Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[chickflick]

Rain, rain, go away!!

Anyone know where fuzziebutt love is? Haven't seen her on in a long time.

 

[NovaAman]

I had never found an egg on the floor until a couple weeks ago when my faverolles started laying - in the corner...every day it's there in the corner. Then again, she doesn't roost either. She sleeps on the floor in another corner unless I put her on the roost.

My girls sleep 5 feet up. LOL, but if they wanted to sleep on the coop floor, i'd let them. I have some that sleep only a foot off the floor of the coop and then there is Pat... Pat sleeps on the floor. The silkies sleep on the floor near him.

Fuzzybutt has a busy week every other week. One week she works a little, the next, a lot. She's also traveling farther now to take care of the birds at night since her she moved. But she's gets on, reads, might not post, but she'll read quick if all she's got is minute.

 

[wendorfa]

Hey, another Michigander that is new to BYC. Can someone pop over to the MI RTFA thread and look at the verbage I posted and tell me if it makes any sense to them? I would really appreciate it Wendi

 

[Wrightsx4]

My girls sleep 5 feet up. LOL, but if they wanted to sleep on the coop floor, i'd let them. I have some that sleep only a foot off the floor of the coop and then there is Pat... Pat sleeps on the floor. The silkies sleep on the floor near him.

Fuzzybutt has a busy week every other week. One week she works a little, the next, a lot. She's also traveling farther now to take care of the birds at night since her she moved. But she's gets on, reads, might not post, but she'll read quick if all she's got is minute.

Yeah, I usually leave her on the floor too unless it's an especially cold night then I put her on the roost next to Charles.
I'll be so happy when things dry up around here. It keeps raining and the snow keeps melting yet it just won't go away.

 

[taprock]

Help getting my silkie (pretty sure it's her) to lay her eggs IN the nest boxes?  She has no trouble getting onto the roost bars, and the boxes are lower than those, so I know they're not too high for her.  4 or 5 times a week I'm finding this nice small-ish cream colored egg in the corner of the coop.  I blocked off the area way back under the nest boxes where she WAS laying, so now she's just laying right next to that spot.  I can go out there and find 2 or 3 other eggs in the nest boxes, but her darn egg is still on the floor.

I have a couple girls that lay on the floor but they also do not roost. I put a nest box on the floor and they go in there to lay now.

 

[NovaAman]

Tap... I know this is wrong... but some days I just wanna ask you if you've gotten dressed up to shoot anything lately... Well... have you?

 

[kimmie6067]

Mine were hiding them UNDER the coop this fall. Little buggers had dug a tunnel and gotten between the joists. No mud here....just lots and lots of ice under the steadily-melting snow.

Pallet coops are super easy if you have a saw and maybe a drill and some screws. We built one that's built one as a grow-out coop this summer that's about 3.5x3.5. One pallet for the floor, cover it with something (osb....plywood, rip apart a bunch of pallets and fill in the gaps in the slats, etc), nail or screw pallets around it to make a box, repeat what you did for the floor for the exterior walls, cut a hole in one wall for a door. I used a taller pallet for the front and then a bigger pallet (from a mattress store...they had a big stack and they'r e about 6x6) for the top. Taller pallet on the front so water sheds away from the door. Don't over-think it. They're just chickens.

We obviously didn't need nest boxes since it was for chicks, so you'd have to consider that.

We're probably going to build a hoop coop for our meat birds. They seem like that would go together quickly and be a very affordable option for us.

I tried to tell my husband that I could use a hoop coop as a greenhouse in the spring, and he just laughed at me. Told me that it could only be a greenhouse if I didn't have it full of chickens, and he just KNOWS that I'll keep it full. He's not supposed to catch on to my wiley ways so fast!

Great cartoon. Helps to explain why Calvin & Hobbs is so popular.

A discussion with David this morning lead to some internet searching and I am now going to try baking some eggs rather than boiling them. Supposedly you basically get the same result as boiling but with the yolk being a little creamier and the white less rubbery. It's also claimed they they are easier to peel.

I made two one gallon jars of pickled eggs and was hunting for a method to help with easy peeling fresh eggs. I found one and it works! Take a pushpin and put a shallow hole in the large end of the egg try not to pierce membrane, boil enough water to cover eggs, slowly lower the eggs in the boiling water, bring the water back to boil, boil for 16 minutes, pour eggs when done in a strainer then plunge in ice water with ice for 15 minutes this step is really important. The hole in the egg allows water to seep in between the membrane, the ice water helps membrane to separate from the shell. Really works, I wish I knew this method years ago. Also using the ice water you won't have the ugly green ring around the yolk.

I have no idea. She's not on the bottom of the pecking order, surprisingly enough (the polish, the houdan, the banty brahama, and 2 EEs are on the bottom of the order). I only have 5 or 6 laying, and they're making use of 3 different nest boxes. I hadn't considered them not 'allowing' her to use a box. If that's the case, how do I address that issue?

I have a golden campine and a EE that sometimes lay in the corners.

Mine do that sometime. I think a lot of it has to do with them wanting to be broody and sit on them longer. I finally got the ladies to all lay in the box...for now lol.


On another note I'm heading to North Carolina this week to see my family down there. Of course I'm making time to stop and grab some chickens while I'm down there too!! shhhh....hubby doesn't know yet heehee

I may have to tell him for your own good

I have several hens who lay in the corners of the coops. I've gotten used to it. They spin themselves out a nice nest, and lay eggs. It was a real shocker to them when I had to close them out of the broody coop, a favorite laying spot, in order to have Big Red in there with her first babies, and closed them out. Oh the PAIN of using an actual nest box! The faverolles also have a nest box, and they prefer the corner. Actually, they like to shock me on occassion and lay in the nest box. OR they'll be really sneaky and lay in a different corner. Good thing it's a small coop. Oh, they prefer to roost in the run, so their whole dang coop is a nest box.

No chicks have followed me home. Yet. Although, two hens are a few days away from hatching, so you never know what may happen. One hen is a second timer, one is a first timer. I broke her several times, but decided this time she could... We'll see how well she does. SO, those two broads have the 4x8 coop all to themselves for the most part, except for the girls coming in to lay... I am thinking, maybe I need to build a nest box in the run. Soon.

I will not let my JG hatch eggs again she broke so many, must have stepped on them, she is just to big. Her chicks are doing great now there are 8, she has a runt JG it's sooooooo little like half the size of the others.

Hey, another Michigander that is new to BYC. Can someone pop over to the MI RTFA thread and look at the verbage I posted and tell me if it makes any sense to them? I would really appreciate it Wendi

Hi Wendorfa! Welcome

 

[RaZ]

Tap... I know this is wrong... but some days I just wanna ask you if you've gotten dressed up to shoot anything lately... Well... have you?

I think we need to wait for Oester.

 

[1muttsfan]

Kimmie, your cooking method also works fine if you don't put a hole in the egg. I also use cold tap (well) water instead of ice water(since I don't make ice) and boil for 13 1/2 minutes (the eggs seem overcooked with longer times). The eggs peel great - thanks to CR for those instructions. I would also like to hear about the egg baking experiment.

 

[Totalcolour]

Kimmie, your cooking method also works fine if you don't put a hole in the egg. I also use cold tap (well) water instead of ice water(since I don't make ice) and boil for 13 1/2 minutes (the eggs seem overcooked with longer times). The eggs peel great - thanks to CR for those instructions. I would also like to hear about the egg baking experiment.

I'm with you - I only do 13 minutes tho, and in fact just did two for my late night, last meal. (no more food after midnight). I do however use the older eggs since they do seem to peel better; probably because of the air bubble getting bigger!