Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Scifisarah]

Would anyone on here be interested in my 4 remaining Ideal hatchery cochin hens? I wasn't wanting to sell them on Craigslist, but I think I would be more comfortable rehoming them with someone here if there is interest. I'd love to get our silkie hens out of the tractor into the regular coop, but the older cochins are so dominant, I worry about the silkies and their delicate vaulted skulls. The cochin gals I have left are red, partridge, black and self-blue and they are about 5 years old. They were still laying eggs in the fall, but once it started getting darker and they were molting as well, they stopped except for one every once in a while. Message me for more info if you are interested. All of these have been broody for me in the past. The red has hatched some baby chicks, and the partridge hatched some call duck eggs last year. I'd ask $20 for all 4 to go to a good home, if that would sound fair.

 

[Stacykins]

A trio of Araucana girls joined Taprock and her crew this morning, for a little trip below the Mackinac Bridge! The 'canas are joining Brethren's flock! Two are mature hens, and one is a pullet near point of lay. Very exciting that I know they're going to a home where they will be appreciated! They're great birds, but not the colors I wanted to work with, now that I've started to get a more birds that fit my goal. Taprock is amazing definitely for being so nice and transporting the girls!

 

[Cedar714]

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?

What I did with my run is framed it similar to how yours is and I covered the sections I wanted to be solid with 1/2" CDX board and covered that with the steel siding, the open sections I covered with chicken wire.
The sides of mine have 2 solid sections with a screen near the top around 10" wide and the lower part is the CDX board with log siding type slab wood I got from the local sawmill.
I will try to get a few pictures if you want.
I don't want to use plastic on the roof sections because of snow. The steel roofing/siding material is fairly reasonable and the local building center will cut it to length also. I bought some overstock pieces and it saved a few dollars there.
Good luck, it looks pretty good so far!

 

[Opa]

I cover my large fowl run each winter. I have a center pole from which 12 rafters extend to the sides of the run. A heavy poultry netting on top then protects the flock from airborne predators. This netting helps to support the heavy mill plastic tarp that I use. Without the netting I believe the tarp would sag between the rafters. I tarp the roof and the sides leaving the leeward side open however, I do tarp from the ground up 18" on the leeward. That keeps most of the snow from blowing in. The tarp is secured to the rafters and side post with wood strips to keep it from blowing off. I also have a flood lite on a timer, set for daylight hours, inside the run.

I'm ashamed to admit but I had two speckled sussex hens suffering from leg mites and I kept procrastinating on treating them until the legs were downright nasty looking. The scales were lifted and large deposits were forming. So I finally caught both of them up and treated them.

I couldn't find the mineral oil that I wanted to put in a spray bottle so I used Avon's Skin So Soft instead. After one week I caught them to apply a second application and was amazed at the improvement. So I would suggest that if you detect any distortion of the scales on your bird's legs you immediately treat them. Some people suggest using petroleum jelly but you'll find that oil in a small spray bottle makes treating them much easier.

 

[NovaAman]

Opa, could we possibly get a picture of your run? I have to do mine very soon... And still waivering on how I am going to do it...

 

[gladahmae]

What I did with my run is framed it similar to how yours is and I covered the sections I wanted to be solid with 1/2" CDX board and covered that with the steel siding, the open sections I covered with chicken wire.
The sides of mine have 2 solid sections with a screen near the top around 10" wide and the lower part is the CDX board with log siding type slab wood I got from the local sawmill.
I will try to get a few pictures if you want.
I don't want to use plastic on the roof sections because of snow. The steel roofing/siding material is fairly reasonable and the local building center will cut it to length also. I bought some overstock pieces and it saved a few dollars there.
Good luck, it looks pretty good so far!

That sounds GREAT, but there's no way DH and I will have time to do all of that before wind/snow protection will be necessary. Add the fact that DH is kind of burned out on building me things for the chickens.

2 coops, 2 runs, auto pop-doors, timers, he's done a LOT for our birds this year. I'd like to do something simple for the winter that will be easy to remove in the spring.

I cover my large fowl run each winter. I have a center pole from which 12 rafters extend to the sides of the run. A heavy poultry netting on top then protects the flock from airborne predators. This netting helps to support the heavy mill plastic tarp that I use. Without the netting I believe the tarp would sag between the rafters. I tarp the roof and the sides leaving the leeward side open however, I do tarp from the ground up 18" on the leeward. That keeps most of the snow from blowing in. The tarp is secured to the rafters and side post with wood strips to keep it from blowing off. I also have a flood lite on a timer, set for daylight hours, inside the run.

So you tarp the entire roof, and the prevailing wind (north/northwest) side of the run, and then on the non-prevailing-wind side you tarp the bottom 18in? And you use basically batton strips to hold it on?

Opa, could we possibly get a picture of your run? I have to do mine very soon... And still waivering on how I am going to do it...

I agree! I'd love to see a picture since I'm more of a visual-cue person.

 

[Opa]

Opa, could we possibly get a picture of your run? I have to do mine very soon... And still waivering on how I am going to do it...

This picture is of the run showing the center pole and rafters.

and this was the first year before I started tarping. Even though the mesh is 1 1/2" you can see snow builds up on it. Without the rafters to support the snow load the mesh would have stretched to the ground.

 

[taprock]

[COLOR=B22222]Question... Who is it who is doing the fermented feed? Tap, was it you? What are you using for feed? Can I ferment flockraiser?[/COLOR]

Yup I'm trying it. They said you use it on layer or chick starter so I would think so. I don't think it would work with a mash it would need to be coarser or you would lose it all. There is a good thread I read, not sure of title but member Beekissed started it. I haven't made up my my mind yet on if it is just an ok thing or great thing. It is easy to do and the chickens snarf it down. I wanted to cut down on feed and reduce smelly poop. I'll reserve judgment for a couple weeks.

I like the diaper byfm

Back home from the shop hop. Found some great chicken fabric for aprons!

Stacykins - chickens are settled in our garage. Something not good happened with bretherns dh so they are here for now. ( Maybe some prayers for those who are inclined.)They did great until the last 1/2 hour and then squabbled some. They are chowing down now.

 

[Stacykins]

Stacykins - chickens are settled in our garage. Something not good happened with bretherns dh so they are here for now. ( Maybe some prayers for those who are inclined.)They did great until the last 1/2 hour and then squabbled some. They are chowing down now.

Oh my goodness, I hope everything will be OK with Carolynn's DH! Thank you so much again for the transport, and even more thank you for taking care of them!

 

[NovaAman]

Ah, OK, I use crumbles, think with maybe cloth screen over the holes in the sieve bucket, I'd not lose any feed... Hmmm. Well I guess I could get 2 one gallon buckets and give it a try. I just didn't know if I needed to get a different type of grain feed...

Criptoe and her half silkie babies. One is starting to get lacing in the wings. How weird!
He's growing his crest back in real nice since Fritz no longer lives in the same coop. The girl, she's hiding, her's is full and nice.
The only offspring I have left from Mr. Fluffers and one of the GLW girls. How's that for lacing huh? She's almost POL.
Beulah, faverolle hen... too much black in her feathers.

And last but not least, Skeeters babies. No poopy butt problem with the one anymore either. She hasn't taken them out of the run yet, today was the first time they were out of the summer coop area. They are going up and down on their own now too. 9 days old.

Thanks for posting Opa. I think I would need to do 2 center poles then... The open part of the run is 20 feet long, but I could get wood at 12 feet.... But I think two centers would be best and probably a lot more sturdy than PVC hoops... I'll have to get out the post hole digger and see how hard it'll be to get through the tree roots.