INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[HelloChickies]

Hi everyone I have missed being here.
Life is really a big ------hole right now and will be for a long time to come. My grandfather passed away and 2 days latter we got NOTICE that our neighbors want to rezone to residential and there are more of them than me so I have lost and now I have 30 days to either move or get rid of ALL my critters. Well the moving thing aint working out. Cant find a place.
I am so upset. I have had my horse for 16 years!!! and I have the goats and the chickens!!! I just dont know what to do so if anyone is looking for any goats or chickens e-mail me cause I wont be on here much right now, I'm just upset and am spending ALL the time I can with the critters and trying to see that they go to good people.
I hope all is well with everyone.

[email protected]

Oh, that's just terrible!! :-( Like-- my worst nightmare. (I could see that happening around my place.)

I hope they will grandfather you in, or give you more time??!!! Is there anyone who can take your horse, just until you find a new place? Gosh, it just doesn't seem right! I'm praying for you.
Jenn

 

[Mother2Hens]

Hi everyone!

I had taken a "leave" from our thread because of my oldest sister's stroke, etc. etc. She's doing better and once again, I hope to get back to being a regular here.



Meanwhile, my three remaining chickens (who survived the winter mystery illness) are doing well. It's been an interesting experience going from eight hens to five. At first it was depressing, but it's actually been nice getting to know the three even better. Although Smalty is the odd one out, they are all nice to each other. Roadrunner has emerged as the leader, which is nice since when I adopted her as a pullet, she had been traumatized by the previous owner's little boys who they let chase their chickens. As a result, Roadrunner has always been shy and skittish. She had slowly been working her way up the ranks as flock changes happened. Lacey used to be the nightshift flock leader, but after her BFF flock leader Tweedy died, Lacey lost interest in being a leader—no need to be a leader of two other chickens I guess! Although the two big chickens are nice to Smalty, she has to kind of chase after them to keep up (as you can see in the photo above). I feel bad for her not having a buddy, but we needed to totally disinfect the coop and area—and just let some time pass before introducing new flock members. I've had a plan in place, but I recently came SO close to irrationally making an impulse buy when I was in Indy last week. I went to the Agrarian "fancy chicken store" where I saw these:

Luckily I got ahold of myself!

Anyway, I am looking forward to catching up on everyone's news—good or bad—that's how things roll in the chicken world.

I noticed @chick rookie 's post about zoning! I am so sorry for you, Michelle!

After moving an entire farm to a new location! That's so wrong.

I'll check in later. I'm going out in the heat with my three girls. I'm using lots of fans and giving them cold watermelon!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Hey guys! It's been a while since I've posted anything, been really busy. We moved into our new house at the end of May and immediately had to get a full pipe repair. Our front yard is now a giant mud pit. Oh the joys of homeownership.
My first flock fell victim to a raccoon attack, but I've been having a blast raising my second flock.
A small group, because I have a small coop, consisting of a polish, Americuana & speckled Sussex. I have been introducing them to new foods (scraps from my cooking) and recently built them a swing for the brooder box. I'm giving them one more week before I move them outside. They would probably be fine now, but I haven't finished predator proofing the coop.
I tried uploading photos but it wouldn't let me, I think I need to re-download my app.

My question for you guys is if you do anything special for when we get severe weather. I'm not sure what parts of Indy everyone is from, but I'm in the Castleton area and we had 60+ mph winds during the storm last night. I moved to the main level of the house in fear one of our trees in the yard would fall on the house!

I had an 8x10 aluminum shed fully assembled. Blown across the yard, fortunately little damage! Definitely anchor. I used 4 T-post at the corners, and crossed heavy wires over the top to hold down. DH will get anchors for the bottom this weekend. Its going on pasture for goats that will be kidding soon.

Hi @hbrown322 !

What kind of coop do you have? Is it small enough that it could blow over in a storm or is it larger?

If I had a really little coop, I'd try to situate it to the side of a building or wind-break somewhere on your property so that it doesn't get the full brunt of the wind.

