INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[kabhyper1]

I know that PolyViSol without iron is the one to buy for chickens, but I happened to think that liver is high in iron, (and thats the typical reason that liver is suggested) --so in the case of a chicken needing iron, I'm wondering if PVS with iron would be better for chickens that need more? I am not endorsing this idea because I am not a vet! Just wondering, that's all.

I wouldnt, I dont remember why but poly with iron is a big no no. Maybe it has too much iron or something.

 

[racinchickins]

I had to go out of town for the weekend, and my partner stayed home to take care of everything. He did a great job, but there were hiccups.

I pulled in the driveway, and had to stop because there were a couple of our Turkey hens starting to cross. These were the hens that were sitting on a nest when I left on Friday. Well, when they crossed the driveway, they had 5 little poults following them!!!!!! Very exciting.

Then I looked out at our yard.....It was covered in chickens! He had opened every coop and run and let them all free range together!!! All my breeders were mixed together, juveniles were loose with adults....aaaaghh!!!!! He said he knew that I free ranged them, but he had never paid attention that I only did one coop at a time.

Soooo, it looks like my hatching is now done. I won't set any more eggs since I can't guarantee parentage. It took several hours to get all the birds back in their proper places. As of evening I still had a few stragglers that ran into the wrong run, so I just left them. I'll be moving up the combining of the laying flocks now.

Positives - none of my roos killed each other, and there was so much mixing that it seemed to blow out the pecking order instinct. I saw a few flared ruffs when a particularly nice tidbit was in contention, but no out and out fights. The weird thing is that a lot of my chickens seem to prefer the turkey run. I had a heck of a time getting them out of there before I carefully herded the mommy turkeys and babies in.

 

[ChickCrazed]

Did anyone else have chickens struggle in the heat yesterday. It was only low 80's, and some of them were panting pretty good. I put a fan on the babies today and added more shade outside. It makes me nervous for when it gets REALLY hot if they are already struggling now!

 

[CRSelvey]

LOL, maybe a little. He acts like he doesn't and fusses about having them, but really enjoys telling stories about them. He's starting to realize they're not as bad to have around as he thought so that's progress.

My DH is chickened out. He is as supportive as he can be about helping, but if I never mentioned them again, it would be ok too. I'm pretty sure he wishes he had never said yes to the purchase req.

that's why its so great that we all have each other here. I don't think anyone will ever tell you to quit talking about the chickens here.

Woohoo! Good news about our historical status and chickens/coops! My hubbie finally found the complete document, all 145 pages, and on pg. 71 discovered that poultry and anything related to poultry is exempt from any of the added historical restricitons! They cannot ask us to get special permits or restrict us. We are just bound by state laws of cleanliness and treatment of animals (well duh!) as well as not being able to build a structure on our property that is bigger than what the state allows without permits.. Yippee! So excited!

That is GREAT news!!

Bonbon walked her chicks up to sleep in coop with all the other chickens again tonight. I forgot to remove two eggs in one of the nesting boxes. I swear I saw her eyes light up when she saw those eggs! Instead of going to the other box where she and her chicks slept last night, she suddenly decided to sit on those eggs.

Yikes! So I went around and opened the egg collecting door and swiped them away. Then she went to the other box with her chicks.

After your interesting story about the chickens going to bed, I stayed out to watch mine last night. You are correct. It was a sight! My 11 week old chicks are a little disoriented but I think they will figure it out. The EE chick, Elsa, decided that she wanted to be up on the top roost with my older chickens, The problem is that the oldest chicken I have is my hen named Nutella. She, like your Nene, is the queen bee. Nutella said no very firmly three times before Elsa figured out that she wasn't welcome yet. I give her a couple of weeks before she is up there all the time. Elsa doesn't seem to take no for an answer easily. I also thought it was interesting that the roo watched everyone get to bed before making one more check at the door and then going to bed himself.

