INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Faraday40]

Definitely an egg shortage in the Chicagoland area. (Not for our family, though.)

The tomatoes look great. Nothing close to ripe tomatoes for me. With the death of my mom, family illnesses, & an additional 5 funerals, I couldn't plant the garden until early June. I had to buy some plants to make up for lost time, but I at least got something into the ground. On the bright side, we got a bumper crop of cherries & the raspberries should be bursting soon. We got our 1st taste last night!

The rain slightly flooded part of the garden a few times, but for the most part, we're OK. The chickens don't seem to mind all the mud. My white Coronation Sussex has a black beak, wattles, feet & legs with a gray chest. I think she's discovered the fun of digging for worms. My lavender orps are already gray, so they look about the same. LOL I've always joked about wanting waterfowl, so this year between the rain & the chickens, I feel like I already have some.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

My chocolate and chocolate cuckoo Orp kids got baths today. Photos will be taken once they are perfectly dry and have forgiven me for the bath. Almost all the down is gone, so they are just starting to look like little attractive juveniles. They have the terribly uncreative names of Hershey (M) and Cocoa (F). I am so sick of rain (which hasn't happened YET today, but looks probable). We literally have algae growing atop the soil because it has been so wet for so long. I feel like my backyard belongs in a cypress swamp, and I know I'm not alone. However, the chooks couldn't care less. Whoever came up with the "Mad as a wet hen" expression is nuts. NONE of my chickens mind getting soaked, as long as it's a gentle to moderate rain and not a T-storm. Today they all look a bit cleaner, though. My blues looked mauve (blue plus brown) yesterday!

AMEN. Ugh, all this rain! My girls don't seem to mind it, either, but I'm sick of sinking up to my ankles every time I go out there! I love chocolate in chickens; chocolate eggs and chocolate birds. Can't wait to see pictures! I don't think there's any problem with your names. It's what you liked for them, so why not? After all, I've seen Australorps named Austra and Buff Orpingtons named Buffy, and my sister named one of our first chicks Chickie, so...

[COLOR=8B4513]Hope everyone north of here (well, that's everyone), is hanging in there during the storms![/COLOR] @pipdzipdnreadytogo [COLOR=8B4513]~ I did see news coverage about Ft. Wayne's storm damage. Glad your mom is okay! Has your little duckie been in an actual puddle or is it still a house baby? I was going to repost your photo, but the site is not letting me at this time.[/COLOR]

He's still a house baby. I've been raising him like I raise chicken chicks, and I never like to put chicks out during this much wetness because of the possibility of coccidiosis, but I've learned that isn't as much of a concern for ducklings, so... I'm overprotective of him, anyway, after the last duckling I had, so I guess that's part of it as well. If we ever have a nice, sunny, and maybe less mosquito-y day again, I'm going to start taking him outside for playdates. Here, I'll post a picture (or two, or three...). He's exactly one month old today. He's starting to look more like a duck than a duckling with all his feathers coming in! He's turned into such a snuggler lately, too.

His little foot.

We're trying a bunch of new tomatoes this year. One of them is a "currant" tomato--meaning it's the size of a currant (tiny). It's called Broad Ripple Currant tomato. I had a heck of a time locating seeds--which is ironic, because the tomato is heirloom variety from the 1900's, in the Broad Ripple area which is only 10 miles from my house. I didn't have a dime to provide size scale, so I stuck a nickel in the picture. How are your tomatoes doing this year with all this rain?

Ours have grown into a jungle. Also, that storm a couple days ago knocked them all over, so they're all laying to the left now. Our cherry tomatoes are ripening left and right, and we have tons and tons of early girls that are just starting to go yellowish. We also tried a few new ones, but it looks like the only ones we're going to get in abundance out of the heritage ones are the 'Big Rainbows'. We've also got Old Germans and some chocolate colored tomato variety, and then just the basic hybrids.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Not a single tomato anywhere near ripe on our end.

 

[racinchickins]

We're trying a bunch of new tomatoes this year. One of them is a "currant" tomato--meaning it's the size of a currant (tiny). It's called Broad Ripple Currant tomato. I had a heck of a time locating seeds--which is ironic, because the tomato is heirloom variety from the 1900's, in the Broad Ripple area which is only 10 miles from my house.

These tomatoes were thought to be extinct, until a plant was found growing through a crack in a sidewalk in the Broad Ripple Neighborhood in Indianapolis in 1984. The seedling was transplanted, and since then, they have been propagated, and brought back from the near brink of extinction.

We got our garden out 2 weeks later than usual this year due to vacation, so everything's ripeness is delayed. This one is our first to ripen. They're the cutest, tiniest tomatoes I've ever seen.
The tomatoes taste fantastic. They have a very low acid flavor, very juicy, albeit so, so tiny. This plant is huge, the foliage is tall and bushy, and the little tomatoes grow in clusters of 8. The plant is so leafy that you can't really see the clusters until more than half of them have turned yellow.

I didn't have a dime to provide size scale, so I stuck a nickel in the picture.


How are your tomatoes doing this year with all this rain?

We've been looking for this variety. Any possibility of saving some seeds to sell?

 

[pginsber]

We've been looking for this variety. Any possibility of saving some seeds to sell?

Isn't it crazy how hard to find this variety is? When I get home, I'll check the envelope to see where we finally found them. NOT IN BROAD RIPPLE, I can tell you that much.

