INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[EurekaChic]

In the winter I sleep in the coop with my chickens, and we share body heat on the colder nights. During the day they have the certainty of my love to keep them warm.

My Great Pyrenees would probably love to sleep in the coop in the winter. He falls asleep buried in snow in the back yard all the time. He does a happy dance every time it snows (which is way too infrequently in his opinion).

 

[bradselig]

For anyone needing tarps for their runs, I found these last year and worked great. I have 4ft tall fencing so the 4' tarp worked great! I love the length if them as well.
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/category_tarps-canopies-shelters+tarps+wood-pile-tarps

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I do need to invest in some new coveralls.  I have a pair somewhere but can't find them.  I hadn't needed them in the 8 years since moving here from Minnesota, then last year I needed them and didn't have them! 

My plans to make winter easier this year involve

1 electric in the coop to reduce the extension cord headache
2 adding an easier entry/exit door to minimize snow and boots and winter gear in my house and on my wood floors
3 investing in better tarps that are CLEAR for my runs to cut wind (and not cut down on light like happened last year, the tarps made my runs DARK)
4 fencing off one stall and part of the paddock so i can keep food under skinny old man horse all winter and so fat horses 1 2 and 3 can't steal his food.  This will involve having to heat and fill a separate trough, but it will save me a lot of stress. 
5 insulating the garage so my pipes don't freeze this year (last year they were freezing constantly)
6 parking my tractor in my garage bucket out so I can come out fighting! (and scooping!).  I've already been cleaning my garage to make room for the tractor!

Winter sure got the best of me last year, I am trying to plan better this year.  I'd be interested in any other ideas people may have to get through the winter better with livestock. 

I do not plan to heat my coop, it was not heated last year and even with -15 degree temps I had no issues with frostbite and will have more birds in there this year to share warmth.  It is not worth the fire risk to me and I work away from the house all day so fires are my number one worry.

Oh, golly, I haven't even thought about a winter checklist yet! Ugh! Let's see...

1. Implement the plan to prevent the addition from flooding! My thought was to bury some clear plastic around the base of it and staple the top edge to the bottom of the addition's wall. (ETA For clarity here, the addition is two layers of cinder blocks and then wooden walls. The water comes in between the cinder blocks because we only used enough cement to hold them firmly together.) Thoughts, anyone? I would use caulk or something, but I'm relatively sure the girls would just eat that off the bricks. They don't seem as interested in eating the plastic wrap, anyway, but who knows?

2. Replace the sand in the addition with shavings! I don't want to do this until I'm relatively sure the shavings won't get soaked from flooding.

3. Clean and check over the heated bucket!

4. Finish the duck coop and yard! Don't want to be building through frigid weather, or be stuck with ducks in quarantine until next spring... I'm also going to put together a more permanent quarantine area, which should make it a little easier when / if I bring new birds in.

5. ...Uh... Oh, I know, make sure my coveralls, boots, gloves, hat, jackets, etc, are all clean and ready for the wintertime! Yeah!

I dunno, I can't think of much more than that. For the most part, I don't have much else to do to be prepared, I don't think. The girls are already on shavings except in the addition, which I think will be nicer for them than the sand has been the past few years. I saved the shower curtain from last year for the doorway, although I might try something different to try and prevent the wretched sparrows from getting in the coop again! That's all that comes to my mind at the moment, anyway.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

[COLOR=006400]My Great Pyrenees would probably love to sleep in the coop in the winter.  He falls asleep buried in snow in the back yard all the time.  He does a happy dance every time it snows (which is way too infrequently in his opinion).[/COLOR] 

Aw! My German Shepherd, KoKo, loved the snow. She was always a low-energy dog, but get her out in the snow and she'd actually willingly romp around! The rest of the year, she was pretty much like a dog version of Eeyore.

For anyone needing tarps for their runs, I found these last year and worked great. I have 4ft tall fencing so the 4' tarp worked great! I love the length if them as well.
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/category_tarps-canopies-shelters+tarps+wood-pile-tarps

We can always use more tarps! Seems like they disappear as we need them around here!

 

[EurekaChic]

Aw!

My German Shepherd, KoKo, loved the snow. She was always a low-energy dog, but get her out in the snow and she'd actually willingly romp around! The rest of the year, she was pretty much like a dog version of Eeyore.

We can always use more tarps! Seems like they disappear as we need them around here!

Our Great Pyr, Darwin, is also usually low-energy. In fact, we call him 'the great white lump'.

Here he is waiting for it to snow:



He's 140 pounds, but looks bigger than that due to the fluff.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

For anyone needing tarps for their runs, I found these last year and worked great. I have 4ft tall fencing so the 4' tarp worked great! I love the length if them as well.
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/category_tarps-canopies-shelters+tarps+wood-pile-tarps

Those are set at some great prices! I got 3 smaller traps from someone for $10, don't know what I am going to do with them but figured they would come in handy in winter!

 

[raisinemright]

H...O...T.......

