INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

"Sweetie" is a BIG girl - a Coro Sussex x Lav Orp mix. She just started laying as a Christmas present to us. (1st egg around Dec 24th.)

What continues to surprise me is the SIZE of her pullet eggs. Normally pullet eggs are small & infrequent to start. She's only been laying a month & her pink eggs are bigger than a few of our hens. She's averaging 5 eggs/week.

I compared them to our 3 yr old hen's eggs. The hen's giant eggs weighed 2.86oz & 2.98 oz. (only 2 this week)
Sweetie's eggs are about 2.5" long & ranged from 2.43 to 2.48 oz each. Isn't that kind of large? Should I worry about her getting egg-bound?

With her large body, hopefully she will handle them ok. I would watch her close for a couple months. Some of the signs I notice with egg binding is sitting frequently, obvious discomfort. Hen is looking at stomach and vent frequently. Worst breeds for it seem to be production birds like comets, but I did lose a LO from it.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

its only 10'x20' but I wanted a lot of chickens!!

LOL!! You are smitten with chicken math!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

@Mother2Hens I liked the customer service with Meyer hatchery. I have ordered a few times from them, and have had good results.. Turkey and geese were healthy on arrival from the 3 orders I did. One turkey was splayed but they did send extras.
I did order my BA from Mt Healthy 3 years ago, but they grew up to be onery hens. all 16 were hens tho! and all survived. They did go broody often, and my goal was eggs not broodies.

 

[charleschicken]

I am smitten with chicken math I have figured out how to get the most square feet out of the coup with multiple layers of roosting bars and even feeders that are harder to get to for the more agile chickens when I get to that point. I do enjoy my chickens but I have no quams about putting them in the pot when it comes time, my wife on the other hand is less inclined to eat our chickens.

 

[cganote]

I bought some eggs from Porter's Turkeys last year and while they didn't hatch, the company was very good about giving discounts and was happy to chat about genetics. I'm buying more eggs this year, fingers crossed.

 

[cganote]

As for the losses it could be a number of things, more commonly wasting away could have indicated Cocci, worms, mites or lice. Did you hatch them or get them from someone? How old?

I'm sure i will have some come spring. I was just discussing with my DH about possibly selling my young black shoulder male. He was hatched 7/4/15. I just have too many boys right now. Do you have a lone male or female? Age?

My peababy was born last May or June, and I have no idea what its sex is. I bought the chicks when they were young. I know some of them did have lice, the yellow kind that hang out in the feathers - we brought them inside and gave em all baths and blow-dried them, worrying that they were irritated by the infestation. I fear it might have been ultimately bad and they caught a chill. It's just so hard to know what to do.

 

[charleschicken]

we are getting 50 day old chicks from efoul .com later this month my neighbor is going to keep them for us until they get feathers then ill get them into a pen with the other chickens I want to make sure that they don't have anything that they can pass on to our other chickens so im glad my neighbor is going to watch them for a while.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I am smitten with chicken math I have figured out how to get the most square feet out of the coup with multiple layers of roosting bars and even feeders that are harder to get to for the more agile chickens when I get to that point. I do enjoy my chickens but I have no quams about putting them in the pot when it comes time, my wife on the other hand is less inclined to eat our chickens.

Its a hard thing to face if you aren't exposed to it as a child. My parents, grandparents taught me young to appreciate your birds, animals for the food they give your family. My first experience keeping chickens around 34 years ago was strictly for table birds. I retired in 2010 to care for my parents and started with an egg flock.. everything grew from there!

I bought some eggs from Porter's Turkeys last year and while they didn't hatch, the company was very good about giving discounts and was happy to chat about genetics. I'm buying more eggs this year, fingers crossed.

I have purchased porters also and the poults are impressive. Good choice! Turkeys are more a challenge than other poultry.
Welcome to our thread if I had not said it already!

 

[Mother2Hens]

Originally Posted by PeacefulWalls @PeacefulWalls ~ I'm afraid not! I recently posted some info from out local bird expert about sharp-shinned hawks. I just recently read her article about robins...



Despite the myth, robins follow berries, not spring

Historically — and inaccurately — robins are labeled harbingers of spring. So, when people spot a robin in mid-February, they e-mail friends and family that spring has sprung. And maybe so. But the presence of robins has nothing to do with the forecast. Sorry to dispel the myth, but robins are here year-round.

Not in your yard? Well, maybe not. In winter, they abandon nesting territories to wander in flocks of their own kind. Like other summertime bug, and earthworm, eaters, wintertime robins switch to berries.

The foraging flocks, with many more eyes, find berry supplies better than any one or two birds. So whether or not robins roam your wintertime yard depends on your abundance of holly, crabapple, bittersweet and honeysuckle. No berries, no robins.

Other myths about robins abound. The red, red robin does not go bob, bob, bobbing along. It runs, stops, runs, stops. At each stop, standing elegantly erect, black-tipped yellow bill pointing upward, appearing perhaps a bit arrogant, it cocks its head as if listening. But scientists say it’s actually watching for movement, ready to yank earthworms from the soil.

While robins, in their potbellied silhouette, look generally alike, the sexes differ subtly. Richer dark brown backs and heads and more vivid reddish-orange breasts and sides distinguish males from females. Juveniles, generally paler than adults, also wear heavy spots on their breasts.

At 8 to 11 inches long, robins are the largest among thrushes, almost half the size of their cousin the eastern bluebird. Robins are most widespread and abundant thrush species and regularly rank in the Great Backyard Bird Count’s top ten most numerous birds.

Given their mortality rate, their vast numbers seem improbable. Nests carry only about a 40 percent success rate. Of those, only 25 percent survive until November. Only about half of the remaining robins survive the rest of the year. But robins raise three successful broods a year, accounting for their steady if not growing population.

Likely this area’s most familiar species, robins welcome mornings in song, “cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up,” the pitch rising and falling but the rhythm steady, then a pause before the next string of whistles. One could awaken to worse.

—Sharon Sorenson

@Indyshent posted:
If you like Cochin, you''ll love Brahmas. Brahmas are essentially better-laying Cochins with peacombs that come in fewer recognized colors. It's hard to get really good quality ones because hatcheries (especially with Light Brahmas) are very likely to throw standards out the window and try to boost egg counts, which results in smaller hens (better feed conversion though) and occasionally meaner roosters. All the mean ones I've ever heard of were Light Brahmas from less reputable sources.

Dark Brahmas are a blessing and tremendous pain in the tush, depending on what you want to do with them. Breeding them for show is difficult because good genes in one sex make for crappy phenotype in the opposite gender (gotta love silver penciled genetics). If you're not looking to them for show breeding and just want incredibly fluffy, heavy, hardy, sweet natured birds who try to get in your house all the time and seem to think they're people, well, Dark Brahmas are the way to go.

Regardless, get them from a reputable source.

Indyshent ~ Thanks for your thoughts about Brahmas! I seems like at one time on this thread, several members added Brahmas to their flocks. I'm thinking that @racinchickins is a big fan. Are they considered meat birds and perhaps have shorter life spans? Not that there are any guarantees in how long a chicken will live!

For readers' reference, here is an example of a Dark Brahma hen and roo. The online photo is fuzzy, but I love the double pencil pattern on the hen.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

My seasonal layers are all breeding and making nests. Looks like it is going to be an early spring, or I am brooding a whole lot of babies...ugh.