I just love them

Very hard to find locally, It took me a while to finally get them!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Oh my goodness you guys!! I cannot keep up. There are like 10 different subjects being discussed lol! I'm not going to try to respond to the last two days on here.

I am however going to update the Chick hatching progress.

It is day 6. She is still sitting like a professional that has done this before. In the mornings I get her up and set her on the barn floor or out in the grass for 5 minutes or so, to get that nasty broody poo out and eat some breakfast. She eats a little and does her business and goes right back to her nest. In the evening I get her up or another 5 minutes to repeat the process. I don't think she is getting up to eat on her own, so the 10 minutes a day I take her out, she is at least eating something.

I candled the eggs for the first time today while she ate dinner. Man, I am so confused. It wasn't quite dark enough I don't think, where I was candling. Two of the eggs appeared clear to me so I put a penciled question mark on them. I saw 2 distinct embryos moving on two others so those got a check mark. The other 8 are iffy. They all looked like the ones I saw the movement in, with a large dark area, and the air sack, but I couldn't see well enough to find the dark spot to see for movement. So I put them all back into the nest and I will try again in a week.

I have a dozen bearded silkie eggs in the silkie coop too, if anyone is interested in them. Otherwise I may incubate. I don't want to waste them.

sending good hatching vibes!

Ugh behind again! Got home from my trip last night to a sick calf

figures! Anyway someone had asked over the weekend about a virtual tour de coops so I took some pics this am. Oh and I got to meet Darthlayer this weekend and brought home some pretty EEs ill get pics later

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

Loved all the pics! Hope your sick calf is better.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I was able to get another pic of Margo the (apparently) Easter Egger not Amaraucana?



And since I was out there taking pics, this is Harriet - the BR (she is pretty fantastic with her big floppy comb). ALso, she is down to one tail feather right now



And Lily (Welsummer) with Vivie (RIR)

All your girls are lovely!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Hmmmmm..... how did I put this at the top?
Quote: Lovely birds!

 

[HappyHappyHappy]

I have a Black Astralorp Hen, I think I spelled that right. Any way she has went broody for about a week now trying to hatch golf balls.. I Thought I might put a large box in my house and give her some eggs to sit on, Do you THink That this is a bad or good Idea.
My concerns are:
1. will she become a stranger to the flock and have trouble with re-entry
2. will she freak out if I Seclude her with a Clutch of eggs in a new place she is not used to,
3. She is only 6 months old and has not attempted this before can she do it.
4 I can not seperate her to a spot near the other chickens because of predators.
5 i assume in my house is best because of the indoor temp for the chicks not being frigid at night time. or do you think in the barn would be better so they are used to the cold???

any help would be awesome as I am new to chickens this year and have never hatched an egg in my life. I have plenty of fertile eggs how many should i place under her?


Thank you, Jeremy

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Earlier I mentioned getting some red brown modern game bantams next week (if seller thinks they are big enough to ship). Here are some pictures of his stock. I sure hope mine turn out just like these! Mine will be between 2-4 months old.

WOW I really like their looks, roosters are quite impressive! And the hens look very sweet too!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Choking Chicken? Anyone had a similar experience?
I spent part of the afternoon out in the far backyard with my seven girls. Three of the hens are molting-- My Jersey Giant looks like a wreck-- no tail feathers, a bunch missing around her neck, and she's shedding lots of little feathers I had been digging in the dirt with Jersey for awhile and she was her usual conversational self. Then she started opening her mouth like she was trying to swallow (gapeworm is my most feared chicken illness although I didn’t think that was the problem since this suddenly started). I carried her up to the house, but she wasn’t interested in water. I brought out her favorite treat--blueberries. She wanted them, but acted like she couldn’t lean over to pick one up. I figured that she must have something stuck in her throat and I started to feel panicky since it would be difficult to look in her mouth/throat. I held a blueberry close to her mouth and she ate it. That seemed to push down whatever it was! She then ate a bunch of blueberries and was fine. My DH guesses that she had a feather stuck since she’s molting so much and I bet that is what happened. She had taken a dust bath and was grooming herself while we were both playing in the dirt. They make hairball formula for cats-- do they make featherball formula for chickens?

