Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Candy442]

@Folly's place , long time no talk with or see This COVID stuff is no fun at "parties" for sure.
What is on your chick order this year?

@uchytil how are you guys doing?

 

[riss]

Yay another STATE fan .

If they have heat now and they should at their current age, then I would wait until they can go into an outside coop and be comfortable without heat. That is usually by 6 weeks and feathered in well. I am thinking the rule of thumb used to be 85 at around 4 days to one week old and reduce by 5 degrees each week after until they are fully feathered? so at this point, if they are three weeks, they should be at 75 now. Ducks do not like to be overly hot, so if they have a way to get cooled off now, that is fine. You didn't mention how many you have, that also makes a difference, the size of their current pen, etc. They can and will also keep themselves warm. However with unpredictable Michigan weather it is safe to say when they are fully feathered around 2 months old for most breeds, they can be in their outside coop without any additional warmth safely

I have 5 ducks. 2 pekins, and 3 khaki campbells. Their coop in the garage is pretty large, enough for them to run around in without knocking into each other. They have lots of room to cool off if they don't want to be in heat. I have the lamp pointing into their sleeping corders so I'll probably have it set to 75 so they aren't baking. No need to have an early thanksgiving

 

[Candy442]

I have 5 ducks. 2 pekins, and 3 khaki campbells. Their coop in the garage is pretty large, enough for them to run around in without knocking into each other. They have lots of room to cool off if they don't want to be in heat. I have the lamp pointing into their sleeping corders so I'll probably have it set to 75 so they aren't baking. No need to have an early thanksgiving

LOL, duck for Thanksgiving huh? I have never been a real fan of eating duck, probably because I had to avoid all the shot in the meat as a kid. I do, however, LOVE turkey and it's difficult to bring myself around to having one of our flock. I also raise chicken for the freezer each fall. Nothing beats your home grown poultry for your table in terms of flavor and the amount of meat you get.
We also sell all our eggs at a local farmer's market. The duck eggs are starting to gain popularity as people who are allergic to chicken eggs can sometimes eat duck eggs. Not to mention duck eggs are the absolute best to bake with!

 

[Dreamzchaser]

Hey Dreamz,

How lucky you are in a State with the most fantastic agricultural university around (yup, I graduated from MSU). Here is a link to the MSU extension. It's the BEST place to research growing items here in our great state

https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/the_short_sweet_life_of_cilantro#:~:text=The plants need full sun,location that has afternoon shade.

Candy

Thank you Candy. Do I go "go green or blue" Never understand that,lol
Anyways, I checked it before. It is a difficult one to stay alive for me. I have a purple thumb. I am more interested in Culantro which has a stronger flavor than cilantro. My cell is not loading pics to my puter, argh!

 

[Dreamzchaser]

LOL, duck for Thanksgiving huh? I have never been a real fan of eating duck, probably because I had to avoid all the shot in the meat as a kid. I do, however, LOVE turkey and it's difficult to bring myself around to having one of our flock. I also raise chicken for the freezer each fall. Nothing beats your home grown poultry for your table in terms of flavor and the amount of meat you get.
We also sell all our eggs at a local farmer's market. The duck eggs are starting to gain popularity as people who are allergic to chicken eggs can sometimes eat duck eggs. Not to mention duck eggs are the absolute best to bake with!

Oh, yeah baby, that's what I am talking about! You don't know what you are missing. Duck are delicioso (Mandarin Duck with homemade chinesse rice)

 

[Dreamzchaser]

Hi, Ladies, Had a busy morning. Left the house by 7am and was checking prices at Home Depot, Menards and Farm and home for a back fence.
Then took a drive by the VFW as Michelle said and loaded 4 on the top of my SUV. My head hurts. Had to put them on my head to load them and unload them. They are different sizes. However, they have a lot.
Craigslist Muskegon is sad. Grand Rapids, however, found many places with plenty I mean plenty of pallets for free. To the point that I could build a 3 bedroom house. Wonder if I rent a truck to go pick them up,
While at the Farm and home store found a water pond gigantic thing that is wider than the one I had the girls in and brought it home and changed them to that. Pixie was happy thinking I was getting them out for her to play with, poor dog, I told her that they were not toys just alive animals just like her. I think she got mad at me for that. Just because I call her baby, I think she thinks she is human,

Anyways, Thank you for all the information. However, I am tired so I just cleaned and gave fresh food and water to the girls, Pixie went out and I am going to take a nap which I know I very well deserve it,

How do I cut into a plastic storage for a window and a small door?

 

[Candy442]

Hi, Ladies, Had a busy morning. Left the house by 7am and was checking prices at Home Depot, Menards and Farm and home for a back fence.
Then took a drive by the VFW as Michelle said and loaded 4 on the top of my SUV. My head hurts. Had to put them on my head to load them and unload them. They are different sizes. However, they have a lot.
Craigslist Muskegon is sad. Grand Rapids, however, found many places with plenty I mean plenty of pallets for free. To the point that I could build a 3 bedroom house. Wonder if I rent a truck to go pick them up,
While at the Farm and home store found a water pond gigantic thing that is wider than the one I had the girls in and brought it home and changed them to that. Pixie was happy thinking I was getting them out for her to play with, poor dog, I told her that they were not toys just alive animals just like her. I think she got mad at me for that. Just because I call her baby, I think she thinks she is human,

Anyways, Thank you for all the information. However, I am tired so I just cleaned and gave fresh food and water to the girls, Pixie went out and I am going to take a nap which I know I very well deserve it,

How do I cut into a plastic storage for a window and a small door?

wow, my head is getting too soft and old to use as a pallet platform but hey, free is free for sure and pallets as long as they are sturdy have a lot of great uses including building a coop .
We used a standard drill a hole and a jigsaw to cut out the openings. Then we just bolted a frame made out of 1x3 boards on inside to outside with 1/4 hardware cloth in between . The resin is easily to cut through with jigsaw or sawzall. You can even use a hacksaw by hand if you want to .

We then build a platform "poop" board out of 1/2" plywood however tall you need up from the floor and put the nest boxes underneath the poop board. We dont have any fancy egg boxes and slide plastic cubes, bins, whatever we can put hay in for them to lay. For the roost, we put up 2x4 braces on either side wall and then screw a 2 x 4 on its side into the brace for them to settle down on to keep their feet warm in the winter.
I will have my husband take pictures of the pop door and windows we added and post later.

 

[Candy442]

Thank you Candy. Do I go "go green or blue" Never understand that,lol
Anyways, I checked it before. It is a difficult one to stay alive for me. I have a purple thumb. I am more interested in Culantro which has a stronger flavor than cilantro. My cell is not loading pics to my puter, argh!

For State, It's Go Green Go White!
For U of M it's "tbbbbssstttttt" (the "raspberries" LOL )

 

[riss]

Hey Dreamz how are your chicks going? Got any updated pics of how big they getting. Maybe it'll spice up my poultry fever of getting more babies

 

[Sally PB]

Some of us had relatives that went to U of M.