INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[slutter]

Also, if anyone wants an avatar picture like mine, with your hen or rooster state with county red and such just pm me.

 

[ellymayRans]

Awesome news @jchny2000!!

 

[Indyshent]

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

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: The first year we hot 470 some ears of corn, and I cant remember what all else. Plenty of squash cucumber pumpkin etc. Its maybe 1/4 acre plot. I need to do the newer types of gardening on potatoes for example, the raised beds really interest me.

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!

Lol, done this before! My oops was a pekin egg I thought was scovy.

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!

Good dog!

Quote: Yes thats all, I was hoping a few more, but this is her first litter. I bred her at 10 months after her 2nd heat. Am glad its a small group, I wanted to be sure she is a good mom before I downsize on gilts. I have 4, and probably will only keep 2.

Also, if anyone wants an avatar picture like mine, with your hen or rooster state with county red and such just pm me.

@Mother2Hens also does this, and thank you both for helping!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Just peeked into incubator. My test hatch on Chocolate orps and AMs is going well! Am has hatched, orp is pipped!!!!

 

[slutter]

The first year we hot 470 some ears of corn, and I cant remember what all else. Plenty of squash cucumber pumpkin etc. Its maybe 1/4 acre plot. I need to do the newer types of gardening on potatoes for example, the raised beds really interest me.


Lol, done this before! My oops was a pekin egg I thought was scovy.
Good dog!

Yes thats all, I was hoping a few more, but this is her first litter. I bred her at 10 months after her 2nd heat. Am glad its a small group, I wanted to be sure she is a good mom before I downsize on gilts. I have 4, and probably will only keep 2.

@Mother2Hens also does this, and thank you both for helping!

Mothering the piglets is more important than than litter size, glad all went well!

I did not know that, but either way lol

 

[Dish chickens]

We just put in a new dishwasher yesterday, nothing wrong with old one it is just loud. I got to looking at it and wondered if anyone has ever heard of someone making an incubator out of a dishwasher? It has a heating element in it for drying I would think it could be T-stat controlled.

. Just wondering, I don't have time to mess with it and probably will just haul it off this week.

 

[ellymayRans]

Welp it definitely appears to be a chicken.
Its hatched and drying, haven't looked it over but all accounts it seems will be white.

Im not certain of all breeds it could have came from so the only i can think of off hand that @racinchickins has is the Bresse maybe ??

 

[chick rookie]

Well I'm sad to say my last silkie has died. I have sent the last two birds off for necropsy to Purdue. I am awaiting results. I am just at a loss and it makes me so sad. To my knowledge it started with coccidiosis and has gone downhill from there. I've been fighting an uphill battle. And of course since I've lost a few chicks and birds in the past year, I am just waiting and in the back of my mind I keep saying okay who's next. I'm a nervous wreck always about them and if one bird even does something abnormal I start to get really nervous. Like anxiety. Ugh I just want to enjoy and relax about my flock.

Do you guys vaccinate chicks? If so, which vaccines?

I'm sure once I get the reports back I'll know more. But I'm itching to hatch some chicks. But I won't until I can figure out what is going on with my birds.

So very sorry for your losses, I feel your pain as I'm sure everyone does.

Hope your able to start hatching soon.

Today has been extremely rough! Despite the blizzard, woke up to find my 9 month old Great Dane puppy dead in his crate early this morning. Yesterday he was totally fine, happy go lucky, running playing, fetching, and just being ornery puppy self. As much as I was against getting a Great Dane cause of his size I fell in love with him! When we got him I was hoping he would get attached to my fiancé, but instead he only wanted me which made me love him even more! As much as he drove me crazy with his chewing, accidents in the house, getting up in the middle of the night to let him out, chasing the chickens from time to time, and not listening most of the time, he was a good pup! I have never had to deal with taking care of a dead dog like that. Most of my dogs that I had living on a farm they ran off to die, only one dog my dad had to take to the vet to have put down and I was away at college and that was hard for me. But nothing like today! My heart is broken!
This is Diesel, the day we got him!

My 9 month guard dog looking out the window!

Such a shame, so sorry for your loss he was a beautiful boy.

Gee, busy for a day and you have 6 pages to catch up on! Chatty group.

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!

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.)
Agree with Marek's being everywhere. Not sure I agree with always vaccinating, but I've already posted about that a while back.

