Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Chickielady]

Ok fellow Washingtonians - I should have chicks next week. I for sure will have extra BBS Jersey Giants ( from CL) and Faverolles (from Elizm). I may have extra Splash AMs ( project Silkie feathered - you can find the thread on this project in the Breed section) and I have 3 Silver Penciled PR eggs left.

All cockerels must go and I will be willing to let them go in pairs/trios if any of you are interested in starting your own projects of know of any 4H kiddos that are -Send me a PM.

I am on the very north end of Whidbey so I could meet in Skagit, South Whatcom or North Snohomish counties. The Fav and SPR should be able to be sexed as soon as they start to feather - the others will take a few weeks.

I do have someone that will take all the cockerels for processing but I it would be awesome if someone on here wanted them so I could at least have a chance to see how they grow out

I will know a lot more next week, however, I only plan on keeping 4-6 pullets so there should be plenty of extras to share

Lori

There was just a woman asking about folks on Whidbey...(she is moving to the island, ain't there yet !)
She posted not alot of pages back.
Maybe we can find her post....I'll look !
Her BYC name is
RebelChief

 

[Chickielady]

LOL


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ken-broodiness-by-up-to-48-with-aluminum-foil

 

[Hinotori]

[COLOR=FF0000]LOL[/COLOR]


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ken-broodiness-by-up-to-48-with-aluminum-foil

I had to go looking when i got up to see what they did this year. I poo poo all the people in that thread trying to ruin it all day.

 

[Kaneke]

one thing that will discourage those ants, is pouring a bottle of chlorine bleach down the holes you find after you've shoveled off the pile of evergreen needles and other stuff .. won't necessarily kill them, but they WILL move the nest someplace else ... and their piled up stuff makes decent compost, also the chickens seem to like that spread in their run .. ants don't seem to bother them, they eat some and ignore the rest (my experience, YMMV >>> )

Rainier, your tall bunch of whatever-it-is may be elderberry -- hard to tell as it hasn't leafed out yet, but can tell it's not Indian plum (chicks LOVE those berries) nor is it snowberry (ditto) ... I would leave it until you or someone can definitely ID it .. just the sort of plant bunch that chickens love to take cover under ... mine always run for the Indian plum thicket when they hear a redtail screech ..

now that Deirdre-hen is the only one, she has started talking and murmuring to us when we are in the yard, comes running after us if we walk around -- she "helped" me today begin to pull my old chicken tractor out of the weeds .. it got blown over sideways during the winter windstorms, and all sorts of grasses and weeds grew through the chicken-wire side and ends, so getting it back upright is NOT going to be an easy task ... also some of the PVC framing has loosened and come apart ...

as everyone will tell me, chicken wire is not predator proof (the welded wire in the run kept everything out, especially since the bottom 16 inches of the run are a series of external fiberglass planter troughs/boxes (salvaged from a gold-from-seawater operation!) .. coons cannot reach in, nothing has tried to dig through 16 inches of 75% rocky dirt under the planters -- even the chickens can excavate only a couple of inches into our glacial-till soil) .. so chickens were allowed to occupy the tractor -- or to free-range now -- only if we are there to supervise

 

[Chickielady]

OK guys I am after really good SOP Black Marans....anyone have any, know of someone who has any that will send/ship or sell eggs ?
If so, send me a PM !

 

[Sweetlilbaby]

I'm excited my babies are due to hatch tomorrow

 

[Chickielady]

I had to go looking when i got up to see what they did this year. I poo poo all the people in that thread trying to ruin it all day.

 

[Chickielady]

This is a very good MAMA !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Chickielady]

I am so worried about Dad...........................

It is Einstein's Dad, but he was my Dad for years while my real Dad was away in the war, so Einstein's Dad took care of us & my Mom while my Dad was gone away ..,..so Both his parents are mine .....................ya know his parents got married when they were 16 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And you should hear the stories of how hard his Dad worked (at 16) to support his new wife of 16 years old and his newly born sister.........................
My Dad tells stories that would rip your heart out., how these CHILDREN held jobs and fed their babies in the fifties~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Children !
And they ran sheetrock, and drove dumptrucks through San Francisco...............................they were 16 years old !!!!!!!!!!!!
Most had No driver's license...........these kids , children of the dust bowl.............
We all know (don't we?) us older children of the children................
That it is time.

 

[ochochicas]

Hi all. I'm new here! I live in the western slopes of the cascade mountains in King county. We just got our first chicks and were planning to have them be free range chickens. I have not had a chance to read through the thread yet, but I am looking for advice on the best coop situation for the chickens. I want them to be able to happily run around and be chickens, but at the same time I don't want them to be taken by predators. I'm looking forward to hearing what you all have to say about flock safety. We have mainly raccoons, opossums, coyotes and bobcats. There are also bear, dogs, and red-tailed hawks, but they generally aren't around the house like the other animals are. We lost two cats in 2009, but have not lost any since then, fortunately.

I'll be making plans for a coop next week so I'm getting as much info as I can now. We have a horse stall in the barn that we were going to convert to sleeping quarters for the hens, but I think they might get bored in there if they had to spend too much time inside. Is it possible to teach the chickens to use two different coops? (one for good weather and one inside for bad weather?)