Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Smokerbill]

Praying the weather is warm and they don’t get too cold. Hypothermia this time of. No heat in flight. Have a heat lamp ready , and a heating pad. Maybe a cardboard box handy. Maybe lay a hand towel then a heating pad and another hand towel.

I got refunded for ten chicks.

I'll have the brooder box set up and warmed up to 95° or so, and a heating pad on the floor on low with a towel over it just in case. And I'm mixing up a booster for them to drink with molasses and a pinch of salt. Warm, wet feed too.

They're at the USPS distribution center in Des Moines, Iowa now, expected delivery Thursday.

 

[ValerieJ]

Our chicks are roosting with the big girls tonight!

 

[Smokerbill]

Our chicks are roosting with the big girls tonight!

Nice! My chicks are still sleeping on the coop floor under the roosting hens. They haven't figured out that chickens are supposed to get up on roost bars to sleep at night. LOL



I pulled out the chopped cabbage feeder I made a couple years ago and filled it with some old red cabbage.

 

[Smokerbill]

My chicks departed Des Moines IA this morning...

 

[Grandmas Coop]

My chicks departed Des Moines IA this morning...

Tell me again? are they the Red Stars?

 

[Smokerbill]

Tell me again? are they the Red Stars?

New Hampshires

https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/new_hampshire_reds.html

 

[ValerieJ]

My chicks are about a month older than yours. They have had access to the big side of the coop for about a month and they have gone over to explore a lot, but this is the first time up the ladder.

 

[Smokerbill]

I've decided that straw bedding sucks. It's not absorbent and it's always littered with wet and smelly poop bombs. Woodchips, on the other hand, quickly soak up the moisture and the poop disintegrates and disappears fast. No smell either. And my chickens don't seem to like the texture and scratchability, if that's a word, of straw. They love the woodchips.

I'm removing all the straw from the coop and secure run today and replacing it with the woodchip mulch that's covering the new garden bed in the yard. I'll load it up and move it to the chicken run.

I guess I'll just pile up the old straw next to the woods to slowly compost away. I don't want to put it in my garden because it seems like all the remaining grain in the straw would attract rodents, and make a nice home for them. And the grain would germinate, I'm guessing.

Anyway, that will be my day today.

 

[Grandmas Coop]

I've decided that straw bedding sucks. It's not absorbent and it's always littered with wet and smelly poop bombs. Woodchips, on the other hand, quickly soak up the moisture and the poop disintegrates and disappears fast. No smell either. And my chickens don't seem to like the texture and scratchability, if that's a word, of straw. They love the woodchips.

I'm removing all the straw from the coop and secure run today and replacing it with the woodchip mulch that's covering the new garden bed in the yard. I'll load it up and move it to the chicken run.

I guess I'll just pile up the old straw next to the woods to slowly compost away. I don't want to put it in my garden because it seems like all the remaining grain in the straw would attract rodents, and make a nice home for them. And the grain would germinate, I'm guessing.

Anyway, that will be my day today.

I was hoping you would come to this decision. Straw does not compost, it will hold water and freeze, it is sharp on feet, it molds.

Wood chips and or a grass like alfalfa break down and compost.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Morning all up here 7:30 second cup of coffee.
Richard is doing fine this morning.
Need to Thank you for the well wishes.
Peeps 8 are growing nicely.