INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[bradselig]

Wait, what? Only 30 mins to feed and water all the chickens this morning?!? That can't be! I'm used to 1.5 hrs to get everything done! This is unreal! Amazing what "warm" weather can do!

Ohh and I could see the top of the fencing on my pens! Now only like 3ft 9in of snow left to melt!

 

[chick rookie]

Leahsmom:
OK i got pics of my mealworm farm. Here is a bin I am starting after its been spent/used and eaten!
This slides into an open faced box. I use 4 of these to keep the mealworms going.
I have them in different locations so I don't risk a loss of the whole farm.


Wheat bran. I had a bag left, but I also use rolled oats or just chick feed. its about 2-3 inches deep


Here is a batch of beetles and worms. adding to the new bin..


Closer look


I use this to "start" a new bin..


Middle drawer is cut out at the bottom. I hot glued window screen to the open hole i had cut out.
Eggs and tiny mealies drop to the bottom, and start a new colony. I usually let that drawer sit a month, then rotate to the next drawer.
Bottom drawer has feed in it, like rolled oats, wheat, chick feed.
There is a fantastic thread to help you learn the pros/cons of raising them
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/492636/mealworm-farming
Hope this helps! I have kept them 2 years this august, and we use them for fishing, and feed our Oscars with them as a treat too.

I started a mealie farm last mth, it aint doing anything. I have read allot on it and am doing what it says but I got nothing... don't even know if I have any left alive

Quote: I have left the pop door open for 2 years as long as it was above freezing, but I had it closed that night cause the dogs had just killed 1 coon last week and one got away from them just the night before they got in my coop.
If its WILD and NOT A BIRD people should NOT feed them. I have 6 dogs, 2 GP that guard my goats and horses, and have never had this problem untill now, all because the neighbors were feeding them and then they stopped!! Well they had to find the nearest food and it was me!!
I'm sorry. I don't think I will ever get over being mad about this. I love my neighbors to death butt......

Its horrible to find that, I have fox prints circling my growout coop. I set snares and traps. The bottom of the doors are chewed! I beefed the doors up today, and my littles out there are shaken up. I also saw coon and CAT prints and am livid over it!

I hope things improve for you soon, you sure have had some hard knocks.

Yikes! Gas was $3.29 here last I went out. Will be taking mom to her dialysis tomorrow and I bet its went up here too.
I have the first external pip! hatching vibes for us both

Everything's moved into the sportsman, humidity is holding steady at 71%

thank you, I sure hope so! Everyone is recovering well, so its just my parents upcoming surgeries now.
I am sure ready to focus on babies, hatching and everyone's health to be stable!
I wish we could all get together on a coop fixit-upper idea. Its really hard to tackle a project alone. Everything I have put up here for the livestock/poultry was 90% me and some help from the DDs/Their SOs/DH. I am the only one that's retired, so I just work it all in as I can. Having support to make a project happen is always more fun!
If we had a group that helped each other, it would be so amazing and easy! My biggest challenge is extra hands to hold up, lifting in place, brainstorming...
When we raised the barn here, we had several friends, neighbors and family over. We had just moved here a few months prior, and it was so much fun meeting everyone. We offered all the food. Steaks, fish fry, BBQ chicken, corn on the cob and lots of other goodies.. It was SOO much fun, and we have helped others locally since then.
I met some of the local people and made a lot of great friends that weekend too. I would certainly volunteer for a work co-op, I love helping out.

the games are so glossy and gorgeous! Love all your babies tho, they always look so alert!

haven't even heard of any fox around... hope I don't... hope your hatch and everyone else's hatch is a good one, I want to get into that some day...
if that were to ever happen ( a coop fixer-upper party ) here it would still take a couple of days... lol the damage from the coon and I have to take 2 wall sections off and replace them cause I found mold!!!. and I have to fix the reason for the mold, the back of my coop don't stick out far enough. when we built our coop we didn't know we could look things up on the computer and so we just played it by ear so to speck. So this spring when DH is back on his feet, we are rebuilding and adding on, this time we know the right way to do it!!

Now that I found the mold I am wondering if that aint the reason I have lost so many hens, almost think it would just be better to take the walls down myself and if I mess it up I mess it up. Got to be better then the mold right??? and I have a large tarp I think I am going to try and cover the roof and make it stick out some how cause we got storms coming in late tonight and that would just be even more water and more mold. The more I'm thinking about it the more I think I am going to do that. Right now. thanks for getting me going. hope all goes well for every one.

 

[PeacefulWalls]

Wait, what? Only 30 mins to feed and water all the chickens this morning?!? That can't be! I'm used to 1.5 hrs to get everything done! This is unreal! Amazing what "warm" weather can do!

Ohh and I could see the top of the fencing on my pens! Now only like 3ft 9in of snow left to melt!

Yes -- absolutely awesome no frozen water bowls to deal with today -- and probably tomorrow too. Wow! 2 days in a row!!!

We're also expecting some rabbits to kindle in the next few days -- so glad there's no arctic air for that!

 

[browncow15]

Its horrible to find that, I have fox prints circling my growout coop. I set snares and traps. The bottom of the doors are chewed! I beefed the doors up today, and my littles out there are shaken up. I also saw coon and CAT prints and am livid over it!
I hope things improve for you soon, you sure have had some hard knocks.

