Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[ChickAudie]

Saw this! Had to share!!

http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/chocolate-lava-cake/

 

[Sweetlilbaby]

Well I finally decided to start doing something about the poop in the yard to keep DH happy. I still would like to fence off at least half the yard for the chickens so DH can hve the rest of the yard to not worry about stepping in poop, but with the creek there's no good way to fence it off and keep everyone happy. Still mulling that over. So anyway, I spent over an hour picking up TONS of poop; fresh poop, old poop, flat poop, ground in poop...you get the picture. It's going to take many, many more hours of poop scooping to get anywhere near caught up. I'm thinking about spending the next week before we get the chicks keeping the girls confined to the run so I can catch up with the yard and possibly put up a temporary fencing. So many projects, so little time!

wait you are picking up chicken poop? To combat the poop issue here i put a rubber mat outside the door to wipe off our shoes after being in the back yard. Because I refuse to go buy fertilizer for my yard while i own chickens! let them fertilize it themselves. Just get a hose and a spray nozzle poop problem solved

 

[Jordann]

Ha! I just gave up for the day on the dog poop .... I'll do more tomorrow I'm sure ... Can't wait to be caught up so I only have to scoop 4 piles a day, instead of 4 months of 4 piles a day ..... Boy does that add up! Then the cat poops out with the boys and then the chickens will be pooping out there too.

On a good note, was talking to my grandma while scooping .... Seems to go faster .... and I think I'm going to try making a collar that will keep the roo's head from going all the way up, because I have read in multiple places that a rooster that cannot put his head up all the way, cannot be obnoxious .... Guess we'll see, if I can talk hubby into getting a roo. I know it sounds ridiculous but if it helps me get a roo, I don't care!

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:
Doesn't work on half an acre and my 3 little people like to play back there. If anyone falls on the ground they're COVERED in chicken poop. Really, really disgusting and unacceptable here. We might love our chickens and we're working towards being more self sufficient, but I draw the line with our backyard being unusable by our little people. I've tried to spray the poop into the ground too and that only works as long as the hose reaches...not down by their playhouse or in the garden. Boo

 

[FirewifeJess]

Well now I'm working on seasoning 2 cast iron pans. They've never been properly done and I'm sick of it. Mmmm....bacon grease....

 

[Jordann]

And here I was excited about doing laundry and cleaning the kitchen.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Thank you Trav .... Calvin (the Hound) is really good about not chasing things when I'm around, so if I leave and the chicks get to stay out while I'm gone, Calvin may just have to be chained. The Rott/Lab/German Shepherd/????????? Mix I am not worried about at all .... This morning the poor guy had the baby picking food kibbles out of his bowl and once I got her away, the cat started sharing food with him.

I love the idea of a citronella collar!! LOL

I have a shock collar that I will be implementing (with Calvin) once I see how he does with me being outside with the chickens. Maybe I can use the beep for the roo? (totally kidding!!)

Well, I just called the police department and "was looking to move into town" .... Roos aren't allowed in residential areas, but I'm hoping since we aren't really in a residential area, but kind of back up to one, that we will be able to get around that rule .... We're on a 1/2 acre and the clerk was saying you had to have at least that to have a roo, so fingers crossed we can get around it! People at the end of our road have chickens and a rooster, so it looks like I'll be dropping in on them to see if they went the legal way, or are being sneaky petes about it.

I would call your County Extension office, the police usually just blanket state if residential, no rooster. Also the key with dogs and chickens is training the dog to know the chickens are part of YOUR pack. When I treat my chickens with raisins or bread, I make my dog sit and the chickens eat FIRST(makes him think they are higher in the pack hierarchy), then when I feel they have had enough treats he gets to go join in and finish eating the treats.

The other day I got a tiny little dark brown egg that had a whiteish powder coating on it. Then the next day I got another but with out the "powder" on it. I only have two girls that lay dark brown eggs one is a Welsumer (sp?) and the other is a C Maran. Now the Welsumer is still laying but my Maran is broody, so I was wondering who could have laid this new little egg. I do have 3 pullets that are due to be laying any day now, that I hatched this summer out of eggs bought from 4Hpoultrymom. I had bought BLRWs, OEs, and EE's from what I can remember. Hatched 14 out of 18 eggs, but sadly only 3 pullets and one roo survived until now. All three of the pullets have beards (as dose the roo) so I was assuming that they were all going to either lay blue or olive eggs. One thing that is making me question if it is one of them or not is the fact that I have one chicken that I hatched during the summer that is 23 weeks old, face and comb are red, but I can not for the life of me decide if it is a pullet or a cockerel.
But to my surprise I got a tiny little greenish pullet egg today as well as another of the dark brown pullet eggs!

The lipstick in the chickens butt thing is starting to sound doable at this point. I really want to know who is laying what.

It is likely your Wellie or Marans and it just got some extra bloom(is powdery when dries)

Well I finally decided to start doing something about the poop in the yard to keep DH happy. I still would like to fence off at least half the yard for the chickens so DH can hve the rest of the yard to not worry about stepping in poop, but with the creek there's no good way to fence it off and keep everyone happy. Still mulling that over. So anyway, I spent over an hour picking up TONS of poop; fresh poop, old poop, flat poop, ground in poop...you get the picture. It's going to take many, many more hours of poop scooping to get anywhere near caught up. I'm thinking about spending the next week before we get the chicks keeping the girls confined to the run so I can catch up with the yard and possibly put up a temporary fencing. So many projects, so little time!

You can get a boot scrubber and screw it to a deck or other secure structure. I have one on the steps to my deck for scraping off poo. I think it was $20 at Wilco. If you need a pic of it I can get one.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

I set my eggs today under "Betty Lu". 2 each from BO, BR, GSL and PRIR. Tried to acquire some LF Faverolles and Marans eggs, but didn't work out this time around. Next broody gets those.



The bottom pic is with the plexi glass covering the box openings. She has her own food and water inside.

 

[FirewifeJess]

The bottom pic is with the plexi glass covering the box openings. She has her own food and water inside.

That's so cool!! Mine's gonna be all janky looking with a cardboard box

 

[Sweetlilbaby]

Doesn't work on half an acre and my 3 little people like to play back there. If anyone falls on the ground they're COVERED in chicken poop. Really, really disgusting and unacceptable here. We might love our chickens and we're working towards being more self sufficient, but I draw the line with our backyard being unusable by our little people. I've tried to spray the poop into the ground too and that only works as long as the hose reaches...not down by their playhouse or in the garden. Boo

you need to fence off the kids play area. fence in the little people not the chickens LOL