Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[snowflake]

This may be fine for mild allergies, but for someone like him that has severe allergies, he will end up in the hospital. I tried some local honey last year and he puffs up from it and has bloody diarrhea for several days - bleh. The regular honey from Meijer seems to be fine at least... We have an appointment in July for him to get retested and start getting allergy shots. The nuts, sunflowers, tomatoes, oranges etc. he has I can deal with but the pollen allergies really suck.

oes a filter type mask help at all, at least he could go outside a little??

Here's our girls enjoying the nice weather

love the pics.

They love worms & grubs! Let your daughter dig some up for their snack, it's fine. Give the chicks "chick grit" to help them digest & there should be no problem. IMO.

Enjoy your chickens!!

x2

Hello All, First time here! I am a "new" chickeneer and thought a little help from fellow Michiganders would be helpful!

A little about me, I am married to my HS sweetheart and we have our Daughter (Riley) who will be 6 next month... the chickens were her and Daddies idea, and since I was very unsure about this, they went and bought 6 different kinds on a whim. We just built our coop last weekend, but have yet to get the chicks in there since we are trying to figure out the best way to put the fencing up. I would love to just have free range but we have a yellow lab who just seems TOO interested in the newest addition to our house.

Hoping to learn a few helpful tips in the wonderful world of Chickening

Bawk Bawk

Welcome

hope you can come to chicken stock in June, Lansing at a very nice park, kid friendly lots of good food and fun, crafts,chickens,ducks, ect for sale


You might want to keep food and water outside, helps to keep the coop clean and less stinky, I put my feeders in a metal trash can at night to discourage night time visitors....I also have bird netting (the heavier type works best.) over my run. welded 2x4 makes up my run with hardware cloth around the bottom and on all windows

have fun, relax, and enjoy your chickens

 

[Scifisarah]

oes a filter type mask help at all, at least he could go outside a little??

According to his doctor, not much. I'm just supposed to bath him and spray out his nose with saline rinse as soon as he gets back inside to minimize the effects. I tried making him a mask with woven cotton (super hero print) lined with polar fleece but that was a joke to keep on him and not get filthy. First he drops it in a pile of collie fur by the door, then gets snot on it, then my husband rinses it in the sink and hangs it up OUTSIDE to dry. I gave up and threw it away, lol.

 

[Scifisarah]

I just have to say.... Thanks to all of you that voted for my coop for the Purina contest, I actually won Grand prize!!!! I won $500 and 12 bags of Purina Layena Plus Omega-3!!!

https://www.facebook.com/notes/puri...contest-5-grand-prize-winners/481372251929144

 

[Lisa and girls]

I just have to say.... Thanks to all of you that voted for my coop for the Purina contest, I actually won Grand prize!!!! I won $500 and 12 bags of Purina Layena Plus Omega-3!!!

https://www.facebook.com/notes/puri...contest-5-grand-prize-winners/481372251929144

:cd :yiipchick ​

Yippy! Congats!!!

 

[mrshaggie810]

We just put our 4 week old rouen ducklings (they grow fast!) in our big coop/run with the big hens & rooster last weekend. There was NO ISSUE. The hens thought they'd boss the ducklings around for about... ohh 2 seconds! One of the ducklings got right up in one of the hen's face, said they were there to stay, the hen said "oh my gosh... I guess so", all the hens turned around and went back to their ground scratching business & they've all been happy since. It happened about that fast & was done. The hens don't like the kiddy pool in there for the ducks other than the occasional drink, the ducks think that's just fine with them so they can swim all day. There doesn't seem to be any kind of pecking order between the chickens & the ducks.

I was kinda worried how the ducks might treat them because we house all our birds together...we have a drake and 2 ducks, and 3 layers...I thought they would probably be fine, but I just wasn't sure...the momma will do a good job I'm sure, she is very protective, but I have the option to separate them if I need to, but I just wanted to see what others thought too. Thanks for you input!

