Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Hinotori]

I saw this dog shaming picture and had to share of course.

 

[Hinotori]

So my week has sucked. I lost a brahma pullet and my brahma cockerel to botulism. The pullet went fast, the cockerel lingered with me force feeding him. I finally had to do what was right and put him down. One of his other pullets was a bit ill, but she recovered. So I've got three chickens buried in the garden now. They had the really lose feathers that seemed to come out just from touching them. I really miss that big old boy. My husband has forbid me to talk about him for a while. I think it upset him a lot. Mongo was his favorite.

The brahma hen I got in 2011 is laying internally I think. Her eggs had been very large with watery yolks and soft shelled since she started laying again after being broody. She's acting like the other internal layers have. I felt her, but she fights so bad, I can't really tell.

Late Friday I had one of my 22 week old EE pullets injure her leg. She was dragging it and hopping. I couldn't feel anything out of place or broken. I put her inside in a carrier. She was getting very upset and I relented and let her back out with the others Saturday afternoon, so she could be with her two sisters. I massaged her leg and moved it around very carefully before letting her go, and after she went up on the roost. Today she was walking on it with a heavy limp, but was actually using it. Her tail was up and she went right after scratch this morning. That is a huge improvement from the day before. She been snuggling with the ameraucanas because they don't peck others for shoving their heads under them. One of her sisters started laying this last week, so she should be close as well. I think she flew into the run fence. All three of those pullets have done that before, and one got stuck in it.

So I don't think we'll be getting hatchery birds again. Out of 22 females, that's 1 known death from internal laying, 1 that I think is laying internally, 1 that had a heart attack, 1 that survived internal laying but doesn't lay anymore, 1 that has some sort of spinal deformation that's twisting her, 1 that's laid four eggs in two years, and 2 of the meanest birds that tried to eat everyone else alive.

We're going to stick with ameraucanas and a few silkies.

I gave the two silkie hens haircuts yesterday and they are much less flighty now. I took off a good C chunk on each side of the eyes. It stopped the head bobbing and walking with head almost on the ground immediately. Now to get them to get out of the habit of rubbing their heads on the ground to wet the feathers and get them up out of the face. The worst offender has an almost black face and head on her splash body. I'll probably have to put them in cage for a few days.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Quote: AWESOME THANK YOU !!!!

 

[Sweetlilbaby]

I'm getting excited. I've almost sold enough stuff on e-bay to get a new box kennel kit so i can separate the chickens and ducks. Then I"ll find out if one of my ducks is laying eggs.
And then the threat of the chickens eating my male ducks penis will be gone. Yes for reals the poor guy has been attacked after he mated a female duck.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Hey CR and MikeyB I'm just North of you guys next time there is something up North maybe we can link up to either carpool or caravan. I'm in west Olympia. Message me if you guys are interested oh yah I don't mind driving.

 

[JennS]

I am crossing my fingers that this week will be the last one with the coop in the garage! I have a second friend coming over to help paint while the first one works on the roof. It'll be kind of crowded in there, but hopefully we can get it all done. I have extra motivation to clear out the garage - today we bought a new (used) truck! I was thinking I'd get an SUV crossover to replace our van, but I fell head over heels in love with a Chevy Avalanche. I drove my new beauty home and had to leave it in the open because we can't fit it in the garage. Grrrr. I'm so paranoid that someone will break into it before I can hide it away.

I'm so happy, I'll still be able to haul cargo! I measured the Traverse and I don't think I could have fit a sheet of plywood inside it. My new toy will hold a huge stack of plywood, or a pallet of bricks, and tow over 8,000 lbs!

I hope my son take a good, long nap tomorrow. Then all three of us can work on the coop. And maybe I can work out a deal to trade my van for the rest of the labor on the coop. Suddenly we are out a whole bunch of money for some reason....

Jennifer

 

[TerrorBird]

So my week has sucked. I lost a brahma pullet and my brahma cockerel to botulism. The pullet went fast, the cockerel lingered with me force feeding him. I finally had to do what was right and put him down. One of his other pullets was a bit ill, but she recovered. So I've got three chickens buried in the garden now. They had the really lose feathers that seemed to come out just from touching them. I really miss that big old boy. My husband has forbid me to talk about him for a while. I think it upset him a lot. Mongo was his favorite.

