INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[ChickCrazed]

Hi everyone! Starting to look forward to Spring!

I am going to start adding light and get the flocks divided again this week. So I could potentially start collecting Bielie eggs in a few weeks if anyone is interested. I figure we should start getting stretches of decent weather around then! PM me for pricing if you are interested. I will also have green/olive egger eggs available if anyone is interested in a colorful egg basket. They will be Isbar/Bielie mix so should be a decent size bird. Right now I am just looking at hatching eggs but I may hatch some chicks as we get closer to Spring.

Information on Bielefelders. Bielefelders are a very large dual purpose bird. Roosters get up to 13 lbs and hens reach 8 lbs. They are an autosexing breed and a very good layer of jumbo brown eggs. My Bielies lay a darker brown egg with brown speckles, very similar in color to my hatchery welsummer hen. They are said to lay around 220 eggs a year and are known for being great winter layers (I've been getting about 10 eggs a week out of the two mature Bielie hens and have two pullets that should start laying any day). They are also very docile and inquisitive, known to be gentle giants.






Isbar egg

 

[pginsber]

Hi everyone! Starting to look forward to Spring!

I am going to start adding light and get the flocks divided again this week. So I could potentially start collecting Bielie eggs in a few weeks if anyone is interested. I figure we should start getting stretches of decent weather around then! PM me for pricing if you are interested. I will also have green/olive egger eggs available if anyone is interested in a colorful egg basket. They will be Isbar/Bielie mix so should be a decent size bird. Right now I am just looking at hatching eggs but I may hatch some chicks as we get closer to Spring.

Information on Bielefelders. Bielefelders are a very large dual purpose bird. Roosters get up to 13 lbs and hens reach 8 lbs. They are an autosexing breed and a very good layer of jumbo brown eggs. My Bielies lay a darker brown egg with brown speckles, very similar in color to my hatchery welsummer hen. They are said to lay around 220 eggs a year and are known for being great winter layers (I've been getting about 10 eggs a week out of the two mature Bielie hens and have two pullets that should start laying any day). They are also very docile and inquisitive, known to be gentle giants.

Yes, I'm getting the SPRING bug, too! Right now, my bug is not for chickens, but for gardening.

Depending upon what we do with the tomatoes (canning, sun drying, sauce, paste, salsa, fresh eating, etc) we find that we prefer different kinds for different uses.


I tried a few new varieties last year but we still haven't found the perfect the paste/sauce tomato or cherry tomato for us yet. I have a few books on heirloom varieties, and I've settled on about a dozen new varieties to try.

We really like the taste of the 'purple' tomato Paul Robeson, but last years' yield was a little low. This year, I want to try Eva Purple Ball and a few different beefsteaks for fresh eating.

I can't resist trying to grow at least one huge tomato variety. Last year we had several large tomatoes from our Gold Medal plant. They were really yummy, and most of them were about 1 1/2 pounds. The largest was a little over 2 pounds. I'm still planning to grow the Gold Medal this year, but I also plant to try Omar's Lebanese this year.

"Gold Medal" variety tomatoes


We like the red Riesentraube cherry tomatoes, and they do great in Indiana summers. I want to try something a bit different, smaller, more sweet tasting. Ironically, I settled on a tomato from Indiana, and turns out it's one of the hardest varieties to find. It is from an area called Broad Ripple. I looked high and low for seeds for the Broad Ripple Currant tomato. I FINALLY found it yesterday.
They are very small yellow cherry tomatoes. Here's what it will look like:

We're also going to try Black Cherry variety. Those seeds were easier to find. This is what it will look like:


Anybody else find themselves browsing the SeedSavers or Baker's Creek Seeds catalogue? It's almost time to order seeds!

 

[Faraday40]

Yes. We're definitely longing for spring & getting back outside.

Does anyone have info on "winter sowing" ? I read about it last year on one of the BYC threads. Basically, you start putting soil & seeds in all kinds of plastic containers like milk jugs. Put them outside & let snow fall, melt, etc. Because the seeds are in mini greenhouses they sprout sooner & there's no need to harden. I'd like to try it for my tomatoes. (We get so many wild ones that if this experiment grew nothing, we'd still be OK.)

 

[hanakimi]

the gardening bug has hit here i've ordered and received my seeds next step is figuring out dates to start indoor germination on some as my garden outline was figured out in the fall. this year on tomatoes most of them are yellow variety as we felt out of the ones we had last year the yellows made the best sauce. my experimental seed this year i'm trying to grow is artichokes. i'm also hoping the fruit trees i planted this fall survive. i could go on and on about all of my gardening plans but it's safe to say i'm looking forward to spring lol i'm a little jealous that i can't join the sharing when everyone mentions new chicks and their plans. because where i live i can't have new chicks as we are allowed only 6 hens in my city but there is no restrictions on my garden and i can change it every year

 

[ellymayRans]

Totally forgot I tucked an egg in my sweatshirt pocket! Geez!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Unfortunately I do that with my winter coat pocket way too frequently.

 

[FlockMaster-614]

I've caught the Spring Bug as well. I'm putting the finishing touches on my coop blueprints and am going to figure out what I want to put in my small garden plot my dad might give me. Hope to have some Grape and Cherry tomatoes and Bell peppers and a bunch of other good things.

I've been asked to take a few of my chickens to a friend's preschool/daycare. I've never done a show and tell sort of thing before however, I am excited to be able to. I just want to see what you seasoned chicken herders have to say? I'm currently trying to make a few chicken diapers for the young rooster and hen I plan to take. I don't want them pooping on the little kids.

Does anyone have any tips or dotted lines I should follow? Most all my birds are friendly though sometimes they get a bit flighty they don't peck hard or attack; I am going to have diapers on them and well, I can't think of anything I might need to know other than these precautions.

 

[pginsber]

I've caught the Spring Bug as well. I'm putting the finishing touches on my coop blueprints and am going to figure out what I want to put in my small garden plot my dad might give me.

Hope to have some Grape and Cherry tomatoes and Bell peppers and a bunch of other good things.

I've been asked to take a few of my chickens to a friend's preschool/daycare. I've never done a show and tell sort of thing before however, I am excited to be able to. I just want to see what you seasoned chicken herders have to say? I'm currently trying to make a few chicken diapers for the young rooster and hen I plan to take. I don't want them pooping on the little kids.

Does anyone have any tips or dotted lines I should follow? Most all my birds are friendly though sometimes they get a bit flighty they don't peck hard or attack; I am going to have diapers on them and well, I can't think of anything I might need to know other than these precautions.

That's awesome. Good luck with your chicken show and tell. I've heard people put chickens on a leash, too, although I've never known anyone first-hand to do that.

 

[FlockMaster-614]

Pginsber: Thanks, and I actually thought that it would be good if I put a harness attachment on the diaper. Sort of a harness/diaper combonation so that instead of having the hassle of carrying a kitty carrier loaded with pounds of live, flapping chickens. I guess if this goes you'd officially know someone first hand who did that?

 

[Leahs Mom]

I'd say do a practice run with them to see how they react first!

There used to be a lady on the forum who did "therapy" chicken visits in various medical situations. If I remember correctly, I think she had a harness. Unfortunately, we can't ask her as she passed from cancer. But I'm going to look and see if I can find one of her photos that may show.