Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[cieraphoto]

My Golden Laced Orpington eggs came from the UK today and only one was cracked and that one was the only one that looked like the air cell had detached. I hope these hatch!!

On another note: I am going to be placing an order with Ideal soon and I'm not purchasing enough so there will be extra males in the box. Will anyone want them for free??? PM me if that sounds like something you're interested in.

 

[Duck Drover]

Crows and ravens have carried off my chicks, ducklings and goslings. They wait until a baby is far behind and snag them. I have see it several times. Now I raise my ducks and chicks in the barn. As for the goslings, they are with  their parents in the pond. They lose about 2/3 of the babies each year. You can't kill them as it is illegal so I run out towards them with a stick and chase them off. They fly 50 feet away and sit in a tree until I leave. I have 5 or so and one year watched them pick off four chicks in about one minute.

How big do the babies need to be in order to be safe? I have bantam ducks so the ducklings are really small. The chicks are crow sized already so they should be safe but it may take a month or more before the ducklings are large enough to be safe. I am thinking it might work to put netting over the three pens temporarily while I try to figure out a more permanent solution.

 

[michellemcfeely]

Sitting by the incubator for the next couple days my east indie eggs are showing signs of internal and a couple external pips. Come on babies....

 

[Ogress]

Hi Everyone!

It has been so long since I posted, or even visited, that I hardly recognize anyone.

Chickielady - your house looks fabulous! Are you still planning to paint a close up of a salmon on the side or am I halucinating? I have that same Farmtek thermometer - it also posted temperatres of 100, but my car thermometer was at 84. I think the car is more accurate. Last monday it read 65 while it was snowing - 2 inches on the ground! It did get to 65 that afternoon. Maybe it predicts future temperatures. It is at 60 now. That is probably close.

My hens are laying like crazy! I get nearly an egg a day per hen.Someone wants one of my roosters for their flock - woohoo! Now if I could only find homes for the beautiful banty boys.They are too old to eat.

I've got to do something about the rats that visit the rooster coop and my green house. Found a HUGE nestin the engine compartment of the riding mower which was stored behind the garden shed for the winter. I asked DH to deal with it this time. I think I need poisons. They no longer will enter the zappers. I put poison in bait traps up in the rafters of the main coop and banty coop last year. Took nearly 3 months before those darn roof rats went for the bait, but I have not seen them around for months. Then in February I went to check on the lemon tress in my green house. It had been a few weeks since I had been in there, and the lemons were almost ripe. Well, the entire plant was stripped bare! No lemons, no leaves! Other plants were missing branches and I noticed a bunch of fresh greenery including lemon treee leaves sticking out from under a low shelf - a nest! Norway rats had been getting into my rooster coop which is next to the greenhouse and eating the food. Some of those ratties got too big to squeeze through the wire so instead they moved into the greenhouse and ater the plants. When tey ran out of plants, they gnawed at the pots! No sign of them in the main coop nor banty coop.

I bought an electric mower to mow the yard while I wait for DH to clear the nest and for the swamp that the mower is trapped behind to dry. A charge lasts about an hour and a half, so it takes me 3 days to mow the yard, and I can't even get to the orchard which would be about half the yard! I got one with power assist for the hills, but I can't even use the option, as the hills are too steep and the power assist cuts out on them! I'm getting some shapely arms.

 

[CarolynF]

Quote:

Ooops, sorry about that! Jeanine (cloverleaf) picked her up from the breeder and sent me this pic. Some SFHs have a crest, some don't. This one will not. Her name is Peanut and she's about 9-10 weeks old so will fit right in with my Blue Wheaten Ameraucna and GSL. She let us pick her up quite easily last night, and this morning I was able to pet her. She hasn't come out of her coop yet, I think she had a rough day yesterday and is just taking it easy. I would too!

 

[Ogress]

Made a run to the Co-Op to load up on feed today. Purina has changed their 50 lb Layena to 40 lb bags and the price is the same! Wassup with that???? I'm calling Purina on Monday. Hope anyone else that's as unhappy with that as I am will make a call too!

God Bless,

They still have the 50 lb bags at my local Ace - Thanks for the heads-up. I think I will make a run and buy them up! I think I pay $18.99 for layer and $21.99 for Flock Raiser.

