INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[CRSelvey]

Awesome! I was cruising Pinterest for those baskets and I came upon a pic of a vintage nesting box trio that someone was using for antiques. It hit me that I actually have something similar in my garage. I am pretty sure I bought it as a shelf to be used vertically in the corner of the room. It has rounded shelves, each one making a wedge. I have been looking at that thing for years, wondering if I should hang it up and let the kids put knickknacks on it, or turn it on its side and let them use it like a bookshelf with built in dividers. Then I saw this pic tonight and now I think I understand my "shelf's" ultimate destiny. I don't sew, or I would try to figure out how to rip up privacy curtain for the nest boxes. I probably read too much but they seem like a good idea on the ChickenChick's blog. I swear, this coop is getting more decked out than my house is.

She doesn't sew them either, just cuts rectangles, staples them up and let's them look cute until the season changes or the mood strikes to update from what I've read.

[COLOR=8B4513]I just noticed the glitches on page 2029. That's annoying! I'm sure my posts were quite important.[/COLOR]

It was to me which is why I quoted, read the post, and saw the hidden code.

Pipd, I gotta tell you. I love when you school us on genetics even a little. It's good stuff. Details are important.

 

[Mother2Hens]

bradselig ~ Remember the recent conversation about freeze-dried mealworm prices-- you said that Lowe's had the best prices per ounce and I had just been to RK where they were slightly less an ounce?
I realized when I was at RK the other day that the bag marketed for chickens was $9.99 for 10 oz. and the bag marketed for wild birds was $4.99 for 7 oz.
I'm guessing that the hen product cost more since it's marketed to people who "spoil their flock" and would expect to pay a little more for a "special treat." The wild bird product isn't priced as high since it's marketed to feed to wild birds, which is more of a gamble since less desirable birds might eat them up.

I also have a spreadsheet and am weighing and recording every egg. We're only getting 1-3 eggs a day so far - from a half dozen 6.5-month old hens - so it hasn't been difficult. I can distinguish between eggs from my BAs and my EEs of course, but I don't know which individual chickens are actually laying and which aren't.

I will fully admit to being a geek.

I mentioned that I don't do spreadsheets, but I do create visual references. When I brought Jersey to the vet, I had printed out a paper with photos of all of her weird eggs with dates and photos of her that were dated along with her medical history. Maybe I'm a little OCD, but the vet was impressed and said it was very helpful! And it was easy to do since I had her photos w/dates in a folder on my computer.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Solved the lonely chick problem. Took a rubber ducky, and draped a fuzzy piece of fleece over it.
She is the image of her mom as a chick, very happy to have her!
The baby can come and go under the "wings". Hoping at least 1 more hatch.
If not the next round of bantam chicks/quail is in a 2 days.

 

[Too Fast]

We love the woodpeckers. With all our trees, we get several species. We saw our first downy just before we moved here, when our daughter was a baby. We decided it must be her "spirit animal," so it if fun seeing loads of them here at the new house.

The thing I saw on FB was the carport coop. One of my friends tagged me.

Yesterday I posted my hand-drawn plans for adding on to our existing coop, and another friend said I needed an intervention! LOL

Like I told her, though, the run isn't going to build itself.

It's not pretty, but this is what I drew:



I don't know if it'll make any sense to anyone but me and hubby, but it felt good to get all the plans on paper so I could start budgeting for costs. I'll hopefully start picking up materials every payday until the weather gets nice enough to start building.

I realized while drawing this that with my run being on a slope, it should be great drainage! I think that when it does rain, it will just drain into the beds I have planned for the the north side of the run.

That's the best way to do it. Draw something up. I like your rainbarrel, my wife wants to do a rainbarrel, but I'm not sure it's a good idea with our cedar shake roof. Guess I'll keep taking their water out by hand. We buried our 2x4 welded wire/hardware cloth combination 2 feet out all along the perimeter, and have had no attacks and we sleep well at night. I like how you say you can 'budget' now. I had a 'budget' in mind of $4-500, ended up almost $1100. Kept all our reciepts, not sure if it was a smart thing to do! Our 7 girls have given us 35 eggs/week since mid July, now down to about 30, and we are now closing in on 1,000 eggs.

So, almost down to $1 per egg! You go, girls!






I was going to bury the wire down 2 feet vertically, but quickly gave up on that. Hard concrete clay soil!!!!!

 

[lilmizscareall]

As of 815am, I have soprano and baritone roosters. René, the Birchen Maran, has finally decided that he too is a singer.
Big Roo no longer has to take care of everything.

 

[ChickCrazed]

Wow, be sure to take pics, cant wait to see it progress!
Thats awesome on the drainage, you will be very relieved not to deal with mud and ick.


X2, LOL! But seriously.... How old is he now, he may just not be "ready" yet.
Red crowed way before he was doing his job, maybe 8 months or longer?
I had all but given up on him!

If you have him in the same coop as Gus he may never act unless you separate them. My guess is he is the subservient Roo and is too intimidated. I have also heard that Cochins are REALLY slow to mature. You need to give Lavender the pep talk too so she actually starts laying

 

[Too Fast]

Ye
Yes!!! So they aren't actually woodpeckers after all. I still think they are cute. I see them outside all the time. Not as cute are the giant owls that are here. I thought they were gorgeous until I got chickens. Now they are just scary. Ditto on the 4bald eagles that live down the road.

Isn't that the truth. I thought it was real cool to have nesting pair of red-tailed hawks in our yard in 2012. Then we got chickens in Spring 2013. Now, not cool to have hawks nesting in our yard. Gload they found somewhere else to make the nest. No eagles very close to us, but they are around. Also saw a great horned owl land on a pole after we got the coop/run all secured. Had never seen one around here, but found out they are as common as the red-tailed hawks in Indiana.

Here is one of the offspring of that mating pair of hawks in our yard:





Some of our first eggs:


Here's a picture from last August:



And also last August, a Cooper's hawk looking for an entrance:



Here's hoping for secure backyard chicken farming in 2014!

 

[Leahs Mom]

It is possible. I'd just keep watching her and see what happens. If you could get her to do her laying inside rather than outside, that would be better so that she doesn't have to retreat from the weather.

I don't sew, or I would try to figure out how to rip up privacy curtain for the nest boxes. I probably read too much but they seem like a good idea on the ChickenChick's blog. I swear, this coop is getting more decked out than my house is.

Those are so cool! I haven't noticed any before in antique shops but they may have been there and I just didn't know what they were. Now I'll have to keep my eyes open when I'm out and about.

And I'll be the "antique" farmers that had those didn't even consider such a thing as a curtain for their nest boxes.

 

[Leahs Mom]

TF - those coop photos are wonderful! But the hawk thing is maddening. I'm hoping for some "creative" hawk-ridding" ideas to work before next spring comes around.

 

[PeacefulWalls]

Just talked to a friend that had a close call last night. He had taken his dog outside & heard his hens squawking. When he opened the door to the coop smoke poured out. He had been worried about the cold temps and turned on the heat lamp he uses for chicks. Apparently it had fallen & had started smoldering. Good thing he went out when he did or he would have lost it all!