INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

Dinkys auction is all on one day unless its changed. There's like 5 different auction areas. There's the miscellaneous one sometimes two of those. Then there's large farm animals (cows adult goats sheep horses etc) then there's small animal (poultry rabbits some baby goats sometimes exotics) then there's the furniture and out in the big barn is hay, machinery, building material, tools, fencing, etc.

Sounds very cool~

Evening all! I was to NEVER burn poison ivy because it can do some real damage if inhaled. So when I encounter it, I pull it up roots and all( with gloves on of course) and spray the whole area with brush killer. I repeat when necessary.

I have heard that too, I will burn it depending on wind direction and where it is.

Question for the Indiana people as you know our weather. I have a 4 x 6 or slightly larger milk house I want to turn into a coop. I have 4 chickens now and plan to get about 6 more so 10 total but probably 3 or 4 will be banties silkies. I will have a 10 or 15 ft by 4 or 5 ft run attached with probably half of it covered so I can put their food and water outside. This is for non snow months only. Once the snow comes I have a 14 x 12 ft horse stall where they are currently and have two other larger stalls I could also use. So they would not have a run just the stall areas. I mean really I could just give them full run of the bottom of the barb (basement barn) if I wanted. Anyways any hens who will go outside in the cold I can keep in the milk house and the rest in the barn for the winter months. So knowing that the milk house coop is only for spring summer and fall and they will always have access to the run... Is that too small?

If there are bantams as you mentioned I think it should work. If you free range at all, that will help also.

Quote: Another one I really want to go to, someday!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

So excited to head to Racin's tomorrow to pick up a roo, and see his setup. Found out we'll be really close to SallyinIndiana's too, so we will be swinging by there too to see her setup and meet her new kids (the goat kind!). Looking forward to a great afternoon!

I haven't made it to sallys yet, Love racins set up for breeding coops, am totally jealous! We have been out and pestered him twice to look at it.

Quote: we get ours dumped next to the driveway and wheel barrel it to where we want it. Lots of work but not anymore than transporting bundles of chips from TSC and dumping them everywhere.
We are lucky enough to have a semi sized drive by the barn. DH drives semi/dump trucks for a living. Have about a half acre they can dump on. We turn it all with the tractor every so often, have a nice pile of compost going from it too.
I need to call about the security lights, have them come trim the trees again! We have 2 of them, actual street lights provided thru the power Co.
I had them installed since Dad was so stubborn about being outdoors so late at night sometimes.
Usually, they will dump if they trim anywhere close to us. So, my point is, another option is call your power company and ask about it.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
I have used straight ammonia, or bleach at the root of the plant. best done at the peak of the day when the ground is dry. Many farmers use ammonia derivative to kill weeds. I rarely have a reaction to it and did have it on my legs last week! So its killer stuff this year

Bleach is safer than a lot of products out there if used carefully and properly.

Can you give a short on how to use it properly? How much do you use?

Then...you have the dead plants and roots that need to be removed so you don't continue to pick up the oils from them. Is there any best way to accomplish that?

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Well all I can say I that I am very Happy with my birds. It is hard not to be proud of them when they do so well. Especially with most of them being so young. Those Ameraucanas were only hatched in mid march. Ended up with reserve grand champion, champion, reserve champion, 5 first place, 5 second place, 1third, 1 fourth, 1 fifth and i won Senior showmanship. And to top it off out of the none birds running for champion an grand champion, five of the were mine. I have To grab so extra. Hands to help me show lol. A great start to the Show year. Two shows coming up quick in august. Will be at the state fair showing twice. Let me know if any of you will be up there. I will have plenty. Of time for chatting throughout the days!

Awesome news and CONGRATS! I am really hoping to at least make state fair.. Will PM you if it looks like we can!

We almost bought a sloth, but they are also known for health issues and being hard to keep, so we got Lilly (the kangaroo) instead. And I'm very glad we did! You should go to the auction. It's the first weekend of May and the first weekend of October. Very worth it. They also sell A LOT of chickens on Friday. And the food is great... All Amish made.

