INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[DarthLayer]

Thanks for the reply! I went to try this earlier and it led to... well, something of an adventure. Those of you grossed out by poop, stop reading now. (I know there are so many people like that on this thread. )

I had Wibbles out on some paper towels with her little dish to wash in, and she was flat out not interested. I splashed the water, I dropped it on her beak, I even tried to dunk her beak in it. Nothing. So we were going on with this struggle when I saw her do the poop motion, wings in the air and everything, but nothing came out. Uh-oh! I checked her out and she had a poopy butt, so instead of having her play in the water, I ended up using it to clean her butt off. After struggling with it for a while (is duck poop waterproof or something?!), to Wibbles' loud protest I might add, I decided I had to take drastic measures and clipped her rear clean. And then she let loose.

Right. On. My. Hand.

The good news is, she's all clear now and pooping everywhere (she was before, no worries there--she just was blocked for a few hours as far as I know!). The bad news is, she never got to try washing her head in the water. Oh well, we'll try again tomorrow.

I'm glad you caught the poop blocking her vent in time, but about your hand... . Hmm... strange she didn't take right to the water. I wonder if it's because she just a few days old is the reason why she isn't too interested in it. Anyways, I wish you good luck with your little duckling

 

[SallyinIndiana]

@bradselig thanks for the link to the sign. It might be a bit extreme but I'm going to look into it. Same for the no trespassing signs, they seem mean at first but really the more I think about it, the more I like them.

As for the meyer hatchery vitamin mix, yes it is a lot and a small amount. we have enough birds that I would make 4 gallons up in a 5 gallon bucket and let it sit for about 2-3 hours to fully dissolve. The water gets a yellow tint. Then I filled milk jugs with the mix and distributed to the various waterers. I had enough that the adults would get it too since it would only stay good for 1 or 2 days. I used a formula can that was mailed to me as a tester to store the powder in. That was a bad move as those cans are not air tight. the powder got clumpy after a while. a better option would have been 5 tiny tupperware containers with the powder in a ziplock bag in the container. The multiple containers allows 4 containers to stay unopened while you work with the first container that will last you for almost 50 -70 gallons.

 

[EurekaChic]

On the particle sizes...this is interesting...seems that having larger particles works better.  Check this out...


 
Edited:  The servers were down on the studies and now they are available from the footnotes on this article.  I haven't read them all yet.  Wish she referenced her statements to the articles in which they were found to make it a bit quicker.

[COLOR=006400] ok, I took advantage of my university affiliation and just looked at about 12 recent journal articles describing research on the effects of the source and size of calcium supplements on egg laying rate, eggshell thickness, force needed for shell breakage, feeding efficiency, various measures of bone health, yolk size, etc. These studies were conducted mostly on ISA Brown chickens and used limestone, oystershell, and a few other sources of calcium, and various mixes of fine vs. large grit for the calcium sources. And this research suggests:

1) having some large grit improves shell quality, but has little other effect (at least, that was found consistently across studies- a few studies suggested that those eating more small particle sources might have lower feeding efficiency, I.e., eat more per egg weight layed). The proportion of large grit to fine grit doesn't seem to matter much as long as you have at least 25% larger grit.

2) calcium from oyster shell is absorbed better than calcium from limestone, but not by a huge amount.

3) feeding more/extra/different sources of calcium late in the day showed improved shell quality under some conditions (mostly in older birds) in one study, and showed no effect in another study. The other studies I looked at didn't examine timing of feeding.

4) there are LOTS of studies on the feeding of poultry. Someday when I have more time (and my glasses aren't broken), I'll look at them more seriously.[/COLOR]

 

[Leahs Mom]

@bradselig thanks for the link to the sign. It might be a bit extreme but I'm going to look into it. Same for the no trespassing signs, they seem mean at first but really the more I think about it, the more I like them.

As for the meyer hatchery vitamin mix, yes it is a lot and a small amount. we have enough birds that I would make 4 gallons up in a 5 gallon bucket and let it sit for about 2-3 hours to fully dissolve. The water gets a yellow tint. Then I filled milk jugs with the mix and distributed to the various waterers. I had enough that the adults would get it too since it would only stay good for 1 or 2 days. I used a formula can that was mailed to me as a tester to store the powder in. That was a bad move as those cans are not air tight. the powder got clumpy after a while. a better option would have been 5 tiny tupperware containers with the powder in a ziplock bag in the container. The multiple containers allows 4 containers to stay unopened while you work with the first container that will last you for almost 50 -70 gallons.

@SallyinIndiana
Here is an idea...it will cost a little initially, but I LOVE this thing and actually use it every day for sealing items that need to stay air-tight.

The food savers (vacuum sealers) have attachments that will vacuum seal canning jars - one for each size whether regular or wide mouth. I purchased one of them just to use those sealers. I put everything you can think of in those jars and it prolongs shelf life. Dried beans, chocolate chips, spices/herbs, graham cracker crumbs, dehydrated fruits and veggies, nuts, any kind of dry good that you want to keep fresh (marshmallows??)

It has been very well worth the investment in the machine and if I want to vac seal something I can use it for that too. Sometimes you can get the units at resale shops and just purchase the accessory hose and jar sealers separately. It makes your canning lid flat seals reusable. You open it, take out what you want, and reseal.

LOVE LOVE LOVE that thing.

http://www.foodsaver.com/accessories/T03-0023-01P.html
http://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-T03-0006-02P-Regular-Mouth-Jar-Sealer/dp/B0000CFFS6

 

[PeacefulWalls]

Thanks for the rabbit info! We went to the state fair again this past Friday, got to see most of the rabbits this time. They were still moving them into cages but most were filled up. There were even a couple holland lops for sale, just not quite the color I'd like but I did get the phone number to call the person.

