INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: My story is almost identical. Selling eggs and hatchlings is starting to make a dent in the feed bill too. I also have enjoyed the experience and wouldn't trade it.
I started with 8 chicks, 6 goslings and 4 ducks after being away from chickens/waterfowl almost 30 years. I had the meatbird end of it but wanted to have fresh eggs and pets! Who knew.....Ya, I am totally addicted now. I love the effect its had on my parents health. Mom will come out of the house to see them, and Dad will hold them, and smile, laugh. Its kinda like doing it for the children, but in reverse I guess. My Dad insists on holding the baby goat every evening.. he is getting a bit big to fit in his lap!

Hi All!!!! I've sure missed everyone!!!

I have been reading posts all along but because of a totally fubar'd computer and I-phone, I couldnt respond.

Besides my internet communications being ridiculously unavailable, my life has gone through some rather stressful changes in the last couple weeks. My daughter has left a bad marraige and is now living with us ,along with my 17 yr old granddaughter .

As you can imagine that in itself has taken a lot of adjustments. Then after trying for a week to get back onthis site I ended up using an old Email addy and changing my Personna (lol) to get here. Now if thats not dedication dont know what is...lol just hope I can remember the password so all this doesnt happen again. I hope everyone recognizes the new name and realizes I'm not a newby. Well at any rate I just wanted to drop by say hi and let you all know that I'm still alive and well. BTW I really want my avatar back too...lol loved that thing and it made me feel a sense of belonging. FYI: Dont send emails because Im not sure I can get them, PM me if you have private msgs and I will chk there often.

For those of you who I have promised Hens aprons, I have made three so far. Send PMs with addy's so I can get them mailed, dont pay for them until you know for sure they fit your birds. If they dont fit return them and I'll adjust them as needed.

So glad you made it back! I am terribly sorry to hear about the breakup. I hope it improves their lives and they can move forward.
My oldest DD, 32 next month, moved home due to financial problems and I honestly am glad she is here. Its been a huge help with my parents care and transportation.

Quote:

Adorable babies! Congrats on the hatch!

Quote: Exactly true. BTW I am an accountant (retired), so its just a natural thing for me. I don't even blink at the feed store! But I sure make em price match the feed

My eggs that I got from kabhyper1 are going into lockdown tonight!!! I'll be off of work for them to hatch also! 18 eggs I think I'm tossing 3 of them tonight so we will see what comes of 15 awesomely awesome eggs! Thanks Kab! Hope Guss is doing ok!

hatching vibes!!!!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Only a day behind now, so I am going to bed

Sorry guys wrote a book I think!
Have had a lot go on here lately. Lots of good, some very bad... no predators but a stupid, ignorant mistake on my part.
I am posting this to hope no one goes through this experience, its just ripped my heart right out.
DD and I cut the "uglybush" down to a manageable size fighting my dad the entire time.
It was a huge nasty evergreen type bush, overtaking one side of the house!
I think at one time it was an ornamental hedge type, now its ugly, embarrassing, harbored bees and needed to go.
Its become a haven for sparrows. I found out what the thing is, Japanese Yew.
Well.. I had a wagon load in my trailer, on the little tractor. Been hauling it to the big burn pile at the back of the property.
Parked the tractor next to the cow/goat pasture because a state cop came in. The path to the burn pile runs by their pasture.
Someones boat was stolen! We don't have those problems here, very upsetting.
Told DH to stop at the neighbors house this weekend to find out more, it was a small aluminum jon boat..
Anyways, I spoke with the Officer a good 20 minutes or so, turned around to finish taking the load to the burn pile.
My girls and baby moo were eating the stuff! OH NO! So I ran and pulled all the branches away from them.
Stupid

My baby cow was poisoned. He was dead the following day. I was just bawling like a baby over it.
Yes, he was meant for food. But still a baby, just a few hundred pounds at most, and would have been here several months before that bad day.
I asked Jack the neighbor north of us to please come, he came that evening and took some of the plant to his vet.
He has had cattle at least 60 years, his entire life and knows his stuff. Yup, sure enough it was this horrible plant.
Thank goodness, my girls are fine, and Bocephus is not in with the Sugar and Sophie. Painful lesson learned.
My girls only get hay and a cup of grain a day, Bo tethers out with me and eats weeds and grasses.
I have asked Jack to please talk more with his vet, and pass my phone # to her so I can look into this more. Concerned about my girls.

