Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Amastacia]

yesterday my 10 week old chicks decided to integrate with my year old hens. i went out to let the hens out to range and far more than 8 birds swarmed my feet. i looked in the enclosure i had the chicks in in the coops, and there weren't any chicks in it. there were, however, 2 of my ISA hens. not entirely sure how they got themselves in there, probably the same way the chicks got out. oh well. the only hen who seemed to be objecting to the chicks yesterday was my broody BR. i've been wanting to break her broodiness for a while anyway, so she is now in a spare rabbit cage in the garage. hopefully by the time she's not broody she will be willing to tolerate the chicks. and hopefully no one else will decide they don't like them. the chicks did go back in their area last night. hopefully everything will go well.

10 summer squash plants is a lot, especially for 2 people. i froze 9 quart bags of chunks and 7 of grated squash yesterday. and that is without harvesting in pretty much a week. i'm a little afraid of the monster squashes waiting for me in the garden right now.

we've decided to make cider this year, between the two loaded crab apples and apparently 3 apple trees (just found another in the tree line this past week). collected a bushel of crab apples (from one limb of one tree) and a bushel of fallen apples from the newest find. not sure how many we will need for the desired 5 gallons of cider, but i do have two more apple trees to collect from even if they aren't actually ripe yet and plenty more crab apples. going to try to make hard cider, to go with the mead we are planning and the beer we bottled yesterday.

never an end to the list of what needs to get done.

 

[RTFchickens]

Silly chicken, it looks like the commissioner has run unchallenged time after time. He is 76 years old, and visibly had a difficult time getting around. His term is up next year. If he does decide to run again next year, I think I would make a fine challenge to his seat! I'm not sure how long he plans to work before retiring...

 

[gladahmae]

It must have been a day for escaping yesterday! My husband informed me that my month-old chicks decided to get out of their run yesterday as well. He and our oldest DS spent quite a bit of time tracking down chicks in the yard, the garden, the BIG girls' run, and even UNDER the big coop. They would catch them, put them back in, and 5 minutes later, while they were still finding OTHER chicks, the ones they had just put back would get out. Little chicks are going to be cooped up until they get a little bigger and can't fit through the fence. (I have hardware cloth over 4x2 welded wire fencing, but they are jumping/flying OVER the hardware cloth to squeeze out the larger opening.)

Got TWO pullet eggs yesterday, out of the 6 replacement pullets. One was HUGE too! I was really surprised. It was about the size of my 18mo old hens' eggs!


I'm really trying to decide what to do about my big Wyandotte roo. I hatched him last summer, and he's gorgeous, good to the hens, and hasn't bothered humans who come into the run.....not even the kids. BUT. I'm done hatching eggs for the year. I'm planning on keeping one of my BLRW cockerels for the big layer coop, *maybe* a marans cockerel until spring for an olive egger project in the small coop, and a silkie cockerel in the silkie coop. So technically speaking, I don't have a place for my big blue boy. DH has been trying to get me to sell/give him away for awhile, but I just haven't done it. The thing is, I've *got* to cut down on numbers a bit for winter. I think I'm about 4 or 5 birds over what I think is acceptable for how much time they spend in the coop from December to March. I need him to go, but I don't want to get rid of him.


On a different note, one of my SLW pullets has no tail feathers. None. She had some missing (looked like rooster wear) when we picked them up, but in the month that they've been in the tractor, the other girls have systematically pulled the rest of them out. Is there anything I can do about this? She looks rather silly, and I'm concerned they'll start picking at her vent next. I *do* have another apron/saddle that might fit her, but I don't know if it'll come down far enough to cover her now-bald tail nub.

 

[SillyChicken]

I usually spray bluekote on exposed skin areas like that

 

[SillyChicken]

Silly chicken, it looks like the commissioner has run unchallenged time after time. He is 76 years old, and visibly had a difficult time getting around. His term is up next year. If he does decide to run again next year, I think I would make a fine challenge to his seat! I'm not sure how long he plans to work before retiring...

good luck! May need to find out how happy people are with him.. maybe it's time for a change.

 

[RaZ]

Oh crud. It looks like I won't be able to make my trip up North this week. I have no one to check up on my dogs during the 2 day trip.

I was looking forward to stopping in Tap's town for a discussion and then on to the Ag meeting in Escanaba. This is a pretty important meeting of MDARD people and the 1st one (I think) to take place in the UP.

On top of that, my 14 yo dog was sick this morning so I had that mess to clean up. NOT a good start to the week. Oh, it is also raining.

 

[Huston's Happy Hens]

Ok, gardener friends...think I still have time to plant beets from seeds and end up with a decent crop?

 

[Amy PT]

My slightly crossed beaked ee banty twerpy enjoying some yogurt and making a mess of my deck.

Lisa, twerpy looks a lot like our Ruby. Ruby is a Mille Fleur d'uccle, not an ee.

 

[ladyrsanti]

Ok, gardener friends...think I still have time to plant beets from seeds and end up with a decent crop?

I would say yes, technically you do but I've never had any luck with beets at all so don't take my word for it. But they are a cool weather crop so fall should be okay for them. I've never tried to grow them here though, so maybe I should get some seed and give it a go too. The mangels that I planted for the chicken and sheep are doing well so I don't see why they wouldn't.

 

[RaZ]

So a friend is thinking about getting a few started pullets at the end of September.
The mix might be 2 each of Arucana, Cuckoo Marans and Buff Orpingtons for a rainbow of eggs.

Any thoughts on the breed mix?

I think maybe it would be better with 3 of each breed.