INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[flyladyrocks]

I have 2 of these doors on my hen shed. They work by TIMER..not by dawn to dusk. I like that because I have control on when they open and shut. And they're made right here in INDIANA! Good folks.

http://www.automaticchickencoopdoor.com/

 

[ellymayRans]

Naked Neck

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Thanks everyone for the PMs and well wishes over this weekend. We have another long week, Dads having his 6 month followups from open heart last summer. Lots of doctor visits.
More arctic temps so I am holding my breath. Spent most of the day going through my flocks, looking over everyone. Found one hen that is underweight (golden comet) so she is now in the porch. Muscovy are doing really good, still roosting in the trees or on the barn. My black drake has a frostbit knob, but otherwise they are holding weight and look really good. Looking back at my hatching spreadsheet last year, late March is when all my seasonal birds started to lay. Got my BBB turkey order in and they will be here in 3 weeks.
Funny story about color choices and clothing when tending your flocks...
Bacon, my BBB tom turkey (who is a pet) Is my shadow during the day. So the usual morning ritual if I am home for the day is to open the coops and let everyone out. Bacon follows me around, and we take the walk every day. So today, I had these lounge pants on my DD gave me, pink with the pop tart logo on them. (I normally have my black coveralls or snowsuit on.. ) Oddly, Bacon was bumping against my leg and making the yurrrrp yurrrrp sound. I normally only hear that out of a turkey that's mad, getting ready to fight! Then I looked at his face and there was the same bluish white, red and pinks.. as these pants. uh ohhh

can you say duhhh! Those of you that keep turkeys will appreciate the colors I am referring to! So I can fortunately walk faster than Bacon, and went back to the house. Not his fault whatsoever. I was something he took as a threat! I was talking to him like I always do, but color obviously trumps sounds

Rather than allowing the altercation to develop, I went in and put my coveralls on. I was so worried about my flocks I got in a hurry to open the coops. Once I did that we were back to normal and all was well. Here are the dangerous dreaded pants

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

DS is 14 and a self professed very proud computer geek. He wants to work on a door that can be controlled/programed with your tablet - and eventually a cell phone but he has more to learn about that technology before he could do the phone. He figures he'll start with the tablet.
Oh how exciting for him! That would be a very profitable product. I wish him luck and be sure to patent it!

 

[ellymayRans]

Thanks everyone for the PMs and well wishes over this weekend. We have another long week, Dads having his 6 month followups from open heart last summer. Lots of doctor visits. More arctic temps so I am holding my breath. Spent most of the day going through my flocks, looking over everyone. Found one hen that is underweight (golden comet) so she is now in the porch. Muscovy are doing really good, still roosting in the trees or on the barn. My black drake has a frostbit knob, but otherwise they are holding weight and look really good. Looking back at my hatching spreadsheet last year, late March is when all my seasonal birds started to lay. Got my BBB turkey order in and they will be here in 3 weeks. Funny story about color choices and clothing when tending your flocks... Bacon, my BBB tom turkey (who is a pet) Is my shadow during the day. So the usual morning ritual if I am home for the day is to open the coops and let everyone out. Bacon follows me around, and we take the walk every day. So today, I had these lounge pants on my DD gave me, pink with the pop tart logo on them. (I normally have my black coveralls or snowsuit on.. ) Oddly, Bacon was bumping against my leg and making the yurrrrp yurrrrp sound. I normally only hear that out of a turkey that's mad, getting ready to fight! Then I looked at his face and there was the same bluish white, red and pinks.. as these pants. uh ohhh can you say duhhh! Those of you that keep turkeys will appreciate the colors I am referring to! So I can fortunately walk faster than Bacon, and went back to the house. Not his fault whatsoever. I was something he took as a threat! I was talking to him like I always do, but color obviously trumps sounds Rather than allowing the altercation to develop, I went in and put my coveralls on. I was so worried about my flocks I got in a hurry to open the coops. Once I did that we were back to normal and all was well. Here are the dangerous dreaded pants

That is too funny!!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I am still giggling over that! He is such a big sweet baby, never seen an aggressive act out of him. It was stupid on my part, but it was so "warm" compared to last week, I just started doing stuff after I got the newspaper, lol. And I was in a big hurry to check my birds after the last few days, wasn't thinking.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

One last post... Some of us are so intrigued by our poultry, waterfowl and livestock we have begun looking at other breeds. If you open your mind to whats out there, a lot of good heritage breed animals have been forgotten. Some of us are making an effort to keep and preserve even one of them. Here is a list from the Livestock Conservancy that may trigger a breed you didn't know about, and might consider keeping.
http://www.livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/conservation-priority-list
If you have a desire to add to your flock, or your farm, why not take a look? After looking at this 2 years ago, Midget White Turkey became a priority for me. Household sizes are dwindling, and a smaller bird is easier to cook, frequently. They are exceptional at free ranging and foraging, and keep easier, like an average chicken, just bigger! Its not the same to process a younger turkey, I wont go into the details but a heritage poult is still developing bones, not muscle until they reach 8 months to a year old.
Modern game became of interest to me last year thanks to @bradselig and I adore them. I currently only keep bantam.

