Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[gladahmae]

Can anyone comment on mulching with leaves? I need something to keep the grass down in the one garden. Whole leaves? Chopped?

Also can anyone comment on net style trellising versus string trellising for tomatoes?

 

[dportfamfarm]

My ducks have officially moved to their home!!! We are getting chicks too and will split the interior and outside run to keep them seperate. Also my youngest helper boy taking a ride to the coop (its a 1 1\2 mile trek)

Coop still needs work but there is linolium floor put down and is also ran up the walls 2 feet per side.

 

[BigHope888]

Ha, thnx.

I figured out who my newly vocal rooster is. It's Rudy.

We put a garden in today. The chickens have decided this is their own all you can eat buffet. I'm off to get some wire fencing tomorrow to keep them out.

Lots of tomatoes, lots of peppers, a few lettuce plants, and some hot peppers. I also still have a few things left to find a place to plant them, including cabbage, potatoes, onions, and garlic. We're out of garden space!

I also am discovering that chickens decide that a patch of dirt is "theirs." I got a 20-foot roll of cheapo wire fencing, not very intense security at all, just to keep everyone from trampling my rudebeckia and I have been shocked to see that it has kept them out 100 percent so far. But it's only been in for a few days; I'm sure they'll discover that they can jump it soon enough.

Interesting read.
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2015/05/ongoing-bird-flu-crisis-stumps-experts

Hope you're healing, RaZ! This one, too:

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/poultrynews/35119/four-more-confirmed-us-avian-flu-outbreaks/

Another reassuring number from this article: Only ONE of 4,000 backyard flocks tested/monitored for HPAI tested positive. (Minnesota.)

I have some visitors right now.

Lovely! I see Great Blue Herons flying over our backyard, they've got to be in the same "family."

Oh, the ladies had a great Memorial Day. With bf and myself both off work, they banked the most free-range time in one day they've ever had. Coop cleaned out and moved. We fed them the slugs we found while gardening. They found their own earthworms and ants galore. Took a community dirtbath. Good times.

 

[Barrettsmimi]

"Pullets" means all girls...i.e. you would most likely buy them for egg laying.

You need a lid on your brooder, as suggested...even with a lid my little turkey poult I had a couple years ago would always get out.

Chickens are skittish...in my experience at least. I personally don't mind if I don't have lap chickens, so I just train them to the shake of the feed container, and they always came a runnin and went in the coop on their own...I could catch them if need be, but they didn't want me holding them all the time. What breed are they? Certain breeds are more "flighty" than others...your typical layers that you'll get at TSC will be pretty flighty...but should lay well...if you want "pet" chickens I would suggest investing in a breed known for being more friendly, like Cochins, Brahma's, Australorps, or Buff Orpingtons...albeit a tiny bit more pricey to do so.

Good luck!

@mrshaggie810 I was just worried because they were only 2 days old when I picked them up. I have chicken wire over the brooder right now. I have 4 red cross, 2 barred rock and 2 black sexlink. They have learned the "shake" of the treat bag, lol. I just wanted to be able to hold them or not have them run away from me when I'm around, but as soon they learned the what the treat bag was, they all came running and do everyday haha. Except for 1, she's extremely shy. Now they are 4 weeks old and I really really want to put them in their coop, but I've read I should wait a few more weeks. Is there really a set time limit on when they could be put in the coop?

 

[Folly's place]

Mine went to their separate coop area, with a heat lamp, at three weeks of age. They needed the space! Mary

 

[RaZ]

Let's play a game.

Can you name this famous person?
"As a young man in upstate New York, he bred prize-winning chickens, published a trade journal about poultry and was as an actor and playwright."

Clue: He is/was a author.

 

[aart]

Let's play a game.

Can you name this famous person?
"As a young man in upstate New York, he bred prize-winning chickens, published a trade journal about poultry and was as an actor and playwright."

Clue: He is/was a author.

Can I cheat and use google?
..or rather is using google cheating?

 

[ToniTalley]

Can anyone comment on mulching with leaves? I need something to keep the grass down in the one garden. Whole leaves? Chopped?

Also can anyone comment on net style trellising versus string trellising for tomatoes?

My favorite free mulch is grass clippings, also good when mixed with mowed up leaves. Pile the stuff thick and it will burn up anything under it...well, to a point. I swear that thistles can grow through anything. But don't mulch with damp clippings where there are good plants, it will burn them up.
As for tomatoes, IMO, the best tomato trellis is the horizontal trellis, as opposed to a vertical trellis. They keep the tomatoes off the ground, so no rot. You can see lots of examples if you google it, and they can be simple or complicated, plastic, metal fencing or string, just need the openings to be large enough that tomatoes easily fit through the mesh.

 

[bigmrg74]

So about 3 plus hours into a power outage with the sun going down and you already have a half hour into getting the generator going is a bad time to find out that somebody who's supposed to be doing the maintenance on the generator hasn't been doing that like he's supposed to.

Never did get the generator going tonight, but at least the power is back on here.

 

[dportfamfarm]

Anyone use sand in their coops? What type should I use? Local stone dock said lots of people she knows use play sand??? Any help would be appreciated!!