Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[zndzant]

Look what I found this morning. The first egg! Im so excited! No idea who laid it as mine are all brown egg layers. Except the the Easter eggers.

 

[1muttsfan]

If that is a first pullet egg it might be a double yolker

 

[yochickiemomma]

That's so eggciting! I remember when I found my first egg you would have thought I found gold.Congestions

 

[zndzant]

Not a double yolker, I made my fried egg sandwich out of it this morning.

Im not doing any supplemental lighting in my coop for the winter so it's a crap shoot when I'll see another

 

[aart]

Look what I found this morning. The first egg! Im so excited! No idea who laid it as mine are all brown egg layers.
Except the the Easter eggers.

Hopefully.

If you really want to know who laid that you can poke them all in the butt to find out.
Pelvic points are accurate and pretty easy once you find the right spot.
Vent:
Dry, tight, and smaller - usually not laying.
Moist, wide, and larger - usually laying

Pelvic Points 2 bony points(pelvic bones) on either side of vent:
Less than 2 fingertip widths apart usually means not laying.
More than 2 fingertip widths apart usually means laying.

 

[zndzant]

@aart
Thanks for that info. If it ever dries up around here before spring, I may just try that. I could guess that it was the barred rock who didnt fight my RIR cockerel when he tried to mount her a couple of days ago.

Speaking of chicken mating, is it common/normal for the cockerel to do a little stompy dance around the pen when he's feeling randy?
And that is your belly laugh for the day! I'm 55 years old and have no idea what chicken mating behavior is. Lol

 

[aart]

@aart
Thanks for that info. If it ever dries up around here before spring, I may just try that. I could guess that it was the barred rock who didnt fight my RIR cockerel when he tried to mount her a couple of days ago.

Speaking of chicken mating, is it common/normal for the cockerel to do a little stompy dance around the pen when he's feeling randy?
And that is your belly laugh for the day! I'm 55 years old and have no idea what chicken mating behavior is. Lol

I usually grab them off the roost at night to examine, wearing a head light to see.

That stompy dance is in fact a mating dance.......https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/800417/chicken-mating-thread

 

[1muttsfan]

Also sometimes called dropping a wing.

 

[RaZ]

Chickens find the strangest places to lay their eggs.

 

[ladyrsanti]

Hey all. Been a while. We've been enjoying the fall. My husband and I drove around the entire U.P. last weekend and had a blast. I found a house I wanted to buy on Stonington Peninsula. Old, run down place with a barn, abandoned but for sale. I can dream, right? Anyway, he got the car stuck in a ditch near Beacon Hill. That the was the highlight of the trip. He'll never live that down. I kept saying we needed 4-wheelers to get around up there but nooooo, he wanted to take the sedan. Ah well. Many, many pictures were had. Beautiful views, ghost towns, history, color, good eats. It's my favorite place in the world.

I use straw deep litter method and I like that better than the shavings. Mostly I use it because I have the sheep and straw on hand so buying shavings is redundant but I still like it better. No, it doesn't generate heat. But it does break down nicely and I find that it doesn't hold moisture or get smelly, except under the ever-popular corner roost where they don't ever scratch under. There's some serious compost there. Regardless, it all gets tossed in the compost bins once a year to finish cooking.

The duck eggs are selling well now. I sold 3 1/2 dozen in the last two days so no problems with the $6/doz. My pullets just started laying too and I'm getting quite a few eggs suddenly, after a lull. In my limited experience, though, they'll wind down as soon as the winter hits and pick up again a few months later. Most of the old ladies are finished with their molts now and still aren't laying. They're gonna wait.

I've got a black copper marans roo that keeps getting chased out of the coop by his senior, a blue/wheaten americauna. I've never had a rooster chase another away. Fight, yes, but simply keep them out of the coop, no. Poor boy was out in the rain all day Wednesday before I saw him and brought him in. So I think I'm going to separate them and give both the girls I want them to breed for the spring, one in the main coop and one in the barn. Gonna do some olive eggers this coming year. Last year I hatched easter eggers and black copper marans for olive egger stock. Sort of an every other year thing I guess. I don't sell birds or chicks but if anyone is interested in hatching eggs this coming spring, I'd be willing to sell some. Nothing super special. I don't have any ameraucana hens but I've had good luck getting really pretty olive eggs out of the mix.

Put our first turkey of the year in the oven this afternoon. Boy does it smell good. I only butchered two toms so far. Because our weekends are full, I have to do them on my own and they're heritage breed but still heavy and a lot for me to tackle. So two in one day is my limit. It takes me about 3 hours from setup to cleanup. So an afternoon. I've got 4 more to go (one tom and 3 hens) and 10 freedom rangers in a couple of weeks too. Busy-busy.

Okay, that's my rambling for today. Everyone have a nice weekend!