We plant several open-pollinated varieties together and they end up cross pollinating, so we usually buy new seeds every year. I PMd you.

 

[browncow15]

I've gotten a few cherry tomatoes but for the most part my garden looks awful with SO much water!!

 

[flyladyrocks]

So sorry have been MIA. The fair is over! I think I might have my life back! With 2 kids in 2 completely different things it meant being there all day almost every single day. But my son made it to state with his demo of his U.P. Glove (Unlimited Potential). Sort of a robotic control glove. He worked on it very hard so we are very proud. Of course we all caught a nasty cold during the fair, yet still pushed through and now are feeling pretty lousy.

Very jealous of your gardens. Apparently we are not having a garden this year. First time in years. Right as I was getting ready to plant seeds - 2 months ago we all got sick. Then we got got sick chicks. Between sick chicks, sick people, drastically increases the number of birds on our property and the fair, on top of on going health issues in our house there was not the time or energy to do anything with a garden. Maybe I will still try to plant some tomatoes and peppers REALLY LATE. The first year I had a garden did not get plants in the ground until July so I know I can still get something out of it as long as we don't get a drought! @pginsber my seeds are all for tomatoes and peppers I have not planted before.

On the chicken front: We were very excited to get 9 eggs for the first time!

This means some of our pullets have started laying since we only have 7 hens! Woohoo!

If you live in Indianapolis - Indy Rezone is going to the City Council on July 13th!
With all we have going on I was not able to give an update on Indy Rezone: Almost 2 weeks ago, June 17, DH and I went to the Metropoliton Development Commitee meeting. @Dreamwalker came too. We came away more than a little disillusioned. Six people spoke, 5 against it, the only one for it was on the committee who wrote it – and she even said multiple times that it was flawed. Right before the meeting started she passed over two, 3 inch thick notebooks of changes no one had seen or read. They still passed it on to City Council.DH and I were the only 2 we spoke about the livestock part of things - we also touched on other concerns. The other three had other concerns with it.
The lady who spoke for it was – no better way to say this – deceptive. When asked if this was presented to the public, she said there were over 135 meetings. She was counting anytime any organization or neighborhood in the city said they wanted someone to speak from Indy Rezone. Most (if not all) of these meeting were not publicized in any of the ways they said they would last summer: Facebook, Twitter, the (now non-existant) website. The general public was not informed. So most people with serious concerns had no clue these meetings were happening and could not voice there opinion. Silence on the part of Indy Rezone this past year makes it feel like they are trying to “get something by us”.
Here is a website link: http://www.indy.gov/egov/city/dmd/planning/services/current/Pages/ordinance.aspx

I will post more about Indy Rezone later today. We are so behind on everything - house chores, yard, chicken chores. So much to do, I don't have the time for a longer post at the moment!

Thought I would post this picture. I took it at Aldi. DD is already brainstorming for 4H projects for next year and is talking about doing one on the egg shortage and egg price increase. @Faraday40 we kinda have an egg shortage - with the egg price increase more people want farm fresh eggs than we can provide eggs for and still have some for ourselves!

 

[Indyshent]

Well, I'd thought my garden was doing pretty well before I checked in here this morning. My 'maters have been flowering, but I've only seen a handful of green tomatoes so far. Nothing's remotely ripe anywhere.

Of plants, I have bunches of cantaloupes sprouting up everywhere, one honeydew, two mystery melons that were supposed to be cantaloupes, about a dozen giant pumpkin plants (supposed to give me pumpkins around 200lbs, but we'll see), 20 or so corn stalks, a handful of bean sprouts, a dozen tomatoes, a handful of sunflowers, a handful of cukes, one habanero so far, a few zucchini and jalapenos, and a ton of marigolds and assorted wildflowers. All in one tiny yard, which is handily partitioned from my 40+ roving fowl. Boy, do these guys eat my pumpkin plants when they grow to close to that fence, though! Holy moly, I didn't think anything would want to eat pumpkin plants because they're so rough and sticker-y.


BTW, is anyone looking for Dark Brahma roos or know how to break a roo from a desperate attraction to my arms? I've been turning him upside down anytime he pecks me, and for awhile, this was good enough. Curse you, stupid hormones, for turning my sweet buys into raving lunatics and horndogs!

 

[flyladyrocks]

@pipdzipdnreadytogo and @kittydoc I am over all this rain too. I have a few pullets/cockerels who absolutely love the rain. It will be pouring buckets and they will run out into it and stand there with their faces in the rain and then excitedly run around in the puddles and swamp in our backyard. They are like little kids - which I guess they are. But I call them the ornery teenagers since they do not want to go into their coop at "curfew" every night.

More rain tomorrow and Friday it looks like. We are having a 10 x 12 shed/coop delivered friday and really need the ground to dry out a little bit!

 

[bradselig]

Today has been such an emotional rollercoaster. Grandma ffinally lost her battle again lymphoma and passed away this morning. Received a call and was offered the job I've been interviewing for. Only issuetheey can't offer me what they thought they could in pay. So I have less than 24hrs to get back with them if I want to accept the job or not. Part of accepting the job willrlikely be me sselling the house and relocating closer to fort Wayne. I will be renting until I get to the position I want which may require relocating four of state.

So with that all being said I am going to be going through and starting to sell off my complete flock. This is going to hurt the most lol. I will be getting pictures and prices this week if weather cooperates. So be on the look out for what I have for sale!