INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[chick rookie]

I hadn't been able to post forever, the mobile site wouldn't load! I feel like tthere's so much to tell everybody!

First of all, congrats to everybody on new animals, condolences for all losses, and speedy recovery wishes for everyone having health issues. And to all new members, welcome to the board!

So, my job that I thought I had...by Friday of that week I had called the supervisor to make sure I was supposed to start training the next Monday . She told me she hadn'tgotten my drug test back yet and would call when she did. II'venot heard another word. IIt's just not possible that I didn't pass. So I guess this company just likes wasting money sending people for physicals and drug tests. Oh well.

Chicks are hatching! So far 3 Rhodeisland red, 4 lLeghorns, and 1 buff Orpington has hatched. Several more are pipped

. My Californian Doe had 11 kits almost two weeks ago

. I love babies! Oh, and we have one BBB turkey poults, 2 pekin ducklings, and 2 khaki Campbell ducklings! My greenhouse is full of started plants, and potatoes and peas are going in the ground this weekend. Can't wait to play in dirt! My birthday is Friday (no pranks allowed in my house lol) and husband is getting me fruit bushes and trees.

Hope you all and your animals make it through the storms tonight and tomorrow OK. Be safe!

congrats on the chicks!!
I had a place do that to me once. I don't understand why they would pay for the drug test and all and then not call. I pushed and found out I DID pass ( as I knew I would ) they just no longer had a spot for me to fill......

 

[tmarsh83]

Whoohoo! I am now the proud owner of two golden pheasants! they were the last two left, so they don't match. The hen is a yellow golden, and the boy's a cinnamon. No clue what they're progeny are going to be like, but that's part of the adventure! Happy birthday and anniversary and mother's day and Christmas to me for a long time over! Woohoohooo!

Thought it was hilarious that golden pheasants were able to be kept in backyards. since I never saw any at the zoos, I'd figured that maybe they were too rare to be at zoos

Of course, zoos don't have native species like whitetail deer or opossums, either, nor do most of them keep domestic animals, so it does make sense... even though they're just so pretty that I don't know how anyone could not have them at their zoos.

These two are pretty flighty (him more so), but I think they'll calm down once they get settled in. So pretty!

Oh, and I was also a sucker at RK again... picked up two guinea keets because I wanna stick it to the man (these are super young and pretty calm), and two more ducklings (one Rouen and one Khaki). Poor Rouen has beak injuries, and both were really undersized for the group they were with... so I took pity on them. They're just so darned cute, and I'm a stupid sucker...

Love to see anybody stick it to the government, especially in Indiana. Made. My. Day.

 

[chick rookie]

I understand that. When I lived in Ohio, our street was like yours..my car got broke into, swat had to raid neighbors house across street, etc. It was always something. Glad you are moving soon. We live out in the middle of nowhere now and I will never go back to living in town lol.

I will probably call those places and see if I can get me some straight run chicks. Since cancelling our order, we ended up with no cockerels. I need a boyfriend for the girls lol. Preferably same age(ish).

Swat!!! WOW I think that is worse then here... maybe.
We arent in town now but it might as well be, our new place is SO FAR out in bfe I don't think my egg sales will make it. but I will be lots happier so ... so be it.

I'm in evansville too! Just starting out, I'm a first timer

We just got 6 chicks, they are currently inside in their tub and we are building our coop

Welcome to our thread, post away and have fun.

Big day around here yesterday, LOL.

I've been attacking things around here lately, inside and out. Not working means I'm the housewife, so yesterday the house got opened up and aired out from winter and the first floor got an extensive cleaning. Once it warmed up outside the first mowing of the year was done. We have a huge (40-50 feet) evergreen in our yard next to our driveway that needed the lower interior branched cleaned out, so the sawzall and my arm got a workout and then, a big fire. The three older birds that range spend about 30% of their time under the umbrella of that pine tree, either belly down in, or kicking thru a decades worth of pine straw. The rest of our trees are maples and i'm STILL cleaning up debris from the ice storm we had back in December, so it was a cut and burn kind of day in the afternoon. Got the mulch around my blueberries weeded and turned as well.

Next on the list, build the mobile pig hut, complete the run for coop 2.0, figure out my long term watering system for the coop/run, and decide where the compost stalls are going to go.

The chicks have taken over the balance of coop 2.0, and are no longer in the partitioned area. One of the New Hampshire chicks flew the partition so I decided just to open it up. I was pretty much ready anyway.

STOP!!!!!!! you making me tired just reading what you have done, and then you want me to read what you still have to do!!!! lol Too much work.

somewhere back aways there was a post that suggested silky, and cochen as a good broody momma potential. I was hoping to purchase an adult. Have you had any luck ?

Silkies are the best broodies!!! I have only ever had Cochin roo's so cant tell ya about them, but I have heard that they are very good.

 

[tmarsh83]

STOP!!!!!!! you making me tired just reading what you have done, and then you want me to read what you still have to do!!!! lol Too much work.

Silkies are the best broodies!!! I have only ever had Cochin roo's so cant tell ya about them, but I have heard that they are very good.

