INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[hoosiercheetah]

Wild chickens sleep in trees. The coop is already gravy. No need to heat, imho.

However, I do have this crazy idea about how to keep water from freezing....

http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiTherm®-Under-Heater/dp/B0002AQCKA/ref=cm_cd_ql_qh_dp_t

Apparently I'm not the first one to think of this, but I did think of it on my own. So almost original. I'm going to stick one to the side of each of my hanging waterers (I have the red and white kind you get at TSC). By all accounts it works brilliantly.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

no grump heard. Hope Wibbles is ok.

Me, too. We'll be talking to a vet tomorrow (would have been today, but she isn't in today).

Well Said. I totally agree. But mine do not like the deep snow. I know I did alot of shoveling last year, so they would have a path, also stomped what I could down with my boots. Brats wouldn't even help, just ran behind me !!

Yeah, mine are like that, too. I pretty much have to shovel it down to the ground or they won't walk through it. Most of them won't even walk through it if it's just a few inches deep. Spoiled, spoiled girls.

These are my Babys, growing up and getting their curls.

Sebastopol geese, right? I never knew there were Sebbies in anything but white! They're gorgeous!

[COLOR=B22222]On the to heat or not to heat subject:[/COLOR] The biggest concern of mine on real cold days are the single comb birds get frost bite on their tips. So for me a warm area that is just above freezing seems to help with the frost bitten combs.

Well, that seems to be a common concern, but it isn't exactly true. It's the combination of cold and moisture that leads to frostbite. Case in point, I have one old rooster with a single comb and he lives in a pen with a roof and only a tarp around the back of it to break the wind. He has a doghouse to duck into, but never did through that hideous cold snap at the beginning of the year, instead sleeping on top of it. He had no frostbite last winter in spite of sleeping out in the cold like that. My Ancona, Rangi, and one of my Rhodies, Olive, both got frostbite after the coop addition flooded and then froze, even before that cold spell. They both had larger combs and wattles, although I still had a few other hens with large combs that were unaffected by it. My Light Brown Leghorn has a huge comb that flops over over one of her eyes, and it didn't get effected by frostbite at all over the winter. Remember, frigid air is dry air. Heat allows moisture to stay in the air, and will also allow for more incidents with frostbite. That's been my experience, anyway.

 

[raisinemright]

I am not from Indiana but I was invited to this thread by kabhyper1, she said you guys were great and would allow me to join. I was in another thread where we both posted and there was some bad JuJu so I no longer feel comfortable posting there. I am from East TN and this is my first year with chickens. My LF cochin hatched out some barnyard mix chicks at the same time kabhyper1's hen did. We enjoyed sharing pictures of the chicks on the previous thread. So I would love to be able to join this thread and share some pics and stories with all of you if that is ok.

Welcome I live within 2 of kabhyper1 and our family's have become really great friends outside of BYC! I love ET area Gatlinberg is my all time fav vac spot!! Would love to retire there! Hope you enjoy the Indiaba thread..

 

[EurekaChic]

Wanting to pick everyone brains... lol I have a special needs house and a Silkie house that I want enough heat in this winter to keep it around 40deg. everything I have read tells me that Silkies aint very cold hardy and don't want to bring them in if I can keep from it. Then there's the special need girls, just don't think they would do very well either, especially if we get another winter like we had last year.
So heres the thing... I don't want to use heat lights, does anyone know of another way to do this.

I saw a coop (somewhere -- maybe on BYC?) that had a ceramic wall heater installed -- just a square of ceramic that heats up when the temperature goes below a set point. It was mounted high enough and away from the perches that is was unlikely any bird would touch it, but I think they are supposed to be safe to touch anyway (or you could cage it). Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Eco-heater-NA400S-Wall-Mounted-Ceramic-Convection/dp/B004FAMXL0# I think.

 

[EurekaChic]

My impacted Australorp hen is completely back to normal now! This was Day 3 of treatment. I want to thank@Leahs Mom and @hoosiercheetah for their suggestions.

