INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[kabhyper1]

So I am making sprouts for the chickens out of black oil sunflower seeds. Also as an experiment, I am trying to make some out of scratch. I have no idea what will happen with the scratch, the corn in it is chopped up but the seeds are whole. Any thoughts?

 

[SallyinIndiana]

@Leahs Mom used a colander when sprouting her sunflower seeds.

I'm not great with sprouting. I was able to do it in small quantities but it is hard to get out of the jar. Also to make enough to impact our feed bill would not be my kind of thing right now. Then there was the fact that our house is cool in the winter so it took longer for the seeds to sprout.

 

[minmin1258]

I don't know how much land you have, but we bought a new john deere 790 in 2007. Its classified as a "compact tractor". It has a side discharge mower, and live PTO. We have about 3 acres of field we mow with our bush hog attachment too, feed that to the goats, cow and pigs. We have several attachments, including a front end loader. I have had no issues with it, none..(knock on wood, hehe) Its been priceless. It was a big investment but there is few projects we need heavy equipment for now. We still plan for the backhoe, feed grinder and tiller attachments. No more worries over moving heavy objects, plowing snow and we even fill the kiddie pools out in the yard for the waterfowl with the bucket on the front, LOL. I hate dragging garden hoses everywhere!

We have 10 acres but we only maintain about 1.5-2 I think. Much of our property is a ravine but the rest is mixed terrain. We have had a lot of work done to get some flat yard and getting things to drain betterbut there is still much more I'd like to do. When we first had the house there was a HUGE pool too but I had it filled in. It was one of the best things we have done here. Here are a few pics: The first area is our dog yard. The second is our front yard. The third is our ravine that doesn't look like much now but it's really lovely in the spring. It's our backyard. My Dh has plans for a zip line and a cleared area for sledding in the winter.

Oh my, I bet its breathtaking! I wish we had more hilly/knarly land here, I LOVE southern IN with the hills.

You want hills??? WE GOT HILLS!!!! I'll trade you! We can't even sell out cattle outta state cuz they are so used to standing on hillside one side of there body has shorter legs than the other! A flat yard is very rare and very very expensive in this state! I really wanna move to Indiana!!! Lol

 

[CRSelvey]

I don't want to use leg bands or chemicals. I also thought they would be so cute in the spring colored like little flowers. I know Im silly. This is the pic I found online that gave me the idea.

I personally would never call you silly. Soft colors like that aren't really my thing, but that doesn't matter. I have always been impressed with how well cared for your animals look in each and every picture. I doubt anyone would think you were trying to harm your flock. Btw, they make a lot of food color choices now. I got crazy colors to do my daughters princess cake a couple of months ago. If you don't find enough at the grocery store, Michaels and Joann's have a large variety for cake making. You could also try making some of your own with blueberries, beets, etc.

 

[CRSelvey]

I don't think I read this right. So you left without chickens? It doesn't compute. I'll re-read it. I'm sure I read it wrong.
Ha silly me, no one leaves chick day without chicks. I apologize Brad, I was sure it said you left without chicks.    Stand by...................................................................................








............................................I Re-read it, [COLOR=FF0000]HOLY CRAP! YOU LEFT WITHOUT CHICKS! [/COLOR]

If was tempting , but i also left without any chicks from family farm yesterday . . . . but did get an incubator , so if all goes well, we'll be having chicks instead of buying more . Here's what i left behind:

Hilarious! You guys are crazy. I'm not even allowed in the stores right now. My DH will actually do the shopping for me right now if I even brought it up.

 

[kabhyper1]

Here is what I made so far. I soaked the scratch and sunflower seeds since last night around 9. I used mason jar rings to add space between the trays for water drainage. I don't see any sprouting yet, hopfully I didn't pull them out of the soaking water to soon. I read max 24 hours to soak.

 

[CRSelvey]

I am so disappointed I could almost cry. I was just looking at my weather channel app and it said all the temps in the forecast were in the 40s and no lows under 30...then I realized I was looking at my Moms town in Washington.

 

[kabhyper1]

Hilarious! You guys are crazy. I'm not even allowed in the stores right now. My DH will actually do the shopping for me right now if I even brought it up.

I am going in tomorrow to see the chicks. I plan on buying the 6 chick limit, but I may only be able to keep four, thanks to generous Raisenemright's enabling, I may be able to get my four and they would take two. If I can sweet talk my hubby I may be able to keep all six!!!

I personally would never call you silly. Soft colors like that aren't really my thing, but that doesn't matter. I have always been impressed with how well cared for your animals look in each and every picture. I doubt anyone would think you were trying to harm your flock. Btw, they make a lot of food color choices now. I got crazy colors to do my daughters princess cake a couple of months ago. If you don't find enough at the grocery store, Michaels and Joann's have a large variety for cake making. You could also try making some of your own with blueberries, beets, etc.

I love my white silkies, and I plan on showing them, so food coloring them rainbow colors probably isnt the best idea. I may however put a teeny dot somewhere inconspicuous so I can tell who is who. I have such a hard time. I usually have to watch and listen to them for a second to see who is who. I know their individual sounds and personalities, but to just quickly grab one up and know who it is is hard with a few of them. Especially my five week olds. They looked so different from each other at hatch, and were different colors even. Now they are all white and pretty identical. I have to use beak coloration and length to tell which is which.

 

[kabhyper1]

I am so disappointed I could almost cry. I was just looking at my weather channel app and it said all the temps in the forecast were in the 40s and no lows under 30...then I realized I was looking at my Moms town in Washington.

LOL I'm sorry I am laughing but I did the same thing recently. This weather sucks.

 

[minmin1258]

@kabhyper1Is it illegal to dye chickens? My friend grooms professionally and sometimes she dyes her own dogs. She uses food coloring, which is perfectly safe. I think the professional Wilton gel dyes are the best/most concentrated.
I would think if you were doing it FOR FUN and NOT FOR PROFIT, then you should be able to do it. I'd love to dye my dogs/cats/birds... but they are all dark and as a hair stylist I am rather keen to the idea to begin with.

Hide my white Silkies will ya..please... Lol!