INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Crista]

Ok. Last call. 6 month old buff and buff/ barred rock layers for sale. Organic non gmo feed and free ranged. They re so much fun, but I am overrun with sggs and need to decrease the flock.

I hate to do it but the ones left will go to freezer camp next week.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@Crista
Just sent pm. How much do you want for them?

 

[flyladyrocks]

So, I've been MIA for a long time and am about to embark on my second rant of the day on here! Life has been quite complicated from multiple angles the past 6 months. I forget how much I enjoy being on here, but sleep usually wins when I fall asleep at the keyboard!

First the happy news! Guess what happens when you are really sick for 6 weeks and the kids miss collecting some of the eggs? You get a surprise hatch! We have 5 beautiful little bantams - silkie and silkie mixes (2 naked necks, our one necked neck bantam girl is quite fertile!). They are so much fun. Had to take them away from their mom's though b/c they started attacking or abandoning them as they hatched - veteran mommas, not sure what the deal was but fortunately all that hatched survived!

And now my rant: Anyone in the Indy area get their feed from Liberty Bean and Meal in Shelbyville? Had quite the surprise when DH and DD made our monthly trip for feed today. The electric company has so massively raised their rates that they had to shut down their feed business as of Sept. 23! Not sure the whole story but they were charged $6,000 (yes that is 3 zeros) for TWO days of electricity and a bunch of their equipment is run on Diesel engines! I am floored and livid. I feel so bad for them - this is their business, a good portion of their livelihood! The brothers that run it have families. What in the world is going on that honest small business owners are being run into the ground!? They always, no matter their workload, had time to sit and chat with their customers, the old fashioned country way.

The biggest issue for us now is they did not make their feed with wheat, and the negligible amount of gluten in the oats they used was processed enough through the chicken for my Celiac hubbie to be able to eat the eggs from our chickens but anytime we have tried regular feed he can't eat the eggs. I haven't been able to get ahold of Central Indiana Organics to see if they have a wheat free option that is not thru the roof on price. And no, making my feed is not a doable option. When we had 8 birds that was not a problem, but 40+ birds is more than I can handle right now!

 

[Indyshent]

It was bound to happen, the molt has finally shut the two BR down. No eggs from either in over a week. On the bright side, the one has feathers on her rump again, but the other still looks like Tina Turner after a bad nap. Neck and hackle feathers all disheveled. The leghorn though REFUSES TO STOP LAYING EGGS. She's a champ. Can't ever see not having a few leghorns in the bunch. So efficient and dependable.

The rest of the girls haven't found a gear I was hoping they would for laying. I'm getting 6-9 eggs a day, but the last week has been more of the 6. They've been confined to run while our septic system gets replaced, and they seem to be protesting with lowered egg production and sometimes laying in the back corner of the coop rather than the next boxes. Spiteful little dinosaurs...

Starting to think about what I want to add to the group next year. I think I want to get some colored egg layers in the mix, EE, OE, or maybe even some Whiting True Blues if my neighbor wants to split another hatchery order. I'll have three birds going into their third spring next year, and the bulk of my flock going through their first molt, so I need to flatten out the flock structure a bit so i'm not so second-year heavy.

Already planning on adding some (thinking 4) ducks next year as well, so I'll need to sweet talk the wife a little bit for another flock expansion...lol

What are you wanting ducks for: meat, eggs, or both? Do you want yard candy, a variety, a single breed?

Runners and Campbells lay the most. Khakis come in two types of brown (light and dark). Runners have the most color variety of any duck, to my knowledge, and they look like roving herds of bowling pins. While they love swimming, they don't need as much water to splash around and foul up as other ducks will demand. They're excellent weeders and pest control, but they're not worth the effort of processing. I have a pretty blue Runner duckling, and two Cayuga ducklings. I'm pretty sure at least one's a girl, but I'm holding out for more girls. If you want a colored duck egg, you have to go to Cayuga, which are supposed to lay black eggs but sometimes lay white (if you're really unlucky and had a poor breeder) or various shades of slate and gray. Cayugas are primarily an egg breed, but they get up to four pounds dressed weight (or so I hear) so some breeders label them as dual purpose. Cayugas are all-black, but they're just so pretty that only coming in the one color isn't such a drawback, to my way of thinking.

