Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:
Bwahahahahahahahaha!!!

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Hi Stumpfarmer, thanks for the welcome! We have lived out here for 3 years....before that Hawks Prairie area, before that in Lacey. I grew up on a farm that my ancestors settled in the 1840s but that was in Southern Illinois. We have had layers for 3 years (Easter Eggers, BLRW, Gold and Silver Wyandotts, cucko Marans, Buff Orp). This fall I decided I was going to take up breeding and purchased an incubator. I want to concentrate on wcb polish, silkies, blue lf cochans, oliver eggers and who knows what else! I also have a few silkies, polish, and cochans. Do you know anyone locally that has lf cochans, silkie eggs for sale? I do not want hatchery quality. I would to have seen Lacey at the turn of the century!

Pacachick, Lacey around 1900 was a resort town- fishing camps on all the lakes, a horse race track (and just after the turn of the century, a big motorcycle culture), and some hunting guide businesses; it was smaller than Union Mills, where my father was born in 1917 when the sawmill here was still the biggest in the lower 48, although within a couple of years of running out of logs.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Hey guys !
How was your Christmas' ?
We are trying to get the rest of the trusses built, but as soon as the guys took the tarp off...it started in raining again............
Looks like Sun-Thursday will be decent though.
So they guys cut more truss lumber to size, stacked it up & went home...........

darn rain.
Everything else is fine, I am doing PT as well as patchworking the quilt for my daughter.
patchin'.......cutting, sewing, ironing & so on.
It has been decent enough temps to plant a bed of greens in the green house....an experiment.
last year it was too cold, this year it may work.

Hope you are all doing good !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!                        

Ain't it just the way?

Yesterday I was out in the yard and a cloud about the size of my place drifted over out of a blue sky and opened up like a firehose; I had to hang out in the broody run until it tapered off.

 

[Hinotori]

Quote:

The eggs look great Jess. My younger birds have started laying little eggs in the last two weeks. Which is good since the rocks finally decided to molt. I'm getting one extra large egg occasionally and I think that is from the big brahma from last year who's already done her molt.


I think the breed really effects the chicks wildness when broody laid. The EE chicks that have been broody raised have been wild, even though the mamas were friendly and would bring them over for treats and petting. With silkie chicks, the first batch I had was super friendly. The juveniles I have out there right now aren't super friendly, but they aren't that difficult to catch and don't fight.

The brahmas that were raised by Speckles the Spaz EE are very friendly. Speckles cared for them for 5 weeks and was done. She was superb and friendly for 5 weeks. Then she decided to go back to her spaz ways. I hadn't removed her because she'd still let them warm up some at that point, but they started doing as she was and were getting wild and spazzy. So since the silkies would let the chicks sleep under them at night and the silkie rooster was letting them warm under him and feeding them, Speckles was sent off to rejoin the flock.

I had the two ameraucana chicks in with the silkies since I picked them up at 7 weeks. They were 8 weeks when I got the brahma chicks, who being hatchery stock matured a little quicker. The brahmas and ameraucanas played together and still hang out together. Since the ameraucanas were so stinking friendly because of the work of the person I got them from, they were a very calming influence on the brahmas. They all hang out together still. No issues or fussing on catching and picking them up. The one that turned out to be a boy is very laid back and will stand still for me on the scale and for pictures.

 

[Greg Richardson]

Wis. couple says pet chicken alerted them to blaze

By CARRIE ANTLFINGER, Associated Press Published: Dec 28, 2012 at 10:12 AM PST Last Updated: Dec 28, 2012 at 1:19 PM PST

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(Wikimedia Commons photo by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez)​

MILWAUKEE (AP) - A Wisconsin couple says clucks, not fire trucks, helped them escape a blaze at their home.

Dennis Murawska, 59, said a pet chicken named Cluck Cluck woke his wife Susan Cotey, 52, with loud clucking from its cage in the basement two floors below about 6:15 a.m. Thursday. The couple's two cats also were running around the main floor.

Murawska said he had been half awake but didn't know about the fire because the smoke alarms hadn't gone off. He realized something was wrong when his wife got up.

"The chicken gets quite vocal when she gets excited," he said.

