INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
You'll have to let us know what they say!

 

[chick rookie]

You'll have to let us know what they say!

I sure will.

 

[CRSelvey]

I might have a few backyard mixes of Speckled Sussex Roo wit Barred Rock, Cuckoo Maran, Salmon Faverolles, and RIR in a couple of weeks to rehome. Diva, my Silkie went broodie while I was out of town for two weeks and I got home to find 6 eggs under her, but the other hens keep giving her eggs and I found 11 under her today! Too much chicken math for me to handle! I thought the hens stopped laying due to the cold weather. Will post on BYC if she hatches a bunch successfully. Oh dear...

Wow, now you are making me want some too! I wish I could narrow down the wish list.

Bonbon MIssing -- and Found with The Motherload!

That is a huge relief that you found her. I'd be freaked out.

Hope your girl recovers soon! Just a suggestion but could you not use parrot cups that hang on the side of the pen for her feed and water/ grit etc. ? Would leave her more room to move around and wouldn't get knocked over because they fasten to the side.

Thank you! She's actually sitting in a sling and in theory, she isn't going to be moving around because she is resting her legs. I put some shavings down under her to keep her feet warmer, but I hope she doesn't get up at all for at least a few days. I have been checking on her every couple of hours and so far, she is still right where I left her yesterday. Last night, I rolled up a hand towel and put it between the two bowl so she could lay down on a pillow if she were so inclined too. My DH is still talking about be on FB for giving my chicken a pillow and a blankie, but whatever, lol. He said you do know its a chicken don't you??? Like our chicken chickens are somehow less than our dogs or cat, which I don't get at all. I LOVE my dogs and cat, who are babied beyond belief, but they NEVER gave me breakfast.

Since woodpeckers are the only wild bird that I know anything about, here is a Woodpecker Lesson for this evening - lol!

The amazing one that leslea photographed is a Pileated Woodpecker (It can be pronounced both ways-- like Pile-eated or like Pill-eated). And it's the one that inspired Woody Woodpecker's look. There are many varieties, but these are the ones that I see the most often, especially the red-bellied (it's hard to see their red bellies when they are always against a tree!) and the Downy (smaller and fluffier). You're lucky if you ever get to see a Pileated one because I've read that many bird-watcher people have never had the luck to see one in person. We were so lucky to have one live in our far backyard for several years.

Btw, you are absolutely right, jchny, that we shouldn't have our bird feeder near the chickens-- especially after we've dealt with scaly leg mites.

The feeder is in such an otherwise perfect place.

I am not from around here, so I didn't know they were unusual, but our woods have several of the top kind. I'm really partial to the tiny ones we have that are blue and gray.

Sorry to hear about the rooster. Do you know someone that can dispatch him for you?
The grit, just offer free choice, or you can mix in food.
ETA didn't realize it was chick grit. Ya, not coarse enough for her.

Old Salt has done it for me in the past, but I don't want to take a sick chicken to someone's house that has chickens. I talked to my friend today who doesn't have any right now and her husband will do it for me on Sunday if he's not better. I think I will be getting rid of all but one roo (my bantam OEG) then. I'm pretty sure that my EE roo on my avatar (Peanut Butter) is the reason my Lucy is limping. He's quite a bit bigger than she is and I'm thinking he got too rough. Peanut Butter has been attacking us all when we go out to the garden, which is unfortunate because he is just so pretty in my opinion. I just can't have mean birds with small kids.

CRSelvey ~ When you said "Then we went to the store . . ." I pictured this scene:



What a sweet girl Lucy is! Be careful using the crate because that is actually how Violet injured her leg last summer. I had her in the basement in a large dog crate with Adeline to quarantine them. Violet caught her leg on the bars at the bottom. I just "Searched the thread" and found the diagram I made to show where the bars are. hogster had replied under my post about the cage that she used cardboard around the edges. I started doing that, and I also kept a towel over the entryway bars at the bottom-- and the door could still shut.



That's cool that you made a sling! I thought about doing that with Violet, but I was afraid I'd screw it up and make it worse.

