INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[kittydoc]

@browncow15 Are the roos really aggressive, or just wearing the heck out of the hens' backs and tails? Chicken saddles go a long way to reduce the wear and tear on the hens. Be sure to keep spurs dull (I use a Dremel). None of mine are long enough to remove by the "hot potato" method, and hopefully I'll be able to keep them short enough with the Dremel. Some hens also seem to get more worn than others. I don't know why--if they are bred more often, or if it's because they're sometimes smaller. It seems generally smaller birds that are "popular" get the worst of it. Louise's Country Closet online has ones as low as $5 which work best on smaller breeds like Ameracaunas/EE's/small hatchery Orps/hatchery RIRs, etc., while the more expensive style with wing protectors works better on some larger birds. If the tail base is getting hammered, though, go with the $5 type. They are thinner and don't last as long, but they cover all the way down to the tail.

I have repaired a number of these as they've worn through so I don't constantly have to buy new ones, but it's their job to take the beating. Sometimes you have to adjust the elastic (tightening usually) for the large size ones from LCC. You'll know it's too loose if they get it off in a day or two.

@ellymayRans That bump on her noggin reminds me of something that happens to puppies when they run into walls or play too rough with their littermates. They are just blood-filled, too. It takes a little while for them to go down all the way. Dogs usually get them at a part of their skull called the nuchal crest, though, which birds do not have. Still, an accidental strike there is a possibility any time birds are housed together. Just be sure to keep it clean and use triple antibiotic ointment if needed while it is open. I think I'd agree that keeping her inside with a gentle buddy would be a good idea until it starts to heal more. It may get pecked more unless the broody protects her from it. Just my two cents!

 

[kittydoc]

I just noticed that I have 499 posts. Here's 500.



GOOD MORNING!

Have your coffee or tea, and don't forget your mucking boots or hip waders for the next week. Chance of rain around Indy every single day.

 

[chick rookie]

As far as human interaction, they are very social. They are a lot more broody, and the Tom is less actively chasing the hens than my Bourbon tom does.. At the beginning of the season, I had several poults hatch before they started hiding eggs. I took eggs from them a couple weeks ago and they were all infertile, and smelled pretty bad. They actually tried to take over a scovy nest today, and pecked my lil girl Hueys head pretty good. What upset me most, they drug a few of the eggs from the nest, pecked them open and killed the duckling inside.Did not eat the eggs! I had found this in my main coop last week, and assumed it was a chicken, until I walked up on this earlier. Very odd behavior for turkeys on high protein feed. Never saw this behavior even out of BB variety turkeys.

Poor baby! The news is good, but still having to wait out whats happening is so hard! Hoping for an answer soon.

Aww, I would bring her in, poor thing.


Loved your pictures!
I am so sorry about losing the chick. Very good point to make. Its a hard call, but I have learned if they are over a year old, and not a "gentleman" they won't ever be. I have kept a few human aggressive roosters way too long before, because they treated the hens so well. Aprons can't completely protect them either. Bruce my BA was here a LONG time, but he would feed them, and none of his girls ever had a bare back. No bare necks, no spurring. Any hen I put in his coop stayed right with him free ranging, period. Bruce never lost a hen to a predator, he was good at watching out for them and alerting if anything wasn't "right". The funniest part of it is he never ran off another rooster unless one of his hens was squealing.
Bruce made the mistake of attacking my Mom while she was trying to take a walk. That was it for him, bye bye Bruce! For me, I will toe bump the chest to stop them, but just cannot allow them attacking my parents. I have all human friendly roos now, but several have been terrible to the hens. Its a real puzzle to me also.

I had a BR that was allowed to stay longer then he should have cause he was great to the hens... but I finally got tired of NOT being able to walk out the door to do anything without getting flogged. By By Hermon.

So glad to hear it! The group of that he hatched with was handled quite a bit. Cogburn has never produced an aggressive baby yet, though a lot of his kids won't be coming into their own for a few more months. I will let all of you guys know that Cog crowed at 3 months and 29 days of age, and was breeding a couple of weeks later. You'd think a roo that full of testosterone would be a jerk, but he's so easy for me to handle when I need to (moving him between breeding pens, etc.). I can hold him with one arm, not even securing his feet, and he is just chilled out about the whole thing.

thats cause he knows you are taking him to more girls... lol its a man thing.

