INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[racinchickins]

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!

The girls are doing great! Very big and fluffy. I'll get some pictures taken and posted. At least 2 of the 4 are currently laying. One egg is a dark chocolate brown, and the other is a slightly redder brown with speckles. It looks like a darker version of my welsummer eggs. The thing I can't get over is the size of the pullet eggs! They have almost all been either large or extra large on my egg scale. I'm seriously thinking of seeing if I can buy more hatching eggs from you later this spring!

Springtime planting question:

I'm going to try growing potatoes this year in one of the 4'x4' verticle towers. All the plans I've found online so far seem to be for "regular" brown potatoes. I plan to build one box for them and possibly a second.

My question: Would sweet potatoes and/or red (russett) potatoes grow in the same manner? Would they handle growing in one of these "build as they grow" type boxes?

I've never grown potatoes at all before so this will be a first.

The red or russet potatoes will grow the same way, they are just a different variety of potato. Sweet potatoes will not. Sweet potatoes are a different species from regular potatoes. You do plant them in hills, but then they vine out and you don't keep partially covering the vegetation like you would with a potato plant. The big thing with potatoes is getting the watering right. I'm not an expert, as I've never been that successful with growing them in a box or barrel (I tend to neglect them too much). I'd recommend definitely going out on the web to make sure you understand how they need to be watered

 

[racinchickins]

One more question for the more experienced than myself: I know it is much better to use nice clean eggs to incubate, but have any of you successfully incubated cleaned eggs? If so, how did you clean them and what did you use?

I am used to cleaning layer eggs for sale with just hot water and a scrub brush. Do any of you ever incubate eggs that you've washed, and if so, did you use any kind of disinfectant (like dilute bleach) as a dip to help replace the natural bloom?

THANKS!

I don't wash any eggs before incubation. I try to select my cleaner eggs, and do brush off any gunk I can with a little sandpaper. But I've hatched many eggs successfully that were less than pristine. I think the bloom is a lot more protection then cleaning the eggs is. That being said, I did hatch a set of eggs for someone else that used warm water to clean their eggs, and most of them hatched.

 

[PeacefulWalls]

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!

If all goes well Maggie should be hatching her chicks on Sunday. They'll just be barnyard mixes, though. Let me know if you can't find any of the breeds you want.

Very pretty! I've been getting more blue and green eggs as they start laying again. I need some if those chocolate marans eggs still though

I do have some easter eggers, but I'd love to have a couple chocolate & green egg layers too -- anyone have any chicks for sale this spring that will eventually give me those colors?

 

[ChickCrazed]

If all goes well Maggie should be hatching her chicks on Sunday. They'll just be barnyard mixes, though. Let me know if you can't find any of the breeds you want.

I do have some easter eggers, but I'd love to have a couple chocolate & green egg layers too -- anyone have any chicks for sale this spring that will eventually give me those colors?

I will have green egg layers available. Isbar/Bielefelder mixes.

Isbar egg below, Bielies lay a medium to dark brown speckled egg so the mix eggs could be a bit darker.

 

[ksrygler]

From AVOCA, INDIANA (.10 min north of Bedford, 20 min south of Bloomington)


Hello locals..... I'm am looking for some local chicks to buy in the next comming weeks if you have or will have any of the following ( or know of anyone who would) PLEASE let me know. I am looking for any of the following breeds.

Plymouth Rock-----Dominque----Gold Sex Link--- Buff Orpington----- Dorking---- Frizzel--- Silkie---- Favorello----

Even though there are many breeds listed i am only looking for a maximumn of 7-10 chicks a have a small backyard flock.

Please let me know, willing to travel 30 min in any direction. Had some issues ordering last year and would just prefer to support my local economy.

Thank you BYC
KRISTI

 

[Sebrightmom]

Hello everyone! It feels like forever since I have been on BYC. I can't wait to start filling the incubator full of eggs from my girls. As soon as I get all my stock hatched out, I will have hatching eggs for sale from all my breeds. I just thought I would let everyone know. We also will post all information on our facebook page.

 

[bradselig]

Here is the last of last years chicks. Can't wait to move them outside!

 

[ChickCrazed]

Here is the last of last years chicks. Can't wait to move them outside!

They are gorgeous!!!!

 

[ChickCrazed]

Someone inquired about the Bielefelder egg color so I thought I would post some pics here too. I pulled some examples off of the Bielefelder thread so these are not actually my birds (but same colors). They are a pretty medium to dark brown and often speckled. The color does vary throughout the year like with a Marans or Welly

.

 

[ellymayRans]

So the last week or so of our chicken world has been interesting to say the least.

Our two Jubilee cockerels, raised together, finally decided that one would bloody the head of the other one so badly that the blood splashed into the next pen, and I had to give one of my Lav roos a bath to make sure he wasn't hurt, too.  The injured Jubilee roo is recovering nicely (no permanent damage done), while we now have the instigator isolated with no girls until we figure out what to do.  Today, it seems like Placido, the one who was injured, was feeling his oats and might decide to breed the flock himself (the other one did most of the breeding before).  So there's one problem that is resolving itself except for the fact that I'd really rather not send a valuable bird to freezer camp, especially since he is a proper gentleman with the girls.  

While we were in flux, we moved the cockerel in our main layer coop, Cogburn (a black/lav Orp split) into the breeding pen/apartment formerly occupied by two lav roos.  Cogburn is now living with four lav females, and while they aren't laying as much as they did (yet), they are laying.

So where do the two lav roos go?  Into the layer coop for now.  Their black/lav girlfriends aren't laying quite yet, but we have plans for a fair-weather breeding pen for the four of them to be built soon.  The boys will spend part of the day with the two girls, and the rest servicing anyone else they can catch.  The lav roos are in heaven now that they get to do what roos do.  However, our egg numbers have fallen off since we did the trade.  Any ideas about how long it will take for everything to settle down and the girls to get back to laying normally?  A week?  Two weeks?  The switch was made on Saturday.  The boys are actually being pretty chill about it, but they are breeding and seem very "happy" to me.  We have about 25 girls in the layer coop, so it's more than enough to keep them busy.

The good news is that they all shared visual space with each other since much of our coop, at chicken eye level, if constructed of hardware cloth and not solid materials.  The upper levels are solid for roosting/sleeping/egg laying.

Any thoughts on how long for it to take for things to settle down would be appreciated, and if any of you (or a friend) is interested in a lovely Jubilee cockerel who will be a year old in March, please let me know.  He and his "brother" are almost identical.  Placido is about half an inch shorter, otherwise their markings and color patterns are identical.  I am concerned about putting them back together ever again since Placido is a mellow boy and his brother is definitely more macho.  Meanwhile, macho is sitting in our garage and barely bothering to crow.  Placido, on the other hand, is crowing his heart out.  It's good to be Number One!

Unfortunately my personal experience is allowing the bits of fighting, I understand he was very bloody but once they are separated the moment they are reunited that's all they will do and all they will think about. The aftermath you found was the result of them coming to terms. I will never do the "time out" again with mine becUse the first time lead to the 1st time being ostracized which lead to him being subject to a predator. The 2nd time I did another they killed him. Mine all free range too so it wasn't that they were in close quarters. Sorry to hear of your troubles and hope it all works out!