INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[tmarsh83]

Great job! I wish i was done with my pens! Making me feel like a slacker! ! Haha!

Can't wait to see the inside when finished. Great ventilation too BTW!

Ready for it to be done too! LOL. Thanks. I really struggled with the ventilation because we aren't protected much on our hill so I didn't want a bunch of windows that we had to open and close all the time, and using steel makes the framing and trimming a real pain. I decided to try to use the natural steel breaks and see what I ended up with, and added the gable vents. The wind wasn't up much yesterday and I was amazed at the flow of air I got from the eves to the peak. That gambrel roof leaves so much volume of air to change I think it will be ok. If anything I may end up putting some reflective bubble wrap insulation on the top portion of the roof just to break down some of the radiant heat from the steel. We will see how it progresses.

 

[tmarsh83]

Tmarsh83- looks good, glad it stayed dry, it was a good night to test it!

EllymayRans- good luck on the hatches

Thank you. Yes it was. Guessing you got the same nonsense we did around 2 this morning.

 

[chick rookie]

@jchny2000 I didn't know that food banks took eggs! All great ways to donate eggs.


@pipdzipdnreadytogo I think an egg recipe book is such a great idea! Might have to put one together myself.

Thank you to everyone who helped with ideas to use up extra eggs. Made egg salad last night and I think I will try the brownies this weekend. We sell our large brown eggs most of the time but the little silkie eggs are harder to find a market for.

I don't have Silkies anymore ( I do miss them ) but I used to give 6 free with every 2 dz order, when I wasn't hatching them, Silkies sold fast.

 

[atrueb00]

@chick rookie That is a good idea to give 6 small eggs free, especially if I can give people the 18 egg carton with 6 silkie eggs. Thanks!

@slutter Would be neat if everyone on the thread could contribute recipes and we could put together a Indiana BYC Egg Cookbook! We love our bees, they are such a neat hobby! Ours seem to be thriving this year from the early spring weather.

@Mother2Hens hope your DD is on the mend! Stomach flu has been going around our family and my DH was in bed all last weekend. Serious stuff.

@racinchickins That is amazing how quickly pigs can put on weight!

 

[slutter]

@atrue00 hmm what would you (or everyoneelses) thoughts on making a thread and everyone can post recipes and i could combbine them into a digital cookbook of sorts

 

[atrueb00]

I finally got a good picture of the chicken roosting with the peacocks. She is the only one allowed up there and you can even see all the other hens in the lower right corner! I love the look on Marge's face, "So what she is up here? Leave us alone!"

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

@Mother2Hens am so sorry, hope DD feels better soon!

Added 2 more silkies to the hatch tally today. 1 black and 1 partridge. The black is still drying and the partridge, well adorable of course!!!

I have 2 incubators pretty full, and new eggs under the broody.
8 more duck eggs, 7 turkey eggs (mixed), the silkie and blue frizzled eggs along with some Splash Marans, I don't have high hopes for the Marans eggs because I recvd. them pretty banged up. I slipped the Mille fleur Cochin eggs under my broody and they threw in a few splash or paint silkie eggs. I put those in the bator too.

Exciting! Test hatches are going well here. the next hatch is a full tray, all on waiting lists!

@racinchickins & @jchny2000
My peahen didn't show any interest either and shocked me when i saw them mating by chance one day. If i weren't home a lot i don't know if I would have! That was sometime in early April. I found her first egg 4/20 last season.

Thank you for sharing that, hen paces a lot, but she likes to be close to him. She seems to be afraid when he displays. I am wondering if my Peahen is matured yet. @racinchickins mentioned she is smaller than his ladies.

Still some trim work to do, but essentially this is coop 2.0. Not my finest construction work, but I think it's quite suitable for some chickens, lol.

Lots of interior work as well. Leaving the option open of putting in a couple windows, but the eves are open, as is the ridge cap, and the gambrel break you can see the vented soffit in there as well. It pulls a lot of air through, i'm really impressed with how much actually, and the door can easily be propped open as well, so we will see.

As it is, there it is. Now I need to build the rollout nest boxes, and the door from human to bird areas will actually be a swinging bunk feeder that should hold 50-100 pounds of feed. Cold snap coming next week, but I still think I will be able to move the chicks out there with the lamp once I get dividing wall sorted.

Wind and rain came through around 2 this morning, I was curious to see if it held it's own, the entire interior was dry as a bone, even in that wind no rain made it through any of the vented areas, so that was a big boost to the confidence. Now let's just hope it doesn't blow away today.

I love how its turning out, going to be a gorgeous coop!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: Ventilation is just huge for overall health, you nailed it! I doubt you will ever see a problem with frostbite or respiratory issues.

@atrue00 hmm what would you (or everyoneelses) thoughts on making a thread and everyone can post recipes and i could combbine them into a digital cookbook of sorts

I love your idea!

I finally got a good picture of the chicken roosting with the peacocks. She is the only one allowed up there and you can even see all the other hens in the lower right corner! I love the look on Marge's face, "So what she is up here? Leave us alone!"

ROFL how true! Turkey are the same, only one or 2 hens are accepted on the roosts.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I am already getting buried in eggs. Chickens are laying well! Buyers are liking the $3 a dozen so we will see a good year for egg sales.
Saw one of my Embden goose steal another goose hens egg from her nest. Glad they are sisters brooding together, but have 2 separate nests built lol. Will candle tomorrow, the first hens clutch is very close to hatch. Checking both nests and will swap any that's behind to the second broody goose.
Part one of our peafowls new coop is almost done. 8x8x8 is the first section, and will be adding a 8x8x8 additional run for more open space. They will have a 16ft long coop, 8ft wide 8 ft high with a 5 foot high roost. The 2 sections can be moved, so they will have a tractor style coop also! My phone died so no pictures yet but hope to take some tomorrow.
I am really preferring mobile coops for any of my birds. We have a loader on our tractor, so its move coops, scoop and compost. Have 2 good compost piles working with our chicken's help. Rotating the coops keeps foraging active and gives the cooped birds a fresh section of ground to enjoy.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

@Mother2Hens am so sorry, hope DD feels better soon!

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