INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Crafty chick]

Faraday- love incubator tv! I'll have to try it again after all our moving is done.
Ellymayrans- so sorry about your loss. She looks like she was sweet.
LocosHuevos- glad you got a picture. What town are you close to? so we can make sure to look out for him. Definitely fishy, hate when people steal, it just makes me boil.

 

[Faraday40]

13 quail hatched yesterday + found 3 more this morning. 5 unhatched eggs will remain in the quail incubator for another day or 2.

DD holding 3 chicks as she transfes them into the brooder.



Had to use heat lamp & paper towel in brooder. (Too afraid they'd get stuck under a fold of a towel or trapped in the shavings. Hope to figure out a Mama Heating pad set up that will work in a few days..


Chicken eggs are due tomorrow, but we've already noticed 5 pips. Nervous about one egg that looks like a long diagonal hairline crack. Don't think there' much to do at this point, but hope it hatches. Chicken brooder is all set up & ready to be filled.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

13 quail hatched yesterday + found 3 more this morning. 5 unhatched eggs will remain in the quail incubator for another day or 2.

DD holding 3 chicks as she transfes them into the brooder.



Had to use heat lamp & paper towel in brooder. (Too afraid they'd get stuck under a fold of a towel or trapped in the shavings. Hope to figure out a Mama Heating pad set up that will work in a few days..


Chicken eggs are due tomorrow, but we've already noticed 5 pips. Nervous about one egg that looks like a long diagonal hairline crack. Don't think there' much to do at this point, but hope it hatches. Chicken brooder is all set up & ready to be filled.

Wonderful news! She looks so excited! Congrats to her on the great hatch.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Since Thanksgiving is upon us, I want to mention a fact about Turkeys. Like most other bird species, there is a "meat breed" of bird and heritage birds. Broad Breasted White and BB Bronze cannot reproduce without artificial insemination. (Trust me, we have tried several combinations!) I do free range the BB turkeys and treat them as a heritage bird. Made a difference.
Heritage Turkey, such as Bourbon Red, Holland, Narragansett, Spanish Black, Palms and many others are examples of a "heritage turkey". If your family wants a breed that will produce offspring every year, choose a heritage breed to keep. This was our first dinner in 5 years without a turkey raised here, and everyone noticed a difference! Thanksgiving was "ok" but not WOW like it has been. Easily seen by the leftovers. I am the cook, lol. I was actually disappointed with what I brought to the table this year.
If you choose to not raise turkeys, or can't, consider a local farm. After our dinner Sunday I will not settle for a store bought bird again.

 

[Faraday40]

Off to bed soon, but 1st wanted to share pics of our 3 early birds. (2 lav orps & a silkie x wyandotte mix)
Tomorrow is the actual hatch date.






... and some more quail pics.
Sorry if I'm over-loadong everyone with quail pics, but they're so tiny!

I took a pic next to a quarter to show how small the quail are.

DS holding a handful of quail.

 

[Faraday40]

Since Thanksgiving is upon us, I want to mention a fact about Turkeys. Like most other bird species, there is a "meat breed" of bird and heritage birds. Broad Breasted White and BB Bronze cannot reproduce without artificial insemination. (Trust me, we have tried several combinations!) I do free range the BB turkeys and treat them as a heritage bird. Made a difference.
Heritage Turkey, such as Bourbon Red, Holland, Narragansett, Spanish Black, Palms and many others are examples of a "heritage turkey". If your family wants a breed that will produce offspring every year, choose a heritage breed to keep. This was our first dinner in 5 years without a turkey raised here, and everyone noticed a difference! Thanksgiving was "ok" but not WOW like it has been. Easily seen by the leftovers. I am the cook, lol. I was actually disappointed with what I brought to the table this year.
If you choose to not raise turkeys, or can't, consider a local farm. After our dinner Sunday I will not settle for a store bought bird again.

I suppose it's like eating an egg from a grocery store after getting used to your own backyard eggs. Hard to go back. Congrats to everyone who does it & savor that bird for the rest of us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[Finnie]

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

We're off to the Drumstick Dash at 7:30, so I'm up taking care of animals well before dawn this morning. My daughter (who is getting married on Saturday) is hosting dinner today, so for the first time in decades, I don't have to worry about when to get turkey in the oven.

Since we decided to sell two of our turkeys instead of butcher them, I drove up to La Fontaine a couple weeks ago and bought two frozen heritage ones from a lady. (One for Christmas.) This will be out first year not having a store bought turkey, and I'm really looking forward to experiencing this difference you have all been talking about! My (almost) son-in-law is going to deep fry it.

Hope you all have a blessed holiday with much to be thankful for!

 

[Indyshent]

Had a poult hatch in the incubator not long after midnight this morning! It's name is Thanksgiving. Looks bronze, but we'll see how it develops. Fastest hatch I've ever seen, so we're hoping it stays this strong!

 

[Faraday40]

Happy Thanksgiving!


We had a nice time at my brother's. My sister-in-law baked both a ham & turkey, but my pregnant niece was craving deep fried turkey, So for the love of his oldest daughter (& future grandchild) he cooked a 2nd turkey outside. My brother followed an online recipe.

Moral of the story: Don't believe everything you read online.

(Actually it was delicious, but we couldn't help but have a little fun at my brother's expense.)

I baked my usual honey-butter bread & also made whipped honey butter to go with it. I finished the last of my (non-frozen) garden zucchini by baking some zucc bread. (Actually, I also made zucc pizza the other night for a whole zucc-based meal.) Since the pumpkins pies were already taken care of, I decided to bring something chocolate.

Here's my 4-layer choc ganache torte with choc moose filling & white choc lace.




In other news: My nephew just did his senior recital & is graduating from college. Besides his regular gigs, he's now playing bass & touring with a band, Citizen Way. (He also plays with another band which he started in H.S., but they only do Chicago House of Blues & several local city festivals. Rarely do they travel out of Illinois, so he was pretty excited when telling us about his recent shows.)

When we got home, we found a couple fluffy chicks in the incubator. Just after moving them to the brooder, 2 more chicks hatched.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Had a poult hatch in the incubator not long after midnight this morning! It's name is Thanksgiving. Looks bronze, but we'll see how it develops. Fastest hatch I've ever seen, so we're hoping it stays this strong!

Fingers crossed!