Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[11mini]

For the Snohomish County peeps - I am looking for a local source of Valbazen to worm my chickens. Anyone know a Lake Stevens area store that carries it? All I saw at the Everett co-op was Wazine.

 

[clankeyes]

UPDATE … we found a duck/drake 4 months old right up the street from us… picking them up tomorrow

 

[ThisishowIroll]

If she's become the alpha there should be no need for the carrier as a backup. And even if she weren't your thought that it will prolong the inevitable is true. You might want to take a peek after dark and see where she is. If she's not on a perch just put her up. They'll be fine.

Well, Shirley the alpha bantam (she's at most half the size of Ruby & Martha, which cracks me up) was resting peacefully in a nesting box before dark. The other two girls cautiously went up into the roost and cuddled in their normal corner. I questioned whether or not to leave the coop entrance cracked, I may still go do that to give them a mode of escape just in case. It's certainly been entertaining watching the behaviors and communications between them.

Shirley is feisty as all get out and it making sure the other two know she's boss. Her aggressions are getting milder already (more body pecks and neck fluffs than face shots like yesterday), but I feel bad for Ruby & Martha. They were raised as a tight twosome & they're like frick and frack,

never more than a couple feet from each other. Their pecking order established slowly over time and is usually nothing more than the occasional playful goosing or chest bump, so they're not use to this sort of straight up bossiness.

Shirley came to me from a very nice home where there happened to be a couple of turkeys who tried to put her in place. She's got all kinds of bald patches from the bullying (though she's fit as a fiddle otherwise and was well cared for), and I think I'm beginning to understand why: She won't back down, EVER. She was probably trying to show the turkeys who was boss and thought she was winning! She's probably still in fight mode and these two seem like an easy mark compared to a couple turkeys.

In your experiences do their bossy pants hens from a rough background ever chill out once they realize there's no real threat anymore?

 

[Espresso]

I just said... Look, eggs! And gog started. Haha. Guess he will forgive me later. Plus I promised we could eat them if they became a nuisance.....

 

[AliceSaurus]

Welp, just checking in to update on my mystery bird. I guess my big buff orpington is probably a hermaphrodite (I think the technical term is mosaic gynandromorph). 28 weeks old and not one egg even though its comb and wattles have big huge and bright red for 3 months now, but not a single crow or hackles or saddles or anything. It has some truly pitiful sickle feathers. Very sturdy and big compared to my other buff orpington which supposedly had the same parents, but does the submissive squat when I touch it (it has squatted for 4 weeks now. The other two laid within 10 days of squatting and give me an egg every day). So weird! I have a long history of getting bizarre,

deformed or malfunctioning animals so I should have figured I'd get the weird bird!

 

[YNOT2K]

The start of our flock.

 

[ThisishowIroll]

The start of our flock.

So cute! That's a great start right there! Names?

 

[YNOT2K]

So cute! That's a great start right there! Names?

Left to right -

Sandra Dee
Ruby
Pepper

 

[Ashley Stroud]

Left to right - 

Sandra Dee
Ruby
Pepper

They're adorable! And I Love the names!

 

[11mini]

That is the flock I originally was trying for - didn't pick them out right and ended up with a GC, Buckeye, and a CM Rooster - rehomed him and now have a BSL.