INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

I am sooooo far behind! Keep trying to catch up and wind up falling asleep. Cooked and cleaned 4 days in a row. I love the holidays and seeing family but UGH I am wupped!

Off to try to catch up again tonight.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

If you are interested in buying any Brinsea incubators or products, right now Rakuten.com is offering $120 for new credit card applicants who are approved. We bought two Octagon 20's (DH got one and I got one) for free. Can't get that. For $120, you can get even more (I think we signed up when the promo was $80.)

Sorry I have not been on much lately. Between my health (pure crap) and dealing with the rescues from next door, I have been worn out, and not online much except to check important things like email.

I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but all our of Bielefelder pullets appear to be laying (we had 5 of 6 lay in a single day). They are saving our bacon right now. We let our girls molt naturally this year and it just destroyed our egg production, and it is NOT coming back, so I figure we have to just get by on less from the young pullets until Jan or Feb. We only have a few adult hens laying, and are still waiting for a bunch of Orp pullets to get a move on! We have 6 or 7 of them that should be ready any time.

Question for the group: I need to do something about my rooster situation. Cog is still living with the adult lavs (who do nothing but eat, thank you very little). The last hen is coming out of her molt slowly but surely, and Cogburn now has a tail again. Anyway, I will need to move my lav cockerel and lav pullets into that pen, and need Cogburn out. Options as I see it: (1) Sell Placido, my Jubilee roo who is gorgeous and very well-mannered, OR (2) crate them alternately in the main (mixed) coop until I need Cogburn again, OR (3) try to introduce Cogburn into the main coop and hope he and Placido figure out how to live peaceably. Cogburn and Placido have lived separated by nothing more than hardware cloth their entire lives, but they are fully mature and haven't shared space since they were young cockerels. I'd prefer to be able to keep them together in the mixed (non-breeder) flock. Has anyone done this successfully (or otherwise)? Suggestions? I have three Jubilee hens left but want to try to make blue Jubilees and improve their genetics. I don't HAVE to have Placido to do that since right now I have two blue cockerels.

For those who may be interested, this is the list of colors/breeds we will have available in 2016 (also hatching eggs for most):

Lavender Orpingtons (1/4 to 1/2 English, the rest hinkjc American)
Black split to lavender Orps (1/2 English, rest hinkjc American) ON DEMAND ONLY
Blue Orpingtons (full English)
Black Orpingtons (full English)
Splash Orpingtons (full English)
Chocolate Cuckoo Orpingtons (full English)
Black Cuckoo Orpingtons (full English)
Chocolate Orpingtons (full English)
Jubilee Orpingtons (full English) ON DEMAND ONLY (true color, not my project chicks)

Bielefelders (autosexing German breed)

Everything will be sold straight run except the Bielefelders.

ALSO, we are trying to find a home for our "Orpacauna" cockerel as a flock roo for a barnyard flock. He is black with the most intense beetle green sheen I have ever seen, and should be an olive egger (mom was a green egg layer, and his dad was a lavender Orp). He is breeding and crowing. We'd hoped for a pullet and don't need another roo. His options are either (1) we eat him, or (2) he gets to be a flock roo somewhere else, at least for a while, especially if you are wanting some more colorful eggs. He has a very small comb that should be almost frostbite-proof. I'll try to get a good photo of him. He is bigger than an Ameracauna cockerel, but a lot smaller than an Orp roo.

Hope everybody is OK. We're supposed to go to Louisville for Thanksgiving, but I may not be up to it this year. We just drove to Lexington, KY and back to hear my daughter's last concert as a UK student, and we had to bring the dog with us. Between all that sitting and the dog driving me crazy in a new place, I feel like death warmed over.

Safe travels! I bet your boys will comingle fine. There may be a few spats but usually if you just monitor, they will work it out. If they don't fight through the fence on a regular basis I think they should be fine.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:

oh geez, I just turned the bator off a few weeks ago. I have 3 gosling in a brooder and I am done for this year lol. These 3 are supposed to be sold already. If not they will go into my mallard pen in a couple weeks.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

This is off the topic of chickens so if you guys want me to delete it I will. But I have two potbellied pigs that are 3 months old, one male one female, for sale. Also have 6 baby lionhead bunnies just weaned.

