INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Minminme]

Hot showers with dish soap put directly on the itchy areas to break down any residual oils.  This did cause some spreading but it decreased the intensity of the irritation in the original location.  Changed clothes / outfits 4 times a day so that any oils that had gotten on the material could not spread back to other areas.  Spread lanolin all over the rash.  If I could get away to a place I did not need to have clothes on until the next shower I would coat the rash in borage oil.  For the children they got coated in the borage oil and dressed in shorts with a tank top or no top for a bit.  Both the lanolin and the borage oil did not stain clothes but they would leave a greasy oil spot on any clothes they touched.  The borage oil really made a big difference.  The hot showers made a difference.  The lanolin became a somewhat sticky reminder not to scratch.

And of course the bed sheets and towels all got washed multiple times too.  Lots of laundry to help me think all of the oil was gone. 

in the end it was 10 days before the itch was completely gone and 14 days for the majority of the rash to clear up.


I still have not found the ivy plants on our property but my youngest seems to have gotten it again.  Of course all of my children were rolling around in the dirt and weeds last weekend.  And my youngest found our neighbors weed covered dirt mound made from 3 dumpster truck loads of dirt.  It is a wonder he is not covered head to toe.  Still he has so much fun playing, he could care less. 


 

Just FYI Chickee has poison Ivy on her belly and I'm thinking it was growing at th base of that tree she was tethered to all day.

 

[bradselig]

Our goats are currently named Noni and Eve.  Noni is black with white ears.  Eve is brown with a bit of white on her nose.   [/B]

 

That post is worthless without pictures!

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote:
we were so busy trying to get the goats in their not done yet shed and lock them in there, we lost light before we got pictures. I'll try to get some tomorrow.

I now really really understand the people who order chicks and wait to start their coops.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: Thanks, camping last weekend felt pretty good! But I was worrying over them too much. Guess its just part of it.

 

[BryLT3]

I've been asked for them, so here you guys go. These are some of my non-chicken pets:

Lilly. She's a red kangaroo that's coming up on 2 years old.

Oliver the kinkajou.

Jack and Jill. They're zedonks (zonkeys, zedonkeys, etc)

Zeus and Zoey. They're patagonian cavies aka patagonian maras.

I also have camels, micro pigs, horses, llamas, and some other things, but I don't want to take up too much space, lol.

If anybody is ever in my area and you'd like to stop by for a meet and greet just let me know. All the animals LOVE visitors. Kids like to pet and feed them all.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Evening, y'all! I spent most of the day out celebrating my birthday, but I saw a few things I wanted to reply to before heading to bed.

One more thing I wanted to add...

If you have an enclosed run, it is really helpful for the health of the birds, health of the ground, and also fly reduction if you make a deep litter in there. It keeps the ground alive and they can still dig through it for bugs, worms, etc.

I've mentioned this before but wanted to say again that many tree services will bring wood chips (mulch) for free if they are working in your area. I have wood chips waiting in piles to "cure" a bit before I put them in the run. They will get full of worms within about a 6 mo period of time.

Anyhow, use the wood chips if you can get them along with the litter (with wood shavings) that you clean out of the chicken house. Cover the whole run with it and continue to build it up every time you clean out the house. (Just dump it in a big pile...the birds will cover the whole run with it and it gives them something to do!)

This is one of the best things I've done for our housing situation. [COLOR=008000]No sickly, impacted, slimy, disgusting, dying runs. No smell. Very low to no fly congregation. Healthy ground for the birds to dig through.[/COLOR] And when spring comes around you can dig some out for the garden. What's underneith will be a wonderfully finished compost. (Then keep on building with more litter.)

My daughter dug some out for her garden this year and made an "above ground" garden using only the soil that came from the chicken run. She's never had such great growth in her gardens before.

Just to add to this, if you have a particularly wet chicken yard, don't use straw for this. I tried to fix a muddy pen with straw and it turned into this nasty, spongy, sour-smelling mat that felt like you were walking over a wet mattress and oozed muddy water when it was particularly wet out. It was gross.

I had a compost pile at the back of the chicken yard that turned into a swamp after all that rain earlier this year, but has cleaned up nicely since I started dumping soiled shavings on that pile. I've not used wood chips, but shavings seem to work quite well at helping muddy spots. At least in my limited experience.

I haven't had any luck freezing eggs.  I tried the ice cube tray method, and when I thawed the eggs, the texture was ruined.  I attempted to use some for baking and scrambled eggs, but they refused to blend with anything, and were very grainy and pretty much horrible.
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Any suggestions for how one could preserve eggs for the winter slow down? My girls always slow down around holidays in which a lot of cooking goes on, and I'd like to avoid having to buy eggs again this year. :/

You "guys" are more brave than I am going to the swap meets!  (Not real excited about the possibility of bringing home diseases...)

My dad's doctor was talking to me this week about the meet.  Told me he got some there but he was never going to do it again. 