Can anyone with rabbit experience tell me, do rabbits need to have a "buddy" or are they good by themselves? Trying to decide if we should start with one and see how it goes or start with two so they would have a companion.

I've also read that bucks are generally more calm and easygoing. Is there any truth to that? I'm sure that like with any animals the more they're socalized at a young age with humans the better off they'll be.

Which brings me to my next question, what's the youngest age it's "normal" for them to be weaned and sold? It seems like there is a few differences in opinions online about when they should be sold.

Rabbits usually are weaned around 6 weeks old, although we often leave them in with their moms longer than that. They are not supposed to be sold until they are 8 weeks old (that's the general rule in the rabbit world). Personally, if someone was trying to sell me a rabbit younger than that I would not deal with that person as it would suggest that they do not have the husbandry knowledge for raising rabbits properly (backyard "rabbit mill" breeder trying to make extra cash??) I've seen craigslist ads with the strangest crossbreed rabbits being offered at too young of an age and having "lots more on the way". Rabbits do fine as a sole animal. If you do have more than one, they still need to be caged separately. Rabbit personalities can vary greatly within any given breed and among bucks/does. Over the years we've raised rabbits we've had a couple develop nasty personalities. When that happens they simply take a trip to freezer camp. The majority had been very nice. Some will be skittish, but still nice. Sometimes size of breed and body type make more of a difference how calm they are. The full arch breeds (ones that look like they're almost standing on their hind legs when posed -- think belgian hare if you're familiar with them) will be fairly active. On the judging table they are not posed up -- they run on the table for the judge to look at them. I don't remember if you're wanting a house rabbit, but I personally would stay away from these breeds unless you want them zipping around the house! We often suggest to our new rabbit 4-Hers to consider medium or larger breeds for their first rabbit, as they are actually a bit easier to hold onto and often are calmer (the holland lop would fit into this category). The smaller breeds can also be more active. We did start out with a small breed -- Polish -- and they are a very sweet rabbit (about 3.5 lbs senior weight). One of our first does is a very sweet girl. When I had more time to spend in the barn I would hold her a lot & she loved to lick my neck! She's 8 years old now and the only rabbit left from the rabbit trio we started raising rabbits with. We also raise Silver Fox, which are a larger breed (10 - 12 lb.) and have found them to be very friendly. We have had just a couple that ended up going to freezer camp. They are known as the "teddy bears" in the rabbit world. Good luck with your search -- hope you can find the color of rabbit you're looking for!

 

[kittydoc]

Regarding the calcium discussion, here's a good article written by a poultry veterinarian.

http://mikethechickenvet.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/bones-shells-and-hen-health/

 

[Mother2Hens]

Disclaimer: The following is in jest . . .
A Particle of Truth
@EurekaChic @kittydoc
Oh my goodness, the discourse on particles lead to my eyes glazing over as often happens when I read posts about chicken genetics (

pipd). You see, the left portion of my brain is missing, so I have difficulty processing (and I don't mean chickens). Luckily, pipd posted a compelling photo of her ducky, Wibbles, which was fortunately reposted intermittently to keep me going until the conclusion.

Peek-a-boo is more my speed!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Regarding the calcium discussion, here's a good article written by a poultry veterinarian.

http://mikethechickenvet.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/bones-shells-and-hen-health/

I have also read that!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Anyone else having ridiculous hawk visitations? Pretty soon I'm going to know the neighborhood hawks so well that they'll be coming up to eat out of my hand. At least one is already not afraid of my presence at all.

 

[chick rookie]

@pipdzipdnreadytogo can I play peek-a-boo with your ducky???
So cute!! glad you got hims little butt cleaned up and things are flowing again... lol


Had a very active weekend, DH said he was glad to go back to work... lol
I told him if I was going to keep the Bantams I wanted them closer to the house, So I could watch them even if I wasn't outside, and it is less likely a stray dog or predator would come this close to the house with 6 dogs in the yard and the strong HUMAN smell the back yard would have ( due the the Gazebo, grill, lawn furniture ect... ) and I wanted a big enough area for each of them that even without free ranging they could still hunt for bugs and such. And I wanted the birds kept out!! ie.. wild birds.
This is what we came up with for the MF pair ( known as Mom and Dad )

keep in mind I am going to exspan the "patio" area for shade and to get in out of bad weather without having to go in the house.

we covered the pen, top, sides and back with bird netting, will do the front as well. We are going to replace my red-neck gate with an actual chain link gate and cover it with hardware cloth to help keep things out and babies ( next years ) in.
Anything you see I may have missed please shout it out tried of losing my littles. This pen will house 2 more hens when they get ols enough to be with the rooster.

We are going to do the same type of thing for my Special needs pen too.
We also opened the Silkie to the back yard as it sits outside the yard but up against it. All I did was take a corner lose from a post and bent the fence up and then when I'm not going to be home to watch them I can bend it back down.

Am going to cover the Silkie pen ( this one ) with deer netting also to keep the wild birds out. do you think that is enough ground to keep 4 birds happy and not kill the ground? 19' x 25'.

This is the Special Needs Pen, planes for this is: DH is going to build a mini barn coop ( like RK sells ) and attach it too the pen. it is already covered with deer netting and is 3'w x 5'L and will house 3 if Honey makes it, 2 if she don't. (1 LF Lt. Brahma, 1 MF, and Honey?? ) I'm thinking this is not enough room and still keep the grass growing. What do you think???

Its the pen on the right.


Like I said ... if anyone sees anything I could improve or that I just totally missed please speck up. Thanks for looking.
And remember I used all recycled stuff here.