Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[snowflake]

I have to agree, sussex are talkers, and like to follow you around, The first at my side when they hear a shovel. I have a rainbow flock also but started with 3 or 4 of each breed, of course thenI had to add some of thees and some of those, "chicken math attack"

 

[fuzzybutt love]

My ee's were kinda anti-social to the others, but in all fairness there were more of them, so victory in numbers?. Each one of my birds has had their own personality, but if one does go for a same breed start there is always the little colored leg bands!

My neighbor has a speckled sussex and though she is buck wild she has deemed me the kind food lady and squats for me to pick her up! Crazy girl.

I lost my white rooster today. Mine are pets, i am pretty messed up about it. I do think it was the insulation. Early in the spring he had reached manhood and challanged my main rooster, lost. Went off his feed for a bit and started seeking alternate feed before i caught it and caught him going for the insulation. I thought i had got him in time, but it is the only thing i can find in my whole coop area that could have damaged his insides to give possible liver failure. It was a thin wall, and mice had started a hole; didn't take much to inspire him.

Also, i discovered that skunks can and will dig up old bodies. So i would definitely put them on the list of chicken eaters. I haven't seen him since i started locking the coop up again at night.

 

[Scifisarah]

I think a lot of a flock getting along is just diving in and getting them all as chicks the same age to. I have one serama in with my cochins, and she swears she is a cochin, panics when I try to put her with the other seramas. Oh well, at least her eggs are little so I don't raise any silly looking serama/cochin babies.

I'm going to have my MIL put some colored spiral bands on them so she can tell them apart at least. It is nice when they are chicks especially, so you can make sure to give them all attention that way.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Does anyone know how long the turnaround would be if it had been due to lack of eating? I had been trying different things off and on for some time now, but the last week in particular had been separating him and feeding him canned cat food and corn; it was the only thing he'd eat in quantity. His stool never solidified, never got a cap on them. They had all been on the broad spectrum antibiotic too. I took him home for several days but he went off his feed and got lonely for the flock.

On a better note, the bumblefoot cases do seem to be responding to the antibiotic and have gone down a lot. The foot that had to be operated on does seem to be doing better; it's not completely shrunk down which is worrying me but does not seem to be infected, so it is a wait and see i guess.

I am sure i want to give up my birds at this point, except for hope possibly. I have talked about it off and on for months now but i'm sure this time. I can't live HERE and have them THERE; it makes it too hard when there is something going on in the flock.

 

[gladahmae]

I've had a rainbow flock from the start pretty much......started with 4 pairs of pullets and expanded after I lost most of them to our dog. I haven't had any problems with having 6 or 7 different breeds all running together at all WITH THE EXCEPTION OF my crested birds getting either poofy head feathers pulled out. Seriously. That's the *only* problem I've had. I think that if they all start out together, and you aren't adding just 1 chicken at a time to your flock that it's not a big deal to have a rainbow group. (But I'm new to this chicken stuff.....so maybe I don't know what "easy" is?)

Right now I have a barred rock, white rock, 3 EEs, a gold laced and a silver laced Wyandotte, a black australorp, a cuckoo marans, a banty-mix, a mottled houdan, and a gold-laced polish. And a rooster. And everyone gets along. If you *want* a rainbow flock then get one.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

my little d'uccle girls rule over my ee hens when they interact! My little cochin didn't, she was laid back.

no yay or nay here; i kinda ride the fence at this point. I suppose if you aren't letting them set, it's ok. The bantams do like to set on eggs though, so then you get into all these situations where you are having different ages and sizes running around, sometimes at the same time; trying to keep them separate and safe is a witch! Not to mention all the different types of feed needs when there are babies and layers and roosters all in the same house!

in the worst case situation the big birds pick on the banties and could kill them. But i think this is primarily when the big ones were in the house first; really that is the big issue of chicken math. trying to add in.

 

[RaZ]

A fun video of a mixed flock.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

 

[paintwife]

A fun video of a mixed flock.

Thanks for the giggle, I needed that tonight.

 

[kimmie6067]

This should be a made-for-television movie. Three new charges today will be added to two other charges that have not been adjudicated. New court date at the end of August to face the criminal offenses of: 1)chipped paint; 2) bricks stolen from front porch; 3) butterfly gardening in the front yard; 4) having or NOT having or POTENTIALLY having chickens on the property and 5) probation violation for having tickets that have not gone through the legal system yet.

The ordinance officer said that although he saw no chickens there "might" be chickens. So he wrote a chicken ticket.
Every case in court today was a BS ordinance violation of some sort. Gotta love it.

This is just out of hand.

Seabrights are as rowdy as ever, no eggs yet.