INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Faraday40]

This morning Cuddle's crop is still full, but she stopped making the neck stretches & head shakes. Glad I brought her inside b/c now I at least have a known symptom to treat & a treatment to research. She has an appetite (trying to eat misc. floor crud when she's out.) but I'm sticking with water only for now.

 

[ellymayRans]

I am glad to hear that! My poultry love the goats, they catch any wasted grain. Its so hard finding a dependable sitter. Hoping the right person turns up soon.

I am drooling over Bakers and a few other heirloom sites. I love the bicolor sweet corn from RK, It grows no matter what. Am sure its not a non GMO, I still hope to get there soon with all our food. I have a lot to learn for gardening, am really researching it this winter. After our entire plot failed last year I plan to learn a lot more before I plant.
Our plot is still "too new" I guess, we have only planted 3 years. Have still a lot of weed issues, even though I was weeding daily. i really prefer to sow directly but weeds overtake the plot.We may need to decrease it until I can master the most important crops. I do not want to use roundup etc, too many beekeepers locally. I hope more experienced gardeners will post, its a very good way to also feed your flock healthy natural foods. My hogs and goats love the cornstalks and fresh cobs once we have stripped the corn off. Myself I will eat a tomato, pepper or onion whole if its fresh, love veggies. How does everyone deal with weed control in a large garden plot?

I'm not sure how large you're talking but I separate my plots and do a sq ft gardening method with lasagna gardening. I've only had to rebuild the plot every 3rd year and we get minimal weeds. Like each 4x15' plot may get 8 starter weeds which are just plucked right out because the bed is so loose. It's the best! I grow Roma beans, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, squash, zucchini, strawberries, eggplant and herbs right in them. Just layer cardboard, straw (not hay), chicken bedding, any scrap greens(dried grass clippings is what we use) and just layer as much as you can gather. The cardboard is amazing with drawing up the worms and killing weeds or grass and you can lay it directly on top of it. Cut it as low as you can helps. Water each layer as you put them down.

Now we do till a couple of plots to grow root crops and corn and weeds do get bad but not until everything has gotten big enough to hold its own.
I am going to lay cardboard (or newspaper) in between those crops this year because we got a bad weed last year. Can't remember now what it was called but it went ramped!! We got about 250 ears of corn or more the last 2 years. So our garden isn't small but not acres for sure!!

 

[ellymayRans]

@racinchickins not sure if you're around to see this but I went to cool and mist my scovy eggs today (day 22) and heard a chirping when I removed the incubator lid!!

I had noticed one of the eggs a slightly different color and the embryo had filled the egg where as the others had not. Just wasn't sure what was going on there.

Needless to say that egg had externally pipped and I'm thinking it must be a chicken egg!! Lol!!
I have no chicks right now so I guess I'm going to have a lone babe that I am going to have to spoil!!!

I was so happy my silkie clan and pullet Cochins had started laying, but now of course my Partridge silkie is broody Again!! Sheesh! She's sitting on atleast 8 eggs! Some are from my frizzled blue egg layer but I haven't seen her succumb to the silkie roo that's with them. Should be interesting if she has. Wonder if it's possible to get a blue egg laying Sizzle out of the cross?!? I'll have to look that up next time I think of it!

I will post pics of the new hatch if it makes it since I messed with the bator once it was already externally pipped!?!

 

[ellymayRans]

I didn't really think the egg seemed all that much smaller than the duck eggs. Pic it does a bit and obviously different color.
I don't know if I've ever incubated eggs that I didn't know what may hatch from it! Haha! Kinda more stressful!

 

[hanakimi]

i thought some of our members with goats could find her free file to record goat health records useful. http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/goat-health-record-form-downloadable/
i garden using raised beds but i never till it over just amend it with blood meal,bone meal, eggshells when planting seedlings and bedding from the coop is added to the bed in the fall. i also put a cover crop on beds not used for garlic in the fall. last year the rain we had in June and July was horrible as it seemed to put the plants in suspension and nothing grew well till august. i remember harvesting somethings in may and nothing till the end of July again. i have to say that the hardest hit by the rain was my hives as they couldn't forage and produce honey. this is the first time in my beekeeping years that i have ever fed them sugar syrup as it goes against my beekeeping practices/beliefs. all of my hives except 1 are splits i made in the spring and weren't able to access prime foraging time and would've died in the winter. i hope this years weather goes back to normal

 

[ellymayRans]

Noticed what I thought may have been a opossum in the front yard but nope..my wonderful dog got him a big coon!
Such a good boy!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Okay, now that the chick excitement has settled a bit...

My sassy Fayoumi, Marama, jumped the 6' fence into our dog yard during free-range this afternoon.

So hard to take, especially when it's one of our own who is the culprit.

Definitely hard. I haven't been able to even look at the dogs since it happened. We've always known it would happen if they were given the chance to get at the chickens, but I guess I had a false sense of security because none of the hens (or dogs, for that matter) had ever hopped the fence. Been missing her attitude so much every night, too...

