Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[mrcush]

I posted earlier about my broody chicken. Her comb is not looking healthy and she never gets off the nest. I take the eggs from under her and take her off the nest several times a day. I'm a little worried she is not getting enough food and water. Should I be worried or will she be okay? I'm not looking to hatch chicks. Thanks

 

[aart]

I posted earlier about my broody chicken. Her comb is not looking healthy and she never gets off the nest. I take the eggs from under her and take her off the nest several times a day. I'm a little worried she is not getting enough food and water. Should I be worried or will she be okay? I'm not looking to hatch chicks. Thanks

Put her in a broody breaker cage....get it over with.
I added a nipple water bottle after pic was taken.


My experience went like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop and I would feed her some watered down crumble a couple times a day.

I let her out a couple times a day and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two.

 

[dyorto]

One of my chick has some butt feathers and much more wing feathers than the other two. Does that mean he might be a bit older or do they just develop differently? Sorry. New mama questions

 

[Folly's place]

Cute chicks! Feathering will vary between individuals. Some chickens are bred to produce pullets that feather sooner than cockrels, but most aren't. Enjoy the babies, Mary

 

[birdman55]

I would like to know why my peachicks are different colors
. two are brown and two are yellow.

my guess is you have a split white male or female...if you look under the wings you should see long white primary wing feathers that are all white...that would mean one of the birds are split to white...have parents of one white peacock...and you should get white peafowl from this...hope this helps

Good evening all you Michiganders. New to BYC and this whole experience, in fact this is my first post and what better thread to start in than this one. I never thought I would be raising chickens when I was growing up in Lansing, but here I am 20 years later getting ready to purchase 6-8 pullets from Family Farm & Home tomorrow morning. I've been doing research for a few weeks to prep for this and make sure this is a commitment my wife and our 4 girls can handle. Free ranging chickens was our first thought, to help with the ticks and other creepy crawlies in the yard but we live on 10 acres in the woods and predators would be a huge issue. So the task of building a coop will be on the immediate honey-do list while these chicks are in the brooder. I've read that I should calculate roughly 2 sq/ft. per chicken for the coop and atleast 10sq/ft per for the run, does this sound correct?

I have many questions and as I keep digging on this great site I'm sure I'll find my answers, but I have a few specifically geared to our state. I'm sure they have been asked at nauseam within this thread but with over 3000 pages on this thread I'm at a loss. I've heard several arguments as far as insulating or not insulating a coop. 1 argument is pretty obvious while the other is that these animals are somewhat built to withstand cold temperatures. My issue is I don't know what "cold temperatures" means for each individual, so please help me fellow Michiganders. As I begin planning for this coop, should insulation be considered? I know ventilation is important, but is just "boarding" up for the winter sufficient? Also how many of you utilize fans and heaters for summer/winter?

Here's to the beginning of a new adventure and I'll see you guys on the other side!

welcome to michigan thread

 

[yoopergirl]

Ok, I've only had chickens for about 14 months, so this was my first spring with everyone laying like crazy! I made pound cake and brioche bread today and managed to use up 20 eggs

. My kids were so happy to find a use that didn't include more scrambled eggs. On the up side we've been sending eggs home with all the relatives!

 

[1muttsfan]

Egg prices in the stores are high right now - we don't have any problem selling every egg we don't want for ourselves

 

[wannahomestead]

Egg prices in the stores are high right now - we don't have any problem selling every egg we don't want for ourselves

This is true. We just had to buy eggs tonight because we aren't into lay yet. The walmart brand eggs were only 10 cents cheaper than the "good" brand, so we went with the "good" ones.

 

[bigmrg74]

Moved Ol' Blue today, the name of a Chevy Dually truck that's sat parked out in the yard for at least the past 8 years. Hitched a chain to it from the tractor, popped it in neutral, and wrestled the steering wheel to park it somewhere else for a while. amazingly, the wheels all still had air and it even felt like the brakes worked as well. even with as much as it had sunk into the ground there, it had been the spot where my girls usually went to during the winter to dust bathe whenever I had them out.

After we got that moved, I moved the chicken fence to where that had been parked, at let the chickens work on mowing down the grass that was around the edges of where the truck had sat. They so enjoyed that today.

 

[uchytil]

Anyone have any good advice or plans for building a chicken run? I need to build a run that is somewhat modular in case we ever change out the coop. Basically something that can stand alone if not attached to a coop. We'd like to do a run that is about 8x10; I was thinking about 6ft tall, which is actually a bit taller than the coop itself.

I also use the chain link panels. Mine are 6' by 6' and 6' by 12'. Some have doors built in. CL is where I got them for cheap. I just moved some to temporary pen turkeys, and I've used them in the barn for goat pens. You can even put panels over the top with the clamps holding them in place. They are very versatile and can be configured in any way you imagine. When you back one up against a solid wall, coop, etc. you just leave one panel off and clamp it to the wall or drive t-posts in the ground and wire to them.