INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Mother2Hens]

Howdy, all!!!!!!!!!!!

I am 908 postings behind. I am skipping them all.

I got my daughter's house in Noblesville at Moorse reservoir remodelled. It took 5 sheets of drywall, 10 gallons of spackle mud and a hell of a lot of time and sanding to fill all the holes, dents, BB gun holes, nail holes, screw holes, pin holes, fist holes, and assorted other ways that the trashy people we bought the house from found to misuse the walls and ceilings in the house. I hired a crew to replace all the carpet and wood flooring in the house and a paint crew to paint over the all presumably disease-ridden surfaces in the house. A handyman replaced all the cabinets. He also replaced all the electrical outlets and switches in the house because several were not working and all were filthy. Of course, all the appliances were replaced as the existing appliances were also covered in filth. 2 doors had been knocked off their hinges and the frames broken, so they need to be replaced. Water heater replaced. And the list goes on.

I spoke to several neighbors and they seemed quite pleased that the neighborhood blight was being put back into order. They were equally pleased to see the 6 unruly children (1 of them shot out the neighbor's garage windows and lights with his BB gun through a hole that he poked through his bedroom window screen) and their 6 barking dogs.

John

Old Salt/John ~ By skipping all of those posts you are missing life-changing information! We've had hundreds of posts on how to repair holes and dents with chicken poop, how to create textured wall treatments using feathers, and how to mix up your own egg shell satin paint.

But seriously, what a huge mess to clean up -- the house, I mean -- the kids will probably end up in prison some day considering their role models. Your daughter is very lucky to have her Dear ol' Dad! And we're glad you're back.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: The worst house I was ever in.. animal control days.. the floors, everything was dingy yellow and sticky. your shoes stuck to the floor.
Odor was overwhelming, like smelling pure ammonia! I could not bathe enough to get that odor to go away

Soaked my uniform in lysol for a week, and then gave up and threw it out. There were 70+ cats living in that 900 sq ft house.

Awesome! All your babies are safe and home! I bet that's a wonderful feeling and you can see them more too!

My neighbor, Mel, pulls discarded vegetables from a grocery store dumpster and brings them home and keeps them in his garage. He then fixes up a daily bucket full and walks over to my chicken yard and dumps them in the chicken yard. When the chickens see him coming from 600 feet away, immediately rush to the corner of chicken yard and wait for him.

Mel has had problems with his well. His sons are helping him fix it. He has been coming over to my house to get water in buckets. The outside faucet was frozen on Christmas Day, so we brought the buckets into the kitchen to fill them. While we were standing and waiting for one to fill, my 2 year old grandson came in the kitchen and started talking to Mel. I never understand what he says, but I did notice that he ended his spiel with "Santa".

I looked at Mel, with his white beard and mustach, and said "he thinks you are Santa Claus". I told Mel to take off his hat and show his white hair. I then picked up Morgan and put him in Mel's arms. I then took them into the living room where all the others were and announced "Morgan found Santa". They all burst out laughing, but got concerned that they would hurt Mel's feelings and tried, unsuccessfully, to stifle their laughter. That made it all the funnier.

Later, after they had all left, my youngest daughter called to tell me that they hit a deer and killed it on their way home. There was no damage to people or car.

I called Mel and gave him her phone number and had him call her with this message.

"Hi. This is Santa. I understand you ran over one of my reindeer."

John

Mel sounds wonderful!

and has an excellent sense of humor too!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Couple of us keep an eye on the old Indiana threads, I saw today a brand new member posted on one.
I always invite and post our link. There were 2 former threads that fizzled when the OP's left BYC,
Although I plan to be here a LONG time I do want to assure everyone here, our thread and member list has been set up differently.
We have contributors, so our thread will continue to be here even if I was not. BYC moderators assisted me in this task to ensure it was done correctly.
We are always looking for more contributors to help! We ask you are familiar with google docs/excel spreadsheets to be a contributor.

I personally want to say thank you

to Mother2Hens, bradselig, quinstar, vickichicki, cluck acres, Pipd and many more who have helped make this happen.
M2H seems to find answers to many illness or problems in a FLASH, and shares excellent links to help understand the problem.
She also keeps us fitted with beautiful avatars with a county map attached, helping each other understand where we are all at!
bradselig has done a superior job making our member list very easy to navigate and understand, I am very excited to see how well the search works.
pipdzipdnreadytogo has an excellent example of a well planned out first aid kit for chickens, she has shared this on our member/event/links page.
Cluck Acres and I started this thread in the beginning.. We wanted to share info pertinent to our state.
We also welcome any other BYC member, from anywhere! I don't care if you live in Alaska, or Australia. Everyone is welcome here!
Special thanks go out to racinchickins for our awesome chickenfest this summer, and oldsalt45 for helping others learn to process roosters!
I thank you all, we have came a long ways trying to find others to share, learn and educate too! I consider all of our thread members dear friends.

 

[Too Fast]

My nipples freeze in cold weather.

I use 5-gallon water buckets with nipple waterers in the bottom. I put stock tank heaters in them to keep the water from freezing. It works, but the nipples freeze, defeating any advantage.

Cold weather, I gotta carry buckets of water, but I don't have to carry them far. Sitting by the door is a 55 gallon drum with a heater in it. I dip from the barrel. When there is a day warm enough, I refill the barrel from the garden hose.

