Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Totalcolour]

Never mind - from what I'm reading, it looks like he should have been bled out or soaked in a salt solution. I will give him a proper burial

.

A proper burial! Are you going to waste the meat? When we have a "clean" loss (not illness) the animal/bird gets frozen and later fed to dogs. Some people don't mind animals that aren't bled out. Think about hunters. Their kills are not usually bled. My husband hunts, and the birds go down, they are retrieved but dead and not bleed-able by that time. We still eat them.

 

[gaitngirl]

Are they frozen as is - do they have to be plucked, soaked, etc. first? The dog from this lot that we are adopting has severe allergies and is allergic to almost every food we've tried. I was going to have some of the ducks and chickens professionally processed and ground into burger to mix in with veggies, etc. to see if we can feed him 'naturally' without allergic reaction. He hasn't gone after any of the poultry (to date) and responds well to 'no' commands when we take him out on a leash around the chickens and ducks. The other two have killed and eaten one duck, killed two other ducks and one chicken, and go nuts around all of the poultry now. We've tried working with them on leash around the birds but the dogs are so big they are hard to control - they go crazy around them trying to get at them. I used to have a training shock collar that I had to use on a doberman foster that would go after the chickens - it worked wonders! - but I don't have it anymore and can't afford another one right now. The rescue I foster for doesn't have any other foster homes available - I've been asking for these dogs to be placed elsewhere for months. They've had several adoptions fall through (many people have inquired about them - they are nice looking retriever/chow/hound mixes - but haven't met the rescues requirements for fenced yard, background (vet) checks, etc. Or the people think the dogs should be free since they are rescues. Or they've had small children that aren't dog friendly. . .). The biggest reason these two aren't adopted yet is that they get horribly car sick on trips longer than 10 minutes and nobody wants car sick dogs. I've fostered these dogs since they were tiny and it breaks my heart to tell the rescue they have to go straight away, but I can't keep losing my birds to them, either. I'm not set up properly for so many dogs and it's been wearing me down (originally there was mom and 9 pups - now we are down to the one we're adopting and two other large males - it's been a year).
Sorry to be babbling but I'm still upset about the duck and the dogs. The rescue says that there is a kennel that I can take them to, which I believe may help them transition into a new family more easily since they've only known of here as home and their pack. If they ever get adopted.

 

[PaisyQ]

Paisy, That is awesome. I will cross my fingers you have a much better hatch than I did. Poor little Loner if peeping up a storm in the kitchen.

Good, I'll keep you updated.

 

[lbrykowski2011]

Hey all! The foster dogs (well, the ringleader anyway) killed another of my Muscovy ducks. A young drake this time that flew over or into the dog pen area. My son and I had clipped the girls wings after the last two losses but hadn't been able to do all of the boys yet. I heard it happen right after they went out this morning and ran out but it was too late. I took the drake's body and soaked it in cold water, bagged it, and he's in the fridge. I've never processed poultry before - I don't even know if I should being as the dog killed him. He hasn't been bled out - his neck was broken, I think. There is a bite mark on his neck and his leg.
Does anyone know if it's too late to process him? He's been kept cold since it happened . . .

Hubby goes pheasant hunting and carries them all day and they don't get bled out right away. It's still ok to process.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

I'm sorry Leigh. That is crummy.

 

[Totalcolour]

Are they frozen as is - do they have to be plucked, soaked, etc. first? The dog from this lot that we are adopting has severe allergies and is allergic to almost every food we've tried. I was going to have some of the ducks and chickens professionally processed and ground into burger to mix in with veggies, etc. to see if we can feed him 'naturally' without allergic reaction. He hasn't gone after any of the poultry (to date) and responds well to 'no' commands when we take him out on a leash around the chickens and ducks.

One of my "rescues" is allergic to almost everything. The other eats anything and everything.


You can breast out the duck if you don't want to do the whole thing. Skin the breast first. Sometimes I grind up the meat, but mostly the Airedale eats the whole thing (bones, beak and feet!) The Mastiff/Lab is the hard one. We grind his meat because he can't seem to handle the bones the way the girl does. He seems to be able to digest the duck meat and other raw meats.

