INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[kabhyper1]

Now, what I meant to ask in my last post. How do they compare to chickens, size-wise? I've searched all over and all I can find is their typical weight.

Another thing I'm jealous of--a nice, big indoor space for the chickens when it's snowy outside! My girls only come out of their coop once I've shoveled away the snow to the ground. And that was not fun to do last winter. :/ They have enough space inside, but it's a lot less than they're used to and they get pretty grumpy.
e Congrats! These will be the 5 (or 6?) most expensive chicks in Indiana!
Yeah, the true, henny feathered Sebrights are pretty uncommon. Sorry you lost your birdies! My Brights were just fine over the winter, save for losing some toe tips, and they sleep up in the rafters with vents right at their level in spite of my efforts to convince them otherwise. Maybe it has to do with their breeding?
How was it too small for your ducks? Just because of the number of birds, or was the door too small or something? Just wondering, because the duck coop I had planned to build would be about the same size. It is really cute and would make an awesome coop! I would call dibs, but I have no way of transporting it.
I am so sorry for your loss. Take all the time you need. My thoughts are with you and your family.

The ducks are about the same size as my large fowl flock. Scrappy, our drake is sort of pushy with the chickens. The girls ignore the chickens forthe most part. I do like knowing all the animals are together in a safe warm place during the winter. It isnt heated, but all the animals body heat keep it comfortable.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote:

Way behind and probably won't end up going back to read everything. Death in the family and gone over last weekend. May not be on much just popping in for a min.

I'm sorry for your loss. If you need or want anything I can help with please message me. There is nothing I can think of to say other than that. I wish there was.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yeah, we have 16 ducks so they would be packed on top of each other in there!

Haha, okay, I wondered! Yeah, I'm looking at 6 or so in that amount of space at the most.

The ducks are about the same size as my large fowl flock. Scrappy, our drake is sort of pushy with the chickens. The girls ignore the chickens forthe most part. I do like knowing all the animals are together in a safe warm place during the winter. It isnt heated, but all the animals body heat keep it comfortable.

My khaki (female) ducks have necks as long as my largest roosters. Their body is as long as the EE chickens I raised from Ideal. They were skinnier than the EE chickens by a bit so more of an skinny or flat oval body shape. They would be about half as wide as my LF RIR who are considered brick shaped. As for space in a coop,they take up about the same amount of space as a laying red star. But the khaki's reach their full space size (not weight) quite early maybe before 12 weeks. Mine started laying between 19 and 22 weeks with the 22 week layers being fall ducklings last year and the 19 week layers being Almost spring ducklings this year.

If you are in need or want of a few khaki ducks, message me. I'll be selling or processing a few before winter. I'm sure we can work out a deal. BUT raising a duckling is something worth doing once. Just try to time raising the ducklings in good weather as ducklings are very likely to be stinky messy creatures for the indoors.

Thanks, both of you, for your answers! Very helpful! I'm mainly looking at smaller duck breeds, near or smaller than the hens. I definitely don't want to end up with something huge like Pekins or Rouens!

Sally, I did try the duckling thing and it was so much fun at first! Unfortunately the post office got to the eggs first and only one baby hatched, and then she passed away from a suspected severe sinus infection due to my inexperience. So I'm planning on looking for an adult pair of Calls from the Lebanon show in October and seeing if they do better now that I know more about what ducks need. I don't know if I'll be up for some Khaki girls as well before winter, but I'll message you if I do! Most likely, though, if I invest in more ducks of different breeds, it will be next spring or summer after I see how easy it is to winter them. (I have a plan! Whether that plan works or not is the question. )

 

[kittydoc]

I think Silkies are so darned cute, but I love chicken FACES! How do you see the faces on Silkies? Even at the State Fair, I desperately searched for the eyes of a Silkie, but all I saw was a beak and all that stuff that I guess is comb? They are such strange (but otherwise terribly cute) birds. Or are they just so sweet and cuddly that you guys who own them don't care that you can't see their faces from a distance? This is a serious question. I'm really curious!

With that odd commentary, I wish you all a good night!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Well, I made two homemade "crow less" collars for my lav Orp roos, 8" long × 1" wide. LaRue is actively crowing. I can get a full finger, and I have big hands, between the collar and his skin, and it reduced the loudness by about half. Roo Two's is loose, 2 fingers, just so he'll be used to it when he decides to provide harmony.

I am reading about some deaths due to collars catching on objects, and I also think the original instructions about only being to slip in the tip of a pinky finger is too tight. If you are a woman who wears a size 6 or 6.5 glove, I think you will need to allow a full finger. A man wearing a size 7.5 to 8.5 glove might only need a pinky, but down to the first joint. Be happy with quiet, not silence.

Check your coop, runs, yard for items the collar can get caught on, and remove them. I also told hubby no more feeding whole cherry/grape tomatoes or grapes to these roos. If they swallow one whole, it could put enough pressure on the trachea to cause suffocation.

