INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[SallyinIndiana]

I spent some more time out enjoying the different flocks I have. I noticed I have too many roosters.

I now have 5 roosters that are on the processing list. It was 7 but I rehomed one and the other died of heart failure. If anyone is interested in a rooster listed below, please message me. I know my Dh prefers to rehome instead of processing.
2 roosters each half Barred Rock half Legbar
2 buff brahma
1 rooster that is half production red and half heritage rir.

I also have a few younger roosters if anyone is looking for a pet or a started chicken dinner.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

there are 2 basic kinds of chick starter ~ with medicine and without medicine.  I like the with medicine but I give my chicks vitamins in their water and have not had issues.  Some on here have had week chicks have trouble with the meds depleting or blocking vitamins.

The vitamins are called save a chick or some thing similar in many of the feed stores.  I would have them on hand.  Also a bit of sugar in the water really helps rehydrate the little critters.

Wouldn't giving the vitamins that the medicated feed is blocking be a bit... pointless? I mean, to me it would seem like that would either cancel out the medicated part of the medicated feed, or the extra vitamins would be blocked as well by the medicated feed and the vitamin supplement would be rendered useless. No offense meant, of course, just wondering what your reasoning is here?

 

[MnMPoultry]

Greetings again, Hoosiers!

Just taking some time here to stop in and catch up on the thread, there's a lot here since the last time I checked in.

Currently, here in Paragon, er're raising the following poultry:

Buckeyes
Black Australorps
Self-Blue Orpingtons
BBS LF Cochins
Gold Laced/Silver Laced/Buff Laced LF Polish
Millie Fleur and Porcelain d'Uccles
Black Silkies
Black/Slate/SB Turkeys

As always, looking for local sources of chicks/started/adult birds of the following:
BBS Orpingtons
Chocolate Orpingtons
BBS Australorps
BBS Jersey GIants
Tolbunt Polish
White Crested BBS LF Polish
Lavendar LF Cochins
SC or RC RIR (True)
Barred Rock (Prefereably Good Sheppard)
All Varieties Wyandottes
Crested Cream Legbars
BBS, Buff, Self-Blue Silkies

Geeze, one would think I was starting and running a hatchery, but I just really enjoy my birds. It's some the girlfriend and I enjoy together, so we're going big.

I'm in the process here of building 11 breeding pens separate of the main coop. Previously we had two smaller breeding pens to use at a time, but they've been overtaken by little ones and converted to grow out pens. The pens are being built with raised coops made from disassembled pallets. I think the measurements on the pens are 17x77 overall, divided into 17x7 pens by use of easily removable dividers. Plans are to be able to expand individual pens depending on how many birds I want breeding in the pen at the time.

Don't worry, I'm taking plenty of pictures as I go!

On top of all that, working 6 days a week, and remodeling the house... I need more hours per day!!!

Hope you all are taking care and enjoying life.

Matthew

P.S. I'm looking for a local NPIP tester!!!

 

[EurekaChic]

And I was under the impression that hot fudge sundaes were the breakfast of champions.

[COLOR=006400] Huh. I thought it was chocolate cake. [/COLOR]

I don't know if you'd consider it similar, but I do have a baby monitor in the coop so that I hear what's going on out there in the night, and whenever I'm brooding chicks they also get the sounds of the coop. I think it may be one of the reasons my little duckling hasn't protested to being on her own (yet), because it sounds like there are other birds around. I also use it for quarantine if I can, so new birds get used to the noises that my girls make. They're awfully dramatic sometimes.

[COLOR=006400] That's a really great idea. I knew some people put video cameras in their coops to monitor them, but I hadn't thought about the baby monitor options. Thanks! [/COLOR]

 

[EurekaChic]

[COLOR=8B4513]Night Visitor[/COLOR]
[COLOR=8B4513]Last night, I walked out onto our deck around 1:30am to put a fresh bowl of water out for our cats that had just gone outside. I glanced over approx. 8' away and saw a teenager-sized raccoon looking into the big coop! I saw another pair of glowing eyes behind it, and wondered if it was another one, or my precious cat, Lionel. I started screaming, "Go Away!" and grabbed the garden hose that was hanging next to me. I sprayed it like it was an AK-47![/COLOR]  [COLOR=8B4513]The raccoon(s) probably enjoyed it. [/COLOR]:/

[COLOR=8B4513]All three coops are secure-- the big one, the bantam one, and Bonbon's brooder one that we just put on the deck next to the sliding glass doors. We've had the deck spotlights on every night since May when Bonbon hatched her first eggs, so I guess the spotlights aren't an effective deterrent. I turned on a radio in the garage last night before I went to bed, hoping that would help. Although raccoons might visit more often than I know, I did realize that I forgot to hose down the deck, patio, and steps last night. After the chickens go to bed, I always hose away poop, and any stray food pellets. [/COLOR]

[COLOR=8B4513]Almost exactly the same thing happened last March, only it was just like that eyeglass commercial-- I thought the teenaged raccoon was my cat! I even said, "Here Kitty, Kitty." [/COLOR]:roll

