Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[RIRJen]

Almost hit a skunk the other night, that was fun. It was snowing heavily and I swerved to miss it, missed it, and then realized I probably shouldn't have swerved given that the roads were slick and I had the entire family in the car. Plus, the little bugger is hanging around the barn now, cheesing off the cats and generally stinking up the place. Not sure if that's newsworthy but it's all I got.

I'm bad about that too...swerving and then realizing i shoudn't!
We had a colony of skunks living off the side of our property when we first moved in...started live trapping them and disposing of them one at a time and now we barely see/smell any.

 

[ladyrsanti]

When I get a gun and learn how to use it, I will consider trapping skunks but not until that time.

Here's some of my clan outside enjoying the sun and warm weather. The chickens won't leave their island of exposed ground and fly to the door and back to get in and out. The sheep are cleaning up the scratch that fell into the snow that the chickens are too chicken to reach. Speedy and Weasley (barn cats) too.

 

[Wrightsx4]

[quote name"Our Roost" url="/t/697050/michigan-thread-all-are-welcome/7920#post_10554778"]  Hey gang! We are from Freesoil Michigan. Last year was our first year with chickens. Purchased them right out of Tractor Supplies handy dandy brochure! At that time we thought Buff orpington was a breed. We had little knowledge that Buff was only a color and Orpington was the breed. Ha ha.
Lets just say we have gotten a bit more educated since then. Keep in mind we are still learning.
  Since I have almost exhausted our efforts to find available new stock of a select chosen breed and color, we are considering hatching some eggs instead. What brand or brands of incubators are you guys using? How difficult and sucessful is it?
[/quote]

Hi from across US31! I'm over in Grant township near you. We got our fist chickens last summer. I use a homemade incubator so not much help - sorry. I'll be setting eggs in a couple weeks for first hatch in my newly improved one so wish me luck I see our Family Farm & Home store has chicks already - so tempting. Those little fluffballs were calling my name.

 

[naglady]

I think most of us on here appreciate home grown fresh chicken! We can most of our meats, and when I open a can of chicken, I save the juices and freeze it, once I get enough, I use that to add to my slow cooker with a chicken... a little extra flavor goes along way!

I've been really disappointed in the snow storms.. If we're gonna have them lets have them! Certainly nothing compared to '78 when we had that humdinger of a snow storm! I wouldn't mind getting snowed in for 3-4 days! Or the rest of this week, I don't like the way this one is going!

glad to hear i am not alone, I plan on learning how to use a pressure canner someday.i can salsa,beans and other items.. just never meats, besides with my parents when i was a kid.. we used to can salmon,venison didnt own any chickens.
I have a few more chickens i want to butcher soon..puckered yellow around vent, pubic bone cant get a finger between them. pale comb. probably tomorrow. .

sounds like we are not going to get much snow now...

 

[naglady]

you have a nice clan there...

When I get a gun and learn how to use it, I will consider trapping skunks but not until that time.

Here's some of my clan outside enjoying the sun and warm weather. The chickens won't leave their island of exposed ground and fly to the door and back to get in and out. The sheep are cleaning up the scratch that fell into the snow that the chickens are too chicken to reach. Speedy and Weasley (barn cats) too.

 

[Totalcolour]

glad to hear i am not alone, I plan on learning how to use a pressure canner someday.i can salsa,beans and other items.. just never meats, besides with my parents when i was a kid.. we used to can salmon,venison didnt own any chickens.
I have a few more chickens i want to butcher soon..puckered yellow around vent, pubic bone cant get a finger between them. pale comb. probably tomorrow. .

sounds like we are not going to get much snow now...

Hmm, sounds like you are not canning with a pressure canner right now. What are you using to can your beans and other stuff? If you aren't using pressure, you are possible endangering yourself and family. You really need pressure for non acid foods. A water bath is fine for preserves, but you really should use pressure for all other foods.

This is a really good site for information on home canning safelty

http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html

 

[Trefoil]

Doesn't getting rid of the skunks give you problems with mice/rats? Don't get a king suro incubator unless you can afford to replace it every year. Rcom is impossible to get major parts from and doesn't stand behind their warranty. Sorry to hear that Kris(Rose) is laid up, I hope she's better by the time it starts to warm up. I'm ready for spring.

 

[dascountry]

Whew, eventful night, woke up at 3:30 to DW screaming for me... Thats always scary as of our 5 dogs we have two that will occasionally have a tift and it can be ugly so we usually separate them unless we are right there... Well I wake up and one of the "bad" ones was still in bed with me so I knew we were safe there. I got to the kitchen and she had my step daughters shepherd mix and he had his mouth bloody and his paws. He looked like he was holding his breath too. Well we wrestled him to the ground and pried open his mouth to see what was going on... now by this time he decided to start breathing again but when he would he would start to try to scratch his mouth with his front paws... Well the dork got into the trash and ate a chicken bone and had it wedged sideways across the roof of his mouth. By this time my step daughter woke up to see what the noise was about... We ran two leashes through his mouth, one top and one bottom to hold it open, dw swept in and got the bone out very easily... Whew! He is fine now, he cleaned himself up while we all got our showers again... mind you during the event he managed to knock over the water dish... not just a bowl but one of those with the 5 gallon jug... Yeah loads of fun. All is good now. I swear the joys of having pets!

Wow what a story...glad all are okay.

Cool

 

[Maah]

My silkie chicks hatched yesterday! Yahoo! Three hatched out of five eggs, and they all look good. No apparent leg weaknesses or deformities. All have nice black skin, decent foot feathering, and 5 toes. Now if they all end up pullets, that'd be great.



Our silkie hen has been broody for 4 weeks!! She's driving me crazy and hogging the breeding pen all while not producing any eggs. I hope she cuts it out soon.
...

I also bought some new chickies from Family Farm & Home to add to my laying flock. Since we'll be retiring 4 (2yr old) hens this year.... we bought 6 more, and still plan on buying a 7th. And we'll be hatching out a few from our flock as well. Hmm... not sure how the math works out on this (replacing 4 with 7+), but I'm sure DH was planning on expanding the coop & run this year. Again. If he wasn't, he has probably clued in by now. I gotta say though, I love the little light brahma pullets we just bought. They are the sweetest little chicks we've had! I should have known they would be... even our brahma rooster is the gentlest roo we've ever had.

 

[Opa]

While skunks do eat small rodents they are not really much of a deterrent to a mouse population. They are pretty ineffective mousers and most of the rodents they eat are killed by something else. However, they do enjoy eggs immensely and will kill hens on occasion.