INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[bradselig]

Hi everyone!  I joined BYC recently & someone from Kansas pointed me in the Indiana thread direction -- so glad!  It's taken me about a week or so, but I finally made it through reading all 6648 posts...whew! .  Haven't got much else done during that time, but at least it seems like I kinda know everyone a bit now!  I'm from Goshen (Elkhart County).  About 18 months ago we moved from in town to right outside the city limits where we built a house & barn on 6 acres.  We already had rabbits (Silver Fox, Thrianta & Polish) for 4-H & showing, but I couldn't wait until I got my first chickens!  Last spring we ordered 25 chicks-- buff orpingtons, black australorps, barred rocks, gold & silver laced wyandottes.  I kept my buff roo & all the other roos were grown out for freezer camp.  We now have 14 layers & averaged 8 - 10 eggs weekly throughout the winter.  This spring we picked up 5 cinnamon queens from BigR & ordered 7 isa browns, 4 buffs, 3 gold & 3 silver laced wyandottes & 2 easter eggers.  Our feed mill gets chicks once a month through Townline Hatchery for $1.70/pullet chick.  They're 4 weeks old now & so far still looking all like pullets!  We also have 2 English shepherd dogs, 3 alpacas & barn cats.  My son is wanting Ancona ducks & I've been searching for a local source for them (not sure I want to order the minimum15 from a hatchery!)  Anyone know of a source nearby? I've also been drooling over the lavender & splash orpingtons ever since I discovered their existence a few months ago -- also been scouring the internet for a local source with no luck.  I was soooo excited to read posts here that some of you have lavenders.  Pretty please hatch some for me??   My 24 chicks will be grown up & off to college before I know it so I'll need new babies to replace them!!  My daughter would love blue laced red wyandottes (OK... I would too & we're trying to come to an agreement over who saw pics of them first & gets to claim them whenever we can get some!)

Glad I found y'all!

Welcome! I maybe able to help you with the lavender orps. Ive been buying eggs from a local family that has lavs , buffs, and lemon cuckoo. If your interested send me a pm and we can go from there!
As far as the ancona ducks I believe the orschelns in huntington hss or had some. Ill be stopping in on friday and can look for you if youd like

 

[mlongworth]

Anyone have plymouth rock eggs? Im allowed to get another set to hatch part of my mothers day present. So i am on the hunt.

 

[jsummers]

Ahhhh... My husband would kill me. I really wanted a Cochin this year but couldn't find one. Why do you temp me so?

lol sorry! Im pretty sure its a hen too i have yet to have a roo out of her parents!

 

[Quinstar]

lol sorry! Im pretty sure its a hen too i have yet to have a roo out of her parents!

Well, if you get any more next spring/summer think of me. I can probably convince him to let me have a few chicks next year, but I really like being married, so I should probably not take any this year.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Hi everyone! I joined BYC recently & someone from Kansas pointed me in the Indiana thread direction -- so glad! It's taken me about a week or so, but I finally made it through reading all 6648 posts...whew!

. Haven't got much else done during that time, but at least it seems like I kinda know everyone a bit now! I'm from Goshen (Elkhart County). About 18 months ago we moved from in town to right outside the city limits where we built a house & barn on 6 acres. We already had rabbits (Silver Fox, Thrianta & Polish) for 4-H & showing, but I couldn't wait until I got my first chickens! Last spring we ordered 25 chicks-- buff orpingtons, black australorps, barred rocks, gold & silver laced wyandottes. I kept my buff roo & all the other roos were grown out for freezer camp. We now have 14 layers & averaged 8 - 10 eggs weekly throughout the winter. This spring we picked up 5 cinnamon queens from BigR & ordered 7 isa browns, 4 buffs, 3 gold & 3 silver laced wyandottes & 2 easter eggers. Our feed mill gets chicks once a month through Townline Hatchery for $1.70/pullet chick. They're 4 weeks old now & so far still looking all like pullets! We also have 2 English shepherd dogs, 3 alpacas & barn cats. My son is wanting Ancona ducks & I've been searching for a local source for them (not sure I want to order the minimum15 from a hatchery!) Anyone know of a source nearby? I've also been drooling over the lavender & splash orpingtons ever since I discovered their existence a few months ago -- also been scouring the internet for a local source with no luck. I was soooo excited to read posts here that some of you have lavenders. Pretty please hatch some for me??

My 24 chicks will be grown up & off to college before I know it so I'll need new babies to replace them!! My daughter would love blue laced red wyandottes (OK... I would too & we're trying to come to an agreement over who saw pics of them first & gets to claim them whenever we can get some!)

