INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[toodlesmom]

IAMFIVEWIRE - What a gorgeous bird! Love the patterning in the feathers and the little tiara of a comb!


JCHNY2000 - Handsome turkey! Beautiful feathering! And such tender eyes! How old is he?


AATH - Sorry your chickens have to move on. Good luck finding good homes for them! You might want to post them in Eastside Chickens on Facebook. It covers East Indianapolis and Marion county where there are quite a few coops. I can do it for you, if you wish. Just PM me.


RACINCHICKINS - Your birds are lovely! The varied patterns of the turkey feathers are so pretty and interesting. Your mom took some great pictures. It looked like a National Geographic safari!


VICKICHICKI - Love the beautiful red of your chickens! Hope you get your vacation break. It is hard to get away when you own your own business. I think it is good though, for little ones to grow up helping in their parents own business.


BRADSELIG - Your Tolbunt Polish almost make me question the entire direction I was planning my flock in. They are such beautiful birds!

 

[toodlesmom]

LEAH'S MOM - Your chicken pen set-up is really handy. It must be a breeze to handle your flock. Love the pictures of your moms and babies. I always love to see hens and chicks together.


JCHNY2000 - Your plan for a meet-up at Liberty, IN sounds great! It would be a nice day or weekend for everyone's family, too.

May I suggest that we also have a meet-up at one of the bigger poultry shows. It would be nice to have someone more knowledgable tell us newbies what the judges are looking for and why points were given or taken away. Also, some wisdom from friends would be helpful if we want to buy birds. We could choose a fall or spring show when the weather would be good and plan for a picnic on the grounds, or choose a winter one and go out for lunch together. It would would be a briefer meet-up than the all-day ones in the summer.

 

[Delawaremommy]

Before I start reading through all the posts on here I have to say this:
Okay, for everyone that is following my chickens progress besides me (that is probably no one!) I got the first egg today!!!!! Yeah!!! It was Esther that did it and even my brother (who lives next door) laughed as all four girls hollered their egg song and he could hear it with the windows shut! I am so proud of them and the fact that I haven't screwed them up so bad that they wouldn't lay with all my novice chicken learning!!! Pics to follow! It is small but well formed and a beautiful color of pale brown! Haven't opened it so don't know if it has all the regular egg parts but to Esther my baby I say great first effort pretty girl!

I know.....shut up Connie.

ps....I might be a LITTLE excited!

 

[kabhyper1]

There are so many pretty pictures of chickens and chicks this weekend!! Leahs Mom, your set up is great!! M2H, Brad, pipd, pretty chickies!! CCCCCCCCHICKENS I think I would have trouble sleeping if I woke up to that!

Thanks all for your help during our hatch! You guys are really patient and great. I have been an annoying nervous wreck all week, and you guys put up with me. Thanks again. We are getting ready for round 2 this week. I hope all of the knowledge you guys have given me will make this time go a bit smoother.

I went out and temporarily divided the silkie coop for the chicks. I was thinking they might fall out the main door that the rest of the chickens use to go out to the run, if I didn't secure them somehow. Snow seems pretty comfortable in her new digs. I put her food and water in the nesting boxes so she doesn't spill them. DH built the nesting boxes into the door, so I think the babies would have fallen out if they had hatched there. So she got moved to the floor. Fortunately she took right to it.

Here she is waiting patiently...

 

[kabhyper1]

Before I start reading through all the posts on here I have to say this:
Okay, for everyone that is following my chickens progress besides me (that is probably no one!) I got the first egg today!!!!! Yeah!!! It was Esther that did it and even my brother (who lives next door) laughed as all four girls hollered their egg song and he could hear it with the windows shut! I am so proud of them and the fact that I haven't screwed them up so bad that they wouldn't lay with all my novice chicken learning!!! Pics to follow! It is small but well formed and a beautiful color of pale brown! Haven't opened it so don't know if it has all the regular egg parts but to Esther my baby I say great first effort pretty girl!

I know.....shut up Connie.

ps....I might be a LITTLE excited!

It is exciting! I loved finding a different colored egg each time one of our hens started laying. It is a full flock production when one hen lays! Even our roosters start honking when the hens sing. It is very loud here a few times a day! I hope your girls keep laying nicely for you before the cold weather gets here.

 

[Delawaremommy]

I am no expert since this has been my first year, But something I ran into when i got my chicks this past april is the outside temp.. I am not sure what your set up is, but I kept mine in a 4'x4' box in the house until it was warm outside for them. The longer they are in the house the more of a pain they are to clean up after. 6 week old peeps make more of a mess then 6 day old peeps and smell worse also... 32 peeps in the house at 6-7 weeks old is not so great. At that point my wifey says cold or not your all going outside now......

I only had four and the smell wasn't too bad...but the weather changed every time I thought I could move them out. Finally got them outside at 7 weeks and they loved it.

So it turns out my picture editor is now working so this is for Pginsber







Pictures of the possible moms and the definite dad.

Very handsome roo!!

