INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[milamber84906]

Hey I currently live in Dyer, Indiana and tried, unsuccessfully, to get the city council to change the laws that don't allow backyard chickens. My wife and I are now looking at moving (not because of the chicken issue) to Crown Point, IN. Does anyone know the rules and regulations regarding backyard chickens there? I have tried to look through there town code online but couldn't find much. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Oh, this is a wonderful idea. We might even have a tree taken down this spring. Our entire property is forested except for the yard, so we have so many "wood chips" that I just sweep off the porch. Of course it would take awhile to accumulate this many, but what a great place to toss 'em.

I've read about DLM, but only in terms of inside the coop. When you do it in the run, do you use the DE, as well? Just stir it up every so often?

Here's what I'm working with.

Definitely going to paint the coop, and thinking of putting in a little door and the run on this side:



See how the yard isn't so hot? Don't really care about losing the grass. Thinking if I put some tiered garden beds around the perimeter of the run, it might help slow the erosion going on back there.

Oh, will chickens eat walnuts? Because the neighbor's tree is a constant shower of them on top of the coop, in the fall!

Closer view:

Definitely need a window box, but not sure how that will work out if it's enclosed in the run!



How it fits with the rest of the yard:



You can kind of see how spotty the "grass" is. I think it's all weeds.

Gosh, I had another question but the kids are distracting me.

Oh! This might sound silly, but do wild birds eat chicken feed? Do chickens eat wild bird seed? I'm thinking "yes" and "yes" but I didn't see any discussion of it anywhere.

We have a lot of friendly birds in our yard. I snapped this today while writing:



She's about 8-11 oz, so probably about half the size my EEs will be.

I have had sparrows in my chicken feed before, which I strongly discourage this as wild birds can carry diseases and pass them on. I have gave my chickens wild bird feed, even the ones that say for wild birds only. i make sure to look at the ingredients. I buy ones that contain a corn (chopped, ground, and so on), millet, milo, and suet . BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds) are extremely good for a chicken diet. I find it is especially good to feed them when showing, like fish oil pills makes a dog coat shine, it seems to make the chickens coat shine.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:

I've read about DLM, but only in terms of inside the coop. When you do it in the run, do you use the DE, as well? Just stir it up every so often?





Oh! This might sound silly, but do wild birds eat chicken feed? Do chickens eat wild bird seed? I'm thinking "yes" and "yes" but I didn't see any discussion of it anywhere.

I don't use DE inside or out. I want the good bacteria to proliferate inside so I don't put anything in that will kill anything. I use wood shavings indoors and I don't have a dirt floor so I start it by putting a little dirt down from the garden then the wood shavings. I rake it around to keep it stirred up and add shavings from time to time to keep it dry.

Outdoors on the dirt is a wonderful substrate for the deep litter. You don't have to do anything to it. It will break down on it's own. I just keep piling more in there and when I clean out the indoor litter I put it right out onto the run/pen with the wood chips.

 

[Leahs Mom]

All the kiddos got outside with some home-made suet today. These have a mix of rendered suet mixed with lard and coconut oil. Then added BOSS, Cayenne Flakes, Some whole organic corn and barley. Some of them got some garlic too.





The "iron" fence is dividing off a place for the younger ones to go to get away from the olders if they want to. I put the suet cages along it and they can reach it from both sides.

 

[Leahs Mom]

FOR THOSE THAT ARE MIXING THEIR OWN FEEDS:

I purchased a 60 lb bag of Fertrel Nutribalancer (Poultry) for organic. The 60 lb bag is enough for a ton of feed so it will be a LONG time before I go through all of that. I am in the St. Joseph county/Elkhart county area and I would sell it at the same cost per lb. that I purchased if for if anyone is interested in some. Or...I could mail too if you wanted to pay for shipping.

You can pm me if you're interested and I can give you prices

(The nutribalancer is the mineral mix that is often referred to as "pre-mix".)

 

[Kiniska]

Guess I like orpingtons more than I thought. I have a buff orpington already (she's not super friendly but she's good enough) but now I want a lavender orpington, jubilee orpington, and frizzle buff orpington.

I have blues, blacks, and splashes.

 

[Kiniska]

I dreamed about a frizzle last night.  *sigh*


People rave about their orpingtons!  What makes them special?

They are big fluffy butts and decent layers. Mine are all super sweet.

 

[Kiniska]

Hey everyone! Saw some big snow flakes falling today. How is everyone?

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Hey everyone! Saw some big snow flakes falling today. How is everyone?

Did here too. It was slightly snowing for most of the day then really heavy at 4 but that only lasted like 10mins

 

[minmin1258]

 
Ooh, that car port coop is cool! I am planning on doing a shed or maybe even building a pallet coop this year!

I know! I wonder how hard it would be to find a cheap used one!  Something to start looking for!  It would be worth a few hundred bucks even if it only covered part of the run!

Those car ports sell around here for $358.00 brand new. I wish I had thought of that when I was building my coop n run. Only problem with bringing home a car port for a coop...my DH would have confiscated it before I told him what it was purchased for! He's not a happy camper about my having chicken children, they take my time away from waiting hand n foot on him (oh oh did that sound sarcastic?) lol. He sure doesn't complain when I put his breakfast on the table though!