INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Thriftymom6]

Took some more pics of our new little ones over the weekend so I thought I would post a few of the ones that we hatched out.





They are all just mutts, but I think they are going to turn out to be some pretty cool chickens.

Then I have these two that I got from Brad, I have no idea what breed they are. Anybody have an idea what they might be. I know the pictures aren't the best, but they weren't cooperating at all.They missed the memo that said "Stand still and look Pretty for the Camera."

I think they are adorable, who cares if they are mutts! Can you eat the eggs? Then they have a purpose. I am supper excited about my mixed eggs in the incubator (first time ever). I might have a NHR or they may all be mixed. I don't care, because I love eggs

 

[Leahs Mom]

Update on Miss Gray...






To "recap" - she is the little skittish girl that I thought needed a "pet chicken" home. She's a "runner" and seems to run away even from the other chickens.

She was apparently hit by a hawk on May 6 and has done well in recovery. Continued to lay regularly with no break even through the trauma of the hawk attack an some pretty bad wounds.

She went to a new home on Sunday to one of our own young ladies on the Indiana thread. She can let you know who she is if she so chooses. She has a good plan with many back-ups if necessary. Met her and her mom on Sunday where they met "Miss Gray" (who will likely soon have a "real name") and took her to her new home for a period of quarantine before trying various options to integrate her into their possible housing situations.



It's really strange to just give away this chicken...even though I look at mine as farm animals (at least I try to really hard) the flock is so small that I know them all. And this girl in particular since she would come like a puppy and want to be protected from the other birds.

So...now she has a new home and I hope it will work well for her.

Just to clarify, I did not give her away because of the hawk attack. I felt that she was not fitting into the flock and housing options here in the present. I just don't have the facilities or the time (I work full time) to have an individual that isn't fitting into the flock.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

Elsa and Anna were definitely inspired by my 4 year old daughter (if you couldn't tell). I think the rest of my unnamed crew will end up going with the Tinkerbelle theme, but who knows. If you post pics of your EE, I am sure that people here can tell you what he/she is. I had one last year that was solid white and nobody was more surprised than me when she crowed. Muffin was a boy. I have learned a couple of things since then, but definitely not enough.


So funny!!

Ya, we almost had a Vidia, Fawn, and Silvermist, but I had to draw a line somewhere.

We're 95% sure Gray is a she at this point. She's lost an eye, so I'm going with a pirate name for her, I just haven't decided between
Anne Bonny - probably won't work because we already have Anna and Anne Boleyn, but I really like Bonnie Parker, or
Cheng I Sao, or
Mary (after the many Marys of piracy - Killigrew, Read, Harvey, and Crickett.)
I'm also a big fan of Sadie the Goat. I'm not sure it works for a chicken.

 

[LonelyPageTurne]

Oh I like her!

Ok so my list of chickens I'm not keeping

A barnyard mix lays very well, very large cream eggs. Looks like a bcm

A 4-5 week old ee Should lay blue

A 6 month old blrw cockerel has wonderful color and lacing and his type is coming along. But he's definitely on the small side.

And I'm going to put my birchen marans on here. She's 14 weeks old I believe. Very sweet and pretty. Just very timid.

Let me know if you're interested!

 

[animallover2202]

im back again lol so schools almost done will be done in 1 week and 6 days so excitedcant graduate but i am going to hopefully if dad says use go to the excel center and get my diploma .

so how is everyone? hope everyone is doing good. anything new that i missed since i was last on??

 

[hoosiercheetah]

anything new that i missed since i was last on??

There's a terrible new chicken disease that's running rampant all over the midwest. They're calling it Chicken Brain Cloud.
It causes large areas of the chicken's brain to stop functioning.
The up side is, in most chickens you can't tell the difference.

:-D

 

[BackyardBitten]

Well thanks to my sister, I got another incubator after the circuit board fried on my brand new little giant. This one is a farm innovators. So hopefully I will have chickens sometime Wednesday or Thursday. I did candle them a little later on Saturday and I was happy to see movement in the eggs. I was so frazzled after I found my incubator not working.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
Does it also make them excessively...well... "chicken"?