Yikes! Gas was $3.29 here last I went out. Will be taking mom to her dialysis tomorrow and I bet its went up here too.
I have the first external pip! hatching vibes for us both Everything's moved into the sportsman, humidity is holding steady at 71%

thank you, I sure hope so! Everyone is recovering well, so its just my parents upcoming surgeries now.
I am sure ready to focus on babies, hatching and everyone's health to be stable!
I wish we could all get together on a coop fixit-upper idea. Its really hard to tackle a project alone. Everything I have put up here for the livestock/poultry was 90% me and some help from the DDs/Their SOs/DH. I am the only one that's retired, so I just work it all in as I can. Having support to make a project happen is always more fun!
If we had a group that helped each other, it would be so amazing and easy! My biggest challenge is extra hands to hold up, lifting in place, brainstorming...
When we raised the barn here, we had several friends, neighbors and family over. We had just moved here a few months prior, and it was so much fun meeting everyone. We offered all the food. Steaks, fish fry, BBQ chicken, corn on the cob and lots of other goodies.. It was SOO much fun, and we have helped others locally since then.
I met some of the local people and made a lot of great friends that weekend too. I would certainly volunteer for a work co-op, I love helping out.


the games are so glossy and gorgeous! Love all your babies tho, they always look so alert!

I'd go for a coop building party DHs in construction and can build anything but I've given up asking for help because he wants to argue about the way I want things!!

Chick rookie- I'm so sorry about the coon attack! That burns me that your neighbors were feeding them!! It's as bad as the morons that feed bears and then don't understand why they attack people! Ugh!

 

[ChickCrazed]

I'd go for a coop building party

DHs in construction and can build anything but I've given up asking for help because he wants to argue about the way I want things!!

Chick rookie- I'm so sorry about the coon attack! That burns me that your neighbors were feeding them!! It's as bad as the morons that feed bears and then don't understand why they attack people! Ugh!

I am willing to join the work co-op!

 

[CRSelvey]

Brad- I really like the splash and single black chickies as well as the moderns. They sure are cute right now!

Chick rookie- I'm so happy you posted what happened to your coop. It made me go out and check all around my coop again for vulnerabilities. I have two things I can work on that I didn't notice before, so thank you.

Janet- I'd love to help if I can coordinate with my family. I love building and I don't get a lot of opportunity to do it at home, My DH goes a little crazy watching me do hard/heavy work, so he does most of it for me. I was raised by a single mom that encouraged me to learn how to do everything for myself and it made me super independent. At first, I just thought he was being sexist thinking I couldn't do it well on my own, but over the years, I've really learned that its just him trying to be sweet

. Most of the time I have to sneak work in when he's not looking or out of town, lol. But, I'm really hoping that instinct kicks in when its time to till the gardens this year, because my tiller and all of our clay seriously kicked my butt last year

.

 

[animallover2202]

its so warm out maybe i can leave my dog out side again ..... but she probably will get super muddy and being a white dog she is will probably stain oh well shell be happy to be outside lol

 

[ChickCrazed]

I kicked my babies out into a larger frankenbrooder in my garage yesterday evening. Their room had been in the 55 - 60 degree range and it was 45 degrees when i put them in the garage. They were fine for several hours, but as soon as I turned the light off (I put a nightlight over the top so there is still a little light) they began chirping loudly. Logically I knew it was just that they were in a new place, but illogically I couldn't talk myself out of them being cold. So I moved a space heater into the garage (which then sent my worry stricken brain into thoughts of fire). I checked on them several times last night and they had quieted down and were fine. When the lights went back on this morning they were stretching and moving around acting fine. Woo hoo! My office can get a couple weeks break before the new batch of littles arrive! The marans really needed more space, so I had to get them out and I think they will be fine now. I am planning on keeping them in the garage for a month or so and then introducing them to the coop as long as they are big enough.

I also saw a big fat mouse sitting in my chicken feeder yesterday. Now that I have the wild birds locked out of the feed (yay finally!) I am now feeding mice! I need to get those treadle feeders built ASAP!

I love the idea of a project/work co-op. It would be fun to see how others are doing things and an extra set of hands is always helpful! We could have strict bio-safety rules everyone would have to follow. I'm in!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Thanks! How long does it take to be able to feed when you start a new one?

Also...how 'bout a photo of that water pan too?

 

[CRSelvey]

I kicked my babies out into a larger frankenbrooder in my garage yesterday evening.  Their room had been in the 55 - 60 degree range and it was 45 degrees when i put them in the garage.  They were fine for several hours, but as soon as I turned the light off (I put a nightlight over the top so there is still a little light) they began chirping loudly. Logically I knew it was just that they were in a new place, but illogically I couldn't talk myself out of them being cold.  So I moved a space heater into the garage (which then sent my worry stricken brain into thoughts of fire).  I checked on them several times last night and they had quieted down and were fine.  When the lights went back on this morning they were stretching and moving around acting fine.  Woo hoo!  My office can get a couple weeks break before the new batch of littles arrive!  The marans really needed more space, so I had to get them out and I think they will be fine now.  I am planning on keeping them in the garage for a month or so and then introducing them to the coop as long as they are big enough. 

I also saw a big fat mouse sitting in my chicken feeder yesterday.  Now that I have the wild birds locked out of the feed (yay finally!) I am now feeding mice!  I need to get those treadle feeders built ASAP!

I love the idea of a project/work co-op.  It would be fun to see how others are doing things and an extra set of hands is always helpful! We could have strict bio-safety rules everyone would have to follow.  I'm in!

I agree about the bio security. That would be really important. I'm currently trying to learn what I can about the virucide called Virkon S because it specifically covers Mareks. If I end up buying it for sanitizing my stuff, I will have a lot left over in case anyone else wants to use it.