Michigan

[taprock]

I too ventured out for Black Friday. I have gone the past two years at 4 am but not that early this year. The only door buster I wanted was last night at 10. My sister pulled an all nighter and picked up my item for me. The very easiest way to shop - send someone else!

The only crazy place was Joann Fabrics. Lines of ladies with carts full of cloth! I bought no cloth but lots to finish Christmas presents. My BIG purchase was a sock loom, spending all of 12 bucks!

Beautiful weather today! Hopefully the good weather lasts a few more days. The quail lady is sending me some buttons on Monday. I was noticing today that my Welsummer roo has gotten huge! He is still pretty skinny but makes all the other roosters look like runts. So far no bad attitude from him. I make sure to carry him around some every day which he doesn't really like but doesn't fight it either. He has finally at 6 months old started crowing, sounds a bit sickly but at least it's a crow. Bad thing - closing up after dark I found two mice in the coop. I wasn't quick enough to get them with a broom.

 

[AngelaB]

Beautiful day today! Got the silkies out of the coop and walked them around the garden (it's fenced in.) My daughter was walking Nevermore, and I happened to come out on the deck and yelled "Hawk!" She grabbed her up and put her back in her cage. I am trying to figure out a way to keep them seperated in the coop from the others. Integration is not going well. I hate keeping them in the cage.

 

[snowflake]

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and a fun black friday. WE had 38 at my house for Thanksgiving. 3 of my brothers and their kids and kids,kids. (2 brothers and a sister & families don't usually come. younger brother goes to Florida 1 works so others can go to families and sister and her DH and 3 DD and 6 beautiful GK usually hang out at their house. If they all came we would have to sit on each others laps I think. but it would be great to see them more. Black Fri. was nice went with daughter#2 her DH took care of the 3girls so we could go DD#1, and DS and spouses had to work. we had a good time, though didn't find a lot of what we were looking for but lunch out is always a must.
Finished med.s for my hens. 1 seems to be egg bound so we have been giving her spa and heat treatments then put her back out she is walking better but can't seem to pass the lump. 1 hen is still very weak, don't know if she will make it. she eats pretty good if I leave her with the other hens. every one had to be treated just incase. So I check on her often and make sure she gets extra water and honey. Hope it just takes time to get back some weight and strength.
A lot has happened the last couple days. Prayers for all those having problems!
One of my granddaughters is staying over night this week-end. She is helping to put up Christmas. got the lights up last night. still need to put the timers on. Hope to get the tree and inside deco up today. Have to plan something fun for tomorrow when her Mom and sisters come up.
Have a great day all.

 

[M.sue]

Snowflake....that is a lot of people!

It is always nice though when everyone can get together. Now a days with so many having families living out of town and busy work schedules it can be difficult to get everyone in one spot.

I literally hate me waterer.... I just made a mess on the coop floor trying to hang it and it took me a little longer than normal to do my routine. I didn't spill a lot but enough that I had to toss the wet shavings around with some dry ones. I'm going to have my DH build me a stable base to set it on when the gets back from hunting.

Question / For those of you that have Marans, the chocolate egg makers......do they tolerate the Michigan cold weather well? Just read on a breed list that they are not cold hardy birds.

 

[DaughterOfEve]

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving time. Our family got stuffed Thursday and walked it off on Friday at the sales. Friday was uneventful though Thursday evening at the 10 pm walmart circus was a little harry. I took my DD to her first. She was very shocked that people plunge head first into a pallet of video games and push and shove. All said though no one got hurt and those in the front were quite curteous and helpful to those of us a little more timid. My DD has proclaimed that she does not care to go again.

AngelaB: Sorry to hear you are still struggling with integration. It can be dodgy at times and sometimes goes better than others. You might consider a small chicken tractor for out in the yard if you have hawks visiting regularly. I have built a hoop house and a day tractor (no coop attached) now for growing out and integration. In the coop I staple chicken wire to one corner of the coop with some scrap wood pieces for a little support. Best wishes.

Hope today is nice too! I was gone and traveling and missed my outside time. However my DH did let the birds out for a good long free range session and when I pulled in home they were right next to the road. Geesh. While moma's away, the birds will wander astray.