This of course is our first fall season with our chickens. Our grass is GONE. The chickens have depleted our backyard of anything green. I am hoping we will be closing on our new house by the end of the month, so they can have much more GREEN pastures to free range on. Our garden is almost gone, but the new fall season has brought us a new source of free treats for our girls; PERSIMMONS. We never knew what to do with all of our neighbors persimmons, which fell on our driveway and made such a mess. OUR GIRLS LOVE THEM. My daughter is enjoying picking them up daily and throwing them to the girls. It doesn't take much to entertain us, but a little chicken football is always great for a laugh.

I have only had my chickens for about 7 months, but each change in weather/season brings a different level of love for my girls.

I am a little afraid of what winter is going to bring to us. We built our coop for our little closed in yard. We have no heat source, no light source, and I am not sure how sealed it is going to be against the winds of the open pastures at our new place.

I love being a chicken flock owner. I don't think there is anything that could make me feel happier and more alive.

Hope everyone is enjoying their flock and this beautiful fall weather.

Plastic sheetin is what I plan to use on the prevailing wind side of the coop and run and stacked straw bales which are dual purpose as I use the straw to cut the dog mud also.

Little Chance is walking!!! He is the little black one by his momma head. Still has his hobbles on until tomorrow because he is still wobbly.

They are adorable...I really like the little Minorca x......

Strssdmom : we got our first chicks ever on april 01 this year & DW & i often comment that we wonder why had never done this years ago.

I have spent the whole summer wondering that exact same thing.

here's a couple pics of one of our newest children :





We were supposed to have gotten 2 Delaware pullets , but we're quite certain that this one is a silver penciled iowa blues - not that we're dissappointed that it isnt a Del . . . . actually pleasantly suprised & excited that it is.

Definitely not a Delaware! But a beautiful Iowa Blue.

It is exciting! I loved finding a different colored egg each time one of our hens started laying. It is a full flock production when one hen lays! Even our roosters start honking when the hens sing. It is very loud here a few times a day! I hope your girls keep laying nicely for you before the cold weather gets here.

Delawares are good winter layers so I don't know for sure that they will stop completely until they molt next fall. Then I will be shocked. The noise was funny. Also the fact that she had dug out a perfect round nest and the little egg was sitting right smack in the middle! Cute!!!!

 

[Delawaremommy]

Here are some bad pictures of my good birds!




This one was taken at dusk so it's not great but you can see Gertrudes curled toes!!!

 

[amwchickin]

Well, after 4 days of not being on here I expected WAY more than what I had to read through. Overall it sounds like everyone is doing good except for a couple lost chickens and some neck pain. (hope everyone is doing better today! And I really have to say I am jealous of all the baby chicks. I really wish I could get a broody!!

My brother got married on Friday in the Brown County state park amphitheater. It was such a gorgeous day!! there were twinkling lights everywhere and we sent them off with sparklers. I will post a couple pics when I recuperate! They wanted cupcakes and I have done a few weddings, so I baked and decorated 140 cupcakes and a cake for them to cut into. Thursday and Friday were very LONG days.

My sick chickens seem to be slowly getting better. A couple still have some puffy eyes and several are still hacking. I went through a whole bag of Corrid and a bottle of VetRx. I ended up treating all 24 birds because it just seemed to be spreading fast. Should I continue medicating or give them a break from the meds? or try something different? With it getting cooler I am afraid they're just going to stay sick.

Also, after the water is clear of medication, how long before eggs are okay to eat again? Luckily they really haven't laid anything, might get an egg every other day, so I haven't had to throw many out.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend and enjoying this nice weather! Any replies on the med info would be great!!

 

[kabhyper1]

It's such a pretty day!!

After baby proofing the Silkie coop, and a few other things, I went out and took some updated pics of the coops. I wish it would stay like this outside, but It's Indiana and we all know that won't happen.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

M2H you have more willpower than me! If you ever do need a truck let me know. We will be glad to help out

We have that big dually, I can't drive it (massive monstrous thing UGH) but DH would do it for you.

So, everyone on our thread..
I want to say a huge THANK YOU to racinchickins for our fantastic get together this summer, again and I can't tell you all how much we enjoyed it.
I hope to keep arranging more get togethers. Anyone in the south or north part of the state, shout out if you have ideas!
Next summer, I would love to set up a get together at our campground in Liberty.
The owner has a nice barn on site for gatherings!
We spoke a few weeks ago, he isn't opposed to the "demo" ideas ~ even on processing if we need to do another session.
He loves pickled quail eggs, so am buttering him up hehe

His family has kept poultry in the past and he likes the idea.
Brookville lake is just beautiful, and there is swimming, fishing, hiking, biking, horseback riding and camping there too, along with several other activities.
Couple different state properties locally offer different levels of camping from primitive to class A RV facilities.
I am throwing it out here now, shout out if you are interested! My group there are mostly retirees, but I am sure some will join in the fun

I would enjoy another get together.
Might be fun to have a nice size chicken trade too. I know some chickens went to new homes at the last meet. We don't have the acreage here or I would invite you to have the meet here. Plus we are close to Patrick so it would not help the north side of the state.