INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

Brought in my guinea babies to the enclosed porch. There is no heat, but much better windbreak and insulated. Temps the next 2 days are too low, and I can't bear to lose any more of my little guys. Their "Mom", Quasey is inside for a foot injury last month so she was trilling happily to "her" babies. I brought in the smallest 4 keets that looked hunched up and miserable. The rest are closer to 6 months and are still scurrying around like little wind up toys

My 4 keets are now tucked under and on Quasey, she is my little gem. I am afraid the other 3 needed her and since she was injured wasn't there to keep them warm.

My 2 smallest peachicks are still indoors since they are so tiny yet. I may never get the porch back! I keep reminding myself spring is only 4 months (or so) away.
Stay warm guys! Tomorrow looks even worse. My next 2 days is pretty busy, Dads heart cath, echo, and some other tests scheduled inpatient to decide what route his valve surgery will be. I am thankful my oldest DD is caring and capable, she and I have a schedule worked out to cover all the critter care and extra water changes.

 

[Mother2Hens]

Haha, thanks. I am moving because my mother in law is pretty suffocating, it's gotten a lot worse since I got married. I also don't have time to keep up with the yard work associated with living on lots of land...I'm starting student teaching in the fall and I won't have a lot of time. I'm not really an outdoorsy person so much as an animal lover. We were looking at a couple "fixer uppers" in West Lafayette, but they were such good deals that they sold in just days. Any house that is an "upgrade" in West Lafayette from the house we currently live in is $200,000+ and if I am taking out a mortgage, it had better be awesome! I was considering sneaking in a couple chickens and having a tractor for them in the garage but I don't think that's fair to them.

For some reason the top part of this wouldn't repost! Ah, well. I am a little sorry to give up the chickens, they're pretty cool. Especially Henrietta, she's so nice. And spunky. But after all the fiascos with animals this summer, I'm ready to only have my three dogs. I lost chickens twice, took in five litters of kittens and their mamas (from the same person) only to have three litters to die of disease/birth defects, one because the mama cat was feral and ate the kitties once they got old enough to compete with her, and the last one due to stray dogs once they got old enough to romp outside. Oh, and my favorite dog died of loneliness when I left on my honeymoon. So yeah. Not to sound heartless, but the less animals I have, the less can die on me.

ShawnaScott ~ You have had a lot to deal with! Dex Holla from West Lafayette sent me a message and said that she has to postpone chickens until spring because she (Susan) has a cast on one arm and a splint on another from radial tunnel syndrome! Poor thing. She's using a computer program that transfers voice to type. Susan graduated from Purdue and has worked there since, married, one daughter. She's a big animal lover, too. Best wishes to you, and keep in touch with our thread. You can post your doggie photos!

Winter Weather ~ Ugh! I tried to clear a better path for the girls today, but there's so much ice under the snow that it's tough to make much of an improvement. Since it's 15 degrees here, I decided to block Nene from perching on top of the coop door, in the small area between there and the roof-- so I could close the door to almost shut to keep it warmer inside. I nailed up some plastic sheeting in that small area, and she was not happy! I normally let her roost up there by herself since she is a trouble-maker type, but I felt like my ceramic heat emitter was a lost cause with the door open. I've been rousting them out of the run a few times a day with healthful treats. Bonbon comes to the back door where she knows I'll open the door quietly (without alerting the others) and give her some seeds.

 

[gunchief25]

Cockadoodledooooooooo!

 

[Too Fast]

CHARLIE LAID AN EGG!

(Haven't seen one of these in a couple months!)

Blue, of course

Charlie in the Fall

Yay for Charlie. A new name now? Or the female Charlie? Charly?

I can't believe we are still getting 4-5 eggs/day. I wonder when they will slow down. 7 hens make up our flock.

 

[hogster160]

Good morning everyone. I'm up in michigan this week taking care of my mom. Dr apts daily for the rest of the week. Going to be a rough week.