I agree with this as well. This is why I don't EVER use medicated chick starter, either! Having two pharmacists as parents, you get to hear how common immunity of diseases and parasites to medicines really is. Scary.

Speaking of immunity, those of you who use Ivermectin may want to look into alternatives, as my understanding is that internal parasites are becoming more and more immune to that. It may not be a very effective dewormer to use for very long, in other words.


And on the topic of fecal float tests, I was just looking this up not too long ago and thought some of you might be interested. I don't know if or what they charge for fecal float tests (never looked into doing it at my vet, but they're a dog/cat vet with one vet tech who has chickens, so I guess I just never thought of it), but I was looking in to the equipment needed to do it at home. This is a thread here on BYC with all of the equipment you need or might want, as well as instructions and pictures of the parasites: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/848229/poultry-fecal-flotation-procedures-and-pictures I may look into this for my flock, just because it seems easy enough, and we can't always run all the way in to Fort Wayne to the vet unless we have something else to do in town... But I will invest in a parasitology book with pictures if I do, because that seems easier than trying to find clear and correctly labeled pictures online.

I have stopped using Ivermectin already, my vet makes my wormer for me because in this area it is already useless. He charges me 18. and it does 7 goats, this spring he will have to make me a bigger bottle cause I have 5 babies to add. lol But it works and is worth the money.

Snowing here, everyone is hunkered down in the coops. No piglets yet, I hope she waits til the weekend when its a tad warmer.
When does everyone start their tomatoes and peppers? I am wandering all over looking at seed websites lol. I will plant a lot more corn this year. Our new food saver has me so pleased. Cant wait till I put it to some real use.

We only got enough snow to cover the ground, then it turned to rain 2 hours latter and melted most of that away... lol I'm so glad, I hate snow!! It's not really the snow I hate, it's the cold that comes with it!!!!

@Mother2Hens I sure am following your roller coaster and its such a confusing nightmare. Hugs to you

and those who know me, am not a hugging type lol. Dr. Lossie has been an awesome support with AI. He has offered to attend our next Chickenfest for a Q&A. I am just so amazed the reports can't tell you what the real reasons are...aside from capillary worms, hard to imagine thats the only reason.
I am still chasing off the canadian geese and wild mallards. Sparrows are also invading when they can, and I released 5 cardinal boys from a coop last weekend that squeezed in. I am resigned to the fact if i allow free range my birds could be exposed to several things. If they are confined, just as much so! I just cannot accept penning any bird without a free range option. Just does not feel right for me. So hard to make choices, ensuring our birds can have a normal healthy life.

I have always free ranged, till last fall. I hate penning my birds up but I lost so many to flying devils, I had to do something, so I penned them up. They absolutely hate it and I feel bad for them but I just don't know what else to do. I lost almost all my little's, the few I had left I rehomed to save them. and I had a covered pen for my Silkies, was always repairing the netting, till it was just too far gone and nothing left to repair. Lacy was the last one and I couldn't fine a place hat she didn't get beat up, so I put her with the last of the juveniles untill @Mother2Hens could come get her. I'm glad she has her now, I don't have to worry about things from up above getting their claws into her or her getting beat up by bigger birds.

Coincidence! I was just googling Dr. Lossie, and the Chickenfest thread came up with Barb's posts about him coming to our last (cancelled due to AI) Chickenfest.
Thank you for your cyber-hug! lol

Re your comment: capillary worms, hard to imagine thats the only reason...
Necropsy Report — Page one says:

Histopathology comments are inconveniently on page two:

Capillary worms "not likely" related to the cause of death? Back to square one!

I had thought that the cause was mycoplasmosis, but it says "most suggestive of."

If they can't prove a cause, they can't list it as a cause. In the mind-boggling world of chicken diseases, some findings can't be proven.

And I agree with you — I want my flock to continue free ranging in the fenced-in backyard and going on my supervised trips to other parts of our yard. I know that wild birds are a problem here, too, but there are many things like that in nature that you can't control. Like I said on my earlier post, I do what preventative things that I can, but it's also important to me to let them enjoy foraging. I don't want to keep them in a bubble to protect them—they'd peck their way out, anyway!

