INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

Hi I am new to this and have bought 60 Cornish X for meat purposes. I was wondering if anyone lives near me that has a Chicken plucker that I could borrow or rent for a weekend in the coming months to clean my chickens? I live right at the state line of Michigan and Indiana in Niles. It's right by Notre Dame in South Bend if you are not familair with the area. Thanks for the time. Also attached is a picture of the little chicks

and our thread!

Hope you can find someone close. We are building one later this year.

Got a few pictures of the silkies before the camera died. First time for the youngins to be with the adults. Surprisingly the adult hens ad more of an issue and bullied them more than the Roos. The to is couldn't have cared less about the new members of the flock.

Adorable birds

Lol, my oldest silkie hen Fluff is meaner than any rooster here. She always gives the new birds a hard time, real stinker.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Thanks everyone, so far we have 4-bucklings and 4-doelings! 50/50 can't beat that lol. Hoping for our last doe to kid two bucklings. We have our hands full that's for sure.

Wow, excellent odds!!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Probably a bad idea of moving birds outside yesterday. The 3 of the bantam Cochins were sitting outside soaking wet! The haven't grasped the concept of the coop providing warmth and dryness! Need to go back out to make sure they didn't go back outside. If they have I'll be bringing them back inside.

Ugh poor babies, some take longer to figure it out.

75 quail eggs and a handful of Bantam eggs Going in the incubator today.. Thank you Jchny2000 for the quail eggs I cant wait for the hatch.

.. I will have hatching the weekend of good Friday that is awesome.. Happy, Happy, Happy!!!!!

Sometimes, mine will hatch at 16 days. You may get a friday hatch

I am So happy that the snow is gone along with the frigid temps. I will not complain about the rain, April Showers bring May Flowers, and muddy chickens. grrrrrr

LOL the chickens will complain at you for it! My goofballs hate water puddles. The waterfowl are having a blast in the front yard full of water tho. Its too funny when they go into turbo boost running in circles chasing each other!

Yes, HappyHappyHappy, just glad that we seem to have finally made it to the other side of this ridiculous cold this winter -- I grew up in the mountains of the NW, and this winter was more cold and miserable than any I remember living through back "home". We pulled the horses up off the pasture just in time for the floods to hit yesterday - hopefully we get some nice sunny days soon to take our mud bog to the lush green summer pasture the horses expect (they are busy pouting from the small paddock at the barn) - they'll have company this weekend as we will be out there working on (and hopefully finishing) the interior on the coop so we can move the chicks out of the bathroom. I love those little birds, think I'll even miss seeing them first thing in the morning and having them keep me company while I am getting ready for work, but the dust is getting ridiculous and they're big enough now that even with twice daily housekeeping services to the brooder they manage to stink the place up - upside of their mess is it is motivating my husband to want to get everything finished this weekend, lol.

Ugh my poor patient DH..

Pretty patient guy for sure.
He loves the goslings and ducklings tho, so he is almost as bad as me...(not)

I have a large group going out this weekend, we pick up the 1st of 2 sheds tomorrow FINALLY!

Hi all! What's new with everyone? I haven't been on here for long long time. I am very happy that the snow is gone

. I will have to post pics of my ducks Beetlejuice and Lydia. They are both Pekings and very big fat ducks. I also still have my Ringneck doves for sale. Here are the colors 7 Blonds, 1 White, 2 Wilds and 5 Bull-eyed whites. $15-$20 each or $280 for all. No trades and pick-up only.

Hi, great to see you again

The pekin are so funny to watch.
The doves are very pretty, I have seen your pictures before.

 

[Mother2Hens]

One month and two days until my chicks come.

We could do a contest to guess what date the run will be finished.
No, we still haven't started.

Oh, well. At least it's Friday. I really hope we'll get started tomorrow.

leslea ~ Saturday and Sunday will be sunny and nice! Perfect weather to get started.

