Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[cuppycake]

Woke up bright dark and early this morning. Hubby went out turkey hunting and of course in his attempt to exit the house quietly he knocks a bunch of stuff off the kitchen counter. Sooo, DD woke up and has been up ever since. She just told me she was "sweepy" so hopefully she will take an early nap and allow me to do chores by myself for a while. Really hoping DH gets his turkey

Can I ask advice on introducing chickens to each other? I have sixteen 11 week old chicks (will drop down to 12-13 once we dispatch of the extra cockerels) and I also have five chicks still in a brooder (four silkies who are about 6 weeks old and the lone survivor of my Easter hatch). My question is this: I keep reading that one should introduce chickens who are about the same size to keep from somebody getting beat up too badly. What am I supposed to do when everyone is still growing and the silkies are bantams and will NEVER be as big as the rest of the flock?

The chicken pen off the barn/coop has an adjacent pen and DH volunteered to build a small coop to go in there. I figured I would put the "new" chickies in there and then let them all free range together. Even when they are in their different pens they'd be right next to each other with only the fence separating them. Do you think they'll eventually all meld into the same flock or am I going to be stuck separating the silkies forever? The later wouldn't be totally unacceptable, just inconvenient as I'd like to use the smaller pen as a breeding pen next year.

 

[Farmerboy16]

Opa, glad that you found that! Our house burned down in 2000 from a faulty wiring in the smoke alarm in the basement under the living room. Thankfully we were at our vacation house in Frankfort. It was on Sunday morning, and a neighbor thought that we were burning trash in our fireplace on a hot August morning, but he realized that there were smoke coming out of the eaves too. Everyone thought that we were still in bed in the burning house, so 2 firemen got hurt trying to make sure that there were no one home. One fell through the floor, and the other got his head burned as his helmet fell off while trying to get the guy that fell in out. We lost everything in the house. My mom was 7 months along for the her 9th child when the house fire happened. Us kids were divided among family and friends for a few months. My dad rebuilt the house, but bigger and better than the previous one.

 

[tmkuroda]

I don't see horses on that list, only miniature horses, could it be one that wrote that list has horses???
now that you have asked you will have to play by there rules, good thing you did though or you could end up like Raz. fighting for yrs.

Oh no there was a larger section on horses ! LOL My Dad almost had a fit when I read that to him. Before he was only patting me on the head saying "You do what you want to do little girl" He still thinks I am 12 not 53 btw. Now he WANTS chickens lol! He said they act like we live in town not 7 frigging miles from town in the middle of the woods. When I told him we have to notify our neighbors, he asked if we have to notify ourselves since we are our own neighbors. We own five 2 1/2 acre lots that are all connecting. lol
Tina

 

[tmkuroda]

Not only was the device melting the wire supplying power was melting as well. Had I not discovered it it would have undoubtedly led to a house fire.

Now the plug is removed and the danger is passed and when Home Depot opens I will go and get a replacement switch. Some times it pays to wake up early.

WOW! Glad your okay!

 

[tmkuroda]

Woke up bright dark and early this morning. Hubby went out turkey hunting and of course in his attempt to exit the house quietly he knocks a bunch of stuff off the kitchen counter. Sooo, DD woke up and has been up ever since. She just told me she was "sweepy" so hopefully she will take an early nap and allow me to do chores by myself for a while. Really hoping DH gets his turkey

Mine is out hunting as well. This is his fourth year trying and still no turkey. I figure the only way we will get turkeys not store bought is to raise them lol Besides if we have turkeys he can hone up on his calling skills lol
Tina

 

[kimmie6067]

Opa so glad that you woke up early, wow to think you could have been sleeping. So when you found that out what did you do? Shut off the breaker for that part of the house? I have known three people who have had their dryer catch on fire one the laundry room and a bedroom caught fire, they were home so the rest of the house was saved, another had their clothes actually caught fire, strange little flames on the clothes! The last one had the fire in the basement and caught it because they were home. I never leave the dryer on when not at home.

 

[NovaAman]

Glad you were up, Sam!

I clean the coop almost every day. Dustpan and spatula and clean under the roosts. I don't have the smell. Just add shavings as needed. Realize some of you work and can't clean every day. Oh, the joys of retirement!

Looks like a beautiful day is in store for us!! Yeah!!!! Hope my run dries out fast.

Enjoy you day....

For me, the coops themselves... that only get used for laying eggs and chick raising aren't the problem. It's the summer area that they prefer to roost in, all that open ventilation, keeps cooler, then winter came, had to board it up, cuz they refused to sleep in any of the 4 coops even if I moved them night after night... Well, I have dirt floor in the summer area.I usually just rake up the nightly leavings every other day, but when it rained all that rain... it just became a poopy soup mess... Now it's dry enough that I am not having suction problems... I can try and get it neated up. SERIOUSLY YUCK this last 2 weeks between the two heavy storms that flooded me twice.

 

[kimmie6067]

For me, the coops themselves... that only get used for laying eggs and chick raising aren't the problem. It's the summer area that they prefer to roost in, all that open ventilation, keeps cooler, then winter came, had to board it up, cuz they refused to sleep in any of the 4 coops even if I moved them night after night... Well, I have dirt floor in the summer area.I usually just rake up the nightly leavings every other day, but when it rained all that rain... it just became a poopy soup mess... Now it's dry enough that I am not having suction problems... I can try and get it neated up. SERIOUSLY YUCK this last 2 weeks between the two heavy storms that flooded me twice.

I know my runs are a muddy mess, even though its sand it's muddy,

Maybe it's quick sand, lol

 

[naglady]

opa so glad you found that.. could of been a bad outcome.

 

[NovaAman]

Hmmm. wonder if you built your "farm" in the center of your property, so it was surrounded by your other properties, if you'd then have a problem... How far away are your nearest neighbors going to be, and MAYBE you should go and check them out and see who has what...

Where I am, we are A1. LUCKY FOR US! Since we moved here, and got birds after being here for a almost 2 years, we've had several other houses in our little corner of N. Holland get birds. There are 7 of us in the 3/4 mile triangle that makes up our neighborhood. My neighbor and I are the only ones that let our birds run all over our property though. In the next few years, that's going to change. I am starting this year with buying fencing posts to run every 3 feet, 2 feet inside of my property line. Then work on the rolls of fencing to go all the way around to keep my birds inside my property. This is ONLY because I don't expect my one neighbor to live forever (83yrs) and I can not expect who ever gets her house afterwards to be ok with my chickens all over their property. Mrs. Brown doesn't mind them. She loves them, and loves even better that she gets the benefits of them visiting, and not the chore of cleaning up after them. She especially loves the faverolles roosters. LOL Wait till she gets a load of the coming chicken eye candy this fall when the phoenix are feathered out!

Well, anyway... I'd see what your country neighbors have going on, and go from there. If there are already homesteads with horses, chickens, etc... you're probably going to have a much easier time. ALSO, if you go to neighbors with coop design/barn design and containment area plans in hand, might make some more comfortable with the idea if they are the "we moved to the country for peace and quiet" type.