Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[ladyrsanti]

I make my own saddles out of whatever scrap fabric I have. I try to find a matching color to the chicken so that it's less likely to be seen as threatening or interesting to peck at, as much as I'd love to have my girls in the latest fashions.

Patterns are very quick, easy and can be found all over the internet. The one I use is here: http://backtobasicliving.com/blog/make-a-chicken-saddle/ It works just fine so long as you have strong snaps. Those tiny sew-on snaps are no good. Make sure they're the kind you hammer on.

 

[taprock]

Tap... I know this is wrong... but some days I just wanna ask you if you've gotten dressed up to shoot anything lately... Well... have you?

Haven't had a reason to shoot anything. It has been a quiet winter for predators. We have only seen tracks and those have not been close to the house. I would like to shoot the squirrel that chewed up my feed container but he's smart enough not to be seen.

I make my own saddles out of whatever scrap fabric I have. I try to find a matching color to the chicken so that it's less likely to be seen as threatening or interesting to peck at, as much as I'd love to have my girls in the latest fashions.

Patterns are very quick, easy and can be found all over the internet. The one I use is here: http://backtobasicliving.com/blog/make-a-chicken-saddle/ It works just fine so long as you have strong snaps. Those tiny sew-on snaps are no good. Make sure they're the kind you hammer on.

I have to check them out, I have only made the ones with elastic. They hold up pretty well but as the elastic wears out they have escaped from them. I need to make a couple. I have 3 girls that are showing some wear.

We ended up with an inch or so of snow last night. It did clean things up a bit. The snow was looking a bit gray to brown with all the melting and now we are back to bright white. The boy is happy it has frozen back up so he can ride snowmobile again.

 

[SillyChicken]

Very cute!!

 

[minniefarm]

Good Morning everyone! Those kids are really cute!! I would take that little girl home in a heartbeat I am sure DH would love that. he is just starting to warm to the idea of chickens.

My chicks sprouted tail feathers! This morning I noticed all but 1 had tiny pins sticking out of their butts! I know they weren't there last night cuz I checked them all for pastie butt. DH commented last night how much they have grown since I brought them home on Saturday. This weekend I am expanding the brooder so they have more room as they grow. Love my chicks!

 

[snowflake]

Tap... I know this is wrong... but some days I just wanna ask you if you've gotten dressed up to shoot anything lately... Well... have you?

Before she starting laboring hard. She needed some love!


Little girl getting cleaned up!


The boy just came, and the girl was taking her first sips of colostrum.


Such a cute face! He looks just like his father, except he has a huge white poll (the white on his head)


The white on the girl's muzzle kinda makes her look like a donkey!




Other side of the little gal.


He was all tuckered out!


Mama Yoko giving them some love!


I can't tell yet if her eyes are truly blue (like her father's) or if they will change to yellow. Sometimes their eyes can look blue when they are first born, but aren't actually blue.

Look at her smile! what a proud mamma,,,so sweet
Sorry for you guys up north, we still have a light covering of snow but lots of grass showing and the hens and roos had a good feast on the grass yesterday.
just a light dusting last night, they may venture out of the run today

Welcome wendafa

Bob maybe you need to file your roosters toe nails down a little?

 

[Maah]

Quote:
Love the goat kids!!!


Why is it snowing out there!?

I am so ready for spring. Snow makes me cranky. LOL. Ok, maybe it's the tiredness or the headache I've been sporting, or the fact that it's only Tuesday and that's really messing up my wanting it to be Friday. All well...

On a good note... All my baby chicks are growing & feathering nicely. My first silkie chick that hatched 5 weeks ago looks like a little puff ball! So cute. We put that one in with the 3 younger silkie chicks that are just 2 weeks old. They're all doing fine together in their brooder. My 7 farm store chicks are outgrowing their brooder box already! They're only 2 weeks old too! Come on spring... I need to ship some kiddos outside.

...and make room for the next set of chicks that will be hatching.

Now to talk DH into building a new grow out pen for all these chicks. Hmm... It would probably be easier to move my breeding pair into a small "something or other" make shift pen for a while and use the breeding pen as a grow out, since it's a fairly big space & I could easily fit all the chicks in there.

 

[SillyChicken]

OPA how'd the baked eggs turn out? Inquiring minds want to know!
We signed papers on the van last night! Woot!
Personally, I wouldn't worry if the hen wants to lay eggs on the floor in a corner. Not going to hurt anything.
RAZ, If I could get away for the meetings I would be there! Just hard when the meetings are held during the day.
Looks like it's gonna cool off for a few days but warm back up again. Nice to see it trying to get warmer more often now! Though I could do without all the mud!

 

[gladahmae]

Personally, I wouldn't worry if the hen wants to lay eggs on the floor in a corner. Not going to hurt anything.

Yeah. Not worried, it's more of a nuisance than anything. We have a house sitter coming for a week and a half and I just wanted the chicken side of things to be as easy as possible. I also move one of my roos into the layer coop, and didn't really want to rise her getting randomly attacked by him. He hasn't shown any aggression at all.....more terrified of people than anything, but he's getting more comfortable in there every day. You don't have to go into the chicken part of the shed to collect eggs if they layed in the nest boxes, and all she would need to do is open the door a bit and check the food level mid-week since we're going to fill the feeder completely the day before we leave.

I cannot WAIT to hatch some little babies when we get back! I'm sooooo excited.

 

[cuppycake]

OMG, those goat kids are quite possibly the cutest things ever. Love that the doeling looks like a little donkey, haha.

My widdle baby chickies aren't widdle babies anymore. They are officially a month old, have tons of feathers, some have wattles, and I swear I heard one crow this morning. My turkey is still a fluff ball though, and I have some eggs in the incubator so hopefully I'll have some new fluffy butts in a few weeks. Not sure on the fertility of these eggs but we'll see. They are from our "ninja chicken", a chicken that actually lives next door but sneaks into our barn to lay an egg every day.

The last couple of days were so warm (despite the rain) and now it's all cold and yucky out again. Come on, spring... any day now.

 

[naglady]

Hey, another Michigander that is new to BYC. Can someone pop over to the MI RTFA thread and look at the verbage I posted and tell me if it makes any sense to them? I would really appreciate it Wendi

Welcome to the group Wendi,


love the kids they are so adorable..

the chicks are pretty sweet to.

If i didnt have eggs in the bator, i would definately be at tsc getting some chicks. still the thought goes thru my mine maybe go there to see what they have..

that is to funny neighbors chicken laying eggs at your place.. i wish my neighbors had chickens that did that.. lol