INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[ChickCrazed]

Flock For Sale

So, I'm back, but not for long. Only a couple people know my life situation... I'm going to do a quick fill in so that maybe you can better understand why I'm selling my flock.

My husband left me back in July. It's been really difficult for me. A 9 year relationship, 5 years of marriage. I have been battling depression and an ungodly amount of emotional distress. I spent almost no time with my flock this last summer, my yard and home is a wreck and I have to start myself back up again. Here I've found myself this winter, going out everyday, multiple times a day to tend to the birds, but I can't do it anymore. I can afford to buy another $25 bag of feed, or the time I spend with them. They are not going to be the only thing I have to cut back on. There's a lot more...
I've made a good run at this life, but the truth is that I am floundering big time. I can't stay in my house. I can't afford it, I won't ever be able to and I need to prepare for that. With that said, I can not afford to give my birds away.

I have 6 hens, 5 under 10 months, 1 silkie about a year and a half old.

4 Silkies(1 Roo, must go with one hen)
1 Silver Laced Wyandotte
1 Easter Egger
1 Silver laced Sebright
1 Old English game bantam Roo.
Reasonable offers accepted.
2 egg quality Cayuga Ducks.
$60 for the pair of females. Pretty quiet, anti social, but friendly.

1 unfinished, but useable coop.
$500 OBO, You must move.

Take it all for $500 The OEGB is such a sweetheart. He not the best Roo, but quiet.


Forgive the Chicken Selfies!

I'm so sorry. I hope you find a good home for your flock and get everything else figured out soon.

 

[browncow15]

I'm thinking about rolling the dice on it and getting my chicks there this spring.  Thoughts?

What are the per-chick prices at the feed stores, typically?

I've had great luck with chicks from RK in Martinsville! I believe theirs come from Townline Hatchery in Michigan (they are the only ones that carry ISA browns). My experience is the later in the season you wait the more variety they have. Prices are usually around $2/ chick for pullets, less for stright run. TSC in Plainfield always seems to have sickly looking chicks when I've been there but I've never bought any so... Early Feb is usually when chick days start.

 

[minmin1258]

My girls must have enjoyed being able to get out and move around today. They rewarded me quite nicely this evening with these:

Made me happy today for sure! Oh ( Brad Selig) the Pullet I got from you at Chickenfest, the one I thought was a cockerel because I thought it crowed, lol, is broody and just hatched out two LF eggs. There's one more egg in there but I don't think it's going t hatch.
Will post pics in a day or two. Your birds have been good for my flock! Thank You!!!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

My girls must have enjoyed being able to get out and move around today. They rewarded me quite nicely this evening with these:

Made me happy today for sure! Oh ( Brad Selig) the Pullet I got from you at Chickenfest, the one I thought was a cockerel because I thought it crowed, lol, is broody and just hatched out two LF eggs. There's one more egg in there but I don't think it's going t hatch.
Will post pics in a day or two. Your birds have been good for my flock! Thank You!!!

Wow - what good girls! Is that a chicken platter under all those eggs?

 

[iamfivewire]

cheetah : another option would be to get some chicks from other members on the forum / group that are near you, that may be incubating eggs. we have a batch going already, but quite a distance away from you to get tho.

 

[kittydoc]

I'm not new to BYC, but I am new to this forum.

I want to try this again. I'm posting in this forum specifically to try to meet Central Indiana chicken folks who live relatively close to me for potential future meet-ups. I live in Zionsville, not far from Indianapolis. When I last posted in this Indiana forum, I got some odd messages from people out-of-state who were trying to tell me how to behave on the forum when all I had done was said where I live. It was a bit strange. I did receive some lovely messages greeting me and welcoming me to the forum, with some really helpful links.
I ordered my first five chicks yesterday, we are starting small as this is the first time we'll have had chickens.

