INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Old Salt 1945]

boy ducks make a lot of feathers for a pillow. And some people like their meat too. I have not tried the meat but feather pillows are nice. at one time we had a feather bed topper, that was not as great as it sounds as the feathers kept coming out when the children would roll around on the bed.

My grandfather had a feather bed in the back spare bedroom that I slept on as a kid.

I remember it well. When I laid on it, all the feathers scooched out to the sides and I laid basically on the board frame. The quills poked through the fabric and I, being a kid, busied myself grabbing them and pulling the feather through. In the morning the floor was littered with small feathers that I had thrown overboard. I hated the blasted feather bed. It would have been more comfortable sleeping on the floor. Except that there was no heat in the room and it was so cold that water would freeze in a glass and break it. There was a coal potbellied stove in the living room and the dining room. Nothing else. The house was huge. It was built in 1828. I recently visited there and the house is being refurbished and listed on the historic something list.

John

 

[exop]

Yup... I signed up for a "sales coop" ... I just have no idea what exactly I signed up for.

Best - exop

Everything went well in Lebanon... the sales cage area was more or less anarchy, not visibly overseen by anybody but still operating smoothly. Four or five double rows of show cages on trestle tables, uder a picnic shelter. Show staff had attached a slip of yellow paper assigning a name to each cage. There was an "Indiana BYC'ers here" sign nearby, but no visible BYC'ers; probably because of the discouraging weather.

Most cages did have a note or business card explaining how to get hold of the seller... things must have been considerably different before there were cell phones. There was a steady drift of people staring intently at the birds, and peripatetic sellers (the most visible Joel Henning, with his distinctive jacket) bustling back and forth. Cages could be refilled at will, but of course birds added toward the end of the show were less likely to be seen by interested parties.

Best - exop

 

[Leahs Mom]

Running behind on posts! Saw some talk about sexing chicks. Aoxa posted this in the Natural Chicken Keeping thread. I'll cc here in case it might be useful to someone.


Quote: Aoxa https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...eeping-thread-ots-welcome/22360#post_12174954

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Evansville/Vanderburgh County Poultry Ordinances
I forgot to mention the best information that I learned last night when HouseKat and I attended the chicken presentation at the library. I knew that if you live in Evansville, you can only have 6 animals, so if you have 2 dogs you can only have 4 chickens, and they all have to be registered. A chicken coop must be 50 ft. from the neighbor's house. I live a mile outside the city limits and I could not find the ordinance, nor did I want to call attention to myself by asking county officials. Last night, I found out that I can have as many chickens as I want! (or as many chickens as I can get by with before DH files for divorce!) The only restriction in the county is if a person lives in a subdivision with a neighborhood association that forbids chickens. Luckily, my subdivision does not. I am so excited to make my shopping list! Or at least, be able to dream.

pginsber~ My daughter lives a mile from downtown Indy and her neighbor has a rooster. I assume you must have a neighborhood association. As far as sexing your RIRs, our first chicks purchased as pullets a year ago were six RIRs, and by month five, we started commenting that our one pullet looked really strange next to our other pullets with their long shiny green tail feathers! Duh! Needless to say, we had no prior experience with chickens.
toodlesmom posted: Oh, believe me, my brother is not working for free! He is a skilled finish carpenter and is charging me the full hourly rate he charges his other customers. No family discount here. And he is a prima donna who always works alone. Currently, we are his full-time job, as he is also working on remodeling our house. Argh. I have lined up heritage pullets for a coop that was supposed to be done weeks ago. I am afraid the sellers will change their minds if I keep asking them to wait. I'm kind of in a Catch 22. Hiring someone else would make for very bad family feelings - Christmas could be ugly. But, having my brother work for us may cause me to lose my chickens, and it is turning my hair gray.
toodlesmom~ That is a "****** if you do, ****** if you don't" situation! House remodeling is enough stress to make everyone crazy. Maybe if you put the pullets in a cage next to where he's working in the house, then he'll smell the urgency of finishing the coop.

My DH and I have decided to consult Angie's List for a carpenter or buy a ready-made coop for now.
Don't get me started on Angie's List! It is just a bogus as regular online "customer" ratings. People easily plant fake ratings for friends' businesses. The company also pressures businesses into joining Angie's List through fear of retribution. Reminds me of organized crime tactics.

Thanks for letting me vent!

You really need some more birds, brad!

Haha --I think you're trying out for the Guinness Book of World Records. About about this falcon-- a white-headed vulture. She would be a good mate for that man-bird.





What about Homing Pigeon Racing? They're pretty cute.

If someone is going to get pigeons, I suggest tumbler pigeons.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I posted this from last year in the DIY thread but posting it here too regarding heating the water heaters.
This is what I made last year.

***************************

Base Water Heaters

And the base heaters I made from heated dog bowls last year. Will probably use again with these glass waterers this year but I also have a different idea I'd like to try too.

