INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Crafty chick]

hope this worked.... changed my avatar.

 

[Crafty chick]

yay! tiny map, but can still see the county.

 

[bloonskiller911]

yay! tiny map, but can still see the county.

looks good

 

[Crafty chick]

Thanks bloonskiller

 

[Quinstar]

Does anyone know if mash grains are ok to feed to chickens? My husband brews beer and I was wondering if it would be ok to feed the mash to the girls when he is done with it. In case you are unfamiliar with the term mash it is basically malted barley that has been soaked in hot water. Also do any of you free range your flock all day?

And I had to share the picture I took of Belle last night. Cracks me up. Poor thing is going through her awkward stage, but we've all been there right? One of my friends said she looked like a vulture crossed with a 13 year old boy. I couldn't stop laughing!

Mother2squirrel, (ha ha), I didn't know vickichicki was a carpenter. Sure, she makes it sound easy to build something, right? Just do it!
Yeah, Quinstar, a walk-in coop is a good idea. We can't quite walk in to ours, but we have enough access. 3 doors, plus the poop board, plus the pop-door. We are not convinced about the poop board, we may try the deep litter method. If you have the deep litter, then the poop board isn't needed. We first put in a semi-deep litter, then when we slid out the poop board, the litter stayed in the coop! So now there isn't much on the board, and the girls poop production has really gone up, and will continue to increase. And we only have 8. I do like our floor being off the ground, so when we get a lot of rain it stays dry. It also gives the chicks a place to go during the day, for quick easy shade if they don't want to go back inside.

And yeah, the vintage feel counts!

I'm definitely going to try the deep bedding method first. Maybe I'll see if I can't design it to incorporate a poop board if I don't like the litter method. Our compost pile is going to be right by the coop, so cleaning it should be too big of a deal. It can't be worse than mucking horse stalls right? Right now I'm thinking that the coop will sit 2 feet off the ground and the inside will be 5 ft tall. Two doors on the side that we want to access that will completely open up one of the 8 foot sides. Nesting boxes will be on the outside and about a foot from the coop floor. I just can't decide if I want to do a flat slanted roof or a normal peaked roof.

Here is a link to my 'poop board build'. Yes it is tragic looking, but I made it with stuff lying around and all built in less than an afternoon. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/752684/my-poop-board-with-pictures#post_11040849

A full height ceiling and door would be advantageous. My door is probably just a hair over 5 2'ish'. I am 5' 4". I have bonked my head on the darn frame more times than I can remember (although I may remember if I didn't do it so often huh). The ceiling in the coop slopes down however most times I am in there I am stooped down so I don't notice the height. The bigger the door, the easier it is to get things in and out of the coop. Like a wheel barrow.

Thanks for the link! That's was very helpful in showing what exactly a poop board is. I was thinking it went under the entire area of the coop, but that makes way more sense now.

bradselig~ I just PMd you a map with your county. Don't feel like you have to use it. It's just an option.

mememe~ The fermented food you described does not sound good. jchny2000 should be on this Thread later, or you could go ahead and PM her.

Sudden Storm!
We had a beautiful sunny day and I was out with my hens . . . the skies suddenly turned dark blue and it started thundering. Then I heard a loud, horrible ripping sound of an uprooted tree followed by a loud gunshot-sounding bang. The neighbor's tree fell over onto a transformer. Not sure exactly how it happened, but we were without power for four hours. Very weird. When it happened, my hens shot up the hill into their fenced-in area! They left me to defend for myself. ha After the rain, four of them dried out on the deck. My EE wasn't with them because she decided to lay an egg at 4:30pm. The second photo was taken earlier of my cat lurking over my BR. Lionel the cat was actually sneaking a look at the rescued squirrel that playing in a nearby tree while I supervised. The hens love to perch on that little branch in the Verbena bush even though it's only a foot off the ground.

Oh my goodness! I hope our chickens will come hang out on our deck! I love the picture of them all roosting on the railing and in the trees. Pretty sure if that was my cat I'd constantly have to be smacking him to keep him off the chickens. Thankfully he's an indoor boy. And if you wanted to make an avatar for me with the county map that would be great, Thanks for doing all the work on it!

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote:
Thanks for mine too.

 

[me me me]

Here is more reference material on FF it says no yeast and I guess there are two methods.
http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/fermented-feed.html?m=1

 

[Mother2Hens]

yay! tiny map, but can still see the county.

Great job! All you need is to see that visual of the county.

If anyone I have made an avatar for wants the map smaller, just let me know. It kind of depends on the proportion of the picture that is used with the map-- if making the map smaller makes it possible for the photo to be enlarged or not.

 

[Mother2Hens]

I was outside yesterday paintng a pergoda, look up and see this rolling in, I was thrilled. Early day for me

Fortunatly it missed us, sounds like Mother got it instead.

Yes! That's what it looked like suddenly rolling in. I love how you multi-task-- pausing a carpentry job to take a beautiful photograph!
(recap of the storm below-- I have never heard a tree rip out of the ground so loudly! Scary.

Sudden Storm!
We had a beautiful sunny day and I was out with my hens . . . the skies suddenly turned dark blue and it started thundering. Then I heard a loud, horrible ripping sound of an uprooted tree followed by a loud gunshot-sounding bang. The neighbor's tree fell over onto a transformer. Not sure exactly how it happened, but we were without power for four hours. Very weird. When it happened, my hens shot up the hill into their fenced-in area! They left me to defend for myself. ha

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:

Wonderful news! Its heartwarming to hear of a good ending every so often. Kittens and pups are so hard to place! I know firsthand also what shelters have to do, I worked as a director for animal control for 5 years. It weighs upon you after a while and becomes very difficult to be "cold-hearted". A little extra effort usually can place most strays IF they are adoptable.