Michigan

[NovaAman]

TSC will be open Monday...

 

[Postemaslaterdc]

Hi I am new to the forum. My name is Beth and I live in south west michigan. I an looking for some help. I bought seven ducks, hoping I would have a few females. I am allergic to chicken egg, so I got ducks instead. It looks like I have maybe one female of the whole flock., I an hoping to trade six of my khaki campbell drakes for one or two females of any breed. If you can help please email at [email protected]. Thanks so much!

 

[Olive Hill]

OLIVE-
of course I got a notmeaty- ROO...of course. Best of all is that he doesnt crow..do they ever crow? *knock on wood* I thought for sure I was going to find him or the girl dead the other day after it was ninetyfive degrees. But they managed okay.

Oh yeah, they crow. And they tend to have really deep voices. If crowing is going to cause you problems, I'd eat him soon. In fact, I'll be down that way next week. I'll be happy to eat him soon, I'm a giver like that. I'll take him as chimichangas with a side of beans, rice and extra guac.

 

[RaZ]

As nice as visiting my sons was, sitting at my own table drinking coffee and listening to the world come awake is hard to beat. The gentle cooing of the doves under the eave, the last plaintive crys of barred owls in the distant wood, both seem to signal the end of night and the beginning of the new day.

Oh how I envy that "noise". I woke up to several dogs barking non-stop and at least 2 different car alarms. Then a lawn mower at 8:30.

 

[RaZ]

Hi I am new to the forum. My name is Beth and I live in south west michigan.

Welcome Beth,
Check out the links in my signature about Chickenstock.
You might be able to make a trade there.

 

[Olive Hill]

CG / Fuzz - TSC is open both today and tomorrow ... and they carry Pen-G and syringes OTC.

M2 - The fuzzy/silkie-ish uggos actually aren't too bad.

 

[swampducks]

The mink that killed my 9 juvenile ducks hadn't left the garage when DH came home the next morning (We were at hunting camp, I went shopping with my SILs while he went home to check the critters). While staring at the devastation he thought he'd heard something and slammed the door down the rest of the way, closing the gap on the corner. There were 3 older ducklings left, they could fly and had gotten onto high shelves. We suspect it's why the mink hadn't left, it wanted to kill everything though it hadn't eaten a thing. He called me and I picked up a live trap and brought it home and baited it with chicken hearts and some good bloody livers (DH had already removed the dead ducklings and rescued the other 3). I placed the trap by the now closed spot at the garage door where it had gotten in. A couple hours later I checked and I had nabbed a big nasty male mink. The hissing and huge teeth it flashed screamed killing machine. So you can catch a mink in a live trap when it has no other options.

I have a lovely, soft mink pelt hanging on my fireplace mantel. Male minks travel in 10 mile routes and show up about every 3 days. (we could confirm this because the previous year something was killing my puddle ducks out on the pond every 3 days.) There is no point in trapping and releasing a mink if you want your chickens and ducks to live.

DH and I feel the same way about coons. Releasing them just makes them more wary of traps when they show back up at your place or some one else's chicken coop next time.

Plenty of predators kill without intent to eat. I've personally watched a fox play kill-the-chicken in my own yard. Weasels/Minks will usually feast on at least one of their victims but routinely leave behind far more casualties than they have use for. I'd suspect one or the other is probably responsible for your problems, Eeyore. And because of the damage to the head/neck of the one bird, I'd lean towards the mink/weasel. That damage is a signature of their kills. Unfortunately, that means the live trap probably won't be of much use. You'll probably catch other stuff, of course, but they avoid live traps like champs, IME.

Hey there RBahmer, in that middle picture of my chickens, the black one I thought was a hen? I think it's really a roo. At least the comb is much taller than the blues who have almost none. As I really don't have the intent to breed to a standard or anything, and I like all the colors, I'd be quite willing to part with him. Problem is I think you're in the central part of the state and I'm in the northeast, between Oscoda and Alpena. But perhaps we can think of something?

If you breed black to blue splash you will come out with 100% blue. I have splash Andalusions and am looking for a black roo for them.

