INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[leslea]

hi all so very far behind... I'm not in the house much when its warm out. finding it almost impossible to keep up with the thread. Just wanted to jump in and say that I hope all the moms here human and critter had a wonderful day yesterday, I got breakfast cooked for me, house plants and cards..... o and my seabright... well SHE is trying to crow... still have no clue as to what the other chick is and I think I got 2 more Silkie Roo's, this trying for pullets is a pain in my butt!!!
I found a secret nest of 18 EE eggs with my 3 year old white EE sitting on them yesterday, ( no adult Roo ) so I don't know what I will do about that ???
I have an ISA Brown that FLATT refuses to roost in the hen house, she prefers Goats to chickens..

Short funny story for ya all, while getting feed ready for everyone yesterday morn. DH YELLS at me to come quick, so I go running ( DH never YELLS ) to the chicken yard where he is at and he is all flustered about something being around Romeo's neck ( guess you need to know who Romeo is or you wont get the punch line )

Romeo

So I stand there looking Romeo all over and I'm dumb founded cause I see and feel NOTHING... DH says cant you see that BLUE thing on the side of his head??????

Guess DH never noticed Romeo's ears before now......

I want to offer congratulations to all the new chick mom's (saw allot of cute chick pic's) and to all the successful hatches.

Hope everyone is well and happy be back soon I hope

ha ha! That will be me.

 

[gunchief25]

Morning all Cockadoodledoooooooooo!!!

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

LOL I just about peed my pants over here. The thunder shook our whole house! Woke my husband up, I think he must have thought a bomb went off. 

It woke me up too. I thought th house might just fall apart lol! That is enough storms for the year!

 

[barb s]

Our first attempt at incubating seems to be going pretty good, but I have one chick that seems to be stuck. It started zipping yesterday sometime and is at about the same place today. I can see the chick moving so I know it is still alive. I do not plan on doing anything yet. If I do decide that the chick needs some help what do I do? Can I take the egg out of the incubator and try picking a little of the shell off?

 

[barb s]

One more question. I have one egg that has pipped but is pushed up against the side of the incubator, should I try to move it away from the side a little bit when/if I open the incubator to assist the other chick? Sorry about all the questions.

 

[FlockMaster-614]

LOL I just about peed my pants over here. The thunder shook our whole house! Woke my husband up, I think he must have thought a bomb went off. 

Is it bad that I just busted out laughing while reading this? Lol, you guys crack me up! We didn't get anything here! We got all the dark rain clouds and then they high tailed it out of our area and gave someone else a show! :/ We had a thunderstorm the other night and I woke up and was listening to this dripping sound and then I realized it was raining and that the landing widnows were open. Oops!

I went to the farmer's market in town and met a lady who raises chickens. Actually just down the road from myself. It was nice to talk to her and get to know the competition. Lol, her daughter shows their birds in 4H as well so I've probably seen them around.

Any who, WELCOME! to all the new peeps! Hoping and crossing fingers for those fighting chicken laws, good luck . {Maybe giving someone a sort of dozen egg bribe could help you out? }

 

[CRSelvey]

Hey fellow BYCers can u guys help me. Having a chick emergency and trying to figure out what's on. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/884833/new-chicks-starting-to-do-this


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hi irtehun! We haven't heard from you for a while, so we're glad you checked in with the Indiana Thread! Leah's Mom posted some great info for you. I personally wouldn't jump to conclusions that it's Marek's, but if it would turn out to be, you do not have to cull your whole flock. CRSelvey (Cheryl) on the Indiana Thread lost a pet hen from Marek's early this year, discussed situation with Purdue, and found out it's not necessary to cull your whole flock unless you breed or show, etc. Hers are pets. She followed procedures including sanitizing the area, and she now has new chicks along with her previous flock.

Anyway, it sounds like vitamin deficiencies are not uncommon, so hopefully you'll see improvement. Please give us an update and good luck!

Hi Irtehun,

I took a look at your pics and while they are displaying a symptom that my Marek's chicken had, it is only one symptom. I would definitely listen to everyone on this thread that is advising you to remain calm and try vitamins and liver, etc.. Many symptoms overlap. Please separate them from the rest of the group, if you can, just until they are better.

If your chickens do not recover, then you can have one tested to get an exact reason instead of guessing. All of the info is posted on our information page. The necropsy is so informative and has helped me to take even better care of my current chickens.

Good luck to your chicks!!

 

[ChickCrazed]

Man I sure got rocked by the storms!!! The storm seemed to come out of nowhere (did I miss the predictions or what?!?!?) and went from clear skies to black skies in period of about 10 minutes. It interrupted my deck lattice project with only 3 feet left to do! My type A personality was seriously puckered by that! I got 2.5" of rain last night and am fairly flooded this morning lol! We needed the rain for my poor pasture so I am not really complaining but moderation would be good!!!

