INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[barb s]

Here is a couple pics I've taken so far. 9 of 10 eggs hatched but two chicks didn't make it through the first night. But we have 7 happy, healthy little ones. Five are bantams and two LF.

very cute!!

 

[czumm976]

HI! We are new and was told about the state sites! I am looking to start our adventure here in Northwest Indiana, but don't know where I can purchase chicks. We are looking to purchase egg layers. We are from Northwest Indiana and our town is looking to change our ordinances, so that is why we are looking now. We were going to wait until Spring, but now we cannot. And why wait right? I look forward to "meeting" everyone and thank you in advance for your help!

 

[kabhyper1]

Quote:
Welcome!

 

[kabhyper1]

Today is hatch day!

It is taking everything for me to not go out and look under her. The anticipation is killing me!!!!!

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote: Lots of things to consider but most of them don't apply as much with broodies. I understand the desire to help out. I have eggs that should be pipping any hour now. I so want to candle them and check on them but I can't they are in lockdown. I can only look through the windows.

HI! We are new and was told about the state sites! I am looking to start our adventure here in Northwest Indiana, but don't know where I can purchase chicks. We are looking to purchase egg layers. We are from Northwest Indiana and our town is looking to change our ordinances, so that is why we are looking now. We were going to wait until Spring, but now we cannot. And why wait right? I look forward to "meeting" everyone and thank you in advance for your help!

We have a members list with the location of many of our members. Leah's mom is on the the north end of the state and she has chicks. I'm not sure what breed but I'm thinking 5-6 weeks old. I'm not sure if she is selling or not though. The hatcheries that are "near" Indiana are Meyer and Akers (down south in Indiana). I have chicks from Meyers that are 2 weeks old but I'm south central so it would be a bit of a drive. You can get hens this time of year from CL or sometimes an egg farm, but check them for bugs and open moist egg laying vents. Also if the breed is to have yellow legs make sure they are not grayish white that means they have either been laying for a while and should enter molt to restore their system or that they are very old.
For me it was easier to start with chicks. They are cheaper and I was able to afford a few extra to count as learning mistakes if something went wrong like a hawk attack. It sounds callous but I'm glad I only lost chicks to hawks and not hens before I got my run covered.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I'd be willing to make an hour trip so that he can go to a good home. That is, if you're still interested.

If you are willing to make the hour trip that is fine by me! Conpletley your decision, just let me know and if you decided you want to we can work out details through pm.

Yup, I'd be glad to. I'll send you a PM. The only pen I had left to move him to was an old rabbit hutch, so it's not ideal, but it has given me the opportunity to try to tame him down. He's very skitterish, but I've gotten him to the point where he doesn't freak out when I'm near his pen at least. He's terrified of hands, though. Anyway, I'll try to get him as tame as I can before he goes, though that will depend on how soon he goes of course.




I just had a close encounter of the hawk kind--first time in years. Luckily my girls all ducked and ran into the coop before it could nab any of them. I was most worried about my Silkie, Margie, with that crest. It looked like she was one of the first inside, though!

Anyway, it was a juvenile, either Cooper's or Sharp-Shinned, and looked like it wouldn't've been big enough to do any damage to any of them but the banties and maybe my young Fayoumi. I'm not sure why it was after them. Last time we saw one of them after the hens, it had landed on one of them and was standing there like it didn't know what to do. The hen was fine, of course, after the hawk was shooed away. Oh, well. I've got flags flying over the chicken yard now (well, one flag and one towel ), so hopefully that will keep it at bay for a while.

 

[FarkerFarms]

Quote:

Our family ventured into beekeeping. 3 years ago both of the kids joined the 4-H bee club. The first 2 years of club the project requirement was a poster to display. We were still in town and didn't have a place for hives, so we spent that time learning. Last year, once we were living out of town, we set up 2 hives. We wanted the benefit of the pollination for our garden & the orchard we planted, but especially wanted to produce our own honey. I personally think it takes a certain type of personality to have bees -- you really have to want to do it. My son was kind of wishy-washy about it, but my daughter & I thought we would enjoy it. For a while during the spring and early summer it wasn't bad for us. But what we hated was when it was time to take frames out and get all the bees off so we could extract honey for fair. We didn't really have a good way to do it and we were so afraid of making just a couple of the bees mad enough that they would sting & send out the warning pheromones to the others to attack! (Happened once when some accidently got stepped on - yikes!) It also seemed like whenever it was time to check the fullness of the frames hives it was super hot, we were sweltering in our bee suits and it took us forever since we were so new. Quite the sensation to have thousands of bees swarming around and on you with just the smoker to use to puff "calming" puffs of smoke around! For us, it just turned out not to be an enjoyable experience, which I was kind of disappointed about. It became a dreaded task to tend to them. It's not a lot of work, but it's work that has to be done when it is time for it -- some tasks can't be postponed -- especially if your hive is too full. If you wait an extra day you might not have a hive left because they're swarmed looking for more space. Often we were so busy with other stuff that we weren't able to tend to things when we should have. Sometimes (often?) we felt like we really had no clue what we were doing or what needed to be done & when -- could have used a bit more mentoring. One other negative that was fairly unique for us -- since the bees have to have access to water, they decided our little beach area by our pond was the perfect spot for them -- all that nice, wet sand at the edge of the water. We had to be sooo careful every time we went to swim so we wouldn't step on them. A couple of feet did actually get stung. We were pretty tired of that by the end of summer. All these things obviously influenced how we felt about the whole adventure.

However, you could have the personality of our 4-H club leader who is in heaven with all the bees swarming around him -- says it is calming!

I think it's one of those things -- either love it or hate it. On the flip side, we had sooo much fun when it was actually time to extract and bottle the honey. If that's all we had to do I'd love it. We extracted about 140 lbs. of honey. A lot of people bought honey from us multiple times -- said they loved it -- and were sorry when we didn't have any more left to sell. We still have our 2 complete hives & equipment in my garden work shed. Not sure if we'll try it again in a couple of years or end up selling it all -- it was a pricey adventure! But at least my gardening area has a wonderful honey smell on warm sunny days when the temperature goes up in there -- love the honey house smell!

Thank you for sharing your ups and downs! I am concerned also, but want to give it a try for at least a couple of years. I am hoping to keep the costs down by making my own hives, and I have heard that the top bar method, although you get slightly less honey, is much easier to work with and less intrusive to the bees. I had friends try bees and it lasted maybe 6 months, but I am really into the idea of homesteading and trying to be as self sufficient as possible! Plus I'm super stubborn!

 

[kabhyper1]

So I went out to check, I couldn't help myself. She got off the nest on her own to eat a little so I checked the eggs. I didn't get a good look though because I picked one up and dropped it on another one. I am so mad at myself right now!!!!!!!!! It barely cracked the one it landed on, but I really hope I didn't mess something up. It just put a tiny indention in it, I don't think It broke the membrane. I really screwed up.

 

[pginsber]

Today is hatch day!

It is taking everything for me to not go out and look under her. The anticipation is killing me!!!!!

Sending you good vibes for all to be all right

 

[pginsber]

Very cute chicks. What breed or mix are they?

I believe them to be RIRs--vickichickin, is that right? (They're her grandbabies!)
Their coop mom is a cream legbar.