 

[Rhandi74]

[COLOR=006400]Our Great Pyr, Darwin, is also usually low-energy. In fact, we call him 'the great white lump'.[/COLOR] [COLOR=006400]Here he is waiting for it to snow:[/COLOR] [COLOR=006400]He's 140 pounds, but looks bigger than that due to the fluff.[/COLOR]

OMG!!! He is Huge!!! He makes my two Great Pyrenees look tiny. Mine are still puppies but I do not think they will reach his size.

Bailey

Montana

 

[atrueb00]

I think Silkies are so darned cute, but I love chicken FACES! How do you see the faces on Silkies? Even at the State Fair, I desperately searched for the eyes of a Silkie, but all I saw was a beak and all that stuff that I guess is comb? They are such strange (but otherwise terribly cute) birds. Or are they just so sweet and cuddly that you guys who own them don't care that you can't see their faces from a distance? This is a serious question. I'm really curious!

With that odd commentary, I wish you all a good night!

Glad that @kabhyper1 got you some pics of faces. I've found that you can't see their face unless you are at the right angle-then you can see their face and know they can see pretty well.

Here you go. Ithink they look like Beaker from the muppets.

They do look like Beaker!! What a great comparison

Took some photos today! I'll post the others tomorrow.

Here's Eliza, my 6.5 month old Imported English Blue Splash Orpington (originally a chick from @Kiniska )
She's larger than Adeline, my 1.5 year old Jubilee



This is Smalty, my 6.5 month old Blue Silkie (originally a chick from @bradselig ) She and my Blue Splash Silkie (Ditzy) were raised with Eliza. They had a Mother/Daughters relationship until a few months ago when Eliza decided to perch next to Adeline instead of having two Silkies trying to sleep under her! It was interesting that Eliza sought after her own breed to make a special friend.


My Barred Rock, Tweedy, and Silver Laced Wyandotte, Lacey, are best buds.
Guess they bonded over coloring instead of breed!


If Tweedy were human, she'd be a goody two-shoes, rule-follower, level-headed type.

Please submit all of these photos to the BYC calendar and Backyard Poultry Magazine Cover contest. Gorgeous!!!

Here's a unique chicken coop idea -- out of an old entertainment center!

I might just keep a curio I was previously considering listing on CL to convert to a coop. What a cool idea! I wonder if they put a special varnish on it so it doesn't rot outside.

Originally posted by atrueb00 Do you say ragdoll cause you can hold onto it any which way and it doesn't care? Cause I have one of those and had a lot of cats, but never one like this. She lays in the oddest positions too. Very cute pic!

@raisinemright Adorable photo! Here's my little girl with her Ragdoll cat she adopted (sorry it's a repeat photo).


@atrueb00
Ragdolls are purebred cats known for being docile and limp like a ragdoll. Here is my Humane Society cat, Lionel pictured in my chicken carrier-- (last time I showed his brother Purrcy in the carrier). Although they aren't Ragdolls, they have the trait of being so relaxed that they're limp.

This is so interesting! My cat is black with medium long hair. I can pick her up and she is just limp in my arms. I just laid her on the couch here and she stayed where I put her so I could get a pic. I called her a ragdoll when we first got her (she was a stray we adopted in May) but didn't know there was a breed. Obviously not purebred since she is the wrong colors, but still has the limp attitude.

Hello & welcome. I am just getting started myself. I live in Warsaw, and am in the process of building my coop & run. Looking forward to getting the birds. Hoping to have it finished & ready by the end of this weekend. I am looking for Rhode Island Reds . , So if anyone knows where to get them or has some to sell, give me a shout.

Welcome to the thread! You may want to check out our member's list to see if someone nearby you has RIR. There are also a number of chicken swaps/auctions every weekend around the state. I post the upcoming ones on Thursdays, check out my last post or view the Indiana BYC'ers page for the calendar of events and map.

Well I had a bad day! Fell this morning while refilling waterers and bn achy for hours! Then decided to mow my yard and didn't change my shoes. I only had flip flops on. Yep you guessed it- while mowing a small hill in my front yard (and I mean. SMALL hill...) my foot slipped off the padded foot placement and my toes went into the belt pully (which should have bn covered but my son had just worked on tightening the belt) any way a trip t the hospital later and I still have my toes but the way they are hurting I'm not sure I want them! Lol those of you who are squeamish stop now! This is after getting the bleeding stopped and going through X-rays:

Two stitches in my baby toe, two in my fourth toe, two inside my big toe and five on the outside. It had a chip in the bone but seriously could have been LOTS worse!
Moral of the story- DONT wear flip flops while mowing not even on a riding mower!

I am so glad to hear you are okay. I used to sell tractors, knew that wearing flip flops is a bad idea when mowing but still did it. No more after seeing that!

My DH fixed our AC!!!!!! I knew there was a reason I married a mechanic.... and it isn't all the old cars in the driveway. So, back to the plan for getting chickens.

Woot!! Glad to hear your chicken plans are back on track.

Here is some new pics of my chicks.

Love those shanks/feet

H...O...T.......

It was 90 today, then a storm came in around 5, got pitch black and dropped 20-30 degrees.

I am really tired of it getting dark at 7:30 every night, but bc of the storm today it was dark at 5. *sigh*

 

[bradselig]

I love the fluffy faces!