INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Kiniska]

I have 7 chickens now!!! My youngest daughter and I drove to McLeansboro, IL (only 1.5 hrs. away) to chickenscratchpoultry.com and purchased two pullets-- an English Jubilee Orpington (approx. 7 wks.) and a Lavender Orpington (approx. 8 wks.) I wanted to post early enough for all of the rest of the Indiana members who are on Eastern time to see because I'm sure everyone has been glued to the thread, just waiting for me to post. : - )

I took a couple of quick (and lousy--blurry and color is off) photos to post tonight, but will have better ones to come. Thank you to everyone who supported (peer-pressured) me into getting more chickens. Btw, when I told DH about the new pullets at the last minute as I was pulling out of the driveway, he acted like I had told him I was going to pick up some milk at the store-- it hardly fazed him. We've been married 35 years, so by now he knows to expect the unexpected!

Looks like you found some lovely ladies! Congratulations. You are gonna love them.

 

[racinchickins]

M2H- congrats! They are beautiful! Very jealous of the jubilee.

Racin-congrats to you too! Where did you get the eggs from? I have a pair and want to add atleast a few more hens if not another roo or two. I have a pair of rhodebars with 2 eggs growing in the bator! Hoping for pullets lol!

I got them from AlleysFarm on here, but with the raccoon attack, she won't have any more until at least fall. But after mine hatch, I'd be interested in getting some more unrelated chicks to work with, so depending what I get, maybe we could arrange something. I will keep you informed as things go along.

 

[danand]

W

Ok.  I have a question for everyone.  

When your chicks bed down for the night, does it sound like a wrestling cage match?  You'd think someone was dying in there! 
I look in and half of them are all trying to not only cram onto one roost (I have three, all the same height), but they fight over who gets to be in the middle. This is all accompanied by loud clucks and bloodcurdling squawks.  Then my dominant hen tries to decapitate anyone who tries to roost within a foot of her.  I also have a group of 5 that refuse to roost, and they fight to be on the bottom of the pile in the corner by the door.  

Several times I've rushed out to the coop prepared to do battle with whatever is killing them, I open the door, and they all just look at me like 'What are you doing out here, don't you know it's dark?'

I've also noticed that when the match ends, everyone pretty much ends up in the exact same spot night after night.  And this is with 30 birds, so I know it isn't a coincidence.

I know I'm not overcrowding them, heck there is a whole roost and half of another that nobody uses at night.

Does anyone else experience this?  Is this just normal life for a flock? 

That's how mine are too!! My biggest RIR Roos are still on the floor!

M2H- beautiful girls!! Congrats

 

[CountryHen19]

Ok. I have a question for everyone.

When your chicks bed down for the night, does it sound like a wrestling cage match? You'd think someone was dying in there!
I look in and half of them are all trying to not only cram onto one roost (I have three, all the same height), but they fight over who gets to be in the middle. This is all accompanied by loud clucks and bloodcurdling squawks. Then my dominant hen tries to decapitate anyone who tries to roost within a foot of her. I also have a group of 5 that refuse to roost, and they fight to be on the bottom of the pile in the corner by the door.

Several times I've rushed out to the coop prepared to do battle with whatever is killing them, I open the door, and they all just look at me like 'What are you doing out here, don't you know it's dark?'

I've also noticed that when the match ends, everyone pretty much ends up in the exact same spot night after night. And this is with 30 birds, so I know it isn't a coincidence.

I know I'm not overcrowding them, heck there is a whole roost and half of another that nobody uses at night.

Does anyone else experience this? Is this just normal life for a flock?

I know you didn't mean for it to be funny but I can picture what you describe and its funny to me As to your question, I wouldn't know yet but I have read accounts similar to yours

 

[CountryHen19]

I have 7 chickens now!!! My youngest daughter and I drove to McLeansboro, IL (only 1.5 hrs. away) to chickenscratchpoultry.com and purchased two pullets-- an English Jubilee Orpington (approx. 7 wks.) and a Lavender Orpington (approx. 8 wks.) I wanted to post early enough for all of the rest of the Indiana members who are on Eastern time to see because I'm sure everyone has been glued to the thread, just waiting for me to post. : - )

I took a couple of quick (and lousy--blurry and color is off) photos to post tonight, but will have better ones to come. Thank you to everyone who supported (peer-pressured) me into getting more chickens. Btw, when I told DH about the new pullets at the last minute as I was pulling out of the driveway, he acted like I had told him I was going to pick up some milk at the store-- it hardly fazed him. We've been married 35 years, so by now he knows to expect the unexpected!

