INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[racinchickins]

Somebody mentioned a Connersvlle show next weekend? I can't seem to find anything on the internet. Anyone have details?

 

[minmin1258]

We bought a bale of good alfalfa hay for forage for our girls now that the garden is barren.  Any suggestions on what to put it in or how to deliver it to them so that (a) they don't poop in it or on it, and (b) don't nest in it.

We've thought about using a plastic cat litter container with holes just a bit bigger than their heads so that they can reach in and grab some as they want (obviously just putting what will fit into the cat litter container, not the whole bale).

Thoughts?

Make a circle feeder out of chicken wire with chicken wire on top. Is easy!!

 

[ellymayRans]

This post makes me think fondly of the anticipation of hatching and watching the eggs as they are incubating.  Mind you, not fondly enough for me to actually start hatching....    The stress of trying to get birds outside when it was still too cold to do so also still lingers in my head.

That leads me to ask...Other than people like ellymayRans who are currently/still/always hatching  (by the way...her BCMs are lovely.  I have four big plump girls from her that are just beautiful)  When do you plan to start hatching again?  Personally, I'm counting backwards from early April, which is probably the earliest I usually end up putting new chicks outside.  That means mid February for hatching, which means mid Jan for setting eggs.  Which means Breeding coops need to be set up and populated by the new year....yikes, gotta get busy planning my matings, so I will know who goes where!!!! 

Thanks Racin for the compliment! I had no intention on starting hatching this time of year but because I had to take back my silly sisters chicks I felt like...I have chicks inside already! I might as well hatch some! Lol!

I really planned on waiting until March to set more Marans and Olive Eggers. I am going to hatch about a dozen each of the BCM, Blue Copper Marans and Golden Cuckoo Marans.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote: I saw a goat / hay feeder made out of panels. It starts off as a octagon that gets a panel or two removed to shrink the feeder as the circle / round bale shrinks. It finishes with the feeder being a triangle. I'm thinking some cheap dollar store cooling racks could be put together to make a shrinking feeder in the same manner.
Here is a link to panels made to help conserve on goat round bales. I'm thinking you could use the big idea and make it smaller for chickens. Either with cooling racks or chickens wire.
http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=99


@racinchickins I'm going to set a small amount of eggs for the news years hatch but a full incubator will not happen till at least Feb or a great warm weather prediction.

For those of you that breed a few different breeds, how do you mark the eggs~ as you are collecting or do you collect them at separate times?

 

[bradselig]

It was kittydoc

Thanks!

The way I made the waterer is at this post: Works like the ones you turn upside down except that I put it in a heated dog bowl waterer. You can do it with any plastic container that has a tight lid on it by drilling it the same way if you don't want to use glass. You could do this in a larger heated bowl too with a larger container. The advantage is that you have it filling the bowl and you don't have to fill the bowls constantly....just like the upside down waterer. You can see how I made it here: http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2013/10/diy-glass-chicken-poultry-waterer.html Different bowl under it. On the wet feed, I use pyrex pie pans with an inverted pyrex leftover dish in the middle so they eat all around the edges. I don't have a good photo of it but you can see it in this photo:

That inverted bowl in the center is just enough to keep wattles out of the feed as they eat around the edges. I've had several chicken friends that had their birds step in open waterers or buckets quite by accident when they get scuffling around in their quarters and lose parts of their feet and toes so I don't want to take the chance. But there are a lot of folks that do use open waterers. I'd just say observe your birds that have larger wattles and see if they're hanging in the water while they drink. If they are you are sure to have frostbite on the wattles when it gets colder. But your birds may not have big enough wattles that it's an issue...especially if they're all hens. There's no way to safe-guard from stepping in one, however. Accidents happen. Last year I just filled the dog bowls with grit and put water in the grit to conduct the heat. Then set the small waterers on those. I wanted something that holds more water, however, for this year. Those looked like this: There's a bed of grit w/water under the waterer. It's a 5 lb honey jar that holds about 1/2 gallon. Used those all last winter with great success.

