INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[CluckAcres]

I have 1 goose named Ivan and he is the best. He is just like a dog. He loves to play and run. He even like to get on my lap. He also follows me every where I go. If I'm outside you will see him right there beside me. Oh the bad thing about him is he is very protective of me. He also listens to me on command and we talk back an forth to each other. I have no idea what he says back but he talks back to me. I will have to get a video of him for you all. Yesterday we had a meet and greet party for our daughter and everyone loved him and how he just follows me and listens to me. They was all scared of him at first because geese are known to be temperament. I told him to attack my wife's cousin and Ivan ran after him and tried to goose him. I had to call him off.

I had him running around the yard with me yesterday and he stayed right beside me flapping his wings and got a few inches off the ground. I don't think I will ever need another dog as long as i have Ivan! He is our guard goose!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Here is my precious bundle of joy, so glad to have him home!!!

 

[CluckAcres]

Here is my precious bundle of joy, so glad to have him home!!!

Aww he is a handsome boy!!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:
thanks! almost 9 weeks, he is so sweet and gentle! I haven't picked a name yet. I should get my doeling in 2-3 weeks.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I have 1 goose named Ivan and he is the best. He is just like a dog. He loves to play and run. He even like to get on my lap. He also follows me every where I go. If I'm outside you will see him right there beside me. Oh the bad thing about him is he is very protective of me. He also listens to me on command and we talk back an forth to each other. I have no idea what he says back but he talks back to me. I will have to get a video of him for you all. Yesterday we had a meet and greet party for our daughter and everyone loved him and how he just follows me and listens to me. They was all scared of him at first because geese are known to be temperament. I told him to attack my wife's cousin and Ivan ran after him and tried to goose him. I had to call him off.

I had him running around the yard with me yesterday and he stayed right beside me flapping his wings and got a few inches off the ground. I don't think I will ever need another dog as long as i have Ivan! He is our guard goose!

Ivan is very handsome, what breed is he?

 

[CluckAcres]

Ivan is very handsome, what breed is he?

Thanks he is my little buddy. He is a Grey Toulouse.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:
I love geese, since I can't have a big dog anymore, they do kinda fill the gap. Big G follows me all over, used to sit in my lap a lot. Same for my lil WeeWee, she will still snuggle up. I have had embden and chinese so far, the toulouse are very pretty too, they are what my gramma always kept. We are up to 8 right now, any others that hatch I will be selling. Little lawnmowers, oh my! They are just cleaning out any weeds that sprout around the barn.

 

[AmLambson]

Hello my fellow Hoosiers, this is my first post on BYC. My wife and I live in Eaton, IN and we work in Muncie. We recently purchased our first home and a few acres with a pond. We are new to rural living but we love it. We are starting our first garden this summer and we're ready to take the plunge and get some chickens. I'm a forum addict so I naturally sought out to find this site. I'll try to use the Search function so that I don't wear you out with novice questions.
I've agreed to (attempt to) build my wife a tractor coop. I'm a college professor so naturally I don't have any skills.

Regardless, after looking at several of the coops on this site I've gotten an idea of what's required and I think I can handle building her a tractor with 21 sq ft of outside space for the chickens (12 sq ft of coop space not including the nesting boxes). Based on what I've read, that should enable us to house 4-5 regular sized chickens. I stopped into Rural King yesterday and saw that they had an order form and a "chart" of available breeds to order. I decided it was probably wise to do a little more research before placing an order.
We are primarily interested in eggs and we are more concerned with temperament than egg or feather color. We have two friendly dogs and we'll have a baby on the way before too long. It appears some breeds are more "friendly" than others. Also, I like the idea of allowing the chickens out of the pen and into the yard. Would we be better off with regular chickens rather than bantams given that we often have hawks and eagles in the area?
After looking at the breeds on this site (and cross-referencing them on other sites) I've taken note of a few breeds that might work for us including: Speckled Sussex, Welsummer, Wyandotte, Plymouth Rock, and maybe a Golden Sex Link. I'm unsure if these 5 breeds get along OK but it appears they can all stand our cold Indiana winters. I'm also unsure if Rural King carries any of these breeds but it appears some of them can be found on Craigslist. More than anything I just wanted to make sure that buying from Rural King wasn't the equivalent of buying a dog from a puppy mill. I'm still not sure if I'm better off going through Rural King or Craigslist.
On a final note, are we better off ordering now or waiting a few weeks for sexed pullets? I'm afraid that if I order chicks now we will end up with a bunch of roosters. But I'm afraid if I wait 3-4 weeks there won't be many chicks available once people who pre-ordered get theirs.
Whoa... this ended up being much longer than I intended. Thank you for guiding me along. I've learned a tremendous amount from this site already and I look forward to learning a lot more.

