INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Kassafrass]

it spreads from their skin to yours. i dont believe it has anything to do with eating it. they walk through, get the oil on them, brush against you, you have the oil. them not breaking out from it dont mean you wont. 

Yes.  I just joined, however.  I haven't posted but have sent pm to one person with no reply.





Mine run through the PI.  (Hoping to clear some by hand soon...)  It doesn't bother them, but when I pick up a hen....or gather eggs.... I'm exposed to it because they have the oils on them due to being in it.

I don't know about spreading it around.  I haven't observed them eating any of it.  I just know they have the oils on them so if you work w/them and are allergic to it you need to either wear gloves and/or wash the oils off yourself afterwards.

Thank you...it was something about eating the seeds and them pooping them out. And thanks for the not touching them bc of the oils...we just got them from a friend, and with the exception of one rooster, they haven't let me touch them at all. Hoping i can get them to at least let me pet them eventually.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Jaehons

So where do you get them?

Can chickens get "sunburn"?
I have a few chickens that still have the rooster damage (from July). The roo is gone but the wings look terrible. Nothing has grown back.
Here are the 2 worst looking ones:
1. This one had more baldness on wings & back but now I think she's molting. (It's my 1st time seeing a molt, so please confirm.) In 2 days all her tails feathers popped out, that's also when all the stubs started growing in. I have feathers all over the place!

It looks like she's starting to grow in her new feathers from what I can see so must be molt time!

On your red skin - Last year I didn't put a cover on my girl and she her back from about waste (if they have one) to tail was completely bare. Red skin like in your photo and she did fine. That photo I posted of her with glorious feathers covering her back was after molt when they grew back.

This year I put the cover on for 2 reasons. The sun exposure. And also a bare back draws attention and those that don't normally pluck will find the different "look" interesting enough to go over an take a peck. I noticed that at night while roosting certain ones would keep picking more feathers from her. It wasn't vicious picking - just interested picking. So I put an apron on to keep her from losing more and to hopefully avoid a feather picking "habit" among the group.

 

[flyladyrocks]

Dumb question probably, but...i have looked into poison ivy and chickens, and it looks like it doesnt hurt them if they eat it. However, one drawback is that they could propagate it from their poop. My question is, if they eat some on our property (we dont have much) but they only eat leaves/vines (no berries), it wont spread, right?

 

[kabhyper1]

Can chickens get "sunburn"?
I have a few chickens that still have the rooster damage (from July). The roo is gone but the wings look terrible. Nothing has grown back.
Here are the 2 worst looking ones:
1. This one had more baldness on wings & back but now I think she's molting. (It's my 1st time seeing a molt, so please confirm.) In 2 days all her tails feathers popped out, that's also when all the stubs started growing in. I have feathers all over the place!


2. This golden hen has redness (not just skin showing). I'm concerned that others may be pecking, but I've never seen blood or bullying. Once in a while in the morning it doesn't look so bad, but then it gets more red later in the day. I've been checking for mites & lice but have not found anything. (Even examined some feathers under microscope with nothing.) Any ideas? I removed the saddles when the roo left. I was afraid the saddles might have been rubbing the feathers off.


Here's an example of the saddles I have. The wing protection flips to the side easily, so I'm not sure how much protection it gave.

Here is what I can tell you from what I've seen...

Your top hen is for sure molting. She will look really nice believe it or not, in a few weeks.

As far as the redness goes, I have come to think that is just normal blood flow. I hope someone corrects me if I am wrong, but 8 of my hens that are separated from the flock to grow out feathers, will one minute have normal skin tone on their shoulders and the next fire engine red. Nobody picks.They don't have mites either or lice, so I can only assume it's normal. I took my saddles off of my girls, but when it got cold put them back on, as one of my girls is totally bald on her back and has been all year. I will probably take them off here and there depending on the temp outside.

As far a sunburn goes, I would say they probably can. Its bare skin facing straight up, so I don't take chances.

