Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Wrightsx4]

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?

Hi all! Haven't posted anything lately but I just got caught up on reading Gladah - not sure but I think it's an ee thing. My two 5 wk old ee's make a trilling noise and have ever since I got them at 2 days old. One's male and one's female. My other breed chicks don't do it. It's really a cute little sound.

 

[NovaAman]

Question... Who is it who is doing the fermented feed? Tap, was it you? What are you using for feed? Can I ferment flockraiser?

 

[Scifisarah]

Finally able to relax. I have been at Fowl Fest the past three days showing seramas, a bantam cochin, a silkie hen, a modern game hen, two runner ducks, two sebastopol geese, and two buff dewlap toulouse. Here are the ratings we got:
- Best Variety for our one Serama rooster
- Reserve Champion for our frizzled Serama pullet on table top judging
- Best Silkied Serama for table top judging
- Best Frizzled Serama for table top judging
- Reserve Variety for our one Sebastopol gander
- Best Variety for our bantam Cochin hen

I was pretty impressed with how many seramas there were. It was the first time I have ever done the table top judging and I was happy with some of the birds and dissapointed in some of the others. I got to see many BYC members including kimmie, glambka, rbahmer, and scifisarah. It was so cold the first day that I didn't take off my sweatshirt, so if anybody was looking for my red footprint shirt, sorry I missed you. I had a sore throat this whole weekend and still don't have a voice. I definitely enjoyed it and hope to attend the spring fowl fest in Alma. I post some pictures as soon as I can upload them to my computer.

Congrats! My 3 year old son really enjoyed holding the three seramas I got from you, especially the rooster. He really likes that there is finally a chicken that wants to snuggle against him rather than try to run away! My husband complained about the "chicken smell" the whole way back to Rockford, so I gave them all baths in our dog's oatmeal/aloe skin conditioning shampoo when we got home - even though they did not look dirty. I was so suprised at how much they liked the warm water and blow dryer, haha. I was going to ask but forgot - I am feeding the 20% chick starter right now. With seramas, do they have any different dietary requirements because of their small size? What do you feed the different age groups?

 

[NovaAman]

We got seremas from Theron in June. I feed them the exact same thing that everyone else in the yard eats.

 

[b737drvr]

Hey Gang,
Does anybody have the contact info or BYC username for Brian Devereaux? I think he was from Zeeland. He was at Chickenstock in June w/ a coop door-opener. I had his contact info written down on a paper...can't find the paper. I thought his username was MI_Chickens but that username was a dud. Let me know. Thanks.

 

[Opa]

Hey Gang,
Does anybody have the contact info or BYC username for Brian Devereaux? I think he was from Zeeland. He was at Chickenstock in June w/ a coop door-opener. I had his contact info written down on a paper...can't find the paper. I thought his username was MI_Chickens but that username was a dud. Let me know. Thanks.

Fortunately I have the sign in roster from Chickenstock and I will PM you with the pertinent info

 

[b737drvr]

Got the info on "MI chickens". As opposed to "MI_Chickens" Thanks Sam.

 

[1muttsfan]

The problem with putting out tainted gas is that they know where you live - and you don't know anything about them. Could lead to some nasty vengence on their part.

I found that egg shells were much thinner on flock raiser, even with free choice oyster shell.

 

[gladahmae]

So, I have a winter run question. With our smaller (grow-out) coop the run has decently sturdy roof, but it's chainlink. I remember someone (opa?) commenting about putting plastic on their run last week, and I'm wondering if this would be a good idea for our small coop. And from that stem a LOT more questions: do you cover just the roof? the roof and the sides? only on the side with the prevailing wind? all the way down to the ground? do you cut holes to prevent a 'sail' effect? what about snow load? If we did tarp or plastic over the run of the small coop, it would also make a wind-block for the larger run, so assuming that we DO go in this direction, it would be beneficial for both groups of chickens.

Here's an old picture of the run to give you an idea. Those angled base supports are also fenced, so the run angles from the ground, up the supports, and then vertically up and over the roof. I'd be most worried about snowload on that lower portion. Oh, there are 2x4s between the peaks now as well. So that part is stable.




And another question about integration. (I'm just full of questions today!) Our big girls have all been together for over a month now, and the 2 marans are still getting picked on. The older ones still don't let them on the roosts or out of the coop with the rest of the flock. Either the 7 big ones are out with the 2 marans in, or the 2 marans are out and the 7 big girls are in (the only exception being night time). They still chase the marans around if they dare to venture out. The result is that the marans are either roosting in the nest boxes, or staying on the floor at night. Is this a big deal? I'd much prefer they NOT roost in the nest boxes, and I'd fence them off (probably should have done that initially) if I didn't finally have someone laying! Thoughts?

 

[chickflick]

That little guy is adorable!!!

Glad, I have had luck in going in after it gets dark and putting the chickens on the roost. That way they wake up on the roost and everyone thinks it's cool. I've had to do it for a few nights but then all is good.

Lousy weather today!