INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Pollitos6]

I'm taking notes........

Our incubators are still in storage, but I already had a few people contact me about chicks. Also, I have 2 schools scheduled for an embryology unit in April. I just informed DH that I'll be ordering some extra eggs again this year. I'm also planting the idea of starting the hatching a little early.

On top of my own little projects, DS is asking to build his own incubator for 4H and DD is hooked on her "useless chickens." It's going to be a crazy busy spring!

Faraday40, the risk of hatching eggs is the unknown of the chick sex. What do you do with all the extra rooster ?

 

[Pollitos6]

So anybody else flooded haha! We got 2 inches of rain today and in Knox county there was a small tornado.

Seriously !! We had a flooding alert in Indy today . My yard is muddy. The weather is just plain nasty. today chance of tornado. Then will turn cold. Then rain will freeze tonight. I can’t wait for nice weather

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

Seriously !! We had a flooding alert in Indy today . My yard is muddy. The weather is just plain nasty. today chance of tornado. Then will turn cold. Then rain will freeze tonight. I can’t wait for nice weather

Me either! I’m in Newberry, about 30 minutes south of Bloomington. We got torrential rain and now we have a freeze warning.

 

[weezerfish]

So anybody else flooded haha! We got 2 inches of rain today and in Knox county there was a small tornado.

Yikes! It's a little early for tornados!!! Quite a bit of standing water around and the rivers are definitely up. The temperature swings lately are crazy! Not sure how warm it got this afternoon (NWS forecasted 57 F) but they're allin for wind chills of -5 F tonight. That's a 63 degree swing in 12 hours. I've lived in Indiana almost my whole life, but this is weird even for us!

My exterior run is a sloppy, muddy mess. Already planning for a drainage project once it starts to warm up this spring. If it was warmer and not in my run, I might go buy some tonka trucks and relive my youth!

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

Yikes! It's a little early for tornados!!! Quite a bit of standing water around and the rivers are definitely up. The temperature swings lately are crazy! Not sure how warm it got this afternoon (NWS forecasted 57 F) but they're allin for wind chills of -5 F tonight. That's a 63 degree swing in 12 hours. I've lived in Indiana almost my whole life, but this is weird even for us!

My exterior run is a sloppy, muddy mess. Already planning for a drainage project once it starts to warm up this spring. If it was warmer and not in my run, I might go buy some tonka trucks and relive my youth!

Yeah, my birds were put up today and not even allowed their run since it was supposed to freeze tonight. The run is just mud right now and my pig pen is well a pig pen haha. I usually let my birds free range but today I couldn’t even let them out. Even my guineas ran into the coop.

 

[Faraday40]

Faraday40, the risk of hatching eggs is the unknown of the chick sex. What do you do with all the extra rooster ?

I sell baby chicks straight run for the 1st 3 weeks. Price is lowest at hatch & increases a little each week. Once I know gender the females are sold as pullets. If someone wants a young cockerel & can legally own them, I'll give them away. If they're over 4 wks old, I either hang on to them a little longer...... for the freezer or I give them away to a friend who has a small farm. She can grow them out longer & eventually butcher them.

 

[Faraday40]

Speaking of flooding....

We often have standing water in areas of the grass. The 2 connected chicken runs are both sand & although it can occasionally get soupy, it usually drains within a couple hours. The past 2 days have been an exception. There are 3 large puddles still not drained inside the run. (This has never happened in my 6 years with chickens. Like I said, the water usually drains quickly.) The temp is going down to 5'F (but will feel like -14'F). The flock will wake up to some ice rinks. ICK! Sadly, we won't be back above freezing anytime soon, so I'm pretty nervous about that water/ice being inside their area.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I deep litter my run with wood chips. I also put out all the wood shavings and bedding from the hen shed right into the run when I'm cleaning it out.

No mud. No standing water. Really works well and keeps the ground very healthy instead of a slimy, unhealthy, impacted dirt.

 

[weezerfish]

I deep litter my run with wood chips. I also put out all the wood shavings and bedding from the hen shed right into the run when I'm cleaning it out.

No mud. No standing water. Really works well and keeps the ground very healthy instead of a slimy, unhealthy, impacted dirt.

I've been considering a few options for my exterior run which is not covered. The drainage project that I mentioned earlier is one. I've also considered bringing in a bunch of crushed limestone and raising the area up. I haven't really thought much about deep litter as I figured it would never dry out and might start mold or fungus issues. How well drained is the ground your run is on?

 

[Leahs Mom]

I would say that drainage is pretty good but....

if I hadn't used wood chips on it, it would have become impacted and it would be a muddy,slimy mess when wet with water standing here and there.

I had some trees cut down and had them put the chips from the branches in a pile in my back area. I didn't (and no one should) use them before they cured for awhile. I like to see worms and/or other living things in the piles before using.

I began putting the chips in the run when the original grass in the area was pretty much gone except for a patch here and there. I'd wheelbarrow over a couple loads and dump them in a pile. The birds love to dig through and spread them all out.

Kept adding more until there was a nice deep cover over time, then add from time to time.

Every once in awhile I'd go out there with my shovel and the birds get really excited as they knew what I was going to do. I'd turn up a bit of the dirt here and there from under so they could dig through and get the worms.

The soil under there was pliable and wonderful smelling. The birds scratch through what I'd turn over and then it would all be covered again.

One year one of my daughters took a load of the soil out from under the chips to start her raised gardens.

Over time I just keep adding chips from time to time and would also put out all the wood shavings/poo from the inside coop. You just can't beat how healthy that soil is. And NEVER a puddle. Just soaks right through as the soil is so pliable under the deep litter.

If you contact tree services in your area they will often bring you a load of chips when they're working in your area for free. Just be sure to let them cure at least a couple of months before using - and be sure they aren't bringing chips from poisonous bushes like yews. I just tell them what I don't want (including places that are spraying the trees) and they are happy to leave them.


Here are some photos:

Here is when the original gang was just getting started with some chips from the wood pile.

In the rest of the photos you can see how the deep litter looks in the kennel run. (The lighter colored stuff is some food I had thrown out for them.)