INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[SallyinIndiana]

Dr. Wakenell, the Purdue avian specialist, was a featured guest on NPR recently regarding the avian influenza epidemic. ISPA sent info, including the link to the online broadcast of the interview. For those of you who would like to know more, this is a very good resource. I listened to most of it live in my car.

To ISPA NPIP Small Flock, Game Bird Flock Owners And Interested Parties:

Today (April 15, 2015), on the NPR program, Here & Now, Dr. Pat Wakenell was interviewed for a segment titled “Bird Flu Spreading to Poultry Farms in the Midwest.”

From the NPR Website:

A poultry farm in Iowa announced yesterday that part of the flock there had contracted the latest round of the bird flu. The H2N2 strain of the virus is highly contagious among birds, but scientists say not contractible by humans. What does this outbreak mean for consumers in the U.S.? Patricia Wakenell, associate professor of avian diagnostics at Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine discusses this with Here & Now’s Robin Young.

Click here to listen to the story: http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/04/15/bird-flu-poultry-midwest

Is there a map showing pinpoints for where the farms are located that have had it this year?
I know it is getting closer and closer to us but I'm such a visual person I would like to see it on a map. To top it off I would like to see it where an entire state is not marked for a few cases.

And this may seem like a really stupid question but I have a lot of chickens so I'm asking. Would you and your family go hang out for a day with an out of state friend if they had just flown in from their state that has the Avian Flu?

 

[ellymayRans]

Well I got to meet @nwchickma today. Unfortunately very briefly as I left the family at the ballpark to get her her 4 banty Cochins.

Crazy busy day!! First practice at 9am...day of pics for the teams and more practice..our beautiful day was spent entirely at the baseball fields! Sigh!

I have Sooo many things I need to do and I came home exhausted. I hate that! Boys had fun though so that's what's important!

 

[Bawk]

need a coop.  This one looks like a great price
http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/grd/4984588636.html

Post has been deleted..maybe another chicken fanatic got it

 

[kittydoc]

Is there a map showing pinpoints for where the farms are located that have had it this year?
I know it is getting closer and closer to us but I'm such a visual person I would like to see it on a map. To top it off I would like to see it where an entire state is not marked for a few cases.

And this may seem like a really stupid question but I have a lot of chickens so I'm asking. Would you and your family go hang out for a day with an out of state friend if they had just flown in from their state that has the Avian Flu?

You'd think the government would have such a map, but I haven't seen one. There's probably one online somewhere, though.

And your human friends have no chance of infecting your flock with AI unless they literally own an infected flock/farm. If it's just in their state and they don't own birds, no problem. If it's just their state and they do own birds, then as long as their birds are healthy, also no problem. This AI strain kills so fast that 10% of your flock can die within a day or two. We have never had more than one death in a single day (not even from predators, but that's lucky perhaps), and average 1 or fewer deaths per year for our flock, which is getting to be pretty good sized. I'd soil myself if we lost 10% of our birds over 48 hours, because then I'd know.

 

[flyladyrocks]

Wisconsin is on it! I hope Indiana does the same thing in the event AI comes here. http://datcp.wi.gov/(X(1)S(e0crciat...ex.aspx?Id=1274&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

 

[Faraday40]

And your human friends have no chance of infecting your flock with AI unless they literally own an infected flock/farm. If it's just in their state and they don't own birds, no problem. If it's just their state and they do own birds, then as long as their birds are healthy, also no problem.

We've been keeping our chickens in the coop/run to be safe from any wild birds. Probably over-protection, since we do not have a pond. However, I've trained my kids to avoid walking in park areas where geese reside as well as only wearing their "chicken shoes" in the backyard.

Today the kids happened to see a pair of mallards walking across the front yard of our neighbor. They started yelling "Get!", so the dumb ducks flew over the fence into our backyard. DH let our dog out & those two ducks were airborne in under 2 sec. I had to laugh. Last year, my kids might have tried to pet them & this year, ducks are worse than toxic waste.

 

[flyladyrocks]

Y'all, I'm so excited. I bought my own grains last night so I can begin the journey known as mixing my own feed for my flock.

I'm also going to experiment with sprouting and fermenting.

I should be doing the dishes right now (our dishwasher is broken and there is quite a stack), but I really want to mix up grains, instead.

 

[flyladyrocks]

Gorgeous day, got lots done. At dusk, we were still all outside. I was trying to finish a project that involved a staple gun. A friend had just stopped by to say hi and all of a sudden 2 officers were casually walking down the outside of our fence. They were obviously not in a hurry or worried about anything. My hubby says "Good evening officers, what can I help you with?". One of them sighed and rolled his eyes and said "We got a report that someone was shooting off a pellet gun at your house." and another sigh. Here is the thing - it is not illegal to shoot a pellet gun! And it was just a staple gun! They acknowledged that, said were sorry to bother us but someone called and they had to come out. We all got a good laugh over it and my husband asked "If you got a call that we were out planting our garden would you come?" They said "I see your point, we'll let you get on with your Saturday, have a good evening folks!". There is no doubt in our mind that it was our crazy neighbor whose latest trick is to call 911 (2 "fires" were the dryer vent) anonymously, but we can request recording of the call and it is her! Even if it was done "anonymously". She called the city on our stick pile and today we caught her normally very nice, mild mannered and resonable husband throwing sticks from his yard over our fence! ARGH!!!!

On to happier things and then bed! Yesterday we began a new adventure and got 3 poults from Blue Palm Eggs (they could be Blue, Royal or Slate) from SallyinIndiana. So precious! Meet Anastasia, Victoria and Sir Tomas (pronounced Toe-Mahs after my begging, if we do indeed have a Tom, to PLEASE not name him Tom!) No we don't know their sex, the names are just wishful thinking!



Their favorite activity so far is hair styling - all three were trying to crawl into my hair! The chicks never have done this!



They also are really good at tickling:


These lovely Biele boys are only gracing us with their presence for a few days. They are from kittydoc and Monday I am taking them to jchny2000 when I get my EEs!



I am exhausted, and better head to bed. Productive day before the rain starts tomorrow! But I am so tired I seem to be unable to find the little "mention" button! It is like it disappeared and I am mentioning three pple in this post. Sigh. Good night all!

 

[flyladyrocks]

We've been keeping our chickens in the coop/run to be safe from any wild birds. Probably over-protection, since we do not have a pond. However, I've trained my kids to avoid walking in park areas where geese reside as well as only wearing their "chicken shoes" in the backyard.

Today the kids happened to see a pair of mallards walking across the front yard of our neighbor. They started yelling "Get!", so the dumb ducks flew over the fence into our backyard. DH let our dog out & those two ducks were airborne in under 2 sec. I had to laugh. Last year, my kids might have tried to pet them & this year, ducks are worse than toxic waste.

 

[Bawk]

 
We've been keeping our chickens in the coop/run to be safe from any wild birds.  Probably over-protection, since we do not have a pond.  However, I've trained my kids to avoid walking in park areas where geese reside as well as only wearing their "chicken shoes" in the backyard.  

Today the kids happened to see a pair of mallards walking across the front yard of our neighbor.  They started yelling "Get!", so the dumb ducks flew over the fence into our backyard.  DH let our dog out

We have been chasing away geese too though we have no chickens yet ( in between flocks) good to be aware of them, thanks. Our run is big and we didn't see birds even get in after it was built.