INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[iamfivewire]

welcome Shelly

 

[ellymayRans]

Welcome!  It is a very active and fast moving thread!  Glad you found us!

Ditto!

 

[ellymayRans]

Since I just went down a hen and Chewie was already over breeding (down to 4 hens with 2 pullets about 2 months away from laying) them I am considering placing a small order for chicks.  I am thinking about ordering from Meyer if anyone wants to go in on an order.  I'm open to another hatchery also but everyone else seems to be sold out.  I want another rock and a couple more blue egg layers and will probably order a couple cochins as well.  I was REALLY looking forward to getting the chicks out of my house but I'm hoping in another week I might be able to brood them in the garage. 

check in with Sally first. ..she's had BR coming out her ears..lol...along with a few other breeds. Some were "x" weeks old. Not sure that she still has them but might save you from so much indoor time.

If not let me know. I'll go in with you.

 

[wheezy50]

Question about light brahmas -- are they good egg layers or just so-so? I have isa browns, orpingtons & australorps. How do the light brahmas compare with egg size and quantity? I'd like to add something different to my flock & still trying to figure out what. Also, in general, what size eggs do bantams lay? I assume it varies from breed to breed, but how much smaller than their LF counterparts? Any recommendations for bantam egg layers? My daughter thinks it would be fun to have a couple...

I'll second what Racin said about Brahmas. They are some of the most docile birds I have. I'm down to only two left right now (I had two more that predators got) but will get more someday. I have Light Brahmas, they are very friendly and much bigger than anything else I have. I think they would be a good dual purpose meat/egg breed. They don't lay as many eggs as the production RIR or Leghorns, i'd say they average 4 eggs per week for me. Their eggs are not huge, but large and mine are a pinkish brown color.


I also have some bantam Cochins and I would recommend them to anyone. Again, very docile, friendly breed. A couple of mine will come up and sit on me while i'm trying to clean/fill food and water. Very fun addition to the flock. I have 6 hens of laying age and am getting 5 eggs a day on average from them. They did tae the winter off, there was probably three months that they didn't lay at all but now that the days are a little longer they're back at it.

 

[wheezy50]

Forgot to mention, the bantam Cochin eggs are roughly half to two thirds the size of LF. Some are a little smaller and it takes 2 to 1, others aren't that much smaller than a small pullet egg so 2 would equal 1.5 LF eggs.

I don't have any laying Silkies yet to compare them with

 

[ellymayRans]

Hi!
Totally new to this site and to owning birds! Still learning how to navigate!
Just moved to northwest Indiana, have some land so decided to get some birds.
I purchased some guinea fowl last summer from a lovely local lady to start with, out of ten I have seven left, I think two I lost to hawks and one from unknown reasons, just found him in the coop one day, still.
Well I figured it was time to move up to chickens, I tried contacting the same lady since she was great, but sadly no response, I was getting a little antsy so I ordered them offline from a hatchery. Which i assumed two days and I have em, nope they won't be here till may. So the wait is on....

I'm so happy to have found this site with so many people have ideas and knowledge.

Welcome Shellybelly!
We have a great group. ..support group. ..enablers. ..lol!
Definitely should never have to be antsy for fowl around us!  Please see page 2428, post 24276.  
We have members lists with who has what. You can also have a number of folks add you..just send them a PM.. CRSelvey and Mother2Hens

Again..Welcome and don't hesitate to ask questions about..well anything. ..post pics ...WE Love Pics!
Do keep to BYC rules as we have many young members that are with us and need to keep family friendly

 

[ChickCrazed]

Thanks everyone for the well wishes over Harriet! It ended up being MY dogs that got her....she escaped a different direction. I went out at dusk to shut down the coop and do a head count and I always take the dogs out when I do that. They stay in their "yard". I didn't see her, but after I heard her I saw that she was in the dog yard and they had gotten her. I am mad at the dogs but I know I shouldn't be...they weren't raised with chickens and she was in their space.

I have gone back and forth over how to handle the dogs and chickens. I haven't really tried "training" my dogs around the chickens because I have one that I know will be untrainable. She is a cattle dog/lab mix with a ridiculous prey drive. After 3 years of trying to train her not to chase my horses...she still does. I have been yelling at her for a year about chasing the chickens on the other side of the fence and she is not any better. She also chases cars and anything I leave on my kitchen counters (her nickname is butter girl because her last conquest was a stick of butter off the counter).... I think I could get the the other three trained enough to be fine one on one with the chickens, but I know that if the bad one took off after a chicken the pack mentality would kick in so I'm not sure it would do any good to work with those three. Also, if I work with those three one on one I am afraid it will take away any natural fear the chickens may have over the dogs, and I don't want that since I will never really trust the dogs when they are together and will never trust the bad one EVER with ANYTHING.

How have you guys handled the dog situation when you have dogs not trained around chickens?

 

[chick rookie]

Question about light brahmas -- are they good egg layers or just so-so? I have isa browns, orpingtons & australorps. How do the light brahmas compare with egg size and quantity? I'd like to add something different to my flock & still trying to figure out what. Also, in general, what size eggs do bantams lay? I assume it varies from breed to breed, but how much smaller than their LF counterparts? Any recommendations for bantam egg layers? My daughter thinks it would be fun to have a couple...

the Lt Brahmas in my original flock were awesome, and they laid all winter when some of them stopped. And I always got nice big eggs. They were our favorite hens, which is why we got more this year. I had BA's and OP's ( buff's ) and some others, but those 3 breeds were my best layers. and the friendliest too.

 

[leslea]

I am so happy and excited to have found this thread!

I am in northwestern Indiana and have cats, fish, honeybees and silkie chickens.

I'd love to share some photos of my silkies...I got 7, week-old chicks last June and have been raising them ever since. Would love to add more to the flock when I get more land (currently living in a city).

Top Knot my white rooster:



Beardy Brown, Top Knot and Lavender posing for our Christmas cards last year (Beardy and Lavendar are both partridge hens):



Here's a shot of some of them in the chicken run:

our board! Your chix look happy.

 

[leslea]

Wow -- there have been a lot of new people joining our thread. I've neglected to say Welcome to all of you! It's kinda like the Indiana BYCers is experiencing people math instead of chicken math!!

Each spring since we've lived here we've had migrating diving birds visit our pond. 2 years ago a male horned grebe showed up for about an hour followed by a female which stayed at least a week. Last year a bufflehead stopped by for a short visit. This morning a pair of diving birds were on the pond. It was just starting to get light out & they stayed almost until the sun was all the way up. I had to use the binoculars to see them clearly, and I got a half decent look at their markings. Unfortunately I wasn't able to figure out what they were before they left. I'm pretty sure it wasn't either the grebes or the buffleheads again. Then a few hours later 3 herons showed up looking for some of our fish to eat since the pond finally finished thawing yesterday. And a canadian goose started hanging around one area of the south side of the pond this morning. I wonder if it has a mate that made a nest close by. Quite the active pond just a day after thawing!

Oh, now you've gone and made me want a pond.