I really want to put Bella and her baby back out there, but I'm so scared one of the chickens will hurt her baby. I can put them in the tractor for awhile, but I'm not sure that will be any better for them than being downstairs. I candled the other two eggs last night and I'm sure they are not viable now. I'm taking them away from her today, so I was thinking it would be a good time to move her as well.

Suggestions?

 

[LonelyPageTurne]

I had to go out of town for the weekend, and my partner stayed home to take care of everything.  He did a great job, but there were hiccups.

I pulled in the driveway, and had to stop because there were a couple of our Turkey hens starting to cross.  These were the hens that were sitting on a nest when I left on Friday.  Well, when they crossed the driveway, they had 5 little poults following them!!!!!!  Very exciting.  

Then I looked out at our yard.....It was covered in chickens!   He had opened every coop and run and let them all free range together!!!   All my breeders were mixed together, juveniles were loose with adults....aaaaghh!!!!!  He said he knew that I free ranged them, but he had never paid attention that I only did one coop at a time.   

Soooo, it looks like my hatching is now done.  I won't set any more eggs since I can't guarantee parentage.  It took several hours to get all the birds back in their proper places.  As of evening I still had a few stragglers that ran into the wrong run, so I just left them.  I'll be moving up the combining of the laying flocks now.

Positives - none of my roos killed each other, and there was so much mixing that it seemed to blow out the pecking order instinct.  I saw a few flared ruffs when a particularly nice tidbit was in contention, but no out and out fights.  The weird thing is that a lot of my chickens  seem to prefer the turkey run.  I had a heck of a time getting them out of there before I carefully herded the mommy turkeys and babies in.

Ack!!! Oh no! Bet you might end up with some interesting looking babies if uou did hatch lol

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Well, a little update (sorry this is probably annoying everyone

. I am so so so bummed. I have terrible depression and I'm struggling badly right now). My temporary gate works OK, but not great. My run...I need to go to the store and get more posts. I put it up as tight as I could but it was difficult for myself and my son's physical therapist (yep, she helped me. My fiancee not so much). It's very very loosely put up. I know I did it wrong. But it's working for now. I'd like to get it fixed somehow this week. Anyway, some of my birds have found a way to escape. Either they're flying over the fence (which they have never done and they are only flying over the fence into my back yard, never the one to my front), or they found a gap and got through that. Luckily they have figured out that it's home.

I got my gardens completely planted. No more planting for the year. Yay. I bought some lavender to plant around the coop and I might do marigolds and lemon balm. I'd like to try to keep the bugs down. We shall see. Everything is growing too well. I planted too much because I didn't expect everything to grow so well. So if someone wants some starts for lettucw, broccoli, grey zucchini, spaghetti squash, Bush beans, pole beans, peas, sugar pumpkins or Boston marrows you can have them for free.

I hope you get your better run. And that today is great for you. If nothing else maybe stop and get some comfort food for yourself. This time of year I really like ice cream.

My sumatra hen moved her chicks out of the nest to the ground last night. One egg did not make it. It looked to be a few days behind the others. But apparently the chicks are small enough to get out of the brooder tractor so Dh and I will be working on that tonight. We lost one chick to the barn cat, it was almost two but I put the 2nd escape back in with mom and moved the barn cat to the kitchen sink rug. For now he will get pampered, after all it is his job to eat tiny squeaking mice a chick is not that different to him.
I did not mark the eggs in as much as I gave green eggs from the EE hens to the first broody but a mix of brown eggs to the second hen. my third broody is in another pen for now. It is almost time to move her but I need to get something set up first or let her stay put. The forth hen that went broody stopped being broody when I moved her to the broody pen. She is still in that pen as I was hoping she would sit on eggs for me.
Now I need to come up with a plan to move the first broody and her 5 chicks back to the layer pen. I'm going to wait till the chicks are at least 2 weeks old in hope that they won't sneak out of the chicken wire then.

 

[CRSelvey]

I had to go out of town for the weekend, and my partner stayed home to take care of everything. He did a great job, but there were hiccups.

