Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[taprock]

Can you find the hen? After Poppy was missing for 36 hours I was losing hope, especially after seeing a hawk. She was only found after she started clucking and gave away her position. I am not letting her stay there and she gets hauled to the coop every evening.

 

[MI chickens]

I have a chicken door opener for sale, I build them in my spare time to sell. Pictures are on my profile page, they are made to be added to existing up/down sliding type door, not swing open. They come with timer and 12v power supply. These are designed to be accessed from the inside, but if you have a small coop that you can't get inside of, simply mount the whole unit, chicken door and all, on a swinging door that swings out for access.
They are not hard to install, and my original unit has been running daily for over two years no problem. $125 +shipping, check my profile page or pm me if you have any questions.

 

[RaZ]

I used all recycled wood from pallets and scrap from the goat shed (pulled most of it out of the burn pile). It's solid and heavy! Need to paint or stain it too.

Nice!
Gotta love recycling pallets. Usually a lot of good wood there. If you reclaim a lot of them, I suggest a hand held metal detector to find the nails or staples.

How about a clear finish rather than paint or stain?

 

[MI chickens]

Does anyone have any ideas for automatic pop doors that could be acquired/assembled/installed in TWO DAYS??? <.< It turns out that my farm-sitter can only come by once a day in the evenings and I really don't think it's a good idea to keep the pop door open all night, every night while I'm gone and with a fox around - but equally unacceptable is leaving them all cooped up together all day. I know I should have thought of this sooner but my mind has been absolutely a jumbled mess lately. I've seen some made with a simple drapery motor and a timer... any better suggestions?

My above post was in response to your question.

 

[naglady]

Great pictures of ducks and insects..

i have good news and bad news.. one of my 16 wk old pullets is laying.. the bad news is i saw the 11 pullets running around with the egg remnents in their mouths. in the run.. i even got out there early to..
I have 6 that turned 16 wks today.. 3 isa and 3 leghorn.. and they sure are starting to take interest in the nest boxes in the coop.. so i will be checking them often

even the older girls ate a egg this am.. not sure if its the heat. or what.. i did take the fake eggs out of the adult hen coop and put them in the younger ones coop.. so i am not sure triggered anything.. so today i put some more fake eggs in with the adult girls to.

 

[ladyrsanti]

I wonder how that will work for an 8 hour +/- duration? Don't kids toys with batteries usually turn off after x minutes, so how will it close the door after it opens? Plus the weight of the door has got to pull on the batteries if they are what is going to hold it open all day.

I'd hook up something to 110 house current, or at least a fully charged tractor/car battery.

You don't want them getting locked in the coop all day in this weather, or locked out all night if you fear they will be eaten.

The junkyard antenna and Goodwill powerpacks don't take much time to get and install. If you have power in your coop, or can run an extension cord from the house I would think that would be your safest bet.

It's not a kids' toy per se. They're actually quite expensive robotic parts that run the FLL competition robotic vehicles. They are programmable with computer software. For instance, my son is writing a program for it that will turn the three opening revolutions, wait x seconds, turn the closing three revolutions and wait y seconds. They run on 6 AA batteries that they do eat through pretty fast, but that's on long runs. This will only be pulling 3 revolutions once a day letting gravity work the other three. It doesn't eat much power for "thinking" so we'll be alright. As for holding it up, as long as the chickens don't get rowdy with the line or the door, it should be okay. I installed a plexiglass door today with a thin but strong nylon cord that is fed through a pulley. Less than a pound total. The door is only 10 x 12" and the line a few feet long. I rigged a mount for it to hold the motor fast and my test runs seem to be holding just fine. It's not a permanent solution either, just for a week, but I'm pretty impressed with it. The boys did good. Our farm-sitter will be stopping by every night so that if anything goes wrong with it, he can at least get stragglers to one side or the other. I'm hoping the forecast is right, about the temps coming down.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Quote:Originally Posted by Amy PT I've been absent for a week. Did this get resolved? I'm dealing with this AGAIN, this time with multiple birds. I unfortunately have multiple sharp things in the area that i believe the birds headed for a month ago to go digging around :/ It can also be caused from vitamin A deficiency and splinters on the roost, or too high a roost, and also being overweight and jumping from too high a distance... sharp rocks..... lots of things. Fairly straight forward to treat, but not fun at all.

I treat first with bandaging first with an equal parts sugar/ iodine paste, smear a pea sized amount on a bit of cotton ball and use vet tape or something equivalent to criss cross bandage the toes with strips of it. It is a drawing salve that should shrink the swelling and make the surgery easier, or if you caught it quick enough could save you from doing the surgery; the black scab should be gone or you have to do the surgery. Leave it on for 3 days, no more it is slightly caustic.

I also highly recommend you read about it here, scroll down to it. She also gives very good instructions on how to give penicillin shots if they become necessary https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

if that fails to help and surgery is necessary to save the bird here is a good how-to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdigBHE-GsQ

PLEASE do not underestimate this it is a staph infection and will go to the bird's bones and kill them if not treated promptly. The quicker you start treating the more chance of her surviving. Also this is something YOU don't want either so be careful when handling the bird.

 

[preciouskitty]

One of the FBCMs that I just integrated into flock after 3 weeks of quarantine just laid her 1st egg about 30 mins ago.

Went out to put more ice in their water that I have under the deck, and there was an egg right next to it!

Starting to see what my color palette is going to look like...just need the 2 EE pullets to get busy!

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

My EE's always took their time to start laying. Congrats.

 

[RaZ]

The first egg from any hen is always a happy event.