Michigan

[NovaAman]

What will your duck pen be like in July Nova??????????

OH! Its going to be an open area in the spring, summer and fall... Their will be NO straw in the coop, except for one box to lay eggs in. Also, I am seriously considering pulling a Daron and sanding their winter enclosure for next year. Putting a hole in the floor of their coop and covering it with hardware cloth, and setting the water over that for when they are stuck in their coop from 6pm till 9 am... I don't know... will have to see. But I think the sand would be so much better... Maybe... Opinions?

But yeah... I am looking forward to no more food and water in the coop for the late spring, summer and early fall, and being able to take a hose to it and just rinse it out!

 

[chicken grandma]

I would think that in the day time having a goat with the chickens might deter hawks.

I think Daron liked the sand for his flock, sounds like a good idea.

 

[RBahmer]

Hey guys, I put up a post here asking for thoughts on combining certain breeds, and I am not really getting much response. I would appreciate if any of you that have mixed flocks might have a moment to jump over at some point and let me know what you think, there or here.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/636628/what-do-you-think-of-these-breeds-together#post_8550138


I love goats, I am still trying to accumulate enough excuses to get it past my husband, though, since we wouldn't be milking ours.

So far I have got: *Eat poison ivy, and *Help deter chicken predators, but it's not getting my goat, if you know what I mean.

I would like a couple of pygmies. And a couple sheep. And... okay, I better stop there for now, actually.

They eat burdock which is a good reason (and everything else they find lol)

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Worn out this day. Ended up being a hospital buddy for sister in law, who had to have surgery. (not gallbladder). Then rode around getting stuff for her cause she ended up having to spend the night. Poor thing. tomorrow i get to see how well she is faring, today it was a lot of Zzzzz's....Glad they kept her though, she was in pieces and still wanted to try to get up and walk around! Might have to haul out the duc tape, lol.

I also stopped by meijers and found my green rose! No major transplant this time. Gonna put it in the ground as soon as it's safe! This is not the one i had last time but the one i fell in love with off the internet, the one that they "didn't carry".

 

[fuzzybutt love]

you can have these two, lol. They drive me nuts.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Just Kidding! I am keeping them. I am rather fond of them.

 

[Juise]

 

[Olive Hill]

Silly - St. Johns.

Nova - I think you're going to want some type of bedding in there even in the summer. They go to the bathroom a lot at night and their droppings are very wet. Having nothing to sop it up?

If you've got smell problems your C:N ratio is off. Maybe rather than using leaves pick up some good bales of nice, dry straw.

RB - I've been meaning to tell you this and keep forgetting. The talk of goats as guard animals reminded me. Our dogs have invisible fencing but one of the collars broke here a couple of weeks ago so we would put that dog in the alpaca paddock when he went out so he couldn't run off until his replacement collar came in the mail. This is a 120 lb lab mix and one of the alpacas gave him a run for him money, poor guy. Between that and the ganders which were in the same paddock at the time he got his exercise for the day running away. I don't know if you wanted a guard animal, but looks like you'll get one to some extent. LOL!

 

[RBahmer]

I used to have Pygmy goats and got rid of them all. When it came grain time they would beat up my sheep and go from trough to trough and claim them all. Got tired of it so one day I loaded them all up and gave them away. No goats for me.

 

[Opa]

I was in TSC to pick up feed today and they now have ISA browns. I may go back tommorrow and pick up a few. I was very surprised by the amount of poultry products they now have. I've never know them to carry so many before. They even have DE.