Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[NovaAman]

How is granny, Opa?

 

[tjbeckman]

I had the same problem this morning after I was outside for 30 minutes. OUCH!

LOVE it! too funny

 

[theron]

Theron... how broody are your serema hens? Ekta has gone broody... Fritz the Jerk hasn't paid her any attention, he likes the big girls, so her eggs were not fertile on the last check... BUT, she is in the nest box, on 3 eggs from the big girls...

Our seramas are VERY broody!! Out of my serama breeding hens, more than half are broody right now. (around 35 or so)

We are not letting all of them hatch babies or else this place would be overloaded with chicks.

 

[Stacykins]

It is a weird feeling going from no job (for a while) to suddenly working a lot! 32 hours this week as a CNA total! I worked yesterday, will be going soon, then Thursday and Friday. I am already feeling tired, but it could be because I didn't sleep the greatest last night. At least my schedule doesn't have me back to back like this again for all of February. I guess they just need to make sure I get all the orientation and facility specific training in as soon as possible!

My chickens and goats think it is weird that I am bugging them before sunrise. They just got fresh water and food. The chickens kind of grumble at me if I wake them up early The goats especially were like "meh?" when I said hello to them. Normally, they are waiting for me, but they were all snuggled in a sleepy goatie pile this morning.

 

[gladahmae]

oOOOOOOOOH! I would love to get my fingers on a welsummer roo! Might have to talk to DH about that one.....not sure where we'd put him right now since the boys are all together in the small coop, the big girls in the big coop, and no other coop to be had right now. Not to mention trying to figure out the "rooster shuffle" to get the breeding matches I want in the spring.

I need at least 4 more coops.

 

[Elyssia001]

I meant to ask you about how court went RaZ. Hang in there pal!

 

[SillyChicken]

I HATE WINTER! Ok I really don't mind it sometimes, but today I am just frustrated! Ages since we have seen the sun, unending wind, and now the cold. My DH tells me to quit whining ... it's Michigan. He also makes good on overtime when the weather is nasty. So here are the problems today. It comes down to water. Last year I had one of those expensive plug in waterers, it worked great until it broke and you can't get parts for it. So I went with the heated dog dish. Great except for my goofy Polish who end up with wet crest feathers. On Saturday Curley and Little Bear the bearded Silver Laced Polish were a mess. They drank, got wet crest feather, ate got food stuck to them and then they froze down in their faces. So I brought them in and blow dried their feathers and cleaned them up. Today they are even worse.

Then in the little coop which doesn't have electricity I swap out waterers to thaw and fill. The chickens broke one last week. Today I brought one in the house and when DH opened the door it pushed it off the mat into the door stop and broke it.

To make matters worse all of the pine shavings in the big coop have compacted and frozen into a solid mass that I can't turn or even chip - my guess is the cement underneath had some moisture that is now ice. The temp in the coops was at 14 today so they were feeling ok. Yesterday half of the eggs were cracked but today only 1 so that is better. No one ventured outside except the Orloffs, but I think that had more to do with the snow than the temperatures.

I know there are good things about winter but today's weather didn't help me see any of them.

could you use a hair tie to control the crest feathers a little?

 

[ladyrsanti]

It was 23 degrees in the coop this morning; that's a 17 degree difference as it's 6 degrees outside. Pretty good for no heat lamp. I think the sun hitting the roof helped yesterday, to keep the coop warm all night. Now, if I could just get the sun IN the coop, that would be even better. But I continue to take notes for my proposed new coop. There's a coop down the road that has a set of old patio doors on the south side and like my prospective coop site, it is under trees in the summer, offering shade and sun in the winter when there are no leaves. I'm more and more confident every day about this new coop.

The nipple waterer is doing great now that I have the aquarium heater on full time. The lowest the thermostat on it goes is 68 but the water is probably in the 50's, to the touch anyway. The nipples were not frozen at all this morning. So all in all, I like this system and will probably continue to use it. It would be interesting to know which uses less power, the 1500w stock tank de-icer in the large bucket (15 gal) to keep the water at 40 deg. or the 50w aquarium heater to keep a gallon at whatever temp. it's at during this cold snap. If I were motivated, I'd figure on it... but I'm not... not really. It would be a good problem for my oldest son though.

 

[mrcush]

Interesting article. I was wondering if anyone has any experience using Oregano extract?

http://www.naturalnews.com/038784_backyard_chickens_egg_layers_healthy.html

 

[Living the Simple Life]

Good morning! It is currently a brisk 11` here in Southern Michigan! We are expecting snow to start around noon and run through the evening with approx 3" accumulation. Fortunately, the snow should bring in some warmer temps.

I hadn't seen anyone post so wanted to pass along the that MSU ANR Week info has been posted. They are holding the Pullorum Certification class again as well as a Small Flock Poultry Workshop on Tuesday, March 5. Link to the schedule is: http://anrweek.canr.msu.edu/anrweek/home