INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[ellymayRans]

@chick rookie
I promise piggy pictures soon! My lil weeners are still timid, so am working on socializing. My lil sumo girl will be easy to get pictures of, she is quite a lover girl already. Looks like her name is Sumo lol. DH finally got to see her tonight and that was the first word he said too. Just a really round, bulky lil piglet.

I have a LGD coming in December, finally decided to do it! He is a Great Pyreneese pup. Will be 8 weeks old, and both parents are on site at the owners home, and actively working dogs. I am so excited to finally have a big dog again !! Will be starting him out indoors of course and will be actively going outdoors with me, daily. We have an old pug mix and am keeping my MILs older boston until FIL has completed chemo and radiation. I want to be sure he is social with dogs and cats. I have done a lot of K9 training for protection, drugs, cadaver and arson. This is new for me, never trained for a livestock guardian! He will actively meet all the critters for a few months, and we will go from there.

I am so excited for you! I know how you've been looking for quite some time. The GP are just wonderful. Love them dearly.

 

[Indyshent]

We didn't have a single one, am sad to say the few neighborhood kids are all too old now

.
Raccoon and possum are sure moving, saw a lil possum running around in our barn tonight! We have had several turn up in the barn, so am concerned that the mother died.

I'm such a masochist, but if you trap that tiny thing, I'd kind of like to see if it could be socialized properly. Poor baby's so tiny and hungry

(and this is coming from a lady who just had five silkies eaten by a mommy possum and her brood).

I'm such an idiot sometimes.


***Edited after more research***
I think those babies might be right around the threshold where they're expected to try things out on their own. Key length to look for 7in from nose to rump, and that one seemed like it was a bit over that mark. while mom might have died (anything's possible) she might just not want to care for the little brats anymore, in which case you still have her and the rest of her litter to deal with.

This info was courtesy of a vet who's been raising orphaned opossums for 60 years http://www.2ndchance.info/raisepossum.htm

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Happy Halloween everyone!
We enjoyed a nice cold, wet, rainy day. The kids still had fun dressing up in costume & getting a load of candy.

Aww they are so adorable! I bet they had a lot of fun even with the chilly weather.

Quote: Thanks! Its been a really hard choice, but this pup fits perfectly. I am meeting so many folks that's trying to become more self sustaining. I ran across the pups on one of the facebook groups I joined and just couldn't pass it up. The smooth collies seem to be very rare, and those breeding them are not willing to commit to a sale, ugh. Its been a bit frustrating. I am a planner, and want to know "this happens on this date" and makes me crazy when I don't know whats happening.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: I didn't set traps tonight, but if you want the lil critter I am ok with it. I understand how you feel, its been hard for me to trap the babies. I had 4 i fed from a syringe when I was rehabbing. They were so incredibly tiny! They have done so much damage here in the past I just have no choice but to remove them.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Predators. ugh. Its sad for so many of them! Since the black bear, cougar, bobcat and wolf are no longer in Indiana for the most part, many species are very overpopulated, no natural predators to control their numbers aside from coyotes and man. On top of that, The huge rush of what i call "vinyl villages" hit in the late 90s, early 2000's. So much natural habitat, gone. It saddens me most because many of those homes are now empty, and foreclosed on. Not only did the wildlife lose their habitat, folks were tricked into houses they couldn't afford! And mortgages that had balloon payments and variable interest rates. Those neighborhoods really impacted the wildlife, and younger folks trying to get a good start. Just sad.

 

[chick rookie]

@chick rookie Glad your B-Day was good. Your kids sound great.

I spent today surrounding my coop and run with a hot wire in case the raccoons try to move in the barn for winter. And we had a good number of trick or treaters. I'm tired.

Thank You. Hot wire don't seem to work around here for anything but our horses and our dogs. Good luck I sure hope it works for you.

Big hogs don't seem to mind the cold or snow much at all. I have large totes, designed for water/fluids that have a hole cut out, making it a house. They are probably 250 gallon size. Mine are on open pasture as you've seen, and we are increasing the area to an acre. If its bitter cold they will spend more time in the houses, but mostly roll and root the snow. I keep my lil guys in a building until they are large enough to handle cold and need mud. They also get heat until they sleep away from it and clearly no longer need it. I don't set a limit or time, I watch how they act and adjust accordingly. Weeners are a little fragile so I give them all the time they need to bulk up. I can tell by how they act when they are ready to be outdoors.
We are building a regular hog farrowing house since we plan to begin breeding in the spring. I still want my hogs to have pasture, be able to root, and waller in the mud and be pigs. I want more access to easily walk in the pen, and have areas I can sit and socialize with them. My oldest sow (Hampshire) is super social already and want to keep her that way. My little hamp boar is just a doll too, I am really beginning to like the breed. both are close to 8 months! So my boar will need his own house very soon. I do not want piglets in the winter months.