Welcome!! I'm pretty new to this thread and to chickens too. I have 3 hens a Rhode Island Red, Golden Comet (Golden sex link), and Easter Egger. All the breeds you mentioned are all breeds I'd love to have also! I got the Golden Comet because the guy at the feed mill said that's what he had and they were great layers with great attitudes and she is by far is the most personable hen she is almost like a dog! Haha! My EE is a bit shy and the RIR is named Big Momma for a reason! That's just my personal experience. From previous post about rural king someone said they get them from a hatchery (It was a couple pages back) Sorry I cant help with much because I'm just starting too but the others on here are great and very helpful. This is an active thread I've learned to log on a lot so I can keep up! Lots of Luck to you and the wife!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Hello my fellow Hoosiers, this is my first post on BYC. My wife and I live in Eaton, IN and we work in Muncie. We recently purchased our first home and a few acres with a pond. We are new to rural living but we love it. We are starting our first garden this summer and we're ready to take the plunge and get some chickens. I'm a forum addict so I naturally sought out to find this site. I'll try to use the Search function so that I don't wear you out with novice questions.
I've agreed to (attempt to) build my wife a tractor coop. I'm a college professor so naturally I don't have any skills.

Regardless, after looking at several of the coops on this site I've gotten an idea of what's required and I think I can handle building her a tractor with 21 sq ft of outside space for the chickens (12 sq ft of coop space not including the nesting boxes). Based on what I've read, that should enable us to house 4-5 regular sized chickens. I stopped into Rural King yesterday and saw that they had an order form and a "chart" of available breeds to order. I decided it was probably wise to do a little more research before placing an order.
We are primarily interested in eggs and we are more concerned with temperament than egg or feather color. We have two friendly dogs and we'll have a baby on the way before too long. It appears some breeds are more "friendly" than others. Also, I like the idea of allowing the chickens out of the pen and into the yard. Would we be better off with regular chickens rather than bantams given that we often have hawks and eagles in the area?
After looking at the breeds on this site (and cross-referencing them on other sites) I've taken note of a few breeds that might work for us including: Speckled Sussex, Welsummer, Wyandotte, Plymouth Rock, and maybe a Golden Sex Link. I'm unsure if these 5 breeds get along OK but it appears they can all stand our cold Indiana winters. I'm also unsure if Rural King carries any of these breeds but it appears some of them can be found on Craigslist. More than anything I just wanted to make sure that buying from Rural King wasn't the equivalent of buying a dog from a puppy mill. I'm still not sure if I'm better off going through Rural King or Craigslist.
On a final note, are we better off ordering now or waiting a few weeks for sexed pullets? I'm afraid that if I order chicks now we will end up with a bunch of roosters. But I'm afraid if I wait 3-4 weeks there won't be many chicks available once people who pre-ordered get theirs.
Whoa... this ended up being much longer than I intended. Thank you for guiding me along. I've learned a tremendous amount from this site already and I look forward to learning a lot more.

Once the feed stores end chick days, you can find chicks, eggs, pullets etc on craigslist. Local breeders will post more after the feed stores stop. The wyandottes are a little dominant. So are plymouth rock I have a few of both. not sure on the others from personal experience. I have Australorp and Lavender orpington, both of these breeds are very sweet so far. My BPR is a real good girl for laying, and so are the wyandottes. The roosters have been awesome alerting and caring for their girls. My main egg flock are the GLW and the BR, they rarely disappoint me, the other birds are not quite old enough to lay yet.

 

[Mother2Hens]

neocrunch~ Welcome to the Indiana Thread! Your new home sounds wonderful. Similar to AmLambson’s chickens, my EE is a little shy, but really sweet and beautiful and my RIR is loud and bossy, but very funny and personable. Jchny said her Plymouth Barred Rocks and Wyandottes are dominant, but I have one of each that are #3 and #4 respectively in the pecking order of five hens. As far as Rural King and TSC, experiences differ from each location. Some members have been happy, others have had sick ones, and then there have been people like me who were supposed to have six pullets (from RK), but ended up with five of them being cockerels. Check out posts #5335-8 about other options.


jbcmom~ Welcome to the Indiana Thread! We have lots of friendly members who love to help. I’m like you~ I like variety as you can see in my signature description below.