Don't know if you recall, but Greenies dental sticks had to be reformulated for dogs several years ago for causing suffocation if some dogs swallowed them whole. Same issue. Too much volume of stuff in the esophagus can put enough pressure on the trachea to cause choking or suffocation.

Great post! Lots of good info!

Good morning everyone!

Yesterday's update; my hens are starting to figure out that when I mow the yard, there will be crickets and other bugs hopping up all over the place in my wake. I was wondering how long it would take them. One of my RIRs is particularly fearless, and I had to pause several times to wait for her to get out of the way. I have an electric mower that's not nearly as loud as the gasoline kind, and I'm sure that helps.

In OT news, I've been scanned for AAA and all is well, so I'm very happy that I'm not about to fall over dead. Now I get to research vascular health and find out that I have to watch what I eat and exercise more. If only it were that easy.

In other back yard farming news, I found out I have a free source of scrap lumber, and rumor has it there are massive quantities of the stuff. My wife is going to have a very hard time convincing me not to build a rabbit hutch and double the size of my chicken run now that it's free.

:-D

That's the news.

I hope everyone had an awesome weekend!

Glad to hear your heath is good, just get out and walk to improve vascular health. Its done amazingly well for me. I had a desk job for the last 13 years before I retired, and was almost 160 lbs. For an under 4ft 11" tall person, not so good! And the family on both sides are "heavy" and have heart disease, diabetes... So when I started our farm, that all changed. I maybe weigh 110 at most now

I used a pedometer and found I average 6-7 miles a day, and walk all over the place here! My kids think I am crazy making so many trips back and forth. Nope! I am even off high blood pressure meds now thanks walking. And I do it all winter too.

I think our Brahma pullet, Pepper, has started to lay. We're getting small eggs, and she is about a week short of 5 months old. Does that sound about right to you Brahma folks? Nicely pointed, narrow, light brown eggs.

Our black/lav split Orps are darling. I definitely have a favorite that practically runs into my hand and just loves to be picked up and cuddled. If any lav breeders are interested, we may be selling some, singly or maybe in pairs with our May hatched lavs. The splits were 2 weeks old on Saturday. PM me if interested. Totally different lines/breeders, so great genetic diversity between the two groups.

I love my Lavenders! I may contact you for hatching eggs in the future. I have less than a dozen eggs in the sportsman now, and once the last turkey stops laying thats it! Not hatching this winter... not gonna do it

(ya we'll see)

Jchny2000, yes, Bacon is our tom! He's calmed down a lot as he's aged, but he can still give our 100lb puppy a whack when he needs it. No more attacks on the ducks, so I think it was a pecking order thing, and he may just have gotten used to them standing up not being a sign of defiance as much as a need to see something further away (hope, hope, hope).

This is a two-month-old photo. He's likely 40lbs+ now. He's all wet, and I can't find my USB cord to update the pictures (all our phones and such use the same cord, so everyone steals mine!).

Oh so cool! Glad you decided to join

We have a fantastic group of friends here. I have learned so much from everyone.
LOL! Snoodles tries very hard to mate the ducks. Its only the muscovy tho. He ignores the pekin. I looked the chick over carefully, didn't see any sign of injury. I honestly think he may have stepped on it and killed it. He and his hen are both so tame and sweet I would hate to not keep him.

Quote: All the boys here, it seems they all pinpoint a certain few ducks. My roosters will even try to mate my goose hens! The ganders take care of THAT pretty fast!
Barnyard mix chickens I call "mutts", I have a few hens that snuck off and brooded after I comingled flocks. I do have some turken, they are precious girls! I absolutely adore them.

So we had this playhouse delivered to us last year sight unseen. From the description given to us we thought we would be able to use it for Benji's ducks. But after it arrived we realized it was way too small to use for any of the animals we have. It's roughly 4'x7' on the outside (seems really narrow inside). The door is about 3 1/2' tall and the side walls just 4' tall so there's no good way for adults to get inside. If you did get in through the door you could stand up inside. The roof needs reshingled and the bottom of the door has some issues. Other than than, it seems to be built very solidly. The black things on either side of the window are plant hooks -- I think it could be turned into a really cute coop for someone with just a few chickens -- which is not us! Since it's been over a year and we still haven't figured out what to do with it (and it's a big pain in the butt to mow around!) I'm ready to sell it. I wanted to let all of you have first dibs if anyone's interested before I list it on craigslist. PM me if you're interested!






Looking inside through the front door



There are eye bolts on the log runners, so you could potentially pull it around, although it seems too heavy to want to do that...

I think this would make an excellent bantam coop! I bet it sells fast.

 

[kabhyper1]

I think Silkies are so darned cute, but I love chicken FACES! How do you see the faces on Silkies? Even at the State Fair, I desperately searched for the eyes of a Silkie, but all I saw was a beak and all that stuff that I guess is comb? They are such strange (but otherwise terribly cute) birds. Or are they just so sweet and cuddly that you guys who own them don't care that you can't see their faces from a distance? This is a serious question. I'm really curious!