I just noticed that I have 499 posts. Here's 500.



GOOD MORNING!

Have your coffee or tea, and don't forget your mucking boots or hip waders for the next week. Chance of rain around Indy every single day.

Morning. Lots of rain here too I have a few little ponds and 1 big lake in my pasture and runs. So tired of it!! I know my critters are.


have a hatching question for you experts... Hatch was due yesterday the 7th, only 1 hatched but I have another that has pipped, BUT my humidity has droped to 40% I added water and it came up to 59% I worried that the other chick is going to be shrink wrapped!! What else can I do to keep it from droping anymore. I have a bowel ( tiny ) of water and 3 socks (Wet with hot water ) plus all the water tracks are full.

 

[ellymayRans]

@browncow15
   Are the roos really aggressive, or just wearing the heck out of the hens' backs and tails?  Chicken saddles go a long way to reduce the wear and tear on the hens.  Be sure to keep spurs dull (I use a Dremel).  None of mine are long enough to remove by the "hot potato" method, and hopefully I'll be able to keep them short enough with the Dremel.  Some hens also seem to get more worn than others.  I don't know why--if they are bred more often, or if it's because they're sometimes smaller.  It seems generally smaller birds that are "popular" get the worst of it.  Louise's Country Closet online has ones as low as $5 which work best on smaller breeds like Ameracaunas/EE's/small hatchery Orps/hatchery RIRs, etc., while the more expensive style with wing protectors works better on some larger birds.  If the tail base is getting hammered, though, go with the $5 type.  They are thinner and don't last as long, but they cover all the way down to the tail.

I have repaired a number of these as they've worn through so I don't constantly have to buy new ones, but it's their job to take the beating.  Sometimes you have to adjust the elastic (tightening usually) for the large size ones from LCC.  You'll know it's too loose if they get it off in a day or two.

@ellymayRans
 That bump on her noggin reminds me of something that happens to puppies when they run into walls or play too rough with their littermates.  They are just blood-filled, too.  It takes a little while for them to go down all the way.  Dogs usually get them at a part of their skull called the nuchal crest, though, which birds do not have.  Still, an accidental strike there is a possibility any time birds are housed together.  Just be sure to keep it clean and use triple antibiotic ointment if needed while it is open.  I think I'd agree that keeping her inside with a gentle buddy would be a good idea until it starts to heal more.  It may get pecked more unless the broody protects her from it.  Just my two cents!

Thanks for the input but it hatched with it. So not sure what that's all about. Not from my hen.

 

[browncow15]

@browncow15
   Are the roos really aggressive, or just wearing the heck out of the hens' backs and tails?  Chicken saddles go a long way to reduce the wear and tear on the hens.  Be sure to keep spurs dull (I use a Dremel).  None of mine are long enough to remove by the "hot potato" method, and hopefully I'll be able to keep them short enough with the Dremel.  Some hens also seem to get more worn than others.  I don't know why--if they are bred more often, or if it's because they're sometimes smaller.  It seems generally smaller birds that are "popular" get the worst of it.  Louise's Country Closet online has ones as low as $5 which work best on smaller breeds like Ameracaunas/EE's/small hatchery Orps/hatchery RIRs, etc., while the more expensive style with wing protectors works better on some larger birds.  If the tail base is getting hammered, though, go with the $5 type.  They are thinner and don't last as long, but they cover all the way down to the tail.

I have repaired a number of these as they've worn through so I don't constantly have to buy new ones, but it's their job to take the beating.  Sometimes you have to adjust the elastic (tightening usually) for the large size ones from LCC.  You'll know it's too loose if they get it off in a day or two.

They are really mellow with people, they're just tearing the girls up, and it doesn't seem to be as much their spurs as they're just clumsy and rough with them. I've got saddles on a few because they've actually tore them open but I can't afford 30 saddles

 

[Leahs Mom]

So how does it work? Do you drop the chickens off the night before or do you have to go super early?
I had to take them in the night before. I don't know if they will receive them early in the morning or not.
Do they get it all done in 1 day and you pick up that night?
Yes. They are usually done by noon.

Do they do multiple people's chickens in the same day?
Yes. They do a lot in a day.


