INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Faraday40]

House duckies it is!
View attachment 1157340 View attachment 1157341

Adorable! I'm guessing you'll have to exchange sock sizes pretty quickly as they grow. Keep posting pics. (Ducks are not for me, but I think they're sooooo cute!)

 

[Faraday40]

View attachment 1157139 I have two blue silkies that are roughly 4 months old. The guess right now is that they are both roosters. I wanted to get a feel to see if anyone would be interested in them if they are in fact Roos.

I have to agree that they're both looking sort of male. (especially the lighter one in front) The darker one still has tiny wattles, so there's a small chance of hen. However, I'm leaning toward slow maturing male for that one.

 

[Nyla]

I most defiantly will! And I do believe once you have a Muscovy, you will become a duck person. They are just like chickens. If you ever want to try them out, you can barrow a pair from me. If you don't like them, you can give them back.

Adorable! I'm guessing you'll have to exchange sock sizes pretty quickly as they grow. Keep posting pics. (Ducks are not for me, but I think they're sooooo cute!)

 

[Faraday40]

I most defiantly will! And I do believe once you have a Muscovy, you will become a duck person. They are just like chickens. If you ever want to try them out, you can barrow a pair from me. If you don't like them, you can give them back.

I think DH would send me to live in the coop! LOL
We also live in the Chicago suburbs & do not have a pool / pond.

 

[Faraday40]

Neighbors:
Please keep all of my wonderful neighbors in your prayers. It is because of them that we have kept chickens these past 5 years. We live in a string of 5 houses that have double long yards. Our houses all blend in with the neighborhood in front, but the alley stops, so we have a big, secret, hidden parcel of land for our backyards.

My fav 96 yr old neighbor is now in a nursing home. She will not be returning home, but has not decided to sell her house yet. She moved there in 1945! (Hers is the biggest yard with a little over an acre. Developers have wanted that valuable land for decades.) My next door neighbor (like a grandma to my kids) decided that she's going to move into a senior community near her son. Then, I just got the news on Monday that the neighbor between them is now on Hospice. It really shook me up because we talked when she was out gardening 4 weeks ago! The last neighbor on my other side is an elderly single man who likes tinkering with his Model T Ford. He seems capable of caring for his property, has lived here since 1968, but I do not know his future plans. With 3 out of 5 houses going on the market, who knows if we'll get a new neighbor who dislikes poultry. That's all it would take to end our daughter's poultry science projects. If a developer buys all 3 properties, it could easily be made into 8 normal size yards. I know life changes, but it hurts to think of my friends / neighbors leaving soon.

My next door neighbor's health has been weakened and taking care of a whole house has been getting harder. She is more like family, so I know we'd still visit her. The other 2 neighbors are in their 90s. It's pretty hard for me to accept the upcoming changes. I love them more than I realized, so it really hurts. Please keep them in your prayers. They are all such wonderful women.

 

[kanina]

I think DH would send me to live in the coop! LOL
We also live in the Chicago suburbs & do not have a pool / pond.

We live in a residential neighborhood with 1/3 of an acre. No ponds/water anywhere nearby. I used a kiddie pool for the first few weeks and then we put in a 4'x4' "pond." Its two 2x6x8 cut in half with a pond liner. Then I used fence boards, they're like 1/2x2, and trimmed off the top. I have a drain and such going out the bottom because I built it in a highish spot. I'll try to find the youtube video I used for a tutorial. But my four muscovies love it.

You should post more pictures of your Muscovy's! Has salt and pepper gotten any mask yet?

No they haven't gotten much of a mask yet. I've been wanting to go out and take pictures but its been so wet from all the rain and I can't get a handle on the mud in there. I did take some pictures of them foraging through the yard the other day. Salt and Java are becoming good friends. I worry about Starla, she's a loner. Salt and Java will be checking something out with Pepper not far behind but Starla is usually somewhere completely different.

Did make a great find Monday. I've been wanting a nice brooder to put in my garage for chicks. When we started we had the chicks in the house (~2 months) and as you can imagine, it STUNK until we moved them to the garage and that STUNK. So I am terrified of saws, I couldn't tell you why, and it results in DH having to help build because I need a cutter. He keeps dragging his feet about building a brooder, so I found one on CL by chance. I thought it was so much smaller than it is, they only wanted $35. I offered a trade for two pullets, which turned into two pullets (Lucy and Ethel) and a layer (Bette). So car trip later and I have this awesome brooder. It needs a little work, and some new wires to work for chicks, but I am SO excited. It fits in the garage just right too (almost didn't fit in the cargo van we picked it up in).

So the bottom is a mesh, similar to what you would find in a rabbit cage. I'm not sure about that and chicks, so any feedback is more than welcome. Then of course the sides will need hardware cloth cause those holes are TOO big, but nothing a pair of shears and a staple gun can't fix.

Still debating on hatching some Olive Eggers this year. But I have time to think about it because I would need to borrow my grandma's incubator and she's a good 2 1/2 hours away.

 

[hbrown322]

Neighbors:
Please keep all of my wonderful neighbors in your prayers. It is because of them that we have kept chickens these past 5 years. We live in a string of 5 houses that have double long yards. Our houses all blend in with the neighborhood in front, but the alley stops, so we have a big, secret, hidden parcel of land for our backyards.

My fav 96 yr old neighbor is now in a nursing home. She will not be returning home, but has not decided to sell her house yet. She moved there in 1945! (Hers is the biggest yard with a little over an acre. Developers have wanted that valuable land for decades.) My next door neighbor (like a grandma to my kids) decided that she's going to move into a senior community near her son. Then, I just got the news on Monday that the neighbor between them is now on Hospice. It really shook me up because we talked when she was out gardening 4 weeks ago! The last neighbor on my other side is an elderly single man who likes tinkering with his Model T Ford. He seems capable of caring for his property, has lived here since 1968, but I do not know his future plans. With 3 out of 5 houses going on the market, who knows if we'll get a new neighbor who dislikes poultry. That's all it would take to end our daughter's poultry science projects. If a developer buys all 3 properties, it could easily be made into 8 normal size yards. I know life changes, but it hurts to think of my friends / neighbors leaving soon.

My next door neighbor's health has been weakened and taking care of a whole house has been getting harder. She is more like family, so I know we'd still visit her. The other 2 neighbors are in their 90s. It's pretty hard for me to accept the upcoming changes. I love them more than I realized, so it really hurts. Please keep them in your prayers. They are all such wonderful women.

Oh no! I hope it all works out okay. Getting new neighbors is always nerve racking.

 

[Faraday40]

Oh no! I hope it all works out okay. Getting new neighbors is always nerve racking.

In the past 10 years, we got 2 new neighbors on the block when the former neighbors passed. Both tiny houses were bought by young single guys who liked weekend parties. I welcomed them with eggs & garden veggies. They pretty much didn't care if we had roosters and always turned the music down by 10:30. It was actually nice to get some youth in the neighborhood. One is now engaged to a sweet gal, so he's very quiet these days. LOL Our block is very unusual because DH & I are also considered "new" & we've lived here over 20 years. Many houses on other streets are being torn down & replaced with huge, $800K+ homes. I really hope that does not happen here.

 

[Indyshent]

The one baby turkey that lived now has an injured leg. Not sure exactly what's wrong with it and really hoping it gets better. Chances are that its mom hurt it while adjusting. She's always trying to keep it outside, and it just hasn't fared well outside--too far from warmth, food and dry ground. Poor bitty.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@Faraday40
I very much dislike the kind of change you're experiencing in your neighborhood. I have tales of my own to tell about the area we're in...my dad built the house in 1947. A lot has changed since then!!!!