Good for you! They look like very proper young ladies to me...perfect pets for your flock Thanks for sharing!

 

[danand]

Ok everybody. I've got 2 Millie babies, about 2 months old. They were all puffed up last night and sort of lethargic. I had them out with the others(Millie's) till 8:30 and put them in a separate bin for the night. Gave everybody fresh water with electrolyte and vitamins. Any ideas? They're still this way this morning. I know 1 was eating last night not sure if the other one did. Everybody else seams fine and it happened all of a sudden.

 

[EmSteele]

I posted a LONG rambling thing and can't find it now! To sum it up, I am less than thrilled with Estes Hatchery, took over 2 weeks to be told my mystery chicks are a Marans and a Welsummer, but not which is which...can Welsummer chicks be completely black? Also, lost 3 of my 8 bantams on day 2 . Called a local chicken guy who said they seemed to just be the weakest of the bunch since they just died over night, smashed in a corner. Perfect temp, clean bedding, food and water. No signs of anything wrong. Everyone else is doing wonderful. I'm definitely done with chicks for the year after that though

 

[Quinstar]

I have 7 chickens now!!! My youngest daughter and I drove to McLeansboro, IL (only 1.5 hrs. away) to chickenscratchpoultry.com and purchased two pullets-- an English Jubilee Orpington (approx. 7 wks.) and a Lavender Orpington (approx. 8 wks.) I wanted to post early enough for all of the rest of the Indiana members who are on Eastern time to see because I'm sure everyone has been glued to the thread, just waiting for me to post. : - )

I took a couple of quick (and lousy--blurry and color is off) photos to post tonight, but will have better ones to come. Thank you to everyone who supported (peer-pressured) me into getting more chickens. Btw, when I told DH about the new pullets at the last minute as I was pulling out of the driveway, he acted like I had told him I was going to pick up some milk at the store-- it hardly fazed him. We've been married 35 years, so by now he knows to expect the unexpected!

Congrats! They are just too cute! I hope I can hold out as long as you did before adding more birds. We confirmed this week that Caroline is actually Carl and I told DH if one more turns out to be a roo I'm getting more birds. He just looked at me and smiled.

Very excited about hatching out some eggs for the first time! We are at day 10. Candled the eggs and all are fertile and showing development.

They are Crested Cream Legbar eggs, so they are very pretty large blue eggs. My photos don't do the color justice at all. I've been fascinated with this breed ever since I came across them on the Greenfire farms site. Beautiful chickens that are autosexing when they hatch, and with blue eggs!

Also just found out the member who I got the eggs from just lost their mama and a bunch of other hens to raccoons. So I am hoping for some girls to be able to return the favor of hatching eggs. And I can see chicken math looming. This incubation thing is fun! Even though the anticipation is killing me.

You all really need to stop talking about chickens I didn't know existed and now want. Crested Cream Legbar.... add it to the list.

I posted a LONG rambling thing and can't find it now! To sum it up, I am less than thrilled with Estes Hatchery, took over 2 weeks to be told my mystery chicks are a Marans and a Welsummer, but not which is which...can Welsummer chicks be completely black? Also, lost 3 of my 8 bantams on day 2 . Called a local chicken guy who said they seemed to just be the weakest of the bunch since they just died over night, smashed in a corner. Perfect temp, clean bedding, food and water. No signs of anything wrong. Everyone else is doing wonderful. I'm definitely done with chicks for the year after that though

Can you post a picture of the 2 chicks in question? Sorry about your bantams. It must be very frustrating having no idea what happened.


My chickens are getting so big, so quickly and I feel bad that they only get to be outside after I get home from work. We have a large dog pen that we use for them when they are outside. Do you think that I could leave them out all day if I covered the top with some plywood or screening or something like that? My neighbors chickens run around all day long and I've never seen anything try and get them during the daylight hours so I'm guessing most of our predators are nocturnal.

 

[mlongworth]

I couldnt resist the urge to candle this morning day 4. Of my 9 columbian rock eggs i have 4 light ones that have great development. The other 5are darker and its harder to tell but 4 look like they are developing. Guess i will see in a few more days.

 

[ShawnaScott]

Well the coop didn't totally get finished, but all it needs is to have it's walls and roof put up and then painted! So it should be functional today, if not pretty and decorated like I want it to be!







As you can see in the photos, DH didn't listen and made the bottom of the coop 12' x 8' instead of 10' x 8', which wouldn't be a problem except all the wood I bought to build it was 10' not 12'. So we improvised and now have a little "porch" off to the left side. I am debating on whether to make it a porch, storage chamber, or possibly a small outdoor brooder....What do you guys think?