I'm sorry you can't afford another training collar. Yes, they are the best tool, (in the right hands) for difficult dogs. We wouldn't have been able to keep the Airedale if we hadn't got one. She broke the last owner's arm because she's so big and unruly. Now, she's a different girl, and yet still playful. She know her boundaries now though.

I hope you work things out soon. You do sound like you are stressing.

 

[RaZ]

Meal worms are the ultimate taming treat.


How about these legs?

 

[1muttsfan]

Unless the bird was gutted immediately after it's demise, I would pass on eating it. Unless you can tolerate further losses, the culprit should go, immediately - maybe they have a different dog you could take on, and pass that one to a bird-free home. They have to recognize that this dog is not appropriate for your home.

 

[Totalcolour]

Meal worms are the ultimate taming treat.


How about these legs?

What kind of canaries are these - they are very pretty!

 

[chickwhispers]

I'm getting back in the saddle again!!!

It has been about ten years since I've ridden a horse. Well, I knew my neighbor 1/4 a mile away with a big horse boarding farm did lessons, English not Western. But what I didn't know is that they have a horse that can handle a heavier rider. I wasn't planning on any lessons until I lose a lot of my fluff (working on it). So I will be starting weekly lessons! I'll have to go back to square one, since it has been so long, but it'll be awesome! I

And her prices for a lesson are ultra reasonable, $35 an hour! To put this into perspective, when I was a teen and taking lessons, the place I was at cost $80 an hour. I can budget $35 a week easily, especially for something I enjoy so much.

My father, who used to ride all the time as a young man (my grandmother had a Morgan mare), is thinking of starting up lessons again, too. The few times I've seen him ride, he is a natural, even after years of no practice. Once, he even rode on horseback to Petra with some other Navy officers! I wish they had digital cameras back then, because pictures of that trip would have been amaaazing.

That does sound exciting! It's been about 10 years since I've gotten to ride. Those are reasonable prices too. Have fun!

Sounds good on paper, the reality is that even a small flock will decimate a hosta garden in the time it takes to turn around twice.
Mulch is a playground for them. Especially when it is in a forbidden garden.

I think it best if we try to keep our chickens in our own yards. I've learned that even the best neighbor can turn on you in an heartbeat. And my chickens never left the yard!
Fencing on the ground might deter the scratching but the plants will still get eaten. I used black plastic fencing around my hosta bed after losing it the first year I had walking garbage disposals, I mean chickens. You can get it in green or black and is barely visible.

I think it is at the same place as last year.

The Birch Run exit 136 on I-75. On the west side of the freeway.

ETA: This is their website. http://www.fowlfest.org/

This came to my inbox. If you have FB, you can vote to help this farmer get a commercial during the Super Bowl.
https://www.smallbusinessbiggame.com/MN/Locally-Laid-Egg-Company/382873

RaZ, That is a very good ad! I have to figure how to get FB link to work. Only link I got on mobile view was through Intuit but I will try again. Also, since my girls don't seem to be interested in my hostas, any chance they will leave them alone in spring? Maybe I'll have to put some kind of fence around the areas I don't want them to eat! So far so good though.

Hey all! The foster dogs (well, the ringleader anyway) killed another of my Muscovy ducks. A young drake this time that flew over or into the dog pen area. My son and I had clipped the girls wings after the last two losses but hadn't been able to do all of the boys yet. I heard it happen right after they went out this morning and ran out but it was too late. I took the drake's body and soaked it in cold water, bagged it, and he's in the fridge. I've never processed poultry before - I don't even know if I should being as the dog killed him. He hasn't been bled out - his neck was broken, I think. There is a bite mark on his neck and his leg.
Does anyone know if it's too late to process him? He's been kept cold since it happened . . .

So sorry about your ducks.

I don't know about bleeding them out, but I have family that went hunting in the morning got a few animals through out the day and took care of the rest when getting home in the evening, if that means anything?