OH MY! That would have had me in a panic too, I have had one get a long blade of grass wedged and was gasping. Slowly pulled it out of his throat and he was right back to foraging.
Glad she was ok.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: Hehe, Butters he cracks me up! Once the eggs are 5 days past due, I candle, and if nothings visible, that it. Oh I love the bunnies,
I do pick them up and snuggle but DH starts saying no! If I carry them around I would take them home.

Quote: Youre welcome! He is awesome, and yep, he is a daddy a few times over now! My hens are all on egg strike of late and get very few every day.
His girls that are laying have given me some strong chicks. So far they have been gold laced.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Some time back folks were talking about processing a chicken. This is my favorite video on the subject. We went to visit some folks that had experience and they let us each process as many as we wanted. It wasn't as bad, nor did it take as long as I thought it would. Their method was very similar to this but we plucked by hand (no fancy-pants plucker). If I were doing 30 at a time it might be worth it.

Excellent video thanks!

Originally Posted by jchny2000
My A&M are destined for the freezer. Hateful, nasty lil things, they attack my arms and hands when i refill the feeders and gather eggs. They bite and hang on! it doesn't hurt, but gees, bite the hands that feed you

! Getting away from that breed altogether. Brads correct, I have not processed any yet. Texas A&M University did develop the breed. The few (11 total) I have are all quite aggressive, and from 3 totally different breeders.

The older I get, the dumber I get.

I made my 7-slot nest box and mounted it to the wall on 3 90-degree shelf brackets. They are rated at 75# each. I figured that was good for 225#. It worked well and left the floor clear.

The younger batch of Wyandotte, Jersey Black Giants, and Cochins liked it and roosted on top of it. I thought it was cute and put some hay on the top to give them a comfy place to lay.

Today I went out to check the chickies and look for eggs and found the nestbox on the floor. Idiot! It seems that 50# nestbox + 20# hay + 25 4# chickens exceeded the capacity of first one, then the other, then the other of the shelf brackets. Cascade, kind of like the World Trade Towers in NY.

I straightened the brackets, set the empty nest box on the brackets and watched a duck limp out from under. The poor thing had been trapped for who knows how long. I got the nest box re-attached and added a safety rope just in case until I can do it right. I had two hens that were trying to get in the nest boxes while I was securing it. I went away for 1/2 hour and came back to find 2 eggs in it.

I have Indian Runner Ducks. 5 are drakes and 3 are ducks. Of course, the injured one is a duck. She made it out of the hen house and out to the kiddie pool. She moves around on her legs with some assistance from her wingtips. I'm hoping it is just sprain or long time immobilization that is causing the problem.

I understand that a gravity front passed through the Lebanon area last night, causing scattered spurts of unusually high gravity. That's probably what caused this. It couldn't be the chickens growing heavier over time. Naaaaahhhhhh. Gravity spurts, that's it.

John

Hope your duck is ok, poor girl. Gravity, hehe!

Quote: hehe, thanks john! When they start laying again, I will make sore to put your name on a chick once I know its a pullet

First time outside, and they wouldn't venture out of the box, silly girls. they are feathering fast!

Aww what lil cuties!

Since I haven't seen any dumb posts today, I'll go ahead and be the first one.
We have a broody laying on 3 eggs. Last night was the 7th day, so we went to candle her eggs. Surprise! She had 6 eggs under her.
The 3 donated unfertile eggs look identical and would seem to be from the same pullet, so in theory, the oldest one would have been under her for 3 days.
Here's the dumb post of the day: Is is safe to eat the 3 unfertilized eggs she's been gleefully sitting on for 3 days, or would it be better to throw them out?

Never a dumb post! Its good to ask questions. It would probably be safe, but I don't because of my comfort level.