Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[HoneysuckleHills]

I have these available now:





And I have a blue and white similar to the red and white.

I love my scarf! Washes up like a dream, too.
I'll get back to you on another soon.
And, thanks again for the lovely silver laced bantam Wyandotte. Super sweet girl. So pretty!

 

[RainMom]

here's a view of our back yard this morning. The snow is so heavy it stuck to the nets over the top of the chicken pens
(BTW- It just stopped snowing!)

 

[pips&peeps]

I love my scarf! Washes up like a dream, too.
I'll get back to you on another soon.
And, thanks again for the lovely silver laced bantam Wyandotte. Super sweet girl. So pretty!

I have been waiting to hear about your friend....

 

[Greg Richardson]

Snow is starting to stop since I took this picture. Sun is coming out.

 

[RustyHen]

Carolyn, I think that is the point. Some people say that you want to stress them out to bring out any hidden illness that they might be carriers for but aren't showing symptoms of.

I had four hens and added four more in November. All four were from the same farm. What I did : I caged them in the garage for as long as I could stand to see them torture each other. One in particular was tearing up the other three. After 3 weeks I attempted to put the four new ones in an enclosed run outside, but the crazy one continued to torture the other three. So I put her back in the garage and left the other three in the enclosed run. This lasted a few days. Then i put the new ones to bed with the old ones, the next morning I introduced the crazy one to my old four, I just let her out in the yard, that confused the old four because they had never really spent time with her... Everyone was confused enough that there wasn't much fighting.

For a few nights I had to put two of the new hens to bed, they didn't go in the coop at night, or possibly Leila wasn't letting them in.

Before I started all this i had wormer and cocci med on hand and first aid stuff for injuries, which I did need to use, but only during the time they were in the garage. Once they were out of the garage there were no major injuries.

We could bring illness home to all of them just by going to the feed store or heaven forbid chicken shows, the poultry there (under stress alright) could shed germs that they did not show symptoms of before the show(vet exam)

 

[TacomaFarms]

I live on a 7600sq ft lot, with (old holey) chain link fence protection, cats, coons, rats, and all sorts of other visitors. I just pray for a bubble of protection on my birds and 'bits. So far so good... It does force me to be objective when it comes to the potential demise of my pets. That and I think my pet-heart is broken from my first dog who had to be put down.

She was an amazing dog. Libby was a collie/sheltie mix.



Well it's time to go check on Chubby, she went into labor this morning. I spent the morning with her. She was having contractions, grinding her teeth, and pulling her hair out (FINALLY! I thought she almost wasn't going to bother with a nest). She had a HUGE wad of fur in her mouth, golf ball sized. I didn't realize their mouths were that big. Hopefully she's a good mama.

 

[RustyHen]

I cant get pics to load

Sorry I can't help you, except to say it seems to take a long time, so I just load 2 or 3 at a time.

 

[Totalcolour]

FYI I have heard of some diseases that are airborne and can spread up to 1/2 mile away. I don't think that would be very common but just an FYI.

Also technically for bio-security to work one should do a complete change of clothing and shoes and actually even shower too between different coops. And don't forget the hat on yer bald head etc.

Plus, different buckets, scoops etc. NOTHING should be common.

Which is one reason why I don't pay too much mind about it. My flock is not for show; layers mostly. My longest quarantine was 2 weeks, and we've never had a problem.

Even if one did have them in QT for a month, one instance of forgetting tot wash hands, or changing boots, could cause an outbreak and you wouldn't know what you had done wrong.

Not saying one shouldn't quarantine though . . .

 

[Farmin Momma]

Oh man, Jess. I am sorry for the sudden loss of Willow (sp?). I still can not decide if it is harder to lose one out of the blue with no seen reason, knowing it is coming or walking out and poof a girl is no where to be seen. I lost an EE the same way as Willow. She was fine all day and I had seen her out and about several times, she laid that day. Then went to shut the coop and there she was dead in the nest box. Sorry, you lost your girl.

TerrorBird- That is so very sweet of you to want to give that roo a home. He would be really lucky to have you as his human.


Wow this snow thing is just getting out of hand

. Here is my yard this morning....


Oldest DD on the trampoline. The dogs hoped on after this pic.


The first time Ratchet (black pup) has ever seen snow. He loved it just as much as Jazz and Barricade.


Part of the barn and silo. Also one of the beautiful clocks.


This one is my favorite and will be moving with us.


Part of the lower property.


Can you find the monkey in the tree?


You can kinda see a tiny stream that shows up when our creek (back further in the trees) over flows.






This branch is the favorite spot for all the humming birds.


The fence is the end of our property on that side, the shed is our neighbors.


A few of the chickens came out to eat some snow!

Hope ya'll don't mind all the pictures. I love taking pics and went a bit crazy this morning. I still have 109 from this morning, other than these. Is every one enjoying this interesting 2nd day of spring? lol

 

[Totalcolour]

Personally, I don't have the resources or the stamina (for lack of a better word) that it would take to isolate a newcomer for a month the way I technically should. I don't have a farm with multiple buildings, I don't have multiple secure pens and runs. I don't have what it takes to do it "right", but I still want to add new birds from time to time. I need to find the middle ground... where is it?

Right on Carolyn! For me, I usually only quarantine for a few days; more to check out the personality of the bird and look for "IMMEDIATE" issues. After that, they go in gen pop. My reasoning? I want a healthy flock and this may sound quite contrary, but, I think that by building up immune systems in our birds we are doing it better. If a flock is so sensitive, that birds die every time they are exposed to something, then it's going to be a very delicate breed, and not one I am interested in. I would rather that the weak die, and the healthy go on to reproduce and beget stronger babies. So far it's working. I have only ever lost one bird to sickness, all the others have been from predators.

Of course, each person must do as they think best. But consider this everyone. Many of us are against GMO, we look for organic crops, farm raised, local, yet we put all sorts of medicinal "STUFF" on and in our birds, in direct contradiction of how we ourselves eat.

I'm not against treating an illness or injury - in either animal or human. But I am all for raising bug resistant animals, birds, bunnies and goats.