Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[bullof7battles]

I talked to my grandpa for a while the other night. He described to me how he does chicks. He buys them from TSC when the sales are about done for chicks, they are trying to get rid of them by then. He told me that he used to use a heat lamp, hanging by its cord from a nail, but one time it had slipped and was really close to the bedding. When he pulled it up, he saw that the light had already got the bedding to smolder and smoke. He got lucky there! So he started using a heating pad, like for if you have a sore back. He said he slips it into a plastic shopping bag, lays it on the floor and covers it with newspaper, followed by the bedding. For light, he uses alight like some use inside a cookie tin for keeping waterers from freezing. To help retain heat, he places a couple old windows over the box with a gap for ventilation and the light to hang down in. When it gets on the warm side, he just parts the windows a bit. The heating pad has three settings. If the air temp is 75 degrees or so, the chicks are happy as can be since the heat is coming from the floor and not a 200 watt heat bulb that drains too much electricity. It works for him and he said he is never going back to the old way!

Me? I just hope to find me a broody hen.

 

[Amy PT]

Trying to come up with an inexpensive way to cut down the wind in the run and possibly provide a little bit of shade in the summer months.

Would snow fence (the super ugly orange kind) do any of that? I can get a 4x100 roll of it for about $35, and it would be pretty easy to install. Thoughts?

We have a small flock and a small run. It's 8 ft. long, 4 feet wide, and 3.5 feet tall. Snow started falling this winter about the same time we were replacing our shower curtain liner. So, that got stapled on the southwest corner of the run. It's really cut down on the wind and snow in their run, is clear, water doesn't bother it, and we'll just recycle it in a few weeks.

 

[Totalcolour]

*heavy sigh*.... my friend says she doesn't have time to "argue" with me about eating fresh, natural unprocessed food vs the corporate foods. I wasn't trying to argue.. just wanted talk about the crap (just whats going on at my place)... Whats to argue? Milk with added asparatane as a hidden ingredient is worth defending? Food with chemicals and additives, hormones and other stuff, are argue worthy? I think she's defensive about it all cause deep down, she knows I'm right........I love her, but man..... I don't get it... wont eat fresh eggs.... won't eat food from a garden.... she had a wonderful pear tree in her old yard, and never ate any of them! Refuses our canned food too........ somethings wrong with that woman!!

Tap.. hope you feel better!!

It's raining here now.....I have a feeling I'll be disappointed once again in this storm.

SillyChicken, perhaps you could show her this

​

Any of you read this article about the stuff the put in our food and hoew they get us addicted? Pretty interesting and pretty disgusting too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/m...od.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=general&src=me&

 

[SillyChicken]

Man, those snow flakes were HOOOGE tonight! Be careful shoveling this stuff... we call it heart attack snow! It's heavy, but beautiful too!

I love how my drive way looked tonight...snow is still coming down. Took me 2 hrs to get home. (I did stop at TSC for more chicken food and the store for milk)..but that normally would be a 45 min trip.

 

[Farmerboy16]

The weather is very bad. I almost got stuck while trying to leave the farm. I was very surprised to see all that snow when I went outside to go home. About 4 or 5 inches!!!
A co-worker's car got stuck at the farm's driveway, so I had to drive him home a bit out of my way. Had to drop him off at the end of his driveway so I won't get stuck in his driveway. Man, I was very thankful to God that I made it home without getting stuck!!! The most amazing thing about is that I was driving a old 1999 Dodge van, not a nice 4x4 pickup truck!

 

[jinxie2300]

Hello!!

I am new to chickens... well, not even new yet.. planning a coop and run and trying to decide on breed.

I am thinking of Wyandottes... SLW, GLW, and Columbians... Anyone have much experience with them? They are reputed to be cold hardy enough for my area, Ypsilanti.

Anyway, just thought I'd say hi, and prepare yall for a skew of questions as soon as my plans solidify a bit more!

Now off to sleep so I can move a tree out of the driveway in the morning. *sigh* Tempted to leave it there til I have to work, then blame it and stay home! LOL

 

[drumstick diva]

Jinxie Your' leave the tree' idea sounds good. That's what I would do

 

[jinxie2300]

I'm not aware of any state regulations or laws prohibiting honeybees. But like keeping chickens, local government may have different ideas. It is against the law here in Garden City. Check your local ordinances and then decide.

However, any farming activity that is commercial is protected by the RTFA. Just be aware that you would likely have a long fight on your hands if your community decides to take action against you. I've been in my fight for more than a year and no end is in sight yet. Oddly enough, they haven't targeted my bees.

Actually, RTFA only defends (or was intended to defend) farms that have been encroached on by suburbia. Essentially, you can't buy the property next to my working farm, build a house (apts, condos, etc) next to me, THEN complain that my manure stinks. Some people have snuck in a few cases under RTFA that go a bit beyond that, but it was really designed to defend those who were already farming... not folk with new commercial farming enterprises. You will probably have better luck appealing to your city, with facts and figures from local farmers (we NEED bees for pollination!!) and affidavits from neighbors of beekeepers in cities that DO allow bees.

Ypsilanti is currently considering allowing hoophouses in backyards, and I was kinda shocked that there were actually people opposed to this! Then I listened to what they were saying and realized it was OUR failure (those in favor) for not educating the public... some of the objections were really silly (to me)... based purely on ignorance of what hoophouses are!

And of course the city is going to go with whoever has the most votes...er... voices. We are lucky enough to have bees and chickens (up to 4 hens) legal here, now we just need to be able to grow some food... even when nature dumps on us! LOL

Good luck!

 

[Maah]

Yuck... Called in sick to work today - cold, fever, the whole works. Man I feel cruddy! I know it's bad when coffee doesn't sound good to me (I love coffee!).

To top it off, of course the schools are closed today. So my 3 kiddos will get to run around the house all crazy today. Probably won't get too much rest.

BUT - I guess it's PAJAMA DAY! No complaints here. Bring on the meds, and find me the remote.

 

[bullof7battles]

If it were a bit colder, the snow would be fluffier and it would be easier to drive around, I think.

The morning after the blizzard way back in 2011, I was following a snow plow on my way to work. The guy slowed and stopped. A few minutes later, he walked back to tell me I should take a different road because there was an abandoned car stuck in the middle of the road.

My girlfriend's dad has told me that his dad used to help plow roads around Coopersville and on more than one occasion he was driving a grader with a giant plow on the front and flipped abandoned cars up onto the snow banks. I guess you wouldn't know they were in the road until you plowed them out of the way, lol!