Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Hinotori]

If my birds don't have enough protien they start pulling feathers from each other to eat and eggs drop off. I've had issues with some feeds where egg laying stopped fully. No issues with either Purina flockraiser or Nutrena all flock. I can mix layer with the flockraiser half and half. I can also mix the Xcell layer in and not have issues.

I only raise birds for the few eggs I sell and have a few for hopefully showing in the future.

48 Large fowl go through a bag of food a week. 15 adult +7 eight week old silkies go through a bag of food in about a month and a half. So with everyone molting and just getting the all flock right now so I've been spending about $73 bucks a month. I need to get rid of 7 roosters and I need to decide which of the older hens get to stay. I'll be selling some of the silkies soon which will pay for the silkie food for the year. I should just get rid of the large fowl and keep the silkies. They actually pay for themselves.

 

[CharterChick]

I PASSED MY STATE NAC EXAM!!!!! WOO HOO! And I when I got home I found out my new hova genesis came in the mail and to top it off my new incubator was plugged in waiting for me to feed it eggs! DH plugged it in and set it up to see if it needed adjusted so it was good to go! The hatch date for these is just before the preschool hatch but I'll switch them to the lg to hatch here at home and set up the hova at the preschool.


On a side note I know I've asked this before but is there anyone who lives in the aberdeen-ish area that is willing to sell me some fertile eggs? I'll drive some distance to get some for the kiddos. I'm looking to get a variety for the kids to hatch. Any breed or size of chicken is awesome! I have PR, EE, BO, RSL and mutt eggs.

 

[Hinotori]

I PASSED MY STATE NAC EXAM!!!!! WOO HOO! And I when I got home I found out my new hova genesis came in the mail and to top it off my new incubator was plugged in waiting for me to feed it eggs! DH plugged it in and set it up to see if it needed adjusted so it was good to go! The hatch date for these is just before the preschool hatch but I'll switch them to the lg to hatch here at home and set up the hova at the preschool.


On a side note I know I've asked this before but is there anyone who lives in the aberdeen-ish area that is willing to sell me some fertile eggs? I'll drive some distance to get some for the kiddos. I'm looking to get a variety for the kids to hatch. Any breed or size of chicken is awesome! I have PR, EE, BO, RSL and mutt eggs.

Congrats!

I'd have given you some eggs but the only ones I'm sure are fertile are the silkie eggs and two of them just went broody so I'd set 21 eggs in the incubator earlier today.

 

[Manningjw]

Layers need a complete diet specifically designed for layers.... I use Purina Layena and have separate feeders for Granite Grit, roasted egg shells and oyster shells.... From the first egg they laid, the shells were perfect and the eggs perfect.... I could be lucky... I like being lucky....

Thanks for posting pictures of those feeders. I love seeing the DIY feeders people use! The black ones look similar to mine but I really like what you did there with the elbows angling up, much simpler than mine and I bet it wastes less feed.

 

[DaveOmak]

Thanks for posting pictures of those feeders. I love seeing the DIY feeders people use! The black ones look similar to mine but I really like what you did there with the elbows angling up, much simpler than mine and I bet it wastes less feed.

My chickens will pull extra feed out of the elbows, but then they pick it up from the ground.... they seem to like picking feed from the ground.... The black feeders seem to have stuff "clog and bind".... I now have a "twisted and kinked" wire running down the tubes... when the feed clogs up, I pull up on the wire to unbind it.... Some then falls on the ground and the chickens pick it up.... The wire stays in the tubes at all times....

Dave

 

[CharterChick]

Congrats!

I'd have given you some eggs but the only ones I'm sure are fertile are the silkie eggs and two of them just went broody so I'd set 21 eggs in the incubator earlier today.

Thank you! And I should've mentioned we aren't starting the incubating in the class till the 28th of oct. I forget details sometimes lol

 

[Hinotori]

Quote:
I'll see how many eggs I'm getting from the other two hens. If I can get half a dozen that are fresh enough, I could meet in Aberdeen sometime on the 25 when we head down to clam dig.

I'm not trusting any of the hens at the moment. The two that just went broody raised the last batch of chicks. The other two hens may decide it's time for them to set as well since their chicks are 17 and 18 weeks old now

 

[UrbanEnthusiast]

Hey, everybody! Some of you may remember me. It's good to be back! My husband and I moved to Camano Island from Seattle back in June to set up our subsistence farm but we had to move suddenly last month when our landlord, who was a friend of a friend, started becoming very inappropriate with me and showing early signs of stalker behavior. He was going through a nasty divorce and custody battle and started projecting his feelings about her onto me. He just couldn't handle having us around. It really sucked because we worked so hard all summer and we had made a lot of progress. But we've found a much better place now right down the road, with an amazingly awesome landlady whom we call our fairy godmother. We don't even have a house yet and it's the wrong time of year to start, but we're thrilled! Here's a video tour:

Isn't it gorgeous?!? I'm hoping to have the coop done by the end of January when hatcheries start shipping the breeds I want. I'm thinking of going with Ideal because it's the only one I know of that has all the breeds I want to try out: golden-spangled Hamburg, EE, Ancona, brown Leghorn, and Egyptian Fayoumis. Probably won't be keeping a rooster, sadly, because both our landlady on the other side of the creek and I are very light sleepers. I plan to keep about 15-20 hens but I'm going to start out with about 25 female chicks just to be on the safe side. There is no fence around the five-acre property so this will be a truly free-range flock.

We're also going to be raising rabbit meat and I need to learn how to garden ASAP because I want to raise greens, carrots, and just about anything else I can figure out how to grow out here (other than potatoes as that's not a great dietary choice for us).

We're just super excited because our rent is only $500/mo so we are going to start saving up to buy our own land in 5-10 years. The home we are building is going to involve various components, all of which will be portable so we can take it with us! Pics will ensue.

WOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

 

[CharterChick]

I'll see how many eggs I'm getting from the other two hens. If I can get half a dozen that are fresh enough, I could meet in Aberdeen sometime on the 25 when we head down to clam dig. 

I'm not trusting any of the hens at the moment. The two that just went broody raised the last batch of chicks. The other two hens may decide it's time for them to set as well since their chicks are 17 and 18 weeks old now

That would be awesome! And clam digging is so much fun!

 

[YNOT2K]

Our new coop has arrived! Now we just need some chickens to put in it! Looking forward to even more advice and guidance from the good members of BYC.