INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[kabhyper1]

Quote:
Thank you, my delight turned to horror when I cracked the one. I really hope I didn't mess something up. Here is my girl patiently waiting....

 

[Old Salt 1945]

When I had to replace my anode rod a couple of years ago. the old man in the ace hardware looked at me like I was nuts for replacing it. He literally would not sell me one. Said it was a waste of money. That once the rod goes, you only have a year or so left. Maybe I should have gone to a big box store, not my town store. I didn't replace it. Should I go buy one and replace it now. Its been probably 3 years?

I agree with an earlier post by Too Fast. Replace it now. Better late than not at all. Anode is much cheaper than water heater.

Hey john where do you buy one of them sediment filter things? Lowes?

Menards has this one: http://www.menards.com/main/plumbin...whole-house-filter-system/p-136434-c-8685.htm

• Reduces: Fine Sediment, Dirt, Rust Particles , Chlorine Taste and Odor
• Micron size: 5
• Filter life: 15,000 gallons or 3 months

The filters appear to have activated carbon to remove nasty smells and tastes.

It uses the standard 10" filters, so you can use anything available.

Here is my setup.


Note the spare filter elements sitting on the cigar boxes.

I have a water softener. Water comes from the well pump to the pressure tank to the water softener to the house.

I rearranged the hoses so that the water comes from the pressure tank to the sediment filter to the water softener to the house.

That way sediment free water goes to the water softener.

You can see how red it is from filtering out rust particles. 1 or 5 micron filters work best. I plan to try some with the carbon to see if it improves the taste/smell of our water.

It has a twist knob at the top to shut off the water flow for changing filters.

John

By sediment filter do you mean just a string filter? We have one on ours it helps a ton! Especially before we had a new well drilled.

Yes. I have used the string filter in mine. The 1 or 5 micron filters work even better. They're about the same cost. Try one next time you change filter elements.

John

 

[racinchickins]

Quote:

Our family ventured into beekeeping. 3 years ago both of the kids joined the 4-H bee club. The first 2 years of club the project requirement was a poster to display. We were still in town and didn't have a place for hives, so we spent that time learning. Last year, once we were living out of town, we set up 2 hives. We wanted the benefit of the pollination for our garden & the orchard we planted, but especially wanted to produce our own honey. I personally think it takes a certain type of personality to have bees -- you really have to want to do it. My son was kind of wishy-washy about it, but my daughter & I thought we would enjoy it. For a while during the spring and early summer it wasn't bad for us. But what we hated was when it was time to take frames out and get all the bees off so we could extract honey for fair. We didn't really have a good way to do it and we were so afraid of making just a couple of the bees mad enough that they would sting & send out the warning pheromones to the others to attack! (Happened once when some accidently got stepped on - yikes!) It also seemed like whenever it was time to check the fullness of the frames hives it was super hot, we were sweltering in our bee suits and it took us forever since we were so new. Quite the sensation to have thousands of bees swarming around and on you with just the smoker to use to puff "calming" puffs of smoke around! For us, it just turned out not to be an enjoyable experience, which I was kind of disappointed about. It became a dreaded task to tend to them. It's not a lot of work, but it's work that has to be done when it is time for it -- some tasks can't be postponed -- especially if your hive is too full. If you wait an extra day you might not have a hive left because they're swarmed looking for more space. Often we were so busy with other stuff that we weren't able to tend to things when we should have. Sometimes (often?) we felt like we really had no clue what we were doing or what needed to be done & when -- could have used a bit more mentoring. One other negative that was fairly unique for us -- since the bees have to have access to water, they decided our little beach area by our pond was the perfect spot for them -- all that nice, wet sand at the edge of the water. We had to be sooo careful every time we went to swim so we wouldn't step on them. A couple of feet did actually get stung. We were pretty tired of that by the end of summer. All these things obviously influenced how we felt about the whole adventure.

However, you could have the personality of our 4-H club leader who is in heaven with all the bees swarming around him -- says it is calming!

I think it's one of those things -- either love it or hate it. On the flip side, we had sooo much fun when it was actually time to extract and bottle the honey. If that's all we had to do I'd love it. We extracted about 140 lbs. of honey. A lot of people bought honey from us multiple times -- said they loved it -- and were sorry when we didn't have any more left to sell. We still have our 2 complete hives & equipment in my garden work shed. Not sure if we'll try it again in a couple of years or end up selling it all -- it was a pricey adventure! But at least my gardening area has a wonderful honey smell on warm sunny days when the temperature goes up in there -- love the honey house smell!

Thank you for sharing your ups and downs! I am concerned also, but want to give it a try for at least a couple of years. I am hoping to keep the costs down by making my own hives, and I have heard that the top bar method, although you get slightly less honey, is much easier to work with and less intrusive to the bees. I had friends try bees and it lasted maybe 6 months, but I am really into the idea of homesteading and trying to be as self sufficient as possible! Plus I'm super stubborn!

It definitely isn't for everyone. My partner loves it, and is always ready to go check on his 'girls'. They don't bother him at all. Me....not so into it.

