Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[ladyrsanti]

Welcome Jinxie and good morning all. Little known fact: Michigan harbors enough native bees for most of our pollination needs. The non-native honey bees are not a necessity... except if you own a large orchard maybe. When colony collapse threatened the honey bee population a few years ago, people freaked out but the flora was never seriously in danger with the native bees still strong (and probably stronger with the decline of the competition). I've been thinking about getting honey bees for years though. One creature at a time.

The "storm" was a little underwhelming, as expected. There was the wind, which was impressive when mixed with the freezing rain during the onset but after that it was just snow and not a lot of it. Maybe 2-3" here, as predicted. It's wet and heavy but not a "storm" by my definition (a title reserved for much more serious events). It is pretty outside though. The kids are home from school and my oldest is both relieved and bummed because his orchestra festival was today and it's been cancelled. He's practiced MONTHS for this thing. But it's bittersweet because he's stressing about H.S. orchestra tryouts on top of it. Now he's got one down, so to speak. He would consider it a failure if he didn't make it into the higher of the two levels. That kid...

 

[Farmer123]

Unfortunately Silly Chicken what's old is new again and local farmers today are undoing 50 years of what commercialized food did to our society. I am almost 50 years old. My Grandparents farmed on land that was claimed by my family in 1862 but my father went to work at the GM plant around 1960. His generation was one of the first to move away from the family farm because for the first time farm boys had options other than working the land. She will come to the realization as most people do (except for maybe the diehard scientists that believe GMO's are feeding the world and preventing the next famine) that buying local is best for everyone. Here are some good links to articles about GMO's and plastics poisoning our food supply. Maybe you can at least get her away from canned vegetables to buying fresh in a grocery store. Pass these along to her and lead her gently to the greater knowledge that you want her to learn. All the best, Farmer 123

http://civileats.com/2013/02/19/perennial-plate-in-india-gmos-and-farmer-suicides/

http://grist.org/food/miracle-grow-indian-farmers-smash-crop-yield-records-without-gmos/?utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

http://naturalsociety.com/study-most-plastics-leach-hormone-like-chemicals/

 

[Wrightsx4]

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.

I have two SLW in my mixed flock. They each give me a medium sized light brown egg each day. They seem to get along fine with all the others. Mine aren't unfriendly to humans but they don't look for attention either. I really like that I don't need to worry about their combs getting frostbite, unlike the single comb breeds. They've done great in our Michigan weather.

 

[ladyrsanti]

I second that about the SLW's. I have three and they're a bit ditzy (I call them the Wyandotte Sisters) not unfriendly but not attention-seeking like the buff orpingtons are. If I have to catch a chicken, the SLW's are the hardest to get hold of. But no worries of frostbite for sure.

Now it's picture spam time!

We did have a partial casualty, a junk tree out back split (boxelder - hate 'em)


Yes, time to paint the barn. That will be one of our spring projects.



Low-hanging walnut branch hanging even lower under the weight



Frittata mid-crow inside the barn, taken from outside (hastily before the snow fell off the roof and turned me into a living snowman)



View across the alfalfa field

 

[chickflick]

Well, Storm was a bust. Got maybe 3-4 inches. Not much at all. It's quite pleasant out right now. No wind and pretty mild. I'm not complaining.... this is fine with me. Wasn't looking forward to shoveling 9 in of heavy wet snow.

 

[SillyChicken]

Hope you feel better maah!

Got a call at 4:30 this morning and had to go into work early due to power outage and a transfer issue with the generators.. (no shower ether, ugh!!) It's going to be a long day cause I won't be able to leave work until we find out what was wrong with the unit that failed........can't wait to see the price tag for this one $$$$$$$$! There were a few trees down, blocking one side of the road or other. Saw a transformer blow off in the distance, sure lit up the sky! We got more than 6 inches of the heavy stuff at my house. I can only imagine how much we would have gotten if it were fluffier! It's still quite pretty out though!

 

[Farmerboy16]

Lady- I am so jealous of you! I so want that type of a barn! My goal of my future farm is to find a farm that have a midsize to large gambrel barn or two.

 

[ladyrsanti]

Lady- I am so jealous of you! I so want that type of a barn! My goal of my future farm is to find a farm that have a midsize to large gambrel barn or two.

I'm sure you'll find one. They're not hard to come by, a few on every block out here anyway. I love it but it needs a lot of work and so far all I've done is replace a few windows. There are some cool historical tidbits that I've found throughout, like vintage tins hammered flat to cover holes, cow names and dates still tacked above the milking stations, drawings and musings written on walls. The back wing is hand-hewn and pegged. There's still a pulley system and rail on the roof for moving and loading bales. Our first order of business is to get the doors fixed and by fixed I mean fixed in place. There are four of them which is a lot and more than we need. One has fallen off, the rollers broken. The rest are in a state of disrepair and stuck open leaving the inside open to the elements. The floor is starting to rot there. A lot of work and A LOT of money.

 

[Wrightsx4]

Love the barn. I too wish I had a real barn...even if I only have chickens When we bought our house there were two very old mini houses (9x18) near the field. We believe they may have been worker housing at one time, although I'd love to know what they managed to grow in our sand. A few old apple trees remain so maybe it was an orchard long ago. I turned one into our chicken coop and my husband still claims one for storage. He has a huge garage/workshop so I really think he should give it up for a second coop!

 

[Farmerboy16]

Lady- I am so jealous of you! I so want that type of a barn! My goal of my future farm is to find a farm that have a midsize to large gambrel barn or two.

I'm sure you'll find one. They're not hard to come by, a few on every block out here anyway. I love it but it needs a lot of work and so far all I've done is replace a few windows. There are some cool historical tidbits that I've found throughout, like vintage tins hammered flat to cover holes, cow names and dates still tacked above the milking stations, drawings and musings written on walls. The back wing is hand-hewn and pegged. There's still a pulley system and rail on the roof for moving and loading bales. Our first order of business is to get the doors fixed and by fixed I mean fixed in place. There are four of them which is a lot and more than we need. One has fallen off, the rollers broken. The rest are in a state of disrepair and stuck open leaving the inside open to the elements. The floor is starting to rot there. A lot of work and A LOT of money.

Arrgghh, no more pictures!!! I love it!! And I wants it!!! I love those barns for their history, and shape, and still have their usefulness.