INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Faraday40]

Questions for everyone, but first just had to tell you all how wonderful my husband is (it is all related!). Unfortunately I thought I had finally found a type of Math I am better at than him, but not so sure anymore! We had a guy come give us an estimate on painting our house. We start talking chicken, find out he can build coops. He asks, "how many chickens do you ultimately want to have" and DH says "40". A month ago it was 30, then 35 now 40! Looks like he may have trumped me in the chicken math department! Then the guy leaves and DH tells me to start designing my coop. How could I NOT love this man? So that brings me to my questions:

What do you like about your coop - what don't you like. What features do you wish you had? What do you wish you could get rid of?

We are looking at 2 options - first, the guy building from the ground up, second, getting a shed and him transforming the shed.

So brag about your coops everyone and help me design mine! I have learned so much the past year and am glad we did not build the coop we thought we wanted last year b/c I now see all it's flaws!

I can see why you love him.

My fav part of our coop is the nest box design. I wanted to be able to sweep & wash it thoroughly without crouching inside the coop, so the side flips down (instead of the hinged roof). Then I added a board with an eye hook to keep the bedding in place.


Basically, if it's not easy to clean, you won't be doing it as often as you should. So like many others, I have easy to wipe walls & linoleum. I use nipple waterers & a treadle feeder to reduce waste.

What I would change: air flow. Mine is great in the summer, but I'd prefer higher cross ventilation in the winter. As you can see, the shape is not the easiest to work with.




Of course if you want 40 chickens, you may be better off with a larger shed & partitions for breeding.

 

[ChickCrazed]

Questions for everyone, but first just had to tell you all how wonderful my husband is (it is all related!). Unfortunately I thought I had finally found a type of Math I am better at than him, but not so sure anymore! We had a guy come give us an estimate on painting our house. We start talking chicken, find out he can build coops. He asks, "how many chickens do you ultimately want to have" and DH says "40". A month ago it was 30, then 35 now 40! Looks like he may have trumped me in the chicken math department! Then the guy leaves and DH tells me to start designing my coop. How could I NOT love this man? So that brings me to my questions:

What do you like about your coop - what don't you like. What features do you wish you had? What do you wish you could get rid of?

We are looking at 2 options - first, the guy building from the ground up, second, getting a shed and him transforming the shed.

So brag about your coops everyone and help me design mine! I have learned so much the past year and am glad we did not build the coop we thought we wanted last year b/c I now see all it's flaws!

I think your most economical bet is still converting a shed. That being said, the thing I like best about my coop is being able to walk inside to care for the chickens. Standing out in the wind/rain/snow to fill buckets/feeders/clean/get eggs would be TERRIBLE!!!!!! IMO!!!!!

 

[Acornewell]

Quote: I agree. I like to be able to walk into and rake out the bedding! My first coop was not easy to clean at all! I hated it. Here is my first coop:

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Danke schön for the replies in regards to oyster shell and duckies. Trudi's got a dish of oyster shell to peck at now. No egg this morning, but call ducks are not known for their egg laying prowess, so that's no surprise.

Also, thanks to kittydoc for your reply to my question. I didn't even think about the fact that AI is a virus, so antibiotics aren't going to work. But I think I have more snot in my head than brains at the moment thanks to this cold, so I can't be held accountable for lack of clear thought.

I finally gave up on trying to rest it out and went outside to get some work done on the duck coop--only to find out that my screws and washers were in a car that was not at home at the time. :/ So instead, I got some of the little things done and let the girls out into their big yard since I was there to watch them. They were SOOOOO happy! Unfortunately, I spotted Mr. Hawk a day or two ago, so they're going to have to stay in the mini yard for a little while longer unless someone's out with them.

Riddle me this Batman:  How do you get a frizzled chick out of two non-frizzled parents when frizzle is an incomplete dominant gene?



Thoughts?  Well reasoned or frivolous?

You are absolutely correct that frizzle is a dominant gene, so unless a bird is carrying it (and therefore displaying frizzled feathers), it cannot pass it on. I'm thinking either a mix up, or something like Brad mentioned, which I'll get to below.

I'm wondering how old these chicks are, though. Is it something like this that the person is seeing?

This was as a result of her flight feathers growing in before the rest of her wing feathers. It corrected itself once more feathers came in, and she's totally smooth feathered now.

@kittydoc here are the frizzled moderns that just showed up in his breeding.

