INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[SallyinIndiana]

I love all the colors!

I got 4 eggs out of 41 hens today, so we're not doing as well as you are in the egg department...

Fortunately, we don't use many eggs, so we're still overflowing with them.

Speaking of, now's probably a good time to start gathering egg recipes for when they get back in the groove. Anyone have some good ones? I have an abundance of dessert recipes, so more savory dishes would be preferred if anyone has them. I have a notebook of egg recipes that I can share as well, if anyone wants. There's a pretty awesome brownie recipe that takes a lot of eggs, courtesy of another BYC user.

Brownies sound good.
I don't have a large amount of eggs like I did 6 weeks ago. But I still have enough for Brownies.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I don't have my notebook on hand, but here's the link to the recipe where it was originally posted: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...reat-brownie-recipe-and-it-uses-a-lot-of-eggs I recommend doubling the recipe as it says in that post. They are AMAZING.

 

[ellymayRans]

Some pics of @lilmizscareall babies in quarantine. Beautiful little flock and you can tell they were very well cared for! I'm not sure if I have it in me to send them outside when that day comes. They are so clean I just cringe to think how dirty they will get if outside. I haven't informed my DH yet but I may have my first true house chickens!! Lol!

The oldest hen in the bunch has continued providing an egg everyday since I got them Friday. So sweet. Gotta love Silkies! I've noticed though the roo is quite "pecky" every time he sees a hand in eye sight! Lol!

 

[racinchickins]

Quote: 6x6 would be tight for more than three turkeys, and may even be tight for them. I would make sure they had a perch in the run too. Mine would rather perch in their run than in the coop. As for the perch, Even for chickens, I use a 2x4 flat side up instead of short side up. Turkeys and Chickens prefer a wide flat perch to sit on so they can huddle down and cover their entire feet with their feathers. For my turkeys I use 4x4's. Even my midget white toms can get up to 15-16lbs. Palms toms can get 20+. When you are talking a tom and two hens, you are looking at 40-50lbs easy. I'd prefer overkill on the perch to it not being enough. Turkeys will roost as high as they can get. When I let mine free range, they like to sleep in the barn rafters! My perches are about 45" (in a 72" pen). You need to make sure you leave plenty of head room so they don't crash into the ceiling trying to get on the perch.

Another note - if you decide to let chickens and turkeys live together, make sure the chickens have plenty of space to get away. Turkey hens can be rough on them if they can corner them. They chase my roosters a lot, and even my hens on occasion. So when they get penned up for the winter where they won't get to free range, I separate mine from the chickens just to be safe.

What a wonderfully warm couple of days! My flock actually walked around OUTSIDE the coop/run this weekend. There's still a lot of snow but also a lot of MUD. This is new to me because last year's flock stayed inside the run area until late March.
Questions:
Why were my chickens eating the snow? For weeks they've been afraid of it. Never set a foot into it. All of a sudden on Sat, they started eating it like cracked corn.
Is there any way to prevent chickens from drinking muddy puddles? Should I even worry about it?

My chickens will walk by a pristine, just cleaned waterer to drink from a puddle they pooped in earlier. The only solution I see is to make sure you don't have any puddles, and we all know that isn't possible.

I'm placing an order for Spring trees (my back hurts just thinking about it!) and they have a minimum order of 100 trees of each variety. I am looking at Norway Spruce (they could potentially sub White Pine if they are low on Spruce) and Sugar Maple (maple syrup trees). Would anyone be interested in purchasing my extras? I would hate to throw them away and couldn't possibly plant 200! Let me know if anyone is interested. I'm thinking $1 a tree.

Count me in! We planted quite a few sugar maples last year and I think we lost several that will need replacing, and we are always looking for conifers to plant for wind breaks.

 

[PeacefulWalls]

Taste the Rainbow! Our stash from the last few days. It's going to be really pretty when all 37 are laying!

Beautiful!

Brownies sound good.
I don't have a large amount of eggs like I did 6 weeks ago. But I still have enough for Brownies.

Agreed -- always enough eggs for brownies!

 

[ellymayRans]

Lovely day outside today! Mother Nature teasing us!
All the critters sure appreciated it! Yucky muddy though!
Peas visiting the back deck!

Last pic is one of my neighbors chickens (leghorn I believe) in my kitchen window! Lol! Funny birds!

 

[ellymayRans]

Tonight our dog was barking, very obvious at something. My 15 yr old son and I went out to check it out and it was a opossum in the tree limb extending out to towards the large coop roof. Mr Pea was roosted there for the evening. My son is a baseball pitcher for our High School and with one hard pitch of a ball he knocked that nasty bugger right out and our dog crunched it multiple times before taking off with it. Guessing I will see it out by the drive come daylight tomorrow! Such good boys!!

 

[bradselig]

Finally got some straw to throw down in the pens! It is getting MUDDY out there! And more snow left to melt! Chickens enjoyed scratching around in the straw.

Also, I currently have a batch of bantam cochins in lockdown. Before moving to lockdown, it looked like there were 9 good eggs. However, one one has hatched thus far (only day 20 though). None of the other eggs have pipped. Sooooo......

Anyone relatively near me have any chicks in case this is the only one to hatch for me? I don't have any other eggs going and don't want him to be the only one in the brooder. Ideally I would like silkies, bantam cochins, blrw, etc (breeds I'm working with) but would consider others as well. Please let me know!

 

[ellymayRans]

Glad to see you back @racinchickins!
I'd love to see some pics of how your Marans are growing out! Egg color?!

I'm truly getting extremely antsy for spring breeding and chicks! Got my taxes done last night and first thing will be breeding pens and a new incubator!!!!! Sounds like a plan!

 

[bradselig]

Glad to see you back @racinchickins!
I'd love to see some pics of how your Marans are growing out! Egg color?!

I'm truly getting extremely antsy for spring breeding and chicks! Got my taxes done last night and first thing will be breeding pens and a new incubator!!!!! Sounds like a plan!

What kind of incubator are you thinking about?