Chicken Lovers from Genesee County, Michigan!

[Iamgrateful]

Anyone want to start a little group for Genesee County, Michigan? Thought it would be nice to trade information from people within the area. Would love to talk to nearby folks

 

[NovaAman]

Hi, I do not know if you've looked at the thread yet, but there is a Michigan thread, I am thinking you may find some people in your county there, and a bunch of real nice folks on the thread from all over Michigan.

 

[Iamgrateful]

Hi, I do not know if you've looked at the thread yet, but there is a Michigan thread, I am thinking you may find some people in your county there, and a bunch of real nice folks on the thread from all over Michigan.

Thanks! I have seen it, and yes that is a GREAT group! I was just wanting to start a little group with people close to home.

 

[BirchMeadow]

Hi Iamgrateful~
We're in Genesee County, Michigan...Kearsley school district. We have three Buff Orpington hens that we got last spring as day-old chicks. The kids handled them every day and they are very tame and so much fun to watch. We had four, but one was killed by hawk last August.

We're planning to get a few ducks next spring -- two female Cayuga and two female Pekin. We're looking at duck house designs. Do you have any pictures of your duck set-up? I'm reading a few "raising ducks" books and I see that they're a bit messy so we're planning on keeping them in a separate enclosure. We should meet up!

 

[Iamgrateful]

Hi there - here is a picture of our duck pen we setup last summer:



We just love them - they are a ton of fun. Unfortunately, we just lost out female, Minnie, yesterday to some kind of tumor. We are going to have to find our male another mate as he is already very lonely and confused that she is gone.

Where are you planning on getting your ducks from?

 

[BirchMeadow]

Awww, so sorry to hear about Minnie. How long had you had her? I hope you can find another friend for the drake. Poor guy. You have a nice setup there. Nice size pond for two ducks. We're planning on getting two Pekin from the Big Acre store on main street in Davison next week. Then, I found someone on Craigslist that should have baby Cayugas in May. Did you have anything in the pond to keep it from freezing this winter?

 

[Iamgrateful]

Thanks - Minnie was only a year old. We got them last year from Tractor Supply Co. and both of them had leg issues from the beginning. I'm on the lookout for another female Pekin for poor Donnie. He is really moping around and not eating well now - I hope his appetite picks up.

We have learned a lot about ducks in the past year. Our setup has worked pretty well, although I never imagined how MUDDY their pen would get! Layers of gravel and sand do help a lot. I would like a bigger pond in their pen, but this pond was sufficient for two of them to float on and bath. We closed the pond for the winter and just gave them buckets of water to wash their faces and drink...that seemed to work out well although they may have liked to have the pond all winter. We may get a pond heater this year...however we do not have the pond filtered at all so we have to actually empty it out every weekend and refill so it stays clean.

In the beginning we also planted some nice plants in the pen to make it look nice and natural, but they ate and stepped on all the plants and killed them. LOL Lesson learned there!

I know they also have baby ducks at the Family Farm and Home store on the corner of Miller/Elms...I think they have Pekins and Khaki Campbells.

 

[BirchMeadow]

I didn't know about the store on Miller and Elms. I'll definitely check it out before we buy our duckies.

Have you seen this posting on Craigslist? They have 9 month old pekins in Clio for $5.

http://flint.craigslist.org/grd/3674534077.html

 

[Iamgrateful]

Hey thanks I didn't see that ad! I am going to call them today because our drake seems completely depressed and isn't eating....

Let me know when you get your ducks! I wanna see some pics!

 

[BirchMeadow]

Did you find a friend for your drake? We got our two little pekin duckies today form TSC in Davison. They're 4 days old, and man... are they loud!