INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[oldrooster]

If anyone is going to Dinky's friday and want to meet me I will be there. I am going with non-chicken friends, so I will be moving about the place if you want to say hi just PM me and perhaps we can arrange a meet and greet....

 

[LonelyPageTurne]

Does anyone know if it's possible to take an existing piece of chain link fence and convert it to a gate?

 

[pginsber]

Does anyone know if it's possible to take an existing piece of chain link fence and convert it to a gate?

It is, but by the time you buy all the fittings and stuff, it's cheaper to buy a premade gate at Home Depot.
If it's a special chicken sized hole that's different. Can be done using tension bars bent at right angle and 'threaded' thru chain link fabric.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hi guys Regarding our first Chickenfest this year... We need a planning committee! Do please jump in and PM me if you want to help.

LEARNING? Do we want a short learning session? If so, what topic?
I will need to get everyone's thoughts on what if any learning demonstrations we would like to have.
Fermenting Feed is always a big topic. Processing quail has been mentioned.
What do YOU want to learn? Lets vote! Please PM me your most wanted learning experience and we can tally the totals!

FOOD and DRINKS? I would love a pitch in! Thinking hot dogs/burgers.. I make a pretty popular pulled pork BBQ.
Thoughts...IDEAS PLEASE...
No alcohol, this is a family event. There is also a playground next to the barn in the valley.

DATES? Here is where I really want input soon! It Will be on a Saturday no matter what.
When are the finals, state champ games, etc over. What time of year is better for everyone during the summer?
I will need to submit 3 dates that are NOT holiday weekends for barn rental. Dave's family comes in on holidays so the barn is booked.
I want to make this DO ABLE for as many members as possible, so please send me a personal message to get things started.

SWAPS, TRADES AND SALES
I see no problem in doing chicken trains, swaps and whatever can be worked out that day.
All birds will be the owner's responsibility. I can put up an awning for shade, but doubt Dave will allow them inside the barn.
Anyone that has an awning will help a lot to keep the birds shaded.

LOCATION
Platts Lakeview Campground
Liberty, IN
Will be getting the physical address, camping info to all the state parks nearby shortly.
Its a beautiful Lake, and a lot of fun for a weekend family outing.
The parks book up fast so I want to be sure we plan well in advance if anyone wants to camp and have a quiet weekend.

e So excited!

I'll have to think on your questions. I would like to learn about fermented feed, as I've been tempted to try it but paranoid I'll mess something up and kill my flock or something. All I know for sure, though, is I don't want to be there when/if there is a demonstration of the quail processing. While I do want to reach a point where I'm raising my own meat, I just don't think I'm there yet.

Time wise, it would be ideal for us here if it was in the last half of May or first half of June. However, we can make it work pretty much if it's any time between then and August.

Oh my god what did he do to her and WHY?

She was badly debeaked by her previous owner. I say badly not because any form of debeaking is okay (it is absolutely NOT okay for ANY reason), but because hers is extreme and far worse than any other I've seen. She and her sisters, Scooter and Vespa, are all debeaked, but the other two only had the tips of their beaks removed. My impression was that it was done so they could be kept in a much smaller cage than they should have been in. They also had their tail feathers cut off so that they would fit in a 4 or 5-inch tall travel cage, and acted as if they had never seen the ground before when I introduced them to the flock.

But they're happy and spoiled free-range hens now. That's all I could hope for for them.

 

[racinchickins]

I have a friend who is looking to find a home for five 2 or 3-week old Amber link pullets. They were an Easter 'present' from Grandma.

If you are interested, send me a pm.

 

[atrueb00]

I am so upset! I lifted my broody Bonbon out of her special coop this evening so she could go out to her favorite dust bath, and there was an egg stuck to her fluffy and a little messy rear end. The egg dropped and broke on the concrete. I didn't even notice until I brought her back to her coop. It was one of two Mille Fleur eggs! --and the chick was forming.

Last night I even trimmed her butt fluff a little because it was a little messy. I had read that it's good to take a (non-violent) broody hen out once a day if she doesn't go out on her own. Bonbon has been okay with me handling her and doing that routine.

jchny had given me hatching eggs for Bonbon (my first broody hen) -- 3 OEGB, 2 Mille Fleurs, and 1 Silkie. The Silkie egg was broken when one of the hens wanted in Bonbon's nesting box, so I moved her to the modified rabbit hutch, which she was unfamiliar with, so that's why I began opening the top and lifting her out every evening for a break, which she enjoys. I just feel sick about it although I've reminded myself that Bonbon is likely to go broody again, it's not like I need chicks, and some may be roosters. But still, I just feel really bad about it.

I am so sorry!

Does anyone here use nipple waterers? Horizontal or vertical? How well do they work for you? I'm interested in installing some when I redo my coop and make new ones because they seem easier to maintain than the waterers I've got. But I was just wondering what you're guys's opinions were.

