INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Too Fast]

I've fed my chicks some crickets and meal worms, that was a lot of fun to watch. Talk about excitement in the chick house!

Do I need to get them some sort of grit right now? They are mostly on thier starter feed.

 

[CluckAcres]

Thanks vickichicki about the coop encouragement. We don't really know how we are going to cut the door holes, or the pop door holes, or the slide out to clean out under the roost. But everything I've read said to be sure the cleaning part is easy, or it won't get done often enough.

And about the creature problem, well, we've had deer, racoon, snakes, hawks, oppossums, coyotes and probably other things living/wandering thru our backyard, so I'd be surprised if you didn't have most of them in the very near area around you. I am going to make the coop as predator proof as I can. I will pick my flock over other creatures in my back yard also, but all we have to dispatch them is a pellet rifle.

I have a pop up door in the middle of one of my coops in the floor. My coop sits 3 feet of ground. When i go to clean it out i go in pull up door and then put wheel barrel under the hole and just scoop bedding threw the hole into wheel barrel. Then i dump it in my compost pile for the garden.

 

[Birdylady3]

too fast you could get them some to be on the safe side. I just feed mine the chick starter and meal worms and make sure they have plenty of water. They seem to be doing just fine, getting bigger everyday

Ashley in Indiana.

 

[Chic-n-farmer]

Subject: Wildlife predators

I am not a farmer, so I know that I don’t have the experience to understand dealing with the threat of wildlife on livestock. Personally, I love coyotes, possums, raccoons, and animals in general, so I can’t imagine killing one unless it was rabid or attacking. It seems like killing them doesn’t solve the problem since there are more out there, and wild animals are just trying to survive. I would be devastated if a wild animal killed one of my hens, but I wouldn’t take it personally and kill the predator as though it was evil. It’s just an animal that has just as much right to live on the land as we do. However, I understand Chic-n-farmer had no choice but to kill the possum that was already in the coop.

That being said, I have been concerned about the number of hawks flying over our yard checking out our chickens. There have been flocks of 10 - 20 circling around the backyard before departing. I assume the large flocks are migrating. Besides the flocks, I see at least a few hawks flying around daily. I have waved my arms and sounded an emergency alarm, but they haven’t seemed to care although they haven’t landed on the ground. I’ve read some posts on BYC about dealing with hawk problems, but I just wondered if anyone has any tips.

Please do not take my views regarding wild animals personally. As I mentioned, I don’t live the life of farmer who depends on income from livestock. No one can truly know what a person’s life is like, so I am not judging anyone. I’m just expressing my personal thoughts and practices since the wonderful opportunity of this thread/website is being able to learn from each other while respecting individual views. It would be a boring world if we all thought the same way. And, feeling increasingly threatened by hawks has led to me to understand the frustration of not being able to control nature.

Don't worry about me

no offense taken. I know I did what I had to do.

Everyone has to make their own decisions on what they will do to protect their critters. Personally, I don't believe in killing every predator on my land "just in case" but some people do. I take as many precautions as I reasonably can. My 12 x 12 foot chicken house was originally built for a laying flock with a 2500 square foot run. It has since been separated into breeding pens with 6 foot tall chain link runs. The runs are covered to against hawks. Apparently they aren't possum proof.

I will be working on that.

I have raised chickens for over 25 years and NEVER lost a bird to anything but a dog. I have lost an entire flock to dogs. Maybe I have been "lucky" having no previous problems with possums, skunks, raccoons, weasels, or hawks. (we had a hawk go for a pigeon a year ago but our peacock beat the heck out of it!)

Believe me, I have my hands full with an irresponsible neighbor who loves big ol' chicken-killing dogs. I have been forced to shoot several of his dogs over the years, and I take no pleasure in it. If he would keep them up once he knows they are causing trouble I would be saved a lot of guilt and heartache.
I haven't had any trouble out of him in 6 months though.

But that's a long story.
I love the country life and happily share my woods with the creatures that were here first. By nine this morning I saw 2 dozen plus turkeys and 3 coyotes.

Saturday we saw a bald eagle just a mile from the house. That's the second bald eagle we have spotted in the last month!

I agree that what you are seeing are turkey buzzards and I think your chickens are safe, though I would advise you don't lie down and take a nap in the yard!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Chic-n-farmer the bags are just awesome! I sew some too, but I am not so good at handles, I would love to learn to do it! I have some of the reusable shopping bags and they are getting worn.

Jchny - I too am dealing with pasty butts with all the chicks I got from tsc. Do not remember it being this bad with my girls. The ones that are over a week old are looking better though. New chicks, well.... Think they hate me when they hear the water running as they know what is coming up.

I did notice while giving my new chicks a closer exam, the silkie has 6 toes on one foot... The back toe is fused with another toe, two nails on there and everything.

I have never had it come up before, I've got 78 birds total right now, even the australorps from Mt. Healthy were ok, not a single pasty in the group

That's unusual with the silkie! Butters, my grown up fella, has some odd looking feet too, walks like a sumo wrestler

 

[bwindell]

Subject: Wildlife predators

I am not a farmer, so I know that I don’t have the experience to understand dealing with the threat of wildlife on livestock. Personally, I love coyotes, possums, raccoons, and animals in general, so I can’t imagine killing one unless it was rabid or attacking. It seems like killing them doesn’t solve the problem since there are more out there, and wild animals are just trying to survive. I would be devastated if a wild animal killed one of my hens, but I wouldn’t take it personally and kill the predator as though it was evil. It’s just an animal that has just as much right to live on the land as we do. However, I understand Chic-n-farmer had no choice but to kill the possum that was already in the coop.