I'm going to do the Coop Spring Clean by removing all but 2" of the deep litter (wearing a mask and gloves). I'll put the litter in my compost. My poop tray and perches are removable, which makes them easier to scrub, and I'll clean everything as well as possible. The main reason I'm doing it is because I am finally moving my 5 three month old chicks outside!!! I'll block off the side of the coop with a small run using a panel I made with chicken wire (the entire outside of the coop/run is covered with hardware cloth that is also buried). I already have heavy clear vinyl wrapped around that section as part of my winter proofing and I'll put a tarp over the back end for privacy so the chicks will feel more enclosed at night. If the temps drop too much, I have a ceramic heat emitter with connected safety cover. For daytime, I have a chicken tractor that has a chicken wire fence around it for a larger free-range area for the chicks, which also protects them from my six nosey hens. The chicks are familiar with free ranging in that area. So that will be my main focus on Saturday.

Meanwhile others on this thread will be doing 20 X that much work by constructing pens, gardens, coops, runs, etc. etc. You Indiana members are an industrious group!

Does anyone on brads route have any amereucana or araucanas they'd sell me? Or black copper marans or welsummers?

Also I have a few birds that need a good home. A blue rosecomb cockerel, 2 golden laced polish and 2 gold comets.

LonelyPageTurne ~ Brad said he's going to visit Little Ameraucana Mom

You could PM her to see if she has any Ameraucanas.
bradselig ~ I need a cuckoo silkie delivered to Evansville please. (I know, I must be cuckoo).

 

[Mother2Hens]

Hi there! I am located south of Indy, north of Madison. It's great that there is a thread for Indiana.
I have waited YEARS to be able to set up my little farm. When I say "little farm" I mean that I can have chickens and rabbits, but if I ventured into something like goats (would love that) I would have issues with the neighbors...lol. I have also spent years wondering why I get sick when ever I eat breakfast...narrowed it down to eggs. Then I narrowed it down to store-bought eggs. I have no problem with local eggs. So, hopefully, my flock will keep me supplied.

I am just getting ready to set up my little flock of ladies. My father-in-law is housing my 6 Buff Orpington babies until I get set up. Hopefully, by next weekend, they will come home. I ordered 5 (and got 8) silkie hatching eggs. I do have quite a bit of experience incubating shipped eggs, but this clutch of eggs is not working out. The packaging was beautiful, but we had a cold snap while they were in transit. So, 4 stayed clear, 4 started developing. Of the developing 4, one almost immediately had a blood ring/island. The last 3....veins in 2 but I can't see any development of a chick. I can see the eye in one of them. They are at day 7. So sad. I am looking for a few fertile, non-shipped silkie eggs or maybe the chicks. Love the look of the porcelains and splash, but they are all adorable. I am also looking for an adult Rhode Island Red roo for my father-in-law.

dogwoodlaine ~ Welcome to the Indiana Thread!
Here's info for any of our new people who've posted-- or for any lurkers out there:


Do you want to be listed on the Indiana BYC Members’ List?
“Being a member of this thread” just means adding your screen name and flock info, which can be helpful because the list is a spreadsheet format that lets you sort the list by breed, county, or other category. It’s an easy way to find other members who have the same breed you have or who live in a nearby county, etc.

Click on the link (Indiana BYC Members’ List) located below my signature to view the Indiana page. Just look at the bottom of the list page for sorting options.

If you’d like to be added, send a PM (personal message) by simply placing your cursor over my screen name: Mother2Hens, and you will see “Send a PM.” bradselig and CRSelvey (Cheryl) actually add the info, so you can PM either one of them directly, too-- whatever is the easiest for you. A personal message ensures that your info is added. Please send your screen name, county, and city. Also include the following information about each member of your flock: List each species (chicken, duck, etc.), breed (Barred Rock, Blue Cochin, etc.), is it a LF (Large Fowl) or Bantam? If you breed, please include the species. if you have any questions about this thread, please PM Jchny2000 (Janet) who is the founder (thread starter) of this group.