Speaking of dangerous things like dirt filled with all kinds of microorganisms, here's my quarantined Lacy from @chick rookie enjoying a dust bath today. Since the weather was bad, I went across the street and dug out a piece of chickweed and grass to add to Lacy's indoor bath for entertainment. She loved it! I've been taking her over on nice days, but she has to play inside on cold days. She has really helped me cope with Screech's ordeal.

And she's been laying an egg every day!

My remaining five girls are doing well, and I spend time with them every day as usual. It's kind of sad to see only five of them, but I am happy for each day that they are enjoying.

Can't wait to see pics of your little piggies that will arrive soon!

So very sorry you are going through all that, I would be pulling my hair out by now!! Lacy looks happy

I sell mine for 3 dollars a dozen. I've gotten lucky where I was given a lot of egg cartons for free. I've only had a few random people stop for eggs so if I don't have those cartons coming back it's no big deal. Mainly I've got repeat customers so they give cartons back.

I sell mine for 2.00 if they bring back the carton, I charge .50 extra if they don't, I found if I have to buy cartons myself it will cost me .44 each so I rounded it to .50

Today Cuddles seems a little "off". She's eating but her poops are strange again. (Watery, slimy) She's not aggressively fighting for treats (which was my 1st clue). She seems slower moving & more quiet than usual. Wallking, not running. Tail out straight. (Not the usual upward angle, but not droopy downward.). She spent some quiet time in the nest box. (She stopped laying Sept 1,2015, so at 1st I thought she may just be starting up again..... but her face/comb look pale when compared to the others.) Could this be in response to worms or more specifically de-worming?

I brought her inside for observation tonight. Her crop's full & hard, so I took feed away. I put Corid in her water but she's not drinking it yet. Her excessive Orpington butt fluff has dried & wet poop in it, but I decided to hold off on a bath for now. The last symptom which started 2 hours ago is head shaking or crop adjusting. Not too frequent. I found out DD gave her some treats when I 1st brought her in, so perhaps Cuddles just over-ate. (She wasn't doing it at all when she was outside earlier.) No respiratory issues, no nasal or eye discharge, no signs of injury, no bumblefoot. Any suggestions of other symptoms I should look for?

Chicken health is so complicated! I truly hope I'm simply over-reacting.

Hope cuddles gets to feeling better soon.

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

So cute!!!! Congrats!!!

 

[chick rookie]

Man it took me forever to get caught up... lol hate it when I'm too busy to read post every day. Things are busy around here, with 5 bottles to be made every 4 hours and all the poo and pee cleaning to do, then there the entertaining them or they get into things they should not!!! ( sorry talking about goat kids ) Love it when the temp is high enough to let them go outside and play!!!!!!!! They sleep really well after a day outside... that means I get to sleep.
DH finally gave up on his lawsuit over his Knee... I think we have talked to every lawyer in the state and I few in ILL too. No one wants to take on a doctor that already has so many lawsuits against him it aint funny!! I don't get it but time is up now!! I'm kinda glad, at least we don't have to got to all these appointments, CT scans, blah blah blah. Now to add to the daily pain he is in arthritis has set in on top of it.
We took a day-cation last Saturday, We had to get a different critter sitter cause our normal one's were sick..... what a mess!!!!!! We got home too late to go and check on things real good, we just did a quick check to make sure everyone was alive and in where they belonged and went to bed.
The next morning at feed time Ransom ( my 16 year old horse ) was coughing... badly! I went to check on him and he was breathing heavily and sweating. I called the vet out and it was determined that he aspirated some feed. So the vet gave some shots, left some expensive antibiotics, ordered a blanket and to wet his feed and hay down for 5 days and 1 steroid shot a day and stalled for 5 days. my boy was very board and so tired of daily shots... o and boy does he hate wet hay!!

So the vet leaves and I am getting the blanket and notice left over goat feed in the horse feed buckets!! I called the critter sitter and asked which feed barrel he fed the horses from?????? he feed them GOAT FEED!!! Ransom cant have textured feed cause he eats so fast that he WILL Aspirate the oats!!!! I was not a happy camper and DH took the phone away from me before I said something I shouldn't have!!! ALL mt feed barrels are marked!!! Horse feed, goat feed, chicken feed and dog food!!! how could ya mess that up??????
So now we have a 300.00 vet bill!!!
Ransom is fine and was turned out with his buddies yesterday. He ran and jumped and kicked up hs heals with joy... and ofcourse he just had to roll in the mud.... lol blanket and all!!