INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Ol Grey Mare]

I had the same thing happen to me. I live out in the country, but they are narrow lots and I have houses pretty close. I originally did not get a rooster and had both neighbors tell me they were disappointed because they love hearing a rooster crow. After I got my rooster I even had one of them ask if I still had him because they were sorry they never heard him. LOL. The property on the other side of me just sold last year and they are getting ready to build on it. They seem ok with the chickens and I hope they also like roosters because they are about to build on the side with the coop and I have three more boys growing in there!

That sounds just like where we are at - there are three 2-3 acre lots, but they are long and skinny so the houses are each close to each other, not too far off the road and then big chunks of lot behind them. We have about 2.5 acres, but still have neighbors "right there" to the left and right.

 

[leslea]

Thanks again, everyone, for the sympathy. My son woke up still upset about the chick. However, after a few minutes of comfort he joined me in watching our other chicks and he didn't say anything bad about Oprah. I held a cup of Save a Chick out and she drank from it and he thought that was cute. He asked to hold one of the guineas, then we had a good laugh as we tried to catch one. They are only about 3x as fast as the chicks and nearly impossible to catch. Once I got one and gave it to him to hold, it tried to fly away and he got some giggles out of that.

Everyone seems to be doing well today. I think I am going to switch from paper towels to pine shavings tonight. They all know where to find the crumble and I am getting grossed out by all the poo on the paper towels. Everyone seems like their little legs are working well and there was only one case of pasty butt this morning that needed to be attended to (an improvement over 5 cases yesterday).

Last night when I went to bed, five of the 7 were sleeping at least half-way out from under the brooder. And to think I was worried they'd be cold!

 

[leslea]

I think that going through these experiences first with our animals will help the kids when we face the events of deaths of loved ones. It won't lessen the grief, but at least our kids won't be strangers to death & grieving.

I think my son's many experiences with death and grieving are actually making this so much harder for him. He has lost two kittens to horrible neighbors (poison), a family dog to old age, and two grandparents all within 4 years. He kept asking me "Why do things like this always happen to me?" It's hard to answer that, but I told him that nothing in life is certain and that the risks are worth the rewards.

The one truly wonderful thing to come out of this experience was that it gave me a reason to pray with him aloud for some very good reason other than the mealtime prayer. I am not a very religious person and it would not be authentic for me, personally, to pray a lot outloud and with great frequency (although I have no problem conversing with God at any time when I am alone or in my own mind). My parents never prayed with me and it would have been inauthentic of them to have faked it because that was not who they were. Consequently, I grew up feeling uncomfortable in that regard. When my son couldn't self-comfort he did let me pray with him. He's not a very huggy child so holding him wasn't really working, but he did let me speak some things from my heart to the Father and I feel like no matter what choices he makes for his own spiritual life when he grows up, at least he will have the impression somewhere inside of his memory that when grief is unbearable, there is a healthy way to express it.

Hope no one is offended by my sharing that. I don't expect anyone else's beliefs to coincide with my own, they are just my own--but as a mom, it was probably a bonding moment of sorts, so that is the silver lining to a very exhausting evening!!!

Thanks for listening. Who knew chickens would be so much heavy emotional lifting?

 

[hoosiercheetah]

@Leahs Mom: Miss Gray is adorable and I would take her in a heartbeat if I could. But my dad would say no and no arguments and I don't have a place to house a single chicken unless I kicked DeeDee out of the dog crate.

Speaking of which she is doing much better! I washed her yesterday and she looked great. She had a few spots from me accidentally plucking butt fluff when I tried to clean the mess off her behind and the corner of her vent is starting to scab over with no ill effects. She is most definitely doing better and should be good to go into the main flock soon.

My nine little fluff balls are doing very well. I have 4 EEs. One is black and the other three are silver and their wing feathers are looking barred. The other 4 look like pure Barred Rocks and then I've got one little odd ball. He is all black with a little white on his wing but definitely not barred.

I'm sorry about all the lost chicks but to all the new chicks in the world, Congrats!

Btw, HoosierCheetah, your autodoor info is very interesting. Thanks for posting!

You're welcome! I hope someone takes me up on the offer; I'm looking forward to building a few of these, but it will be a while before I can do one for my own coop. I'll have to dismantle and rebuild the wall section where my pop-door is, to make room for a guillotine slider.

 

[daneblackburn]

I could her my daughters eggs in incubator last night. Started to peck holes this morning. Hopefully there is some chicks in incubator when my wife gets home to check. This is her hauling chicks the other day

and this is my son last night

 

[Leahs Mom]

Looks like a chicken tractor to me. (or a chicken suv...)



But on this one you have to feed the chickens AND the tractor driver.

 

[daneblackburn]

Lol

Looks like a chicken tractor to me.  (or a chicken suv...)



But on this one you have to feed the chickens AND the tractor driver. 

 

[SallyinIndiana]

For those of you in southern Indiana, Akers has chicks. They posted on craigs list. Really good prices too at $1 each.

 

[racinchickins]

Quote: Are you located anywhere near Indy? I have 4 coop/runs attached to my barn (with a 5th planned). I'd love to build a single system to raise and lower all the doors at once. However, electrical/motor design is NOT my strong suit.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hey, everyone, just catching up! I'm out of class for the summer, so I have lots of free time now--or, so I would hope, but thus far I've been quite busy anyway! I definitely have an A in one class, and probably passed another, but I'm still waiting on the final grades for all of my classes to come through. I'm just relieved to be on vacation, and to be able to focus on the important things like chickens and gardening! Anyway, I have some catching up to do!