INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Mother2Hens]

Less daylight means I am indoors more

.
Egg laying has dropped considerably, already. Several of my birds are roosting by 6pm. Lots of moulting and cranky chickens, poor babies.

jchny~ I can relate to being bummed about less daylight-- it's even worse here with Central Standard Time. I have lots of molting going on, too.

On the good side, I've noticed that the flock and I have perked up since Nene's death. I mourned losing such a big personality and the chickens felt lost for a while, but I think we're improving.

The beautiful weather helps. One more thing about Nene-- I ran across this today. She was my muse for the Chickenfest logo. I drew the cartoon based on her photo.

I have a theory about this thanks to @jchny2000 ! While staying at my cousin's house, I noticed a TON of these woolly brown caterpillars. At any given time there could be 20 on the porch. They were also by the chicken coops out back, and we did find dead ones laying around too. I am wondering if anyone knows if these are poisonous to poultry, as that would explain the sudden death of my cousin's peacocks and turkeys. Did some research and they are the larval form of Pyrrharctia isabella, the Isabella tiger moth. I can't find if they are poisonous to poultry though.

atrueb00 ~ Cute photo in front of Dinky's!
I don't know any specifics about that type of caterpillar, but I have seen my chickens look at them and walk away. They generally know what they should eat and what they should avoid, but you never know. My Jubilee Orp is the only one attracted to colorful tiny pieces of plastic toys that occasionally surface in the yard. I always grab the little bits, but she tries. The others could care less, luckily.
I am too tired to finish posts tonight-- it looks like everyone made up for lost time-- suddenly lots of pages!
It's going to be sunny and in the 70s this weekend, so I'm planning on finishing winterizing the coops. Hope everyone has a good forecast and weekend!

 

[ellymayRans]

Oh...speaking of molting! I'm only getting 1 egg a day and I think it's coming from a young pullet. Every girl is molting! This is the worst one and she looks better than just last week! I thought she'd freeze! All you could see were pin feathers! Crazy. Never had one so bald! Hahaha!

 

[hoosiercheetah]

My husband and I live outside of Paragon. We only have 7 pullets and a rooster. My daughter fell in love with the chickens when they had them at Rural King this past Spring. My mantra use to be "Nothing with feathers." My daughter has always wanted a peacock. Well, I was out voted and now we have our own "flock". We would love to get more, but the coop we bought is too small. I am looking to buy or build another one soon. We spent way too much on the first one, so we are trying to be a little more frugal this time around.

We have 6 Buff Orpingtons Pullets, 1 Buff Rooster and 2 Ameraucanas. I would love to get some Rhode Island Reds and Plymouth Rocks. I also need a breed that lays white eggs. My dad won't eat a "wild" egg. So I am going to fake him out with "wild" white eggs. LOL I also want to see if he and I can surprise my husband with a bigger coop.

My 9 year old daughter loves going out in the morning and afternoon collecting eggs. These birds have been a God-Send to us. My daughter has Aspergers and has several severe sensory issues. She loved the soft little chicks and will actually spend time outside to be near the flock. I feel funny calling 8 animals a flock. LOL She is normally an indoor girl. It is fantastic to see her feel so excited about finding the eggs. She wants more chickens and I will do what I can to keep her interested.

I am so happy to have other Hoosiers to get information from that have been in this game longer. Maybe getting some coop ideas.

Happy Clucking!

I have 8 in my little flock, too. We get nearly 4 dozen eggs each week - we're small but mighty!

Someone mentioned finding a garden shed and converting it to a coop - this is a very popular option, if you can find one that you can move to your house. You might check Indy and Bloomington Craigslist and see what turns up.

If you want to build one yourself, wood is prohibitivly expensive, but if you look around, you can find pallets that aren't. Do a BYC search for "Pallet Palace". Truely impressive, and could be built on a smaller scale.

Another popular option is to buy one or two outdoor kids' playhouses and convert them. This thing is begging to be a coop:
http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/bab/4702781387.html

Good luck, and welcome to the group!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I love call ducks, would love to have some one day!

[COLOR=900000]Well, if they pass quarantine, I could give you some eggs to hatch from my pair. [/COLOR]

Other than Pipd's call ducks, did anyone else buy birds at the Lebanon Show? I've been surprised not to see more pictures!!!!

[COLOR=13598B]I know! I've been waiting! [/COLOR]

Here are some pictures from lebanon. All of these are my birds that I showed. And I couldn't of been more proud of this guy! He is a 7 month old black ameraucana and won reserve AOSB! He got beat by a sumatras (the seems to happen at every show i go to, the sumatras beat the AMs, but AMs are a newer breed).

[COLOR=900000]Beautiful birds! Pretty sure I saw some of these girls! Which barn were they in? And congrats on your young guy taking reserve AOSB!! I sadly had to look that up to know what it mean. [/COLOR]

Ok, here are the pics that didn't load earlier. I said that I wasn't going to venture into any new breeds, but I did get a new size of a breed I already have. Bantam white rocks I got an old pair and a young trio. I also got another LF white rock pullet, but I don't have picture of her.