With that odd commentary, I wish you all a good night!

Here you go. Ithink they look like Beaker from the muppets.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Hey, I'm back been gone for 2 and a half weeks. got to catch up on around 1865 posts.

Yikes! I hate falling behind, I don't like missing a single post lol. Its been really difficult all summer, glad my Dads home now and things are getting back to normal.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Finally caught up! We had a wedding and then a birthday celebration, then Monday we processed 16 birds!!! I can't believe we got through so many, hubby and my in laws were fabulous help!

I have a few more birds that need to go and I'll be ready for winter. If anyone is interested in the following let me know.
4 black sex link hens (some are molting at the moment)
2 barnyard mix pullets (not quite at POL)

Thats a LOT of work! Really good feeling to get it done, especially before winter! We usually have a get-together to do it here too.
I have about 25 pekin to go and we will be done til spring, unless a misc bird becomes a problem and can't be rehomed due to behavior. We will be saying goodbye to our hog within the month. Waiting for cooler weather so its not miserable doing the work. We let him go longer than we should have, he is about 400 or so pounds now. Really love the yorkshire breed, they are super easy pigs to keep and very friendly.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: My muscovy duck hens are smaller than a regular framed chicken hen. My older girls, Huey and Donald are both 4-5 pounds about and are well over 2 years old now. Very social ducks, and I just adore them. A pekin hen is twice the size of a scovy. They are a seasonal layer, start around march. I am still getting a few eggs from them, but not hatching anymore LOL! They brood very well if allowed and are excellent mothers. Muscovy are a tree dweller and will perch. My scovies live with my chickens, they lay in the nestboxes. The best thing with them is they are "quackless" and trill instead. A scovy will only "quack" if its afraid. UGH my pekins, my neighbor hears them! QUAAAQUUAAAWKquackquack Gees! They have ducks too, but raise runners.
Our sebrights were all roos but one lil girl. The boys were wild, and completely antisocial from the beginning. They were hatchery from TSC. The hen Fergie was just exceptional, and so sweet. I kept her inside the bantam coop with my OEGs, the boys were hopeless trying to contain them! They would thrash against walls trying to escape. It was very upsetting. I had to separate them in another brooder due to how they acted as chicks. I spend a lot of time handling, talking and getting to know my birds. It goes back to the breeder.. you are sure right on that!
We had that week of well below zero and my Fergie didn't survive it. OEG's were perfectly fine. My wild boys perished too

One of them even spent most of his time on my cows back, it just wasn't enough warmth.We had a heated stock tank so he had water and his own perch for the night, its clueless to me.His brother was in the egg coop and passed the same day. I am sure that a heritage raised sebright is a much better choice! I did love how beautiful they are but not the fearful flightiness of the roos I had.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I think Silkies are so darned cute, but I love chicken FACES! How do you see the faces on Silkies? Even at the State Fair, I desperately searched for the eyes of a Silkie, but all I saw was a beak and all that stuff that I guess is comb? They are such strange (but otherwise terribly cute) birds. Or are they just so sweet and cuddly that you guys who own them don't care that you can't see their faces from a distance? This is a serious question. I'm really curious!

With that odd commentary, I wish you all a good night!

Quote: I love their faces too

Kab and Brad both have adorable, vibrant ,healthy birds and I have hatched from both their flocks. Silkies are a pet bird, and excellent broodies! They are slow to mature, but are hatching fiends, they love to be mommas. I have 6 polish eggs under my oldest girl now. Every time I consider not keeping them, I realize how much I like the breed and appreciate how sweet they are!

 

[Mother2Hens]

@Mother2Hens The antibiotic and pain med amounts you quoted for sweet Adeline sound like they were diluted by Dr. Gormley from their usual strength. Just so someone doesn't make a serious or fatal mistake, could you please confirm? If they are not in original bottles, then they have been diluted for chickens, which is perfectly legal and appropriate. Thanks so much!

kittydoc ~ Thanks for double-checking. I originally posted the info that was on the invoice, not the bottle. The bottle for Baytril says 200mg/10cc #14698 Give one-half cc by mouth every 12 hours until gone. The bottle for Torbutrol says 15ml #14682 Give 0.8 cc every 12 hours for pain. I take her back on Wednesday afternoon to have her bandages removed/wound checked. Should I ask about the meds? Adeline is doing well. She's still in the house, but I've taken her outside with me in the afternoons when I can keep an eye on her since my RIR flock leader, Nene, wanted to remove Adeline's bandages! It's sweet because Adeline and Eliza, my Splash Orp hang out together. Bonbon used to be Adeline's best buddy until she decided to make a career out of matching eggs. Btw, Bonbon has a week to do before she hatches bantam cochin eggs from @ellymayRans

I placed a key for size reference.


Not a good photo-- her bandage is dirty from being outside.