[COLOR=006400] How scary! We used to have problems with raccoons coming on to our porch, but now that we have dogs we haven't seen them any more. That doesn't mean I won't worry about it though! I'm blind as a bat without my glasses, so I'm always mistaking one animal for another. Haven't invited a wild animal into the house yet though! [/COLOR]

 

[EurekaChic]

All seven of our black/lavender split English Orpingtons hatched yesterday, even the one I dropped and cracked on Day 18!  Its internal membranes were intact, so I used a little melted food-grade paraffin applied with an artist's paintbrush to cover the cracks.  I was told it was probably not necessary that late in the incubation after I did it, but when that chick started to pip very close to the waxed area, I scraped off some of the softened wax with my thumbnail.  That little sucker zipped in a flash (at lest there was SOME benefit to me dropping it on the table!).  If I knew which one it was, I'd name it Humpty Dumpty, even though my story had a better outcome.

[COLOR=006400] Congratulations! Especially for the survival of Humpty Dumpty! We need pics asap! [/COLOR]

 

[EurekaChic]

Here is our newest addition to the farm.

His name is Bugsy's But I call him,
Sir lointipfiletmignonporterhousenewyorkstripbrisketburger!

[COLOR=006400] Adorable! Not sure I could eat him, even with that name. But since I'm not a vegetarian I guess that makes me a hypocrite. Certainly he will be better treated by your family than he would be as production beef. Good for you![/COLOR]

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote: So scientific reason. Here is my thinking.
I'm thinking the meds don't completely block vitamins or completely deplete them. I was thinking more along the lines of how calcium and iron work when taken at the same time. From my talks with the pharmacy for people of course, I have found out that prenatals are high in iron but only a fraction of that iron gets absorbed if the pill is taken with milk. The calcium blocks the iron absorption. So along those lines I was kind of hoping that if the vitamins and minerals are consumed with the water when food is not eaten at the same time some of the vitamins would get absorbed. Of course one can't reason with a chick and tell it when to eat and when to drink. But I do let the food run out before giving new food. And there are times the feeders sit empty for an hour or two, not every day but some days.
It might be a waste but the vitamins were so cheap from meyer and from rural king that I decided to use them. I like the medicated feed but others do not. the chicks that the broody hens have raised this year for me got all flock with no meds and not crumbles either. They were fine but the hen broke up the food for them and showed them how to eat dirt and bugs too.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I need some help coming up with a good friendly way of telling people my property is not for touring like a zoo. We have had 3 different people stop by and ask to see the chickens in the past 10 days. They say well we drive by all the time and just thought we stop in and see if you would show up your chickens.

Currently I try to go into a detail explaination of bio security but they kind of roll their eyes and give me a look of disbelief. Our coops can be seen from the road. I have thought of making a sign but I'm not sure if that would make the problem worse. We live on a busy road but in a country setting.

 

[EurekaChic]

@EurekaChic
 I purchased a bag of almost pure CaCO3 (greater than 99%) sold as fertilizer at Home Depot.  Haven't opened it yet, but I believe it if fairly fine and could be mixed with my regular layer feed.  The elemental calcium was 31% and <1% magnesium.  Since this is the same as what is in most human calcium supplements, is it safe for me to use it mixed directly into my feed?  We've had some shell thinning lately, and our girls always have had oyster shell calcium available.  Apparently, not all of them are going for it.  We have pullets and hens ranging in age from 9 months to over 3 years.

Thanks in advance for any advice.  Of all the lime products that people have talked about, I have never seen one this "pure" mentioned before.

[COLOR=006400] well, I know more about human biology than bird biology, so I'm reluctant to give you a definite yes or no. The two things I would worry about are:

1) it doesn't sound like it is food-grade calcium carbonate. So I would worry about small impurities/contamination with other compounds that might be bad for the birds. 99% pure sounds really pure, until you start thinking about that other 1% being something like lead. Most calcium carbonate is derived from limestone, which comes in a variety of forms (e.g., marble is metamorphosized limestone, and is one of the purest sources so it is often used as a dietary/medicinal calcium source. Wow, that freshman geology class finally paid off...). Limestone is formed in wet settings as the skeletal elements of marine life like corral settle to the bottom. Impurities like clay, silica, iron, lead, zinc, manganese, cobalt, magnesium and other stuff washed into the water creates the different colors and patterns of the stone. And after limestone forms, it is often affected by ground water flowing through it, dissolving it and redepositing it (e.g. as stalactites). This ground water can also deposit additional impurities. Anyway, that's the long way of saying I might worry about impurities if it is not food grade.

2) you need to be careful about not over-feeding the calcium. Too much calcium can damage kidneys (in humans, causes kidney stones; not sure in chickens). So the nice thing about leaving the calcium source out seperately for the chickens, rather than mixed in with their feed, is they can self-regulate the amount they ingest. Sounds like they are not doing this properly with the oyster shell, but you might try putting the calcium carbonate out separately first (like you do with the oyster shell) and see if they like it better. People who over-indulge in calcium-rich foods (and Tums antacids) can get pretty sick.

Finally, there are some green veggies that are high in calcium (e.g., broccoli and kale), so you might try adding this to the chickens' diet and see if that helps.

Whoa, that was probably way more than you wanted to know. It's the professor in me. [/COLOR]