Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[tajuano]

Would it be possible for you to share a couple photos of your pens? I'd also love some input in regards to what I need to do to make it work for chickens.

Obviously more perches and nest boxes. I'll take out the pond and dog house (anyone want a nice dog house that needs a new roof? do I keep it for silkies to cuddle in?) I'd assume roofing the run in that clear plastic would probably be useful. Should I be building an actual coop or just the particular things they'd need? I assume chickens would probably like some protection from the elements.

I love your set up, what a nice looking place. I feel your pain when it comes to ducks and mud, they just love it, we let ours roam around and it took care of any mud problem, they seems to be more happy with nice bucket of water and a lot of green grass to roam around, mind you, we have small yard, just a little pizza cut city lot with huge house on it, so there is not a lot of room to be free, but never the less, they do enjoy it much better then enclosure, and it is much cleaner, and the grass is greener, we have not used any kind of fertilizer for years. Summer time we have them in the enclosure but fall and winter they are allowed to be free. Also we took care of duckling problem, I love little ones to run around the yard, but then they grow up to be a messy little creatures that eat and poop, so we send our drakes to the freezing camp.

 

[Carolei]

First Egg!! Hooray!
Here's my beautiful 23 week old Barred Rock, Roxanne and her first egg! I knew she was ready and just waiting for the temperature to get back above freezing. She sang an egg song for hours today and I was worried that she was having trouble, but the egg is perfect and so is she. I'm a happy chicken mama!

 

[MargaretYakoda]

Quote:
Originally Posted by LaurelC
I'll take out the pond and dog house (anyone want a nice dog house that needs a new roof? do I keep it for silkies to cuddle in?)

Your run is gorgeous!
As for giving away that dog house? I'd keep it. And I'd put a wire door on it. Because eventually you'll need a spot to house someone who's ill. Or broody.
Personally, I LOVE having a broody hen.

 

[kevandtara]

Hello from Friday Harbor! Had no idea there would be so many Washingtonians here!
Tara

 

[ImpsMama]

Hi all, I'm mostly a lurker, and I've learned a ton from BYC over my last (almost) 2 years of chicken keeping. However, I was hoping y'all might be able to point me in a good direction... i have a mixed layer flock (5 hens), and am interested in breeding for true dual purpose--good layers, with nice-sized cockerels for processing. From my current small flock, I have a barred rock and GL wyandotte that are my best layers (hatchery stock). I also have some new young birds (impulse purchase, what was I thinking??) that are not quite ready to mix with the big girls yet (cream Legbar hen and cockerel, 2 black english orpingtons of gender unknown). I'm a big fan of the GL wyandotte I have in terms of personality and egg production; my BR produces lovely and frequent eggs and is much bigger than my wyandotte, but she's flighty and kind of mean. The new orpingtons are friendly and huge, so I'm interested to see how they turn out... And the CLBs were a total impulse with hopes of blue eggs. My questions are, first, is anyone else around here breeding for a true utility bird? I'm in east King county. I'd love some ideas of what breeds are working best. I've thought about switching to all one breed; I love the English orpingtons for size but heard they aren't as productive layers, and GL wyandottes for their productivity, but they're smaller. I've also thought about just giving up on "pure bred" and just breeding for utility, especially if one of my orpingtons turns out to be a boy. So... Before I jump into this project next spring... Can I solicit some opinions? Good idea, bad idea? Also, I have a fairly small flock--I'd like to keep it to 4-5 layers, 1 rooster, and hatch chicks 2-3x/yr for the table and to replace layers as needed. Genetic diversity over time will necessitate bringing in stock, and I'd love to connect with someone locally to source good quality birds... And maybe some "chicken breeding mentor ship"... Ideas?

 

[ochochicas]

My best layer that is a larger bird is my Barred Rock hen. She has laid all summer and fall, and heading into winter is not showing any signs of slowing down. You might want to think about turkens or jersey giants for dual purpose. I have a turken cockerel that I am going to start breeding as soon as he's old enough. At 3 months he was already over 4 pounds. Great temperament, too.

The legbars are very light (scrawny) birds that are not good for meat production. They do lay nice, big blue eggs. Mine aren't particularly good layers though. My Marans lay more eggs than the lebgars.

 

[elizmartin]

Ive tried lots of different breeds but am not an expert on any…..The most productive egg layer i have ever had and think would be a good dual purpose would be a Rhode Is.Red….EE ers too. If one goes to the My Pet Chicken Hatchery site there is a page that talks about many of the popular breeds with temperament, egg laying ability ( can range from 1 egg a week to almost one a day), egg color, dual purpose, etc.Some chickens will lay seasonally some year around except during molt.

 

[elizmartin]

Would it be possible for you to share a couple photos of your pens? I'd also love some input in regards to what I need to do to make it work for chickens.