The brahma hen I got in 2011 is laying internally I think. Her eggs had been very large with watery yolks and soft shelled since she started laying again after being broody. She's acting like the other internal layers have. I felt her, but she fights so bad, I can't really tell.

Late Friday I had one of my 22 week old EE pullets injure her leg. She was dragging it and hopping. I couldn't feel anything out of place or broken. I put her inside in a carrier. She was getting very upset and I relented and let her back out with the others Saturday afternoon, so she could be with her two sisters. I massaged her leg and moved it around very carefully before letting her go, and after she went up on the roost. Today she was walking on it with a heavy limp, but was actually using it. Her tail was up and she went right after scratch this morning. That is a huge improvement from the day before. She been snuggling with the ameraucanas because they don't peck others for shoving their heads under them. One of her sisters started laying this last week, so she should be close as well. I think she flew into the run fence. All three of those pullets have done that before, and one got stuck in it.

So I don't think we'll be getting hatchery birds again. Out of 22 females, that's 1 known death from internal laying, 1 that I think is laying internally, 1 that had a heart attack, 1 that survived internal laying but doesn't lay anymore, 1 that has some sort of spinal deformation that's twisting her, 1 that's laid four eggs in two years, and 2 of the meanest birds that tried to eat everyone else alive.

We're going to stick with ameraucanas and a few silkies.

I gave the two silkie hens haircuts yesterday and they are much less flighty now. I took off a good C chunk on each side of the eyes. It stopped the head bobbing and walking with head almost on the ground immediately. Now to get them to get out of the habit of rubbing their heads on the ground to wet the feathers and get them up out of the face. The worst offender has an almost black face and head on her splash body. I'll probably have to put them in cage for a few days.

That's terrible. I'm very sorry for your losses.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Fun and not-so-fun times today.

For the not-so-fun: I still have to go out to the run, get Rhodie and put her back into the coop. The big 'ol-chunk-o-Drama discovered that she could sit in the pop door and refuse to let Blackie and Latte go in the coop. When we moved her, Rhodie ran out to attack, and was attacking pretty hard. As luck would have it, the automatic pop door went into it's closing cycle, and she, Blackie and Latte were locked out. So, DH and I took Blackie and Latte out of the run and put them in the coop through the clean-out door and left Rhodie stuck in the run to cool off. That was a couple of hours ago. Guess I better go deal with her now. Wish I didn't have to go back outside tonight.

And for the fun: The experimental eggs are in the bators. They have been documented, photographed, candled and set. My kid is very excited. In the candling process we found 2 with significant hairline cracks, so we took those out of the bunch, cracked them open and photographed them. Both appeared to be fertile, and one even appeared to already be developing a little bit. That was pretty cool for my son to see. He couldn't believe that was the start of a baby chick. He's pretty excited. The "not-turned" eggs won't be turned with exception of every few days when we take them out to candle them. We bought an egg candler and the little bugger works well. Now, in the name of science, we finally have an egg candler.

Can ya tell me what to eggs where cracked? I had a PRIR that was cracked on my last set. I am waiting to hear back from someone on FB about some Marans eggs. Then I will candle mine and set them tonight. The one that was starting to develop was prolly from Thursday, I got out there late and all the eggs were in one box, so 5 hens laid that day, so in total the first egg was under a hen for about 5ish hours.

Gonna get a couple of pics of the progress I got done on the big pallet coop on Saturday. The swelling in my face is finally almost gone. Took 5 Benydril capsules to do it. I am thankful it doesn't make me drowsy like a lot of people. Well it is 6:00, I am allowed to go to bed now(deal I made with DW, so I don't wreck her last few moments of sleep). See y'all this afternoon.

 

[TacomaFarms]

Loved the ad during the superbowl that was a replay of Paul Harvey's tribute to farmers called "So God Made a Farmer". You can hear it here, it's a commercial for Dodge Ram but the photography is really striking.

That one was my favorite!

Quote: X2

So sorry for you losses.


I'm not ready for this week... Hope everyone has a great Monday and a good week!

 

[WhiskiRanch]

Been really busy the last few days and have a hard time keeping up here. A warm welcome to all the new members and Howdy Howdy to the rest