I introduced some younger babies to my Isbar/Bielefelder coop on Saturday and last night my Isbar roo decided to forgo his usual spot on the roost with his peeps to sleep in the chick pile with the babies! How cute is that! What a cute boy he is!! It was definitely my least drama filled introduction ever, which was nice. They are such docile birds it is amazing and I am excited to have what appears to be a baby-nurturing rooster! My Bielefelders (which are probably pushing 8 lbs already at 12 weeks old) were afraid of the babies and giving them a wide berth. I went out last night to find that one of the new babies, a silkie, had managed to make it through the plastic over the pop door and was cruisen around the run with the Bielefelders! Such a cocky little thing!

Hi boys! They are starting to get a lot of bronze saddle and hackle feathers coming in! You can also see my "elegant" wild bird solution in the bottom, a thick plastic car mat from wal-mart (about $2 each) cut into strips and secured over the door. The chickens learn to push through it (that is a chore to teach them!) but the wild birds are too small to do so.


This boy will be going to live the life with jchny2000! He is probably the most mellow out of all of them!



My neighbor called me this morning and said he saw a baby mink near his barn. He raises tumbler pigeons and has had a whole pen of babies wiped out by the mink last Summer. We are trying to figure out how to handle the situation since they are so hard to catch. Bummer, I never did manage to catch the one in my barn but so far it hasn't been a problem with my chickens. I think he is going to adopt a barn cat or two and see if that will keep them away. That isn't really an option for me with the dogs and the road so close.

I am still tackling my many projects but my list is getting smaller which is nice. I am hoping after this next week I can slow down a bit and enjoy the nice weather! A couple more yards of mulch, a bee hive to build and one more run to build and I should be pretty set for a while! I have a few more crops to get in the ground, but a large majority of my planting is done. If only the dang rabbits would stop chewing the tops off my newly planted shrubs!!! I am going to be seriously peeved if they kill them all!! I am going to be trying to figure out how to create chicken wire cages tonight until they get big enough to withstand stupid animals.

 

[raisinemright]

Just got done checking the property for damage from the storm. Nothing but nice wet ground where it needs to be. The garden and newly seeded field looks great! Now wait to watch the alfalfa sprout. Checked the woods for shrooms and still nothing!!!!! I sure would like to find a mess of them. animals are all doing great this morning and for the first time I heard one of my cockerels crowing (weak) but he was giving it his all. Did not see which one it was but my guess is its one of the older SLW roos. If anyone is interested in one of them pm me, I think there is 4-5 SLW roos. hatched on 2/4/14. Its time to clean the rabbit pin today

I just keep telling myself with all this animal manure, I should have the best and biggest vegetable garden ever lol. After the rain lasnight it may be a great time to trim the goats hoofs. Lots to do on my day off. Hope everyone had a nice Mothers Day yesterday and everyone road the storm out safely.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

My neighbor called me this morning and said he saw a baby mink near his barn. He raises tumbler pigeons and has had a whole pen of babies wiped out by the mink last Summer. We are trying to figure out how to handle the situation since they are so hard to catch. Bummer, I never did manage to catch the one in my barn but so far it hasn't been a problem with my chickens. I think he is going to adopt a barn cat or two and see if that will keep them away. That isn't really an option for me with the dogs and the road so close.




I am still tackling my many projects but my list is getting smaller which is nice. I am hoping after this next week I can slow down a bit and enjoy the nice weather! A couple more yards of mulch, a bee hive to build and one more run to build and I should be pretty set for a while! I have a few more crops to get in the ground, but a large majority of my planting is done. If only the dang rabbits would stop chewing the tops off my newly planted shrubs!!! I am going to be seriously peeved if they kill them all!! I am going to be trying to figure out how to create chicken wire cages tonight until they get big enough to withstand stupid animals.

The DNR's nuisance animal guide:



http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/WildlifeHabitat/documents/nuswlguide.pdf



It lists a few protected species; mink is not protected. From the guide:



"Landowners/occupants are not required to have a hunting or trapping license to
shoot or trap these species, year-round, on their own property if these species are
causing damage or nuisance. Agents of the land owner or occupant is required to
have a valid hunting and/or trapping license when removing these animals."



The season for mink is 15 Nov to 31 Jan.



To summarize, if you trap the mink on your property, which you occupy, and you can reasonably argue that it's a nuisance (you can) then you can do what you want with it, year round, no tags. Same goes for rabbit.



I too have rabbit issues. Squirrels are easy; I killed 5 of them this weekend. Rabbits are nocturnal and I don't have all night to sit in the yard. I'm going to pick up a trap or two at TSC next time I'm there for feed. I'm told to bait for rabbit with apple. For mink, I'm guessing you could bait a trap with a little fresh raw meat, or a snared mouse if you have the fortitude for such things. Also, it sounds like for mink you need to de-scent the trap and laying some brush over it to make it look like a den will help.



http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/3369.htm


ETA: I put in two oak sproutlings last year, and to keep the critters off I used tomatoe cages, and wrapped hardware cloth around the tomatoe cage, zip-tied on. So far so good!