I have a custom built nipple waterer, my cousin built it for our run. The reservoir is a vertical pipe that looks like a chimney on the outside of the run, holds 2 gallons of water.

Just going on a little rant for a sec!
I'm tired of people putting sites like craigslist down. It's your responsibility to be responsible about how you use craigslist! I've used craigslist to sell and buy items. Like today I just picked up a mid 90's rear tine counter rotating 5hp tiller that's in perfect shape for $250. Now that's a good deal and it was well worth using craigslist. Now I would not use it to buy a $500 dollar Iphone for $10 by meeting someone in a dark alley at midnight!! Or "inviting" a person to my house to "just talk" ok ok I'm done ranting. On a chicken note! I filled my compost tumbler (that I found on Craigslist) with grass clippings, goat manure, table scrapes (including coffee grounds) and finally some nice compost making chicken poopsies. So hopefully before to long I'm in the dirt business!!

Woohoo! Glad you found a compost tumbler! Good luck with it

@hoosiercheetah -- I LOVE the names too! Jane, Kathryn, and Anne are hilarious as with the Princesses names Your possible roo's name reminds me that if we could have them, my DH wanted to name him Ragnar (sp?) from the Vikings show. Another "history" related name is our Nellie. My husband called her Lady Nelson, Lord Nelson's chicken wife. I am a big fan of Napoleanic, Regency, and Georgian times which might play into the names of any future hens. I think you could reasonably add in Mary and Elizabeth in your group if needed and still be accurate

OMG Ragnar! LOL at the idea of naming chickens based off of Vikings characters: Ragnar, Rollo, Floki, Siggy and Princess Aslaug!

Quail on lock down.

Good luck!

Thanks everybody. I will get on later or tomorrow to catch up. Wiped out over here! Oh yeahI almost forgot miss Einstein. She is almost 7 weeks now.

Love seeing her grow up-those top feathers are getting so big!

Our former koi pond becoming a flower garden

My DH is getting into koi and also raises Tilapia. Any reason you decided to fill in the pond? The area you had it in should be a great garden!

I set my first eggs(Kab's) under my very first broody hens(partr. Cochin bantams)! They are making the most AMAZING sound! It's almost like a cute, old fashioned, percolating coffee maker.
On that note...I went out of town Saturday night and when I came back, I had two more broody hens, another PCB and my Birchen Maran. I am going to watch them today and see if they break. If they don't I'll split all the eggs under them.
My question is this, if I set them last night and add a couple more in tonight, will that be ok? They'll only be 24 hours apart. I'm trying to hatch for a friend and her girls should lay 2 more today.

My broodies make the same sweet little sounds. For the most part, they are very quiet but sometimes I think they are chattering to each other back and forth.

If anyone is going to Dinky's friday and want to meet me I will be there. I am going with non-chicken friends, so I will be moving about the place if you want to say hi just PM me and perhaps we can arrange a meet and greet....

Wish I was going to Dinky's this Friday! Love that place but it is just too far to travel very often.

 

[CVAN732000]

Certainly a fear of mine. I wanted to take one of my pullets out to the garden with me, knowing she would feast on everything I was digging up. Even just one in tow, I was still leery. How close does one have to be to their girls to ward off such predators? I'm a newbie, so this may sound elementary and fearful, but I don't want to lose any...

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Certainly a fear of mine. I wanted to take one of my pullets out to the garden with me, knowing she would feast on everything I was digging up. Even just one in tow, I was still leery. How close does one have to be to their girls to ward off such predators? I'm a newbie, so this may sound elementary and fearful, but I don't want to lose any...

If you are really worried I would say don't let her get out of sight. I don't think hawks seem to desperate right now. Not saying it couldn't happen, but 100 ft should be fine. I imagine if you are working in the garden she will stay right there with you. For the last month I have had 5 hens running outside the barn (they are rule breakers) . And haven't seen anything around.

 

[kabhyper1]

We filled the pond in because the fish died over the winter, and I don't have time to take care of it anymore anyway. Plus our dogs thought it was a swimming pool. Yuck!


Picture day!! Who am I kidding, it's always picture day around here.
Broody Suki. I forgot that I took her out to eat last night and left her off the eggs a little longer than I should have. I hope they are okay. I do dumb things sometimes.

The 5 week old LF cochins. We picked 2 pair again. Just like last year with Lavender and Blueberry.
Pullet ; Ebony

Cockerel ; onyx

Pullet; pepper

Cockerel; jinx


The bantams
Bandit; barred cochin, who is very much a girl. The key to getting girls is giving them boy names in the beginning I think.

Sunny; gold laced cochin

Poe; oegb

Peanut; oegb

Kiwi; EE bantam

Kiwis beard LOL

And Einstein..... See all girls Ha!

 

[CVAN732000]

Thank you! I haven't taken any of them out of the house yet and didn't know how vigilant I had to be. We have hawks and bald eagles here on the St. Joseph River, so I'm concerned.