INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[ellymayRans]

I am looking hard at my flocks. Several ducks for sure that are raiding my chickens eggs That's my breakfast, not yours! I kept seeing once of my scovy hens attacking the pekin. They were stealing her eggs, so that tells me that group needs to go. Now, they are hitting the chicken coop too!

Yum apple festival must have been fantastic!

Sounds great! I have said before, we can have more than one fest a year! The meet and swap is always so much fun.

I'd be there!

 

[twoboystwogirls]

My run is currently just dirt. You know what chickens do to grass. I don't like how muddy it gets so I am debating on wood chips or sand. Does anyone have any suggestions. When we get rain(if you are from Indiana you know how much) some of the chickens will get little mud balls on their toes. Then they have to have a pedicure, which they really do not enjoy.

 

[wheezy50]

My runs are currently all just dirt as well. I'm getting ready to clean out a bunch of old shavings, pine bedding from TSC, and plan to add it to the runs. I didn't plan my runs very well and the wheelbarrow doesn't fit into a couple places which means more shoveling/raking, but I'm hoping this will help the muddy mess when it rains.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

In my limited experience, I've had really good luck taking used pine from the coop and tossing it in the run. The shavings do a great job keeping the run from getting too muddy.

I just throw piles of the stuff in the run and let the chickens spread it for me. They're really good at it, and never miss a corner.

I've heard it said that sand is bad for a run, and can hold bacteria and cause health problems.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

My runs are currently all just dirt as well. I'm getting ready to clean out a bunch of old shavings, pine bedding from TSC, and plan to add it to the runs. I didn't plan my runs very well and the wheelbarrow doesn't fit into a couple places which means more shoveling/raking, but I'm hoping this will help the muddy mess when it rains.

LOL - sounds like me the first time I went to take a cart full of yard clippings out to scatter in the run -- got to the door and realized I was in for some pitchfork work. We use one of the big rubbermaid barn carts, so it's even wider than a normal wheel barrow. The next run will be cart friendly.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Please give me a little tutorial on the blue Sumatras.

-Do I understand that they were a truly "in the wild" bird that propagated without human invervention? Not sure this was a breed I picked for 2 reasons ~ broody and looks
-Is there currently a breed standard or do they just let them remain as they were? I think they are in the American Poultry Standards. I'll be breeding these for color and broodiness.
-How are they personality-wise? Do they get along in a mixed flock? mine are not fighters but I have read lots of info that says they were raised as a fighting or exhibition breed. I did see a hen jump feet in the air at the red juvie roosters 3 times in the past 4 months. They have not once tried to attack a person here. The black roo I got from the NY eggs did try to attack and he was a nice soup, even if it meant i could not have any chicks from the NY sumatra line.
-Egg color and how many do you expect from them? egg color is not white but it is close. very light tan. The black sumatra I got from NY eggs lays white eggs. The blue sumatra eggs are a large size egg from a LF chicken but the black sumatra lays medium eggs and is less than half the size of the blue sumatras so more egg per pound of chicken.
-How many years do they lay well? not really sure. But I'm guessing they will lay longer if they are broody more often since each hen has a set number of eggs that they can lay. I'm hoping to get at least 4 seasons of broody hens out of each hen and at least 2 mating season from each roo.
-Anything else you know and like or don't like about them? They like to form clicks of 3-5 females with 1 rooster. I find it amusing but I plan to have small breeding pens. Also they like to community brood which I find annoying. The spurs on the roosters are a bit different than the other roosters I have. They are a mite bit harder to keep at a safe mating size.

Do you sell them and/or hatching eggs? I am going to hatch out chicks this spring depending on broodiness. Based on how many are blue I hope to sell some chicks. I know I should get some splash and blacks with blue genes to sell.

My run is currently just dirt. You know what chickens do to grass. I don't like how muddy it gets so I am debating on wood chips or sand. Does anyone have any suggestions. When we get rain(if you are from Indiana you know how much) some of the chickens will get little mud balls on their toes. Then they have to have a pedicure, which they really do not enjoy.

If you have enough space for a tree trimmer to drop off tree trimmings, they are free in my area. Sand is heavy to move. Wood chips are not light but they are less compact than sand so moving them means more wheel barrels but lighter in weight. Wood chips compost over time meaning more chips need to be put down. I have not dealt with large amounts of sand in our chicken runs. But the finer the sand, the worse off it worked. If you are planning to use sand there have been posts a ways back about the different grades and I'm almost certain you want construction sand from a sand lot not the play sand from lowes.

 

[Faraday40]

My run is currently just dirt. You know what chickens do to grass. I don't like how muddy it gets so I am debating on wood chips or sand. Does anyone have any suggestions. When we get rain(if you are from Indiana you know how much) some of the chickens will get little mud balls on their toes. Then they have to have a pedicure, which they really do not enjoy.

For my small run/coop, I use & like the sand. I did buy the larger, construction grade sand. Each day I simply sift the sand with a kitty litter scoop. Takes only a few min daily & everything stays clean & dry. The days it rains, the sand in the run gets wet, but it drains quickly & is dry by the next day. I think the sand helps dry out the poop as well. I had fewer flies with the sand this summer than I had last summer with the pine chips (in coop) and mulch in the run. Last summer I had poop boards under the roosts, so I didn't have to clean the whole coop as frequently. (Worked OK until we had to shut off the hose.) I must mention, though, that sand may not work as well for large coop/runs. I think a kitty litter scooper would seem pointless if you kept 20+ chickens! For a small backyard coop, I'm happy with it.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

my duck run is around 20' x 40'. No way I can kitty scoop all that daily. but I can see a small run with only 3-5 hens being scoop-able.

 

[Leahs Mom]

One caution using sand if you are going to brood much. It can quickly become a vector for cocci. I've known a few folks that kept having losses from cocci that cleared up right away in future hatches and broods when they replaced the sand w/wood shavings and deep litter.

If you're not brooding it may not be a huge issue, but the adults can still get an overload of cocci if it's bad.

 

[LonelyPageTurne]

Hey is anyone interested in a pair of gold partridge brahmas, a free silkie rooster or maybe 2, blrw pullets, or a legbar pullet?