John

Sometimes I try, but I can't write as funny as you do, lol.

I was going to ask people what they do with the nipple watering system in the winter, I was thinking some sort of heat tape/wire.

Oh yeah, go (cardiac) Colts! Can't believe they pulled out that win!

Claiming post # 19234.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I used the little cup waterers last year. I started using one of the 250 watt livestock deicers but they did NOT work well so I finally changed to a submersible aquarium heater - 50 watt.

It keeps the water much warmer than the livestock de-icers.

If I were using the nipples, I'd give it a try as it may just do the trick. I plugged it in to a thermo-cube which comes on at 35 degrees F and off at 45 degrees F. The bag of marbles was used as a weight to be sure it stayed under the water.

Might give one a try and see if it warms up your nipples.

Themocube can be found in most hardwares or Lowes/Menards.

http://www.amazon.com/Farm-Innovators-TC-3-Thermostatically-Controlled/dp/B0006U2HD2

 

[SallyinIndiana]

SallyinIndiana ~ As far as feeding your flock leftovers-- raw chicken especially-- I'd be afraid that it would get scattered around and a couple days later a chicken might find a rotten piece or a moldy piece to eat. I don't know, I'm not questioning you doing it-- I'm just wondering what your method is so you don't have to worry about it. When I feed mine food other than their usual chicken food,-- (and I've fed them cooked chicken and cooked eggs)-- I put it on plates, supervise them, and make sure every bit is cleaned up. But I just have 7 chickens, so it's easier for me. I'm especially worried about food getting moldy since it's so toxic, but I also don't want scraps around to lure predators. I don't give mine leftovers from our meals because I'm sure that salt and other spices would be at higher, unhealthful levels in their small bodies. We eat mostly healthful food, but it's not always as pure and natural as it should be.

I've wondered about this issue for a long time since many members have said that they feed their flock leftovers: How do others go about it to avoid potential problems of leftovers "left" in the yard?

as for the raw chicken that my live chickens eat, it is typically the organs that I just don't eat. I know it is a "waste" but raw liver and raw heart are favorites. Now every so often the nastier scraps like the head will get dragged around by the cat to the point a chicken gets it. Same for the feet, I would rather let the cat have the feet than to peel and add to any broth.
I don't give them an over aboundance at one time. Even on processing day, I have to hold some back for the freezer. While I have checked after the flock has gone away from the food area, there has not been leftovers other than bones.
As for left over food prepared for people. If I toss it into the compost pile, the chickens dig it out. So typically that is where I feed them those leftovers. If it is dry leftovers, I tos them into the coop to encourage scratching in the litter. I have not seen leftovers there either.

 

[Kiniska]

I don't all the time, but when i do fed leftovers, I don't have to worry about there being anything left from the leftovers. The little scavengers eat it all. I don't give them stuff, that has things that can't be ate, such as bones.

There is no such thing as left overs with my flock. LOL! I think M2H just needs a few more Orps so she doesn't have a problem with leftovers either.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Thanks for posting. I plan on reading the whole article and some of the links when I have a few minutes. Also reposted on the NCK thread. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...eeping-thread-ots-welcome/25990#post_12591443

 

[Kiniska]

My neighbor, Mel, pulls discarded vegetables from a grocery store dumpster and brings them home and keeps them in his garage.  He then fixes up a daily bucket full and walks over to my chicken yard and dumps them in the chicken yard.  When the chickens see him coming from 600 feet away, immediately rush to the corner of chicken yard and wait for him.

Mel has had problems with his well.  His sons are helping him fix it.  He has been coming over to my house to get water in buckets.  The outside faucet was frozen on Christmas Day, so we brought the buckets into the kitchen to fill them.  While we were standing and waiting for one to fill, my 2 year old grandson came in the kitchen and started talking to Mel.  I never understand what he says, but I did notice that he ended his spiel with "Santa".

I looked at Mel, with his white beard and mustach, and said "he thinks you are Santa Claus".  I told Mel to take off his hat and show his white hair.  I then picked up Morgan and put him in Mel's arms.  I then took them into the living room where all the others were and announced "Morgan found Santa".  They all burst out laughing, but got concerned that they would hurt Mel's feelings and tried, unsuccessfully, to stifle their laughter.  That made it all the funnier.

Later, after they had all left, my youngest daughter called to tell me that they hit a deer and killed it on their way home.  There was no damage to people or car.

I called Mel and gave him her phone number and had him call her with this message.

"Hi.  This is Santa.  I understand you ran over one of my reindeer."

John

<3 <3 Sooooo happy you are back!!!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Well...went out this am and it feels like a "heat wave" compared to what I thought it would be. 30 degrees F.

Supposed to be in the negatives by tonight, but I thought it was going to be here this morning. I even opened the door on the hen shed and left it full open since there is no wind. Snow is HEAVY and coming STRAIGHT DOWN. I have to keep the sun canopy cleared or it will come down (it's just an old swimming pool cover). Was out almost 2 hours shoveling snow from the kennel run as we're expecting more and I'm trying to keep ground visible so the kiddos will go out.

If I hadn't kept up with shoveling it out there would be about 3 ft of snow in it already.. More coming.

Sun canopy (old swimming pool cover...imagine that thing w/ 3 ft. of snow! I'm impressed it hasn't already totally caved in. We have to keep knocking the snow down from it.