INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

I think I have an egg eater in my midst

I pulled my eggs out today (4/5 girls yay!) and noticed that one of the eggs was coated in something shiny. Further inspection showed a puddle of yolk in that next box, and neither egg was cracked or leaking. So it looks like my 5th egg got eaten. I really hope it was a fluke!!!

I was outside finishing some work on the coop yesterday and 3 chickens started singing the egg song. There was one really deep gravelly voice and I went outside to see who it was. It was my Cochin roo Chewie!!! Hilarious! Today I heard him singing again! Do most roosters sing the egg song or is he gender confused? It sure is cute to hear him singing along with his ladies!!! Such character!

My 3 Marans went out to the coop last week because i came home to find two of them had escaped the brooder and were loose! Yikes! So I put them in the newly built pen and built a hasty temporary run for them (divided off a section of the egg flock run for now). After two days they had not ventured out, so I booted them out the pop door yesterday, then had to boot them back in. LOL I'm hoping they catch on eventually! I didn't even open the pop door today, it is so gross out.

My two new pens - I will be adding windows to the back of the shed for additional light. One set of external nest boxes on the right hand side. Right now it is one giant pen until I separate the Bielefelders and Isbars in a few months.



Another shot, at this angle you can see the egg layers section and next boxes.


Bielefelder Girl!


Bielefelder girl from the top so you can see the feather pattern


Another shot of the pretty girl with her eyeliner! She flew out to say hello.


Bielefelder boy


Bielefelder boy from the top, this picture still doesn't do his color justice, but man are they cool looking!

That is too cute, that chewie sang the egg song.

 

[kabhyper1]

I think I have an egg eater in my midst

I pulled my eggs out today (4/5 girls yay!) and noticed that one of the eggs was coated in something shiny. Further inspection showed a puddle of yolk in that next box, and neither egg was cracked or leaking. So it looks like my 5th egg got eaten. I really hope it was a fluke!!!

I was outside finishing some work on the coop yesterday and 3 chickens started singing the egg song. There was one really deep gravelly voice and I went outside to see who it was. It was my Cochin roo Chewie!!! Hilarious! Today I heard him singing again! Do most roosters sing the egg song or is he gender confused? It sure is cute to hear him singing along with his ladies!!! Such character!

My 3 Marans went out to the coop last week because i came home to find two of them had escaped the brooder and were loose! Yikes! So I put them in the newly built pen and built a hasty temporary run for them (divided off a section of the egg flock run for now). After two days they had not ventured out, so I booted them out the pop door yesterday, then had to boot them back in. LOL I'm hoping they catch on eventually! I didn't even open the pop door today, it is so gross out.

My two new pens - I will be adding windows to the back of the shed for additional light. One set of external nest boxes on the right hand side. Right now it is one giant pen until I separate the Bielefelders and Isbars in a few months.



Another shot, at this angle you can see the egg layers section and next boxes.


Bielefelder Girl!


Bielefelder girl from the top so you can see the feather pattern


Another shot of the pretty girl with her eyeliner! She flew out to say hello.


Bielefelder boy


Bielefelder boy from the top, this picture still doesn't do his color justice, but man are they cool looking!

My Sl/w Gus does it too. Every time the girls lay an egg and sing their song, they have an echo. He really gets into it too. I thought it was normal. He has always done it. Weirdo.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Along the line of funny rooster stories, one of my mixed breed roosters was carrying around a pretty big twig he found in his pen. Sideways like a dog would carry a bone. They he tried offering it to his girls. They respectfully declined lol.

 

[kabhyper1]

My two month olds are getting fluffier. I won't know what sex they are for another couple of months. Waiting waiting.....

 

[raisinemright]

I gave up and pulled the plug on my last BPR egg! The smell from the incubator was getting overwhelming. The bator is cleaned and it's finally able to take a short break. It's been plugged. In from the moment it arrived in the mail and has not stopped running sense then. It's held great temp the whole time. Two overlapping hatches. I'm impressed with the Genisus! I love this thing. Out of 14 eggs 7ea BPR and RIR from Fred's Hens! We got 3 BPR and 5 RIR! Just over 50% with my first shipped eggs. That's about par I'm told. I do have one chick that is favoring a leg. I hope it will pull out of it. Here is a pic

Here are my BPR's

And the first chick out of this set to hatch! RIR

 

[PeacefulWalls]

So DH and I have only been finding 5 or so eggs a day from our girls. We were gone yesterday, so we didn't gather all of them until today. After a good hunt around the barn, we found 22.

We have 11 girls of laying age, so apparently they are all laying. I have about 8 dozen in the fridge now. They decided that the nesting boxes aren't sufficient. 2 in the loft, 1 in a random dog crate, 10 in the corner of the indoor coop covered in poop, thanks girls, 4 in the nest boxes, and 5 in either the alpacas hay crates, or the floor. GRRRRR

I don't have time for an egg hunt every day. Little turds. Here is our bounty from today, we broke one. It goes from left to right, top row, two of each.....Australorp, RIR, RIR. Second row, Cochin, EE x wyandotte, EE. Third row, all SL/Wyandotte. Last row Minorca, SL/W minorca.(we broke one of hers) When our 7 EE's in the house mature, we are going to be drowning in eggs lol!


Sounds like they took lessons from our girls. We've had to do an egg hunt every day since last fall! Whenever we take away a spot where they lay they find another new one. You'd figure eventually they would run out of spots to lay....



Our ducks are growing like crazy! 2 and a half weeks now.
Skittles and Scrappy



What a cute portrait! Looks like it should be a framed 8x10 to hang on the wall!

 

[leslea]

we made multiple trips to get supplies yesterday for our run. But other than getting some of the supplies, not much got done.

I guess since I don't have my little peepers yet to spoil, I just want some wood to paint. LOL It would feel like progress!

Actually less irritated about it now that I've eaten half a pan of Rice Krispie Treats.

 

[leslea]

My mom finally reserved some chicks for me at akers hatchery. So excited! They say they will be able to have them ready by the beginning of April. I am getting 1 barred Plymouth rock, 1 frizzle buff orpington (if it turns out as a hen I want to breed it with my friend's bantam buff orpington rooster, If it turns out as rooster I can breed it with my buff orp hen), 1 lavender orpington, 1 welsummer, and 1 blue laced red Wyandotte. I am going to borrow a spare dog crate from my grandma. How do you guys with crates hang the light? Should I use pine shavings as the bedding?
My buff orpington who had not layed in a while finally laid a tiny egg yesterday will post picture sometime later.

Do they not sex their chicks?

 

[ChickCrazed]

Do they not sex their chicks?

When I asked them they said they can try to sex them and are around 75% accurate and that if you want a pullet and get a cockerel they will take them back. As far as I can tell, most small hatcheries don't sell sexed chicks so I was impressed with that policy.

 

[leslea]

When I asked them they said they can try to sex them and are around 75% accurate and that if you want a pullet and get a cockerel they will take them back. As far as I can tell, most small hatcheries don't sell sexed chicks so I was impressed with that policy.

Yes, that seems fair. Salem isn't that far from me. I'd like to get a frizzle Cochin hen at some point because they're so pretty, but if I had to get stuck with a roo...

Well, we'll see if I'm crazy enough to want one by then. Let me get through this first mini-flock, first.