I mentioned a month ago that my BR Tweedy had a slight limp, and she still has it probably because she doesn't rest it. She can run with a small limp, too! I thought about putting her in a cage to rest it, but it's not really bad and my fear is that inactivity will make it worse like it did Violet's-- it's hard to know because every situation is different. I'm guessing that Tweedy had a rough landing, slid on ice, stumbled on rocks, or something like that. Do you know what happened to Lucy?

As far as your rooster, that's what I'd do, but I'm not in your shoes. Jersey is still at the freezer at the vet until the outdoor temps warm up a bit. Do you have any idea what your roo is sick from? Is he the one you posted about that you had looked through the health book and couldn't find what was wrong? If I didn't need to go to bed right now, I'd look that up. I think you posted that when I was in process of catching up with the thread following Jersey's ordeal.
HappyHappyHappy ~ There are no birds/eggs left in the world that aren't related to Brad's! Haha! jk

When I reread my post, that was exactly the picture that I got too! Thanks for actually making it. I might need to use it for my avatar

Like Tweedy, I've had another one that had a limp and recovered, but Lucy was getting worse instead of better. I'd have left her out there if she was able to make it around without being attacked. Unfortunately, she couldn't easily get to the food and I kept finding her on the steps of the coop or the floor inside because she couldn't make it to the roost. The last night, Beckett had to crawl under the coop and get her out of the corner. Its just too cold right now for that. I'm guessing it was just Peanut Butter. My girls would be a lot happier if they didn't have to worry about so many boys all the time.

As far as the rooster goes, I've read all of the books I have and nothing seems the same. I've found other threads here where people describe drunk chickens but they don't have anything conclusive to try. The Chicken Health for Dummies give a lot of ideas on how to care for different things, but it seems to assume that I know which thing he has. Its short on symptoms for identifying the problems like this. I still have all the posts from when the pullet had the problem and I've tried all the same things. With my little girl, she took weeks to get better and by then the flock didn't seem to know her anymore. She also showed improvement much sooner than this.

thanks, I just don't know what is going on if I go out tonight and find another dead I don't know what I will do.

I'm sorry!

Good luck tonight.

It's not pretty, but this is what I drew:



I don't know if it'll make any sense to anyone but me and hubby, but it felt good to get all the plans on paper so I could start budgeting for costs. I'll hopefully start picking up materials every payday until the weather gets nice enough to start building.

I really like your drawing. If I remember your yard correctly, you have the run in the front where you can still see them? We love that part because watching them each day is so nice. I wish I had thought to put the nesting box on the coop near the door for ours. When I go out to check on the chickens, we have to leave the run, go out of the fenced garden and walk back up to check for eggs. Its not that easy to get to the nesting boxes in the inside unless you are six as they are under a roost and poop board.

Thanks, everyone, for the head's up about the wild birds. I'll definitely move my feeders to the front yard.

We also had a post about wild bird food having warnings on them that they were not for birds that would be eaten. After researching I think it was discovered that the wild bird food wasn't as safe as one would hope for any bird. I can't remember if it was Pipd or Kat that posted the findings though.

I thought about that. I think I'm going solar-powered for the indoor coop lights, but I don't think they may solar-heaters strong enough to keep a barrel from freezing (I've looked into them for my wild birds before). If it gets to the point of having to run elec to the coop, I think I'll just use the hose!

Have you found some? I have been trying to find some solar power to put in the coop but haven't been very successful yet. After hauling warm water to the chickens twice a day or more, I'm very much in favor of running electricity and water out to the garden/coop area. It would be a real challenge to go out of town even for the weekend if I had to ask someone to do that for me twice a day.

Personally, I think too many multi posts together can be confusing keeping track of who said what. But I'm a little confused to begin with!

Now you tell me!

 

[chick rookie]

ok well I went out to feed and I fed everybody else BEFORE the girls... just didn't want to go in there. Didn't want to find another dead hen!! So after all were fed I could put it off no more away I went... YEA!!!!! everyone is alive and kicking... AND LETTING ME KNOW I WAS LATE!!!!!

AND I got 6 eggs, 2, 6's in a row maybe my girls are picking up steam again???? and the broody in the house is the same she is eating but only if I remove her from her nesting area all together. Will be putting Chicks under her Sunday night,

hope it works. Already have an ideal how to give them room to roam around and still stay safe in the house.

