Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Folly's place]

It's not about having a chicken die, it's about personal injury!!! This can include somebody tripping over something out there, being injured by a chicken, who knows?
We had a farm inspection by our insurance company a couple of years ago, and upgraded some things as a result. This included bringing our coop electrical up to code by an electrician, so it would be covered by our policy.
My dad did insurance for a long time, and I heard stories...
A few years ago, I shopped different companies for farm insurance, and Travellers won't cover a property that includes chickens, one or one million, didn't matter! It was so strange; horses, cattle, no problem. Chickens, no way!
Mary

 

[aart]

Because we have horses and cattle, and chickens, we have a farm policy, not homeowner's.

That makes sense.


Wonders about @KCzarnik landlord allowing chickens on the property.

 

[Folly's place]

Chickens, turkeys, whatever poultry, are livestock, and insurance companies may see them that way. Make sure you all know what your company does, before there's a situation.
Mary

 

[ChickenMathLady]

My Dad's my landlord and building my coop @aart , so all is well with the chickens on that front. I noticed when we were signing up that "will there be any farming" was a question but didn't think more about it until we were looking into city ordinances. Essentially, we'd be in violation of contract if we got 3 and our renter's policy would be set to cancel, which would increase my car insurance a bit. Might have to look into other companies for renter's insurance since I can't imagine someone getting hurt by the chickens when it's just 2 in a coop and run but you never know. People do stupid things and things happen.

 

[1muttsfan]

I would at least shop around a little bit.

 

[snowflake]

Hi Michigan,

Are any of you all out there renters? We just found out that our current renter's insurance only allows 1 chicken per household member. Our city only allows 3 hens, so we'd like to get 3 but there are 2 of us. Our insurance is Meemic. Curious if anyone is a renter and has checked their insurance policies.

that's very interesting, don't think I have heard that before. Wonder why they allow 1, do you suppose they are thinking indoor house pet?

 

[ChickenMathLady]

Maybe @snowflake but since it's 1 per person, they must assume you want to eat the eggs? It's odd so we're sending some messages out and seeing what bites we get from other insurance companies. Dad suggested if anything ever came up, I could always be "babysitting" a chicken for him.

 

[Newby81]

My broody hen has been on the fertile eggs since Friday night. I have her separated and in a quiet place. I have not seen any evidence of her leaving the eggs, no poop in the bedding outside of the nesting box. I know she wont wander very much from the nest, but what should I look for to make sure everything is normal? She seems fine and everything, but just want to be prepared. When I took her off the infertile eggs, they were all clean. Thanks in advance.

 

[aart]

My broody hen has been on the fertile eggs since Friday night. I have her separated and in a quiet place. I have not seen any evidence of her leaving the eggs, no poop in the bedding outside of the nesting box. I know she wont wander very much from the nest, but what should I look for to make sure everything is normal? She seems fine and everything, but just want to be prepared. When I took her off the infertile eggs, they were all clean. Thanks in advance.

I like to take them off the nest and encourage them to drink and eat if they haven't been off of their own accord after 3 days of setting. Ya kinda gotta 'wake them up', even dip their beak in water or feed if necessary. IME once is all it takes, they'll eat and drink and run around a bit, dust bathe if they can, and drop huge turd...then go back to nest. After that they'get u p n their own. Having them separate makes it easy to see if they've hit the feeder or pooped.

 

[1muttsfan]

I had to pry my broody off the nest every day for the last 3 weeks. She would blast out the pop door, run around and EAT EAT EAT then DRINK DRINK DRINK then POOP then furiously dust bathe and leap into the air and shake off all the dirt. All the while growling at the birds in the next pen. Then back onto the eggs for another 24 hours. Hens will sometimes not get up at all throughout sitting, and can get very thin and debilitated.

But remember, leave her on the nest undisturbed for the last 3 days of incubation, and until she gets up off the nest on her own after hatching, to avoid problems with your hatch.

My chicks hatched out in the last 24 hours, but Mom is still sitting tight on them, so I will wait until she gets up to see what we have.