Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Hinotori]

Gorgeous day here on the harbor. Working on the coop here in a bit.


Gave the girls some organic wheat grass today, they love it. Have a great day everyone

It is awesome here too !
Me thinking of doing the razor dig Saturday morning....sounds like fun if the weather is still this nice !

I'm hoping it's nice. I hate digging in the rain.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Gorgeous day here on the harbor. Working on the coop here in a bit.


Gave the girls some organic wheat grass today, they love it. Have a great day everyone

It is awesome here too !
Me thinking of doing the razor dig Saturday morning....sounds like fun if the weather is still this nice !

I'm hoping it's nice. I hate digging in the rain.

I can't believe how long it's been since I've dug razor clams; the first time I went to the beach I was less than a month old, back in the days when there was a commercial harvest and we went every time we got a chance, especially when the woods were closed for fire danger.

My husband's from Texas; my kids have never gone clam digging.

 

[mikeyb]

To all the new peeps

A BIGGGGGGGGGGGG HOWDY AND WELCOME!!!!!!!!!!

 

[CarolynF]

What do you guys think of this coop? http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/grd/3762023691.html

I have been thinking about it and I believe I am highly over-estimating my building ability.

It may be more cost effective to just buy one.

As others have mentioned it's very small. There aren't any nest boxes. What the "author" calls a nest is more of a poop tray. The ramp/door has a slit that's wide enough for a racoon to reach in, which is a definite no no. My coop used to have a big door hinged at the bottom like that one. I changed it to 2 doors hinged on the sides so it opens like kitchen cupboards and I like it much better. The good thing about that one is that it has lots of ventilation -- very important. Remember that each hen should have 3 sq. ft. inside the coop, so 3' x 3' for 3 birds, unless they're bantams, then it's less. You might consider the hoop coop/tractors used at Raincreek. They have a pretty good tutorial on how to build them, here. You can visit their farm and see them in action. They're moveable but pretty darn heavy. I'd also add some half-inch hardware cloth across the front to deal with racoons.

 

[CarolynF]

The "Littles" ... Left to right: Penny, Latte, Blackie and Snow.

I like SNOW the best! Perfect name!

 

[CarolynF]

When himself got home, we went down to sort things out. Taffy is being very good; I guess because she's a first time mom she didn't know what was going on, plus her babies were so small . Her udder was so big it hurt, that's my theory to why she wouldn't let them nurse. She kicked when we first started to milk her, but I think the relief was so good, she calmed right down. One baby actually nursed for a few minutes. We got colostrum in all of them, but the buckling was too far gone. He kept having seizures; plus dehydration despite giving him liquids all day.

We shall be going back down a couple of times this evening. I'm cautiously optimistic, at least about baby girl #2. The larger one is still iffy.

Thank you everyone for the thoughts and suggestions. I'm not emotionally attached to them as pets; it's more that I hate to see a life wasted, and hate to see any animal in pain (and yes, I shed a tear over the loss of baby boy!).

Nice coop FWJ - I think it's looks great especially with the chickies in it!

Stumpfarmer, those are some pretty birds - I love blue ones.

CL - house is coming along great - should have thought about the paint before you got it up eh!

(And now it looks like Aggie is in labour; but she's a veteran!)

Fingers Crossed for Success. So glad you were able to milk her, but sorry about losing the littlest one.

 

[TacomaFarms]

TC- sorry for your loss... Fingers crossed for the little does.

Coffeekittie- cute puppy!

Welcome to all the new WA thread followers! Saw someone from Tacoma, hey hey!!! to you.

To all else, Hi!!!! *waving* hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday, this girls off to bed... Sorta, I got 'coon watch tonight. Grrr! Stupid coons were out wandering tonight & I just mov

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

10 PC chicken nugget birds

out to the grow out pen, which I'm skeptical of it's security. :/

Speaking of, I will have coop pics up tomorrow! Woohoo! A tractor, coop, grow out pen, and a brooder! I even mowed my lawn today! Lol... I feel accomplished just a bit! Goodnight fellow chicken lovers!

 

[FirewifeJess]

Speaking of, I will have coop pics up tomorrow! Woohoo! A tractor, coop, grow out pen, and a brooder! I even mowed my lawn today! Lol... I feel accomplished just a bit! Goodnight fellow chicken lovers!

You were busy today! I was too, but had a great time as well. Can't wait to see your pics tomorrow!

Today was a bit insane. We had breakfast and did chores before 8am. Worked on school from 9-10, built the small coop and set all the chickens up in new accommodations from 10-12. Lunch, rest time, reading time, and then spent the rest of the afternoon outside with the chickens enjoying them and playing with the kids. Had a yummy soup dinner and went to AWANA with the kids, it was the last night tonight! My sister and I served ice cream to 50+ kids and a dozen adults, and let them all run wild for an extra few minutes. My kids weren't asleep until 9:30, eesh. I'm so tired! Watched my Bones from the DVR and now I'm ready to hit the hay. G'night all! Hoping tomorrow we just do school and play with chickens

 

[LaughingFeather]

I have used goats to raise bum lambs and even calves (with a milking stand) so it is not hard to get them to feed their own babies with a little effort. If you are not too far I could help. I am raising a rabbit kit on kitten milk right now because the doe stopped feeding the entire litter and the rest of the bunnies died. I have raised a lot of bottle babies on goat milk when I had goats so at least you can milk the doe and feed the kids that way.

I used to hand raise a lot of feral kittens from birth. That kitten formula got so expensive. I finally wound up using baby Similac and low sodium chicken broth as the water for formula. Raised quite a few litters on that. Just throwing that out for anyone stuck in a pinch and needing to feed an animal quick. Those things can be found at almost any quick stop type store.

 

[Duck Drover]

The ducklings are starting to hatch tonight instead of Monday night. Either they take 28 days and not 26 days like I read or they are late because the incubator temperature was low. I have another batch that are due to go into lockdown today according to a 26 day incubation period but I will delay moving them for a couple days, assuming they are on the same timeline as this first group. The first eggs I set were also some older eggs because I had hoped the hens would hatch them but then I decided to buy an incubator. I have some that I don't think will hatch because I did not see any movement when I candled them (they are supposed to be in lockdown but I wanted to see if there was still hope they would hatch) but most of them seem to be alive and well so hopefully they will hatch and the ducklings will be okay. I was worried that I killed them when I moved them into the hatching incubator but now I know they are just late.