INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

Missing you guys, things are nuts again. This is going to be our worst year for my family, MIL had hip replacement.
Dad was in hospital, still waiting for his valve, so he can have the surgery.
My sister had gall bladder out, brother had the heart attack & bypasses.
Now mom had a bad fall, and has to have knee surgery!

I am wupped. I know I have a few eggs, frozen in the boxes. All I am doing is just feeding, watering and driving away.
Really, really ready for this ice and snow to go away.

Am going to try to at least catch up tonight.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

We don't really have a docile bird. Our Delaware is a big attention hog and constantly at our feet. Our Barred Rocks is a lurker and photo bomber. She stays close enough to us to take away whatever we give anybody else.
Otherwise , they are all varying mixes of curiosity and "OMG don't grab me..."

My rocks tend to be the ones in my face. Only because they want to know if I have food (which they have all the time, but seem to think if I go in their pen 5 times that they should get fresh feed 5 times). They are getting really close to being my favorite breed. I have other docile ones, but not as much as these. The personalities of hatchery rocks and breeder rocks do vary a lot though. I have a hatchery barred rock and he is a jerk and I have 2 white rocks from breeds that are the sweetest guys. I have my oddball spazes too though, like my dark cornish. My ameraucanas like to play the tag your it game. They run up peck my boot and run to the other side of the pen. Then I have ones that like to stay near but don't want to be touched. My "OMG don't grab me" ones are probably all the new laying hens I got probably 2 weeks ago. You can tell they were not handled very much, a few are starting to be nice though.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Hello everyone, my name is Rod and l live south of New Castle, and we have 6 Brown Leghorns, 12 Plymouth Barred Rocks and 30 Buff Orpingtons.

and so glad you joined our thread!

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Missing you guys, things are nuts again. This is going to be our worst year for my family, MIL had hip replacement.
Dad was in hospital, still waiting for his valve, so he can have the surgery.
My sister had gall bladder out, brother had the heart attack & bypasses.
Now mom had a bad fall, and has to have knee surgery!

I am wupped. I know I have a few eggs, frozen in the boxes. All I am doing is just feeding, watering and driving away.
Really, really ready for this ice and snow to go away.

Am going to try to at least catch up tonight.

Man, you have just had a tough year.

. I don't know how you manage everything with your critters and your family, but you sure seem to do a great job at it and still get on here to chat with us! I hope your moms knee surgery goes good.

 

[Kiniska]

Just set my first batch of eggs in the incubator. During my test week everything worked perfectly. Looks like the same is happening now. 41% humidity, 99.5-99.7 temp, and lots of air flow.

Oh, as far as roos go my Orps have been absolute princes.

Happy Valentines everyone!

 

[minmin1258]

T

 

Idk, I know that you can move the egg and get movement like a water bottle, but this was not being moved by either of us. it reminded me almost of a slow heartbeat motion in and out kinda is the only way I can describe it. it was not a movement from spinning the egg it was moving in and out of the egg almost. pretty neat either way!

That sounds like what I was seeing when I candled mine around 7-9 days in. It's really cool isn't it!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I have come up with a way to fix my Starling problem... after looking at so many ideals I have come up with this:
going to make doom type hoods over all my feeders and hang them all about a ft off the ground. the birds wont have a place to light to eat but the chickens can reach and will have room to get their heads in to eat.
Course with DH out of commission for awhile I will have to do it and I'm not much of a builder... but will figure it out.
The Starlings are slowly getting used to my bags, can, and pans... found 3 in the house day before yesterday and 5 yesterday. Still better then it was but I want it down to 0... and the number will keep climbing till I'm back to 100 again.

About DH:
he is coming home today... HE SAYS SO and no one can tell him any different.... I think it will be OK thou cause his heart rate has been climbing all night and is almost back to normal he wants me there now but I am stalling... saying it don't make sense to come now, I have got to feed and after that I will be there, I think feeding is going to take extra long today... I am going to have a water problem or maybe the horses got out and I have to go look for them???? Something is going to delay me you watch and see...

LOL, I know, sometimes they really need to stay longer. And the DR usually is not going to let them out unless its ok.

My thoughts are with you, hope all is ok.

Well been in hiding pretty much all winter havent gotten on here but fiqured it was time to catch up some. This winter was a cold one for sure. Kind of curious as to what worked best for everyone keeping there water dethawed. I bought a heated waterer from rural king but it didnt hold up to well and for the price I was definatly disappointed. So looking for other allternatives for next winter to get in place now. Other than that hoping that my blue splash cochins decide to go broody for me and hatch some little chicks this year. Have some upcoming renovations in store for the chicken coop and run should be a good year for the feathered friends.

Glad you back on and are with us!

 

[PeacefulWalls]

Missing you guys, things are nuts again. This is going to be our worst year for my family, MIL had hip replacement.
Dad was in hospital, still waiting for his valve, so he can have the surgery.
My sister had gall bladder out, brother had the heart attack & bypasses.
Now mom had a bad fall, and has to have knee surgery!

I am wupped. I know I have a few eggs, frozen in the boxes. All I am doing is just feeding, watering and driving away.
Really, really ready for this ice and snow to go away.

Am going to try to at least catch up tonight.

Sending hugs

. Hang in there and be sure to take care of yourself too!

 

[minmin1258]

Missing you guys, things are nuts again. This is going to be our worst year for my family, MIL had hip replacement.
Dad was in hospital, still waiting for his valve, so he can have the surgery.
My sister had gall bladder out, brother had the heart attack & bypasses.
Now mom had a bad fall, and has to have knee surgery!
I am wupped. I know I have a few eggs, frozen in the boxes. All I am doing is just feeding, watering and driving away.
Really, really ready for this ice and snow to go away.
Am going to try to at least catch up tonight.

It is said God won't put more on your plate than you can handle. All I can say is you must have broad shoulders and a strong back! That sure sounds like you've got a lot happening. Keep yourself healthy and remember to take time for you!! Keeping your family in my thoughts and prayers.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Thanks guys, I was pretty bummed earlier. Can't believe how much we have been at the hospital lately!
I finally got thru all the posts, lots of beautiful pics!
So many other posts I wanted to comment on. but not going to choke up our thread.
Some other points I have to to comment on...And let me officially post, I DO NOT have an accurate chicken count

We processes monthly for unwanted mean birds, and I sell, buy, trade pretty often.
I have counts on my rare breeds, just not the egg flock and misc birds I wind up with.
Mealworms are easy.
I don't sort, I just feed em. I have 4 huge totes full and no idea how many is in there, 10s of thousands.
I use chick feed as a bedding/base and they get big, fat and even my oscars (fish) enjoy them.
Wheat bran added to the dust problem..and whole grain seems to slow growth.
When I want to use some, I scoop out a few cups, grab some and dump it back in.
Make it work for you, and saves a fortune. I toss my potato peels and veggie trimmings in to "water" them.
They thrive with very little effort. I only give them fruit in the winter so fruit flies don't move in.
I keep them in an empty storage room, and forget about them some too! They do very well.
Waterers
For a large flock, I am using a 55 gallon drum, cut down to about 8-10" standing upright, and put a stock tank heater in it.
No more frozen water. I covered it with 2x4 hardware cloth so no one drowns, or swims.
This has been a huge help and is really working out great. It sits outside in the run.
I will build a 2nd one for the waterfowl very soon. The heater is $25 at RK or TSC, they can handle up to 1500 gallons.
I chose the submerged one. I was carrying around 20 gallons a day, so I had to come up with something better.