Michigan

[Alphagamchick]

Hi greenacre,
Here's a story for you. We just moved on to 6 acres in Dec. I grew up on 11 acres and have waited 30 years to have chickens again. This spring we started our new flock and we have 40ish birds-with far too many roos. ( I need to move some of them out-all purebred, all bantams, if anyone is interested). Anyway, our next door neighbor, who lives back in the woods towards the far end of our property-he has 6 acres, too. He stopped by a few weeks ago to meet us and chit chat. Nice guy, in his late forties/early fifties, had a nice conversation. He actually had another adgenda though. "By the way...", he says,"your roosters are waking me up too early in the morning". I figured we were pretty safe out here on 6 acres. Now I'm totally paranoid about the roos crowing. We keep them locked up till about 9:00 now instead of allowing them to come and go as they pleased. They still crow insided the coop in the morn. I'm wating for the guy to come back and complain again. Yes, you can get by with just hens but the roos do sometimes complicate things. Melanie

 

[deweb52]

I'm in northern Michigan - 20 east of Gaylord, MI. I had chickens years ago but this year got 25 buff orphingtons for meat. Don't know exactly why I picked that breed. I'm going to get another 25 before winter but this time I'll get the Jumbo Cornish X. Trying to talk the hubby into getting a few more animals. Oh well...we'll see

Glad to be here.

 

[greenacre]

Alphagamchick - Oh boy, it sounds like you have a long road ahead of you with regards to your neighbor. For your sake, I hope he starts sleeping with the windows closed and the fan on high!

I actually live just south of you in Oakland Township/Rochester. On another note, how cool that you have over 40 chicks!! They must be such a hoot to watch. I love to see our 6, so you must have 7 times the fun.

Psimek - we started out with just 1 chick that we bought from a nursery for our kids for Easter (you could return it when you were "done" and they were going to send them all to a local farm). After much research (spoke with vets, farmers, chicken lovers, etc.), we realized that it wasn't fair to have just 1 chick, and we couldn't imagine sending her to a farm after we all fell in love. I found www.MyPetChicken.com on line and proceeded to order 3 friends for Tweety. When our babies came, imagine our surprise when there were 5 in the box!!! Needless to say, our coop was not built for SIX chickens, so our girls have a lovely east wing that was added recently. The kids in our neighborhood all visit and ask lots of questions and love to just observe. It has been a positive experience all the way around!

 

[Fancy Feather Poultry]

Im bord, I live in SE MI and we are planning to make our coop around this month hoping to add some new breeds, maybe some ducks....If any one have some chicks or ducklings availble im just beggining and would like some more new additions, so its eaither chicks or ducklings if you got some available just e-mail me.

 

[psimek]

Yes, the my pet chicken is a nice website, that is what helped me pick out my RIRs.
Maybe we can all get together and have a coopraising party

This chicken thing is addictive, & I can only imagine it will get worse when I see the enthusiathism of my students. So much fun!

 

[Alphagamchick]

Hi Michiganders,

I have far too many roosters and need to find loving homes for them. All were purchased at the feed stores in April or May so they are 3-4 months old. ALL ARE BANTAMS!!! Here's my list: one Buff Brahma, one Light Brahma, one Mille Fleur, two Porcelains, one Black Cochin. Remember, these are all roosters. They would be great for 4-H. I may have a few more I might have to part with in the next few weeks. Not sure if some of them are hens or roosters at this point. Hard to tell on the silkies and polish sometimes. We thought the Light Brahma could possibly be a hen until he crowed while we were in the pen one day! That's what you get when you purchase straight run birds! Let me know. I would like to ask $3.00 for each, as this chicken venture gets expensive. I will put it in next year's "chick fund"! Melanie

 

[Alphagamchick]

Hi greenacre,
We don't personally belong to 4-H ,(however, now that we have moved onto acreage and have chickies, I want the kids to join) we do have friends that do. Can we help you connect with them? All four of their kids belong to 4-H. They also live in Clarkston and participate in the fair every year.

 

[Alphagamchick]

Hi greenacre,

Not sure what chapter they belong to. I can find out for you. They too live in Clarkston and have belonged since their kids were young. The oldest is in college now. Were you looking to join a poultry group or a general group? If you talk to Sue at the Oakland County 4-H office she can give you the names and numbers of the types of groups you're looking for. Now defunct, they even had a group last summer whose main focus was fishing. There is also an Oakland County Poultry club.

 

[frankenchick]

Hey, Alphagamchick, how do you get so many roos? We've had two sets of straight-run CxR this summer; one was 55% female, the other was 60% female. That's great, unless you want big, fat meat birds!!

 

[Alphagamchick]

Just lucky-or unlucky, depending on how you look at it. All of these roos were straight run birds from the feed stores. We also ended up with a Speckled Sussex roo who was supposed to be a pullet. I think MurrayMcMuarray missed that one. I'm keeping my eye on him. I don't trust him. He has not gone after any of us but can get a bit feisty with the hens. I had a really mean roo as a kid-had to arm ourselves with a broom-sold him at a garage sale-I think he ended up in the soup pot. Ours is like a big cow running through the coop. Out of 43 birds, several are bantams and when he comes running through, everyone scatters and clucks. He's a pretty thing though. I wish I could rehome our young Porcelains. They are very quiet boys. I bought both at the feed store and wouldn't you know it, they both turn out to be male.