INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[JanetMarie]

He's home!!



One of the police officers we spoke with last night saw him this morning. The dept called us at 6am & said the officer was right outside our house. The dog was found about 5 mi from here, but only 1 mi from where we were last night. I'm sure it was a very rough night. He was cold and wet.... and will need a bath.

As soon as he came inside, he ran around to each bedroom to wake each kid up with kisses, then laid down by DD and fell asleep. It's 9am and the 2 are still sleeping.

Yay!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

@jchny2000 I saw this 'free tom turkey' on craigslist and thought of you:
https://indianapolis.craigslist.org/grd/d/morgantown-tom-turkey-free-to-good-home/6913129231.html

Thanks!

a damn raccoon got 3 outta my 9 flock last night. 2 I had named, an appenzeller and huge white silky, and a cute little bantam mutt that had a silver head. I made some alterations to their coop after I figured out the dumb construction mistake.

This is my first group and I know something would happen eventually, but man it sucks..

Its very hard. I'm so sorry. When we started using electric fence wire on our coops predators stopped altogether. Its a small 5 mile charger and we have a wire running around the bases of our coops. For my portable pens I use electric netting and our LGD Belle. She also has her goats in there and its working out great.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Happy belated 4th everyone! Very busy week for us!
Spent the entire 4 day weekend doing yard work and reclaimed a large section of property from tornado damage and fallen trees. This was about a half acre of land we had not ever cleared yet. I put my goats in this area with my leghorn flock to clear weeds and low branches. After a month we could see everything that was in that mess. Several old tires, misc junk and am pretty happy to have use of it now!
Our neighbor and good friend has a tree and landscape business. They are very interested in dairy goats. Kinda interested in a cow too. Already keep chickens so this was an eye opener for them, seeing what goats can do with brush. They were bored so he brought his long pole saw down and the guys knocked it out quick. So I grilled and hung out with his wife while the guys worked on that huge tree and smaller ones that were broken or fell.. This opened up another pasture paddock for the cows! We have 2 more large areas to clear and we will finally have reclaimed the whole 5 acres.
I use mostly portable chicken coops, and run my flocks with the goats and cows. Chickens keep flies down, and this keeps my birds safe. Coyote, hawk, owls, fox, even raccoon don't seem to want to challenge Belle or my bull Zero. The added layer of electric fencing really helps too.

 

[clarkrd]

Took a little video of the girls<?> in their temp run yesterday

https://imgur.com/Dtl90Zc

 

[pginsber]

Yesterday was day 14 for my aracauna roo/various hens eggs in the bator. I set 9, 4 were going at day 7 and those same 4 seem to still be going.

Lockdown is 3 days from today, and I have a question. I have a friend across town that has a broody hen. I've been telling her all along she could put some of our bator eggs under her hen and we'd take them back after their hatch, but she's declined. NOW she's changed her mind and is willing to let her broody hatch for us.

Here's my question: Is day 15 eggs too late to trek the eggs across town and put them under a broody? I'm leaning towards 'yes, it's too late' and I fear the little pre-chicks would get too jostled driving on the bumpy roads.

Your thoughts?

 

[Faraday40]

@pginsber
You probably could move them across town in a warm cooler if the ride is on smooth roads. Some of the teachers I've worked with have brought their incubators back & forth over the weekends. BUT You could also keep them in the incubator & move them right after hatching. (Put golf balls under the hen to keep her broody.) As long as the hen has been broody for over a week, she should be able to transition from setting to mothering. Shortly after hatching is the best time to move chicks. They don't move around much the 1st day & will stay under the hen. This give the hen more time to adjust to motherhood.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Yesterday was day 14 for my aracauna roo/various hens eggs in the bator. I set 9, 4 were going at day 7 and those same 4 seem to still be going.

Lockdown is 3 days from today, and I have a question. I have a friend across town that has a broody hen. I've been telling her all along she could put some of our bator eggs under her hen and we'd take them back after their hatch, but she's declined. NOW she's changed her mind and is willing to let her broody hatch for us.

Here's my question: Is day 15 eggs too late to trek the eggs across town and put them under a broody? I'm leaning towards 'yes, it's too late' and I fear the little pre-chicks would get too jostled driving on the bumpy roads.

Your thoughts?

If these will be your chicks, no. If they plan to keep them (opinions change when the babies are born) Yes. I quit hatching for folks after being stuck with 51 chicks, they changed their mind. It took me almost a year to rehome them and a lot of feed. I now require a nonrefundable deposit to hatch eggs for other folks.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

@pginsber Get an agreement in writing. I've been at odds with an old friend because I trusted and thought they would follow through. Just explain the truth you cannot keep X number chickens if they don't get them. I was really let down never again.

 

[JanetMarie]

Here's my Ameraucana "Muffy" with her three EE chicks going to bed for the night. I like to watch them peek their heads out, and hear their bedtime peeping sounds.

This young male will turn out to be interesting. His dad is different colored barring all over.

 

[Finnie]

Normally we get A LOT of cherries!

About this much at ONE picking.... and about 3-4 big pickings each year. They must all happen during a 2 week period at the end of June.

To preserve these beauties, I pit them and make giant pots of pie filling. I seal it bags and freeze it for the year.

THIS YEAR:
The gas co did some work on the line directly under our sidewalk. They ripped up the sidewalk and damaged 1/4 to 1/3 of the roots. This put the tree into shock. Most of those little green cherries dried up as the branches died.

Our hope is to the future. The tree seems to be putting its energy into regrowth.


...and there's this little gem we added last spring.

In it's 1st year, it already gave us 2 cherries.
Yet, can you see the gas co's yellow flag right next to it? They're about to push a new line from the sidewalk to our house - right next to this little cherry bush. I hope to talk to them before they dig. Since it's small, I would rather they use a machine to dig the bush up for me to move it out back than to have them leave it & mess up the roots.

Here was my big harvest today:
View attachment 1835087

Some day I'm going to get one of these bushes. I've been drooling over yours for years!

Glad you got your dog back. That was a scary one.

We have two outdoor cats that are 11 years old. One of them decided to go missing on the 5th. Didn't show up for breakfast like always, nor the rest of the day. I was positive something happened to him because of the fireworks. You would think with 11 years of fireworks experience, they would know how to handle it by now. I don't know where he was all day on the 5th, but on the 6th he was back for breakfast.