Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Lisa and girls]

I am laughing sooo hard

I HAVE reached acceptance...and I have only had chickens for 4 1/2 months!!!!

Now I am curious. How did everyone come to get there first chickens? Why? Where? Ill start. My neighbors mom brought us 3 isa brown chicks for an Easter present. I was in love instantly. I only have one of those girls left and have 14 now. One isa, two barred rocks, two blrws, two jjs, two ees, one rir, two slws, one silkie and one ee bb banty mix. Who's next?

 

[taprock]

I've been gone to camp and we are back now, I did not read the 25+ pages to catch up so sorry If I missed something. I had a great time relaxing. What my DH didn't tell me was that on Thursday a neighbor from up the road that runs came to the house and told him a dog ran through the field with a chicken in it's mouth into the woods. So DH sat guard with a gun for the 1 1/2 hours till the cops showed up. Of course he doesn't know all my birds and could only say for sure the ones he found dead or feathers. So 11:00 that night the neighbor who's dog we assume it was (since it has done it before) came over drunk trying to start a fight because it wasn't his dog. Funny thing is he was the one who said go ahead and shoot his dogs if they were over. So instead of shooting at them we started calling the cops. If anyone has young guineas I'm looking. My poor boy is beside himself trying to herd his lone girl.

I'll try and catch up later today, after all the laundry has been done. Camp is great, coming home just isn't as fun.

 

[Farmerboy16]

I am laughing sooo hard

I HAVE reached acceptance...and I have only had chickens for 4 1/2 months!!!!

Now I am curious. How did everyone come to get there first chickens? Why? Where? Ill start. My neighbors mom brought us 3 isa brown chicks for an Easter present. I was in love instantly. I only have one of those girls left and have 14 now. One isa, two barred rocks, two blrws, two jjs, two ees, one rir, two slws, one silkie and one ee bb banty mix. Who's next?

I was 13(11 years ago) when I first started this chicken madness. We were
visiting a distant family relative living in a log house in the middle
of nowhere in Big Rapids, and they had a small backyard flock of chickens. I wanted
to help collect the eggs, and found 2 brown, 1 blue egg. I proudly
showed my mom the find, and asked her if we could take them home and
try to hatch them, she said yes. We have never incubated anything
before. We tried incubating them in the big bird house that we made. 2 eggs had quit in a week, but 1 egg would have hatched, if we had left it alone for a day or two.

We tried again with a dozen eggs, but they all had died in 7 days, so
my parents decided to buy some chicks from a local hatchery. We drove
about 30 miles to get 6 California White chicks from Townline. 5 pullets and 1
cockerel.
We lost the cockerel at 2 months old to a hawk. So we went back to the
hatchery and brought 3 chicks, 2 Isa Brown Cockerels and one pullet. In
November, my grandparents brought me a Isa Brown Hen from the Amish
for my 14th birthday.

Aaand now I have 50+ chickens, 3 guineas, 2 emus, 10 turkeys, 7 peafowl, 2 geese, 1 muscovy duck.

 

[Candy442]

Let's see... I have three hanging on the front porch, two on the back deck and one on the bird feeder post. The ones that empty out the quickest are the ones on the front porch. DH filled up one yesterday morning and by 7pm I was refilling it. And they are not small feeders. We get the largest ones we can find. Today I will be adding another one to the front porch.
We get so many you cannot count them. It sounds like a swarm of bees around here. They are cool and we really enjoy them. We are up to 40 cups of sugar so far this year. Last year we used 84 [32 just in August!] They usually hit pretty hard and heavy in August. We like to share so if anyone wants to come sit on our front porch then come on over and sit a spell

Welcome back Jake!

We have two feeders, one hanging under the eaves on our West facing front porch (so I can see them looking out the kitchen window) and one hanging off our southern facing eave right near our bedroom window. The south one is most used. Yesterday I was sitting with the flock enjoying the beautiful day and I noticed a few trying to get to the feeder on the south (I haven't filled the West one yet, took it in for cleaning-got overrun with ants when South does not??? anyway)....and out of the blue, this dark "Ninja" hummer zooms in and chases the one trying to get to the nectar away. I started to watch. Sure enough, each time another bird got close to the feeder, this very dark colored little humming bird zooms in from out of nowhere and chases the others away....what's up with that? I have never seen anything like it and this dark bird is too fast for me to get a good description, but it definitely is another humming bird...

 

[Candy442]

Does anyone know how I go about getting NPIP in Michigan. Recently Backyard Poultry magazine has an article about it and I'd like to get it done. Anything closer than Charlotte? Do they come to MY farm?? Do I have to travel with 30 chickens?

Hey ChicwannaB...I would go to this link on the internet and call them for answers:

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/area_offices/states/michigan_info.html

Chicken math is not real. It is just an excuse for all ya'll to not control yourselves. I on the other had do not have that problem at all. I mean, just because I have to build a new coop every year, and sometimes 2... and I have only had chickens for 2 years... and there is no such thing as chicken math. Ya'll just can't control yourselves. Me... I can stop any time I want. Now... where did I put that drill and screws....

Nova made me laugh out loud

Now I am curious. How did everyone come to get there first chickens? Why? Where? Ill start. My neighbors mom brought us 3 isa brown chicks for an Easter present. I was in love instantly. I only have one of those girls left and have 14 now. One isa, two barred rocks, two blrws, two jjs, two ees, one rir, two slws, one silkie and one ee bb banty mix. Who's next?

