Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Chambertin]

Snowflake-

love the pics, is he husky mix?

I wouldn't count on no hawks just cause you are in the city,,,, when I worked in GR as mail carrier, I saw hawks all the time, mostly took out sparrows That said when I had dogs in the yard I rarely had predator problems

He's a Guangdong Akita. A local farm dog that is the localized versoin of the Japanese breed.
I was driving across the highway and got caught by a truck traffic light when he ran out and almost under a truck tire. Opened the door to run to the other side and get him out of the road, he was right there and put his paws in the car.
Was barely old enough to walk and out for his first adventure.
I took off an old wire hanger that was his "collar" and he's been mine ever since.

We barely have any French Flying Rats (Pigeons) here, so a hawk would be a rare sight to see in the country even.
No real protection laws here in China yet and anyway any useable space has a large number of people on it. Animals are pushed to the brink unless they are pests or livestock.
I sweare a squirrel is a zoo worthy animal here.

Your average bird farm, even for ducks is just a huge pond for the poop to wash in, then a completely open area minus the little fence to keep people from grabbing one and running away. Absolute 0 predator protection required just measures to try and prevent theft.

 

[SillyChicken]

2-3" of snow expected today! Snapped a photo on the way in to work this morning... I love it when the fog hangs low in ribbons..... everything had a tinge of white frost. I'm not going to miss it at all when its gone!

 

[1muttsfan]

Even very large runs can be covered with poultry netting. For large expanses you need to place support posts to hold the netting up. I also shake the snow off to keep the netting from sagging.

Please pass the cookies Opa.

 

[taprock]

Morning - coffee looks good Opa, got mine - with a bit of hot cocoa mix instead of cream and sugar.

A pair of our button quail were dead in their cage yesterday. I have no idea why but I guess they really mean it when they say they die as a pair. This was one of the pairs that was very wild so I'm not heart broken just wish I knew what had happened.
Yesterday was a decent day however as my son had a dr. appointment in Petoskey we watched on the way the temperatures vary 20 degrees from -9 to 11. A friend noted last week during the cold days that there was a 90 degree difference from outside to inside. I will continue to dream of spring and hope it doesn't take too long.

I have eggs coming in the mail this week. I want to slip a few of mine in to hatch also, however my little girls are being tricky and I don't know who is laying what. When they first started they looked just a bit different, enough I could tell them apart, but no longer. Of course my son says put them all in then we will know who's it is when it hatches. And yesterday I found 13 eggs, the best so far this year. Looking at last years count I had the highest numbers during March.

Chambertin I love the pictures of the dog and chickens. I wish mine was mellow enough to do that. My son has been working with the dog and button quail so that they can be next to each other. Last week the little button quail ran up and pecked the dog in the nose and he is now scared of her. I don't see leaving them together safely in the future.

 

[ladyrsanti]

It's pretty here too - thick hoar frost following some eerie low-hanging fog last night and the sun came out for the briefest of moments this morning before the snow clouds rolled in. Just breathtaking.

 

[Lisa and girls]

It's pretty here too - thick hoar frost following some eerie low-hanging fog last night and the sun came out for the briefest of moments this morning before the snow clouds rolled in. Just breathtaking.

Beautiful pictures.

 

[Farmerboy16]

Woops, the point of that was to say that locking them up for a day or two probally wont save them, the hawk will be probally come back, I recomend building a temp. run until warm weather hits.

Also, I have read that the DNR reads this forum to watch out for discusions like this about the hawks, so be warned. There is some threads about hawk detterants on the predato threads.

I tried fishing line, cds, radios, with nothing making a diffrence.

-Altough on one of the threads I read that having them housed with larger animals stopped the hawk attacks for one member when she put the goats in the run, hopefully that works for you.

I found that ever since adding turkeys in my flock, I have not lost any chickens to hawks.

Farmerboy-
"For older chicks and grown birds, I do the trick that my friend taught me, its bloodless and very quick, and I do that to my roos that are to be butchered too."

Any chance of sharing the technique?
I'm always looking for a better way to do things. Benefits me and the chicken.

You pick the chicken, grab its head, and hold just the head, and spin it 'til you feel the head separating from the spine, it takes about 2 seconds to do that.


Lady- Very nice pictures!

 

[Opa]

"For older chicks and grown birds, I do the trick that my friend taught me, its bloodless and very quick, and I do that to my roos that are to be butchered too."

Any chance of sharing the technique?
I'm always looking for a better way to do things. Benefits me and the chicken.You pick the chicken, grab its head, and hold just the head, and spin it 'til you feel the head separating from the spine, it takes about 2 seconds to do that.

That is just another variation of cervical separation and was the first method I was taught. During one of my earlier attempts at maybe 7 years old, an uncle who was 6 years older than I, told me to hold the bird overhead as I spun it and then quickly snap my wrist. I was then that I learned the true meaning of running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.

 

[lhawes]

I found that ever since adding turkeys in my flock, I have not lost any chickens to hawks.

I was told by some people that you can not house turkeys and chickens together... They said that there is some disease that the chickens can give the turkey... or the other way around. I don't remember which he said.. but one can give a disease to the other that can kill them. We wanted to add some turkeys this year, but after hearing that we are thinking twice about it.

 

[tjbeckman]

I was told by some people that you can not house turkeys and chickens together... They said that there is some disease that the chickens can give the turkey... or the other way around. I don't remember which he said.. but one can give a disease to the other that can kill them. We wanted to add some turkeys this year, but after hearing that we are thinking twice about it.

Hmmm I haven't heard that. Not to say it isn't true, just outside my small knowledge. If you happen to find out more please keep me posted, we are planning to get turkeys for the kids to raise for their fair projects