About the Indiana Thread~
To participate on the Indiana Thread, we ask that you follow byc.com’s rules for family-friendly posts. We have members of all ages. Our thread is known for being very active, and our members are supportive, respectful of each other’s opinions, interesting, and fun! Please post messages and photos as often as you like! Posts are not limited to the topic of chickens. There is no such thing as a “dumb” question! We have members with different experience levels in a variety of interests. Whatever your questions may be, we should have members who can help.

Indiana County Map for instant member location/Avatars
If anyone would like a map of your county, like the one on my avatar, I will be happy to provide one. If someone wants a combo map and a chicken or an animal for your avatar, I can put that together for you, just PM me. When I read posts, many times I think “Now where are they from?” I look at the city and still have no idea what part of the state they’re from. The map icon with the county in red because you could quickly glance and see where the member who is posting is from. These avatars are not required-- they are just a free service if you’re interested.

AVATAR UPDATES
If members would like me to change the photo(s) on their avatars, just PM me. Someone might have a picture of a chick that has grown into a hen (or a roo!) and would like to update the photo, or have a seasonal image, or someone might like something totally different.

BYC Indiana Google Map for detailed information
Cluck Acres (Curtis) set up a Google Map for just us INDIANA BYC’ers. You must first log on to your Google account or make a Google account. (If you have gmail, just use your gmail password). All you have to do is go to this link....http://goo.gl/maps/UShV6 . Here are the directions. You will see the state of Indiana.. Zoom in to where you live and then click on the red button that says Edit. After you click Edit you will see a hand, blue pin point and a zig zag line on the map. Click the pin point and drag it to where you live on the map. After you have placed your pin point then click on it and you can edit your description by adding your county. If you want to change your blue pin point to another icon or upload your own then up on the right of that box click the pin point icon and choose others or upload your own icon. If anyone has problems with this feel free to ask.

This information is submitted periodically by Mother2Hens

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

So I have had the RK chick bug bite again! Darn bantys! Lol. Martinsville RK for the first time I have known has a bin of bantys. I grabbed all 6 with feathered shanks but they looked to have a nice variety of them. I am shooting for a few d'uccles. They also have added turkeys and ducks. They have some really dark cuties (ducks) that I almost snatched 2 of them but I just couldn't get myself to do it! ! I know nothing about ducks. They have Welsummers, Black Australorps, Ambers and I think a couple others but just can't remember.

RK New Castle had guinea, BBW, BBB and a few different pullet layers. Light brahma, BA, WL, JG, SLW, GLW and more.
I was good.. But really wanted some BBB.

Quote:

Waterfowl are easy IF you have a pond, and good electric fence. They are pretty comical for sure! If you decide to try it holler, and I can set you up on some hatching eggs. I have Muscovy & Pekin ducks, African, Embden and Chinese geese.

mIL's new babies. 2 polish 2EE and the smallest chick I have ever seen. I think she is Oegb, not sure of color though.

Just candled my eggs from kabhyper1! Today is day 5, and most are showing great growth. And our newest goat kids are doing great!

hatching vibes! All 3 of the kids pictured are precious!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

So I'm beginning to suspect that I have two maybe three roos out of my 19 BAs. One I could deal with, but thats it. They're only 4 weeks since hatch date and two have large combs beginning to turn red!!! If I end up with more than one the rest will be rehomed or processed. If anyone wants dibs let me know.

Keep me in mind, I have several BA hens and only 1 roo!

I got a few quick pics of the newbies here!

Well this I believe is are last nubian kid for the season. We were out doing chores and this little girls mom (Hope) was lying down and moaning, sure enough she was in labor (a rough labor too!) big kid small mom but they both turned out good and healthy!! I would like to thank you all for putting up with my goat updates. I will try and get a couple group pics soon if I can fit them all in one frame lol

