Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Candy442]

Thank you! I have looked at Townline and they are on my list to visit. I am not sure where Zeeland is, I will have to map it. I am in South Central MI. About an hour south of Lansing. I'm hoping to find a breeder in Lansing or Ann Arbor area.

Hi NightOwl,

Welcome! Sounds like you are near Jackson area? We will be breeding Iowa Blues this summer. I have one cockerel and three pullets. This breed is very rare and being studied at the APA right now. My girls are one silver (preferred color) and two birchen colors. They are winter hardy and the cockerels are great flock watchers/hawk fighters by legends

. We live east of Okemos.

Other than that, I have a variety of birds, most of them outside of the Iowa's were gotten at TSC chick days and .50 cents a piece for our RSL's and 1.00 a chick for our EE's. We have an Ameraucana that was born last May and she has yet to lay an egg. We got her as a 5 month old to replace one we lost to a domestic dog attack. We are waiting every day to find a blue egg in the nests.
Our EE's have finished molting and started laying again two days ago YAY!

 

[snowflake]

Newbies! You're going to love this thread! So many helpful informative and friendly people! They even let a "buckeye" in! Lol!


@preciouskitty since you are in the south, could you bring a gulf breeze our way when you come back? No moisture please just a Warm southern breeze would be nice.

PLEASE do I have a friend that just got back from Hawaii, she brought back no warm, not nice

Hi Nightowl, welcome to BYC and the Michigan thread

true about the roosters,But when you buy straight run, you get rooster

often about 50% nice when you have birds that you can tell from day 1

Just heard a rooster crow, so some one survived the cold, -16 last time I checked.

 

[1muttsfan]

Candy, some EE's lay tan or light brown eggs, but maybe your hen is just a late starter.

 

[Candy442]

Candy, some EE's lay tan or light brown eggs, but maybe your hen is just a late starter.

We have two EE pullets. Brett and I have seen them both lay and theirs are the very pretty green eggs in my avatar photo. The Ameraucana I have seen checking out the egg box, but never found a blue egg. I wonder if she is laying and it is a tan one? I have 11 pullets total. I know 10 of them are laying, but waiting for the blue egg from the one purebred Ameraucana

. In fact none that hatch has laid yet according to Folly's Place who owns them. We both have said if and when we find a blue egg, we are going to be pretty excited!!!

 

[chickwhispers]

I do believe I am installing "hen cams" in the coop and run and outside this spring!

1) Then I will see when they or their water freezes. No need to go out in the early morning deep freeze if everything is good!

2) I will see what predators are lurking around. What big eyes I'll have, the better to see the raccoons, stray dogs, and wild turkeys! (Yep we have 5 young jakes running through the property now, everyday!


3) Chicken TV! Better entertainment when there's nothing on the "Big Screen!"

 

[taprock]

I am a whiny mess right now. I won't expose you to it all but I am just so tired of the cold. Yesterday's high was -2 so who knows what the wind chill was. So my question to you all is how or what do you do to get past this horrible point in the winter? I've threatened DH I'm going to go have my hair dyed pink to add some color to life.

I am considering adding my light for the birds. This is the first year I have not had a light on and we definitely have fewer eggs even though we have more birds. Some I am sure is the light but I also wonder about the cold. I have added a bag of BOSS to their scratch to up the protein they are getting. I am also considering going back to the fermented feed, but with my flock size I'm not sure.

It is nice to see new faces here, however it will take me a bit to remember you!

I redid my chicken diaper with velcro and it worked great. So if anyone needs a pattern I know how to make them and they will cost you very little. Scrap of cloth, velcro and elastic.

 

[1muttsfan]

Definitely dye your hair pink.

 

[SillyChicken]

50 days till SPRING!!

Nightowl, you're not too far from me... welcome to BYC!

Me personally... love faverolles. They do well in confinement and winter (which goes hand in hand), great dual purpose bird, sex linked, will tend to be broody, people friendly. In my opinion, this is a good homesteading bird. And what I will be going back too.

 

[aart]

50 days till SPRING!!

30 hours till it's above 10 degrees!!!!!

 

[gladahmae]

wow 3 a bird thats crazy high i got an amish guy that does mine for 1.50 a bird and thats when i am feeling lazy and dont want to do them myself.

that is the way to go ,we have Amish near us, they charged $2 or $2.50 a couple yrs ago, last yr we did our own but not a large ##

we have had cornishx and freedom rangers in the past, freedom rangers were easier to raise, less stress with the heat, a hardy bird. VERY tasty!
bought from J&M hatchery, 2.10 a bird plus shipping, a bit costly compared to the cornishx

I HAD things all lined up to take them to an Amish family to process for $2.50/ea, and then 3 days before I was supposed to take them over they called and wanted to reschedule me for 10 days later. This was not OK with me since my birds were 9 weeks, and it was supposed to be in the upper 90s. Plus, it was another 25min to where they live, so we called the other place and they were able to fit us in. $3 is actually just about the going rate up here.......a few months prior I had taken 3 DP cockerels to a different place and paid $4/ea and inquired about if there was any kind of price break for a larger quantity.....I found out that not only was there NOT a price break, if the bird was too big to fit into a "chicken" bag it would be an additional $0.50 for the "Turkey" size bag.

30 hours till it's above 10 degrees!!!!!

Oh PLEASE let it be true! I NEED my kids to go to school!!!