I stick with the girls I know.

He can handle the honey, I'll handle the eggs. As far as top bar goes, the reasons you post are the reasons he wants them. Easier on the bees and the beekeeper. The smaller honey amount doesn't bother him at all. We should still get all the honey we can handle and then some.

 

[Mother2Hens]

browncow posted: Stupid question, I can usually figure out the breed abbreviations but what is a BCM ?

browncow~ Indiana Thread motto: "No question is a dumb question." Intelligent people ask questions!

Here are two BYC acronym lists:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/acronym-list-for-byc
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/byc-index-of-abbreviations

barb s~ Is your DF a Dear Friend or Dear Father?

I also ran across this interesting list of terms:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/...of-common-terms-for-raising-backyard-chickens
Originally Posted by pginsber
Two of the chicks have brown stripes on their heads and chipmunk stripes on their backs.


pginsber~ Do not let Old Salt near the ones that resemble chipmunks! His killer instincts might take over.
Btw~ Your photos are wonderful. The chicks look so fuzzy and sweet.

 

[Old Salt 1945]

I did the bee thing 30+ years ago. I had 3 or 4 hives.

I bought one box of bees through the mail and collected the rest myself from swarms.

I collected one swarm downtown Indianapolis during lunch hour while wearing a business suit. I cut off the tree branch with my pocket knife and placed it in a cardboard box I got from a business nearby. I folded the box shut and put it opening-down in the back of my pickup truck. I parked back in the parking garage. When I got back to work, I mused with my co-workers about what would happen if a thief tried to steal the box from the truck.

The longer I had them, the meaner they got. When dealing with bees, you never think of individual bees, unless the individual has managed to get inside the veil with you. At that point, you think ONLY about that individual. Once, I had so many inside the veil that I ran and ripped off the veil. They chased me all the way back to the house, about 800 feet. Fortunately, it was upwind or I wouldn't have been able to stay ahead of them. Now I would be able to run (slowly) maybe 80 feet.

One night, I went out after dark (they won't fly at night) and pulled all the comb frames out and piled them up on the truck's tailgate brushing off the bees from the combs, pant legs, gloves, etc.

I broke up the combs and put them in a pressure cooker pot that held 3 or 4 gallons and warmed it up on the stove. I strained off the crud consisting of larvae, form wires, cocoons, etc. Then I skimmed off the beeswax. I then poured the remaining honey into quart and pint jars.

That supplied my extended family with honey for years.

It was fun until they got mean. I still have some of the bee stuff laying around in the basement and barn if someone wants it.

John

 

[barb s]

My DF is my Dear Fiancee. He's the greatest.

 

[gunchief25]

Quote:
Welcome!!!

 

[Old Salt 1945]

HI! We are new and was told about the state sites! I am looking to start our adventure here in Northwest Indiana, but don't know where I can purchase chicks. We are looking to purchase egg layers. We are from Northwest Indiana and our town is looking to change our ordinances, so that is why we are looking now. We were going to wait until Spring, but now we cannot. And why wait right? I look forward to "meeting" everyone and thank you in advance for your help!

Howdy. Welcome to the chicken gabfest.

Brad Selig lives somewhere near Ft. Wayne. He has quality birds. I don't know whether he has anything available right now. If he doesn't, he will probably be able to direct you.

John

 

[Leahs Mom]

We've also considered top bar hives. My husband was going to build one but hasn't yet. Studying, I found that the top bars seem to be a more "natural" way for bees and also allows them to build their own comb which also keeps mites from invading quite so easily.

 

[Mother2Hens]

The breeder selling the Heritage English BOs was afraid that her birds were so gentle that they would be picked on by other breeds. I thought that the Heritage RIRs were supposed to be much more gentle than the production birds. Maybe it is the production birds she is used to. I hadn't heard anything about BRs being rough at all. She suggested that, if I wanted different colors of birds, I should try an all-Orpington flock in all the Orpington colors. Interesting thought. I won't be looking for RIRs until spring, so they would be younger, giving the BOs an advantage.

toodlesmom~ IMO~ I enjoy different breeds' personality traits. Although my RIR is high-strung, nosey, and noisy, she isn't aggressive toward my two orps who have the opposite traits. Since I have limited space like you, I embrace diversity.

jchny~ Wow, you went from bees being one of your most feared insects to actually thinking about raising them! As I've mentioned before, this thread does open the mind to new ways of thinking. One of my sisters is looking into raising them and I gave her a recent copy of Time magazine that had a cover story about bees. Some of the info can be read here:
http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/ Thanks for everyone's input about bees. It's helpful to read about different experiences. I'm going to send everyone's stories to my sister.
czumm976~ Welcome to the Indiana Thread! Please go to page 1522, post 15214 for Thread Info including member locations.
wheezy~ You are so lucky! You get to run a home for new mothers. The hens and babies are so sweet!!
kabhyper~ Good luck with hatch day, and don't beat yourself up over the egg. Let us know how is goes.
pipd~ Lucky to avoid the hawk. I've heard that Cooper's hawks are more aggressive. I'm no expert, though.