Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[snowflake]

This is why I need it to warm up soon! I am over run with babies in the basement!!

REALLY SWEET,, glad it isn't my basement

I just came in from watering the birds and gathering eggs. The temperature is 13 and with the wind chill -3. I have a 16'x16' run that I enclosed and a small door gives them accss to the garden. As long as it isn't too windy they will venture out to the garden. On windy day, regardless of the temps they rarely stay in the coop.

I don't see a problem with anyone seling items to Chickenstock.

I have to laugh, I actually have a similar question. Part of why I wan

Does anyone know anyone in west Michigan that ha a GMO free feed (Corn and soy are the main GMO culprits)? Or does anyone have a good feed mix recipe? I have no fear of it taking more time. I have no problem doing my own sprout. I actually have a good spot in our "man cave" that gets excellent sun year round that I am buying a shelf for to sprout year round. Thanks for any tips. I am just trying to get my poop in a group before I do start to build anything or order any eggs.

the small-scale poultry flock by Harvey Ussery, has a good table of contents for home made feed,
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[snowflake]

It looks like the Topic of the Day will be how cold it is.
"How cold is it, Johnny"?

I'll take fresh water out when it gets light and check the birds. Then it will be off to the courthouse, yet again. There are two of us on the docket today.

GOOD LUCK!!.....don't know how they can still go through with this, now that they have approved chickens for otheres

 

[Ferrret]

BF picked up a wireless thermometer a while ago so we could check coop and outdoor temps+humidity daily, and open/close windows as needed. We put the coop reader right above the roost to get a good reading for humidity where they sleep.
Right now it says -4 outside and 10 in the coop. They never ventured further than out into the run yesterday, and I assume today will be the same.

 

[boris159]

today I am collecting eggs throughout the day, as yesterday's might have been frozen by late afternoon--does that happen? It just seems like it would. 4 eggs from 18 hens, a new low.
Hens won't even go out to the protected 6X10 "sun room" annex.

 

[mrcush]

I was surprised to see my girls out in their run this morning considering it was 0 degrees outside. Luckily they have a couple roosts out there. I made them some warm oatmeal and they gobbled it up like usual. I'm so glad I put a wind break up for the winter! I hope they are staying warm. I do have the heat lamp on in the coop so that makes me feel a little better.

 

[naglady]

Just came in from checking on the girls, water is still warm and not frozen, i put some more straw in the coop, no eggs yet, but i dont usually get eggs this early in the day.. Stay warm everyone..

 

[ladyrsanti]

My chickens were fine this morning. Their nipples were frozen but they came loose with a little wiggle, no big deal. The water was still nice and "warm", relatively speaking. The temperature in the coop was 12 degrees above the outside air temp. Not too bad for being a sucky coop. It's possible there could be a little frost bite on a comb or two. It's hard to tell at this point. Fritter (BO) with his huge comb and man waddles, I wouldn't doubt at all. Poof (BO) has a pretty large comb as well and it was a little pale at the tips. We'll see.

There was a beautiful sunrise this morning, complete with sun dogs. I tried to take a picture of it but it's sort of faint, look on both sides of the sun about 1/4 of the way in on both sides of the photo. You can sort of see them, thanks to photoshop, but it was much more impressive in person. My kids thought it was neat.

 

[RIRJen]

I was surprised to see my girls out in their run this morning considering it was 0 degrees outside. Luckily they have a couple roosts out there. I made them some warm oatmeal and they gobbled it up like usual. I'm so glad I put a wind break up for the winter! I hope they are staying warm. I do have the heat lamp on in the coop so that makes me feel a little better.

How do you make up oatmeal for them? On the weekends I'll scramble up some eggs and throw in whatever else I have laying around that they would eat and give it to them for a treat in the mornings.

 

[mrcush]

How do you make up oatmeal for them? On the weekends I'll scramble up some eggs and throw in whatever else I have laying around that they would eat and give it to them for a treat in the mornings.

I usually mix in some other scraps I have around with the oatmeal. I like to put a banana in the oatmeal for potassium but I didn't have any on hand this morning so they got oatmeal with a little mac and cheese mixed in, LOL.

It sounds gross but they ate it right up!

 

[naglady]

My chickens were fine this morning. Their nipples were frozen but they came loose with a little wiggle, no big deal. The water was still nice and "warm", relatively speaking. The temperature in the coop was 12 degrees above the outside air temp. Not too bad for being a sucky coop. It's possible there could be a little frost bite on a comb or two. It's hard to tell at this point. Fritter (BO) with his huge comb and man waddles, I wouldn't doubt at all. Poof (BO) has a pretty large comb as well and it was a little pale at the tips. We'll see.

There was a beautiful sunrise this morning, complete with sun dogs. I tried to take a picture of it but it's sort of faint, look on both sides of the sun about 1/4 of the way in on both sides of the photo. You can sort of see them, thanks to photoshop, but it was much more impressive in person. My kids thought it was neat.

pretty cool picture..