INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[bradselig]

If you decide to sell any of the polish I want some! Any color. I'm looking to add a little more variety to my flock.

The seller of those eggs is buying the chicks back (really just swapping me for tolbunt eggs) but I will still have the tolbunt/silver laced chick available.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Is anyone else having trouble with flies this year? We hardly had any problems with them last year, but they are terrible this year. Do any birds eat them? I know my chickens ignore them, but was wondering about Guineas or Muscovys?

Scovies, guinea and pekin LOVE flies, and are very good stalking and catching them too! They are terrible here also.

Quote: X2

Quote: X2

Quote: LOL yes, they love the flies!

They (houseflies) are really bad here too - wonder if it is b/c it has been so wet and the past 2 years were droughts?? I have seen my girls try to catch them but it is the dog that does the best job! And some of them BITE! not horseflies either, Grrrrr!

Here's pictures of my small flock so far. Pardon the make shift coop. Its an old horse stall. I'm building the real coop on my vacation next week. Lucky them it stays about 75 tops in there because its a basement barn.

In fact they were stuck with makeshift feeders and waterers because mine arrived 2 days late (darn amazon)

Here's pretty much my whole flock. The white call duck is female the brown is male. Then I have a lavender silkie hen an EE roo a polish roo and hen (rooster was sick when I got him and didn't make it) and an ameracauna hen.

Adorable flock! And it doesn't have to be fancy to be functional, trust me

 

[EurekaChic]

Well my Cochin hen did not make it. She died this morning due to a prolapsed vent. Don't tell the other chickens but she was easily my favorite hen lol.

So sorry for your loss!

 

[iamfivewire]

havent noticed the flies being any worse this year, but the mosquitoes are exceptionally ravenous

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Ok y'all. I'm at a loss... For the last 2 weeks my ladies egg production has plummeted! I have 8 (out of 16) girls that are around a year old. We normally get 5-7 eggs a day. We are lucky if we get any right now. There was not a single egg yesterday. It's like they all got together and decided to go on strike. I think a couple may be molting, but definitely not all of them. Any ideas what could have caused the extreme change and what to do about it. For the first time since they started laying we don't have a single egg in the fridge! If I have to go to buy store eggs when I have 16 birds I'm gonna lose it.

Lots of good posts on it already. I notice a short slow down every summer when the days start to shorten (which is now!). We have a drop even in the pekin eggs, and some of my species have stopped for the year, like the geese.

Quote: Thats a lot of changes! So it may take a week or 2.

It looks like my broody duck is giving up. She has not been on the nest since around 9 am this morning. At least she did not try to bite me when I took the newest eggs away. But now I still have a dozen eggs that are going to be chicken food if she does not get back on by tomorrow.

ugh. I have another broody scovy, there is only one left thats not.. sure its coming!

The mosquitoes are horrible too. My daughter and I were just outside wanting to hang with the chickens and we were getting eaten alive!!

X2! no kidding, they are ruthless, trying to pick squash tonite thought I would be carried off!

Hello all Indiana Chicken People. I have been on here for almost a year but just found this forum. Ive been on a couple of the others.

Im from nothern Indiana in Goshen and have a couple chickens Im trying to find.

My flock consists of the following:

2 Black copper marans (pair) love my rooster, only mature i have, pic below
8 young Blue laces Red Wyandottes not yet laying and unfortunately all splash (2 pullets and 3-4 cockerels for trade or sale)
3 blue eggers, not sure if true americana but one looks the part
1 bared rock
3 isa browns
1 Tolbunt polish (after this weeks Elkhart Co fair ends)
and a couple young ones that were to be blue coppers and one olive egger pullets but they all SEEM to be roos, not cool.

anyway, here is what Im looking for:

Black (or maybe Blue) copper maran hens/pullets
Black/dark Blue laced Red Wyandotte cockrel (maybe roo) to balance my 2 splash hens
Olive egger

If anyone has any of these and is relativley close by, let me know
thanks all

Here's "Big Guy"

welcome and glad to meet you!
Love your handsome roo

You have an interesting flock, and hope you find the additions you are looking for.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Pistol, the oldest cockerel of all my chicks.



Pippy, the oldest pullet of all my chicks.



The ones that have aged enough to go to their "halfway house"

ADORABLE!

Quote:
Eww but if it works, I can live with it. If I use fly tapes, I know my guinea would get wrapped in them

goofballs.

I'd love to add a few BLRWs down the road.


I love the smell of rotten death. Maybe I could bait stray cats with it.

we tried out the stinky jar style traps from TSC last year. They worked I guess but wow that smell, it took our breath away. I did enjoy the meter guy not trampling through my yard as much last year though. He seemed to avoid the traps and spent less time "glancing" in our windows.

Quote: Awesome! I need to start looking for piglets again, Wilbur is about 300lbs now.

Time goes by too fast any more, gonna miss him.

Does anyone know of any bantam faverolle breeders?

Sorry I dont, good luck searching tho!

 

[iamfivewire]

our egg production has diminished the past couple weeks or so too - i guess our chickens need & deserve a little vacation every once in a while

 

[kittydoc]

This is the first year we have been bothered by flies at the coop, but it's so bad we had to do something. I have a QuickBayt station hanging from the ceiling of our main coop (used a gallon milk container with 2" round openings cut near the top, four total, and wired it to the ceiling where no birds can possibly get to it. It does NOT smell, but has some attractant in it. There are other ways to use it, but the safest way for the chickens and our neighborhood pets was to hang a bait station. It's helping, and it hasn't been up even a week. Cooler/wetter days aren't as bad anyway, but those hot days--yikes! I've also been removing droppings more frequently from the henhouses. DH has also used the garden rototiller a couple of times in the chicken yard to turn the droppings, etc., under, and the chickens LOVE it afterward. We have such a hard clay soil that it makes finding bugs and digging dust baths easier. It also reduces the aroma of the droppings and indirectly reduces the number of flies.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Well my Cochin hen did not make it. She died this morning due to a prolapsed vent. Don't tell the other chickens but she was easily my favorite hen lol.

ouch, I am so sorry. Thats a painful loss.

havent noticed the flies being any worse this year, but the mosquitoes are exceptionally ravenous

Yes, they are, I have welts all over my arms and even my cheek!

 

[Bill1234]

I have thought about getting turkeys. Does anyone know where to get some and how long does it take until a turkey is ready to butcher.