Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[chyna]

Hang in there spring is coming and they will start laying for you. You are doing all you can.

 

[bobhoke]

I have a light on all night long (they get about 16hrs of light daily). They sleep with their head under their wings. I watch them sleeping through their windows. We have:

2 Bantam Buff Cochins. (1 is broody and laying on 8 bantam eggs in a tupperware shed (straw).)
2 Bantam Black Cochins. (Both lay at least every other day, but one has mites on her toes)
1 Wyandotte Rooster (Coward) 1 yr
1 Black Giant Rooster (Dominant) 8 mo
3 Barnevelder Roos 5 mo
6 Barnevelder Pullets 5 mo
4 Black Giant hens 8 mo (all lay)
3 Australorp hybrids (both lay) (had 4, but one just spontaneously died last week - very weird, shoulda culled her first, but she was our best bird hands down)
2 EE hybrids 1 lays the other was injured by our Golden Retriever and is recovering (afraid of the floor now and is hand fed daily)
1 Maran EE hybrid, but Maran dominant. She lays too.

16x22 coop with a sloped roof. Windows face south. 10 hens metal nesting container (commercial), and one single plastic nest (commercial).

We have straw and alfalfa and a corner with straight DE in it for dusting. We are in Manton, and they only go out when its over 32 with no wind.

There is no breeze in the coop. They get clean water daily and have huge clean feeders with shucked corn, cracked corn, feather fixer, and organic pellets from TSC.

We get 6 to 8 eggs daily. The best we've had is 13 eggs in one day this winter. They slow down when it gets cold. No heat lamp. They do have comb frostbite though - not good.

This is our first winter in Michigan - brrr.

Next year we'll isolate the rooster when the cold locks them in. It too much stress for the hens. I think they would lay more even though only one rooster is breeding with them. (Missind head feathers)...less stress.

We are also changing our flock out with birds that are large feather footed and with pea combs (small). (Cochins, Brahmas, EE, OE, and Icelandic birds) Can't wait for summer

 

[vintagegem]

First I want to thank you all for the kind words.
Sam, I totally agree with you. Being a caretaker/cena/with mental health training, I see a lot of different diseases. I truly think the mental ones are the worst. They rob people of their identity, and families of their loved one leaving a body and a shell of what the person once was, and sometimes a totally different person that they had never seen. I especially feel for your farmer, and I am so thankful he has you and your family.
Ken and I combined two families. I had two and he had 4 children. It has been a very interesting life to say the least. The last 15 to 20 years (we were married for 32 years) we spent every day working together away and at home. We have a lawn business that kept us going all summer, and we were always together. Along with that I usually have 1 patient that I take care of, which Ken also helped with by fixing things for them. ( I try to only have one patient at a time), and I clean house for two customers. We kept very busy.
Ken was changing tires on our truck, and the truck came down and crushed him. He died instantly, of which I am so thankful that he was not in pain. It has been really hard (Please I am not looking for pity) I have had the winter to morn, and reflect, and decide where I go from here. I am a lucky one, my 6 children are watching over me and making sure I am ok. I will probably morn for the rest of my life, as he was a very special man, not too many of them out there and I had one of them! But I also know that it eases, never goes away, but in time eases a bit.
I am going to try and keep the lawn work up. I love my chickens so I will probably try and keep up with them also. I know I will be ok. When you have loved ones, please make sure they know you love them. In only seconds you can lose them.
I have really rambled enough. Again my prayers are with you and your family including your farmer. Gail

I know you are not looking for pity, and so I will just say God Bless you, that must have been a terrible way to lose your husband and you are dealing with it with such dignity and grace, may your sorrow be lessened with time, and only good memories remain

 

[1muttsfan]

My Arkansas Blues, AB/Cream Legbar crosses, and Delawares have been laying all winter without lights - very impressive

 

[bigmrg74]

I should rephrase..the chick ended up being "free". He told me it was "free" because he had a $3.00 coupon for the feed and the chick was 2.49. He was compelled to get a little easter egger, which he thinks is a pullet (

...last time he picked out a pullet from a straight run bin it was a cockerel, mind you! ). He thought we have two little Iowa Chicks just hatched and a Chantecler hopefully hatching this weekend.

Yeah, it's a long story (and DH's reasoning)

that the one egg is a week behind the other test hatch we did...

@bigmrg74 , I thought Amy wanted a brown one? don't let her see the second little chick we hatched, it is a nice brown one. However, it will not feather out that way

I love being a State of MIchigan employee...they dismissed our office at noon yesterday and closed today. I received an automated message via phone last night at 10pm they decided to keep us all home today to clear the roads! YAY snow day for mamma!!!

Yeah, I know I need to keep Amy away from TSC for the next couple of weeks. Kinda want to get laying chicks about halfway thru March. Then probably going to be working on a hoop coop to raise some meat birds in this summer. Probably going to just get some Buffs, unless they have a few others of another breed that I would like to get as well to fill out the box to six.

 

[aart]

My Arkansas Blues, AB/Cream Legbar crosses, and Delawares have been laying all winter without lights - very impressive

Are they pullets?

 

[Candy442]

Yeah, I know I need to keep Amy away from TSC for the next couple of weeks. Kinda want to get laying chicks about halfway thru March. Then probably going to be working on a hoop coop to raise some meat birds in this summer. Probably going to just get some Buffs, unless they have a few others of another breed that I would like to get as well to fill out the box to six.

What cha looking for (other than Ba---uffs?)> Brett has the panels to make another hoop coop that we will need if we decide on meat birds too. I am seriously considering getting some this year.

I do NOT want Chinese chicken!

 

[thechickenflock]

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!!

I have 30 hens in their second year, but 3 of them just finished molting in late January (They all started in October). I was getting 0-2 eggs a day for about 3 months but I am now back up to 10-12

 

[chyna]

My Cochans and Silkies are laying very well. I have two Silkies that are broodey but I take their eggs away. If it were summer I would dunk them to cool them down but now I just let them sit. Maybe we will have chicks when it warms up. Never a dull moment in the hen houses.

 

[gladahmae]

Can Anyone comment on the selection of chicks in the Lansing area? Or know what my chances of them having much on a Saturday evening are? I'd like to get some leghorns and either partridge rocks or wyandottes.