Recent content by yorkchick

Hello, Michigan peeps! I haven’t been here in like forever, but I see a few names I remember, thank goodness, along with a lot of newer (to me!) names (also thank goodness for that!) Back in the day, I had chickens, geese, turkeys, and peafowl. I eventually stopped acquiring birds due to...

Those are some really cute birds! :love

At one time, I had a completely ridiculous rooster-to-hen ratio (if I recall correctly, it was 3 roosters to 4 hens) and it worked just fine. The roosters did some minor posturing, but no fights. There was some minor feather loss due to breeding behavior on the hens‘ backs, but nothing of...

Will do! I have to say, I am so fortunate in my friends. This project would still be on the back burner if not for their help and motivation. My friend Lisa especially has a lot of construction skills and has been helping me figure how to get this done. She says she wants to be there when...

Hi, Muttsfan! Many thanks to you, Folly’s Place, and Snowflake for your advice over on the other thread. Michigan peeps FTW (as usual :yesss:) As to whether Maurice appreciates my efforts... :lau Ummm, pretty sure he looks at me as his jailer. According to him, he was doing juuuusssst...

KsKingBe—thank you! Your place is marvelous! You are living the dream (and no doubt have been working your backside off for years to create and maintain it) :bow This is the flight netting I have, not sure what weight it is. I got it from a neighbor who used it to cover his chicken run (he...

Arrrgh. Snow load! Yep. That will be a problem. I have 1/2” hardware cloth that I was going to cover the 2” x 4” woven wire fencing, at least the first 3 to 4 feet up. That way I can do the hardware cloth in smaller sections, easier to handle and I can do it without help.

Oooo, yeah, forgot about covering the staples! Yeah, we used galvanized fencing staples. I’ll get them covered with boards! We have raccoons and coyotes. And foxes. Always the possibility of stray dogs, although we don’t see them generally around here. The last confirmed black bear...

The electric wire is a good idea! I’m sure raccoons can get onto the roof of the barn and then onto the top of the pen, though, so wouldn’t need to climb the pen itself. 😖

Thank you! I’m waiting for the peafowl folks to chime in, but what I remember is there is a danger if they can see sky, they will try to fly up. The ceiling in his room is solid, so no worries there. Maybe hardware cloth would be dense enough to provide a visual barrier?

Well, I have finally made progress on improving life for my poor lonely peacock, Maurice. I am paranoid about his safety since I have had so many losses to predators, and he’s been very safe in the barn... but I’m sure also lonely and booooored. I started a thread over on the Peafowl section...

I have one peacock, acquired as a stray that showed up at a neighbor’s house. He currently lives in a room in my barn that is about 11‘ by 13’ feet. Right now Maurice is my only bird—I have had chickens, geese, and turkeys that free ranged in the past, in secure housing at night, but there are...

Here’s the DitchWitch currently hanging out in our neighborhood. According to code, apparently all over Michigan, the frost line has been declared to be 42 inches...

This is great info, thank you both!

Hello! I just started wondering how all the Michigan peeps are doing in this strange time. Personally we are healthy and taking the self-isolation thing seriously. Luckily, the DH is able to work from home. Me, I can’t work as a dental hygienist. My other job, sometimes referred to by me as...