INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[ChickCrazed]

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.

Very cute babies! On your chick that is not feeling well, puffed up feathers and lethargy are a sign of coccidosis. I'd start treating for that like yesterday. It is very serious and kills quickly! That's my though, maybe others will have other ideas.

 

[Rhandi74]

Very cute babies!  On your chick that is not feeling well, puffed up feathers and lethargy are a sign of coccidosis.  I'd start treating for that like yesterday.  It is very serious and kills quickly!  That's my though, maybe others will have other ideas. 

Thank you for the advice. That is what I was thinking but I currently only have demethox 40% injectable in my medicine kit. I use it for my goat kids but could not find dosage for chickens so I did not use. I plan on picking up Corid in the morning. Does any one know if demethox 40% injectable is safe for chickens?

 

[Little Ameraucana Mom]

The first darker one is my favorite and the tan is my second favorite. If I had any geese, these would be my first choice.
How well do geese lay. For some reason I have it in my head that they lay a really nice sized egg but have a short laying season each year.

They do lay huge eggs, but are seasonal layers Mine lay from around Feb-June.

 

[ellymayRans]

Ask and you shall receive.

The grey one in the front is the one that was hatched this morning, it's pure polish (golden laced x silver laced), the black one is a Polish/Houdan (silver laced x black mottled) that hatched yesterday, and the light one is an Indian blue peachick that hatched yesterday.

So cute! I love my India Blues! Can't wait til I am hatching theirs! Congrats!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Kittydoc, I really didn't mean to be insulting... I recognized I sounded a bit grumpy, but I certainly didn't mean to demean or dictate anyone. I was just trying to highlight why people shouldn't be so quick to heat their coops, even in negative temps. Like I said, my girls (including the supposedly non-cold-hardy breeds) were just fine in the -15 or so degree weather we had earlier this year, no heat, no insulation, and I didn't have frostbite during that time, only earlier after the coop had flooded.

I definitely didn't mean to imply that you shouldn't insulate your coop or use wind blocks during the winter! If anything, that's what you should do if you're concerned about your birds in that sort of weather. I only mentioned that my coop is uninsulated as further evidence that even without that, my birds were absolutely fine. I will admit I forgot to mention the benefits of insulating the coop. Sorry, I was not quite all there when I wrote that post.

The 'P.S.' line was also not meant to be insulting. I have been accused of not caring as much about my birds because I don't provide them heat, so I felt the need to add that on the end. It was not to say that people who heat their coops care less about their birds, but to make it clear that I am not the industrial, uncaring, 'treat the birds like property' type (which is not an insult to anyone here, or really anyone at all, but a lot of people think some farmers are like that). My birds are beloved pets, and I do what is right by them. That's all I meant.

I do recognize that I have no control over what other people do. I am only sharing my experiences and what I have learned from others so that people can learn from my mistakes and the mistakes of others. I know there are some people here that are new to chickens, and I don't know if they know the dangers or not. I don't know if they would think to research this sort of thing. I know I didn't when I first started, although I was quite young and stupid at the time (which is again not meant to insult anyone, just saying). I know I have learned a lot from other people making big posts about different topics, and I thought I would do the same in kind.

I have never posted anything I meant to be insulting and I really don't think I ever will. I admit I have gotten heated in the past over certain topics, but I don't think I've ever tried to insult another's point of view to make my point. If I did, I do apologize to anyone that may have happened to because it was not intentional! This is the main reason I added that last line in my post, as an attempt to make it clear I was not trying to be insulting or grumpy. :/




I will say this, though. I will not retract anything I said about 250 watt bulbs. Back in my early days of raising chickens, I only twice used 250 watt bulbs for brooders and they were dangerously hot. They heated the entire room and didn't give my chicks any means of escaping the heat, and I do still have marks on my wrist where I just barely brushed it and it burned me. It doesn't take much for them to set things on fire or hurt bare skin like combs and wattles. And unless you have somehow totally sealed the lamp away from any dust your birds might kick up, they can and have started fires from igniting dust that lands on them. I read about no fewer than 3 coop or barn fires just over last winter as a direct result of using them. I will always advise against the use of them for anything related to poultry. That's just what my experiences over the years have taught me. Once again, I'm not trying to insult you, just sharing my experiences.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

