Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Hinotori]

Processing the last batch of ripened tomatoes into thick salsa. Glad to have most ingredients except the peppers and cilantro, tomato paste. The last batch came out super thick. Great for the chips and tacos! Going to be another lovely weekend. Enjoy all! DH and I cruising to rainy Alaska for the next week.
Also glad the flock has settled into the pecking order, but have one that gets ganged up on by 3 girls. One mounts her, and while she's down, the other 2 are pulling her hackles. Any suggestions?

Put the trouble makers in isolation for a week or so.

I had to do that with some rock pullets that were beating up the silkies then. Rehabilitated 4 of the 6. The other 2 kept attacking when reintroduced, even after an extra week. They really looked seemed to be trying to kill the silkies so I had to cull them.

My biggest issue was that the silkies had their own pen and only met the others when they came over when the pens were open for free range time. These hens entered the silkie pens to attack.

 

[RR funky chick house]

Our granddaughter came over today and insisted on the full chicken experience!

 

[Sequel]

Hey all back among the living new computer ...

 

[Sequel]

I just checked my weather app and it says we could have 80F on Sunday !

 

[rosemarythyme]

I always keep pictures and documents on at least 2 devices. Normally they are kept on 2 separate portable hard drives plus the computer.

Got Mom to keep a back up in the early 2000s after her computer died. My brother pulled the hard drive and was able to retrieve her photos but she freaked out for a while. So got her a portable hard drive and told her to make copies and make sure the copies are good.

I stack hard drives in my computer tower instead. I add hard drives from previous computers into new computers as I get them. I currently have 3, with a 4th "retired" due to lack of space. Makes it easier to set up a new computer too because I can often run small programs from the old drives without too much issue. Hubby jokes about my love of filling the empty bays with hard drives, but it's extremely handy to be able to just drag and drop entire folders to back up without having to hook anything up (and to be able to instantly access older versions of documents).

 

[pennyJo1960]

I have the old one computer on the floor beside the new one. I have most documents and files of photos on the thumb drives.

 

[My Three Chicks]

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

This will be our first winter here (in Seattle) and I'm just wondering if there are any suggestions on what we need to do to prep for it. We've got four 1.5 year old girls. And 8'x5' coop shed and a 8'x14' covered run. They free range in the backyard all day.

Do I need to add bedding to the coop? Get a heated waterer? Add supplemental heat? Etc etc.

Any advice for a relative newbie would be appreciated!

 

[Hinotori]

No supplemental heat. Bad for birds if you lose power and has a tendency to start fires. We see enough coop fires every year from added heat.

I wrap my silkie pens in greenhouse tarps. Some people use clear shower curtains or greenhouse plastic. Leave some ventilation, but it keeps their body heat in and winds out. Also helps keep some of the rain out.

Everyone gets fresh bedding here. I use straw in the runs, but I'm still building up the soil and have a tendency to move pens.

When it freezes, I change from buckets with water cups to rubber water bowls i can stomp the ice out of. I don't run power out there so I don't have heated water bowls. I did used to run power to the large fowl coop and had a heated dog bowl for them.

 

[ValerieJ]

I don't provide additional heat, but I do wrap the outdoor part of the run in plastic like Hinotori suggested. They still get to come out into their free range area every day too. Like you, we have a large coop and enclosure, but they love their free range time.

The biggest problem for me is the water dishes when it gets down to freezing. I do have one heated dish in the coop, but all the outdoor waterers are not heated. I actually go out and break up the ice or change them out a few times a day. I keep a back up supply of the dishes and switch them out. Really, water is the only challenge here in SW WA. The chickens do fine in the cold weather.

I agree with HInotori about the heat. It's more of a danger than a help. We do have electricity going out there and keep a light on for 12 hours a day, but no heat. I use straw in the coop, and in the winter I switch to a more deep litter type of situation where I will allow the straw to build up and just keep adding more, rather than change it out. Then we have a big spring cleaning day and it's back to fresh straw regularly.

Your chickens will do just fine in Washington winters.

 

[rosemarythyme]

This will be our first winter here (in Seattle) and I'm just wondering if there are any suggestions on what we need to do to prep for it.

Do I need to add bedding to the coop? Get a heated waterer? Add supplemental heat? Etc etc.

You really don't need to do much, as a general rule it doesn't ever get cold enough here to cause problems.

My winter prep is simply plugging in the cord for the waterer to heat it. I do not wrap the run (it's unroofed anyhow) or add extra bedding or anything. I find that even in the coldest weather (I think it hit 12F at one point last winter) the birds are fine sleeping against an open window (no draft). I do close windows as needed if there's sideways snow/rain/winds, but that's maybe a few days each year.

Biggest pain is shoveling snow out of the way inside the run, so there's a few clearings the birds can use. My flock won't walk on snow!