Eastern Washington

[WhiskiRanch]

Meet Weebitt, my loan chick hatched 4/6/13. This chick was an egg from Blondie, my bantam size buff hen but this black hen hatched it. this black hen is also the hen that abandoned this chicks siblings before they hatched the other day. And if you cant see the chick in this picture, its the little grey fluff at momma's breast. This chick is half the size that all my 2012 chicks were.

 

[maggierose]

oh Whiski what a beautiful hen! And the little chick is just adorable! Congratulations!

Frost here this am... now the sun is out and beautiful! Gotta love Spring in the NW!

 

[maggierose]

Just checked with my feed store and chicks are due to arrive (drum roll please...)
APRIL 24TH!!!!! Can't wait!!! Have their little brooders all set up... the Chicken Mahal is complete...
now just need the little peeps to get here! yahoo!

 

[WhiskiRanch]

Thank you

Im very very proud of my hens. Even though Im doing any breeding for spesific breeds, I breed for good quality layers and so far, all of my hens that are laying age give me wonderful large brown eggs and not to mention, I get some beautiful colors crossing my Black Sex Links on my Red Splash Wyandotte rooster.

 

[Vickis Girls]

Whiski, That chick story is so bitter-sweet. I'm so glad the black hen stayed on the eggs long enough to hatch Weebitt at least. Will be interesting to see if they're extra close because of only hatching one chick. Also, was wondering if this is her first attempt at hatching eggs. Maybe she's a new mom who didn't know what else to do except go sit with Babe. Cute story nonetheless.

maggierose, I'm so excited for you! I'm still plugging away on siding the coop, but my chicks won't get here 'til mid June. I needed extra time ti finish things up, plus wanted school to be out so I could share this with my grands. I understand the more you handle the chicks, the friendlier they'll be.

I'm so excited. All the rain we got really got the grass growing. I should be able to mow this weekend. I love the smell, and the exercise and how beautiful freshly mowed grass looks.

 

[maggierose]

Whiski, That chick story is so bitter-sweet. I'm so glad the black hen stayed on the eggs long enough to hatch Weebitt at least. Will be interesting to see if they're extra close because of only hatching one chick. Also, was wondering if this is her first attempt at hatching eggs. Maybe she's a new mom who didn't know what else to do except go sit with Babe. Cute story nonetheless.

maggierose, I'm so excited for you! I'm still plugging away on siding the coop, but my chicks won't get here 'til mid June. I needed extra time ti finish things up, plus wanted school to be out so I could share this with my grands. I understand the more you handle the chicks, the friendlier they'll be.

I'm so excited. All the rain we got really got the grass growing. I should be able to mow this weekend. I love the smell, and the exercise and how beautiful freshly mowed grass looks.

thanks! I'm excited too... I'm hoping to handle my chicks a lot, and have them very human-friendly for my 5 grandkiddos, too!
Hoping to get to my jungle of grass this weekend as well before my dogs dissappear in the tall grass! I love the fresh smell as well... the best!

 

[chickengarden]

Vicki, I love that you are doing the chicken thing with your grandkids. What an awesome grandma they have
You had asked about ducks and I am just learning too. I read that the domestic ducks are too heavy to fly away. I also found this thread (https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/245376/101-reasons-we-love-ducks) and read through the whole thing! There's way more than 101.
Some of the things I am liking is that some ducks lay more eggs than chickens. Khaki Campbells are said to lay over 300/year. Also, the eggs are lower in cholesterol. They are hardier and don't need as much in the way of housing as they don't roost. The drakes don't crow. I don't mind a crowing rooster but when we lived in East Wenatchee we didn't keep our boys because we didn't want to annoy the neighbors.
I also like how ducks seem to pay more attention to you and they seem to like being petted. My chickens are tame enough to catch but they always look P.O.'ed if you try to pet them

. When they walk away they puff up all their feathers and shake themselves as if to be rid of the feeling of your hands!
One last thing, it is easy to keep them out of your garden. They don't jump and fly as high as chickens... and if they do get in they don't scratch so probably wouldn't do as much damage.
Some of the things that are not cool about ducks is that they are so extremely messy! Brooding them was gross! I did find that they will drink out of those chicken nippes or a rabbit bottle so that helped a lot. It also seems that some of them need a pool or water source to dip their heads in or mate on. People are always complaining about finding a good way to keep their pool clean. I think I read that not all ducks need pools but it is sure fun to watch them in one. They are soooooo thrilled with water.

