INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Mother2Hens]

kaphyper1~ Loved your post. I think someone, maybe Col. Sanders started the “chickens are dumb” rumor a long time ago because I always thought it was true until my daughter talked us into getting chicks a year ago and a whole new world opened up! You just don’t understand the magic of chickens until you have them.


Re: Mealworms instar8 said, “You do need a container that will let in air, but keep the adult beetles from escaping into your house...and setting up in your pantry!”
My reply~ You lost me at Adult Beetles! Ew!! I can handle live mealworms or freeze-dried ones, but NOT Beetles, especially on the loose. haha


strssedmom~ Congrats on coop moving day. Can’t believe you have 29 chickens!


animal lover~ Sounds like you are doing a good job managing your large flock. I’d say that your Dad is pretty generous to let you be a Crazy Chicken person! haha

Cluck~ Loved your Ivan the Goose story! Animal stories are always welcome. It's fun to hear about different breeds and their adventures.


jchny~ Adorable dairy goat! And he’s getting a mail order bride?


Idymelissa~ When our chicks were little and knocked over the plastic waterer, we used HangTak, a removable adhesive to attach a small pottery bowl upside down under the plastic base. The weight prevented it from getting knocked over and it also raised the water tray slightly. I've attached a picture to show what I am trying to describe. If your waterer is different, you could use something different to weigh it down a little so it isn't so tipsy.

 

[oldrooster]

Well yesterday my laptop crashed its a school laptop so ill get another on tomorrow anyways I had fun chasing ducks and geese and pointing out the Drake's and just plan looking at them I cant wait to get my ducks next year .... oh and 4 of my brahmas feet were bleeding so I washes there feet and put Blu-Kote on them just so they dont get attacked and I let all my chickens mingled with the couple and the babys and Mr.Frizz stood his grounds cuz my big hens started bothering him ....oh and a orphington got in the babys cage with the babys

it was cute ill upload pic of the ducks and geese and my chickens tomorrow when I get my new laptop

I have family near you in evansville and princeton....

 

[oldrooster]

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.

in a sense all the farm supply stores get their chicks from "puppy mills" as you put it, because they get them from the big hatcheries. as most chicken owners do (note I did not say all) but I think the main point of having your flock is most choose the lesser of the 2 evils, do you wish to support the mills by buying store bought chicken meat and eggs and putting thousands of chickens in those mils every year or would you choose hundreds to produce hatching eggs? Yes it's an ethical slippery slope, and not a plesant thought but as stated before, for many it comes down to which is worse? And several here would choose the one that does the lesser amount of harm....

 

[Too Fast]

For those of you who keep ducks and geese, I wonder if they stay in your yard/area when they get older, or do you have to always keep them in a coop/run? I'd think once they got older they would fly away.

I made friends with a couple wild ducks a few years ago. I worked at Firestone, and when we opened the bay doors, they would swoop in the shop and crash land, then ask for some crackers. I was able to feed them out of my hand. They would follow me around and walk around the shop (I made them wear safety glasses lol).

 

[neocrunch]

Thank you all for the advice. I'm going to stop back by Rural King to look at what breeds they have available. I like Rural King and I don't mind supporting their business but I'd rather support someone's "hobby" by buying from Craigslist.

 

[hogster160]

Hi and welcome! You can actually order your chicks from http://www.matthysfarmmarket.com/ They will order the amount you want, there is no min order as they put in one order every two weeks. They will call you when they come in, pick up is same day as delivery. And of course they have all the supplies you could want.

What kind of chicks are you looking to get?

Deb


Replying to: I'm in South Bend and not even sure where I should get my chicks from, I have the ones I want in mind but only know of Rural King and Tractor Supply,
I'm kind of scared to order them from any where, any advice?

Well, now that I'm caught up on the thread, I see you already got the answer lol. Didn't realize how many pages behind in reading I was. 2 days off working on the coop (its giving me fits! Hubby has been working 6/12's so coop build is up to me) and lots of pages behind. Matthy's is an awesome place. Very friendly people, they even carry your feed out to your car. You don't get service like that anymore. I've been going there since I was a kid. Love them!

 

[jbcmom]

Hi and welcome!  You can actually order your chicks from http://www.matthysfarmmarket.com/    They will order the amount you want, there is no min order as they put in one order every two weeks.  They will call you when they come in, pick up is same day as delivery.  And of course they have all the supplies you could want.

What kind of chicks are you looking to get?

Deb

 

Replying to: I'm in South Bend and not even sure where I should get my chicks from, I have the ones I want in mind but only know of Rural King and Tractor Supply,

I'm kind of scared to order them from any where, any advice?

Well, now that I'm caught up on the thread, I see you already got the answer lol.  Didn't realize how many pages behind in reading I was.  2 days off working on the coop (its giving me fits!  Hubby has been working 6/12's so coop build is up to me) and lots of pages behind.  Matthy's is an awesome place.  Very friendly people, they even carry your feed out to your car.  You don't get service like that anymore.  I've been going there since I was a kid.  Love them!

Hi Deb, thank you for the added advice! We will definitely be going there for chicks. It's all so overwhelming and I'm glad they'll help get us started. Is there a time when they stop ordering chicks?

 

[vickichicki]

Wow, there have been some get posts going on.. Hate to bore everyone by rehashing stuff.. So I will try to keep this short and sweet.

Welcome to all the new comers.. Mr Tattoo, Bitten (noticed you shop in Greenfield I live East side of Indy, so not too far away) SilverCreek, Country, jbcmom, neocrunch


Sorry to hear about all the loses, Em and Cluck

Cluck - Super jealous of the Polish

Mother - Good looking giant, all be it a little googly eyed looking

Wheezy - Wow.. Beautiful flock, I would say Roo on the buffs, your frizzle looks like an imitation Bald Eadgle with a bad hair day. The one below that lloks just like my Barred Cochin.. very pretty.

Kiniska - Great work on the chicken pictures. I like those alot

Strssd - Yay on move out date, nothing smells better than moving the chicks out

Brad - I am dead excited to see some turkey chicks. I really hope they make it. Keep me updated. The chicks are doing great. The lavenders are finally gettting a few more feathers, still looking small and delicate though. Think they are going to be in the house for a while. The Cochins are in with the lavenders, seem to be working out good. The EE's are in with the big group. Everytime I open the coop they fly out, super adventerous. hope to post pictures of them here in a few days.

Hope I welcomed all the new people, if I missed you, I am sorry, had to scroll back to page 525. If you were before that... Welcome

Would love to make commets on almost everything people had posted but I figured that would mean 50 new posts for people to read through next time they logged in. Supposed to rain tomorrow so we have to get the roof done today, should be back to checking the thread more often.

 

[vickichicki]

Glad they are out, I bet you are too! Ugh, seems like theres always a few too many roos

hehe, they do! I am switching over to nipples or the cups on a bucket. Tired of the waterers getting turned over, so summer they dont get waterers anymore, just the bucket systems from this point til winter. Lot less hassle..


I used to do a lot of roofing, now that I am an old lady heights scare me

guess you realize it may hurt if you fall!

I was sitting on the edge laying the first few rows of shingles, I noticed the chain link fence that was about 2ft away from the edge of the house. All I could think was, 'If I roll off this friggin roof, I will hit the chain link before I hit the ground'.
I am getting older and I too now realize, falling hurts alot more than it did 10 years ago. Used to be fearless and would never have even noticed anything like that. Now I assess all my dangers and pain factors on every job. Think it is time to find a new profession.

Never feared ice before.. now I shuffle around on the stuff, just in case.

 

[Kiniska]

I would not order chicks after May. It starts to get hot and they might baked on the trip.