I ordered:
Buckeye (Go Bucks!)
Silver Cuckoo Marans
Buff Orpington
Lavender Orpington
Barred Plymouth Rock

Hope you're all staying warm and have great success this year with your flocks!
Diana
Zionsville, IN

l live in Zionsville, too!!! I have a mixed flock of layers (little of this, little of that--mostly hatchery Buff Orpingtons), plus this year we are breeding Lavender and Jubilee Orpingtons. PM me sometime and maybe we can grab coffee or something.

 

[kittydoc]

General question: How many of you have sand floors for your coops, and how deep and what kind of sand is needed (I know there have been discussions about sand type in the past, and I could indeed search and find it, but I might as well ask again!)?

What do you use as a pooper scooper?

I'm not sure it would work with our setup. The coop is rectangular and right now dirt plus straw plus chicken poop (we do a big dig-out once a year to get as much old junk out as possible). The henhouse is inside the coop, but elevated about 3 feet off the floor of the coop, and it has a wood floor with straw right now.

Those of you who use sand, is that all you use? No straw? Because I know if I left straw in the henhouse, it will wind up all over the place. Most will stay in the henhouse, but some will make its way to the floor of the coop. Since both are straw, it does not matter now.

I would really like to make poop removal easier than it is now. The only darned good thing about freezing cold weather is the poop doesn't smell and is easier to remove (as long as you have a hoe or sharp implement to hack it off where it has stuck to something else).

Our birds poop a lot more in the henhouse in the winter--maybe it's because they are in there longer instead of outside in the chickenyard, since of course we all know chickens despise snow. They actually poop more in the henhouse than on the coop floor, which is 3 times larger in area. You'd think they could do me a favor and at least spread it around.

I'm just wondering if we could make sand work on the floor of the coop (probably yes) and maybe in the henhouse, too? Do you "sand people" put it in the henhouse as well? No straw anywhere?

Sorry to sound stupid. I've just never seen one in person, and it's not within my veterinary medicine knowledge base. I just want to know as much as possible, since it will be a pain to have the sand hauled back there (plus the primary expense of putting it in the first time). I'm sure it has to be partially replenished periodically. But I wonder whether it's worth it, both from a cost and ease of use perspective. We have about 35 birds right now in three enclosures, each with an elevated henhouse inside the coops.

THANK YOU ALL in advance for trying to educate me on the pluses and minuses of sand bedding vs. straw.

 

[hoosiercheetah]

cheetah : another option would be to get some chicks from other members on the forum / group that are near you, that may be incubating eggs. we have a batch going already, but quite a distance away from you to get tho.

Right, somehow I had forgot that option - and really, I'd prefer buying chicks from someone I know.

But it's nice to hear that people have good luck with the RK in Martinsville. I love going to that store, even though it's a bit of a drive for me.

 

[PeacefulWalls]

we have a friend that highly recomends the freedom rangers as a preferred choice to raising meat birds

It's good to know that others have positive experience with the freedom rangers. thanks for sharing that!

 

[Faraday40]

General question: How many of you have sand floors for your coops, and how deep and what kind of sand is needed (I know there have been discussions about sand type in the past, and I could indeed search and find it, but I might as well ask again!)?

What do you use as a pooper scooper?

I use course sand (also called construction sand) in both the coop & run. (Never playground sand. No hay or straw) The nest boxes have pine shavings. I use a pair of large litter box scoopers to quickly remove the poop daily. Takes less than 5 min. per day. Frozen poop is even faster! Sand dries out very quickly, so no swampy, muddy chicken run in the spring. Also reduces number of flies in summer b/c the poop dries out faster & cleaned every morning. No weekly coop cleanings. I do have to wash the walls, windows, roosts, feeders etc when needed.

When I calculated the initial cost of sand & compared it to my shavings bill, the sand paid for itself in 4 months. I still keep pine shavings on hand for nest boxes, seasonal chicks, & emergency cages.
Note: I do not have a huge flock. I'm not sure if this method would work for 35 chickens. I did make a giant sifter out of some wire 1/4" hardware cloth & a pitchfork, but is was a little awkward in my tight corners. Another minor issue is that I'm always in search of dry items to add to my composter. The shavings & poop combo were just about the right mixture for effortless composting.