For anyone concerned, my widdle Wibbles is looking a bit better this evening after I gave her some feed 'porridge' to work on earlier. I'm still going to give the vet a call in the morning and see if I should give her an antibiotic or anything. I made a thread over on the Ducks section of the forum and it was suggested that she might have an infection in her nose or sinuses from her nostril being clogged the other day, and I want to play it safe with my precious li'l ducky.

 

[EurekaChic]

For anyone concerned, my widdle Wibbles is looking a bit better this evening after I gave her some feed 'porridge' to work on earlier. I'm still going to give the vet a call in the morning and see if I should give her an antibiotic or anything. I made a thread over on the Ducks section of the forum and it was suggested that she might have an infection in her nose or sinuses from her nostril being clogged the other day, and I want to play it safe with my precious li'l ducky.

[COLOR=006400] I'm glad Wibbles is improving. Hope it's not an infection![/COLOR]

 

[MnMPoultry]

Y'all are hard to keep up with! I will throwing up some pictures of the flock this weekend for everyone.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

Y'all are hard to keep up with! I will throwing up some pictures of the flock this weekend for everyone.

Speed is kind of our thing.

You know... Cheetah and all. I'm starting to rub off on the rest of them.

;-)

 

[kittydoc]

@pipdzipdnreadytogo , thanks for your second post. That's more the tone I think we should be looking for here. When we are upset (including worrying about our feathered friends), that's not the best time to post anything online, on any subject. We've all probably been guilty of it (except my friend Emily, who is a saint and has never said a bad thing about anything or anyone in her life--I don't know how she does it!).

We have a setup that allows us to safely use 250W bulbs for now. The girls would have to be very athletically skilled to get dust up on the bulb in the henhouse during winter. It's basically at ceiling height and doesn't touch any wood except for the clamp (the reflector edge just barely touches hardware cloth). I was pretty surprised how clean it was when we removed it for the year, but that's a function of how our particular coop is built. Also, we have a great pole for attaching and sliding the fixture over our brooder in the garage. A bulb burned out once (I heard it pop), but it did not break. I'm home almost all the time, so things like that don't go unnoticed very long, especially when it comes to chicks, so they did not get chilled.

I know they get hellaciously hot, but we have been dumb enough to raise chicks during the winter once (now cured!), and we needed it. We have never had it closer than 3' from the chicks, and we always observed them to see if they need the spacing adjusted. And yes, I have been burned by a 250W bulb, too. That's why I'd love to have a Sweeter Heater for the henhouse, which is like a giant Brinsea EcoGlow that utilizes a different type of heat than any bulb (250W or 60W) and is as safe as any heater can be. We love our EcoGlow for up to about 10 chicks, but they outgrow that pretty quickly. I'm glad they are making bigger ones now that can also be adjusted for more height, so you get more use out of it. The babies absolutely love it, and it is unquestionably safer than any light bulb or heat lamp. It is actually also energy efficient, using only about 1/10th the energy as a 250W bulb. I know a lot of people mention using 60W bulbs, and that would definitely work if it is close enough, but it isn't necessarily any safer (just smaller).

Speaking of fires, we are getting quite a light show from the storm coming this way soon. I worry more about lightning fires than heating fires. That's the most common cause of fires in my area for houses and barns. My grandparents lost three barns to lightning fires during their lifetime. My grandmother was severely burned (3rd degree, right arm, neck, and face) rescuing a mule, but that's what we do for our animals.

I hope that your little Wibbles will be on the mend soon. It sucks to have a bird under the weather. I appreciated the suggestions I received here for my impacted hen, which is now 100% recovered. Duckies are darling. My friend Leigh has a couple of drakes (a Swedish Blue and something I can never remember), but NO chickens. I need to fix that!

Have a good night. It's all good.