Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Ogress]

Oh Greg, that is disgusting!

 

[clankeyes]

well it depends on the Scot... hahahaha some do some don't

 

[itsren]

Tomorrow I will be installing my new Pullet-Shut automatic chicken door (with solar panel). I will let you all know how it goes and if there were many bad words flying from DH's mouth as he helps. - the biggest challenge I see will be getting it to fit over an existing opening of a smaller size. There is a piece of metal flashing that I suspect we may need to remove from the current door, or, maybe we can build a new frame to put over it.

I also need to make sure I buy some of those things to neatly tack up the wire before DH glues the solar panel in place or the wires will be an ugly mess dangling all over the place with no enough slack in the line to tuck it neatly away

If the opening is smaller, it would probably work fine - the opening the chickens walk out will just be smaller than the door. As for the wires - they are long. We used "staples" that you nail in. We put plastic cord protectors, cut to size, around the wires because we had to run it through the coop. I was afraid the chickens would peck at the wires and ruin them. Then, by the battery, we bunched the remaining wire and put it in a pocket area on our coop and screwed a board over it. I'll take pictures and post in the morning.

The main things to remember - put the battery out of reach of the chickens, and in a place where it will stay dry. And, build some sort of rain cover over the top of the door itself to keep the rain off of it.

I'm sorry about your dog. I hope she gets better.

 

[JennS]

Quote:
That's what they are doing - except that they fly to get away from each other. Blackie hit the top screen pretty hard today and took a tumble. 2nd time I've seen him do that - scares the living daylights out-a me to see it happen. I also get worried they're going to peck each others eye out - they get pretty close to it when they stare each other down.

This has been a new experience for us ... our 6 month old girls don't even fly as high as these boys (with exception of Rhodie).

Wait, I thought you were pretty sure 2 were pullets and questioned on the other 2? Now I am confused(not hard to do BTW). My three 7 week olds are positioning for pecking order like you are describing. I KNOW one is a pullet(sex-link) and the 2 EE's are not showing any signs of being cockerels(pale combs with one, not three rows on the pea comb, thin legs like the sex-link)

I suspected that Cocoa and Rocha were boys from the day they hatched. Now that Blackie has a 3-row pea comb, and Latte has black shoulders and a black tail coming in with the orange-y brown wings, I'm pretty sure both of them are boys, too. If color-sexing doesn't come into play with mixed breeds, Latte (the tiny one) is the only one that might be a pullet, except that he's so feathering in so slow and has just as big of an attitude and has no fear just like the other 3. Even though he's so tiny, he'll stretch his neck as high as he can, chest bump and jump into the others. He has no fear taking on Cocoa, the biggest one, either.

This makes me so glad I picked out a couple of sweet tempered breeds! The SLW go at it occasionally, but the speckled Sussex and SF are pretty much bystanders. Tikka has perfected the drive-by snatch-and-grab and will take worms out from under Jerk's nose, but I don't think she'd ever challenge her. And the GLW are lagging so far behind everyone else they just stand there and try not to get trampled.

Good luck with your boys! I hope they settle down.

Jennifer

 

[itsren]

Greg, your article had my interest until it said maggots!

I'd rather buy feed.

 

[JennS]

Quote:
How hard is it to get healthy birds from a show like this? I'm tempted to try to find a Polish or silkie pullet for my flock, but I'm worried I'd bring home a bonus along with the bird. Is this show picky about what goes up for sale? I would assume that if the bird had recovered from a disease but was still a carrier, a quarantine would not show the hidden disease, correct?

Jennifer

 

[JennS]

Greg, your article had my interest until it said maggots!

I'd rather buy feed.

Eh, I sometimes feed my lizards "Phoenix worms", which are maggots. I think that a maggot crawling out of a carcass can't be much grosser than a worm crawling out of a compost bin full of rotting vegetation and poop.

Jennifer

 

[itsren]

Quote:
How hard is it to get healthy birds from a show like this? I'm tempted to try to find a Polish or silkie pullet for my flock, but I'm worried I'd bring home a bonus along with the bird. Is this show picky about what goes up for sale? I would assume that if the bird had recovered from a disease but was still a carrier, a quarantine would not show the hidden disease, correct?

Jennifer

That's a good question. I'm curious to know, too. If we bought any, we'd quarantine them for at least a month - but we just bought a pretty solid chicken tractor that we could quarantine a couple in easily. Not everyone is set up that way. I would need to know how far away from my big girls that I'd need to set up the tractor. I do not want to risk my big girls at all.

The other idea I was mulling around in my head was maybe buying a dozen fertilized eggs of a black breed. Hopefully we'd managed to hatch at least a couple of girls out of a dozen. Any extra girls we could probably sell on Craig's List and the boys would go to auction.

 

[itsren]

This makes me so glad I picked out a couple of sweet tempered breeds! The SLW go at it occasionally, but the speckled Sussex and SF are pretty much bystanders. Tikka has perfected the drive-by snatch-and-grab and will take worms out from under Jerk's nose, but I don't think she'd ever challenge her. And the GLW are lagging so far behind everyone else they just stand there and try not to get trampled.

Good luck with your boys! I hope they settle down.

Jennifer

Thanks.

Are yours girls? My big girls were easy that way. They're fun to watch until someone does something that makes me cringe, or as my youngest boy likes to put it "That's gotta hurt." And their wings are so long - beautiful, but long. I think that's why they can fly so well. I wish I could catch a picture of their wings stretched out - it's really amazing.

I tell ya, I'm enjoying them though. If I have to put them in the big dog cage in the garage, I'm going to miss the constant chirping in the house.

 

[JennS]

Quote:
I'm pretty sure all the SLW and GLW are girls. I'm not so sure about one of the SS, but I'm hoping that the slightly longer comb is just a different comb. I already have 50% boys in my 90% sexed female SF. Grrrr.

And I spoke too soon. I just went down to replace their water and feed, and the bigger GLW is challenging anything that walks in the brooder. I watched her, and she was methodically going from one bird to the next, jumping on it and chirping. She went chest to chest with Tandoori, and tried to with Jerk but I don't think Jerk takes her seriously yet. She is only 1/4 Jerk's size. I also watched Tikka jump on top of the feeders over and over again. Every time, after a few seconds, Tandoori comes over and pulls Tikka down by her toe or feathers. Ouch!

I also taught them that Romaine lettuce is tasty.

It was like teaching 2 year olds how to play with something. Bring it in and let them get used to it. Get one to come over to check it out, and a couple will follow. Eventually someone will want to be the first to try it just because they have to be the first. Then others will want to try whatever is in the first one's mouth. It becomes the hot commodity, and everyone has to have some. I'm honestly not sure they tasted it. At one point I had 7 birds around my hands, all ripping little pieces off as fast as they could just so they could get some. Mostly it was Tikka, the glutton, who scarfed it down. She got pretty good at ripping little bits off. The SF pullet ate some, but the cockerel would not rip pieces off himself, and when I gave him little bits they would usually get stolen by Jerk. Lettuce bits all over the floor, and she ignored those and stole his food right out of his mouth. What a Jerk.

Ok, off to bed. I don't think the kid will know it's daylight saving time and let us have the extra hour.

Jennifer