Just want to point out, these birds are not frizzled. The frizzle gene causes all feathers to curl, and from what I can see in this picture, it appears that the only curled feathers on these birds are on their backs. I can see smooth feathers very clearly on them. Mutations do happen, such as silkied feathers popping up in pure Ameraucanas, and this could be one of those cases but with a different feathering gene. The only way to know for sure if this is a new type feathering gene would be to breed these birds to find out what their offspring are like.

I've also heard of improper nutrition causing odd feathers like this, though I'm assuming this is not the case here.

Just my thoughts on it.

 

[bradselig]

Questions for everyone, but first just had to tell you all how wonderful my husband is (it is all related!). Unfortunately I thought I had finally found a type of Math I am better at than him, but not so sure anymore! We had a guy come give us an estimate on painting our house. We start talking chicken, find out he can build coops. He asks,  "how many chickens do you ultimately want to have" and DH says "40". A month ago it was 30, then 35 now 40! Looks like he may have trumped me in the chicken math department! Then the guy leaves and DH tells me to start designing my coop. How could I NOT love this man? So that brings me to my questions:

What do you like about your coop - what don't you like.  What features do you wish you had? What do you wish you could get rid of? 

We are looking at 2 options - first, the guy building from the ground up, second, getting a shed and him transforming the shed. 

So brag about your coops everyone and help me design mine! I have learned so much the past year and am glad we did not build the coop we thought we wanted last year b/c I now see all it's flaws!

I have. 10x16 shed I converted. I sectioned off the back 10' to use as the coop and the from 6'x10' section for storage. I must say it is awesome when it is cold, wet, etc to be able to walk Into the storage section and not be out in the cold. I'll have to see if I have any pictures of it on my iPad. I have since sectioned off 3' on the right side of the coop section into smaller pens. The lower section is 3'x10' and about 3' tall. It's a pain to do anything in there. I divided the top 3x10 section into 2 smaller pens. The lower section has a run. The top sections do not.
The door from the storage area to the coop is also only about 2" off the floor. Bedding ALWAYS gets jammed up against the door and a total pain to open it. I had the door swing in so it would push the birds out of the way and minimize escapes. I will soon be changing the hinges so it swings out and I don't have to worry about the bedding.

 

[birdman55]

On this, I'm just wanting to clarify something for myself if you have the answer. I understand simply washing the eggs as some do before selling them will not work on the interior of the egg, but I've read many times about egg wash 'soaks', specifically in Tylan or some other antibiotic, to prevent certain diseases from spreading through the egg to offspring. The general idea is that the eggs are soaked for a day or two to allow them to absorb the antibiotic through the pores in the eggshell and for it to work inside the egg. So what I'm wondering is if this idea is flawed, or if this type of soak wash would work in this case? I've read some promising reports from other flock owners on Tylan soaks with eggs from MG infected flocks, but then I'm also finding through research now that the rate of MG transferring through the eggs is something like 5%, so I don't know how reliable these reports are...

thats very interesting about the soak....i will do some research on it...i also heard that the incubation of the egg actually diminishes the disease because they cannot survive in that environment...not sure how true that is...just what i read about and heard thru the grapevine...

A am new to chickens, and at the moment, I have none. I am however expecting delivery of some Barred Plymouth Rock chicks at the end of the month from efowl.com, this will be a new adventure for me. I've got my brooder setup and still currently working on my coop, but should have it completed shortly.

welcome to byc....alot of great people on here

Advice: a nicked quick

One of my hens had a bloody toe. It was slowly dripping blood. I cleaned it well, dabbed with peroxide, applied cornstarch, then triple antibiotic, gauze, & vet tape. Good News: She stopped bleeding very quickly & laid an egg. Bad news: she took her bandage off.

Any advice on her return to flock? I was going to put her back since it's only been 30 min, but I don't like the idea of her walking through the run if it may start bleeding again. Any ideas on how to bandage it? (Middle front toe)

Add: Most of the nail is in tact, so it's not really the toe bleeding, but the quick of the nail.

i have the same problem...is right by the toenail ....i did the same thing and cleaned it and set her back to free ranging to let mother nature do its thing...she should be fine...my philosophy is the strong survive...and the weak or ugly end up in freezer camp...just like a female ringneck today got totally mangled....i caught the male when a fellow bycer was over getting a pair of red goldens today...and put the peeper on the male....i didnt want to catch the female cause she was going thru some serious trauma and i didnt want the stress to kill her....so tomorrow if she is still kicking i will catch her and clean the wound and and she will more then likely be indoor for a couple of days...its pretty bad...i never knew they would be so aggressive like that...i just took off the peeper about a month ago...that didnt last long

Hey everyone! Spring has sprung! BUT I have some "indoor" chickens. Their coop door is open 10 hours a day for them to free range. But they won't come out side for more than 5 minutes at a time! How do I get them more interested in being out!?