 

[raisinemright]

Lock down update.......
4 external peeps and one chick going nuts trying to break free lol. Hopefully they all hatch about the same time!!!!

 

[raisinemright]

So

Only a day behind now, so I am going to bed Sorry guys wrote a book I think!
Have had a lot go on here lately. Lots of good, some very bad... no predators but a stupid, ignorant mistake on my part.
I am posting this to hope no one goes through this experience, its just ripped my heart right out.
DD and I cut the "uglybush" down to a manageable size fighting my dad the entire time.
It was a huge nasty evergreen type bush, overtaking one side of the house!
I think at one time it was an ornamental hedge type, now its ugly, embarrassing, harbored bees and needed to go.
Its become a haven for sparrows. I found out what the thing is, Japanese Yew.
Well.. I had a wagon load in my trailer, on the little tractor. Been hauling it to the big burn pile at the back of the property.
Parked the tractor next to the cow/goat pasture because a state cop came in. The path to the burn pile runs by their pasture.
Someones boat was stolen! We don't have those problems here, very upsetting.
Told DH to stop at the neighbors house this weekend to find out more, it was a small aluminum jon boat..
Anyways, I spoke with the Officer a good 20 minutes or so, turned around to finish taking the load to the burn pile.
My girls and baby moo were eating the stuff! OH NO! So I ran and pulled all the branches away from them.
Stupid My baby cow was poisoned. He was dead the following day. I was just bawling like a baby over it.
Yes, he was meant for food. But still a baby, just a few hundred pounds at most, and would have been here several months before that bad day.
I asked Jack the neighbor north of us to please come, he came that evening and took some of the plant to his vet.
He has had cattle at least 60 years, his entire life and knows his stuff. Yup, sure enough it was this horrible plant.
Thank goodness, my girls are fine, and Bocephus is not in with the Sugar and Sophie. Painful lesson learned.
My girls only get hay and a cup of grain a day, Bo tethers out with me and eats weeds and grasses.
I have asked Jack to please talk more with his vet, and pass my phone # to her so I can look into this more. Concerned about my girls.

sorry to hear this.

 

[raisinemright]

One out and four are externally peeped!!!

 

[racinchickins]

Only a day behind now, so I am going to bed Sorry guys wrote a book I think!
Have had a lot go on here lately. Lots of good, some very bad... no predators but a stupid, ignorant mistake on my part.
I am posting this to hope no one goes through this experience, its just ripped my heart right out.
DD and I cut the "uglybush" down to a manageable size fighting my dad the entire time.
It was a huge nasty evergreen type bush, overtaking one side of the house!
I think at one time it was an ornamental hedge type, now its ugly, embarrassing, harbored bees and needed to go.
Its become a haven for sparrows. I found out what the thing is, Japanese Yew.
Well.. I had a wagon load in my trailer, on the little tractor. Been hauling it to the big burn pile at the back of the property.
Parked the tractor next to the cow/goat pasture because a state cop came in. The path to the burn pile runs by their pasture.
Someones boat was stolen! We don't have those problems here, very upsetting.
Told DH to stop at the neighbors house this weekend to find out more, it was a small aluminum jon boat..
Anyways, I spoke with the Officer a good 20 minutes or so, turned around to finish taking the load to the burn pile.
My girls and baby moo were eating the stuff! OH NO! So I ran and pulled all the branches away from them.
Stupid My baby cow was poisoned. He was dead the following day. I was just bawling like a baby over it.
Yes, he was meant for food. But still a baby, just a few hundred pounds at most, and would have been here several months before that bad day.
I asked Jack the neighbor north of us to please come, he came that evening and took some of the plant to his vet.
He has had cattle at least 60 years, his entire life and knows his stuff. Yup, sure enough it was this horrible plant.
Thank goodness, my girls are fine, and Bocephus is not in with the Sugar and Sophie. Painful lesson learned.
My girls only get hay and a cup of grain a day, Bo tethers out with me and eats weeds and grasses.
I have asked Jack to please talk more with his vet, and pass my phone # to her so I can look into this more. Concerned about my girls.

