INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[SallyinIndiana]

Finally broke down and added heat to the quail. Hopefully that Will get them laying again because they are already getting artificial lighting. For those that add lighting in the coops, do you just turn it on earlier in the morning only? Or just turn it on at sunset to extend night time hours? I'm thinking of just turning light on earlier than sunrise as if I keep it past sunset, they will all still be awake messing around in the coop when all of a sudden the light turns off. Then thy will have to try and find the roosts in pitch black. But I'm just curious what others do.

I use light on a timer in my coop. I have tried adding the light in just the morning. It is not as easy as that sounds though if you have roosters. Roosters start crowing when they see light even if it is still dark outside. Since it has been getting darker around 6pm that would been turning on the lights around 2 am depending on how much light you want them to have. Last year I tried it for about a month, I eventually gave up on adding only morning light. BUT the great side of adding only morning light is earlier laying, if you can gather the eggs before they freeze.

Now I mix it up a bit, my timer allows for many programs but I only use 2. As of yesterday the lights come on at 6 am and turn off at 9 am when there is plenty of light in the coop from the windows. Then they come back on at 5pm. So far the chickens have not been trapped off of the bars. Most of them just spend the evening hours on the bars, I'm not even positive that they stay awake the whole time. Then the lights are off by 10pm. Most nights I can see that the lights are off with the exception of the heat lamp for the main water. It is red and reminds me of fire safety.

 

[danand]

Well my girls are soo mad at me!! I hadn't let the LF out to free range since it snowed. They had their coup and the open area of the barn and an outside that did have snow. I had put some hay on the snowy area . Well I opened the gate and apparently it's all my fault that there is more of this white crap everywhere!! They all came running out then realized it was everywhere and started frieking out. They are all perched on anything they could find that is not in the snow. Buckets, wagon, extra cages!! It's pretty funny!! Buch of big babies!!!

 

[ShawnaScott]

Hi guys! It's been several months since I've been on here!

Since I've been off, I've had the chance to move into Lafayette into a new subdivision. I know to most of you on here that doesn't sound like good news, but I am ecstatic. It's part of the "Neighborhood Revitalization Project" which pretty much means providing affordable, but good, housing in the city. It's hard to describe fully, and it has a lot of restrictions, but mainly, I can't have my chickens!

So I'd like to sell them, but I'm not sure what I should sell them for. I figured I would post them for sale on here because I know that the majority of people on here won't try to rip me off!

I have 11 laying hens if I have counted correctly and I get between 6-8 eggs/day. I know that sometimes chickens slack off in the winter, but mine haven't, if anything, they've laid more. They're weird.

I have
*1 ISA Brown
*1 EE
*3 4-H Show chickens (Banty OEG I believe)
*2 White Silkies
*4 Standard x Banty
*2 Feathered Feet Roosters, very docile.

All the full banties lay small white eggs, the X's lay medium light brown eggs. The were all born between March and August of this year and I have tons of baby pictures of them. I was wanting somewhere between $7-9 for them, but I wasn't sure if that was too high. Anyway, I can be reached on here or at 765-601-1186 if anyone wants them.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Since y'all are talking about fodder...

I tried fodder (growing sprouts to the grass stage) on a small scale last year right on the kitchen counter. I ended up deciding to just do the sprouts rather than going to grass stage.

Last year I was growing sprouts for only 6 birds so I did an easy counter top version using a bowl and a colander. It was super-easy and I always had sprouts going. (You can read about it and see some photos here.)

This year I am using Kassaundra's (BYC Member) burlap bag method and I LOVE it! I grow them like she shows in her video below and then take the bag outside, invert it, shake some around the run so they can all get at them on the ground, then put the inverted bag on a post that I hammered down into the ground and they pick the sprouts right off of it and clean the bag.

I made my bags smaller than Kassaundra's just because I am only feeding 9 adults and 3 kiddos. Here's the video:

 

[bradselig]

I put a flock block out on Sunday to bribe the fluffy butts out of the coop.  Between the block and the new scratch I bought it worked to some extent.  They spent A LITTLE time outside.  I think it is the wind that is bothering them more than anything.  What do you guys recommend to put on the outside of the run to block wind?  So far the heated dog bowl is doing well, I wish it would hold 2 days worth of water (the biggest I could find was a 1 gallon dog bowl) but it is working well.  I did raise it up a bit on a cement block so they couldn't run through it as easily.  They are at least coming out to eat and drink (there is food in the coop as well but I am paranoid about fires and don't want the heated water in there).

I keep debating whether to spend the money on a flock block. For wind block, I use tarps but were a pain as they were always too tall for my 4' fence. I found Northern Tools has a 4'x18' tarp for around $5.

I use light on a timer in my coop.  I have tried adding the light in just the morning.  It is not as easy as that sounds though if you have roosters.  Roosters start crowing when they see light even if it is still dark outside.  Since it has been getting darker around 6pm that would been turning on the lights around 2 am depending on how much light you want them to have.  Last year I tried it for about a month, I eventually gave up on adding only morning light. BUT the great side of adding only morning light is earlier laying, if you can gather the eggs before they freeze.


Now I mix it up a bit, my timer allows for many programs but I only use 2.  As of yesterday the lights come on at 6 am and turn off at 9 am when there is plenty of light in the coop from the windows.  Then they come back on at 5pm.  So far the chickens have not been trapped off of the bars.  Most of them just spend the evening hours on the bars, I'm not even positive that they stay awake the whole time.  Then the lights are off by 10pm.  Most nights I can see that the lights are off with the exception of the heat lamp for the main water.  It is red and reminds me of fire safety.

thanks!

 

[goodb]

Well, my girls hit a new milestone today. They blessed me with 14 eggs.

Way to go girls!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Well, my girls hit a new milestone today. They blessed me with 14 eggs.

Way to go girls!

Yay!

 

[danand]

Shawna- those prices sound good. The older the chicken the less it is worth! Going from CL pricing. Too bad you are not closer to me I'd take some. Good luck.

Leah- what are you sprouting? Oats? Barley? Etc?? I would love to do this for my Bantys since they can't free range.

Farker- I use tarps too. I have found them on sale at Menards. I don't have a Norhtern tool close by.

Goodb- way to go!!! Give them extra treats!!!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Right now I'm sprouting oats and barley because that's what I have. I try to get grains when they're at the best prices.

I get them from the feed mill here - organic. I think the barley was about $12/ 50 lb bag and the oats were around $15. At the same time I priced wheat and it was over $30!!! But last year I got wheat about half that price. Depends on the crops I guess.

And...I always have sunflower seeds but not organic. The feed mill sells them "untreated" in the 50 lb bags. Not cheap but they last a long time!

Kassaundra said she tried sprouting sunflower seeds in the bags but they got moldy for her in that system. I haven't tried it in the bags but I have done them on the countertop. That bowl in the photo was a mix of wheat and sunflower seeds.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Oh...with Kassaundra's bag method, I have 4 of them in the stack all the time. At day 4 the one on the bottom is fed then comes back in to soak the next batch which then goes on the top of the stack the next day and the one on the bottom is fed that day. Since they're ready in about 4 days, there is always a bag ready to feed each day from the bottom of the stack.

In the foreground here, you can see the piece of wood I hammered into the ground to invert the sprout bag on. (when it was not frozen

). [In the background is the kiddo's "safe place" that they can get in and the bigger ones can't. They come and go as they please, but they also get their share of whatever food I throw out there for them since the others can't get in.)





Here is the sprout bag on the stick. You can see that they have cleaned it up pretty well It was totally covered with sprouts.