If you want a true dual purpose, go for Rouen and Pekin. I had tons of eggs from both, and they're large breeds so if you want to process, they'll make it worth your while.

Muscovy are less cold-hardy but they're excellent conversation pieces and they fly. It's fun to mess with their color genetics, and many members here keep them. Muscovy are the quietest birds you'll ever own (I can pretty much guarantee this). Don't keep more than one drake unless you can keep them penned separately during their spring breeding season. They are seasonal layers but excellent mothers.

So, @jchny2000 mentioned me in regard to a post in this string from several weeks ago. Keep meaning to comment.


So here is what I discovered. Okay maybe I should say this is what I believe? The city government made a big show of pretending they actually cared what us, the normal citizens of Indy think about Indy Rezone. The reality is when the city gets a multi million dollar grant from HUD to rezone things, they are going to do whatever the **** they want to do. They really don't care what we think - whether it be about livestock or other crazy nutso things in the rezoning. I guarantee that not one person of the city council even read the whole thing, it is over 700 pages long! It all was a giant political game. Even those who really didn't like big parts of it still voted for it to be passed. I spent a year feeling like we (my hubby and me) were alone in trying to fight it fromt he poultry angle. We just came late to the table. Most of the chicken people had already come to the conclusion that the city really did not care what they thought and it wasn't worth all the time, energy and emotional drama to fight it.

We are grandfathered in. You are lucky to have nice neighbors - but will you always have nice neighbors? We have dream neighbors on one side and a nightmare crazy neighbor on the other. She really is the definition of a bully to us and other neighbors- most who rent and just move. It is an on going battle whether it be over our birds or something else. At least since April 1, they have a guy who actually knows something about poultry who they send out. Nice guy, has chickens and Turkeys. But now we are the unfriendly neighbors with no trespassing signs all over all 4 side of our property - we want to chance that they come on our property without us home. How will they enforce it? The only way they enforce is when there is a complaint. So the guy we drive past almost daily on a main road that has twice as many chickens/ducks/turkeys as we do, and at least half have been added since April 1 (and Turkeys are not even allowed anymore- he has 10 poults), if no-one complains nothing will be done.

Technically if a citizen in Indy was not Grandfathered in, they can get a livestock license. still only a Draft at the bottom of the page: http://www.indy.gov/egov/City/DMD/Current/Pages/ordinance.aspx
We are supposed to be on the committee to help draft this. Not sure if they are just sick of us and stopped inviting us to the meetings or if the fight they have undertaken is way more than they expected, by I think it is the later. Last meeting we were invited to was March 24, but the draft has not changed since then. There was barely a chicken presence there, but the rabbit people were in full force. No-one was happy. I know some of those active in the chicken community were not even invited. There are so many problems with the draft that I do not know even where to begin.

So I feel like we already lost the battle - Rezone went in effect April 1 without our citizens having any clue what it was really about.

Now I'm depressed, I think I will go spend some time with my birdies!

Grandfathered in for turkeys and pheasants

Politics as usual, unfortunately. I knew it wasn't going to end well, because that's just how things work. People are jerks. Sorry about your jerk neighbor and the poor little feed store in Shelbyville. I hope it's a clerical error or something. Thousands of dollars for a couple days? What the heck happened?

Congrats on the bitties!

 

[tmarsh83]

What are you wanting ducks for: meat, eggs, or both? Do you want yard candy, a variety, a single breed?

At this point eggs and garden weeding/pest control.

The same guy that seeded me with my initial chickens has ducks to spare. Planning on two runners and two campbells.

I would also be interested in cayugas or Swedish.

Might try raising some Pekins for a meat batch at some point but not soon.

 

[Indyshent]

At this point eggs and garden weeding/pest control.

The same guy that seeded me with my initial chickens has ducks to spare. Planning on two runners and two campbells.

I would also be interested in cayugas or Swedish.

Might try raising some Pekins for a meat batch at some point but not soon.

I had a Swedish hen, and she was broody all the time. Hopefully not representative of the breed, but she was seriously broody 80% of the year.

The Cayugas have been really sociable.