What I did was isolate her and only offered water. I did not have coconut oil, but I crop tubed her twice with 5 cc olive oil plus 10 or 20 cc water. I massaged her crop firmly several times per day. I appreciated the cautions about possible aspiration, but my hen did not have much fluid in her crop, and I massaged her crop very low on her body. It went down significantly every day, and there was more and more poop. She also received 1/2 cc of short-acting penicillin daily, which I will continue for 2 more days to help avoid the development of drug resistant bacteria. She felt feverish for 2 days. Today her crop was totally empty, she did not feel hot, her tail carriage was normal, and there was more normal poop. I let her rejoin the flock this morning.

I read somewhere that a dose of docusate (Colace) could be given, and I did...but wouldn't again. The diarrhea was massive. Olive oil worked better, giving her a little extra nutrition while softening the fibers. Her poop was normal consistency with olive oil.

I also tried to get her to regurgitate some at the very beginning by holding her at a 60 degree downward angle over my knee, but the material in her crop was apparently too dry or thick. There is a description of this written by a poultry vet on The Chicken Chick's blog. Whatever you do, NEVER hold your bird directly upside down. They will likely aspirate and die a few days later. There is a YouTube video of this WRONG way, so beware. His bird died.

I am going to pull all the corn stalks today. We had pathetic corn, but I think that may have been the cause.

Call me happy all went well!

So glad things worked out! Great advice for the rest of us too.

 

[Little Ameraucana Mom]

Wild chickens sleep in trees. The coop is already gravy. No need to heat, imho.

However, I do have this crazy idea about how to keep water from freezing....

http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiTherm®-Under-Heater/dp/B0002AQCKA/ref=cm_cd_ql_qh_dp_t

Apparently I'm not the first one to think of this, but I did think of it on my own. So almost original. I'm going to stick one to the side of each of my hanging waterers (I have the red and white kind you get at TSC). By all accounts it works brilliantly.

We've used these for our reptiles, but never thought of using them for the waters. My waters don't hang though, so I wonder if they would peck at it.

 

[EurekaChic]

I am not from Indiana but I was invited to this thread by kabhyper1, she said you guys were great and would allow me to join. I was in another thread where we both posted and there was some bad JuJu so I no longer feel comfortable posting there. I am from East TN and this is my first year with chickens. My LF cochin hatched out some barnyard mix chicks at the same time kabhyper1's hen did. We enjoyed sharing pictures of the chicks on the previous thread. So I would love to be able to join this thread and share some pics and stories with all of you if that is ok.

Welcome! We have other non-Hoosiers on this thread. Everybody's been really nice to me (I'm a Hoosier, but new to chickens and BYC). Very friendly bunch (yes, there is some disagreement over advice on occasion, but done in a generally respectful and tolerant way).

ETA: For example, the current debate about 'to heat or not to heat'.....that is the question.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

We've used these for our reptiles, but never thought of using them for the waters. My waters don't hang though, so I wonder if they would peck at it.

Oh, good point. Didn't think about pecking.

I think I'll have to get some cinder blocks for the waterers. Then I can set the heater between the block and the waterer. I already have power cords in the coop, and the chickens don't mess with them, so I'm not worried about the power cords.

 

[Rhandi74]

Thank you everyone for the warm welcomes. These pics were taken when the chicks were 4 weeks old.

Cole

Sunshine

Maybaline

Blizzard, who was formerly known as Snow White but we decided it was to girly for a boy

Blu my rooster feeding the chicks like does the hens. He enjoys the chicks and spends time with them frequently. They some times follow him instead of Jewel.

Jewel showing the chicks the best place to dust bathe

On a sad note one of my Marans chicks is not feeling well and I had to bring him in today. He has perked up quite a bit after giving vitamins and electrolytes but I tried to bring him back out with the others and they were picking on him so he is still inside. I hope I can figure out why he is feeling bad. His only symptoms are tired and fluffed feathers.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Back to the heaters again. Feel like I'm enabling something that I don't do or recommend but...

Here are a better priced ceramic flat panel heaters that were linked earlier on amazon. Same basic design.

http://www.shopthecoop.com/products/pet-heating-supplies.html?

For example:
http://www.shopthecoop.com/product/flat-panel-coop-heaters-for-pets.html

They have floor heaters too.