I pulled in the driveway, and had to stop because there were a couple of our Turkey hens starting to cross. These were the hens that were sitting on a nest when I left on Friday. Well, when they crossed the driveway, they had 5 little poults following them!!!!!! Very exciting.

Then I looked out at our yard.....It was covered in chickens! He had opened every coop and run and let them all free range together!!! All my breeders were mixed together, juveniles were loose with adults....aaaaghh!!!!! He said he knew that I free ranged them, but he had never paid attention that I only did one coop at a time.

Soooo, it looks like my hatching is now done. I won't set any more eggs since I can't guarantee parentage. It took several hours to get all the birds back in their proper places. As of evening I still had a few stragglers that ran into the wrong run, so I just left them. I'll be moving up the combining of the laying flocks now.

Positives - none of my roos killed each other, and there was so much mixing that it seemed to blow out the pecking order instinct. I saw a few flared ruffs when a particularly nice tidbit was in contention, but no out and out fights. The weird thing is that a lot of my chickens seem to prefer the turkey run. I had a heck of a time getting them out of there before I carefully herded the mommy turkeys and babies in.

Wow, Patrick, that sounds crazy!!! I hope your poor partner survived the pandemonium as well as the chickens. It was really nice that he tried to do what you normally would. I feel like that same thing happens on a smaller scale when I leave my DH (who is awesome) with the kids to go to Yoga for an hour. I can't imagine all those chickens and turkeys

running about!


I just had the crappiest experience EVER. Literally. I got the tractor ready for Bella and the chick, so I went down with leather gloves on to pick up Bella and take her outside first. I should have seen this coming, but she squirted broody poo all over me and my basement.

It was up my clothes, in my gloves, up my shirtsleeve and its all over the basement floor. My DH's office is down there, so he was trying not to get sick from the smell while getting the garage door open for me (as a quicker exit). I've been giving her fruit and veggies lately because she's hardly eating the regular food. In hindsight, I should have moved her off the nest and waited a minute before picking her up. Its all cleaned up now and they are outside. I sure hope this works because I'm not crazy about bringing them back in now.

 

[flyladyrocks]

If you can get a shed (I found one for 200 and talked the lady down to $100) it is very very very easy to convert. I live pretty close to you and could show you.

 

[flyladyrocks]

I had to go out of town for the weekend, and my partner stayed home to take care of everything. He did a great job, but there were hiccups.

I pulled in the driveway, and had to stop because there were a couple of our Turkey hens starting to cross. These were the hens that were sitting on a nest when I left on Friday. Well, when they crossed the driveway, they had 5 little poults following them!!!!!! Very exciting.

Then I looked out at our yard.....It was covered in chickens! He had opened every coop and run and let them all free range together!!! All my breeders were mixed together, juveniles were loose with adults....aaaaghh!!!!! He said he knew that I free ranged them, but he had never paid attention that I only did one coop at a time.

Soooo, it looks like my hatching is now done. I won't set any more eggs since I can't guarantee parentage. It took several hours to get all the birds back in their proper places. As of evening I still had a few stragglers that ran into the wrong run, so I just left them. I'll be moving up the combining of the laying flocks now.

Positives - none of my roos killed each other, and there was so much mixing that it seemed to blow out the pecking order instinct. I saw a few flared ruffs when a particularly nice tidbit was in contention, but no out and out fights. The weird thing is that a lot of my chickens seem to prefer the turkey run. I had a heck of a time getting them out of there before I carefully herded the mommy turkeys and babies in.

 

[Chicken Papa]

I'm a second year chicken owner! We have 3 Leghorns that we raised from chicks last year, and now adding 6 Golden Laced Wyandottes, 6 Barred Rockes and a few more Leghorns. Keeping a Leghorn rooster (cockerel at this point) this year to hopefully start hatching some of our own. We are near Lafayette (Newtown, actually). My 4 year old and 2 year old daughters love helping and conversing with our chicks and gathering eggs. It is great to enjoy them as a family!