Now on to chicken stuff

. I have an incubator full of eggs that were due to hatch on Thursday. Its now Saturday, and not one pip. Ive never had this happen before. Every batch has started hatching on the day they were supposed to. Ive never even helped a chick out of the egg after it pipped, I let nature take its course. Husband did unplug the bator the second day of lockdown (whole nother story there). It was unplugged nearly an hour before I found it. Is there something I should do to help the chicks out?

The only topics that we don't discuss is anything offensive or not for children's ears. We keep discussions family clean per BYCs guidelines. Aside from that, we have bee keepers, I keep goats, pigs, a cow and donkey. Several species of poultry and waterfowl. You betcha we talk about it all

I think I would start candling the eggs, I have had them hatch up to 5 days late.

LOL! Yummy, ok!

Got a strong discussion going on right now, have had it before with the same person, almost like trying to make a horse drink when it don't want to.
Want ya'll op.
This person claims to have a chicken that lays 3 different colored eggs, not at once, I say it's impossible, that she cold lay a different shade of the same color as she gets older but not completely different colors every other day.... This person claims to have WATCHED on 3 different occasions this hen lay 3 different colored eggs, a green an off white and a lt brown. Am I wrong in thinking this person is just plain NUTS??? This person says it is Possible cause of the mix in the hen!! I say NOT!!! I have told her to look it up and do some reading!! She looks everything up as it is don't know why she wont look this up??? I swear she just wants something to argue about!! I know I should just give up and let her say what she wants, but

drives me nuts when someone tries to ACT like that know it all, when they don't know jack.... just goes through me, and to keep bringing it up every time we see each other!!

We cant get our NEW shed to stop leaking!! We put some of that clear sealant on the roof the kind that comes in a spry can, I cant remember what the name of it was. So we are just going to put a tarp over the roof for now.

Our old house that we replaced the whole back wall cause of it leaking last year and molded, is leaking again this year!! What is up ?? My temp. tarp houses are better at keeping things dry!!!

Sweet Pea our Cochin is officially a hen, she has give me 3 LG brown eggs this week...

Mystery solved!!

Now if the last Wellie and the BCM's will start laying???

Got a question for ya?? I think I know the answer but want to check.
I hatched this EE chick this summer, in July, It is SOOO small, everything else I hatched with Him/Her is way bigger the him. It was one of my own eggs, I have no EE bantams. Why is he so small? Can on of my hens or my roo carry a bantam gene and pass it on to the chicks? His comb is already red and he has feather coming in his tail that look like Rooster feathers???

I cannot possibly see how a hen could lay different colors. Shades, yes. Colors no.
I am so sorry hearing about your leaks, its so frustrating.
EE are such a mix, its possible there is a bantam gene in there.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

chick rookie
I've seen hens lay diff shades - like one starts out peach but fades to white several months later. I've also seen some brown speckled egg layers sometimes lay a solid brown. Unless one of her eggs was shell-less , I doubt there'd ever be that much of a difference. However, I understand what you mean about that know-it-all personality. One of my daughter's classmates criticized DD's drawing of a chicken. The little girl claimed that all chickens must have orange beaks & feet. My daughter told her that chickens can have black, gray, olive, white, etc legs and that she owned chickens. The little girl simply told her she was wrong & of course a liar. Later DD went to her locker & brought back a photograph for show & tell of herself holding some of those nonexistent chickens. She didn't want the whole class believing that all chickens looked like White Leghorns. Then when she told them about the green, blue, tan, pink, & speckled eggs, their jaws dropped. I ended up getting a call with a request for an in school field trip.

Good for her!

Quote:
Thank you!

 

[Leahs Mom]

It's a chicken devil!