Anyway, I took my meaties down Monday to be butchered, dh picked them up yesterday. He said they are 5-6 1/2 lbs cleaned. They were 12 weeks. Can't lie, I'm going to miss them. Friendly friendly birds. After I let them out, they would be all over my yard and into my field and my neighbors yard. Then when you would go to leave, they would come running and flying to see if you had food lol. Which we had to keep a bucket of scratch or boss by the door for just that. Otherwise they would follow you to the car. I will most definitely do meaties again. Such a nice friendly bird.

Yesterday morning it was 0 degrees outside. Turkey tom walked outside, shook and pulled his neck down into his feathers, turned around and went back inside lol. They stayed inside their coop the whole day. 3 chickens braved the cold to come out and eat. The other 17 wouldn't even show a beak out of the door. So they ate inside. I feel lost not taking care of the chickens. Bit it's really good I get this time with my mom.

So Sunday, icy and cold as it was. Was not a good day for me. Tried taking a shortcut over the chicken wire instead of doing around to the gate. Yea I won't be doing that again. My pant leg caught the post and I went down faster then I knew I was falling. Landed on my back and hit my neck on a 2 x4 I forgot to put away. Really a good thing I had taken the nails out. I'm bruised up from butt to bottom of shoulders. Right leg looks like I fought and lost. Ugh, I am not going to ask what next, been there, done that and have the bills to prove it.

Anyway just wanted to stop in and say hey lol. Hope everyone is surviving the cold, snow and ice. I'm sorry to hear of the problems going on.

Be safe,

Deb

 

[danand]

Gun chief- cocka- bur- doodle-burrrr- dooooo- burrrr!!

Hope everyone is warm. 9 degrees here and the animals are NOT happy and neither am I!! I don't mind the snow too much but under 25 is too much!!

Jchny and hogster- I'll be thinking of you while you tend your parents. I've been there.

 

[danand]

I keep meaning to add,that since I added light( tube string lights) , my leghorn had completely stopped and is now laying again. My other girls have been at about 1/2 rate which is fine. So I guess the light affects some more than others.just like with me!!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:

Yay for Charlie. A new name now? Or the female Charlie? Charly?

I can't believe we are still getting 4-5 eggs/day. I wonder when they will slow down. 7 hens make up our flock.

The story of Charlie's name (she is one of my only named chickens...)
She was one of the original 6 chickens I ever owned. As they were growing, I noticed that when I would take meat out for them, she would go away from the rest of the flock and be eating grass. GRASS! When there was meat out there!!! So I drew a conclusion (that was wrong) that she preferred greens to meat.

Now here's the name part. My husband (Chuck) tends to prefer to eat the veggies and not as much meat (I'm a REAL meat eater ) so when I thought this ee girl preferred the vegetation to the meat, I called her "Charlie" [for my husband....

].

Turns out that she was just bottom of pecking order and didn't want to get pecked when she was competing for the meat. Once I figured that out [I was new at chicken keeping so I was learning...] I made sure that I got some meat to her that she didn't have to compete for. She ate it like a pro and now competes with all the rest quite actively.

However, the name stuck. And the other ee gets called "Charlie's Sister".

So, there you have it.
****************************************************************

And yay for your 7-8 eggs. If they are young girls, they usually lay right through the winter their first year.



PS: When I was growing up we had a female collie that my little brother named "Charlie".

 

[Leahs Mom]

Good morning everyone. I'm up in michigan this week taking care of my mom. Dr apts daily for the rest of the week. Going to be a rough week.

Anyway, I took my meaties down Monday to be butchered, dh picked them up yesterday. He said they are 5-6 1/2 lbs cleaned. They were 12 weeks. Can't lie, I'm going to miss them. Friendly friendly birds. After I let them out, they would be all over my yard and into my field and my neighbors yard. Then when you would go to leave, they would come running and flying to see if you had food lol. Which we had to keep a bucket of scratch or boss by the door for just that. Otherwise they would follow you to the car. I will most definitely do meaties again. Such a nice friendly bird.

