Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Folly's place]

The infected flock was in Whitley county, Indiana. The commercial flocks infected elsewhere do very intense biosecurity, although that's only as good as their worse employee. Or their ventilation system. May we all continue to be lucky! Mary

 

[Peep-Chicken]

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

I think the shaving bedding chips work for me the best. With the bedding scoop I use, I can get the poop, but not the bedding. Like a sifter.

 

[OldMissionChick]

I think the shaving bedding chips work for me the best. With the bedding scoop I use, I can get the poop, but not the bedding. Like a sifter.

What does the scoop look like? A big kitty litter scoop?

 

[ChickenLady2014]

What is PDZ? The learning tab said coarse sand & DE. It's our first time with chickens & ducks so a whole new learning experience

I personally will never use DE again. I put a lot of it in the chickens dustbath area and ended up having a bunch of birds end up with respitory issues. I went back online and started reading the fine print & warnings on this product. It is quiet dangerous for humans to breath the dust. I already have lung issues so I discontinued using it. The suppliers that sell this stuff say its safe and good for worming, mite & lice. That is a false statement. Please search this site for info on it. I use PDZ mixed in my sand, it is a stall dryer and is in the horse supply area in TSC. I won't kid ya, sand in your coop creates lots of dust, as well as shavings do. For my poop board I use a standard kitty liter scoop to clean it. For the floor I use a youth size rake after I have poooper scoopered the big pieces up. Gently raking the feathers, nest box material and smaller poop pieces into a pile, then I pooper scoop the pile. I have a 2 gallon bucket that is my pooper scooper pail lol. Sure hope the information helps, have a great day.

 

[RaZ]

For those of you worrying about AI, MSUE has published the following article. http://msue.anr.msu.edu/program/avian_influenza/avian_influenza_what_do_you_need_to_know_1

One thing that I find of note is that sunlight kills the virus. So consider that the majority of known infected flocks have been commercial or battery hen operations which deny the birds access to the outdoors and thus sunlight. I also read that warm temperatures (spring time weather) also kills the virus. I can't find that article to cite at the moment.

Something else to think about. MSUE is now firmly controlled by special interests that are not friendly towards small scale farming of any type. Their funding depends on the "donations" of large corporations. Take all of that with a grain of salt. Including my comments as well.

 

[RaZ]

PDZ is a mineral. Clinoptilite according to the package labeling.

So I looked it up. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/121782/clinoptilolite

"The dehydrated mineral has the properties of a molecular sieve that selectively extracts nitrogen from a stream of air, leaving the effluent enriched in oxygen. As an ion exchanger, clinoptilolite has been used to remove cesium and strontium from radioactive wastes produced in reprocessing nuclear fuels and to remove ammonia from sewage streams."

I use it in the coop and in the cat boxes.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Ooh that's too close to home for me. Thank you for the link RaZ

 

[JackieandChicks]

For those of you worrying about AI, MSUE has published the following article. http://msue.anr.msu.edu/program/avian_influenza/avian_influenza_what_do_you_need_to_know_1

One thing that I find of note is that sunlight kills the virus. So consider that the majority of known infected flocks have been commercial or battery hen operations which deny the birds access to the outdoors and thus sunlight. I also read that warm temperatures (spring time weather) also kills the virus. I can't find that article to cite at the moment.

Something else to think about. MSUE is now firmly controlled by special interests that are not friendly towards small scale farming of any type. Their funding depends on the "donations" of large corporations. That all of that with a grain of salt. Including my comments as well.

Someone on another list (FB page) is in an infected area, and since her birds tested negative they were in qt. They did not do a radius kill, but a test. She has to be tested several times (I can't remember how many) but she has valuable birds. I will have to track down her name and see how they (the government) decided to do a qt instead of a kill in her state.

 

[wannahomestead]

Regarding Indiana bird flu. The USDA is saying it's a different sub-type than they were seeing further west. The sub-type in Indiana is H5N8, while the sub-type that had the major impact in Missouri was H5N2.

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that the H5N8 virus found in Whitley County is different from the H5N2 virus that has led to the loss of more than 30 million chickens, turkeys and other birds in 13 states including Minnesota and Wisconsin."

 

[nikolairapunzel]

Hello, I am Nicole and we have our first chickens! We got them almost 4 weeks ago. There are 2 EE, Vanilla and Milky Way, 2 RIR, Ember and Sunrise and 2 BO, Clarence and Pablo. All are pullets (we think/hope). I have a 13 year old who is helping as much as she can and a 10 year old boy as well are there other members from Northern MI? Tonight is going to be COLD (low 30s) and I am a little nervous about their coldest night yet! Their coop is 40 degrees right now, but I do have a 100 watt bulb they are sleeping in front of so that area is warmer...trying to decide if they NEED the 250 watt lamp. Oops, getting way off topic on my intro! I have really enjoyed reading here so far.