INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Faraday40]

Well, we lost our first pullet to what I believe was an ariel predator. I haven't seen any hawks recently but we are surrounded by field so I know they are around. The chickens have plenty of places to hid when free ranging and out Rooster is a great lookout. Unfortuantly, the slowest got taken. Our little Silkie Rhonda. She had the best personality and loved to be around us. The kids are sad but they understand that it can happen.
RIP Rhonda.

I remember when you 1st posted this sweet photo.

so sorry. At least you can take comfort in knowing that she was well loved all the days of her life.

 

[Faraday40]

So for anyone curious, here's a detailed description of DD's experiment. (The reason why we hatched chicks in Nov.)

QUAIL:
Since it was for a sci project, we just bought local eggs. I simply asked for the best breed for eggs & she said Jumbo Corturnix. She warned us that spring is a better time to hatch & that fertility would be very low. (She predicted only about 30% would hatch.) However DD's project must be completed by January, so we went ahead. She understood & only charged us for eating eggs.

We bought 30 eggs from the breeder. The hatch went like this:
10 were left alone as a control, 5 hatched, (4 were clear, 1 developed but died)
10 were washed, put in the fridge & driven around to be the "farmer market eggs", 6 hatched (only 1 clear, 3 developed but died just before hatching)
plus 6 that were thrown in but not part of the experiment. 5 hatched (1 clear)
* 4 eggs were cracked open to check for bull's eyes before setting any eggs. They looked mostly fertile, 1 was a ?, & all were made into a mini omelet. LOL

Now comes the fun part of analyzing the data. 62% of the incubated eggs hatched. WOW! So much better than the breeder expected.
The control was 50% & the farmer market eggs were 60%. Yet, is it fair to include eggs that were clear?
If we don't count the clears, the control got 5/6 or 83% and the farmer market eggs got 6/9 or 67%. That makes more sense.

The only other variable I can think of is the position of the eggs in the incubator. Because they were grouped, the positions in the turner were not changed. The control group was along one side & the farmer market group was in the center of the incubator. The incubator is automated, so the lid was rarely lifted.

Does anyone have other thoughts or ideas to add?

We'll be giving most of the quail (& all the the chicks) away. DD wants to train a few quail, so I'm modifying my mom's old parakeet cage in case we decide to keep maybe 3 as house pets until spring. (about 18x36") The alternative is to simply grow all of them out & have quail for dinner in 6 wks. The kids are protesting that idea.

Anyway, on paper raising quail looks so easy. They're quiet, take up little space, mature quickly, & can be used for both meat & eggs. So, I suppose allowing the kids to keep a few will teach us if quail are a bird for us. (After reading about turkeys, guineas, geese, & ducks, none came even close to be considered.)



CHICKENS:
Because we didn't know if any quail would hatch, we did the same experiment using chicken eggs.
Control: 6/6 hatched = 100%
Farmer Market: 5/6 hatched = 83% (One was a blood ring by day 7.)
+ plus 2 eggs that were thrown in at last min & not part of the experiment.

As far as the 3rd group = eggs from the grocery store. We were unable to find any fertile chicken eggs from the stores (tried 6 diff brands of free range or pasture-raised eggs & ate a lot of omelets.) Gave up & didn't bother trying to incubate infertile eggs. All 3 brands of quail eggs we bought at the store looked fertile, but there was no way to calculate the packing date. The quail eggs we purchased & incubated may have been well over a week old. At least the chicken eggs had the Julian calendar number written on them.

 

[racinchickins]

Hi All. It's that time of year. This Sunday (Dec4) we will be processing our excess Roos and Drakes. I usually do it the weekend before Thanksgiving, but didn't quite make that timeline this year. I always like to invite anyone who would like to learn how to do processing to stop by, I enjoy teaching and sharing how to do this humanely and everyone has always enjoyed the community and camaraderie that makes tasks like this go by easier. If you two or three birds of your own that need to have that 'one bad day', you are welcome to bring them.

PS - we are going to be trying duck wax for the first time with the muscovies. Hopefully it will make getting the pinfeathers out easier, and if not, I bet it will at least be a good show to watch.....

If you are interested, just send me a pm and I'll give you the details and the address.

 

[racinchickins]

So for anyone curious, here's a detailed description of DD's experiment. (The reason why we hatched chicks in Nov.)

QUAIL:
Since it was for a sci project, we just bought local eggs. I simply asked for the best breed for eggs & she said Jumbo Corturnix. She warned us that spring is a better time to hatch & that fertility would be very low. (She predicted only about 30% would hatch.) However DD's project must be completed by January, so we went ahead. She understood & only charged us for eating eggs.

We bought 30 eggs from the breeder. The hatch went like this:
10 were left alone as a control, 5 hatched, (4 were clear, 1 developed but died)
10 were washed, put in the fridge & driven around to be the "farmer market eggs", 6 hatched (only 1 clear, 3 developed but died just before hatching)
plus 6 that were thrown in but not part of the experiment. 5 hatched (1 clear)
* 4 eggs were cracked open to check for bull's eyes before setting any eggs. They looked mostly fertile, 1 was a ?, & all were made into a mini omelet. LOL

Now comes the fun part of analyzing the data. 62% of the incubated eggs hatched. WOW! So much better than the breeder expected.
The control was 50% & the farmer market eggs were 60%. Yet, is it fair to include eggs that were clear?
If we don't count the clears, the control got 5/6 or 83% and the farmer market eggs got 6/9 or 67%. That makes more sense.

