Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[drumstick diva]

Naglady you really scored!! How about that free birds plus their own quarantine coop? How nice of that lady to give all that away.

 

[snowflake]

So sorry!
Thank you for giving them a good home. Has Shug gone broody for you yet? I am glad they are doing well.

Yes, Delawares are a wonderful dual purpose bird and they have personality plus!!

no one has gone broody yet, Thankfully, it is to cold for chicks

i am thinking of it, only thing is its my dh bd, so and we take our weeklong camping trip.. so not sure..thinking about it though
that would sounds pretty funny

Chicken Stock is at a beautiful park right on the river, Might be camping around there? Then you could slip away for a while, Or better yet bring him along there is lots of good food

My DH wouldn't make me choose. I think he knows that if I had to, the choice might be kinda "iffy." I love all my animals, referring to my birds as my babies and my horses and donkey as my kiddos.

Quote:
Thanks for the reminder, some times it is mid day before DH remembers to lower the flag, this is so sad, My heart goes out to those families left behind.



naglady, good score on the chickens and coop, they are pretty

sorry glad, maybe you can find some pullets and not have to wait so long to start over

 

[Lisa and girls]

My DH wouldn't make me choose. I think he knows that if I had to, the choice might be kinda "iffy." I love all my animals, referring to my birds as my babies and my horses and donkey as my kiddos

Love it. I think my choice might be a little iffy too lol

 

[gladahmae]

Alright. Well, in about 8 weeks I'm going to be looking for some Marans or Welsummer pullets that either came from, or are currently laying a decently dark egg. Probably looking for 2 olive eggers too. That would be in the beginning of middle to April

I could drive anywere in the area within the Kalkaska/Clare/Big Rapids/Manistee range. I'm near Traverse City, so closer would obviously be better, but I'll drive if I have to!

 

[SillyChicken]

With the pending snow storm today I thought I'd brighten things up around here a little - FUZZY BUTTS ARE HERE!!!!!
Everyone made it ok.. one of the little sumatra chicks was a bit stressed so I'm nursing her along. The others are
running around like little mad men....then passing out. The hen chick I hatched a few weeks ago has become a mom hen whether
she likes it or not... they're following her around. It's actually helpful cause she is showing them where the food and water is.
I went to pull out the gimpy chick to cull and she started searching frantically for her....... go figure. So I went ahead and
put her back....

Black/white chicks are Sumatra
Soft yellow are Faverolles (ugh, mostly roos)
The multi color chicks are Golden Campine
Reddish brown chicks? Does anyone know? Rhode Islands?
And there's a little banty chick in the center of the picture (I think)

Oh well.. enjoy!

 

[taprock]

Aww .... so cute!
Our eggs arrived this morning. They were all ok, none broke or froze. The incubator is up to temp but there is not enough humidity.

Of course that is a problem for our whole house. I may move the incubator next to the humidifier. We only have 38% in the house now that the humidifier is plugged in. Two days ago I noticed I had a scratchy throat when I woke up that went away when I had something to drink. Looking at the humidity it was only 19% in here. I'm whining again but I hate winter!

 

[RaZ]

Anyone notice anything wrong with this photo?

 

[Lisa and girls]

Anyone notice anything wrong with this photo?

Looks fine to me!

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Fuzzy, if you want, you could pm me your cell phone # and I could send you pics to see if what I have is what you want.

You'll have to send to my PM; i am a holdout on cell phones

Quote:Originally Posted by Fancy Favie

I now have an egg turner but if doing it by hand, I turned 3 times daily - an uneven amount meant that it was a different side each night when they stayed longer without turning. But an x on one side and o on the other so you can keep track of turning. And move quick so that you don't loose a lot of hot air. It is definitely not something I miss.

Hmm. I only had the cheapo styrofoam one so i did the egg carton hatch and taped it shut to keep the heat and humidity steady; I put the glass jars in there to add water at the end, and had everything all up to temp for a whole day before adding the eggs to the carton; I tipped the whole thing a couple inches up side to side 3 times a day and then as it got closer i started turning/ tipping more often as the mood struck; i think in the end it was up to 5 or 6 times a day; hens don't have anything but instinct so i worked with mine and it worked great! Complete details of the hatch and whatnot are in my siggy link. I wonder if you could do something similar with the cabinet? Do the egg carton hatch (helps to stabilize humidity and keeps eggs from rolling into each other while hatching) You could use something stable to prop the incubator, just needs to be tall enough to move the eggs to just where they won't tip out.
I taped my bator shut both for the stability and it helped tremendously in the sudden urges to OPEN the bator; the only times i opened were the two candlings and the last to grab my injured chick who had spraddled. I was able to re set her leg and give her a normal life but the cost was shrink-wrapping one of the others who sadly didn't make it. You do have a hydrogometer as well? Is it calibrated too? Humidity is crucial! Or it could be the state of the actual eggs weren't so good to begin with? All the grey hairs i got over trying to figure stuff out was what convinced me of the need for a broody, LOL.

Our eggs arrived this morning. They were all ok, none broke or froze. The incubator is up to temp but there is not enough humidity.

Of course that is a problem for our whole house. I may move the incubator next to the humidifier. We only have 38% in the house now that the humidifier is plugged in. Two days ago I noticed I had a scratchy throat when I woke up that went away when I had something to drink. Looking at the humidity it was only 19% in here. I'm whining again but I hate winter!

sigh, me too. We have a wood burner here too. Throat is raw. Do you have sponges in there already? Did you add little jars for water (don't know what your bator looks like) The egg carton works as a sponge too that stabilizes the humidy. I did the dry hatch (up to the last 3 days) and though i added the carton and the jars and put strips of the leftover carton into the jars as an extra measure (wicks the moisture over a larger surface when you add the water to the jars) All was well once the eggs got in because they made their own humidity and that was even with an air conditioner running!

 

[fuzzybutt love]

this is one of the links from my notes, i really liked the detail she went into. I took info from here and the little giant thread (there is a thread for every incubator, i think) and put together a game plan. I didn't have shipped eggs, but i liked the reviews of the egg carton method from others who had used it, and i thought that it was interesting too that certain breeds seem to have more issues than others when it comes to shipped eggs. Could be useful for someone who has ordered out for any of the expensive fancy breeds!!!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/704328/diary-notes-air-cell-detatched-shipped-eggs


Speaking of which, who was it that ordered the chocolates? Have you made a decision? I am trying to decide on a companion for my to-be house hen, and it occured to me that something like that might be a good idea; i would be too scared to have one of those outside anyway! I only want one hen of that color.

If not now than down the line i will order; the ones i have been drooling over were the starfire farms ones, and there's a 6 chick minimum! Whew! (If you don't understand the trepidation, look at the prices! ha ha ha) That is something that i think would be a good thing to split orders with a group.