Oh my, thanks so much for sharing them! We all just love the baby pics, please post as many as you would like!!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I finally ended up just ordering my chicks through my feed mill again this year. I decided to wait until next year to spend the extra bucks on the less common breeds I was contemplating. It's sure hard to argue with $1.80 per chick! And it turned out to be a good decision too, because I finally got around to ordering my garden seeds and...well...let's just say my chicken money became seed money!! I reined myself in and only ordered 2 new tomato varieties, which is good because I had already started seeds (3 plants each) of my 30 varieties I already had! (I always do 3 each because there are always some that don't germinate -- I've also been doing so many to see which varieties really produce well in our clay soil.) I've got tomato math bad, but I love tomatoes and can at least 3 - 4 bushel every year & I don't want to have to buy all of them! Also was out of beets, peas and beans -- doing a number of different dried beans, needed fresh cucumber seeds (kept that to 4 varieties, I think!). I'm trying popcorn again this year and also some dent corn, which of course means I'll need to have a way to grind it for cornmeal when it dries, provided it grows OK. Maybe I can get the grinder attachment for my Kitchenaid since I never got the pasta attachments. Which reminds me that I never did get around to trying out the noodle recipe that was shared on here. Plus there were a few other miscellaneous seeds I needed. Maybe the garden will dry out by June

. Anyhoo, the pullet chicks I ordered were easter eggers, light brahmas, isa browns, barred rocks and australorps. DD wanted to buy bantams, which are only available SR, so she ordered 7. Chicks arrive April 15 -- just have to go to the feed mill to pick them up. It sure is loud in there with boxes and boxes of chicks stacked up waiting to go to their new homes!

Congrats on advanced chicken math! You will have them before you know it!

well put my quail eggs on lockdown on tuesday! So hopefully tomorrow sometime or saturday we will hopefully have some little quail....that is providing that they have survived being my first ever hatch!!

I was wondering, does anybody have any hatching eggs they might have available? maybe some dark chocolate eggs or EE or something HQ and docile? I am thinking i would like to try some actual chicken eggs now that i have the taste for incubating

I don't have any roos myself, as my flock strictly has to be all girls (neighbor thing). I don't really have anything to trade at this point so it would be cash sale.
loving all the pictures of all the baby goats. Really makes me wish we lived somewhere we could have them! But, i'm thinking beekeeping might be my next adventure, just doing the research first to see what it's all about.

Hatching vibes! I will be getting pure maran eggs in a month. Rene will be out of quarantine by then, and the marans housed together.

Does anyone sell quail eggs for eating? I was thinking it would be cute to dye a bunch for Easter! I used to buy them locally, and always had fun using them.

Sure do, PM me if interested! I usually get about 7 dozen or so eggs a week.

Hey, all, thought I'd pop in and say hi.

I've been busy, busy, busy between classes and spring chores! Luckily, I've been checking in on y'all, so I don't have a million posts to read.

I did unfortunately lose two hens a couple weekends ago. My dear red sexlink, Flicker, who I had mentioned was internally laying, was not well as a result and we ended up putting her out of her misery.




The same day, I went out to tuck the hennies into bed for the night and was shocked to find my little Sebright, Amy, laying awkwardly by the nests. She must have fallen and broken her neck or something.

My beautiful little Amy.




But the rest of the girls are doing just fine and we've begun free-ranging for the year at last! It was rainy today, but a few days ago, having not seen dry earth in a while, they all immediately created a mass dustbath when I let them out to free-range.






My splash Marans, Frou-Frou. I don't think she knew what she was doing.

I'm up to 19 eggs a day on average. The girls got busy! I've also been hearing robins and frogs calling and found a salamander in the chicken yard the other day (well, saved more like. Rangi was gonna eat it!). I have so much cleanup I need to get done--after the snow melted, it revealed all the feed bags and other things I had missed picking up before! But as long as the snow's gone, I don't much mind!

Hello, spring!

Well, I'm off to bed now. I'll finish off this post with the most adorable little birdy ever, my last remaining golden Sebright, Rosie.

Isn't she the cutest?



Good night everyone!

Am so sorry to hear pipd! Your flock is gorgeous! I lost my sebright pair during the bad cold snap, they just couldn't take the temps.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: What happened to make you feel differently? I had to ask, my only frustration is the occasional mean roo.

Afternoon all!(1:48 P.M as I type this) It has been rain for 3 days here it seems.

