INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

[COLOR=4B0082]mlongworth ~[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]More pics please! A blue barred plymouth rock sounds beautiful.[/COLOR]
[rule][COLOR=008000]CCCHICKENS~[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]I'd like to see a pic of your bantam blue Ameraucana hen when you get a chance please.[/COLOR]

Ok, I will get a pic up sometime throughout the week

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Oh my, I feel for you. My oldest DD was almost 3 months of all day morning sickness..yuk! Then she came 6 weeks early. She was 4 lb11 oz..and wore doll clothes a few weeks. Seeing that precious lil life the first time makes every second worth it all.

Excited for you and hope its a great hatch! Where were the dixies from? I haven't started CX this year, dread the mess and odor. This last group were fantastic using fermented feed, cut the smell a lot, and they were much healthier.

CONGRATS TO YOU!!!!! Now I know who to call, LOL! Ran out of ovations ugh! I am planning ahead now to do it next year.

Its not simple for sure! Love your colors the red barn look is always my favorite, and the quilt idea is fantastic!
Tell your DH he is doing an excellent job for sure.

Thanks

 

[PeacefulWalls]

Just saw this posted this morning on the WNDU TV station online. Not the greatest way to start with the limited permits & having to pay for a permit, along with the written consents (why don't they do that for people wanting to get noisy dogs??). And I guess some people don't realize that fox & coyotes won't be the predators, but coons, possums & skunks that live in town! But at least it's a start.



GOSHEN It was a close vote, but chickens will be allowed in one more Michiana city on a trial basis.
There was a lot of debate at the Goshen City Council meeting Tuesday night. Advocates argued about the benefits of fresh eggs, while critics brought up fears about foxes and coyotes that might come into the city to prey on the chickens.
In the end, the council approved a two-year pilot program by a vote of 4-to-3. That's according to The Elkhart Truth.
The city will issue up to 50 permits for $25 dollars each. Applicants must present written consent from all adjacent property owners. Residents will be allowed to have six hens -- no roosters. They must be kept in an enclosed area.

 

[pginsber]

...And finally as my hens are most likely mareks carriers, should I even let her hatch? I'm keeping my current babies as carefully away from the others and being as vigilantbout my biosecurity as I can for at least the first 10-12 weeks as recommended by Purdue. These babies would be exposed immediately.

I don't even go to my friends houses that have chickens right now or wear any of my coop shoes to the tsc so that I don't inadvertently carry the virus there so this is a pickle.

We had 8 birds, 7 were vaccinated for Marek's, a packing peanut was not.
One of the vaccinated birds had Marek's-like symptoms at 6mos old. We did a blood test which came back positive for Marek's because DUH-she had been vaccinated for Marek's. (I wish the vet had kept me from wasting my money on THAT test...) We didn't necropsy her--our birds are pets, so she has a little grave in the shade garden.

At the same time, one of our other birds went broody. We put hatching eggs under her, and 20 days later, we had healthy chicks. We vaccinated all three chicks with the Marek's vaccine. All 3 are healthy, and the packing peanut still has no signs or symptoms of Marek's.

Like you, as a precaution, we always treat our flock (and TSC, RK, others' flocks, etc.) like they are Marek's carriers. That degree of biosecurity works well for us, and gives us peace of mind.

As I understand Marek's, the virus is shed from the birds into the environment and your coop and run 'have' it. Even wild birds can shed Marek's into outdoor runs. I'm not an expert, this information I type here is just what my own research revealed.

Unless you take the eggs out of the environment to hatch, exposure will happen. Would that exposure be a bad thing? I suppose it depends on what you're going to do with the chicks, right?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
Just want to mention that there are different kinds of fermentation (some produce alcohol, some product lactic acid...like your kraut/pickles/yogurt). There seems to be a lot of confusion and "blind leading the blind" on fermenting for chickens with people using yeasts (that produce alcohol) rather than LABs (Lactic Acid Bacteria).

So...Lacto-fermentation is what you want to use for fermenting chicken feed. This article will give you an overview and some of the research articles on lacto-fermented feed. Hope it's helpful!

 

[CRSelvey]

I have to respectfully disagree on the handling of roos. Handle them as much as possible. There are a lot of really good articles on here about it. Thats where we got started with how to handle our boys. Here is a good thread. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/390911/important-how-to-deal-with-an-aggressive-rooster

If you have mareks carriers, I wouldn't let them reproduce. Lf and bantams cross just fine. From what I understand.

Kab,

Its one of the things that I love about this site. Everyone seems to have a different way and politely sharing them can make us all a little (or in my case a lot) better. I'm assuming that no two chickens are exactly alike and I don't treat my kids exactly the same either. There is so much to learn and share now that many have lost these skills from generations of grocery store shopping instead of growing food at home. I like your theories too, but that sounds like a lot of work making sure your roos aren't mounting the hens in front of you! You must be busy all day removing roos when they first start

. I would so love to see your set up in action. So anyway, thanks!

About being Marek's carriers, can you please share the reason? Is it specifically because of the exposure after birth? From all of my reading, the virus does not pass through to the eggs and I have been hoping (maybe its misguided) that the remaining chickens I have are more tolerant as they have survived their first year well and appear to be quite healthy. I'm always interested in ideas or theories I may have missed. Breeding the bantams to LF just makes me a little nervous. It sounds like breeding my Bullmastiff to a Pomeranian.

I would be worried about structural issues.

