Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[birdman55]

Had a reasonably good day but I don't enjoy the mud. It makes it extremely hard to haul square bales in and do chores. Weather was decent even though misting so I let the chickens out to free range. The boys decided they'd start spring early and try to mate as many hens as they could which turned into a full on, blood drawn, all out battle. The first time I let the skirmish go. The second time I interfered because it was getting nasty, not just a pecking order dispute. Needless to say both boys are in the smokehouse hanging cages to heal up. The hens seemed lost not having roosters but slowly made their way into the coop with some coaxing. Like having kids sometimes...

my roosters did the same thing

 

[taprock]

The early morning yard chores were almost delightful in this heatwave! The other day I snapped a few pictures of my Orloff pullets and compared them to the same birds two weeks prior. They sure are growing fast for being slow growers!

Nice to see Orloffs. They grow fast but mature slow. Mine didn't lay until they were 9 month old.

It's been a crazy couple weeks here, partly weather, partly because my son had bronchopneumonia, and lots of parties for lots of things. We can see the ground again so this winter already has one up on last year. We never had a thaw from when the snow started last year.

My aunt asked us to bring one of our turkeys for Thanksgiving. We started thawing her last Tuesday. On Friday my aunt called to tell us someone else who hadn't informed her was bringing turkey so keep it for ourselves. So Yesterday we cooked our turkey. My sister did a 22 pound like ours and said it took 7 hours so I was a bit worried about time. I used the convection oven and it was done in 3 hours. Very good, and as much as I like raising them I think we will be getting more poults this coming year.

 

[SillyChicken]

Hope everyone had a great holiday! I've been leaving the lights off in the coop this year............. and I've been getting zero eggs. So now we're going to leave one on to see if they start laying again. Otherwise, I'm not sure if I want to feed them all winter with no eggs at all! I am NOT buying from the store!!

 

[birdman55]

Hope everyone had a great holiday! I've been leaving the lights off in the coop this year............. and I've been getting zero eggs. So now we're going to leave one on to see if they start laying again. Otherwise, I'm not sure if I want to feed them all winter with no eggs at all! I am NOT buying from the store!!

we weren't having luck with eggs for a bout a month now and then we put in the heat lamp and the warm weather we just got...they started laying eggs again...picked three just five minutes ago..so im happy to have them laying again...

 

[aart]

I started increasing my coop light back in mid Sept...am up to 14.5 hours where it will stay for the winter.

There was a decrease in pullet eggs when we got the snow and run time/space was self reduced because of deep snow cover, more coop time and it's a little crowded in there.....and I think because a couple of the older hens are now done molting, have come back online and there are some nest time hierarchies/schedules being reestablished.

Pullet eggs increased in the last few warm days due to more run time/space...will be interesting to see how the eggs flow over the next week or so. My Welsummer pullet stopped laying 10 days ago...I hope she starts back up.

 

[suliah]

He also is selling eggs on Ebay. I asked if he would combine shipping since he is asking over $16.00 to ship a dozen and he refused. That was before Jackie warned me!

Thanks for the warning, so far the ones I got seem to be doing alright, and definitely are Orloffs (or so I think) but maybe I will need to look elsewhere to improve my flock?

*Edit* I just did some BYC searching and found someone else had bought from him as well, they were inquiring about what a "Blue Iza" is. After some emails and whatnot they discovered it was a fancy name he attached to a mixed breed.

Quote: Haha, that is totally me! I was asking about the Blue Iza's...

I have 8 chicks I got from that guy in the fall, they are now about 12 weeks old...

They've all survived, which is good, but I think the 2 "wheaten marans" I bought are cochins... The appenzeller spitzhauzens look more like silver spangled polish, and I know my BCM is mixed somewhere along the line because she's got copper over her whole body...

My 2 buff laced polish look nice, but honestly I would never breed anything from this guy now that I know better...

That being said, my BLRW does actually look right, it's beautiful, I just hope it's a hen!

 

[tntchix]

Yep, it hit 60 here too. I spent the afternoon outside watching the new roos direct the ladies around the yard. They explored every square foot of it! What a difference having these new guys. The dog even seemed settled and not anxious. She walked amongst them all (not saying she wasn't thinking about it) without so much as a lick of her chops, which is unusual for her.

The t shirt weather gave me a chance to add some more shavings to the deep litter in coop and run. It is so much nicer with a roof over the run.

Hubs caught a stomach bug right after dinner and he's fine now but he passed it on to all of us.

I don't wanna be sick...I'm the last one to get it. Ugh.

Oh, and it's 26 degrees again now.

 

[birdman55]

ahhhh eggs again...gotta love it
second pic is of some of the chickens by the outside thermal water bowl
last two pics are of where im putting up seven new coops for some pheasants

 

[JackieandChicks]

Haha, that is totally me! I was asking about the Blue Iza's...

I have 8 chicks I got from that guy in the fall, they are now about 12 weeks old...

They've all survived, which is good, but I think the 2 "wheaten marans" I bought are cochins... The appenzeller spitzhauzens look more like silver spangled polish, and I know my BCM is mixed somewhere along the line because she's got copper over her whole body...

My 2 buff laced polish look nice, but honestly I would never breed anything from this guy now that I know better...

That being said, my BLRW does actually look right, it's beautiful, I just hope it's a hen!

I have one from him, too...only she's got yellow legs and I'm not sure that is "acceptable"....and her markings should have a lot more lacing.

 

[suliah]

I have one from him, too...only she's got yellow legs and I'm not sure that is "acceptable"....and her markings should have a lot more lacing.

splash...

But yeah, not sure about the legs? Now I'll have to go look at mine more closely, she's definitely not a splash but I don't remember what color her legs are!