INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Rhandi74]

Just because we're on the topic, Po's first crow:


[VIDEO]

ETA: Something went wrong there! Everything was in color!

I thought my Smokey had a funny crow. I think Po gets the prize, he sounds like a squeaky toy. I am sure you have many great memories with him.

 

[atrueb00]

Greetings from Whitley County! I introduced myself in the New Member Introductions forum a while back, but I'd really like to meet some chicken folks in my area especially, so I figured I should introduce myself here, too Grew up in Whitley County, left for 15 years, and came back about a year ago. I hadn't planned on having any sort of farm animals because I really like traveling, and I know how hard it is finding someone to take care of my three cats, let alone someone willing to go out and do chores twice per day. But then one day a few months after I moved back last year, my dad found a hen-less chick in his barn, and he and my mom were going on vacation, so I agreed to take care of it until they got back. Fast forward a year, and the chick is a rooster I named Reginald. I also have three hens and two chicks I'm hoping with all my might end up being hens, too. My farmhouse came with a barn cat (unbeknownst to me at the time) and then I relocated a feral colony that was going to be "evicted" (probably euthanized since they were too wild to be homed) from the basement of the apartment building I had been living in in Columbia City. Bringing me to a grand total of eight cats (five in the barn, three in the house) and six chickens. So much for spontaneous travel plans! I love all my animals, though, and it really gives me pleasure to take care of all of them. If I'm honest with myself, I would guess I'll have some more animals (goats? sheep? ... MORE CHICKENS??) by this time next year!

Here's a link to some photos of my chickens: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10102299433423789.1073741835.836415&type=1&l=3dfa1fa8de

Looking forward to getting to know you all!

-Anna

Welcome! Thanks for sharing your pics! I especially love this one! Is this Reginald?

The thing that always seems to surprise me about the cornish is how compact and heavy they are for their size. With their tight feathering, they look so small, and then you realize there is nothing hidden in fluff like there is on other breeds.

I had the same reaction to the Cornish X we raised this spring. They were like basketballs with legs!

Okay--all you REAL chicken-persons cover your ears. I don't want you making fun of a city person.

One vacation in the early 90's, I went to a working dude ranch (like in the movie City Slickers). We did cool stuff--prairie wildflower harvest, herbal remedies (tincture, teas, etc), made paper, rode horses, learned about buffalo soldier history, animal tracking, animal acupuncture demonstrations, etc. Lots of foo-foo stuff.

Then, there was real rancher stuff you could opt-in to do. Things like castrating bulls, herding cows, milking cows, harvesting chickens, etc. We harvested chickens. No fancy-ness. A stump with 2 nails (neck width apart), sharp old double-sided ax, big drums of boiling water over an open fire, processing tables, and lots of neighbor women. (No men were there--maybe they were out castrating bulls--dunno.) I bet we harvested around 50 chickens.

As a life-long city person, it was a life-changing experience. To experience the sense of community in the participation of neighbors, the responsibility of each person to the hands-on process, the participation of even young persons in bringing food to the table, the reverence for the importance of each chicken. That really gave me an appreciation for eating meat. An appreciation for the raising, care and treatment of stock animals.

Okay--chicken-persons--you can uncover your ears now.

Thanks for sharing this, love to hear stories like this.

Hi peeps!

Sorry I dropped off the face of the earth for awhile. Can't tell you how much I miss the stress relief being on here, and the lazy days of summer...

The kids and I were out of town for 2 1/2 weeks, then we jumped back into life full speed ahead since we got home. I homeschool so we started school, the kids activities started, out of town guests, 2 birthdays and I have hardly had the time to sleep since we returned. Being on the computer has just not happened (in the rare free moments I'd rather go out and hang with the chickens!). I am only about 1700 posted behind - this time I won't even try to catch up! I really don't even have the time to read anything now, I need to finish dinner and go to work.

Hello! Welcome back! Funny how life takes you away from the thread and when you get back you can be thousands of posts behind. To read some highlights and see some other stuff we've been working on, be sure to head over to the Indiana BYC'ers Page. We've got links to some memorable/helpful posts, a calendar of events and a Google map to see where others are at in the state and where important chicken locations are.

