INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[CluckAcres]

So for the fermenting is the unprocessed apple cider vinegar the best? I'm wondering because I have some brewing yeast and I don't know if that would be a good starter or not, I tried finding info about it but couldn't find anything except that it's good for the chickens to eat.

Yes get the UACV. It unpasteurized apple cider vinegar with the mother agent. you can get it at walmart.

 

[CluckAcres]

Rural rensselaer! Is where our farm is.

anybody near us? Love it to be part of the indiana byc page

 

[CluckAcres]

I have some grand champion black austrolorps I would be willing to sell a dozen or half of hatching eggs. Let me know

What is your asking price for the eggs? Im very interested!!

 

[Callie1213]

Okay Thank you so much! I was wondering where I would get it lol.

 

[oldrooster]

A new Rural King is coming to Bloomington in the old wal-mart!!!! Now I will be within about 12 miles of 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[slink1211]

Hello. I am Slink1211 from Indiana. I live southeast of Indianapolis. We have ducks and chickens! Love them both.

 

[rsutr101]

Rural rensselaer! Is where our farm is. anybody near us? Love it to be part of the indiana byc page

I'm in Lafayette you are the closest one to me I have found on here so far

 

[bradselig]

As mentioned earlier, I'm looking at fencing in my whole yard (2 acres). I've found a reasonable way to get 2x4 welded wire fencing 5ft tall to use. How ever trying to figure out the posts. I'd rather use wood posts (like how they look) than T posts, but willing to consider either. Anyone know of anywhere to purchase fence posts (new or used) reasonably priced? I've looked at TSC, Rural King, Big R, Orschlens, Lowes and Menards. Thinking about trying fencing companies directly.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Hello everyone!
I am not IN Indiana, but very close. I am 5 minutes from the line in Darke County OH. Do you mind if I join you?
If anyone is looking for extremely rare breeds, I have almost all of the breeds from Greenfire Farms available. My own personal favorite is the Cream Legbar. I am the Eastern Regional Director for the brand-new Cream Legbar Club, and IN would be one of the states in my region. If you are interested in any of the breeds or the CLC, send me a pm!

Here are the breeds that I have available-some are still very young, so it would be a while before they are available.

Large Fowl Bantam
White Bresse (extremely rare) Mille Fleur d'Uccle (show stock)
Barred Cochin (rare) Chocolate Orpingtons (very rare)
Hedemora (very rare) Olandsk Dwarf (very rare)
Cream Legbar (auto-sexing) (very rare) Serama
Isbar (very rare) Chocolate Ameracauna (rare)
Rhodebar (auto-sexing) (rare)
Norwegian Jaerhon (auto-sexing) (very rare)
Russian Orloff (rare)
Partridge Barthuhner (extremely rare)
Bielefelder (auto-sexing) (extremely rare)
Mille Fleur Leghorn (very rare)
Tolbunt Polish (very rare)
Jubilee Orpington (very rare)
Marradunna Basque (rare)
Swedish Flower Hens (rare)

I also have White Sebastopol Geese and Silver Appleyard ducks as well as India Blue Peafowl.

Baby...I obviously am very behind in reading through this thread...was glad to see you here! I'm still thinking about those cream legbars! I have to see how those SFHs do and whether they are pullets or cockrels first!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Wow...I'm really behind!! I wanted to comment on some things...

Any ideas for what I should do about all of the mud in the chicken area. I did not realize how much of their area they had scratched up the grass in until all of this rain came and mud is everywhere I look.

My chickens are able to run free with electronet in a larger area, but I have a "dog kennel run" that I can lock them into that is covered for hawk protection. In that dog-kennel run, they had everything down to bare earth and I wanted to "condition" it so that it would make a healthy area for them. The bare packed earth is not a healthy situation and as you're seeing, you get the mud, etc. When the earth gets so impacted you don't even get worms and bugs for them.

So...here's what I did, am doing, and am going to do.

I decided to create a "deep Litter" or "Deep Mulch" base in that kennel. The idea accomplishes 2 things. 1 is that it rejuvenates the earth under it so that the bugs and worms will repopulate the area and aerate the soil making it healthier and a source of food for the chickens. The second thing I want to accomplish is to have a "winter yard" that will contain bedding deep enough that they can still scratch in the winter and find live bugs under due to the insulating properties for the earth below.

I happened to have some trees that were cut down early last year. I had the wood chips left in a big pile and about 7 months later the chickens discovered that the pile had deteriorated enough that it was full of red worms. They loved digging through it. I began my deep bed in the run by hauling wheelbarrows full of the wood chips over and dumping them in piles into the run. At that time they were still full of worms and the chickens went to town! They spread everything that I dumped.

Here is the original pile. I put the electric net over there so they could hunt for worms.





This photo is inside the dog kennel run. I had just begun to move some of the wood chips over there.


I didn't move enough to get it as deep as I want it to be in the long-run but it was a start. In the spring, I'll continue to move those chips, leaves, grass clippings from lawn mowing, etc. Again, the goal is to provide a living, healthy base rather than barren, unhealthy ground. I may eve put some of our regular compost items in there from time to time which will also add to the good composting effect.

Now...if I didn't have any wood chips, I'd just use leaves, grass clippings and even old litter from inside the hen house. I have spoken with several tree services and they LOVE to drop wood chips off at your house for nothing. When they're working in the area it saves them from having to haul it to a far-off location for disposal.

I, personally, would NOT use straw for a couple reasons. One is that it takes a LONG TIME to break down and doesn't deteriorate well enough to make a good deep bedding. I actually have straw bales that I set against the run for a wind break and I will give them away come spring as I won't put them down inside or outside. But they make great wind breaks!

Here is a photo of what the set-up looks like right now. Got the garden shed through Habit for Humanity Re-Store when there was a road widening. $250 if we hauled. My husband did remodeling inside and did an excellent job.