 

[Mother2Hens]

3rd hatch of the year underway! 3 white silkies and 2 white showgirls out with one more pipped! One of the showgirls is even homozygous for the NN neck gene. So I hope it's a roo so I can put it over my white Silkie hens and hatch 100% showgirls this year!

I'm glad things are going your way. You always had a thing for those Naked Necks! You should probably take up knitting because they'll need some warm woolen scarves. You might have read that I brought the two Silkies inside -- the ones you gave me last February. Ditzy's pecked head looks much better, but they'll be inside until the temps start warming outside. My other hens were dust bathing in the dry dirt under the eaves of the house this afternoon, so I put some dirt in a box and brought it in for the Silkies. They loved it!
@kabhyper1 Wow! Your Cochins are incredibly gorgeous. I love black, shiny chickens and cats and dogs. So beautiful.

@ellymayRans I love this guy!


What a wonderful flock! It kinda looks like they're searching for Easter eggs. lol Look at that green grass, too!

@kittydoc
Show us some baby pictures of your Orp chicks!

 

[kittydoc]

@Mother2Hens I didn't take any photos of my last hatch! Maybe because I knew all of them were leaving. They were all sold and picked up in less than a week. I have several of my next hatch presold. We had to order another incubator because otherwise we aren't going to have room to hatch out our own chicks! We got a good deal on a Brinsea 40 Eco from Rakuten.com. If you apply for their Master Card and are approved, you get $60.00 off your purchase immediately, so we paid $340 for a $400 (or more, depending on where you look) incubator, and got free shipping. I just can't bring myself to order either a cheaper styrofoam model or a cabinet. If I ever NEED a cabinet, then I need to be committed to a chicken asylum first! So we'll have room for a grand total of 79 eggs (or 72 if we keep our Mini as the "Day One" dryer/brooder). I'm trying to convince Jay to buy the EcoGlow50 or at least another EcoGlow20 brooder and open his own account so we can get the same deal again. We already have an EcoGlow20 (which really only has room for about a dozen, but the babies DO love it, and it uses less electricity and is safer than a heat lamp).

I am never going to get rich selling chickens. I sold purebred cats for over a dozen years and I think I "made" money one year, but it was fun and at least mostly paid for itself. I also showed cats, and I have no intention of showing chickens for about a million reasons, the top three being disease, disease, and disease. I have yet to have a single case of upper respiratory disease, and am not looking for any. Anyway, it was just a blast making other people happy AND having cash put in my hands at the same time! Win win for all, and they all seemed like nice people. I'm sure there will be a jerk eventually (there always are), but I think I have the ability to "smell" a problem buyer from my decades of selling and showing cats.

I also recommended BYC to them.

Speaking of which, does anyone within an hour of Indy sell Salmon Faverolles? One of my buyers was looking for some.

 

[bradselig]

[COLOR=8B4513]I'm glad things are going your way. You always had a thing for those Naked Necks! You should probably take up knitting because they'll need some warm woolen scarves. You might have read that I brought the two Silkies inside -- the ones you gave me last February. Ditzy's pecked head looks much better, but they'll be inside until the temps start warming outside. My other hens were dust bathing in the dry dirt under the eaves of the house this afternoon, so I put some dirt in a box and brought it in for the Silkies. They loved it![/COLOR] [rule][COLOR=8B4513]@kabhyper1 [/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]Wow! Your Cochins are incredibly gorgeous. I love black, shiny chickens and cats and dogs. So beautiful.[/COLOR] [rule][COLOR=8B4513]@ellymayRans I love this guy! [/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]What a wonderful flock! It kinda looks like they're searching for Easter eggs. lol Look at that green grass, too![/COLOR] [rule]@kittydoc [COLOR=8B4513]Show us some baby pictures of your Orp chicks! [/COLOR]

thanks, @Mother2Hens. Yes I do love the ugly ones! Lol. Glad to here she is healing. I moved all my silkies into one pen this winter and 2 roos didn't get along at first. I now have a white roo who only has 1/2 a crest lol. Thankfully they worked it all out and no one got seriously hurt.