Yesterday morning it was 0 degrees outside. Turkey tom walked outside, shook and pulled his neck down into his feathers, turned around and went back inside lol. They stayed inside their coop the whole day. 3 chickens braved the cold to come out and eat. The other 17 wouldn't even show a beak out of the door. So they ate inside. I feel lost not taking care of the chickens. Bit it's really good I get this time with my mom.

So Sunday, icy and cold as it was. Was not a good day for me. Tried taking a shortcut over the chicken wire instead of doing around to the gate. Yea I won't be doing that again. My pant leg caught the post and I went down faster then I knew I was falling. Landed on my back and hit my neck on a 2 x4 I forgot to put away. Really a good thing I had taken the nails out. I'm bruised up from butt to bottom of shoulders. Right leg looks like I fought and lost. Ugh, I am not going to ask what next, been there, done that and have the bills to prove it.

Anyway just wanted to stop in and say hey lol. Hope everyone is surviving the cold, snow and ice. I'm sorry to hear of the problems going on.

Be safe,

Deb

Ouch! sounds like something I would do Hope you heal up quickly... And hope things go well w/your mom.

I'll be interested to see how those meaties taste for you.

 

[racinchickins]

Well its getting near the end of the year, it's cold and nasty outside and for a lot of us, it is dark when we go to work and dark when we come home. I've decided I need to think brighter thoughts and also do a little planning. I'd also love to hear what everyone else thinks about what went on this year and what they are thinking of doing next year.......

So, what did you learn in 2013????
What are your plans for 2014?????

For me, 2013 was the year of discovery. I got my first chickens, then more chickens, then turkeys, then more chickens. (I now have intimate knowledge of the insidious progression of chicken math disease...)

Lots of learning things too:

• how to raise chickens
• how to care for them
• how to hatch eggs
• how absolutely great it is to have chickens and turkeys and how they brighten my days.
• how not to keep too many roosters
• how to process said roosters
• how not to keep turkeys and chickens together after the turkeys get big.
• how to process Thanksgiving turkeys
• how wonderful turkey and chicken you raised yourself tastes
• how to build a chicken coop, turkey pen, chicken feeders, waterers, etc.......
• how patient my partner can be when I get obsessive about my birds
• how GREAT the people on this thread are when you need advice and friends
• how great BYC in general is as a resource
• and on and on and on.............

So on to plans for 2014:
I've planned since day 1 to be breeding chickens, so I plan to start.

• I have some good stock (I hope) of both Crested Cream Legbars and American Bresse chickens, as well as a trio of Royal Palm turkeys.
  • I plan to breed my CCLs, keep a batch or two to improve my flock and then sell hatching eggs and chicks.
  • I want to breed my ABs. I plan on raising a bunch for processing. Both for myself and to sell. I'll also sell any extra hatching eggs and chicks.
  • I'll also be breeding my RPs if they cooperate. I want to sell any hatching eggs and poults I get from them as well.
  • I have several varieties of turkeys ordered, and plan on raising them over the year to see which I prefer. I'll then concentrate on my favorites for raising after that.
  • I want to find a source for good quality Java chickens to raise. The plan right now is for them to be my third chicken breed to concentrate on and stop there for now.

I'll maintain my laying flock and add culls from my breeding programs to add to that. I also want to completely rebuild their mobile coop for next spring.

I'm thinking about adding rabbits next year, and maybe dipping my toe into the waterfowl arena.... Any other larger livestock would require building lots of fence.

I plan on building lots of fence, because you never know what may come your way, and I want to be prepared.

I plan to keep reading BYC and especially the Indiana thread. I get entertainment, fellowship and knowledge all at the same time!!!!

Let us know how your year went and what your plans are.

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!!