Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[1muttsfan]

I have not been enjoying my birds as I should lately. I have 5 roosters, 3 bantam speckled Sussex, one mixed bantam, and my now middle aged, super nice guy and not very fertile Arkansas Blue. All I see when I go out there is the impending slaughter of 4 of these nice birds, as I can keep only one roo over the winter. Ugh.

 

[Captnrex]

well grew some fodder, they slowly eat it but I guess that's fair enough with there being plenty of grass around.

Gonna make the coop more stationary for now, need to go get some more cattle fence panels this weekend (wish i had time today, was like 72 most the day)

still got my roosters if anyone around needs any, 20 weeks old now, link in signature

 

[RaZ]

I heard my little roo for the first time today. Those practice crows are hilarious. I was supposed to have had 2 males when I bought the chicks. The TSC "expert" even checked the interweb for verification. Only the one BO is confirmed but maybe the "other" guy is a slow developer. There is one EE pullet who has a very pronounced comb. Only time will tell on that one.

 

[fuzzi]

I have not been enjoying my birds as I should lately. I have 5 roosters, 3 bantam speckled Sussex, one mixed bantam, and my now middle aged, super nice guy and not very fertile Arkansas Blue. All I see when I go out there is the impending slaughter of 4 of these nice birds, as I can keep only one roo over the winter. Ugh.

Why can you only keep one roo, no room?

 

[1muttsfan]

Yes, they all have to go into one coop for the winter. Last year my older Roo put up with the two young SS boys, but now that one has had his own flock I doubt it would be safe to put them back together.

 

[MIchickenlady]

Whew. It's been a minute. Update time. My two bantams are getting so big! I have this tiny guy (Quill) roo - picture of him on the log - who crows all day, his voice cracks and makes me laugh! They are 13 weeks now and for the most part, the other girls tolerate them. However, my female (Sable) has some swelling to the skin above her eye. No blood or damage, but it makes her look like she has a lazy eye. I applied VetRx to her and I'm hoping it's something respiratory related. It had been too long since I'd added bedding to the coop and diamaceous earth, so I did that tonight, too.

I have a bully at the bottom of the pecking order of my 5 large hens (Wanda) and she picks on my brown bantam (Rocket - picture of her on my shoulder), she flew right up when I entered the run tonight. I dunno if she was that excited to see me or just getting away. Will separating Wanda from the flock work? Would I be better to separate the victim to help her build confidence?

In better news, Rocket finally started to lay again! She went broody at the beginning of May and then I gave her eggs and she was raising the babies. She has these adorable tiny eggs.

And speaking of eggs, I'm full-up here! I'm thinking of waterglassing them and donating some as well. Has anyone waterglassed before?

I just opened a jar of eggs I waterglassed in 2022. I was curious, but because it was my 1st attempt and one egg in the middle cracked, I washed and tried cooking a couple but could not bring myself to try them of even give them to critters. They smelled slightly eggy in the jar, the whites were a bit yellowish, yolks broke and were thin but the broken eggs didnt smell off. Shells were hard. I am going to try again, with a bigger jar and only for 6 months.

 

[MIchickenlady]

I would not recommend using DE in coop bedding. It is not effective against hard shell parasites like most insects, and it's irritating to respiratory tissues. When chickens dig and scratch around it will airesolize some of it.

I used it when I was a new chicken keeper back in 2014 and must have inhaled some as I was spreading it around-ack! The coughing fit I had! Then I read about how under microscope DE is jagged and is a lung irritant. No more DE-instead I use First Saturday Lime-love the stuff!

 

[PhantomSlayer]

As annoying as this weather is I had to muster up the energy to clean the coop today. Sometime last night our youngest easter egger girl Goldie somehow tore off her nail so there was blood. Doctored her toe. Makes me relieved we added a roof to the kennel and added outdoor roosts so they can be out of the dirt and mud.

 

[Sally PB]

Speaking of cleaning, I might throw down the $149 to get a DeWalt cordless handheld vacuum to get rid of the spider webs and dust in the coop and run. I have other uses for a handheld vacuum too, but most places I'd want to clean can be reached by cord and with the big canister ShopVac. I could take that into the coop/run, but I'm afraid of freaking out the chickens with more than just the noise.

 

[RaZ]

A rather long day at work; I didn't get home until late. I didn't see a single bird in the run so I walked back to check. Spooked a hawk that was sitting on the fence. All of the poultry were in the coop. There was a headless carcass right by the coop door. An adult missing everything from the shoulders up. Fortunately, it wasn't one of my 2 adults. So now I'm curious about where this bird came from. And how it got in to the run.

BTW All of my flock are still with me. Didn't lose a single bird.