Yeah, I'm sure as heck not going to any more swaps, that one included. I've only ever been to the Wolf Lake swap meet, but I saw an awful lot of diseased birds, mislabeled breeds, and people trying to sell off cockerels as pullets the few times I've been. :/ That's also where my little silver Sebrights came from, the ones whose previous owner mutilated their beaks and left them terrified of human contact. Just be careful and look closely at every bird before buying, y'all, and remember basic biosecurity--change out of your clothes and shoes and wash up before contacting your flock after you've been to anywhere with live poultry! And QUARANTINE any birds you bring home!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Morning peeps! I was only 2 pages behind this morning. Yay me! So what is on everyone's agenda today? Mine is finish vacuuming, do dishes, feed animals, mop, clean pond and coops.

I was over 5 pages behind again tonight

Thats ok tho, lot of good posts!! Today was pretty quiet and took mom to see dad, and gave them time alone for their anniversary. Bought Dad some new shirts since he is so dang skinny now

and got Mom the house slippers she liked so well, and took her out to Penn station for lunch!

Quote: I raised two BBB turkeys this year just to see what they were like. They were just as personable as my heritage birds, but after 5 months, the male could barely walk, and the female was on her way there so I processed them. My heritage turkeys take longer (8-9 mths), but don't have the health issues. Not sure where you are located, but if you are anywhere close to Indy, I do have some poults for sale. They probably won't be ready for Thanksgiving though. The place I ordered them from was delayed badly by the cold spring.
I still have that BBW hen (Puppy, she follows you everywhere) from a year ago march. She is a bit bow legged, but actually went broody on me! She has given me some fat lil poults already, fathered by my younger BR tom snoodles. Those poults are all being reserved as food birds only. they look identical to a regular BR poult but FAT and darker than my BRs. She may be all of 15 pounds now, but still very small. I really wonder if she wasn't a midget white, if it wasn't for her height. She is as tall as my year old tom.

@bradselig sorry for the loss of your Cochin. I'd offer to let you have the one I get from you back, but she's pretty much my favorite hen now! I can't believe I waited so long for a Cochin.

@jchny2000 So sorry about your keets and like someone already said, make sure you are taking care of yourself as well!!! How is the little monster that you took in for me doing? My Light Brahma that he always hung out with seems a bit sad, but overall the chickens all seem a lot happier with him gone. I'll feel better when Gray is old enough to start watching out for the ladies. Without the Guinea I don't really have a flock watchdog right now.

Morning all! Today's schedule.... work, work, feed baby, work, work, train new house sitter, work, feed baby, work, work, feed baby, work, work, work, pack for peaceful weekend at in-laws where I get to sleep in because grandma and grandpa get up with baby in the morning!!!! Is it sad that I am that excited about it?

And... on the note of pest control... http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/04/herbal-pest-contol-spruce-coop-herbal.html. I don't know if anyone follows the Chicken Chick on FB, but she's pretty great!

Good deal on visiting grandparents! Thank you. And, the guinea is doing great! He is not in with the flock yet, but caged in their coop. Did you name him? I have to tell you, this is the calmest, quietest quinea I have ever seen. He is also a bit larger than my yearling boys. Oh I do follow chicken chick too!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

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Quote: YIKES!

Thought everyone would appreciate this: My husband just announced that he wanted to go feed the chickens some chicken crack. That is what he has started calling BOSS since they go bonkers for it.

LOL chicken crack! Thats what fermented corn is here. I may try BOSS fermented, but the hulls may be a problem.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

so I'm wondering about freezing eggs. Is it like freezing milk, Where sure it can be done and the milk is fine for cooking but the taste and texture are drastically different. I have heard you can't thaw an egg to fry it but it is fine for making cookies. What about other things, Mayo, bread, pancakes, eggnog, scrambled eggs, ...

It does change them some. I poke the yolks with a fork, and freeze them in ice cube trays. Transfer them to an airtight container. Duck and goose eggs especially. I have fried them but keep temp low and easy over.

Quote: I used my piglets to rototill the chicken run a few times

Not intentionally, but its where they went til the hog pen was secured for lil pigs.
I usually have EE eggs, we are not hatching anything now but guinea and turkey. These are 2nd & 3rd generation EEs tho, so are truly a mutt.

Quote: Goodness, hope it wasn't from chickenfest! Dave keeps things well controlled, but the woods are real close to the barn.

 

[chick rookie]

I got my first and second batch of silkies from Dinkys. Try to get down there every couple months or so. Just love walking around seeing all the cool stuff for auction. Also addicted to the Amish cheeses and donuts.

Also forgot to mention we've been to the Tri-K Pigeon & Bantam Club in Kankakee County Illinois. Was a really short trip for us in NW Indiana. Lot of variety, even got a half bushel of apples of all things. But the silkies I saw weren't the best taken care of, they had scaly leg mites. Other birds did look well taken care of though.

I didn't know Dinky's had chickens? What day is chicken day? I have only been 2x but didn't see chickens either time.



Got a question??? I have tried to research it and cant find any mention of it at all... I have 2 new eggs tonight.. PINK!! not pink tint!! I mean Pink... they are very sm and really pretty. I know BR's can lay a pink tinted egg, but they are accounted for, these are new and PINK ( not hot pink ) I tried to get pic's but the flash was too bright and I don't know how to turn it off. I have EE's that are not laying yet, could they be the pink layers?? Sure wish I could show ya'll they are pretty.