INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[julie0477]

^^^thanks.  Maybe we will do that.  We aren't looking for bantams, tho.

let me know if you dont find any. A few weeks ago I brought home an adorable red frizzle baby boy from my friends house and she has a broody hatching eggs due in a couple of weeks. Chances of a frizzle being in that mix are high and she can't keep any more boys.

 

[julie0477]

We have a miniature doe that will be available in a few weeks. Born July 18th. She is so cute! Can not put her out with her Daddy.

awe.... What breed are they?

 

[Kiniska]

@ Julie, mostly small goat.The grandmother on the dam's was 75% pygmy. The dam's sire was 100% Nigerian dwarf and the Buck/sire is all Nigerian dwarf. I have no idea what percentage it makes the doeling.

 

[racinchickins]

Got another egg today with some blood smears on it. Waited until everyone was cooped up for the night and went in and checked all the girls to see if I had a prolapsed vent. I saw no sign of one at this point. So hopefully it's just a 'new layer' thing and it will get better. On the brighter side, didn't see any mites, and it allowed me to confirm who was laying and who has not started yet. I also got the chance to get a real close look at my Welsummers, and it was fascinating to see all the new feathers coming in on the one who is molting.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

It was 26 ...don't have a compute to update it....but the insurance say there a pest

I can see the liability going up if you admit to selling eggs. But it would be a hard case to win trying to prove that the egg a person got from you caused an illness or injury. The person would have to show multiple case with different people getting sick just as a starting point. A few dozen eggs going to friends and family each week really should not be an issue.
Try getting a quote from a few companies that offer farm insurance. They sell standard insurance too and most of their underwrites would not think twice about seeing a chicken or two. There might be a limit though for the standard policy, maybe having more than 3 adult chickens per family member needs a farm policy.

 

[julie0477]

Wow that's an eye opener. I never even considered the chickens being a problem for home owners insurance.

 

[kabhyper1]

So every egg our EE has layed so far has been double yolked. 4 now. I guess twins are in her genes. lol Does anyone know how a hen lays a large egg ad hen the next day lays two soft shells?

 

[toodlesmom]

We went to the State Fair today. Saw our daughter Irish Dance with her troupe, Celtic Motion. She did a mean treble jig solo!

Also saw the CHICKENS!! My loving DH helped me find the ones I am interested in getting and took a real interest in the info I've gleaned on BYC, then he saw the Polish chickens and, from his expression, I think I may have a real chicken man on my hands! He wants to come back Tuesday night to see the results of the judging. Hurrah!

 

[Mother2Hens]

Originally Posted by jchny2000
M2H that's very exciting, chocolate Orps are just beeeautiful!! Everyone still has Bantam so far but for a bantam, they are as big as a small LF, like a polish.

I read your post and thought Bantams-- whaaat? For some reason I did not notice that word on chickenscratchpoultry.com's description of Chocolate Orpingtons even though the information was in 18 pt. type (apparently for potential clients with vision problems). They need to think of people like me who apparently have brain synapse problems. My only concern about a Bantam is being picked on, but as you said, they are large sized small birds. Do you know what size eggs they lay? My RIR and SLW lay small eggs, my BR and EE lay nice large eggs. Lauren and I are driving over tomorrow, so we'll see what the pullet looks like. They have some other breeds, too, in case I change my mind.

DH and I worked on converting the custom rabbit cage into a custom chicken coop. Our big coop is bolted into the back of our garage, then there's a walk coming out of the garage, then the grill, then the deck with a back door to our house. When he asked where I wanted to put it, I said sweetly, "Where the gas grill is." So, DH moved it so we could set up the small coop. Then I read this post:
Originally Posted by jchny2000 We have a 2 car garage that's all storage. What a huge waste of space! Time to utilize that building

What a great idea! We'd have the big coop that's bolted into the back of our garage, then there's the walk coming out of the garage that could be filled with lots of chickens!, then the small coop, then the deck with a back door to our house.
Originally Posted by Thunder Chicken
I recently added two EE's to my flock of six. The EE's are outcasts and cannot touch the ground without being mauled.
My EE is the lowest in the pecking order of my five hens, so maybe when I integrate my younger, docile and maybe a bantam-- orps in with the hens, my EE will have better self-esteem. She also suffers from being made fun of on those BYC purebred ameraucana threads.
Originally Posted by Thunder Chicken I saw the same coop on TSC's website. They are advertised for $150 new. The Craigslist ad says 4-6 capacity and TSC says 2-4 capacity. Just a heads up.
Yes, by the looks of the coop, it might hold two chickens! But it would be a handy size for a back-up cage.
vickichicki~ Did your sister come from across the pond or is she a mail-order bride, too? haha just kidding you! Hope you had a nice visit. Does she think you're weird for having chickens?
Too Fast~ I think that hawk is the prison warden and the finishing touch for your fortress should be some razor wire:


