Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Peep-Chicken]

I was out mowing today with my new-to-me John Deere 111 tractor, and the blades stopped spinning. I have been looking at it today and it looks like the electric PTO clutch is shot. Yay 200 dollar part. I'm taking it apart now to see if it's rebuild-able. 

I also got a call from the Mrs' sister. Apparently while her fiance was out kyaking today a baby duck swam to him in the river and jumped into his kyak. They looked around for the rest of the duckies and the mommy for about an hour and ended up bringing it home because they couldn't find anyone. Poor little thing. They aren't equip'd to handle it so it sounds like I may be getting a duckling. Hopefully I can help the little guy/gal out, it was sounding kinda tired over the phone. Time to play bio-security/quarantine. 

I found out the a number of the electrical receptacles in the garage aren't quite right.... The hard way. After a couple "tickles" I grabbed my receptacle tester and found that the plug I was using had an open neutral on the top receptacle and an open hot some of the time on the bottom! I found another with reversed hot/neutral and finally found one that seems to test good. Welcome to the homestead lifestyle I suppose, crisis management

Isn't it illegal to raise a wild duck? I'm not sure, just curious Glad your helping it though.

 

[wannahomestead]

Isn't it illegal to raise a wild duck? I'm not sure, just curious

Glad your helping it though.

Not sure. I'm going to look into it and the fam is calling rescues.

I'm not totally sure if it's wild honestly, kinda looks like the ones I saw at TSC. I would hope someone wouldn't let their duckling roam away but I guess who knows.

 

[OldMissionChick]

So we will hopefully be finishing up our coop in the next month or so. My question is what is the best bedding options? I was reading about sand and think that would be easiest to clean during the summer months, but probably not a good option for Northern Michigan in the winter. There is a saw mill near by that gives away truck loads of chips, but not as easy to clean up. This coop will be for both chickens and ducks. Thanks for any advice

 

[Barrettsmimi]

I have 8 chicks in a brooder in my barn, I just went out to clean the brooder and had 1 fly up and perch on the side of the brooder. I'm kinda freaking out because if they get out I have no idea how I would catch them. They were "pullets" when I got them 2 weeks ago. They are starting to get pretty skiddish. Any advice?

 

[aart]

I have 8 chicks in a brooder in my barn, I just went out to clean the brooder and had 1 fly up and perch on the side of the brooder. I'm kinda freaking out because if they get out I have no idea how I would catch them. They were "pullets" when I got them 2 weeks ago. They are starting to get pretty skiddish. Any advice?

Brooders need to have lids....how old are they?

 

[wannahomestead]

looks like I got the PTO up and running on the lawn tractor. I had it on the bench and was going to tear it down but couldn't get it apart. I looked it over some and noticed there was a pretty large gap in the clutch area so I tightened up the plate a bit to shrink the gap (I don't have feeler gauges; the spec is something like .013 so I eyeball'd that as best I could). I'm going to snag some feeler gauges later and bring it within spec.

Anyway, I was able to hear it locking up on the bench when I hit it w/ 12v so I decided it was good enough for now. Slapped it back on the tractor, wired it back up, fired the engine and hit the PTO switch. Blades started spinning right away. Yay saving money

Still waiting to hear more about Mr/Ms ducky.

 

[Folly's place]

I'm getting more nervous about the avian influenza issue; today there was a backyard flock in northern Indiana found infected! It's coming ever closer, not a good thing to see. None of us wants to loose their entire flock, and we've been lucky here so far. If it does arrive, we need to reconsider bringing birds to Chickenstock this year. Mary

 

[wannahomestead]

I'm getting more nervous about the avian influenza issue; today there was a backyard flock in northern Indiana found infected! It's coming ever closer, not a good thing to see. None of us wants to loose their entire flock, and we've been lucky here so far. If it does arrive, we need to reconsider bringing birds to Chickenstock this year. Mary

I haven't been worrying about it too much, but definitely monitoring the situation. It has certainly come to mind though when the Canadian Geese were out in the field behind me.

Not happy to hear it's in N. Indiana. Sadly I suspect that means it's probably just a matter of time now. Definitely too close for comfort.

 

[ChickenLady2014]

So we will hopefully be finishing up our coop in the next month or so. My question is what is the best bedding options? I was reading about sand and think that would be easiest to clean during the summer months, but probably not a good option for Northern Michigan in the winter. There is a saw mill near by that gives away truck loads of chips, but not as easy to clean up. This coop will be for both chickens and ducks. Thanks for any advice

Hi OldMissionChick, I have had chickens for the past year in a half in Northern Michigan. As soon as we get thru the raining spring weather I put contractors sand down in my coop with some PDZ mixed in. Then as soon as we come into the constant rainy fall weather I switch back to wood shavings with PDZ for the winter. I personally found the sand to get rather stinky during the wet weather seasons and my birds love hunkering down in the wood shavings in the winter after being outside. I do love the ease of cleaning the sand in the dry season. I have sand on my poop board year around, so much easier to clean.

 

[wannahomestead]

Still haven't heard anything aboud the duckling. Hopefully that means they found someone to take it.

Anyone know what's involved with getting a state/fed wildlife rehab permit? the whole thing today got me thinking about that.