INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[BackyardBitten]

I am loving every body's pictures! My chickenless disease is getting better with each passing day lolol. Thought I'd include a couple pics of my ornery little doxie girl. This little thing literally runs laps around me on a daily basis and is such a little clown!



Hope everyone is braving the cold ok. TTFN

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I am loving every body's pictures! My chickenless disease is getting better with each passing day lolol. Thought I'd include a couple pics of my ornery little doxie girl. This little thing literally runs laps around me on a daily basis and is such a little clown!



Hope everyone is braving the cold ok. TTFN

Oh what a cutie!!!!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Oh my, I feel very humbled to see I was awarded the BYC friend badge! How exciting and thank you!

 

[daskhan]

Oh my, I feel very humbled to see I was awarded the BYC friend badge! How exciting and thank you!

Congrats

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

 
i made my account right before my semester started as well, probably not a great idea!

and what a beautiful hen!!!

Haha, oops! We still need something to do between classes, though, right?

And Elly says thanks! She and her sister, Kit, are of my favorite breed, Silver Gray Dorking.

Groucho is his old self and great today! His down was dry so he is back outdoors this afternoon.
Love your sweet lill call baby!

Glad to hear!

Miss Crash, I can't believe she'll be a year old in a few months! She's actually been squatting for me quite often lately--not such a baby anymore, I guess!

Oh my, I feel very humbled to see I was awarded the BYC friend badge! How exciting and thank you!

Congrats! A well-deserved reward!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Well, it was cold enough that I ended up bringing Elly in for the night. :/ She wasn't perched as high up on the roosts as usual, and she had a slight blue tinge to her comb. I put her between two big, fluffy hens for insulation, but it just makes me so nervous... I figured her being a bit uncomfortable for a few days (it's supposed to be in the 40's again in that time ) is better than risking losing her after everything else!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: Haha, oops!

We still need something to do between classes, though, right?

And Elly says thanks!

She and her sister, Kit, are of my favorite breed, Silver Gray Dorking.

Groucho is his old self and great today! His down was dry so he is back outdoors this afternoon.
Love your sweet lill call baby!

Glad to hear!

Miss Crash, I can't believe she'll be a year old in a few months! She's actually been squatting for me quite often lately--not such a baby anymore, I guess!

Oh my, I feel very humbled to see I was awarded the BYC friend badge! How exciting and thank you!

Congrats!

A well-deserved reward!
Thank you! Wow, I cant believe Crash is a year old already, time goes so fast anymore.

Well, it was cold enough that I ended up bringing Elly in for the night.

She wasn't perched as high up on the roosts as usual, and she had a slight blue tinge to her comb. I put her between two big, fluffy hens for insulation, but it just makes me so nervous... I figured her being a bit uncomfortable for a few days (it's supposed to be in the 40's again in that time

) is better than risking losing her after everything else!

So not kidding I am stressing over who is ok with the huge temperature drop.. I am looking at every single bird to be sure everyone is handling this sudden cold snap. I scooped up my Huey, oldest Scovy hen tonight, she was very pale looking on her caruncles. She was very still and shivering, so I put her in my porch tonight. She is so much more a pet than just a duck, not risking her health. Our older birds need to be watched carefully.

 

[Mother2Hens]

Hello everyone! I am new to backyard chickens and am planning on joining the community very shortly! I live in Indianapolis, but have some general questions. I cannot decide whether I want to raise my hens from chicks or purchase hens which are already close to egg laying age. I plan to have a small flock (5-6) and plan to have only hens for egg laying. I also plan on culling the hens myself when they no longer produce eggs (My family comes from a farm background so I am familiar with the process. I will use the meat/feet/etc. for soup and stock).

I think the pros to raising as chicks would be I get to pick my breed, however the downside is I would not be getting eggs until the end of the summer. However the downside of purchasing older hens is I do not know where to even begin when it comes to purchasing older hens, and I do not know their personality/condition/etc.

Do you guys have any general advise for me? Thank you and I am excited to join your community!

Welcome to the Indiana Thread @ecedwards89 ! Please check out this link to find out more about our great thread! Indiana BYC'ers Members, Events, & Links
As far as purchasing chicks or hens, my advise is to purchase them from a reputable company or from one of our members who breeds or who has extras. I have read some bad stories over the past few years about people getting sickly chickens from people they don't know through classified ads or swap meets. I know there are people who haven't had problems with those sources, but my personal view is that it's not necessary to take a chance when we have many experienced members who can help or advise you.

