Michigan

[Opa]

iluvcks, I always keep some Poultry Drench on hand to add to the water of distressed birds. It contains the necessary electolytes and sugars to give them the much needed boost that the stress of moving can place on them. I go mine for Tractor Supply.

 

[iluvcks]

Thanks for the advice. I will go this morning and get pountry drench. Should I give that to the newborn chicks today too. and what about cross contamanation between brooders? And someone please explain silkie feet. I have 6 with perfectly slpayed toes. One that seems to have one good foot and one foot that the toes curl under. and one that both feet seem all wrong. They are all moving around fine. Will deformed feet hurt them socially in the flock later? They are only pets so I don't care as long as its ok for the bird

Thank you
Susanne

 

[YakLady]

Quote:
I was going to do that today, but it's supposed to start raining here tonight and last until Sunday. I figured I'll let the rain wash as much as possible away, and then I'll go clean up the rest. At least the ducks will be happy. LOL!

I've got a ewe (Betty) due sometime in the next couple of weeks. After Gordita had baby Charlie last week, I kept them in the pen for a few days. I let them in with the rest of the flock on Saturday, and put Betty in the lambing pen. The lambing pen is built inside our garage/barn, in between the sheep stall and the chicken coop. The sheep stall has a floor to ceiling door that used to be a horse stall door. From the lambing pen, there is a space of about 2-3 feet to the right of the stall door that is approximately 5 feet high. When I went in to check on Betty Sunday morning, she was calm and happily minching on hay, looking at me like, "what?". When I went back to check on her at noon, she was gone. I looked all over the garage-no Betty. I walked around to the sheep yard, and she was happily standing there, munching on hay, and looking at me like, "what?". That darned ewe had somehow jumped over that 5' high, 2-3' wide wall, into the sheep stall and simply walked through their cut-out door into the yard with the rest of them. I don't know how the heck she managed to do that without hurting herself or her unborn baby. I decided not to try to put her back in there again, so I'm just going to have to cross my fingers and hope that she's at least smart enough to come inside when it's time to give birth. I'm going to have to keep a very close eye on her for a couple of weeks. Baby Charlie and Gordita are doing very well with the flock, so that's good.

So that's my sign of Spring-Spring lambs!

 

[shelleyb1969]

Quote:
I'll get a pic and post it for you later today.

I'm headed out to set up a brooder in the garage so I can get a boatload of chicks out of the house.

Sorry 7...I got too engrossed with getting chicks and brooders situated yesterday that I forgot to get pics. I'll try to get that done in a little bit...not much on the menu today.

 

[briana1975]

Good afternoon all. Another beautiful day. Hard to belive it is the beginning of March.

Kat, we did cleaning up of the muddy spots with sand from the field. Boy am I glad we got a tractor with a bucket now, because before it was always a shovel and wheelbarrel. Yes less exercise, but sooo much easier on the back.

Our TSC is getting chicks in just over a week. We actually ordered BBB turkeys from them. I can just get the 6 I wanted, and actually talked to the only lady up there that knows anything about poultry. She said they will be in on a day she is there and after she checks them all and gets them to drink water she will call me to pick them up. She just ordered 40 for herself.

 

[sevenchickens]

Quote:
I'll get a pic and post it for you later today.

I'm headed out to set up a brooder in the garage so I can get a boatload of chicks out of the house.

Sorry 7...I got too engrossed with getting chicks and brooders situated yesterday that I forgot to get pics. I'll try to get that done in a little bit...not much on the menu today.

No worries. I've been trying to get DH to put the new nesting boxes, that I bribed (with a supply of eggs) the neighbor to build, up for two weeks. Seriously, I need to learn how to operate his tools.

The TSC is Howell gets there chicks the 22nd too.

 

[michiganlarry]

Need some advice. We want to add to our flock this spring. We have at this point 4 red sex link hens, 5 Wellsummer hens, 1 Wellsummer rooster. I don't want to mantain more than one flock so we are going to concentrate on wellies. The wellie hens we have now are from two different hatchings from different breeders. I honestly can't see any difference between therm. All nice looking chickens.
Here is my rooster - Lucky (cause he didn't end up in the soup pot)

My questions:

1) Should I just hatch some of my own eggs or bring another blood line into the flock?

2) Should I look for a broody hen to sit on eggs in the coop or use my incubator again?

Thanks for your input.

Larry

 

[Opa]

Personally I would introduce new bloodlines. I will have fertile eggs in a couple of weeks if you want some. Currently my welsummer rooster is in a pen with 20 hens. Next week he is going into a pen with just a pair of welsummer hens. Also in a few weeks I am going to be ordering Welsummer pullets for Estes hatchery so if you would like I could order additional one for you.

 

[wyliefarms]

Good Afternoon!

For the person who just got chickens, they should be quarentined for a few weeks.

I am a offical pullrum tester now. Now I just need to learn how to spell the name! Over 50 people were there to get certified. Only had to test one bird without the tester observing, since there were so many of us. I am going to test my daughters whole flock and file paperwork for us to be a NPIP free flock. So we can sell chicks with that certificate.

Off to finish dinner and run the kids around tonight.

I hope you all are enjoying the weather. I had kids running around in t-shirt and shorts when I got home this afternoon!

Sarah

 

[iluvcks]

Opa it was so nice talking to you today. We gave poultry drench to everyone. Everyone is looking great. 3 of the new 6 cochins laid eggs today. We were pretty excited about that.

Here are the new girls enjoying the day in quarintine

Here are the silkies

Chip thinks they are his babies

Was supposed to get the other chicks today. But they were shipped out late and wont be here until tomorrow morning. I was so relieved. The silkies smelled from their trip so we gave them a bath and blow dry. Then 3 Dr's appointments for 2 kids. My house has pine bedding all over it and I swear I swept like 5 times today. I am having a hard time keeping up today. Can't wait for bed.