Glad I found y'all!

and so happy you've joined our thread!!!

I do lavenders, and I think there's 2 members that may be closer that do also. We will get you fixed up!! check the members list to see if there's someone closer than I am, my LOs are about 8 weeks away from laying.

Quote: X2!!!!!!!

Just caught up on all the posts! I have had a trying week, so prepare for a rant. First, I mention to my MIL that my DH and I are building the coop this week and, in all seriousness, she asked if we wanted to borrow her staple gun to do the job....and I said no, we want the coop to be a bit more sturdy than that. She rolled her eyes and said "Do you really think you're going to want to do chickens that long? You're not going to get tired of feeding them?" And I said, If I got tired of feeding animals, do you think I would run a rescue??

She always does this! Why on earth MY animals are any concern of hers, I will never know. Then she decides that she's going to come over and "help" with the yard today. I've been dealing with a bad flea infestation, and I had to give the dogs a final flea bath this morning. DH let them run all over the house wet, and now it's dirty again. I can just HEAR what my MIL is going to say. "You have too many animals!" "Your house smells" and it's all my fault. Never DH's because god forbid he should have to clean up his house too! (He does help, but if the house is dirty it's never his fault, just mine)

And one of my neighbors, has, joy upon joys, gotten a HUGE bully dog. I have no problem with bully dogs, I've had several. But the point is, a lot of them are dog aggressive, and I'm sure most are chicken aggressive, and my neighbor has started letting the dog roam. Into MY yard. I live half a mile away from them, and you'd think that'd be enough space. So yesterday I am out with my three dogs (a puppy poodle, blind/deaf cocker, and a terrier) and suddenly this HUGE dog comes over. I know the puppy with want to "play", the terrier is extremely territorial, and Bella is very old and unable to get spayed, so she's in heat. I went to grab the puppy and haul him inside, but unfortunately we had been "playing" so he ran. The terrier came hauling around the corner, having spotted the bully dog, so I grab him and yell for DH to get the other dogs. Apparently I sounded mean/scared enough, and the bully ran away.

Oh yes, and to top it all off, someone dumped a badly injured terrier dog. They tore off her ears. She was so scared of me that she ran, and wouldn't stop. I left food out for her, and was in the process of borrowing a dog trap for her. The next day, I found her in the middle of the road, right in front of my neighbor's house. My neighbor had a wheel barrow, and saw me picking up the dead dog. Did he offer any help? Nope. So I had the joy of picking her up bare handed.

It never ceases to amaze me how some can be so insensitive.

I get a lot of the same CRAP from my sister btw, I just laugh at her and tell her at least I have a heart. I hope you gave that neighbor the "dumb look" stare!

What a jerk.

I have 15 chicks, 9- 4 months old and 6 -3 months old. These are my first chicks, however, my Busha and Jaja raised chickens and I spent every weeks end with them growing up, gathering the eggs then was a challenge as they really didn't have them for pets, and you had to be fast, or they would get you lol. Part of me wants to get more, as my coop is almost done (yay!) and I have plenty of room for about 10 more. I don't think hubby would like it though.

We had an incident yesterday with the neighbor. He opened his second pen to his turkeys yesterday, which is only farm fence with the 4x4 squares. Well his turkeys are only about 6-8 weeks old and fit right through them. Which made their wiener dog decide he wanted to go through too. Long story short, his dog got into my yard, and up to my fence where my dogs were (our gate to the side yard was open as he wanted to show us his turkeys, we forgot to close it, stupid of us!). We also had our injured chicken out loose in her fenced in area, which I put her in the pen right away. Well once his dog got closer to my fence, my dogs seemed happy to see her, then his dog changed her attitude and started peeing on the fence line. My dogs went nuts. I had already went around to put my dogs in the house when all heck broke loose. My dogs started barking, which scared his dog, in turn she ran into the pen fencing, which scared my injured chicken. Who took flight, and ended up in the yard with my two upset dogs. I tackled my pit Oriana, and held on tight, hubby just stood on the other side of the fence like "whats happening?" I screamed at him to get the other dog, When I looked, Mia the mutt, had the chicken in her mouth running at a crazy pace. My son heard me screaming, came outside, got Mia, while hubby got the bird. We now have a chicken, who is only missing the left side of her tail feathers, Not one drop of blood, my dog totally never had the chicken in her mouth, just a bunch of tail feathers. She has got to be one of the luckiest chickens around. We were not going to name any of them, but this one, she has earned her place in our hearts and family. And has earned the right to a name. Any ideas would be appreciated!