Yikes, that is scary for them! I bet the guineas were screaming their little heads off

Any time I trap a predator my geese circle and hiss at the trap. I get it moved away quick. No point in it being traumatized, and letting my flocks be traumatized either.
I have to say I don't know genetics very well, and want to learn a lot more.. One good example is why chocolate Muscovy hens crossed with lavender drakes produce mostly lavender!

We didn't have a single one, am sad to say the few neighborhood kids are all too old now

.
Raccoon and possum are sure moving, saw a lil possum running around in our barn tonight! We have had several turn up in the barn, so am concerned that the mother died.

@chick rookie BOOOOO

! AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!

Thank you Thank you.. The grand kids are the only trick or treaters we get here, and I so love to see the kids all dressed up and have a good time, all kids not just mine.

@chick rookie I promise piggy pictures soon! My lil weeners are still timid, so am working on socializing. My lil sumo girl will be easy to get pictures of, she is quite a lover girl already. Looks like her name is Sumo lol. DH finally got to see her tonight and that was the first word he said too. Just a really round, bulky lil piglet.

I have a LGD coming in December, finally decided to do it! He is a Great Pyreneese pup. Will be 8 weeks old, and both parents are on site at the owners home, and actively working dogs. I am so excited to finally have a big dog again

!! Will be starting him out indoors of course and will be actively going outdoors with me, daily. We have an old pug mix and am keeping my MILs older boston until FIL has completed chemo and radiation. I want to be sure he is social with dogs and cats. I have done a lot of K9 training for protection, drugs, cadaver and arson. This is new for me, never trained for a livestock guardian! He will actively meet all the critters for a few months, and we will go from there.

O poor lil weeners, yes please don't scare the little porkers. I van wait.

Good luck with your GP. They are awesome at what they do, just watch the run factor.

 

[chick rookie]

Don't think I have asked this here yet, if I have then I sorry for the repeat.
Is there anyone in my area that has these? I am in love and I just GOT to find me some.

I would LOVE to have a roo and a couple hens!!!!

I'm just ga ga over this color. Red Partridge.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

North side. The Back (East side) is the back of of the house. As you can see the lamp is not in the house but it is pointed towards the house. If it falls it will hit dirt. And this is the broody hen I have been tying to break for 3 weeks.see that e poking out?? Everyone of my hens must have laid today cause she has 7 eggs under her and I took 3 away from her yesterday. Don't know what I am going to do with her, have been throwing so many eggs away cause she heats them up before I get to them. I get them every day, but I don't know if they would still be good for eating or not? Everyone gets houses cleaned and new pine bedding tomorrow, done some tonight, just to tired to finish them all up. The last juveniles that will be going to the big coop in about a month, got a clean house and new pine and they would not to in to go to bed. I had to find them and put them in it??? Hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween.

I don't know, that makes me awfully nervous... I can't tell, is there fence between it and the inside of the covered porch area? And how close is that tarp to the lamp? Those big heat lamp bulbs get hot enough they could easily melt or burn a tarp like that... As for miss broody, I collect eggs out from under broodies and put them with the eating eggs as long as I'm 100% sure they have been underneath her for less than 24 hours. I can't find the source of this information now, of course, but when trying to settle down the fears of someone about eating fresh eggs with a rooster in the flock, I found that it takes about 48-72 hours at temp (if I remember correctly) before development really even begins in the shell. As long as you're sure that the eggs under her have been laid that day, I'm sure they're fine for you to bring in rather than tossing them. Other than the raccoon event I posted about yesterday, I had a pretty quiet Halloween. We're out in the middle of nowhere and never get trick-or-treaters, so that wasn't any different. I may have overdone it with the candy, though. My niece and nephew got a lot of the good stuff, and of course it all needed to be taste-tested before we knew it was good for them to eat... Happy belated birthday, by the way.

Yikes, that is scary for them! I bet the guineas were screaming their little heads off Any time I trap a predator my geese circle and hiss at the trap. I get it moved away quick. No point in it being traumatized, and letting my flocks be traumatized either. I have to say I don't know genetics very well, and want to learn a lot more.. One good example is why chocolate Muscovy hens crossed with lavender drakes produce mostly lavender!

