INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[RoseHaven]

Hello everyone, I am new to BYC and to chickens in general. I just bought a house on an acre and want to get chickens. I was curious if anyone here has any experience or advice on applying to the Fortville Town Council for an exception to the town's ordinance against chickens.

Welcome to you.

 

[RoseHaven]

I actually just watched a YouTube video uploaded August 15th, 2017 of a Man having 13 chickens living in Fortville, Indiana. He had a big fenced in backyard and neighbors on both sides of his house. His coop and run was all the way in the back of his yard as far as possible from the neighbors houses. If he has chickens I assume you can too? Have you checked your chickens laws for your area?
Do you have neighbors close by?
If possible you could try "hiding" your coop and run. If neighbors do see it and can't hear your chickens, then having them shouldn't be a problem. I had a neighbor who had chickens next door to me at my old house. I never knew he had them till we decided to tear down our old wooden fence and put up a new one. He was using our wooden fence as a wall on his coop and run... He had a lot of chickens too. The area we were in only allowed 4 hens. He had well over 4. Our other side neighbor was a cop and he seen the chickens when we tore down that side of the fence. He made a big deal out of our neighbor having chickens even though he couldn't even tell the guy had them! We felt very bad about exposing our neighbors chickens and tearing down a part of our fence that was his coop's wall. So we built him a completely new coop that could be towed by a truck. And we bought him a variety of new chickens to replace the ones he had to "get rid of". (The man with chickens was an elderly man around 70's-80's who's wife passed away the year before, and those chickens were very meaningful to her. It broke the mans heart having to say good bye to his chickens)
I don't think it's right for people to tell us how many chickens we can have. I feel as long as they have proper housing and enough space per bird then they should be aloud to have as many as they want.
The old man ended up giving all of his chickens to us about 6 months after we moved away. Reason why is because he got very ill and ended up passing away 1 month after giving us his chickens.

What a sad story. Be sure to get "quiet" chickens; although we have no zoning restrictions where we live in the county, I didn't want loud chickens, so we got Orpingtons. Our "bonus" chick from McMurray hatchery is a black Cochin. Even his crow is low and beautiful. So far!

 

[kanina]

The one lavender chick wandered to the wrong side of the fence and was killed by the puppy while I was treating a different chick that nearly had its eyes pecked out by an unknown assailant.

In happier news, I picked up one of the free silkie roosters from that ad, and then drove to meet @kanina and her husband and two of their pullets. I can't remember the the buff's name, but I remember the Australorp's name is Elsa, so I keep defaulting to calling her sister Anna (which is actually a fitting name because she's so sweet and outgoing!)

The silkie rooster was named Lynel, as a more mature version of "Lion-O" from Thundercats, which I thought was hilarious. Going to have to get some nice pictures of them. He's a neat color--mostly a creamy whitish folor, but with buff in his tail and hackles. Very pretty boy.

Wish me luck and do be pray, if you're so inclined. Going back to IUPUI tomorrow. Signed up for 14 credit hours and really hoping I can keep it up. I'm nowhere near 100% still, even eight months after the concussion and still having erratic speech and motor issues.

You name her whatever you want, and that Silkie Roo is so handsome! FYI - your speech is great.

Hello everyone, I am new to BYC and to chickens in general. I just bought a house on an acre and want to get chickens. I was curious if anyone here has any experience or advice on applying to the Fortville Town Council for an exception to the town's ordinance against chickens.

Silly question, are you positive you live in town Fortville and not in County limits? I ask because I have a 3 digit address because the city tried to annex our area but was denied. I have a city address, but I live in Madison County. And my "livestock" laws are different as county vs if we lived in city limits. (City Limits - not allowed. County Limits - 2 animal units per acre of land with chickens/fowl counting as .1 of a unit)

I don't know the process for petitioning the City of Fortville, I do know in Saint Joseph County the process starts at the Humane Society. Which might be a starting point for you. I would not advocate "hiding" your chickens as I've had a terrible experience with that personally.

 

[Faraday40]

Study your animals during the eclipse!
Surprising Ways Animals React to Solar Eclipses - National Geographic
Unfortunately, I haven't been on the thread real recently, so I don't know if anyone has mentioned this Nat Geo article which describes an app called iNaturalist that has a project called Life Responds: “We created this project that very simply asks people wherever they are—whether they are under totality or partial eclipse—to spend some time outside looking at animals and observing their behavior before, during, and after the eclipse.” Anyway, I downloaded the app and signed up for the project because I am going to report my chickens' behavior.
View attachment 1116663

We didn't get very dark up here, and I wasn't home to view the flock.
However, I did see some unusual behavior with my kids....

 

[Leahs Mom]

I hear that gazing into crispy oat boxes is the first sign of eclipse sickness.

 

[Nyla]

None of my animals acted weird. They all were normal and it was supper cloudy and didn't even get to see the sun alot! We used welding glasses to look at it when We were able to.

 

[beaks]

None of my animals acted weird. They all were normal and it was supper cloudy and didn't even get to see the sun alot! We used welding glasses to look at it when We were able to.

I live in Albany IN and I was out with my chickens and was waiting for darkness to come but there was a slight drop in brightness, and only thing I noticed the shadow my barn makes in the yard disappeared for several minutes. None of my chickens even noticed.

 

[RoseHaven]

We didn't get very dark up here, and I wasn't home to view the flock.
However, I did see some unusual behavior with my kids....

View attachment 1117686

"There are bodies strewn everywhere! Strange growths on their faces! Devastating to see! Darkness has covered the earth, shall we ever recover?!?"
Oh, wait, solar eclipse. Never mind.

 

[Faraday40]

1st day of school!

Decided to have one last summer outing yesterday & drove up to 6 Flags. Great day! The sights of children in strollers, the heat of the sunshine, the smell of funnel cakes & sun block, and the sounds of music, carnival rides, and laughter made it feel like a day in mid July. My little DS grew up a lot over the summer. No more kiddie rides for him, and he's going into 2nd grade! Although everyone's excited to get back into the school routine, I will miss my kids.

This morning took everyone by surprise. The dogs looked at us strangely as we tried to let them out 90 min sooner than normal. The kids were groggy & bumping into walls. The chickens were delayed due to the need to drop the kids off. Personally, I thought I was doing OK. I had showered, packed lunches, & even checked the backpacks before leaving the house. After getting back home, doing the chicken chores, and spending a few min in the garden, I tried to slip a few pea pods in my pocket. Oopps! I had put on my pants backwards. I wish I had noticed that BEFORE meeting the other moms & new teacher!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Love those pics! Always wanted Geese but not their honking!

I love the Honks, the Wewewees of the babies! Each sound tells me whats happening.

Hello everyone, I am new to BYC and to chickens in general. I just bought a house on an acre and want to get chickens. I was curious if anyone here has any experience or advice on applying to the Fortville Town Council for an exception to the town's ordinance against chickens.

I think they are more tolerant than Ingalls. Call Madison CO. I am nearby in Ingalls annexed but zoned AG, WELCOME!