INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

Sorry everyone terribly busy last few days. Will be catching up later today.
Trying to beat the cold front coming in. Be back later!

 

[leslea]

Closer and closer. After a long day of bending conduit and stapling wire, I have 90% of a run. It's 6' x 16', about 3' tall at the peak. The shed is steadily being reborn as a coop, it's 12' x 12', so I should have plenty if room for half a dozen birds. I have a ton of pics and I'll do a build thread when its finished.
Apparently I can't imbed images from my phone? Or I just can't see then and now there are three. oh well, I'll fix it later.
I said all that to say this: I AM the DH, and I'm tired and its bed time now.

Way to go!!! My DH is exhausted. It's a lot of work!

I can't embed from my phone, either.

 

[leslea]

So true! They don't tell you about all the times your DH will smash his thumb with a hammer!

Not even close to ready...but we'll say about 25%. I do not look forward to nailing the roof onto that thing and putting up HW cloth. Those jobs are going to test the marriage!

22 days until my babies arrive!!!

 

[leslea]

Hello! I'm from Tennessee, and have a question...

We are considering moving to your state soon and are clueless as to what to bring for our chickens...Can anyone suggest anything? I have a Columbian Rock, Golden Comet, RIR, and four mixed chicks.

We don't have much snow here, but I know you guys certainly do!

Any advice would help!

PMs are even better <3

Indiana is about 3 or 4 times longer than Tennessee, so our weather varies considerably. Down here in the southern end of the state we're not too diff from Tennessee, usually. Two hours north you get into central IN and it gets colder. Then way up north by the lakes it's another story. Where are you moving?

ETA: I saw you responded that you're moving up by Indy. It's typically quite a bit colder there than my neck of the woods, and after the polar vortex this winter, I'm thankful our coop is made of solid wood. I would not expect a kennel covered by tarps to be enough for chickens.

 

[leslea]

The bantams are a month old now. I either hit the jackpot with pullets, or they are developing really slowly.
OEGB

Cochin Barred(maybe frizzled)

Cochin Golden Laced

EE bantam

OEGB

Self explanatory lol

Growing so fast! Is that last one Einstein?

 

[leslea]

Well 8:45 and the run is completed! It's only a temp run due to the birds will free range when I feel comfortable! That being said it's a pretty secure run. And I'm not to worried and other critters getting into it.
My son was another huge help today!


I'm going to be glad when I can enjoy the coop instead of working on it lol

You are a wizard!

 

[leslea]

I started catching up on all the posts this morning. It has been a busy week but one thing that has been really exciting to see is this coop shaping up. I still have 90 pages to go, so I'm sure that there are many more cool things to see but WOW! Great job you guys did on this coop.

Hello and welcome to all of our new members! Its been really nice seeing everyone's posts. I have been busy with my kids school, finding out I can't see anymore (just drifty eyes which just happens to be my DH's worst phobia, lol ), and picking out a replacement counter, cabinet, and faucet for my main bathroom. I have it 95% installed, so that's pretty exciting. This coming week we will be getting all the wood for our raised beds in the garden and the run extension. That won't freak the chickens out, I'm sure. Initially I was just going to build the first two (I wanted 6), but my friend own's a sawmill and offered to trade the wood for some stained glass windows. I have been looking for a reason to get back to my glass workshop, but chickens have overtaken my last year and kids did before that. Once I started thinking about getting them all built, I realized that they will just take up more of the garden space than I want because it will limit my chickens ranging area , so I've settled on 4 that are 4x11x2

. It feels kind of silly limiting my garden for the chickens as the garden came first, but the chickens are more fun.

Our chicks are doing just great. All seven are getting really big (except for the little OEGB) and I think I may have one or two roos in the bunch, so I guess that means there are really 4!! One of the Welsummer chicks is so sweet and the Black Australorp has the prettiest songs. The little Mille Fleur d'Uccle is really flighty and is constantly flying at the other birds. Its pretty fun to watch at least from the outside! This week we will also be building a small run for the little guys to be outside during the warm days (obviously not the next two), but I think they will love it. Can you believe we have the potential of snow in the forecast? I can't be the only one that is not pleased by this, but oh well.

