INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[chick rookie]

: http://coolshirtsandhoodies.com/happy-chicken
I love this hoodie, thought you guys might too.

 

[chick rookie]

The one news station just gave a snow total for us of 13.5 inches and still snowing! The roads are horrible. All schools around here are closed tomorrow - kids are pretty happy about that

Kids always like it when School is closed... lol. Sorry you got so much snow that is terrible. We have just enough to cover the ground, but it is still snowing.

 

[PeacefulWalls]

Kids always like it when School is closed... lol. Sorry you got so much snow that is terrible. We have just enough to cover the ground, but it is still snowing.

A few days ago central Indiana was supposed to get what we got and we were on the very northern edge of the storm and just forecast to get a coating to 2". Then the storm track shifted...

Saturday had been a beautiful day, too, before it started snowing that evening. Sunny, 38 degrees, most all the snow melted.... Also just heard Puxatawny Phil saw his shadow -- 6 more weeks of this!!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Well, class was called off for me today (which is a big shocker--IPFW never calls off!), so that gives me all day to deal with the snow! Yay?

Here's the view from my room this morning:

 

[chick rookie]

A few days ago central Indiana was supposed to get what we got and we were on the very northern edge of the storm and just forecast to get a coating to 2". Then the storm track shifted...

Saturday had been a beautiful day, too, before it started snowing that evening. Sunny, 38 degrees, most all the snow melted.... Also just heard Puxatawny Phil saw his shadow -- 6 more weeks of this!!

well aren't you just the bearer of bad news......

I was expecting it thou cause we haven't really had a winter this year. Oh well one day at a time.

Well, class was called off for me today (which is a big shocker--IPFW never calls off!), so that gives me all day to deal with the snow! Yay?

Here's the view from my room this morning:

Bad view, bad!! Looks like 1 car was drifted over

 

[ellymayRans]

I'm looking for 2-3 frizzled Cochin chicks. Anyone know where I could get them? Wouldn't need them til may

I could have some bantam frizzled black Cochin chicks in May for you but you're quite a distance from me. May ask around if any plans on a "Chicken Train" around that time. You might just luck out! Let me know.

 

[chick rookie]

For those of you that are wondering I will give a short ( I'll try to make it short anyway ) report.

Falcons, hawks, coons and cats can and will tear the netting to get inside, but it takes them a while to do it so if your home when they are trying you can catch them. As far as repairing the netting, a couple of zip ties and its done only take a couple minutes.
The little birds WILL find the smallest of holes and get in, but when you go out to shoo them away.... they tell on themselves, zip tie, done.
The bigger birds... well they are just mad and hang out all day. I have found 2 that got tangled and died but they didn't get in.
MAKE SURE you put the net on the OUTSIDE of the pen. ( this is if you are doing a total cover of course ) Your chickens WILL get their feet caught in it, not fun!
It does take some brain work to get it around trees and other things well enough that you don't have uncovered gaps, but worth it in the end.
As for the snow.... not really had ALLOT to base this on but just from what we have got, I noticed no problems YET. A tiny bit will collect on it but not enough to do any damage or to bring it down.

All in all I am glad I took the time to put it up. My feed bill has stayed normal so far this year with only a few wild birds getting in. Unlike last year. AND I have had no SICK chickens this year!!! no loses due to illness. I am thinking the the wild birds were bring in all the sickness.


It is still snowing here so if I run into a problem with the net and the snow I will let ya'll know.
Hope this has helped.
Be safe and stay warm everyone.

 

[birdman55]

yepper it was below zero last night....got the peafowl in there greenhouse for the time being...here are some pics

 

[chick rookie]

yepper it was below zero last night....got the peafowl in there greenhouse for the time being...here are some pics

Very pretty birds. Is that wood chips on the floor? Wonder how they would work in a hen house? I use shavings right now but always looking for better, I can get chips cheep.

 

[racinchickins]

@Leahs Mom You are in my prayers this weekend. Please know we are all here for you.

I have a big problem with my little midget white turkey tom. Time to confine his lil flock, he attacked, killed and proceeded to eat a mixed bantam rooster. This lil guy was maybe a pound, and a very aggressive roo. I saw the sparring between them, but the banty had flew off. 20 minutes later I pass by and my tom is eating something. The foolish lil rooster didn't leave it alone. I had to crate my tom and remove the poor bantams body. Now, they will not be able to free range... cannot allow any bird here to be that aggressive. Moving my trio to a pen tomorrow. My midget white hens are not chicken aggressive at all, I feel the lil rooster pushed him too far. As always I will share events like this. My MW Tom is tame to humans and easily picked up. He has a real problem with bantam roosters attacking his face and drawing blood from his snood. I am worried. however that he chose to eat the rooster after he killed him. Any thoughts? Really like this Tom. Do I cull or wait?

It sounds to me like the aggressive bird in this situation has already been dealt with. I wouldn't get rid of the tom for being aggressive, as that doesn't sound like the true problem. I think any turkey in this situation would act as he did. I've certainly seen mine (both hens and toms) run off roosters that give them grief. I've found that as long as the chickens have room to get away, that pretty much ends the encounter. I think your problem came from the large size difference between the two birds. I'd almost bet he killed the banty on accident just by stepping on it when they were sparring. After that, it's kind of ugly to say, but it's just meat then, and it's first come, first served. Turkeys are omnivores just like chickens are. I had a chicken get attacked by a hawk and it crawled under the mobile coop and died. By the time I figured out where it had gotten to, the other chickens had 'done a lot of clean up', so to speak. You may need to separate the turkeys and the chickens though to keep this from happening again since you have such small birds. I only have LF myself.

I do keep my turkeys in a separate pen from my chickens when I pen up my birds for breeding or for winter, but they all free range together the rest of the time. The turkeys will run the chickens off of a choice bit of food, just like a higher pecking order chicken will run off a lower order chicken. Other than that, I've had a few roosters do the 'mating dance' to hen turkeys, which is never well received by either the hen or any tom that is in the area.