Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Sudsy Chick]

Thank you to Honeysuckle Hills for her help processing our three boys yesterday. It was much easier and more fun to have you there!

And thank you to Rob for the apples - cannot wait to make pie!

 

[Chickielady]

Oh, rats: nobody ever needs more things cut out of an already restricted diet!

I feel so much btter though !!!
Time will tell.

 

[Chickielady]

I'll let the hubby know. Thanks guys.

We make changes because one thing is not safe, only to change to something else that's dangerous. Such is life.

I think it is Reynold's Co that makes a "grilling foil" which is heavy duty & coated with something non stick...maybe a teflon, I have no idea.
But it does work really well and may help you grill w/o contamination from aluminum & zinc.
IDK

 

[Chickielady]

Early morning North Kitsap fire destroys outbuilding, kills chickens

Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2012/oct/20/early-morning-north-kitsap-fire-destroys-kills/#ixzz29z1KGGun

People, people it is not cold enough on your side of the state to warrant a heat source for your birds. These are animals and they have evolved over eons to be able to withstand the winter weather if given proper shelter and access to food and water.

I know most of our regulars know this, but this is for all the newbies and lurkers.

Thanks for the post ! This is very true !!!!!!!

 

[Chickielady]

Well I do feel much better this morning, except for the fact of little sleep.
Yuck....the dog barked on & off ALL NIGHT LONG...and his bark was that of an intruder alert.

I got up & looked out several times & saw nothing...

At 5 AM I finally routed Einstein (who could sleep through the Blitz) and he went out & discovered quickly that there is a herd of Elk (as I suspected) right up the hill maybe 20 feet...crashing through brush & knocking trees over, snorting, squeeling and the occasional trumpet.

Guess it is time to go get a license & tag~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just in case....

I like it when they are close...packing elk out of the hills is too much for us, but 10-20 feet away would work just fine.
And me with my freezers full...........

Would have to rent a few freezers from the neighbor, he is a good guy though.

 

[itsren]

Well I do feel much better this morning, except for the fact of little sleep.
Yuck....the dog barked on & off ALL NIGHT LONG...and his bark was that of an intruder alert.

I got up & looked out several times & saw nothing...

At 5 AM I finally routed Einstein (who could sleep through the Blitz) and he went out & discovered quickly that there is a herd of Elk (as I suspected) right up the hill maybe 20 feet...crashing through brush & knocking trees over, snorting, squeeling and the occasional trumpet.

Guess it is time to go get a license & tag~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just in case....

I like it when they are close...packing elk out of the hills is too much for us, but 10-20 feet away would work just fine.
And me with my freezers full...........

Would have to rent a few freezers from the neighbor, he is a good guy though.

That would be awesome for you to get some delicious elk! We grew up on that stuff. Good luck!

 

[VelvettFog]

Quote:
Carolyn,

You've gotten some good responses from others on this board. I think it really comes down to how you view your birds. Does the flockster see them as pets or livestock, or a combination of both. My birds are not pets. Even those who get names are not pets. I expect all my birds to do their job. To me that means they either lay what I consider an appropriate number of eggs a week, or they quickly achieve butcher weight. I try to stay with dual purpose birds, and I let them cross breed to take advantage of hybrid vigor. I do have a breeding project, but not to produce a show quality bird. I'm trying to create a dual-purpose auto-sexing breed by crossing New Hampshires and Barred Rocks.

When I get a hen who's gotten past the prime laying part of her life (usually between 36 and 48 mo.) I evaluate the bird. I tend to hang on to birds longer if they fit my breeding program. Birds who no longer lay at an acceptable rate (4 a week is a good cut off for me) will go on craigslist first, and if no takers, the go to the stew pot. I don't live close to an auction house, so that's not really an option to me, but if I did it would certainly be something I'd try out.

I have no trouble understanding that some people consider their birds pets and would never butcher them. If that were the case for me, then I'd certainly turn to craigslist or auctions should I choose to no longer keep one of my birds.

I think it was Mikey who said it best -- you will know what's right for you when the time comes.

HTH,

Dave

 

[SweetSilver]

Welcome again! Looking forward to *not* keeping up on this new thread. 3 days and I'm already behind--but I gave up trying long, long ago.

 

[Slinglings]

I'm not seasoned at all and my hens are very much my pets I have 4 hens, only 2 are laying right now, and we get more than enough eggs from just them. I have room for 6 hens, *at most*, if they free range all day and only sleep in the coop. My plan is to stagger the ages of my hens so that I have at least 2 good layers, (or 3 not so good layers?) at a time. Hopefully I will never need to get rid of or cull any of them. I would probably be more likely to keep hens that aren't producing enough and buy eggs if I had to, rather than get rid of them. Especially Blanche and Ginger, they are my pets. Leila is very special. Buffy...eh. I could get rid of her. She's not friendly, cuddly, smart; doesn't lay eggs, isn't pretty. Why do I even have her?

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Hi All,
I'd like to hear from as many of the [COLOR=000080]seasoned[/COLOR] chicken farmers here as I can.  This is a topic that's been on my mind for quite a while and I just seem to be forever kicking it around in my head.  So here goes....

I have just 3 hens.  I got them because I wanted eggs and never thought about them becoming pets, and I've tried to remain as objective as possible knowing that at some time they will 'move on', one way or another.  The way is my topic of discussion. 

 
As the girls age their egg production will drop to the point that it's unreasonable for me to keep them.  My EE has never been a heavy layer and by next summer will probably being giving us only 2-3 eggs per week.  I know everyone has to deal with this issue eventually.  So I'd like to know...  at what point do you say good bye to a hen, and when you do what do you do?   Sell, butcher, give away, send to a chicken retirement community?  I went to the Enumclaw chicken auction yesterday and it sort of surprised me that I felt bad watching the birds getting sold, thinking how rough they were being treated, what their new home would be like, etc.

So, those of you with a few years experience, please add your voice to this.  I'd really like to know what you feel is a practical solution. 

Thanks very much

I'm trying to figure out how to deal with this when it comes to Sylvia, as it happens. She's never been a dependable layer, even compared with the other BLRWs; I haven't gotten an egg from her since July! I won't be able to figure out whether something's inherantly wrong with her until Ian's gone and she's been fed up and the other three get moved in with her, and probably not then until next spring, ugh.

If she's nicely feathered out and chipper in May and still not laying, I'll either send her to the sale somehow or put her on Craigslist or give her to somebody for dog food, I dunno. In my case I don't want to have to do my own butchering because of hand issues. I would raise broilers if I could find someone to butcher for me, but nobody wants to do that. I feel as if the points I earned butchering and cleaning chickens starting when I was five are being disrespected, but oh, well, life is change, yadda yadda.