 

[leslea]

leslea ~ They are so sweet! That's sad that you've been dealing with such terrible allergies. Maybe part of the problem is the high tree and grass pollen counts we've had lately-- instead of the cause solely related to chickens. I've always been a huge cat lover (I'm trying to forgive hoosiercheetah for his recent post!

), and I used to get special cat allergy shots so I could keep my cats (not that I would've taken the allergist's advice to not have cats). So maybe there's a feather dander-related immunotherapy solution for you. Also keep in mind that even when your chickens are outside, there will still be issues to deal with-- see my message to you below.

CountryHen ~ What a bummer and a weird time of year for pneumonia! Hope you're feeling better soon . . .

CountryHen and leslea ~ I have a box of latex gloves and a box of dust masks in a handy place for doing the daily poop/loose feather removal routine in the coop. No matter what kind of litter you use (I have a combo of a dirt floor, mulch from a tree, shavings, and pea gravel), there will still be feathers, dander, dried poop particles, and dust in the air-- not to mention spores and other allergens. "IMO" ~ Always grab and mask and gloves. Showering/washing hair before bed prevents sleeping in allergens-- including good ol' pollen. If you hold your chickens without gloves, don't touch your face, mouth, or eyes before washing your hands.

Btw~ I need to get a washable dust particle mask instead of using short-term disposable ones. Does anyone know anything about them?

One reason I try to be vigilant about wearing one while cleaning the coop is because a woman I knew developed a lung disease and eventually died from it. She didn't even have birds, but loved rose gardening. The illness was similar to histoplasmosis, which we recently discussed on this thread. In general, there are several lung illnesses caused from breathing fungus spores found in dirt, especially from soil that contains wild bird/fowl/bat feces and/or feathers.

I'm not sounding an "alarm" -- as we discussed before, most people who've had a fungus-related respiratory illness haven't had severe symptoms and most never know the cause; they just attribute it to a generic virus going around. But especially for people who have allergies or asthma-- it just takes a second to slip on a mask and gloves.

Great suggestions!

I assumed it was pollen and mold for the first week. Then I assumed it was the pine shavings. I didn't want it to be the chicks, but it definitely is. After handling them for an hour taking those snap shots, I had a horrendous allergy attack. It's so bad I can't think or work. I'm on 3 diff kinds of meds now just to deal and last night I couldn't drive. Words fail to describe how disappointing and aggravating this is. It is also embarrassing bc everyone knows how much I wanted them & I'm afraid to admit how sick they are making me.

They are shut off in the mud room now and the window is open in there. I am wearing masks and washing with soap.

When they move out to the coop I will just have to ask for help from the kids & hubby more than I planned. And wear masks, etc.

 

[leslea]

I want photos

I don't think it is on this one. There is only one bird doing it and they all get raw meat in addition to ranging and eating lots of bugs at this point. I would think so if more were doing it. I have watched her on the roosts at night. I finally moved her so she isn't roosting with the others.


Be careful using the sand with the "littles". They don't understand what is food and what isn't and they will eat a good deal of it. Sand can cause gizzard damage as it can abrade the lining of the gizzard.

I have littles right now without a mamma. I just use paper towel ONLY for the first week or so, layering a new layer of paper towel over when they are soiled. That gives them a chance to learn what the food is without all those shavings in there.

At about 1 wk (actually a little sooner than a week) I brought in a hand-full of litter from the hen house (I use pine shavings and some peat moss was in there too) then a little clean pine shavings. Not much needed. The area I have the food and water I keep using the paper towel. It works very well and the brooder isn't overwhelmed with shavings in water and feed as much.

And...with the paper towel maybe no allergies?

Also brought in a plug of sod from the area the adult chickens range...and change it out after they use it up.

That way they get exposed to the environment to which they are going and can build immunities gradually before they go out...which will be soon.

That's what I used the first week. When it was plain that they knew where their food was, I switched to pine shavings. I only switched to sand when it seemed I was allergic to pine shavings. Now that I know it's definitely the birds I am back to pine shavings.

I have been digging up dandelions for them, as well.

They have nipple waterers and those don't get anything in them, thankfully. I did have another waterer in there because they seemed to prefer it, but now that they are 2 weeks old and thriving I don't need another reason to have my allergic face in there, so I removed it.