I have yet to see the perfect back and shoulder protection for hens. I sew my own using cotton and light interfacing and they seem to provide decent protection, but pins still get caught under them and pulled out. Too light a fabric and the protection isn't great, too heavy and it rips out new feather growth. Too loose and they get causght on things too stiff and they are easy to get under for the boys. My roos also would find a way to get up and under the saddles when mating. I have a decent ratio of boys to girls and did all year. They just pick a few girls at a time to mate and leave everyone else alone for awhile and switch off. So having 2 roos in a flock with 24 girls, although a good ratio, doesn't mean much when they pick favorites. I had to rehome my first roo that I was very attached to due to hen competition with my big Cochin boy when my Cochin was a juvie and learning to mate. One would mate and then the other would jump on. Hence the main reason my hens look so terrible.My Cochin grew up and barely ever mounts hens now, and my six month old black Cochin is a little gentleman, soI am sticking to Cochin boys now. Big gentle giants.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

With fall coming up, I'm sure many of us have extra roosters. Here is a link to a video that may help with those learning processing.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAJh9ehtTmA

 

[Leahs Mom]

As far as the redness goes, I have come to think that is just normal blood flow. I hope someone corrects me if I am wrong, but 8 of my hens that are separated from the flock to grow out feathers, will one minute have normal skin tone on their shoulders and the next fire engine red. Nobody picks.They don't have mites either or lice, so I can only assume it's normal. I took my saddles off of my girls, but when it got cold put them back on, as one of my girls is totally bald on her back and has been all year. I will probably take them off here and there depending on the temp outside.

I've seen the same skin color variation in my girl. Varies from day to day and sometimes in the same day. No picking, etc.

 

[tiffmw10]

Does anyone in NWI have Chickens AND Ducks? I posted in the Duck forum, but looking for advice from other Indiana peeps.

We live in NWI and this will be our first Winter with Call Ducks. I'm looking for any advice as to what to feed them besides Layer Pellets. I've been reading about Wheat, so anything would be helpful. What type of Wheat do I get and where would I get it?

We have our "Duck House" inside our Chicken run and wondering if we need to move the Ducks into the barn for the winter? I feel like they would be happier, left where they are, but afraid that they'll be too cold.

Am I worrying for nothing?

As far as Roosters go, we got 2 out of 12 and they "were" mean. One attacked my daughter yesterday and thankfully his spears weren't fully developed. He got both her arms and her chest. He was literally CHASING her. It was awful. RIP P DIDDY!

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Does anyone in NWI have Chickens AND Ducks? I posted in the Duck forum, but looking for advice from other Indiana peeps.

I have both but I'm south of Indianapolis.
My advice is to use heated water in a dish that is deep enough to clean their bills but not round enough for them to swim in. I would limit the times the water is available too as ducks don't really need water after dark or before light. And those extra cold nights are when the heating bowls break if left on.
I advise to keep them separate from the chickens as the ducks will need more frequent bedding changes than the chickens. If kept together all the bedding has to be changed instead of just the duck bedding. Once spring comes, the ducks can be great teachers of how to find bugs and eat plants so putting chickens in the duck pen is fine as long as there is no drake. A drake will sometimes try to mate a chicken hen. A chicken hen can die from a drake mating.

During the winter, ducks are much more work than chicks or so it seemed last winter to me. BUT the eggs are nice.
If you want some khaki ducks that started laying this summer, message me. I have too many, given the number of hens we have right now.

 

[CharlemagneRoost]

So where do you get them?

I found only two hatcheries in the country that carry Jaerhon and only one of them, Ideal in Texas, carries the pure bred Jaerhon. And it seems that they only carry them from February through a little past Easter. Beyond that, you need to locate someone with a flock who is willing to sell hatching eggs or chicks. There are several here on BYC who were willing to sell me some hatching eggs before I found that Ideal was carrying chicks this past February. They were shipped to me in the middle of that horrid polar vortex and arrived in fine health.

Two things I forgot to mention about them: 1) they are sex link chicken, so you know what you have right when they pop out of the shell, and; 2) they take about six months for egg laying maturity.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
Sex link...or auto-sexing?