Here are the pics of the doves. These are some of the one I have for sale. When it get warm enough to take them outside I will get better pics.







And my ducks

The doves are soo pretty! I like the pekin's personalities, funny lil guys.

Quote: good post! I thought about the kitchenaid too, but I would burn mine up doing it! We can get locally grown whole corn from the dairy farmer at about $4 a bushel.
Looking into a grinder for our tractor..PTO 3 point attachment.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

My other reference book that I think is worth owning is Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow. http://storey.com/book_detail.php?isbn=9781603424691

I recommend it with "disclaimers". From what I've been told, a lot of what was written in the original editions of this book was patterned after large scale poultry operations which is NOT what most backyard chicken keepers want to emulate as we try to choose a more "natural", healthy way of life for our chickens. That being said, this 3rd edition has been updated to talk about more natural ways as well. The thing I like about it is that it gives you a very good, basic education on all aspects of raising chickens. As with other books, there is a lot of "baby" and a bit of "bathwater"...common sense will help you wade through all that. This book would give anyone a really good overview of almost every topic for raising chickens.


So my if I could only own 2 books on chickens they would be:
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow 3rd Edition
The Small Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery

I also own several other books that are a bit more focused on specific topics that are useful for more in-depth on some specifics.

Thanks for sharing this!

One month and two days until my chicks come.

We could do a contest to guess what date the run will be finished.
No, we still haven't started.

Oh, well. At least it's Friday. I really hope we'll get started tomorrow.

Supposed to nice this weekend!

Hi there! I am located south of Indy, north of Madison. It's great that there is a thread for Indiana.
I have waited YEARS to be able to set up my little farm. When I say "little farm" I mean that I can have chickens and rabbits, but if I ventured into something like goats (would love that) I would have issues with the neighbors...lol. I have also spent years wondering why I get sick when ever I eat breakfast...narrowed it down to eggs. Then I narrowed it down to store-bought eggs. I have no problem with local eggs. So, hopefully, my flock will keep me supplied.

I am just getting ready to set up my little flock of ladies. My father-in-law is housing my 6 Buff Orpington babies until I get set up. Hopefully, by next weekend, they will come home. I ordered 5 (and got 8) silkie hatching eggs. I do have quite a bit of experience incubating shipped eggs, but this clutch of eggs is not working out. The packaging was beautiful, but we had a cold snap while they were in transit. So, 4 stayed clear, 4 started developing. Of the developing 4, one almost immediately had a blood ring/island. The last 3....veins in 2 but I can't see any development of a chick. I can see the eye in one of them. They are at day 7. So sad. I am looking for a few fertile, non-shipped silkie eggs or maybe the chicks. Love the look of the porcelains and splash, but they are all adorable. I am also looking for an adult Rhode Island Red roo for my father-in-law.

and our thread!

Good luck on the hatch.
I am with you, I hate store bought eggs, they are just gross

I HAVE 2 VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS!!!!!!

1. The chicken train is starting back up this Monday! I will be traveling from just south of Ft Wayne on 69 south, to 465 south, to 70 west to just south of Greencastle to make a stop at Little Ameraucana Moms. I am willing to transport chickens along the way for anyone interested. I plan on leaving my house around 9am, putting me at LAM's place around 11:30am.

I do have 3 older silkies (around 2 months I believe), a little crooked beaked silkie (4 weeks old or so), several Birchen Marans (most are cockerels but may have a pullet or two), couple blue bantam Cochin chicks (several weeks to close to 6 weeks or so), and I think that's it. I may also have 3-4 LF blue Cochin pullets around 8 weeks old also available! If anyone is interested, please let me know!

2. I have a new layer! My LF Cochin hen FINALLY laced an egg for me! Hope its fertile, but they are pretty fluffy and not trimmed!

Congrats on the new layer!!!! I am interested but way over filled up. My sportsman is full of waterfowl lol..
If any one wants pekin ducklings I have them available, more hatching as I type. Hatching eggs available also.

So I have at least one roo.... Loving the awkward teenage look

hehehe yep I see a roo!