INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: Theres a ton of good baits. I kept a raccoon as a teaching aid for national night outs (animal control)..her name was Bonnie. She was spayed, saw the vet annually and I had a permit through DNR. Fish, canned cat food, sardines, tuna, cocoa pops, fruit loops, marshmallow LOL! Raccoon eat anything and love it all.
Her favorite was mini oreos.
Our raccoon population is terrible this year. I am setting traps nightly also. The have no natural predator left for adults, and the babies are only at risk by owls.

@jchny2000

You said the goats would lay down during transport. I was thinking I needed to figure out some way to make the area smaller so they weren't bumping around in too large a space but if they lay down, that wouldn't be necessary?

smaller space is better, but they will likely just lay down for the trip. The motion from travel makes them feel unsteady so they lie down.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

At 13 weeks 2 days the Cochin cockerel was trying to mount an Australorp pullet while i was hoeing the garden this evening.

Haven't heard him try to crow yet.

Wow he is an early starter!

 

[Indyshent]

I will be coming to Indiana around July 4 (haven't been set in stone) Will anyone have silkies for sale by then? I go to Bedford. Hour south from Indianapolis

Holy crapola, how fast do you plan to be driving? Do you realize that pretty much everything south of Martinsville on 37 is under construction, and much of the drive is down to one lane? Do you realize it's infested with speed traps (esp around Martinsville where the limit suddenly dips to 50, but also everywhere there's construction, and every other place imaginable, pretty much). If you bank on 2hrs one-way trip, you'll be less likely to be disappointed. Otherwise, travel at less busy times.

Bloomington RK is off the Second St exit. So far, I've found that store to be the most diverse and most attentive to the baby birds, just in case you're looking. They're also the only one I've been to that had heritage turkey poults (my bane). They frequently have a bantam bin, but I've also seen tubs full of silkies at the Martinsville RK which is just off 37, but don't go there if it can be helped. Years past have had far more glorious service at that locale; however, there's a creepy dude hovering over the chicks this year, which tend to be less healthy and diverse of breed than those of Bloomington. Bedford has both a TSC and a new RK (in the old Walmart), though I haven't been to either recently. You could call ahead and ask the staff if they have any silkies, though they might not be able to give you a breed ID for sure.

Hope you find lots of silkies, but I know a lot of the Indiana members have gotten out of the breed due to predator issues. Not sure about kabhyper, but I know @ellymayRans has or had them recently and would be on your route.

Good luck finding silkies! They're doll babies, and I miss having them, but such is the price of predation... and my expensive turkey habit.

I've been battling raccoons the last few weeks. I would have thought they'd have plenty of food this time of year. They got into some feed buckets i had out and then a couple days later dug thru a week spot in the run and took a couple older hens. 2 days ago they got my last polish hen during the daytime. I set a live trap Monday night, caught one young coon in 2 hrs! He won't be bothering anyone again...

Set the trap again last night and got nothing, but came home from work today around 6:30 and there was another one sniffing around the garage/cat food in broad daylight. I'll spruce up the trap with some fresh scraps from dinner and hope he comes back tonight

Good luck getting rid of the varmints!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Hoping for a few dry days! Want to get my corn in, we have a pound of the early bi-color sweet corn to plant. I don't plan on a lot of other veges probably just tomato, peppers and squash. The one bonus of having everyone cooped is less issues with the garden, lol. My Scovy love to raid the corn, ugh.
My Sumatra are excellent layers, all the girls lay pretty much daily. Going to hatch for more splash later this year once seasonal laying has ended for the other species. They lay as well as leghorn but a much calmer bird. My little Buckeyes are growing up fast, and still as cheerful, social and healthy as day one. They just climb all over my arms and hands when I clean the brooder, feed and water.

 

[Indyshent]

Hoping for a few dry days! Want to get my corn in, we have a pound of the early bi-color sweet corn to plant. I don't plan on a lot of other veges probably just tomato, peppers and squash. The one bonus of having everyone cooped is less issues with the garden, lol. My Scovy love to raid the corn, ugh.
My Sumatra are excellent layers, all the girls lay pretty much daily. Going to hatch for more splash later this year once seasonal laying has ended for the other species. They lay as well as leghorn but a much calmer bird. My little Buckeyes are growing up fast, and still as cheerful, social and healthy as day one. They just climb all over my arms and hands when I clean the brooder, feed and water.

Did your poults hatch well?

Last couple days I've been trying to socialize my bitty poults more. The Royal Palm and Slate poults have so far been the most clingy and were yawning up a storm this evening when I went out to check on them. Oh, they're such cuddlebugs!

One of the Bourbons hops out to follow me everywhere if I let it (can't!). The chocolate poult is headstrong and loves to escape. Despite my wishes to the contrary, it looks like (tentatively called) "Hershey" might be a jake. All of the heritage poults from RK (and the remaining two BBW, of course) have been quite healthy and sociable. I would love to know where the heritage poults are coming from because it's not Townline.

Major is definitely trying to mate the poults and accidentally killing them. He got into the yard with them yesterday, so it's a good thing I was right there because he tried to mount the poor thing into the ground lickety-split.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: I have had very bad luck with turkeys this year. I have hatched them for 3 years now. None of my eggs have been fertile so far this year, so my BR tom needs to be replaced. I had 2 Holland hatch but failed to thrive early on. If it continues I will probably not keep them anymore. Non-productive species won't feed our family. Turkeys are more expensive to keep due to dietary needs. I adore poults but I have to look at the real numbers too.
My main plan is providing food for our family in most of our birds and livestock. Eggs, meat and flock protection, so far the turkeys have fell short the last 2 years. Its made me consider not keeping them anymore. Adore them but its just not been productive for us.

 

[tmarsh83]

Wow he is an early starter!

Kind of what I thought. Did a double take because I didn't believe it at first. But he he tried several times over the course of a minute or so.

I've had my dry days to get everything in, now I need the rain. We got ten minutes of light rain around 4 yesterday but that's all this week. I know some others need it to dry out, but we've been missed.

That said, I'm currently on probably my best bean stand in three years, the sweet potatoes I was worried about look to be mostly ok. They arrived from Gurney's just before the last frosts, then we had terrible wind, then I was gone, then in the hospital. So they were mulched in a cool whip tub in a window in the garage for ten days. How they still made it is beyond me.

I did have to replant squash and melon, but it's looking better already for them. No corn here. Grandpa grows enough for the county and with my diabetes, I don't eat much of it, it spikes my numbers.

 

[Crista]

Just curious. Recently I was asked for some hatching eggs. My rooster is a fine looking buff orpington and his hens are buff orpingtons and barred rocks. She asked me what the charge was and I had no idea what the value would be. Can anyone give me a suggested charge. ? Thanks

 

[mixedupchicks]

Hi, I have a little problem. I used a little giant incubator, and only one baby hatched. She is a very loud little peeper. My husband said she is lost because she is alone. Does anyone have any 1-5 day old chicks they are willing to sell? I live on the west side of Indianapolis, but will travel if need be. Please and thank you so much.

 

[iamfivewire]

we have some 10 day olds, but we are over 5 hours north