[COLOR=8B4513]@pipdzipdnreadytogo [/COLOR]  posted:
[COLOR=333333]PHEW, it's enough to make your head spin!! I read all of your posts, and I'm still not sure what the diagnosis is here! [/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]So... does this mean that they agree with worming first with Wazine to prevent an intestinal blockage from dead worms? Or was this in regards to your vet's recommendation of Wazine? (I did look it up, and according to what I read, Safeguard (Fenbendazole) should be fine to use without a pre-emptive wormer for the same reason that Valbazen (Albendazole) is, so I'm just wondering on this.)[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=8B4513]No, my vet had said to use Wazine, and when I asked Dr. Lossie/Purdue about it (since you astutely questioned my vet's recommendation), think that Dr. Lossie assumed my vet meant using Wazine first to "prevent worm die off and impaction." [/COLOR]
[COLOR=1F497D]Dr. Lossie said: In terms of de-worming we usually recommend using Goat safeguard (liquid) and dosing 1 milliliter per 4lbs of bird. You will need to medicate once every 5 days for three total treatments. In terms of deworming first with Wazine to prevent worm die off and impaction, I will check with my advisors.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=8B4513](I don't know why he said that unless using Wazine first is sometimes done).[/COLOR]
[COLOR=8B4513]Anyway, I can get this locally at TSC, but now I'm wondering if Dr. Lossie meant that I should have fecal tests done on the other chickens first—or is it a given that if Screech had threadworms, the others will, too?[/COLOR]


[COLOR=8B4513]My personal jury is still undecided about this. I recently read several articles like this one:[/COLOR] This chicken vaccine makes its virus more dangerous | PBS ...

[COLOR=8B4513]Also, my three four-year-old hens were traded with craigslist people for Nene's brothers, so I don't know their medical history.[/COLOR]

That is puzzling... I would think if Screech was in your flock and foraging in the same areas that the rest of your birds would have picked up capillary worms as well, but it does seem like he's implying you should have a test done...

As for Marek's vaccine, that is the same exact article I referenced in my post about it. There is a scientific article of that study out there, but I haven't been able to find anything beyond the abstract without having to pay for access to it.

On top of that, it's my understanding that the Marek's vaccine is only really effective on chicks less than 36 hours old, because it works on their young and unexposed immune system. I don't know if vaccinating a bird that has already been vaccinated makes any difference, but them being older birds as is with an unknown medical history, vaccinating them now seems kind of... I don't know, moot?

Yes, thats how I would count it. It takes several hours of warmth to begin development. Its been a long while since I have done silkies, but I seem to remember them growing a little slower. Exciting for you and Margie!

Yes, and being that I set them in the afternoon anyway, I figured it was too late to call Thursday day 1.

Did you by any chance mean faster here, by the way?

Congrats on the development so far!  My broody hen tends to "run a little hot."  When we set eggs under her & in the incubator at the same time, she hatched out hers around day 19, but the incubator took the usual 21 days.  Perhaps your hen is a little over-achiever like mine. LOL

Haha, where's the convenient knob to adjust the temperature on this kind of incubator? I think Margie's an over-achiever as is with as much as she has tried brooding. She's going for mother of the year.

Silkies tend to hatch earlier than other breeds. I make broody lock down day 16. I stop taking them off the nest to poop (sometimes they go anyway) and put food and water right under their noses. I've had silkies hatch day 19.

That's exciting, that means that the babies could hatch closer to the middle of my spring break instead of the end of it! Margie has been taking a once-daily break and gets off the nest by herself every day at about 4 pm, and I've been letting her go because I don't want her to have an accident on her eggs or something! She's in a cage under the nest boxes to keep the other girls from messing with her or laying eggs in her nest, so I have to make sure to get out there every afternoon at the right time and open it for her break! Reuben always gets all excited to see her, though, and I have to grab him up so that he's not dancing at her and knocking her around while she's trying to eat or drink or have her angry broody dust bath. The goofball. Marge, of course, is having none of Reuby's antics!

[COLOR=8B4513]She's fine, but later today, I walked in "New Lacy's" bedroom and called her. No response, so I frantically called her and looked around. I had a memory of one or two of our thread members having a lost chicken who was stuck between things in a garage. I pulled back my DD's bed, and Lacy was between the bed and the wall. She wasn't hurt, but somehow slid down there. I had the bed (mattress pad) covered in plastic and had an old bedspread over it. I had been surprised that Lacy hadn't checked out the bed before, but there's always a first time! She must not have been stuck for very long because I luckily didn't find any poop![/COLOR]

Marge once disappeared behind a pile of boxes in the garage during her quarantine. It took her a week or two before she decided to do that, so I'm assuming it had to do with her getting used to her surroundings at that point. Like I said before, they make a pass time out of trying to give us heart attacks!

[COLOR=333333]This morning Cuddle's crop is still full, but she stopped making the neck stretches & head shakes.  Glad I brought her inside b/c now I at least have a known symptom to treat & a treatment to research.  She has an appetite (trying to eat misc. floor crud when she's out.) but I'm sticking with water only for now.[/COLOR]

I sent you the crop impaction treatment that worked on Elly if you want to go that route. Hope you can get her on her feet again.







I must have missed the quote button, but I also wanted to send hugs to Mishlerfarm about the loss of your Great Dane pup. How awful!




Edited for wording

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

For anyone interested, I've been searching around for the solution to use for fecal float tests and this was the cheapest I found it for thus far: http://www.revivalanimal.com/Fecasol.html

I need to look for reference pictures still, but doesn't look like I'll have the chance to with as much homework as is being piled on this weekend. :/ I think the professors are trying to make us earn our spring break!

For reference, here is the guide I've been looking at on BYC again: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/848229/poultry-fecal-flotation-procedures-and-pictures

I also found this guide, which also lists the species that cannot be detected by fecal float: http://www.pet-informed-veterinary-advice-online.com/fecal-flotation.html WARNING - There are some icky pictures on this page! From the section that discusses what cannot be detected, the only thing I saw in poultry that could not be detected is Histomonas, otherwise known as Blackhead Disease, which can be carried by chickens, but usually only effects turkeys and peafowl.


Edited for emphasis

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

BBL but wanted to quickly share our new additions! She had 3, all healthy and eating like....pigs!

 

[slutter]

BBL but wanted to quickly share our new additions! She had 3, all healthy and eating like....pigs!

That is great news janet! looks like they are taking to their mother very well! she had three?