Sorry, if I can't find a real paying job, I have to fill my time somehow. I'm riddled with guilt. it's a male thing. LOL

What was your experience with the cochin roos? I've got little red waddles coming on my freebie chick at four weeks, so the jury is in I think. Most of what I have seen has been positive of the breed in general, but most of what I've found leans more about the hens. I wasn't looking for a rooster at this point, but I'm not opposed to one or two. It dawned on me last night that I have five barred hens (2 rocks, 3 marans chicks) so I could hatch black sex link chicks. Though they would be feather footed and slow maturing, the roos could make decent meat birds I would think.

Just playing out scenarios in my head...

 

[tmarsh83]

I got to do my first chicks of the season SOLD happy dance yesterday! A couple from the east side who had bought one of my MANY surplus Jubilee roos two years ago saw my lavender ad on Craigslist and said they had to get bigger girlfriends for their George. He's either a klutz or their hens are really too small for him--they said he falls off, plus their other roos are aggressive toward him, so he lives alone most of the time. It was nice to see them again and to know that the boy is doing well. He's the husband's favorite roo. Anyway, they only wanted a couple of lavs but wound up buying all of them! No complaints!

On another note, I have ONE lonely Bielefelder male chick FREE to someone on here whom I know personally or by reputation. They don't make great roos for free-range flocks. They have a tendency to get picked off. However, they do make good meat birds and are pretty. If you are working with autosexing breeds, I think you can cross them with other autosexing breeds for hybrid vigor, but don't hold me to it.

Now that the other chicks are gone, he is so lonely. We have a stuffed toy penguin in the brooder with him that helps a tiny bit, but like most chicks he just hates being alone.

The more i'm reading about the Bielefelder the more interested I get. I'm pretty sure if I added another mouth to feed i'd be sleeping in that new chicken coop, but I hope you find someone to take him.

 

[Greenthumb83]

I can't believe how fast these chicks are growing. They look different every morning! The Easter eggers never stop eating. Day or night, they are at the feeders...pushy about it too lol. 3 of my BRs were pasting up a little right from the get go, but they've had some probiotics and a little unfiltered acv in their water and their bums are clean this morning. Hopefully that was the end of that!

Swat!!! WOW I think that is worse then here... maybe.
 We arent in town now but it might as well be, our new place is SO FAR out in bfe I don't think my egg sales will make it. but I will be lots happier so ... so be it. 

Apparently some guy went nuts and was holding his wife a gun point. It was a regular occurrence to see someone get their arse kicked in the middle of the street in front of my apartment. But....it was our first place. We just took the cheapest we could find lol. (14 years ago).

I hope your egg sales stay strong. Just put up signs on busy roads to direct them to you. That's what everyone does up here.

 

[Greenthumb83]

Time for an early morning grouch moment.


I like checking out the "What breed or gender" thread. It's pictures of birds, and lets me make my guess and test it against the "experts."

This is my first spring here, so i'm sure it happens every year, but every thread over there at the moment is a cell phone picture, of chicks, still in the car home from TSC, asking for breed, gender, favorite color, astrological sign, and expected egg production for a chick that's 60 hours old.

I get it. I'm new to birds. Getting chicks is exciting. But even a lazy look around internet, books, magazines, cave paintings, or smoke signals tells you that unless it's autosexing, you're guessing before 8-12 weeks. 4-8 is a roll of the dice, and at 60 hours just flip a coin.

I'm as much a chicken neophyte as anyone, and I know that.

Ok.


I feel better now...thank you!

I'm a total chicken noob and this still made me laugh!

All jokes aside though...people should at least do a bit of reading before they start. I have seen posts since I joined where people have bought chicks and have no clue what they need. Someone yesterday was raising two lonely chicks in a box with no heat source...she couldn't figure out why they did nothing but sleep and shiver.

 

[tmarsh83]

I'm a total chicken noob and this still made me laugh!

All jokes aside though...people should at least do a bit of reading before they start. I have seen posts since I joined where people have bought chicks and have no clue what they need. Someone yesterday was raising two lonely chicks in a box with no heat source...she couldn't figure out why they did nothing but sleep and shiver.

This could be universally applied to virtually anything, not just chickens.

The only thing worse, I think, is that when the economy was good fifteen years ago, every joker with five acres and a 12 year old thought they needed a horse or pony.

It's a wonder I didn't end up jailed...

 

[lp0311]

somewhere back aways there was a post that suggested silky, and cochen as a good broody momma potential. I was hoping to purchase an adult. Have you had any luck ?

we have a Cochin and she goes broody a LOT!

 

[tmarsh83]

So, I'm researching and I'm not finding the information I'm after really. Rather than ask in the meat bird forum, I'm asking here, because, well, this group does a better job answering questions.

I'm looking at growing some meat birds next year. A friend is also interested and will split the cost and labor with me. I'm leaning toward Cornish x because I could do several batches a year and I like the fast turn around and feed conversion. This means butchering at 6-8 weeks or so.

I want to use a tractor, but how long will they even be in the tractor. They still aren't going to feather until four of five weeks right? They're going to be in a brooder for the first three weeks or so aren't they? So two or three weeks in the tractor and done? What am I missing? I'm not finding a resource that actually spells that timeline out very well. Are people dropping heat lamps in their tractors to get them out there sooner?