INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[The Lazy L]

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....

I have the same problem. Ground under the sand is still frozen, no place for the water soak to.

 

[weezerfish]

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.

Thanks for the info! I may have to consider this. Do you turn the wood chips while they're curing or just let them sit in the pile? The power company came through last fall and cleared out my neighbor's fence row. Would have made a great easy start to my wood chip pile had I known then! Oh well...can't imagine more will be too hard to come by.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I don't do anything to them while they are in the pile. Just let 'em sit there.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I guess I should also say that we put the pile(s) on top of the ground to "cure" - not on cement.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Keep animals, and keep up sales, likely you can be grandfathered in, if it is changed, but pay attention to local meetings and fight fight fight to keep what you have.

Oh you betcha, not our first go around!

Hello,
I have a 7 month old Buff Orpintong that has been broody for about 3 weeks. We don't have a rooster so no point to let her go broody. We have been unsuccessfully trying to discouraging broodiness but we haven't have any luck. We collect the eggs as soon as possible and we tried to get her out of the nest as often as possible. When I get her out of the nest she does eat and do her business for a few minutes and then she wants to go back to the nest. Sometimes she lays in an empty nest. How much longer does chickens stay broody? Any advice is appreciated.

Some hens are hard to break, I use them to hatch eggs.

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

Its a mess here. My herds are all on the hill. Geese and ducks are in heaven. My chicken and guinea does not like the rain.

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

Oh you betcha, not our first go around!


Some hens are hard to break, I use them to hatch eggs.


Its a mess here. My herds are all on the hill. Geese and ducks are in heaven. My chicken and guinea does not like the rain.

My guineas are in the chicken coop and nesting. I’m hoping for an early egg season.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

So our new Nubian herd and sweet miss Belle are settling in well. My older mixed chicken flock were under and over her, Belle doesn't care. She is still a little unsure, this was a big life event for her. She will meet the rest of my goats this weekend. We are putting all of her herd over the other half of the garden. I will be removing all of Belle's waste off the garden area. Goat poop is fine and won't hurt a garden but dog waste isn't.

 

[Faraday40]

I've been pretty busy with our puppy. He was neutered on Thurs & also had a stomach tack (to prevent bloat which big dogs are more prone to). The surgery went OK but he was miserable Thurs night. Poor guy couldn't lay down due to pain - even with pain meds, so no sleep. I picked up some stronger pain meds yesterday and he finally laid down & slept yesterday afternoon. Fri night was much better and today he's already getting back into mischief.

His front legs are shaved from the IVs and his entire stomach 1/2 way to his back is shaved. The stomach incision is pretty long, but mostly we notice his giant cone. Yes, he's running into everything, knocking things over, and generally a walking hazard. He's already learned how to use the cone to hide his naughtiness. He can now use it as a shield to obstruct our view of what he's chewing on. (This morning it gave him the privacy to eat an empty egg carton undisturbed without a human taking it away!) He also used the cone as a shovel to scoop up some wood shavings from the floor. Yet another forbidden doggie snack!

 

[Leahs Mom]

I'm doing an experiment today. I'm freezing some eggs to see how frozen eggs turn out.

@JanetMarie inspired the idea, so I came home from a visit and decided to look at the various ways that people freeze them and try it out.

I have did 6 whole in muffin cups (lined with paper). Those will get popped out and paper removed, then put into a vacuum sealed bag (as Janet does).

Then I did 6 that I lightly beat, put into a silicone ice cube tray with the large cube size. These I did one at a time (one egg to a compartment) then sprinkled on a little salt. They will also get popped out and put into a sealed bag.


Janet said that the ones you do whole change after frozen so that the yolks are firmer and will only be good to use as fried eggs. The slightly beaten ones with the addition of salt should work for baking, etc.

So...
I'm going to try each kind and see how they work. I may decide to freeze some for the winter months at the end of the season. Right now I have lots of eggs since 12 of my girls were hatched in June. But next winter I expect the normal time off.

 

[Nyla]

My grandpa use to have me collect all the chicken eggs when I was little. He would fill 1 carton of eggs in the fridge, then making breakfast for the family and any eggs he didn't use he would separate the yolks from the whites and freeze separately. He used plastic ice cube trays and would pop them out the next morning and put them into ziplock bags and suck the air out with a straw. So around Thanks Giving and Christmas he had well over enough eggs for the Holiday Meals.

I'm doing an experiment today. I'm freezing some eggs to see how frozen eggs turn out.

@JanetMarie inspired the idea, so I came home from a visit and decided to look at the various ways that people freeze them and try it out.

I have did 6 whole in muffin cups (lined with paper). Those will get popped out and paper removed, then put into a vacuum sealed bag (as Janet does).

Then I did 6 that I lightly beat, put into a silicone ice cube tray with the large cube size. These I did one at a time (one egg to a compartment) then sprinkled on a little salt. They will also get popped out and put into a sealed bag.


Janet said that the ones you do whole change after frozen so that the yolks are firmer and will only be good to use as fried eggs. The slightly beaten ones with the addition of salt should work for baking, etc.

So...
I'm going to try each kind and see how they work. I may decide to freeze some for the winter months at the end of the season. Right now I have lots of eggs since 12 of my girls were hatched in June. But next winter I expect the normal time off.