Since this little incident (please read HUGE incident) we have decided to add 6' wire around their yard inside the 4' fence to help with keeping the chickens inside their part of their yard. Their run is the side section of our yard and its fenced in with 6' high chain link, all accept for the 90' that we added to give the dogs a shorter run. So it will get 6' so we don't have this happen again. Hopefully anyway. My back and leg are killing me this morning. I really don't think this old body of mine can do that too many times!

Anyway, hope everyone had a wonderful Mothers Day, I have been off for a couple of days, trying to get things done here. I had hubby home for 3 days, first two were cold and damp so he tried to get caught up on sleep, yesterday we were able to work on the coop. Still need to finish the siding, add roosts, nesting boxes, poop board and hardware cloth. Then the girls can move in yay! And today hes off to work again not sure of the hours, really hoping not 6/12 again, hes getting to tired of those! I also have the grand baby for the rest of the week and two more little ones Wen, Thurs and Friday. So some evening time will be spent on the coop. I am really hoping its done by the weekend!

Have a great week everyone!

Deb

YIKES your life sounds like mine, eventful!

We have 17 laying hens and a rooster. 27, 8 week old chicks, 3 mixed bantams, about 6 weeks old, and 6 silkies that are just 2 weeks old and eggs to go in the incubator.

for anyone that read my post on my freaking out over the incubator it didn't end well. all 42 eggs lost. most had developed to around day 14 where they stopped. found the problem too. thermometer had slipped on it's place card when I candled the eggs and although I thought I was keeping the temp at 102 it was really at 96 . lesson learned and on to the next batch. I was a little devastated. this would have been my 9th hatch and I've always had decent results. I guess this is why they say don't count your chickens before they hatch. luckily my wife's uncle who they were for understood, and I had told him there was no guarantee on how many would hatch so he is good to wait a couple more weeks.

ouch, I am so sorry. I am really working towards a sportsman cabinet, I have 1 built and 3 bought bators now, and I just hold my breath every hatch.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

OOPs sorry Brad I see you posted, you were who I was thinking of too!

Whats the news on your turkey hatch? Mine are growing nicely, so far I think I have 5/6 are viable!

 

[Quinstar]

A little of both actually. I looked at all the plans on this site and changed my mind dozens of times but I found one that could look similar to our woodshed and then made some modifications to it to fit our space.
Here is the inspiration: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hcarlsonlewiss-chicken-coop
I found a window that a neighbor was selling that is 3x5, so we had to fit that in and make room for window boxes. I wanted big barn doors to open into our compost bin for cleaning, so the roosts had to go on that side, the nest box had to go on the side closest to the house, and then I wanted windows for cross ventilation on the north side, but the whole project was getting out of control so I'm screening them in and making doors to cover in the winter. My husband wants to make a cupola so it goes with the woodshed (I love this) so it will be another modification too. I spent a lot of time reading a thread on what people wished they had done differently and that was really useful. Also, I now know I want to build a table above the nest boxes that is big enough to hold a dog crate so that I can keep some birds separated if they get sick (done with them being in the basement). Our coop will be off white with gray/brown trim similar to this http://pinterest.com/pin/261560690830948454/ and will have copper/dark brown colored accents like the garden and the cabin.

I'd say that its cost about $1000 so far which is crazy, but it will be cute and will blend with the log cabin (by colors) and the woodshed (by style) when its done. I still need to order some sand and I might need to get some paint for the inside. Also, I'd really like the auto chicken door (someday) and a chicken fountain.

Can't wait to see it when it's done! Sounds like it's going to be a fantastic coop.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:
X2 it is beautiful, excellent workmanship! Thanks for sharing the link, Showing my DH hehehe

 

[ShawnaScott]

Does anyone know how to tell when grass is 'dried'? I want to start using it as chicken bedding, but I'm not sure how to tell if it's dried enough for storage. It's still a light green color, but it feels and looks dry....? Anyone have experiance?

 

[PeacefulWalls]

and so happy you've joined our thread!!!

I do lavenders, and I think there's 2 members that may be closer that do also. We will get you fixed up!! check the members list to see if there's someone closer than I am, my LOs are about 8 weeks away from laying.

Thanks for the welcome! I can't wait to get some lavenders

. I'm starting to envision the future of my flock with buffs, lavenders, splashes, blues, blacks, lemon cuckoos....uh oh -- we might have to add those magically expanding walls in the coop my husband suggested for the overflowing pantry!