INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[auntwht64]

The spots are on the shells. Glad to hear it is ok. Thanks so much.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

[COLOR=900000]No problem. I'll bet those eggs are super pretty with the addition of brown spots on their shells! [/COLOR]

 

[pbirdhaven]

Posted this in the natural thread too but would like to hear from y'all:


A "housing question" for those of you that may have experience....

I am wondering if anyone has ever used a dog house, inside a kennel that is fenced on all sides and top, to house birds in the current weather.

I have a question for the silkie breeders here. I have a black pullet from paint breeding and the only roo I have for her is a partridge or her paint dad. What could happen if I put her back in with her dad for paints? I'm asking for trouble breeding her back to her dad? She is in with my Duccle pair at the moment But as soon as I rehome my black sizzle pen she will be moving into one of the 2 silkie pens, the partridge pen or the paint pen with her dad. Any suggestions on what to do?

I have used dog houses for years. I have too many breeding pens to build coops for all. In a 10 x 10 dog kennel, I hang an 8 x 10 heavy duty tarp with one corner draped low to drain water and light snow. The dog house and feeder go under the tarp. Tarps on a side or two make good windbreaks.

This isn't good for all breeds; my bantam polish, for example, are inside a shed. No frizzles should spend the winter in an outside pen.
Quote:

[COLOR=900000]I can't help with paint genetics, but yes, offspring to parents for a few generations is a widely used form of breeding to promote the genes that breeders want to promote. I believe the only thing frowned upon for this is sibling to sibling as this tends to lead to more of the undesirable traits coming out. Think of it this way--half of a bird's genetics comes from the bird's mother, the other half from the father. If the father is a very good specimen, breeding him to his daughters means that the next generation will consist of roughly 75% of his good genes. If those daughters are bred to another male, their offspring will only receive about 25% of those good genes.

Of course, there is a limit to how much you can do this without weakening your lines, hence only going five or so generations using this method. You do want to bring fresh genes in occasionally. For the purposes of this post, however, breeding one bird back to a parent isn't going to be disastrous.

[/COLOR]

I agree with Pipd. I will breed a bird back to a parent that has good traits for one or two generations. Your black with the paint could give you both blacks and paints. Several breeders that I know say to breed black to paint rather than paint to paint to get sharper definition in the color.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

I love falling back. I'm going back to sleep now.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I have used dog houses for years. I have too many breeding pens to build coops for all. In a 10 x 10 dog kennel, I hang an 8 x 10 heavy duty tarp with one corner draped low to drain water and light snow. The dog house and feeder go under the tarp. Tarps on a side or two make good windbreaks.

This isn't good for all breeds; my bantam polish, for example, are inside a shed. No frizzles should spend the winter in an outside pen.

@pbirdhaven

I actually have several tarps hung that way using bungies on the lower end so there is some movement to them which seems to have kept them from ripping better than when I had them hung with in a way that they had no "give". They are fixed at the top end but bungied at the low end and that worked really well for shade and to give a dry area under them during the rain.

How well do they do with snow? I was thinking that I'd have to take them down for the winter even though they are at a slope. I assumed that they would just load down since they aren't rigid.


ETA - I don't just have one corner low but I have one whole end low. I guess I need to take a photo of those.

 

[leslea]

Morning, all.

A thin layer of ice on the waterer this morning. So it begins!

Inside the coop, I noticed the birds have burrowed into the litter to sleep. I hope that's normal. I chose deep litter to keep them warmer in the winter. Everyone is acting fine, up and at 'em and ready for the day so I'm sure they kept warm enough.

I guess they'll sleep on the roost in the summer and in the litter during winter?

 

[Leahs Mom]

@leslea

How old are your birds? I've often wished mine would go in the litter together to warm up in the cold. Except when they were little ones, they've always stayed on the roosts.

26 Degrees here this morning. Ground is hard frozen.

@pipdzipdnreadytogo

I've never used heat in my hen shed. But on days like this I'm always tempted. I keep thinking that if these birds were really jungle fowl, they surely never had this cold of temperatures in their natural habitat. I also wonder if they'd go south for the winter if they had the opportunity.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

The kitten I got from @ellymayRans is a mouser for sure. She caught a mouse this morning and re-caught it several times in front of us just to have fun times. The children had a blast watching from the window. Our other barn cats bring their already dead mice to the front yard to show off as they eat their catch but Katie the kitten no she puts on a whole show.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

@leslea


How old are your birds?  I've often wished mine would go in the litter together to warm up in the cold.  Except when they were little ones, they've always stayed on the roosts.

26 Degrees here this morning.  Ground is hard frozen.

@pipdzipdnreadytogo


I've never used heat in my hen shed.  But on days like this I'm always tempted.  I keep thinking that if these birds were really jungle fowl, they surely never had this cold of temperatures in their natural habitat.  I also wonder if they'd go south for the winter if they had the opportunity. 

[COLOR=900000]Brrr, it's super cold here, too! I guess I dawdled too long on some things--don't think there's going to be any digging around here for a while... And I forgot to empty the hoses, so it was so fun to fill the duck pool... (Because yes, they were raring to go swimming this morning. )


As far as red junglefowl, well, it is correct that in their native environment, they aren't likely to face as cold of temperatures as we get here. However, neither would the ringneck pheasant in it's native range, which is largely the same as the junglefowl's range. Since ringneck pheasants are mostly in the same form as they were in the wild (unlike chickens, who are so removed from junglefowl as a result of selective breeding that they are considered a subspecies), you can see how these birds have adapted to survive in spite of not being native to the area. We have a good population of pheasants around here, and I remember hearing them calling earlier this year even in the cold (which is unfortunate--I'd rather hear native species of ground-dwellers, like Bobwhites!). Add to that that humans have bred chickens to survive where humans can survive, and you can probably infer that these birds are definitely not in any danger from the cold, except for those decorative breeds that are not meant to be particularly hardy (such as teeny-tiny Seramas).

Edited because it's too early to think properly...[/COLOR]

 

[leslea]

@leslea

How old are your birds? I've often wished mine would go in the litter together to warm up in the cold. Except when they were little ones, they've always stayed on the roosts.

26 Degrees here this morning. Ground is hard frozen.

@pipdzipdnreadytogo

I've never used heat in my hen shed. But on days like this I'm always tempted. I keep thinking that if these birds were really jungle fowl, they surely never had this cold of temperatures in their natural habitat. I also wonder if they'd go south for the winter if they had the opportunity.

They're 6 mo old.

They burrowed deep into the litter. I'm assuming the bigger holes were made by the guineas, but there were smaller ones, too. My chickens are all bantams, but I don't know if they are "teeny." 2 Silkies, a BR and an EE.