CRSelvey~ So let's see, you had a truck load of construction sand delivered, but you use a kitty litter scoop to clean the sand.
Loved your story about too many plans for one weekend-- especially when you said: " . . . so out of the truck the roosters went and off to the bridal shower we went." You missed the perfect opportunity for a unique bridal shower gift-- you could have started a trend-- Bring a rooster to a hen party!
In lamenting about your good boy turned bad, you said: I'm going to miss one of them for the chick that he was, but not for the adult he became. Is it wrong to leave his pic on my avatar as a memorial? Well, I remember when I made your avatar you said he was your favorite. You can remember him from his innocent days or I'll be happy to update your avatar with one of your Cochins.
Originally Posted by Kiniska
We have a miniature doe that will be available in a few weeks. Born July 18th. She is so cute! Can not put her out with her Daddy.

How sweet! Sounds like a similar situation jchny has with keeping the male away from mom and baby. It would be hard to give her up!

toodlesmom~ Sounds like the State Fair was successful for your daughter and for conditioning your husband toward the path of chicken enlightenment.
Originally Posted by HouseKat
Our chickens seem to have enjoyed the grass clippings (chemical-free, of course) and they got their first taste of tomatoes last night. They didn't take an interest when we first set them out, but this morning they were all gone. Tomorrow I plan to give them some zucchini that we got from the same FOAF who gave us the tomatoes.
I've never given tomatoes to my chickens after reading that they're toxic (another debatable chicken topic!), but from other things I've read, I believe that leaves and stems of the plant are toxic and not the actual tomato. I have noticed that like most creatures, chickens seem to know what to eat and what to avoid. Thank goodness! I can't keep track of everything!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: So true! My Dad had one German Shepard that was just so sweet. He got her as an adult, and Brandy HATED small animals. She got one of his geese, and a barn cat. After that day, he confined her to a tie out cable anytime she was out of the fenced area. All his other GS were raised from pups and never touched any of the animals.

Forgot to mention that I ordered some peepers on Ebay. 10 with the pliers for about $14. Seems like a good deal compared to others I saw online.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=321182213224&ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:US:1123

Yesterday I spent the whole day making a poop box and filling in the run with pea gravel. I literally lifted more than a ton. Twelve 50lb. bags(wet) of pea gravel onto the cart, again into the car, again out of the car into a wheelbarrow. Eight went straight to the coop from there. Four went to the back porch while I completed the poop box. Then 3 went into it. That is a lot of lifting for this old man.

Good info, thanks for sharing!

Ugh it really stinks getting old. I will be 50 this year, and there are some things I just cannot do anymore.

So, I was just looking out the window and saw this thing of beauty land on top of our coop. Either an immature coopers hawk or a sharp shinned hawk. The eyes are not red like an adult cooper, but are dark like an immature cooper. Looked more like a cooper to us. It walked all over the roof, then landed on the ground and walked around there. Finally we got too close and it flew away. I'm hoping it learned that it can't get into Fort Chicken. So glad I spared no effort to make our chicken coop/run secure. What a perfect, sunny day it is today!

Yikes! You are a super chicken dad! we mostly see redtails here, We are fortunate none have attempted to take one of our birds yet.

My sister is in town for a couple of weeks so I have already missed a bunch if stuff but I am still reading.

Being so busy here lately I have only spent enough time collecting eggs and feeding birds. I have not had another rooster attack on me, however I have been very dubious about going in and been very visual on him. I think it may have been a one off.
I have been collecting eggs and had a day I thought I had missed a day as one coop had several eggs in it. Last time I checked I had two confirmed laying. Pulled 5 from the boxes... Apparently some decided to lay for the first time on the same day, causing me to be confused about collecting eggs the day before.
This has caused jubilation as I have three laying blue eggs and miffedness that another light pink/cream egg addition means confirmation on not having leghorns.

For those concerned about the rough eggs... I introduced oyster shell as it was recommended, I promptly stopped offering it as it gave 'warty' eggs. Since the removal of the shell I have not had a warty one since. If the eggs are fine I would not feed additional shell.

good to see you on! I hear ya about crazy busy. Last few weeks I barely get time to post!
I wonder if your roo was testing the water since the RP Tom is gone. He found out you are the boss!
Most of my girls are way off on laying, i am only getting half a dozen or so daily this last week.

Anybody go looking for moon beams/government brainwashing radiants last night or planning on it tonight? How about you John, maybe we could put our tinfoil hats on and look for them at your place, it's probably darker then the cemetary we went to last night. This time of year the government beams are visible, but they think we are dumb so they call them the Persied meteor shower.

I had the kids (8 and 11) on edge a bit at the cemetary, Natalie (11) got spooked when she spotted a deer walking around. Kyle kept talking about zombies. Unfortunately it was a bit overcast, we watched for about an hour, then quit at midnight. Tonight between 1 AM and dawn is supposed to be the best viewing, but there is this unfortunate thing called work that will interfere.

Quote:
Oh my, and a whole lotta poo!