INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[nenebynature]

anybody live in Scottsburg ?

I'm in Memphis!

 

[nenebynature]

Happy Father's Day!

Here are the 1st chicks of today's (Sat's) hatch. I think they're running a little late, but I expect more to come on Sunday. 5 chicks are out and 8 eggs remain. (3 of the eggs developed pips in the last hour.)

We have:
View attachment 1046077
a gold laced orp (1st to hatch) I love its chubby face
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2 silver laced orpsView attachment 1046079


Another gold laced orp watching its Blue Buff Colombian Orp sibling hatch.View attachment 1046080

Another pic of the Blue Buff Col.
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I slipped 5 eggs from my flock under my hens to keep them broody. At 8:30pm, none of those have hatched yet.

So cute!!!

 

[nenebynature]

Hi, I'm Judy from down south in Charlestown. I have 24 mixed breed hens only. Hoping for eggs soon. They're about 20 weeks old now.

So exciting!

 

[Faraday40]

@Faraday40
Which cherry pitter are you going to get?

I already have this one: https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Grips-Ch...&qid=1498445382&sr=1-5&keywords=cherry+pitter

It works well & I get through a cherry every 2 sec when I hit my stride.

I want to try something faster like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Leifheit-372...rd_wg=erWbw&psc=1&refRID=S1VVA58T48576P7HEPPW

 

[nenebynature]

Yes. Brick makes sex-linked cuckoo orps. A lav orp female works like a black orp, so that's how I can tell the gender of those 2.

.....and I think most people here know the daddy: Brick.
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I have decided to stick with my lav orps & also see how the laced orps turn out. Due to limited space, I'll need to rehome Brick. He's now a mature roo & perfect gentleman. I have many, many of Brick's offspring running around here right now. There's no way he could be dinner, so I'm letting people know that he's available. I'm not in a hurry, and he deserves a good home. He gets along with other roos. (Of course my other orps are huge, so he never dared to challenge them. He prefers to let them fight for the #1 spot while he spends his time with all the hens. LOL)

Gorgeous

 

[Faraday40]

I checked one of each type. One I saw nothing. The other one I totally saw all the veins and a little spot! It was sooo cool!

Definitely cool and I never get tired of it. Candling & making hatch predictions is one of our fav parts.

Even if you do not see veins by 7 days, there still could be an embryo. The darker shells are just harder to see through. If you recandle again sometime between 10-14 days, you should be able to see a vary large shadow blocking the light. Sometimes the embryo can be sleeping, but often the light wakes it up & you'll it moving.

 

[nenebynature]

Anyone growing a garden this year? Flowers? Herbs?
I added a bunch of herbs for me and the girls this spring! I have an incredibly messy patch of sun loving perennials.

I'd love to see photos

 

[Faraday40]

Yes, I will. If it works well I might take it to school as well. (I teach middle school science)

Now that's super cool! I taught middle school sci for many years before becoming a full-time mom. I used to hatch the eggs & then donate the chicks to a local farm when done. (Always leghorns) It wasn't until someone donated a rainbow assortment of eggs that I realized chickens could be sweet & docile. The avatar pic is some of my orig barnyard mix flock. The next year I chose to hatch some lav orps & was hooked! Now I share & spread my orp passion to all the local schools as a guest teacher!

 

[nenebynature]

@Leahs Mom here are a couple of my lilies and a couple of my babies "the First Ladies". And of course a fluffy butt. My little gray Easter egger, Rosalyn loves to hang out in my pots and sun patch

 

[nenebynature]

I realized that I asked folks to post garden photos but I don't think I put any on.

I HATE weeding and tending a garden. Once I plant it I want to forget about it as much as possible. I guess I'm definitely a "lazy gardener" (though we have "lazy gardener" on the BYC forum and I don't mean to take away from her chosen name!)

Anyhow, we try not to have to plow or have to pull weeds. And we don't use chemicals (either fertilizer or herbicides, pesticides, etc.)


When we first started this little garden it was just grass yard. We removed the sod in 2013, planted, then put cardboard on top of the bare earth around the plants. I think it was 2014 when we dug some of the deep litter from the chicken run we were using and put on top of the cardboard that year. We've continued to plant then place cardboard every year. We have not had to till or weed EVER.

[I do wonder if there may be anything harmful in cardboard but haven't spent a lot of time researching it. I have to say that the worms LOVE the stuff and totally proliferate in this garden under the cardboard.]

Last year we had 2 brush goats and we put most of the soiled litter on the garden at the end of the season.


This is the garden area this spring. I let the chickens in before season and in the fall after season to enjoy the bountiful worms. I set up the temporary tarp as a hawk deterrent so they feel more comfortable going out there under wide open skies. This is the first year I used the tarp and I'll continue to do that spring and fall each year as it really encouraged them to go out there. Also have the dog house (we got for $5 on the side of the road) and plastic deck foot stools for them to get under if needed.

Photos from a couple weeks ago after planting. You can see the cardboard then we put some wood chips on top this year since we have them thanks to the local tree service that is careful to only bring non-poisonous chips and chips that aren't from sprayed yards only. We bring the wood chips over wheel-barrow loads at a time. We've brought a few more over since.

I also like the garden to be close to the house as much as possible. I've found that I'm more likely to tend or pick if it's right where I pass every day.

Here is a new planting along the deck. These are some black currants that some friends gave us from starts off theirs. More chips coming soon. Also some mint covering the ground.

Back of the deck. Green peppers planted here then wood chips.

Other side of the back of the deck. Zucchini plants here. They make some really nice landscape plants!

The pretty side of the deck. Lavender, echinacea, butterfly bush, mint, daylilly, etc. There are a few more perennial flowers added since this photo. I try to use as many perennials as possible so they come back.

@Faraday40
Also working on making the landscaping more perennial edibles as possible while we're replacing old landscaping plants that were removed. I'm excited to see that cherry bush as I've wanted various fruits but not full sized trees so I'm literally right now reading and researching various options for the edibles!

Amazing!!!!