 

[minmin1258]

I'm

 
Okay, sorry for adding so many posts this morning.  Next time I will go through the missed posts and do a "multi."


I have a question.  Does anyone use a rain barrel for watering your flock?  I found a lovely video of an automatic barrel system here on BYC and I wonder if the barrel will freeze in the winter.  I guess it depends on the size?  I was thinking I could get by cheap with a recycled, smaller barrel, but if it freezes then I'm stuck.


Thoughts and experiences are welcome! 

[COLOR=800000]Personally, I think too many multi posts together can be confusing keeping track of who said what. But I'm a little confused to begin with! [/COLOR]

so glad I'm not the only one!! Lol

 

[leslea]

I am not from around here, so I didn't know they were unusual, but our woods have several of the top kind. I'm really partial to the tiny ones we have that are blue and gray.

Not sure about blue and grey, but if they're tiny they're probably downies.



I really like your drawing. If I remember your yard correctly, you have the run in the front where you can still see them? We love that part because watching them each day is so nice. I wish I had thought to put the nesting box on the coop near the door for ours. When I go out to check on the chickens, we have to leave the run, go out of the fenced garden and walk back up to check for eggs. Its not that easy to get to the nesting boxes in the inside unless you are six as they are under a roost and poop board.

I just remembered I forgot to draw a door in the run.

That is a good idea about putting the boxes near the doors.

I remember reading that hens will share nesting boxes. Should I set up six nesting boxes (one for each bird), or count on them to share?

We also had a post about wild bird food having warnings on them that they were not for birds that would be eaten. After researching I think it was discovered that the wild bird food wasn't as safe as one would hope for any bird. I can't remember if it was Pipd or Kat that posted the findings though.

Noted!

Have you found some? I have been trying to find some solar power to put in the coop but haven't been very successful yet. After hauling warm water to the chickens twice a day or more, I'm very much in favor of running electricity and water out to the garden/coop area. It would be a real challenge to go out of town even for the weekend if I had to ask someone to do that for me twice a day.

We haven't purchased anything yet, but I thought we'd use something like this. Solar lights They have add on strands, too.

Or maybe something like this.

I read that you're supposed to make sure the light gives off a warm glow, because "cold" blue lights won't help with the winter laying, but I actually have a sun light that's supposed to help humans with SAD, and that thing is LED and def not "yellowish" like I think of with "warm light," so I'm willing to give solar lights a try. These golden ones don't look "cold," so they might work.

 

[CRSelvey]

We haven't purchased anything yet, but I thought we'd use something like this.  Solar lights  They have add on strands, too.


Or maybe something like this.


I read that you're supposed to make sure the light gives off a warm glow, because "cold" blue lights won't help with the winter laying, but I actually have a sun light that's supposed to help humans with SAD, and that thing is LED and def not "yellowish" like I think of with "warm light," so I'm willing to give solar lights a try.  These golden ones don't look "cold," so they might work.

Thanks for posting the links. I will check them out. I was told that you need a nesting box for every 3-4 hens. I have 3 normal sized boxes (small dishpans really) and one small one that my bantam hen uses sometimes (was supposed to store tools but she started laying there). Right now I have 8 hens and they use all three boxes but most days I will find the eggs all in one. I think they go to the one that was warm but what do I know?

 

[SallyinIndiana]

when we were setting up our first coop, the contractor that was helping with the nesting boxes talked me into 12 instead of the 6 I wanted. He tried for 24 boxes. I'm glad I did not do that. Last summer at the height of the laying, I had just over 20 laying hens so about 18-20 eggs a day. Always in the same 3 boxes. We even moved them to a tractor coop and offered 6 boxes, nope they picked 3 and stuck with them. Some days the eggs would be in two boxes.

 

[leslea]

Okay, then! Two nesting boxes it is!

I saw a pin where someone just used wicker baskets and that looked pretty cozy.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Okay, then! Two nesting boxes it is!

I saw a pin where someone just used wicker baskets and that looked pretty cozy.

Sounds like a plan.