Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[WalnutHill]

Just spoke to RaZ's doctor. Surgery went very well, and he is now recovering in the ICU.

Thanks for the update! Prayers for a speedy recovery.

 

[wannahomestead]

Glad to hear the surgery went well. Thoughts are with you.

It just dawned on me that I'm heading into day 16 of brooding. That means hatch day is this sunday/monday I think! Do I need to like plan to work around hatch day on monday? I guess I need to get things ready!

 

[Folly's place]

Glad that all went well with Raz; all the best his way. Mary

 

[gladahmae]

Ok my duck people. My little peepers are now around 13 and 14 weeks old. The blue Swedish is a drake, one of the KCs is a drake, and I can't decide what the Rouen is. It LOOKS like a female, but it doesn't SOUND like the KC females. I'm sending the Swedish to the butcher with my meaties in a few weeks, and if the Rouen is a drake I'm sending that one also.


My Broodies are failing me left and right. The first broody lost her chick. The second broody (the one that has raised chicks before and done a great job) lost HER chicks. And after we went camping this weekend I am missing a THIRD broody and her chick. Both have just disappeared. And she wasn't one to wander far like my ISA Browns do.

 

[wannahomestead]

Ok my duck people. My little peepers are now around 13 and 14 weeks old. The blue Swedish is a drake, one of the KCs is a drake, and I can't decide what the Rouen is. It LOOKS like a female, but it doesn't SOUND like the KC females. I'm sending the Swedish to the butcher with my meaties in a few weeks, and if the Rouen is a drake I'm sending that one also.


My Broodies are failing me left and right. The first broody lost her chick. The second broody (the one that has raised chicks before and done a great job) lost HER chicks. And after we went camping this weekend I am missing a THIRD broody and her chick. Both have just disappeared. And she wasn't one to wander far like my ISA Browns do.

How different does your Rouen sound? They should be pretty distinct at this point. Male duck sounds like a frog, female sounds like a duck .

I'd be willing to bet if it sounds like anything other than a frog with a sore throat, it's a girl.

 

[1muttsfan]

Thanks wingless, hope raz is doing well.

 

[Candy442]

@RaZ hope you are feeling better and better !

 

[Candy442]

My Broodies are failing me left and right. The first broody lost her chick. The second broody (the one that has raised chicks before and done a great job) lost HER chicks. And after we went camping this weekend I am missing a THIRD broody and her chick. Both have just disappeared. And she wasn't one to wander far like my ISA Browns do.

Oh no! do your Broodies have 24/7 access to the outside? We keep our broody in an enclosed area with the chicks until the babies are at least 2 months old. So far none of our broody's have wanted to babysit them after that amount of time, so we have a special "baby coop" for them until they are big enough to introduce to their respective breed coops. I know for a fact if we let them free range we would loose them for sure.

 

[gladahmae]

Oh no! do your Broodies have 24/7 access to the outside? We keep our broody in an enclosed area with the chicks until the babies are at least 2 months old. So far none of our broody's have wanted to babysit them after that amount of time, so we have a special "baby coop" for them until they are big enough to introduce to their respective breed coops. I know for a fact if we let them free range we would loose them for sure.

we don't have enough coop space at this point with all the grow-outs to pen the broodies seperately. and they all can and will fly over the fence and go wherever they want to anyway. The 2nd "experienced" broody did great for 2 weeks and then one morning her chicks were just gone.


I officially have a predator though. Just came in from feeding/watering everyone and something dug into the duck/growout coop and took ONE of the leghorns. Everyone else in there is fine. Literally missing ONE bird from about 10 chicks and 5 ducks. We tried to shuffle birds up 2 weeks ago to get the grow-out chicks out of the duck coop, and they did NOT like that.....and at some point i had one JG and one RIR go missing. I figured they just wandered off, but now i wonder. It could also explain the missing chicks, AND the missing broody. 4 years of chickens and the ONLY predator issue we've had is ONE late-august hawk attack, and neighbors' dogs. My biggest run is not in any way predator proof. 4 ft chainlink. No apron, no roof. Almost all of the chickens (including my fat buff orp) will fly over the fence to free range during the day. Since daytime doesn't seem to be a problem, it looks like i will have to get back into the habit of locking up all the coops at night (which is also something we haven't done for 2 years except for during the winter). I know WHAT needs done to predator proof, but I'm not willing or able to spend the $500+ dollars to do that right now (because hwcloth is stupid-expensive here, and the main run probably has 100+ ft of perimeter that needs addressed.

 

[Folly's place]

So sorry! Sooner or later every possible predator will show up, and you have just experienced that. Some fox kits or ??? are getting good chicken dinners, and learning to love them. Time for an upgrade, electric fencing, and some live traps. Mary