Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[ForrestGump]

She does not. I am checking one other source though. Can you PM me your zip code if they have them for shipping estimate?

I have Marans.

 

[Chickielady]

About two thirds of the run is covered. Thank god because it will never quit raining. I am so sick of the rain I could just scream! I put the black rug on top so that the big chickens wouldn't jump up there and pooped through the bars. And they wouldn't be intimidating the young chicks.
I now have all the chickens locked in their run for the next few weeks. I want to try to get some grass etc. growing in the yard and it won't happen with them out there. So I will be giving them more entertainment in the run. Somethings to climb on etc. and they will always have the new little checks to stare at.
I decided this year I'm going to go for a miniature version of rotating pastures. I'm going to let my chickens in only part of the yard for a day or two then rotate them to another party. Maybe this will keep my yard from being a mud pit next winter.

Next winter ?
Like it is gonna be next winter all summer !

 

[ForrestGump]

The stupid rats steal the golf balls out of the nest boxes and try it eat them. I find chewed on golf balls in all kinds of places.

I'm working on the rat problem, but the remaining ones are too smart to go in the traps.

 

[Chickielady]

That does sound interesting. I don't have any electricity out to the coop. I think the little chicks will do fine.

Baby chicks cannot survive outdoors right now without a broody hen, or electricity, unless you have a propane brooder/ or heater that is.

I am the queen of extensions cords, and until now, I used red heat lamps...which are seriously dangerous & use way way way more power than pipe tape, or a 25 watt heat pad does.

Heat pads do not work enough to heat the floor of a big brooder.

I must have 15 heat lamps hanging in the brooder room, not being used.

And I always did tie them to beams with about 3 feet or vineyard wire, which is raised up as the chicks grow.
That may still happen, as these baby chicks in the sand brooder grow too big for the rubber maide tub...they will go out to the brooder room, and if it is still this cold, a heat lamp will have to be used OR I will have to make a bigger floor heater.
Luckily I have a 50 foot roll of pipe tape.....there were 2 rolls at habitat for humanity & no one knew what they were, so I bid $15 and they said OK !!!...... It is manufactured by Raychem...awesome stuff !
You can even cut off a length, apply a water proof heat-shrink end to one end, a ply to the other end, and drop the pipe tape (not the plug) into a vat of water, plug it in & it will heat the water & prevent icing over.

I have run 20 foot lengths buried 6" deep, in my green house beds (which are 10 feet long) and plug that in.....and planted my tomatoes in March, with no other heat in the green house, and it was like this, about 40 degrees......and the soil was so warm & kept all frostiness off the maters !

 

[Chickielady]

The stupid rats steal the golf balls out of the nest boxes and try it eat them. I find chewed on golf balls in all kinds of places.

I'm working on the rat problem, but the remaining ones are too smart to go in the traps.

You must lock your coops at dusk...if rats can get it, so can mink, racoons and other nasty predators.

They not only steal eggs, but the pig out and crap in the feed, and can spread mites and fleas to both your birds, and you.

We have feed in rubbermaid cans for storage, and we see chew marks all over the lids.

We have feed buckets and water INSIDE the coops, and the birds are locked in at dusk, and let out in the morning.

I have seen so many people hang a poultry feeder out in the chicken yard.............and we have game cams !
YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE the mouse & rat party that went on all over that feeder !

Then there is mink and once skunks (YUCK) and once it was weasels...(stout) and they killed 5 of my blue jersey giant hens.and the mink killed a bunch of marans....there is too many predators here, even in the city.
I have seen feral cats, walk a fence & go in and kill chickens.

 

[Chickielady]

I had to switch to wood because I couldn't tell the ceramic brown eggs from the real eggs half the time. The painted wood ones feel different and the brown and green colors aren't quite right for me to confuse them. The ceramic ones are nicer though.

I had alabaster eggs, violte and pink.....but they have disapeared as things do as you move.

So I use rocks.
In travels to the beach & camping I find rocks, and some look just like an egg !
Those egg rocks are stored in a safe place for use when I need them.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Quote: You have the Marans, do you I am in Mossyrock 98564 do you know where that is?
Seattle is miles away where about's in Seattle

 

[theceltichorse]

Might just get my lap chicken!

 

[theceltichorse]

 

[Hinotori]

I've been having some issues so I won't be making it to the Monroe show tomorrow. I don't trust myself to drive that far.