Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[abbypeaches]

A friend is looking for a bantam Japanese rooster to add to her small back yard flock. Mid- MI area. Not for showing just for a pet. Contact me via mmannino2333 at gmail dot com. Thanks!

 

[SillyChicken]

Happy Birthday to you both!

John, have you tried "Michigan goats" https://www.facebook.com/groups/280818568679845/ (closed group) or "Michigan Farm Animals for sale" https://www.facebook.com/groups/693097384087582/ That is where I sold my goat herd through.

No on the coon, usually they are SSS material around here... along with groundhogs and other varmints!

 

[preciouskitty]

Happy early Bday to you, too, John. Enjoy ur "vacation"!!

I'm hoping to only have a four day long weekend vs six (meaning I can go back to work tomorrow cuz I feel better..looks like a gorgeous weekend on tap and I do NOT want to be sick!!).

Sorry, I'm with Silly on the raccoon
They most certainly are not treated like pets around here when sighted....

Now my chickens..yep, they are more like pets to me (I, too have named all mine)..

 

[Stacykins]

Does any one have a pet raccoon or am I the only one?

A friend of mine did growing up. Had to keep it hush hush since without the proper permits, it is illegal in Michigan. Of course, in her case, the mother had been killed by a vehicle, no wildlife rehabber would take him (told her to kill him), and the DNR would have just done the same. Acted a lot like a cat, but so much smarter. And he left their chickens alone when he was outside.

 

[bigmrg74]

man with all this rain the mosquitoes are SO BAD around here. I haven't been able to cut the lawn because it's been almost 2 straight weeks of rain I feel like.

Scored myself quite the sunburn on the back of my neck/shoulders while working on the Hawk Blocker 900 version 2. It's basically a chicken tractor . I'm building it to give the ducks some outside space.

Speaking of ducks, the khakis are growing up just fine, starting to lose their baby fuzz. They still aren't very friendly, but that's ok. The pekins unfortunately aren't doing great. All the harnessing, niacin supplementing and now brewers yeast, just doesn't seem to be working. One of them seems to be doing ok, but the other seems to be having more trouble. I'm going to continue doing everything I can for them to try and help. Unfortunately access to avian vet is sparse, and financially challenging.


I'm glad to finally have the chicken tractor built. The next project is assembling the run. I have he lumber sitting in the truck happily waiting to be put together. I also scored a screen door at lowes for 8 bucks! they sold it dirt cheap because the screen was all torn up and thrashed. That works fine for me because I"ll be replacing the screen with HW cloth anyway.

Our mower has been mostly busted the past 2 weeks, My brother cracked a bracket that held a pulley onto the deck and it took him a while for the part to arrive. Then, in a mad dash to get caught up in the mowing, he went back out and somehow managed to crack another bracket for a different pulley along with the one he just replaced. he looked up the part online and ordered it, and it came in on tuesday, but it turns out the lackey at the warehouse put the wrong parts in the box. Looks like he broke down tonight and borrowed his buddy's old zero turn just to knock some of the grass down tonight.

 

[wannahomestead]

Just a random thought I had. I'll be switching the ladies over to layer food next time I go get feed. How will the layer rations impact my rooster?

 

[Opa]

Just a random thought I had. I'll be switching the ladies over to layer food next time I go get feed. How will the layer rations impact my rooster?

It will have no impact at all.

 

[aart]

Just a random thought I had. I'll be switching the ladies over to layer food next time I go get feed. How will the layer rations impact my rooster?

They don't need the calcium, and like Opa said it probably won't hurt them......
...but you might want to think about going another route if you are going to be raising other chicks over time and like to feed other foods/treats.

I like to feed a 'flock raiser' 20% protein crumble to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and all molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

Animal protein (mealworms, a little cheese - beware the salt content, meat scraps) is provided during molting and if I see any feather eating.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer.

 

[gladahmae]

Day 20 and one of the the ee eggs has pipped! Yay! I have around 6 green eggs set and a few brown ones from a hens in with the ee rooster. Hoping to get 3 or 4 non-brown-egg layers out of the bunch as my egg basket is rather monochromatic due to winter losses.

 

[wannahomestead]

They don't need the calcium, and like Opa said it probably won't hurt them......
...but you might want to think about going another route if you are going to be raising other chicks over time and like to feed other foods/treats.

I like to feed a 'flock raiser' 20% protein crumble to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and all molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

Animal protein (mealworms, a little cheese - beware the salt content, meat scraps) is provided during molting and if I see any feather eating.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer.

Thx for the info. I think we'll be done raising new for at least a little while. Is the only difference in layer food vs grower food the calcium levels?