That being said, I have been concerned about the number of hawks flying over our yard checking out our chickens. There have been flocks of 10 - 20 circling around the backyard before departing. I assume the large flocks are migrating. Besides the flocks, I see at least a few hawks flying around daily. I have waved my arms and sounded an emergency alarm, but they haven’t seemed to care although they haven’t landed on the ground. I’ve read some posts on BYC about dealing with hawk problems, but I just wondered if anyone has any tips.

Please do not take my views regarding wild animals personally. As I mentioned, I don’t live the life of farmer who depends on income from livestock. No one can truly know what a person’s life is like, so I am not judging anyone. I’m just expressing my personal thoughts and practices since the wonderful opportunity of this thread/website is being able to learn from each other while respecting individual views. It would be a boring world if we all thought the same way. And, feeling increasingly threatened by hawks has led to me to understand the frustration of not being able to control nature.

We have been very fortunate and while we have lost a few to predators, most of our problems are with neighbor dogs. Just because you live in the country, doesn't mean your dog should be allowed to roam far and wide, wrecking havoc on your neighbors, but that is how a lot of people think. Dogs will kill an entire flock for fun, not because they are hungry. If your birds are dog proof, you will be 10 steps ahead of the predator problem.
Hawks, eagles, etc. are protected by Federal law, so shooting them is out of the question. (You take the chance of possibly killing one that is tagged and the fines are steep.) Thankfully, most other predators; raccoons, fox, coyotes, and the like, strike mostly at night, so if your coop is secure, you will be okay.
We had a hawk have a go at one of our hens last summer while my husband and I were on the front porch.(It couldn't see us under the roof), normally our flock scatter at the slightest shadow from overhead, but they didn't even know there was danger until they saw me running and yelling toward the hawk on the ground. He didn't have time to do any damage as this huge crazy screaming human was bearing down on him..lol. He flew off and landed in a nearby tree until he realized I WASN'T leaving, and left for easier prey. The only thing that is stopping me from shooting a raptor, is that with my luck, I'd kill a tagged one and I can't afford the fines. But as for other predators.. I have a rifle I use to dispatch, as once they know your birds are there, they WILL be back.
Dogs... well you saw my BB gun.. I use that most of the time as I love dogs and really don't want to kill someone's pet, BUT. I have my limits there as well, and once the dog owner is made aware of his/her dog's trespass I expect them to keep them OFF my property and away from my birds. I warn, then they can pay the consequences of their lack of action. I have not had to do this yet, (kill one), but that time will come I am sure, as we have had 2 dog attacks in one week last month.
I do agree with you in that yes, wild animals are only trying to survive, and when we moved out here, I knew that this is nature's law of survival and we would probably lose some of our animals to predators. I do have affinity with that as they only kill to eat and survive, but I also will kill to protect. To avoid having to kill, I just try to make my birds as safe as possible at night, so they and I can sleep soundly.

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[bwindell]

This is a video of my cabinet incubator i have been working on. Check it out and feel free to leave feed back. My voice in the video does not sound like me. I really dislike taking videos with my voice but did it just for you all! Oh and sorry video is sideways, I dont know why it did that and didnt realize it till i uploaded it. Just turn your monitor on its side.

Cluck, it's the law of nature.. your voice never sounds like you to YOU! LOL. But seriously, this is an AWESOME incubator!! When you were tilting the tray, does it automatically tilt back and forth or were you hitting the switch several times to make it tilt? Not sure how that part was working...
Great job!
And yes.... it DOES look better when you turn the laptop sideways while viewing!

 

[CluckAcres]

Cluck, it's the law of nature.. your voice never sounds like you to YOU! LOL. But seriously, this is an AWESOME incubator!! When you were tilting the tray, does it automatically tilt back and forth or were you hitting the switch several times to make it tilt? Not sure how that part was working...
Great job!
And yes.... it DOES look better when you turn the laptop sideways while viewing!

DW even said that it didnt sound like me. The turner tilts back and fourth on its own as of right now. But i put the switch on it so i could stop it when it flips so it dont keep on flipping it. I will be getting something to slow the motor down and put it on a timer.

 

[Crafty chick]

Lol, it was odd to hear your voice as an adult. Your hands look similar, just bigger. Ok, craziness done. We are going up to finally see new baby nephew this weekend. Mine are supposed to hatch Sunday, I am thinking it will keep my mind off watching them for hours hatch. We will get home Monday. Hoping all 4 hatch! Spring break starts Friday down here, we get 2 weeks, but have to go on maundy Thursday d/t snow cancellations. I really hope for nice weather so I can build the bantam coop on the side of the BO coop.

 

[CluckAcres]

Lol, it was odd to hear your voice as an adult. Your hands look similar, just bigger. Ok, craziness done. We are going up to finally see new baby nephew this weekend. Mine are supposed to hatch Sunday, I am thinking it will keep my mind off watching them for hours hatch. We will get home Monday. Hoping all 4 hatch! Spring break starts Friday down here, we get 2 weeks, but have to go on maundy Thursday d/t snow cancellations. I really hope for nice weather so I can build the bantam coop on the side of the BO coop.

You remember what my hands look like? LOL Did you ever get a facebook page yet? If your hatches are like mine they will hatch on day 18 or 19. LOL I thought about taking 2 of my coops and connecting them together but have a sliding door in between just in case i need to seperate them at some point.