Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[fuzzybutt love]

Very warm and windy, off and on showers, low dark clouds and this:

That is absolutely beautiful! Would make a good wall picture in a dr's office or something, calm colors with a cheerful rainbow I like the country sunsets

Someone took a 5 gallon can of gasoline that I had left sitting in front of my shop. Then today when Hope's youngest son came over in noticed her gas tank door was open and the gas cap was lying on the ground.

This is the point at which you "accidentally" leave a can of tainted gasoline out there. Make sure it's something that will really do a number! That will get the point across.

 

[BackyardFarmMom]

MI friends!

Congrats Theron

That stinks Opa...

Lady Nice pic! Love it!

Made a chicken diaper...LOL

Has anyone ever shipped a full grown chicken to another state? I was looking on USPS.com...
Any advice would be apreciated.
My gut feeling is to not ship them...

 

[taprock]

I'm hoping the monsoon stops today. We are so waterlogged right now! I am off to the U.P. today so hopefully the chickens survive the rain without me.

Yesterday, nice rainy afternoon so we went with friends to watch Here comes the Boom. On our way they had to drop their oldest son off at the river - he would rather fish in the rain than go to the movie. Anyway after the movie we stopped back at the river. Nothing smells so good as the river in the rain. So we stood around in the rain watching them catch salmon. He did catch 5 but said they were to old to keep, he also said he lost more flies last night than the rest of the summer with the way the water is pouring out of the river right now.

BYFM - how did the diaper turn out? I was considering making one for when the chickens go visit kids and such.

Theron -

 

[gladahmae]

Good morning! In case you hadn't noticed, it's still raining! I think it's trying to make up for the summer.

Good to know about the layer and flockraiser! We've got about 1/2 a bag of finisher left, and it won't go to waste by any means since the 2 oldest chicks in the basement will be on it in about a month. I've got a 5# bag of oyster shell too, so I think I'll put the 1gal feeder up in the coop with the oyster shell in it so they don't fill it with shavings or just tip it over, and pick up a bag of layer when I go return the kids' movies today.

Opa, that stinks about the gas! And I agree that a poor economy isn't helping. When we were building out house someone broke in the DAY AFTER we finished hanging all the drywall and cut all of the wiring out of the basement. Scrap copper was really high at the time, but they probably didn't get more than $50 worth of scrap for it. DH was very upset because he's an electrician and it made his work look really sloppy because he had to splice everything back together in junction boxes down there.

Trying to work up the nerve to cull this chick today. I'm not looking forward to it, but it won't eat, I have to force it to drink water, and help it poop. And it can't stand up. Ugh. Poor little chickie!

 

[SillyChicken]

Farmer, so cool that you have more history on Bella, maybe he can help you get her bred again.

Theron, saw your photos on FB. Congrats on the wins and places.

I think I'd be lacing the gas with some sugar and leave it out for them.... they need to be taught a lesson!!

The weather was crazy warm yesterday. I'm thankful, cause I couldn't imagine processing all the birds at the YakLady's place if it were cold n rainy like it had been. I think we lucked out too, we had a couple light rains move through, but we were able to get my roos done, and some the birds she needed finished before the heavy rain moved in. I hit a hail storm on the way home. The best part is, that it was much quieter at my place this morning!! I still have 6 roos (one bantam I still want to re-home) but it's no where near crazy loud as it was with the other 12 around.

Looks like the wind and rain is bringing fall to an end!

 

[RaZ]

So many chores to choice from, I don't know where to start.

If I had straw, I would redo the coop floor. But that will wait until after Halloween. Garbage day after Halloween is when I find a good dozen or more bales that have been set to the curb. Pumpkins too. It amazes me that people would spend big money on this for decoration and then simply throw it away. But it is a bonus for me.

 

[gladahmae]

I meant to ask earlier....one of the EE chicks was stretching its neck out, tipping its head back and 'trilling' yesterday. Is this a 4-day old's version of crowing???

whoever asked about the nipple waterers and cleaning....on mine the bottom half of the nipple unscrews from the part that screws into the bucket or whatever, so I don't *think* it would be too hard to clean them out with a pipe cleaner and maybe taking the bottom part into the house to clean up. We're new to this though, so that's just my guess.


I'm thinking of maybe using a birdbath heater in our bucket to keep the water from freezing up. They're low on the power consumption, as opposed to the livestock tank heaters that I'm finding. Anyone used one? I like how clean and dry the bucket/nipple system keeps the coop, and the fact that they can't kick shavings into it, or poop in it.

 

[BackyardFarmMom]

BYFM - how did the diaper turn out? I was considering making one for when the chickens go visit kids and such.

Sorry about your chick.

I will let you decide for yourself how the diaper turned out...
The chicken I was making it for (a friends) was not here for me to measure and size but the one I made was too big...So I will try again and make the pattern smaller!

If I had straw, I would redo the coop floor. But that will wait until after Halloween. Garbage day after Halloween is when I find a good dozen or more bales that have been set to the curb. Pumpkins too. It amazes me that people would spend big money on this for decoration and then simply throw it away. But it is a bonus for me.

Ooooohhhh... good idea!!!

 

[ladyrsanti]

Yep, to all who asked/commented - I took that picture yesterday in the back yard, looking towards our pasture and field. The clouds were moving so fast it didn't last but for a few minutes. Then we got a heavy thunderstorm followed by a power outage that lasted between 11pm and 6am. Hardly an inconvenience except for the alarm clocks but I was worried for a while because I was scheduled to pick up a pig for the freezer and didn't want to open it if the power was off and didn't want the pig to thaw either. Luckily it all worked out and my freezer space is now pretty much maxed out between the 1/4 steer and 1/2 pig. We're set for the year on meat I think. Just gotta keep the power on!

I agree that a tainted can of gas should be left out and up for grabs. Absolutely. If they're desperate/dumb enough to come back for more...

 

[NovaAman]

It is a cute one.

Sugar laced gas cans... Just be sure to "MARK" the can in a way so you know.

About what I said about using flock raiser.... I just want to clarify that I use flock raiser cuz I have WAY to many different ages in the yard. If all I had were layers, then I am sure I would only use layer feed, but if you have layers, pullets, cockerels, roosters, and young chicks, I'd not get layer feed. The cockerels, pullets and chicks certainly do not need it, and yeah, good luck keeping them out of it. I'd also like to say that I did read over the ingredients of flock and layer when I made the decision to keep the girls who were laying on flock raiser and the percentage variations were not that greatly different versus specified differences in grower/finisher vrs layer.