Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[JennS]

I am pretty flexable. Ya'll just tell me what time to be there and I will be there. I can't wait to go stock up on feed and see those of you that are going. I will be bringing Mr. Jazz (Great Dane) and the new puppy!

Just a word of caution - have you heard about the Parvo outbreak going around the Seattle area? It has been traced back to the Pet Expo in Puyallup a month or so ago. My greyhound group is cancelling outreach booths and telling dog owners to be careful about exposing their dogs. A lot of dog parks are closed, too. Supposedly it is even killing vaccinated adults!

Jennifer

 

[SadieSue]

And when do y'all start giving chicks treats like the dried mealworms, "chicken crack", and such? (with access to chick grit, of course).

Our new 6-pack of chicks will be a week old Saturday, they are only the 2nd batch we've tried, and neither of us can remember when treats are okay... Our last batch of a dozen we started this experiment with in Spring had zero losses, but the vast majority were Roos. So at least we think we are good at raising Roos.

We're also interested in methods you have used to tame or gentle your chicks and chickens. We raised our now laying RIRs from day olds, but they are not particularly friendly at all while the bantam barred rock we bought as an older pullet will happily ride Spouse's shoulder all day long. Not sure if that is a breed difference or if we did something wrong with the Reds. (A standard Barred Rock we raised with the Reds was very very friendly, but sadly we lost her a month ago to what we choose to call "The Back Fence Incident".)

With dried mealworms, I start about 4 weeks? (Can't remember for certain. I'm of a certain age.) But I do know I was also offering uncooked oatmeal around that time since it was easy for me to hold in my hand. That went a long way in getting them to be hand tamed since whenever I had oatmeal and would put my hand in the brooder it would quickly turn into a chick frenzy. My very first hatched chick who is 1 1/2 years now (light sussex X marans) still waits for me to hold treats in my hand just for her no matter what I'm offering. She figures treats on the ground or in a dish is just fine for everyone else, but she prefers it from my hand thank you very much.

 

[SadieSue]

Here is Ratchet, the new pup. He sleeps so funny!



We named him Ratchet in keeping with our ”theme” of dogs named after Transformers!

Key-ute!!! Congrats on the new pup!

 

[SadieSue]

Oh! I almost forgot! I put 5 of my own silkie eggs under my broody silkie last week. I tried 6 but she seemed to have a hard time keeping all 6 under her. So anyway, I candled this morning, not expecting to see any developement but 4 out of the 5 have started to develope! I was so shocked and excited!

It's only day 7, but hey I was sure that they weren't even fertile. So I may have babies right before christmas!

Oh my gosh that is incredibly exciting!!! Are these going to be BBS chicks? Oh Christmas chicks, oh Christmas chicks, your butts are ever fluffy...

 

[Imp]

And when do y'all start giving chicks treats like the dried mealworms, "chicken crack", and such? (with access to chick grit, of course).

Our new 6-pack of chicks will be a week old Saturday, they are only the 2nd batch we've tried, and neither of us can remember when treats are okay... Our last batch of a dozen we started this experiment with in Spring had zero losses, but the vast majority were Roos. So at least we think we are good at raising Roos.

We're also interested in methods you have used to tame or gentle your chicks and chickens. We raised our now laying RIRs from day olds, but they are not particularly friendly at all while the bantam barred rock we bought as an older pullet will happily ride Spouse's shoulder all day long. Not sure if that is a breed difference or if we did something wrong with the Reds. (A standard Barred Rock we raised with the Reds was very very friendly, but sadly we lost her a month ago to what we choose to call "The Back Fence Incident".)

I give treats right from the start. Very finely minced and small amounts to start, getting progressively larger as they get older & bigger.

I have found lots of attention helps keep them tame.

Russ

 

[CarolynF]

Oh! I almost forgot! I put 5 of my own silkie eggs under my broody silkie last week. I tried 6 but she seemed to have a hard time keeping all 6 under her. So anyway, I candled this morning, not expecting to see any developement but 4 out of the 5 have started to develope! I was so shocked and excited!

It's only day 7, but hey I was sure that they weren't even fertile. So I may have babies right before christmas!

Oh my gosh that is incredibly exciting!!! Are these going to be BBS chicks? Oh Christmas chicks, oh Christmas chicks, your butts are ever fluffy...

X 2... and love the little song SadieSue!

 

[KMHunter]

Here is Ratchet, the new pup. He sleeps so funny!



We named him Ratchet in keeping with our ”theme” of dogs named after Transformers!

SO CUTE!!!! I can't wait to meet the little one!

 

[Slinglings]

I made a quarantine cage out of wire panels that I already had:



I have a boatload of these panels, I use them for inventory storage:



I've been trying to figure out how/where I was going to quarantine new chickens, I'm happy to have thought of this I can make the cage as large as it needs to be if they seem crowded. And then I can use it outside to introduce the new chickens too

 

[KMHunter]

Quote: Should be blue and black. It is a black boy over a blue girl.

 

[KMHunter]

I made a quarantine cage out of wire panels that I already had:



I have a boatload of these panels, I use them for inventory storage:



I've been trying to figure out how/where I was going to quarantine new chickens, I'm happy to have thought of this I can make the cage as large as it needs to be if they seem crowded. And then I can use it outside to introduce the new chickens too

Wow! That's a great idea!