Michigan

[1muttsfan]

Chickmate I use my chips in the gardens, including the vegetable gardens, but pile it up and let it age a few months first. Fresh chicken manure can burn plants if it is high enough in concentration.

 

[keyt1969]

Kim - I wish!

So the final count is 7 ducklings and 13 chicks. 13/21 seems like a good hate rate to me! One died shortly after hatching and another died getting itself out of the egg (that was sad to see!). Only one of the 3 bantams made it. It looks like a mini Sugar, one of my sweet little Frizzle. But I'm wondering if it's ok to keep it in with the other chicks when it's half their size? I had a brooder set up for bantams (I have more in the other incubator due next week) but I dont want him to be by himself!?

I spent all morning at the hospital for my 6 month RSD check up and when I came home all my chores were done!!

It's getting harder to use a rake or anything because of my hand and I was stressing out about it. When I walked in I saw my incubator was cleaned up. Then when I walked out to visit with Bella the pig I noticed straw everywhere and both the coops were cleaned out

Not only that but Aric made my favorite chocolate cherry cake!!! Aric knows shunts and bad weather don't mix and tend to put me in a bad mood and he also knows how to cheer me up!!

Now all I have to do today is play with my ducklings. OMG they are growing so fast. One is literally twice as big as everyone else and she'll only be a week old tomorrow!!!

 

[Stacykins]

OMG, so I will have 30, yes THIRTY purebred araucana eggs going in my incubator! I got many extras. So, if I even get a 50% hatch, I will have too many! When they do hatch, I'll let ya'll know how many, since like I said, Michiganders get dibs on extras

 

[LoveMyChicklets]

Omygosh! I have to share my new babies with ya'll!!!! My daughters school asked to hatch out some of our eggs for the class so we delivered 6 eggs along with another little girl who brought in 7 eggs. Well... they hatched out this week and we just brought 3 home. The hatch wasn't extremely successful, only 5 out of 13 hatched, but we are so excited! These are Blue Wheaton Ameracauna mixed with my Silkie Turken AND Ameracauna mixed with Blue Wheaton Ameracauna. I can not wait to see what these babies look like when they are all feathered out!

We are also excited because we bought a used incubator today! Now we can have an extreme overload of cuteness!

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Adorable!

 

[1muttsfan]

Love that cleopatra eyeliner

 

[CricketYang]

I'm sooo not tempted to bust out the incubator.

 

[Opa]

Quote:
Does this help?

 

[Chickmate]

Quote:
I did the same thing yesterday with pine shavings. My run is covered with hardware cloth and clear polycarbonate panels, but I have had some leakage. Enough in some places that it formed some large mud puddles. I went in the coop and started shoving pine bedding out the pop door and spreading it in the run. Soaks up the water like a sponge, nice and dry.

Now I have a question that may be a stupid one, but I'm going to ask anyway. Has anyone ever used the coop pine shavings as mulch in your flower beds or garden? I mean straight out of the coop and into the flower beds. I don't have a compost pile and would just have to dump it in the woods, so I thought what about in my flower beds? Would it just turn to mush and look horrible or maybe it's not heavy enough and the rain would wash it into my yard? Would the poop burn my plants? Anyone ever try it? I'd appreciate any thoughts or comments on this. Thanks!

There is a forum topic already discussing this. It looks like it is fine as long as you are not using it for edible gardens.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=6335395

Thanks for the link babigyrl22, and the rest of you who replied to my question! I'm going to try it when I clean the coop out. I haven't dumped any in the woods before because I have only had my chickens since March, but I figured why not put it in the flower beds instead of the woods? I don't have a vegetable garden so no concerns with samonella. Thanks again!

 

[babigyrl22]

Dang it! Chickmate I accidently hit the "report" button on ur post (clumsy fingers on android). I frantically hit the back butto. I hope I caught it. :: sigh ::