Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Lisa and girls]

How is this for a celebration of Earth Day?
After doing chores all afternoon, the last thing I did was fill the bird feeders. As I hung up the high one some seed spilled on my sweaty neck and shoulder. The next thing that happened was a male Northern Cardinal landed on my shoulder and snatched up the sunflower seeds.

That's great!

 

[Lisa and girls]

I typically put it in one of those mesh laundry bags and soak it in a top-loader washing machine, in as hot of soapy water as my water heater will put out (being careful to reset it back to normal when I'm done). The trick is that you can't agitate it or it will felt and be worthless. So then I drain it (spin cycle) and do another soak in just hot water, drain again, check it to see if the lanolin is still there and repeat if necessary. My issue this year is that I don't have a top-loader washing machine anymore and my only bathtub has a whirlpool in it (not my choice, the house came with it). So I'm not sure what I'll do. Wool is stinky, dirty, greasy stuff and I don't think that would be good for the inner workings of the whirlpool tub. I could do it in small batches on the stove in a large pot or check craigslist for a cheap top-loader and stick in the basement. But then I'd need a plumber to hook it up properly. I can do small plumbing jobs but the drain would be an issue for me. We'll see. I'll make it work somehow. In other news, my chickens helped me build the garden fence today only not really, lol. I love how they refuse to budge when taking a dirt bath. They lose all sense of time and place.

The first time I saw my girls do that I panicked. I thought there was something wrong with them! But yeah, they are in lala land when they're bathing! Lol

 

[1muttsfan]

Hi Lubap, welcome to BYC and the Michigan thread. There are several psanky folks on BYC, if you do a search you will likely find some threads. I am a little out of your range for eggs, hope someone closer has what you are looking for.

 

[Amy PT]

We've been letting our hens and the three 8 week olds play in the yard for a supervised hour at a time. Seems like they'll get along okay. Phew.
Picking up 2 tiny baby cochins was a kooky thing to do, but I'm so glad I did. They're going to be so pretty!
Are they going to be blue?

 

[SillyChicken]

We spent earth day yelling at our neighbor for burning up our yard and pine trees!! The pine trees are the property line.. we put the livestock fence 20 ft onto our property. The wind is blowing pretty good and toward our land. *sigh* we use old tires to put around the trees when little to keep the grass away. There was a tire under one of the big trees....... it was burning along with the big tree in the photo below. We got the tire out from under the tree and the fire out.
Ugh... some peoples kids..

I sure hope this tree lives... its the only one I can see from the house.

 

[gaitngirl]

I just found this thread and wanted to stop in and say Hi. I'm in Davison. I haven't had chickens for a few years.. but picked some up this year..2each of ISABrowns Barred Rock Black Australorp and a couple EE. They are about 4 weeks old and just put 16 Marans in the bator last week. This is my first time trying to hatch eggs......should be interesting.

Howdy neighbor! I'm in the Swartz Creek/Flint area but work near Davison quite often. What type of Marans are you hatching? I've got 5 FBC Marans currently. One is a roo, I'm pretty sure, so I might be interested in swapping a roo with you at some point (if you are keeping yours and not selling . . .). Where did you get your hatching eggs from?

 

[RaZ]

We spent earth day yelling at our neighbor for burning up our yard and pine trees!! The pine trees are the property line.. we put the livestock fence 20 ft onto our property. The wind is blowing pretty good and toward our land. *sigh* we use old tires to put around the trees when little to keep the grass away. There was a tire under one of the big trees....... it was burning along with the big tree in the photo below. We got the tire out from under the tree and the fire out.
Ugh... some peoples kids..

I sure hope this tree lives... its the only one I can see from the house.

Today was a good day for a "controlled" back burn. I take it that your neighbors are not qualified to use fire.

 

[RaZ]

If you are a nature lover, you might enjoy this.

 

[jrsckn]

Howdy neighbor! I'm in the Swartz Creek/Flint area but work near Davison quite often. What type of Marans are you hatching? I've got 5 FBC Marans currently. One is a roo, I'm pretty sure, so I might be interested in swapping a roo with you at some point (if you are keeping yours and not selling . . .). Where did you get your hatching eggs from?

Well, I'm your neighbor! I'm in Durand

 

[1muttsfan]

Amy, the bantam cochin chicks in my avatar are splash and one blue - the dark one on the right.