I like my Barnies; I'm thinking of buying more but this time I want to wait until I know they are pullets. I bought chicks from someone a few years ago, and half turned out to be male. I brought 3 of them to a farmer is exchange for processes meats. When it came to slaughter time, he could not kill them because they were too darn friendly! I still have 2 others. One of them gets picked on by my other roosters and the more aggressive hens. He decided to move into the bantam cochin coop where he gets along with the hens and their resident rooster just fine. I may give him to someone I know who wants a rooster for his flock.

 

[CarolynF]

Hi Everyone!

It has been so long since I posted, or even visited, that I hardly recognize anyone.

Chickielady - your house looks fabulous! Are you still planning to paint a close up of a salmon on the side or am I halucinating? I have that same Farmtek thermometer - it also posted temperatres of 100, but my car thermometer was at 84. I think the car is more accurate. Last monday it read 65 while it was snowing - 2 inches on the ground! It did get to 65 that afternoon. Maybe it predicts future temperatures. It is at 60 now. That is probably close.

My hens are laying like crazy! I get nearly an egg a day per hen.Someone wants one of my roosters for their flock - woohoo! Now if I could only find homes for the beautiful banty boys.They are too old to eat.

I've got to do something about the rats that visit the rooster coop and my green house. Found a HUGE nestin the engine compartment of the riding mower which was stored behind the garden shed for the winter. I asked DH to deal with it this time. I think I need poisons. They no longer will enter the zappers. I put poison in bait traps up in the rafters of the main coop and banty coop last year. Took nearly 3 months before those darn roof rats went for the bait, but I have not seen them around for months. Then in February I went to check on the lemon tress in my green house. It had been a few weeks since I had been in there, and the lemons were almost ripe. Well, the entire plant was stripped bare! No lemons, no leaves! Other plants were missing branches and I noticed a bunch of fresh greenery including lemon treee leaves sticking out from under a low shelf - a nest! Norway rats had been getting into my rooster coop which is next to the greenhouse and eating the food. Some of those ratties got too big to squeeze through the wire so instead they moved into the greenhouse and ater the plants. When tey ran out of plants, they gnawed at the pots! No sign of them in the main coop nor banty coop.

I bought an electric mower to mow the yard while I wait for DH to clear the nest and for the swamp that the mower is trapped behind to dry. A charge lasts about an hour and a half, so it takes me 3 days to mow the yard, and I can't even get to the orchard which would be about half the yard! I got one with power assist for the hills, but I can't even use the option, as the hills are too steep and the power assist cuts out on them! I'm getting some shapely arms.

DANG! That's just awful! I hope you figure something out quick. I hate those nasty buggers. We had a few that we trapped and a couple of mice, but WOW

I hope life is better in the chicken and family departments! We've been gardening like crazy with this beautiful weather.

 

[CarolynF]

Quote:
Good thing Kayla was there! Give that girl an extra hug! (bad Tucker, bad Tucker)
When we were driving home yesterday, passing Oly, I was thinking about you and Kate. Wish I could have talked DH into a couple of extra stops! I'd love to see your setup some time and I always enjoy seeing Kate. That little doeling is having such a tough time!

 

[CarolynF]

My Golden Laced Orpington eggs came from the UK today and only one was cracked and that one was the only one that looked like the air cell had detached. I hope these hatch!!

On another note: I am going to be placing an order with Ideal soon and I'm not purchasing enough so there will be extra males in the box. Will anyone want them for free??? PM me if that sounds like something you're interested in.

Wow... they obviously packed those eggs really well. I hope they all hatch. Those are such beautiful birds!
Can't help with the "packing peanuts", sorry.

 

[melissaG]

My Golden Laced Orpington eggs came from the UK today and only one was cracked and that one was the only one that looked like the air cell had detached. I hope these hatch!!

On another note: I am going to be placing an order with Ideal soon and I'm not purchasing enough so there will be extra males in the box. Will anyone want them for free??? PM me if that sounds like something you're interested in.

Congrats!! Looking forward to pics next month

If I ever do the shipped eggs again, perhaps they should be from the UK

sigh.

Mornin' all!