INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

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and so glad u jumped in!!

I do not wash til I need to use them. Put them in the fridge as is, FYI write the date on the egg with a sharpie or pencil. They last a long time unwashed, refrigerated I do also freeze eggs for up to a year. eggs sell very well also!



Good luck, poly vi sol no iron. Hope she is ok

I have a Lavender orp with the same situation and I hope to save him.

Thanks, I hope to save her too, now that she has been sick or hurt or whatever is wrong with her, I have spent a lot more time with her so she is one of my favorites.

I really believe most breeds you have to work at bonding, then being the alpha. For my personal choice I love rotts, and shepards. If they learn early to follow your words and trust you, they will protect what is theirs as an adult. They will also respect and obey you. Any dog needs interaction to know what is ok, and whats unacceptable. Falls back to the owner being responsible enough to train their dog properly.

Ugh, the guy that owns the bait store has tons, and sets off more over Brookville lake.I can throw a rock and hit the shop from my camper.

Its pretty and all, but most of us are 50+ and really aren't into it anymore. I like the stars, pretty stuff, but wow some of it is louder than a gunshot. My lil pug Sadie I leave home the 4th of july because its quiet at home. What little we heard here had all my critters frightened and hiding.


WOW I really need to make that swap, Hoping next month. That's a nice size! The cost of the hardware cloth gees it sure went up. I just hatched 47 out of 60 eggs so am good on quail

total count on them is 61 with the other batches. first round should lay in 2 weeks. I have A&M, Tuxedo, speckled and jumbo. And a few Cinnamon, wow are they tiny at first! They are really friendly sweet lil birds. Going to start sorting the colors and types in a few weeks.
I am still looking for peafowl, Ebay is crazy expensive on eggs. Another good reason to go

I completely agree, not with just certain breed but all dogs. And training is very important in my opinion. Do you have any dogs right now?

 

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Question about feed.....I just read that you are supposed to have feed available for your layers all day long. Well, all my birds free range from 8a-9p daily. I give them feed usually in the afternoon. Should I change my feeding plan?

That is my feeding schedule too. Mine eats lots of bugs and stuff all day, so during the spring, summer, fall they really dont eat that much. They drink a ton though.

 

[CRSelvey]

All three of these birds are Easter-eggers. Muffin is close to a white Amaraucana, but he has green legs and so he is an Easter-egger after all. Almost inevitably, if you buy 'Ameraucanas' from the feed store, they will turn out to be EEs.
It depends on how young your teenagers are. Birds younger than 15-16 weeks should not be getting the extra calcium that is in layer feed unless they are laying. Do you give oyster shell free choice? If so, you could just give your entire flock chick food and they will be fine.

I haven't been giving the oyster shell yet because the laying hens were separate until just this weekend, but after checking the coop, they only had the chick feed out there. I had the laying feed in the yard for the older guys who fly over the garden fence. I will get some today and make sure its available for the hens. It feels weird calling a cockerel Muffin. I just can't believe it!

excerpt of post by CRSelvey:
So we have been working really hard on the coop for the last week and a half. The inside of the coop is almost done, the outside is getting trimmed and we have started on the run frame. Also, the sand has been delivered for the inside of the coop and run. It was called 23/24 sand and 9.80 per ton with a $50 delivery charge. I got about 5.5 tons to make sure there was enough. Whatever is left will just become part of the pathway to the coop. My MIL came to visit and after two days of being woken up by the roosters in the basement and the roosters in the mudroom (we are overrun with roosters), we moved them out to the coop. Its not entirely ready, but I love my MIL and really didn't want her to lose her mind. Both groups of chickens are playing well together and its working out pretty well. The only problem is the over-abundance of roosters. While we were out working, one of my favored hens (on my avatar) crowed!!! Muffin is a cockerel. My MIL looked at Muffin and said of course, just look at his tail!!! Seriously, this is what happens when you are a newby and don't really know chickens. UGH. So my current count is 3 Full-sized Cockerels, 5 bantam roos, 3 pullets, 2 hens (one of which is MIA because I think she is sitting on eggs somewhere- YIKES). At the very least I need to get rid of two of the cockerels.

I assume that the 23/24 sand is more coarse and is usually used for construction purposes? I posted that link about the benefits of sand recently, and although I've always used play sand mixed with the natural dirt at the bottom of the coop, I was planning to use sand-only when I did a total coop cleaning before introducing my two orp pullets to the coop. Luckily, I noticed Tweedy's leg mites, so I'll have to do several complete coop cleanings before the pullets can join the flock (the leg mites live three weeks). Anyway-- that article said to use washed construction sand, which Lowe's has. My gosh-- 5.5 tons sounds like you'll have enough for a beach!! haha
Here's that link again-- about using sand if anyone is interested. http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/09/chicken-coop-bedding-sand-litter.html

I loved your MIL story -- and also the one about "Muffin" the male! It reminded me of how silly we were not to notice that our RIR "pullets" had long green tail feathers. We thought that our only real pullet, the infamous Nene, looked weird because she didn't look like the others. Newbies!

