Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[babigyrl22]

Congratulations to Jamie and her growing twins. As much as I love being a father I am glad I got to ease into it one child at a time. Hope's oldest son and his wife had twin girls months ago and if Hope didn't help everyday they would be up the proverbial creek.

I would like to thank all of you for your efforts with regard the the Michigan Right To Farm Act and a special call out to Raz for his efforts.

As I read over the last several pages a couple of questions with regard to molting, egg production, and light were brought up and I thought I'd share what I know on the subjects. Molting is triggered by the reduction of daylight and if the birds experience a hard molt egg production will cease. It is common for them to not resume laying for up to 8 weeks. Providing supplemental light can lessen the severity of the molt.

As the days shorten hens enter into a "resting stage" in which egg production falls off dramatically and in some birds ceases completely. Providing supplemental light will keep their egg production up. Depending upon breed, hens will only lay a certain amount of eggs in their entire life. Keeping the number of daylight hours above 15 will result in the hen laying those eggs in the shortest amount of time. Not providing additional light will result in the hen laying the same number of eggs but she take more years to do it.

While providing additional light will keep egg production up, it must be added before the day starts to shorten. You should plan on having the lights installed no later than the autumnal equinox. Once a hen has started to molt or has entered into her "resting" stage, adding additional light will not reverse the trend.

One final subject is damage and injury to hens by over amorous roosters. A close study of a rooster's breeding style will point out the problem. He will grasp the hen by the feathers at the back of her head which is why so many hens become bald on the back of their heads. Other than removing the rooster from the flock there isn't anyway to prevent this.

The next major issue with breeding is how the rooster positions himself on the hen. If the rooster is young and inexperienced, or the hen isn't adquately submissive, the rooster will have trouble maintain position. This constact jostling for position result in damage to the coverlet feathers resulting in the so called "rooster wear". In extreme cases all the feathers will be striped from the lower back and in the worst cases the flesh sustains wounds.

While a rooster spurs can add to the damage, the primary source is his toenails. I've found that if you keep a rooster's toenail trimmed short and blunted you can dramatically lessen the damage.

Thank you Opa! We are very excited about the twins but that excitement is met with a good dose of terror as well. LOL

I just added the inside light about two weeks ago. The ladies do go outside but it seems like they like hanging out in the dark coop instead which is why I have the light inside on 8hrs/day. Today we got our first egg in over two months!! I am not sure if production will go back up but that's a good sign in the right direction!

From what you said above, the light I installed will not have that much effect on the girls and we might have to wait it out until Spring? GAHH... Should I just remove the light then? Is it not worth it?

 

[Trefoil]

I got so many things done this weekend!

Got my first day off on Friday!!! WOOT


Jasper the boar snuggling in the straw.

June born piglets awaiting their milky treat. I bring home about 16 gallons, sometime up to 30 gallons of treated raw milk from work every day, they go nuts for that stuff!

The coop wreckers

They don't look very remorseful. Glad you got time off to get things done. Are you going to sell any of your June or new piglets? What is the milk treated with?

 

[NovaAman]

I read several posts, not too long ago, written by a young woman (early teen i guess) who expressed frustration at life in general, and family life during the holiday season. Within a few posts an epiphany occurred and she stated something to the effect of 'Forget it, Mom loves me. Life doesn't suck.' Anyone ever hear of such a thing before? Do ya think we should tell her that most of mankind has experienced those kinds of feelings? Girl, sounds to me as if you have a great start in life. Keep learning, loving, reading.

Ah, the joy of teenage angst... I am not so old that I don't remember those days, but young enough still to give a friendly word of advice from both ends of the spectrum. She sounds like an all around good kid... just at that age ya know..

How's that paper working for you still in the coop?

 

[Opa]

Jamie, adding additional hours of light to 15 hours of combined daylight and artificial will shorten your hens down time.

 

[tjbeckman]

So today we worked on getting the coop set up. Some of you may recall that I was planning to build a pallet coop. Well, that didn't happen LOL. We decided that it was far too much work, we also had an revelation. We use the back off an old refridgerated (sp) delivery truck for storing much of our horse equipment. So, we decided to section off part of the interior to use as our coop, after all it is already insulated LOL. Sooo here are some picks from working on the run.


This is my fiance, Kelly showing off the run



And here is Hank trying to help with the fencing LOL




The plan is to make the door where you see the board up high. Not sure how I feel about that part yet, I am sure it will be fine... No interior pics yet either

 

[1muttsfan]

Bob, that picture of the raspberries made my mouth start watering instantly!

I would get any remaining eggs out from under the coop - they could turn into real stinkers if left there.

One of the reasons the Cream Legbars interest me is the fact they are autosexing - you can cull males as soon a they hatch, before you have fed, watered and cared for them for weeks. On top of the fact they lay big, beautiful blue eggs.

 

[BobBry]

How's that paper working for you still in the coop?

I have some pine shavings in it too, but mostly the paper. Works fine in the coop. Not too bad in the run which is covered with a roof and the sides have big storm windows of 6 mil plastic. about 6x 8 feet sections this year. They are working as intended too.

 

[gladahmae]

I would get any remaining eggs out from under the coop - they could turn into real stinkers if left there.


One of the reasons the Cream Legbars interest me is the fact they are autosexing - you can cull males as soon a they hatch, before you have fed, watered and cared for them for weeks. On top of the fact they lay big, beautiful blue eggs.

I'd LOVE to get those eggs out of there for that exact reason. The problem is that the building is sitting on cement pads and I'd have to dig under it to get at the eggs, and thereby unleveling the foundation. I may get a stick tomorrow (if it's not raining) and see if I can fish around in there and find anything.....or just BREAK anything that might be under there. Darn hens! Now all I have to do is get the area underneath the nest boxes blocked off so I don't have to crawl around the coop trying to get to the OTHER spot they've been trying to hide eggs.


If you find yourself with an over-abundance of those legbars, you let me know!

They're on my want list.

 

[chickflick]

Would a rake fit under there. Make it easier to pull the eggs in.

 

[drumstick diva]

Daron - great pictures, Anne has the sweestest face.