So sorry to hear this. You worked so hard to keep him alive when he first came to you.

I will learn from this. I'm going to do an inventory of what we have planted here before we get any more animals to see if we have any surprises like this lurking.

 

[racinchickins]

Oh, yes, there was one last thing I wanted to mention, specifically to those of you that keep bees. Bearing in mind that they live in Fort Wayne in an area with a lot of residential houses, my harp teacher's neighbor got a hive last year apparently. She was concerned that with so many houses around, bees would be a danger and maybe didn't belong there. Having absolutely no experience with bees or hives (or any will to gain such experience--I'm a little bit phobic of the buggers!), I figured it was one of those things where if you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone. Am I right in thinking this..? It kind of brought to mind the whole anti-chicken-in-the-city thing to me, but I guess I can see where she's coming from with her concerns about bees.

More importantly, I wanted to ask about beekeeping habits. Okay. This woman (the neighbor, not my harp teacher) adorns one of those net mask/hat things and apparently sits for hours on end, just watching the bees come and go from their hive. Is this... normal? I mean, is there some method to this woman's madness, or is she just a few eggs short of a dozen, so to speak? Again, no experience with bees here. That's why I wanted to ask.

And I really gotta go to bed, so once again, good night, y'all!

Bee TV is just another channel, I think it's two clicks of the dial after Chicken TV.

My partner has bees, and I know beekeepers that live in downtown Indy with no issues at all. Bees are (almost) as fascinating as chickens. My partner refers to the hive (not the individual bees) as the organism. He regards the bees as more like cells. He also can sit and watch them work just like I (and everyone on here) sit and watch our flocks do their thing.

As someone who has been accused of being a bit 'crazy' about chickens, lol. I say live and learn. It took me a while to warm up to the bee thing, but now I think they are cool.

 

[ChickCrazed]

Only a day behind now, so I am going to bed

Sorry guys wrote a book I think!
Have had a lot go on here lately. Lots of good, some very bad... no predators but a stupid, ignorant mistake on my part.
I am posting this to hope no one goes through this experience, its just ripped my heart right out.
DD and I cut the "uglybush" down to a manageable size fighting my dad the entire time.
It was a huge nasty evergreen type bush, overtaking one side of the house!
I think at one time it was an ornamental hedge type, now its ugly, embarrassing, harbored bees and needed to go.
Its become a haven for sparrows. I found out what the thing is, Japanese Yew.
Well.. I had a wagon load in my trailer, on the little tractor. Been hauling it to the big burn pile at the back of the property.
Parked the tractor next to the cow/goat pasture because a state cop came in. The path to the burn pile runs by their pasture.
Someones boat was stolen! We don't have those problems here, very upsetting.
Told DH to stop at the neighbors house this weekend to find out more, it was a small aluminum jon boat..
Anyways, I spoke with the Officer a good 20 minutes or so, turned around to finish taking the load to the burn pile.
My girls and baby moo were eating the stuff! OH NO! So I ran and pulled all the branches away from them.
Stupid

My baby cow was poisoned. He was dead the following day. I was just bawling like a baby over it.
Yes, he was meant for food. But still a baby, just a few hundred pounds at most, and would have been here several months before that bad day.
I asked Jack the neighbor north of us to please come, he came that evening and took some of the plant to his vet.
He has had cattle at least 60 years, his entire life and knows his stuff. Yup, sure enough it was this horrible plant.
Thank goodness, my girls are fine, and Bocephus is not in with the Sugar and Sophie. Painful lesson learned.
My girls only get hay and a cup of grain a day, Bo tethers out with me and eats weeds and grasses.
I have asked Jack to please talk more with his vet, and pass my phone # to her so I can look into this more. Concerned about my girls.

How awful! I'm so sorry!!! As hard as we try we can't always protect our animals from themselves and that is really difficult.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

No rambling. ..all great personal insight..thank you!

