Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[NovaAman]

I was looking at Townline's website for specific bantam breeds, and couldn't find any info other than the fact that they have bantams.

Raz, you're a chicken foster parent now, eh? Good luck with your next steps in your legal fight. What a headache.

AH! If I had seen this post before 3pm, I could have asked while I was out there. I picked up 4- 1-day old pullets.

Snowflake, I am glad you got an answer. Makes me wonder about the hen I have in the garage right now. I can not find any parasites on her, They've been wormed recently, but she's displaying the exact symptoms you've just described... If she doesn't get better, I'll see about a necropsy with MSU. This is a chick hatched here by my own....

Anyway... the new babies, 2 Ameraucanas and 2 Amber sexlinks.


They are going to be slipped up under Skatter tonight.

 

[Amy PT]

All of these chick pics are threatening my early April timeline.

I posted the "which bantams" question in the breeds section. I know there's someone on the site who works at Townline. I hope he/she chimes in.

 

[MIchickens]

So...thanks to your threads...I now have 7 more chicks...lol. I stopped at Crazy Chicken Ranch after work today and picked up 4 golden laced wyandotte's, 2 Easter Egger's, and 1 silver laced wyandotte. McMurray didn't send me my GLW's so I picked up some from Crazy Chicken Ranch. The timing was wonderful because her chicks are only 1 day younger than the ones I got from McMurray. Also, I had 6 chicks die from McMurray...live and learn. I'll never order chicks in winter again....I assume that is what was hard on them.

I wouldn't hesitate to to buy from Crazy Chicken Ranch again. Everybody there was very nice and made me feel right at home! I wish I would have knew about her before I ordered from McMurray!

 

[Trefoil]

WOOT

Just got info that my chicks are ready to be picked up!!! I ordered from a semi local hatchery in Capac. Now I get to go pick out exactly what I want I am really excited now!!! Now I have to make the final decision on what I want to buy....

I think I might want a couple Jerseys, and some EE, maybe even a couple more Wyandottes...oh the choices?!?!?!

So what did you get? What do they have, I didn't know there was a place in Capac that hatched.- Do you know who it is in Millington that raises Salmon Favorelles?

Thinking ahead to chick days.......

Does TSC get bantams (and specifically silkies) in for chick days, or is it pretty much just LF layers? looking at Townline's website (which they've re-vamped btw) I don't see silkies listed, but they DO have bantams listed. Someone that is kind of local to me has silkies listed on CL and I'm trying to decide if I *need* another 1 or 2 to be incubators for me, or if I should just wait until spring and get some babies.

It depends on the TSC, different ones have different breeds, most will have bantams but which ones depend on the store.-

So...thanks to your threads...I now have 7 more chicks...lol. I stopped at Crazy Chicken Ranch after work today and picked up 4 golden laced wyandotte's, 2 Easter Egger's, and 1 silver laced wyandotte. McMurray didn't send me my GLW's so I picked up some from Crazy Chicken Ranch. The timing was wonderful because her chicks are only 1 day younger than the ones I got from McMurray. Also, I had 6 chicks die from McMurray...live and learn. I'll never order chicks in winter again....I assume that what was hard on them.

I wouldn't hesitate to to buy from Crazy Chicken Ranch again. Everybody there was very nice and made me feel right at home! I wish I would have knew about her before I ordered from McMurray!

Where is Crazy Chicken ranch? I ended up ordering from Meyer to be delivered in April, I hope its warm enough then.-

 

[MIchickens]

so, Dr. Fulton from MSU called today. I brought 3 birds down for necropsy Jan. 16... first call he said no parasites inside or out (that was good)' 3yr old Leghorn had internal eggs,
next 2 birds were emaciated pale superficial and deep pectoral muscles fibrotic, ,white mass on liver, possible Mareks. Today he finished the lab work and confirmed it was (is) Mareks,

The Dr. says Mareks is very prevalent every ware and the best thing to do is vaccinate.Birds that survive ;Mareks become immune and are carriers. They usually do not show any sign of the disease.

As my first 2 groups of birds came from hatcheries and were vac. I had no problems for 3 yrs. It wasn't till I got birds from breeders that were not vac. that the unexplained deaths started and it was always the new chicks after they reached about 6months. Most likely the disease was here already The chicks my birds hatched could have been immune but became carriers so new birds were infected.

solution is to vaccinate all chicks before they are a week old,

It is the Dr. opinion that it is of little use to vaccinate older birds even those over 1 week as they have most likely already been infected. I think if I had chicks in the house right now, but they were not vac. I would get the vaccine and vaccinate ASP. I don't think they would be infected inside??

I did vaccinate all my birds as soon as I suspected Mareks. Some sources say vaccinate at any age as long as they have not been exposed (and of course there is no way of knowing that)
can't hurt

the vaccine is not to costly and well worth the effort.

I have lost at least 14 birds in the last 2yrs. to this disease,(maybe more), they go down slowly some times 3 or 4 weeks apart . symptoms for me were healthy birds all of sudden are puffed, listless. start losing weight then they can't walk or stand up, they are so weak, nothing you can do helps. It does not always show the signs your read about on line. a very sad thing to watch,
You feel so helpless

I hope some of you will think about vaccinating, even that is not a 100% guarantee.

Could your average person buy the vaccines or do they need to go to a vet to get it done? If you can ....where could someone buy the vaccines? I had mine vaccinated from McMurray...but info might be helpful to others?

 

[MIchickens]

So what did you get? What do they have, I didn't know there was a place in Capac that hatched.- Do you know who it is in Millington that raises Salmon Favorelles?

It depends on the TSC, different ones have different breeds, most will have bantams but which ones depend on the store.-

Where is Crazy Chicken ranch? I ended up ordering from Meyer to be delivered in April, I hope its warm enough then.-

http://www.crazychickenranch.com/home That's their website. She is out of Capac, MI

 

[teeville5]

Thinking ahead to chick days.......

Does TSC get bantams (and specifically silkies) in for chick days, or is it pretty much just LF layers? looking at Townline's website (which they've re-vamped btw) I don't see silkies listed, but they DO have bantams listed. Someone that is kind of local to me has silkies listed on CL and I'm trying to decide if I *need* another 1 or 2 to be incubators for me, or if I should just wait until spring and get some babies.

TSC does get bantams for chick days. They are assorted, though, and unsexed. Unless you know what you're looking at as a chick, you probably won't know what kind of bantam it is until it's weeks old. If you're lucky, you'll find silkies and they are easy to identify in the bins. I got 4 silkies at TSC last year. I've also gotten oegb's, d'uccles, and sebrights fro their bins. Again, though, these little ones are unsexed so I wound up 50/50 on pullets and roos.

Townline doesn't list the individual bantam breeds they carry. I think it's because so many of them look alike as chicks and can't be told apart. If you order them I think it's simply you get what you get.

 

[MIchickens]

Ohhh...and I figured out what my rare mystery chicken is that I got from McMurray....it's a Blue Andalusian.

 

[tjbeckman]

Ok, so we are home. Kelly made me promise not to get more than 8... So I took her with me and we came home with 10 LOL

I guess that means I win again LOL We decided to bring home 4 Jersey Giants and 6 EE's. She was down to 2 JG, but still looked to have quite a few of the other breeds. Silver and Golden Wy's, EE's, Leghorns, Maybe Isa's...I wouldn't hesitate to purchase from her again either! Very Happy with how they are settling in. I will be getting some guinea's from her come March I think ...

Oh and Trefoil, not sure who that is, never met her but have seen her on the facebook groups too

 

[tjbeckman]

Their new home... Had to move the light a bit but they are all snuggled up now