Washingtonians

[Napalongtail]

Hey Washingtonians!!!!

It's great to see peeps in Washington State who love raising backyard chickens come together, but over 80,000 replies in one thread is bogging down the server when we do updates. For this reason we're starting a new Washingtonians thread.

Please continue all of your great discussions here.









I'm in the far NE side close to Spokane. I know there's a bunch of us chicken fanciers up here.

 

[hallerlake]

Quote: If belief comforts people, let them be comforted.

It's no skin off your nose.

 

[Totalcolour]

This thread has a true sense of community, and camaraderie that I find quite rare in other places.

We share ideas, information, we look out for each other and have parties together. In times of trouble we try to help and in good times we celebrate.

and at the risk of a mod's ire, I like it that we come from all backgrounds, religions, political affiliations, AND IT DOESN'T MATTER, BECAUSE WE ARE "friends".

 

[FirewifeJess]

Do any of you guys use the "Ovations" thing on here? It's pretty cool! It's the thumbs up symbol at the bottom of the posts; I never knew I had ever gotten any ovations but I just checked and I have 6! I'm gonna start using it more, it's a really nice feature; also, now I have a way of bookmarking posts that are helpful to me.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

To set the record straight. Dana I think and hope that you know me well enough to know that I was NOT berating you or your birds. After all I probably have one of the widest selections of mutts around starting with my self. As some of you know I do also have some SQ birds.
When I first joined this thread it was a pretty common practice to ease in, watch, listen (read) and get to know others before lashing out at someone for voicing their opinion which had just been requested. Sharing information is what helps us all grow and learn. I will continue to share my opinion (with in the rules) especially when requested. If you can't handle that or don't like it..... build a bridge and get over it!!!!

 

[Flaming Chicken]

I heard an interesting phrase this weekend that could apply to many situations. "If you're tired of playing tug of war with someone, let go of your end of the rope and walk away".

This is so true. On that note, a dog will run around with rope growling, you can choose to grab it and play or you can let them run around with it till they get tired and drop it. There are a couple of personalities on this forum that I find to be abbrasive. I just read and don't respond to them. The rest of this community is wonderful and supportive and amusing. I am not going to drop off just because I don't agree with every individual that posts here.

 

[PNWGirl]

Are Pomeranians hard to potty train? I know of two that were sadly re-homed due to pee problems.

When I took in my pug, she was a package deal with a Pom. He spend the night, in transit to his new home, and marked everywhere. My close friend had a Pom that would pee on her husband. Yep, he would lay on the floor, and get sprayed.

I have not had that issue but it does take repetition. I foster for a small dog rescue and so have this same issue of the new dogs who come into my house, while I work with them, before they move onto the rescue itself. I currently have two, that the local shelter asked me to take. They are now housebroke and when they gain enough weight (they are walking skeleton's) they will move over to the Rescue for placement.

For dogs, moving to a new home, I recommend a belly band- for males- and pants for the girls.

A belly band is a piece of material that goes around the dogs middle and is closed with Velcro. In it you put a piece of a people incontinence pad (I cut, the ones I get from WalMart into thirds).

This way, while you are training the dog and they are learning your house and your rules, they are not having any accidents and if they mark- no biggie.

When they mark or potty in the wrong area, tell them no and, calmly, pick them up and take them to where you want them to go.

If it is outside, always take them to the same place and say "go potty" or any command you choose. Just make sure that it is always the same command every time. Mine are trained to go whenever I give them the command. When you are traveling or at a show, you don't want to be standing in the rain waiting for the dog to 'find that right spot'.

I also use a washable potty pad at the back door in case they need to go when I am not home or my disability is flaring up and I can't get up to take them out.

I hope that some of this will help you. You can always PM me with any other questions.

Sheila

 

[SadieSue]

So I guess I can add "rat killer" to my resume'. now. I've been watching 2 rats jump around in the trees over the coops for a couple of weeks just as the sun is going down. Varmints were waiting until everyone was locked up so they could eat chicken feed. DH and I have been bringing all the feed into the garage at night but every night my Golden is tracking the rat down and I'd go out with my flashlight just in time to see it skittering up a post or over a coop roof or into the tree over my head. Gives me shivers....

I read a post the other day that said the cheapest, easiest way to kill them was to fill a 5 gallon bucket with 6 inches of water and sprinkle it with sunflower seeds. I had a bucket, and water, and BOSS, so I figured I'd try it last night.

