Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[mrcush]

It is NOT ridiculous!! I LOVE a rainbow of eggs...think I posted this back in the summer when my girls first started laying....

Who lays the dark brown eggs? I want some of those!

 

[mrcush]

Two chickens died last night and one looks close. Have her inside, wrapped in towel, did blow dryer on low. She is barely moving and won't drink. Help. Kids and I have been crying all morning

I'm so sorry for your loss tsetse9.

 

[preciouskitty]

Who lays the dark brown eggs?  I want some of those!

Those are from the Marans that gladahamae was talking about. I have 2 Black Copper Marans; that I got specifically for the egg color. Like glad, I want to get some Olive Eggers (mix between an EE roo & Marans hen); they give a really cool deep green/brown (well, olive!) she'll.

 

[naglady]

Glad congrats on your beautiful egg..

tsetse9 so sorry to hear you loss Big Hugs to you and your family..

Discovered this morning that my girls didnt have electricity last night.. the circuit was tripped. noticed because the heated water bucket had some frozen ice in it.. so poor chickens must of been extra cold last night.. well they are all set up with electricity.. i even set the timer for the christmas lights to come on at midnight instead of 3 for some extra warmth.. filled coop up with lots of extra straw also.. they are all set hopefully for this - temps..


hope everyone is staying warm and safe, got a big pot of bean soup on stove for supper.. smells so good in the house.

 

[gladahmae]

Yep! Mine is from a Black Copper Marans as well. (I have 2 of them also.) Hatcheries sell them, but you are unlikely to get that dark of an egg from them. There are a few people in the state that have them....Wynette on here has them and sells fertile eggs and chicks and culls occasionally. I see them listed on the Grand Rapids craigslist often, but I don't know anything about them quality/color-wise. Black Coppers typically lay the darkest of the marans, but they also come in blue copper, splash, wheaton, white, and cuckoo. Welsummers are also supposed to lay a dark egg, and barnevelders are also.

 

[mindylee]

...

That was very sad, many people came together to look for him,   always some negative comments"why would you let a child that age go by himself" and the like but the Flat is rather shallow in most areas, and he fished it often,. thought sere he slipped and bumped his head, and that could have happened to an adult.     always so sad when a child is lost,   I feel for the family.

Yes, this was very sad and yes lots said bad things... but like I told Devons mom (my cousin) me and her ran off to and I was hurt very badly when that age and it could happen to us then. It was a sad loss and a very unemotional funeral. I do thank all of beldings town residents for the awesome support and help in his search. He was much loved and is very much missed.

I KNEW THAT WAS YOU OUT THERE KATHY!
TGANKS FOR THE KIND WORDS ABOUT MY BIRDS.... HOWEVER YA SHOULD SEE THEM NOW! SILKIES AND COCHIN BANTAMS EVERYWHERE.
Karen is all don and sold all her birds and I got some nice breeding stock from her. I have a total of 68 and will have more in the spring. Sold my swans and getting more chickens. Redoing the barn and pens. Cant wait!

 

[chickwhispers]

So many posts, So little time!

. Thank you @fuzzybuttlove! The coop isn't quite done and neither is the run. The coop was done before Chicken math, so I will need to move a couple "walls" inside to give more space for girls, and less for me. In the Spring! And it needs painted and the other half of the roof needs re-shingled. By spring I'm sure there'll be more. LOL . And the run has a few panels that need finished, and it too needs painted, and rocks around the bottom...and I'm sure I'll think of more there too! LOL. Can't wait for SPRING!

@tsetse9 So Sorry for your losses. I had one last year in February that didn't make it back in the coop before the Auto door closed (I had been on vacation and DD stopped by daily to check but that was at 3:30 in the afternoon) Always a sad event to lose one.

@preciouskitty I love your barn and your home? with the porches! Awesome. I love porches! And all the dark eggs!

@ladyrsanti Your coop and barn are cool too! DSO and I have a "thing" for the old barns! Just hate to see them disappearing from our landscape.

@LoveMyChicklets Sounds like something I would do! I'm not known for being graceful. And when you add winter gear, forget it!

@mrcush I have the heat lamp on in the side they roost in and I have the ventilation window open and a workshop light hanging close to the opening, just to warm the air a tad. It's probably not doing a lot but 75 watts of a heat "curtain" is better than no watts. The window that's open opens in from the top and is fully covered and with plastic on the run is protected from the wind so it works pretty good. And tonight when temps are to go to -15 I will add one more heat lamp for the night. This is only because since the dog attack a few weeks ago two had most of their back feathers ripped out, and they are coming back in but not in long enough to fluff. the others all have feathers missing on different parts and growing in again but not long enough for a full fluff. I have a wireless thermometer so I can easily track temps from inside the house and adjust accordingly. With out 2nd heat lamp the temp by the window is 9o while outside it's -5. So far no problems, no frostbite, and they are active.
If you do add heat lamps or light just make sure the are secured by more than the clamp or the hanging loop. I use a 3" screw, screwed in about half way and place clamp loop above it so if it gets bumped it can't fall.

@Candy442 and @aart Your greens are beautiful! they look so lushious!

@gladahmae Congrats on your eggs!!! The Black Copper Marans are my favorite, Then The Blue. Then The Ameracaunas. Then ...well i like them All!

 

[preciouskitty]

Yep!  Mine is from a Black Copper Marans as well.  (I have 2 of them also.)  Hatcheries sell them, but you are unlikely to get that dark of an egg from them.  There are a few people in the state that have them....Wynette on here has them and sells fertile eggs and chicks and culls occasionally.  I see them listed on the Grand Rapids craigslist often, but I don't know anything about them quality/color-wise.  Black Coppers typically lay the darkest of the marans, but they also come in blue copper, splash, wheaton, white, and cuckoo.  Welsummers are also supposed to lay a dark egg, and barnevelders are also.

Yep, I got my 2 from Wynette last year (she brought them to me at Chickenstock). Nice thing is they were 18 & 22 weeks old; so I didn't have to deal with the mess of chicks, just a couple week quarantine. On top of the gorgeous eggs, the BCMs are beautiful birds themselves!

I am hoping to get some Olive Eggers from Wynette this year at CS

 

[ladyrsanti]

Forgot to mention that today is my birthday AND my husband's birthday too, but then most people forget our birthday for some reason so I tend to as well. It's pretty bad when I have to call my parents on my birthday to touch base, rather than the other way around. Though I'm sure DH has about 100 well-wishes on his FB page today because he's popular like that. ...but that's only because FB reminds everyone.

I doubt he knows half of his acquaintances well enough to have shared the date.

Anyway, I always make him some eclairs from scratch, the puffs, filling and frosting from scratch. *NINE EGGS* and a lot of milk and butter. It's sort of our thing and it's all we do... well, *I* do but yeah. He somehow made it all the way into work today with his flimsy little Ford Focus (I swear they're making them out of cardboard these days so I worry). We'll see if he gets back alright to enjoy these. He also got a pair of thermals this morning which he thankfully wore.

Took some fun frosty window pictures too. Yeah, I know that means we need new windows but they're antiques and I'm not ready to part with them yet.

 

[lauranickerson]

Hey everyone! I've had a few chickens die in the last couple weeks. Looking to send them off for a necropsy. Where do you all send them? I know there's MSU, but they're closed because of the blizzard so I can't check prices. If you've used anywhere, can you include how to contact them and how much you think they charge?

Also, what's everyone's strategy to keep your chickens wrapped up tight in this weather? Just interested in seeing everyone's different ideas.

Any help would be appreciated!