 

[Indyshent]

Got a strong discussion going on right now, have had it before with the same person, almost like trying to make a horse drink when it don't want to.
Want ya'll op.
This person claims to have a chicken that lays 3 different colored eggs, not at once, I say it's impossible, that she cold lay a different shade of the same color as she gets older but not completely different colors every other day.... This person claims to have WATCHED on 3 different occasions this hen lay 3 different colored eggs, a green an off white and a lt brown. Am I wrong in thinking this person is just plain NUTS??? This person says it is Possible cause of the mix in the hen!! I say NOT!!! I have told her to look it up and do some reading!! She looks everything up as it is don't know why she wont look this up??? I swear she just wants something to argue about!! I know I should just give up and let her say what she wants, but

drives me nuts when someone tries to ACT like that know it all, when they don't know jack.... just goes through me, and to keep bringing it up every time we see each other!!

We cant get our NEW shed to stop leaking!! We put some of that clear sealant on the roof the kind that comes in a spry can, I cant remember what the name of it was. So we are just going to put a tarp over the roof for now.

Our old house that we replaced the whole back wall cause of it leaking last year and molded, is leaking again this year!! What is up ?? My temp. tarp houses are better at keeping things dry!!!

Sweet Pea our Cochin is officially a hen, she has give me 3 LG brown eggs this week...

Mystery solved!!

Now if the last Wellie and the BCM's will start laying???

Got a question for ya?? I think I know the answer but want to check.
I hatched this EE chick this summer, in July, It is SOOO small, everything else I hatched with Him/Her is way bigger the him. It was one of my own eggs, I have no EE bantams. Why is he so small? Can on of my hens or my roo carry a bantam gene and pass it on to the chicks? His comb is already red and he has feather coming in his tail that look like Rooster feathers???

1. Regarding the little EE:

Could just be a small bird. Bantams had to come from somewhere; so to with Chihuahuas. Many things can stunt a bird's growth as well, such as some infections, worms, competition from other chicks, etc. Some birds grow slower than others, also. You would never guess how big an Orpington, Cochin, Jersey Giant or Brahma will get by looking at their baby pictures taken next to CXs. My EE chicks tend to tower over my Brahmas for a few months (before that dreaded delayed puberty and growth spurt send the Brahmas reaching for the stars, that is). Just wait it out. He'll either get bigger, or he won't. If he does; great (easier time mating your girls--unless he gets too big, in which case: yay for comic relief!). If he doesn't, that's also great (yay for smaller feed bills and comic relief!).

2. Sweet Pea
Yay! I just came by a pair of Cochins (cue "Simply Irresistible"), and they are such doll babies

3. The Crazy Lady with the Swiss Army Laying Hen of a Different Color:

I have girls which give some markedly different shades and hues on a day-to-day basis. Some browns turn to white or pink. I have a green (sometimes greener, bluer, purpler or grayer, depending on state of her superpowered flux capacitor of immaculate eggcoloring) layer who gives me white, gray, brown, sky blue or pink speckles on her eggs (sometimes even more than one color speckle on the same egg). One Wellie occasionally lays eggs that are only speckled on one side or are two-toned like 60's sunglasses. Miracles happen (even if they don't happen anywhere near as often as mistakes). It's not a big deal. If she wants to see the image of Christ and the Virgin Mary in her shower mold, so be it. If her hen lays golden eggs, let her try to sell them to the pawn shop and see what happens (and bring popcorn).

You're a great lady (and, barring miraculous cosmic crazy scenarios, almost certainly correct), but there is no reason to waste your effort arguing with this lady. You have plenty of other troubles heaped on you right now without bothering to argue this lady into the ground over something this silly. Throw a tarp over your shed, scatter some orange peels around Blackbeard, and hold Sweet Pea until you feel like you won't slap the living expletives out of the lady (with her screeching magic hen!).

 

[Indyshent]

It's a chicken devil!

This one has my favorite comb (for a La Fleche). It's big and unusual, even for this breed, but I just love the pictures this roo takes

I think superstition about their comb may be part of why the breed has largely gone extinct. That same comb type is seen in many crested breeds (or, as the case is usually, not seen)

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: He is really impressive! The nostrils are just so odd looking!

 

[Indyshent]

He is really impressive! The nostrils are just so odd looking!

He looks so happy too! The crazy nostrils are harder to appreciate when the bird has a comb that anchors largely over them (this is why the Breda has a super net nose, too: no comb at all to anchor there)