Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[aart]

Minus 12 here....brrrrr...chooks seem fine tho, lots of trips to the coop this morning with liquid water, a little extra scratch and to try and get those eggs before they freeze.
But the sun is out and it does indeed lift the spirits..and will help warm the coop.
At least it's not snowing!

 

[taprock]

Stackykins, although the wolves are so beautiful, thankfully we don't have the wolf population that you have up there.

1mutt - well said, I would gladly take all the four legged critters, predator or not, we have here over the two legged kind that were our neighbors in the past.

Yesterday we woke up to -26 again. I put off going out to the coop until it was -7. I lost my first bird this winter, but only indirectly because of the weather. Nova - it was my phoenix girl, Jill. The night before when I was closing everyone up I noticed her comb was bleeding quite a bit. I brought her in and hubby and I cleaned her and put blood stop on several times. It took a bit to get it to stop. I debated on putting her in the cage in the basement. Two factors - 1. the cold, If I brought her in I didn't know when I would be able to get her back out due to difficulty in acclimating her; 2. It was almost dark so I wasn't worried about her being picked on during the night. Well, I chose wrong. She either was pecked again or it started bleeding again and she died during the night. I hate it when a bird dies due to my poor choices. So poor little Jack is by himself now.

DH has been home all week, he hurt his back on Saturday, putting his glasses on the nightstand. He's wishing he could say he was doing something big and tough, but that is how it goes. So my schedule is totally out of whack this week. Today's weather is just depressing again, wind chills and dreary. February

! Stay warm.

 

[Maah]

Quote:

Tap, it will be a wait n see game at this point. I know his feet hurt because he's barely walking, doesn't want to put weight on them. They're swollen and got some dead/dying areas sure, it's the parts that aren't that must be painful. I have him in a small dog kennel in the garage with water and food right in front of him, so he can eat without needing to move much. He's such a sweet roo, he lets me pet him, pick him up and hold him etc. Everyone else is doing ok.

It seems to be a thing lately with frostbite in the chickens. Darn weather. Silly... it's how we feel about ours too. His feet are so bad that we're on the fence about what to do with him. We've dealt with minor frostbite issues here & there over the past years, but nothing like this. We can tell the damage is going to be fairly extensive. Lots of black filling in. For the time being we're just going to "give it time" and assess the situation daily. Our rooster is still hanging out in his cage. Since his feet had thawed out, he would only lay in his cage & other than his "foot spas" wasn't interested in standing/walking at all. But for last night's chore detail, DH actually had him up & walking around. We've had him inside for 4 days now. I was impressed & it makes us a little hopeful that maybe he'll continue to make tiny improvements. We can tell he's in pain though just by his actions & behavior and that's not something we want. But he was walking on them again... I guess we'll see. For now, he has filled out his work comp claim paperwork.

Frostbite in Chickens, http://www.extension.org/pages/70255/frostbite-in-chickens#.Uvq1MKa9LCS

Link courtesy lalaland

Thank you for this link it was very informative. It makes sense to me now after reading it why I wasn't sure if it was an infection or frostbite at first... having never seen frostbite present the way it did in this situation. But after reading the article it makes sense that he likely has been suffering from both the frostbite & infection. That's too bad. It's nice to know that we had been doing the right things so far though. It's looking better (& worse with the blackening) as the time goes by.

 

[SillyChicken]

Sure is a frosty one this morning! Wish I had my camera, the goats fur was all frosted on the tips.


Back to work finally today, so that means I have a ton to do..

Raz, good luck today at the GAAMPS meeting! I hope they realize how badly this could affect a lot of people.

 

[chickwhispers]

Sure is a frosty one this morning!  Wish I had my camera, the goats fur was all frosted on the tips.  


Back to work finally today, so that means I have a ton to do..

Raz, good luck today at the GAAMPS meeting!   I hope they realize how badly this could affect a lot of people.

X2

 

[naglady]

Just culled one of my chicks, was deformed, leg were stuck up close to body.. I gave is a couple of days, tried to splint,. his feet were practically wrapped around his head. RIP little chicky. was hard because she looked like a little chipmunk and was so cute

 

[snowflake]

When I see that wolf picture my first thought is, I am so lucky to live someplace that you get to see wolves. And bobcats, fox, eagles, et al. I can not for the life of me understand why people move to a beautiful wild area like this, then complain bitterly about the wildlife. Like there are not enough lifeless sterile places to live, where your lawn is perfect thanks to chemicals and your neighbors must follow the ridiculous rules passed to ensure that no one marches to their own drummer.

X2

I haven't been on in months, school has kept me way too busy lol. I was just wondering if anyone else's flock has completely stopped laying? I know its cold but I haven't gotten an egg in 2 weeks and before that it was 3-6/week. I've only had chickens for two years so I was wondering if this is normal? I have 14 hens; half will be 2 in March and the other half will be 1 in April so they're not too old and laid well last winter.

yes my hens have given very few, 30 some and I was getting 1 a day, 2 weeks ago found an opossum living with in the coop, think he was eating the little they laid, many of mine are OLD not laying much, going on 6, many are young (end of May last year) never started to lay before the cold. Now that we are getting more day light and the opossum is gone I am getting 4 to 5 eggs a day.
Day light hrs and warmer temps should improve.
first yr hens are more likely to lay through the winter then 2 and up, also depends on the breed

 

[fuzzybutt love]

So sad to see all the frostbite issues. A lot of peeps worry about winter temps. Me -i worry about spring! It is those huge temp swings that do the worst damage, and the warm+snow= damp cold. I'd rather have negative temps any day than that terrible bone chilling damp cold!

For those of you having the frost bite issues or for those letting the birds out today i'd take a moment to coat their combs/ wattles/ feet with something to seal out moisture. I didn't get to today, but tomorrow i am going to do it too. I have been red-coating my bird's feet during these little warm up days; it is good against bacteria AND fungal; and foot mites. On my birds that have regular combs and wattles i've been dobbing a chapstick that has essential oils in it. (Not the wax chapstick brand) None of this is fool- proof but perhaps....... any hope is a good hope! I don't let my birds out very often in the snow; only on a good day and early on for a bit so the moisture has time before bed time to be wicked off them by the straw bedding. Also i read that the manna pro omega boost supplement for eggs has the cayenne pepper in it, and i DID notice their combs have been pretty red? So it must be true that it boosts circulation.?

I can tell that the swings are hard on my birds because they are hanging closer to my feet when i come in there and when i pick them up they are breathing heavy
I don't think it's sickness per say, it's the cold because if i try to stay out there for long i start doing it too

8 to 10 degrees of damp cold here thus far.

 

[chickwhispers]

X2!

@snowflake That must have been scary to find the possum in the coop! We had one in our garage once and it did not like being found!

 

[Amy PT]

I'm poking my head in for the first time in a few months as well. My show chickens I drove to Knoxville TN for laid for two weeks, and went broody already, darn things. I guess they are used to SC weather were people are already thinking of hatching eggs right now. Very excited about the weather warming up next week. Hopefully our farm store will start getting in pine shaving bedding again because it is too darn expensive to buy from Meijer!

Hi Sarah, the FFH on Plainfield had pine bedding on Sunday. Maybe give them a call to see if there's any left? Nice to "see" you here.