...Had to take in my favorite black Muscovy drake, Groucho. He had got muddy, found him shivering by the back door. He got a good bath, blow dried and have him crated indoors for the night in the unheated porch Back to carrying water a few times a day! At least my livestock has heated troughs but they consume a lot more water than a bird does.

@jchny2000 ~ You made an important point about wet or muddy chickens! My bantams especially tend to get drenched when it rains. After it poured all day last Saturday and temps were quickly dropping, I brought them in one at a time before bedtime to blow dry them. Even if temps are in the 40s or 50s, but the rain is cold and they're sopping wet, I'll put heat on in the coop long enough for them to get dry and fluffed. You can tell when they look miserable!
@Indyshent ~ Good luck with the Bumblefoot treatments! When my large Jubilee Orp had a bad case a year or so ago, I had to take her to the vet to have it removed, bandaged, and she was given meds. A few months ago, my Silkie had a place that was a hard scab that luckily didn't have the yucky inside part. I soaked her foot in warm water with Epson salts, removed the scab, put antibacterial cream (without any pain reliever) and a round bandaid on with bandage tape to secure it (feathery feet make it difficult!) I repeated the foot bath and dressing change for around a week until it looked fine. Also, for the first few days, I gave her a quarter of a baby aspirin in a craisin. I'm just mentioning my experiences in case they help someone else.

Hi all - havent posted in a while - just popping in to say "Hi"
Glad you did, and I hope you and your flock are keeping warm up there in Michigan!

 

[Too Fast]

I have not posted in a while, lots of things always going on in life and BYC is one that seems to get pushed aside. Looks like everyone is having fun with their chickens as are we still. Can't believe this spring our pallet coop will be 3 years old. It is holding up well and no water leaks or any other structure problems, and have only lost one chicken (to a possum, scared the crap outta my wife when she went to lock up the girls one night last fall) to a predator. Our original flock of 8 that we raised from babies are now getting old, and the occasional egg we get from them is huge! Of those 8, we have 3 and also a favorelle. So we still have 4 from then.

We did get 5 golden comet pullets and are expecting egg production to start around the end of January or at least be the end of February. We had to do something we have not done in years, buy some store eggs. My 10 y.o. son called them "stupid eggs" lol. Can't wait for real eggs again!

 

[Indyshent]

Power out several hours this morning, ugh. Had just set quail eggs in the bator last night, so they should be ok. We had finished weatherproofing all the coops so am just bracing for this first cold spell. Noticed that most of my birds have stopped laying, but one young brown chinese goose! She is still laying almost daily. Looking forward to spring already, its staying light out after 6pm.
Watching my flocks closely with this first hard night and the deep freeze. So far the geese and mallards are fine, EE are doing great. Muscovy are all in a big circle inside the old coop aside from a few drakes.. Had to take in my favorite black Muscovy drake, Groucho. He had got muddy, found him shivering by the back door. He got a good bath, blow dried and have him crated indoors for the night in the unheated porch Back to carrying water a few times a day! At least my livestock has heated troughs but they consume a lot more water than a bird does.

Glad to hear he's better and working hard to endear himself to you! He's a very funny boy

Also glad to hear your incubators have easily paid for themselves, that your goose is still laying (Saphira started laying about as soon as I put her outside. I found four more eggs!), and that you had a spare heater!

So how is everyone's animals handling this cold? I kept all of my older birds cooped up today. They weren't too thrilled with me, but they got bowls of warm oatmeal and extra corn. Ive had to break ice in the waterers several times. Its not freezing solid just getting an ice film at the top. All the coops also got fresh straw. I made hubby drive me to rural king in the wrecker this morning for a new bale and we strapped it to the boom

. Im sure all the other drivers got a kick out of it!

We hauled the rabbit cages into the garage where the chicks are. Did I mention I traded chicks for 5 New Zealand rabbits this week? Anyway, I plugged the extra heat lamp in and turned towards the rabbits to warm them up a bit, but hubby built a fire in his woodstove and turned his salamander on so that lamp got turned back off. But the rabbits and chicks are nice and toasty. Ive got three does ready to have babies anytime and dont want them born in the cold. I want to attach the cages to the walls in my big coop but hubby is so busy and Im not sure where to start.

As for two legged critters...woodstove been roaring all day, dinner was a pot of chilli cooked on the woodstove...and school is already cancelled for tomorrow lol. Which means the kids I homeschool get a snow day too since they can't concentrate with the other 5 kiddos running wild.

Hope you all stay warm and safe! Hubby has pulled a lot of people out of ditches today!

I thought about getting into rabbits... but as hard to butcher as chickens are, I can't imagine processing a rabbit. New Zealands were on sale for $8.99 at the RK in Shelbyville yesterday, if anyone's interested in getting them. The worst part is that I'm horrendously allergic to them, so keeping and processing them would be it's own special kind of torment.