You guys, I really was interested in coatimundi too. If things were not so crazy I would still think about it. Fascinating! DH would kill me, but he is crazy over sugar gliders.. so I bet he wouldn't mind a whole lot LOL.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:

I have used straight ammonia, or bleach at the root of the plant. best done at the peak of the day when the ground is dry. Many farmers use ammonia derivative to kill weeds. I rarely have a reaction to it and did have it on my legs last week! So its killer stuff this year

Bleach is safer than a lot of products out there if used carefully and properly.

Can you give a short on how to use it properly? How much do you use?

Then...you have the dead plants and roots that need to be removed so you don't continue to pick up the oils from them. Is there any best way to accomplish that?

Wait til the ground is dry. I locate the root or base of the plant, cut it off. I do not pull it down until its completely dried out. I pour bleach or ammonia (DO NOT MIX THEM IT IS TOXIC!) directly on to the roots, into the ground. The amount I would use depends on how big the vine is. Anytime you cut a plant, it stimulates the roots, so its going to get thirsty! Anything near my coops is all mulch, so they are not normally far enough out to get near where this would be, like fenceline in the back of the property. I am killing out all of it I can before we start using the back half as pasture. I have it killed out around the house and garage, some still by the barn to remove.
When I do burn the plants, we burn at the far SE corner of the yard. I check where the wind comes from, and weather report. And I stay far away from the fire!
We usually burn the brush pile maybe once a year? Not really set in stone. This is something I learned from my grandmother. If you have to handle it, kill it, let it dry out and still cover your skin to protect you. COLD shower immediately after.
Have the fun bonfires

in a separate location, and a brush pile for the nasty stuff that needs burned off. Burned plants wont regrow either.

 

[Minminme]

Can't believe it's after 4am and I'm STILL awake! Jeesh!

 

[chick rookie]

If you have any sussex, they lay a pink egg. Its very cool! If its an EE, there may be a sussex in the parentage.
Coronation Sussex are supposed to be the "pinkest" like BCM are the "darkest". Hard to find, and are not as hardy as I hoped.
I finally have 3 and as usual, look like all are pullets.

I don't have any Sussex, going to look them up cause I don't even know what they are ( other then chicken lol ) I do have 3 new EE's I'm waiting to start laying. I got another pink egg tonight and BLUE!!!! Yeah!!!!

So that makes me 2 real pink layers, 1 Blue, and 3 different shades of green, all different shades of brown ranging from Lt. to dark and even dark speckled from my welsummers ( not SQ Drk ) and a few Lt. cream tinted eggs. I have 1 white egg but still don't know where that come from cause I have no known wht. egg layer??? but my basket looks good, and I cant wait to see it when they all start laying.

bradselig ~ So sad! I bet she was beautiful. I wonder why several members have had hens with the same problem this past week. How are the other members' hens w/possible prolapse doing?
@Quinstar Re: Egg Production. We were in peak production until about a week ago and numbers suddenly dropped. The only cause I can think of is the sudden drop in temperatures. It's been unusually cool like other parts of the state have been. Right now it's 65 degrees and Saturday afternoon it's supposed to be 95.
Another topic-- I had forgotten that you had a baby! Details please.
jchny~ Glad to hear that your Dad is being well taken care of and is progressing! So sorry to hear about your Pekin!

@M2H it didnt give me your quote: but I think you will understand what I'm talking about. Sorry my 2 gave you so much trouble, but I got them i one pc. man that tape job was tough... lol and I guess i'm a member of the ridiculously early morning shift...

My black kid and my brown kid.

I got asked if i was starting a zoo on FB because I now have chickens and 2 goats. Crazy what some people think of farm animals.

it's city slickers ( no insult meant ) they were not raised around farm animals so I guess they think they are all Zoo animals... lol

I have BABIES!!!!! I put six eggs under broody wyandotte, four blue out of a crested cream legbar with the possibility of a crested cream legbar dad or a mottled java dad, and two brown eggs likely out of a barred rock with the same potential daddies. She squished one blue egg early on, so five eggs went into broody lockdown. Three babies hatched, one of the blue eggs seemed to be a dud and one blue pipped zipped and then died at some point (sad). I think the blue egg yielded a crested cream legbar girl. Out of the two brown ones I got light brown, slightly partridge chicks. It will be interesting to see what they all feather out like! Also it has been hilarious watching broody try to keep track of all three, she is super stressed out over it. I can't even imagine what she would do with more babies!





In other news, Miss Teen Mom Broody (age 6 months) went into the klink to try to break her. She is being super persistent.....