DH and I are newbs. I honestly never remember what possesses me to do what I do, but one day we both started looking for chicks. DH ran about town probably spending countless dollars in gas trying to find the best "deal" on spring chicks at the feed stores

. We found this site, then he bought PR pullets because we felt starting with hens would be best...who knows! For some odd reason when I was at work one day, he decided to sell a few of those because he liked the idea of having multi colored eggs and to make room for a few EE's. Another bin that was labeled EE pullets and wouldn't you know one of those girls is a cockerel! surprised I bet....? LOL. I feel lucky that only one of the eight turned out to be a boy and that was the one I hand picked and talked DH into! We can and will keep him-he is a sweetie so far.
That was all in the first week of April and we haven't looked back since. Had the dog attack that took some wind out of my sail

but now thinking of getting a few Chanteclers !!! Help me, I think I have the chicken flu and not getting over it anytime soon!
I will be giving Farmerboy 16 a run for his numbers in a year or so

 

[RTFchickens]

Lisa and girls,
Thank you so much for opening the first time chicken owning question! I'm loving reading the stories! I'm fairly new to BYC and owning chickens. This discussion has helped us immensely.
My chicken story:
I've always wanted to own farm animals, but living in a subdivision, that wasn't practical. Then we found a house with lots of land! We started with 13 isa browns (12 hens and 1 roo) and then found out many of our neighbors in subdivision have buff orpingtons. What a surprise! I never guessed it was legal to keep chickens in our development since we have a strict association code. So I went back to Townline Hatchery and got 14 buff orpington chicks. Now we had 27 total, but a hawk got 2 BO hens now after hearing about EEs I want to get a few for my kids!
I'd love to get my girls into 4H eventually.

 

[preciouskitty]

My chicken story.
Until about 5 years ago, I was a total city girl. Then moved to Howell & started a big garden, learned how to can, dehydrate, etc., & began hunting.

With the desire to begin to KNOW what I was eating, chickens just seemed to be the next logical step.
So, just before Easter this year, went to TSC to grab 4 pullet chicks. Of course, we walked out with 4 PR pullets, 4 NHR pullets (1 of which had a sex change) & 4 EEs (straight run & got 2 of each!). Then a few weeks ago I added 2 FBCMs.
So, 4 = 14, right?

AND, I just ate some of my pullet eggs for the first time this morning!

Yummy!!

And, thanks, Lisa and girls for starting this; stories are great so far!

 

[Lisa and girls]

I've enjoyed the stories! Keep them coming!

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Ok I'm trying to be patient and smart, building the coop before I get any chickens. I have an electrician coming to put a couple outlets in the coop. Two outlets should be plenty, right? The coop is 8' X 8' My question is, after the electrician is done, I plan on adding a paneling on the interior walls, should I also insulate it?

Hubby says "Whatever you want" (well trained hubby lol) Also, I was going to put a motion sensored porch light on the front, good idea?
Also planning on building a run of about 20' X 30' off the back. I ordered my automatic door (ADOR1) this morning. Do I need a feeder in the run as well as one in the coop? My original plan is for 4 hens but have also been reading about chicken math!

Insulation is not necessary as they have feathers to keep them warm. Ventilation is the most important because if it;'s it does not have enough ventilation then you will have issues with frostbite. That is a beautiful coop

Feel free to check out the link in my signature on how to build a hoop run. It's real easy to do and works really well in the winters.

Chicken math is not real. It is just an excuse for all ya'll to not control yourselves. I on the other had do not have that problem at all. I mean, just because I have to build a new coop every year, and sometimes 2... and I have only had chickens for 2 years... and there is no such thing as chicken math. Ya'll just can't control yourselves. Me... I can stop any time I want. Now... where did I put that drill and screws....

We have two feeders, one hanging under the eaves on our West facing front porch (so I can see them looking out the kitchen window) and one hanging off our southern facing eave right near our bedroom window. The south one is most used. Yesterday I was sitting with the flock enjoying the beautiful day and I noticed a few trying to get to the feeder on the south (I haven't filled the West one yet, took it in for cleaning-got overrun with ants when South does not??? anyway)....and out of the blue, this dark "Ninja" hummer zooms in and chases the one trying to get to the nectar away. I started to watch. Sure enough, each time another bird got close to the feeder, this very dark colored little humming bird zooms in from out of nowhere and chases the others away....what's up with that? I have never seen anything like it and this dark bird is too fast for me to get a good description, but it definitely is another humming bird...

The males are territorial and sometimes one will guard a feeder and not let any others near. When this happens we will re locate the feeder for a few days. It seems to work.

Ninja hummer!
We just had to fill up one of our feeders 3 times in 24 hours!

I am enjoying the stories too.

 

[Lisa and girls]

I've been gone to camp and we are back now,  I did not read the 25+ pages to catch up so sorry If I missed something.  I had a great time relaxing.  What my DH didn't tell me was that on Thursday a neighbor from up the road that runs came to the house and told him a dog ran through the field with a chicken in it's mouth into the woods.  So DH sat guard with a gun for the 1 1/2 hours till the cops showed up.  Of course he doesn't know all my birds and could only say for sure the ones he found dead or feathers.  So 11:00 that night the neighbor who's dog we assume it was (since it has done it before)  came over drunk trying to start a fight because it wasn't his dog.  Funny thing is he was the one who said go ahead and shoot his dogs if they were over.  So instead of shooting at them we started calling the cops.  If anyone has young guineas I'm looking.  My poor boy is beside himself trying to herd his lone girl.

I'll try and catch up later today, after all the laundry has been done.  Camp is great, coming home just isn't as fun.

Glad your back! Sorry you had to deal with a drunken neighbor, cops, and dogs and poor lone hen and roo.