My birds are only starting to realize that snow will not kill them instantly. I've opened the coop every day for them, but most of them have retreated to the coop anyway. EEs, Wellies, turkeys and Brahmas seem to be the most adaptable to this change so far.

Hello everyone! I am new to backyard chickens and am planning on joining the community very shortly! I live in Indianapolis, but have some general questions. I cannot decide whether I want to raise my hens from chicks or purchase hens which are already close to egg laying age. I plan to have a small flock (5-6) and plan to have only hens for egg laying. I also plan on culling the hens myself when they no longer produce eggs (My family comes from a farm background so I am familiar with the process. I will use the meat/feet/etc. for soup and stock).

I think the pros to raising as chicks would be I get to pick my breed, however the downside is I would not be getting eggs until the end of the summer. However the downside of purchasing older hens is I do not know where to even begin when it comes to purchasing older hens, and I do not know their personality/condition/etc.

Do you guys have any general advise for me? Thank you and I am excited to join your community!

We're excited you've joined too!

Even if you pick hens, you're still picking the breed, and better yet, you'll be even more aware of what breed they are, how well they lay, how big they'll get, and about how well they'll fit into your flock. I've had terrible luck with chicks being the wrong breed or gender when purchased from a feed store, and I've heard worse stories from people who went through hatcheries. It's all luck of the draw with chicks. Granted, raising chicks is fun, but if you really want to know what you're actually getting, buy hens. Plus, they're more resistant to cold, give eggs immediately, are less likely to suddenly die on you and easier to treat in the event of an emergency, don't require weeks or months in a set up brooder indoors... yup, it's a big and growing list the longer I sit here. In the end, hens are also cheaper because you don't wind up paying for months of feed to get them to POL, electricity for brooder lamps or heat pads, incessantly changed bedding, etc.

On the contrary, provided you purchase from someone you already know, they will tell you the bird's condition, what color they lay, how old they are, how often they lay, if they've had any medical problems, personality quirks, etc. Chicks can come in all the same states as adults, but adults are more likely to pull through a bad state than chicks. Key here is to buy from people you know and look the bird over carefully before you buy in all instances.

Day 1 of the spring semester is over for me!

Looks like it's going to be a fun semester! I have one biology class that's going to have a lot of field study involved with it later in the semester, yay! And, though I'm finding it a bit daunting still, I also had my first real Genetics class this morning! Prepare your minds for this semester!

Yes, I am so stoked for babies!! It was so hard not getting any last year! I need baby fuzzies to love on after that! Dare I say it? I've gone broody!

I'm stoked for your babies too! And for the new semester! My calculus class interfered with EVERY other class I needed to take this semester. So, instead of biology or even chemistry, I've got math, business, education psychology (stupid gen-eds!) and science writing. This is sure to be a dry, boring, irritating semester.

Oh my, I feel very humbled to see I was awarded the BYC friend badge! How exciting and thank you!

Welcome to the Indiana Thread @ecedwards89 ! Please check out this link to find out more about our great thread! Indiana BYC'ers Members, Events, & Links
As far as purchasing chicks or hens, my advise is to purchase them from a reputable company or from one of our members who breeds or who has extras. I have read some bad stories over the past few years about people getting sickly chickens from people they don't know through classified ads or swap meets. I know there are people who haven't had problems with those sources, but my personal view is that it's not necessary to take a chance when we have many experienced members who can help or advise you.

@Indyshent ~ Good luck with the Bumblefoot treatments! When my large Jubilee Orp had a bad case a year or so ago, I had to take her to the vet to have it removed, bandaged, and she was given meds. A few months ago, my Silkie had a place that was a hard scab that luckily didn't have the yucky inside part. I soaked her foot in warm water with Epson salts, removed the scab, put antibacterial cream (without any pain reliever) and a round bandaid on with bandage tape to secure it (feathery feet make it difficult!) I repeated the foot bath and dressing change for around a week until it looked fine. Also, for the first few days, I gave her a quarter of a baby aspirin in a craisin. I'm just mentioning my experiences in case they help someone else.

I'm already out of Epsom salts, and have tried these girls on several surgeries (consistency is more like a wart--very hard, very deep, haven't been able to fully uproot it, simply don't have the right tools for this job), and have tried three different antibiotics (given the depth of infection, risk of it spreading to the blood and other places is just too high). This is the last resort for both of them. If it doesn't improve significantly in another week of treatments, I'll likely put them out of their misery. I suspect most of the issue is the pressure their enormous bodies and rapid weight gain have placed on their feet.