Michigan

[babigyrl22]

I was in Family Farm and Home tonight picking up rabbit and layer pellets when I heard the familiar sound of chicks!! I had to activate my super powers becuase some buff opringtons almost peeped their way into my basket. Crisis was averted. Phew!


So while gathering the ONE egg my girls managed to give me today I noticed two frozen eggs on top of the run. My DH must have gotten distracted while collecting eggs before the snow hit.

Well now I know that eggs expand when frozen. Not that I really want to learn that science fact but there you go. My share for the day.

 

[Farmerboy16]

Farmerboy, as a newbie to raising chickens what are the symptoms of Mycoplasma G? What are the dangers to the birds as well as other animals or humans? Can you not eat the eggs? How did you suspect this in your flock? When I hear stories like this, it makes me question if chicken raising is really something I want to pursue or not.

The eggs and the meat of the birds are not affected, and the disease only affect birds. My peacock had watery eye, running nose, and swollen sac under his eye. I had turkeys go down with it last year, and had to sell them as meat birds.

While I pulled out the incubator I was thinking of the MG and and my hatching eggs coming. MG can be transmitted through the egg and my understanding is even if you are NPIP certified they do not check for MG. Scary! It isn't even listed in any of the chicken books I have - no wonder it isn't being treated if no one even knows what it is.

I read somewhere that you can dip hatching eggs in the solution, and it kills the disease before it infect the chick. The chick does not become infected until 5 days before hatching. I want to use that, but I forget what its called.

 

[Chickmate]

chickmate, was it you that asked about keeping chickens out of your flower beds? I have purchased some electric netting from Premier 1 it is a great way to fence off an area for the chooks it goes up and down easily (until our clay soil gets to dry) The 2 prong style has a foot that you can step on to push into the ground. I do not electrify as I don't have the set up but my standard size birds do not fly over. I believe I have the 4ft. I got some last year on clearance, return item I think, you can find it on craigs list some times if you are on watchful. I can put it up and down by my self, Easier with 2 but with a little practice can be done by 1. I also put little cages around ind. plants this time of yr. so they leave my more tender plants alone when they free range in the winter,early spring. They really seem to like the hosta, so I have switched to stronger leaved plants. I may try putting wire baskets over some plants this spring and let them come up through the wire, should look like a basket of floweres,

I need to do some searches for poultry netting and see what I can find. I am imagining very light, thin black netting that I have seen somewhere. RaZ mentioned using shepherd's hooks but I can't visualize how that would work. Hang it on the hooks and use the step down spikes to hold it in the ground? I'll check out the book someone mentioned (thanks whoever that was!) to see what she suggests. I want to keep the chickens out of the beds but not look like some hillbilly set up from the road. I can say that because I AM a hillbilly.

Nova - All chicks are cute, yours and even Raz's Uggos.

b737 - Can't wait to see pictures of the coop as you build. I had mine built for me but he built it based on my directions and I have lots I wish I could change. I have no people door from the coop into the run. I have to walk out of the coop and then into the run, can't go directly from one to the other. No matter how big you build, you will always wish it was bigger. I do not have a separate storage area for feed, etc. My nest boxes take up one whole wall. You don't need 12 nest boxes for 15 hens!! My coop is not large enough to have separate areas for a brooder or another room to keep chickens apart from each other if necessary. Make the coop and run as big as you can because you'll always wish you had. Also don't use chicken wire to keep anything out because it won't. I only used chicken wire as a dividing wall inside the run. I used 1 x 2 welded wire for my whole run but that won't keep rats and weasels out. I wish I had used 1/2" wire but it was too expensive. I did cover the run with the same and then added clear fiberglass panels for a roof to keep the rain out. I buried the welded wire 1 1/2 ft. in the ground and then dumped broken concrete on top of that and buried it. I wired for electricity but don't have running water out there. Well, I do, but only because I have a hose running across my lawn from the house. I do have good ventilation. Roof vents on east and west that open and close, a small double hung window on the north wall plus a "screen" door that is made with 1/8" stainless steel panel that has dime sized holes in it. I leave that open all summer for added ventilation. Also have a 3' window on the east wall that has hinges on the bottom and opens into the coop (bad idea as they roost on it and poop all over the glass). Opa turned me on to poop boards and they save a lot on cleaning up and the waste of pine shavings or straw. Take York up on her offer to visit her place, you'll get great ideas and save yourself from making the same mistakes some of us have made. Good luck and don't forget pictures!!