 

[WhiskiRanch]

Whiski, That chick story is so bitter-sweet. I'm so glad the black hen stayed on the eggs long enough to hatch Weebitt at least. Will be interesting to see if they're extra close because of only hatching one chick. Also, was wondering if this is her first attempt at hatching eggs. Maybe she's a new mom who didn't know what else to do except go sit with Babe. Cute story nonetheless.

maggierose, I'm so excited for you! I'm still plugging away on siding the coop, but my chicks won't get here 'til mid June. I needed extra time ti finish things up, plus wanted school to be out so I could share this with my grands. I understand the more you handle the chicks, the friendlier they'll be.

I'm so excited. All the rain we got really got the grass growing. I should be able to mow this weekend. I love the smell, and the exercise and how beautiful freshly mowed grass looks.

This is her second batch of eggs. She hatched at least a dozen last fall. I think she felt the bucket she hatched Weebitt in with all her other eggs was too small and her mothering instincts took over with protecting that baby from getting smothered on the nest. I will be building nest boxes in the future for my hatching. I don't have the finances or the time to incubate and my hens are really good mothers so I want to continue letting them do their job and be Mommy's when I want them to be. I'm gonna end up building individual nest boxes that will have rope handles on them so when a hen decides to set, I can move that box to an isolated location so no other hens lay in her nest. that was the other issue. she was ready to hatch her clutch but other hens continued to lay eggs with her.

 

[Vickis Girls]

Chickengarden, I'm not that awesome at all, just loving being "Nans". It's like your chance to make better choices than you did with your own kids. Back then there never would have been space or money for a chicken coop, and it wasn't a priority As the Grandma of two girls(maggierose has FIVE Grands and I'm so envious!), I get to do a few of the things with them that really should have been more important all along. Like having chickens! I'm thinking I might check out the possibility of ducks next year. Thanks for the info. I loved hearing about how your hens tolerate you petting them! Maybe they're just that kind of chicken. That's why I'm choosing Brahmas. They're supposed to be so sweet, and even the roos will lay on their backs in your lap to get petted(as long as they're handled a lot as chicks). I can't wait.
Yesterday I got one gable end of the coop finished up and maybe can paint it today. I also raised the wheels on the mower and went ahead and mowed even though it was barely tall enough to cut. I just couldn't wait any longer. After having "cabin fever" for so many months with the foul weather, I just just sort of jump from one thing to the next when I can finally get outside. I love this time of year!

Whiski, that's a good idea about the handles on the nesting boxes. That way if a broody girl won't get out, you can move it without having your face in hers when you pick it up. I haven't built mine yet, but that's what I'll do too. Did you re-plant your garden?

 

[tawbeck]

I am definitely not an expert by any means but have done a lot of reading about owning ducks. We've thought about getting ducks since last year and finally picked up 2 Swedish ducks at the local Big R last week - and yes - they grow incredibly fast!! They were hatched last Monday and have already double in size! I have to say they are absolutely hilarious and love to watch them. I set a 9x13 baking pan on the floor with a small dish of food next to it and they play and play for about an hour or so. They jump in and out of the water, they blow bubbles in the water, they run around and their wet little feet make the funniest noise. I don't know that I've ever laughed so hard! And yes, they are extremely messy. I clean their tub out every day and sometimes think it could use it 2x a day. They do lay larger eggs than chickens which are excellent for baking, cakes are lighter/fluffier. We plan to start them outside in a small house next to our chicken hutch and a small wading pool. We priced materials for a small pond last weekend and will work on setting that up this summer. As for flying, it depends on the size and the breed. There are pretty good instructions on how to trim their feathers on-line. We do that with our chickens and it seems to work well. Oh, and as for gardens, they are extreme slug and insect foragers. A student at my school told me that they dig their way through the garden looking for bugs and don't necessarily remember to avoid the plants. It's going to be an interesting summer! Hope this helps a bit.