Anyway, I hope you are all well by the time I reach the end of the pages and thank you for sharing all the cool pics!

Cheryl

WB, Cheryl!

I would love to see some of your stained glass sometime.

And ix-ne on the ow-sne.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Sorry everyone terribly busy last few days. Will be catching up later today.
Trying to beat the cold front coming in. Be back later!

We spent the weekend trying to get ready for summer. It was interesting since the cold is coming back for a few days. I'm hoping the chicks we moved outside last week do ok. They are in a small grow out shed coop and will have a heat light.
At least the weekend weather is looking good so far.

Quote: I never get over the surprise of DH managing to get hurt in some way on most projects.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Rangi the awesome Ancona:

It was asked in the Ovation for this post (by Leahs mom, I think?) whether or not Rangi's coloring is typical. I would say probably yes for hatchery stock. Her mottling isn't great as compared to show quality mottled birds, although I love her and think she is beautiful. Mottling is supposed to cause a white tip on every feather, though, and Rangi has some solid black feathers. Speaking of, she was looking green yesterday--the lighting had every one of her feathers shining green!

So glad to see the thread is still thriving thanks for the core group Really nice to know even after my hiatus I can still come back and recognize everyone. Indiana BYC'ers ROCKS!

e Good to see you back! I know a lot of us were wondering if everything was alright!

Now...another 2 questions. -What size is the dog kennel? -How many birds are in that dog kennel? If the number of birds is not too large, and the kennel is large enough, you "could" use that kind of a setup with a bit of modification. You could get a couple sheets of plywood and make a sleeping room w/roost on one end or corner . Maybe even raise it up so they could still use the ground under it to run on. It doesn't have to be "fancy-pants"...but enough room for them to get out of the cold and sleep at night safe from predators. Due to the need for shelter from cold in the winter I'd make that plywood living space as large as possible. If small, it can cause a good number of pecking order issues and some of the "lowers" may get stuck outside when it's too cold due to more agressive birds guarding the entrance. If you made a simple "larger" house with the plywood sheets it could sit outside the pen with a door going into it and still give them lots of room in their kennel. Again, it doesn't need to be "fancy-pants" or expensive...just large enough for your flock, easy for you to get into to feed, water and clean out litter when needed.... and night predator proof. Edited to add: I don't recommend using a heat lamp either.

Agree, agree, agree! Function trumps visual appeal any day! Also, I saw the words, 'filled with hay' and 'heat lamp' and my first thought was 'REALLY BIG FIRE HAZARD!' Honestly, as long as you have a coop with enough ventilation and no drafts, your adult birds don't need any added heat!

The bantams are a month old now. I either hit the jackpot with pullets, or they are developing really slowly. OEGB Cochin Barred(maybe frizzled)

Go buy a lottery ticket!! Actually, I don't want to say 100% (except on that first OEGB--she's all girl with that feather pattern!), but it does seem like my bantam Cochin boy Po and my bantam EE Hika Ma both had more development by one month. And the one month-old black OEGB at our TSC was pretty clearly a boy... Your little barred Cochin is not frizzled, by the way. Absolutely none of her feathers would sit flat she was frizzled.

[COLOR=4B0082]Pipd~[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]Thanks for the update on your big girls-- and the big man. What are the chick breeds you're getting? I'm sure you've mentioned it, but I can't keep all of these chicks and breeds straight.[/COLOR]

Two Black Copper Marans (Georgette and Louise), a Welsummer (Mabel), and a Silver Gray Dorking (Telma). (Yes, I already have them named... ) 35 days to go on them! e I also talked to Brad about buying two Cream Legbar pullets around the same time. So excited!

 

[hoosiercheetah]

This is the pic I was trying to share earlier. The red shed is mine; the brown one is the neighbor's. I'm fortunate that she is very excited about having chickens and eggs. We've even talked a little about co-oping, so I might have a financial sponsor for my little egg operation.
I'm looking forward, very very much, to having this done soon and moving birds in.
Oh, and on the subject of injuries... I didn't smash a hand, but I got about a dozen splinters from working with old shed wood. And I got one really good chicken wire scratch.