Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[itsren]

So, Himself's brother came to visit - and brought a little gift. I am the lucky recipient of Tuna, Wahoo, Prawns, Antelope, and elk!

When's dinner? Ha! Ha! Sounds yummy!

 

[itsren]

Quote:
I agree - the joy does outweigh the negatives. I can understand the feelings of stress and worry. I do let mine free-range - I take that chance. They're so happy when they are out, and I keep an eye on them through the window. Any odd calls, and I'm out the sliding glass door like a rocket. I have a small one story house and it is quick and easy to get outside. The not-so-little young ones (Blackie and Latte) are tractor bound again - more due to my inability to catch them if I need to leave the house. But, they still seem happy. They know they are safe from the big girls in there. They have the grass to munch on. The only thing the tractor is missing is dirt to scratch in, so they just scratch on the grass.

 

[itsren]

My Useless Chicken finally laid an egg!

Crown, aka Crownie-Bownie-Go-to-Townie-Wear-a-Smile-and-Not-a-Frownie

She's about 10 months old now, and as useless as.... something really useless, I tell you! She is good for a few laughs, though. Silly top hat of white feathers she keeps getting muddy (I think crests are completely silly-no offense!), toenails too long, feather on her toes. Afraid of everything. Something of a dingbat. She even has laid half her eggs from the roost, not in the nest. Eggs barely larger than my banties.

But she laid an egg. She laid. an. egg.

Good girl!


Here's a picture of her from this summer, looking clean, posing so I could get a picture of the nesting boxes I built (you've seen them before). She's a Sultan. Useless.

 

[itsren]

Kinda liking the crappy weather, but only because it means the kids don't have anywhere else to be so we get school done early in the day I got my new 40lb galvanized feeder today! Hung it up and the girls are already trying to scoop feed out of it. Dummies. I hung it a little higher to discourage that, but I don't want to make eating too uncomfortable so it'll stay as is for now. That's one reason I liked our plastic feeder, they couldn't scoop feed out because of all the little partitions.

Mine started doing that this winter. The big momma hen (me) hasn't been a happy camper over it. Now I don't know how to get them to stop. They didn't do it in the summer because they'd rather be out eating grass and bugs than messing around in the run.

 

[itsren]

I mentioned to Einstein that we will have to make a dog house (like the dormer truss) to match this barn home, and he just GLARED AT ME !!!! LOL !!!

We could re-do all the coops to match too !!!!!!!!!!!

Beautiful build!

And, I agree - matching doghouse and coops would be awesome!

 

[itsren]

I'm gonna jump ahead and read later. I don't want to become a thread hog - which could easily happen if I keep commenting on all the posts I've missed for a while.

Thanks to a basketball practice reschedule, Blackie missed out on going to auction on Saturday. Turns out, with how cold it has been, that was probably a good thing for Latte. Things are going OK. I've tried a couple of times to mix Latte in with the flock, both times ended up with her having a pretty bloody comb. I think it is more because she flies and slams herself into the hardware cloth if the girls start walking toward her, than because the big girls hurt her. They walk up and peck on her back, but I have never seen them peck her in the face. They peck, but they really aren't that mean. I have seen her fly into the run walls because she goes into freak-out mode so easily. I wish she would just calm down and not be so easily frightened and flighty.

The littles are doing great. Growing. Boy, are they growing! One has a copper head already. I'm pretty positive he's a cockerel - I think he's one of the BCMs. Cute as can be though. They've been a great little bunch.

I'm trying to think ahead... wondering if Latte will be mean to the two girls we end up keeping out of the batch of littles. When the littles are old enough to go out, they'll be going into a different coop. If only chickens could play nice! But, then again, I say that about my kids, too.

Kudos to you guys who take care of large flocks. Multiple chickens is a lot of work. Clean-up chores have more than tripled. Ugh!

I bought new pine shavings at Reber. I don't like them. They're very small and hard to clean the poop out without taking a bunch of pine shavings with it. My last bag was from Reber and I loved it - nice big, thin strips of pine shavings. Does anyone know, did Reber change what they are carrying, or did I end up with a different type of pine shavings? The last bag I bought was inside the store, but it looks like they moved all that kind of stuff to the warehouse for pick-up.

 

[itsren]

FYI Just gonna toss this out there. I may get chewed on for it but hey. Tomorrow I will be in Bonney Lake with my truck helping T Hi move. Toni just found out she has to be out by Monday. PLEASE DON'T ask and don't get judgemental It is NOTHING Toni has done bad. Just a messed up situation. Hoping we have enough people power. I probably won't be here again until early next week. If anybody wants to contact use my cell # many have it and may share PRIVATELY !!! have a good weekend peeps.

Sorry CR... I just got to this post - too many days too late. I haven't been on in a while. Swamped with kids, kid-stuff, more kid-stuff and chickens. I hope the move went well.

 

[itsren]

I think it's funny to hear how much other people's hens like to free range. This is how far mine come out.

When they discover the bugs and grubs in the yard, they'll be begging to be out digging in the dirt. I'm watching mine (through the sliding glass door) right now, and they are having a blast. Sun's going down... gonna have to put 'em away soon. Bummer for them, yay for the bugs and grubs!

 

[itsren]

I need to get the tiller out and run it in the garden after this cold snap passes to till in the old chicken litter and weeds.

Our neighbor bought a small tiller and we used it once. Now I want one - big time!

That thing worked beautifully!

 

[itsren]

Woohoo!!! We get to sign papers for our refi on our mortgage(been trying to get it done for almost 8 months now) next week. Gonna lower our interest rate by 2+%, saving $500 a month. This is a straight across refi(just the balance of our loan, no extra).

Peep, the hawk attack survivor, has an impacted gizzard I think. She is inside and pooping just urate(no firm stuff). I got about a teaspoon of EVOO into her crop and massaged it, gonna do it again later tonight. If she is not getting better in a few days I may have to cull her out.

These birds can be soo stressful

I'm way behind on posts.... congrats on the refi. I'll have to read more to find out what happened to Peep. I hope she's OK.