I've had several Runner drakes and one Khaki hen. We didn't have her long enough to get any eggs. She was super noisy and nervous. They're not all like that, I'm sure, but I'd work like all get out to socialize my duckies if I had the time because that does seem to help.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Had a lot of excitement Thurs night. The kids & I went to help DH with a client's office move & brought the guys some pizza. It was a fun time & the kids were put to work crawling under furniture, disconnecting cables, & wrapping up cords. (We're going back tonight to help unpack at the new office...)

Anyway as we turned onto our block I could smell skunk, and it kept getting stronger the closer we got to our house. When we went out back, we discovered that our dog had chased a skunk under the coop where it got trapped. (Dog got sprayed multiple times of course.) I kept hearing "Thump Thump Thump" coming from under the coop as the skunk was trying to spray everything. It was frightened & every time a chicken moved, auto motion light went on, or a dog barked, we heard thumping = spraying. Just not a good place for a skunk to be. DH was working 'til 10pm, so I called our handyman. We put the hose on full & sprayed the skunk until it ran out....... Of course it ran toward the front of the garage where our smelly dog pounced on it again, got sprayed again, & the skunk ran back under the coop -again. The garage door was open, so it smells very bad in there. Probably from the dog walking through as well as the spray incident. After more hose work the cold, wet skunk finally ran off toward the back of the property & away from the dog. This dog getting sprayed by a skunk is nothing new. We store several quart bottles of H2O2, boxes of baking soda, & Dawn. I got a lot of the skunk smell off the dog, but the garage & dog have a ways to go.. The kids got to stay up late & help contain the dogs until the skunk left.

We're skunk free right now, but it may take a good 2 weeks for the neighborhood to air out! And here's my question of the day:
How do you get skunk oils out of a dog's mouth?

(His face isn't too bad & last fall we had to do saline spray in his eyes for a week until the smell & redness went away)

I swear I smell strong skunk odor every time he's flapping his tongue around. He licked & cleaned his fur which seems to make him smell worse as time goes by. He actually smelled better the morning after than he does right now. Does anyone here have experience with this issue?

Been some time ago but I have been sprayed, full on.

If he will drink tomato juice, it might help some.

Hi,

I am relatively new, joined a few months as go and then just very busy with life.
We are finally getting our coop built. I put off getting chicks until halfway through Summer, and it's still slow going. My Hubby is a busy guy, but he wants to build it, he and our oldest son. I am helping some, and I designed a lot of it. He just had to think through it and gain confidence, not having built a structure like that recently. They seem to like what we provided through the Summer, for temporary housing, but I think they will like their coop too, our three little city chickens.

Here is a link to videos of the progress and our chickens growing. Chick Flicks: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmX1BfpEjf-sO-VmpmYpitSpC0I9qScZz

Cheers!

Updated @Leahs Mom

Welcome to our thread, if I had not said it already!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

@Mommahiggy. Sadly no, my sweet Rosie ended up passing in the midnight of the night due to her injuries. Thank you for asking though

. Hope all is well on your end.

I am so sorry for your loss.

 

[LocosHuevos]

@jchny2000 thank you for your kind words. I have found a replacement for Rosie, well more less the Rosie replacement found me. One of my Orpingtons ( Honey aka Sweet Honey) decided she wanted to take her place and be my sweetie who let's me pick her up with no fear and loves the attention. Along with Honey, I have acquired more hens and ducks along with two huge coops and chicken run all for free :-D . Just have to build a much bigger one, then my entire flock will be good to go, except for the pond. Still working on that area. We were wanting to plant flowers or other plants around it. Any good input on what to plant that won't be harmful to anyone (chickens & ducks)? I'll post some photos soon of the happening around here . Hope all is well for everyone . Thank goodness for the nice weather today.
God Bless everyone

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Winter watering... I have tried so many different things! My go to anymore for water is those awesome black rubber bowls. Ice won't break them and pops right out. I have only broke one. My adult cow stepped on it when it was upside down, split it open! Since I keep ducks and geese, they can dunk heads as they need to. for the other bird species, I use heated water bowls with waterers set inside. They can still freeze in severe temps. My leghorn rooster is my biggest worry for frostbite with his huge comb and waddles. My livestock have 100 gallon tanks with heaters, so thats a non issue. If the heater fails, I always have a backup on the shelf.

We are winterizing coops in about a week, night time temps look like they will be dropping by the end of the month.