I needed to rig something to keep water from freezing on the broody side of the hen house with the vintage glass waterer. I also used these under pie pans with fermented feed in them to keep it from freezing solid since I put out a bunch when I go out to work in the morning for the whole day.


I first thought about making a "cookie tin heater" or a light bulb and block but decided not to do that as I feel that they may pose a fire risk for various reasons.

Instead, I decided to use the heating element from a heated dog bowl. That way, if my experiment doesn't work - or when I'm done using it - I still have a heated dog bowl to use! Double duty and these heat elements are designed to do the job already and wired correctly to handle the job...I feel the risk of fire is much lower using these elements. They also have the thermostatic control built right in so I don't have to purchase another item!

So...here we go.

Here's the water bowl right from the farm store. $14.99






Here's the bowl after I removed the heating element.



Here's the heating element. I believe the part in the center is the thermostatic heat sensor. It will only heat when the temperature drops below a certain degrees. I think it upper 30's on these. Under the heat element is Styrofoam for insulation and the plastic base that normally sits under the dog bowl.



Here is a cookie tin I picked up at Good Will $0.75. Notice that the top has a rim that will catch water if I have a leak. It was just the right size for the heater base....this is VERY COOL as I purchased it the day before I picked up the dog bowl and had no real idea that it would fit. I think that was Providential...just sayin'

I used Duct tape to attach the cookie tin lid to the heater base. Here you see the plastic bottom-side of the heater base which is normally under the dog bowl.



When completely taped down, the duct tape is fully covering the edges so that no water or shavings can get in there.



In the hen house:



With Fermented Feed



I had a couple of them.





Here is is with an evil plastic waterer base before I got the vintage glass bases.

These bases only run 50 watts.

 

[Leahs Mom]

It was noted that the bottom won't sit flat on those because of the cord, etc.

It won't sit flat on a surface without a little more "tweaking".

When it's used on the dog bowl, they have recessed it in. The bowl actually sits on the bottom rim of the bowl and there is a cut-out in the rim for the cord to go through. You can see it in this photo...the cut out is at the top left on the outer rim; the heat part sits up in the inner circle part.

Being somewhat lazy and not wanting to build anything else

, I did a couple of easy fixes for this.

1. I got 2 bricks or patio blocks, set them side by side with a gap between them, and let the raised part and cord sit down in the gap. That way the flat part of the base was resting on the blocks and the raised parts weren't causing things to "rock".

2. Just set it on a block (as in the photo in my post) with the cord and uneven stuff partly hanging over the back.

If the cookie lid had a taller edge, it could just sit on the rim like the dog bowl but you'd have to make a cut-out in the side for the cord.



Oh...and I did try using a flat cookie tin lid on one of them but the chickens knocking things around like they do, the pans tended to slip right off of them. That little raised rim on the cookie tin lid helped keep things from sliding off.

And not all heated dog bowls are created equal. Some of those heat bases are made differently so they may have different challenges than this one.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote:
A very vivid description of my feelings of the feather mattress. I would not have made it on the frontier. Things like flour sack clothing, corn cob mattress, even feather mattress are just not for me. But a feather pillow with enough pillowcases on it is not too bad.


CCC..Chickens. I have found out that my youngest is not tolerating the puppies well. He is getting a goopy eye reaction. I wanted to let you know I have them listed on Craigslist for $25 each. The $25 is to cover the cost of their puppy collars and leashes as well as the flea medicine, not to make a profit. To be honest at this point I would drop the fee for the right family. However CL does not allow free pet listings. So I had to come up with something that sounded reasonable and yet nowhere near $150-250 that is clearly trying to make a profit.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Everything went well in Lebanon... the sales cage area was more or less anarchy, not visibly overseen by anybody but still operating smoothly. Four or five double rows of show cages on trestle tables, uder a picnic shelter. Show staff had attached a slip of yellow paper assigning a name to each cage. There was an "Indiana BYC'ers here" sign nearby, but no visible BYC'ers; probably because of the discouraging weather.

Most cages did have a note or business card explaining how to get hold of the seller... things must have been considerably different before there were cell phones. There was a steady drift of people staring intently at the birds, and peripatetic sellers (the most visible Joel Henning, with his distinctive jacket) bustling back and forth. Cages could be refilled at will, but of course birds added toward the end of the show were less likely to be seen by interested parties.

Best - exop

I bought a buff laced bearded polish pullet from Joel Henning, He was very nice. Told me a few things about the breed I didnt know. I only paid $25 and she is really pretty and friendly. I walked through the sales coops every 20 mins except for when I left for lunch.

 

[Leahs Mom]

And here is my new, all glass waterer that I made. You can read about it in the DIY thread at this link: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/631861/diy-thread-lets-see-your-inventions/1230#post_12201448

 

[FarkerFarms]

If someone is going to get pigeons, I suggest tumbler pigeons.

My neighbor raises and flies the tumbler pigeons. They are super cool to see fly, spiraling and plummeting towards the ground as a big group.