I have to admit that every time we get those storm winds I'm always nervous for my shed coop. And it is a full 8x12. But it is setting on blocks and no wind breaks nearby.

Some of the winds we have had are pretty awful. e are in a valley, and usually not effected but wow! When we are.

Can anyone give me a rough price they charge for dressed turkey? We did CX chickens for the first time this year. They sold "ok" at $3/lb. but we live in a poorer area and didn't have the interest that I thought we would. I don't want to price myself out of the market on my turkeys.
Thanks

@racinchickins may be able to help. He raises turkeys, but not sold at market. I will not sell an adult tom for less than $50 myself live weight. There's a long term commitment getting them to weight, and we have to regain our cost.

Hi everyone I have missed being here.
Life is really a big ------hole right now and will be for a long time to come. My grandfather passed away and 2 days latter we got NOTICE that our neighbors want to rezone to residential and there are more of them than me so I have lost and now I have 30 days to either move or get rid of ALL my critters. Well the moving thing aint working out. Cant find a place.
I am so upset. I have had my horse for 16 years!!! and I have the goats and the chickens!!! I just dont know what to do so if anyone is looking for any goats or chickens e-mail me cause I wont be on here much right now, I'm just upset and am spending ALL the time I can with the critters and trying to see that they go to good people.
I hope all is well with everyone.

[email protected]

I am so saddened by this. Prayers to you and DH. I am not set up for horses but may be able to help with chickens.

Anyone looking for muscovy I'm about to some hatch in the next couple of weeks. Mom is blue pied and dad is either blue pied too (do black silver and blue babies) or lavender split to chocolate (so black or blue split to lav I think but babies could be used for buff or cream)

Congrats!

We Indiana folks must be busy! Not many posts lately.

Got up this morning and went out to get some wood chips and found that husband had put some yew on top of one of the wood chip piles. We had been cutting it down and were going to burn it but I didn't realize he put it on the wood chips.

I ended up hauling all the yew (4 pickup loads) back up to the front burn pile and burning all morning. Won't be able to use those wood chips now as there are needles in it from the yew, unfortunately.

But at least the yew we cut has been burned.

Worn out!

Ugh, good decision tho, that stuff is deadly. My 350 lb calf 3 years ago grabbed a few bites off my trailer, and was dead in hours. We have a few more here to pull out and will be very relieved to see it go.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Hi everyone!

I had taken a "leave" from our thread because of my oldest sister's stroke, etc. etc. She's doing better and once again, I hope to get back to being a regular here.



Meanwhile, my three remaining chickens (who survived the winter mystery illness) are doing well. It's been an interesting experience going from eight hens to five. At first it was depressing, but it's actually been nice getting to know the three even better. Although Smalty is the odd one out, they are all nice to each other. Roadrunner has emerged as the leader, which is nice since when I adopted her as a pullet, she had been traumatized by the previous owner's little boys who they let chase their chickens. As a result, Roadrunner has always been shy and skittish. She had slowly been working her way up the ranks as flock changes happened. Lacey used to be the nightshift flock leader, but after her BFF flock leader Tweedy died, Lacey lost interest in being a leader—no need to be a leader of two other chickens I guess! Although the two big chickens are nice to Smalty, she has to kind of chase after them to keep up (as you can see in the photo above). I feel bad for her not having a buddy, but we needed to totally disinfect the coop and area—and just let some time pass before introducing new flock members. I've had a plan in place, but I recently came SO close to irrationally making an impulse buy when I was in Indy last week. I went to the Agrarian "fancy chicken store" where I saw these:

Luckily I got ahold of myself!

Anyway, I am looking forward to catching up on everyone's news—good or bad—that's how things roll in the chicken world.

I noticed @chick rookie 's post about zoning! I am so sorry for you, Michelle!

After moving an entire farm to a new location! That's so wrong.

I'll check in later. I'm going out in the heat with my three girls. I'm using lots of fans and giving them cold watermelon!

