Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[SillyChicken]

I think some one took out our resident buck... There hasn't been sight of him for about 3 weeks. There had been a lot of shooting not too long ago, and I don't mean the air cannon either. So, I think one of the new neighbors down the way may have made a meal out of him. Sucks, he's been here for 2 years now.

Tap, Silly, how are those phoenix? I am very worried, and paranoid that they may have been effected by the mareks that is taking out some of my chicks now. Obviously if it is taking out some of my chicks, there is always the very strong possibility that it's been in contact with the birds your got from me, and I am very sorry if it has.

Thank you saying something. I have not seen any signs of Mareks in the Phoenix or any of my other birds. Hopefully we're in the clear, if I do get an outbreak, don't sweat it. Stuff happens! I have seen some signs were the Yokoenix or is it Phokohama... (LOL) thinks he needs to be "friendly" with the hen so that means wee man will be going into lock down this weekend!

I have another Sumatra hen gone broody... she was on only one egg, so I shoved a couple turkey eggs and a few other eggs I collected under her so she'd have something for her trouble. The problem is, she's nested on top of my straw bales... I'm going to have to move her to get to my straw...

Poachers don't care when deer season starts.... ​

Hey Raz, You should get a bunch of these chickens to stick around your yard... since you "might" have them.... unless there is an ordinance against "art"
...

Very creative use of chicken wire!

 

[gladahmae]

sorry about your sick chick, how old is she?

she's about 8 weeks old. *slightly* more perky than this morning, which isn't saying much. She's drinking on her own now, instead of me having to dip her beak in the water bowl. I'm going out about once an hour and feeding her a few bites of egg. Her crop is basically empty, and all of her poop so far looks like dirty water.

 

[Lisa and girls]

and

I went out to let the layers out this morning, and heard a LOT of racket in the juvenile chick part of the coop so I opened the door to see what was going on. It wasn't great. My lone olive egger pullet (who is adorable, doesn't mind being handled, and is from eggs I got from Lark Rise, so egg color should be great) is lying on her side, half buried in shavings. I could see that she was still breathing so I snatched her up and put her into the little dog crate and made her some scrambled eggs. I really have NO IDEA what to do for her though. I can't find an injury anywhere on her, but the bottom line is that she's not using her legs very well, and not using her right leg much at all. She keeps rolling off to the side when I set her down. I did force-feed her some egg, and put Tylan in her water because I don't have much else that I *can* do. She did have some bright green poop on her, but there's no telling if that's from her or another chick pooping on her.

Sorry about your chick sounds like you are doing everything for her. Hope she pulls thru.

 

[gladahmae]

Well I decided that I should check on the littlest chicks too when I went out to get eggs. And a couple of them see "off" to me as well (this is in a completely different coop). The ONLY thing they have in common is that I switched out their bell waterers for nipple waterers and maybe they're having trouble getting ENOUGH water out of the new style bucket. I banded the chick that seemed the most lethargic and gave them a dish of water. Hopefully all it ends up being is dehydration.

 

[SillyChicken]

keeping fingers crossed for all the sick chickies

 

[ladyrsanti]

Wow, sorry to hear about the issues. Some kind of luck, eh? Hopefully just dehydration. Mine drink out of their nipple waterers just fine but they make it clear that they only do it to stay alive because when they get out of the coop they descend on the sheep's water like they just found an oasis in the desert. Clearly prefer basins of water to the nipples.

I really miss my camera, the one that stopped working at Niagara Falls (a piece of me died that day). Anyway, I'm still using the video camera to take pictures and it SUCKS! But here are a couple pictures of my two coronation sussex chicks that Custard hatched several weeks ago. I'm thinking they are two roos, my luck. But they are both lavender which is nice, regardless. The larger one (top photo) seems to have the faintest traces of feathers on its legs - maybe tapping some brahma deep in the gene pool? The younger of the two is behind on feathering and looks pretty scruffy. Mom's still taking care of them but not for much longer. She's just finished her molt and is increasingly more interested in going back into the coop with the rest.






Who would want to miss out on the communal barn siesta after all? Usually there's a hen sleeping or scratching on the sheep's back but not today unfortunately.

 

[gladahmae]

Yeah, I think they definitely prefer basins since I put a dish in the juveniles' coop and it was every bird for itself to get to it the first. I separated all of the affected birds out into a couple of dog kennels (had to put my mostly-healed ameraucana cockerel back in to get the one kennel) and will monitor them. Ugh. This totally sucks. In other sucky news, I can't find 5 feed bags that I had cut and prepped to sew into totes for the dog rescue fund-raiser on Saturday. So now I'm washing and drying MORE bags, which is cutting into my sewing time while the baby naps.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

What scares me on the merecks thing is that you don't have to have the standard "splits", it can be as simple as wasting away like my white rooster did. Also some change eye color, and i've been trying desperately to remember what color his eyes were before he died. Sounds easy, right? Nope. With all the working, and my camera needing batteries............... Anyway blue is a red flag, and i am thinking his were changing.

I am wanting to find a bird vet still, does ANYONE know of one in the kent or ottowa county area???? I used to know of one in cedar springs but the whole town has changed so much since i was a kid.

Now i want to have my birds tested for stuff, even if it's just mixing up their poos and doing a communal swab.

I wouldn't mind if the turkey form was in my flock since that would actually be a good thing. But my worry is that the other kind is going around, since it's spread on the wind. So if i continue with chickens i think i want to buy a turkey pair to insure resistance; if the turkeys get blackhead from the chickens you can give them flagyl to cure it assuming you aren't eating them.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Glad, if it 's dehydration it will take at least the amount of time they were without it to recoup. I'd put some of those electrolytes in the water to speed recovery?

 

[SillyChicken]

http://jxn.craigslist.org/grd/4003595794.html
9x14x6 kennel - back set up for dog house but great opening for coop attachment as well $200