welcome to byc

so today i got some sand dropped off and have been moving it in the back in five gallon bucket into the pens...talk about hard work...still snowed in so have no choice....not fun and tired of sand already and have a huge pile to move....got some quail eggs today and eggs getting ready to be set into the incubator after tonight going to candle them and see whats good.....got some black polish white crested eggs so well see how that goes...here are some pics...i havent been on for a while been trying to stay busy
eggs about ready to set

trio moved to their new pen for the season

their pen on the left

just got the buckets with the gravity feed system and installed today

added trees into the pens of each pheasant pen



started to add brush to the tops and screw them down..figured it would be more natural

not sure what she was up to ....hoping she was making a nest for eggs...lol

the dogs being lazy

mealworm beetle bin...slow process..about to order another 1000 worms

new hoop coop for the new birds that are about two months old

one week old 24 birds...

also getting npip certified in this month sometime whenever they show up so eggggsited about that...thats it...have a great night

 

[Little Ameraucana Mom]

Hey, LAMom! Good to know you're still out there and thawing out from the winter. Hope to be seeing you at Bloomington!

We are planning on being there, How you been, haven't seen you in a long time.? Did you ever get back on Facebook??

@kittydoc here are the frizzled moderns that just showed up in his breeding.

I never heard of a frizzled modern either, that is different.

Here's my silkie babies that hatched yesterday! They are sooo tiny! Correct toes comb and skin with what appear to be nice starts of top knots!

How cute, I have silkies hatching also. !!

 

[Little Ameraucana Mom]

thats very interesting about the soak....i will do some research on it...i also heard that the incubation of the egg actually diminishes the disease because they cannot survive in that environment...not sure how true that is...just what i read about and heard thru the grapevine...

welcome to byc....alot of great people on here

i have the same problem...is right by the toenail ....i did the same thing and cleaned it and set her back to free ranging to let mother nature do its thing...she should be fine...my philosophy is the strong survive...and the weak or ugly end up in freezer camp...just like a female ringneck today got totally mangled....i caught the male when a fellow bycer was over getting a pair of red goldens today...and put the peeper on the male....i didnt want to catch the female cause she was going thru some serious trauma and i didnt want the stress to kill her....so tomorrow if she is still kicking i will catch her and clean the wound and and she will more then likely be indoor for a couple of days...its pretty bad...i never knew they would be so aggressive like that...i just took off the peeper about a month ago...that didnt last long

welcome to byc

so today i got some sand dropped off and have been moving it in the back in five gallon bucket into the pens...talk about hard work...still snowed in so have no choice....not fun and tired of sand already and have a huge pile to move....got some quail eggs today and eggs getting ready to be set into the incubator after tonight going to candle them and see whats good.....got some black polish white crested eggs so well see how that goes...here are some pics...i havent been on for a while been trying to stay busy
eggs about ready to set

trio moved to their new pen for the season

their pen on the left

just got the buckets with the gravity feed system and installed today

added trees into the pens of each pheasant pen



started to add brush to the tops and screw them down..figured it would be more natural

not sure what she was up to ....hoping she was making a nest for eggs...lol

the dogs being lazy

mealworm beetle bin...slow process..about to order another 1000 worms

new hoop coop for the new birds that are about two months old

one week old 24 birds...

also getting npip certified in this month sometime whenever they show up so eggggsited about that...thats it...have a great night

Nice set up. Love your pic. We raise mealworm also, we have tons of them,the chickens sure love them.

 

[RouletteRun]

Yes get the coop built quickly!!

It's basically done now, all I've got left is to mount a couple roosting bars inside, I'll be sure to post some pictures when I get it finished.

 

[kittydoc]

@Faraday40 I keep Quik Stop powder (used by groomers and veterinarians for nicked quicks and sometimes small bleeders) around for small but persistent bleeds, and toenails are definitely the right kind of thing. Quik Stop plus a bandage, as long as it stays on for even 20-30 minutes, is probably long enough for a stable clot to form. I also used it on a couple of birds I NPIP tested who wanted to bleed a little more than I wanted them to!

It is basically a powdered form of the old-fashioned styptic pencil, iron sulfate being the active ingredient. It does not get into their system, pretty much just gives the blood something even better than flour or cornstarch to clot against.

Folks, please just do not use this on a big bleeder from a wound that needs suturing, long-term bandaging, etc. You should not use Quik Stop that way, or use that much of it. Small bleeds only.

You can get this by many names at any pet store and I assume also RK and TSC in the domestic pet area.