Have you all seen the newer horizontal nipples? [COLOR=FF0000]Some of us are trying them out experimentally to see how cold it can go and they still stay open with either an aquarium heater or a bird bath/stock tank heater. [/COLOR] They look like this: There is one guy in Michigan that swears that he used them all last year with the heater in it and they stayed thawed. They have springs in the necks that have the potential of freezing up in very cold weather. The jury is out for me but I'm trying an experimental one this year along with another water situation as well. We shall see. Nice thing about them is that there's nothing on the bottom of the bucket or whatever other container you use so you can just carry and sit it down on some blocks like a regular bucket (unlike the vertical nipples). And they don't drop water all over the front of your birds like the vertical ones do...another possible frostbite issue. If this works out, it would be a great solution for @bradselig if you have a heater to drop in your buckets. You can make them any size and just carry them out. Have to teach the birds to use them, of course.. There's a thread here about the horizontal water nipples if you want to learn more about them. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-vs-horizontal-spring-loaded-watering-nipples

I'm gonna try and put a piece of 2x2 wire fencing over the bowls and sEE if this will help prevent stepping in the bowls but still allow heads to get a drink. This may also prevent wattles and crests from getting wet. Well on second thought this may also cause the old younger on metal pole effect lol. Maybe I need to find some nylon coated fencing.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@kittydoc and @SallyinIndiana
Check out this hay feeder.......maybe this could be adapted for the chickens somehow! I thought it was really a neat idea!


Quote:

 

[bradselig]

I saw a goat / hay feeder made out of panels.  It starts off as a octagon that gets a panel or two removed to shrink the feeder as the circle / round bale shrinks.  It finishes with the feeder being a triangle.  I'm thinking some cheap dollar store cooling racks could be put together to make a shrinking feeder in the same manner. 

Here is a link to panels made to help conserve on goat round bales.  I'm thinking you could use the big idea and make it smaller for chickens.  Either with cooling racks or chickens wire.
http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=99


@racinchickins
  I'm going to set a small amount of eggs for the news years hatch but a full incubator will not happen till at least Feb or a great warm weather prediction. 


For those of you that breed a few different breeds, how do you mark the eggs~ as you are collecting or do you collect them at separate times?

I collect them and put them in different sections on the egg flat. Otherwise I just bring my Chinese marker out with me and mark them as I pull them out of the pen. I think that's what the marker is called. It's like a large pencil that you peal away the label to re-"sharpen" it.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

This post makes me think fondly of the anticipation of hatching and watching the eggs as they are incubating.  Mind you, not fondly enough for me to actually start hatching....    The stress of trying to get birds outside when it was still too cold to do so also still lingers in my head.

That leads me to ask...Other than people like ellymayRans who are currently/still/always hatching  (by the way...her BCMs are lovely.  I have four big plump girls from her that are just beautiful)  When do you plan to start hatching again?  Personally, I'm counting backwards from early April, which is probably the earliest I usually end up putting new chicks outside.  That means mid February for hatching, which means mid Jan for setting eggs.  Which means Breeding coops need to be set up and populated by the new year....yikes, gotta get busy planning my matings, so I will know who goes where!!!! 

I plan on hatching in February but my plans really never work out like I think they will

 

[hoosiercheetah]

@leahs mom

What's funny is ive seen that pic of the waterer over the dog bowl at least twice befor, but it never clicked in my head what was going on there. I'm totally doing that tomorrow with my big bowl and a gallon waterer.

I'm also staying tuned on horizontal nipples.

I love that whole sentance.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@leahs mom

What's funny is ive seen that pic of the waterer over the dog bowl at least twice befor, but it never clicked in my head what was going on there. I'm totally doing that tomorrow with my big bowl and a gallon waterer.

I'm also staying tuned on horizontal nipples.

I love that whole sentance.

Focus is everything.







And...could you post a photo of yours tomorrow? I get grit in 50 lb bags from the mill so I always have a lot of it around. At the end of the season, I put the wet (slightly nasty by that time) grit into a big bucket and rinsed it all down. Then laid it out on some plastic trash bags (could have used tarps) on the driveway to dry out and sanitize in the sun. After that it can be fed like you would with any other grit. So nothing lost.