Michigan

[chickendales]

Swap Meet
&
Flea Market
MAY 21, 2011
9am-3pm
...Tuscola County Fair Grounds

 

[Scrummycat]

Hi everybody! We are having a busy Spring getting ready for my niece's wedding next month. I've been painting, weeding and mulching like crazy the past couple of weeks.

We are having a strange situation here...my chickens, who have been happy to stay within the yard for the past 2.5 years, have suddenly decided that the coolest place to hang out is in the middle of the road, or in our neighbor's yard across the street. We are on 5 acres, so they have a lot of space as it is, and they have never in 2.5 years shown any interest in going near the road at all before. Sigh.

We are supervising them now when they are out, but we have to chase them away from the road every 10 minutes it seems. I think we are going to need to get an electric netting fence or something. I was looking at the ones that Premier 1 sells. Has anyone had any experience with those, good or bad?

 

[chickendales]

Swap Meet
&
Flea Market
MAY 21, 2011
9am-3pm
...Tuscola County Fair Grounds
Livestock, Feeds, Homemade & Household Items,
Toys & Children Items
Garage Sale & Swap meet Items,
And Much Much More!
Help Support 4-H
Space Available $10.00 ea
FREE ADMISSION
Contact Us For Information
Jennifer Beardslee
(989) 717-1370
or
Tuscola County MSU Extension
362 Green Street
Caro, MI 48723-1910
(989) 672-3870

 

[Mom 2em All]

Keyt-
its possible that those eggs are no good. By putting them flat on their side, the 'nasty explosive material' may have ruptured through the inner membrane...
OR another possibility is that the ducks pipped internally, and may have ruptured a blood vessel.
????

One thing for sure, time will tell.
Good luck with your hatch!

 

[yorkchick]

Quote:
Chickmate, thank you *so* much for posting those pictures of Otis! ! (Otis is a perfect DDB name, BTW...) I will see if I can find some pics of Walter--I swear he could have been Otis's littermate. (By which of course I mean that Otis was devastatingly handsome). When we were foolishly looking for Walter's owner, one of the things we did was to contact DDB national rescue and we e-mailed a photo of Walter. The guy e-mailed back to say, "Yup, that's a DDB all right, but his nose is too long.". Well, by then we were in love and were unreasonably miffed by this remark. To this day, the "show quality" DDB heads look kind of, hmmm, mutant to us.

Anyway, the DH and I both sighed and smiled over Otis's pictures for a good spell.

Thanks again for sharing.

--Susan

 

[Henny Penny04]

After crawling around the pines in my neighbors yard at dark(with him using a spotlight for me), I spotted my Yoko. She was roosting in a tree. I actually had the net over her... and then she somehow managed to slip out of it and disappear into the night. So frustrating! I have other things to do with my time than chase a silly chicken with no sense. But then when I am doing those other things, I find myself thinking of her. Then I put my boots back on and go out. Do you suppose I've lost my flipping mind if I made Lost Chicken posters?

 

[keyt1969]

Quote:
Thanks Kim!! Yeah I'm pretty sure they're bad. All I have to say is I hope they don't explode anytime soon. The hatch (minus the skovies) are due to hatch Monday, but some are pipping already. We'll see!

I can't wait til that batch is over. I've collected some bantams (frizzle, cochin and possibly silkies) and going to try that. Every bantam egg I've had has been fertile. Sad thing is my frizzle roo died over the winter when we lost power and didn't have any heat in the barn on an extremely cold night. The only bantam roos I have are cochin and silkie. My neighbor wants some bantams so since they have been very fertile I'll try it. I would have had 8 bantams last time around if the heat didn't rise so high!

 

[Opa]

Good morning. Jst came in from checking the incubator and only two chicks whave hatched. I'm pretty sure that the other pipped egg has died but at least with two I won't have the loneliness issue to deal with. I'm still amazed to have even two chicks hatch given the problems with the turner for the first 10 days. The next hatch will be in my newly constructed incubator and with its top completely visible it sure will ake watching the hatching chicks much easier. The gyrations one must go through to look through the two small windows in my current incubator make the process an excercise in futility.

I've got to go to TSC and pick up some chick starter and I think I will wait until late afternoon then open the incubator and take out the two chicks. That will make it about 36 hours since discovering the first pip. While I probably would have waited until tomorrow, given the fact that the turner didn't work for 10 days I rather doubt that anymore will hatch. Add in the fact that Hope and I are leaving tomorrow morning I need to have this over with and the survivors in a brooder.

The little Vorwerk bantam is sitting tight on her nest and her eggs are due to hatch on June 5th. On the 3rd I will fire up the new incubator and hopefully have a much better hatch in time for Chickenstock. I intend to fill in with a dozen Welsummer eggs and then the rest will be bantams.

Scrummycat, I've used the Premier fencing for two summers and have be very pleased with it. If you would like to stop by and look at it before ordering your own please feel free. I've pm'd you with my cell # to make the same offer.

 

[fifelakelooper]

Good morning Michigan chicken lovers! I've been in a frenzy of painting, cleaning, planting, weeding...etc. since the weather has warmed up and we are not getting all the rain you southern Mi. farmers have. I've missed many posts...tried to skim through and look at most of them. Opa congrats on the chickies hatching out....WELCOME to all the new people on this thread and thank you all for the interesting topics. The poop boards and bio-security are too threads of interest for me. I have never had any chicken disease issues or deaths (other than from predators) on our property so never really paid much attention to it (ashamed to admit). I purchased a incubator this spring and have hatched out to hatches with another due next Thursday. 3 weeks ago I purchased 13 chickens that were 10 months old from a stranger on Craigs list who lived not far from me. Never even considered any danger from them since I was not going to put any of my hatched chicks in the same coop. Well....I determined that a few had some mites....that upset me and became sort of fanatical on cleaning, spraying, treating. Kicking myself for not considering that those mites could easily get onto new chicks once I let them outside in the runs area. Then I started reading up on stuff. I found out that Mareks disease is airborne and lives for 65 MONTHS and pretty much is everywhere due to the fact that is released in dander...feathers and that even if the hens are healthy looking there is a good chance they are "carriers". I had no idea. Then I read that if you work around hens...even if they look healthy...then go care for chicks kept separate but you wear the same clothes....you can transmit this virus to your babies. Holy cow that freaked me out. I have NOT had any sickness or death but have made the decision after much reading...to vaccinate my next 24 chicks as soon as they come out of the incubator. I have never done this but have detailed directions...I'm nervous but feel it is right to do since I have those older hens which will be in close proximety to my chicks. I see that BYC has many who think vaccinating is a bad idea...but I have decided it is right for me being a worrier.
Anyway...wish me luck...I'm going to get some oranges and practice...I've very nervous about doing it.

 

[Mom 2em All]

Hello all-

beautiful day for what they predict to be the end of the world.
I just rehomed seven chickens to someone on Criagslist...and have 11 muscovies going. Suddenly, everyone wants them

There is someone who contacted me that will take the entire batch that hatches out in a month. If they actually do, we will see.

My frizzle is brooding silver sebright eggs, and my sizzle is running around wondering what the heck just happened and

at the big net I used.

Mama Muscovy is getting farther and farther away from her babies now- she even went swimming and left them sleeping at the other end of the yard. They dont have feathers yet- though I am sure they are coming in. They hatched out the first of May...how long does Mom usually care for them before she leaves them to their own devices? She still comes running full speed if one of them peeps- and my gosling is terrified of her.

I have to work in a few hours- totally stinks because I would love the weekend off.

Until my supervisor quits though, that is not going to happen.

I hope you all have a beautiful day.