Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[fuzzybutt love]

She could just be an EE with a really big beak.

Orloffs do come bantam sized. Mine are standard. At this point mine are 6 months old and I still don't know if I have boys or girls.

I'm told by 8 months I should be able to tell for sure. I have both from a breeder (4) and from a hatchery (3) and there is a huge difference between the two.

No, she was completely different in the body too. Her stance, and shape were like your orloff and mutt EE's Also her body feathering was super full and soo much softer than my others. That nose and yellow skin have been puzzling me for a while too! My other EE's have pink skin, with bluish white tinted earlobes. I would bet money on it! Too much in common. Someone probably had an orloff, but thought it was an EE, and bred it to their EE. You'd be surprised at the combos that show up at that auction! I'm always sad though because the majority of folks that come there are looking for dinner and couldn't care less about pedigree, or rarity of color. There are a handful of us that actually are looking for stock, but not many.

 

[1muttsfan]

Stacy, unfortunately once a bird learns to peck open eggs they wont stop - eggs taste good, after all.

Raz, stove looks great, you will be really happy once the real cold sets in.

 

[RaZ]

The windows ARE open.
I hope that trend continues through the winter. I like to have a window cracked even in the winter. To have them wide open would be great.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

DH's aunt and uncle are heating their trailer with our oil drum woodstove, and it got so warm in there that they had the front door open last christmas!

These are also the ones causing us so much trouble.............grrrr. I wanted to take it out of there, but DH is too kindhearted.

 

[Stacykins]

Stacy, unfortunately once a bird learns to peck open eggs they wont stop - eggs taste good, after all.

Darn. Looks like I will be down one black copper marans. I just hope she didn't teach any other chickens to do it.

 

[taprock]

Darn. Looks like I will be down one black copper marans. I just hope she didn't teach any other chickens to do it.

There is lots of talk about the mustard trick ( blow out an egg, fill with mustard and give it to her) I have no idea if it works but I guess it might be worth a try, might mean keeping a girl if it really does work.

 

[NovaAman]

I will remember that if I ever have that problem

 

[BackyardFarmMom]

Taprock I thought of your son when I saw this

 

[gladahmae]

we heat with wood also! At the cabin we used to live in it was an indoor wood stove and we always had a horrible time keeping any kind of humidity in there. There's absolutely NOTHING like walking into a warm cozy house with the smell of cherry wood burning though. At our new house we put in an outdoor woodboiler and ran pex tubing under the basement slab, so we also have a nice warm basement all winter! In addition to all that, we got our hot water heater hooked up to the system, so our electric bill in the winter is about 1/3 of what it is in the summer! We're getting a load of slabwood delivered from a local sawmill sometime in the next 5 days so we can start heating our hot water with it again, and turn the heat on if needed.

We burn around a face cord per week for most of the winter, more during the end of Jan to mid/late February.

The automatic coop door opener is hooked up and working! WOOOO HOOOOO! No more walking out there in the dark to shut the door, or having to get home before it's 'too' dark and worrying about coyotes! Now if only those ladies would reciprocate by laying some eggs........

 

[Fancy Favie]

I haven't seen more hawks, but I sure do see a lot more vultures hanging around. Probably gathering to migrate. Why can't the red tail migrate with them??
Beautiful day today.
Dana, how are my boys doing?

Your boys are GREAT havent put them with the big boys yet but my granddaughter was soo excited Ben let her carry him around he is great Jerry on the other hand does not want to be held only by me LOL which is fine because he is my favorite. I will have to get a pic up here of Mia holding him.