Obviously more perches and nest boxes. I'll take out the pond and dog house (anyone want a nice dog house that needs a new roof? do I keep it for silkies to cuddle in?) I'd assume roofing the run in that clear plastic would probably be useful. Should I be building an actual coop or just the particular things they'd need? I assume chickens would probably like some protection from the elements.

What a beautiful Coop……Well, being on the wet side of the mountains, a thought, roof it with clear fiberglass panels, more durable, overhanging the front and enclosing sides and back with same or heavy clear plastic. That will help keep the floor dryer and protect from some of the storms we keep having yet have plenty of ventilation…

 

[ochochicas]

I put clear roof panels on my coop. They let a lot of light in, but they were a pain in the butt to install and you have to predrill the screw holes. Many leaks around the screws that I had to later seal with silicon. I won't buy them again unless it is for a very small structure. They did stand up to the major wind storm we had last week.

 

[ImpsMama]

My best layer that is a larger bird is my Barred Rock hen. She has laid all summer and fall, and heading into winter is not showing any signs of slowing down. You might want to think about turkens or jersey giants for dual purpose. I have a turken cockerel that I am going to start breeding as soon as he's old enough. At 3 months he was already over 4 pounds. Great temperament, too.

The legbars are very light (scrawny) birds that are not good for meat production. They do lay nice, big blue eggs. Mine aren't particularly good layers though. My Marans lay more eggs than the lebgars.

Ive tried lots of different breeds but am not an expert on any…..The most productive egg layer i have ever had and think would be a good dual purpose would be a Rhode Is.Red….EE ers too. If one goes to the My Pet Chicken Hatchery site there is a page that talks about many of the popular breeds with temperament, egg laying ability ( can range from 1 egg a week to almost one a day), egg color, dual purpose, etc.Some chickens will lay seasonally some year around except during molt.

Thanks for your replies! I will look into turken, I haven't looked at those yet. Jersey giants, I believe are pretty slow maturing? I ruled them out due to that after reading some other threads about best dual purpose birds... Barred rocks, wyandottes, and orpingtons seem to have quite a following on some threads on BYC as dual purpose birds that are good winter layers, which is why I started with them. I agree my barred rock is my best layer, and pretty big--I really don't like her temperament, though, and I have a small daughter (3 y.o.) that I hope will help me with the chickens as she gets older, so I need kid-friendly, or at least not aggressive. What are others' Barred Rocks like? Do I just have Ms. Crazy Bird, or are flighty peckers common?

I ruled out RIR due to reports of aggression, though I have no personal experience with them. I have actually read tons about different breeds and studied the Henderson's breed chart and whatnot. I guess I was more wondering what local people were having success with, as since BYC is such a wide community, sometimes breeds that are working well for people in other climates aren't suitable for ours. And also a lot of people on BYC are pretty dismissive of hatchery quality birds, complaining that they have had most of the "utility" bred out of them; I've seen the same complaint about people focusing on show quality plumage at the expense of egg production/forage-ability/body type/etc. None of this is from personal experience, just what I've read (and I think show quality birds are beautiful!), so I'm not trying to offend anyone here. I'm really just wondering if hatchery birds are poor stock, and show birds aren't the best utility birds, then where does one find good utility birds? Are some show quality birds also good utility birds? Do local breeders exist for utility-type birds? Are there breeders around that are focusing on good dual purpose birds, that sell chicks/hatching eggs/etc? If so, how do I find one? I guess this was my attempt at finding one!

I'm also a sucker for pretty birds--I love the GL Wyandotte coloration, and the BBS english orpingtons. The cream leg bars were a whim (the orpington breeder also had CLBs, and offered a free cockerel, so I picked one and a hen up as well when I got my orpington chicks), more for eggs and pretty birds than dual purpose, and I may or may not keep them. I thought I was getting good English Orpington stock, which I was going to use to start moving more towards dual-purpose than layer; the breeder advertised good lines (that I knew about from following the English Orpington thread here), but then has not responded to any inquiries made by me since I purchased the chicks--so I'm guessing I got suckered into buying poor stock from a breeder just out to make a buck. That was my first experience buying from a breeder rather than a hatchery and it was a pretty poor purchase experience. I'm hoping fellow BYC'ers can point me in a better direction for local breeders rather than relying on classifieds.

I'm also trying to keep a fairly sustainable flock going, so I don't want to just raise broilers. Although I don't know if a flock as small as mine can truly be sustainable--probably not, without outside stock, as I mentioned earlier. Space and neighbors aren't issues, we're pretty rural with over an acre, but I don't really want to produce many more eggs than our family eats. And a handful of chickens can free-range our yard without mass destruction; more would probably impact the garden. Two of my hens went broody this past summer, and next year, I'd like to let any broody's raise chicks to replace the layers and fill the freezer.

Oh, boy, I can be long-winded when I get going... sigh...