Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[chyna]

Put new chips over the snow and those lazy girls are still holding up in the coop. We got only six inches. We live close to the bay. I would love new chicks. Maybe I will put some little Cochan eggs to set not until April.

 

[gladahmae]

Yeah no one up here is getting chicks until the week of the 7th. Cadillac tsc should have theirs next week, but that's almost 90min away. We are traveling downstate for a funeral this weekend so maybe I can convince dh to stop and check at a store or 2 and see if they have what I'm looking for. I'd like to get chicks early enough that they start laying this year. I have 8 isa Browns I got last year on Mother's Day weekend that STILL aren't laying. As in they haven't even started. It is beyond frustrating. I have 30 chickens and get 1 egg a day (from a mutt ee I hatched last year) if I'm lucky.

 

[chyna]

30 chickens and 1 egg a day has to be frustrating. My ISB are laying machines every since they started at 16 weeks. Do you have an egg eater? What are you feeding them?

 

[Folly's place]

So I've been home for these two days, sick with a nasty cold, and the timing was perfect ! Didn't want to try the long drive to work anyway, and not well enough to go. Instead, I called in this year's Cackle order, to come early April. Plenty early enough! MUST NOT get chicks from the feed store! Mary

 

[Folly's place]

I've had a small light on a timer, 4am to 8am daily, so my thirty hens are up to 14 to 16 eggs per day now. Some of these girls are old, and a few bantam pullets just starting to lay. Mary

 

[snowflake]

Yeah no one up here is getting chicks until the week of the 7th. Cadillac tsc should have theirs next week, but that's almost 90min away. We are traveling downstate for a funeral this weekend so maybe I can convince dh to stop and check at a store or 2 and see if they have what I'm looking for. I'd like to get chicks early enough that they start laying this year. I have 8 isa Browns I got last year on Mother's Day weekend that STILL aren't laying. As in they haven't even started. It is beyond frustrating. I have 30 chickens and get 1 egg a day (from a mutt ee I hatched last year) if I'm lucky.

I feel your pain., I also have 30plus, and have been getting one a day for the last month, last week we got 2 every other day and 1 day this week we got 5, I almost fainted, yesterday we were back to 2. they should start picking up soon though. I hope!!

 

[snowflake]

welcome Bates, glad you found us

 

[chyna]

I also have a low wattage bulb on a timer. It helps with laying in the winter and helps me to see inside the coops on the dark winter days.

 

[chyna]

The LED bulbs last a long time and they don't give off heat. Mine go on at 7am and off at 7pm so it doesn't interfer with their night rhythm but gives them 14 hours of light. My 14 hens supply me and my family with eggs all winter.

 

[gladahmae]

I have a light on a timer in that coop as well. Comes on at 3 or 4am everyday. They get layer and have oyster shell on the side if they want it. I don't know what their deal is. I also have pullets that I hatched out in July (BIL has some from the same hatch). And THOSE aren't laying yet either.....his just started last week. Expensive eggs I tell ya.