INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[leslea]

leslea ~ Time is flying by and it sounds like you are getting things in order. I can't remember-- are your novels ebooks or hard copies or both?

Both! Shameless plug: http://ow.ly/vFcSB That's my first ebook as "me," and it just came out Monday! The paperback version of that will be out as soon as I have the chance to look over it and make sure the printer didn't do me dirty. Thank you for asking! All my previous stuff has been under pen names and I was nervous about how this one would be received, but so far, so good.

Weather is looking great for today! While everyone else in Southern Indiana is at Thunder Over Louisville, I'll be working on my run! Somehow I always end up in my yard instead of at the river for the air show. Hoping that we get a flyover from the Blue Angels at some point, although now that I'm a few more miles away from the river I am not holding my breath.

One of my local chicken mama friends said the Blue Angels were disturbing her chickens on Thursday with their practice.

 

[leslea]

thats going to be crazy!

See, I *told* y'all I was crazy enough to be a chicken person.

 

[leslea]

I can't remember if I've ever introduced myself here, so I guess that means it's been long enough that I can get away with doing it again. ;-)

My name is Aaron, I live on the West side of Indy, just outside the loop on Rockville (that's US 36 to the rest of the state). I am brand-new to chicken ownership.

I've been planning to start a flock for about two years, since we bought our house. This place came with an old 12' x 12' garden shed in the back yard, and once I cleaned it out I realized it would make a fantastic coup. I'm almost done with the conversion, and I'm going to set up a small hoop-house style run. I wish I could just fence the yard and let the birds roam, but we have a lot of hawks and even some falcons around here. I've seen red-tails picking doves off our powerlines a lot of mornings, so it has to be full-time containment for us! I'll try to get some pics of the coup/run project up some time.

The only problem I'm having so far is finding chickens. Part of the reason for this is I'm being kind of particular - I really want Australorps. If it comes down to it, I'll get over myself and be content with RIRs or Orpingtons. The other bump in the road is that I really don't have time to raise chicks, so I'm looking to buy pullets. I don't mind if they're not laying age, but they need to be old enough that I can move them straight into the coup. I'm going to put a post in the buy/sell/trade area. So far I've had a really difficult time finding information about breeders in the area - I figure there have to be some around central Indiana, but they don't seem to be online.

I have really appreciated having this website as a resource; it's been tremendously helpful in planning and executing this project. I'm looking forward to being part of the community!

Welcome!!!

 

[leslea]

Stray season has begun....and I am reminded again of the illogical way our county works.....came home tonight to find a cute little "mini Mojo" (he literally looks like a 1/2 sized replica of one of our cats) on the back porch, with a badly injured tail. Called A/C but it was after 5 on Friday so you get the SD dispatch instead. They can't sent an AC officer out to pick him up until Monday, but would gladly send a deputy out to "dispatch" him for us tonight....um, no - he's an otherwise healthy cat (I've given him a once over already - no discharge, bright and alert, friendly, reasonably good weight, good vitals) who will make someone a great pet, I'll just let him hang out here until Monday when AC can come get him and make a donation to the shelter to see that he gets the treatment he needs (a little more than 1/2 of his tail will need to go - possibly the whole thing) so he can be adopted out.

Poor baby. I had no idea the deputies would come out and kill cats. That's sad. Glad you are keeping him safe.

 

[leslea]

I've got chicks hatching again! And its good luck too, first one just stuck it's head out of the shell, and it's a legbar female! 2 more legbars are zipping, and I can see lots of external pips.

The incubator is also full of loud peeping. Those chicks in the eggs are calling to each other. We have a blind lab that we adopted recently, and he just stands by the incubator trying to figure out where the squeaking is coming from. Our other dogs ignore it completely.

Any pics?

 

[leslea]

I have sent an email to mypetchicken after my cracked/fixed eggs. I am hoping it showed my disappointment. It still is irking me how a company like that would send out such bad looking eggs. I wouldnt have been so upset if the mail had broke the eggs. This was just rude business!

This makes me so nervous for my chicks.

Let us know what they say.

 

[ChickCrazed]

This makes me so nervous for my chicks.

Let us know what they say.

I believe MyPetChicken is really just a broker, they sell from suppliers. I would assume they sell stock from many suppliers, so I'm sure your chicks will be fine. Super shady on the hatching eggs though.

 

[lilmizscareall]

My last brooder batch got some free range time! They are 7 weeks old.

Boy or girl?

@jchny2000, you think Girl?

Here are a couple videos. There are 2 silver Sebrights. The one with the very prominent tail is MEAN to the littler one!!! They are the same age, so I'm surprised at how much smaller it is. Could that be a gender thing?

The SLW should both be pullets, yes?
What about the Sebrights, Any guesses?

 

[ellymayRans]

http://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/gms4-incomplete-dominance-of-blue-feathering/

I'm still waiting for a few to fluff up yet but so far good news is I have 1 of 2 Olive Eggers hatched and another BCM. These two are from the horribly damaged shipped eggs I got several weeks ago. 7 of the 16 made it to lockdown. Even the ones that did had badly straddled and/or detached air cells..the Olive Eggers were probably the worst. As I moved them to candle and weigh it was just like a bubble in a level! Still can't believe it's hatched!

5 are out...2 from each shipper and one of my own. Still have 3 with external pips one of mine and 2 from the damage free eggs.

Because these are all black and blue copper Marans I came across this site. .I really like it!

 

[raisinemright]

Enough about chickens! Can't we talk about something else??



Lol just kidding!!
Moved my RIR & BPR's into the big grow out brooder inside the barn.

They are not sure what just happened lol !!
And this morning we let the goat kids outside to play for the first time. They love it.

Flying goats