Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[cuppycake]

Haven't posted lately, keeping pretty busy now that the weather is gorgeous. The chickens are looking lovely and enjoying the weather right along with me. Still nagging DH to get the silkies' house done. They've been enjoying some time outside in a large dog kennel but without an actual coop I don't ever leave them out at night. I know silkies are notoriously hard to sex but I'm thinking I might have one roo and three girls. Only the one has developed any wattles. Thoughts? They are 8 weeks old.

Our two boy puppies have gone to their new homes, and now it's just the little girl left. Her original buyer backed out, forfeiting their deposit. Then I had a girl say she was interested and would come out today, but she never showed or returned my calls. Now is the time when I slowly start hinting to my hubby that this little girl is staying. Lol. I was so sad to sell the boys, I gotta keep her, right? Here's a pic of her and her daddy. Sorry about poor picture quality and their crazy bed head hair!

 

[myaussies]

Hello, everyone! Been awhile since I have been here...the weather is awesome...we aren't raising fowl this year because of the drought last year and the cost of feed. We have a small flock now of a roo and 4 hen's, 6 Muscovy ducks, 3 hens are on the nest, and 3 guinea fowl.

 

[Opa]

0439hrs. Close enough to dawn so I started the first pot of coffee and headed out to check the incubator. Still just one lone chick but a couple eggs have pipped so maybe something is going to start happening. Hopefully more chicks break out so that first chick has some company.

Before the heat becomes too oppressive I want to install the wire cable between the tops of the new posts that I added to the garden. I'm going to try growing vertically as many plants as possible. I'll be planting indeterminate tomatoes on strings attached to the overhead cable and I'm going to see how butternut squash do when trained to a trellis made of cow panel.

For years I have grown pole type beans on the perimeter fence with great success and if I can get the tomatoes and squash off the ground I will have more room for quite a few more other vegetables. Several years ago I started growing bell peppers in cages and that has been a substantial help in keeping the plants upright when the fruit starts appearing.

For some reason I was unable to upload any photos to this thread. I hope that isn't an omen of how my day is going to go.

 

[SillyChicken]

need a kitchen or garage/shed cupboards?
http://annarbor.craigslist.org/fuo/3816206879.html 120$!

 

[minniefarm]

Hi friends-
Last week was crazy busy! I had concerts, prom, Baseball games, and work (of course). I'll have to catch up on the posts later. I am home this morning for appointments. Normally I am gone by 6:30 and by then, the girls have laid only 1 egg. This is the first time I have been home to actually hear the egg song! LOL what a loud racket that was! I finally put my 8 week olds in the coop. They can see and hear but are separated for a few days. I wonder what they thought of that racket and the heat?

My husband, who rolled his eyes at the thought of chickens, is soo into them! He loves to shake the treat bag and have the girls follow him around. LOL

 

[gladahmae]

Opa (or anyone else with some experience) is there a trick to growing bell peppers? I can never get the plants more than about 12in tall, and they produce a maximum of 2 fruit, which are usually tennisball sized or smaller. Our soil is very sandy...but I'm working on getting some compost into it every year. We use a lot of fertilizer to try to compensate for the thinness of the nutrients in our soil. Tomatoes did GREAT last year.

 

[SillyChicken]

Glad, I hear you shouldn't plant bells next to certain plants.. like tomatoes? But don't quote me on that.
I have mixed luck with them. Last year I planted them in the same place I had crappy luck before and they were huge and nice. Though I used a bunch of rabbit and chicken manure straw in the garden last year so maybe that was it.. My soil is the same, gravely/sandy.. but we've mixed in manure and straw for a few years now and it helps... the weeds did so good last year they took over the garden! Will have to try Raz's suggestion with newspapers next time we plant. I think we're taking a break from our own garden this year and will be buying from local farms. Not that I want to do that, but I think DH and I are getting a bit overwhelmed.

This weekend....... was wonderful! So glad it was nicer than predicted weather wise. I got some spring cleaning done on some of the coops. Need to do more, but it's very difficult to haul out wheelbarrows with the goats trying to make a break for it every time I opened the gates. Sunday we got all the fencing up and one of the gates for their new pastures. Getting the goats into their separate fenced pastures will make chore time much easier and faster! And it'll be nice to be able to hang clothes on the line to dry etc. Well, it'll just be nice to get our back yard back!

Now I just need to either build or find a shed to provide some shelter for them...never enough time or money to do the things I would like too.

I'll be thinning out a lot of my birds this year I think. I have too many for the space I have right now. Plus, I want to focus a bit more on turkeys and just retain a few chickens for personal eggs/meat. Plus, a few ornamental birds and the guinea for bug control. I may house the turkeys out in the goat pastures to get them away from the chickens. Uggo, is allowed free reign of the farm....cause thats the way she likes it!

 

[chickflick]

The floor guys are here!! The floor guys are here!!

Got my small pond cleaned out. Hundreds of pill bugs in it.

DH got our garden tilled. So now to buy plants. Was thinking of not putting one in this year either. We have so much going on. We may decide not too, but the kids weren't too happy when we mentioned we might not....

Going to be a hot, hot day. Hope you all enjoy!

 

[Nigellas]

Opa (or anyone else with some experience) is there a trick to growing bell peppers?

Lots and LOTS of water. And sunshine heat. And more water.

 

[gladahmae]

Lots and LOTS of water. And sunshine heat. And more water.

well that's my problem then. the water part. my garden gets all day sun. ALL. DAY. hmmmm....wonder if there's anything I could do to help just the peppers.....everything else grows like gangbusters. OR, maybe I need to run my new soaker hose along the peppers. Hmmmmm.