Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Chickielady]

I have used the stall pellets then shavings once the birds decimated the ground
might do the pea gravel idea

once they decimate the new run as the grass/crab grass
has not been mowed in the last two weeks since it has been started but near
finished now.
a whole new route we have raised three feral cat's next to the chicken coup and connected run for about 10
months now, yesterday I walked in to my coup to be greeted by two cats laying in the run chickens walking about
like it was all very normal

I was the one freaking out but not one feather had been touched and
normal egg counts like any other day

little darlings walked up the tarp that covers the coop getting in the run above the door
obviously showing me the weak spot but I have come to believe we have a weird karma here
anyway

COOL !!!!

 

[Chickielady]

Did you hear about the restaurant on the moon? Great food... but no atmosphere.

 

[Chickielady]

Hello from Lacey, Washington. My little family and I just joined the ranks of the backyard chicken lovers.

Hey I know I am late..but welcome anyways !

 

[Chickielady]

allo oh Washingtonians.

So i'v recently heard about the great increase in chicken owners, and when i move to washington, I want to go into something involving chickens (A little more than Breeding/Selling of course)

I heard that an Avian Veterinarian is actually a high paying job that people are looking for, because many vets willnot take birds, as they do not know thier dieases and ailments enough to help/id.

Is there anywhere is Washington, close to the La Conner area that I could earn a degree as an Avian Vet?

You must go to school to earn a veterinarian degree...then specialize in the area of "study" or private practice you would prefer.

UC at Davis, (California) is probably the best, and of course WSU at Puyallup....
Best thing to do is discuss it with present Avian Vets, by getting ahold of the NPIP...and talk to them.

 

[Chickielady]

Hey everyone, just thought I'd introduce myself - I'm a new chicken owner living in the 'burbs north of Seattle. I bought my first 4 birds at Bothell Feed Center at the end of April/early May when they were just day olds. Actually, I bought 5, but my welsummer ended up being male so he went to a new home. I was super sad to see the welsummer go, so a few weeks ago I bought two more pullets at Baxter Barn - a welsummer and a speckled sussex. They've been quarantined in my garage since they came home - and both seem to have some sort of a respiratory illness, which is a big bummer. I've been giving them Duramycin-10 for about a week, at the suggestion of Baxter Barn, but I haven't seen much of a difference. I've been researching respiratory illnesses in chickens and have read quite a bit...but still haven't really decided what to do about it/what to do with them. Maybe I should have started a new thread for this...But I was wondering if anyone else in the area has recently purchased new birds from Baxter Barn that were also sick? The symptoms haven't been very severe so it's hard to say what's going on with them (if anything...maybe I'm just overreacting!), but they do sometimes have a funky smell when they have runny noses, which my research indicates might be coryza.

No respiratory disease has a smell except Cory.....as far as I know.
It is distinguishable from across the room, once you 'know' the smell...

 

[Chickielady]

The 11 week old boys are getting pretty big. Only 2 out of 10 were girls (one is really nice looking). I actually wanted boys this time and got them.

You need to show, gal pal !!

 

[Chickielady]

had to look up these D'anvers they are quail... on another note I HAVE NOT JUST ONE
BUT TWO ROOSTER'S

you are a magnet !

 

[Chickielady]

Penny - what are the light gray ones? The picture is blurry when I tried to make it bigger.

HA HA HA I see where this is going ! LOL !

 

[Chickielady]

Exciting day here.... the SFH eggs my hen is sitting on are finally starting the hatch. We started with 8 eggs, but one got broken early on. And when I candled several days ago it appeared that some had stopped. I don't have a lot of experience with candling so I left them under her. We'll see. Fingers crossed. We have a nanny cam so I can watch the progress and hear the peeps & clucks. It's pretty entertaining. I'm keeping close eye on them for the first tiny face to appear!

 

[Chickielady]

I have totally been thinking about getting meat rabbits but have no clue on breeds or butchering. I did watch some videos on butchering them... As far as meat goes, are they meatier than chickens? Grow faster? a lot easier to raise than chickens? How many ppl would 1 feed? Thank you!

The hardest part for raising rabbits, is they eat only alfalfa pellets.....and it is extremely expensive per pound of meat you get.
Even if you give them prime alfalfa flakes, they will eat the leaves, and poop on the rest.
And alfalfa is not cheap my friends !

The best/cheapest meat per pound is goats...rich, not much fat, and the goats eat just about anything...

Sheep are best if you have alot of grass.....lamb, (under 1 year old) is delicious !

But rabbits take alot of $ in special cages...and isolation as not to disturb does, and they just eat alfalfa pellets.

Now, if you could buy a pelletizer, and toss a bale of alfalfa in...and make your own, then YES it would be worth it.

Let's not forget that the bale of alfalfa is expensive in the first place !
I raised & showed purebred California meat rabbits for YEARS...

I butchered a few of mine...registered California herd that I had.
But mostly I sold alot to people who wanted to raise meat rabbits....

No, it was not worth it.
I still have some of the equipment & the ARBA standard if anyone wants it.