[COLOR=13598B]Lovely birds! Plymouth Rocks are great, aren't they?[/COLOR]

Just wanted to take a minute to relay some horrible news...at least its horrible for me. Some of you met my baby girl, Chickee, at Chickenfest this year, I only have a couple more days with her. She's been my constant companion for 9yrs. I took her to the Vet today because she's been snapping at the children I babysit and grabbed my arm yesterday for no reason. Turns out she has cancer. There's a mass the size of a baseball in her abdomen (that I didn't know was there). And she has some dementia, vet said the cancer has already begun to metasticize. We can not afford a surgery and treatments so...she is going to go live with my sister on Tuesday (FYI my sister passed Nov 19, 2012). I had the little girl I babysit with me today and she wouldn't understand all that was happening so there's been an appointment made for next Tuesday. I'm so not looking forward to next week!!!

[COLOR=900000]So, so sorry to read this. I was in your shoes last year. That's not an easy loss to face after all those years. [/COLOR]

Free to good home. 2 small kiddy pools. No holes that I'm aware of. Indy area. PM me.

[COLOR=13598B]Wish you were closer! I've taken to collecting these since getting the ducks. We just picked up two from Meijer the other day for $1.30 a piece! [/COLOR]

Ok...warning. .but this post is going to be very pic heavy! ! Hahaha. For all my fellow pic lovers. .happy Friday night! Lol! What a beautiful day in South central Indiana! I've included most of our critters here..

[COLOR=900000]Love all the pictures! Your (India Blue?) peahen is particularly attractive to me, though, in these shots. [/COLOR]

 

[chickiebaby1]

We have 2 of the playhouse coops. I love them, they are just so cute and brighten up the yard.



I got this one at Dinky's for $20, i just couldn't pass that up. We haven't put a run on it yet, but we are going to soon. I think it will make a good breeding coop/grow out pen in the spring.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

[COLOR=900000]Well, if they pass quarantine, I could give you some eggs to hatch from my pair. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=13598B]I know! I've been waiting! [/COLOR]
[COLOR=900000]Beautiful birds! Pretty sure I saw some of these girls! Which barn were they in?

And congrats on your young guy taking reserve AOSB!! I sadly had to look that up to know what it mean. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=13598B]Lovely birds! Plymouth Rocks are great, aren't they?[/COLOR]
[COLOR=900000]So, so sorry to read this. I was in your shoes last year. That's not an easy loss to face after all those years. [/COLOR]
[COLOR=13598B]Wish you were closer! I've taken to collecting these since getting the ducks. We just picked up two from Meijer the other day for $1.30 a piece! [/COLOR]
[COLOR=900000]Love all the pictures! Your (India Blue?) peahen is particularly attractive to me, though, in these shots. [/COLOR]

Thank you. They were in the youth barn, I didn't doth open show this go around.

I absolutely love my LF rocks. Giant sweethearts. I thought I would give te bantams a try. And so far I love them too. I open the door to their pen an they just stand there for me to pick them up. I still am a little partial to the LF because of their size!

 

[chickiebaby1]

So as I mentioned at the beginning of the week I lost 3 of my younger birds. Someone mentioned parasites and I do think that is what it was. I have sprayed everything down along with the chickens so hopefully it is taken care of. Does anyone know a good way to keep this little neuciances at bay. I have had to treat several time this summer and they will go away and then come right back. I was thinking of doing the DE in the dust bathing area like some of you have mentioned.
Any who, on a brighter note I did have 10/15 babies hatch on Thursday

! I got 4 silkie babies, 4 white leg horns and 2 silver laced wyandotts. They are just so cute.

Silkie Chick one: these are all from a black rooster/white hen

Silkie chick 2, looks almost identical to #1 they both have a little lavender coloring to them, so I am super excited to see if they stay that way.
Silkie chick #3
Silkie #4


Supposed to be a Silver LAced Wyandott, but the coloring is throwing me off.

SLW #2


White Leghorns #1 and 2


#3 & #4

I decided to keep them in the house for now because the nights are getting super cold, but I will probably move them to the brooder in the garage in about 3-4 weeks.

Well I guess it's time to go outside and get to work. I hope everyone has a great and productive weekend.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Oh...speaking of molting! I'm only getting 1 egg a day and I think it's coming from a young pullet. Every girl is molting! This is the worst one and she looks better than just last week! I thought she'd freeze! All you could see were pin feathers! Crazy. Never had one so bald! Hahaha!

I have a couple of roosters that look pretty bad right now. The eggs are still coming out fertile so at least molting does not impact that. I have lots of chicken eggs right now and duck eggs if you don't mind the drive to get them. As long as I have so many right now they are about the same price as store bought eggs.

 

[irtehun]

Picked up a pair of faverolles today at the shipshewana swap meet

Sent from my iPhone 6 Plus!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Getting "in the barn" kennels set up today. Probably have a photo later.