 

[Chickmate]

Had a great Thanksgiving with all the trimmings. My DD has become an excellent cook. Little problem with the turkey this year. She put it in a huge electric broiler and set it on 300 at 9:00 a.m. We went off to church and when we got back it was barely warm. Must have a bad thermostat. She turned it up to 400 and then it started cooking, but we still had to lift the broiler pan out and place the whole thing in the oven for the last hour because the natives were getting restless and HUNGRY! It turned out beautiful golden brown and juicy. Excellent despite the problem.

Stayed Wed. night, Thursday and Thurs. night at daughters, so chickens were cooped up and probably not happy. I leave the pop door open all the time, so they have the coop and the run, but are used to getting out to free-range every day. My neighbor came over on Thanksgiving to check on them but they were very happy to get out when I came home. These last few nice days have been great, but I think winter weather is just around the corner.

M.sue - I have two FBCM hens, but this will be our first winter, so not sure how they will do. I hope OK. I'm more worried about whether the chickens will wander out on the pond and fall through the ice near the aerator hole. Still haven't figured out what I'm going to do about that.

I can't stand shopping, it's my vision of hell, so no Black Friday for me. It sure was nice weather for those of you who did venture out though. My Christmas shopping consists of point and click and free shipping.

Someone suggested posting pictures of our roosters crowing, so this is Joe letting rip! My neighbor called me at 1:00 a.m. this morning wanting to know if my chickens were OK. We are both night owls, so she knew I'd be up. She said she was out in her yard pottying her dogs one last time before bed and she could hear one of my roosters crowing over and over and over. They were in the coop roosting, but she could hear him. Not sure which one it was or why he decided to crow at that hour. Go figure.

 

[AngelaB]

Here are my silkies

This is Nevermore, the bigger one:

and this is Chickie Sixx, her sister. She is about half the size. I don't even think she weighs a pound

 

[NovaAman]

Angela, Angela, Angela... Don't you know silkies can be a BIG PAIN IN THE BUTT! You give them a nice place to live, good food, yummy treats, and then they go and get themselves picked on. And because they can't hardly see whats coming at them, they are all pathetic like and can't hardly defend themselves... Pain in the butt birds...

I am totally kidding. Kind of...

Ok, so, Minnie Cuke met her fate at the end of a hawks feet and beak... SHE was the top dog, I mean hen in the coop. A vicious little thing. No one, and I mean NO ONE messed with her or her sister, and Leila was smart enough to ALWAYS be close to Minnie... Well, since Minnie became a snack, Leila has no protection. Not to mention Roger, who doesn't ever see Oscar coming. He can hear Oscar, but can not see him very well, and I am too wimpy to trim the feather fluff around his eyes, I worry that he will totally freak on me and what if I hurt him? Well needless to say, the special needs silkies are now spoiled worse than ever with their very own coop. The coop is in the garage. No cars are in there ever. The only thing they have to worry over in there is when I forget to turn off the light and Roger starts crowing at 2 am. I also have a small area for them to walk on in there, filled with wood shavings,because I can easily shovel them up and put fresh down. Also too, the garage really never freezes, and with just the two of them, they should be fine. It never freezes because of how its situated to the house. Half the house is over the garage... It gets cold in there thats for sure, but the water should not freeze.

That story being told... I would suggest you get them their own coop and run space. Next spring, the coop they are in will go back to being the isolation coop/newbie coop. They will get a new heavy duty silkie coop with ENCLOSED attached run. And maybe a few new girls in it for Roger. I would have kept them with the big girls, but Oscar darn near scalped Leila in his learning to mate attacks, and Mr. Fluffers, well he just didn't cotton to her being on "HIS" roost, even thou she'd be their first, and he'd peck the crap out of her. Its funny cuz that never happened when Minnie was alive. Minnie was an eye/ear attacker. You messed with her, she'd go right for the ear and eye area. Rotten girl she was. LOL. But anyway, They'll get the enclosed run to keep them safe from the hawks and safe from the big BOYS. The girls were always good with them.

 

[AngelaB]

There is no way to get them thier own coop....We are making the run bigger in the spring

 

[snowflake]

M.Sue, last winter DH built a box bigger then the waterer, and we filled it with sand. it helped some but never dried completely so was very heavy to empty. this year I am going to try keeping the water outside. have one cookie tin heater and one heated waterer. they are close to the coop and under the covered area of the run. even if I have to bring the water in every night and put back out in the AM I think they will stay thawed during the day. water in the coop is just a mess.I am moving all the food outside too.