I'll stay with Meredith that night and have lunch with a friend the next day, and then may stop in the Greencastle area on my way home to have Coffee & Chicken Talk

with CRSelvey. So if anyone needs poultry transported along that route and timeline, just let me know

I am completely available on Thursday in the morning from 8:30-11 (with no children), then again from 11:40-2:40 (with Savannah), then again after 3:45 (with Savannah and Beckett). I hope we get to see you and you should really consider getting a bantam Ameraucana from LAM

while you are here. You can see the smallest eggs here came from Bella. They look green next to the brown ones, but the EE egg in the bottom is actually Green. The others are Cochin, Wyandotte, Spitzhauben.

I meant that I'm the DH literally, sorry for any confusion. I'm Aaron, my wife is Beth. I'm both the chicken enthusiast and the nail-pounding male person around my place. My DW only tolerates the construction and my going on and on about chickens because she's looking forward to quality eggs for less than 7 bucks a dozen.

At least I think they will be less... I'm actually looking forward to the accounting. I think it will be fun to balance expenses against egg production. Bookkeeping is joyfull!

Also jchny, I'm very curious about your experience with fermented feed. I've only read one article about it, but I'm way into fermentation - I make my own kraut and such. I'm going to do plenty of my own reading on this, of course, but I'd love to know how you go about it on a day-to-day basis.

Aaron, if you search this thread on fermenting feed, Janet and others have posted extensive details on their fermenting. I'm hoping to try it myself this year, but I'm a little afraid of poisoning my chickens

. You can get 5 gallon buckets from the bakery section of most grocery stores for free.

We had 8 birds, 7 were vaccinated for Marek's, a packing peanut was not.
One of the vaccinated birds had Marek's-like symptoms at 6mos old. We did a blood test which came back positive for Marek's because DUH-she had been vaccinated for Marek's. (I wish the vet had kept me from wasting my money on THAT test...) We didn't necropsy her--our birds are pets, so she has a little grave in the shade garden.

Like you, as a precaution, we always treat our flock (and TSC, RK, others' flocks, etc.) like they are Marek's carriers. That degree of biosecurity works well for us, and gives us peace of mind.

As I understand Marek's, the virus is shed from the birds into the environment and your coop and run 'have' it. Even wild birds can shed Marek's into outdoor runs. I'm not an expert, this information I type here is just what my own research revealed.

Unless you take the eggs out of the environment to hatch, exposure will happen. Would that exposure be a bad thing? I suppose it depends on what you're going to do with the chicks, right?

That's what I'm trying to figure out. I might get some lovely bantams out of the deal. Because the chickens can get it from all the wild birds around here, we decided not to go through the lengthy and costly experience of sanitizing our property. It sounded completely impossible to do a perfect job, so we are just moving on with better bio methods. I won't share/trade my birds with anyone and they are just for our pleasure. I do give the eggs away but its only to people who don't have their own chickens. We have a new homeless shelter in town, so I am really excited to start donating eggs to them in the future.

On another topic, I have had several friends offer to buy eggs, but I have just been giving them out when I have extra. If I did have more in the future, can anyone give me a fair price to charge for a dozen eggs? They are fed non-gmo organic food (not counting some of the food scraps we give them). I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

Thanks all!

 

[racinchickins]

Quote: The first egg costs several hundred dollars (or more), lol. They tend to get slightly cheaper after that.

 

[ellymayRans]

The first egg costs several hundred dollars (or more), lol.  They tend to get slightly cheaper after that.

Lol...loved your experienced take on the "accounting" aspects to chicken keeping! !!!!!

All joking aside. I had the same mindset when we started here having a family of six I thought for sure I'd save in the long run but my personal experience is...No Way! Haha.. I am to a point now though with selling eating eggs and hatching eggs that I am able to atleast pay their feed bill. The $ I've spent in vaccines, dewormers, feed in the harsh winter because ours do free range 100% of the time summers are a breeze on feed but not in the winter, coops, incubator...then again keeping in mind I started with 6 chicks and now have over 50 on most days. Sorry. ..I guess my point is I threw out the "ledger" long ago!! Ha!

Good luck...and I promise not being a Negative Nelly..just sharing how me and I'm sure many of us have had reality checks with chickens. Wouldn't change a thing in my own personal experiences though, I love them and it's been invaluable learning for my boys

 

[LonelyPageTurne]

Sigh. I got 6 silkies I was told were one color and they were white as well. So white cochins and white silkies. I don't want white chickens. I'm trying to see if Andrew will exchange or take them back and refund my money on the cochins. The silkies ...Bleh. so does anyone want 6 white silkies at 3 dollars each?

 

[racinchickins]

My first three Legbar pullets are at about 7 weeks now, and I have one that I will not be keeping.

She is showing gold in the hackles, while the other two are much lighter. This means that she is probably split for cream. This does not disqualify her from breeding, but having 2 cream genes instead of one is closer to the ideal. Both my current adult breeder hens are split for cream, while my rooster is homozygous for cream (2 genes). My plan is to replace them with any daughters that are closer to ideal.

She has a crest and will lay medium to large blue or blue/green eggs. (I don't have any birds from these parents laying yet, so I'm not sure what shade of blue I will see). I don't see anything yet on her that would disqualify her from breeding, I just have some better options to work with. I can get some pictures if anyone is interested.

I wanted to offer her to any IN BYCers on here before I listed her for sale anywhere else. I'm asking $25 for her.

PM me if you are interested.

Also, If anyone has Legbar roos, I am looking to acquire one that is unrelated to my birds. I want to have a second breeding pen next spring.