Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Hinotori]

My Aussie/Blue heeler cross still thinks the chickens will kill and eat him in his sleep,

I do have E-collars for both of them. It took that to get them to not chase deer or leave the property. Vibrate and they come running to me. They learned very quick and I've only had to put collars on them once in the last 8 months. 

Now the neighbor's pitbull cross is a different story. It killed 8 of my chickens last spring. 4 of my 5 roosters and 4 hens. We've caught it over here a couple more times, but the GSD has seen it first and ran it off. If it get's to the chickens again, it's a dead dog. 

We had a shepherd that couldn't not (yes, double negative) leave the dang deer alone!  Those neighbors better keep that daggum dog away from your chickens!  I love pitbulls, but in the wrong hands, it can be a bad deal.

Your puppy is SO cute!!  I want to say I have seen her before...did you list your property in Graham for rent with Windermere?  There was the CUTEST house for rent when we were looking with a puppy like your with a pink bandana on!

Thanks, that's Zeus there. He's as sweet as he looks. Loves to cuddle.

We don't have our place listed. We are planning on living here a long time. It's a tiny old house and we are thinking about adding on.

 

[itsren]

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[itsren]

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

Spraying also just creates a slimy coat. It doesn't really go away. The kids fall on it, they're falling into a topcoat of chicken poo. I scoop then hose off the slimy smudges.

I'm guessing those who just hose, or ignore the poop, live on larger plots of land. Care of animals on city lots is a lot different than care of animals on farm land. Most large farms have large dedicated areas for chickens to live. Many city lots have very small yards. Small yards, small children and chicken poop are a major disaster waiting to happen. My mom told me Oregon News stations broadcasted a series of news articles about the dangers of children and backyard flocks. During that time, she was absolutely in a panic about my chickens - until she stayed with me for a few days and saw I clean up after them, and how I clean up after them (my birds free-range in the backyard where my children play). Now she's OK, and thinks they are good for the kids to grow up with.

The CDC posted a .pdf documenting the dangers of disease in rural backyard flocks: http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/pdf/intown_flocks.pdf

 

[BantyChickenLuv]

Need help with gender for these two guys (or girls)?? They are 3 w/o today.

First is Klondike. This is the only picture I took.

I'm stumped. The comb is big, but not red, like my Cochin roo. Kinda has the roo-ish behavior.

Then there's this one. I was thinking this was going to be my pullet. Comb is smaller then the other two Cochin boys and doesn't act like them, either, but...

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Need help with gender for these two guys (or girls)?? They are 3 w/o today.

First is Klondike. This is the only picture I took.

I'm stumped. The comb is big, but not red, like my Cochin roo. Kinda has the roo-ish behavior.

Then there's this one. I was thinking this was going to be my pullet. Comb is smaller then the other two Cochin boys and doesn't act like them, either, but...

wait 3 more weeks, should be more evident then

 

[itsren]

Need help with gender for these two guys (or girls)?? They are 3 w/o today.

Wish I could help you, but I'm bad at figuring out genders. I have 8 eight-week-olds, and I'm pretty sure I have 3 girls and 5 boys, but still not 100% positive. Someone here might be able to help you.

 

[robj]

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.

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.

What kind of candler did you pick up? We used a pretty bright flashlight but didn't see much. We thought about building one but the way I've been going we would end up with a dozen or two. My living room is filling up with ice chests and hatching eggs, I think I may be at my limit. NOT!!!!!!!

 

[Farmin Momma]

Quote: Well as far as the gender question, the chicken is a mix from my own flock. Looks mostly RIR but hatched from a blue egg, leggs look thicker than a hens, and I thought that the hackle feathers were pointed but today when I was looking at "it" they look more rounded. Uuuggg! This is not a chicken I can get my hands on so that makes this a bit more difficult. Plus now that I tried catching it today, the darn thing got smart and avoided me to no end. Oh well, I guess if it crows at some point I will know what it is (or if it never crows).

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x 3 your kids are so darn cute Jess!

 

[itsren]

Well, the bully Brahma is at it again. Blackie and Latte are in the run sitting on the roost peeping that they want to go in the coop. Drama is sitting in the pop door with a look on her face as if to say

. Drama turned her back, Blackie flew over to the ramp, followed by Latte. Within a matter of seconds both Blackie and Latte were knocked off the ramp and Drama resumed her door-blocking position.

Is this ever going to end? DH keeps telling me that maybe we should just give up and sell Blackie and Latte as a pair.

 

[FirewifeJess]

I think both are boys but I'm no expert. Wait 1-3 more weeks and you'll know.