INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Faraday40]

I know I HATE store bought eggs don't understand how anyone can eat them???

My 5yr old son strongly agrees with you. We were on vacation visiting my in-laws when DS requested a hard-boiled egg for breakfast. He was only 3 but already used to the taste of good eggs. When his egg arrives he took a big bite then made a face like he had been poisoned as the egg fell out of his mouth. After a few "Yucks!" & gulps of water her said, "Mom, I wanted a REAL egg." I admit our backyard eggs taste better, but I think little kids must have more sensitive taste buds.To this day he flat out refuses to eat eggs at restaurants. He always asks, "Do they have REAL eggs here?"

 

[kabhyper1]

If anyone out there is questioning the use of a rooster in their flock (which is not to say that anyone here is, just if there is someone...), this is it right here. This is my Silkie rooster, Reuben, standing out on this frigid cold day, all alone, so that he can keep his eyes on the sky and make sure his girls are safe. Love my Reuby-Roo.

I also want to add my sincere condolences to both M2H and Fivewire for their losses.

And how sick I am for all the farms losing birds to HPAI again.

What a difficult time it's been...

 

[Indyshent]

@Indyshent do your quail have natural light from a window, or a full spectrum type light? My girls are laying like mad, I have about 60 eggs in the bator already. I turn the lights on in the porch around 8am, off about 8pm. Once the weather breaks, they will go outdoors to a pen so they can eat grass, hop around and just be happy birds.We are looking at some different designs so they don't bonk their head if something flushes them.
The other point here is if you want to prolong their lives, just let them be birds and the lighting won't matter as much. Quail need at least 12 hours of light to lay regularly.

They're in front of a north side window and (not full spectrum; just a compact fluorescent) lights are often on in the room. I'm not worried about them not laying.

I'm worried about the head-bonking too. The kitten has toppled the screen hood in once already, and, of course, the girls like to bounce around anyway. Can't wait to get them a nice pen outside. I bought a bunch of chicken wire at RK. With as much as these gals flush, I'm thinking about naming them Royal, Straight and Lo-Flow, but I can't tell them apart anyway.

 

[ecedwards89]

I have a question for you guys. I am planning on getting 3 chicks and then 6 days later getting 3 more chicks. The reason is that is the availability of the breeds I want to get at the local store. Seeing as they are 6 days apart would I be able to keep them all in the same brooder or would I have to get two seperate brooders and raise them seperately? I would prefer to raise them all together so they can socialize with each other at a young age, however I am aware of the heat issues.

 

[daskhan]

I have a question for you guys. I am planning on getting 3 chicks and then 6 days later getting 3 more chicks. The reason is that is the availability of the breeds I want to get at the local store. Seeing as they are 6 days apart would I be able to keep them all in the same brooder or would I have to get two seperate brooders and raise them seperately? I would prefer to raise them all together so they can socialize with each other at a young age, however I am aware of the heat issues. 

That's really not a big difference and as long as breed is ruffly the same size your fine however I'd see if the store could hold them so you can bring them home at the same time.. Large enough brooder you should be fine though I've had chicks hatch almost a week apart and they had no idea by day two that there was any difference

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

- 6h96+Quote:
The window is enough, they must just not be settled in yet. Mine are at a slow point only 4 eggs in 2 days.

I have a question for you guys. I am planning on getting 3 chicks and then 6 days later getting 3 more chicks. The reason is that is the availability of the breeds I want to get at the local store. Seeing as they are 6 days apart would I be able to keep them all in the same brooder or would I have to get two seperate brooders and raise them seperately? I would prefer to raise them all together so they can socialize with each other at a young age, however I am aware of the heat issues.

Welcome to BYC and our thread!

Yes they will be fine. Thats young enough they won't care.

