INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[ellymayRans]

I'll take anything bantam hatching eggs or bantams

Mine are on and off with laying at the moment but I do have bantams I will be breeding in the spring. Where are you located? I will have black Cochin (smooth and frizzled) and White silkie. I currently have a couple random bantam roosters if you don't have a preference on pure breed.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

The weather is freaking me out. I think I'm going to cancel my chick order today. :-(


ETA Canceled. Better luck in March.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Well, this morning was exciting. I filled the heated bucket and was getting it set up in the coop for the day, when my brilliant Easter-egger hen, Mako, decided to walk through it instead of around it. Then, when I grabbed her to dry her off and was trying to one-handed-ly put something over the bucket to keep it from happening again, my speckled Sussex, Poggy, walked through the water as well. Had to dry some chickens off in a hurry.

Miss Cubby is back inside again, but other than that (and the bucket incident), everyone seems fine with the cold. Running around in the paths I've shoveled and eating snow for no apparent reason. Yesterday, no one wanted to come outside for long, but the coop felt much warmer inside than the outside air without the use of supplemental heat, so I can understand that. I'm dreading trying to clean up all of those frozen droppings from 41 cooped up chickens, though...

 

[Leahs Mom]

Well, this morning was exciting.

I filled the heated bucket and was getting it set up in the coop for the day, when my brilliant Easter-egger hen, Mako, decided to walk through it instead of around it. Then, when I grabbed her to dry her off and was trying to one-handed-ly put something over the bucket to keep it from happening again, my speckled Sussex, Poggy, walked through the water as well.

Had to dry some chickens off in a hurry.

Miss Cubby is back inside again, but other than that (and the bucket incident), everyone seems fine with the cold. Running around in the paths I've shoveled and eating snow for no apparent reason.

Yesterday, no one wanted to come outside for long, but the coop felt much warmer inside than the outside air without the use of supplemental heat, so I can understand that. I'm dreading trying to clean up all of those frozen droppings from 41 cooped up chickens, though...

THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I ONLY OFFER RESTRICTED OPENING WATERERS. The possibility of accident is too great....and feet that get in water like that are usually lost to frostbite.

I always remember @aoxa s experience with one of hers losing a foot.

 

[kabhyper1]

Hey new members! We also have a facebook BYC page. It's nice to be able to discuss individual subjects that way. We all love BYC of course,it's just another resource for all of us to connect. https://www.facebook.com/groups/653896251318576/?ref=br_tf

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I ONLY OFFER RESTRICTED OPENING WATERERS.  The possibility of accident is too great....and feet that get in water like that are usually lost to frostbite. 

I always remember @aoxa s experience with one of hers losing a foot.

Yes, that's why I have a cover over it. It just happened in the 5 seconds after I filled it when I turned away to get the cover for over it.

I was thinking of Aoxa's girl, too, when I freaked out and ran to the house to get paper towels with an Easter-egger under one arm. Fun times. Got them dried off and I'm keeping a close eye out for frostbite, just in case.



Edited because I could.

 

[kittydoc]

I found an interesting article about new standards for cage space for the layer hens whose eggs are hatched or shipped to California. The old standard was 67 square inches per hen (which is ridiculous for 24/hr/day caging). The new standard is 116 square inches, which is still only about 10.7 x 10.7 inches, but that's at least closer to the size an average layer pullet occupies. Of course, commercial California producers are flipping out since they'll have to almost double their cage space, and Iowa (which is the biggest egg producer in the country) is suing that the CA law interferes with interstate commerce. California already imports 30% of its eggs.

I say suck it up. When this happened in Europe a few years ago, the egg market tightened up for a few years until producers adapted, then things settled back down. Most commercial "free range" chickens actually probably don't have more space than that, since they rarely go outside and mostly stay crammed together in the open chicken buildings. I am happy to see progress, albeit it slow, toward more humane raising of chickens, whether it is for layers or broilers.

I know all or at least most of us on this list free range (fenced or unfenced) at least part of the day, every day. I haven't heard anyone say they cage their chickens 24/7. I just want to make those of you who have extra eggs available know that there is a market out there for those eggs. People vary in how much they charge, from $2 to $4 a dozen for eggs for human consumption, but if you ask around, a lot of people are happy to pay more for fresh, cage-free eggs. If you sell at a farm stand, there may be laws that pertain to you (washing, using new egg containers, refrigeration requirements, etc.). If you sell privately (not to the public), you want to use good common sense, but we recycle cartons and only wash dirty eggs--our friends know that if they see a small spot on the shell and want to wash the egg, we recommend that they wait until they are ready to consume the egg to wash that tiny spot or two. We educate them about the benefit of the natural bloom on the eggshell. They also know we are NPIP certified.

We are currently selling 7 dozen per week to people my husband knows at work. If we had more hens, we could sell more eggs, but we're where we want to be in terms of our population. However, the egg money allows us to at least recoup our feed expense and partially support our hobby. We originally got chickens just to have fresh eggs for ourselves--then chicken math hit. So now we have enough girls for ourselves and several other people, and are starting to get into breeding Jubilee and Lavender Orpingtons as well this year.

Despite the restrictive laws in some communities, I do think the fresh (and humane) food movement is going to continue for a long time and allow us to recapture some of the best aspects of the small farm culture that many of our parents or grandparents grew up with.

Here's the link to the article about the California layer law and reaction to it. http://www.pressherald.com/2014/12/...ucers-scramble-to-meet-californias-new-rules/

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I have extra eggs just waiting to be washed in my kitchen. so far only 1 dozen is spoken for. My layer flock is giving me between 1-2 extra dozens of eggs a day. It just depends on how many I use for meals and baking.
I was getting $4 a dozen at one point in 2013. Then all my hens molted at the same time and all my customers found other eggs. Now I get between $2 and $3 a dozen. Because of this, I recommend egg sellers try to get a few pullets late in the summer as they would hopefully not molt the same time as other hens in the flock for at least a year.

 

[ChickenLady2014]

I have extra eggs just waiting to be washed in my kitchen.  so far only 1 dozen is spoken for.  My layer flock is giving me between 1-2 extra dozens of eggs a day.  It just depends on how many I use for meals and baking. 

I was getting $4 a dozen at one point in 2013.  Then all my hens molted at the same time and all my customers found other eggs.  Now I get between $2 and $3 a dozen.  Because of this, I recommend egg sellers try to get a few pullets late in the summer as they would hopefully not molt the same time as other hens in the flock for at least a year.

Good idea, never even thought about it. I will have most of my flock molting this fall, yikes.

 

[kabhyper1]

My grumpy beanbags

They weren't loving the cold.