Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[AmyLM]

That's quite an assortment you have! I see some frizzles in the group shot, right? And that white, naked neck one looks like a Show Girl, is it?

yep! Quite a few frizzles. And some of them are NN too. And yes... some 'show girls' (or boys lol).

And they will be TEEEENY TINY. The first hatching group of them are now 2 months old and are smaller than a pop can. A few are a bit bigger but not most of them. I have one frizzle that im afraid to take out of the brooder. Shes 2 months old but is about the size of a nuthatch. She will probably be the smallest chicken Ive ever owned! This is her. Shes VERY cute but gosh im so afraid to put her with bigger birds. Im going to have to build a cook just for these guys with super fine mesh cause they can walk right out through chicken wire!


Feisty little one thats always being chased all over the yard because it refuses to understand that when your the half the size of a pop can you should probably not try to shove a 3/4ths grown dominant pullet away from her food.

 

[Melnurse]

Here are my eggs from the hens yesterday (all of them are laying except the Red Star because she's recovering from a broken egg.

)

The Rhodebar lays the smallest, whitest eggs. The australorps lay very long eggs, almost teardrop shaped. The barred rock lays an ordinary egg on the hay bales and not in a nest box, so I know they are hers. The black copper marans lays her egg in a next box separate from the others. The Wheaten Marans lays a jumbo egg every time. The one in the pic is 74 grams. The Rhodebar is 54 grams and everyone else is in between. The Australorps usually lay large eggs and everyone else is extra large. The Splash Marans has eggs that are sometimes identical to the BCM, but they don't lay in the same box so I can tell who it came from. It is fun searching for the eggs and trying to figure out who is laying and who isn't. It looks like my RIR will lay soon so I'll have one more to figure out.

That's so cool that you know the difference. Once my other three start laying, I'm hoping to get a good look at each egg so that I can tell the difference at a glance as well. Thanks for this post!
Mel

 

[tridentk9]

So do the ducks!

It's been 4 days and the water is starting to get a bit smelly. I need to excavate out the hole a bit more so I can get a bucket under the valve and start watering my non-edibles with the poop.

A rain barrel pump with massive pre-pump filters? Rain barrel pumps are usually set up so hoses can be attached. You would need to increase the filtering system though.

 

[LaurelC]

Interesting. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Chickielady]

A rain barrel pump with massive pre-pump filters? Rain barrel pumps are usually set up so hoses can be attached. You would need to increase the filtering system though.

We have filter media, and barrels left over from when we had our koi farm, and the nitrifying bacteria that inhabit these filters (called 'trickle' or 'wet/dry' in the fish industry) would be perfect for eliminating the ammonia/nitrites and returning the water to the pond, and ever filtering, day & night by way of a pond pump with pre-filter to catch the solids, even micro solids.
But, these filters could never deal with the gallons of MUD the ducks burp into the water.
Poop & Urates are one thing, mud is another, and they do enough mud to clog the filter media and smother the (aerobic) nitrifying bacteria.

 

[Chickielady]

Can someone tell me if this is the beginning of a blood ring?




I honestly can't tell. Of course I am new and she is trying her first duck hatch.
Thanks
Karen

Here is some nice photos:

http://www.theeggfarm.com/blog/2014/01/17/candling-chicken-eggs/

and here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/candling-pics-progression-through-incubation-of-chicken-eggs

here is the whole BYC hatching library:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-and-raising-chicks

 

[Pookie_Momma]

Here is some nice photos:

http://www.theeggfarm.com/blog/2014/01/17/candling-chicken-eggs/

and here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/candling-pics-progression-through-incubation-of-chicken-eggs

here is the whole BYC hatching library:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-and-raising-chicks

thank you still learning the hatching thing. raising i've done but still trying the hatching to get it down

 

[Pookie_Momma]

Anybody around Tacoma that got any fertile duck eggs. my neighbor would love a couple and just lost her eggs. she would like them asap so if you have any Please let me know
Thank you
Karen

 

[Chickielady]

So yesterday, Einstein is walking outside & says he saw a little chipmunk, and he walked right up to the thing & rubbed its head, and petted it.
It closed its eyes as if loving the petting...and then Einstein walked away.

He told me about the incident & I immediately went out to find the baby, but could not find him anywhere.

It has been so cold here, and monsooning rain showers...........so I was worried.
I googled Chippies and learned all about orphan chippies and how it happens quite often.

Did you know that a rat's lifespan is 3 years, but a sqyuirrel's is 25 years ?
OK back to the story:
Night went by with no sign of Chippy, then this afternoon Einstein came in the house with Chippy, a skin-and-bones baby covered, absolutely covered in big fat FLEAS !
So I went to work, getting him warm, a drop of Eprinex on his's neck...wrapped in a blanket, in a 5 gallon bucket.
We picked flease off this poor critter 3X now, and each time we pick 20+ fleas !

Then I warmed Almond Milk, added a teaspoon of sugar (I am fresh out of dog milk !) and eye dropper'd it at his lips, and he gorged !
And once again fell asleep in his bucket by the heater.

Tomorrow, if all ges well, I'll get some pictures of Chippy.

Apparently alot of people have raised the little beasties and they make really fun pets !

Lots of things, bad things can happen to Momma Chippies, and then the babies venture out like this one did, poor thing !

They are cutest things !

 

[Pookie_Momma]

So yesterday, Einstein is walking outside & says he saw a little chipmunk, and he walked right up to the thing & rubbed its head, and petted it.
It closed its eyes as if loving the petting...and then Einstein walked away.

He told me about the incident & I immediately went out to find the baby, but could not find him anywhere.

It has been so cold here, and monsooning rain showers...........so I was worried.
I googled Chippies and learned all about orphan chippies and how it happens quite often.

Did you know that a rat's lifespan is 3 years, but a sqyuirrel's is 25 years ?
OK back to the story:
Night went by with no sign of Chippy, then this afternoon Einstein came in the house with Chippy, a skin-and-bones baby covered, absolutely covered in big fat FLEAS !
So I went to work, getting him warm, a drop of Eprinex on his's neck...wrapped in a blanket, in a 5 gallon bucket.
We picked flease off this poor critter 3X now, and each time we pick 20+ fleas !

Then I warmed Almond Milk, added a teaspoon of sugar (I am fresh out of dog milk !) and eye dropper'd it at his lips, and he gorged !
And once again fell asleep in his bucket by the heater.

Tomorrow, if all ges well, I'll get some pictures of Chippy.

Apparently alot of people have raised the little beasties and they make really fun pets !

Lots of things, bad things can happen to Momma Chippies, and then the babies venture out like this one did, poor thing !

They are cutest things !

how totally adorable!!!!!!!!!!!!!