 

[teeville5]

Sigh. I'm a bit bewildered tonight. I have 4 missing chickens. I don't know where they are. I think something got one of them, roo Frenchie, because I found a few piles of his feathers, but there is no trace of roo Mr. Peanut or my 2 bantie girls. We found roo Girly in the rafters of the pole barn and roo Gomer was on the front porch very agitated looking at the door like 'let me the heck in'. The big boys and girls are safely tucked in their coop.
DH saw a hawk swoop in the yard this afternoon, but I don't know if it got one of them or not. DD said one of the girls was outside her upstairs bedroom window, but she didn't think anything of it at the time and the bantie isn't there now. So here I sit wondering where they are. I'm really hoping they are hiding out somewhere I don't know about and show up tomorrow, but an added worry is the ice we're supposed to get tonight. Sigh.

 

[Farmerboy16]

Found it. If my birds fail the test, I can save their eggs, and hatch them after I have culled all of the parent stock. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...qwoY1CFb-arhVus1A&sig2=IEHCwbX2jl20CT3enixe7w

 

[Stacykins]

Sigh. I'm a bit bewildered tonight. I have 4 missing chickens. I don't know where they are. I think something got one of them, roo Frenchie, because I found a few piles of his feathers, but there is no trace of roo Mr. Peanut or my 2 bantie girls. We found roo Girly in the rafters of the pole barn and roo Gomer was on the front porch very agitated looking at the door like 'let me the heck in'. The big boys and girls are safely tucked in their coop.
DH saw a hawk swoop in the yard this afternoon, but I don't know if it got one of them or not. DD said one of the girls was outside her upstairs bedroom window, but she didn't think anything of it at the time and the bantie isn't there now. So here I sit wondering where they are. I'm really hoping they are hiding out somewhere I don't know about and show up tomorrow, but an added worry is the ice we're supposed to get tonight. Sigh.

I am so sorry. I really hope they turn up. The hawk likely didn't get more than one if it got any, but it could have caused them to scatter for hiding places. Maybe they got a bit disoriented during the panic.

 

[RIRJen]

Quote:

I got to meet RIRJen the other day. She is such a sweet person. And her dog....I tell you she has the biggest dog I have EVER seen in my life. And I am used to having Great Pyrenees . Her St. Bernard is HUMUNGOUS. I think she feeds it people to get it that big LOL.

It was nice to meet you too!! I'm glad everyone seems to be settling in, the Roo is a real sweety huh.
And yes...I have a house cow heehee He is vicious isn't he!

last time I weighed him he was about 170...but that was a couple years ago. I swear though, he has the IQ of frozen brocolli

here's a picture of my big house cow (Oscar) and Aaron (taken last year...he babysits sometimes lol) he's shaved down in this photo.

I should find out in a week or two. I haven't felt like dealing with him so he is in a cage on death row.

lol Opa, I have some cages out back known as "The Green Mile"...ya...I think that speaks for itself about what happens if they end up back there!

 

[swampducks]

I went to the Alpena TSC today and they had all the tubs set up with food, shavings and heat lamps. They're just awaiting their first postal delivery.

Got an email today from Tractor Supply informing me that it's now CHICK DAYS.

 

[swampducks]

Does this mean this is turning into another EVIL SILKIES thread?

Run Away! Run Away!

Those head feathers make it look evil. Like its thinking I'd look good on its dinner plate.

 

[dascountry]

Just came in from giving the chickens a treat a saw that I left my sled & water jugs out by the coop from this morning. Sled was there minus the 2 empty gallon milk jugs I use to refill. The wind is really whipping around and who knows where they are

Most likely in the next county by now!

I was wondering today where those jugs came from

Sigh. I'm a bit bewildered tonight. I have 4 missing chickens. I don't know where they are. I think something got one of them, roo Frenchie, because I found a few piles of his feathers, but there is no trace of roo Mr. Peanut or my 2 bantie girls. We found roo Girly in the rafters of the pole barn and roo Gomer was on the front porch very agitated looking at the door like 'let me the heck in'. The big boys and girls are safely tucked in their coop.
DH saw a hawk swoop in the yard this afternoon, but I don't know if it got one of them or not. DD said one of the girls was outside her upstairs bedroom window, but she didn't think anything of it at the time and the bantie isn't there now. So here I sit wondering where they are. I'm really hoping they are hiding out somewhere I don't know about and show up tomorrow, but an added worry is the ice we're supposed to get tonight. Sigh.

Hope you find the missing chickens.

I went to the Alpena TSC today and they had all the tubs set up with food, shavings and heat lamps. They're just awaiting their first postal delivery.
Quote:
I keep telling myself 47 chicks is enough...my DH tells me too