Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[mara1]

Hi Mary
The garage is detached. okay we don't use it for cars. It used as a art/studio, hang out,storage housing for various granimals. usually some thing I'm rehabbing ect... There is a furnace only used if were out there. The heat would be above the veggies plus grow lights on the other side of the room there is a window cut out to second room with wire(the wire is 1/2 inch poultry with garden fence over it for big and little critters). I plan on making a door and fencing an area in for the chickens and rabbit hutches outside. As far as chickens I have a mixture. I'm in the city so I'm not sure whats going to work best. We had chickens when I was a kid but I wasn't very interested in them then other than we had eggs and ate 'em. Rather hang out with the lambs,calves and foals. Any chicks were raised by the hens. So i'm really trying to learn about the breeds and sexing!!!! I wanted to get layers but DD wanted babies. Right know I have 3 rock cross~ 4wks? to butcher./ ~3wks 2rir, 2 black orphs, 1brahma, 1Lavender? 2ee's /The juviniles not exactly sure of all their ages 4ee's, 1 Brahma, 1 buff?, 2???. Plus 2 ducks.(unfortunately one duckling had an accident and has a broken leg so not sure of out come. I put a splint on it he's inside and confined. Eating and drinking okay so far) Theirs a bunch of pics in my profile. I can post them here if ya want. mara

 

[snowflake]

Yesterday we peeled and sliced about a half bushel of Red Rome apples to put in our dehydrators. Just in case someone should ever ask you, that many apples results in a 3 gallon pail of peels and cores. This morning I took the dried apples out and will vacuum seal them for storage as soon as I can work up some ambition. For some reason that is something that always seems to be in short supply.

We will peel and dry another 1/2 bushel later this morning and when those are packaged I will send them to an aunt in Arkansas. When Granny was telling her that we were picking apple she commented that she sure could use a bushel. So I will send her the dried apples with a note that reads "one bushel Red Rome apples, just add water". This particular aunt would always bring lots of blackberries and pecans to my parents to give to me when I went south. This past winter she sent me 12 quart size bags filled with shelled pecans, so sending her a bushel of dried apples is small repayment.

love your sign, ,,,,how do you dry your apples, 1/4 inch thikness? dip in lemon juice and or sugar? I have an old dehydrator but haven't used it a lot for some time
the world needs more people as thoughtful as you, kudo's


A dear friend of mine passed away this week, she would have been 96 in Nov. her daughter flew in last week and again early this week from Washington but when she called her brother from Milwaukee he couldn't get away to come, he will be here Sun. and Mon. I'm sure but so sad he didn't care enough to coome and say good bye, It is so hard for me to understand,
the younger son lived in GR near the nursing home and droped her paper off several times a week but never stayed more then 5min. and I don't think I ever saw him give her a hug and say I love you, When my mom was ill and in and out of nursing hoe and hospital there was always one of us kids or a grand kid there and we stayed as long as we could. I have knowen Alice for over 20 yrs and she was a very kind generous person, I can imagine she was strict with her kids but never mean and always involved with boy scouts and girl scouts with them. helped put all three of them through collage, . ?????? I guess there is no explaining some people

Hi, Everyone

I'm new. I have a question about housing chickens in winter. Live in a township so limited space. I have a 2 car garage that had another 2 car addition on the back and it's separated into two rooms. I basically just framed a wall/door with wire across half of the smaller room which makes a 10x8 space.Debating if I shout put a vent/fan for more ventilation plan on using the rest of the space for growing some veggies this winter and holding my koi over so it will be heated. My guys are on between 2-10wks old?

Hi, welcome, like Folly said, ventilation and protection from predators and the weather is most important. they are very hardy animals.

 

[snowflake]

don't know about egg yolk braking, I have had that before but not often, is it all of your eggs or just once in a while, I figure if they have good feed and water maybe it is just stress or perhaps age of the bird?/

 

[Opa]

I use an apple peeler that cores and slices the apple to about a 3/16" thickness. We have an assembly line method in which I peel, core, and slice. Then I remove it from the peeler shaft and place it in a bowl of water with Fruit Fresh added.

Hope takes them out, cuts in half, and insures that all of the core was removed. She then places the apple slices in another bowl of Fruit Fresh enhanced water. The Fruit Fresh keeps the apples from turning brown.

Granny then places the slices in a strainer to drain before arranging them on the dehydrator screens. In the event we have sliced more than than the dryers will hold, she will place the remainder in 6 cup amounts in 1 quart freezer bags.

