Michigan

[NovaAman]

I am very anti-social, I know... I will try harder in the next 6 months to spout more profanities and confounding verse so ya'll can piddle and scratch yer noggins in an effort to either understand or disregard what ever it is that I am trying not to say in order to get more posts than Opa and Olive and help this thread get more attention from somebody or other for being the chattiest thread to have resisted on but.... Man, that was getting hard. I was starting to feel like an air head pretending to be smart. I should do that. I might hurt myself. Lol.

 

[chickflick]

jphillps. Gald you found us.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Hello. I am a chicken outlaw from Sterling Heights. I am new to chickens being a city girl. My husband was raised elsewhere and has some experience. We purchased our chicks 4 weeks ago hoping to get an early start and summer eggs. I had no idea they would grow SO fast. We purchased 5 chicks: 1 silkie, 1 rhode island red, 1 leghorn, 1 easter egger and 1 isa brown. I look forward to reading through the Michigan forum and gaining Michigan chicken information.

Nice to meet you

Also, Veena is continuing to lay shell-less eggs... Every day...had 5 in a row... Any ideas?

I see someone already said to try Tums, that is what I was going to say. Seems like it was one crushed up tums mixed with some food.


teeville, so sorry for your loss

 

[RaZ]

I am seriously POed right now!

My ducklings arrived sometime last night and the post office has been calling every hour. Trouble is my cell phone has not been accepting the calls. As a result, 9 baby mallards are dead.

I took care the the survivors ASAP and as soon as I calm dawn a bit, I'm going to the Verizon store and raise holy hell.

ETA: I just fired off an angry e-mail to Verizon. Now a little research on filing a small claims action against them.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Oh no RaZ, I am so sorry

 

[chickflick]

Oh, Raz, How horrible! So sorry!

 

[RBahmer]

Raz - That is just uncalled for on their part. I have Verizon too. Hope you get somewhere with the idiots. So sorry

 

[RaZ]

Here are the Survivors.




So these little ones are doing well now. I dipped their bills in the water so they could get a drink. It took a couple of tries before they got the idea and then they all drank like thirsty camels. They didn't eat anything until I spread some feed on the bedding around them.
They are eating and drinking fine now and bunching up for a group nap. The nap lasts about 10 - 15 minutes and then they start the eating/drinking cycle all over again.

I think I'll name them Rocky I, II, III, IV and V. They are fighters.

 

[chickflick]

Awwww, how cute! Glad they made it. But man, I'd be so freakin mad and sad. Good luck with em

 

[yorkchick]

Another question relating to coop construction - The interior of the coop has just natural exposed boards. Is there any reason or need to paint them? I am hoping to do something on the poop boards to make the poop come off more easily, but what about the rest of the floor and walls?

I painted the inside walls of my coop on the advice of the guy who built my coop, as they are easier to scrub down as needed (somehow poop ends up on the walls with some regularity). On this guy's advice I used an oil based paint. I did a coat of primer first, then I think three coats of the paint (which was labeled as for use on floors, so pretty tough stuff). (And as a bonus it is a very attractive "prison gray" color--the only color this paint came in). With oil based paint you have to wait I believe 24 hours between coats for it to dry. And I know I had to do at least three coats because the coop is made of OSB and it took that many to really fill in all the roughness and get a reasonably even surface. I know someone said that paint can flake, and I had not considered that to be honest, but so far, so good on mine--no sign of peeling in 2-1/2 years. I will keep an eye out for any signs. But it does make it easy to clean the walls. The guy who built my coop also put in concrete over the wood floor and so far that has been very easy to keep clean as well. Not to say I agree with all of his design decisions by any means. (So the advice on painting the coop may or may not have been the right thing, I knew almost nothing about chickens at the time..) I told him I wanted to do the deep liiter method and he was very very against this (doesn't work, is nasty, etc--which has not been my experience at all...). I told him I stil wanted to try it. The coop is 4 by 12 feet, and when he delivered it he told me he had installed the nest boxes on the 12 foot side (person door is on one of the short sides) so I wouldn't have to walk through as much of that nasty deep litter to get the eggs. (Normally he would have put the nest boxes on the far short wall...) Well, this means that all kinds of other things don't fit in the coop well--I can't put feed and water where I woud like, the roosts are in stupid places, I have to duck under one roost to even get to the nest boxes, and under the second roost to get to their food and water, and because I have to duck under the roosts there is no possibility of putting poop boards under them... And the deep litter is not nasty, plus I'm wearing my chore boots so who cares, plus because of all the awkward placements I have to walk to the back of the coop (yes, an entire long 12 feet!) to get to the food and water anyway. Arrrgggh. Now I know a person with rudimentary carpentry skills could probably rip down the (very sturdy and well-attached) nest boxes and build new ones on the far end of the coop, Unfortunately I am not that person. Maybe some day... And as I've said, the coop is well-constructed and will last a long, long time I think. And I've gotten (mostly) used to the awkward set up. At least I will know better what to insist on when/if I get my next coop...