Listen to Opa. chicken wire is practically useless. I use it to keep bunnies out of my snow peas. It is on the back side of my chicken/hutch run but those birds are back inside the hardware cloth protected hutch before dark. Also, Opa mentioned dog proof traps by Duke. If those are the handcuff traps, DH uses them and has caught many a coon with them. He places a big marshmallow under the trigger and puts mini marshmallows on top. They reach in to get the biggie after stuffing their faces and bam, caught coon. You've got to be sure to chain/tie the trap to something it can't drag away with it. Then put it out of your misery with your trusty .22. It's doing damage to your livestock so it's perfectly legal to do this.

As to electric fences, I don't know how powerful a solar charger is but I suspect not very so you will have to keep it weed free. We got a 2 mile charger for our half mile of wire we ran. I still will have to keep it weed free. A "weed burner" charger started at the 10 mile power mark and cost another $30. I've only got a short distance of lawn to take care of, the rest of the wire runs through the swamp and no grass grows out there.

Got a question for you Opa, how does that wire 6" above ground work in snow? Or is it permanantly grounded out for the season?

I would recommend placing a hot wire about 6 inches off the ground and another at 24". Unless you use an extremely powerful charger called a "weed burner" you will need to insure the stays weed and grass free as that can cause the unit to ground out and not be effective.
.
Chicken wire serves only one purpose. It hold chickens in but is an ineffective barrier for anything else. Raccoons can create an opening in it in about the length of time it took me to type this. Hardware cloth is a much more effective barrier but it does tend to get expensive.

I have a friend that has placed red xmas bulbs 8" off the ground at several locations around the perimeter of his run. The theory being that predators think it is the eyes of something bigger than they are. There is a commercial variation of this concept call Night Eyes.

I feel the best deterrent is to eliminate the predators with regular trapping. I use a trap made by Duke called a dog proof coon trap and with it you will not be catching your neighbors cat of have to worry about your dog getting nailed.

 

[swampducks]

Oh yeah, they crow. And they tend to have really deep voices. If crowing is going to cause you problems, I'd eat him soon. In fact, I'll be down that way next week. I'll be happy to eat him soon, I'm a giver like that. I'll take him as chimichangas with a side of beans, rice and extra guac.

M2 - The fuzzy/silkie-ish uggos actually aren't too bad.

They give me the willies.

I swear everyone of those pictures has me wishing for Opa's mouth grouping weird thingie graphic instead!

Raining nicely here since 9:30 am now. We sure do need it. Too bad it's not really hitting the fires in the UP though.

 

[vjwilmoth]

She needs to be claimed- I can bring her to Chickenstock..OR..look how close you are to me!


and her sister:

I missed what kind of chickens these are. If Nigellas doesn't want her, I would! I will be at Chickenstock too.

Got some D'uccle pictures...
See her?









ARE THEY ALL GIRLS???? DID I REALLY HATCH out NO roos?

By golly they DO look like girls! That's so wild how they fly up on stuff. I wonder if mine will? I have 3 porcelain d'uccles.

We Have Movement!

I decided to give candling a try because I was thinking perhaps we were wrong, but we were only partially wrong. Of the 13 eggs, 4 look to not have development, but the other 9 do and we saw actual little chicks in the light and they were moving. 2 in particular were really moving a lot in their eggs. My youngest DD was with me and she was so excited. It was such an awesome thing to see. What a neat surprise first time experience.

Fantastic!!!

Hi I am new to the forum. My name is Beth and I live in south west michigan. I an looking for some help. I bought seven ducks, hoping I would have a few females. I am allergic to chicken egg, so I got ducks instead. It looks like I have maybe one female of the whole flock., I an hoping to trade six of my khaki campbell drakes for one or two females of any breed. If you can help please email at [email protected]. Thanks so much!

I don't have ducks but

 

[vjwilmoth]

I thought I had more quotes selected...hmmm

Well - Fuzzy...I too am curious why you aren't using an antibiotic as well? I hope you are able to save her.