Insel Lyr Farm of Daggett, Upper Michigan

09/18/2022

Due to predators getting my ducks, I'm fixing up the in-barn chicken pen and trying to score some cheap chickens. My friend Petar said he'd buy me a few and give them to me, but I have learned he thinks 5 dollars for a laying hen is too much. Years ago I had to pay at least $10 for an adult chicken! So I'm on my own as far as replenishing my poultry.

I wanted to get a few Pilgrim geese to be friends with Attila the gander, but Petar borrowed Attila to go on a date with his female goose, and he still wants Attila to stay. Geese are gonna be harder to get, they are expensive. And my income level on SSI disability is not covering life essentials, and a girlfriend for my gander isn't essential.

09/18/2022

06/05/2022

I got 3 new Khaki Campbell drakes plus a female that's probably Golden 300. Khaki Campbells can be nervous so I am letting them settle in before I catch them and put on wing bands and leg bands. One of the three has angel wing so the boys will get angel names. Gabriel, Raphael and Michael. Michael has to be the nicest one because my brother is named Michael.

The female will be Ekatarina like my other females, so she won't feel left out.

I'm trying not to go in the pen too much until the new arrivals get settled in and get to know me. The two groups of ducks seem to get along with one another.

06/03/2022

There is a fur & feather swap in Peshtigo.

05/25/2022

I have 36 duck eggs in my incubator. Since my incubator is not a good one, I was planning to do three hatches in the hope of getting a few live ducklings. But the friend I borrowed the drake from came by today to get him back.

So, I need an adult drake. My ducks are from Golden 300 hybrids, but a Khaki Campbell drake would do. Or a Welsh Harlequin. Or a Buff Orpington, I like those.

If my incubator is working, I hope to hatch out enough egg-laying ducks for a few local people to get starter flocks. With egg shortages and all, the more people when keep small flocks of ducks or chickens for eggs, the better off we all are.

So if you are in Mid Menominee county and have a spare drake, let me know.

05/09/2022

These are my current ducks. The four females--- two are white, one is at the side of the calf hutch --- are from parents that were Golden 300 Layers from Metzer Hatchery, Boris and Natasha. Natasha hatched out all ten eggs! The females this year are all named Ekatarina.

My male, to the left of the waterer, is of unknown breed. He looks Khaki Campbell, though. I've named him Pyotr. He's busy chasing his ladies so I hope the eggs are fertile.

I'm collecting eggs for a hatch. I hope to have enough egg-laying ducks to provide some for people wanting a starter flock. Sorry, can't ship, so you have to be in Menominee, MI to get some.

05/04/2022

I like to use portable pens for my poultry. This small pen, made of stock panels covered in chicken wire, last year was the home of my two egg hybrid ducks. The female hatched out two batches of ducklings, which I brooded artificially for her.

This year four of the daughters are laying eggs. I hope to have enough to have enough duck eggs and maybe sell or barter some ducklings to some people who want them.

The Pilgrim gander in the pen this year helps keep the predators away from the ducks, but I was afraid he'd kill my male duck or keep him away from the girls, so he's in a pen by himself for now.

04/24/2022

This is the spot in my woods where I found American Slippery Jack mushrooms, later in the year. I haven't found any morels in my woods yet, but I'm not sure I have been checking at the right time. Do morels even grow in Menominee county?

04/19/2022

My three ducks, pictured here with the Pilgrim gander who is their bodyguard, have started laying eggs. Since I need fertile eggs to make ducklings with, I went to my Serbian-American friend's house to get a drake. He said I could take some of his females too if I wanted. I found a duck I had sold him last year--- full sister to my three. So we are going to have ducklings, assuming I can con some of my girls into hatching out eggs. I tricked the girls' mama into hatching eggs twice last year, that's where the girls came from.

04/15/2022

After working on my comfrey bed, I decided to make a more formal stinging nettle bed. I raked up a good area, and discovered some stinging nettle plants already there.

My original stinging nettle patch was from seed I bought from Richter's, but it's all over the place now. Hungry waterfowl--- geese and ducks --- can eradicate stinging nettle patches from where you don't want them. When I dig up a nettle clump, I put it in a poultry pen so my ducks and Attila the Pilgrim gander cat eat it.

Stinging nettle can be cooked like spinach, I like the taste of it and I normally don't eat my vegetables. I also have dried some for tea, but the dried tea gets buggy pretty quick, so this year I am putting the plastic bags of dried nettle in my limited freezer space.

When I make bone broth, I usually add nettle as part of the vegetable content of the recipe.

04/15/2022

Today I went to Stephenson to buy cat food and eggs from Family Dollar. They were out of eggs. I gotta get some hens pretty soon, and my three ducks had better start laying eggs. The store was out of other things as well --- no paper plates, just styrofoam, no canned coconut milk. I was too tired to go the rounds of the other 2 stores in Stephenson. Hope things don't get worse.

04/13/2022

Help! I need to get an adult male duck--- preferably Khaki Campbell or egg-hybrid--- and also would like a few hens and a rooster, also adult. Older hens are OK. Since I am disabled and can't go very far, they need to be in mid Menomonee county. They also need to be inexpensive.

Phone #: 906-374-0020.