Cluck Cluck came from a nearby farm in Alma Center, about 135 miles east of Minneapolis, Murawska said. When the chicken began wandering over to his house, his neighbor said he could kill it because it wasn't producing any eggs. But Murawska felt sorry for Cluck Cluck because she had a mutated foot and decided to keep her. He fed the bird and built a coop, and then his wife let Cluck Cluck into the basement on cold nights.

"I spent way more money than I ever should've," Murawska said by telephone. "I guess it paid off."

The couple escaped, and firefighters found the chicken in its cage and one of the cats alive in the basement. Another cat hasn't been found and is presumed dead, Murawska said. The couple and their surviving cat checked into a Black River Falls hotel, while Cluck Cluck is staying with the neighbor who used to own her.

Alma Center Fire Chief Jeff Gaede said the fire started in the attic of the attached garage and was not suspicious. The house was a total loss, but it could have been worse - if not for the chicken.

"We are used to hearing about a dog or cat or something, but we never heard of a chicken waking up a resident for a fire," Gaede said. "That's pretty amazing."

 

[Farmin Momma]

Wis. couple says pet chicken alerted them to blaze

By CARRIE ANTLFINGER, Associated Press Published: Dec 28, 2012 at 10:12 AM PST Last Updated: Dec 28, 2012 at 1:19 PM PST

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(Wikimedia Commons photo by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez)​

I just read about this on Facebook this morning and didn't even think about posting it. Isn't that cool!

Well 3 of the kids and myself took little Ratchet puppy for his first walk. We just went up to the corner store about 5ish blocks away. He did great! I really wish the lady I got him from would have kept him for me until he was 8 weeks old, or even 7 weeks. But with a litter of 15 large pups I do understand a bit. I tend to see more issues in pups/dogs that were not with momma long enough. Beginning to see some with Ratchet, when he is anywhere off of our property he wines almost the whole time and shakes like a chiuaua dog. He also seems to have some separation issues also. Just means that I will have to work them out of him. I have done it before with "rescue" danes that I have had in the past.

Chickielady- I too am wondering if I missed my chance to buy one of the calenders, I hope not for both of us.

 

[hallerlake]

Quote: Yesterday, Mr Hallerlake went to run some errands and accidentally locked me out of the house. I have the covered porch to sit on when it rains, but sitting in the garden is not my strong suit. I was sitting there looking at some changes Mr H had insisted on making in the roadside bed when I HAD to move something. The fact that it was raining and getting dark didn't stop me. Now, I need to go out and replant the fern I moved to make room for the dogwood that was too close to the shrub Mr H moved. Domino effect.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

I know the calendars are in the BYC store.

Jess, I read on another thread that if your broody(when you get one) is friendly and not afraid of you, when you are hanging out with her and the chicks, the chicks will see momma is not afraid of you and they will learn you are not a threat to them. So just like hand-raising chicks, the key is spending time with them.

I got the framework for the carport my parents gave me a year ago up today with a 20x10 tarp I found in a cabinet(didn't know it was there). So the Silkies covered area is up, now to get it enclosed with wire and build the pallet coop under it. I took the chicks out to the tractor for a little while today, I think the combo of cold and new environment had them huddled in a corner, all except the orphan chick, he was running around and scratching like normal.

 

[BantyChickenLuv]

Well... My long awaited Christmas gift has finally arrived. And it's the Brisnea Mini Advance incubator! I'm getting some SQ hatching eggs from a friend today, so hopefully I'll be setting them tomorrow!

 

[KMHunter]

As far as broody hens go, for me I move them into a wire dog crate that can be set up inside the coop. Just enough room to get up and stretch, eat and poo.  I have only had issues moving one of my broodies last summer, but I did it during the day. So I tried again at night and she was fine.
It is so cute to watch a momma and her chicks walking around the yard. I can't wait until these 8 eggs hatch.

Are you giving her heat? I noticed my broody lost a lot of weight during incubation and I am now thinking that she used a lot of energy trying to keep warm and not eating as much. Just a thought. If I have any more winter broodies I am supplementing heat. She is doing fine and slowly putting on weight, but I was shocked at how skinny she was.