Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Lisa and girls]

Can do. Will you cover the gas cost?

Thanks for the virtual slap. Feeling much better now.

 

[Scifisarah]

Interesting incident about an hour ago.

Birds are out doing their thing. Usually right around 7:30p, about 5 of the 14 decide its time to make a quick trip to the neighbor's raspberry bushes. Tonight 9 of them felt game.

As part of the ritual, I go out & slowly walk across yard to go reel them back into our yard to finish their nightly grazing before heading back to run/coop for the night. DH joined me tonight.
We get over there, Blackie (1 of the EE Roos) is deep into the bushes, rest are fluttering about. We get there attention & not only do THEY exit the bushes but so do TWO RACCOONS!!!!!!!

Both DH & I were like "holy crap". That could have been a disaster.
Anyhoo, I ran to the house to grab the .22 just in case they decided to show their faces again (they were younger ones)...they didn't. But I am sure they will be back, & with friends & family.

Needless to say, the birds are back in the run ..which is fully enclosed with hardware wire along with hardware wire buried 12" down, 12" out, then 12" up again!

They aren't happy to be in an hour early, but until the eradication process is completed, they'll just have to deal with it.

Scary! I don't know if I could ever comfortably let my cochins free-range. In the future I'd like to build a tractor with no coop with hardware cloth, just for daytime grazing, and some sort of tunnel from the run so I can move them around the grass.

 

[Lisa and girls]

Well that is the last time I try to eat yogurt around the chickens. I will often give our chickens some treats on the ground and then sit in a chair in the run and eat my own food. Apparently my greek yogurt was irresistible, resulting in a full on chicken attack, and ultimately Mocha, our serama with the still large crop, flying at me and landing in the yogurt. They enjoyed their greek yogurt with almond crumbles immensely.

That visual is great. I don't eat anything around my girls. They think what mine is theirs. My jersey stole a paper towel out of my hand because she thought I was holding out on goodies. Silly birds

 

[Trefoil]

Interesting incident about an hour ago.

Birds are out doing their thing. Usually right around 7:30p, about 5 of the 14 decide its time to make a quick trip to the neighbor's raspberry bushes. Tonight 9 of them felt game.

As part of the ritual, I go out & slowly walk across yard to go reel them back into our yard to finish their nightly grazing before heading back to run/coop for the night. DH joined me tonight.
We get over there, Blackie (1 of the EE Roos) is deep into the bushes, rest are fluttering about. We get there attention & not only do THEY exit the bushes but so do TWO RACCOONS!!!!!!!

Both DH & I were like "holy crap". That could have been a disaster.
Anyhoo, I ran to the house to grab the .22 just in case they decided to show their faces again (they were younger ones)...they didn't. But I am sure they will be back, & with friends & family.

Needless to say, the birds are back in the run ..which is fully enclosed with hardware wire along with hardware wire buried 12" down, 12" out, then 12" up again!

They aren't happy to be in an hour early, but until the eradication process is completed, they'll just have to deal with it.

The "eradication" process will never be complete. And you are much better off with the coons learning to eat stuff other than your chickens. As long as you have a secure coop and run that the chickens go to at night, you will have minimal, if any, losses from coons during the day. The coons are so bad because at night most chickens are sitting ducks and the coons are able to trap them.

 

[RaZ]

Thanks for the virtual slap. Feeling much better now.

Will pictures help?

 

[Lisa and girls]

Will pictures help?

EVIL. Enabler. I'll need that second slap now...

 

[RaZ]

"Beat me" said the masochist.
"NO" said the sadist.

I am SO evil.

 

[Amy PT]

It's not a kids' toy per se. They're actually quite expensive robotic parts that run the FLL competition robotic vehicles. They are programmable with computer software. For instance, my son is writing a program for it that will turn the three opening revolutions, wait x seconds, turn the closing three revolutions and wait y seconds. They run on 6 AA batteries that they do eat through pretty fast, but that's on long runs. This will only be pulling 3 revolutions once a day letting gravity work the other three. It doesn't eat much power for "thinking" so we'll be alright. As for holding it up, as long as the chickens don't get rowdy with the line or the door, it should be okay. I installed a plexiglass door today with a thin but strong nylon cord that is fed through a pulley. Less than a pound total. The door is only 10 x 12" and the line a few feet long. I rigged a mount for it to hold the motor fast and my test runs seem to be holding just fine.

This is just so impressive to me. I hope I didn't offend with the "geeky/cool" comment yesterday.

I've been absent for a week. Did this get resolved? I'm dealing with this AGAIN, this time with multiple birds. I unfortunately have multiple sharp things in the area that i believe the birds headed for a month ago to go digging around :/ It can also be caused from vitamin A deficiency and splinters on the roost, or too high a roost, and also being overweight and jumping from too high a distance... sharp rocks..... lots of things. Fairly straight forward to treat, but not fun at all.

I treat first with bandaging first with an equal parts sugar/ iodine paste, smear a pea sized amount on a bit of cotton ball and use vet tape or something equivalent to criss cross bandage the toes with strips of it. It is a drawing salve that should shrink the swelling and make the surgery easier, or if you caught it quick enough could save you from doing the surgery; the black scab should be gone or you have to do the surgery. Leave it on for 3 days, no more it is slightly caustic.

I also highly recommend you read about it here, scroll down to it. She also gives very good instructions on how to give penicillin shots if they become necessary https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

if that fails to help and surgery is necessary to save the bird here is a good how-to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdigBHE-GsQ

PLEASE do not underestimate this it is a staph infection and will go to the bird's bones and kill them if not treated promptly. The quicker you start treating the more chance of her surviving. Also this is something YOU don't want either so be careful when handling the bird.

Fuzzy, I've been hoping you'd chime in because I knew you had dealt with this in the past. Thanks! The only thing I can figure this is from is that both girls are heavy (Wyandotte and Australorp) and 2x a day, they jump from the coop to the yard (when they get to free range with us outside). It's about 2.5 feet down. Their run is not so huge that I might not be seeing something sharp in their, their roost is sanded and painted. No rocks. Maybe it's vitamin A? What's high in vitamin A that chickens like?

I've been treating with Epsom salt soaks followed by Vetericyn. I did take the scabs off, and had to pull out some ick from 2 feet (one on each bird). We're on day 4 (I think) with 3 feet looking great, and one better, but still concerning to me. If that one doesn't get better, I might try your salve.

The surgery is so, so gross, but it's pretty empowering to know that I can take an active part in helping my hens.

 

[Lisa and girls]

"Beat me" said the masochist. "NO" said the sadist. I am SO evil.

Yes you are. You admitted it! LOL

 

[ladyrsanti]

This is just so impressive to me. I hope I didn't offend with the "geeky/cool" comment yesterday.

Oh no! You're cool.

DH wears the geek title proudly, hard not to when you're in IT.