INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[pginsber]

Sometimes I try, but I can't write as funny as you do, lol.

I was going to ask people what they do with the nipple watering system in the winter, I was thinking some sort of heat tape/wire.

We use nipples on 3/4" PVC and thermostatically controlled heat tape. It works great!

 

[Too Fast]

No blower unfortunately. And when the drive gets plowed it's totally re covered within about 1/2 hour like it wasn't ever plowed.

Maybe this one will be like the 1978 blizzard after all. I was just a young wife then.

I was 15 during that blizzard, lived in South Bend. The snow was so deep in some areas that my snowmobile would not be able to move. The snow would frame out and the belt under it would evacuate the snow and I would be stuck. First time it happened I did not know what the problem was until I stepped off into 3 feet deep snow!

RE: Blizzard of 1978:
I was newly married and lived in downtown South Bend in a rented house. Of course in the city, drifting snow is never an issue, right? Not that year.

The snow drifted up to the top of the garage door and the front porch door, that had 3 steps up to to the door, had snow half way up it. You didn't shovel paths; you made tunnels. Cars were completely gone under the snow parked on the roads right in the city. You might only see a glimpse of the side or top in an area that the wind had blown the snow from.

In the county, the roads were non-existent. Eventually they got bucket loaders and began to dig the roadways out and there were huge walls of snow on either side of the road. If your car had stalled or gotten left on the side of the road it was totally lost. Some of the folks didn't get their cars until a couple months later when those huge piles finally melted or they hired someone to dig it out by bucket loader.

In St. Joseph County they finally began to take huge dump trucks and bucket loaders out on the roads and would load snow into the dump trucks then take it to the St. Joseph river and dump it in there to try to relieve some of the snow walls and I think maybe hoping that they could melt some of it off ahead of a big spring thaw and try to avert huge flooding problems.

No one could drive for about 5 days...not because they didn't want to but because it took that long to dig out. Medicine and emergency stuff was being handled by snow mobiles. People w/snow mobiles volunteered for emergency service and were pretty much the only vehicles on the "roads" for quite awhile.

I know one lady who had livestock at the time. They were in the barn but to get to the barn, there was a bridge that went over a "ditch/creek" that you had to walk over. The whole bridge was gone...weren't even exactly sure where it was...but the horses needed water and feed. She told me that they tried to figure out where it was and one of her young sons went across to try to do chores. She had tied a rope onto him just in case something happened on his way. They later found out that he had been walking above one of the top side rails of the bridge and narrowly missed falling down into the ditch through the snow.

That's all true. I was a paperboy at the time, we didn't even get the South Bend Tribune at my house to deliver to my customers for 5 days!

 

[Too Fast]

I believe they have all been spoken for but I'll let you know if any of them fall through and come back available! I can't believe they went that quickly during a snow storm!

I need to be on this site 24/7 I guess. Kids went berserk when they found out about the EE, and my wife and I wanted the BLRW. Why did you not PM me lol. Could it be because you had no idea we were looking for those chickens? So they have all found a home now? Our problem would have been quarantine. We were getting that figured out while I read the 70 or so posts from the last 12 hours.

 

[Too Fast]

minmin ~ Are you sure it's not one of these creatures?



Seems like bear prints/claws are wider although I found this online-- black bear track in Yosemite-California.


This one of a gray wolf in Yellowstone-Wyoming looks similar, too.

I think the footprint is either a dog, possibly a coyote too.



^^^my gut feeling is, it is this monster that is after your chickens!

 

[Leahs Mom]

^^^my gut feeling is, it is this monster that is after your chickens!

"MY BABY! THOSE PEOPLE STOLE MY BABY! AND I'M GOING TO GET IT BACK!"

 

[Too Fast]

Couple pictures from this morning:



^^^rare sunbow on a cloudless sky. My weather station said it got down to -10 last night, and currently it is -5.

We went sledding yesterday, but the heavy wet snow was not conducive for speed or distance. Easy ramp making, tho!

Speaking of weather, has anybody been to this wind web site? Pretty cool, I was watching the massive artic air coming since Saturday

http://hint.fm/wind/

I like how you can click on the map and zoom in, and see historical wind patterns from some hurricanes.

 

[PeacefulWalls]

I woke up at 6:45am and the temp was -3. It has continued to drop as the sun rises & is now -11, which means we have now reached the predicted high for today (isn't that all kind of backwards??) The chickens made it through fine last night, all looking adorable in their aprons we made. We've collected 9 chicken & 6 duck eggs so far this morning -- all before they froze!

 

[pginsber]

Wow it's cold out there! -14 outside but 7 in the unheated insulated coop. Seems pretty good to me.
We got 13 inches of the wet white stuff. The path I shoveled to the coop had drifted over.

The heavy snow wreaked havoc on our outdoor chicken run. The snowflakes were so big, they stuck on the chicken wire and made a snow/ice net. The entire 'ceiling' of the chicken run is weighted down near collapse.
The gate is drifted closed, too. This will be a job for a warmer day!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Good morning, folks! I don't know the temp this morning, but it didn't feel as cold as was predicted. Maybe it's thanks to the nice coverall I got at the beginning of the season. That thing is the best item I've invested in for wintertime survival. Expensive, but it's been worth it thus far!

My girls are just fine. The coop does feel a bit warmer inside than outside, but I think that's a combination of the girls' body heat and the fact that the wind is blocked from them. No heat, no insulation. I shoveled a small area outside the coop for them, but no one's coming out. Can't blame them.

I haven't been on since my last post because I have the worst possible timing when it comes to falling ill. I went to bed early last night, miserable with chills and dizzies. I'm feeling better this morning, head still spinning, but now I have all these posts to catch up on. Ugh! Guess I'll skim them.

 

[FarkerFarms]

I need to be on this site 24/7 I guess. Kids went berserk when they found out about the EE, and my wife and I wanted the BLRW. Why did you not PM me lol. Could it be because you had no idea we were looking for those chickens? So they have all found a home now? Our problem would have been quarantine. We were getting that figured out while I read the 70 or so posts from the last 12 hours.

Chick Rookie snagged the bulk of them - all except the Cochins and the BLRW (those are going to Brad and SallyInIndiana). Maybe you can sweet talk her into giving up one of the EE's? I'm open to it if she is I just want good homes for them, poor things getting uprooted in the middle of winter.