Hahaha! One of our girls got a worm stuck on her back once and a couple of them chased her. Chickens are so entertaining to watch. Every time my daughter finds any sort of bug or worm she's giving it to the chickens. She also goes and steals a handful of birdseed from the front yard feeders and takes it out back to the chickens. One day I discovered her tossing little pieces of ham sandwich out the living room window to them! She's only 2 so she sees all of the animals as her best friends. She doesn't understand why the chickens never come when she calls like the dogs do. Lol

That's hilarious! My 2 year old thinks all our chickens and ducks are her best friends too...but she knows she's the boss of our 2 great danes! lol!

I just have to say.... Thanks to all of you that voted for my coop for the Purina contest, I actually won Grand prize!!!! I won $500 and 12 bags of Purina Layena Plus Omega-3!!!

https://www.facebook.com/notes/puri...contest-5-grand-prize-winners/481372251929144

Congrats!!!

 

[Ginger87]

I need help! So we decided to just buy chicken wire instead of the chain link fence, we had some of the metal poles that you drive into the ground with the little hooks to attach the wire too..... Hubby is gone but I am at a loss how to do it! I want a way to go into the area but not sure how to do it! I don't want anything too permanent as we plan on expanding it later this summer!!!! Someone please help!

 

[Scifisarah]

I need help! So we decided to just buy chicken wire instead of the chain link fence, we had some of the metal poles that you drive into the ground with the little hooks to attach the wire too..... Hubby is gone but I am at a loss how to do it! I want a way to go into the area but not sure how to do it! I don't want anything too permanent as we plan on expanding it later this summer!!!! Someone please help!

You could use zip ties or wires to attach the chicken fencing to the poles, but I would only use this as a very short term containment. Ultimately, you'll want to have the fencing buried, and usually netting over the top. Not sure what to do for the door, but you will want some way to access the run. Maybe have the last 3' section with a 1x2" board at the end attached to the edge of the wire that can be tied to the metal pole on the other side? They probably won't know to go inside at night so you will have to collect them at "bedtime". If I had our run to do over, I would use 1/2" hardware cloth instead of chicken wire. We used 8' landscaping timbers from Menards for our fence poles, anchored with cement in the ground and I really like how that has held up over the years. We made the door out of the same timbers, I think they go on sale for $1.99 every once in a while.

 

[RaZ]

Congratulations, Scifisarah!

​

 

[mrshaggie810]

You could use zip ties or wires to attach the chicken fencing to the poles, but I would only use this as a very short term containment. Ultimately, you'll want to have the fencing buried, and usually netting over the top. Not sure what to do for the door, but you will want some way to access the run. Maybe have the last 3' section with a 1x2" board at the end attached to the edge of the wire that can be tied to the metal pole on the other side? They probably won't know to go inside at night so you will have to collect them at "bedtime". If I had our run to do over, I would use 1/2" hardware cloth instead of chicken wire. We used 8' landscaping timbers from Menards for our fence poles, anchored with cement in the ground and I really like how that has held up over the years. We made the door out of the same timbers, I think they go on sale for $1.99 every once in a while.

What do you have down i your run to keep the ground dry? I think the issue with ours was just that it was on ground that doesn't drain well..but I ended up putting down pine flakes because it was so poopy and muddy and gross at times that the birds just didn't want to go out. ;/ It was always meat to be a tractor actually, but hubby has his way and ideals of wanting to do things, and insists on needing heavier duty tires than I think we do, so the cost, and him installing them, because I am a visual person and couldn't picture the way he was describing it, have held us up on actually getting it moving. I'm hoping it will be to it's rotating home within the next month, but we'll see.

 

[going country]

She's only 2 so she sees all of the animals as her best friends. She doesn't understand why the chickens never come when she calls like the dogs do. Lol

Cuppycake,
You can train them to come when you call them (not individually, but as a group). When I gave my chicks treats I always call "chick,chick,chick" and now any time I call with chick,chick,chick they come running from where ever they are. It's very helpful when I need to put them up or when they wander to close to the road. It's also funny to watch the faces of visitors when I call my chickens and they come running!