Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[blueducklings]

I haven't heard of that diet, but I've heard of the GAPS diet. It claims the same results, to heal the gut so it can properly digest food, and also heals a lot of food intolerances. I have 3 friends who've done GAPS and it worked wonderfully, but it was hard work! My family is on the Paleo diet because of gluten/dairy/soy intolerances and it works wonderfully for us! We cheat a little bit in the legume/grain department, but that's because we can tolerate them and it makes my life easier trying to feed 3 small children on a special diet.
Welcome!!

Are you only getting into chickens for the eggs? If so, I recommend getting a bunch of different breeds to see what you like. As for our fantastic backyard layers, we adore the hard work of our Black Australorp, Buff Orpingtons, Rhode Island Red, and we'll also be getting Barred Rocks in 2 weeks to add some more fantastic layers to the flock. That combo would give you a nice pretty backyard flock; I highly recommend at least one Easter Egger too; can't beat those gorgeous green and blue eggs!

Hmmm you better get a good dose of vitamin D or hatchatitus will consume you before you know it.

It is our female way of dealing with rainy gloomy days.

 

[WhiskiRanch]

New to BYC today but had to post recently moved into our home in Graham WA and in the process of getting our 1st coop built. Wanting to start with five any recommendations for what breeds work best.

I love my Black Sex Link hens. They are great layers and wonderful moms. My rooster is a Splash Laced Red Wyandotte and crossing that on my BSL's has given even better layers, My 3 laying pullets from that cross has given me eggs every day since they started laying and one went straight to laying full size eggs.

 

[Slinglings]

Hi all:

I've been busy and out of the loop on everything lately, but I was just glancing through my new issue of Mother Earth News (Feb/March2013) and came across an article that needs sharing. It is about herbicides that pass through livestock and into compost making "Killer Compost". I can't link to the latest article, so I searched and found this one from a few years ago:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/killer-compost-zmgz11zrog.aspx

I had never heard of "Killer Compost", but it sure explains why all my raspberry plants died within 2 years of sticking them in the ground, and why I can hardly grow any vegetables in my original garden beds, but the new beds are fine. Blackberries grow wild and plentiful in my yard, so I felt the raspberries should do equally well. To give them an advantage over the established blackberries, I gave them plenty of compost that I had purchased and delivered by the truckloads. My property is all glacial till with no topsoil, so all of my garden beds are built up using this compost: 24 fruit trees, 40 blueberry bushes 1 dozen raspberry plants and 6 large vegetable beds (each aout 16'X4') were filled with this stuff. The blueberries are not affected by it, but all my raspberry plants got curled leaves, most died within a year, the rest died year 2. 1/3 of my fruit got curl and trees died, within 2 years, all but 2 of the others still have stunted growth, and in the garden beds I could not grow beans, spinach, peas, lettuce, asparagus, peppers, carrots ... all stuff that grows well in the new beds. AFter 4 years of frustration with the old garden beds, DH and I built new ones. My new beds I filled with a mix of organic compost from the local nusery that I buy by the bag and compost made from kitchen scraps and chicken poo. The organic soil is quite a bit more expensive than the "North West Garden Best" that I had truck delivered, but in the long run it is saving me because plants will grow in the new stuff. These new (well, new 5 years ago) beds are still not very deep, but every year I add a dozen new bags and a lot more compost.

This is scary to me. I just had 8 yards of compost delivered and spread in new raised beds late this fall. I guess I'll find out this summer if anything will grow in it.

 

[itsren]

In my humble opinion Rocky has to GO

 

[Slinglings]

Quote: And my neighbor, when I told him where the compost was bought from, said that he would never grow edibles in soil from this source. Oy.

 

[itsren]

The other place I quit buying compost from is Cedar Grove, because they get grass clippings from city folks and they are notorious for over "weed & feed"ing their city lots.

Good point! I have been buying from Cedar Grove - and I know the land-waste bins in our neighborhood get composted by Cedar Grove. It's crazy I didn't even think about it - because I won't allow my yard to be sprayed with chemicals, but my neighbor spray all the time. Every time I see a chemical truck coming through the neighborhood and stopping at house after house, I just want to throw a tizzy-fit!

I won't be buying from Cedar Grove any more now, either. Thanks for bringing that to light.

 

[itsren]

Your story made me laugh!! I'm very glad all your chickies are ok, but boy did I laugh!!

I can laugh about it now, too. That was one crazy day!

 

[itsren]

New to BYC today but had to post recently moved into our home in Graham WA and in the process of getting our 1st coop built. Wanting to start with five any recommendations for what breeds work best.

What are you looking for? Pets? Egg layers? Show birds? Cool looking birds? Egg color? As soon as you figure out what you want, lots of people here can help you. Not all breeds are heavy egg-layers, so if it is eggs you are after, you'll want to go with breeds that produce regularly.

 

[Nikki99]

Hi all, Anyone interested in some indian runners???

What are Indian runners?

BOWLING PINS ON WEBBED FEET ! ! ! !

Hahahahaha, nice one!!

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:
I think that's what killed Tilda. The more I thought and thought about what could have possibly done that to her, the closer I came to realizing she got sick right after the last time my neighbor had his yard sprayed. We share a chain link fence line and I watched the guy last time he came and gave him hell and told him to stay WELL on the other side of that fence or I'd sue him for killing my chicken. Yeah I was ******. Oops.