 

[chick rookie]

well its over!! No more sitting on my hands to keep from touching!!

Momma hen hatched 3 out of 8 but I was figuring on 4 and maybe 2 EE's but I got a barred rock, I think, and an Welsummer , and an EE. Couldn't get pic's she wont let me,, she hides them as soon as I start to walk up. So I will try again tomorrow. Now to just hope they are all pullets.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

I have 5 barn cats for sure, and then there are 3 that I haven't seen for awhile, so there may or may not be more. I do feed mine once a day. But for all the cats they get a small bowl. I really do not believe in feeding barn cats since they need to hunt to eat, but mine do such a good job, they get hungry-because they have caught the mice. Mine have also killed a good hand full of wild birds, though they do not like to eat those. They don't get their own water. There are so many other waterers they can drink out of.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote: cats are eaters. I made sure last winter that the cats could get to our open water bowls during the day. My cats typically showed me their catches every other day or so last winter. So I knew they were eating well. But I put out food when I felt it was needed, typically around noon - 3 pm on the days I fed them. Now I have a kitten and she gets food twice a day. But the amounts of the food do vary. But the barn cats get treated like a free ranging flock when it comes to food. Food is given at the end of the hunting time. For chickens that is between 5 and 7 pm depending on weather, for the cat it was after the sun was up for the day. you'll know if the cat is hungry and losing weight. But a cat that catches a bunny will feats for a day and look like a balloon. As the food gets processed it will look like the fat cat is losing weight, but its not starving it is just processing the large amounts of food from a large catch.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I thought my Smokey had a funny crow. I think Po gets the prize, he sounds like a squeaky toy. I am sure you have many great memories with him.

He sounded much better once he got the hang of it. He was a great guy, I hope some day I can find another rooster as good as he was. He had his moments, but he was so good to the girls (even if they didn't give him a second thought) and never once even thought to show aggression to humans.



[VIDEO]

 

[MnMPoultry]

Anyone know of any LGD breeders around Indiana? I'm aiming to have one in the main coop and yard and one in a pen surrounding the new breeding pens.

 

[browncow15]

Okay--all you REAL chicken-persons cover your ears.  I don't want you making fun of a city person.

One vacation in the early 90's, I went to a working dude ranch (like in the movie City Slickers). We did cool stuff--prairie wildflower harvest, herbal remedies (tincture, teas, etc), made paper, rode horses, learned about buffalo soldier history, animal tracking, animal acupuncture demonstrations, etc.  Lots of foo-foo stuff.

Then, there was real rancher stuff you could opt-in to do.  Things like castrating bulls, herding cows, milking cows, harvesting chickens, etc. We harvested chickens. No fancy-ness.  A stump with 2 nails (neck width apart), sharp old double-sided ax, big drums of boiling water over an open fire, processing tables, and lots of neighbor women.  (No men were there--maybe they were out castrating bulls--dunno.)  I bet we harvested around 50 chickens.

As a life-long city person, it was a life-changing experience.  To experience the sense of community in the participation of neighbors, the responsibility of each person to the hands-on process, the participation of even young persons in bringing food to the table, the reverence for the importance of each chicken.  That really gave me an appreciation for eating meat. An appreciation for the raising, care and treatment of stock animals. 

Okay--chicken-persons--you can uncover your ears now.  

I don't know if I qualify as a REAL chicken person but I think that's AWSOME! I grew up a city girl and fell into (and in love with) agriculture by chance in college. I think it's so important that people know where we've come from and what our country's current practices are when it comes to what we eat! It's to bad more people don't get that opportunity.

 

[number9]

Well it is day 23 and no chicks. I have given up hope and pulled the plug. My DD has some hens sitting and said I could have some chicks if any hatched. I would have been better if they were from my hens and Roo but sometimes you have to take what you can get.

 

[iamfivewire]

we have a young pullet (5 months & been laying for only 3 weeks) starting to act broody - i'm not a broody hen expert, but doesnt that seem a little young to showing broody behaviour ? Normally, we would embrace the idea of a broody bird, but its getting too close to cooler weather time + we have too many young birds & chicks to figure out what to do with all of them

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/923916/too-young-to-be-broody