Michigan

[fuzzybutt love]

Stupidly went to the ravenna auction yesterday. Got a hen for $1, but it was a horrible day. Hot, no fan , and most of the bird sellers hadn't even thought to bring water!

There is a guy who buys all the cheap ones, even banties for meat...........grabs whatever part closest to the door.
I swear they actually scream "help". No way am i ever going to be able to go commercial, i am too soft. In my family, we don't eat a lot of meat, and we try to respect the animal even if it is going to be eaten.

 

[babigyrl22]

We got some rain last night but not enough to make a huge difference. Just coming in from doing my morning chores. I had Lola and Bear out in the playpen this morning...taking a rest after chasing each other for about an hour.


While I was cleaning out their pens I noticed this in my little evergreen tree. I wonder if it is an abandoned egg. I wouldn't expect to see an egg in the summer. But it's very pretty.

 

[Chickmate]

Quote:

Had a leghorn get injured sometime today. My daughter called me at work and said she found the leghorn in the yard all beat up. I checked her over when I got home, but I haven't a clue what happened to her. No obvious wounds, bite/claw marks, blood or anything. She was very dirty and one side of her face was swollen w/ eye shut. The other side the eye was wide open, but it was dilating/un-dilating over and over very fast and she seemed to be having a problem keeping her head upright as if something was wrong with her neck. My first thought is she got hit very hard by something and had a concussion. Stupid question, do they get concussions? I told DH and he thought the same thing. Or maybe she had a fight with another chicken perhaps? We've got her crated right now. Her swollen eye is open a tiny bit now and the other eye appears to have stopped dilating and her head is still kind of lolling a bit so hopefully she gets better, but I have some concerns about it.

Do your chickens have access to the road? Maybe she got hit by a car.

I also have never had a predator get into my coop or run. It's easiest to build it predator proof to begin with than to try to make it so after the fact, I think. I did lots of reading and research before building and so far have been very happy with the results.

It's raining here now, hope it rains all day.

Interesting raccoon story
http://lakewood.patch.com/articles/...=maing-grid7|main5|dl14|sec3_lnk3&pLid=179203

 

[swampducks]

Of course with multiple coon traps I didn't see or get anything. I did manage to get the guineas into the coop. Went down at 11 pm with a flashlight and picked each of the 11 idiots off the perch and stuffed them inside. Only one fought me and made me chase it around the pen. Hard to do with the flashlight on the ground only lighting one part and trying not to fall over food and water dishes and ramps. I figure those 5 guineas they dragged off kept them sated for one night. I'm thinking I must have surprised them in the morning yesterday because they had left one poor bird (icky description follows)
missing a wing, headless, neck without feathers and chewed, hadn't touched the body yet
in the water trough. Guess it was washing its food. Water was cold though so DH skinned it and nothing wrong with the meat so I'm frying it for dinner tonight.

Yup, we eats our birds, precious.

Rain missed us, so everything is still super dry. Lawn is pretty much dead, corn never even got much above ankle high, potato bugs are bad (I suppose those are the one bug chickens won't eat?) My pumpkins, zukes and cukes are still alive only because we moved them from the hunting camp garden which relies only on rain to the new veggie garden across the driveway where I dragged 200 feet of hose. Only have 2 hills of 9 zukes with any sign of zucchini and they have finally gotten 3 inches long. Lots of male flowers on everything else. Shouldn't I see some sort of small pumpkins by now? But there is nothing. Mostly staying inside and cleaning the house up in preparation for my GF's visit in 10 days. It's slowly getting there. Have I mentioned that I HATE housework? I thought I went to college to be able to avoid that sort of thing!

Note, tried using the spoiler alert in Chrome, doesn't work, had to switch to IE. Dang it, don't care for IE!

 

[keyt1969]

Yay two birds gone (thanks Robin!!) now to find homes for at least 6-7 more!

I hate to let my ducks go too but some need to go. I have my pets of course, like the ones i got from Kim.

It's really cloudy here but of course it won't rain. It got super dark last night and spit out a few drops of rain (sure looked like it was going to be worse) which didn't make any difference.

 

[chicken grandma]

Do lawns survive being burned to a crisp or do we have to reseed? sigh

 

[Stacykins]

Rain missed us, so everything is still super dry.

Rain missed us here too. In fact, it seems every single rainstorm recently has missed us. There can be a huge mass of rain on doppler radar making a beeline, certainly going to hit us, and almost magically, the rain goes around us. It just parts and skirts around us. There will be no second hay crop, we're lucky to have gotten one.

 

[Totalcolour]

Yup, we eats our birds, precious.

Yesss, Yesss, so does we precious, so does we! Mustn't waste it, no, noo. We eats well, we does!

SSS!

 

[uchytil]

Do lawns survive being burned to a crisp or do we have to reseed? sigh

My farm yard burns every year but by late August it starts getting green again. By October it looks like a lush tropical island paradise. Don't fret.

 

[uchytil]

Stupidly went to the ravenna auction yesterday. Got a hen for $1, but it was a horrible day. Hot, no fan , and most of the bird sellers hadn't even thought to bring water!

There is a guy who buys all the cheap ones, even banties for meat...........grabs whatever part closest to the door.
I swear they actually scream "help". No way am i ever going to be able to go commercial, i am too soft. In my family, we don't eat a lot of meat, and we try to respect the animal even if it is going to be eaten.

I've avoided that place so far this year. It's sort of the shallow end of the gene pool there. I've seen some idiots stuff too many birds in too small a cage. Fight or bait animals probably. My buddy and his wife live there and get their birds there only because they don't raise chicks and like instant egg production. By meeting people on here I've avoided the auction and trade with our good folks.