I have one young roo that I always have to watch my fingers around but I have girls like that too .. more of a curiosity thing looking for treats.

I have mentioned before that I have a frizzled Cochin bantam boy in need of a new home if you end up ridding yours. Hatched him back in August. I only have his sister so I wouldn't want that pairing.

Mine do it out of curiosity too. It never hurts. I also have one that loves zippers, I think he likes the texture, because I tried out other shinning objects and he doesn't care about any of them lol! I definitely don't need anymore boys right now,15 is a hand full. If will let you know if I change my mind though

Phew, long day! I totally forgot to take another picture of the woods, so I guess it'll be tomorrow. I take a walk out there every evening, but this evening I was on my way out there when I heard a heck of a ruckus over the hill--sounded like raccoons fighting! Needless to say, I didn't have my walk this evening!

This morning, I cartoned the eggs (all 9 dozen or so) and sent them off with my dad to give to his coworkers. We already had two dozen white eggs (from Rangi and friends ) set aside, so I figured we wouldn't need the rest. Well, my sister, who does all the cooking, was sure we'd need more eggs than that and wanted to keep more. I told her no, we'd get more than enough eggs from the girls by Easter. She didn't look so sure, but I sent the eggs off anyway. Guess how many I brought in tonight. 20, of course! Do I know my girls or what?

Speaking of Rangi, I'm a bit worried about her. She acts fine and all, but she looks like she's getting bullied a bit by her flockmates. Her head has been picked bald and the feathers on her back are looking tattered. I'm not sure if Po is responsible for any of it, but I've never seen Rangi let him get close enough to her, so I'm thinking he's not the problem. She's always been the bottom of the pecking order in her little group, anyway. I think it's just in her nature to be less assertive than the others. She came over to me this morning and told me all about her problems while I crouched by her and stroked her feathers. I felt so bad to see her in such a state! Poor baby. I wish there was something I could do.

Well, anyway, I'd better head to bed. I have a test in chemistry next Tuesday, so I'm gonna have to spend the weekend studying. I hope the weather's awful. :/ That's the only way I can see myself actually staying in to study. So good night, everyone!

Mice will get in coops and eat the ends of feathers and it makes them look a little raggedy and ruff(usually back feathers). They are a good source of protein......just a thought

 

[ellymayRans]

Oh, yes, there was one last thing I wanted to mention, specifically to those of you that keep bees. Bearing in mind that they live in Fort Wayne in an area with a lot of residential houses, my harp teacher's neighbor got a hive last year apparently. She was concerned that with so many houses around, bees would be a danger and maybe didn't belong there. Having absolutely no experience with bees or hives (or any will to gain such experience--I'm a little bit phobic of the buggers!), I figured it was one of those things where if you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone. Am I right in thinking this..? It kind of brought to mind the whole anti-chicken-in-the-city thing to me, but I guess I can see where she's coming from with her concerns about bees.

More importantly, I wanted to ask about beekeeping habits. Okay. This woman (the neighbor, not my harp teacher) adorns one of those net mask/hat things and apparently sits for hours on end, just watching the bees come and go from their hive. Is this... normal? I mean, is there some method to this woman's madness, or is she just a few eggs short of a dozen, so to speak? Again, no experience with bees here. That's why I wanted to ask.

And I really gotta go to bed, so once again, good night, y'all!

I don't have bees nor do I live in the city per say but I do live in a addition with about 10 houses on our street. .keeping in mind that we each have approx an acre give or take ..it varies from house to house but I do have a gentleman two houses down from us that keeps bees he rescued a hive from our house last summer after a tree fell they were in. That put him at 4 hives. Their backyard butts right up to his neighbors backyard with children and a dog and they are good friends. I don't think it's too much of a concern. I didn't even realize he had bees til about 5 years ago when I was chasing my dog to get home and of course he went there got too close to the box and after all the chasing came running at me! I appreciate them but am pretty darned fearful when they get too close to me. Needless to say when he came at me...me realizing that they were embedded in his ear, head and muzzle I took off running too! Quite a site I'm sure! ! Lol!