Haha, well, the Guineas are across the driveway from the ducks and hens, so they were none the wiser--thank goodness! They have actually been very quiet since we rebuilt their coop and run, so it would have been out of the ordinary to have them going at it again! (Did I ever post the pictures here of the rebuilt Guinea coop? I can't remember.) I really never knew genetics well until I started wondering about color genetics in chickens. I'm far from an expert, so I'm excited about what I may learn next semester! I have next to no experience with any kind of genetics outside of chickens, though. I can only speculate that, if it's anything like in chickens, Chocolate in Muscovies could be sexlinked recessive, meaning the female only carries one allele and passes it on to only a quarter of the offspring. Have you crossed a chocolate drake to lavender females to see what happens? If my speculation is correct, all of the chocolate ducklings you receive from that crossing should be female--but no guarantees on that because I don't know this to be fact.

I have a LGD coming in December, finally decided to do it! He is a Great Pyreneese pup. Will be 8 weeks old, and both parents are on site at the owners home, and actively working dogs. I am so excited to finally have a big dog again !! Will be starting him out indoors of course and will be actively going outdoors with me, daily. We have an old pug mix and am keeping my MILs older boston until FIL has completed chemo and radiation. I want to be sure he is social with dogs and cats. I have done a lot of K9 training for protection, drugs, cadaver and arson. This is new for me, never trained for a livestock guardian! He will actively meet all the critters for a few months, and we will go from there.

Big congrats on the new puppy! Good luck with the training, I hear it takes a lot of work!

Don't think I have asked this here yet, if I have then I sorry for the repeat. Is there anyone in my area that has these? I am in love and I just GOT to find me some. I would LOVE to have a roo and a couple hens!!!! I'm just ga ga over this color. Red Partridge.

Can't help you, but that is quite the gorgeous bird! Hope you can find some! Edited to fix some wording.

 

[Leahs Mom]

If you garden or purchase any "mulch" or "compost" - even if it's marked "organic", this article will be of interest to you. Definitely worth reading.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...n=20151101Z1&et_cid=DM89702&et_rid=1191664580

​

ETA a sentence

 

[Indyshent]

I really never knew genetics well until I started wondering about color genetics in chickens. I'm far from an expert, so I'm excited about what I may learn next semester!

I have next to no experience with any kind of genetics outside of chickens, though. I can only speculate that, if it's anything like in chickens, Chocolate in Muscovies could be sexlinked recessive, meaning the female only carries one allele and passes it on to only a quarter of the offspring. Have you crossed a chocolate drake to lavender females to see what happens? If my speculation is correct, all of the chocolate ducklings you receive from that crossing should be female--but no guarantees on that because I don't know this to be fact.
Big congrats on the new puppy!

Good luck with the training, I hear it takes a lot of work!
Can't help you, but that is quite the gorgeous bird! Hope you can find some!

Edited to fix some wording.

I have a whole semester on genetics next year and have already taken a chunk of biology classes that deal with it, but I'm not too well versed in chicken and duck genetics as yet (because I haven't been trying to produce show-quality birds or ones of any specific color, I suppose

), but this bit about the muscovies is pretty neat.

So... we'll have to see if my luck crossing a lavender drake over a chocolate hen holds the same ratio this spring. New lavender drake is from @LonelyPageTurne but also the grandson of @jchny2000 's lavender drake. I have a chocolate hen (love how she changes colors every molt!) but the lavender hen we received at the same time passed away a few weeks after we got both of them last year. as cool as sex-linked offspring would be, I doubt I'll have that luck with that cross. Remains to be seen if Groucho (mustache drake--looks to be black brown ripple pied, not entirely sure how to phrase it but he's sweet in an obstinate, obnoxious, drake-y sort of way) is even fertile due to his brothers lacking or underdeveloped man parts.

Speaking of muscovies, though, the hens (chicken and duck) have been making sure the new boys know their place at the bottom of the food chain this morning. New guys have been studiously avoiding the big Brahma boys (who don't seem to care one whit about their existence so long as they're not fighting with the hens). Most meaningful fight was between the older chocolate muscovy hen and the littlest rooster (she didn't really hurt him, but she did back him up into a corner and pull on his neck a bit). The Sumatras are scrappy, resourceful little guys so I'm not really worried about them getting enough to eat.

The drakes have also left the new roos alone (being far more concerned with their own placement in the duck hierarchy). So far the new lavender is the odd guy out, but he's getting closer to being one of the group every time I go out to check on them (admire them mostly). No fighting with them; just a lot of head bobbing, whispered threats and tail wagging.