INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[CharlemagneRoost]

Lol awesome. I remember hearing stories from my great grandfather about how his father used to have banty's and trained the rooster to perch on his shoulder. I've also heard that bantys are mean but I'm not sure which banty breed they were referring to but I've loved the banty breeds as well. I am raising all sorts of birds and will have even more soon. Let's see:
Soon to be silkies from kab

Soon to be welsummers from another breeder here on byc
Hopefully some pure/standard bred BRs
And I've got Easter Eggers, three barred rocks, one production red and one beautiful black hen! {And a partridge in a pear tree lol}

And I'm now interested in Jaerhons! Thanks Yankeedoodle, my dad'll love that I've added one more to my list

Will you be breeding them? That'd be a handy hobby I show my birds so I like looks but they have to earn their way here or my dad will be making chicken and noodles for supper

But if they can lay eggs and win ribbons at fairs they are safe from the pot. And Jaehons look really nice.

It'll be nice to have a few birds that will lay through winter I've not gotten a single egg in months! And I've had to deal with all the birds roosting in nestboxes.

If all goes well, and I sure hope it does - I will definitely be breeding the Jaerhon! If you like to show, you might also consider the Serama. They haven't been in the country very long, either. They are from Malaysia and are the smallest breed of chicken in the world. I'll try to get a picture of my smallest rooster, Abraham, sometime this week - maybe next to a can of soup, or something, so you can get an idea of how tiny he is. One of my Serama roosters (Singer - I posted a photo of him) is a former 4-H show bird and he won first place in every show.

 

[CharlemagneRoost]

It's nice to see some northern people joining. Southern Indiana is beautiful, and I know there are a lot of folks on here from that area, but I like seeing some closer neighbors on here too.

I agree - it is nice to connect with folks who are a little closer to your own neck of the woods.

 

[CharlemagneRoost]

Hello! Glad to add you to our flock.

Thank you, Kiniska!

 

[Urbanmom519]

Three new breeds I've started this year I can't wait to see how they work out.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Another Hoosier here ... I raise Serama, Silkie and Norwegian Jaerhon chickens, coturnix quail and a handful of turkeys.


a 12 day old Jaerhon pullet

Do you have any photos of the adults? This is a breed I don't think I've heard of before. (I may have missed something as I'm not caught up on all posts yet )

 

[bradselig]

Do you have any photos of the adults?  This is a breed I don't think I've heard of before. (I may have missed something as I'm not caught up on all posts yet )

They are pretty and I'm pretty sure they are another auto sexing breed.

 

[chick rookie]

want to post a few pics of my coop. as many of you know, I have no chickens in my hen house ( well except for the lone visitor that never left ) So I want to take advantage of the time ans space to revamp my house. Here is what we are planing... take the back wall out ( due to black mold I found this winter) and replace it. put a new roof on it with an overhang on the back so no more water running in coop and causing blk mold. I want the new nesting boxes so I can gather eggs from outside and give more space inside. we are adding a covered porch so I don't have to deal with all the snow on tarps and going out to knock it off so it don't fall in on my girls. I want all my feeders and waters hanging to help keep the wild birds out and not to mention poo and dirt.
Any Ideals would be great. checked out allot of coops here. that's where I got the ideals I got.




And here is my lone hen on her new branch perch. it's new cause I gutted the house and burnt everything after I lost my flock.

you can see the mold on the back wall. I finally got it dried out but still there.

that is the only thing in the coop. just a 8'x6' empty box. Kinda real depressing!!!!!!!!!! but got 23 chicks to put in it in April

 

[Mother2Hens]

Thanks, Flock Master - I just learned about the Jearhon within the past six months. I spent the last year and a half learning as much as I could about raising poultry - I was totally new to it. I raised a lot of different breeds to find out what I like the best. I found that I preferred working with the smaller breeds of birds - the banty breeds. But, as everyone knows, they don't lay well during the cold winter months. I like the smaller breeds for a number of reasons: 1) smaller bird = smaller poop to clean up; 2) mean roos are easier to handle; 3) not as much work when it comes butchering time; 4) the smaller breeds I've worked with seemed to have more pleasant dispositions than many of the larger breeds. However, the practical side of me really wanted the main breed that I chose to concentrate on to be a good cold weather layer. I didn't want to give up on that possibility and so I continued my research. I stumbled across some information regarding the Norwegian Jaerjon - and BINGO! - I found my preferred breed of chicken! They are a small breed that lays a large egg for their size. They are a cold hardy breed that continues to lay during the short days of winter. I also like the fact that they are a sex link breed, so you know what you've got right out of the shell. They are not good setters, however, so I'm also raising some partridge silkies and some seramas (who are so broody that they will even pilfer eggs from other birds' nests) to help me with hatching when I don't feel like messing with my incubator. Jaerhons have only been in the U.S. since about 1998, so not too many folks are very familiar with them yet. There are only two hatcheries that I've found that carry the chicks. Folks in our more northern states seem to have discovered them before lots of other areas, so you will find some in backyard flocks in Colorado, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, etc. I am very excited to be establishing a line of Jaerhon in Indiana!