So good to hear from you

! Glad your sister is better.
Our numbers here are so much less. We are reaching the point each group gets a free range day IF I am home and right with them. Mabel (Barred rock, at least 4) and LoPro (EE, Bunny's oldest daughter, will be 4 this year) are still with me, my oldest girls. I still have my Oldest Lavender Orp trio too.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Welcome back to so many folks!!

This is such a busy time of year for me. I love all my chickens! My EE/OE pen, the Orps, and Sumatra have rotated free range days now. 2 more coops to modify. Grow up pen is next. I have an awesome handful of hens to teach the teens how to forage. I am getting so many eggs daily, we even fill egg orders and freeze extras. Many of my seasonal species including geese have stopped laying.
We have so many other things going during the summer. My goat doe, Sugar is huge and due/overdue.. will call my vet if she hasn't kidded by the 28th. We keep Oberhasli goats for milk.
We also keep hogs. My Hampshire sow DoubleStuff is due August 10th. We expanded our hog pasture about 3x, added electric fence. We are expanding the goat and cow pasture another 2 acres, also on electric fencing. My girls all stay put, but the boys in any of the species seem to always find weak points. Not anymore.. we have several layers to keep everyone in and can finally rotate pastures too. My mini donkey Daisy mothers our new jersey bull, pretty adorable watching them

My adult jersey cow will be home soon, hoping she will bond with my lil guy Moose. While she has been pastured with the neighbors cows, she seemed to really love the calves.

 

[Mother2Hens]

So good to hear from you

! Glad your sister is better.
Our numbers here are so much less. We are reaching the point each group gets a free range day IF I am home and right with them. Mabel (Barred rock, at least 4) and LoPro (EE, Bunny's oldest daughter, will be 4 this year) are still with me, my oldest girls. I still have my Oldest Lavender Orp trio too.

Thank you! I've missed the thread!
Having a free range day for each of your small flocks reminds me of taking my flock on field trips outside the fenced-in part of our yard. They're like taking little kindergartners on a field trip—lol. A few squabbles, one runs off, and they're all excited! It's nice to have more one-on-one time with small flocks, too. I know you enjoy interacting and observing their behavior like I do. Chickens are so entertaining!

I usually don't like rain, but I was happy to have a rainstorm tonight. It had been over two weeks and the ground was like concrete from temps in the 90s. The chickens will be happy to find more insects in the morning. I've been letting them out of the coop at sunrise 5:30am Central time (and going back to bed!), so they can enjoy a couple hours of cooler temps.

Hope everyone has a good week!

 

[Greenthumb83]

Hi everyone!

I had taken a "leave" from our thread because of my oldest sister's stroke, etc. etc. She's doing better and once again, I hope to get back to being a regular here.



Meanwhile, my three remaining chickens (who survived the winter mystery illness) are doing well. It's been an interesting experience going from eight hens to five. At first it was depressing, but it's actually been nice getting to know the three even better. Although Smalty is the odd one out, they are all nice to each other. Roadrunner has emerged as the leader, which is nice since when I adopted her as a pullet, she had been traumatized by the previous owner's little boys who they let chase their chickens. As a result, Roadrunner has always been shy and skittish. She had slowly been working her way up the ranks as flock changes happened. Lacey used to be the nightshift flock leader, but after her BFF flock leader Tweedy died, Lacey lost interest in being a leader—no need to be a leader of two other chickens I guess! Although the two big chickens are nice to Smalty, she has to kind of chase after them to keep up (as you can see in the photo above). I feel bad for her not having a buddy, but we needed to totally disinfect the coop and area—and just let some time pass before introducing new flock members. I've had a plan in place, but I recently came SO close to irrationally making an impulse buy when I was in Indy last week. I went to the Agrarian "fancy chicken store" where I saw these:

Luckily I got ahold of myself!

Anyway, I am looking forward to catching up on everyone's news—good or bad—that's how things roll in the chicken world.

I noticed @chick rookie 's post about zoning! I am so sorry for you, Michelle!

After moving an entire farm to a new location! That's so wrong.

