Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[fuzzybutt love]

Quote:Originally Posted by chickflick I've been spending as much time as possible with the flock after work.......... a few days ago my mild mannered EE roo decided (I think) to not like my little porcelain d'uccle roo. Darn roos, couldn't wait until spring! So i've got him caged separate and my favorite EE pullet (hope, the one i hatched special from my sweet pet EE hen that died) with him to bolster his esteem. Poor guy was so despaired, he went "off his feed" but he's doing great now. My little girl is sweet, and wouldn't ever peck at his comb so this works for both of them since she's getting used to being caged which will be good if she ends up being my house chicken.

Unfortunately his sister and his adopted booted banty mom are terribly mean to him now, and tear at his head I'm not really sure whether they were the ones who did the balding in the first place! Do banty girls get terrible like this before starting to lay again ?

All i've seen the EE roo do is chase???? And the only ones who had blood on them were the two girls?

 

[Opa]

Unfortunately his sister and his adopted booted banty mom are terribly mean to him now, and tear at his head I'm not really sure whether they were the ones who did the balding in the first place! Do banty girls get terrible like this before starting to lay again ?

Their aggressiveness has nothing to do with they laying cycle but more with a typical "pecking order". While not usually as aggressive toward non poultry target (us) as roosters hens often are responsible for the majority of flock fighting and the resulting injuries. Oft times bantam breeds will be more aggressive than the larger birds.

 

[Amy PT]

Does anyone know of a local source for bantam cochin chicks in W MI or along I96? I only want 2 or 3, so I don't want to order them.

 

[naglady]

They are adorable

My silkie chicks hatched yesterday! Yahoo! Three hatched out of five eggs, and they all look good. No apparent leg weaknesses or deformities. All have nice black skin, decent foot feathering, and 5 toes. Now if they all end up pullets, that'd be great.



Our silkie hen has been broody for 4 weeks!! She's driving me crazy and hogging the breeding pen all while not producing any eggs. I hope she cuts it out soon.
...

I also bought some new chickies from Family Farm & Home to add to my laying flock. Since we'll be retiring 4 (2yr old) hens this year.... we bought 6 more, and still plan on buying a 7th. And we'll be hatching out a few from our flock as well. Hmm... not sure how the math works out on this (replacing 4 with 7+), but I'm sure DH was planning on expanding the coop & run this year. Again. If he wasn't, he has probably clued in by now. I gotta say though, I love the little light brahma pullets we just bought. They are the sweetest little chicks we've had! I should have known they would be... even our brahma rooster is the gentlest roo we've ever had.

 

[naglady]

Hmm, sounds like you are not canning with a pressure canner right now. What are you using to can your beans and other stuff? If you aren't using pressure, you are possible endangering yourself and family. You really need pressure for non acid foods. A water bath is fine for preserves, but you really should use pressure for all other foods.

This is a really good site for information on home canning safelty

http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html

i havent canned beans in awhile, but for salsa and dilly beans i used hot water bath which gets boiled for a certain amount of time. and i have never had a problem. now i just vacuum pack my beans after blanching them, and i still can my salsa..
my parents always pressure cooked everything.
thanks for the information.. for canning safety

 

[NovaAman]

Maah, put some eggs under that silkie hen. They are great bators and good moms.. Feed her high pro feed to keep her weight up.

 

[Maah]

Maah, put some eggs under that silkie hen. They are great bators and good moms.. Feed her high pro feed to keep her weight up.

Thanks for the tip on the feed. I will definitely do that!

As for the eggs... I would, but I would like her to hatch out silkie eggs rather than from our laying flock. If I put different eggs under her I'm sure she will do great with them... But she would want to continue being mom of the year and raise them forever and it'd be that much longer before I can get more silkie eggs from her. We are trying to increase our silkie flock, right now we just have the 2. She's my only white silkie hen paired with our white silkie roo. I don't have any silkie eggs to put under her. Maybe I should keep my eyes open on Craigslist for some decent silkie hatching eggs. Otherwise i might have to put her in some "broody time out" or something/anything and try to get her to snap out of it. Our daughter is breeding them for 4-H and would like to show them at the fair this fall.

 

[tdhenson86]

Raz, I loved your "Sun" egg. I had a surprize when I gathered eggs yesterday afternoon. There was this huge blue soft shell egg in the box. I gently lifted it out and carried it in the house to weigh. It was 110 grams but it felt like something hard was inside. I broke open the soft shell in a bowl and there was a fully developed 57 gram egg blue egg inside. The 57 gram eggs was in perfect condition. Way to go Mabelline! (Now, do I count this as one or two eggs in my egg count???? )

Wow!!! That is incredibly cool!

 

[Sara Jayne]

Hi Everybody been awhile since i was on here just wanted to say hi. I also wanted to let anyone who is looking for some silkie rosters i have 2 that need a good home.

 

[Opa]

I figured that since I haven't posted coffee for several mornings and the thread has been rather slow I had better try and get some caffeine circulating.


It also might be a good idea that if your coffee supplies are getting low you might want to replenish them this morning. From the sound of the weather forecast things are going to get a little nasty later today.

I did go to Tractor Supply to buy some ISA browns yesterday and found out that they won't be getting them until Wednesday. However, with the severity of the approaching I wouldn't be surprised if the arrival gets delayed.