To reach the desired level of dryness requires 18 hours at 135 degrees. A bushel of apples when dried will weigh less than 2 pounds.

 

[snowflake]

thank you, I forgot I have an apple pealer,corer also, need to do some tomorrow

 

[gaitngirl]

Just catching up on the posts for the past few days . . . I was unlucky enough to catch the bug that's going around and am still fighting it. One of the hazards of working with the public unfortunately. I just integrated some of the hatchery chicks I had bought in April to my main coop finally. My boss and his family kept them for the first couple months and then I brought them here and quarantined them out back behind my horse barn. I worried about Boots, a young Salmon Faverolle roo, getting beaten up by my main EE rooster, Cruiser. My worries were for naught; Cruiser doesn't even notice him except when they are trying to outcrow each other in the morning. Boots, in the meantime, thinks he is in heaven and is jumping every girl in the coop. Boots was originally a pullet but, well, you know how that goes, lol.
I also got my first Welsummer egg today from the same lot of hatchery chicks. It was very disappointing. I was hoping for a dark terracotta color but it wasn't much darker than my regular brown layers eggs. Hopefully one or two of the other girls will lay darker ones but, since they all came from the same source, I'm not keeping my hopes up. My FBC marans pullets also just started laying a couple of weeks ago and I am very happy with how dark their eggs are. They are a very dark chocolate color.
I'm still not getting many eggs from my 1 - 2 1/2 yr. old layers. I'm not sure what is going on but the only eggs I'm getting are from the new layers I added a couple weeks ago and the pullets that just hit POL. I have a small number molting but the rest should be laying fine. They have oyster shell, I've boosted their protein, I've dusted their laying boxes for mites/lice, etc. They've been wormed. They're not fat. They all seem healthy, are eating/pooping fine, and are active. All have been confined to the coop and run for the past few weeks so I know there are no hidden nests. I'm at a loss as to what is going on . . . Only my original 7 are 2 1/2 yrs old so they may just be done with laying (Isa Browns and Black Sex Links). The rest are EE's and Marans (all under 2 yrs old).
Any one have any ideas as to what may be going on?

 

[Amy PT]

I'm still not getting many eggs from my 1 - 2 1/2 yr. old layers. I'm not sure what is going on but the only eggs I'm getting are from the new layers I added a couple weeks ago and the pullets that just hit POL. I have a small number molting but the rest should be laying fine. They have oyster shell, I've boosted their protein, I've dusted their laying boxes for mites/lice, etc. They've been wormed. They're not fat. They all seem healthy, are eating/pooping fine, and are active. All have been confined to the coop and run for the past few weeks so I know there are no hidden nests. I'm at a loss as to what is going on . . . Only my original 7 are 2 1/2 yrs old so they may just be done with laying (Isa Browns and Black Sex Links). The rest are EE's and Marans (all under 2 yrs old).
Any one have any ideas as to what may be going on?

Is it possible that you have an egg eater?

Hope you're feeling better soon. I've had a crud for 3 weeks now. Ick.

 

[1muttsfan]

Mara, welcome to the Michigan thread

I am not sure I understand your setup - are the birds inside where the plants and fish are or in a separate outside section? I agree that ventilation is most important, along with preventing too much moisture, so being in an area with plants and fish would likely not work out for either those or the chickens. I leave a window on the south side of my coop open at least a little bit all winter, adjusted as needed to allow fresh air and prevent high humidity.

 

[Folly's place]

Mara, sounds like a nice mix of breeds, should be fun. You'll develop favorates and enjoy the variety. My two year old hatchery Delawares stopped laying in late March; one is just now producing, the other isn't. Very disappointing! I don't plan to get any more Delawares, at least not from the same source. Mary

 

[gaitngirl]

Is it possible that you have an egg eater?

Hope you're feeling better soon. I've had a crud for 3 weeks now. Ick.

Thank you. 3 weeks? Ugggh, you poor thing. Ick is right!

I wondered about an egg eater, too. I did have (at least) one hen in the spring that was either breaking eggs and eating them or eating eggs broken by hens fighting over the same nest box. I've checked their beaks and not seen any egg yolk or any residue left in the nest boxes. On my days off, I go out to check for eggs about 20 times, lol. I don't think I have an egg eater currently but I've considered putting a coop cam in there just to be sure. I'm still shopping for one that might work out in there.