Sooo cute!!!

Dinkys auction is all on one day unless its changed. There's like 5 different auction areas. There's the miscellaneous one sometimes two of those. Then there's large farm animals (cows adult goats sheep horses etc) then there's small animal (poultry rabbits some baby goats sometimes exotics) then there's the furniture and out in the big barn is hay, machinery, building material, tools, fencing, etc.

maybe it wasn't Dinky's I went to, I sure don't remember all that, I just went to a big Red barn that had converted into and livestock barn/ring.

 

[chick rookie]

They have a large poultry barn in between the livestock barn and the outdoor goods barn. They sell guineas, turkeys, peacocks, and chickens of all types, ages and sizes. They start every Friday night at 6 and can go very late in the night depending on how much stuff they have to auction.

ok... Nope I don't think it was Dinky's I went to... I never seen any of this. But I would like to.

I have less than the recommended coop space but more than the recommended run space for my chickens. I would try to make the run at least 15 x 5 if you are going to have a tight coop. Myself I prefer the large heritage birds but 10 of them would need at least 10 sq ft of roosting bar space. The roosting bar space is more important in the summer time than the coop floor space in my opinion. They need to be able to get on the bar and not be squished. In the winter the chickens will share body heat so splitting the flock between the small coop and the basement barn might not be the best for the small ones staying warm.

I have less then recommended also but I have plenty of perching for 40 hens and 3 Rooster all LF. Mine works cause they only sleep in my coop, I have a extra Lg run with all the free ranging they want ( but on bad days in winter ) I have 6 nesting boxes, (used to have 10 but they didn't use them so I took them out for added space. ) in the winter I have a snow fee space that allows them to get out and move around and I dump the horse and goat stall clean outs in the run to give them something to scratch around in and it keeps them busy. I have had no fighting or such due to overcrowding. But like I said they only sleep and lay eggs in our coop. As far as coop bedding and run floor... coop: is wood shavings ( pine ) and a sm amount of sand, and in the winter I will lay out in the floor 2 flakes of Alfalfa hay so they can pick through.
The Run: is the dirt grass ( whats left ) and all the barn clean outs I have put in over the past year ( learned to do that here ) and in the winter if the snow is bad ( like last year ) after I shovel the a walking path from 1 end of the run to the other I will scatter more hay in the path. once againg gets them out and walking around and doing something other then think about who is standing too close to them... lol
Sorry this ended up a little longer then I had planed. O and all the kitchen scraps I get.

My aunt had a coatimundi previously but sold it because she adopted 6 young kids; I will definitely have one in the future (I actually recently turned the old coatimundi cage into a big chicken coop). I really want a muntjac or 2 eventually. I think they're just lovely.
I am subscribed to AFG, but the only ones I've gotten from there are the cavies. I mostly get them through the exotic animal auction that is in Topeka (by shipshewana) twice a year. I also have an exotic animal broker in Wisconsin that finds me pretty much anything I want.



These ones are just for you, Brad.

His name was Sherman and he was the sweetest little guy. Sadly, he was sold to me while he was sick and I was unaware. That's the problem with auctions, I guess.

Poor guy, So cute

Well all I can say I that I am very Happy with my birds. It is hard not to be proud of them when they do so well. Especially with most of them being so young. Those Ameraucanas were only hatched in mid march. Ended up with reserve grand champion, champion, reserve champion, 5 first place, 5 second place, 1third, 1 fourth, 1 fifth and i won Senior showmanship. And to top it off out of the none birds running for champion an grand champion, five of the were mine. I have To grab so extra. Hands to help me show lol. A great start to the Show year. Two shows coming up quick in august. Will be at the state fair showing twice. Let me know if any of you will be up there. I will have plenty. Of time for chatting throughout the days!

Congrats that is Awesome !!

We are going to the State fair, What days are the chicken shows ? I am planning on having on my BYC shirt. I'll stop by and say Hi.

Can't believe it's after 4am and I'm STILL awake! Jeesh!

I was just getting up at that time. Thunder terrifies my Dog!!! and we had a great light show to go with it.

 

[iamfivewire]

some morning cuteness for all - 9 IaB's + 4 EE's :

 

[iamfivewire]

2 of our IaB's from our mid-june hatch: