INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[daskhan]

One AI related post.  This is on the AVMA website and discusses the reasons for the outbreak--which are numerous.

https://www.avma.org/news/javmanews...=javma-news&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=gen

@Faraday40
  Love the two-dimensional flock!!

Hey if your interested I'm looking for land to rent for that very reason and if I find some you are welcome to share/ rent a portion of it and I have found/ improved a chicken coop+ run that is fully in closed and is pred proof for about 140-200 and can hold about 10 chickens I'm probably going to be using building and maybe selling them

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Want to say a big welcome to anyone new joining our thread and group of fellow chicken lovers! Here is a little more info about us.
Click on it to make it larger and easier to read. Special thanks to @Mother2Hens and @atrueb00 for creating this document.

 

[racinchickins]

Quote: Turkeys have a much wider range of vocalizations that chickens do. I'm not certain exactly what you equate to a dog whine, but when my turkeys make a high shrill noise, it's usually because they are in distress, usually being picked on by another turkey. One vocalization to watch out for is a rising trill, it sounds very pretty, but it is actually a threat signal to what they perceive as a rival or enemy and usually precedes the start of a fight or other aggressive move.

I haven't had chickens for years but I'm ready to get back into it. I have 15 black Marans eggs, 2 ameraucana eggs, 1 Easter egger egg and 4 Marans/Australorp mix eggs in the incubator. I do not have a coop built...yet, but I have some time as the eggs are just at day 5 maybe 6. I've been trying to do some major homework before our final design. Any thoughts on the following would be greatly appreciated. I know some of you probably use fans during the summer to keep airflow moving so it doesn't get too hot, I plan on having a fan as well. I was thinking about installing a bathroom light with a ventilation fan to help with airflow without creating a draft for the winter months, thoughts? Bedding...I was set on sand because that would be less to compost and I've read that it can be cleaned with a lot less effort versus having straw/wood shavings that I would have to put some place to compost. Lastly, I would like to replenish my flock every couple years so I'm trying to be proactive in the design. I would like to have 2 sections in my coop, (just a chicken wire wall with a screen door for me to get through) open to one another the majority of the time, but that can be blocked off from one another if I'm hatching/introducing new chicks, have one that's being picked on, crazy rooster, etc. Anyone close to 135 and Thompson? Just curious. Thank you for any input you have.

Your plans start good. My one piece of advice....start building NOW. Those chicks will be sub-adults in not time and you will want them out of your house! It sneaks up on all of us, and you never have the coop ready in time.

Really enjoyed the lack of rain today!!!!

Birds were sure happy about it too. I had so many birds spread out sunning it looked like a war zone! Some of the dust bath areas were fairly dry, and they all were hitting them too. Took some updated pictures of my baby muscovys. Can't believe how fast they are growing.and feathering. The littlest one is about 2 weeks younger.


A pied and the drake again.

The two you gave us seem to be doing well. They ventured into the outside run momentarily yesterday. Still getting used to us.

 

[daskhan]

Hey if your interested I'm looking for land to rent for that very reason and if I find some you are welcome to share/ rent a portion of it and I have found/ improved a chicken coop+ run that is fully in closed and is pred proof for about 140-200 and can hold about 10 chickens I'm probably going to be using building and maybe selling them

Hey if your interested I'm looking for land to rent for that very reason and if I find some you are welcome to share/ rent a portion of it and I have found/ improved a chicken coop+ run that is fully in closed and is pred proof for about 140-200 and can hold about 10 chickens I'm probably going to be using building and maybe selling them

I guess I quoted the wrong person lol

 

[browncow15]

You have some very good plans already! I totally recommend sheds also. Dirt floor, not wood. I have one thats on concrete, and hate it. The roof is bad, and last winter really did it in. All my nice deep litter in there was saturated, and its been a nightmare digging it out. One on wood, we will be cutting out the floor, my turkeys stripped out the linoleum covering it! The third coop is on dirt, and composts nicely using deep litter. The hens scratch it up all the time and love finding the insects in it.

Wow, thats a rare sight! Good job catching them on camera!

LOVELY! She did a fantastic job with the colors!

How does your dirt floor do with all this rain we've been having? I have wood floor in my shed right now but it's going to rot out eventually, it floods around the edges currently. I'm not sure wether to replace the wood or just let it go to dirt.

 

[Indyshent]

Turkeys have a much wider range of vocalizations that chickens do. I'm not certain exactly what you equate to a dog whine, but when my turkeys make a high shrill noise, it's usually because they are in distress, usually being picked on by another turkey. One vocalization to watch out for is a rising trill, it sounds very pretty, but it is actually a threat signal to what they perceive as a rival or enemy and usually precedes the start of a fight or other aggressive move.

You're darn right they do!

The "dog whine" sounded very similar to a 6-wk-old Rottweiler pup we had about a decade ago (RIP Didi) when she was separated from us. It wasn't the barking velociraptor noise or the trilling threat. She wasn't being picked on; all the other turkeys were across the yard from her. She was lying in the dirt right next to the 2ft fence that keeps the backyard separated from the pumpkin patch, looking into the garden (where I was working behind the corn). When she did it, sometimes the other hens would quietly echo her. It sounded distressed but wasn't a noise I'd ever heard before. She hasn't done it since, and while making it, made no move to rejoin the group of turkeys less than twenty feet away or to see me in the garden. Even when I left the garden to see what the matter was, she still made it a few times. Eventually I gave up, picked her up, and set her in my lap for some pets. She stopped making it. No clue what it was about.

 

[racinchickins]

I will be having a processing day Sat Aug 1st. If you are interested in learning how to humanely process chickens and/or Turkeys, you are more than welcome to come over. Send me a pm and i'll give you all the info. If you have some birds who need to have their '1 bad day', you can bring them or you can learn on mine.

 

[Indyshent]

Really enjoyed the lack of rain today!!!!

Birds were sure happy about it too. I had so many birds spread out sunning it looked like a war zone! Some of the dust bath areas were fairly dry, and they all were hitting them too. Took some updated pictures of my baby muscovys. Can't believe how fast they are growing.and feathering. The littlest one is about 2 weeks younger.

Lavender drake is barred, very excited to see that!



A pied and the drake again.

The babies occasionally let me hold them, but mostly they just want to run around outside. I have a separate area fenced off and reinforced with 2ft of chicken wire at the base that the babies get to play in so long as it's warm and not raining outside. I've been boosting some of the bigger birds into that area and supervising. The surprising ones have been the young BO pullet who has been trying to play with them today. At first, I thought she was threatening them, but it turns out she's just doing the play-with-me dance. another surprise was the bigger Brahma rooster, who's apparently quite trustworthy with the bitties and has yet to peck anyone. he's getting flat out enormous and still hasn't tried to get with the ladies or crow yet. I feel like the bitties are safer out of my sight if they have a bigger bird with them that can scare away neighborhood cats and such. Giddy, our muscovy hen, always finds a way out of that area and would rather be in the bulk of the yard, apparently. She is warming up to the bitties.

The turkeys are untrustworthy with bitties, otherwise I'd have them watching over them in my absence. Alas, they have a fascination with pecking ducklings (is this something all turkeys do?). They never bothered the ducklings when the Black Swedish mommy bird was around, though we did have one that died with no apparent injuries so maybe they killed it after all. I think it may be a phase that turkeys go through because Bacon scalped a couple ducklings when he was here. He was much rougher than these girls have been with the babies, but I'm not taking chances. So far the confirmed tom has taken no interest in the bitties; the curiosity was all on the part of a couple hens.

Your babies are lovely!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
I don't have a dirt floor and at times I have wished that I did. But after thinking about it, I have some pros and cons in my mind and right now, I'm glad I don't have dirt in the chicken house. I may change my mind on that.


There are lots of pros to the deep litter on real dirt but I won't go into those.

So I'm going to play "Devil's Advocate" for not having a dirt floor.

Here are some things I've thought of for not having a dirt floor:
With wood floor: I put a sheet vinyl on my wood floor to protect it. Then I put in some dirt on top of the vinyl that I dig from under the deep litter in the run or garden, then wood shavings go on top of that.

1. With sheet vinyl -It protects the wood floor; no rotting.
2. It does well and is easy to shovel the indoor litter right out onto the run.
3. Possibly easier to more thoroughly disinfect if there is an outbreak of a lingering disease.
4. I always leave some of the litter to restart the next batch. Though there isn't a fully functioning deep litter indoors, it is "started" from the dirt and some of the prior accumulation and I get a great DL outside in the run.
5. My birds still get the advantage of the deep litter in the outdoor run and the beginnings indoors.

With cement floor:
No vinyl needed to avoid rot. Can hose out the floor if a deep cleaning is needed. No fear of digging predators.


Disadvantages I see to the dirt floor (remember there are a lot of advantages!)

1. Motivated predators can more easily dig under it and get into the coop... including an easier entrance for rats and mice. (Can be deterred by putting down hardware cloth but determined predators can get through if they work at it by chewing, etc.)



ETA: There is also the issue of the frame of the building rotting at floor level if it's on the dirt. Of course, you could put a block or cement area around the perimeter for the base of the shed to sit on.

 

[DuckiesGarden]

Hello everyone! I'm really needing some help today with a duckling! One of my broody chickens has been sitting on a duck egg. Two days ago I noticed it was just starting to pip. Yesterday it still hadn't hatched but I could hear it peeping so I left it alone. Today I went out to check on it and it was pushed out of the nest and the other chickens were pecking it! The shell was decimated, there was blood and smelly gunk. I brought the duckling in, it's still alive and peeping, but I'm not sure what to do! I wiped the worst of the gunk off and I think the blood was from ruptured veins in the shell, I don't see any wounds so far. The biggest problem is that it's "belly button" isn't completely absorbed into itself yet. Will it fix itself now that no one is pecking and stepping on it? Is there anything I can do to help or is it too late? I'd sure appreciate it if anyone has some ideas! Thanks so much!