How do they keep them separate so you know you are getting yours?
You bring your birds and they load them into their holding crates and tag the crates. Similar to this photo. I "grilled" them on getting my own birds back as I raise with organic feed and "methods" (or better) so I don't want to come home with someone else's poorly raised/fed birds. They assured me that they keep specific track and that everyone gets their own back. In my case, the one time I took them I know I got mine as they were pretty small cockerels at the time. I also stayed and watched them mark my crate and made extra sure that the tag was secure to my pen. I believe they also marked the number of birds in each crate on the tags.

That is a very reasonable price. Maybe the hubby and I could make a date night/ day of it

Although I'm not sure if our dog crates can hold the 25-50 birds we'd have to do at once to make it worth it.

I think it would be good to learn to do it. At some point we will have to cull an older bird or extra rooster and we wouldn't want to drive over an hour for that. I am still at the point that I hate catching them because I feel like I am being mean. But I know that culling is an important part of the process and I want to be able to do it someday.

I know what you mean. I have to work at not feeling like I'm betraying a friend. I struggle every time I even "think" about taking out one of the layers. I hope that meat birds will be easier.

 

[Leahs Mom]

As an addendum...

When I first heard about these folks, I didn't know it was as "large" an operation as it is. Not large as in a big factory or anything...it is on the property of a farm and it's relatively small in that regard. But there were so many birds being processed. It was that time of year that folks take their old layers before the winter (November when I went).


I originally thought it was smaller - maybe my perception was more like a single person operation there in their home farm. So that was kind-of what I was expecting and when I arrived and saw so many people coming with their birds, I almost just turned the car around and left. I have enough concerns about stress on the birds, etc., and that just added to it. (Of course, I was feeling like I was betraying friends in the first place......funny thing is that I had to keep from crying when I put them in the crates and then, when I left and no one could see me, I cried all the way home

)

When I came to pick them up, the ladies were still working in the final finish and the door was open slightly into the office where I came in. The ladies didn't know I was there and they all broke out singing together "Faith of Our Fathers". (I later found out that the Mennonite-family-owned business employ folks from their church and they are all friends and family working together.) I have to say it was just a comfort to hear them singing and enjoying working together. It almost made me cry (again).

 

[Indyshent]

I've had a shelless egg or two in two seasons... but I'm starting to wonder if something might be wrong with one of my pullets. I've seen no fewer than five of them in the last week, and I think they're all coming from the same pullet. She doesn't seem to realize that she's even laying an egg because I'm finding them in really odd places (like under roosts), already split open and leaking everywhere

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

As an addendum...

When I first heard about these folks, I didn't know it was as "large" an operation as it is. Not large as in a big factory or anything...it is on the property of a farm and it's relatively small in that regard. But there were so many birds being processed. It was that time of year that folks take their old layers before the winter (November when I went).


I originally thought it was smaller - maybe my perception was more like a single person operation there in their home farm. So that was kind-of what I was expecting and when I arrived and saw so many people coming with their birds, I almost just turned the car around and left. I have enough concerns about stress on the birds, etc., and that just added to it. (Of course, I was feeling like I was betraying friends in the first place......funny thing is that I had to keep from crying when I put them in the crates and then, when I left and no one could see me, I cried all the way home

)

When I came to pick them up, the ladies were still working in the final finish and the door was open slightly into the office where I came in. The ladies didn't know I was there and they all broke out singing together "Faith of Our Fathers". (I later found out that the Mennonite-family-owned business employ folks from their church and they are all friends and family working together.) I have to say it was just a comfort to hear them singing and enjoying working together. It almost made me cry (again).

This was touching to hear, and shows they take it seriously, as anyone that processes should. The animals gave their life to feed our family, they deserve thanks for it.

I've had a shelless egg or two in two seasons... but I'm starting to wonder if something might be wrong with one of my pullets. I've seen no fewer than five of them in the last week, and I think they're all coming from the same pullet. She doesn't seem to realize that she's even laying an egg because I'm finding them in really odd places (like under roosts), already split open and leaking everywhere

Sounds like a calcium situation for sure. Hardboil eggs and crush one a day for her shell and all. See if that gives her a boost. Pullets usually have some oddities but with it repeating, I would be concerned. I keep a feeder with oyster shell in the main coop but that doesn't mean they eat it!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I am honestly so waterlogged and sick of rain I could scream! Weekend looks dry, lets hope. My goats won't come out of the house, chickens look like wet rats.my turkeys are mopey too. Really had enough of it. Geese and ducks think its awesome of course.