The only other variable I can think of is the position of the eggs in the incubator. Because they were grouped, the positions in the turner were not changed. The control group was along one side & the farmer market group was in the center of the incubator. The incubator is automated, so the lid was rarely lifted.

Does anyone have other thoughts or ideas to add?

We'll be giving most of the quail (& all the the chicks) away. DD wants to train a few quail, so I'm modifying my mom's old parakeet cage in case we decide to keep maybe 3 as house pets until spring. (about 18x36") The alternative is to simply grow all of them out & have quail for dinner in 6 wks. The kids are protesting that idea.

Anyway, on paper raising quail looks so easy. They're quiet, take up little space, mature quickly, & can be used for both meat & eggs. So, I suppose allowing the kids to keep a few will teach us if quail are a bird for us. (After reading about turkeys, guineas, geese, & ducks, none came even close to be considered.)



CHICKENS:
Because we didn't know if any quail would hatch, we did the same experiment using chicken eggs.
Control: 6/6 hatched = 100%
Farmer Market: 5/6 hatched = 83% (One was a blood ring by day 7.)
+ plus 2 eggs that were thrown in at last min & not part of the experiment.

As far as the 3rd group = eggs from the grocery store. We were unable to find any fertile chicken eggs from the stores (tried 6 diff brands of free range or pasture-raised eggs & ate a lot of omelets.) Gave up & didn't bother trying to incubate infertile eggs. All 3 brands of quail eggs we bought at the store looked fertile, but there was no way to calculate the packing date. The quail eggs we purchased & incubated may have been well over a week old. At least the chicken eggs had the Julian calendar number written on them.

I love how your daughter is taking the opportunity to apply her scientific curiosity to come up with such interesting experiments. The rest of us just hatch away to indulge our chicken math! She gets to do both! I hope her interest in science continues as she gets older. I was a Bio major in college, so I'm just a little biased.

I know that I've found that background very helpful as I continue to add and work with the animals on our growing hobby farm.

 

[MikeTodd]

BREAKING NEWS! THE PRODIGAL RHONDA IS BACK!!!! My DW just looked out at the coop and saw her trying to get back in! Other than being hungry, she looks no worse for wear! I guess she just wanted to go on a grand adventure! The DD is so happy she doesn't want to leave the coop right now.

 

[Finnie]

BREAKING NEWS! THE PRODIGAL RHONDA IS BACK!!!! My DW just looked out at the coop and saw her trying to get back in! Other
than being hungry, she looks no worse for wear! I guess she just wanted to go on a grand adventure! The DD is so happy she doesn't want to leave the coop right now.

Sweet!!!

 

[Faraday40]

BREAKING NEWS! THE PRODIGAL RHONDA IS BACK!!!! My DW just looked out at the coop and saw her trying to get back in! Other than being hungry, she looks no worse for wear! I guess she just wanted to go on a grand adventure! The DD is so happy she doesn't want to leave the coop right now.

Fantastic news! That's the best ending to the story!

 

[birdman55]

Anyone looking for svart honas pairs or trios pm me

 

[Crafty chick]

Mike Todd- that's great!!! I watched outside for ours (that we assume was taken by a hawk) for a couple days. Hoping to see her wander out from a hiding place. Ours never did. So glad you have your Rhonda back

 

[Mother2Hens]

BREAKING NEWS! THE PRODIGAL RHONDA IS BACK!!!! My DW just looked out at the coop and saw her trying to get back in! Other than being hungry, she looks no worse for wear! I guess she just wanted to go on a grand adventure! The DD is so happy she doesn't want to leave the coop right now.

@MikeTodd It's always heartwarming to hear such news! When you said that Rhonda was missing, I thought of people I know who've said that they've decided against having silkies as a part of their flock since they are often the first to be grabbed by predators. A year ago, I lost one to a raccoon. However, those little fluffies can be tough! My remaining silkie bosses around my three huge Orps, and she chases our large cats away. Maybe Rhonda had to kill a predator before returning home. lol

Here's my 3 year old Blue Silkie named Smalty. I posted a similar picture of her a few weeks ago when she still had some pin feathers following a molt. Now she's completed production of her new fuzzy winter coat.

@Faraday40 ~ I'm always in awe of your activities; I don't know how you pack so much into a day! This photo of your tiny quail is precious.


@Finnie ~ Congrats on your daughter's wedding last Saturday— I can't believe she hosted Thanksgiving two days before!
I took a few pics of my adorable frizzles from @ellymayRans . They're two weeks older than they were in the pictures I posted a couple of nights ago. I've been able to tell them apart, but it's getting more difficult, so I need to get some soft leg bands. I'm afraid that zip ties would rub their feathery "ankles." And they better each have a leg band, so they can peck at each other's!

They've been quarantined in our walk-out basement for six weeks, and I've taken them outside across the street every day. Although I love having them inside, I know it will soon be time to introduce them to my outdoor flock of seven hens. Boo hoo. I hate to send them out in the cold, dark world with seven mean hens! Actually, "Tutu" is very spunky, so she'll probably end up ruling the roost!

Sorry for the repetitive titles—they help me keep track of my flock photos.

I was in the basement sorting through my rock collection, and I let the girls assist. It was past their bedtime—I've often kept them up past their normal chicken hours.


This photo is overexposed, but it highlights their frizzled feathers.