When I called the quarry, they didn't know what I meant when I said Washed Construction sand, so I went over there and looked at it. Its got small pebbles and finer sand all mixed together. They call it fill sand. I wasn't sure how much to get but I knew I needed at least 4" in a 6x8 coop and 4-5" in a 14x8 run. Also, my garden (where the run is located) is filled with clay and not a very good garden yet, so I figured it would be good to till some sand in with all the other stuff to make the dirt nicer in the future. I can also use it in walkways if I have any left over. You know when you go to the ATM and they charge you? I always get extra to make it worth paying for the service charge. It was kind of like that with the sand. I wanted to buy more sand than I was spending on the delivery charge. I'm just kind of nutty, but I can live with it.

Hello! Is this thread active? I was directed here from a defunct Indiana BYC thread. We plan on starting a flock of six hens next spring or summer. We live in Indianapolis inner-city, in the Irvington neighborhood. Several of our neighbors have small flocks. I am full of questions and expect that I will be using BYC quite a lot.

This thread is amazingly active and filled with really helpful and supportive people. I have learned so much in the last couple of months from everyone here not only about chickens, but what farmers go through in this state. If you read the old posts, you can see good info, some sadness, a lot of humor, and great pictures.

 

[CRSelvey]

PS, M2H, I really hope your hens spot gets cleared up and good luck with the mites!!

 

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CRSelvey- Where do you get probitic/vitamin water from?

 

[Quinstar]

Wow! That's what I get for being busy. Finally got caught up on all the posts...

First off, so sorry to everyone who is still losing birds. I feel so sorry for you. I know how I felt when I thought Annabeth was gone and I was absolutely miserable! Hope you are either able to stop the predators and/or figure out your mystery illnesses.

Second, welcome to all the additional Hoosiers! As M2H already posted I help out with the members list. Feel free to either PM M2H or myself and we will get you added. If anyone has any flock changes or updates I'll take care of you as well!

M2H~ I hope you get your poor girl sorted out. Don't feel bad for not noticing anything sooner. You pay great attention to your girls and it is evident in every post how much you love them!

We got to spend some more time on the coop this weekend. Finally got the run 95% of the way done. At least enough the the guineas are able to go outside now. The run is 8' X 20' completely enclosed with 1/2" hardware cloth. Wow, that stuff gets pricey fast!!!! We buried the cloth down a foot all the way around, but only 6" underneath the coop. We are planning to build out around the coop with pavers for added security. Trying to find some bright turquoise paint for the run door. Really the only thing left is to put on shingles and siding and build out the nesting boxes on the back side. Since the oldest girls are only 15 weeks old we still have a little time to get that done. Once that is all done I want to spice up the inside of the coop a little, but again, that's more for fun that functionality.



We let the guineas out into the run with the chickens yesterday and they couldn't have been happier. They get so upset every morning when the chickens get let out and they have to stay in it was nice to finally be able to give them a little more freedom. Hoping that they just continue to follow the chickens around and learn from their example.

Can anyone tell me when roo's typically start attempting to crow. I heard an odd noise from Carl the other day and not sure if they poor guy was attempting to crow or had a bug in his throat.

Second question.... I've read that it's not healthy for Roo's to eat layer feed and the guineas need to be eating game bird feed. I'm not sure how to regulate this all now that they are all together. When I put out game bird feed the guineas the chickens eat it, the guineas are eating the chick starter, and Carl just eats everything. How do the rest of your regulate food for mixed flocks?

I finally got the bantam's coop MOSTLY done. I will probably be adding a couple egg boxes and another window at some point, I just needed to get it finished and outside. As most people find when building a coop, it took twice as long to build as i thought it would, and cost twice $ what i thought it would!!!!! I just got married on June 27th (in Las Vegas!!

) so having extra time these past two months for construction was difficult, but i'm happy with the final product.

I browsed the coop photos here and elsewhere online and then just started winging it. After this project I have a totally new respect for those who can build things from scratch. I wish i had more of the carpenter gene in my body. But heavy paint and trim will cover a lot of mistakes.

Beginning:








Now getting some primer and paint on it:




And finally, moved to it's final location behind our garage. I was using pieces of PVC pipe to roll the coop in and out of my garage for construction/painting. By the time I got shingles and everything done it was pretty heavy. Took myself and three other grown men to move it around the garage.






The ducks, Thunder and Lightning, had to get in one of the pictures!! My next project will be building them a box of some sort under this coop. The ducks and the bantams have been raised together since they were three or four days old and stay side by side.

Amen!!! DH and I have decided we don't ever want to the know the money invested into the coop. We started construction over Memorial Day weekend and it's still not done!

 

[CRSelvey]

CRSelvey- Where do you get probitic/vitamin water from?

It was just a little jar of powder at TSC that I mix by the galloon.

 

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It was just a little jar of powder at TSC that I mix by the galloon.

Ok, thanks. I do have some vitamin tabelts that you mix with with a gallon of water that I could try. I dont have any probitoics. Heck I dont even know what a probiotic is lol.

 

[CRSelvey]

Your coop and run look really nice! I'd take pics of ours but it looks like a construction zone still.

 

[Quinstar]

Your coop and run look really nice! I'd take pics of ours but it looks like a construction zone still.

Thanks! You should definitely post pictures! Ours always looks like a construction zone. It's funny cause the chickens like to roost all over the sawhorses and tools. They have definitely gotten accustomed to the sound of the saw.