I'll check in later. I'm going out in the heat with my three girls. I'm using lots of fans and giving them cold watermelon!

Happy to see you back on here! Glad things are better with your sister.
Beautiful picture.

My EE, Eleanor, looks like she will be identical to your Roadrunner at full grown.

 

[Greenthumb83]

Since we got back from vacation Friday night, we have been busy catching up on yard and chores. We took turns mowing and toddler chasing, while tending garden for 2 days and still didn't get all the mowing done! I still need to weed the onion bed and hill potatoes as well. I think I'll save the rest for tomorrow, when it's cool. I plan to be out there all day. We got our nest boxes built, painted and put into the coop last night...right before the storm chased us in lol. I was so excited for that. I wanted the girls to get plenty of time to check them out. The oldest 10 are 14 weeks old, so hopefully in the next month or so, we see them getting comfy and ready to lay their first egg.

In garden news....I am having a squash explosion! The butternut are starting to fruit like crazy and I'm getting zucchini every day. I love this time of year!

 

[racinchickins]

Can anyone give me a rough price they charge for dressed turkey? We did CX chickens for the first time this year. They sold "ok" at $3/lb. but we live in a poorer area and didn't have the interest that I thought we would. I don't want to price myself out of the market on my turkeys.
Thanks

Unfortunately, you've probably already priced yourself out of the market if you expect to make money. The economics of selling turkeys raised in small flocks are pretty brutal, as you are competing in most people's minds against the Tyson's an Perdue's of the world. Better taste is secondary to cost, especially in the minds of people stretching to make ends meet. Not to mention that turkeys are loss leaders for most grocery stores.

I raise turkeys mostly for myself and my family, but always try to have few extra to process at Thanksgiving for others. I've done the analysis and research and basically, it takes approximately 100lbs of food to raise a turkey to processing weight (this is with free ranging to supplement). So that's two 50lb bags of whatever you are buying for food. I use All Flock which is around $15 a bag, so I'm out $30 for food. Then you have the cost of the poults. Not sure on the cost there (I raise my own, so I have a different cost structure based on keeping adult turkeys), but's lets say $5 ea. Then you have the sunk costs, like feeders, waterers, brooders, heating, electricity, etc..... to keep it simple, lets say they come out to another $5 a bird. Now you are at $40 to raise a bird. This does not count your time and effort, which are worth something.
Then you have to process them, and that takes more equipment. For me, that works out to about $5. Now you are at $45. If you sell a turkey for any less than this, you are losing money before you even start to pay yourself for time and effort. For a 10lb turkey, you need to charge $5/lb just to break even. Larger turkeys eat more and are more effort to process, but the break even point might even drop to $.4.50/lb.

Compare this to the average price paid by consumers last year at grocery stores for their Thanksgiving turkeys: $1.44/lb

I'm lucky that I can rely on a few customers who value where and how a bird was raised as well as better taste, and I don't really even break even on them, but it is a way to get rid of my extra birds without losing my shirt. I could never do this as a business. I do know of a local sustainable producer that charges over $6/lb for turkeys, but don't know how well that sells, and that is catering to the well to do Indianapolis metro area market.

Keep in mind this is for heritage turkeys that take 7-9 months to raise. Meat (Broad Breasted) turkeys only take about 5 months, but eat far more food. If you are raising those, your costs would be a bit lower, but still nowhere near what someone can buy at the store.

I don't want to sound all doom and gloom, but make sure you know what your'e up against. I really enjoy raising turkeys, and seeing a tom or five strutting around my farm is a wonderful sight. But I've had to realize they aren't going to make me money. I have made my peace with that, and I really enjoy my wonderful Thanksgiving turkey each year knowing I've raised it myself and it had a great life on my farm. And everyone agrees the taste really is orders of magnitude better. I'd love to hear from someone who does make money on them and how they do it, as I'm always open to learning something new.

 

[Hholly]

I paid $70 for a free ranged turkey that weighed around 14lbs. from Moody Meats 2 years ago. It was pricey, but worth it in flavor and being humanely raised.