This morning I discovered that was one fresh rat. It sunk right to the bottom and stayed there. Totally skeeved out right now. I'm waiting for DH to come home from work and hoping he will take mercy on me and dispose of it even though he said last night "you bury any dead rats - they're YOUR chickens!". Eww. I am just trying to maintain any semblance of cool I once had.

However - that bucket is going out tonight to catch another rat!

 

[justbugged]

Quote from KHunter

Believe me when I say that although there are squabbles and bickering going on here right now with some, most of the time things get worked out. And we (as in this group) would do the best we could to come to your aid if ever there was a need for it. I started out just reading and asking questions. I took what I could use from the answers and ignored what didn't work for me. I didn't or tried not to get upset if someone was a little abrupt in their reply, I looked at it as information.
AND as you pointed out so wonerfully, we lose tone of voice, facial expressions and emotion through text. I am all for suggesting we use the emoticons whenever we can to express emotions.
Oh wait, Emoticons....Emotions. Huh, what do you know.

This is just a thought and a suggestion.


Great suggestion Kim
I have found that since I stared to use the emoticons more that, I have not had nearly as many problems with misunderstandings. I think that Kim is very correct about the use emoticons to express emotional tone to our posts.

I personally rarely take offence at others posts. I haven't met many members of this thread that truly try to be offensive on purpose. I have know a few that don't season their thoughts with salt. But having gotten to know them better, I still think that we have a wonderful family here. We all have much to give and share.

I know that for me, this is one of the only places in my life that I feel free to be myself. I have found that over the years, that I tend to offend most people sooner or later. If someone was to truly know me, then they will know that I would rather die than hurt another person intentionally.

I completely understand about having difficulties. I find that as my pain levels rise, that it is much more difficult to communicate nicely. So for me sometimes I find that it's better for me to take a break. I still need everyone here though, and that includes all the new people too. This is a very fluid group of friends. It's wonderful to hear from those that have been around for years, but it's great to get to know new people.

There will always be people that simply rub us the wrong way at times. It can be hard to pass somethings by at times. For me I would rather assume another person doesn't have evil intentions towards me. I have found that by choosing to not be offended by much, that I am a much happier person. I do know that if a person looks to be offend, that they will always be offended. Offence is the only thing that can be found every time a person looks for it.

I often don't post when I am not certain about how to respond. I find that it can be hard sometimes to know what to say at times. Still I truly love this group of people.

For new ones it helps the rest of us to get to know you when you post. By sharing the bits and pieces of our daily lives, we get to really know each other. I know that it can be hard at times to keep up with the thread. Still I have found that sometimes a person simply has to take a leap of faith and jump in to the deep end with the rest of the group.

 

[lisaheath1]

Hi everyone,

Someone asked me to post pics of my coop when I got done. I am not completely done, but I have gotten a lot of great suggestions from you all. I have raccoon proofed it and learned a lot of coop safety things from this site. So I thank all of you. And here is my coop so far

This was the design I wanted. So I thought I would build my own and make it bigger, as this one was only big enough for 2 birds.


Here's my extra sturdy corners, lol. We get high winds here once in a while and I would hate to have it leaning or fall apart.


We made lots of windows that can be closed up in the winter. And a door on each side for easy cleaning.


We let the chicks check it out and took a break. Coco was chick watching, lol.


Our attempt at roofing, lol. It gets the job done, and it's just for us. It is sturdy!


This is the coop door we rigged up. I just drilled holes to run the string through so we can open and close the door easily. They all go in there at sundown now and we just close the door for them totally secure


another view, oh you can see the tree branch we put in there for the roost, and the door on this side for cleaning.


haha, this is the raccoon proofing that we did before we put the fancy roof on there. sorry its out of order, lol


Here is a nice pic of the inside. The roost is a tree branch the kids brought home one day as a walking stick, but it was huge, so I asked them if I could use it in the coop


Here's a view of the roof. You can see our hardware cloth that we secured for the raccoon proofing again.



The chickies are digging the roost we put in


Put the plywood on the roof. Next comes the shingles, we will get to that soon. Oh and we added some lattice for decoration. Gotta be pretty



So that's what we have so far. The chickies enjoy running around the yard. That 90 degree weather really did a number on our grass. I will have to be watering extra to get it to green up again. And I will be putting in the rest of the raised beds for the garden this fall so we will be ready for planting in the spring. I just do what I can, when I can, because my schedule is so crazy around here. But we are loving the chickies, and the neighbors even think it's cool we have chickens! They are 8wks old tomorrow

and here's the kids holding the chicks


She was all proud of herself, lol. she said Pandora wouldn't calm down so she just flipped her upside down, lol