Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[aart]

Dreamz, You will find that as your birds get older they will start eating a wider variety of things, just like human kids. Just keep offering them different stuff.

...and like kids, best not let them eat a bunch of 'junk'.
All chickens need is a good poultry ration and plain water,
everything else is more for the amusement of the keepers.

 

[Frankiegirl]

I found that I don't care to eat anything I have raised - I certainly could if I was hungry and had to have food, but that is not the case. I just loose my appetite when they are cooked up.

You don't want to add moisture inside coop, it will encourage mold in the humid weather. Grass clippings if fresh could maybe be put in the run, but when allowed to sit for even a day or so, are very musty and should not be used in either the pen or run.

Try training your birds to come when you shake a can of scratch grain. Never feed them any except in the run, and not until you have shaken the can and they come up to you. My hens come running from all over the yard when they hear that can shake, and me holler "Chick-Chick-Chikee!"

Your run is big enough for 13, how about the coop?

Dreamz, You will find that as your birds get older they will start eating a wider variety of things, just like human kids. Just keep offering them different stuff.

Great advice! The coop is big enough for 16 currently. There is a wall that I put up for a baby brooder if necessary and nesting boxes and storage inside that could be reconfigured that will allow up to 24 birds if chicken math comes into play. Then I would most definitely have to expand the run onto the other side of the coop. The gang here warned me of that before it was built. The roof is not completed yet but here is a pic of the coop. The steel just arrived last week. I can add another run/pen on the right side of the coop if I wanted to expand. That area is pretty big. Progress

There is no food or water in the coop and shavings on the floor along w PDZ under the roost. I have a fan that blows at night to circulate air and windows on all sides along with ventilation in all the rafters. HC everywhere and secured w wood trim. Like so many others, it would break my heart if I lost one of my girls to a predator that I could have avoided. I live alone and these chicks were my saving grace through COVID.

Stay cool everyone!

 

[Frankiegirl]

@Sally PB…how is your chick doing?

 

[Dreamzchaser]

Hello everyone!
Thanks for the advices. Definitely, would be hard without all of you that are so caring. Working with the girls. Ran out of wood so run is at stand by. Got info about X that he has a thing in his chest all these years and it has kept growing. I finally took a picture and sent it to my sister. She is not happy with it and required immediate attention as to resembles melanoma which is the most aggressive type of cancer. I have not said anything to him. Keeping it all in. However, he asked me why I was trying to get him approved for medical care through Veterans affairs as a spouse and if it was about cancer. I rebuked him and said that bad things are not allowed in my presence. I am in a very tight position.

Anyways, where is Riss? Did she got to American Idol?
SallyPB, how are the chicks today?

~Hugs~and~Kisses

 

[1muttsfan]

Michelle, that is a very nice coop/run setup.

 

[RaZ]

I had a new visitor to the farm today.

 

[Sally PB]

SallyPB, how are the chicks today?

The two Blue Australorps are just starting to get the beginnings of teeny little tail feathers! It's so cute! The Orpington is a day older (I think...?), but still has the little nub-tail, even though she's a bit bigger than the other two.

Ever since I started either mashing up or soaking their crumble, it seems that that is all they want to eat. They go over to the feeder, peck a bit, then go back to the little dish of crushed bits. Am I enabling their laziness by doing this?

Tomorrow, I'll remove the paper towel and stop using that to line the floor of the brooder. I'll switch to pine shavings, and I think they'll like that to scratch around in.

Here's a question for the experienced ones (@aart @RaZ @1muttsfan and others please chime in): At what age do I introduce them to the native dirt here? They're 1 week old today or tomorrow. I was thinking I'd put in a small pan of dirt to scratch in, dust bathe, eat for grit. (They have chick grit already.)

 

[aart]

Am I enabling their laziness by doing this?

Yes.
No reason I can see to feed them wetted feed.
Just leave the dry stuff, they'll eat it eventually.

At what age do I introduce them to the native dirt here?

I used put a chunk of sod from near the run into the brooder during the second week.
I would sprinkle it with chick grit.
Now I move them out the coop at that time, so don't bother with the sod.
I start giving them chick scratch(cracked grain starter feed from local mill) when I start letting them out into their run and mix chick grit in with that.

 

[RaZ]

Here's a question for the experienced ones (@aart @RaZ @1muttsfan and others please chime in): At what age do I introduce them to the native dirt here? They're 1 week old today or tomorrow. I was thinking I'd put in a small pan of dirt to scratch in, dust bathe, eat for grit. (They have chick grit already.)

If it is warm enough then you can take them out for a "field trip" in the yard. Let them roam a bit while watching them. If they appear cold or scared take them back to the brooder. A mother hen will do this with young chicks.

 

[1muttsfan]

My chicks would go on outings into the yard from the age of about 1 week, 20 minutes or so in the sun. They run around, take dirt baths and loll in the sunshine.