Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Chickielady]

been busy busy busy here expanding coop. still lots to do paint trim finish the roof.........and plenty to do in the greenhouse transplanting stuff out and getting ready for this year

Oh man, me too!
Finally sold off all the baby ducks...thank God ! They are soooooooo messy !
I had to plant the cucumbers in the green house raised bed, with their net to clinb.
They were so big that they were sending out tendrils on each other.
The Tomatoes are about 12" tall in 1 gal pots & MUST be planted by the Saturday.
I put them in a 10 x 10 raised bed, with 18" of fresh warm compost, then cover it with a hoop frame, and staple the plastic down.
It stay near 70 in there 24/7 due to the warm compost.
My spaghetti squash & a few other squashes are so large they are wanting to crawl & sticking flat up against the glass of the hot frame, they want OUT !!!
But it has been so unseasonally COLD !!!

HOPEFULLY this next week will warm up enough to plant these little monsters outside.
Was it you I mailed sweet meats to ?

 

[ShockValue]

Keep the babies warm !
This weather is so darn cold !

I'm actually slightly concerned about that... The couple of times I've moved mama around so I can get a peek at what's going on... She hasn't been very accommodating about letting the little peeps back under her enough though it's obvious that's what they're trying to do. This morning I kinda lifted her wings a little so they could sneak under...

I guess I should just leave her alone!

 

[Chickielady]

Not sure about others here, but I have always used scratch for what the word implies and thought of it as an enrichment item. IOW... As something to enrich their diet and lives with. I like to throw it where they can play hide and seek for their food and it will keep them busy (in a pile of shavings ora pea gravel path for instance). It also teaches them to forage for food, like INSECTS! I personally think that the sooner this taught, the better. Same with fruits and veggies.

Back in the Olden Days.......................

Grandma & Great Grandma never fed their birds, ever, cept some scraps.
There was no such thing as trips to the feed store (or grain mill) for "chicken feed"
LOL
The pigs got the scraps (and the dogs) and the chickens free ranged, and sometime in the afternoon, these women would walk out in the dusty yard & toss scratch to the birds.
That was the only grain the birds got.
No soy protein, no marigold extract.
No vitamins or amino acids..........................

These women also did not have incubators, (or Silkies !) and the birds had to be broody on occasion to keep their flocks sustainable.
There was hatcheries, even way back then.
But not many could afford to spend money every year on chicks, especially during the dust bowl & the Great depression.
My Dad had chickens even when I was a baby, and we had no hen house, the birds slept in trees, and free ranged, and were given a scoop of scratch a day.
Finding eggs everyday was a hunt !
So, moral of the story is, I think chickens were fine 100 years ago living on dirt & scratch, they'll be fine now.

 

[Chickielady]

I want to do ground cherrys... I was going to then stopped because read some conflicting info that it was toxic to chickens........

ohh I love cooking with tomatilla's
pliers and a hot nail

Right on !

 

[Chickielady]

I'm actually slightly concerned about that... The couple of times I've moved mama around so I can get a peek at what's going on... She hasn't been very accommodating about letting the little peeps back under her enough though it's obvious that's what they're trying to do. This morning I kinda lifted her wings a little so they could sneak under...

I guess I should just leave her alone!

Sometimes leaving her alone is a good thing, and sometimes leaving her alone can result in a dead baby.
We had baby turkeys fall out of the nest & roll away & momma did nothing.
Rain & sleet & finally we checked & found ICE COLD lifeless baby turkeys.
We gave them a warm bath...and held their heads out of the water.
Within a few minutes, they were back to life.
Within an hour they were romping all around a brooder like nothing ever happened.
So you just never know...better to watch closely but not actually lift her up, she sounds like she is still in the brain dead broody zone.

 

[Chickielady]

Psssssssssssssssssst:
Don't tell anybody but this morning we had our NPIP inspection and testing & we passed !!!
We are now waiting for them to assign us a certification number !!!

 

[ShockValue]

She does have 1 egg left under her.. I think you are probably right.. Just trying to hatch that one and not moving on to the "next phase".

We were hoping that might just be a late bloomer, but if there is still no signs of life by tomorrow morning, we're going to consider it a loss so Mama can get on with being a Mama.

 

[torrelee]

Alright Washingtonians, I got my first incubator (brinesea mini eco) and put my first set of eggs in last night. I have a hygrometer in there so I have one more thing to worry about, but with one of the tanks full of water it was running at around 70% humidity. I looked it up and that seemed too high so I took out the water and it is holding around 40 dry. I live right next to the beach so it's about 50% in my house. Being the typical worry wort I am stressing about potentially killing 10 babies! There are so many opinions on what is the right humidity when you look in the threads... what works for washington? I weighed them last night when I put them in, do I just weigh in a week and add water if they lose more than 5% since they should lose 15% in a week? HELP!
Crazy first time incubator

 

[Carolei]

Psssssssssssssssssst:
Don't tell anybody but this morning we had our NPIP inspection and testing & we passed !!!
We are now waiting for them to assign us a certification number !!!

n

Yay! Congratulations!

 

[Hinotori]

Quote:
The orange guy was the bottom of the pecking order. I haven't had any issues with the silkies and people. Some are a bit too friendly and will walk right underfoot. The blue guy thinks he's a large fowl. He brushed off anything the large fowl rooster who I put him in with tried to say. He's also the only silkie I've seen able to fly three feet on to a roost.