 

[Indyshent]

I have a question for you guys. I am planning on getting 3 chicks and then 6 days later getting 3 more chicks. The reason is that is the availability of the breeds I want to get at the local store. Seeing as they are 6 days apart would I be able to keep them all in the same brooder or would I have to get two seperate brooders and raise them seperately? I would prefer to raise them all together so they can socialize with each other at a young age, however I am aware of the heat issues.

They'll be fine. Provided their all the same species and ages when you get them, they'll be fine. Even if they aren't, you might still be fine. So long as they get along and nobody's getting picked on or run over too badly, I brood them all in the same place. 3 days is nothing to worry about (unless one of these breeds is an emu

)

Out of curiosity, which breeds have you ordered?

 

[flyladyrocks]

UGH! Did you guys see this??? Below from: http://in.gov/boah/2390.htm

**This negative flock is depopulated because of its proximity to infected turkeys.

WHAT??? 156,000 chickens killed b/c they were close to one of the positive Turkey farms?? Oh that makes me so sad and sick. I was going to comment on some posts and now I can't even do it. I actually feel sick to my stomach from this. Can I tell you how much I hate the word "Depopulation"?

@amwchickin how are you and your flock?

I copied that part of the chart below but the formatting is kinda skrewy:

Dubois 5.2
Dangerous Contact
Not Infected**
156,000
Commercial
Layers

Depopulation
is underway
Negative

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

UGH! Did you guys see this??? Below from: http://in.gov/boah/2390.htm

**This negative flock is depopulated because of its proximity to infected turkeys.

WHAT??? 156,000 chickens killed b/c they were close to one of the positive Turkey farms?? Oh that makes me so sad and sick. I was going to comment on some posts and now I can't even do it. I actually feel sick to my stomach from this. Can I tell you how much I hate the word "Depopulation"?

@amwchickin how are you and your flock?

I copied that part of the chart below but the formatting is kinda skrewy:

Dubois 5.2
Dangerous Contact
Not Infected**
156,000
Commercial
Layers

Depopulation
is underway
Negative

YES!!! I saw this and wash rushing on here to post it! So now, they are going to depopulate because we are in the same county? They were another commercial farm, but this is just a little overboard IMHO.

 

[kittydoc]

@Mother2Hens I am so sorry about your losing Eliza and Adeline. So young...

@Faraday40 We're starting to really pick up on egg production from our pullets, too. We let everybody molt this year, so production has been pretty poor until this week. I think we are going to cull most of our older birds (5-6 year olds) in our layer flock and replace them with some more Australorps and maybe Speckled Sussex. Does anyone have Speckled Sussex and can comment on their productivity and how they behaved in a mixed flock?

Our blue English Orps are such idiots. Granted they came from a property in Tennessee where they never experienced severe cold, but they don't ROOST! One of the three girls used to, but has quit, and the other two have never roosted. So when it's bitter, I have to go outside after dark and forcibly remove them from their low nest boxes (which are some protection, but insufficient for nights like last night and tonight IMO). Even the roo that stayed outdoors with them the last time it was *almost* this cold went up into the heated coop and roosted. Both boys were upstairs, and all three hens all exposed to some degree. I'm surprised I haven't found a frozen hensicle! My Jubilees roost but not in the enclosed coop, but I made them go into it last night. They are uber fluffy and generally rely on shared body heat, but one hen roosts alone and I worry about her, as well as another hen that has one side exposed to the wind.

I'll be glad when it warms up long enough to get some eggs started in the incubators. Maybe next month sometime! We have to get our new used coop refurbished for Cogburn and a few hens to keep him company, since our lavender Orp roo Roadrunner from @jchny2000 will be servicing my lavender hens this year.

BTW, it turned out that all but one flock of turkeys in Dubois county had low pathogenicity AI. That means most birds don't look or act sick. They think it mutated into a high pathogenicity version in one flock. The H7N8 is a brand new AI combination for the US. I am just happy we missed the expected fall recurrence of the same crap we went through in the spring. We'll just have to stand by and see what happens this spring. I think the vaccine that was developed by two companies is to the last year's strain and would only be available to commercial poultry farms.