yankeedoodling ~ When I read your post, I thought you said, "4) the smaller breeds I've worked with seemed to have more pleasant dispositions than many of the larger breeds . . . when it comes butchering time."

(I'm exhausted from being outside with my hens and DH all afternoon!) I'm a "chickens as pets" owner, so I didn't realize that people processed bantams. I knew it could be done, but didn't think anyone did. My mom used to occasionally bake cornish game hens (from grocery), so I suppose bantams would be about that size.

Thanks for posting the interesting info! That's great that you are going to raise them.

Leahs Mom~ Since I'm online now, I googled them. Norwegian Jaerhon chicken - Backyard Chickens

Here's a beautiful picture of a NJ hen. It has some feathers like my EEs (and other members' EEs)
This site is great for people like Pipd who love genetics (not me). GMS7: Plumage Pigments | Scratch Cradle

 

[Leahs Mom]

A very pretty girl! Thanks

 

[Mother2Hens]

want to post a few pics of my coop. as many of you know, I have no chickens in my hen house ( well except for the lone visitor that never left ) So I want to take advantage of the time ans space to revamp my house. Here is what we are planing... take the back wall out ( due to black mold I found this winter) and replace it. put a new roof on it with an overhang on the back so no more water running in coop and causing blk mold. I want the new nesting boxes so I can gather eggs from outside and give more space inside. we are adding a covered porch so I don't have to deal with all the snow on tarps and going out to knock it off so it don't fall in on my girls. I want all my feeders and waters hanging to help keep the wild birds out and not to mention poo and dirt.
Any Ideals would be great. checked out allot of coops here. that's where I got the ideals I got.




And here is my lone hen on her new branch perch. it's new cause I gutted the house and burnt everything after I lost my flock.

you can see the mold on the back wall. I finally got it dried out but still there.

that is the only thing in the coop. just a 8'x6' empty box. Kinda real depressing!!!!!!!!!! but got 23 chicks to put in it in April

chick rookie ~ I love your lone hen-- she looks like my BR Tweedy. Is she the one who just showed up at your house?

That's good that you're going to replace the moldy wall because it would be impossible to get rid of that since mold thrives on moisture.

We usually think of bleach as a way to kill mold, but bleach just kills surface mold. Bleach can't penetrate materials like wood or drywall that are porous. Bleach contains water and the water in bleach is absorbed in porous materials like wood, which gives mold moisture to feed on.

I found this explanation online about controlling mold:

Mold need four things in order to grow, and if you take just one source away, it cannot grow.

The four things that mold needs to grow are:

Food – Everything in your coop is a food source for mold (dirt, wood, paint, etc.)
There is no way to take the food source away.

The proper temperature – Mold can start to grow at temperatures as low as 39 degrees
Outside temperatures can't be controlled.

Oxygen – Mold takes the same oxygen levels as we do
There is no way for us to take the oxygen out of the air.

Humidity – Mold needs approximately 50% + humidity levels to be able to thrive and grow
This is the only thing that we can control. If we can reduce the humidity levels to less than 50%, then mold cannot thrive and grow, even if the other three elements stay in tact.

You can get an inexpensive humidity gauge for your coop at Rural King or a hardware store so you can make sure the gauge doesn't rise over 50.
Good ventilation (windows, open areas covered with hardware cloth wire) in the coop is also important to prevent mold.

I would make sure your new roof slants and has a gutter and long drain pipe to direct water away from the coop, so that during a big rainstorm, water isn't pooled around the coop (and leaking in to cause mold). Maybe other members have good ideas about guttering. (I don't have gutters because my coop is bolted to the back of my brick garage, so part of it is under the eave/house gutters, which protects it from too much rain).

I found this photo online, which isn't the greatest, but it shows that you could add an inexpensive plastic gutter extension to direct rainwater away from your coop. The farther away the better-- just like home gutter extensions.