INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Faraday40]

Just finished assembling our group's 4H raffle prize! I stuffed smaller candies in between the larger boxes & added left-over Valentine's stickers. I used a little extra packing tape to prevent sampling before the auction. Hope that part works out. LOL It's about 4' tall & will be displayed vertically on a stand.

My kids already want to bid on it.




BTW- Our county has an International Night at the fairgrounds where all the groups get together to showcase the country they researched. The annual get together is also used for skits & fundraisers. Imagine about 400 people, but only about 100 of them adults.

 

[hanakimi]

i know some of our members have goats but if you're like me and knew nothing about goat pedigrees, i found this blog post to be informative and interesting. http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/understanding-goat-pedigrees-2/

 

[Carole AM]

Hello! I'm in Goshen.

 

[Hholly]

With chick season upon us, I have a chick question that seems to have as many answers as almost any I have found.

What do you do with chicks and grit?

Thought it might be a good discussion for any newbies like me trolling around the thread since we are in chick season.

I've seen some people say do nothing for them if you are feeding a starter only, others say sprinkle feed with chick grit, others say offer it in a dish of its own, still others say, just get a chunk of sod with dirt attached from your yard (not your run) and let them pick around at that to get acclimated to your soil, and have the grass/soil to pick at that they will get enough grit from.

What do you do or recommend?

With my recent batch of chicks, I sprinkled grit in their bedding where they were scratching for all the food they dropped, when they were about 2 weeks old. I was worried they would eat too much if I just put a dish of it out. I've done that a few times. Then, the other day I gave them a shovel full of dirt and sod, and sprinkled a good amount of grit on that too. They immediately tried dust bathing in that so I gave them some sand. I saw them picking at the sand too.

 

[Hholly]

Hello! I'm in Goshen.

Welcome to the thread! This is a nice bunch of people,

 

[3arrowfarm]

I've had bunches of fly and i've tryed some really expensive fly spray that smells really bad and did nothing for the flys. Then i read some were about desilucion earth food grade to get rid of flys. I tryed it out and i must say the flys absolutely hate it. I love it for flys. old timers i've talked to puts a little in the chicken food and say it works for worms too. It's a wonderful Organic solution for flys. I'm not a big fan of a bunch of chemicals. With saying that i still stick with Wazining (im sure i spelled that wrong-dewormer) my chickens 2 a year. When it comes to worms i go for safe then sorry. Even thou my chickens are $2.00 feed store chickens.

I use diluted imitation vanilla from the grocery store, spray the walls of the interior of the coop. Smells like cookies and the flies hate it! Win win!

 

[3arrowfarm]

Hey all. I live in the central west part of IN flock of RIR ,Productin Red, Barred Rock and most recently Ameraucana! Glad to see this thread. Hope you all are bundled down for the next round of winter!

 

[Leahs Mom]

I'm soooooo hoping you're both right on this. He just kind of flops around (uses his wings more than his legs much of the time), but he's still extra vigilant and alert, still talkative, doesn't appear to be sick at all. It's quite possible he jumped badly, and hurt himself, though I haven't seen him doing anything like that, and I've never seen a chicken both legs seemingly equally badly. I've got him back on chick starter and a lot of electrolyte/vitamins now.

That description makes me even more concerned that it could be vitamin deficiency.
-How are the legs oriented? Does he look like he's sitting on his bottom with legs forward? Is he dragging either leg behind?
-Does his the orientation of his neck/face/head appear normal, or is his neck and head turned in any odd looking angle?
-Can he use either leg to stand? If so, is he standing on the foot or on the hocks of the legs?


Have you picked him up and examined him all over?
Part feathers and look for any injury anywhere on the body? Feel at the hip joints and knee joints and down the whole leg for anything out of place, etc. If the others possibly attacked him could be injury.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I use diluted imitation vanilla from the grocery store, spray the walls of the interior of the coop. Smells like cookies and the flies hate it! Win win!

Hi! Good tip I will remember that for the future!

For some reason I haven't had much of a fly issue ever. Some people say that it is due to soaking/fermenting feed. Not sure if that's true or not. I offer my birds both dry and soaked/fermented.

Of course I'm referring to LACTO-FERMENTATION. (As opposed to yeast fermentation which will draw fruit-flies by the dozens! And, of course, yeast fermentation is NOT healthy for chicken feed so hopefully folks aren't doing that. Actually, seeing fruit-flies around "fermented" feed is a good way to tell that things are out of balance.)

 

[Hholly]

Hey all. I live in the central west part of IN flock of RIR ,Productin Red, Barred Rock and most recently Ameraucana! Glad to see this thread. Hope you all are bundled down for the next round of winter!

Welcome to the thread! Glad you joined us.